7. The Geometry of Shadows
It took more than a little effort, but Lyra was able to force herself onto her barrel and into a sitting position after Grogar left and the dungeon cell plunged back into nearly total darkness. Her ears twitched a few times, but she tried to ignore it as she thought.
Tirek. Of course Grogar was trying to do something involving Tirek. Why wouldn’t he? It wasn’t enough for Tambelon and Grogar to crawl out of the mists of history, they had to bring friends. No doubt that Grogar’s plan would involve the Smooze or Lavan or some other ancient monster at some point as well.
Lyra shook her head, trying to clear it after whatever Grogar had done to her. Her hooves went up to the ring on her horn, but it was magically clasped in place, and after a few minutes of pain and grunting, she gave up on trying to take it off. It was bound to her magic like some kind of magnet, and would be impossible for her to remove herself.
The Element of Loyalty was missing as well, she noticed. Getting that back from wherever Grogar or Bray had thrown it would have to be her first priority. Well, after she managed to get out of this cell, anyway.
Her ears twitched again, and once again she ignored them as she forced herself to stand, trying to peer into the darkness of her cell. It was small, she could tell that much, and lacked any kind of window, instead simply being solid stone. There was a pile of straw in one corner, though the straw stank enough that she didn’t want to go near it; it was clearly decomposing. Her ears twitched again as she went over to the bars of her cell, looking them over. They were solid, rooted firmly into the ground and the ceiling; she bucked at one a few times, but didn’t feel them vibrate in the slightest. Whatever the state of the cell’s interior, the bars were well-made and weren’t going to budge. She got little additional hope from the door – it was a solid piece of metal and looked heavy, and Lyra had no idea how to pick locks.
Lyra sat down next to her cell’s bars, slipping a hoof through the gap. She was surprised at how far apart the cell’s bars seemed to be; but then, this cell would have been built by and for donkeys, who were larger than ponies. Lyra considered a moment as she leaned forward, placing her head against the bars. They might have been just wide enough apart to…
Her ears twitched again. She stopped what she was doing, listening. Her ears weren’t twitching out of some kind of nervous tick; they were hearing something faint, she realized. She listened, turning her head and ears to try and zero in on the sound…
“Nants ingonyama bagithi baba…sithi uhhmm ingonyama…nants ingonyama bagithi baba…sithi uhhmm ingonyama…”
They were words, coming from somewhere further down the dungeon, said in a voice so quiet it could barely be called a whisper. One of Lyra’s eyes narrowed as she listened. She’d never heard the words before, but…
“That’s Zebra,” she said softly. She didn’t speak a word of Zebra, but she’d had an uncomfortable amount of time to hear it being spoken not long after meeting Trixie for the first time, and whatever was being said, or chanted really, several cells down, sounded a lot like the chants and invocations that she’d been exposed to.
Both of Lyra’s eyes narrowed then. If she was hearing Zebra, there was only one reason. “Zecora!” she exclaimed.
The chanting paused for a moment, but then resumed. Lyra stomped a hoof on the floor. “I know you can hear me!” she exclaimed, pressing herself against the bars and squinting against the darkness, trying to make out the zebra. She didn’t have a good view of any of the other cells, however she was pretty sure she knew which cell the chanting was coming from – two cells down from hers, on the same side of the hall.
Lyra sat down, glaring down the hall. “How’s Spike?” she asked. The chanting stopped a moment again, but then resumed. Lyra noticed a slight change to its timbre, though. The unicorn pressed herself up against the bars again. “He left Corona,” she nettled. “Called her insane. Twilight told us she’d met him, told us about what happened. Don’t know where he is now, though. How’s it feel to know that a baby dragon would rather take is chances out there in the wilderness then be with you? That he thinks it’s safer?”
Zecora didn’t pause this time. Lyra stomped a hoof again. “Why are you following her?” she demanded. “Corona’s completely insane! Can’t you tell that? Or are you insane as well?”
Lyra thought she heard a slight chuckle almost interrupt the chanting, but wasn’t sure. She narrowed her eyes again, listening closely to it for a few seconds, before beginning to hum along with it. Zecora’s voice was very low, so it was difficult to match, but after a few minutes she had matched Zecora perfectly. And after a few minutes of that – just as Zecora was no doubt getting comfortable with the addition of her humming, even if she didn’t know the reason for it – Lyra began to introduce very, very slight irregularities and mistakes to the tune she was humming. They were so small that she doubted Zecora could even actively perceive them without knowing what she was listening for, but she couldn’t help but follow along with the tune, including the mistakes. After a few minutes of that, Lyra began introducing larger ones, and larger ones still, until at length…
Zecora was off on her meter by a full two beats. She noticed that, stopped chanting at the same time that Lyra stopped humming. After several moments, Zecora tried to begin again…and Lyra messed up her chanting again after several more. There was no true magic to what Lyra was doing, just the efforts of somepony incredibly skilled at music – if Lyra said so herself – intentionally trying to ruin a tune.
After the third time, Lyra finally got more of a reaction from Zecora. She heard a snort and a hoof-stomp. Lyra grit her teeth at that. “Why?” she demanded. “Why did you betray us in the Everfree Forest? The sirens, the poison joke…why?”
There was no immediate response, and Lyra was worried that she was about to receive the silent treatment. At length, however, Zecora’s voice echoed out of the darkness. “There are matters larger than you or I, that dictate with whom Zecora allies.”
Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
Zecora was silent for several more long moments – Lyra wondered if she was trying to think up how best to rhyme – before finally speaking again. “When prophecy calls to you by name, it is unwise to ignore its claim.”
Lyra bit back a laugh. “Prophecy? You think you’re carrying out some kind of prophecy?”
“Do not treat the matter so crass, when my role has already come to pass. On the longest night of the thousandth year, I was to release the Queen, it was made clear. Now that my role has been fulfilled, her new kingdom I will help her build.”
Lyra had heard some pretty tall claims in her day – it came with being friends with Trixie – but this one just about took the cake. “You released Corona,” Lyra deadpanned. “You broke through the magic of the Elements of Harmony.”
