//------------------------------// // Division of Labor // Story: Death Be Not Proud // by ShinigamiDad //------------------------------// “The Void? Grey Thorn’s Void?” Twilight nodded to Celestia: “It has to be! The location, the dark tendrils, the directed seeking. It must be an effect of the Void!” Celestia took a sip of cider, furrowed her brow and waved over an attendant: “Please bring a carafe of wine--I suspect we all could use a drink of something a bit stronger!” Zecora entered the throne room from an antechamber and walked unsteadily to the foot of Celestia’s dais. A toilet could be heard flushing in the background. “You have reckoned things quite true / I will share a draught with you!” Celestia smiled and gestured for Zecora to sit on a large cushion at the foot of the throne: “So what are we to do about it? If I recall Luna and Reaper’s notes on the topic, it’s lost deep below the castle--neither of them was able to get anywhere near it!” Twilight sat down on a low couch and rubbed her temples: “I know, and I’m torn! I need to keep cleaning up departed spirits before they all get lost, or worse, but I also know I’m best suited to lead a search for the Void.” Celestia took a deep breath: “So, let’s look at this from a strategic level: is there anypony besides you who can dispatch spirits and, if worst comes to worst, fight off hauntings and possessions?” Twilight furrowed her brow and took a sip of wine: “There are a few of your stronger wizard unicorns, especially Solar Gleam, who could likely take on a haunting. But he’d have to be able to locate it first, and that’s a long process without my, well, unique, skills.” Celestia nodded: “And what do expect will be needed to track down the Void?” “The ability to trace its influence and defend against its probing and attacks.” Celestia took a long drink from her chalice and nodded again: “And who, besides you, has shown themselves capable of this?” Twilight sighed and tipped her head toward the zebra: “Zecora has. I know she can track it with her powder, but…” “You fear that I might fall afoul / If it should trick me as I prowl.” Twilight bit her lip. Celestia sat her chalice down and waved over her assistant: “Please find Solar Gleam and Flight Captain Shatter, and have them report to me at once.” The pale cyan unicorn turned on her heels and trotted briskly from the throne room. Celestia turned back to Twilight: “I understand your concern. What is your expectation of this, this thing, when we do find it?” “I don’t really know. I know Reaper collapsed and contained it, but clearly it’s leaking, or something. I suspect it’s casting about, looking for Grey Thorn, seeking its creator, channeling death in the way it used to when it was under his control.” “And what did you plan to do once you had found it?” “Barricade it, trap it behind shield spells and wards, and wait for Luna and Reaper to get back so we could all come up with a proper disposal plan.” “Which will ultimately be in the Pit of Tartarus, yes?” Twilight tipped her head back and drained her cup “That’s the intent, yes. Though how we’re supposed to move the thing I have no clue. None of us has any real experience with the Void outside of battle.” Celestia looked up and motioned for the grizzled, silver-grey unicorn and iridescent electric-blue pegasus now standing in the far doorway to enter the throne room. “I believe I may have the solution to our problem, Twilight. You were right to call out Solar Gleam, but not as a tracker. He and Shatter, my top warrior, can accompany Zecora on her quest to find and cordon off the Void.” Zecora nodded: “Leaving you the thankless role / of rounding up each wayward soul.” Twilight furrowed her brow and looked pensively between the three ponies seated at the foot of the dais: “I don’t know, Celestia. You saw what it did in Appleloosa--I heard the story of the attack there! And none of you saw it fully unleashed like I did!” She closed her eyes and shuddered. Celestia nodded: “That is true, but as you said, it has largely been contained and weakened.” Solar Glean stood stiffly and walked beside Celestia: “Besides, if I’ve heard everything rightly, ours is not a combat or disposal mission, but simply one of locating and entrapping.” Shatter swallowed a mouthful of wine and stretched her wings: “And I owe Grey Thorn big time for Top Cover and Green Streak! But since that shit-stain’s in Tartarus, I guess I’ll have to make due with corralling his fucked-up toy.” Twilight walked to a window and put her empty wine cup on the sill: “Alright, I guess we don’t really have any other good options. Nopony has any guess as to when Luna and Reaper will return, and we can’t let this thing spread any further.” Celestia stood: “What will you need?” Twilight shrugged and patted the scabbard that hung on her left side: “I have everything I need, here. As for the Void seekers…” She turned to Zecora: “Do you have enough of that blue powder? Can you show one of the staff potion makers how to produce it?” Zecora nodded: “It’s largely root of Poison Joke / enriched with timberwolf’s