//------------------------------// // Seize the Initiative // Story: Pathfinder Ponies // by terrycloth //------------------------------// After the temple’s scouts confirmed that there were no other large enemy forces nearby, the still-recovering Crossroads Guard, along with a detachment of civilian volunteers, marched out to the site of the massacre to bury the enemy dead. The last thing they needed was another ready-made undead army on their doorstep. The adventurers had already stripped the zebras and diamond gnolls of anything of value, of course, and the temple gave them a reasonable price for the hundreds of masterwork weapons that the enemies had been wielding. There were several dozen pony farmers who might be convinced to volunteer and wear the lances, and plenty of human and orcish refugees who could use the bows. It was a shame that all the armor was cursed. “You need to seize the initiative,” Twilight told the high priests, as the party met with them for another war council. “There are hundreds of small farming villages between here and Bright Valley whose inhabitants are charmed by the blue metal amulets. That charm fades in less than a week if you can keep them away from more of the cursed metal.” The priests looked uncertain. “Won’t that bring the cult down on us? We can’t stand up to Bright Valley’s forces.” “Obviously, if they mounted a serious attack, you’d need to run away…” Twilight started, only to be interrupted as she paused to gather her thoughts. “They won’t attack,” Fluttershy said. “They say they stand for Harmony, but all the different leaders in Bright Valley are fighting each other as much as they’re fighting you. Whoever’s in charge of dealing with the cult outside the city just lost two armies, and they can’t be very strong. The other leaders will turn on them, and they won’t care if you free a few villages from them, because they don’t really care about anypony.” The priests looked at each other, and one of them nodded. A second shrugged, a third scowled, but reluctantly gave his assent. “Okay,” the fourth said. “We’ll do it. Besides, if they do attack, you’ve shown you can take down any army they send.” “We… won’t be with you,” Twilight said. “We need to cut off this infestation at the source.” “We’re going to blow up their mine,” Pinkie Pie said, grinning. “Which should keep any zebras and gnolls off your back,” Applejack pointed out, before they could object. “And it means we get to blow up a mine,” Pinkie Pie added, bouncing a bit in place. “We have a good relationship with the gem ponies in Black River,” Twilight said. “We’ll head up there and get some explosives and maybe some demolitions experts, then march down Ghastly Gorge and take out the source of the blue metal.” “Actually,” Rarity said, lifting herself from the corner where she’d been enduring the Hallow. “I have a better idea. We can hire explosive experts in Rally, and also go shopping. We have a bit of cash to spend, after all, and it would be a shame to let it sit idle.” “It’s a long walk to Rally,” Twilight said. “It’s a short teleport,” Rarity countered, with a tight-lipped smile. “And guess what spell I just finished scribing into my book?” Since they wanted to leave room to bring back a possible passenger, only Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle accompanied Rarity to Rally, while the others stayed in Crossroads, sending along lists of items they were interested in buying with their share of the proceeds from defeating the zebra army. The teleport went off without a hitch, transporting them to the alleyway behind the inn just inside the city walls. There was no sign that they’d set off any sort of alarm. It would have been ridiculously expensive to ward the city against teleportation, especially with a large and ever-changing set of legitimate teleporters travelling in and out constantly on Guild or Empire business. As they made their way further in to find a market that might deal in magic items, it was clear that the city’s condition had deteriorated. The air was thick with smoke – not as thick in most places as the smoke incursions had been on their last visit, but thick enough to be uncomfortable for the living party members to breathe. Accordingly, the streets were mostly deserted, with the few pedestrians travelling under heavy cloaks and hurrying furtively to whatever destinations were important enough to risk leaving their homes. “We should head to the Guild,” Twilight said. “The ordinary markets aren’t going to give us good prices with conditions like this, even if they’re still open.” “Aren’t you worried about getting arrested?” Rarity asked. “They’ll use their truth candles, and the truth is that it isn’t our fault that Skyflash got his head cut off,” Twilight replied. “Applejack was the one who was terrified that we’d be railroaded into prison. Well, she isn’t here, so if she’s right, she’ll be free to say ‘I told you so’ when she breaks us out.” “I don’t think the Guild would just arrest us anyway,” Pinkie Pie said. “They’re on our side, right? It’s the military that might want to pin something nasty on us.” “I suppose it’s worth the risk,” Rarity said. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth reducing the risk as much as possible. Only one of us should go, at least until we know whether they intend to punish us. And unfortunately, it can’t be me, since as an undead I’m immune to their zone of truth.” “I’ll go,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “I never wanted to run away in the first place.” Surprisingly, and perhaps disturbingly, there was almost no wait when Twilight took a number from the reception desk. In less than a minute, her number was called. “There’s a flag on your file,” the clerk told her. “I’m going to need to ask you a few questions. Please don’t resist the candle.” Twilight did not resist the truth candle. “Ask away.” “Are you or anyone you know responsible for the death of Captain Skyflash?” “No one in my adventuring party was responsible for his death,” Twilight said. “Is there a reason you didn’t answer that with a simple ‘no’?” the clerk asked next. Twilight smiled. “I can only vouch for myself and my fellow party members. I know other people who might conceivably have been responsible, although I have no reason to think that any of them were, except maybe for the changeling assassin.” “This would go faster if you didn’t volunteer information,” the clerk said, scowling and shuffling through some papers to find another part of the script. “I’m sorry, I keep making blanket statements and then thinking of possible exceptions which I have to add in order for my words to be truthful,” Twilight replied. The clerk seemed to find the page she’d been looking for. “Right. What is the name or designation of the changeling assassin you just referred to?” “I don’t know,” Twilight replied. “Does this person have any identifying characteristics?” “It was a changeling?” Twilight said, scrunching up her nose. “It turned into a big black bug-pony thing when we killed it.” “Do you have any information that would allow us to contact him or her?” “Rarity cut off its head and added it to a mindless skull swarm to keep it from coming back from the dead. She traded the swarm to the necromancer Kazakh Thul in return for a skeletal flame drake. He’ll probably either have it at Crossroads or at his tower on the edge of Ghastly Gorge.” “What evidence do you have that this person is involved with the murder of Captain Skyflash?” “None,” Twilight said. “We speculated that it might have killed him in order to cause trouble for us, since it killed me in a similar fashion when we met with it later.” The clerk raised an eyebrow, and Twilight lifted a hoof to rub at her neck. “I got better.” “Right. Let’s move on,” the clerk said. “Are you or anyone you know responsible for the destruction of the Bleak Din neighborhood?” “That was Skyflash,” Twilight said. “He called in an artillery strike since he wasn’t willing to risk his soldiers in an assault.” “Did you advise him to do so?” “No!” Twilight said. “We were horrified --” “Stop!” the clerk said. Twilight shut her mouth. “Don’t volunteer information,” she reminded her. Twilight, with an apparently herculean effort, managed to continue to keep her mouth shut. “We’re done,” the clerk said, snuffing the candle. “That should satisfy the investigation. So, what business brings you here today?” Twilight smiled. “Shopping!” She paused. “I should also report the situation in Bright Valley and Crossroads, if you aren’t already aware of it?” The clerk was more than happy to get Twilight’s point of view on the Cult of Harmony. They did have couriers still making regular runs to the Guild Hall in Bright Valley and to the temple in Crossroads, so they weren’t entirely ignorant of the situation. Before sending her to the back to meet with the salesorc, the clerk peered at Twilight through a set of lenses, and informed her that she had become powerful enough to qualify for a special incentive to remain in Orcish territory. “Fifty thousand gold?!” Pinkie Pie squeaked. “Each?” “Surely this comes with strings attached,” Rarity remarked. “We need to accept a Geas to operate in Orcish territory for the next year,” Twilight explained, “Or until the Guild releases us. And it’s only open to living Adventurers who show up as ‘moderately’ powerful on a detect alignment spell. As an undead you’d need to register as having a ‘strong’ aura, and of course they’ll use a Threnodic Geas for all of us, just in case we try to evade it by dying.” “Oh,” Pinkie Pie said, frowning. She poked a hoof at the cobblestones. “Maybe it’s not worth it then.” Twilight nodded. “We’d be committing ourselves to going down with the ship. Apparently, most of the powerful Adventurers who normally operate in this area already left. A bunch of them headed north to Goblin territory. Given the situation with Bright Valley and the zebras, they’re getting desperate.” “Please tell me you didn’t already take the Geas yourself,” Rarity said. “I – no, I didn’t,” Twilight said. “Obviously, I think we should, but if I took it and the rest of you decided not to, that would be... awkward.” She took a deep breath. “But ninety percent of the fey races live in Orcish territory. We can’t just abandon them!” She stomped her hoof. “Which means that this is getting paid for something that we were going to do anyway.” “But what if we have to go somewhere else to save everypony?” Pinkie Pie asked. “What if the only way to keep ponies from going extinct is to load them all on a really really really big boat and sail to the Jade Empire? Then we’d have to stay behind in some sort of heroic last stand holding back the forces of whatever while they ran away, and that’s not how I want to die.” “How do you want to die?” Rarity asked. “Big explosion,” Pinkie Pie said. “It’s traditional to end a heroic last stand with a big explosion,” Twilight noted. “We could make this work.” “Do you