Chapter Fourteen
Ancient Evil
I walked out into the half-natural cavern that contained the crystal, and Jigsaw followed at my shoulder, nearly touching me. It was difficult to judge the scale, but the thing was certainly huge, at my first estimate nearly two-thirds the height of the Crystal Empire's palace—but nowhere near as beautiful. In fact, it was downright hideous. It was jagged and asymmetrical, with smaller spurs and stubby branches sticking out of its sides. Flickers of pale green and purple force leaped from point to point. When I got to the lip of the ledge the door opened onto, I could see the pierced dome of corroded bronze and glass that encircled its base. The top of the gigantic crystal was hidden in shadows, but I was fairly sure the point at its apex lay just below the pedestal of the cornucopia.
"I'm betting we've found the power source," I said quietly.
"Ya think?" I'm sure Jigsaw meant it to sound glib and confident, but the tremble in her voice kind of spoiled it. "So... what now?"
To our left, there was a short set of stairs, leading down to the cavern floor. At their base was a free-standing arch, and a rough trail led from there, across the cavern, to a door in the bronze dome at the crystal's base. I moved toward them.
"Wait!" hissed Jigsaw. "If we can't use magic in here, how are we going to check for traps?"
"Let me try something. Stand away from me in case this doesn't work."
She jumped away from me like I'd suddenly become red hot. "Wait! What are you—"
I concentrated and brought up an ancient matrix that was a subversion of everything I'd learned while growing up. It was a dark, unsympathetic power that my dear teacher Celestia had revealed to me, perhaps unwittingly, or perhaps with some long purpose in mind. I could never quite decide which was most likely.[1]
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[1] And there are some things that a pony just doesn't discuss with The Alicorn of Sunshine and Purity.
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I felt the surge of thick, heavy power flow through me, leaving my horn more like smoke than radiance, as I cast it out across the stairs and the floor of the cavern. Then I breathed out and let the energy gutter and ebb away.
"Holy stars, Twilight," Jigsaw gasped. "Your eyes! They went all..."
"Yes, I know. It's the same sort of magic as in that crystal. Doesn't seem to evoke a reaction, which was what I was hoping for. The stairs and path should be safe. Let's go."
She followed me without another word, and we crossed the floor of the cavern. The crystal towered over us oppressively, long before we neared the door in the dome. As we passed between a pair of stalagmites, I felt a sudden surge of fear: I had missed something! I suddenly knew that I had made a disastrous mistake that was going to cost both of us our lives. I nearly jumped from the crudely flattened path and bolted into the field of razor-edged crystal spikes that littered the cavern's floor before I caught myself. I bit my lip, hard. The feeling passed. Looking down, I could see the twin purple crystals embedded into the backs of the stalagmites. Nasty. I told myself to widen my parameters on my next sweep for traps.
I turned and faced Jigsaw. "When you step between these stone spikes, you're going to feel an irrational fear. Just keep going and I'll help you through it. It's... not quite a trap, more like a discouragement, but it'll be dangerous if you panic. Are you ready?"
Jigsaw's ears swiveled back. "That's the fear I'm feeling right now?"
I shook my head. "No, what you're feeling right now is perfectly reasonable and rational fear. Come on." I motioned her forward with a hoof. "I'll make sure you're okay."
She took a deep breath, nodded, and stepped forward. Suddenly her pupils shrunk to pin-points and she cried out, "No! No! Sesseressia! What are you doing?"
I hooked her forelegs with mine and pulled her forward, snapping her out of her hallucination. "You're okay! You're okay! It wasn't real!" I hadn't expected the charm to hit her so hard.
Her eyes darted around wildly for a moment and then she fixed them on my face. "Not real?"
"It wasn't real," I nodded. "It's all over. Take deep breaths. And... who or what is Sessa... whatever?"
"Sesseressia," she said. "That's the general's name."
"Oh." I frowned. "What was she doing to you?"
"She wasn't doing anything!" Jigsaw blurted. "It was... uh... You know, I'd rather not talk about it."
"That's fine. Are you okay now?"
She just nodded.
"Alright. Just a little farther to go."
When we got to the dome, we found the doorway twisted and deformed. The door itself lay to one side, obviously wrenched from its hinges and tossed aside. "Looks like we may not be the first outsiders down here," I observed.
