Act Three Chapter Eleven - Sacrifices
“You can’t still be seriously considering this, can you?!” Peridot yelled, her voice echoing through the hall outside the throne room of the Crystal Palace, drawing looks from the guards.
Lumine shushed her, “Yes I am and either way I’d have to tell her, unless you can think of a better solution before it’s too late.”
Peridot grumbled as the guards pushed back the doors, “I still don’t like it.”
“Neither do I,” Lumine admitted.
They entered to find Benevolentia already holding audience; the prince must have been coordinating patrols. The pony she was speaking with was from one of the Empire’s merchant guilds. He was upset about one of the new rationing decrees but wasn’t getting very far in his attempts to sway Benevolentia from her decision. The princess stole a moment from her duties to smile and wave from the throne.
They found a seat and tried to ignore to the debate while Lumine went over what he was going to say. Peridot spent the time trying to come up with a way to talk Lumine out of his plan.
“What was that about?” Lumine asked Benevolentia once the guild pony stormed out.
“Tea and coffee.” The princess shook her head. “With everypony so tired and stressed out and no caravans getting through I was forced to decree that all coffee and tea be sold to the crown at the pre-siege price. Ponies aren’t going to be happy about it but I need to guard kept awake to do their jobs.”
“Taking away a pony’s morning pick me up,” Lumine tisk tisked and shook his head. “You might end up with a revolution on your hooves.”
Benevolentia laughed and held her hooves to her cheeks in mock dismay, “Oh no, somepony’s going to take my throne and deal with this mess instead of me.” She rolled her eyes, “Where do I sign up?” She composed herself, “So what can I do for you guys? Like the outfit, Lumine, by the way.”
Lumine looked down at himself, he’d forgotten that he was still in his tweed outfit. He’d worked straight through the night and hadn’t had a chance to change. “Oh, thank you. I figured it was time for a change from the ‘hospital gown chic’.” He looked over at Peridot, annoyed that she wasn’t laughing. “Unfortunately though, we didn’t come to show off my outfit. We have some bad news…”
The princess’s reaction was pretty much what they’d expected. She shot straight up out of her throne when she realized the implications for her baby but Peridot was able to convince her that there was no danger there.
“I went over all of Lumine’s work and he’s right. Any pregnancy conceived after the last Crystal flair should be safe from harm.”
“That is, of course, excluding complications arising from the mother’s loss of vitality,” Lumine interjected.
“Technically true…” Peridot shot him a look, she was trying NOT to worry the poor mother to be. “But I can counter those effects of the changelings’ attack with my magic. For a few ponies at least.”
The princess shuddered and sank back into her throne, “They’ve been feeding on us this whole time. No wonder they’re content to just sit outside and wait. Once we’re to weak to stop them they’ll just walk in and take the city. Why bother with the break-ins then?”
“I doubt they can drain enough to do more than get by,” Lumine reviewed the notes he held in his magic, Peridot had given up on lecturing him about it. “Still, it’s most likely it’s a way of testing our strength and shaking us up.”
“How much longer can we hold out?”
“Not long…” said Peridot, “The effects seem to be comulitive, showing no symptoms until some internal threshold is crossed. Every day, more and more ponies are checking into the hospitals from the effects of long term feeding. At the rate it’s increasing… I doubt there will be anyone lefrt who can even stand within ...two weeks.”
“TWO WEEKS?!”
“Less actually,” said Lumine. “Thats only until complete incapacitation. It won’t be nearly that long before the strain of dealing with ever increasing casualties and decreasing pony power breaks us. I’d give it a week at most before they infiltrators can overtake the guard.”
“We need to get word to Equestria, if Celestia and Luna knew…”
Lumine shook his head, “We’ve tried, not a single messenger has ever gotten through. At this point it wouldn’t matter, in the time it would take for Equestria to respond they couldn’t do anything but avenge us.”
