//------------------------------// // Chapter 81: An Eye Gone Awry // Story: The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter LXXXI: An Eye Gone Awry “As you may have learned, this object . . . The Eye . . . is immensely powerful. This world is not ready for it.” After our audience with the King, the Griffins returned us to Seclusion, where we’d be able to sleep the remainder of the night. Rising in the mid-morning, we prepared to set out for our original destination three days earlier, Ragnfoald. But, as we were getting ready to leave the city, a courier rushed up to us. “Important message from the College of Winterhorn,” she said, retrieving a letter from her saddlebags and passing it to Mystic. “I don’t believe it,” she said before passing it over to me. “What is it?” Steadfast asked, trying to peek over my shoulder. “Clairvoyance is going to activate the Eye of Magnus,” I answered. ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ We galloped to Winterhorn as fast as we could. The last time the Eye of Magnus had felt Clairvoyance’s magic, it had nearly destroyed Winterhorn. We couldn’t let him do the same thing again. Some tricky negotiating had saved the College last time. This time the citizens of Winterhorn wouldn’t be so forgiving. I knew something was wrong the moment the College of Winterhorn came within sight. No longer was the shield that had protected the College from the Pegasari Air Fleet up. I should have taken that as a good sign, since the Eye wasn’t active at the moment, but to me all it said was that somepony had been fiddling with it. A pony who didn’t know what he was doing. The ground suddenly shook as we approached the College, and a great crack sounded through the air. I was thrown from my hooves as the earth shook beneath me, agitated by a massive source of magic. Bolts of lightning the same color as the Eye of Magnus’s magic shot up into the air, connecting with the cloud layer above. An orb of light began to expand outward from the College’s center, much as it had before, but this time damage was done to the massive structure. Towers already weakened from battle collapsed as the wave of magic passed through them. Jagged bolts of lightning jetted out from the orb’s edge, clinging to the nearby cliffs and lighting any nearby trees on fire. Whatever Clairvoyance had just done, I was sure he had not meant for it to happen. The ponies of Winterhorn had heard and felt the commotion going on outside their dwellings and emerged to gawk at the spectacle before their eyes. Hushed words began to pass between them in a worried tone, wondering if it had been the right decision to allow the College to remain. We hurriedly headed toward the College’s gates. Hopefully we would be able to reach the Eye and stop Clairvoyance. However, Quicksilver was not at her post at the gate. She was standing outside the shield, looking in at the glowing figures of two ponies that looked as if they had been crudely sculpted from pure magic. “Oh, thank the Equines you’re here,” Quicksilver said as she saw us approach, “Maybe you can help with this. Whatever Clairvoyance is doing with the Eye, it’s forced me out, and now these things are keeping me from entering.” “What are they anyway?” Mephalda asked. “They appear to be some kind of atronach,” Mystic said, “But composed of pure magic instead of an element or material.” “Well, in all my days of studying Conjuration, I’ve never seen an atronach like this,” Quicksilver said. “All right then,” I said, trotting up to the glowing ponies, “Let’s see if we can get some answers.” “Hello?” I said, “Can you speak?” The two guardians stood still and silent. I realized that they had no distinguishable features on their face, such as eyes or a mouth, but I suspected there was still some way they could communicate. “What are you?” I asked, and they moved, turning their heads slowly toward each other. Still, they didn’t speak to me or answer my question. I decided to try a different approach. “What is this thing, and what does it have to do with the Eye of Magnus?” I asked, pressing a hoof against the magical surface. As my hoof touched it, the magical constructs immediately pointed lances made of magic at me. As I withdrew my hoof, their lances disappeared, melting back into their bodies. “All right,” I said, drawing back my hoof, “Who are you?” With seemingly great concentration, the two magical constructs both formed a mouth on their muzzles. “We are the guardians of our Lord