//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Gilded Vengeance 
// by DenyTheWitch 
//------------------------------//

"Hurry up you, I don't have all day!" I grunted slightly at this, a massive, and heavy, cardboard box in my arms, who'd have thought crystals could weigh so much? This delivery had just arrived this morning, and after punishing me for not getting up in my sleep and grabbing this box before he was awake, he got me to run outside and carry it all the way down to the testing labs, and I know it was crystals because of the sounds it made when I moved it, why he didn't just pick it up with his magic, because he wouldn't get to punish me for being slow, obviously. 

It had been five weeks since my first escape attempt, I had tried two other times, my most recent attempt I mixed it up by setting a trap at the bottom of the stairs, he had survived and set it to 'skullburn' if I so much as left my room. He had adjusted it to entering the stairway now, but the message had been made clear by now, I haven't attempted to kill him or even flee since then, he'd whipped me into obedience like a dog, and as much as I despised it, it had worked. I followed every command he gave, whenever he gave it, however impractical, and he still found reasons to punish me.

I was driven to my knees at this moment, a sharp pain in my skull, not enough to make be drop the box, but enough to get the point across, go faster. "Why not drop it on him, should be easy enough, and leave enough time to throttle him." Did I also mention he's driven me crazy? And not the kind of crazy obsessed over something, but crazy as in, hearing a voice in my head, a violent and sociopathic voice that always managed to suggest extremely gruesome, impractical and stupid ideas to me, "wouldn't work stupid, he'd have me screaming on the ground in seconds." I had also taken to talking back to this voice, probably not the best for my mental health but good god, I needed something to talk to.

So as my new internal 'friend' continued to spout increasingly gruesome ways of getting out of this and making Star Shine feel incredible pain, I got myself back on my feet and set off towards the labs again, Shine walking ever more briskly in front of me. Descending the stairs to the laboratory was hard when you're carrying a massive heavy box that obscures your vision, and believe me the tumble down the stairs would be the least of my worries if I did lose my footing. Still I managed to make it to the laboratory with only two stumbles, an improvement from my average.

We entered the laboratory passing through the massive collection of failed and inefficient experiments, I shuddered as we passed the tube that I had entered on my first arrival, that memory still fresh in my mind. "All the more reason to gut him!" 
"And how exactly do you propose we do that?" I replied. Despite my arguments I was all for very painful ways of killing Star Shine, but I knew any attempt would be futile and result in more pain for me, which my inner psychopath seemed incapable of comprehending. 

I was shaken from my internal argument by Star Shine, "put it over there next to the lance." I feel I should mention that his experiments, where all in weaponry or some other method of warfare, such as armour, shields and transportation, the lance was what he was using these focuser gems for, I didn't get all the details but basically the lance was a magic laser gun, using the focuser gems to, what else, focus a beam of magic into something far more deadly. It also relied on some form of battery storing magical energy, likely due to the fact that his primary buyers were non magical species, gryphons and minotaur's appearing quite regularly on his lists, they paid quite well too.

After dumping the box as carefully as it is possible to dump something I was shooed out to continue my jobs, after all I had a lot of work to do. Apparently Shine was throwing a party tomorrow and was inviting major business ponies and gryphons to attract more buyers, and I only found this out four days ago, so I was now having to rush around getting more foods, 'high class' party stuff and still manage my usual jobs, God it was tiring. Fortunately I didn't have to directly set this stuff up, turns out that golden lizard was one of several 'constructs' as Shine calls them set up all throughout the tower, not many mind you I think there were around thirteen of them total, and they were very receptive to any order given. Granted I had to write these orders down due to my loss of speech, still didn't know quite what that was about, still those constructs were creepy, and no, I couldn't order them to kill or hurt Star Shine, or any intelligent being for that matter.

So I had one construct cooking, and two more setting up all the party stuff, though I had to be very specific with my written orders, since they seemed to almost deliberately misinterpret them when ever the chance arose. And the does raise the question as to why I'm carrying the heavy boxes, mostly I thought it was because he was an arsehole, though the more logical part of me though it was because I would be gentler with such 'delicate' objects, probably.

I still needed the supplies though, and those were a pain, not the supplies themselves but the delivery pony that came with them, then there was the bell sound that accompanied someone at the gate, "speak of the devil, and she shall appear," least I think that's how that saying goes. I turned around and headed to the entrance gate, rather slowly I might add, see I wasn't the biggest fan of the mare who delivered our goods, though she was certainly one of my biggest fans, you'll get what I'm saying in a moment.