“I can’t just sit here and wait for those monsters too…” she choked up as her hoof rose to her stomach. “What can we do? Is there anything we haven’t tried, no matter how drastic?”
“I might have a way. I was doing some research and I found a spell that…” Lumine began.
“No Lumine! You can’t do this!” Peridot stamped a hoof and pleaded, “Benny don’t listen to him. He’s crazy. Obviously his accident caused some brain damage.”
Lumine’s lips tightened, “That’s not even funny to joke about, Peridot.”
“Oh, so why can you joke about it then Mr ‘celebratory barbecue’?”
“Because it was my accident and I saved the Empire!”
“Well, I saved YOU Lumine!” Peridot fumed. “And I’m telling you that it will kill you!”
The throne room was silent save for the echo of Peridot’s pronouncement.
Princess Benevolentia’s voice was hushed, “Lumine, tell me.”
Peridot bit back tears. She knew that Lumine would do anything to save the Empire and that the princess had a duty to her ponies to do whatever it took to protect them, even if it meant putting the lives of her friends in danger. The worst part was that she knew they were right, they didn’t have anything else left to try.
“Once I realized that the changelings were feeding on the Empire I went straight to the archives to find a solution. I was hoping to learn as much as I could about them and I thought we might have some record of them from the past. Unfortunately, with so much of our history still buried under the ice in the old unicorn city or taken to Equestria I was only able to find a few fragmentary reports.”
“Anything useful?” the princess asked.
“Not really, just the occasional story of doppelgangers and ponies left in unshakable stupers. I don’t think they’ve ever attempted an attack like this before… It’s possible that it was the presence of the Heart that drew them out, much like it did with Discord in Equestria.”
“So what did you find then?”
“Well,” he continued, “Something their leader said stuck in my mind, so I decided to look back further. I never did find any mention of the changelings but I did find a legend accredited to none other than Starswirl the Bearded that might explain where they come from.”
“I’m sorry… who?” Benevolentia asked.
Lumine’s jaw dropped, “Starswirl the Bearded? Father of the amniomorphic spell? He was probably the most powerful unicorn who ever lived! He created hundreds of spells. Discovered most of the magical principles we know today and single hoofedly preserved almost everything we know about the ancient world. He’s essentially the single most important historical figure ever! Period!”
The princess just raised an eyebrow at Lumine’s fanboying.
Lumine groaned, “ANYWAY… I found an excerpt taken from Starswirl’s chronicling of the fall of the alicorns during the the Great Fracturing that told the story of a certain alicorn mare and her followers that refused to take part in the conflict. It didn’t mention her name or her motivations only that while the rest of the alicorns were doing there best to turn the world inside out and rip the very stars from the sky she stayed out of it all and refused to either help or harm any of the combatants. When everything was said and done the world was nearly devastated and the alicorns themselves were diminished and eventually they descended into the three kinds of ponies we see today. She was furious, she swore revenge on the world for stripping her of her power despite the fact that she wanted nothing to do with that terrible conflict. The story didn’t say what become of her, only that she spent the rest of her life delving into forbidden magics in an attempt to restore herself to the some semblance of what she had once been.”
“And you believe that this mare is this Queen Chrysalis?”
“It’s more likely that she is a descendant although I have to admit that It’s possible,” he admitted. “I don’t see how she could have survived for so many thousands of years after the alicorns were rendered mortal.”
“Did this story tell you anything about the spell that they used? Maybe you could find a way to counteract it.”
“Unfortunately no but it did give me an idea of where to look.” Lumine set his saddlebacks on the floor and removed cloth wrapped book. “This, princess,” he said as he held the book in his hooves as he carefully unwrapped the shimmering black wrapping, “is the Exoranomicon.
“During Starswirl’s long life he defended the three clans from every imaginable monster and calamity. During his time as the Magus, he kept careful record of every dark spell, every fell magic, and every vile incantation he encountered. Upon it’s completion, Starswirl named this book the Exoranomicon or ‘The Image of the Law of Hatred’ in the tongue of the ancients.” He left the book to his loyal student Clover the Clever in the hopes that she could use it’s knowledge to defeat such evil incase it was encountered again.”
