//------------------------------// // 25: Pressing Concerns // Story: What Bound Them // by Headless //------------------------------// Compass was trying her best to ignore the constant, throbbing pain in her horn. It wasn't really working. Discord's presence cut through whatever tolerance she had built up like a hot knife through butter. He was almost literally a walking migraine. That made trying to talk to him even worse than it would have been otherwise. Even if he seemed to be a bit more subdued following the revelations he had imparted to Spike, Discord was still almost impossible to weasel any straight answers out of, and combining that with her headaches put things on the level of getting her teeth pulled out one by one. Still, it was important. If it weren't, she would have given in to her exhaustion and fallen asleep long ago. Pith was asleep on the bed that Discord had conjured up for him, though she wasn't really certain whether he had actively chosen to rest or had simply passed out. Either way, she was glad he was resting. A large part of Compass wished that she could go to sleep as well. As far as she could tell, she hadn't actually broken anything in the crash, which left her second only to Tailspin as the most physically capable member of their little troupe, but she was still exhausted and sore. For some reason, though, no matter how tired she felt, she couldn't actually feel any desire to actually sleep. The exhaustion was just there, hanging over her like a shroud. No, she didn't want to sleep. She felt almost the same way she had back at the fortress, when she had been pushed far beyond her normal limits and had somehow found it easier to keep going than to stop. So, rather than curling up by the fire and trying to get some rest, she was sitting in a chair behind a claw-footed desk that Discord had conjured up, poring over a set of papers that she had retrieved from her saddlebags, and trying to ignore the occasional growl or purring noise from the table as it shifted on its mismatched legs. Most of the maps she had brought with her had been severely damaged by water at some point. Whether that was a product of the storm or the windigos, she wasn't entirely sure. It didn't really matter anyway. The maps weren't the most important thing. The most important thing was the copy of Twilight Sparkle's spellbook that she had brought with her. It had been damaged by water as well, of course, which meant that almost all of the pages towards the front had been reduced to an amorphous mass of pulp and ink, and the rest had deep smudges scattered throughout. Almost all of the actual dissertation on magical theory had been obliterated. The pages that had survived intact were the spells, which had been compiled in several sections towards the back of the book. The section on unicorn spells was mostly legible, but that wasn't what she was looking at now. She had opened the copy to the section listing various forms of alicorn magic, and was doing her best to make sense of it. It was slow going for more reasons than simple smudging. Even where the spells were technically readable, they didn't make much sense. As Compass Rose was quickly learning, alicorn magic shared little with unicorn magic beyond the most absolutely basic principles, and even those seemed fluid and unreliable. A few days ago, she would have cast the book aside as useless to her. There was no way that any unicorn, let alone one as unskilled with magic as herself, could possibly have worked their way through that, especially if they no longer had the ability to cast any kind of spell themselves. Now, though, she just continued to stare at the page. In her head, a few more scraps of comprehension slotted themselves into place. It was like watching a puzzle being put together. Slowly, a concrete image was forming. It just wasn't one that she particularly liked. "How did this Cadence pony manage it, then?" she asked Discord, trying to ignore the fact that looking at him made her head feel as though it were about to explode. "If even Celestia couldn't do it without the Elements-" "I haven't the foggiest idea," answered the monster blithely. "As I said, I was locked up in the throne room at the time. I had a hard enough time seeing as much as I did, without trying to find anything more. But no, she was quite normal for an alicorn, assuming my memory is still working." He raised one claw and pushed it impossibly far into his ear, then withdrew it a moment later with a slight popping sound. There was something small and shiny in his grasp, which he inspected carefully before nodding and re-inserting it. "Yes," he said, more confidently. "Quite normal. Certainly not as strong as Tia, at least. Or Twilight, for that matter. And far below yours truly, of course." Compass' lips moved soundlessly as she sorted through some of the information she had been absorbing. Then she shook her head. "Then we're missing something." "Missing what?" It was Tailspin's voice. When Compass looked up, the pegasus was reentering the entrance hall from the doors at the far end. She looked surprisingly cheerful as she approached the fire, even though there was no dragon with her. The unicorn pursed her lips and tapped on the desk with one hoof. It shifted slightly and opened one drawer with an agitated sort of creak. She ignored it. "How Cadence managed to send Twilight to the moon," she said. "Alicorns are