Gleaner Chronicles
Chapter 10
Drooping ears and tails, that’s all Margot could see as she followed Skybreeze to the Mage Laboratories. Margot could hear the fearful whispers of the ponies as they tried to guess when the next Gleaner attack would happen or where the Elements of Harmony were. After walking for what Margot thought was a while, they stopped in front of a gate guarded by two earth ponies in silver armor. Behind them, there was a large brown tent. A moment later, a group of pegasi in light armor flew over with a rustle of wings. Margot noticed that a Mirror of Truth was here too. The guards eyed them carefully.
“I’m Skybreeze and this is Margot Summerholt,” Skybreeze said while looking around.
Margot noticed that one of the guards checked the mirror while the other one hoofed through a guest list. Then the pony checking the list nodded. The gate opened with a squeak of unoiled hinges. Margot and Skybreeze walked through.
“Don’t bother to see if the Area Expansion spells in the Archives are being used here. They’re very distracting to ponies doing advanced level magic, ” Skybreeze said when they were standing in front of the brown tent. Margot just nodded. Inside the tent, it was well lit and cool. The first thing that grabbed Margot’s attention was the group of ponies and changelings looking at a floating image of something. She started to walk toward it, but Skybreeze stopped her.
“You need to get your powers back now,” Skybreeze said while keeping Margot in a steady gaze. Margot nodded. She saw an empty space next to the tent wall and went to it while Skybreeze walked up to the image viewing group.
Margot looked around to make sure Cheerilee was not around to smack her then she closed her eyes and focused. She started the Ritual of Synchronization. For a second, it seemed like there was nothing to connect with and then she felt the connections. Doing a Ritual of Synchronization is like trying to plug in plugs in a large totally dark room. Most of it is just flailing around at the speed of thought until the right sockets are found. When all of her abilities were hooked up, a feeling of well being enveloped her. Margot opened her eyes. At last she was whole. For some reason her flank tingled.
Above her, she could feel the cool air from the air conditioning spell being sucked in from outside while the warm air was being vented from the other side of the tent. Margot sensed the scrying spell that she saw earlier. It would be so easy to plug into it and get her own feed instead of walking over to the other ponies.
A worrying thought snaked into her mind. Empress Razorhoof nearly had Margot convinced that she was a dying powerless pony. There was no warning, no blaze of magic that gave Margot a chance to protect herself. Somehow she had to find a way to protect herself from having her mind messed with.
Margot sighed and got up. She had missed her magic, and now it was back. No more just seeing the world though five senses. Now she had much more. Margot walked over to the group of ponies around the scrying spell.
Nga'Devro waved his left forehoof at her. “Nga'Devro sends his congrats for regaining your powers. Also for getting a Cutie Mark.”
“Thanks. It feels good to get them back. What?” Margot replied.
Skybreeze pointed at Margot’s flank. “I recognize the symbols for Elemental magic and for Divination, but some of the other symbols I don’t know.”
Another voice chimed in. “Excuse me, but we need to focus on our mission.”
Margot looked to the left and into the brown eyes of a white coated unicorn with a brown mane and tail. Her cutie mark looked like a flat glowing disk. Margot looked up at the glowing image.
“Ah, I like ponies with some working brains. My name is Scry, Scry Cloud. Yes, that is what I do, I make scrying spells that allow one to see things that are far away. Unlike telescopes, you can sense the magic of what you view. That is my special talent. Unlike my sister whose fondness for changelings-” Scry Cloud said and was interrupted.
Skybreeze walked up with narrowed eyes. “I suggest that you change the subject, Sister.” Margot could feel the tension in the room rise as the changelings focused their attention on the two sisters. Also several other ponies started to move in closer.
Scry said in a low voice, “Do not show up at the Hoofvard tent. You won’t be welcome, Sister.” She spat out ‘sister’ as though the word tasted foul in her mouth.
Scry turned her attention to Margot. “So, what is your name, pink unicorn?”
“My name is Margot Summerholt,” Margot said.
“A strange name for a strange scented pony. Don’t get me wrong, you are a pony but you are definitely not from around here. My guess is that you are from across the Sea,” Scry said while peering closely at Margot.
“Nga'Devro kindly suggests that we get back to work,” Nga'Devro said. The changelings behind him nodded.
“Ah, kind changeling, you are correct. Let’s start by briefing our new friend. Behold! Our enemy the Shrieker!” Scry said and waved her left forehoof. The floating image changed to a blue-white spiky creature. Margot could not see any eyes or other sense organs, just a lot of spikes in different sizes.