“Wasn’t Clover one of the Founders of Equestria?” Benevolentia asked. “Why didn’t she bring it with her?”
“Maybe she just didn’t have time,” Lumine said. “The cold was nearing its worst and I’m sure her talents were directed at getting everypony out before they froze solid. Maybe she intended on coming back for her library later but unfortunately Clover didn’t survive long after Equestria was founded. In any case, it was recovered years later by an expedition to the old city along with the majority of our library.”
“So what does the book say?”
It was Lumine’s turn to shudder, “A great many terrible things. Starswirl must have been cast from a different mold to be able to research the dark arts like he did and maintain his sanity. Most of what we think of as black magic originated during the war between the alicorns and was meant to be cast by alicorns. Very few unicorns could manage these kind of spells, sane ones at least. Insanity seems to make them easier to cast and the misuse of alicorn magic seems eager to drive a pony to it. Handling the book carelessly or even being around it can be dangerous, hence the enchanted wrapping.”
Peridot stirred from her fretting to jab Lumine, “And you brought it to my room!?”
“Ouch, Peridot,” he rubbed his soon to be bruised shoulder. “That was a copy, the spells were deliberately left incomplete to make them uncastable, perfectly safe. This book is the original and despite its wards and enchantments, is still quite dangerous. Do NOT try to levitate it with your magic.”
Benevolentia leaned forward, “So, does it tell you how to block changelings’ magic?”
Lumine opened his mouth to answer but Peridot cut him off, “No it doesn’t. So what he wants to do is use another spell, a black spell, to suck the love and harmony right out of every pony in the empire until the changelings either starve or retreat! And that’s assuming that trying to cast it doesn’t kill him!”
“Is this true? That’s your plan?” Benevolentia asked in shock.
“It is a regrettably accurate description, but yes.” he answered honestly. “The spell does rob its target of all the emotions associated with Harmony, love, hope, happiness, etc. It is my hope that because the changelings feed on those same energies we can deprive them of their food source completely.”
“Is there any risk to my citizens?”
“As defuse it the spell will be, it’s minimal.” Lumine answered. “I plan to cast it through the Prism so its broadcasted through the whole city at once as opposed to the spells original method of targeting one pony at a time. The average pony will feel nothing more than a general sense of depression and sadness as oppose to the soul crushing despair the spell was meant to inflict.”
“And that’s the part that’s gonna kill him, Benny!” Peridot pointed an accusing hoof at Lumine. “The last time he tried to connect to the Prism the backlash fried him. I had to place the whole city at risk just to get his heart beating again. I…” she began to tear, “Lumine… I don’t want to see you get hurt… I don’t know if I can save you again.”
Peridot stared at her hooves as Benevolentia looked back and forth at them, weighing the risk. She found she couldn’t bear to look at Lumine, knowing that there was no way she could dissuade him.
“Lumine… is Peridot right?” the princess asked. “We, all of us, thought you were gone when we found you. How do you know it won’t happen again.”
“This is different,” he explained. “When I cast the forcefield I knew I’d never be able to keep the spell up by myself so I had to tie the spell directly into the power of the Heart and all the stored energy in the Prism. This time I only have to direct the energy from the Prism to get the spell going and it will sustain itself on the energy it collects from the ponies under its effect.” Lumine took a deep breath, “And also because last time… the last two times rather, the excess energy poured through my natural connection with the heart as a crystal pony. I no longer have that connection.”
“What are you saying?”
“I am no longer a crystal pony…”
“What?!” Princess Benevolentia jumped down from her throne. “Of course you’re still a crystal pony.” Peridot stared at her friend, her eyes open in shock.
