Mortal Coil

by Reeve

XXXVI - Battlemage

“So in conclusion…” Sufferthorn began only to be interrupted by muffled yelling coming from below the deck.

She fell silent for a second, waiting for Sundial to tire himself out. Once he eventually did, she carried on.

“We don’t know exactly how many citizens are unaccounted…” she continued only to be cut off once again, she sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. “Strangle, would you kindly put a stop to those interruptions.”

Her brother nodded once before standing up and walking over to the ladder, he disappeared from view and we all waited in silence. Sundial continued to rant and rave through his gag until a loud thump could be heard, after that there were no further interruptions.

“Thank you Strangle,” Sufferthorn said as her brother returned to the crowded cabin. “As I was saying, we don’t know how many citizens are dead or missing, but I expect that a census will be drawn up by the time any of us return to Pivot and we’ll know better just how bad the casualties are. It would appear the invaders have retreated to the safety of Cragsburg, it’s… odd to think that they grew so powerful beneath our muzzles.”

“A mistake we won’t make again,” Maverick assured all the ponies gathered around the table. “Our forces may not be what they once were, but we’re going to use every pony under our command to their fullest potential.”

“Well our entire armed force is in Pivot awaiting orders,” Sufferthorn explained.

“You gotta keep the bulk in Pivot in case they come back,” Applejack suggested, earning a small glare from Sufferthorn.

“But we still need to send some troops to Cragsburg’s neighbouring towns in case the Children try to push their influence again,” I pointed out.

“If we spread our troops that much, we’ll be defenceless should the other factions launch an assault,” Sufferthorn argued before looking over at Stranglethorn and having another muted conversation with him. “I know the Arcane Order and the Dragoons are content to stay in their own holds, but we thought the same thing about the Children of the Earth and look what happened.”

“And don’t forget the Liberators,” Twilight reminded the group, like we needed reminding. “Even after everything you’ve done to damage them, their forces would still overpower your own, whether they were clustered together or spread out.”

“And I even told Typhoon what happened during our negotiations,” I lamented. “He knows we’ve been weakened, if he was ever going to strike us where we live, he might do it soon.”

“We’re in a bad situation, no doubt about that,” Maverick agreed, holding up his hooves in an attempt to calm everypony down. “We made the mistake of littering our forces across the country where they were no use when we needed them, we can’t afford to spread them out again.”

“Um, excuse me…” Fluttershy said in a quiet voice, raising her hoof.

“Hmm? Did you want to say something Sister?” Sufferthorn asked in a surprisingly respectful tone.

“I was just thinking, about the Liberators that is,” she began in a voice that was almost a whisper. “Didn’t Rarity say her negotiations with their leader had gone quite well… right up until she was taken control of?”

“I believe so, would you agree Stranglethorn?” I asked, to which he nodded firmly. “Right before I was controlled, I started getting through to him, I really think he started to see how much his actions have damaged the lives of the ponies he claims to be fighting for.”

“Well, we know that this Duke is the one responsible for what Rarity did,” Fluttershy continued. “And we plan to put a stop to him and his group tonight, right?”

“Ideally Sister Fluttershy,” Twilight confirmed. “Assuming all goes according to plan.”

“Well once the Duke is in custody; couldn’t we have him brought before Typhoon to admit to what he did?” Fluttershy proposed. “Once Typhoon knows Rarity wasn’t responsible for attacking him, then you can reopen negotiations. Then if things go well, you won’t have to worry about an attack coming from the Liberators and you’ll have more soldiers to help deal with the Children of the Earth.”

“It’s a wonderful idea Sister Fluttershy,” Maverick said, although everyone could sense a ‘but’ coming. “But it has one major issue, namely that Typhoon hates Equestria and its leaders. If we presented Blueblood to him, I have no doubt Typhoon would have him executed, and since we have already promised Lady Sparkle that he and all the Solar Empire agents are to be transported safely back to Equestria to be charged, allowing Typhoon the opportunity to kill Blueblood would severely damage our blossoming relations.”

“I think it’s a really good idea,” I told Fluttershy before addressing the rest of the cabin. “And I don’t think we should discard it just yet, any plan that could put an end to the Liberator threat is one worth considering.”

“Agreed,” Sufferthorn stated. “We can return to this discussion once we have Blueblood in custody and the Solar Empire are no longer a threat.”

“Indeed, for now our forces shall remain in Pivot to garrison the city should any of our enemies attack,” Maverick decided. “I shall see if we can spare any agents to check on Breakwater, Brine and Anchorage. If there are no further questions, shall we review the mission details for tonight?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Sufferthorn commented.

“Ah actually agree,” Applejack added which took me by surprise.