“As you can see it’s just a mass of spikes. I have yet to find out how they shriek. And yes we have checked them out from all angles,” Scry said.
“Rital’Maya has fought these creatures and can vouch that the flesh tearing shrieks can come from any sets of spikes. Changeling chitin or pony flesh, it doesn’t matter. The shriek cuts both equally,” A blue haired changeling said. A green haired changeling walked up to Margot.
“Rital’Harak greets you on behalf of the Rital Clan,” Rital’Harak said while sticking out his left forehoof. Margot bumped with her right fore hoof. Then Rital’Maya, Rital’Ric and Rital’Tora walked up for a hoof bump.
“Margot, we need to start hitting the books now,” Skybreeze pushed. Margot watched as Skybreeze used her telekinesis to pull some lorebooks out of her saddle bags.
“How about we start with Illusions first?” Skybreeze said as she opened the tome. Margot peered at the text. It looked like someone dipped a worm in ink then they let it squirm around. She looked up at Skybreeze.
“From that look, I can assume that you can’t read High Equinish, the language of pony wizards,” Skybreeze said.
“No problem, I can do illusions,” Margot said while looking at the image of a shrieker that Scry put up for the changelings.
Scry made the spell show a shrieker from all angles. Margot and the changelings studied the images carefully. Skybreeze was the first to come up with a shrieker illusion. It looked pretty good until Margot touched it with her left fore hoof. The spell faded away.
“I am just starting to work on it,” Skybreeze said. Several changelings transformed into shriekers then they went back to their own forms. Margot and Skybreeze focused on making more stable illusions.
A half hour or so later, Applejack and Rainbow Dash entered the tent. They walked up to Margot and Skybreeze who was inside the shrieker illusion.
“Y’all look like the real thing, what do you feel like...” Applejack said and touched one of the illusionary spines. The illusion faded away.
“Ha ha, that’s funny but when we go out there, it’s gotta work better than that,” Rainbow Dash warned.
“Let’s see if we can do better,” Margot said as she molded the ambient light in the room into an illusion. This time she added support for handling kinetic energy. Skybreeze’s horn glowed as she added some more spells. Now Applejack looked like a big bluish shrieker. Rital’Harak used his telekinesis to push a mirror over to Applejack. She looked at her image in the mirror.
“Yee haw! Now that's a fearsome shrieker! I wonder if ah could go outside?” Applejack asked.
“A lot of ponies will be on you real quick,” Rainbow Dash said to Applejack then she faced Margot.
“What happens if Applejack runs around? Will the spell still look good? It has to look good while we zip around in the sky,” Rainbow said.
Applejack didn’t wait for an invitation, she galloped around the tent. The illusion stayed clear and did not blur. Several changelings stomped the floor in appreciation.
Rainbow nodded. “Ahh yeah, it looks like you guys are almost there. Do me next!”
Scry walked up. “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but there is only so much we can do with illusions. If you are in a situation where we have to fly very fast, then it’s very quite possible that the shriekers know who you are. It’s a waste of power and time to make illusions that could handle very high speeds. It would be better to make the illusions handle decent speeds and go from there. Who knows how much time we have to save the Prophetess?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“Well, hold on there sugarcube. Scry has a good point. Shriekers are probably not stupid and will have sentries near Cloudsdale, now Skyshriek Tumult. How do we get past them?” Applejack said while looking at Scry.
“We have been watching them for a while and so far they just make shrieking noises. No pony knows how to understand them,” Scry said.
Applejack pointed at the changelings with her left forehoof. “Do y’all know what the shriekers are saying?” All she got was shakes of heads and shrugs. “Once those ornery shriekers realize that we ain’t shriekers they’ll be on us like yellow on hay.”
“So we have to fight our way to the Prophetess? I’m no coward but I can see that is not going to go well,” Rainbow said with a frown.
Applejack tapped Rainbow Dash. “Ah think you have gained some wisdom there.” Rainbow Dash smiled.
“Maybe if we gave them something they want, they’d back off?” Margot suggested.
“Who? What?” Rainbow said.
“Ah get it! The shriekers would love to get their spines or whatever on the Blue Butcher!” Applejack said with a smile.
“What?” Rainbow said. Then her red eyes went wide when she realized who they were talking about. “Well, I have hit them so hard, shrieker bits fell from the sky like rain!”
Scry laughed. “What a splendid idea! This will also give us an excuse to take Rainbow Dash to the prison or where ever they are keeping the Prophetess. No shrieker in its right mind would refuse a high value prisoner!” Nga'Devro and Rital’Harak walked up.
