//------------------------------// // Eleven: Elemental Blockade // Story: Grandfather's Coming For A Visit // by GoesKaboom //------------------------------// “Oh? You found something?” Luna asked, looking up from her hooves. Twilight had the manic look she always got when she found something interesting in a book, and she was levitating a heavy book in her telekinesis. Twilight nodded frantically. “King Sombra apparently had several wives and many concubines,” Twilight explained, with some distaste. “As such, many ponies in that area of Equestria are descended from him. Most of the time they turn out to be completely normal, but sometimes, the dark power of their ancestor manifests in them. Usually even this isn't much of a problem- they just tend to like dark places and have an affinity for the milder forms of shadow magic. But 700 years ago, one of his descendants was born even more powerful than usual- she might even have been more powerful than me before I became an alicorn, it's not really clear on that. Anyway, Ink Splatter, as she was called, learned about her heritage and wanted to bring back the power of the Crystal Empire. Combined with her power, she started poking around into magic that nopony should ever go near.” “Oh no,” Luna said, realizing quickly where this was going. Twilight nodded. “Yes. It is believed she tapped into the same corrupt energy that gave rise to Nightmare Moon,” she continued. “Ink Splatter was already very powerful, but with the help of whatever it was she was exploring, she became an even more dangerous. This says here that she slaughtered her way through twenty battalions of royal guards without taking a scratch. Something had to be done, but Celestia realized quickly that she couldn't be killed.” “Why not?” Loki interrupted. Twilight started. She didn't realize he had been listening, but she supposed it made sense. This was all for him, after all. “The kind of power she had would just jump to somepony else if the carrier was killed,” Twilight explained. “It can only be banished, like what happened in Princess Luna's case, or contained. So Princess Celestia engineered a spell that would contain not only the corrupting power, but Ink Splatter's own inborn power.” “So Celestia did curse me!” Loki exclaimed. “I knew it!” “Actually, I don't think so,” Twilight replied. “Hear me out,” she added, seeing Loki's angrily disbelieving look. “The spell itself needs so much power to work... one alicorn couldn't do it alone. Even two might be pushing it. If we were to do it today, it would take Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and probably myself to make it work. At the time, it took Princess Celestia, twenty powerful unicorns, five zebra shamans, a Diamond Dog petromancer, and a penguin to cast the spell. Nineteen of the unicorns, all of the zebras, and the Diamond Dog died in resulting magical discharge, the penguin was rendered insane, and the surviving unicorn was badly burned in the explosion. Celestia herself was seriously wounded. But it did get Ink Splatter under control. Well, for a variable value of control... she committed suicide three days later.” “How is this supposed to help us?” Luna asked, eyes widened in horror. That kind of carnage for one spell... it was unthinkable. “I was getting to that,” Twilight said, a bit annoyed at being interrupted. “The spell was designed to neutralize Ink Splatter's corrupt powers, but if she was ever able to overcome them, she would be able to trigger the release mechanism. The spell was called an Elemental Blockade, and it is made up of several parts, all based on the Elements of Harmony. If whoever the spell was cast on can show the virtues inherent to the elements, it would release a bit of the power at a time. You said that the backlash from attempting to cast a spell was less after you spent time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” she addressed Loki this time, who started. “Uh. Yes, that is what they were called? Yes, before, if I tried to cast a spell I was sent flying across the room. I was able to use the spell to help the little unicorn, and then when I tried to use my magic outside this tree, I was only thrown to the ground.” “So it seems you must have de-activated one of the spell's seals!” Twilight exclaimed. “Wait a moment,” Luna said. “We have not established this is what has happened to my grandfather. If, as you said, it took nearly thirty beings and killed most of them to cast the spell the last time, how could Celestia have cast it? I think I would have noticed a death toll that high in the palace courtyard.” Twilight looked a little uncomfortable. “Well... if you go further on in the book, it shows that Princess Celestia came up with a way to simplify the process... it would only have taken her and maybe ten unicorns. Or, if another alicorn had helped her, only two casters, and the backlash explosion would have been much smaller...” “No, there weren't any explosions after Grandfather came,” Luna said. “Is there another explanation?” “Some cultures believe in an even greater power than Princess Celestia,” Twilight replied. “The griffons believe in the Great Griffon, who is supposed to be equivalent to the strength of ten Princess Celestias, although there's no evidence that this Great Griffon exists. The Penguin Nation believes in a strange two-legged being called the Empress Yukimashiki, who had great magical power who saved their species from burning to death in a hot summer. And there does seem to be some archaeological evidence that this Empress Yukimashiki existed, but... I don't know why she would have cursed your grandfather.” Actually, to Loki the story of a two-legged being saving the lives of some penguins sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on why. Maybe it was a story from Midgard? He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, Midgardians came up with the strangest things sometimes. “So what you're saying is that you think that he has had this Elemental Block placed on him, but you have no idea who would have done so,” Luna said, raising an eyebrow. Twilight raised an eyebrow right back. “Do you have any other explanations? I can't find any record of any illnesses or other spells that would cause a reaction like this. Since he told me that he had a lessening of the symptoms after he helped the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that's the best we have to go on for now.” “Then is there any way we can test this?” Loki asked curiously. “Back home, there was usually a way to determine what spell, if any, was used in a situation.” Twilight thought to herself. “Well... I know some spells for detecting other spells, but if what's been cast on you really is an Elemental Blockade none of them will be strong enough to determine whether or not it really is one. It will just give me a false positive, because clearly something has been cast. But I think I can come up with something. Give me some time, I think I can do it that way.” Well, it was better than nothing, Loki thought to himself. “Very well. Granddaughter, we will let Twilight Sparkle work on this problem. Now, don't you think we should head back to the palace? We wouldn't want my... darling other granddaughter to notice we are missing and panic, now would we?” Luna winced, realizing that Loki was right. If Celestia discovered that both her newly-reformed sister and not-so-reformed grandfather were nowhere in the castle, it could cause problems that neither would want to deal with. “You are probably correct. We will come back in one week's time to check on your progress. Will that be acceptable, Twilight?” “O-of course!” the younger alicorn agreed quickly. She saw the other two out of her home, waved goodbye, and waited until they were out of sight before quickly going back into the library and locking the door behind her. “Oh Spike,” she sighed. “What did I get myself into?” Much to Thor's surprise, the library of Asgard had plenty of information on Equestria. Not only had his nephew gone on to sire the rulers of the land, both of his parents had apparently had dealings with the planet well before either he or Loki had been born. Odin wasn't much of a surprise, really- Thor would be surprised to find any species he hadn't ever had dealings with, but Frigga... Frigga didn't usually leave Asgard. She had other things to concern herself with here, and she wasn't exactly one for exploring. But she had indeed gone down to Equestria and met with many of the sentient species there. Although curiously, he could not find a record of her ever coming into contact with the ponies that seemed to make up the dominant culture on the planet. Hm. Interesting. But he supposed he'd have time to ask her about it later. He had more important things to do. Like go meet his great-nieces, check up on his brother, and possibly fight some of the crazy creatures that inhabited that land. Thor decided he'd really like to go toe-to-toe with a hydra, since he'd missed out on thrashing the organization named after the creature that had caused such trouble for Steve Rogers. Armed with his new-found knowledge, Thor headed out to Heimdall's observatory. He had an adventure to go on. To Be Continued