“The plan will work, I’m sure of it,” Twilight said, trying to inspire confidence in the others. “But if you don’t want to be on the front line, I don’t mind at all. I just thought you and Rarity would be best suited for the task.”

“Ah’m not saying it’s a bad idea because of that,” Applejack argued. “Ah’m more than glad to join you on that beach, ah just… ah just think there’s a better way to do this.”

Applejack glanced at Sufferthorn who glanced at Stranglethorn; they all seemed to be sharing the same thought. Twilight visibly bristled at what they were hinting at, Fluttershy shrank down slightly beside her.

“We have been through this,” Twilight said in a clear and unwavering voice. “I will not use mind control spells on anypony, no matter what they’ve done.”

“You tricked him last night with that illusion spell,” I reminded her. “Is mind control really so different?”

“It’s completely different, and you should know better than anypony!” Twilight snapped suddenly. “I will not seize another pony’s free will from them no matter the circumstances; if I do that, then I’m no better than Blueblood.”

“It’s alright Lady Sparkle,” Maverick said quickly before the situation could escalate. “We won’t use Sundial; your current plan will suffice.”

“Yeah, that possibility went right out the window when Rarity got a hold of that passenger manifest,” Sufferthorn added, to which I shot a glare her way.

It definitely hadn’t been my proudest moment, when I rushed below deck to confront Sundial with the two lists Maverick had been comparing. One was the passenger manifest for the Siren during my trip on it, while the other was a list of all the passengers who disembarked as recorded by a Rebel agent who had been in Daybreak Landing on that day. While the lists had seemed inconsequential, there was one small discrepancy that had terrible implications.

“Sundial, what is the meaning of this?!” I demanded as I stormed up to him. “Where did this pony go, this… Nurse Redheart?”

Sundial had just stared at me in horror, really, the fact that he wasn’t restrained in anyway should have tipped me off that he was still under Twilight’s illusion. Of course once he saw me and began to question what was going on, the illusion broke down around him and he realised the truth of how he had been tricked. I briefly saw Twilight standing behind him, planting her hoof into her face before Sundial got over his shock and tried to make a run for it.

We got him recaptured and questioned him on the missing pony, the one I had remembered being taken down into the hold by two crew members, but never seeing again after that. After much persuasion, he revealed that she had been used as a test subject to see how well the sleeper agent spell worked at a long range. But most of all, it was to test the limits of the spell, to see if the caster’s will could override the body’s normal defence mechanisms. In the case of Nurse Redheart, they proved it to be very possible by having her drown herself in a bucket of water.

At no point did her body try to react to save her from death, and when the experiment was finished, Sundial ordered her body be thrown overboard and she was never seen again. We tried to salvage our asset following my blunder, but Sundial refused to say anything more no matter what false circumstances we placed him under. As I said, it was not my proudest moment and it ruined any hope we had of using him to get close to Blueblood, resulting in Twilight coming up with a much riskier plan which she seemed certain would succeed.

“I already said I was sorry,” I reminded everypony sitting around the table. “And we’ll get Blueblood without Sundial; I’ll make sure of it.”

“Be sure that you do,” Maverick said in a warning tone. “We can’t afford failures at this point; even accidents will not be tolerated.”

With the meeting ended, we all began making our preparations. For myself and Applejack, we just needed to be armed and ready to fight when Twilight needed us to. Fluttershy however would be with Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, that meant remaining unseen until the right time, as such her bright white cassock was a bit impractical. Since Stranglethorn and Sufferthorn would be wearing full black garbs, Fluttershy agreed to wear the same for the duration of the mission, taking only her mace and med kit in case things went south.

Stranglethorn went ahead as usual to clear the gate and secure our exit from the city, by that point, sneaking in and out of Mule was becoming so routine that I had to wonder why the Liberators were even a threat to us. Sufferthorn led the rest of us to the gates and along the coast to where the meeting with Blueblood was going to take place, Stranglethorn catching up some ways along. The dark of the night offered excellent cover once we suspected we were getting close to our destination.

It took a little time, but eventually we saw the pinpricks of light in the distance that indicated where the meeting would take place. At that point we shared a quick word, made sure both parties knew exactly what they were expected to do and at what times, before splitting up and carrying on. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and myself walked directly for the small group of ponies that had gathered around the open fire, while the others broke off to take the long way round. While we kept the targets busy, they would sneak around behind to block off their escape route.

As we drew closer, I could make out the individual ponies, although most of them were unfamiliar to me, one however I recognised instantly despite having so little interaction with him. Duke Blueblood wore an exquisite tailored suit; his blonde locks hanging carelessly around his face, his eyes were heavily lidded, his mouth forming a tight smile. We all hesitated simultaneously a short ways off, preparing ourselves for what we were about to do, it not escaping our notice that all the ponies beside Blueblood carried some kind of weapon.

