Chapter 10: Battles And Mysteries
The Sun, it felt warm of Drapney's back as they flew. House Caranae had been flying for a long time for that effect to happen, and their wings were getting tired. Jyrial pointed to the ground and they all sailed down to the floor. They landed near a small lurch of trees that randomly was set between the arctic north and the Pinewood forests that bordered it. They were on the edge of the Tree Line, and much larger trees could be seen in the distance. Hiltwing ran off to find some water, and the rest of them relaxed, removing their armor. Jyrial climbed up the nearest hill, and looked out into the distance; he was planning on where they should go next. Drapney looked over at Bagod and Remedy. They all had thought it, but none of them ever asked. How did you get out of the spell? The answer probably would be along the lines of "We struggled hard enough", but so many Clairetti didn't escape. So, what made them five so special?
"Hey, Remedy" Drapney reached out, Remedy had just removed her helmet, freeing her face to the cool wind. It had been about a week since the battle, so they all felt good enough about talking that it didn't make it awkward to say anything. "How did you escape the spell?"
Remedy looked a little surprised at the question, but not that surprising, because she herself had been wondering the same question about everybody. "It was the Innocents. I thought about the children around me, dying, and I couldn't bear it." Remedy's eyes started to get wet, but she wasn't crying. "I broke out of the spell to save them, but I was already too late." As Drapney thought, Remedy was a House Lighthill Bruta unit, so that would mean that she was kind hearted, and fought for the wellbeing of others. Remedy fought for the children, an honorable reason to fight. "Well, how about you?" Remedy asked.
Drapney started to tear up at the question. "It was my sister. A long time ago, when she was a foal, she got herself lost in Equestria. I swore that I would find her, that I would bring her back, but I haven't had a chance yet. I wasn't just going to let a spell keep me from that mission, and I broke out. She'll be 20 this year, almost old enough to drink." Drapney said with a tear running down her face and a smirk in her mouth. "I haven't seen her in 15 years"
Remedy moved in closer to comfort Drapney, "I'm sorry". It's one thing to see helpless children die, and another to lose a sister. Both are absolutely horrible.
Bagod's expression was blank. "I got out with will power. Nothing went through my mind, but surviving to see another day." Bagod is one of the military types, and a strong one. Jyrial would probably give them the same story, on how he broke out because he was strong enough to break out, and maybe Hiltwing would say the same thing, but they weren't certain for sure. The Clairetti respect a will full person, because it means that they have learned to control their curse better than anyone else. Now whether they use it wisely or not is up to them; to be gentle, or brutal. Jyrial returned from the hill. He didn't sit, and he didn't take off his armor. He was tense,
"A flying pack of Corvuses are coming" Jyrial said. Bagod, Drapney, and Remedy all through their armor back on and got ready to fight. A Corvus, like an Ursa, is a constellation. A Corvus is a large black crow, and the constellation it is born from twinkles within it’s body, just like the Ursa do. All constellations are like that, and because they are made of magic, they can only be harmed by magic. The Clairetti are an exception, even though they perform physical attacks, their destructive power is a controlled curse, and curses are made from magic. Thus, whatever the Clairetti had, it was magical, and thus could harm constellations. Constellations, for that reason, are feared by non-magical creatures such as Pegasi and Satyrs, because they cannot harm them. Constellations are also much larger than the physical versions of what they're imitating. Corvuses had about the wingspan of 20 pegasi, and thus are formidable enemies against Dragons, but then again, so are the Clairetti.
"How many are there?" Bagod asked,
"A lot" Jyrial replied, and Bagod in response equipped himself with magic infused knives. Each knife freezes the area around it when it hits something, and thus it is used strategically to either limit a large opponent's movement, or to keep objects from moving. Bagod obviously was going to use them as weapons, and he sure had a lot of them. Remedy ran after Hiltwing to warn him, and Drapney got ready as well. Her sword wouldn't do anything to the Corvuses, so she left it there on the floor to eliminate unnecessary weight. All but Bagod will be fighting by hand, so it was going to take a lot of power to kill these things. They were going to do this the old fashioned way, the way of nature, of the wild. One creature’s strength against another’s.
Jyrial herded them into the trees. He thought that maybe the Corvuses won't see them and fly on by, so then they could attack them from behind. They knew they were going to have to fight, because Hiltwing and Remedy were still out in the open, and in danger. They waited there in the trees, and listened as the screeching got louder and louder as the Corvuses got closer. Then, they saw them, the Corvuses come flying overhead, and luckily, didn't seem to see them. There must of been about a hundred of them. The screeching, squeaking, and whatever noise a Corvus would make got very loud as they found Hiltwing and Remedy, they doomed down to attack them. Jyrial waited for the right moment, and then gave the signal to move.
