//------------------------------// // 5. Coming Together // Story: The Glass Kingdom // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Sneaking out of the Armería was no harder than sneaking into it – the swan-caped ponies were still at the entrance and still arguing with the Guarsai pony, who by now was looking furious, horn glowing bright in anger – and spell-casting, Trixie could tell with a quick application of her magic sight, something that sent out a signal back into the city. Calling for backup, most likely. As Lyra and Trixie reached the other side of the plaza that surrounded the Armería, the latter paused, holding out her hoof to stop Lyra as she did. “Okay, so the swan-ponies are the bad guys,” Trixie said, “and not all of the Guarsai are bad guys. Right? That’s what we’ve decided?” “Yeah, why?” Lyra asked. Trixie considered a moment more, one hoof to her mouth, then nodded to herself and reached out her magic, weaving an illusion of a black-clad, black-masked, black-coated pony – the very image of a thief – with a large sack over one shoulder trying to creep out of the Armería’s entrance in an incredibly obvious way. The illusion wasn’t particularly realistic looking, but at this distance it wouldn’t have to be. The Guarsai couldn’t help but see, and let out a shout of surprise, pointing. The swan-ponies all turned, saw Trixie’s illusion, and let out shouts of their own, charging. The Guarsai ponies followed. Trixie had her illusion scamper back inside, out of sight, and dispelled it. “There. My good deed for the day,” Trixie said, as she and Lyra turned, heading off. “Guarsai’s in the Armería now, can start investigating. He’ll smell the brimstone, probably be able to track the salamander’s magic the way I was.” Plus, when the Guarsai’s backup arrived, there wouldn’t be as many ponies at the gate – not nearly enough to stop them from entering. “I suppose, if this doesn’t work out, we’ll want to make sure the Guarsai can at least back up what we’re saying…” Lyra noted. “Okay, now where’s the High Mage’s place?” --- It was clear on the other side of the city, naturally, past both of the bridges that spanned the three peaks of Gotorleku Hiria, in the same district that housed the Royal Castle (whatever that was called in Zaldian). The Castle itself was a far larger complex than the High Mage’s estate, of course, but the estate was constructed on slightly higher ground and was organized around a tall central tower, the tip of which seemed like it would be higher up than the castle’s own tallest tower. There was probably something significant to that fact, Trixie thought. Mostly that it must have been a pain in the hooves to climb it often. The estate had a gate and was surrounded by walls, but both were far shorter than the ones that had surrounded the Armería. More to the point, the owner of the estate had made a fatal flaw in his landscaping decisions – several trees surrounded the wall from the outside, their branches in some places stretching over the wall itself. Ponies as a rule were not very good at climbing, but that rule didn’t count for ponies that had put in a lot of time and effort learning to do just that thanks to one Cheerilee, Element of Laughter, and self-appointed Sergeant-at-Hooves for the Elements of Harmony. Which was not to say that it was without incident. “Ow!” Trixie hissed as Lyra jumped down from the top of the wall. The tree limb she had been on, freed from her weight, had snapped back, and several of the smaller branches had smacked Trixie in the face and horn both, the latter of which disrupted her concentrating on the invisibility spell she had woven around the two of them. “Sorry!” Lyra called up as quietly as possible while Trixie approached the edge and glanced down. Ten foot drop – further than most ponies would feel safe dropping without the risk of breaking a limb, but once again Cheerilee’s insistence on the six Elements improving their physical ability helped out, as Trixie leaped from the tree branch, tucked her legs up, and rolled. She wanted to end the roll on her hooves in a crouch the way Lyra had managed, but instead somewhere between the landing and the rolling she got her directions mixed up and ended up on her back, legs straight up in the air. Lyra put a hoof to her muzzle at the sight, stifling a laugh. Trixie was up in a moment, dusting herself off. “Oh, shush,” she said, glancing up at her head. “My hat stayed on. That’s an achievement, isn’t it?” “I suppose,” Lyra noted, and glanced at herself. “Invisibility again?” Trixie shook her head. “I should probably give my horn a break for a minute or two anyway – and besides, if nopony’s come running at us already, they probably won’t at all.” She waved a hoof in the direction of