So I arrived at the gate in about four minutes too see the delivery, on the other side of the gate was six large crates and an empty, unhooked chariot, and in front of it all was the mailmare, Lightwing. She was a pegasus mare, with a bright green coat and a sky blue mane, her ass tattoo (I had by now learned that everypony had one of these, still didn't know why) was a trio of feathers arranged in a fan shape (the hand held variants), and she was small, like only just above my waist height small, most ponies heads cleared that level easily, so yeah small. 

Light (the pony, its a nickname I took to using) looked up at me with a big smile, "Hi there big boy, great to see you again," now when I say she looked up, I don't mean at my face, see the reason I disliked this mare, despite her very cheery attitude, was her fascination with staring at my crotch, with a very odd expression no less. Now I hadn't been the most social person but I was intelligent enough to figure out why she was doing this, between that and the occasional overhearing's of her wanting to ask Star Shine if she could "borrow me," made me very glad that she either hadn't asked it yet, or Star Shine had said no. I just grunted back, I'm not quite sure if she knows whether or not I'm intelligent, I don't hide it but then I'm not exactly open with it, then again I am receiving the mail. I walked over and reached down to pick up one of the crates, now it was big, over one cubic metre in size, and very heavy, it's a wonder this little pegasus can carry it all in that chariot.

Light watched on rather intently with some increasingly annoying giggles as I went back and forth taking the crates into the courtyard before my deadline was up. See when the gate was open I had a few minutes where the skullburner to the outside was turned off to grab this stuff, Mr Shine took great lengths to make sure that I did all the work while he just stayed in his lab, at this rate I'd be the one greeting the guests for the party. After taking the crates inside the courtyard, I went to the small pouch of bits that Shine had placed next to the gate, or maybe one of his constructs, I just knew the payment was always right there when a delivery came, I was tempted to steal some of the money just out of spite, but no, better make sure he has as few reasons as possible to use his stupid skullburner. 

"If we drag her in we could end her right now, quick and easy just a little snap," tempting, but no, she wasn't an arsehole, just a pervert, not worth it for another skullsplitter, didn't make her any less annoying. I handed her the bag as she slowly sifted through it, making way too many glances up at me while doing so. Eventually she seemed satisfied before nodding her head, "yup, everything seems in order here, see you later," she said with a wink before latching herself back on the chariot and flying off. I just rolled my eyes before dragging the crates back inside, Shine never helped, and no, I couldn't poison his food the constructs always seemed to know, and then somehow reported it to Star Shine, ensuring more punishment, I chalk it up to magic, really hating that stuff.


<-------------------------------->


I was standing next to the front door as quietly as possible, standing stock still as I watched the gate for a sign of movement, Star Shine standing just in front of me gazing out to the gate with a scowl on his face, come to think of it, that seemed to be his standard expression. It was the day of the party and I had, just barely, managed to get everything finished, I'd even managed to get those presentation booths set up that he told me about literally just five hours ago, its like he was trying to get me to fail, then again, that did seem to be a possibility. 

Shine was wearing what appeared to be a tuxedo, made for a pony, it was a deep black with a silver tie, or grey, hard to tell really, and he had also done something to his mane, it was all smooth and silky now, myself, well I finally had some decent clothes, he'd given me some long brown pants, with a plain lighter brown shirt. No shoes still, but my feet had healed, or at least gone so numb I didn't feel any pain from them, so that wasn't a problem.

Where was I? Oh yeah, waiting, we'd been standing here for, I think, half an hour now, and I was getting fidgety, I didn't dare move though, I had orders to stand still, so that's what I'm doing. Eventually the first guests arrived, I saw movement at the end of the courtyard as I stood up straight as possible, wonder what it was, Shine seemed relieved that something was happening, I think he actually slouched a bit, dick. Then the guests stepped into the light and they were, oh boy, griffon's five of them, although two of them looked more like bodyguards. The lead griffon was an older looking male with white feathers, the ones on his head arranged in a very tall plume, and wearing one of those fancy suits that Victorian generals used to wear, a red one, complete with a strap across his torso,  if he has a British accent I'm going to punch something. On his left was a younger female griffon, also white feathers but with yellow tips, she was wearing a blue dress? Yeah that what I'm going with. And on the right of the centre griffon was another male, this time with red highlights, and wearing a more identifiable dark blue suit.

Shine nodded to them as they came up the stairs, "greetings Whitewing, glad to see you made it." The griffin, Whitewing, nodded slowly, barely glancing at ,me as he looked around the inside of the tower.

"Yes well, I wouldn't want to miss your new, 'revolutionary' weapons now would I." I should note that he sounded very sceptical as he said this, he then waved one claw to the other male griffon, "I believe I have yet to introduce you to my children, this is my son Stormtalon," the blue suit griffon bowed slightly before Whitewing gestured to the female, "and this is my daughter Quickclaw." Quickclaw didn't acknowledge this, she just ran her eyes up and down my body with a look that said, "I want to eat you, literally," and making me very uncomfortable. Eventually she turned her attention to Star Shine, bowed her head, and followed her father into the tower after receiving a few directions from Star Shine, much to my relief. 