strong, but they still have limits. I'm not an expert on magic by any means-" she ignored the slight laugh from Discord and plunged on "-but the sort of magical power necessary to send somepony to the moon in the first place would be immense. Keeping them there requires even more. Even alicorns wouldn't be able to manage that, unless they're a lot - and I mean a lot - stronger than we thought. It would be something on the level of... of..." She trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. "Of altering reality at a whim, perhaps?" Discord said from behind her. He was draped over the back of her chair and grinning widely at her. She didn't bother to ask how he had gotten there. She just grimaced and raised one hoof to cover her broken horn. "Right," she said. "Like that. Maybe you're strong enough to do something like that-" "Was," Discord interjected. "Was strong enough to do things like that." He kicked his legs lazily. "Aside from that stunt with the moon, Miss Sparklebutt's spell did a number on me as well. And I haven't exactly had the opportunity to recover yet, seeing as I've been locked up the whole time since. Now I'm as weak as a kitten." He turned what he probably thought was an adorable, helpless expression towards her. All it did was emphasis the jaundiced, sickly nature of his eyes. "-but," Compass continued sharply, "I don't think anypony else is." "Well, of course not," said Discord. He let himself slither off one side of the chair, then made his way across the floor towards the fire like a snake. "Tia had to use the Elements of Harmony to manage it on dear Luna the first time, and even then, it didn't last forever. I'd imagine Cadey not being strong enough to manage it normally is why she went all-" His eyes bugged out for a moment and spun with different hues of black, red, and green in rapid succession. "And even then, of course, it's not perfect. If it was, we wouldn't have our yearly homecoming parties." Compass shook her head and looked back to the papers. Every pony in the settlements knew about the Nightmare Night. It never fell on the same night on any given year, but it was always close to twelve months after the last event. She had never had the misfortune to be in one of the settlements affected by it, but she had seen the aftermath of the military's containment efforts, and seen the expressions on the faces of the families who lost members to her. It was the same every time. An alicorn cloaked in blackness appeared in a city, captured a handful of seemingly random ponies with her magic, repulsed every attack made against her by the military, and then vanished again. She had never imagined that the alicorn in question could be Twilight Sparkle, though, or that the only reason that she kept vanishing was because another alicorn might be working against her. But then, precious few ponies outside of the military had actually witnessed a Nightmare event and survived. Those that did usually didn't care to talk about it much. And she had never imagined that it might concern her. Until a few days ago, she wouldn't have imagined that anything like that would ever concern her. Now she was sitting in the middle of the ruined capitol of a fallen empire, surrounded by the remnants of past battles, speaking with a lunatic god, accompanied by a dragon older than her civilization, and, though she hadn't actually asked Discord to confirm it yet, was fairly certain that she was one of three ponies chosen by some unknown method to wield a weapon powerful enough to defy the laws of magic. She had a vague feeling that she should feel overwhelmed by this. She didn't. In fact, she felt oddly exhilarated, even through the exhaustion. "Right," she said. "So that's another question. How did Cadence get strong enough to cast that spell?" Tailspin sighed and made her way over to the other side of the desk. "No offense, Compass, but I think we have more pressing issues to focus on." "I know." Compass nodded twice, then turned a page in the sodden mass and looked down to it again. "We need to find a way to get to the moon ourselves, which could be just as hard. Failing that, we need to find a way to get through the nightmare mist and speak to this Cadence pony. She and Twilight are the only ones who might be able to tell us where to find the Elements." "No," said Tailspin. She set one hoof on top of the book, keeping Compass from turning any more pages, and frowned. "I mean we have time constraints here, remember? We came here looking for the Elements because Queen Chrysalis is coming. They aren't here, which means that we have to find some other way to fight her." Compass blinked. "Oh. Is that all?" "Is that all?" Tailspin gave her an odd look. "What do you mean, 'is that all?' That's the whole reason we're here." "No no no," said Compass quickly, waving a hoof. "I just mean that we don't really need to worry about that any more. We didn't find the Elements, but we did find something else." She turned to look at Discord, who was lounging in a sun chair beside the fire with some sort of fizzy drink in his claws. He gave her a blank look. "Who, me?" "Yes, you," she said. "You said it yourself. You used to be one of the strongest beings in existence. Even if you're weaker now, you can still do something about the changelings." Discord sat up quickly and waved his paw, frowning. "Oh, no. I thought I told you already that I don't do fighting. Besides-" the