//------------------------------// // Trixie: Cauterization // Story: Game of Worlds // by DualThrone //------------------------------// “I am Lord Ersari Bloodwynd, master of the Stormthorn Hold and especially the keep that watches over it,” Ersari told them gravely before taking a sip of the camomile tea Spike had brought him. “In this place, however, I am no greater or lesser than any subject of the princess-goddesses Luna and Celestia.” Cadence chuckled lightly as she levitated her own cup and sipped it. “My aunts aren’t goddesses Lord Bloodwynd,” she said. “They don’t see themselves as such, and neither do their little ponies. For myself, I am Mi Amore Cadenza, princess of Equestria by adoption. This is my fiance Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard.” “A pleasure, m’lord,” Shining added politely, his formal words contrasting oddly with his unusual manner of speech. “It is shared, Captain, despite your odd fixation on arresting us.” Ersari gave him a brief and toothy grin.  “And these are the adjutant, Forheest Sadow, and my sister Elena Bloodwynd. With I and my sister come our squires who, by tradition, disavow names before others.” “In the name of the Dual Thrones, I welcome you to our lands,” Cadence took another sip. “Now, speak of these creatures to me, these atermors. What are they?” “A… race, I suppose you could call them, that thrives on plague and disease,” Ersari answered. “They go about in robes and long beak-like masks in a deliberate mockery of plague doctors, those foolishly courageous mortal doctors who try to help those dying from a plague spread in the air itself. Their principal weapon is a sickness we’ve come to call the Black Death, an incurable plague that seeps into the land and is carried through the most basic of foods. It’s infused with Void, which is why it reacts violently to Light.” “So they attack by poisoning land and food with an incurable disease, one that can only be defeated by Light.” “Or Dark,” Elena interjected. “Both spectrums of living magic are equally destructive to it.” “Dark magic like… that wielded by Aunt Luna?” Cadence asked. “If what we’re told of her is correct, yes.” “Mmm.” Cadence tapped her chin thoughtfully with a hoof. “So these atermors attack by poisoning land and food with an incurable disease that can only be defeated by the living spectrum of magic.” She waited for Ersari to nod in affirmation before continuing. “Do they have an objective outside merely causing pain and terror?” “Always,” Ersari said. “But knowing that they have an objective doesn’t mean that we know what it is. In past conflicts, they rarely if ever ventured into mortal realms on their own, but were called and bound to the will of some master or the other. They have always been shock troops, breaking the will of a people so that other creatures can more easily harm them, and their plague can hollow entire armies in hours. Few mortals have the wit to recognize a terrible and virulent illness and take measure to cauterize the wound.” “‘Cauterize the wound’,” Trixie repeated, remembering his comments to Shining from earlier. “You mean fire.” “Fire is best…” “...but there are other ways,” Elena interrupted. “Infected food can be cleansed with Light or Dark, and the substance of the plague itself can be contained with certain runic spells.” “Substance of the plague? You mean that energy infecting the ground where the food is grown?” Trixie said. “Yes, but also the energy…” Elena sighed. “...the energy that flows from the boils and cuts in the skin, and is vomited by the afflicted. The atermor know the selfless love of the bereaved parent, and exploit it.” Trixie felt her stomach lurch. “So that mother cradling her suffering colt…” “...was likely afflicted by the plague,” Ersari finished quietly. “I am sorry, milady Lulamoon.” “Likely?” Trixie started a little at how close the pleasant voice of Princess Cadence was and started again when she felt a blanket of sympathetic warmth settle on her back. “Well, yes and…” “Please, Lord Bloodwynd, permit me.” Forheest said. “Your Highness, the one consistent characteristic of Void is that it’s a wild and untamed forced. It exists to kill and destroy, and destruction is always more… undisciplined than creation. There is only one Evil younger than a hundred thousand mortal years able to cause the Void to assume the form he desires, and the maker of the plague is barely ten. The emperors of the atermors, who are the only one strong enough to make their plague have an… abundance of misfortune. It is why it is merely ‘likely’ that the mother was afflicted when she cradled her child.” “That is… coldly comforting,” Cadence sighed. “It’s the only comfort there is, I’m afraid.” “Then we’ll have to make our own comfort Miss Sadow,” Shining said, joining his fiance near Trixie. “How do we fight them?” “Vigilance,” Elena replied. “They can kill if directly confronted but they fight best in ambush, from the shadows, where they cannot be struck before they strike.” “I suggested to Princess Celestia that we make lanterns for the…” Trixie trailed off as the five visitors exchanged looks. “What?” “It’s… nothing, milady Lulamoon,” Ersari assured her. “It’s just…” he took in a breath and let it out. “Your solution is… uncanny.” “The Weaver moves in mysterious ways, brother,” Elena smiled at Trixie. “What my brother means is that it’s an amazing coincidence that you would think of inscribing lanterns with magic to fight these monsters, for the atermors were very recently taught to fear such a weapon.” Cadence smiled a little. “So we get into their heads. Defeat them with their fear of this object.” “It won’t be quite that simple,” Elena said, her smile disappearing. “Though the appearance of the lanterns will cause them fear at first, innocent and untrained civilians will carry them amongst a population that is good and solid but not bred to war.” “Yes.” The one word from Cadence radiated so much bitterness and regret that Trixie turned abruptly to look at her, and her peripheral vision informed her that she wasn’t the only one… although curiously, Shining Armor merely deflated instead of looking surprised by the tone the alicorn used. “You seem… upset, Your Highness,” Elena observed. “Is it something I…?” Cadence blew out a frustrated breath. “No, you said nothing amiss Lady Elena,” she said. “Your observation just brings to mind more than usual the tragedies of our history. Most especially was the fact that we only recently had our great field general and warrior returned to use from a long exile, and while she may be well able, she has no army.” “Princess Luna, Your Highness?” Berry Punch asked. “Yes, my Aunt Luna,” Cadence nodded. “After her exile, it was centuries before any enemy felt brave enough to trifle with Equestria. Aunt Luna understood that you defeat enemies in their mind before you defeat them in battle, a lesson we’ve forgotten but these atermors appear to know very well.” She smiled a little, but with a distinct bitterness. “Ironically, Equestria’s foes never realized that Aunt Luna was only half of their defeats; at least as important as a brilliant general is a brilliant army and Equestria doesn’t have them anymore.” “Have them?” Trixie repeated. “Have… one, I mean,” Cadence corrected herself. Trixie blinked and looked a little harder at the princess. Long experience with being a showpony and being around other showponies, plenty of them only technically honest, had gradually taught her many visible cues when somepony had stumbled into saying the