Magnus,” they replied in unison, the same eerily echoing voice coming from both mouths. “Okay,” I said, more than a little bit creeped out by what was going on in front of me, “So, you guard the Eye of Magnus?” “That is correct,” the guardians replied, “The artifact you know as the Eye of Magnus is under our protection. One of your kind has attempted to defile it.” “Clairvoyance wasn’t going to defile it,” Quicksilver cut in, and the elementals’ eyeless heads rapidly snapped to face her, “He merely wanted to harness its power.” “The Eye cannot be harnessed,” the elementals said, “It is far beyond your power. The hornless ones came first and thought they too could use the Eye’s power. But they were mistaken. We were kind to them, granting them small favors, a taste of but the smallest sliver of power the Eye contained, and they reveled in it. They wasted the gifts we bestowed upon them, and so we held back our blessings. We thought that by hiding the Eye, we could keep it safe.” “But now we see that the Eye will never be safe, not so long as your kind roams this realm. You thought to take the Eye’s power, but now it shall take yours. We will grow in power until nothing can stop our advance. This world will be purged of your kind’s greed forever. That is the final word of the Guardians of Magnus.” The mouths disappeared from the faces of the Guardians, and the shield began to crackle menacingly, sending lightning bolts striking near us. We retreated from the deadly strikes, keeping our distance from the shield. “Now what?” Steadfast asked. “The Eye of Magnus and whatever weird magical guardians it’s conjured up are plotting to wipe out ponykind,” Quicksilver said, “We can’t just let that happen.” “Right,” I said, “But we can’t just walk up the bridge to the Eye and destroy it either, not with those guardians there.” “Destroy the Eye?” Quicksilver asked incredulously. “It’s the only way to stop this from happening again,” I said, “The ancient earth ponies sealed it deep underground and surrounded it with undead warriors. That didn’t keep Clairvoyance from digging it up and poking around where he shouldn’t have. The only way to make sure nopony makes that mistake again is to destroy the Eye.” “But, the Eye of Magnus could be the source of all magic,” Quicksilver protested. That stopped me. Could I do without my magic? Could I walk around like an earth pony with a horn? What would the loss of all magic do to the world, when every unicorn wouldn’t even know how to turn a doorknob? “We have to hope that’s not true,” I said, “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have magic if we’re all dead. Dead is what we’re going to be if the Eye isn’t destroyed. Permanently.” “So, how do we get in then?” Quicksilver grumbled, conceding my point. “Well, the shield is solid, so we can’t just walk through,” I said. “But a spell could possibly open a hole in the shield,” Mystic suggested. “These Guardians aren’t going to just stand idly by while we burn a hole through the shield,” Quicksilver said, “The Eye of Magnus is going to know what’s going on the moment we start probing the shield with magic.” “Could we teleport in?” I asked. “It’s no good,” Quicksilver said, “I tried earlier, and the shield just threw me back out.” “Is there another way to enter the College?” I asked, thinking, “Somewhere the Guardians wouldn’t be posted, and we could burn through?” “Actually, yes,” Quicksilver replied, perking up, “There’s a system of storage tunnels running beneath the College that we could enter through.” “Well then, let’s get down there and see what we can do,” I said. ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ Getting to the storage tunnels was easier said than done. They’d been built beneath the College back when Winterhorn had been a much larger city, and had apparently branched beneath a substantial portion of it. If I had to guess, I’d say they were used for much more than storage. Or course, the reason they were now accessible from outside the College was because of the Great Collapse. The actual storage tunnels were clustered directly beneath the College, and were intact, but tunnels that had once branched out through the city were now exposed. Many had caved in, but Quicksilver knew of one that hadn’t. In order to reach the tunnel’s entrance, we had to carefully descend the cliffs to reach the icy sea below, and then ascend the column of stone the College was perched upon. The entrance was a hole in the sheer cliff