Innocent

by Puzzle Piece

Act III: Chapter Twenty-Seven: Farther Afield

Dawn was grey and still, with a light mist creeping out of the forest to wrap around the hooves of the Army as they broke camp. Princess Luna presided over a short ceremony to bury the fallen from the previous day. The twenty seven headstones were arranged in three neat rows of nine, marked with only the name of the pony. A few soldiers lingered briefly to say their own personal farewells, but Luna quickly gathered the Army to march. She was impatient to begin the trek to the Crystal Empire and aid Shining Armor in repelling the Trolls in that region. No news had been heard from the north since the Prince had left to lead the Empire thirteen days ago.

The Vanguard broke camp less swiftly, having been informed by Lieutenant Long Watch that they would not be taking the same route as the Army and thus didn’t need to rush themselves to leave at the same time. Jason welcomed the news, since it would mean more time to cool off before he was forced to deal with the Princess again. It wouldn’t do any of them any good to let her words offend him. The potential good he could do leading the Vanguard wouldn’t change because of the way Luna referred to his position. So he spent the morning walking through the trees, trying to shrug the matter off. He wasn’t very successful.

As he returned to camp, he spotted a patch of scorched grasses, almost perfectly circular. A short ways away, another similar ring of blackened undergrowth could be seen. He investigated and came upon Twilight Sparkle. She was concentrating so intently on the ground in front of her that she didn’t notice Jason’s presence. He could sense that she was using her mana, so he waited to see what she was attempting. After a moment, the air above the grass shimmered and the grass itself began to curl as if it were being baked by an extreme heat. Twilight closed her eyes and gritted her teeth in effort. Some of the stalks actually glowed with tiny embers before she let out her breath in a great huff and she dropped her concentration. The circle of charred ground looked almost identical to the ones that had led Jason here.

“Twilight?” Jason said softly to announce himself.

Despite his delicacy, Twilight jumped in surprise.

“Jason! I, uh, what are you doing out here?” she asked.

“Trying to put my head on straight after yesterday,” he replied. “What was that you were casting?”

“I’ve been trying to use my mana to make fire by reverse engineering the methods I use for frost. I tried to put heat into the target instead of taking it away.” Her ears dropped in disappointment. “It’s not working very well.”

“You’re trying to make the target combust by bombarding it with heat?” he asked in clarification.

“Yes. Is that wrong?”

“Not wrong,” he replied. “But highly inefficient. You see, this grass is a living plant, full of water and other tissues that don’t make for very good fuel. You wouldn’t burn green wood in a campfire for the same reason that using mana to heat something up until it burns is going to be more difficult than the alternative.”

“What alternative would that be?” Twilight asked.

“Using the mana itself as the fuel.” Jason sat down and indicated that she do the same. “Our mana offers two methods of bringing a desired effect into reality: The use of Nature magic, as I’ve been teaching you; and that of Arcane. They are two variants of the same discipline of magic, but they are classified separately because of the process they use to reach the result. Where Nature magic manipulates the world around us to make what we desire, Arcane magic simply calls it into existence by pure mana energy alone.”

He held up a hoof and a small flame appeared.

“As you can see, I am not burning a physical fuel. Only mana is keeping this flame going.”

He let the flame go out and gestured to his side. Trailers of mist rose at his command and condensed to form a wicked-looking icicle.

“You had been using the water in the air yesterday. But you could also use mana to form a shard of ice when the necessary resources aren’t available.”

A second icicle appeared beside the first, but instead of coalescing from the air around them over the course of a few seconds, this one took shape instantaneously without any visible cause. Twilight eyed the icicle suspiciously.

“You’re teleported the ice from elsewhere?” she asked.

“No,” Jason replied.

“Transfiguring the air into ice?”

“Nope.”

“A construct then, formed out of energy to resemble ice?”

“Almost,” Jason said with a smile. “This is, in every way that matters, a genuine shard of water, frozen and sharp. At least until I stop concentrating on that form. But it’s much more than an imitation or illusion. All that separates the mana shard from the natural shard is what happens when I stop manipulating them with mana.”

He directed both bolts of ice into the ground a short ways away. The first stuck into the ground and, after a few seconds, began dripping slightly as the warmer air took hold. When the second bolt hit, however, it simply evaporated, leaving a faint layer of frost around its impact point before all traces of it vanished.