Jigsaw tapped my shoulder. When I turned to look at her, she pointed to the side of the path opposite from where the ruined door lay.
The pony skeleton was still wrapped in desiccated hide, and wisps of brittle hair clung to it where the mane and tail used to be. It certainly was no student's prank. The stub of the horn was cracked and blackened.
Jigsaw pressed her shoulder against mine. I reached out and lay my wing across her back. After a moment, I said, "I want to go on, but if you—"
"I'm good."
I didn't ask her if she was sure. I just nodded and turned to the doorway. Another pulse of dark magic on my part told me that there was no immediate threat awaiting us, so I walked into the dome, Jigsaw following closely.
The giant crystal narrowed drastically as it passed through the tightly-fitting hole in the roof of the dome, and ended in a very sharp point just a hoof's span above the floor. Surrounding the point was a large confusion of bronze loops and struts that reminded me of the big orrery that stood near the palace in Canterlot. But it only took a moment for me to determine that this structure didn't represent the mechanism of the heavens. There were no epicycles or ellipticals, and instead of spheres and points representing the stars and planets, there were oddly shaped tablets and plaques at seemingly random points.
As the huge crystal turned, arcs of dark magical energy leaped from its jagged edges to various places on the bronze structure, casting eerie green and purple shadows on the curved walls.
I scanned the room, looking for anything else of interest. Opposite the door, there were dark shapes on the floor, but it was impossible to make out what they were with the bronze mechanism in the way. I pointed the shapes out to Jigsaw with a wingtip and she nodded. I don't know why I was reluctant to speak, but I went with my instincts. I moved around the periphery of the room to the left, keeping as far away from the mechanism as possible, and motioned for Jigsaw to follow behind. We weren't far from the shapes by the time we could make out that they were bodies.
Funny. Just a short while before, I'd started and almost screamed at a silly wooden skeleton. But, at that time, looking down at the desiccated remains of several ponies, I just felt a deep sadness. Behind me, I heard Jigsaw draw in a sharp breath.
I carefully built up the energy for a spell, ready to respond instantly at any sign of an unexpected reaction from the tangle of bronze or the crystal point turning slowly within. Black vapor flowed from my horn, drifting toward the mechanism as if carried by a slight breeze, rather than being propelled by my will. It brushed the metal and nothing happened. I curled wisps of the dark magic around the biggest piece of bronze, a flat, nearly level arc that ran half-way around the room, and squeezed gently. Nothing happened. I stepped closer and pushed more forcefully against the top surface of the arc. Beneath the flaking corrosion, tiny gems lit up in lines and patterns. I withdrew my magic and the lights faded.
"Twilight," Jigsaw whispered to me, "I know you're curious about that thing, but something killed those ponies, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I knew what, exactly, it was."
I'd gotten lost in my own head again, and hadn't thought of what Jigsaw might be thinking. I'd already figured out the most likely scenario that had led to the death of those poor ponies and had gone on ahead with my own experimentation.
"Sorry," I said, quietly. "I'm pretty sure that it was their own magic that got them killed, but... hmn... I think there's a safe way to confirm it. Stand back a ways."
I didn't have to tell her twice. I think she was a lot more disturbed by the whole situation than she let on. When she was a good distance away, I used the dark magic to raise a barrier of black, magic-reflecting shards all around me, similar to the trap that had been set by King Sombra at the top of the Crystal Empire's palace. Only, this time, I was the one controlling it. Then I let the dark energy fade away and brought up a simple spell I'd known since foalhood. It was the one that most unicorns learned first: a soft glow of light from the tip of the horn. It was enough to see by, but not enough to draw attention. Just perfect for sneaking into the kitchen, late at night, on a cookie-jar raid.[2]
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[2] Of course, I first learned to turn the pages of a book with a shaky pulse of levitation. The light spell came soon after, though—just after I realized it would make a perfect under-the-covers booklight for illicit reading after bedtime, in fact.
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The response was immediate and violent. A blast of black force wreathed with green lightning slammed into the black shards protecting me, crackling and hissing, making the crystalline surface pop and spatter as it went molten from the impact. I dropped the light spell instantly, and the room went dark.