Zecora was silent, which Lyra took as a confirmation that Zecora certainly at least believed what she was saying, no matter how ridiculous it was. “I bear no ill will towards pony folk,” Zecora said at length, “but I listened when prophecy spoke. You would be wise to do so as well. It is unpleasant when prophecy must impel.”
“Uh-huh. I note that in spite of that fancy prophecy, you’re still stuck in here. Was that part of its plan?”
“You think my gifts far to grand. I cannot tell the future on demand.”
“Doesn’t seem all that useful, then,” Lyra said. “Especially if it’s impelling you to ally with Corona. She’s insane – completely, totally insane. You seem smart. You have to realize that.”
Zecora actually laughed aloud then. “A thousand years within the Sun,” she said, “I wonder to your sanity what that would have done. But she has a role to play in what is to come before the next year is over and done.”
Lyra’s eyes narrowed at that statement. “This another prophecy?” she asked.
“No, unicorn, it is when my visions end. I cannot see beyond the coming bend. The future has always had a shifting form, but past the coming summer, I see naught but a storm. There is only one thing my visions impart: that the alicorn Celestia will play a part.”
“She probably is the storm.”
“Perhaps, unicorn, though I do not believe so. I admit it is something I do not know. But until the storm has gone by, I shall remain the Queen’s ally.”
Lyra pressed her hooves to the bars of her cell. She really wished she could be looking Zecora in the eye right now. “And our enemy,” she said.
“I follow my visions as best I can. I do not expect you to understand. That we must be enemies is a regrettable event, but it is not something I could prevent. You would never ally with the Queen. The result of our battle, then, remains to be seen.”
Lyra grunted, looking back to her prison bars. She ran a hoof along them. They really were of excellent construction…but they were, equally, not designed for an equine being quite as small or as thin as her, regardless of what Grogar said about her and sugar. “Shut up for a moment,” Lyra said. She ignored Zecora’s retort as she pressed her head between the bar’s spaces, pushing forward. It was a tight fit, but she was able to slip her head through relatively easily. She pulled it back in, then turned around. Getting her head through wasn’t the issue, it was getting her hindquarters through. That might have been a significant problem – she bit back a scathing remark about herself and her flank – if not for a talent that she rarely had a chance to make much use of – the fact that she was double-jointed across practically her entire body.
Good thing, too. She had no idea how she managed to fit – inhaling a lot, for one thing, shimmying back and forth, and attempting to ignore no small amount of pain. She worked up more than a little sweat, but that actually helped. After several long, painful minutes, she managed to get her hindquarters through the bars, though only by balancing on her right front and rear hooves, her left hooves up in the air as she took a few moments to breathe. Then, it was back to work. She was surprised she didn’t break any ribs slipping on through the bars, but she managed to get her barrel through, her shoulders, and lastly, after several long moments, her head.
Lyra took a few moments to breathe, looking at the door to the prison. That was probably locked, too, and Lyra had no idea how many golems would be waiting for her beyond it, where to go, what to do…it would be a long, harrowing trip, she knew, especially alone and without her spells to aid her. Heaving a long sigh, she trotted down dungeon hall to Zecora’s cell and looked in. Zecora was sitting there, waiting for her, one eyebrow raised. The zebra was larger than Lyra, and would never have been able to duplicate what Lyra had done to escape her cell.
“We’re enemies, but I’m going to assume that neither of us are on good terms with Grogar, either,” she said, then tapped the magic suppression ring wrapped around her horn. “Get this ring off of my horn, and I’ll let you out. We can help each other escape this castle, and get back to hating each other later.”
Zecora considered for several moments, before looking at Lyra’s hooves and spitting. The pony backed up, then growled low. “Fine, be that way – ” Zecora, however, ignored her, going over to where she’d spat and using a hoof to pick something up – a tooth, Lyra realized. She winced at the sight. “Um,” she said, “what are you doing?”
Zecora trotted over to the door’s lock, tooth in one hoof. She placed it in the key hole, then broke it with a quick blow. A tiny globule of thick, green liquid poured out, but after a moment it began to smoke and sizzle, eating away at the lock. Within moments, the lock had entirely melted away, and Zecora opened her cell’s door with no issue.
Lyra blinked a few times. “You kept that in your mouth? And if you could break out any time, why didn’t you?”
“The time was not right to bring an end to my plight. Alone in Tambelon I stand no more chance than you. Together, we shall see what we can do.” She tilted her head towards Lyra. “But my loyalty remains with the sovereign Sun. We shall not be friends when all is done.”
Lyra rolled her eyes and waved a hoof. “Fine. Just get this off of me,” she jabbed a hoof at the ring wrapped around her horn. Zecora hesitated a moment, before reaching out with her hooves and pulling at the ring around Lyra’s horn. Unlike with Lyra, the ring slid off easily, the magic binding it to Lyra’s own giving way when it was interrupted by the determined effort of a third party. Lyra immediately ran some magic through her horn, and smiled when it glowed gold.
Zecora tossed the ring down the hall. “Let us go, while Grogar’s attention is low,” she said, taking the lead as she trotted towards the door.
Lyra followed, raising an eyebrow at the trust inherent in Zecora’s taking point – she wasn’t certain she would have accepted an ally of convenience to follow behind her so easily. Despite herself, though, she couldn’t resist the chance to nettle Zecora just a little more. “Is it hard, thinking up rhymes all the time?”
Zecora glanced at Lyra archly. “No, it is not so.”
“What if you need to rhyme ‘orange?’”
Zecora rolled her eyes, but didn’t answer. Lyra bit back a snort at that, as she turned her attention to the prison door. As with their cells, it was locked. Lyra closed her eyes and set her horn glowing, working her magic into the door’s keyhole. She couldn’t pick a lock, but with the proper application of force…after a few minutes of effort, there was a satisfying pop from the door, and it swung inwards…
And revealed a trio of Grogar’s golems, staring at Zecora and Lyra. The two equines let out cries of surprise and fell back, but the golems didn’t move – they just continued to stand there, slightly hunched over and with mouths hanging open, but otherwise not moving. If not for their glowing eyes, Lyra would have thought them inert.