the main gate. “If that’s unguarded, then the entire place probably is, at least in my experience.” Lyra considered as the two set off towards the back entrance of the estate. “In your experience…? Oh, wait, right. You used to try and sneak in on nobles and listen to them, before you came to Ponyville.” Trixie nodded before she realized what she was doing. “I mean,” she said quickly, “that was a long time ago…” “Not much more than a year, actually.” “Only that long?” Trixie wondered, considering. Lyra was right, it had only been a little more than a year since Trixie had come to Ponyville. She shook her head in amazement. She hadn’t exactly lead an inactive or boring life before, of course, but she felt like she’d been living in Ponyville for a lifetime. “In my defense,” Trixie said after a moment, “it’s not like I learned how to turn invisible with the intent of spying on ponies.” “Why did you, then?” Trixie smiled guiltily, as the two had reached the back entrance to the estate, a simple wooden door that no doubt would strongly contrast with the front doors. “To sneak into the Royal Kitchens for cookies,” she admitted as she bent down to examine the lock, waving her hoof at Lyra for the Element of Loyalty or, more correctly, its pin needle again. After a few minutes of work, she had the door open, revealing a darkened kitchen inside. Lyra and Trixie both lit up their horns, blue and gold glows mixing to bathe the room in a pale coriander light. “So where to first?” Lyra whispered as the two entered, closing the door behind them. “Highest room in the big tower,” Trixie whispered back, starting forward, confident she could navigate her way there. Beyond the kitchens were long, narrow hallways punctuated by tall windows that made sharp turns, but as long as Trixie kept moving forward she’d have to reach the central tower eventually. “That’s where Ispelu’s bedroom is going to be, meaning that Kristal Zati’s won’t be far away.” Trixie quelled her horn’s light, Lyra doing likewise; there was just enough natural light filtering in through the estate’s windows to see by. “So what exactly is our plan here?” Lyra asked. “Just shout at Zati for lying? How do we get him to confess? What if he isn’t actually in on anything, he just wanted to spite you?” “Ooh, that would be just like him,” Trixie noted, grimacing. They came across a set of stairs and took them up; a glance out one of the windows showed that the tower was only a few dozen feet away at most “I know it. ‘Oh, Trixie’s in trouble with the Guarsai? Well, I don’t know the details, but I’m sure I can make it worse!’” She shook her head. “I have no idea what his problem is – ” The two had been trotting past a pair of double-doors, Lyra right next to them – just as they opened, naturally, banging into her and causing her to yelp out in a mixture of surprise and pain. A distant part of Trixie experienced the tiniest bit of happiness that something had unexpectedly hit somepony other than her for a change; most of her attention, however, was locked on the room beyond. It was a private library, looking much like any other private library in any other location in Cissanthema: tall shelves full of books, comfortable couches for sitting on and tables for setting down drinks or papers or whatever, a few tchotchkes and collectables, and the inevitable globe of the world. The library was lit by gaslight lamps behind green-tinted glass, giving the whole room an eerie look. Also Kristal Zati was standing right there in the doorway, still wearing his black-and-silver cape, several books clasped in his pale blue aura. He had been looking down at one, but his eyes widened when they locked with Trixie’s. “Duzu!” He exclaimed, dropping all the books he held. Trixie grinned her most wicked of grins, the kind she normally only pulled out for foals on Nightmare Night. “Moi!” she called, horn glowing bright blue and telekinetically shoving Zati back a dozen feet. He stumbled, but didn’t fall, eyes narrowing. “Me too…” Lyra groaned as she stood back up, rubbing her snout where the door had hit her, getting her first look at Kristal Zati. “Wow, he looks exactly like what I thought he would look like…” “What are you doing here?!” Zati demanded, setting his hooves down more firmly, horn glowing bright and readying himself. “We’re here because you lied to the Guarsai!” Trixie responded with a stomp of her hoof, then advanced a few paces into the room. “You told them that we never met! Why did you do that…” she trailed off a moment, then her eyes widened and she pointed at him. “And you’re speaking Equestrian! You lied about that, too?!” “Is that important?” Lyra asked as she advanced into the room as well, her own horn glowing gold. “Yes!” Trixie exclaimed, glancing down