air twisted around him again, and Compass winced as the sun chair vanished, replaced by a second hospital bed and a thermometer, which he placed between his jagged teeth "-I truly am as weak as a kitten just now. Facing off against an enraged alicorn might be enough to overpower my frail constitution completely. Why, I feel faint just thinking of it." "You're keeping the things outside from getting in," Compass said. She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure you're as weak as you say you are." "Posh." Discord pulled the blankets on his bed up under his chin, snapped his fingers, and placed the resultant hot water bottle on top of his head. "That hardly takes any effort at all. The space out there is so twisted up from all the lingering magic that it was harder to get all of you inside than it will be to get you out again." "And how were you planning to get us out?" said another voice. Compass looked around to see Spike limping his way back into the hall. He was frowning heavily, but he looked intact, at least. That was a relief. His expression after speaking with Discord had made her think that he might never smile again. Now he merely looked concerned. "Ah, Spike," said Discord, his voice now breathy and weak. "Come to visit me on my deathbed? Will you offer words of comfort, or more cruel accusations of not offering everything that I-" "Answer the question," said the dragon sharply. His talons clicked on the stone stairs as he made his way down towards the fire. Discord sighed. When he spoke again, his voice was back to its usual strength. "Oh, you're no fun. Fine. A teleportation spell. Not far. Just enough to get us out of the windigos' territory. That's about all I can manage right now, aside from some minor amusements. Fortunately, they only hang around the top of the mountain. They've been scavenging off of the remnants of Luna's hate since dear Cadence cast her little spell." "And then what?" Spike dropped onto his haunches just beside Pith's sickbed, still staring at Discord with his one good eye. "What was your plan after that?" Discord sighed. "How many times do I have to say 'chaos' for you to understand? I don't have a plan. The closest thing to an end goal I have here is 'set the dragon loose and see what happens, because it's got to be better than sitting around in this dingy throne room forever'. The last time I actually tried to come up with a real plan, every tailor in Canterlot wanted me re-statuefied and Tia wouldn't speak to me for a week. I am a facilitator. You and your friends are always the ones who come up with the plan." Spike snorted, and his tail started to swing out to the side before he winced and stopped himself. "Well," he said grimly, "that's great, then. The Elements of Harmony are probably on the moon for all we know, Cadence is behind a wall of nightmare fog, Twilight isn't just missing but is actively insane, and we're all in worse condition now than when we actually came out here." He shook his head. "Not exactly the best way to prepare for a major battle." Compass looked back down to the papers on the desk, then up to Discord again. The chimera was babbling something to Spike, probably making another tasteless joke, but she wasn't listening. Her mind was buzzing too loudly for her to hear anything but her own thoughts. Problem. Queen Chrysalis was preparing for an attack, and the Elements of Harmony were inaccessible at the current time. She lacked any real ability to cast spells, and even if she had that power, one unicorn would hardly be enough to resolve the issue. That left a heavily wounded dragon and a chaos spirit with only a small amount of power remaining as their only tools. Possible solutions. Depend on the military's established strength to turn the tide of the attack; unlikely to succeed, with Chrysalis leading the charge. Attempt to establish a defensive line of changeling-repelling spells along the fortresses; equally unlikely, with the added chance that it was entirely impossible - she hadn't verified that the spell was even in the spellbook yet, and even if it was, the military developing a usable, stable version that could be maintained indefinitely in a permanent cordon around the Tangle was an idea so far-fetched as to be ludicrous. More unorthodox solutions. Find a way to return Spike to fighting condition and rely on him to defeat the bulk of the changeling forces; possible, but unlikely, with too many variables to be depended upon. Spike might not be strong enough to defeat the changelings, Chrysalis could intervene, they lacked a way to corral the enemy forces and keep them occupied with fighting a dragon, et cetera, et cetera. Find a way to return Discord to fighting condition; still far too many variables to be considered truly reliable, including Discord's own reluctance to actually engage in open combat with anything, but if it could be done, it was by far the most certain way of winning. No reliable solutions presented themselves. For a moment, she stood ready to pronounce the situation hopeless. Then she shook herself. Think of it like a map. You have a starting point and an ending point. Now find the path between them. She snatched up a pen that had rolled to one corner of the desk, flipped the copied spellbook over, and began to scribble furiously on its back cover. Tailspin gave her a sidelong look. "What is it?" she muttered. "I might have an idea," Compass