Lyra’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she was able to get sound out, getting over her fright. “Why aren’t they attacking?” she asked.
“Why this is I cannot guess, but that they are not does not depress,” Zecora provided. She started towards the door.
“Prisoners – must not – escape,” the three golems said as one just as Zecora reached the door’s threshold, reaching for her. Zecora backed away at their sudden words, and once she had returned to the prison hall, the golems stopped, then backed up and resumed their previous positions.
Lyra trotted up next to her, considering them. “Grogar or Bray must have ordered them to prevent us escaping,” Lyra said. “Right now, as long as we’re in here, we haven’t escaped.”
Zecora considered, head tilting to the side. “For all his skill, it would seem, Grogar cannot make his toys – ”
One golem stepped forward then. “Unicorn – horn ring – has been – removed,” it said. Then, as one, the trio spoke again. “Prisoners – are attempting – escape.”
“Oh come on,” Lyra moaned as she and Zecora backed away while the golems marched towards them.
“Return – to your cells.”
“Wait wait wait,” Lyra tried, though she continued to back away, but she placed herself in front of Zecora. “You can’t hurt me! Grogar wants me alive, remember?” She glanced behind her, at Zeocra. “Stay behind me, it might help.”
The golems stopped at that, and Lyra smiled. Her smile dropped when they spoke again and resumed their march. “Execution – is preferable – to escape.”
“Oh, come on!” Lyra groaned again, as the golems lunged. Lyra’s horn glowed bright, conjuring a telekinetic shield in front of her, nearly as wide as the hallyway. The golems smacked into it, but recovered immediately, one going left, one going right, and the final one trying to scrabble over the shield. Zecora acted then, getting out from behind Lyra and dashing up to the one on the left as it tried to get around Lyra’s shield. She turned and bucked at it with her hind hooves, crushing its body and one arm against the wall. It kept coming, however, slashing at her with its one good claw.
Lyra directed her shield upwards, pinning the one that had been trying to climb over it against the ceiling. It started pounding its claws, feet, and head against the shield, trying to break it and sending jolts of pain straight down Lyra’s horn, but she had to ignore them as she dealt with the third golem swiping at her throat with its claws. She avoided getting nicked, and reached back, lashing out with her front hooves. She managed to catch the golem’s eye, and it went flying from its socket and hit the ground somewhere out of sight.
This didn’t slow it down in the slightest, of course, as it lunged again. Lyra leaped backwards, releasing her telekinetic hold on the golem over her head. It fell down atop its comrade, forcing both to the ground. The two golems tried to untangle themselves from each other, but Lyra was on them quickly, leaping atop them and stomping down as hard as she could on anything that felt more solid than mere hay. She managed to get one golem to stop moving, but the other managed to tear itself free from the tangle – literally tear, the bottom half of its body rippling loose as the top half dragged itself away, then turned around, holding itself up on its clawed hands even as straw and some kind of black fluid leaked from its insides. Lyra froze at the sight, and the golem lunged at her – but it was knocked away by the body of another golem. Lyra glanced, and saw Zecora, holding one leg of the golem she had attacked and apparently defeated in her teeth, using the body as a club. She brought it down on the torn golem, pinning it again, then leaped and stomped it until it stopped moving.
Lyra and Zecora were both panting, each looking at each other, then back to the dungeon’s exit. It now sat unguarded.
“Let’s go before…before more of these things…show up,” Lyra panted, starting to trot. Zecora said nothing as she joined the unicorn.
---
There were several things that Raindrops hadn’t ever thought she would see in her lifetime or, for that matter, even thought of the possibility of seeing. Somewhere towards the top of that list was the sight of Corona, the Tyrant Sun, the Undimmed Daystar, hunkering down and hiding behind brush and foliage.
Raindrops was hiding behind the same foliage, of course, along with all her friends, ducked down just beyond Tambelon’s wall. It didn’t make the scene any less…weird. Stealth just didn’t seem to be like it should have been Corona’s forte.
The six of them had made it to the walls of Tambelon about an hour before sundown, and found them to be literally crawling with Grogar’s golems, in that there were golems pacing along the wall’s top, moving back and forth before the main gate, and more than a few crawling along the wall’s surface itself, using the thick foliage that had grown along its outside to move like spiders across a web. Raindrops had managed to count at least thirty before she gave up out of frustration and due to the waning light, and decided to just take Corona’s advice: always assume that Grogar had more.
They had decided not to approach from the main gate, but instead were hidden amongst the brush near the southern wall of the city, which had a small clearing in front of it, about a hundred feet from the forest’s edge to the wall.
Raindrops looked to Corona again, and noted that the five regular ponies had instinctively made sure to stand apart from her, several paces away. Corona didn’t seem to notice, however. Her eyes were narrow as she looked over the walls, eyes darting from one area to the next. Raindrops noticed after a few moments, that Corona seemed to be the only one focused on the walls – the rest were all keeping an eye on her. She grit her teeth a little. She knew why they all were, but…
“Okay,” Raindrops said after a moment, in a low voice. “What’s the plan? Do we have one?”
That brought her friends back around to focusing on their current needs, and not the worry that Corona might turn on them at any moment like a rabid beast. Nevertheless, it was Corona who spoke first. “The walls will be our greatest challenge,” she intoned, not looking to them. “They appear undamaged by the battle of two millennia ago.”
“Too many golems to just sneak by,” Trixie added. She paid particular attention to the ones crawling along the wall, pointing. “Don’t know how we’d sneak by them, anyway.”
“We require a distraction,” Corona said.
Cheerilee eyed her. “What, you mean one of us getting them to chase after her?” she asked. “That’d be suicide.”