truth when they didn’t mean to… and when she corrected herself, Cadence had broadcasted many of them: the too-quick speech, the slight shift of the eyes, the small tremble in the throat of an involuntary swallow before trying to cover the mistake, and the momentary break in eye contact before her conscious mind remembered that she needed to maintain it to sell the quick fix. She meant the first thing, she realized. She meant that the brilliant army Equestria doesn’t have anymore is a specific group of ponies, not a thing. Looking across the way, she noticed a tiny twitch in Forheest Sadow’s expression and realized that the kitsune had seen it too. I wonder… “I mean no ill, Your Highness, but you merely prove milady’s point,” Forheest said. “Where the mortals that taught the atermors the fear of enchanted lanterns were an order specifically made to combat Eviils and demons, the ponies of Equestria are not.” “Would it change anything?” Trixie asked, surmising that Sadow had chosen either to let the correction slide or was waiting for her moment. “I mean, whether they’re scared of the lanterns or not, would it make them less effective?” “Naturally not,” Elena smiled. “Attacking their courage would certainly be wonderful but all the boldness they might have would do nothing against radiant Light and they would be forced to flee a confrontation. It would be even better if masses of such lanterns could be struck and hung in vigil over the farmlands, although that’s only a short-term solution.” “The Light magic would stop the fields from growing right?” As a mass, everyone’s gazes shifted to the small violet and green dragon with an ancient tome propped against a low table, just barely taller than the furniture. “That is correct, young familiar,” Elena nodded. Spike gave her a level look. “Uh, lady? I’m a dragon. I don’t even know what a familiar is.” Elena blinked. “I… am… um…” she looked harder at him. “Are you mocking me, familiar?” “What do ya mean, mocking you?” Spike returned the harder look. “What the hay is a familiar?” “Milady, it’s possible that familiaris magi works differently here,” Forheest said. “It may well be that familiarity does not involve contract or magical binding.” She looked at Spike. “Sincerest apologies, young drake. In our experience, certain magi of extraordinary power will bind an intelligent creature to them to assist their magic and studies. The creature will live with them and the binding permits the creature to comprehend and share the magi’s knowledge. Twilight Sparkle is said to be of extraordinary power, you are clearly very intelligent, you appear to act as her assistant, and your comprehension and knowledge is far in excess of a typical creature of your apparent age. Can you see why we might mistake you for a familiar?” Spike frowned but he nodded after a moment. “Yeah, I get it,” he said. “Hatching me was her entrance exam for the magical school she attended, so I’ve been around her my entire life.” “Spike is older than he appears, milady,” Cadence added. “At any rate, the fields cannot be constantly guarded with lanterns. Would farmponies regularly walking their fields have the same effect?” “No, it’ll be harmless enough.” Elena frowned. “I wish we could quarantine Ponyville so we’d have a secure base free of the taint and machinations of the atermors, but we’d need very specialized tools that are simply not available.” “Speaking of quarantine, you said that that tattered piece of cloth, the Quarantine Flag, had special powers to deal with these creatures,” Cadence said. “Yes,” Ersari nodded. “It’s immensely powerful and as such, must be used with immense care. It’s magic creates an unbreakable quarantine of an area, a quarantine that knows no difference between a ‘clean’ innocent and the diseased, and trying to cross that threshold is… not pretty.” “A weapon of desperation then?” “Quarantines are themselves acts of desperation, Your Highness,” the jeikitsu (if Trixie remembered correctly) said. “It is the final resort before culling, the last chance to defeat a plague before you purify with fire. You sacrifice an area, a village, a town, a city to save a nation or even a world.” “Then a weapon of last resort rather than an ordinary one.” Cadence blew out a frustrated breath. “With respect, Lord Ersari, what I’m hearing you say is that we must sit around on our hooves, make a few lanterns, and hope for the best. That is not acceptable. You imply that other mortals have fought these atermors to great effect; why must we be passive and helpless?” Ersari sighed. “Because, with respect Princess, your peoeple have chosen to be passive and helpless,” he growled. “The mortals that have combated these things have militias, armies, organizations specifically trained to take orders and adhere to military discipline. Your people have this ‘Royal Guard’, soldiers to guard your palaces. Certainly, they are valiant but how many guard are needed for a palace? How many for a single capital city?” He looked at Shining Armor. “How many could you muster, Captain Armor, to post in each settlement of your nation?” Shining Armor grimaced. “Enough to post a half-dozen in each, if we reduced the Guard posted in the capital to bare bones,” he replied reluctantly. “Six soldier are more than sufficient… if every one of them are hardened veterans, trained in magic, fully informed of the danger and capable of fighting it.” Ersari leaned slightly forward towards Cadence. “I doubt that describes the entirety of your Royal Guard, Princess. I’m sorry to be rude to you when you’ve been gracious with me, but telling pretty lies does you no good.” Cadence looked steadily at him, her face a neutral mask, before she rose to her hooves. “You are right to be honest with me, Lord Ersari,” she said flatly. “But the power to protect Equestria is not only in the Royal Guard. Tell me: what would you recommend to a leader of a nation that did have these militias, armies, trained soldiers, mystical orders, or whatever else you find lacking in us?” “I see no reason…” “Humor me,” Cadence interrupted, her gaze and voice turning icy. Elena touched her brother’s shoulder lightly and looked evenly at Cadence. “We would say to such a leader to set patrols about the perimeter of a place they wish to protect,” she said. “As you have lanterns, make the patrol of three with one carrying the lit lantern at all times. Each hundred paces should have one patrol, and have two per field. Each patrol needs to see the moving light of the other’s lanterns always, or assume the worst without question. Any who travel must be escorted by one group per two in the party and one per wagon. The…” “Wait a sec,” Shining Armor looked hard at her. “You’re practically tellin’ us we need a small army for a village. With respect, milady, we don’t keep our palace that tightly-patrolled.” Elena frowned at him before looking slightly sheepish. “Well, the most successful did have a militia system that ninety percent of the population belonged to, so there was a fairly comfortable number to work with.” She considered this. “For a village like Ponyville, eighteen or so for the town, another eighteen for the considerable farms, would be enough.” “Thank you Lady Bloodwynd.” Cadence smiled at her and settled back on her haunches. “Trixie?” “Yes Princess?” Trixie took a couple of steps forward so she could look Cadence in the eye. “Did my aunt Celestia mention the specific runes she’d use on the lanterns?” Trixie thought back. I may not be gifted with runcraft but runes of sunlight, longevity, and