Bagod, Jyrial, and Drapney all darted up into the air and towards the Corvuses. Jyrial got to the first one, and crashing into it gut, sent the Corvus higher into the air. It's screams weren't heard by the others. Drapney flew above a Corvus and slammed into its back, bringing the Corvus down to the ground. Bagod flew in front of a Corvus and threw one of his knives into its eye, then lunged into the bird's skull. Jyrial, huh in the air, was giving his victim a serious of kicks and pouches that all made the Corvus scream with pain, until he finally knocked it down with an overhead struck and sent the poor bird to the ground. Drapney was doing the same, except she was beating it deeper and deeper into the ground. Bagod had succeeded in getting his Corvus to the ground, and struck with impressive might. The three of them were done taking out the Corvuses they had chosen, and flew off to take on another.
Hiltwing and Remedy had seen the massive group of Corvuses fly down to attack, and dodged out of the way so that either their attackers beaks would crash into the ground, or force the bird to pull up. Each time a Corvus would get into arms reach, they would slam their fists into its head, and cause the bird to retreat with pain. Having the ability to destroy all that you touch, and then focus that ability to become stronger, lead to a lot of hurt for the Corvuses.
To truly represent the power of a Clairetti, allow me to give an example. What if you let gravity drop your hand down on a table? If that table was made of wood, you would break the table in half. Now imagine punching that same table. The area you pouched at would turn into dust while the table broke into more than one piece. Now imagine focusing that power through years of training, where when you punch the table you not only turn some of it into dust and shatter it into shards, but you crack the floor beneath you as well. That is half the power of a Clairetti, because if they would let a hoof fall onto a table from gravity, the table wouldn't break in half, it would shatter into pieces, and the area where the hoof landed would turn to dust, just like if you would punch a table from the example earlier. Clairetti destroy what they touch, which is why the children aren't allowed to touch anything but the ground until the learn to stop making small craters in the dirt from where they walk.
The Clairetti don't directly control this power, because you can't control a curse. They just simply touch things almost as gently as a Breezie, and get along that way. Thus, when a Corvus is getting hit with that much power, it feels the pain, but it cannot die. In order to win, the Corvuses must willingly retreat.
Bagod flew up into the air again and threw several knives in different directions, all hitting separate Corvus. It succeeded in only getting their attention, which Bagod was looking for. The five Corvuses he had hit came at him full speed, screeching and squawking their way towards him. With a curve to the side and a flip, Bagod dodged the first Corvus and knocked it square in the jaw. The next Corvus struck him hard in the side with its beak as it flew by, but Bagod simply thrashed his elbow into the poor bird's beak and used the momentum of thrashing his arm to spin him around and kick the top of the bird's head with his back hoof. The other three Corvuses had flown right past him, and he flew off to attack them.
Drapney was busy taking out her next victim while all of that was happening. She grabbed ahold of a Corvus' tail feathers, spun around, and sent it flying into the ground. Before the Corvus had gotten back up, Drapney crashed right into it, and dug it further into the ground. Dust flew up around them from the impact, and Drapney flew away to continue fighting. The Corvus crawled out of the shallow hole and tried to fly away, but stuck to crawling, because it hurt to much to fly.
The group made it to about where Hiltwing and Remedy where fighting on the ground, except they were in the air. The remaining Corvuses realized that they had aerial foes, and moved to regain supremacy in the air. Hiltwing and Remedy joined the air fight when the Corvuses turned away their attention, and zoomed quickly towards the closest Corvus.
Jyrial was pursuing a Corvus, when another Corvus grabbed him in its claws. The bird flew down next to the ground and half drug, half shoved Jyrial into the dirt, making a visible path through the ground of where they had been. Jyrial steadied his feet on the ground when he got a chance, and pushed up at the Corvus' feet, digging himself deeper into the ground, but stoping the bird's forward momentum. Jyrial then jumped from the spot, still having the bird's feet in his grasp. The bird fell forward due to balance problems, and Jyrial allowed it to fall. When the bird was to the side of him, he kicked it in the chest, sending it flying to his right several yards away, and didn't bother to watch as it fell all the way to the floor.