Corona snorted, rolling her eyes. “And, therefore, pointless, since I require you to use the Elements against Grogar. No, my little pony, I was not concocting some scheme to separate you all and eliminate you.”
“Good,” Cheerilee said, looking back to the wall. “Maybe the throw-the-rock trick…but how fast could we climb?”
“Throwing a rock is unlikely to work,” Corona noted. “A much larger distraction would be necessary – an explosion of some kind. I could create such some distance away.”
“That still means we have to climb, though,” Carrot Top said. “I can’t climb very well. Frankly I don’t know how Cheerilee can, and we’d have to do it fast enough to avoid being seen – ”
“No we wouldn’t,” Raindrops interjected, nodding her head at Trixie. “Trixie can turn us invisible.”
“And three of us have wings,” Ditzy noted, looking back to the wall as she fluttered her own wings. “We can carry you over.”
There was a pause then, as Cheerilee, Carrot Top, and Trixie looked between each other, then over at Corona. Corona grit her teeth. “As I told my sister,” she said slowly, “as I have made clear to you, I will not be the one to betray this alliance. It gains me nothing while Grogar is yet free.”
The ponies nevertheless looked between each other again, the three non-pegasi trying to decide between them who would have the honor of being carried through the air by the Tyrant Sun without having to actually spend time in debate, even as the five ponies took off their saddlebags – they would be unnecessary weight. All they carried with them were the Elements of Harmony, and Lyra’s lyre.
At length, Carrot Top let out a sigh and stepped closer to Corona. “Okay, let’s make this quick,” she said.
Trixie nodded, stepping closer to Ditzy as Cheerilee moved up to Raindrops – Cheerilee was the heavier of the two and so it made more sense for Raindrops to carry her. Then Trixie’s horn glowed blue, and she winked out of sight, and each of her friends followed, Raindrops last. Before Trixie could cast the same spell on Corona, however, the alicorn held up a hoof. “I am no stranger to illusioncraft,” she said, horn glowing gold as she turned herself invisible.
Raindrops reached out blindly, quickly finding Cheerilee and hooking her legs around her barrel as she beat her wings, taking to the air. “Trixie, you can see us, right?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Trixie’s voice provided as they gained altitude, getting a view into the city. After a moment, Trixie spoke up again. “See that building with the big rock through its roof? Yellow walls, red tiles? Fly towards that. We’ll get there, then plan our next move.”
Raindrops obliged, diving, and trying not to think about how she was essentially diving towards a lot of creepy-looking, deadly giant stitched dolls. She focused instead on Lyra and how her life was on the line as she flew closer and closer to the wall. Even with her being a slow flier, she managed to reach the wall in just a few seconds, and passed within just a few feet of one of the golems patrolling overhead. It didn’t react to her, though she held her breath as she glided past, just in case.
They reached the building that Trixie had indicated quickly, and managed to get inside without too much noise, nor bumping into each other despite their invisibility. Once they were all in, Trixie cancelled her invisibility spell, and she and Corona risked a little light from their horns to get a look around the darkened building.
They were in a home, or what was left of one after a giant boulder had crashed through its roof. The top floor appeared to have only been a single room; one bed was pressed against a wall, while another hung partially over the edge of the hole that the boulder had carved, sheets having fallen off. There were scattered clothes, papers, and most disturbingly, simple foal’s toys scattered about. The sight of the last set the ponies’ fur on edge as they glanced around, Ditzy in particular wincing like she was expecting to see the corpses of innocent donkeys somewhere nearby. Corona noticed. “Luna and I removed every victim’s body from the city before banishing it, burying them at sea,” she said in a low voice. “We had little desire to give a necromancer corpses to work with during his exile. Be at ease.”
Raindrops wasn’t sure she could be at ease with Corona so close by, but the knowledge that they wouldn’t stumble over any of Grogar’s victims was at least a little comforting. She moved over to a window in the home, glancing out. Below, the cobble-stone street had golems moving through it in groups of three. They were much sparser than on the wall, at least.
“So what’s next?” Raindrops asked, looking to Corona. “You said something about knowing your way through the city?”
Corona nodded as she walked over to another window, looking out and getting her bearings. “We are not far from the palace’s main gates,” she noted, “but they will be guarded. We should instead head north, to a guard barracks. There was a secret passage in them that lead under the palace’s moat and to the guard barracks within the palace’s walls.
“Does Grogar know about it?” Cheerilee asked.
“I do not know. However, it would be unwise to attempt to approach the palace itself in any other way.” She glanced out another window, at the wall. “We may have invisibly snuck into the city, but Grogar must have surrounded the palace with some manner of magical defense or sensor that would notice our passing. I would.”
“We can’t turn invisible this time,” Cheerilee noted. “We’d have no way to see where you were going.”
Corona thought a moment, then glanced to Trixie. “A glamor field wrapped around us,” she said. “A hemisphere.”
Trixie blanched. “Big enough to include all six of us?” she asked. “Constantly changing what it’s showing? I could maybe make it last five minutes. I doubt that’s long enough.”
Corona considered. “With my powers so weakened, I doubt I could achieve any more. Perhaps instead…” he horn glowed gold, and Raindrops felt her skin crawl and fur stand on end. Biting back a yelp of surprise, she looked at herself, and found that her fur, hair, and the Element she wore had changed color, becoming jet-black. The same change had happened to each of her friends, and even Corona; only their eyes were unaffected. Corona had a small smile on her face. “More traditional forms of stealth, then.”
“Warn us next time,” Raindrops demanded, pointing a hoof at Corona. The alicorn glanced at her, but didn’t acknowledge her request as she turned and made her way over to the hole in the floor, leaping down to the building’s ground level. Sighing almost as one, the ponies followed – save Trixie, who stopped Raindrops with an outstretched hoof. Glancing down the hole, she stepped back a few spaces, then her horn glowed blue, creating illusory words in the air.
Once we have Lyra back, should we use the Elements on Corona right away?