illumination are among the easiest to inscribe, she remembered Celestia saying, and conveyed this to Cadence. “Sunlight, longevity, and illumination,” Cadence repeated with a nod. “I can make such inscriptions. They would need to be renewed frequently but I learned enough to scribe them. At the very least, we can begin to distribute these lanterns, slow these atermors if not frighten them with the appearance of a weapon they know well. Spike?” The thunk of a heavy stack of books dropped on top of the low table Spike had been reading at made Trixie jump. “An Exploration into Runic Magicks,” he said, holding up a heavy book with a single hand and putting it down. “Starswirl the Bearded’s ‘Notes on Symbolic Energy Inscription’.” Another book picked up and set down. “Starswirl the Magnificent’s compiled laboratory notes.” The last one was a very aged and delicate-looking volume bound by running string through holes in the paper. “Anything else?” Cadence grinned and leaned over to peck the little dragon on the top of the head. “You spend too much time around Twilight,” she said affectionately. “Now then… Berry Punch, is it?” “Your Highness?” Barry responded. “The ponies that’ll need these lanterns are your peers,” the Princess of Love told her. “Ponies always listen more readily to their peers than a Princess they’ve never met before. Tell them whatever you need or want to; if Trixie trusts you, I do.” “Princess Celestia trusts her too,” Trixie pointed out. “Which only proves my point.” Cadence looked at Ersari. “I’ll make the lanterns with the help of the writings Spike gathered for me. Berry Punch will help distribute them and organize citizen patrols. You’ll coordinate whatever efforts you plan to undertake with Shining and the Guards he brought with him.” Ersari’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?” Cadence gave him a level look. “You’re no greater or lesser than any subject of my aunts. You said that, correct?” “I did, but…” “Then obey their representative, just like any other subject of theirs would,” Cadence said. “Coordinate your efforts with the only effective military here. I’m not trained to war; my fiance is and you are, so you will work together.” “And… I, Princess?” Trxie asked. “I remember that this library has a spare bed,” Cadence replied. “You’ve been through several taxing experiences today and I want you rested as much as possible in case you’re needed. I give you my word that if you’re needed, I’ll awaken you.” Being reminded of ‘taxing experience’ brought the image of a young colt laying in a pool of his own vomit, his crying mother cradling him, to Trixie’s mind and she shivered involuntarily. “I… doubt I’ll be able to get any sleep Princess,” she said. “Nonsense.” Cadence stood. “I’m not a magical prodigy but I can manage a dreamless sleep spell for a pony that needs it. If it helps to think of it as a royal command, I’m happy to oblige. Or I could simply put you to sleep right here and carry you to bed.” Trixie stood too and finished off her cup of tea. “Trixie can show herself to bed, thank you very much,” she said, going to an air of offended dignity. “...as soon as Spike shows her where the bed is, that is.” “Basement,” Spike said, turning and walking that way. “C’mon.” The bed in the basement turned out to be fairly simple--barely more than a mattress with bedclothes--but Trixie was used to being comfortable sleeping in bed just barely large enough in a showmare’s wagon and as she climbed into it, it turned out that this one was much softer than it appeared. “You’ve had a good day of doing good, Trixie,” Cadence said with a warm smile as she lit her horn. “Rest well.” It turned out that while nothing compared with Granny’s apple flapjacks, spending years feeding a scholarly unicorn who would go days without eating if she was allowed to had made Spike a good cook, and the vegetable omelets he made stuck with Trixie well into the afternoon. She’d woken up to find Shining and Cadence curled up against one of the bookshelves, completely dead to the world, and had taken the opportunity to slip out (passed Cadence’s guards, who both gave her a smile and a wave) and walk back to Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac greeted her with an enthusiastic hug--which would look like a little smile and a simple hug to anyone who didn’t know him--and she joined him in the orchards to help with the daily inspection, pruning, and caring for the trees. As they worked, she’d explained things to her stoic coltfriend. “Summat’s goin’ ‘round infectin’ farms with this?” He’d asked as Trixie gently bent a bough down for him to inspect the growing fruit. “Yes,” she said. “I don’t think it’s even tried to infect Sweet Apple Acres, though.” Big Mac considered this, nodding for her to let the bough go. “Eenope, dun look like it.” “Can you think of why?” There was a long pause as they inspected two more trees before Big Mac looked at her. “Ah expect cuz it don’t work ‘gainst trees,” he offered. “Ah know Golden an’ she ain’t a slouch ‘bout inspectin’ ‘er fields an’ produce.” Trixie frowned as she bent another bough down for him. “That seems like a strangely simple weakness for a disease that’s supposed to be terrible and incurable.” “Bein’ evil don’t make ‘em smart,” Big Mac shrugged. “True…” Trixie sighed and shook her head. “I can’t help but think it’s something else. Something I’m missing…” Big Mac gave one of her ears a little affectionate nip. “Ah’m sure you’ll figger it out,” he rumbled. “So… tell me ‘bout this Princess ya met.” From there, the conversation had moved on to Shining Armor (“If’n he’s Miz Twilight’s brother, Ah reckon he’s a good sort” had been Big Mac’s opinion) and then settled on the morning and afternoon chores. One thing Trixie had had to get used to dating Big Mac was that right after family came the farm, and Big Mac honestly enjoyed working on the farm. It had taken about a week but Trixie came to the conclusion that if she wanted to be with Big Macintosh, she had to go where he was--and that was out in the orchards, working. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that she actually enjoyed it. The orchard was always pleasantly cool or a good cover from the rain as needed, and the work was actually relatively easy when you could use your horn to grasp things instead of your teeth. And, of course, there was always Dawn: all the smarts of Twilight with the foul language and attitude of a low-rent tail-lifter in Neigh Orleans. Dawn epitomized ‘work smarter, not harder’, and made sure that everypony knew her way was smarter; Trixie saw too much of her former self in Twilight’s twin to like her very much, although she couldn’t help but laugh at the pink earth pony’s interaction with Applejack at times. “I hope it doesn’t offend you that I say, this work suits you Trixie Lulamoon,” a feminine voice with a very, very light vibrato said from just above Trixie, interrupting her train of thought. Trixie looked up to find one of the Royal Guards that had been standing outside the library perched in a tree, holding a battered-looking lantern in her mouth. “It doesn’t,” Trixie replied. “Have you come to deliver a lantern to Sweet Apple Acres then?” “I have,” the mare replied, hopping down from the tree and landing with a sinuous, liquid grace that seemed more feline than equine. “But also, Cadence calls for you and I am to guide you to her.” “Anythin’ dangerous?” Big Mac rumbled as he leaned down to accept the lantern. The Guard eyed him. “‘Big’ Macintosh Apple?” “Eeyup.” “Of