“There are a multitude of reasons a mage might choose to use one technique over the other,” Jason said. “But we’ll concentrate on mana cost and casting time, since they’re most applicable to our purposes.”

Twilight waited for him to go on, the gears in her mind visibly working on how she might use this new skill.

“Obviously, there is less cost in physical resources and time when you only need to call forth your own mana into a particular form. But it does require greater expenditures of mana. You see, mana is ‘burned’ when it is used, like calories in the body. Nature magic uses mana when you manipulate the elements around you and create forces. The act of controlling tendrils of your mana to do this takes energy to direct, but the tendrils can be pulled back and retained after you’ve used them. Arcane magic constructs the desired effect or object out of mana itself. That mana is used and gone once the spell is let loose. You cannot retrieve it.”

“Not ‘gone’ gone, right?” Twilight asked. “I mean, energy isn’t created or destroyed, just changed in form. Or is mana different?”

“No, you’re right,” Jason acknowledged. “It’s still out there in the world somewhere. Just not anyplace we can get to it. Not until the mana within us regenerates on its own. I suspect the two are related, but I haven’t studied enough of magical theory to tell you exactly how that works.”

Her eyes went wide. “What I’d give to see that library…”

“And what I’d give to see your reaction to it,” Jason countered with a laugh.

Twilight grinned sheepishly.

“But that’s a subject for another time,” Jason said, clearing his throat. “You wanted to use fire magic, but need a more efficient method.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking fire isn’t what I want to learn,” Twilight said quickly. She gestured to the scorched grasses. “I’m not sure I could handle watching something burn to death and know that I was causing it, not even a Troll.”

Jason considered her solemnly. “That’s not a bad thing, you know. It certainly isn’t a sentiment that’s going to win this war, but that hesitance is a restraint that separates the protector from the butcher.”

Twilight couldn’t look at him as he spoke.

“I’ll tell you what,” he went on, stepping close to her and putting a hoof on her shoulder reassuringly. “Normally, fire techniques are learned first, since it is the most basic form of its element. But we’ll just skip over it and head right for the next stage.”

He waited for her to nod before stepping back again.

“I’ll be using a sound dampening spell that I learned from one of your books back in Ponyville. Lightning is a loud element to summon after all,” he said with a wink.

Dawning comprehension lit up her features and she stepped back in anticipation. But Jason gestured for her to stand close to him instead. Jason’s horn lit up, signaling the use of Unicorn magic and not that of mana. A tan bubble expanded out from him until it had enveloped everything within twenty meters of them. All sound from the outside was cut off instantly, while the sound inside the bubble was deadened as if everything had been wrapped in wool. Jason held the spell in place as he prepared his mana to call down a lightning bolt.

He pointed a hoof toward the sky and reached out with his mana through the haze above them. As he did so, he felt Twilight reaching out with her own mana experimentally, probing at what he was doing. Jason then sent a second wave of mana into the ground in front of them. In the sky, he began shifting the air to create a negative charge. In the ground, he created a positive field. Within the pockets of mana he manipulated, the two charges sought to reach each other, but his control kept them apart. As each charge gathered in strength, he felt his ability to keep them separate slipping away. When he finally released them, he redirected his mana to create a pathway for the charges to follow.

Instead of guiding the two forces together in a straight line, Jason wrapped the entire zone of silence in tendrils of mana that snaked between the tree trucks and looped over their heads. At the same time, he pushed his Time Warping ability to its most potent level and extended it to Twilight as well. As the single second of release stretched out into what might have been minutes, he could see Twilight’s eyes following the strangely dull arc of energy as it coalesced out of the haze above them and descended. Like a hummingbird, the leading edge of the bolt darted along the mana pathway, leaving a faint trail in its wake. Soon, a long glowing cord of blue-white energy was hanging nearly motionless in the air around them. When it drew near the end of its path, a second strand of energy shot up from the positive charge in the ground.