“I can’t feel the Heart anymore and soon enough what’s left of my coat will lose it’s shine. I’ll just be a regular unicorn,” he admitted with difficulty. “Whatever that energy surge did to me… it damaged something inside, burnt something out.” He gave a half hearted shrug, “It’s probably the only reason why the changelings’ feeding hasn’t killed me already and it might just be enough to protect me from burning out again.”
“Lumine…” Peridot said as she felt her frustration melt away. She wanted to run over to her friend, to wrap her hooves around him and tell him that everything was going to be okay but something in the way he stood held her back, like this was something he had to get out. “You never told me…”
“You would have tried to heal it,” Lumine answered sadly. “But this can’t be healed, and it would have broken your heart that couldn’t help me.”
“You were trying to protect me?”
He nodded, “That’s what you do for the ponies you care about. That’s what I’m trying to do again. Peridot... Benny, this spell is the only chance the Empire has and nopony else is skilled enough to cast it. Peridot… you’re right. There’s a chance that something goes wrong and if it does then… I won’t be around to try again, but if I don’t try, if you don’t let me do this… then the Empire will fall and everypony who is unlucky enough to survive it will be nothing but food to those monsters outside our gates.”
He looked down at his hooves then back up at Peridot and Benevolentia, “Please, you two mean everything to me and I can’t just stand by and let you and everypony else get hurt. You’ve been the best friends I could have asked for. Let me be as good a friend for you.”
That’s it, Peridot thought to herself, I’m gonna hug him. She gave in and threw her forelimbs around him, drawing him into the biggest hug she could muster. He stiffened for a second but gave in and wrapped his hooves around her. A moment later Peridot felt the soft brush of Benevolentia’s feathers around her as princess joined them.
Without another word, it had been decided.
It didn’t take them long to prepare. Lumine wanted to practice the spell once or twice and Peridot offered herself up as a guinea pig, which he refused, much to her relief, suggesting that they procure an actual guinea pig from the petting zoo. Peridot pitied the poor creature, almost enough to insist that he should test it on her.
By the time evening came they were ready and Lumine, Peridot, along with her personal guard Phalanx, and most of the palace’s medical staff were gathered around the heart, beneath its spire.
“Are you ready?” Peridot asked. “Maybe we should wait a few days. I might be able to draw power from the Prism to get you closer to full strength.”
Lumine shook his head. “We can’t wait. If this fails we need everypony to be strong enough to make a run for it. I doubt anyone will actually make it but maybe somepony will get far enough to get word to Equestria. It has to be now.”
Peridot nodded sadly and laid out the Exoranomicon on the table the servants had set up by the Heart. In the distance she could hear Benevolentia addressing the crowd. The princess insisted on explaining everything to her subjects and being with them when the spell went into effect. Peridot wished that Benevolentia could be with her to support Lumine but the princess was right, the Empire needed to see their Princess’s strength if they were going to endure this… however bad ‘this’ might be.
With a last plaintive glance to Lumine, Peridot wrapped the Heart in her magic and removed it from between the two magical spikes of crystal that held it aloft. Instantly, a low thrumming , like the sound of a giant pitchfork fading away, resounded through the spire and the ring of deep red foci surrounding it. Through her magic, Peridot could feel the power of the Prism begin the fade. Overhead, the normally purple force field began to fade to a pale violet. Phalanx tightened his grip on his spear as the dome protecting the city began to flicker.
Lumine closed his eyes and began to still himself as he ran through the mental exercises every unicorn learned as a child to summon their magic. Just as he readied himself to cast the spell he let out a surprised gasp as Peridot kissed him on the cheek.
“For luck,” she said.
Lumine smiled thankfully at his friend and summoned his magic. The spell began like any other, his horn glowing with the natural purple aura it always had and grew steadily brighter as he pumped more energy into it; then it began to change. Other colors began to seep into Lumine’s magic, dark green at first and then pure black. Hints of green flame flickered at the corners of his eyes.