face, and we couldn’t reach it no matter how hard we tried. Mephalda flew us across one by one in the end, until we were in the bowels of the College. The magical shield projected by the Eye didn’t extend quite this far, but it wasn’t long before we encountered its shimmering surface. Quicksilver and Mystic set to work casting spells on it to see what would nullify the magic. After a few tries, the Eye realized what was going on, and the two mages had to set up wards over themselves to keep from being fried by the blasts of lightning that jumped from the shield’s surface. The rest of us retreated to a safe distance. “We’ve got it!” Mystic exclaimed at last, and we scampered over to see where she’d fried a hole in the shield, “Quickly, get through!” The five of us jumped through the hole that had opened, entering the College. As Mystic jumped through, her hole closed up. Lightning fired off at the tunnel outside, caving it in, but none struck within. Apparently the Eye didn’t yet know we’d breached its defenses. But, it knew something was going on, and it had dispatched some of its magical Guardians to search the storage tunnels. As one turned a corner and spotted us, Mephalda loosed an arrow from her bow. The shaft struck the elemental creature in its forehead, and it dissolved into glowing dust. Mephalda looked just as surprised as everypony else that the Guardian was dead. “How did that work?” Steadfast voiced the question all of us were thinking. “To create a projection like that,” Mystic thought aloud, “They must be very unstable. And in order for them to act like the ponies they’re modeled after, they must have pony weaknesses as well.” “Well, at least we know they can be killed now,” I said, drawing Dawnbreaker in case any more of them showed up. It didn’t take long until we ran into more, a group of them this time. The Guardians seemed to exhibit some kind of hive-mind, and it appeared that what one knew, all knew. Hence, they knew we were within the College now, and they knew exactly where we were. The Guardians projected weapons from their bodies, and they shifted into actual weapons summoned from some realm beyond even the Beyond. I held up Dawnbreaker as one of them brought a battleaxe down at me. I pushed back, forcing the weapon away from me. I was caught off guard as the Guardian’s weapon suddenly popped out of existence and then back in near my head. I ducked down as the blade swung through where my neck had been. I swung my Draconequus sword toward the Guardian’s neck, and it blocked with its battleaxe, before causing its weapon to reappear behind me. I already had the Blade of Hoofingar ready, and blocked the elemental’s weapon with it, using Dawnbreaker to slice through its neck. The battleaxe turned to ash just like its wielder. Quicksilver and Mystic were having a difficult time. Since the Guardians were made of magic themselves, spells had little effect on them. All except for the spell Mystic had used to break through the shield. Once she began to use it, she had a much better job, burning holes through the Guardians with blasts from her horn. <<>> I Shouted as fresh Guardians emerged from other passageways to join the fight. They went flying through the air and slammed into the College’s stone walls, shattering into ash. One of the Guardians from before saw me use my Shout and galloped toward me. I thought I was ready to face it, until it suddenly lit itself on fire, becoming a fire elemental instead of pure magic. Dawnbreaker met the flaming sword wielded by the Guardian, and flames licked down my blade. I pressed back with my sword, hoping to buy myself some time. The Guardian pointed a hoof at me, and I jumped to the side as its hoof suddenly sent out a jet of flame. <<>> I Shouted, and my frost breath extinguished the Guardian. Steadfast slammed one of the elementals against the wall, reducing it to ash, and the battle was over for the moment. But, it was sure to resume soon. After all, every Guardian in the College knew exactly where we were. “Which way to the surface?” I asked Quicksilver, and she led the way. We galloped through the hallways, passing by crates of goodness knows what stored away by the College. Some more Guardians appeared, sinking through the ceiling, as we neared the stairs to the surface. Mystic blasted a hole through the chest of one with her magic, and the rest converged on her. Mephalda fired arrows at the elementals as they approached, but it wasn’t enough. They began