at the floor quickly as she did, and around the room as well, taking stock quickly. “Because it shows that he’s a lying liar about everything!” Her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing? How are you involved with the thefts at the Armería? Why are you involved in them? Why are you trying to blame Equestria? We’ve been at peace for centuries!” Kristal Zati’s eyes narrowed. “Peace?” he asked. His somewhat nasal Zaldian accent, at least, remained thick. “The peace of ezpata – the sword. The Ekwestriko juggernaut looms over the whole continent. It surrounds Zaldia on all sides. Don’t even try to pretend that Cavallia is anything other than your puppet! And now? With Ekwestrika falling into civil war?” “We’re not in a civil war!” Lyra objected. “There’s just Corona. Nopony would follow her! Nopony sane, anyway!” Zati smiled a grim smile at that. “I’m sure the loyalists in every revolution think that of the rebel leader, at first,” he said. “I don’t have to explain our actions to you – ” “Our actions?” Trixie caught, stepping forward again. “Who else are you working with?” Zati clamped his mouth shut, and his glare intensified. “Nahikoa,” he said. “I don’t answer to you.” His horn flashed brightly, and Trixie and Lyra’s own horns both felt the thrum of a simple spell being cast. “I have alerted the Guarsai. They will be here in just a few minutes. More than enough time to subdue – ” His horn had lit up again, but Lyra responded first, letting out a shout and weaving magic into it, creating a wall of sonic force that disrupted Zati’s concentration. The unicorn turned to face Lyra, but Trixie was already spell-weaving herself, conjuring a quartet of bright glowing lights right in his face, then wrapping magic around the rug that Zati had been standing on and pulling. He let out a yelp of surprise as he lost his footing and fell to the ground. Trixie used the opportunity to dash to one side of the room, Lyra to another, even as Trixie’s magic reached out and conjured an illusory double of herself and Lyra where they just had been. Zati stood up, glowering at Trixie. His horn flashed brightly, dispelling the illusions without a glance, then conjuring a shield to one side of him to ward off another sonic attack from Lyra. Once the shield was up, he fired off a bolt of energy at Trixie – and his eyes widened in shock when the bolt only went through and dispelled the second illusion. Trixie allowed herself to appear in a puff of blue smoke, standing on her hind legs atop one of the couches’ backs – she’d had plenty of time to move and turn invisible there while Zati laboriously cast one spell after another. Her horn glowed as she grabbed the globe in the room and threw it at him. He ducked it, but then a book grabbed from a shelf hit him in the flank. He sent out another lance of energy at Trixie, but she brought up her own shield spell even as she continued to grab things with telekinesis and throw them at Zati. Like most unicorns, it seemed Zati could only cast one spell at a time. They were probably even very good spells – but Trixie had learned years ago that quantity had a quality all on its own. Zati let out a roar, ignoring the pain of the next book to hit him and unleashing a far more powerful burst of magic at Trixie’s shield, shattering it and sending a jolt of pain straight down her horn as that happened. She fell off the back of the couch – a tactical move, she would tell anyone who asked, since it got her out of sight of Zati, who had begun another spell. He didn’t get a chance to cast it, though, as Lyra had made her way around Zati’s shield, taking her lyre from her back and running her hooves across it. The spellsong entwined itself around Zati’s horn and quenched the magic there – painfully, from the way he grabbed at his head. He turned to regard Lyra, but another spellsong washed over him, and he somehow instead managed to twist himself too far, falling to the floor again, legs flailing around as though his sense of balance had been totally stolen from him. Trixie stood up, smiling and saluting Lyra in thanks, then looking to Zati, who’d barely managed to get to his own four hooves again and looking like he was about to be sick. “Give up – ” she began. Zati’s horn glowed bright – and then brighter. Trixie had just enough time to muffle a shout of annoyance and listen as closely as she could for Zati as bright, hot light flooded the room, blinding everypony in it. --- “This is the worst!” Lyra exclaimed as she stumbled backwards, clutching at her eyes and blinking rapidly. She felt a couch and grabbed it telekinetically, putting it up in front of her as a shield while she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the glare from her eyes. She set it down after