Raindrops blinked a few times as she read over what Trixie had written. Corona kept saying that as long as Grogar was around, she wasn’t going to betray them, and for some reason Raindrops actually believed her – but she also had a sense that, as soon as the ram was taken care of, Corona wouldn’t think twice about trying to remove them as a potential obstacle towards her goal of taking Equestria back over.
On the other hoof…Raindrops thought about what Corona had said, about the day of her banishment. Corona lived in a delusional world where everypony was either a dupe or a traitor. She seemed to have sorted the Element bearers into the former category at the moment, convinced that Luna had lied to them to get them to act against her. Betraying her wasn’t going to help with that delusion, and would probably send her deeper into it.
Besides, using the Elements took a lot out of them. The last thing they needed to do was turn on Corona, and then be out of commission when Grogar, Bray, or a bunch of golems showed up.
Raindrops, therefore, found herself shaking her head. “Grogar first,” she mouthed. Trixie didn’t seem startled by her decision, and much to Raindrops’ surprise, didn’t try to argue it, either. She instead just nodded grimly, and followed Raindrops’ lead down the hole and after Corona.
---
Had she been in any other situation, Cheerilee might have actually found it enjoyably nostalgic to be creeping through a city at night trying to avoid being seen. However, the lack of equine beings in the city, the fact that one of her friend’s life was on the line, and the knowledge that she would die if discovered somehow made the endeavor seem less than pleasant.
She had ended up taking the lead, knowing as she did how to move quietly over cobbled stone and through an urban environment, and just as importantly, how to help ponies (and, it turned out, one alicorn) who didn’t know nevertheless do a passable job at it.
It helped that the golem patrols – always in groups of three, moving with one at point and two trailing in their loping, gorilla-like fashion – seemed relatively sparse. Evidently, whoever had organized the city’s defense had not anticipated anypony making it past the walls. Cheerilee had a sneaking suspicion that had been Bray’s fault, not Grogar’s, but in any event it at least made her job easier as she followed Corona’s directions leading them to the guard barracks.
Naturally, that was where they finally encountered a serious problem: the barracks, a tall, rectangular stone building with crenellations on its roof, had a half-dozen golems posted outside of it, standing slightly hunched and completely still apart from heads that twitched to look around, like birds’. The six crouched down in the shadows of an alley.
“This isn’t good,” Cheerilee said. “They’re golems. They’re not going to get tired, or change shifts.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, before looking to Corona. “You’re up, I think.”
Corona considered the golems a moment, then smirked. “Hold here,” she said, backing into the alley and out of sight around a corner. The five ponies glanced at each other nervously, tensing. What was she doing…?
They had their answer five minutes later, when a building half a block away exploded. The ponies all yelped in fright and ducked low to the ground, though the sound of their cries was swallowed up by the sound of the explosion. Fire reached high into the sky and debris were scattered everywhere.
The six golems all dropped low as well at the sound, each instantly focusing in the direction of the explosion. After a moment, three detached from the group and lopped off towards the conflagration, while three remained behind. They were too focused on the burning building, however, and did not notice the golden glow from behind them, as Corona teleported to right behind them, until it was too late. Even as the golems began to turn, Corona lashed out with three beads of fire that buried themselves in the golem’s heads, and then ignited, consuming them. The golems’ headless forms dropped limply to the ground, beginning to burn.
Corona looked to where the ponies were hiding. Her mane and tail had once again momentarily ignited while she cast her spells, but the fires had already snuffed out, and her wings and neck both sagged slightly as she breathed. She nevertheless had the energy to shoot them a look – what are you waiting for?
The ponies steeled themselves, galloping over. Cheerilee noted that the illusions hiding their bodies had dropped, Corona probably lacking the energy to maintain them after the fireball, teleporting, and slaying the golems. Cheerilee tried to avoid the latter as she opened the door to the barracks, ushering her friends inside. “That explosion was still pretty near here,” she warned Corona. “The golems might put two and two together and come looking here.”
Corona smirked again despite her tiredness, her head twitching to the right and a slight pulse going up her horn. From somewhere else in the city, further away from the initial explosion, a second boom went off, this one larger and louder. She and Cheerilee both glanced in its direction.
“I anticipated the possibility,” Corona said, heading inside the barracks. “That should throw them off.”
Cheerilee rolled her eyes, following. “That was basically the ‘throw the rock’ trick, you know,” she pointed out.
“It was better,” Corona contended, looking around as her and Trixie’s horns glowed for light. The barracks was, if anything, in worse condition than the home they had taken shelter in. Though the building itself hadn’t been damaged by the fight of two millennia past, it had nevertheless been ransacked at some point, with furniture and sundries scattered across the floor, banners having been torn from walls, empty scabbards strewn everywhere, spears with their tips missing…Cheerilee thought of the teeth of the golems, how they were made of jagged pieces of broken metal, and with claws capped with blades, and nodded to herself. “This is where Grogar got the sharp parts of his golems,” she reasoned, then glanced at Corona. “You didn’t leave him with any corpses…but you did leave him with an entire city to build an army with anyway.”
Corona scowled as she moved away from Cheerilee, towards a door that, once opened, revealed a staircase that went down below street level, to a basement. “I did not anticipate my sister’s betrayal,” she intoned as she started down it, the ponies following. Away from the streets of Tambelon, Corona was letting her voice rise to more normal speaking levels as they descended. “And I wanted to kill him outright! It was Luna who demanded he be made to suffer.”
There was silence at that, and Corona glanced back, eyes narrow as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “No retort?” She asked. “No objections? No claiming Luna’s innocence?”
Ditzy met Corona’s gaze. “Luna was honest with us,” she said. “She told us that it was her idea. She also told us that times change and that she changes with them. That’s why we were here: to banish the city, but take Grogar back to Equestria so that he could be sentenced to a real jail, so he wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.”
Corona lead them through the basement, which was loaded with ransacked supplies, burst-open wine casks and piles of rotting flour that had presumably once been kept in burlap sacks, though the sacks had gone towards the construction of the golems that patrolled the streets above. Corona glanced at Ditzy. “Imprisonment?” she asked, then scoffed. “No. My sister would not simply put Grogar in some dungeon where he would rot. She values knowledge too highly. She would have words with him, convinced him to aid her in solidifying her hold on Equestria.”