to chip away at Mystic’s ward, and Steadfast and I galloped in to help. As I swung Dawnbreaker through yet another Guardian, cutting it in half, some of them began to abandon Mystic and turn on me. I drew my Changeling war axe as three of them came toward me at once. With Dawnbreaker, I blocked a mace that suddenly grew into a warhammer. I spun my blade around, knocking the Guardian’s weapon to the ground, before swinging my Draconequus sword through its neck. My war axe met a sword, and I pushed it back. The Guardian fought me for dominance though, and pressed back toward me. As I spun my war axe away, the creature teleported its weapon closer to me. I brought my axe down swiftly, catching the otherworldly blade and spinning it around into its wielder’s neck. The remaining Guardian took on the appearance of ice. I swung Dawnbreaker around at it, but it blocked with an icy blade. We moved back and forth, swinging and countering, unable to best each other. The Guardian eventually managed to knock my sword aside long enough that it was able to jab its blade in toward my exposed neck. <> I Shouted, and the elemental and its blade melted. I jumped over the pool of water and swung my sword around at another of the Guardians. Its sword jumped across space to block my own. I slid my blade along its edge, twisting it around before pulling free. I jumped back as the sword swung past me and swung my own weapon in. The Guardian was unable to pull its blade up in time, and my Draconequus sword cut right through its body, separating its head and shoulder from its torso. Mephalda landed and began to hack away at the creatures with her Blackwing blades. As the last put up a fight, blocking her strikes with two swords of its own, I came in from behind, stabbing it in the back with Dawnbreaker. Mephalda pushed its weapons away and swung her swords around, cutting the creature’s head off. Before more of the Guardians could show up, we headed up the stairs, entering the dormitories. Mystic and Quicksilver blasted away with their magic as a horde of Guardians charged down the hall. Mephalda began to let arrows fly from her bow as they drew closer to us. I jumped to the side, landing on a bed, as one of the creatures swung a battleaxe at me. I swung Dawnbreaker around, blocking its next strike, and magic coursed down my blade, weakening my grip on it. I pulled my sword back, allowing the battleaxe to strike the bed. I jumped from the bed as it ignited from the spread of pure magic, and rolled to the side. I ducked as the Guardian swung its battleaxe over my head, smashing a dresser. Dawnbreaker swung through the air, chopping the elemental’s hooves off. I jumped back as magic spilled across the floor from the wounds. The Guardian swung its weapon back around at me, and I jumped to the side again. The next time the battleaxe swung at me, I pulled out my Changeling war axe and hooked it under my enemy’s blade, holding it in place. Dawnbreaker shot forward, impaling the Guardian and causing it to disintegrate into ash. I Shouted before charging back into the fray. Time slowed down for everypony but me, and I galloped through the attacking elementals, spearing and slashing them with my Draconequus sword. As time returned to normal, a path appeared behind me, covered in the ashes of fallen Guardians. I spun in a circle, Dawnbreaker out, and managed to kill one more before they converged on me. The Guardians nearby began their attack, swinging everything they could at me. I wasn’t able to fight them off, but I was at least able to keep them at a distance. I couldn’t let them touch me for fear of what that pure magic would do to my flesh. Holes began to appear in their chests and faceless heads as Mystic and Quicksilver fought their way toward me. I swung Dawnbreaker around on the offensive, knocking a Guardian’s war axe to the side. I followed up with a stab to the chest, and then spun around to block a sword swung at me. I drew my Draconequus sword down the blade, and jumped to the side as the enemy sword swung past me. As the elemental swung its sword down at my head, I brought Dawnbreaker up to block. Slowly it forced the blade down toward my head, and lightning began to shoot from the weapon’s tip. I ducked down to buy more time and drew the Blade of Hoofingar, stabbing it toward the Guardian’s chest. It abandoned Dawnbreaker and stopped my ebony sword, knocking it to the side. Lightning still spewed from its weapon’s tip, and I jumped in the air