death smoke.” Solar Gleam raised an eyebrow: “You burn timberwolves to produce the smoke?” The zebra smiled coldly: “With their penchant for mayhem / it oft comes down to me or them!” Celestia stepped forward: “That’s not important right now. What is important is that it works, and that we be able to produce more.” Zecora turned to a side table, picked up a quill, and began to jot down instructions: “If they can follow this process / they can make it in excess.” Solar Gleam levitated the detailed note in front of his eyes and peered at it closely: “This seems fairly rudimentary--the creation of a second-year student or acolyte.” He turned to Twilight: “Are you sure this stuff actually works as advertised, Princess?” Zecora glared, but Twilight cut her off: “I’ve seen it work flawlessly three times, Solar! In fact, the third time it might have worked a bit too well!” She turned to Zecora: “Do you have any guess why that happened? As you three get closer to the source, I fear it’s likely to get more unpredictable, even without help!” Zecora raised an eyebrow and nodded. She walked to Solar and curtly took the scrap of parchment from the air. “You speak the truth in that respect / This should dampen that effect.” She returned to the side table and scribbled several additional notes and corrections, before offering it to Celestia. “Thank you, Zecora! I will get my staff working on this right away so that you have all the tracking powder you need in…” She squinted at the notes: “Two days, if I read this correctly. Your notations don’t quite align with standard unicorn practice.” Zecora’s eyes narrowed, and again Twilight stepped forward: “It’s OK, Princess--Zecora and I actually have produced a pretty thorough set of term conversions and equivalent measures over the last couple of years. I’ll get them to your Potions Master.” Celestia nodded at her protégé and the zebra: “No disrespect meant, Zecora, I just want to ensure we follow your directions to the letter, and get you the materials you need as soon as possible!” Solar Gleam rolled his eyes but held his tongue. Shatter stood up and drained her cup: “So what are we looking at terrain-wise? Where do we start?” Twilight nodded to the pegasus: “Good question. I suppose it’s time we introduced you to the ‘scene of the crime,’ as it were.” Celestia turned and headed toward a side exit: “If you will all follow me, Twilight and I will show you the source of all this.” Shatter fell in line behind Celestia: “And the source of all these crazy rumors, too, I suppose!” Twilight brought up the rear as the group descended a narrow stairway and exited into a small walled garden: “I’ve heard a lot of the rumors as well, Captain. When we get down into the catacombs I can explain things a bit.” Celestia led the four ponies around the corner of the castle tower and along several hundred yards of inner wall, ending in front of a barricaded, guarded hole. The unicorn and pegasus standing watch snapped to attention. The two guards regarded Celestia with curiosity and warily eyed Zecora and Twilight. The cream-colored unicorn in gold-trimmed gear turned to Celestia and bowed: “What brings you down here, Princess?” “Twilight and I need to show our guests the catacombs. Is the archaeology team still down below?” “No, they called it a day about twenty minutes ago.” Celestia nodded as she led Zecora and the others past the guards, down the scaffolding into the darkness below: “Thank you, Sergeant. Please let the next rotation know we’re down here.” The guard ponies saluted as Celestia and Shatter walked by, and bowed politely as Twilight finally disappeared into the opening. The dark grey pegasus guard leaned in toward her companion as they stepped back from the hole: “Shit, she gives me the creeps, now!” The five ponies entered Grey Thorn’s creation chamber, the bright light from three unicorn horns casting long, shifting shadows across the stained and pitted floor. They walked toward the center as Twilight magically lit the series of lamps arrayed around the chamber, flooding the space with a cool, white light. Solar shook his head in disbelief: “So the Princesses really died here? That’s not just a wild rumor?” Twilight pointed to a dark stain a few yards to her left: “It’s no rumor. I was torn to pieces right there.” “Unbelievable! I would really like to have met this Grey Thorn! Clearly twisted, but just as clearly a genius!” Twilight shook her head: “I can assure you that you would not have wanted to meet him, or his grotesque creation!” “Perhaps, but given the story you just told, he likely could have cleared up an old legend.” Celestia raised an eyebrow: “Legend?” Solar strolled slowly toward the side niche containing the mirror, examining the floor and walls as he went, stepping gingerly past a barricade: “Yes. As you know, I specialize in ancient unicorn magic, from the dark years of strife and discovery.” “That’s why I selected you for this mission.” “And rightly so, Your Highness!” Twilight rolled her eyes: “So, again, what legend?” “Yes. Legend. There are veiled references through the old stories of Starswirl having a hidden servant or assistant or slave. It’s never entirely clear.” Celestia nodded and walked up to the mirror, peering at its cracked surface: “I recall. I knew of the rumors at the time, but didn’t follow-up on it. I had more, well, pressing matters on my mind.” “Your sister--I understand. Well in any event, the rumor has come down through old mares’ tales of Starswirl’s serving colt, and his dark end…” Celestia’s eyes went wide: “Bramble! I can’t believe I never thought of that before now!” Twilight furrowed her brow: “‘Bramble?’ I’ve never come across anything like that in my readings!” Solar smiled coolly: “I’m not surprised, Princess. I know your reading list has been thorough, but it is grounded in classic, academic research. I speak of scraps of legend and dark hints. Not normal territory for one of Her Highness’ prized pupils!” Twilight looked over her shoulder at the chamber’s far wall and the bone pit below: “Wait, you said ‘dark end.’ What dark end?” “It was said that Starswirl sacrificed Bramble in an effort to fend off death. Clearly poppycock! It is well-known that Starswirl dabbled in dark magic, but he would never have taken that road!” Twilight chewed her lip: “No, but you’d be surprised how close he came.” She turned back toward Celestia: “It makes sense, now! Grey Thorn must have been the source of those rumors after Starswirl’s death!” Celestia nodded slowly: “Yes. That would have erased him from the popular tales as he went about erasing or hiding the actual record of his existence, and time with Starswirl.” “The blocked-up passages, the emptied secret library…” Solar raised an eyebrow: “Secret library? The one purported to lie beneath his old basement library?” Twilight nodded. “I would very much like to see this place!” Celestia smiled sadly: “Unfortunately, Grey Thorn did a very thorough job of emptying it out. Still, when you all have finished your work, I’m sure Twilight can arrange a visit.” Solar nodded and turned back toward the mirror: “Speaking of rumors, there was a long-standing rumor of one mirror, since validated--” he gestured toward Twilight, “but not two!” Twilight nodded: “We think this was either an earlier assay in the craft, likely created jointly with Grey Thorn, or a new creation of Grey Thorn’s after Starswirl’s death.” Solar put up a hoof as if to touch the mirror’s surface. The alicorns gasped in tandem, and Celestia threw out a golden restraining band from her horn, pulling the startled unicorn back several feet. Twilight stepped between Solar and the mirror: “Don’t touch it! We have no idea what might happen, or how fragile it is at this point, or anything!” Celestia nodded as she dissolved the restraint: “It’s the only way back for Luna and Reaper; nopony is to touch it!” Solar furrowed his brow: “Fascinating…” Zecora slowly walked across the chamber floor toward the hole in its middle as Shatter shrugged impatiently. “Yeah, cool. Then why are we really down here?” Zecora stopped in front of a low barrier surrounding the dark gap: “This hole, I take it, is the source / of our mysterious dark force?” Twilight turned and made her way around the niche’s barricade, stopping next to Zecora: “Yes. That’s where the Void passed through the floor. Nopony saw it happen, but it looks like it just passed through effortlessly, without a trace.” Shatter stepped up: “How far down does the hole go?” Celestia walked up behind the pegasus: “Uncertain. The excavation team sent down a plumb bob on a length of heavy cord. They stopped after it had gone a thousand yards, and pulled it back when they realized the weight was gone.” Twilight raised an eyebrow: “Gone?” “Yes. The report indicates that the cord came back up clean-cut: no trace of a knot, no fraying, no scorching. The weight was just gone.” Twilight nervously licked her lips: “It must have touched the surface of the Void.” Shatter kicked a small stone into the hole: “Great, so no touchy--got it! We weren’t planning on climbing on the damn thing anyway, right?” “No--just find it and cordon it off. We’ll have to come up with a disposal process once Luna and Reaper return.” Shatter raised an eyebrow and looked up from the hole: “If they return.” Twilight’s eyes widened and she took a step backwards, bumping into Celestia: “They--they have to come back!” Shatter shrugged: “Sweetheart, the graveyards are full of ponies who had to come back!” She pointed at the sword hanging off Twilight’s side: “I’d have figured you got that by now…” Celestia stepped next to Twilight and rose to her full height: “Enough! We have plenty to concern us in the here-and-now without indulging in worst-case scenarios.” Shatter bowed slightly: “Agreed, Princess. I just prefer to think about the hard things up front, you know? Not hold back ‘til the bitter end.” Celestia furrowed her brow: “The hard things…” She shook her head and blinked: “On that note, Captain, let’s get some up-front things out of the way. Follow me, everypony.” Celestia strode across the uneven floor to the back wall, and down into the bone pit, stopping