Agents of F.R.I.E.N.D.

by PeppyJoe

Interlude One

Untold millennia ago...
Ponies throughout the kingdoms revered Lavoisier as a beacon of light in an otherwise inhospitable mountain range. Few earth ponies and pegasi ever had the opportunity to see it, but any resident of the city would assure you that everypony wished they could live there. Nestled in a valley formed by the peaks of four mountains, Lavoisier was a natural fortress. Its ornate walls connected four towers built atop each peak, with the highest one forming the castle itself and reaching nearly to the clouds.

The valley, while housing less wealthy residents, was no less opulent itself. A series of winding paths carved through the rock and connected all the shimmering gem-studded and metal-framed houses. The nobility may have been content with recreational pursuits, but the common unicorn still needed to work. For most, this meant research. Some worked as bakers and craftsponies and other such things, but most were dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. "The Tungsten Age of science and reason," the prince once boasted in the hopes of sparking a new metaphor. His son, the young Lord Gold, notably said it would never catch.

Unsurprisingly, the lesser races were unwilling to barter their grain or weather-maintenance for the promise of education, so a significant number of the population also dabbled in enchanting. Few made a career of it, but the combined efforts of several thousand skilled mages in their free time proved more than enough to provide the city's trade-goods. The rest of the city's wealth came from the extensive mines and quarries running through and beneath the mountains. Unicorns did not work there, naturally, but they permitted some earth ponies to dig for a nominal rate.

And today, all of that was going to change.

Glimmer Swirl ran down the smooth stone path as quickly as she could, teleporting herself every few seconds. This was terribly uncouth, but she had left manners at the door when she overslept by two hours. She had skipped all her prep-work and bolted out the door when she caught a glimpse of the sundial, and might just make it to the South Tower in time for the ceremony.

Slowing to a trot as she approached the gates, the guards stepped up to block the door. "I do beseech thee, fair gentlestallions, permit me enter that I may away to the Arch-Mage's chamber!"

"What matters have you with he? His Lordship bade us deny all visitors this day."

"My matters are his, and my business as well. Render me to him if you will, but delay me not!"

"Proceed, then. Stars make your presence and practices pleasant and helpful to him." The armored stallions stepped aside and pulled the door open, and Glimmer Swirl darted immediately inside. She ascended the stairs hastily enough to draw some scornful looks, but reached the top of the tower in a respectable time. Pausing before she knocked on the Arch-Mage's door, she turned to an earth pony mare seated behind a desk nearby.

"Wench, where be his regal being?"

"He's already within the casting chamber, milady."

Back down three of those thirty flights of stairs, then.

Pushing open the heavy-set mahogany door and looking around, Glimmer realized she truly was the last pony to arrive. She slunk as inconspicuously as she could to her position and shut her eyes, feeling everypony else's on her. At least they hadn't started yet, and still did not seem to be ready, so she began to adjust her mane and run through the mental exercises.

A minute later, she heard footsteps and looked up to see Prince Tungsten himself stepping into the room.

"Mares, stallions," he intoned with an air of distinct authority tempered by clear excitement, "Each of you this day knows our most prodigious purpose. If successful, every creature that walks this planet and touches its skies shall know our might." He paused, a slight smile gracing his face. "Lavoisier shines brightly over our kingdom—now let us command the night."

Tungsten stepped back and another stallion approached. The Arch-Mage. He carried a small parchment-wrapped sphere in his magic, and set it on a pedestal in the center of the chamber. Removing the cover, he revealed a small, clear, perfectly spherical orb within. He nodded to a pair of earth ponies standing at the edge of the room, and then took his own place around the circle. The two earth ponies rolled back an array of blinds, revealing glass-panel walls behind. Through it, the sun could be seen reaching over the tip of the East Wall.

The Arch-Mage took a slow look around the circle, making eye contact with each member, before he gave a nod. "Begin."