When the two met, the entire cord lit up in a briefly blinding flash that left both ponies blinking. When they could see again, the cord was thick and pulsed with the energy flowing through it. Even though they were several feet away from the nearest band of lightning, they could feel the intense heat emanating off of it. No sooner had they felt that than a crack of thunder hit them. Due to the sound dampening spell, it sounded as if it was coming from behind a thick wall and so wasn’t overwhelming to their ears. But the waves of force that surged in from all sides were undiluted and still powerful enough to buffet them.

The pulses ended and the bright band began to fade away, slowly at first but more rapidly now that the energy had passed completely through and the heated air was dispersing. At the point on the ground where the bolt had struck, a small grass fire burned for a few seconds before fizzling out in the dampness. Jason let up on his Time Warp and dropped his concentration on both the mana path and the sound dampening spell. With a gasp of release, he dropped to his knees and very nearly blacked out. Twilight was caught up in the wonder of what she’d witnessed and had to glance over at him to notice he’d gone down.

“Are you alright,” she asked as she helped him stay steady.

He nodded, not ready to speak yet. He held up a hoof for patience. She gave him about a minute to stop his head from spinning before she couldn’t contain herself.

“That was incredible!” she exclaimed, gesturing at the air around them, though nothing of the display remained. “Was that your Time Warping as well? Is that what it’s like to see time in slow motion?”

Jason nodded as he struggled to regain his feet. He settled for sitting back on his hunches with a weary slump.

“I pulled out…all the stops.” He paused to close his eyes against the urge to collapse. “It’s been a long time since I’ve extended that effect to someone else. Natural as the ability is for me, it’s strenuous to push it that far.” He stopped to keep himself upright again. “But I think seeing the lightning’s path so clearly is essential to learning to recreate it.”

“All of that twisting and turning didn’t look natural,” Twilight observed.

“Lightning’s path through the air is rarely a straight line. But you’re right. It wasn’t a natural path. I wanted to illustrate possibilities.” Jason took a deep breath before going on. “Lightning comes with its own set of rules that separates it from other elements. As I said, a caster can create an effect with mana alone or they can manipulate the world to bring it into being. Lightning reacts differently than most other elements in that when it fights the caster for control, it changes at incredible speed. It will break out of your control without warning and at the first chance you give it. Generating lightning with mana will allow for complete control, but require much more effort to produce the same amount of energy and thus equivalent damage to a target. But raw natural lightning is unguided and can be as dangerous to allies as to an enemy. Thus, the form I demonstrated was an intermediate of natural lightning, carefully guided by a mana pathway.”

Twilight nodded as she considered his explanation.

“Lightning in its natural state takes the path of least resistance to reunite the opposite charges produced by friction in a storm cloud,” she said. “So, metals like that of armor on a battlefield would attract a bolt of lightning as conductors, which would redirect the spell away from the intended target. That’s the danger you’re referring to, right?” She looked to him for confirmation.

“It is,” he replied. “But it goes further than that. When you strike out across a battlefield, you need to consider which form fits the situation. Natural lightning, unguided, will strike toward the ground and generally takes an open space above the target to form. But that’s difficult to use indoors or in other confined areas. Mana lightning can be directed however you please, but is limited in striking power. Using mana to guide natural lightning compensates for both weaknesses, but takes more time and control. It is better to rely on other elements in uncertain situations and reserve lightning for moments when you can be certain of your surroundings.”

Twilight nodded in understanding. “Where do I begin?”

“Let’s start with only mana, since it will give you the greatest control. First, create a pathway and direct the flow of your mana through it. Imagine a river that flows in a circle, feeding itself. It is nothing more than a closed circuit of cycling energy.”

Twilight closed her eyes as she sent a band of mana flowing out into the space in front of her and then looped it back on itself. She spun it briefly before she managed to make the energy flow while keeping the band fixed in place.

“Good,” Jason said, probing her work. “Now, understand that electricity and mana are both energy in separate forms. Let the mana in the band take a new form and flow along the circuit. Keep it contained. But even as it fights to break free, remember that it is your mana; your energy. It obeys you.”

Twilight visibly struggled at first, but with a burst of crackling light, the band of mana became a thin ring of sparks, arcing and flashing within the space of her control. She managed to glance at him enthusiastically, but couldn’t speak as she concentrated on holding the volatile energy in its form.