Remedy waited in position as a Corvus charged at her, pointing its beak into her direction. When it was close enough, she grabbed the beak with her hooves, twisted upward bringing the beak with her, and kicked the bird's neck while it was twisted in a weird position. A Corvus came up behind Remedy and struck its beak into her head. Remedy fell to the floor a little dazed. She looked up in time to see the Corvus come crashing down on her, and peck at her body. She rolled out of the way for the first few strikes, but was hit in the side by the bird's beak, then again, and again as she laid on the ground in pain. She then made a quick back roll and kicked the bird's beak as it came down for another attack. The bird shook its head in pain and focused back on Remedy. It flapped once to gain momentum as it charged at Remedy, and Remedy did the same. They were both gliding through the air, only a few feet above the ground, and Remedy come out the winner. She had simply pouched the Corvus in the face when they collided, and a ripple of power went through them both. The ripple in Remedy wasn't strong enough to cause pain, more like what would happen at a sudden stop, but the ripple that went through the Corvus sent pain into its whole body. Remedy had succeeded in cracking the Corvus' beak, and watched as it flew with a white light and slowly healed itself. The Corvus flew away. Remedy looked down at her side. She was bleeding.
The bulk of the Corvuses retreated, and flew off back in their original migration pattern. Only three Corvuses stayed to fight, but soon backed off and joined the rest of their group when they found that they were outnumbered. Jyrial, Drapney, Bagod, and Hiltwing all waited until the Corvuses were surely gone. They were breathing heavily; the battle had took a lot out of them. Five Clairetti hit as hard as they could against 100 Constellations, all in order to encourage them to retreat. It surely worked, considering that the Corvuses where now gone. The five of them then got a chance to relax, and they glided back down to the floor.
“I spotted some water over there” Hiltwing stated, lightening up the mood and pointing in some direction off somewhere.
“Good” Jyrial said as he started heading towards the direction Hiltwing pointed them in, the others shortly followed.
They found a small creek that had more plant life growing around it than did anything else, and they tilted their heads into it to take a drink. Drapney was the first to lift her head from the water, and she sat down to rest. It didn’t take long for the others to join in. After a while when they were generally rested and could fly again, Jyrial ordered that they move on, and they all did. Jumping high into the air, the five of them headed back down their flight path, trying to reach the sea.
** **
The night had taken over the outside, and Twilight crawled into her bed. She found it hard to sleep, because she was so worried about Pinkie. It reminded her of when she exploded with power that one time as a filly, and she had similar side effects, but not enough to send her to the hospital, and it surely was detectable. Everypony knew what had happened to her, but nopony knew what was wrong with Pinkie. Twilight tried really hard to understand what it was exactly that had affected Pinkie, but nothing came up, not even in her books. Tomorrow, she will go to Celestia, and see if she knew what it was. Celestia knew everything, so she had no doubts.
Twilight turned in her bead and closed her eyes, but she still couldn’t fall asleep. She will lay awake until the morning, worrying about Pinkie.
** **
The sun arose, and birds outside were tweeting. Guess Fluttershy was up early enough to wake them. Twilight groaned, she didn’t sleep at all last night, and she was sure it was going to bite her in the flank later, but not now, now was time set aside for Celestia.
Twilight was soon out of bed and was waiting for the next train to Canterlot down at the station. The tracks started vibrating, and a thundering noise arose in the distance; the train was on time. It screeched to stop in the right position to allow the ponies coming from somewhere else to get off, and the ponies that are leaving to get on. Twilight entered the train car and sat down on the seats across from Lyra Heartstrings. She was sitting in a slightly awkward position, but not too strange. Twilight had seen her in worse.
“So, heading to Canterlot?” Lyra opened,
“Yeah”
“Family or Buisness?” Twilight noted that Lyra was trying very hard to be friendly right now, so she humored her.
“Both”
“Ooh, bad call. Never do business with family. I hear it causes bad luck.” Twilight chuckled,
“Ha, there’s no such thing as bad luck, just an unfortunate line of events. Logically, there is no such thing as luck.”
“That’s not what I learned growing up. My mommy always said that ‘If magic is real, so are the other supernatural things in this world’”
“Well, Magic is measurable; it can be studied scientifically, so thus it is not supernatural.” Twilight said, getting into her lecture mood.
“Oh, I forgot you Day dwellers were so dull.”
Twilight looked at Lyra with confusion, “Wait, what did you call me?”
“No matter. Bye!” She said, then ran off out of the train. Twilight followed.