really think Applejack would ever agree to something like this? Or Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked. Twilight winced. “Maybe?” Rarity snorted. “I think we had better ask them before we decide anything, don’t you agree? Meanwhile, let us purchase what equipment we can without selling our souls.” The shopping, at least, went smoothly, except that Rainbow Dash didn’t actually have enough money for the upgrade she wanted. Twilight agreed to cover her, since she was very close. Pinkie Pie, similarly, bought several thousand gold worth of diamond dust for use with Rarity’s stoneskin spell so that Rarity could afford a rod of empower to boost her fireballs. They attempted to renegotiate the Geas, since the conditions would clearly be unacceptable to the others, but the Guild wouldn’t move on the key disagreement. They did manage to get the Guild to classify the situation in Bright Valley as an official mission, although nopony would get paid until the city was actually saved. Afterwards, they attempted to find Rarity’s black market contacts, to buy more dragon bones, since not only was Rarity now powerful enough to control more skeletal dragons, but Fluttershy had learned the Animate Dead spell and could have several of her own. Unfortunately, the sewers where Applejack had told them to look were uninhabitable, and Rarity admitted that it had been a pure stroke of luck that she’d gotten in touch with them the last time she was in the city. They spent the rest of the day scribing a few new spells, while Twilight attempted without much luck to gather information about the current state of Rally and the Empire at large. In the morning they tracked down the gem ponies and asked about purchasing equipment to collapse a mine. “Which mine are you looking to collapse?” asked the pony who seemed to be in charge of the warehouse. He’d introduced himself as Lockbox. “Um, I’m not really sure how to describe it,” Twilight said. “It’s south of here?” “And west! Mostly west,” Pinkie Pie said. “It’s at the end of Ghastly Gorge,” Rarity volunteered. “And near a big forest?” Lockbox asked. “Yes!” Twilight said. “You know it, then?” “Of course I know it. It’s our mine!” “No it’s not! It belongs to the Diamond Gnolls!” Pinkie Pie said. Lockbox scowled. “They’re putting in a claim on it too? I shouldn’t be surprised. Every time we just barely make our quota the Unspoken Emporer decides to raise it by 20% and threaten to give the mine away to somepony or other. Last time it was the unicorns.” “No –“ Twilight said, but Lockbox was past listening. “I’ve seen too many of my friends march off to support Black River only to never come back. Killed by kobolds, or harpies, or unicorns like you! And you have the nerve to come here and ask me to help blow it up?” “Well, maybe if you did collapse it, you could stop losing friends?” Pinkie Pie suggested. “I’m not sure this whole mining thing is really working out for you.” “So that’s it? You think you’re doing us a favor?” Lockbox snarled. “Get out!” Twilight drew her hammer, and slammed it into the floor right next to Lockbox’s forehooves, shattering the wooden planks. “Stop. Talking. We’re going to blow up the Diamond Gnolls’ mine. You’re going to help us, or we’ll use your skeleton for a porter.” “I – I can’t –“ Lockbox stammered. “The Emperor will hear about this!” “Explosives. Now.” Lockbox backed away, and pointed a hoof at a shelf of glass jars full of a clear liquid, set well away from any other supplies and surrounded by bright yellow and orange warning signs. “Take those. Even an idiot could set those off, and they’ll collapse a mine all right.” “They’re not dangerous, are they?” Rarity asked, walking over and poking at one of the jars with a hoof. Pinkie Pie and Lockbox both cringed and covered their heads for a few seconds. “He’s trying to kill us, isn’t he,” Twilight said. Pinkie Pie giggled. “Yep! You’d have to be crazy to try to carry that stuff through a battlefield. But the jokes on him, because I’m completely insane. Mwahahahaha!” Pinkie Pie spent the rest of the day in a rented alchemy lab, stabilizing the explosives by mixing in sawdust and paper until they were safe-ish to carry. “I’ve already got several hundred explosive vials stuffed in my bandolier, so I might as well put the dynamite there too,” she said. “It’s not like I’d survive if the stuff inside somehow got detonated.” “Should we maintain some sort of minimum safe distance?” Twilight asked, eyeing the innocent looking sash full of extradimensional pouches, which were apparently full of explosives. “Um…” Pinkie Pie seemed to be thinking it over. “Fifty feet? A hundred feet? Something like that.” “I wouldn’t worry about it, dear,” Rarity said. “It’s extremely rare for a bag of holding to spontaneously expose its contents. Normally they’d simply be dumped onto the astral plane if something destroyed the bag. She’d have to leave one of the compartments open and then get hit by a fireball or the like. Ah ha ha.” “That sounds disturbingly plausible,” Twilight said. “I’ll be careful!” Pinkie Pie said. “I can handle explosives responsibly, Twilight. It’s almost like it’s one of the cornerstones of my profession or something.” “Right,” Twilight said, smirking. “Not to mention your middle name. Pinkie Responsibility Pie.” “Actually, it’s Diane,” Rarity said. “Diane means responsibility,” Pinkie Pie said. Twilight narrowed her eyes. “I’m no linguist, but I’m pretty sure that’s not true.” “Well, it