Cheerilee rolled her eyes at that, but didn’t rise to Corona’s bait as they reached a wall, which Corona stopped in front of. “Whatever,” she said. “Just say open sesame already.”
Corona opened her mouth to say something back as she ran a hoof along the wall, probably looking for a hidden switch. Whatever she had wanted to say was probably scathing, but she paused in confusion, looking to Cheerilee as she found the hidden switch and flipped it. “Open…sesame?” she echoed as the wall immediately groaned, then a section of it began to move aside, revealing a long, narrow, and above all else dark passage.
Cheerilee chuckled, as did the other ponies as they proceeded into the passage. Corona, for once, brought up the rear, brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t understand,” she said, as the wall closed behind them. Trixie’s and Corona’s horns flared up brighter to provide more illumination. “What do seeds have to do with anything?”
Cheerilee chuckled again at that, as the six proceeded through the passage and towards the palace of Tambelon. It wasn't much of a joke, but it made them laugh, and that's what they needed right now.
---
The bard in Lyra wanted to describe the palace of Tambelon as being silent as the grave, in spite of every other part of Lyra really not wanting to use that phrasing. Nevertheless, she and Zecora heard no sounds as they wandered through the castle’s halls. Even their own hoof-steps were muffled, as the floors of the palace were covered with thick rugs.
“Why aren’t we seeing any guards?” Lyra whispered as they trotted, sticking close to the walls and the shadows.
“I do not know why this could be so,” Zecora said as she glanced out a window, where they could see the city burning in two places in the twilit light. “Perhaps my Queen’s attack plays some role in the guards’ lack.”
“Might be my friends,” Lyra posited, though internally she had to admit that fire was something that most of her friends avoided. Lyra wasn’t sure what she would do if the two managed to escape, and then ran into Corona. Run, certainly. Die, probably. She’d cross that bridge when she had to, however, as she instead chose to focus on the palace itself. Its ceilings were high and vaulted, its walls made of stone with perfectly-carved bricks. Unlike the city outside, the palace seemed to be well-maintained, to the point where Lyra wondered if Grogar had, knowing that his exile was ending soon, had actually cleaned the place up for the occasion.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” Lyra asked. Zecora only shook her head. That was fair, Lyra supposed; it wasn’t like she would have any more of an idea even if she was leading. Zecora had managed to navigate them from the dungeon cells and out into the palace proper, though now, every hallway looked nearly identical.
At length, the two equines came to a large set of double doors. The window behind them confirmed that they didn’t go out into the city, but it was still more than they had previously encountered. Lyra risked a little horn-light to look the door over, and found it to be intricately carved wood, depicting a pastoral scene of donkeys farming and gathering their harvests, carting them off towards a sun-illuminated city; Tambelon itself, most likely. She reached up a hoof to open the door, but Zecora stopped her, and nodded towards the walls the door was set into. On either side were a smaller set of doors. “Servant’s entrances, I should think,” she said. “Through these we should slink.”
Lyra nodded, following Zecora over to one and carefully opening it. The door’s hinges must have been well-oiled, as it barely made a sound as the two proceeded in to a narrow hallway with stairs leading up and around a corner; from that corner, there was a flickering glow, like torch light. Lyra and Zecora glanced at each other for a moment, before heading up the stairs and towards it. The stairwell lead them to a long, narrow balcony looking down at a wide-open room, probably the former throne room or ball room. Lyra bit back a gasp at the sight of it.
It was huge, undoubtedy the largest room on the ground floor, at least a hundred feet wide and three times that long. Pillars around its edges supported a vaulted roof that was obscured by shadows and smoke from the torches set at regular intervals through the room’s ground floor. The room was otherwise empty, save for three things. The first was a magic circle that had been drawn with white chalk into the floor, the circle containing an inverted pentagram and, between the points of the pentagram, five equine skulls, all gazing inwards. The circle was easily thirty or forty feet across, yet it was perfect, as were the lines of the pentagram.
The second thing, immediately before the circle, was a large, bronze bell, ten feet tall and probably weighing at least half a ton, if not more. The bell was held up by an intricately carved wooden structure, and lain beneath it was a thick, wooden mallet, probably meant to ring the bell. It was also somehow glowing with its own dim, off-green light.
And the third thing, kneeling before the bell with closed eyes, horns glowing white with power, was Grogar. Lyra and Zecora both stifled gasps at the sight of the ram, even dozens of feet away and below them. The ram didn’t seem to notice them, however. His mouth was moving, but they were too far away to hear whatever he was saying. Somehow, Lyra figured that was probably for the best. After a moment, Grogar’s magic flared slightly as he stood, the mallet before the bell lifted, and struck it. A long, low note reverberated from the bell, filling the hall and feeling like it was vibrating Lyra’s very being. Grogar looked to the magic circle when the bell’s ring disappeared, and said that name that Lyra really didn’t want to hear again not once, not twice, but three times: “Tirek, Tirek, Tirek.” Then Grogar was down again, on his knees and hocks, once again speaking in too low a voice to be heard.
Lyra glanced at Zecora, who looked as frightened as Lyra felt, and cocked her head towards the way they had entered. The zebra needed no encouragement as she and Lyra began moving backwards. Grogar remained focused on whatever he was doing, and didn’t notice them as they made good their escape back the way they had come, and to the great double-doors that were the main entrance into the profane hall they had just left.
“I say we find another way,” Zecora whispered.
“No argument,” Lyra agreed.
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It's very interesting to see the two different sets of allies coming together. Do wish we had seen a bit more Luna/Celestia time though. With maybe one of Luna's little projections following along with them. But overall a very interesting chapter. Look forward to seeing what happens next. Do wish it was longer though!
3419010
~7,500 words is pretty long for me...I usually hover at around ~4,000...