"Yeah, that's about what I thought would happen," I said, trying very hard to sound like a mare who hadn't been on the edge of leaving a puddle beneath herself. I dismissed the black shards and turned to Jigsaw, who I could barely see with my dazzled eyes. "You okay?"
"Fine," she said in clipped tones. "No using magic down here. Got it."
I resumed poking at the strange bronze structure with dark magic. I cleared away as much of the crumbly verdigris as I safely could, and began playing with the lights again. I soon realized that they were controls of some sort, but they weren't arranged in any sort of pattern that made sense to me, so I avoided changing their position or orientation. I wondered if the bronze not-orrery could be the weapon mentioned in the code, but there didn't seem to be any obvious way of directing it. The energy of the immense crystal could certainly do harm to Celestia, but the unicorns couldn't have depended on luring her down into the cavern to use it, could they? Perhaps there was some way to open the roof of the cavern above and fit some other sort of device to direct its energy? But it would still be a very short-range weapon.
While I turned the possibilities over in my mind, Jigsaw crossed behind me, and went to examine the bodies. She looked down and tapped something with a hoof-tip. It was a large box that bore the crests of Canterlot University and Crinet College. There were two other boxes among the corpses. "Twilight, these are specimen crates. Can you open them?"
I turned away from the mechanism and looked at the—at the pile I had been avoiding looking at. I carefully tried to unlatch the hasp on the first crate, but it crumbled under my touch. The iron had corroded until it was just layers of rust in the shape of a metal strap. I gently probed the crate and then backed away. "It looks like these were carefully sealed. The contents might still be okay, but the metal and wood is about as sturdy as spongecake. The boxes will come apart if I try to move them."
"Could you teleport them to the surface?"
I considered that. "Yes. I don't think the crates will survive it, but the contents might. I don't see that we have a better option."
"Void take the contents, Twilight! Can you do it safely?"
"Oh, right." I tried to make it into a joke. "Safe as houses, Peachy!"
Jigsaw gave me the stink-eye. "The Mare Who Would be Queen didn't turn out so well for Peachy and Dandelion, did it? As I recall, Dandelion got decapitated and Peachy went mad."
"Okay, bad example." I shrugged. "How about this? I'll take all the notes I can about the controls on the mechanism first, and then you can carry our stuff up the stairway. When you're safely out of the cavern, I'll wink the crates and myself up to the surface. How does that sound?"
"Terrible! You're going to take all the risks yourself? What if something happens and I'm not there to help you?"
"But, if you stay, you'll be in danger, too!"
"I'm not just thinking about myself, Twilight!" She stomped a hoof for emphasis. "I care what happens to you."
"I—"
"How about this instead?" Jigsaw steamrollered right over me. "When we're ready to go, you raise the biggest, jaggedy black shield you can around both of us and the boxes, and then pop us all up to the surface?"
It wasn't a bad plan. I saluted. "Yes, Sergeant Dandelion!"
She tried, only partially successfully, to turn the snort of laughter into one of derision. We went to work.
While I fiddled with the mechanism, Jigsaw gently examined the bodies. They were even more fragile than the crates and would have crumbled to dust long ago if it weren't for the dry, still air of the cavern. We couldn't give them any sort of burial, but Jigsaw found a way for us to give them a sort of memorial. Just before we left, she pointed out their saddle bags. They had clasps and embossing that were almost certainly representations of their cutie marks. When we returned to Canterlot, we could find out who they had been and record the circumstances of their end. Maybe they had descendants we could contact.
There was one of them who wouldn't need to wait, though. The bags of the big mare nearest the mechanism bore a design stitched in gold thread: A torch crossed with a writing quill. Now we knew what had become of the famous rebel, Sharphoof. Had she returned to claim the weapon when her rebellion had failed? Or had she had nowhere else to go when she had been banished from Equestria? Did it even matter?
I sighed. "I think we're doing this archaeology stuff wrong, Jigsaw. Too much gloom and doom. Why aren't we running into colorful villains with strange accents to fight?"
Jigsaw rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and why don't we totally destroy a few priceless pre-classical sites while we're at it? Ruin any chance of learning anything of historical significance just to grab a shiny doodad and write a sleazy book full of half-truths about it for a stack of bits!"
"Wow." I shied back from her sudden outburst. "You really don't like Daring Do, do you?"
"She's a—[3]."