to avoid being shocked by the line of lightning that passed where my legs had been a moment earlier. I swapped my ebony sword for my Changeling war axe and swung it around, catching the elemental’s blade. As I held it in place, I stabbed Dawnbreaker into the Guardian’s chest, reducing it to a pile of ashes. Another Guardian came at me from behind, but Steadfast knocked it away with his warhammer. As it fell to the ground, he spun his weapon around and impaled it with the point on the opposite side of the hammer’s head. Another Guardian galloped down the hall, but Quicksilver burned it in half with the spell Mystic had discovered. We galloped toward where the Guardian’s had come from, nearing the Eye. As we passed the stairs to the Arch-Mage’s quarters, we came in sight of the doors to the main hall, where the Eye was housed. I stopped as I heard blasts of magic and pony screams coming from above. “There’s somepony up there,” I said, looking up the stairway. “We’re so close to the Eye,” Quicksilver said, “We can’t turn back now.” “But we can’t just leave them to die,” Mephalda protested. “Fine,” Quicksilver replied, heading for the stairs, “But let’s do this as quickly as possible.” We galloped up the stairs as fast as we could, and soon some of the Guardians came in sight. They were already facing us, no doubt aware that their fellows had died and that we’d be nearing them soon. As Mephalda shot an arrow at one, it swung its weapon through the air swiftly, deflecting it. The Guardians were becoming more powerful. It seemed that before, the Eye had needed to divide its energy through the numerous projections. Now that there were far less of them, more energy could be devoted to each of them. The Guardians here seemed more stable, and they were far more proficient with their weapons. I swung Dawnbreaker around at one wielding a warhammer, and it blocked, shoving me back down the stairs. It stomped toward me, crackling with energy, and swung the warhammer around, striking the stairs and cracking the stone. Steadfast swung his Changeling warhammer across the elemental’s back, and it collapsed. But, it was back up swiftly, swinging its warhammer at Steadfast, who dodged the weapon. It sent magic lancing out at him, forcing him to retreat up the stairs toward more of the elemental creatures. It came back down toward me as Steadfast fled and swung its weapon around at my head, smashing the banister. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as it swung down at me again. Magical energy left the blade as it struck my sword, and I began to lose control of my weapon. The Guardian drew back, preparing for another swing. As its warhammer soared through the air, it was hit by a blast of Mystic’s magic. The weapon wasn’t really real, and her spell burned the end off of it, turning it into a worthless stick. I jumped forward as the stick struck the stairs next to me, and drove Dawnbreaker through the elemental’s chest. Quicksilver blasted away at the Guardians that were attacking Steadfast, and we regrouped. Mystic and Quicksilver sent blasts of magic forward continuously as we climbed the stairs. Mephalda flew above them, firing arrows instead of spells. Steadfast and I trotted up in front of them, disabling any Guardians lucky enough to make it through their magical barrage. At last we reached the top and the door to the Arch-Mage’s quarters. The door was scorched and was hanging partway off its hinges, but it was still there. The sound of magic blasts was coming from the room, but stopped as we pushed open the door the rest of the way. Within were several mages from the College. Ash piles lay everywhere, proving that they’d been doing far more than just hiding while the attack was going on. A red unicorn stallion trotted toward us while the rest tended the magical burns they’d sustained during the fight. “Blaze, what happened in here?” Quicksilver asked as he approached. “Clairvoyance happened,” he said angrily, grinding his teeth, “He thought he could control the Eye of Magnus, but now it’s controlling him. I was there when he tried to activate it. I warned him not to do it, but he wouldn’t listen.” “Luckily I anticipated something would go wrong, and I ordered the students to hide themselves and put up wards in the more secure rooms. Hopefully they’re still alive. We barely made it out of the great hall in our haste to reach here. Many unicorns died; many more are now controlled by that thing Clairvoyance brought to our