Twilight looked to us both and we gave her a short, single nod to confirm we were ready to go, and she led the way forward into the light of the fire. The ponies didn’t react badly at first, when they saw us approaching they didn’t seem surprised, no doubt under the impression it was Sundial finally arriving. Once we were clearly illuminated by the light of the fire and they were able to see that we were strangers, the atmosphere became a little more tense. Most of the ponies reached for their weapons, some stumbled back as if readying for a retreat, Blueblood however froze when he saw us.

“Twilight Sparkle?” he queried, his voice surprisingly calm. “Is that you?”

“Yes Blueblood, sorry I’m late to the meeting,” she replied in a casual voice. “But then it would have helped if you had invited me.”

“A little trip abroad is hardly anything to get concerned over Twilight,” Blueblood said with a small laugh. “You know as well as I do how stressful life in Canterlot can be, I used to come here every year for my vacation, and I’m not about to stop just because Panchea is its own country.”

“You can drop the act Blueblood,” Twilight cut in. “I know everything, about you and the Solar Empire.”

“I… see,” Blueblood replied slowly, giving a quick glance to the ponies around him.

“And honestly Blueblood… I’m surprised at you,” Twilight continued in a disbelieving tone. “The fact that you would hide this from me, although really it’s more foolish on your part. Had you chose to include me in your plans, I could have offered my assistance.”

Blueblood did a double take at that, clearly not expecting Twilight to say such a thing.

“Wait, you mean to say you do not disapprove?” Blueblood questioned suspiciously.

“Disapprove?” Twilight repeated. “I’m a little insulted Blueblood, you’ve known me for years and yet it never occurred to you when forming your club, that I would sympathise with your goals. I have been by Princess Celestia’s side almost every day since I was a filly, she practically raised me, you know this better than most ponies. So when you ask if I disapprove of retaking for the Princess what is rightfully hers, I really am disappointed in you.”

“But you supported the surrender, and you were against the war from the start,” Blueblood pointed out, still sounding suspicious.

“I loathe war,” Twilight replied. “There are always more… clever means of getting what you want, or in this case, what belongs to the Princess. We may have lost Panchea as a result of the war that was forced upon us, but I am not above taking it back in secret, as it turns out you were doing as well.”

“So you mean to say that you too have been working to make Panchea a part of the Equestrian Empire once more,” Blueblood recapped. “And how exactly have you gone about that?”

“With the help of my good friend here,” Twilight answered, gesturing to myself. “Blueblood, you remember Rarity don’t you?”

Blueblood stared at me for a moment, clearly not sure at first, but slowly it dawned on him.

“That’s right,” Twilight began when she saw that Blueblood had pieced it together. “Rarity is my spy, I sent her here to seek out ponies who are still loyal to the Princess, like Applejack here. Applejack served the Rebels during the war, but deserted when she saw the light, she offered her farm as our base of operations. Together with the ponies she found, Rarity has been sowing seeds of discontent among the ponies of Panchea, reminding them just how much better off they were under the Princesses rule. Things were going well, I had every confidence that we would be seeing another revolution in the coming months, but then we crossed paths with your own Solar Empire.

“Needless to say Rarity is feeling rather unfavourably towards you after you almost got her killed and nearly destroyed our entire operation,” Twilight continued coolly. “But she managed to survive and I pulled your spell from her head, I recognised your magical signature on it, it was foolish of you to cast the spells yourself. After that I came to realise that you too were seeking the same thing we were, so I sought you out, a task made far too easy by your woefully inept agents in Port Mule.”

“Ah yes, where is Sundial for that matter?” Blueblood asked, he had been listening very carefully up to that point, and now he sounded more favourable towards Twilight. “I was really hoping he, of all my agents, would be here tonight.”

“He’s dead I’m afraid,” Twilight admitted. “When I located him, it was after he had been captured by the Rebels, sold out by one of his underlings. He told me how to find you, but there was nothing I could do for him, the Rebels were rather brutal in their interrogation methods.”

“They’ll pay for that,” Blueblood muttered coldly. “Sundial was a good man, if not for him we would not be so far along in our operation.”

“Well, if you’ll have me, I would like to offer my services,” Twilight proposed. “By combining our efforts, we can accomplish our goals that much faster. Besides, you will need my help keeping word of your activities away from the Princess, she would never understand that this is all for her.”

“I know only too well,” Blueblood agreed. “And I would be honoured to have you join us Twilight Sparkle. You must forgive me for not including you, a delicate operation like this… you must be careful who you involve.”

“I understand fully,” Twilight replied. “And now that we’re on the same side once more, we can get down to business. I already know of your plan involving the sleeper agents.”