answered quietly. "But there's no guarantee it will work. Give me a minute to think." No single solution was enough. If she combined them, however, the beginnings of a solution took form. That solution, though, brought up a new problem, and that one intimidated her more than the rest combined. She clenched her teeth and continued on. Tailspin shoveled another mouthful of canned stew into her mouth. It wasn't particularly fancy food, but it was solid stuff that didn't require any real preparation and could be eaten on the go. For somepony that spent weeks at a time out in the wilderness, it was perfect. The fact that it tasted like used sweat socks was the only real downside. The only sounds in the hall were those from her eating, the crackling of the fire, and the sound of Compass Rose's pen scratching across paper. She had been writing non-stop for nearly twenty minutes, her face twisted in a look of absolute concentration. Spike and Tailspin were both watching her silently. Pith was still asleep, and even Discord seemed to have settled into a sort of doze. She was glad about that. Every time he opened his mouth, she felt an exceedingly powerful urge to throttle something. There was a snort from beside her, and she turned to see Pith crack open one eye and peer blearily around. When he spotted her, he blinked slowly. "So I wasn't imagining that," he grunted. "You are actually up. Good. Am I done hallucinating now?" She shrugged and gave him a faint smile. "Don't think you ever were," she said. "Though I don't blame you for thinking that. Discord's still around. I'm just glad he finally shut up." Pith turned his head so that he was fully facing the two of them and grimaced. "So the chocolate boat and the picture show about the crazy alicorns was real, then," he said, sounding vaguely disappointed. "Great. What's happening now?" "You're resting," said Tailspin firmly. She reached out and put a hoof on his shoulder; he had been trying to push himself upright. "That's what we're all doing, really. Your leg's busted up good, and your ribs are probably almost as bad, so don't put any strain on yourself." Pith frowned, sighed, and let his head fall back onto the pillow. "Fine," he said. "Don't think I could move much if I wanted to. What's Compass doing?" "Making plans," said Compass. All of them looked around. Compass had finally lifted her head and set her pen aside. She was looking tired and nervous, but determined. "I think I've come up with a possible solution," she continued slowly, "but I can't make any guarantees yet. There are still some things I've got to know." She looked over to Discord. "Starting with you." "Moi?" Discord put his clawed hand over his chest, looking mildly surprised. "And here I thought you had forgotten-" Compass raised both hooves, pursed her lips, and stared at him for a moment. Slowly, Discord let his arm fall back to the bed and sighed. "Fine," he said, sounding extremely put-upon. "What is it you want to know?" The unicorn nodded once, looking satisfied, and lowered her hooves to the desk again. "You're weak right now because you expended so much magic trying to stop the moon," she said. "Is it possible that you can take in magic in the same way? That you might be able to heal yourself by, and I know this is the wrong word but it's the best I can come up with, eating magic?" Discord glanced towards the shadows at the edge of the firelight. Even know, they still seemed to twist and shift unnaturally. He huffed and turned away. "Absolutely not," he said firmly. "I wouldn't touch such swill even if it were served in a-" "I'm not talking about this magic," Compass said sharply. "I don't want to know what happens if somepony takes in too much of this kind. But you said it yourself; the mountains out there have so much magic in them that it's almost impossible to move. If you could expose yourself to that kind of magic, would that make you stronger?" "Possibly," said Discord slowly. He had a thoughtful look on his face now. "I've never really had reason to try until now. But, ha, I suppose that's why I woke our dragon friend up in the first place. First time for everything." He stroked his chin. "But I'd need time, and I won't get it with our icy companions out there. Even I don't particularly like the idea of becoming a popsicle. Pinkie Pie might have, but I-" "Right." Compass sighed and settled back into her chair, rubbing at her face with her hooves. "That's the important part. You're our ace in the hole, and we need you as strong as possible. So we need to get you out there and gathering up as much magic as you can as soon as possible. Which means the rest of us-" she lifted her head again and looked over to Spike and the others "-are going to have to find a way to get rid of those windigos." Tailspin felt a sudden rush of hot air over her wings as Spike snorted. "We can't," he said. "Windigos feed on negative emotions like fear and hate. If Princess Luna was strong enough to keep feeding them for this long, then there's no way we'll be able to beat them here. Not without magic." Compass frowned heavily. "I know," she said. "Which is why I've been working on this." She tapped on the back of the spellbook with one hoof. "I can't guarantee that it'll get rid of them, or that I'll even be able to cast it, but it's the best I can come up with." They all watched her for a moment, unsure of what to say. It was Pith who broke