course it’s a dangerous matter,” she replied. “Why else would the Princess summon the mare Twilight Sparkle commissioned to keep watch over Ponyville?” “Eeyup,” Big Mac said before putting the lantern down and giving Trixie a nuzzle. “Ya keep safe, Trixie, and dun ferget ta ask for help.” Trixie smiled, feeling her cheeks warm pleasantly at the affection, and tuirned her head enough to give him a quick kiss. “I will, and I won’t forget,” she promised before turning to the Guard and nodding. “Lead on.” “Gladly, Lady Lulamoon,” she said with a smile before folding her wings and trotting through the orchards in the direction of the road to Ponyville. Trixie let them travel out of earshot of Big Mac before she trotted slightly faster to catch up to and walk beside the Guard. “What kind of danger?” “Our otherworldly help has been drawn away from Ponyville,” the mare said. “They pursue several of these atermors and their victims, now enslaved to their will and mere monsters for their use. Their hunt will succeed; their hunt is obviously a way to strip Ponyville of its most potent defense for a purpose. Against whatever comes, we can muster but five ponies trained to any manner of combat--and you are one of these five.” Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, the two Guards… and me, Trixie realized with a shiver. “Have you had Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia?” “We hardly needed to tell him.” The Guard smiled fondly. “Twilight Sparkle has made a peer of him, and he is younger than she. Ah, I remember the day he was born, the day Twiley passed her examination… such an adorable foal, bouncing in circles around her parents in a state of uncomplicated joy. Such a tragedy that they turned out to be rotten but now, Twilight has the family she was always meant for, the one she most deserves, and all is right.” Trixie looked askance at the mare. “You knew Twilight Sparkle as a foal?” The Guard laughed. “Knew her? I and my companion have watched over Cadence since she was herself a foal. All the time she was foalsitting Twilight, we were always near and got to know her as well as Cadence did. Your newfound friend is a wonderful pony, Trixie, and I hope you live long enough to enjoy it to the fullest.” “I hope I do too.” Trixie glanced at the other mare. “You two seem… different than the other Royal Guards.” “We are,” the Guard replied, hopping the fence with the same liquid grace she’d shown landing before. “The Royal Guard’s purpose is to protect all of Equestria, but our duty is only to Cadence. We are to never leave her, nor allow her to come to harm, nor allow harm to befall her beloved Shining Armor so long as it’s within our power.” “So like… bodyguards?” “Just so.” The Guard paused. “Krysa… my name is Krysa and my mate is Anori.” “Your ‘mate’?” Krysa grinned. “You don’t serve alongside someone for your entire life without feeling something for them, and we do. It’s not strictly… permitted, but there are advantages to Cadence being the fiance of the Captain of the Royal Guard. At any rate, are you able to use teleportation? We are yet a ways off and I’m wary of remaining on an isolated road while there are these atermors about.” “Yes.” Trixie stepped closer to Krysa and closed her eyes, envisioning her arrival point and wrapping threads of magic around the Royal Guard so she’d be brought along. Twilight could picture her destination, form a conduit, and complete the teleportation in a single flurry of actions; Trixie knew she had to be much more methodical to do it right. After binding Krysa to her magical aura, she then send a tenuous string of energy to the point she pictured and then, for lack of a better word, ‘pulled’ herself and the other mare along it with a single effort of will. The pins-and-needles sensation hit her about the time her hooves hit cobblestone, and she opened her eyes to see that she was directly in front of the library, just as she’d intended. “Very good,” Krysa smiled, tapping Trixie on the barrel with one of her wings. “Now, Cadence ought to be…” “You retrieved her. Good.” Trixie turned to see Cadence rounding the library with a grim expression. “I’m sorry to call you here, Trixie, but I needed you on hoof. Krysa told you about what happened?” “Lord Ersari and his companions went off hunting atermors?” “Yes.” Cadence grimaced now. “They left before I or Shining awoke; we only know their purpose and destination because Anori stopped and questioned them. It’s clear that they were baited, and took the bait, and now whoever or whatever dangled that bait has Ponyville all to themselves.” “I thought they said…” “I’m sure they’re right,” Cadence said. “But ambush predators will attack from ambush or if they have the advantage of numbers. Based on the way Ersari and his kin described the creatures, these atermors, they could well…” She trailed off and looked around. “Krysa…” “I sense it too, Cadence,” the Royal Guard said. “What? What do you sense?” Trixie asked, looking around. “What’s the matter?” “Ever since we arrived, there has been a very, very subtle undercurrent of magick in the air,” Krysa replied, taking a step towards Cadence. “It just vanished.” “A subtle…” Trixie stopped; there was only one thing she could think of that had been at work ever since the princess arrived. “The Quarantine Flag. The one pinning one of the atermors in the Carousel Boutique.” Cadence opened her mouth to reply when the world dimmed. It wasn’t like the dimming of a fit of unconsciousness or the shadow of a passing cloud but like everything had been… dimmed, diminished, reduced, as if something had turned down a lamp. The warmth of the sun was slightly less, the shadows slightly deeper, the wind calmer and every sound muffled. Trixie shivered slightly as a feeling of abrupt tiredness settled into her limbs and began to drag her eyelids down… and suddenly, she was alert again and the world was back to normal--and tinged with a pinkish hue. “You alright?” Shining Armor asked, his horn lit and a barrier dome arching above them. “I… think so…” Trixie took a few breaths in and out. “What was that?” “The reason the atermors wanted our otherworldly help elsewhere,” Cadence said grimly. “Shining, can you tell where it’s coming from?” Shining Armor squinted thoughtfully as Krysa and Anori joined them under the influence of the protective spell. “Center of town,” he finally said. “It’s strongest that way.” “Then we’ll go to the center.” Cadence glanced down at Trixie. “Do you have any spells that would be especially potent? Anything infused with this ‘light’?” “Twilight showed me a few,” Trixie said. “Not very strong ones but… Light appears to burn them like fire just from shining brightly. I don’t think the strength matters.” “Good.” Cadence treated her to a brief smile before setting her face towards the center of town. “Krysa, Anori, circle around to see if you can cull them. Do whatever you must to destroy this enemy and save pony lives.” “As you wish, Cadence,” Krysa replied with a low bow, nodding to her mate as the two broke off and disappeared into an alley between buildings; Trixie could have sworn she saw barriers blinking into place around them just as they vanished but before she could be sure, they were out of sight and Cadence was already continuing on. “I wish that Ersari had been more straightforward with us,” the pink alicorn sighed as they made for the center of town. “Told us the specific abilities of these atermors, their numbers, their methods. An attack of this scale is far more