//------------------------------// // Secure, Contain, Protect // Story: The Twilight Years // by Crimmar //------------------------------//         Celestia’s horn was covered in a soothing golden glow as she activated the familiar spell that allowed her to be heard outside her doors.         “Please, enter.”         A Solar guard reverently walked in Princess Celestia’s personal rooms followed by two Royal guards who carried a metal case. Celestia watched carefully, trying to hide the anticipatory smile that was threatening to replace her normal, serene one.         The Solar guard, normally a perfectly behaved young mare, was walking with a proud and infallible expression. Her Solar guards were always so proud to be allowed to her private space. It made them feel special. As if being in close proximity of where she spent the night snoring made them superior. She had tried various ways to rub them off this kind of behavior with various results, most of them inefficient. Even her best attempts only worked for a few short years before this kind of attitude resurfaced.         Which made it such a pleasure to see how the sight of Raegdan in her parlor, in nothing but shorts and all his scarred glory, erased that miniscule smug curling of lips on that guard’s face. It amazed her how seeing somepony they disliked enjoy the same “privilege” instantly made it less noteworthy. It was all over in a flickering of the Solar guard’s eyes, but Celestia didn’t miss it.         The way Raegdan jovially waved at the guards, with a self-satisfied smile, she guessed that he didn’t either. Twilight and Spike were lying on top of a large pillow each, too immersed in their books to notice.         Celestia pointed towards a low table and ordered the guards to leave their cargo there. “Is this everything?” she asked the Solar guard.         “Yes, your highness.” The mare read from a note. “One wooden figurine of a pony, cursed. Two runic staves, spells contained unknown, presumed cursed. One spellbook, presumed to hold within dark spells-”         “Presumed?” Celestia asked. “Nopony checked it?”         “We did, Your Radiance. A peek at the first page was enough to drive a pony crazy for twelve hours. We believe that-”         “It’s cursed. I see. That fool really enjoyed curses, didn’t he?”         “I was also instructed to inform you that the stallion in question died in the dungeons one hour ago.”         Celestia allowed her full disappointment to flare out of her eyes. “I believe I had made it clear that no harm was to come to him.”         “Yes, Your Highness. However, we believe he had cursed himself too, in case he was ever imprisoned.”         Celestia removed the metal lid and checked the contents without touching them. “Judging by the strength of these enchantments, he may have even done it without meaning to. Spend too much time performing a type of spell, it becomes as instinctive as breathing. Such a waste of talent and potential,” she sighed. “Are all of his victims cured?”         “We cleared the last one this morning, Your Grace.” One of the Royal guards offered her a folder which she gave to Princess Celestia in turn. “The Solar Guard has collected a few proposals of dealing with these artifacts if removing the spells proves inefficient.”         Celestia opened the folder and leafed through it. A few, she says. More dry reading. Yay. Like she didn’t have enough already. Her eyes briefly flicked towards her office door with a little bit of guilt. She hadn’t been in there for two days. Who knows what mountainous piles awaited for her now.         “Thank you. You may return to your posts,” Celestia dismissed her guards. They saluted and left, leaving her to take care of another mess.         She carefully prodded the items in the metal box with her magic. Green sparks flared around them as she touched them, and swiftly withdrew. Nope. Simple dispelling wouldn’t work, and they were protected against destruction.         “Dangerous stuff?” Raegdan asked.         “Quite enough,” Celestia answered. She took the folder and found a comfortable spot to lie on and read.         “So, I guess you’re going to destroy all this?” “I can’t. The simple act of trying to destroy them would turn all their collected magic against the closest target.” She checked the first proposal. Two pages that basically amounted to burying them. She tried that once. You tend to realize it doesn’t work that well when you live long enough to see somepony happen on it, and then have to go through the harrowing experience all over again. “What are you going to do then, Princess?” little Twilight asked. Celestia left the first option fall aside. “Contain them. At least until we find a way to remove the spells.” Second verse, same as the first. Throw them in the sea. How original. Like a message in a bottle. The last thing she wanted was for a little foal to come across a certain pony figurine and think it’s a toy. Raegdan checked the clock. “Hmm. I’m sure something will turn up. You guys have been at it for too long. Anyone want a snack?” Twilight and Spike answered as one. “Yes please!” Raegdan clapped his hands. “Alright. I’m thinking, it’s getting kinda chilly, so how about we light up the fireplace, toast some bread, and empty some of the jars of jam and chocolate that Celestia thinks she’s hidden in here?” The princess stopped reading the temple proposal. It was basically a plan that would waste millions of bits to put the items in question at the end of a danger course that any pony athletic or magically powerful enough would be able to reach, but damn her if it wasn’t interesting enough to read about. She had a hankering to go through it just so she could try it out herself. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about.” Raegdan reached behind the glass cabinet and pulled out a jar of peach jam. “Oh, alright. Fine. Make some for me too. I need to restock anyway,” she admitted. At least he didn’t know about- “Would you like something to drink too? You barely got a glassful of brandy left. You might want to finish it off and restock that too.” Horseapples. “No, thank you. Just a few slices with jam will be enough. Do you need help with the fireplace?” “I can light a fire on my own. You just keep reading… whatever you’re reading. Any good ideas there to “contain” this stuff?” Raegdan moved in front of the fireplace while she went back to reading. “Not really. This one’s suggesting we build a secret room and stash them inside, along with a trap or two in case somepony removes them.” “Unless you empty the palace and built it yourself, I don’t see how you could keep it secret,” Raegdan said. Twilight hummed in thought. “The Princess could close off an area for renovations. Nopony would know.” “The workers would,” Raegdan noted. “Unless you intend to- whoah!” Celestia turned to see what happened, but the way Raegdan was sitting his scarred back was hiding her view. “Are you ok?” “Yeah, just got burnt a little bit. I’m fine,” he assured her. “Anyway, as I was saying, you either tell the workers what that room is for, or you magic their memories away. Otherwise, there will be rumors and some idiot will try to find out what you hid there. Or they’ll stumble upon it by sheer luck someday, unless you build that room in here.” “Not necessarily,” Celestia said. “I’ve done the same at my old castle, in the Everfree Forest. Nopony ever found it.” “Really? What did you hide in there Princess?” Twilight asked. “A dangerous book,” Celestia answered. “It had the tendency to take over the mind of the caster.” “Where is that book now?” Spike asked. “It’s… uh…” Raegdan laughed. “You left it there, didn’t you?” Celestia raised her head. “It’s no matter. It’s still well hidden.” “Yes,” Raegdan agreed, still laughing. “In a secret room, in a ruined ancient castle. Heavens know, no one will ever go there searching for treasure or secrets, right? How certain are you about how well it’s hidden?” “Not that much now, thanks to you,” she admitted. “I suppose I should head over there sometime soon and remove it.” She could hear Raegdan snapping wood with his bare hands. “If you need something to start the fire with-” “I’ve got something here. It’s more than enough. What other options do you have?” Celestia went back to reading. “Put it on an enchanted platform and let it sail on the sky, hidden and invisible.” “Either a pegasus finds it or a storm drops it down. What else?” “Throw them in a volcano.” “Wouldn’t that count as destroying them?” “Give them to a dragon.” “A nice way to get a dragon come after you when they inevitably go boom.” “Send them to the sun.” “Can… can you do that?” “Not without help from certain magical items.” “Hmm. As far as I know, the sun tends to be hot. Wouldn’t attempting to do that…” “Yes. Also, if I were to use these magical items it would be easier to just neutralize the curses. Next one. Embed them in another object, something precious enough to refrain anypony from destroying them or looking into them, like an art piece or something similar. Perhaps a statue.” “That’s… not half bad,” Raegdan said, complimenting the idea in his own way. “If you can find a way to mask their magic that is.” Celestia nodded along. “I’m keeping this one as the best so far. Ooh, this one is good too. Shrink them, embed them in a boulder, teleport the boulder blindly beneath a mountain.” “Will the spells to enchant them work if the object are cursed?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, and don’t objects get destroyed sometimes when you teleport them somewhere blindly?” Spike added. “Hmm. This could still work with some changes. I like to be able to keep an eye on these kind of things however.” Twilight rolled over on her back. “Why can’t you just keep them in a personal safe room or something?” “And… we have a winner. I think, my dear student, that your proposal is the most simple, direct, and efficient one.” Twilight’s face brightened at her mentor’s approval. A plate of warm slices of toasted bread, topped with various jams appeared before her. Raegdan put two more in front of Twilight and Spike, where he had obviously thickly layered the jam. For himself, as usual, he kept the most burnt pieces and whatever was left. She had given up on fighting him on that. After a few minutes, when they all finished their snack, Celestia used her magic to bring the metal case to her. She frowned. Something was off… A look in the empty box revealed what exactly happened. “Raegdan,” she prompted. “Yeah?” “What did you do with what was in here?” Raegdan stopped sweeping the few breadcrumbs that had fallen down and scratched at his short beard. “I needed some wood and paper to get the fire burning.” One of these days she would find out if an Alicorn can have an aneurysm. “I did mention how they are cursed and-” “Magic immunity. They could be destroyed just fine as long as I held them. They threw some sparks on me. That’s all,” he waved her off. Celestia rubbed her forehead, just below her horn. “What about the spellbook? We weren’t going to destroy this anyway, in case there was something important in it.” Raegdan put the empty jars in a bag and threw it in the trash bin. “Nah. I checked the table of contents. Just nasty spells. Most of them were about causing pain, like the feeling of nails in your hooves and such. The rest were…” Raegdan’s eyes flicked briefly but revealingly over Twilight and Spike. “The “domination” kind of spells. There was a brief description beneath each.” “Raegdan,” Celestia said, trying her best to remain calm. “That book was cursed. It was made to drive everypony who read it crazy. Magic might not bodily affect you, but a spell like that…” Raegdan sat down, looking at her with a sly smile. “Ok, first point. How could you even tell if it drove me crazy?” “That’s not funny.” “Second, not a pony. My mind is too different, at least biologically. Come on, I’m fine, you don’t have to worry about this stuff again… relax. It’s all good.” Spike was rubbing his stomach and looking at it curiously. “Hey dad?” “Yes little flame?” “Does that mean we ate evil toast?” Raegdan eyes widened. Celestia quickly used her magic to put out the fireplace. She quickly realized what Raegdan got instantly worried about and it was absurd, but she decided to roll with it. It might push him into letting her know about trying something similar next time. Twilight scoffed at the idea but didn’t speak up when she noticed Celestia motion for her to stay silent. “I think we should make a short visit to the hospital wing for a quick check up, what do you think?” she asked, needling Raegdan. “I- uh. Yeah. Let’s go. Now.” “I think I feel an evil burp coming on,” Spike let them know. “Hold it in!” Raegdan cried out. “Or no, wait, let it out. Wait!” He grabbed Spike and took him to the window. “Let it go,” he instructed. Spike burped out a long lance of fire. A pony yelped out. “What happened?” Celestia asked. Raegdan leaned out of the window. “Uh… he got one pegasus guard down and he landed on four other guards below. So… full points for aim, I guess?” “Now he’s teaching the kids to hurt us too!” Spike jumped on the ledge. “Sorry! My fault. I had an evil burp!” “Sweet Celestia, kid! What happens if you get evil gas?”