“Now comes the tricky part,” Jason smiled. “When you use this as an attack, you’ll want to conjure this energy rapidly, so practicing to form the electrical energy and containing it in one action should be a priority. But you’ll still need to actually use it. That means giving it controlled release.”

He pointed out a tree several meters away.

“Just as you’re using your mana to keep this energy contained in a looped path, you can create a path that leads to your target. It only takes a touch, like a live wire.”

Twilight eased a tendril of mana out to the tree and let the contained lightning flow down the new path. All at once, the ring of energy vanished and a chunk of the tree exploded away in a shower of bark, leaving a ragged gash that stretched all the way from the point of contact to the roots. The flash and crack of thunder that accompanied it caused Twilight to jump before it echoed off into the distance. A small fire burned near the roots where the bolt had scorched its way to the earth, but it died out as quickly as before.

“I…I did it!” she exclaimed breathlessly.

“Excellent. That was flawless for a first time,” Jason said. “For practical purposes, you’ll need to be able to do it much faster. Some mages conjure multiple charges of lightning at a time while others work on rapidly preparing each bolt. Some even skip the external transition and convert the mana to lightning as it travels to the target, providing for the fastest casting time and the least warning to the target. But that was lightning from mana only. Are you ready to learn natural lightning?”

Twilight nodded eagerly.

“Alright. Have you ever gotten a shock from touching metal after rubbing against a rug or blanket?”

Twilight thought for a moment before nodding curiously.

“Then congratulations!” Jason exclaimed. “You’ve produced natural lightning already.”

He laughed at the questioning look she gave him and went on more seriously.

“A static shock is exactly the same as a bolt of lightning, only on a smaller scale. When using your mana to gather a charge, you’re producing the same effect as friction in the atmosphere. But notice that such a small amount of energy can jump back together with the slightest touch. So too will a full charge created by mana. If you do not keep them carefully separate, the forces of nature take over and you will lose control, potentially endangering your friends and allies.”

“So, use the same method of containment as a purely mana bolt, but over the entire area you are trying to charge. Then, much the same as you did with heat, shift the energy in that area so that it becomes polarized.” Jason watched as Twilight put out a field of mana and began to manipulate the air. “You’ll also need to create a positive charge on the ground at your target in order to direct the bolt. Otherwise, a positive charge will develop naturally and the bolt could end up anywhere.”

Twilight screwed up her face as she shifted her concentration. Almost at once, a crackle of static arced overhead and a forked bolt of lightning tore into the ground and a nearby tree. Twilight yelped at her loss of control and reflexively put up a purple shield around them both. The tree’s upper branches were stripped off as the bolt shattered the top of the trunk while the lower half was split cleanly in two. The second half of the bolt was smaller and left little more than burned grass where it hit. Twilight stared at the tree, watching the embers die in the scattered fragments.

“Yes, well,” Jason cleared his throat. “That’s clearly what I meant about nature asserting its will over yours. The tree contained enough of a positive charge to redirect much of your negative charge. Containing those charges from start to finish is the primary challenge of lightning and what makes it one of the highest tier elements.”

She nodded absently. Despite her mistake, Twilight didn’t look troubled. In fact, she was considering the tree thoughtfully now. Jason let her work through whatever it was patiently.

“I’ll take your advice,” she said at last. “I think it is best only to use lightning under ideal circumstances. I’ll keep practicing, but with that muffling spell active from now on.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Jason agreed with a smile.

Racing hooves interrupted them and a pair of ponies emerged from the screen of trees. Privates Baritone and Felix trotted to a stop and looked around, their weapons held ready.

“What was all of that?” Felix asked cautiously.

“Just us, working on some spells,” Jason said. “Let the others know it’s nothing to worry about.”

The two let themselves relax marginally, but Felix shook his head.

“Actually, we were on our way out here to tell you you’re needed back in camp. Lieutenant Hightalon found something.”

They all galloped back to find the whole Vanguard had gathered at the edge of the killing field. Cor was holding a satchel and his face was a grim mask. As soon as they were close enough to hear him, he spoke to the whole group.

“I spent last night searching through the field for the messenger that slipped through from the north a few days back. We didn’t know for sure he was a messenger at the time, but we do now.” He took a roll of parchment from inside the satchel and held it up. “This contains orders that give these Trolls permission to withdraw to the west, which is why they turned and ran so suddenly. But it also notes that they are being replaced with another force; a force that is being sent to attack a town south of our current position. That town is Ponyville.”

