//------------------------------// // Shattered Illusions // Story: Pathfinder Ponies // by terrycloth //------------------------------// Because of the extinguishers, and because the bandits were so expeditiously dispatched, the damage to the cargo was minimal, and the party arrived at the inn around nightfall with no further excitement. The party’s moderate injuries were not beyond Fluttershy’s remaining healing magic, and none of the gem ponies had been hurt. As night fell, the young gem pony in charge of the inn herded everypony inside and closed the shutters tightly, warning them about the gloomwings. The Black River ponies told her that the swarms had stopped, but she wasn’t eager to open them regardless. You could never tell what might be lurking out there in the dark. “Well, for starters, there’s going to be one of us,” Applejack said, as the party gathered around a small table in the now-crowded inn to eat. “We’re still too close to bandit territory for my liking, and they’ve done night strikes before.” “Night strikes that began with the sentries’ throats being cut,” Rarity pointed out. “Maybe we should all stay up,” Twilight suggested. “Not you three – the spellcasters need their rest. But the rest of us can pull an all-nighter, and sleep on the carts in the morning. If they don’t attack tonight, I doubt they’ll try something during the day, when we’re even farther away from their usual camps.” Rainbow Dash chirped angrily, hopping up and down on the table. Rarity chirped back at her, in Sylvan, “I’m sorry, dear, but I can’t make out a word you’re saying.” “I don’t think she’s speaking Sylvan,” Twilight replied, in the same language. “I think she’s just chirping randomly.” “Well, perhaps we should teach her,” Rarity said, in common, as she took out a quill and some parchment for Rainbow Dash to write with. “This is getting embarrassing.” Rainbow Dash stared at them, and clumsily wrote, with ink on her claw, “Bird language?” “It’s actually pronounceable with any sort of animal noises,” Fluttershy explained. “But you’ll be a griffon again soon enough. I’m not sure it’s worth learning an entirely new language.” “To tell the truth, I find her far easier to tolerate when she can’t talk,” Rarity said. “No offense, dear.” Rainbow Dash didn’t need to talk to express her feelings about that. Instead, with dramatic slashes that splattered ink everywhere, she quickly wrote out, “Hide. Ambush them back.” “Makes sense,” Twilight said. “Although Mac and I aren’t very good at hiding.” “I’ll dig you two a spider hole,” Rarity offered. “Pinkie Pie’s studied wilderness survival, so she should be able to conceal it well enough. Perhaps Fluttershy can help.” “I suppose,” Fluttershy said, poking at her food with a hoof again, but still not eating. “Is something wrong, dear?” Fluttershy stirred the noodles on her plate again, and then turned to look at Twilight, sternly. “You shouldn’t have done that to Branchsnap!” Twilight blinked. “What do you mean? He was a bandit. I had the moral and legal right to sentence him to death for his crimes. If anything, I was being merciful.” Fluttershy shook her head. “That wasn’t mercy! You were already so much stronger than him, and you made him even weaker! You should kill the weak, or force them to serve you. You shouldn’t cripple them!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “The point of fighting bandits is not to breed a better quality of bandit. Besides, he’ll be fine. The Unicorn Bandits are well funded. I’m sure they have healers.” “Well, yeah,” Applejack said. “They’ll have healers. I’m sure they’ll cast all the cure spells on him he needs… but unless they’ve got a good surgeon in camp, that’ll just heal his muzzle all wrong. And once that happens, well, it’ll take a miracle for him to ever use his mouth again.” “Or a Wish!” Pinkie Pie pointed out. Applejack chuckled. “Well, sure, a Wish’d do. Or a Heal spell even. The point is, powerful magic, that they might not care to give to a lowly grunt, ‘specially one that failed them.” “Then they’ll send him home to his family, and perhaps he’ll learn a trade that doesn’t involve the slaughter of innocents,” Twilight said, unimpressed. “This could make him a better pony.” “Or a bitter cripple, begging for coppers in the gutter,” Pinkie Pie said. “Or a thief,” Applejack suggested. “Still better than a bandit,” Twilight replied, levitating a roasted tomato to her mouth and crushing it between her teeth. The non-casters in the party spent the night on watch, hidden in the stables or in the ‘spider holes’ Rarity dug for them that were then painstakingly camouflaged by Pinkie and Fluttershy. Keeping watch all night was far more difficult than merely standing watch for a few hours, and as the night dragged on uneventfully, Applejack and Rainbow Dash eventually drifted off to sleep. Twilight Sparkle and Sergeant Macintosh managed to stay up all night long, but from their vantage point buried beneath the ground they had poor visibility. Regardless, the night passed, and in the morning the two would-be guards were awoken by the sounds of the others having breakfast and otherwise preparing to move out. Twilight and Macintosh emerged from