//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 - More than a head in the clouds // Story: Celestia Trigger // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// I looked around at the floating islands, each one glittering in the sunlight thanks to the makeup of the cities on them. The scenery was breathtaking, and I stood there for a moment, simply taking it it. Then I recalled what happened in Zeal in the games, and sighed. This...was not going to end well. "Come on," I said, turning around and looking at the island we'd arrived on. There was a building nearby, not quite a city, but still decently sized enough for there to be somebody there. "We should at least explore this place while it's still here." "While it's still here?" Copper asked. Justice beeped before adding his two bits. "There are no records of there being such a place within my memory banks." "And what does that tell you this place's fate will likely end up being?" I quipped as I led them towards the crystalline structure. The crystal ponies there were all surprised by our appearance, but let us pass into the building itself so that we could explore it nonetheless. Inside, everything was made of crystals as well. There wasn't a single non-reflective surface to be had. "Fascinating," Justice said as he looked around. "If my scans are to be believed, this entire structure is growing." "Your golem is right," A crystal pony said with a nod. "We of Vis grow our structures from a single crystal seed. It can take decades for a city to be ready, and we have to watch over them carefully to make sure nothing disturbs their growth." "Out of curiosity," I said. "Is there a way we could see more of Vis? We've only just arrived to that teleportation device, and we're eager to see more of this place." "Well if the Skyways work for you," the pony said, "Then you can use them to get around easily. Odd, though. They're supposed to respond to only those with magic, and you certainly don't resemble those of Vis." In response, I channeled lightning through my hands, and the pony nodded once. "Raw, elemental strength? Curious. Battle-magic, that is. But it's enough for the skyways to respond to your power. Sadly, the only ones here go down to the surface, but you should be able to find another link from there to another section of Vis. There once was a project to get them all linked up, but it was abandoned some time ago." I shrugged at that, and made to leave, but something caught the corner of my eyes. Something the world below wouldn't properly have for some time yet. A draconequus. A female one, actually, holding a smaller one up and giving it a bottle. It caught sight of us and smiled, before floating over. "Oh, hello there," she said. "Visitors to the nascent city of Quies? The facilities here are lacking, I'm afraid..." "That's fine," I said simply. "Might I ask your name?" "I'm Eris," she said, before tickling the smaller version of herself in her arms. "And this little bundle of mischief is my son, Discord." The tiny draconequus giggled at the treatment. "Don't think I didn't notice you turning all your milk into chocolate milk, little scamp." "Something tells me he's going to grow up to be trouble," I said. "Oh he'd better be," the mother said. "Draconequi are meant to be the counter to all this order the ponies have set up. We introduce a little chaos into their lives, and they get to react to things they never thought would happen. Keeps things fresh and interesting!" "I'm sure you've got your work cut out for you," I said. "But if you don't mind, we'd like to examine the rest of Vis..." "Oh, please do," the chaotic entity said as she slid to one side. "Something big is brewing, and I can tell you're going to stir things up nicely." Yeah, I bet, I thought. It wasn't long before we found another skyway circle, and the six of us braced ourselves before stepping into it and being transported to the frigid cold below again. Justice beeped and began walking off in one direction. "There is another Skyway platform approximately one hundred yards in this direction," he said. I was thankful for the short distance. My clothes weren't all that good at keeping out the cold. Even those hundred yards felt like agony to my body. We came across the next Skyway building and piled into the circle, which flashed purple before we were once again, above the clouds. This time, the closest city was a ways across the new floating island we found ourselves on. This one had a mountain and even a lake on it, for goodness sake. "There is quite the disparity between the two locales," Justice observed. "Above, magic is used to create all sorts of wonders. Whereas below, it is deathly cold. Could they not try to bring life to the world below?" "I haven't noticed any pegasi yet," I informed the robot. "If there even are any crystal pegasi. Trying such a feat with magic alone would be probably more intensive than they'd care to invest in." Of course, I was soon proven wrong about there not being other variants of the crystal ponies. Pegasi and unicorns walked the streets of the closest city, and spared more than a few curious glances our way. I found a stall, where a pony practically gave away some mechanical components for Copper to use later in the upgrading of her battle harness, and managed to get a few pieces of information from him. This new city was the city of Doctrina, where the Guru of Life had lived until recently. They hadn't seen him around as of late, but it was probably nothing to worry about. Yeah, right. And I belonged here. Apparently the Palace of Vis was just up the mountain, and to gain access, all you had to do was find the teleporter in the mountain. There was even a path to make it easy to locate. That