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[3] I absolutely refuse to even hint at the word that Jigsaw used. Just hearing it was like a bucket of ice-cold water to the face.
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I guess my gasp and flaming cheeks was enough to make Jigsaw realize how shocked I was. "Sorry," she said sourly. "But, yeah, I really don't like her."
"Why? It can't just be her books," I finally managed to say. "Or her approach to archaeology."
Jigsaw sighed and pressed a hoof to the bridge of her nose. "I'll explain it to you when we're not standing next to an incredibly powerful artifact of ancient evil, okay? The thing makes me nervous."
"Oh." I grinned sheepishly. "Right." And I began to go through the preparations to get us and the boxes out of the cavern in one piece.
For once, nothing went wrong.
= = =
=
Buh Buh BUM!!! And then it did...
I wonder if the Cornucopia mechanism can be used to forcefully teleport someone to either the unicorn using the device or.....into that chamber with the dark magic crystal/device.
Then again given just how large that crystal/device sounded I'm now wondering where the unicorns got all the energy to create that or if perhaps the original system was a good deal smaller (and to a certain extent regenerating/replenishing from some other power source) but since nopony's used it for so long it just kept growing and growing.
Well, they can't just leave the crystal there for random sapients to stumble across. Its probably charged with enough dark magic to take out half the badlands if something sets it off. The key will be dealing with it without setting it off. For example another meteor strike is probably a bad idea no telling how big a boom you'd get and the possibility of dark magic fallout is just nasty.
Spoilers for people who haven't seen Daring Don't yet: The fact that Daring Do is real and not fictional is a secret. How does Jigsaw know?
3618710There is a very good reason for that... coming soon to a story near you! Hint: Daring Do is an archeologist and Jigsaw is an archeology student.
And yeah, big bad crystal needs to be dealt with... more than they know.
I'm guessing Jigsaw deployed the F-Bomb.
Daaamn, that's one big crystal.
And an orrery that isn't an orrery, I'm guessing that it is the cornucopia mechanism.
That is so Twilight.
3831678 I'm thinking something even worse...something that rhymes with "stunt", perhaps?
Hmm, it's interesting how far Jigsaw has come. She went from careful admiration and proper speech, to professing her love for Twilight, to finally just being a normal friend with her, and with no less snark. And the fact that Twilight has done nothing is great.
Can't they just carry the crates up to the surface, and then they don't have to risk using magic? The fact that they're down here means they're small enough to be carried.
Even if you couldn't do that; you could go back to the surface and then use the Cornucopia.
Still not sure about the Cornucopia device; I'm OK with the big crystal being the engine that fuels it, but every engne requires a fuel source of some kind.
P.S. Almost certain that Jigsaw knows the real Daring Do and got burned by her somehow; possible details include:
likely
Botched romance
Daring Do's destroying a valuable artifact/ someone Jigsaw loved
unlikely
Daring Do made a major find and took all the credit
Daring Do is Jigsaw's mother
"or so I thought"
I'm thinking that, given the range and accuracy of the teleport spell, that thing can probably deliver its attack pulse to any point on the planet with pin-point accuracy. It's a true magical Doomsday Machine. Whilst I am sure that Twilight (who, with the exception of Celestia, may be the last pony alive that can operate this device) could control the temptation to use it, why leave it there until somepony has sufficient dumb luck to work it out too?
No, as much as destroying such an artefact of history and the bleeding edge of what is possible with magic is a crime, the site must be razed to the bedrock and the rubble liquefied into trinitite.
4249233 Le cunt is what you were thinking of, am I correct? Or do I need to brush up on my swears?
This just leads me to speculate on what swearword- or combinations of swear words she used
5328712 Nope, you're correct. You could also just add any cuss word to any word ending in -unit and BOOM! New swearword.
no comma after itself
led, not lead
unlatch
Well, that's not a useful test. If nothing happens, nothing happens. If it does evoke a reaction, you are quite likely fucked. It's not really any better than assuming nothing would happen and hoping that if something would happen, you find something that tips you off before you need to rely on your assumption.
EDIT: Oh, it was a trap check, not just a test of whether dark magic would set anything off. Still a very risky choice, but slightly less unnecessary of a risk.
I'll put my money on cunt
this scene comes to mind:
So Jigsaw knows the secret behind Daring Do, huh? Curious...
Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendzone!
That sounds a bit like Celestia. Is it a conspiracy? I think so!
7269068
She's in archeology. If she knows that the places and artifacts in the books are real, realizing the pony is real isn't much of a jump.
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lol
Like the Kipling reference in this chapter.
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Cool! You're one of the few readers who've caught it!
8782468
One of my favorite authors, although not necessarily one of my favorite stories (that would be Kim).
Then everything wet wrong.
8782468
Read a number of Kipling’s stories & poems. Never read that one
Things GM has predicted correctly: that Jiggsaw was going out to sleep with the Changeling as Twilight, basically from the moment she looked guiltily at Twilight that first time. Saw that coming
Things GM has predicted incorrectly: EVERYTHING ELSE. For such an old story I keep getting surprised by the mystery of the ruins, the way the cornucopia works, the behavior of the changelings...
And most of all, how you handle Character Flaws. Specifically, this relationship Twilight and Jiggsaw have. It's riddled with "oh no they're going to do THIS" and then I groan and am, either a chapter or two later, shown up by it being taken care of. They talk it out, they most past things, and they don't let things stew because they know it only makes things worse. They friggin talk about their feelings from a standpoint of trying to understand the other person hot dang do I never see this happen anywhere, kudos.
I no longer have that odd feeling in my gut that this story is going to go predictable romance subplot.
I do have that odd feeling in my gut that gives me significant revulsion to the idea of sleeping with a changeling at all buuuuut I've been labeled a prude by multiple people so take that as you will.
Also. Dark magic. Cool. Has the most "awesome" factor. But from an author's standpoint, it wasn't as technically impressive as the relationship dynamic. Yet. I suppose I could be surprised again.
Also...
I call BS.
-GM, master of G R E E N.
This is even more concerning than 'And then, everything went wrong'.
How do you envision dark magic, by the way? How does it work?
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Well... there's a complex answer that involves rather a lot of head-cannon. But, put simply (or as simply as I can), bright (good) magic uses the natural magical energy of a world (mana) in a way that is harmonious with the whole system. That means there are limits to what can be done with it. Think of the parts of a spell as combining naturally occurring components or macros; there are only a limited number of combinations. Dark magic breaks natural magical components into pieces and then reassembles them in ways that are inefficient, jury-rigged, and even slightly destructive to the natural magical environment. But it can allow the user to do things that aren't possible with bright magic. (Like directly kill other ponies.)
Unfortunately, one of the things that dark magic has a negative effect on is the brain that manipulates it. Which is why most dark sorcerers rarely come to a good end.
10111032
Reading other people's headcanons and uses for dark magic is always so interesting, since it seems like there is almost never any two that are identical!
I am loving this evil mega-crystal thingy. Giving me some reverse-Tree of Harmony vibes, even though this predates it!
I mentioned this once before in an older comment, but dark magic is so dang flexible. I wish it had been expanded more in the series proper. It had some brief moments in S3, S4, and S5, but it was scarce. But, this flexibility is GREAT for writers.
This is partly how I always envisioned dark magic myself. Heavy and slow, but powerful. Although for me, I don't see it as necessarily "evil" or its own class of magic, but that's just gonna be a thing that varies from story to story. *hunkers down with tea*
Uh-oh. I have a feeling this will get revisited.
During my first read, this was around the part where I was starting to get a little hesitant, due to my prior experiences with fanfiction as a teen. When dealing with an unknown story and unknown author, you have no idea what direction something like this is going to go, especially with dark magic looming over the horizon. I'm glad I stuck things out and didn't give in to old traumas.
I relate so hard to you, girlfriend. There are certain stories I wish I could brain bleach away.
lmaono
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See, this is a touchstone for good and imaginative writing. Building a world where it feels like there's always something interesting, strange, or wonderful around the corner. Good writers toss off dozens of glimpses of fascinating stuff in the course of a story. Bad writers get three good ideas (at the most) and then run them into the ground. Particularly in the early days, the MLP crew (and I'm including the layout artists and animators) made it feel like there was a huge, complex world out there... just around the corner.
It seems I instinctively put (at least) one really terrible thing in every story. I think it's for contrast. I much prefer the exploration, interesting characters, mysteries, and suchlike, but there is no light without darkness.