a few moments, though, when she didn’t hear any sounds of fighting anymore. “Come on, come on…” she heard Trixie mumbling. Squinting, she saw a blur of blue off to one side, and started towards it, stumbling only a little along the way. By the time she got over, her eyes had cleared enough to see that Trixie was pulling books seemingly at random off of the book shelf. “What?” Lyra asked. “Trixie, what are – ” “He’s gone,” Trixie responded. Her own eyes were fluttering rapidly as well as she tried to restore her own sight. “But I was listening. He didn’t run out of the room, but he’s not here. I heard something like scraping, which means secret passage.” Lyra stared. “Really?” Trixie shrugged. “They’re all over the place in Canterlot Castle.” She had thrown all the books off the shelf already, but to no avail. Lyra rolled her eyes a little, looking over to another shelf and pulling all the books off in one go, then repeated it for each subsequent one – she had more raw magical power than Trixie, as well as more precise telekinetic control, and didn’t find it troubling to grab all the books on a shelf at once. Trixie stopped her own efforts, watching and for once not looking jealous. In a moment, the library was a mess of empty shelves and books scattered everywhere. “Nothing. Trixie, if he really summoned the Guarsai…” “I know, I know,” Trixie responded, looking around the room, considering and looking for something out of place. Lyra, however, spotted it first – an unlit candle sconce against one wall, despite the fact that the rest of the room was lit by gas light. Smiling, she reached out and tugged on it. It actually gave as she did, dropping like a lever and causing a nearby section of the floor to simply give way as a trap door opened up. “Ha,” Lyra said in triumph, trotting over. Trixie followed, and both their horns glowed, ready to defend themselves. They found only a set of spiraling stairs leading down, however – as well as a horrible smell. “We sure he went this way?” Lyra asked, nose scrunching. “I’m sure that there’s a horde of Guarsai coming here,” Trixie responded. That fact was as good as any reason to go down, Lyra supposed. The two headed down the stairs, Trixie taking the lead at first. She paused after a moment, gagging. “Ugh, found out what the smell was…what did you do to him?” her horn glowed a little brighter as she used telekinesis to shove something off to one side, then gingerly stepped around it. Lyra followed, doing her best to ignore the noxious puddle on the steps. “Messed with his equilibrium,” Lyra responded. “Ever spin in circles a bunch? Basically that, all at once. Guess that’s the natural result…ugh.” “Ugh,” Trixie agreed. The two reached the bottom of the steps, and found themselves at the start of a long, smooth tunnel hewn from bedrock, its roof only a little taller than the mares. The tunnel proceeded in only one direction, thankfully. “Good thing Ditzy isn’t here…” Lyra noted of her claustrophobic friend. She whispered as she did so, not entirely sure why – something about being underground simply made her want to keep her voice down. Trixie, for her own part, only nodded in agreement as they set off, keeping their horns glowing as low as possible so that if Zati’s own horn was lit up somewhere ahead, they’d be able to see it. Trixie glanced at the walls of the tunnel they were going through. “These aren’t natural,” she whispered. “Too smooth and even…and, familiar…” Lyra nodded, remembering the tunnels that she, Raindrops, Ditzy, Carrot Top, and Cheerilee had once trekked through when chasing after a certain tribe of reptilians and their certain blue unicorn captive. “Salamanders again,” she responded. “Definitely salamanders, they left smooth tunnels like this. So Zati’s working with salamanders. I guess they could get around most of the Amería’s defenses…though if they’re working with those swan-cloak ponies, why would they even need to?” Trixie shook her head, not knowing. The two proceeded in silence after that. They didn’t see any sign of Zati, but nor did the tunnel branch off in any way, either. They also didn’t hear a hoard of Guarsai coming up behind them. Maybe Zati’s spell to call for them was only a general distress call, unable to give any specific information. If that was the case, then Trixie and Lyra probably had plenty of time, given that the Guarsai were probably pretty occupied tonight – hunting for her and Trixie, ironically. She suppressed a slight chuckle at that thought, that the Guarsai were too busy hunting for the two of them to actually come to the one place they were. Eventually, the tunnel's walls began to change, the rock around them becoming less smooth and even, probably transitioning from an artificial tunnel to a