Sounds like the Trousers of Time will fork this summer, and until they do, Zecora can't tell which leg to look down.
3419071
Grogar's been broad-strokes adapted; the Bell has had a changed purpose from the original show.
Zecora's 'explanation' for why she's on Corona's side is why I HATE prophecies. Because someone, somewhere, will get it into their head that they just HAVE to make it come true, usually by letting the cosmic horror out of it's cage. "Oh no, I see a dark future where the ancient evil is free! ...Let's go set the ancient evil free!" But nine times out of ten? Any SANE person could see that letting the cosmic horror out is a BAD THING that only leads to MORE bad things. This whole series is one major example. About half the problems last season could be traced directly to Zecora playing the 'Because Destiny Said So' card and freeing Corona, while about 2/3rds of the rest are plots by corrupt nobles that wouldn't have come about if Corona had continued her extra-long sun-bathing session. Heck this story alone is a good example, since if Corona and cronies hadn't shown up, odds are Grogar would be dealt with, Tambelon banished, and Bray given a good kick to the head.
But yeah, that's why I really like stores where the main characters tell Destiny to bend over and kiss it.
3419038 A lot longer than what I usually manage.
Cool
Sooo... I know I'm probably reading this the wrong way, but is it really Lyra who should be worrying about all the sugar she's eating?
3419157
And the other ten percent of the time, the idiot following the prophecy turns out to BE the problem that has to be fought. She might think that she's Sailor Pluto but Zecora is going to end up being Homucifer.
3419538
And then you've got the stories where the prophecies turn out to be tricks set up by the evil ones in the first place. Tales of Symphonia, one of my personal favorite RPGs, has this going for it...along with enough characters deciding to screw Destiny over that Destiny needed rape counseling.
3419574
Which is probably the case here. One of the things that Celestia will end up regretting is luring that poor, stupid zebra to a needless death.
This chapter was awesome!
It was excellently written as always, though I think a "her" was missing an "e' somewhere near the middle; the details and scenery were fantastic and the plot developed at a perfect speed.
Great escapes by both Lyra and Zecora, Lyra messing with Zecora's chanting was also a cool way to use her skills as was the re-introduction of her flexibility; Zecora's escape was simply badass.
As it stands I rather like this take on the prophecy's it allows for such things to exist, thus creating new options for stories, but leaves the future changeable and not entirely determined; certain events, like the magic around Corona's cell waning due to age (in theory) are predictable and foreseen, others, vague and unpredictable and everything can still be, to an extent subject to change. That was my take anyway.
I really liked the level of distrust demonstrated by the cast, it wasn't blatant but it was effective and well pace, Corona's frustration was also excellently done. It was good to see pragmatism regarding Corona win out with Raindrops and Trixie and it's good to see them planning like that as well.
I really like what you've done with Corona so far in this fic, she's showing herself to be very intelligent and an excellent strategist while still maintaining character and belivability.
Great scene with the bell, will that big goblet thing from the original show be making an appearance?
Anyway can't wait to see what happens next!
3419605
Given Corona seems largely unaware in Zecora's abilities and in the pilot, utterly convinced, that she escaped without help it's not her doing.
Though that does raise the question of why NMM was able to escape alone and Corona wasn't? Evil Magic?
3419400 Muscle is denser than fat, so it would weigh more.
3419734
Zecora might have heard a "whisper" that she was fated for great things and done all this thinking that she had to. In any event, Lawful Stupidity might just end up saving the world.
3419863
Given how it's described here, i'm not sure that's the case, even then it probably wouldn't have been Corona given she doesn't seem to believe Zecora helped her at all and didn't know about her powers beforehand anyway. That's just my take though.
I'm a little surprised Lyra didn't freak right the hell out when she saw the five skulls.
Also, just where did those skulls come from? Didn't Corona just tell the other Bearers that her and Luna buried the population of the city at sea? I suppose they just might not have been 100% thorough.
I'm assuming that the future Zecora can't see past is Discord, right? I don't remember at the moment if the previous plan I saw for him is still on or not.
Curse my inability to read stories until they're completed!
I can't wait to read this one.
I still listen to the song (G1 spoilers) regularly. It'd be amazing if you've included it somewhere, RDD.
Evil rituals that involve FIVE skulls. Lyra may want to leave rather quickly.
3419734
Ah, Nightmare Moon was not able to escape alone, however. The stars aided in her escape. One day I might actually get back to writing how that went down...
3419863
Seems a bit more likely to me that Zecora believes that Celestia is somehow necessary for getting past the storm that's coming in a year's time. She released Celestia to that end and is helping her stay released because Celestia can't do whatever it is she's supposed to do if she's locked away in the Sun.
3420218
Or just general craziness.
ah touche I always forget about that! I really should read that fic now that I think of it, I feel kind of guilt now. Interesting... is it a storm of chaos, or Changelings maybe a dark rainbow?
Nice!
Not really much in the way of further insight into Grogar, but really, he's not what we're here for and it's the interaction between the unease allies of the L6 and Corona+Zecora where this fic shines.
3419538 3419574
Of course then you've also got versions where fate is vindictive. You can either enjoy the path laid out before you or else be dragged kicking and screeming along for daring to even consider deviating. In such settings trying to fight fate can often lead to the an even worse outcome, or at least a more unpleant version of the same. So if the escape of the sealed evil in a can is inveitable, than logicaly it can make more sense to aid and be rewarded as a loyal servant that to futily hinder it and be destroyed and/or enslaved like the rest.
Which is not to say that indivduals who act upon such notions are in the right, but when one can't know rules of fate ahead of time in the first place, it's hard to entirely blame those who choose to embrace such interpritaions... though of course it is still always the job of the heroes to oppose such. Besides, it's not like nothing good came out of Corona's release -- namely the revival of the Elements of Harmony, the greatest magic known to ponydom and likewise Equestria's best defense against all manner of even worse villains.
3420859
And given Zecora's little speech, another good might come out of it: Celestia coming to her senses in the fight against whatever storm overtakes the kingdom.