“Nga'Devro is happy that you have made great progress with the illusions, but you are missing something. We will need to know how shriekers capture and transport prisoners. If you don’t have that right, the enemy will attack quickly,” Nga'Devro said.
“That’s a problem, Shriekers don’t usually take prisoners,” Rainbow said and looked at Scry.
“Well, this spell has been up for a few days and we haven’t been looking at shriekers for that long,” Scry said.
“Scry, does that spell work on the past?” Skybreeze said.
“No,” Scry replied while looking at Rainbow.
“I know some divination magic and I could help with checking out the past. When did the Prophetess get abducted?” Margot asked.
“The shriekers stole her about a week ago,” Skybreeze said.
“How about Marhgot and Scry work on that divi whatis spell while Skybreeze casts the shrieker illusion on Rainbow. Oh yeah, you need to take it offa me,” Applejack said.
“What AJ, you aren’t coming with us?” Rainbow said while her ears drooped.
“The Princesses will have a fit if Ah go with you. Ah have to stay here and keep mah hooves on the ground,” Applejack replied. “Besides, mah sister is in town and I want to spend some time with her after mah duties.”
“No probs AJ. Let’s do this!” Rainbow said with a wave of her left forehoof. Skybreeze dispelled the illusion and Applejack left. Scry turned off her spell then she worked with Margot. An hour or so later, some ponies came in with a grey table loaded with food and drink. After a quick snack, Margot and Scry went back to work. Margot thought that working with Scry was a pleasure, she knew her stuff, but she didn’t have an attitude about it. After about an hour, they had the spell ready to cast.
Scry looked around at the changelings and ponies. “Let’s give them a show!”
Margot nodded and her horn glowed. A few seconds later, Scry’s horn glowed too. An image of the sky appeared above them. A changeling laughed as the silvery moon moved backward. The viewpoint floated above a grey tent with yellow highlights. Two earth ponies in silver armor patrolled around the tent while an unicorn stood off to the side watching. A squad of four pegasi flew over the tent every few minutes.
Then the shriekers fell upon the vigilant guards. They didn’t have a chance. Every guard was attacked by at least four or five shriekers. They would send beams of green-white energy and the ponies would just disintegrate into clouds of blood. The unicorn guard was able to set some shriekers on fire, but more just shrieked at him until he died.
Once the guards were dead, some shriekers used their shrieks on the tent. Margot was surprised when the tent glowed and flashes of energy flew up to tear some shriekers to bits. For a few seconds, it looked like the tent was going to hold off the shriekers until help came. Already some ponies tried to help, but the shriekers blasted them. The bright golden glow faded and the shriekers torn the tent to shreds.
Standing in the wreck of the tent was a female grey pegasus with a blonde mane and tail. Her Cutie Mark was of bubbles. Even though her eyes were crossed, Margot could still sense the defiance in the narrowed golden eyes. An unicorn foal was clinging to her mother and screaming. After three strikes from the shriekers, she fell over.
“Nooo, Derpy, um, Prophetess!” Rainbow Dash said. She sniffled a bit. The shriekers ignored the crying unicorn foal as they chained up her mother and flew up into the dark night sky. Scry stopped and rotated the image so that everypony could see the cruel black chains.
"Who is that foal with the Prophetess?” Margot said.
“I think her name is Dinky,” Skybreeze said. Margot wondered why somepony would name their foal Dinky.
“Now we know how they transport prisoners. Let’s do this!” Rainbow Dash said with narrowed red eyes.
“Well, we aren’t quite finished. We need to see where they put the Prophetess,” Scry said.
The view swooped into the night sky until it reached Skyshriek Tumult, a large spiky cloud structure. To Margot’s surprise, the spikes really looked like tall thin pyramids. Again Margot thought she heard sniffling from Rainbow Dash. The shriekers headed with their prize to a black spine.
“I can’t believe what those damned shriekers did to my Cloudsdale!” Rainbow said with lowered ears and tail. Scry adjusted the time setting forward to find out which cell the Prophetess was being held in. Then she advanced the spell to current times to verify that the Prophetess was still in her cell. The only bit of good news was that the Prophetess was kept near the entrance.
“This is how we’re gonna roll. At dawn, we fly!” Rainbow said with narrowed eyes then she turned around and headed to the door.
“Well, I have to find a spell to help ponies and changelings walk on clouds,” Skybreeze said while trying to stifle a yawn.
“I guess we better send out for some coffee, we will be working all night!” Scry said. Margot nodded.