in front of the same loose stonework Luna had encountered weeks earlier. She gestured around them “I doubt your powder would do you much good here, Zecora--this whole chamber was a charnel house. I suspect your blue dust would just hang suspended in the air, trapped in confusion!” Twilight nodded: “Especially down here! This is where Grey Thorn dispatched his sacrifices. But I don’t entirely understand why you brought us down into the pit, Princess?” Celestia smiled: “You recall Luna’s story of rescuing Reaper?” Twilight nodded. “She accessed the area beneath this chamber through a secret passageway hidden behind this wall of the pit.” Solar Gleam raised an eyebrow: “How?” Celestia stood silent and looked at Twilight expectantly. Twilight chewed her lip: “Grey Thorn’s design...hidden stonework…” She nodded as a haze of dark magic formed around her horn. She passed her horn back and forth across the rock face, illuminating multiple glyphs and symbols. Solar took a half step back in mild alarm: “You’re quite good at that, Princess!” Twilight smiled grimly as she studied the glyphs: “Yeah, I had some talent for it before, but I can really pour it on since acquiring Reaper’s powers!” She squinted at the symbols, then her ears drooped and she sighed: “Dammit, Luna! You kept more of it, didn’t you?” Zecora glanced between the inscrutable, glowing shapes and Twilight: “What is the thing that Luna took / that generates this bothered look?” Twilight rolled her eyes: “Do you have a spare bottle, Zecora? You’re gonna need this…” Zecora lifted an empty vial out of her satchel as Twilight exposed her inner left wrist, piercing it with a thin, magic blade that glimmered a bright violet in the gloomy pit. Solar Gleam’s eyebrows jumped: “These are blood runes?” “Of an embarrassingly-specific type, yes.” Twilight stoppered the vial and returned it to Zecora, as she dipped the tip of her horn into the bead of blood still welling on her wrist. She leaned forward while sucking on her wrist to stop the bleeding, and touched her reddened horn to the glyphs. The wall face fell back and slid aside. She illuminated her horn and stepped down the narrow steps: “Tight fit--everypony watch your heads!” The five ponies worked their way down the cracked and uneven steps until they finally emerged on a small landing that opened out into the broad collection of caverns and fissures that underlay the castle. Twilight turned to Solar Gleam: “I assume you also have the ability to use dark magic?” He nodded as his eyes swept across the dark expanse before them: “Some, though not as much as you, clearly!” “It doesn’t really take much to illuminate most of the symbols. And I suspect you’ll be the one who needs to apply the blood with your horn as well.” Celestia looked up at the dark cavern roof above, and sent out a powerful illuminating beam: “That must be the hole the Void created in the chamber above us.” She tipped her head down, and all five ponies tracked the beam as it disappeared into the Stygian depths of the chasm below. Shatter shuddered: “Fuck me.” Celestia nodded: “Luna indicated that she had made it down several paths and passages before she found and rescued Reaper from a collapsed tunnel of some sort.” “Any idea how far down she’d gone?” “She wasn’t sure, but felt it was probably no more than two hundred yards. And of course she wasn’t really here to explore, so there are no details or map or anything.” “So what’s the plan?” Celestia turned away from the chasm, back toward the narrow upward passage: “Clearly you’re going to need a bit of time to round up materials and supplies. I hardly expect you to begin right this moment!” Solar Gleam turned to follow Celestia: “Clearly!” The five ponies worked their way back to the bone pit, and then out of the catacombs, climbing or flying along the scaffolding until they reached the surface. The castle wall behind them was bathed in the pink light of the setting sun as they stepped past Luna’s sable-clad guard. They had just started to walk across the grass toward Celestia’s tower when a breathless, light-brown unicorn trotted up to meet them. “Oh thank the Sisters I found you, Your Highness!” Celestia stopped and faced the flustered messenger: “What is it Grace?” “The Castle Guard report some sort of an attack out by the old stadium. They say it looks like magic, but not of a sort they’ve ever seen!” Twilight furrowed her brow: “I doubt we need Zecora’s blue powder to tell us what’s causing this attack!” She disappeared in a bright violet-white flash as Celestia turned to the remaining ponies: “You three head back to my chambers and begin assembling your supplies and materials--whatever you need, just tell my Chamberlain. I’m going to follow Twilight and see what I can do to help there.” Shatter furrowed her brow as Celestia teleported after Twilight: “I’d prefer to follow them, to be honest! I’m not a fan of confined spaces. Give me an old-fashioned, out-in-the open slugfest any day!” Zecora smiled grimly and nodded: “We may wish to switch tasks with those two / before all our battles are through!”