their hiding places to join them. As they gathered to compare notes – all of which could be summed up as ‘nothing happened’ – Rainbow Dash noticed a small piece of paper stuck to the middle of Applejack’s back. The visible side said only, ‘read me’. Rainbow Dash grabbed the edge of the paper in her beak, tore it loose, and as the others watched in confusion flew at least sixty feet from the rest of the party and set it down carefully, ‘read me’ side still up. “What in tarnation?” Applejack asked. “It was stuck to your back,” Twilight said, frowning. “They were here, but all they did was leave a note?” “If that was all they did,” Applejack said with a frown. “I’ll go check the wagons.” While she attended to that, Twilight headed over to the paper and, staying 20 feet back, flipped over the paper with her magic. Sure enough, there was writing on the other side. She lifted it up until she could read it, and it did not explode. Squinting her eyes, she tried to read the words without getting any closer. From a distance she had a hard time making it out, but eventually managed to parse the entire message: It does not surprise me that the gem ponies would make peace with a lich. They have never had any regard for nature, why should they have any for the natural order? Perhaps for now the Armory is beyond our reach, but our other grievances remain. As for you, go, protect the coal. We would rather have you on the other side of the mountains where you can’t interfere. But when you get to Rally, take a good long look at what the Empire is doing with it. The Emperor is insane, and you are helping fuel his insanity. You will note that I delivered this message without murdering or mutilating any of your friends. In the future, I hope you will do me the same courtesy. Actually, I hope that we never meet again. Wind Seed, Paladin of the Sun. At no point did the message explode, burst into flames, or otherwise give any indication that it was anything but what it seemed. When eventually investigated by a spellcaster, it radiated no magic and was not contaminated by poison. Applejack, likewise, found no sign of hidden traps or explosives on the carts. “I still don’t understand how a Paladin could work with a bunch of bandits,” Pinkie Pie said. “Shouldn’t she get smitten or something?” Rarity scoffed. “I suppose that where righteousness is lacking, self-righteousness is enough to satisfy the gods. She’s a paladin of the Sun, so actual results don’t matter as much as long as she thinks she’s doing the right thing.” “To be fair, the Emperor is a bit loopy,” Applejack said. “If you believe the rumors,” Twilight replied. “But what you can’t deny is that the Empire works, and as long as it does, it’s our duty to protect it.” The massive carts full of coal ground along the western road towards the mountains at a slow but steady pace. True to their word, the bandits offered the caravan – and the party – no further trouble, and other creatures avoided the large gathering. On the second day, the road acquired a noticeable upward slope, and the salt gradually turned to dirt and gravel. At midday they passed the first peak, to the south, and were officially in the pass. According to the gem ponies, they were a little behind schedule, but would press on through dusk, if necessary, in order to reach the first of the orcish fortresses. Just after the sun vanished behind the mountains, although the sky still glowed brightly enough that it was still clearly daytime, the party spotted a pair of bat-winged creatures circling a peak to the north. Spotting the train of wagons, they formed up and dove towards the pass at high speed. Applejack was the first to identify them. “Flame drakes!” “Stop the wagons!” Twilight shouted, nosing through her saddlebags for her extinguisher. “Everypony, put up a Sleet Storm!” Once the coal was protected, the flying members of the party took to the air, ready to attack the drakes if they got close. Unfortunately, they didn’t need to get within range of an upward charge to use their fireball breath, although their first attack was a warning shot in front of the first wagon, the fire splattering harmlessly across the stony ground. They were in range of Glitterdust, and Rarity sent a cloud of sparkles exploding in one of the drake’s faces. If it was blinded, it showed no sign of it as the pair circled back up into the air to wait for their breath to recharge. Pinkie Pie flew over to Twilight, who was watching them nervously while standing ready with the extinguisher rod. “Just ignore them, they’re being silly billies,” she said, hovering over the armored unicorn’s head. “Drakes are territorial, and they must have set up a territory that includes part of the road. We’re way too many ponies for them to actually try to fight off, though. They won’t do anything more than posture as long as we don’t try to actually go for their nest.” “We can’t protect the wagons from fire as well if we’re moving,” Twilight said. Pinkie pouted. “If we sit here until the rods run out of daily charges, we’ll be even worse at protecting them.” “Daily charges?” Pinkie nodded. “Yeah. Most rods like that have three.” “Gah! Moon forsaken penny-pinching