will,” Pinkie Pie said. “After I use this dynamite to blow the blue mud mine into a million billion pieces!” Once the dynamite was safe to transport, Rarity wasted no more time in teleporting back to Crossroads. Unfortunately, the spell went slightly awry and they found themselves in a small farming village that none of them recognized. “Disguises!” Twilight hissed, and the three of them shimmered into different pony forms, wearing fake blue-metal amulets. One of the nearby townsfolk had been looking in their direction, but merely shook his head and rubbed his eyes, then shrugged. “Is there anything we can do to help?” asked a young filly, approaching them. “We don’t get adventurers here often, and Harmony isn’t saying anything about what you’re up to, which means it’s probably a secret and oh I’m so sorry I probably shouldn’t be event talking to you –“ “No, it’s fine,” Twilight said. “We just want to –“ “I’ll get out of your way!” she squeaked, and ran off at top speed. “Hey! What did you do to Sweet Heart?” asked a stallion who hadn’t really seen the entire exchange. A couple of his friends stepped towards them with him. “I don’t care who you are, you can’t just barge in here and start terrorizing the good folk of our town!” Rarity tried to intervene. “Please, darling, calm yourself. This is simply a misunderstanding –“ “Nightmare’s teat! Look at her face!” hissed one of the stallions. “Shut up,” Twilight snapped, lifting the leader in her magical aura and holding him struggling in midair. “All we need to know is where we are so that we can leave. You are going to tell me – either willingly, or after my associate here traps your soul in a gem and subjects you to all the torments of Tartarus!” The show of force was enough to get directions, and luckily for them the teleport had only been slightly off target. It was after sundown by the time they arrived in Crossroads, but everypony was still awake. They met up with the others in the inn to pass out the new or upgraded equipment they’d bought, and discuss the Guild’s offer. “Uh… nope,” Applejack said. “A Geas is a nasty thing. You don’t use it on your friends, no matter how you lawyer up the terms.” “How hard would it be to take the money and then ditch the Geas?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Pinkie could just dispel it, right?” “It’s unlikely,” Rarity said. “In fact, it’s impossible that she could dispel it now. Maybe if we became much more powerful, and they decided to cut corners and apply the weakest Geas possible…” “They were going to apply a Threnodic Geas,” Twilight noted. Rarity pouted. “Ah. In that case, it would take a Miracle, or a Wish, or a Remove Curse from someone who could cast Miracle or Wish.” “Uh huh,” Rainbow Dash said. “And would that cost less than fifty grand?” “It would cost almost nothing according to the usual formula,” Twilight said. “I just don’t think we know anyone outside the Guild who could do it.” Applejack opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “I know a couple folks who cast spells under the table, but none of them are anything like that.” “The Emperor could do it!” Pinkie Pie said. “Or the ancient king of the unicorns.” “It doesn’t matter anyway,” Twilight said. “If we were going into this in bad faith they’d detect it with their truth candles.” “Then no,” Applejack said. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s worth the risk,” Rainbow said. “I’d do it if everypony else was doing it, but I’m not super excited about the idea,” Pinkie Pie said. “Fine, fine,” Twilight said. “We’re not doing a majority vote. Unless we were all willing it would be a terrible idea.” “It’d be a terrible idea anyway,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’d just be stupid.” That night, a blink dog messenger appeared and dropped off a scroll of Earthquake, which he claimed was a gift from the Guild in support of their efforts to save Bright Valley. There was a cover letter included with it, which said only ‘safer than dynamite’. Fluttershy took the scroll, and looked it over. “I can probably use this,” she said. “It doesn’t look too hard.” “But we’ll use the dynamite too, right?” Pinkie Pie asked, making puppy dog eyes at Twilight. “Are you sure you can use the dynamite without blowing yourself up?” Twilight asked. “If you think it’s safe, I can probably tell you where to set the charges. My training included an engineering track – you’d be surprised how many buildings you can collapse just by knocking down a few load-bearing pillars.” “And mines are just like buildings underground?” Applejack asked. “Mines are deathtraps,” Twilight said. “The hard part is not collapsing the part that you’re standing in.” “It’s totally safe,” Pinkie Pie said. “Watch!” She took out three sticks of dynamite and started juggling them in the middle of the crowded inn. The party immediately launched themselves backwards off their chairs and pushed some of the other patrons aside – who looked annoyed until they saw what they were backing away from. There were screams, and panic, and people getting shoved and trampled as everypony left the room through the nearest door or window. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing!” the innkeep shouted, running over and grabbing at one of the sticks. He managed to fumble badly enough to send all three falling to the ground, where they failed to explode or react in any way. Pinkie Pie scooped them up with a wing and hid them away in her bandolier, giggling.