It wasn't much longer before the next 'guests' arrived, three big minotaur's strode forwards through the gate, and boy were they big, I came up to about halfway up their chests, and one of them, a really big one, was nearly twice as tall as me, now I'm not exactly tall, but I'm not short either, I consider myself just under average height. They strode up with the middle one of this threesome, a very elderly looking minotaur with a long almost white beard who still looked like he could snap me like a twig, introducing himself as Long Horn which seemed rather accurate given that his horns were almost as long as my arm, and the other not gigantic minotaur was introduced as Sharp Wit, wow, where do they come up with these names. The really big guy didn't get an introduction so I'll assume he was a bodyguard although I do question why these giants needed bodyguards.

For the next near half an hour more and more guests arrived including more griffons and minotaur's, some strange bipedal dogs, and zebras, really, zebras, who'd have thought. So after that we went inside to the 'party' closing the gate and door behind us, I suppose anyone else just won't get to come in, to bad for them being late. So entering the, well I suppose party hall is as good as any name I can fit into this, so entering the party hall The guests were just standing around, a few of them talking to others but most just stayed with the group they came in with, some were outright glaring at each other, at least they appeared to enjoy the food. So while Star Shine went off to mingle with the guests, I just stood here wondering what to do, looking around the place watching as the golems ran back and forth picking up empty plates and bowl before replacing them with new filled ones. 

Then I noticed Quickclaw looking at me again and decided that now would be a good time to check out the exhibits, "coward," well you'd run too. So I quickly rushed behind the curtains surrounding the exhibits and saw, a completelty different set up to what I'd put up, he would have only had a few minutes to set this up himself, how? 

"Why do I get the feeling he could have done this all himself very easily?" Probably because he could, arse. What was on display, well a few of his lances, looked like he thought he'd figured that out now, some small golden orbs, and a large gold shield with a small gem inside, wonder what that was supposed to do, there were also a few crates which I assume had other items in them. I didn't have anymore time to look around before I heard a rustling noise from the curtain. Thinking fast I quickly ran up behind one of the target 'walls' and hid for my life "cowa-" 

"yeah yeah I'm a coward now shut up." I quietly peeked my head around to see who it was, Quickclaw? She'd fllowed me in here, creepy! "Take one of the weapons and gut her with it," I thought about it but, well, best case scenario, I grab a weapon, somehow figure out how to use it, shoot the griffon, then curtains open and Star Shine Skullburns me, not a good outcome. So I settle for hiding as Quickclaw warily looks around, as if expecting someone to follow her, before she slowly strode towards one of the crates, so she wasn't following me? Well that's a relief, but then what was she doing here?

That was answered when she opened one of the crates, very slowly might I add, before slowly picking up an orb like the ones on display, so stealing, but why would she steal an item that she's about to but anyway? "A better question is, why do you care?"
"Eh, good point." She placed it inside her dress, which seemed very odd on her, before glancing around, looking at my hiding place for an agonisingly long few seconds, before turning around to head out. Of course then the universe had to fuck with me, my collar decided to play tug of war with me right now. I was yanked from my hiding place and forced to stumble forwards to the curtain, while the griffon just stood there gawking, as I rushed past her and burst out of the curtain. I found myself shoved through a large group of minotaur's, bipedal dogs and griffons, seriously, I couldn't piss off the zebras?

Fortunately the worst I got was a minor scratching from one dogs claws before I was safely beside Star Shine, boy never thought I'd ever be glad to be near Shine. Star Shine was once again tapping his hoof on the ground impatiently waiting for me, "there you are, where have you been? Doesn't matter, set up the lights, its time to begin the exhibit." And then he trotted off towards the stage, I went to the back, my role in this is to just really shine the lights and keep an eye on everyone while the show was going on, not sure what I was supposed to do if I did notice anything but still. "Should I tell him about Quickclaw?"
"So now you want to help him?"
"Good point." Besides, its not like I had any realistic way of telling him bout that. So I made my way up to one of the balconies overlooking the hall, setting myself up next to the light controls, which looked freakishly modern next to all the classical style curtains and clothing, and waited. Eventually, after all the guests had gathered and Shine had completed some speech of some kind about the great quality of his work and whatnot, the curtains opened, I switched on the lights, and, with nothing else to do, watched the show.