At once, sixteen horns lit up. Sixteen minds focused on the task—the simplest task. Every foal could do this, and every mare and stallion in the room had done it countless thousands of times. Now, they simply needed to do it bigger. Each pony kept their minds off the orb in the center of the room, ignoring it, thinking only of the task. Their horns, one by one, burst into layers of overglow as their bodies strained against the impossible.

"And mark."

At once, sixteen horns discharged the built-up energy into gemstone in the center of the room. Not one of them ceased the spell, but now they directed it into the stone, and the Arch-Mage's horn continued to glow brighter as he manipulated the magic pouring into it.

The servants and prince watched in shared awe as the sun sunk below the horizon and the room grew dimmer despite the magical glow. When the Arch-Mage gave the order to stop moments later, sixteen pairs of eyes opened and looked around the room. Blinked. Looked at the window, and out at a night sky.

~ ~ ~

Present Day
New Maresico
Twenty minutes outside Rockwell
Toaster stepped out of the large, pink pastel-colored bunker and immediately winced as the wind blew sand into his face. He brought up a hoof to shield his eyes as he looked around. He couldn't see a single other pony in the fenced-in compound, although given that a third of the thirty people were sleeping in the room he'd just left and the others were working in his current destination, this was not terribly surprising. Apart from the housing bunker and the joint lab-and-command-center, the only other structures were the towering hanger to his left and the small guard post by the road leading out.

He spotted one of the guards walking out of the post just then, and realized it must nearly be time for lunch if the shifts were changing. He raised a hoof and waved, and the guard—Arcing Ax—paused to wave in return.

Ax resumed walking just in time to avoid being crushed by the two massive airships that had suddenly appeared over the guard shack and fallen on it.

~ ~ ~

Elsewhere...
Flying while carrying an adult pony is not an easy task. Doing so while trying to outrun a potentially catastrophic magical explosion is even less of an easy task. Still, Soarin felt compelled to keep reassuring the unconscious Minuette in his grip that they would be fine.

"We'll be fine!" he declared with a nervous laugh. "We'll be fine." He was getting close to the shoreline now. "We'll be just fine."

His flight before that point had been uneventful, and had gone on much like that for the entire time. However, it was at this moment that the Celestial Stone finally generated the necessary energy, and released it.

Soarin glanced back as a terrifyingly loud roar filled the air and a massive plume of water rose in the distance behind him and sent out towering waves. Before the products of the magical blast had a chance to drown him, the glimmering rainbow energy surge itself overtook him and nearly knocked him out of the air, but he fought the shift in pressure and remained upright.

Looking back once more, the water was... still. Soarin actually had to check twice before he stopped fleeing, but yes, the wave had evidently already dissipated and the only rainbow in sight was a trace of the initial glare burned into his vision. Giddy at his survival, he did a small vertical loop in the air and made Minuette groan. "Don't worry, Mini. We're home free."

Author's Note:

I admittedly published this chapter earlier than planned, because my normal pre-reader has had something come up and will be unable to help with foreseeable future chapters. I wanted to go ahead and get this out there so that I'd have some lead time, and so that I could say, if anyone has experience with providing grammatical and literary feedback and wants to lend a hand/hoof, it might be welcome.

And now, a word about the story itself! Thus far, things have been fairly fast paced. I like fast paced, and there will undoubtedly be plenty of it in later chapters. However, this chapter marks the end of the first little mini-arc, which was always destined to be very action-filled by nature of introducing the characters and setting, and also setting up a lot of ideas and themes that will be coming later down the line. That's why I'm calling this an interlude, though it does not imply a lengthy break. I specified that it's interlude one because there's more than one of everything.

Also, I'm quickly learning that foreshadowing is both very fun and very difficult, because either you're too obvious, too subtle, or you just want to scream, "Ha! Look at that clever thing I just said! Wasn't that clever?"

Comments

[MrAskAPirate]

Wench

You have my atten--oh, wait, wrong kind of wench,

I know that foreshadowing feel... I get it with all the references I throw in my stories; very few people seem to get the ones I'm most proud of,