“Wait, come back!” She said, chasing after the mint colored unicorn. Lyra almost turned a corner, but turned to look at Twilight. She giggled, and then continued onward around the corner right as Twilight caught up to her. When Twilight zoomed around the corner, Lyra was gone. “Over here!” Lyra said, she was now standing behind Twilight.
“Wait, how’d you…” Twilight tried to say, but Lyra had already ran off again.
Up and down, giggle after giggle, Lyra lead the lavender unicorn into the Everfree Forest, and disappeared into the trees. Twilight was out of breath, but she looked everywhere for the strange unicorn. She eventually found her sitting next to a pool of water in a concave between four hills. Twilight ran down next to Lyra.
“Please don’t go!” She said as she approached Lyra. Lyra put a hoof to her mouth, signaling Twilight to remain quiet.
“The Grove of Truth” Lyra whispered, pointing a hoof towards the pool of water, “Look into it”
Twilight bowed her head and stared into the water, but her mind was on Lyra. She quickly lifted her head to see Lyra again and say something, but Lyra was already gone. She had disappeared. Twilight looked back down into the pool, and watched as something started moving. A bulge came floating up from the water, and grew until it formed a ghost like being, still connected to the pool of water.
“What do you seek?” The pool of water spoke to her, speaking in a deep, daunting tone, but not threatening.
Twilight thought hard about what it was she wanted to say, but remembered about Pinkie. “I want to know what happened to my friend, Pinkie Pie”
The water being the warped into an image, and Twilight starred at it, watching as it formed a memory, a moving picture. She saw Pinkie with a Zebra she had never seen before, and they were standing next to a cliff face. But then, the Zebra sprinkled some kind of green dust everywhere, and the landscape turned into a scary, dark relm, where thunder and black clouds were home. A red and black centaur stood in the center, in front of a pony that oddly looked like Derpy.
Twilight’s eyes glowed a satisfying blue as the vision went through her head. She saw everything, from the transformation of the landscape, to when Pinkie burst with power she had never seen before.
“Your friend’s condition is caused upon something you have yet to understand” the water being said, “nor could ever understand, unless you break yourself from the Day”.
Twilight remembered that earlier she was called a Day Dweller. What does that mean? “I have been called a Day Dweller, is this related to your advice concerning the Day?”
“Indeed, for as far as you believe it to be true.”
“What is a Day Dweller?”
The water spun around into another form, and presented the picture of a city, filled with Ponies. “Behold, the Day Dwellers.”
Twilight only recognized a normal ponies, but something had to be special with them in order to be given a separate title other than “Normal”.
“Those look like any ordinary pony, what makes them different?”
“They are trapped in their consciousness. They live a false life, free from the influences of the sub-conscious mind. They are victims of Princess Celestia.”
Victims? Celestia has no “Victims”, she is the good and wise ruler of all of Equestria!
“They are anything but victims! Celestia is a good, kind, loving ruler, not an maker of evil deeds! What thing has she done to cause the need of the word ‘victim’?!”
The water started to recede, and disappear. “Only those with an open mind may see the truth” It said, over, and over again until it soaked entirely again, it’s voice becoming less and less audible, until it was barely an echo of a whisper.
“Wait, stop, don’t go.” Twilight said, “I have so many questions.” But the water fully receded. The Grove of Truth was gone, hidden away somewhere far off for somepony else to find. Twilight may never see it again. She turned around, disappointed at herself for losing her cool with the creepy pond. As she looked up, she saw Lyra.
“Those of the Day listen not to truth, but to reason. A chance to know all you had wanted to know, is now gone.” Lyra said with a displeased look on her face.
Twilight jumped at the opportunity to talk to Lyra, “Please, tell me what’s going on?”
Lyra laughed, “Now that the Grove is gone, you want me to tell you?”
“Well, yes” Twilight said, matter-of-factly,
“Well I won’t tell you” Lyra said, folding her hooves together over her chest and making a hmph sound.
“Look, I’m ready to learn now. See?”
“Arrogance is your mistake Twilight, you think you know all, or have the ability to know all. Humble yourself first, then come to me.”
“But I am!” Twilight said with some frustration, then realized how prideful she sounded. Lyra gave her a strange look that seemed to say “Oh really?” and Twilight accepted it.
“I will leave you with a warning Twilight, and this is for your own good. Be wary of Celestia.” She said, then walked away, moving large leaved from a plant behind her out of the way.
“Wait, hold on.” Twilight said rushing towards the leaves. When she pushed the leaves aside, Lyra was gone.