blatant than his account led us to believe them capable of, or inclined towards. He also implied that these atermors couldn’t approach his magic cloth, yet its magical presence is gone. Either his foe is mysterious to him, or he was dishonest with us; neither is good.” “I don’t think he lied to us,” Shining said. “Not out of malice, at least. He sees us as civilians to be kept out of the way, so he did what the Royal Guard does: told us white lies, subtly encouraged us to stay out of the way, and was blunt to the point of rude.” “I’m not used to being condescended to,” Cadence huffed. “I find it unpleasant.” “I don’t think anypony dares condescend to you Cady,” Shining leaned over and kissed her. “At least, not until this bunch.” Cadence smiled and returned the kiss with a little extra nuzzle as the town hall came into view, and Trixie just barely avoided tripping as Berry Punch, who’d apparently been laying prone from the same effect that had almost knocked Trixie out, raised her head as the influence of Shining Armor’s barrier washed over her. “Oh Celestia, that was horrible!” she exclaimed as she tossed her head, trying to get her feet under her. “What was, Berry?” Cadence asked, turning towards the earth pony. “It was just like Carrot described: giant bird with skeletal wings.” Berry shuddered. “Appeared in the center of town and… everything went dim all of the sudden. Was so tired… could barely move, barely keep my eyes open. Then more of them showed up. They looked like they came out of the shadows or something.” “What are they doing, Berry?” Cadence asked lowly, with a touch of urgency. “I… don’t know.” Berry admitted as she finally managed to find her feet. “They just seemed to be standing around. They didn’t say anything… they… they’re just standing there.” Cadence’s eyes narrowed, going slightly out of focus. “Yes… but why?” There was silence for a moment. “Shining, Trixie, there’s probably many ponies lying unconscious. We need to gather them up and get them behind a barrier before we try to confront these atermors.” “And give them time to do whatever they wish?” Shining asked. “Yes.” Cadence glanced to her left. “I’ll collect who I can this way. Please save those that lie in the other direction, and we’ll meet at the town hall. Berry Punch, if you would please accompany me?” Berry looked confused. “I… yes of course, if you want my company.” “Thank you.” Cadence treated her to a brief flash of a gentle smile before turning and disappearing among the buildings to the left. Shining Armor didn’t even hesitate, immediately veering off to the right at a chance of pace, forcing Trixie to trot to keep up with him. It barely took a moment to find the next pony, a grey pegasus dressed in a mailmare’s uniform who had somehow managed to keep her bag of deliveries secure as she’d been forced to land by the sophoric force. She looked up with a somewhat unfocused expression as the barrier fell over her, an effect magnified by her lazy eye. “Why am I laying on the ground?” she asked, blinking, both eyes focusing even as one wandered in a random direction. “You got knocked out, Ditzy,” Trxie told her, looking her in the good eye. “But I was so sure I…” The mailmare sighed and got her feet under her. “I just don’t know what went wrong, and now I’m late with deliveries and…” “Miss Doo, everypony is in danger,” Shining Armor interrupted. “Before you were brought down, did you see where other ponies were?” Ditzy looked at him a moment before her expression cleared completely and she gave him a quick nod. “Yes.” “Can you lead us then? We need to find them quickly.” “Yes,” Ditzy replied again, turning, visibly orienting herself, then trotting off, forcing both Trixie and Shining to trot after her. Despite the defect in her eye, the pegasus was the town mailmare for a reason and in only a few minutes, there were nearly two dozen ponies huddled under the protection of Shining Armor’s pinkish barrier and the town hall looming ahead of them looking strangely menacing without the lights in the windows that shown even in the full daylight. The atermors were making no attempt to conceal themselves and seemed to pay no attention to the collection of ponies standing in plain view next to the hall. As Carrot Top had described, they strongly resembled giant awkwardly-built birds with skeletal wings projecting from their shoulders and bone-white masks that looked all the world like beaks. Even the long and heavy cloaks they wore over their shoulders had the rough and “fuzzy” look of feathers, and their gait was a slightly swaying hopping motion. The only immediate difference between a bird and the atermors was that the Void creatures had skeletal hands to match their wings. “What are those?” Somepony asked in a whisper. “Monsters,” Trixie said. “Like hydras and manticores and ursa minors but smaller.” She looked at Shining. “What now, Captain?” “Attack and keep them from doing whatever they intend to do,” Shining replied with  a resigned expression. “...if we had about twenty Royal Guards, that is. And some of them were unicorns with distance training.” “Distance training… like the bombardment spell Twilight taught me?” Trixie asked. Shining Armor gave her an odd look. “Bombardment spell?” “Yes.” Trixie gave him a gleaming showmare’s smile. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has been empowered by the teaching of the great Archmage Twilight Sparkle with the secret of bombarding her foes with torrents of magical spheres of force.” Shining stared at her a moment before he grinned widely. “That third-person thing is sort of absurd, you know.” “The teeming masses of ponies who come to see me perform love it,” Trixie said with a touch of smugness, lighting her horn in preparation. “Shall I demonstrate?” “Teeming masses?” Shining dropped the grin. “Nevermind, I know what ya mean. Please do, Miss Lulamoon.” Trixie turned and looked at the mass of atermors, some of which were looking at her, all of which seemed to be ignoring the presence of the ponies near the town hall, and willed a dozen spheres of glowing magic into existence around her. Breathe, she reminded herself. Pick a point. See the spheres going there; see them striking. Release the magic to go where you see it going. Even as she said it in her mind, the mantra seemed a little silly and pseudo-mysticism but extremely effective: the spheres zipped at the mass of atermors, zipped through the atermors, and exploded against the ground. Even as they went, Trixie willed more into existence and sent them to either side of where the first had gone, and the next batch after the first. The first strike had caused the entire mass to turn and nearly three dozen pairs of eyes invisible in the holes of their mask fell on her, even as at least a dozen crumbled, their robes fading, masks shattering in midair, and wings visibly disintegrating. Another dozen collapsed from the second wave, and the third was more display than anything as the atermors finally seemed to register that they were being attacked and scattered from the focus of her spell. It was at approximately this point that Krysa and Anori appeared from opposite sides of the square and there was a moment in which scattering atermors and the pair of odd Royal Guards seemed to stare at each other in mutual blank surprise before the atermors raised their skeletal hands and the two Guards rushed them. The fluid, liquid grace that Kyra had shown earlier in the orchard seemed to be typical for both as they kicked off, thrust their wings to give