was about when a draconequus floated down the street and snapped its claws, turning the stand into jelly and cackling madly as some pegasi chased it off. "Come on," I said to my friends. "Let's go investigate the palace as well." "Do we have to?" Gregory asked. "I'm a bit...unused to heights." "But you're a griffon," Zehan pointed out. Gregory huffed and looked away before muttering something. "Didn't quite catch that," I said, causing the griffon to sigh and speak up. "The Fiendlord cursed me to be unable to fly. I haven't had time to see if I can yet. Heights still give me a scare, as I don't know that I'll be able to stop any fall I might experience." The five of us reassured him with words that we understood, before setting off for the palace of Vis. Because I knew that after this...things wouldn't be anywhere near normal for a long time. The only real difference between going up to the palace and the Skyways was that this teleporter was green in nature. After we reappeared, we walked out of the small glade it was set in and noticed that we were right near the top of the mountain now. It was only a short walk up to the palace above us, the doors of which opened at the slightest touch. The inhabitants were just as shocked to see us as we had been to see this place. Apparently they couldn't imagine that beings like us could wield the sort of power that would get their systems to respond. Frankly I was surprised it worked as well. Still, we poked around before coming across a small, only slightly-shiny colt. He was grey in coloration, with a black mane and tail and a horn to his form. He walked by us on his way to somewhere, before stopping and looking at us all. "The black winds howl," he said simply. "One among you will shortly die." Yup. Knowing my luck, that would indeed come to pass. The others were weirded out by that statement, and Justice even beeped. By the time the robot thought to speak up, the colt had vanished, running off somewhere. "Crono, was that who I think it was?" he asked. "How likely is that?" I asked. I even held my watch up and looked at it, seeing that the Era hand had moved even further back. And new letters had sprung into being. "We're in a new era, one before the one we'd been in. This is apparently the Era of Vis. How could that colt be related to the one we just bested? It's probably just an inherited trait." "Still, we should observe the colt," the robot said, and I agreed. I knew that plot would be involved, so we made to investigate the rest of the Palace, before coming across a closed door. I motioned for my allies to stand nearby, and I listened in at the keyhole, wondering if this was where our little scamp had run off to. "Come now Umbra," I heard a female voice say. "Don't you want to wield your magic properly?" "Magic's stupid," I heard that voice from earlier say. "We could use it to do more than we are, but nopony thinks to even try." "I know, Umbra, I know. But look at it this way. If you used your magic, then you'd stop getting picked on at school." "I don't care about them, Lumina. I just...I just want things to go back to how they used to be." "Mother won't-" "She's not our mother! She may look the same, but inside, she's different. I can tell. Our real mother wouldn't do the things she did." Silence fell at that proclamation, and then I heard a pony clear her throat behind me. I stood up and out of the way, and she walked into the room. A moment later, she walked out as a crystal mare, white in color with a blonde mane and tail, followed her out. Though she stopped and stared at us for a bit. "Travelers? With magic?" she asked. "Pray tell, where do you hail from?" I had been about to answer, but the pony that had walked in turned to her. "Princess Lumina, please. If I don't return with you, your mother..." The mare sighed and nodded her head, following after the servant. We tailed them at a distance, and then we saw something...well, even for this place, it was inexplicable. Lumina bowed her head towards a massive door, and a pendant around her neck glowed with a red light. The door shared that glow and opened, all but flowing out of the way. She stood up and walked through, and the door flowed shut again. "How...did she do that?" Scorpan asked. "That seems like a strange sort of magic, even for a pony." "There is only one thing that glows with that same radiance," the servant explained. "The Malum machine." Well, seeing the Mammon machine in the game was one thing. Seeing the equivalent here, was something else. It...glowed, was the only way to put it. It just radiated power, even though it looked like it belonged on the other end of a sledgehammer. ...Okay, it was actually an impressive piece of work. But still. The thought that this thing was taking energy from the most powerful, most vile and wicked creature in all of existence, just so these ponies could continue with their idyllic lifestyle? I knew what this thing would end up doing, and I wanted it broken now. Still, we would need to treat something with the same sort of energy as the Malum machine in order to pass through the door we'd seen, and only one thing came to mind. Wordlessly, I pulled the Gate Key from my belt and held it up to the machine that drained Lavos. I hoped this would work. If it didn't work, that would suck so badly. I was pretty sure we didn't have a pendant like Marle's hanging around... The Key floated in the air, and I could feel, somehow, the machine looking at it for the longest moment... Before it caused the Key to glow a bright red and sending it back to me. I breathed again as I stuck the Gate Key back in my belt. "Looks like we have our way in, guys," I said to them. Just in time for the heavy plot to start rolling in.