natural one. Even as this happened, it started growing wider, flaring out like a trumpet. Quite suddenly the two ponies found themselves on a natural ledge about ten feet wide, with a ramp leading down into a wide-open chamber, already lit with an orange glow – and revealing within it a vast deposit of faintly shaded, translucent crystals that grew out of the floor, walls, and ceilings of the cavern, reflecting the light within – and Lyra and Trixie’s own light, though they quelled their horns as soon as they noticed that fact, and they hadn’t been glowing very brightly anyway. “What is this place?” Trixie asked. “There’s crystal deposits under Canterlot…are these the same?” Lyra shrugged, not knowing, when something made her ears twitch – she heard talking coming from deeper inside the cave, though the echoes combined with the low voices meant that she couldn’t make out the precise details. Motioning for Trixie to keep quiet and follow, the two set out, down the ramp and then over the crystalline floor of the chamber. The various crystal protrusions at least gave them cover as they approached the sounds. Ducking behind one particularly large crystal, each mare peeked out. Lyra wasn’t particularly surprised to see Kristal Zati, apparently having recovered from his fight with Trixie and Lyra, looking only slightly worse for wear. Nor was Lyra, at this point, surprised to see eight salamanders – serpentine folk, with long tails at least three times the length of Lyra from snout to dock, colored various shades in orange, yellow, and red marred by the occasional black. They didn’t have legs, but their upper bodies did have a pair of strong arms ending in clawed hands, while the heads that lay at the end of their long necks were shaped much like that of a python snake. No, what surprised Lyra was the presence of two other ponies. One, standing near Zati, was another unicorn, with a green coat and mane and tail that came in two tones of gray, the brighter of the two shining almost like platinum. About his shoulders was a long cloak, emblazoned with a stylized swan – the same swan that adorned the ponies who had guarded the Armería. This new pony was taller than Kristal Zati, older-looking, and had a look on his face that suggested he was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. But it was the other pony that made Lyra’s heart sink when she saw him. What could be seen of his coat – and feathers, for he was a pegasus – was deep red, but it was hidden behind plates of golden armor that protected his head, back, sides, and legs. His mane and tail burned as though alight – though Lyra knew it was merely an illusion. She knew this because she recognized him from her time in the Griffin Kingdoms, where she’d had the distinct displeasure of meeting the pony who could only be described as a complete solartic. “Good thing Raindrops isn’t here,” Lyra mumbled to herself as she regarded Kindle, the Voice of the Sun and one of Corona’s most trusted lieutenants. She made to listen in to the conversation more, but then felt Trixie grab her and pull her back behind the crystal. “We have a very big problem,” Trixie whispered harshly. Her eyes were wide with panic, and her voice wasn’t sounding much better. “Yeah we do,” Lyra replied. “Kindle’s here, meaning Corona’s involved. So those probably are the same salamanders who kidnapped you – ” “That is not the problem,” Trixie interrupted, though she paused for a moment. “Okay, so yeah, that kind of is a problem, but on the other hoof it means I can get a little payback, maybe. But that’s not the real problem.” She glanced out from behind the crystal again, as though confirming something, then turned back to Lyra. “The real problem,” she continued, “is that the pony standing next to Zati? That’s Ispelu Magikoa. That’s the High Mage of Zaldia.” “Oh,” Lyra noted, blinking. “Oh…that’s not good for us.” “In more ways than one,” Trixie responded. “Because he’s working with Corona. But he’s one of the most powerful ponies in Zaldia already, and I don’t mean magic, I mean politically. He’s just about as high up as a pony can get here, I think he’s even titled as an Archduke, and Zaldia doesn’t have viceroyalties the same way we do, so that’s as high as their nobility goes. But there is one more step he could take. And given that he seems to be turning the Zaldian government against itself? Playing those swan-caped ponies against the Guarsai? Misdirecting the Guarsai to think that Equestria’s doing something against them when really it’s him? There’s only one thing he could be trying to do.” Lyra didn't really need all of that to understand what Trixie was driving at, but her friend said it anyway, since it needed to be. “He wants to make himself the King of Zaldia.”