A ripple passed through the gathered ponies, a wave of uneasy murmurs and gasps of fear. A good deal of them were residents of Ponyville and some of the rest had family there.

“What are we waiting for?” Rainbow cried. “We’ve got to stop them!”

“All on our own?” Lieutenant Long Watch asked dubiously. “If this group here was being replaced, they’ll be more than we can handle. Does the scroll specify a number?” he asked, turning back to Cor.

“It doesn’t give one, no,” Cor replied. “But it’s a safe bet there’s too many for us to stop head-on.”

“When does it say they’ll reach Ponyville?” Jason asked urgently.

Cor looked over the parchment critically. “It doesn’t, but it implies that the reinforcements were only a day or two behind this scroll. And we’ve had a full day and night since it arrived here.”

“Ponyville is only two days southeast of us!” Lyra exclaimed. “They could be right on the doorstep!”

“We can’t know for sure,” Cor pointed out. “But yes, they could be.”

“Then we should get moving so they don’t get ahead of us,” Star Hunter suggested. “Ponyville is only a day away for a Pegasus. We could send a warning, in case we can’t stop the Trolls.”

“Stop them?” Sergeant Blitz snorted. “We’d be lucky to delay them an hour. There are only fifty eight of us.”

“Fifty nine,” a voice corrected him. All eyes turned to the speaker and Private Trottow stood up a little straighter under the scrutiny. “I was ordered to remain with your detachment in case you had a report for the main body of the Army. But I can fight as well, if you need me.”

“The Army! That’s it!” Lyra said. “They only left this morning. We can have them turn south instead and cut these Trolls off with some real numbers.”

“And leave the Crystal Empire to fend for itself for who knows how much longer,” Long Watch countered. “We can’t have the whole Army abandon their mission in the north for one town in the opposite direction. Besides, they’re not going to be able to get to Ponyville for three days, now that they’ve put that much more distance behind them.”

“We can at least ask them to send a company back so we have help,” Turner pleaded. “We can’t abandon the town for lost either. It’s home for a lot of us!”

“We can ask,” Cor said, glancing at Jason doubtfully. “But in the meantime, we need to be ready to face this on our own. That town doesn’t know what’s coming, so warning them should be the first priority. They might still have time to evacuate. Requesting reinforcements from the Army is a long shot, but we’ll try that as well. But while messages are being sent, there are still Trolls out there, and only one way to deal with them. Let’s move to intercept them and buy whatever time we can for Ponyville!”

Leaving the coordination to the other officers, Cor scratched out a pair of messages, one for Private Trottow to deliver to the Army and one for Private Felicitous of Second Flight to take to Ponyville. Everypony else scattered to finish breaking camp as quickly as they could, driven by the fact that they couldn’t know how far off the Troll force was and by the hope that they weren’t already too late.

~*~*~

When the gathered ponies stirred into action, a lone figure slipped away into the hills to the south, having seen all he needed to. Ragnalau had been investigating the missing troops from the Jungar and Nadrud Tribes when he’d been drawn to this spot by an odd pattern of lightning. It seemed this group had pursued them to an unfortunate end. Ragnalau’s lips curled into a sinister sneer. Perhaps these ponies were more ruthless than he’d given them credit for. He tucked that thought away for another time and hurried to return to the Tantar Tribe’s troops that he was leading.

And leading he was, though one would never know it from the sight. He was never seen issuing orders or marching with the rest. In fact, he took great pains to be as far removed from them as he could. His rank, as given to him by the Chief, meant he could direct them wherever he pleased. His own reputation let him do so with hardly a word and remain unquestioned. This time, however, he would have very specific instructions for his warriors. There were games he wished to play and snares he intended to set. If these ponies were planning on intercepting his attack on the town of Ponyville, he would enjoy watching them struggle for it.

As he padded through the tall grasses that carpeted the rolling hills and irregular stands of trees on his way, he felt a thrill of anticipation at the idea. Slaughtering hapless ponies would be twice as fun when he knew there was somepony desperately hoping to stop him.