themselves speed, and did a midair flip so that their back hooves smashed into the masks of the atermors with a double-hoof buck that would make and Apple proud. The masks shattered, and the disintegration of the atermors mirrored that produced by the bombardment, and the two Guards were already on to the next one in line. Here, the two differed: Anori treated his to another double-hoof buck but Krysa struck with her front hooves, vaulted over the atermor’s head, and delivered her buck to the back of its head. Even Shining was staring at the display. “Their Guard is different,” he breathed. Their Guard? Trixie would have asked but just before she would have, an atermor seemed to flow out of the ground in the middle of where the other atermors had been standing and in one of its hands was clutched a large sphere of yellowish crystal. It held the sphere up above its head, and it glowed brightly… and then turned totally black. “Kazim utari klesae telar!” A hollow-sounding voice, like someone inhaling through a large cylinder cried even as the atermor threw the blackened sphere at the ground at its feet. It may well have impacted and shattered; Trixie wasn’t sure and even later wouldn’t remember but where there had once been a mass of churned-up soil and fragments of the shattered atermors, an immense shadowy being seemed to flow into existence from the air itself. It towered above, at least three times the height of the town hall, and had assumed the vague shape of a minotaur with eyes that were glowing yellow tears in the fabric of its face. Somehow, its mouth was darker than dark, blacker than anything Trixie had seen or could even imagine, and staring at the shadow, she could feel its ravenous hunger as a physical sensation, pulling lightly at her skin. Then Shining’s shield became even brighter and more solid, and the sensation of hunger tugging at her went away. She glanced to the side and could see a bead of sweat forming at his brow as he held his barrier against the hungering presence that the atermor had called into being. Trixie immediately channeled magic into her horn and then fed it outwards, forming a half-dome to supplement Shining’s and his barrier dimed ever so slightly in response as the reinforcement lessened the strain on him. Outside the barrier, Krysa and Anori floored and crushed the last of the atermors they’d been fighting and both stopped to glance up at the creature, looked at one another, and disappeared back into the buildings; Trixie hoped they had decided to get Cadence instead of trying to fight the shadow. “What… is this?” Shining asked through gritted teeth. “It’s swallowing magic as fast as I can feed it into my barrier!” “I think it’s a klesae!” Trixie replied as she began to see the tug of the magic consumption on her own barrier. “Spite described them… they’re demon shadows, beasts of hunger from the Void. I think Light will burn it but… I can’t… drop my barrier without seriously weakening yours!” “Let me handle that,” Shining asserted. “Just… make it stop.” Just as he spoke, the sensation vanished. The dimness disappeared, the sun shone again, and Trixie could hear the humming of magic in Shining’s barrier in the sudden and absolute stillness. And in that moment of perfect stillness, the Princes of the Sun flared into being between them and the klesae. For as long as she’d known of her, the image of Celestia was that of a maternal, sweet-natured, kindly diarch full of wisdom and gentleness. Even when angered or stressed, she never seemed to raise her voice or show her temper beyond small indications in her expression that only those who knew her well could read. This wasn’t that Celestia. This Celestia stood taller than she had before and her white coat was radiant with light and power. A rainbow pastel mane had become flowing fire, sputtering and surging as it raged while remaining the same general shape as the princess’ silky locks, a condition replicated with her long tail. Even her broad wings shone with scorching light and smoldered with fire, the heat radiating from Celestia making them seem to waver in the false liquidity of superheated air. Rage flowed off of the sun princess in a tidal wave of heat, nearly taking Trixie’s legs out from under her as the first surge of fiery wrath before she threw more energy into her barrier. “ART THOU SAFE, TRIXIE LULAMOON?” A voice of howling flame, barely recognizable as female much less that of Celestia, asked. “Y...yes… Your Majesty…” Trixie panted. “But…” “THEN IT IS WELL,” Celestia said, still not turning around, her attention fixed on the yawning specter of the klesae. “THOU HATH BEEN A GOOD FRIEND TO OUR DAUGHTER AND A LOYAL AND DETERMINED STEWARD OF PONYVILLE IN HER ABSENCE. WE ARE PLEASED BY THY FAITHFULNESS, BUT NOW THINE PRINCESS SHALL DO AS SHE OUGHT.” Trixie jumped a little at the sound of shattering glass as a surge of rage-heat vaporized a window of the town hall and caused it to fall out. The formerly verdant green grass around the edges of the square was now a scorched mat, the ground under it baked and already cracking, the cobblestones shattering as Celestia stalked towards her adversary, and the water of the nearby fountain (which had miraculously survived Trixie’s bombardment spell), boiling away in a cloud of steam as the enraged guardian of the sun approached it. It was, as Trixie realized with a feeling of dread, as if the sun itself had been pulled from the sky and was made to walk around. As Celestia approached, two atermors appeared; a quick glance, just a glance from Celestia caused one and then the other to be reduced to ash instantaneously. The klesae watched her approach with the curious perplexity of an animal that was being approached by a creature it’d never seen before and wasn’t sure what to make of. “AND WHAT MANNER OF FELL BEAST ARE THOU?” Celestia demanded of it. “ART THOU BROTHER TO THE ONE THAT DARED HARM THE VALIANT RAINBOW DASH, MAYHAP?” The klesae responded by looking at her before its maw gaped open again and it seemed to draw in breath. Celestia’s reaction to this was immediate: the glow of her coat became blinding and her mane flared to include whites and blues. Immediately, the facades of the three nearest buildings were scorched black and ominous smoke began to drift up from the roof of the town hall, accompanied by the foul smell of tar as the shingles began to melt. “THOU THINKETH US JUST ANOTHER PLAYTHING FOR THY HUNGER, ANIMAL?” The princess howled. “WE ARE IMMORTAL! WE ARE ETERNAL! WE ARE ENDLESS FIRE AND HOTTEST RAGE! BEFORE OUR MIGHT, THOU ARE BUT AN INSECT! AND THOU THINKETH TO STRIKE OUT AT US? BEHOLD THE FOLLY OF THY PRESUMPTION!” Fire flowed up out of Celestia, swirling itself into a smooth sphere of pure destruction roiling with reds, oranges, and yellows. With a minute gesture of her head, Celestia sent it slamming into the center of the vast shadow. Fiery wrath and the metaphorical fist of a goddess struck it. It did nothing. Trixie didn’t need to see Celestia’s face to read absolute shock in her stance as her attack did nothing at all; the klesae didn’t even show signs of noticing that it’d been struck. The moment stretched for several moments, the kleseae staring dumbly, Celestia gaping at its indifference, before her stance tensed and Trixie could no longer look even vaguely in her direction as the glow of her coat became intense enough to sear her vision. But even with the light in her peripheral vision, she could see smoke and flame pouring out of the windows of the town hall as Celestia’s