unspoken featherbrained…” Twilight grumbled, but signaled for the wagons to start up again. And sure enough, while the drakes swooped down to make several more attacks, none of them were actually aimed to hit anything, just to intimidate. “There’s something rather odd about those drakes,” Rarity said to Applejack, who was watching over the second-to-rearmost wagon. “When my glitterdust hit one, it didn’t seem to get its sparkles right away. And look at the ground here!” Applejack landed on the wagon to get a closer look at the perfectly ordinary patch of ground that Rarity was pointing at, and looked back at the dark-robed ghoul, perking an ear curiously. “This is where their first fireball hit, and the ground isn’t even scorched!” “Dirt and rocks don’t scorch, much,” Applejack noted. “So you think, what, that they’re not really drakes?” “They may not even exist at all,” Rarity replied. “Someone wants us to think that this pass is being harassed by wild drakes, and to hurry past this section. I wonder what they’re hiding?” “Think I should go check?” Applejack asked. “I can be, ya know. Discreet.” Rarity frowned. “The last time we sent a single creature out to scout, we never saw or heard from them again. And you’d be slightly harder to replace than Xologrim.” “Point taken. Guess we’ll just hafta leave it up to the authorities when we get to the fortress.” As Pinkie Pie predicted, the wild drakes eventually left the party alone as they proceeded on past their peak. It was dark when they reached the orcish fort, but there were torches burning on the walls, and the guard contingent directed the wagons into a covered courtyard where they’d be somewhat protected against aerial assault. There weren’t very many orcs on guard, for the size of the fort, and the ranking officer present was only a sergeant. When asked, he revealed that the bulk of the garrison had been called back to Rally, leaving only a skeleton crew to hold down the fort. “Do you know anything about the wild drakes that seem to be plaguing the eastern road?” Rarity asked. “Ah, them,” the sergeant said with a grunt. “We were going to send a force down to root ‘em out, before the recall order.” He led her into an office, and showed her a topographical map of a part of the mountains. “We scouted out the plateau where they seem to be nesting,” he said, pointing it out, “but none of our scouts could get close enough to see how many drakes were up there without getting eaten.” “I think they may not be drakes,” she said. “Someone or something is creating illusionary drakes to scare off travelers.” The orc snarled. “I wouldn’t be surprised. The kobolds and harpies are always trying to claw their way into the pass, although illusionary drakes don’t really sound much like either of them.” “I can see kobolds using illusions,” Twilight said, having followed them into the room. “They like tricks.” “They like traps,” the sergeant corrected. “Anyway, we don’t have the numbers to send anyone to investigate this, especially if it’s not just some wild animals. I don’t suppose you lot –“ “We need to stick with the caravan,” Twilight said. “We can’t afford to get distracted by this sort of side-quest.” “I suppose you’re right,” Rarity said. “Besides, they don’t have real drakes, and there’s hardly any point in acquiring the skeletons of a bunch of kobolds.” “I think I remember seeing this task posted back in Bright Valley, actually,” Twilight said. “Maybe somepony else will be along to handle it. If not, we can check it out on the way back.” In the morning, the party heard the caravan wagon-pullers arguing loudly with the orcish garrison. When they went to investigate, they discovered the wagons chained up to the hitching posts with large iron padlocks. “I’m sorry,” the orcish sergeant said to the gem ponies shouting at him, not for the first time, “but I’m afraid that current conditions in the pass are too dangerous for us to allow a shipment with military significance to continue with such a small escort. Until we receive reinforcements, or something happens to improve the situation,” he looked directly at Twilight and the others as he said that part, “I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait here for your own safety.” “You realize that we could slaughter your entire garrison and continue on our way, right?” Twilight said to him. “It wouldn’t even be hard, and we have the legal authority.” The orc laughed. “That sounds just like an adventurer. I have a better suggestion – go fight the enemies of the Empire, instead of being a whiny bitch.” He spat at her feet. “Or do you think I’m afraid of you?” “You really should be,” Pinkie Pie said. “She’s killed a lot of people.” “Now now,” Rarity said. “This isn’t the most subtle of tactics, but there is a reward for the task he’s asking us to take on. In a way he’s doing us a favor by ensuring the caravan will wait for us to finish.” “It’s not a very big reward,” Twilight grumbled. “It’s a reward for chasing off wild drakes, not uprooting a camp full of – I don’t even know what.” “Whatever they are, they’ve got magic,” Applejack said, flicking her tail lazily. “Maybe some of it’s the sort you can pick up and carry away.”