the silence. He let out a grunt and attempted to push himself upright again using his one good leg, ignoring Tailspin's scowls and efforts to hold him still. "No," he said. "It's too much of a risk. I don't want you to have to try and fight off a horde of evil ice monsters with a broken horn. Not when the rest of us can't help you." "Well, do you have a better idea?" Compass asked sharply. She drew herself up and gave him an imperious glare. "My horn is broken, but I can still manage some basic spells if I try, and I don't see any other options." "No," said Tailspin, as she finally managed to push the struggling stallion back onto the sheets, "Pith's right. We're all glad you're here, Compass, but putting that much strain on yourself for a long shot isn't the way to do this. You're right. We need Discord-" "Please, call me Dizzy," said Discord sweetly. "-as strong as we can get him," she plowed on. "But there might be other ways to do it. Throwing yourself into a pack of windigos when there might be other options available isn't what we need. We still have some time before Chrysalis attacks. We can find another way to do this." Gradually, she became aware that both Discord and Compass had sudden awkward looks on their faces. "We do still have time," she said, a certain accusatory tone becoming evident in her voice. "Don't we?" Discord hopped off his bed and, through some trick of space, managed to end up standing on Compass' right side and holding a microphone. He cleared his throat. "I'll field this one, Miss Rose," he muttered in her ear. Then he straightened up and waved his lion paw. A small rectangle of light appeared floating in the air behind him, depicting what Tailspin immediately recognized as a map of the Tangle and the surrounding fortresses. "Now, for those who missed our last broadcast," he said, "perhaps because they were off speaking to dragons in other rooms, here's what you missed." Icons began to pop into existence over the map. A handful of them looked like little suns with happy faces, and were positioned over the forts and the area behind them. The rest were black clouds covered in wicked-looking blue thorns that erupted out of them from the inside. Occasionally, little stylized lightning bolts arced between them. "It's been a lovely week for our little ponies in the Fort Maneholdt district," Discord said brightly. "Clear skies and smoony days as far as the eye can see. But that's going to change come tomorrow." Brightly colored arrows began to emanate from the dark clouds. All of them pointed towards the fortresses. "Yes, it's a doozy of a storm that our friends from the Tangle have whipped up for us, folks!" Discord was grinning like a loon now, and waving his clawed hand over the map in quick, frantic motions. "Starting tomorrow night, if you can call it that, ha, we'll be seeing flash floods, sleet, lightning, and possibly even some plunder hail, mixed with twelve to twenty-four inches of changelings." "That's enough, Discord," said Compass quietly. To Tailspin's mild surprise, the image disappeared immediately, and Discord danced away, humming a little jingle to himself. Compass just sighed. "So no," she said, "we don't have time. Queen Chrysalis is going to attack soon, and we don't have the Elements of Harmony to try and stop her. It's my plan or nothing." She shook her head. "I don't like it. I'm probably going to fail, and you're going to have to try and find another way to stop them. But it's the only thing I can think of." Again, there was silence. Again, it was Pith who broke it. "All right then," he said. "So when are we doing this?" Compass looked confused. "We? I'm the only one-" "If you think we're sending you out there alone, you're crazy," Pith said flatly. "We can't use magic, but we still might be able to do something. 'F nothing else, I can hold a light for you or something." Tailspin nodded, and, behind her, Spike's face split into a wide grin, exposing his rows of broken teeth. "Right," he said, nodding. "We're not going to make anypony stand on their own here. Friends, right?" He laughed. "Besides. Did I ever tell you what they called the magic they used to beat the windigos before?" Compass shook her head. She was vaguely aware of Discord making some exaggerated gagging noises in the background, but she ignored him. Spike laughed. "'The Fire of Friendship'. We're sticking with you, Compass. Besides, it's not like I haven't been present for my share of stupid, desperate gambles before. What's one more now?" "I'd rather we didn't all end up as icicles," said Tailspin, "but I'm not sending you out there alone, either." As one, they turned to Discord. He paused in his fake-vomiting and eyed them all warily. "What?" "Well?" said Spike. "Are you in or not?" Discord sighed, straightened up, and ran one hand through his mane. "I don't suppose I have much choice in the matter," he said. "I already rolled the dice. Now it's about time to see whether or not I've bet on the right racer." He blinked. "I believe I got a bit lost with that metaphor, but you get the point." Compass, despite obvious fear and exhaustion, smiled. "Thank you," she said quietly. "Really." "Don't thank us until we're out and alive," said Tailspin, standing up. "Come on, Spike. You and I are the only ones who can really carry anything right now, so let's get this stuff packed up. We're heading out." And they turned to gather up their equipment.