latest surge of apocalyptic fury finally set it on fire. “P… Princess!” She cried, trying to make herself heard above the howl of fire. “The town! You’re… you’re setting it on fire!” If it was even possible for Celestia to hear her plea through the conflagration, she gave no sign of it. “HOW? HOW DOTH OUR WRATH NOT TOUCH THEE?” She cried. “HOW…? NO, NO IT DOENS’T MATTER HOW. THOU AND THY MASTERS HATH SICKENED OUR LITTLE PONIES! THOU HATH MUTILATED THEM, TWISTED THEM, DESTROYED FAMILIES, STRUCK YOUNG AND OLD WITH PLAGUE! EVERY SOB, EVERY CRY, EVERY WAIL OF DESPAIR WOUNDS OUR HEART AND WE WILL NOT PERMIT THOU TO CONTINUE! BURN! BURN, YOU ABOMINATIONS! WE BID THEE BURN!” The heat surged again and Trixie cried out as she felt her coat scorch and the skin blister even through the combination of her shield and Shining’s. She took a step back, throwing even more magic into it even as she felt the numbing edge of imminent magical exhaustion sweep over her. “Run!” She cried, hoping the ponies behind her could hear. “Can’t..” “No.” The voice was soft, almost too soft to be heard over the roar of wind and flame, and yet Trixie could hear Cadence perfectly even as the familiar silky softness of the alicorn’s wing rested on her barrel and the heat vanished into a pleasant cool. Trixie sagged with relief and doused her horn as she sank to the ground, chest heaving from pain and the creeping exhaustion. “P...Princess…” she panted. “Your… aunt… she’s…” “I know.” Cadence’s voice was gentle and soothing, radiating calm as the alicorn knelt beside her. “All of Equestria has seen their gentle princess in the depths of despair, impotent despair where there was no enemy to strike down and no way to heal the wound. Now, you are seeing the wrath of a loving goddess who feels every agony visited on her subjects, her nation-sized family, as a spear in her heart--and has an enemy.” “But…” “Ssh, ssh…” Cadence touched Trixie’s mane with a hoof, quelling her protests. “The sun is pure fire and wrath, and yet its living anchor is soft and kind. It warms the world, brightens the day, and makes everything beautiful and healthy and green--but only so long as its living anchor is the princess all of Equestria loves and even worships. You are witness to one of only three times that the rage of Celestia was greater than her compassion.. the only witness that isn’t family.” “The only…?” Trixie looked behind her… and saw nopony there. “But I thought…” “I know.” Cadence smiled warmly. “You did all you could… and now I must as well.” “You can…?” “I can… end this.” Cadence stood again, but there was pain in her expression. “I… that power is mine, to… stop her before she does something she’ll loathe herself for in her need to strike down her foe. To do so is… wrong, wrong in ways you cannot hope to comprehend. But the sun is nothing but fire and wrath and at this moment, so is its anchor. To forestall would be the greater evil…” She looked down at Trixie with a strained smile, her eyes glimmering with forming tears “...and how could I refuse after such valor from a mere showmare?” “What… what are you talking about?” “Blinded by the light of her anger, you will not see… and I hope that you never find out.” Trixie watched threads of sickly greenish magic flow slowly around the spiral of Cadence’s horn. “Rest for this moment, Trixie, for you will shortly be needed anew.” Cadence took a visible breath and her horn lit with her normal pink magic, the odd tendrils of green there but having no noticeable effect. She then stepped into the pure whiteness and was gone--but the cool of her shield remained. Trixie rested her head on the ground, wincing as her blistered skin made contact with the still-cool cobblestones trying to stop panting and let her font renew as much as it could. As she lay there, she again mentally thanked Twilight; the drills over the last six months had been irritating but after so much practice recovering from extreme magical exertion, the fundamentals were second nature and the numbing of her mind receded immediately, replacing by the comforting white noise of reserves that hadn’t been strained. The combination of meditation and renewal exercise caused her to nearly miss the sudden absence of blinding light in her peripheral vision and as she stood again, she closed her eyes, bracing herself, and turned to look. The town square was in shambles. The town hall was still aflame but the very moment the heat went away, pegasi had swooped in with clouds and were dousing the fire. Windows were melted out of their frames, awnings were ashes, carts had been vaporized, and everything was twisted and distorted by the holocaust that the wrath of Celestia had brought to bear on the klesae. Now, the Princess of the Sun was crumpled on the shattered cobblestones, her sides heaving, her eyes wide and unseeing, Cadence kneeling beside her aunt and cradling her with the wet trails of tears on her cheek. Above them loomed the klesae, incredibly looking no worse for wear but noticeably, there was no cold hunger tugging at Trixie despite there being no barrier between her and it. It was immediately clear to her what Cadence had meant that she’d be needed again: Celestia was clearly stunned into incoherence and Cadence was clearly protecting her while she recovered from whatever she’d done; given the naked pain in her expression as she’d prepared to do it, Trixie decided that she very much did not want to know what it was. The klesae looked dumbly down at the pair of alicorns and there was a hollow sound of rushing wind as it tied to feed, sounding all the world like someone taking a deep breath but the tingling feeling of its hunger attested to what it actually was. Why isn’t the feeling strong anymore? She asked herself but shrugged it off; it wasn’t important for the moment. Instead, she channeled some energy through her horn and a single sphere of light popped into existence. The sphere aroused exactly the reaction from the klesae that she’d expected from it witnessing Celestia’s fiery wrath: it visibly recoiled from the light and drifted back and away from Trixie with a serpentine hiss of loathing. Enboldened, Trixie fed more magic into the sphere and made it both brighter and larger, taking another step forward. The klesae hissed again and its blacker-than-black jaws gaped open, clearly intending to deter her with the disconcerting sensation of it gnawing at her. Trixie simply flung the sphere at the large and inviting target; the hollow howl of agony staggered her as the shadow recoiled and began batting at the hole torn clear through it… which had begun to widen, burning away like the edges of a piece of paper with a match held to it. And then it stopped, and the burning away stopped as well. The klesae narrowed its eyes and looked squarely at Trixie, the dumb-animal expression replaced by a focused regard that settled on her like wet canvas, nearly making her knees buckle from the weight. The intense pressure was relieved for a moment, and then it intensified, driving Trixie to her knees. “Ahh, there we go,” a hollow voice said with an unmistakable tone of satisfaction, an atermor stepping around the klesae, walking on the four-toed feet of a vulture in bird-like bobbing motions. “I had wondered what manner of pony was to blame for alerting these kine before they’d fully ripened, and now I get to see her.” “Didn’t alert them,” Trixie said through gritted teeth. “Sick before I… said anything… better make a better… disease next time.” The klesae tilted his head. “Mmm… you