3419574 I dislike destiny as much as any person who believes that any pre-ordained BS is exactly that, but that's taking it a bit far.
Anyway, this chapter was great! I loved the bits with Corona crawling around in the woods with the main 5. Also Lyra and Zecora team up! It's gonna be awkward when the two parties meet and have to exchange members.
Excellent chapter. But I have one quibble.
Corona doesn't have enough magic to generate a glamor field but she does have enough to teleport and detonate two buildings? I find that unlikely.
See, the way I look at it the glamor field is tricky and requires skill and constant effort but not so much power for the time involved here. Or at least not relative to what is required to generate two large firey explosions. A trick which probably requires less skill but more energy.
Now granted in terms of Work vs Reward Corona, as the alicorn of the sun, gets pretty good results when it comes to pyro-magics. But magics of illusion and/or light manipulation probably aren't difficult for her either.
Of course, I'm assuming here that the glamor field fools the eyes through illusions created by magical photonic trickery. And that it doesn't use mind magics to sell the deceit. (Those seem to be frowned upon in this setting and could be dangerous if anything went wrong.)
Then again, I might be over analysing the whole 'rules of magic' thing a bit. If 'a wizard did it', he doesn't necessarliy have to show his work.
What language was Zerora's chanting in? I think Zebra has previously been in Swahili but when I tried to get it translated it didn't work apart from a few words.
I've said it before but those are smart golems.
And to my shame I only just figured out that the chapter titles are all Babylon 5 episodes.
God, Zecora... as odd as this may sound coming from me, as I paraphrase from Babylon Five, prophecy is a dream until it comes true. *Smacks Zecora upside the head*
Anyway, great chapter. Good action, suspense and the like. Can't wait for the next one.
3419038
I think it felt shorter then that for a couple reasons. One very complimentary. One not so much. On the complimentary side your writing almost always makes me want to read more and find out what happens next. So there is that. On the negative side...Not much happened. Sneaky sneak on the Elements + Corona. And Lyra and Zecora escaped. Then the whole ritual reveals. Think you could have cut down the Elements and Corona a bit more as there was a lot of seemingly repeated bits there. Was by no means a bad chapter though so I'm not saying that. Just felt short since not much movement happened.
3421660
zecora at least in the show doesn't speak swahili just some vaguely African gibberish. but at least part of that little chant was the opening lines of the circle of life and the lion king in general.
That was a great chapter! For some reasons I got flashbacks to old Choose Your Own Adventure novels where Lyra and Zecora were exploring the palace :p
A crap, bell book and candle. Somebody is doing some serious black magic. Also the while five skulls and the inverted pentagram...how does Lyra know it's inverted? She didn't see it get drawn.
3425061
Image not to scale, but:
i40.tinypic.com/x1f0b6.png
From the perspective of someone entering the room, the pentagram would be considered "inverted" (since a pentagram is supposed to have one of the points at the "top").
Yeah, it's probably best not to disrupt the elaborate demonic ritual. No telling what that could lead to.
Also, I agree with Raindrops's take on what to do with Corona. If the other side makes no move to break the fragile alliance, then the Daystar must either break her word or recognize that, on some level, these six ponies may possibly, conceivably approach being worthy of the Elements. Or, you know, just spin another story that puts herself in the best possible light while everyone else is at fault, but that's going to be a stretch.
In any case, I look forward to more.
3419048
Instead, she's stuck staring at the inseam. Not what most think of when they hear the phrase "fabric of time and space."
I finally found the time for reading this. It fits mine headcanon:
> “She was surprised at how far apart the cell’s bars seemed to be; but then, this cell would have been built by and for donkeys, who were larger than ponies.”
Horses are larger than donkeys, but ponies are little horses and these are little ponies. In mine head, these ponies are the size of large dogs. These are the dimensions, as far as I can figure them:
Mares have medium build. I figure that they are 6 hand tall with a mass of 50 kilograms or 100 pounds in the old units.
Stallions are robustly built, with an height of 7 hands. Because they are heavily built, they have a mass of 100 kilograms.
Alicorns are 14 hands tall (any taller, and they would be horses), but are to gracile that they have a mass of 200 kilograms, despite being twice the height of a stallion.
> “ … Ants … father … I … ”
That is all I can get from what Zecora says.
3425128 Inversion has nothing to do with the orientation of the points, it has to do with the order the lines were drawn in.
3425445
Anything worse than summoning Tirek, King of Tartarus? Hardly
The key is disrupting the ritual while making sure the demon´s closest target is the summoner himself; avoiding to look at the creature and running away is also heavily recommended. Call of Cthulhu basic notions.
3465403
Cthulhu was exactly what I was thinking of. Demons aren't so bad, really. The universe accounts for demons. It's the stuff on the outside you really have to worry about. They aren't all whimsical chimeras voiced by John de Lancie.
3419157
Well, if Zecora hadn't helped Corona escape from the sun (I'm pretty sure I remember her claiming to have assisted in that) then there would have been no need for the L!6 to gather the Elements. Without the lure of getting control of the Elements dangling in front of them, the most corrupt of the nobles wouldn't have played their hands as openly as they did, and the L!6 wouldn't have had the motivation to deal with them. As a result, the widespread corruption in the Night Court would have continued to fester for much longer, as Luna didn't trust herself to put the hoof down until the problem became too obvious to ignore. Equestria would have then been weaker and more unprepared to deal with whatever is meant to come next.
Destiny needs to stop being so damned vague most of the time, but I'm guessing that this is the direction RDD is going with it.
Well, this should be itneresting.
her
_____________
Why is the chanting the lyrics to circle of life from lion king?
Oh man! That's one too many close calls already!
You think my gifts far to grand
Corona lead them through the basement
The stairwell lead them to a long
1. Too.
2. Led.
3. Led.
Is that a B5 reference I spy?
9101060
Every chapter title in this story is, though the (intentional) references end at those. I'm a big B5 fan.