<--------<Star Shine>-------->


Star Shine felt a small feeling of satisfaction as his human turned on the lights to reveal his stunning new work, the scorcher orbs weren't much, but the magi shield lance were some pieces he was sure would sell for millions. He cleared his throat, "welcome, welcome all, I'm so glad you came here today to view my newest pieces of magical weaponry, I have many works here today which I'm sure will catch your attention, so lets not waste time shall we?" He turned around to levitate one of his Scorcher orbs to him, it was an unassuming little golden orb, with no noticeable features, but then, that was the design. 

"This here is one of my newest projects, the scorcher orb, now I know it doesn't look like much, but believe me, that is the intention, so now, observe its use." Using his magic he slightly twisted in half of the orb until it turned red, before hurling it at one of the target dummies he had set up, the orb sailed through the air before colliding with the dummy, and upon impact the orb exploded with a fiery blast. Shine turned back too see expressions of awe on the faces of the majority of the guests. He chuckled to himself for a bit before continuing, "now imagine yourself, on the battlefield, the enemy his holed up inside a house, or under a bunker, an assault would be costly and highly difficult, but if you just toss one of these orbs in, boom, problem solved." He was glad to see numerous heads nodding in agreement to this statement, perfect, now on to stage two.

Shine reached out with his magic again, lifting up one large lance next to an even larger shield, "now this here is a piece of work I have been attempting to complete for some time now, but I think you'll soon see, the results were worth it." Star Shine then pointed the lance towards another particularly large testing dummy, this one complete with armour, before his magic gripped the trigger on the lance handle. "Now I call this particular weapon, the flare lance, behold its power," then he pulled the trigger, a bright red beam of energy shot out from the lance tip, heading straight towards the dummy, the impact was devastating. The lance beam seared straight through the armour of the dummy, and then turned the dummy into a heap of molten metal, Shine then turned back to his audience, "now this is a result that has been available and known to m for some time now, but the previous problem with this is that the lane burns up a lot of magical energy, and in my experiments to solve this, I found a solution that could very well hold up on its own."

He then gently placed the lance on the ground, before turning around and lifting up the large shield next to it, "I know this seems very unoriginal, but the trick with this shield is not the shield itself, but the gem in the middle of it," he said, pointing at the gem in the process. "This gem, is currently draining magical energy from the air around it, before sending it to another orb in the lance, this is maintaining a constant recharging power supply for the lance, the biggest trick however." He lifted up the shield, and twisted a small ring on the inside, the gem went from bright green, to dark blue, then suddenly it fell to the ground with a thud. 

He turned his head back to his audience, pleased to see looks of surprise on the faces of his guests, "what just happened there, is that the gem went from draining the raw unused magical energy around it, to now draining all kinds of magic from the surrounding area, active and inactive." He grinned at this, "so not only does this shield block physical attacks, but it will now block magical attacks as well, or indeed, any magic of any kind, no need for rune specific armour, you can just pick up one of these shields whenever you must fight a magically attuned foe," he now had their absolute attention, including, strangely enough, his human too, who seemed to be leaning very far forwards over the balcony. "And best of all, all the magical energy that is drained, will automatically be sent to the lance, granting it even more power." The whole room was silent, nopony spoke, Shine cracked a large grin, "well then, lets move on to the next object," as he turned around to pick up the next object, and show it to the audience.

[center<----------4 hours later---------->]


The tower was silent, all the doors in the entrance hall closed, no movement, no sounds, at least at first. One of the doors opened quietly and silently, before a tall figure crept out, walking along as silently as possible, ignoring the two great big staircases, and entering a small door between them. Jacob crept along the hallway, ignoring the silent stares of the nearby paintings, reaching the end of the tunnel before descending the steps in complete darkness, but he'd walked down this path blind enough times to know the way. He reached the large door to the laboratory, before creeping inside the dark room.

After a few steps in the lights came on, much to Jacobs shock, fortunately, no-one was here to notice it, so he continued along, now with some light, he walked along the laboratory before coming across a door marked as Study, and he opened the door again as quietly as possible, and walked inside. The inside was a mess, it consisted of papers thrown all across the room, desks covered in books and papers, and large chalkboards covered in writing, along with some chalk on the walls too. He shook his head slowly before he began shuffling through the myriad mess of papers, until one paper in particular caught his attention, on the main desk, smack bang in the middle of it, was a paper he was interested in. 

The paper was yet another detailed diagram of another weapon, this one a carved up view of a highly detailed lance, and on the paper underneath this one was another plan detail of a different item, a large shield, with smack bang in the middle of the shield, a small gem. Jacob picked up the shield design, taking a look at the note attached to the small orb image, "absorbs and removes magic, see nullifier or for more details." A dark smile spread across Jacobs face, before he began to chuckle, idly grasping at the collar on his neck