have a point, little pony… incubation was not what we’d hoped.” He took another step forward and leaned down. “But don’t be shy, little kine… who, after all, bid the Sun Princess come? It wasn't the calf’s mother, nor the other kine. Like good little herd animals, they stood transfixed and dumb, ready for the slaughter. But you… you, little… Lightcaster,” for a moment, the voice descended into a snarl before resuming its breathless quality. “You scorched the corruption and then called the Sun Princess and now I am very cross with you.” Trixie struggled to push herself to her feet, feeling slow progress against the suffocating weight. “So what?” she asked, forcing herself to wear a sneer as she looked up at the atermor. “Whatcha… gonna do… about it?” “Yes, what am I to do with a kine who fights back?” He asked, making a show of tapping the chin of his mask with a bony finger  “Ah, yes…” It turned its face upwards towards the klesae and from the folds of its robes, drew a short black rod. “Klesae, rend it.” the klesae’s regard grew heavier, forcing Trixie back to the ground as the shadow stretched out an indistinct paw, the edges very sharp and menacing. Trixie gritted her teeth and forced magic into her horn. She felt the familiar flow and the subtle sense of building pressure behind the appendage and the sense of it rushing to fill the shape designed for it by the spell… until the atermor’s foot impacted with her blistered chest and the spell was washed away in a wave of white-hot pain. “Naughty, naughty…” he sneered. “No fair using magic, little kine. Just lay there, and embrace your helplessness.” “Are you forgetting something, monster?” Trixie forced her eyes open to look to where Cadence had stood up beside the still-comatose Celestia. Even though the mask was fixed, Trixie had the sense of the atermor’s eyes narrowing before he turned. “What are you doing here?” “Protecting my people, atermor,” Cadence growled, her horn starting to glow pink. “Send the beast back to where it came from. Now.” “Protecting your people?” The atermor swept his hand in a vague gesture at Ponyville. “These pathetic kine? They are not yours, little spawn, but ours. Our playthings, our herd to harvest, our…” Cadence’s spell vaporized the hand holding the black rod along with a large piece of the robe near the extremity, causing the rod to fall to the broken cobblestones and bounce out of Trixie’s peripheral view. Immediately, the blanket of the intense regard vanished and Trixie pushed herself to her feet as the atermor stared at Cadence. “They are mine,” she hissed. “Mine to treasure, mine to love, mine to protect. And now, atermor, you are mine as well, do strike down as I wish.” She looked around the atermor to Trixie. “Magi Lulamoon, if you would dispose of this… trash.” “This… this little kine,” the atermor laughed hollowly. “A little trickster, wearing the uniform of the huckster, plying the empty-headed masses for trinkets, contributing nothing… nothing…” Trixie’s cutie mark did not, as even friends had speculated, appear because of some cute magical performance or the other. Or, rather, it had but it was much less the performance than how she’d turned a stumbling half-baked effort into a big success. It was the school talent show, and she’d gotten a favorite grandfather to teach her a few tricks, spells, and cantrips. She’d practiced hard to get the spells right and managed to do several successfully before the night of the show. But a spiteful little filly in her class had decided to do the same thing and show Trixie up by doing her tricks and spells so that when Trixie’s turn came, she had nothing new. She’d done all the cantrips picture-perfect and some of the nicer children had clapped a little, but most were bored: they’d seen it all before. In despair, willing to do anything, Trixie had reached for a firework spell that had been the hardest to learn and that she’d decided not to try because she’d only managed to do it right once, just before she’d stopped trying. It’d gone perfectly. When she’d reached for it, it was like a spell she’d practiced her entire life, as familiar and easy as breathing, and she’d been able to do it right the first time… and then again, and again until the teacher stopped her from setting something on fire. And that was when the cutie mark appeared, a magician’s hat and wand that represented her ability to use spells like a sleight-of-hoof artist, instantly and by instinct. Henceforth, the actual limit on what she could do with her magic was her font (which was on the low side for a unicorn whose talent was magic-related) and what she could learn to do correctly, for once she’d done it correctly, she could always do it again. It wasn’t so much the part about forming the spheres of light for the bombardment, but directing them and sustaining the barrage. As the hole big enough for her to step through in the atermor attested, this applied to failures as well--such as her panicked attempt to make a shield at Spite’s bidding. The flechette nearly knocked her off her feet with the surge of exhaustion, but it did precisely as the Void dragoness had said: it’d ripped a gigantic hole in the ranting atermor, a gigantic hole which began to lick at his body like burning flame. “...you’ll… pay for that, Princess…” he wheezed as the magical effect started eating up towards his head. “You cannot escape me. Run, while you can, for… no matter where you go… I will find you… and this little... kine... too...” The now-empty mask fell to the ground and ricocheted over to rest against Cadence’s hoof. She gave it a disgusted look and as she stepped over to Trixie, made sure to crush it underhoof. “How are you, Trixie?” She asked gently, nosing into Trixie’s mane. “I’m… OK,” Trixie said, looking passed Cadence. “P...princess! It’s…” “It’s gone,” Cadence replied, looking at where the klesae had been a moment before. “I suspect that it was being held and controlled by that black rod the atermor was holding.” She looked around the devastated square. “A battle won, Trixie Lulamoon, but such a cost. You wounded, my aunt comatose, Ponyville scorched, and I’ve a terrible feeling that the atermor that spoke to us was a mere proxy for a much more powerful one.” “And yet we won, Cadence,” Krysa said as she and Anori trotted up. “And we’ve seen no dead or afflicted. Whatever they meant to do, they were foiled in it.” “And in that entire time, our supposed ‘help’ remained somewhere else,” Anori rumbled. “Surely they would be able to notice the holocaust in this town, no matter the distance; the entire sky announced the Sun Princess’s wrath.” Cadence smiled a little and briefly brushed each of her guards with a wing. “Where’s Shiny?” “Your fiance has secured the civilians at and around the library,” Krysa said. “He’s place his strongest barrier and is sustaining it without trouble. Short of another asasult on this scale, the innocent are beyond their reach… which begs an important question.” “What do we do now?” Cadence nodded and looked down at Trixie. “Beyond the town square, how is the town?” “Fully intact,” Anori said. “The buildings here trapped the destructive heat in the square.” “Then we need to get Trixie and Aunt Celestia to the local clinic and summon a healer,” Cadence said, enfolding Trixie in her magic, the touch of her power warming and incredibly soothing. “Along with whomever else was hurt. Tell Shiny that we’ll be there soon and when we are…” She looked around again and sighed. “...we’ll think of something. This is far from over.”