College. He’ll pay for what he’s done, I swear to you.” “We can worry about the Arch-Mage later,” Quicksilver said, “Right now we’ve got to destroy the Eye of Magnus, before its power spreads. All of the Northlands will fall if we allow that.” “Quite,” Blaze replied, “Just give us a moment and we’ll be ready.” Once the mages around us finished tending to their wounds, we headed back down the stairs. Blaze and Quicksilver led the way through the doors to the College’s main hall. And, by led the way, I mean they blasted through the magically protected doors. The Eye of Magnus hovered right where it had been the last time we’d been here, glowing brighter than I’d ever seen. The lifeless bodies of unicorns and a few curious refugees lay scattered around the room. Lightning bolts arced from time to time between the Eye and magically protected walls. Clairvoyance floated in the air near the Eye, a band of magical lightning connecting him to it. His body was motionless, and he seemed to have no life in him whatsoever. His eyes suddenly snapped open, and light spilled from them as we approached. “Come no closer, or you shall meet your end,” he said, though it seemed more like he was being used as a puppet by the Eye than actually speaking to us. “Inquisitive and troublesome creatures,” he continued, the Eye speaking through him, “You must realize that you’ve accomplished nothing by coming here.” “We killed your Guardians, and now we’ll destroy you!” Blaze challenged the Eye, “You’re defenseless!” “Hardly. My power cannot be extinguished, nor can it wane. It can only grow! I will take your magic as my own, and then I will spread, until all the world is under my control. As for destroying me, you wouldn’t dare even attempt such a thing. I have your leader under my complete control, and he shall die if I am harmed.” In response, Blaze sent a blast of magic at the Eye. It greedily began to suck it up, pulling the magic in and growing more powerful. But, something was distinctly wrong about Blaze’s magic. As the Eye soaked it up, its pulses of light became more erratic. Whatever the Destruction professor was doing, it was working. He called for help as the Eye sucked greedily at him, trying to pull him in like Clairvoyance. The other mages lent a hoof, copying Blaze’s dark spell. The Eye continued to draw in the magical energy until it realized something was wrong. Dark spurts of magic flew from it, blocking out the light. Still, it was stuck pulling the magic in and couldn’t stop. The Eye spun erratically, its plates grinding against each other. “Now!” Blaze shouted, “Somepony hit it while it’s vulnerable!” I obliged, drawing Dawnbreaker and charging toward the shaking metal globe. I struck it with my Draconequus sword, sheering through the strange metal. Plates went flying as I galloped away, and the Eye exploded in a shower of magic. The whole College shook as the magical energy was released, and all the mages were knocked off their hooves. The pieces of the Eye disintegrated completely, leaving no trace of their existence. “It’s a shame Clairvoyance had to die,” Quicksilver said as she looked at his lifeless body, “He wasn’t a bad Arch-Mage, just misdirected.” “He was probably dead before we even got here,” Blaze said, joining his colleague, “The Eye was draining everypony here of magic, and he had more to give than most.” “Who will be Arch-Mage now?” I asked. “Well, he never named a successor,” Mystic said, “Any of the head professors could take his place.” “There are only two of us left,” Blaze said, “Only Quicksilver and I. You can have the position. I don’t want it.” “Oh no,” Quicksilver said, “There’s no way I’m letting you give me the Arch-Mage position, much as I’d like it. You were the one who said all along that Clairvoyance shouldn’t mess with powers beyond his control, and you were the one who got most of the College to safety before the disaster struck. I think what we need most right now is an Arch-Mage who knows his limits. And the fact that you don’t even want the position means you’re even more fitting for the job.” “Fine,” Blaze replied, “I accept. I will be the College of Winterhorn’s new Arch-Mage. Let’s get to work cleaning up this mess.” Level Up Health: 370 Stamina: 370 Magicka: 360 New Perk: Unbreakable [Lockpick] -- No matter how difficult the lock, you will be able to save your lockpicks, and they will never break. New Quest: The Evil Below -- Enter Ragnfoald and retrieve the Element of Harmony hidden there.