Peridot jumped to Lumine’s side and began casting her healing spell as his hind legs gave way and his nose began to bleed. He didn’t even seem to notice her ministrations as he pumped more and more energy into the dark alicorn magic. With a final push that sent tremors running through his already frail body Lumine sent a beam of bubbling black, green, and purple magic out to strike bottom of the two crystal spikes that normally held the Heart.
Peridot’s eyes clenched tight as she kept up her healing, tending to and repairing each wound and weakness as it appeared in Lumine’s straining body while he kept up the dark casting. When Lumine finally released the spell and fell to the ground, she nearly collapsed herself in exhaustion relief.
“Lumine!” she called out tiredly as she rolled him over on his side. “Lumine, are you okay?”
Momentary panic spiked in her chest before he groaned, “No… not really. Did it work?”
Peridot forced herself to look up. The central spike was vibrating as it absorbed Lumine’s magic. As it did, it began to change, a black stain that began on its needle sharp point began to spread downward. The on-hoof medical ponies backed away nervously as it reached the ground and began spreading out to the edges of the polished floor. With a sound like tearing stone it shot out to the surrounding foci instantly consuming them and turning them black as coal.
“It’s working…”
The process began to repeat itself. As each foci absorbed the magic it sent out a tendril along the conduit material embedded in the very roads of the city to the next foci. Through her magic and her much vaunted ‘connection to Harmony’ Peridot could sense it each time the black spell, their only hope of survival and a sin against nature, lurch outward, spreading.
“Lumine…?” Peridot asked tentatively. “Why is your horn still glowing?”
He shakily sat up, bracing himself with his forelegs. “The spell can power itself,” he explained. “but with the Heart removed I have to maintain it so it doesn’t collapse.”
“How long do you have to keep that up?”
“For as long as it takes…”
“Lumine!” Peridot exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?! Who knows how long this will take! It might be weeks!”
“I didn’t know I’d have to...” he weakly laid a hoof on Peridot’s knee. “You’re going to have to keep me going until then. I trust you Peridot, we can do this.”
Peridot’s face pinched with concern but she nodded. They could get through this.
Distantly, she realized the spell had reached the last set of foci at the edge of the city. The effect was immediate. Peridot felt like someone had thrown a heavy wet blanket over her. She gasped sharply as the spell sank into her, sinking in it’s bitter talons that seemed to turn to stomach to water as it wrapped her heart in ice. She saw a tremor run through the ponies gathered around the spire.
Peridot collapsed to the ground as she felt her hope and optimism rip away. She heard somepony let out a heartbreaking cry. It never occurred to Peridot that it was her own voice.
This isn’t going to work…
Somepony called out her name.
What’s the point in even fighting…
She noticed that Lumine was shaking her, yelling something. She couldn’t bring herself to care enough to understand what he was saying.
Just let the changelings come… let them put me to sleep in one of those pods…
Lumine lowered his horn to her head until it touched her own.
“I’m so sorry Peridot! I didn’t know!” She felt him wrap his hooves around her. Little by little, she felt herself feel again. “I didn’t think about what would happen if you were healing me when I cast the spell. I’m so sorry! I tried to fix it. Did I fix it?” She could hear the tears in his voice, “Oh please Peridot, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, say something.”
Peridot’s voice croaked, “Tell me we can do this…”
Lumine squeezed her tight, relieved that she was okay. “We can do this, Peridot, you and me. We can save the Empire.”
In the distance she could hear Benevolentia talking from her balcony, comforting her subjects, telling them to fight back against the spell, they had faced worse and if they could only keep up hope they could make it through. Peridot hoped it was true.
Lumine helped Peridot climb to her hooves, she kept a hoof over his shoulder for support. The sudden reversal of their roles wasn’t lost on her and she cracked a smile, despite herself.
Suddenly there was a new sound rising in the distance, agonized, despairing, and pained. She leaned on Lumine as they walked out from under the spire, the green and purple light of his horn casting strange shadows as they looked out through the city, seeking the source of the cry.
It was Phalanx who realized first.
“The changelings are screaming…”