“Ah yes, my deepest apologies for that Miss Rarity,” Blueblood said to me, actually managing to sound sincere. “Had I known that we were fighting for the same goal, I would never have endangered you like that.”

I didn’t reply, I merely gave a polite bow and allowed Twilight to continue.

“Well I must say I’m not too impressed with your plan,” she admitted. “Using Rarity like that was completely reckless, I have no doubt it’s the reason the Rebels caught onto your existence. I can only hope that you use the rest of the sleeper agents more wisely, or at the very least have a good backup plan in place.”

“Twilight Sparkle you have it all wrong,” Blueblood said with a small chuckle. “The sleeper agents are the backup plan.”

“Oh?” Twilight uttered, now genuinely surprised.

“Of course, it would have taken much too long to fully enact,” Blueblood explained. “No, our true plan is why we have gathered here tonight, for we are preparing to witness the completion of the first phase.”

“Yes, Sundial mentioned something about phase one,” Twilight recalled. “Naturally he didn’t have the time to tell me what it was.”

“It is our true plan for retaking this country,” Blueblood carried on. “I’m sorry to say that it might interfere with your own plans somewhat, but with a little tweaking in future phases, we might be able to make our plans work neatly alongside one another. You see, while you’re trying to incite a second rebellion through discontent, our plan will greatly aid that by destroying those in power.”

“Destroy them? That sounds…” Twilight began, subtly glancing back at Applejack and I with a worried expression. “Very dramatic, how exactly do you plan to do this? Another assassination attempt?”

“No, no, I admit what we did with Rarity was impulsive and desperate,” Blueblood went on. “I saw an opportunity to speed things along and I took it, without stopping to realise that if we killed one pony, he would just be replaced and nothing would change. No, we needed to destroy them utterly, that’s why each of our syndicates stationed in the five major cities have been performing reconnaissance and gathering the necessary information so that when we strike, we know exactly where to strike to cause optimal damage. Each phase refers to one of the five cities, phase one being Port Mule.

“The target in this case was an easy one,” Blueblood stated. “These Liberators use the Fort as their base, so that is where we will strike. There was an incident a while back, and our agents discovered an entrance in the sewers to an underground facility beneath the Fort. We’re not sure what happened there, but it was mostly abandoned, the perfect location for the bombs to be placed.”

“Bombs?!” all three of us exclaimed in unison.

“That’s right,” Blueblood confirmed. “That is why we are gathered here, tonight of all nights. For the countdown has already begun, and as the sun rises, the town of Port Mule will watch as their Fort is blown to pieces, and the Liberator armies decimated.”

“But that’s insane!” Applejack exclaimed, unable to hold back. “Lots of ponies will die, and not just soldiers, but council workers too.”

“A necessary sacrifice,” Blueblood said solemnly. “I’m sure you can understand that Twilight Sparkle, you and I do see eye to eye after all.”

“Not Quite!” Twilight retorted, crouching low and readying herself for the attack.

Before Blueblood could fathom her change in demeanour, light blasted from her horn, hitting him squarely in the chest. He was knocked back with a grunt, and when he stood straight again, a translucent, purple ring was circling around his horn. With his magic successfully locked, Twilight charged forward, Applejack and I doing likewise, drawing our weapons as we went. Blueblood and his agents realised they had been tricked; most drew their own weapons to meet our challenge while a few tried to make a run for it.

All they succeeding in was being knocked out first by Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, who charged in from behind, Fluttershy coming in just a little bit slower and considerably more frightened. Twilight took on Blueblood who, without his magic should have been defenceless, although it turned out he wasn’t as reluctant to get physical as his posh demeanour would have implied. The first thing he did was grab the front of Twilight’s cloak and throw a punch directly at her face, Twilight instantly teleported out of his reach, leaving only her old brown cloak in Blueblood’s grip.

Twilight reappeared behind Blueblood, hitting him in the back with a blast of light, sending him crashing into the sand. It was actually the first time I had seen her without that disguise on, and it was certainly a sight to behold. Twilight was wearing some very impressive battle mage robes, the back flowed out in layers while her front legs were wrapped tightly in dark cloth and leather straps beneath much wider sleeves. She wore a mantel with a lowered hood that lay open at the front like the body of her robes, revealing the light, black breastplate beneath.

The outer robes were crafted from what appeared to be purple leather that somehow managed to move freely; no doubt due to some magic the clothes were imbued with, it might be why they were embroidered with swirling lines and runes. Around her waist she wore two crossed belts, attached to which were various brightly coloured vials and bottles, but it was the weapon that she drew from her belt, that really caught my eye. It appeared to be some kind of sceptre or staff; it was roughly as tall as Twilight’s shoulder and resembled a long, sharp spike.

While the bottom of the sceptre was rather featureless, as my eyes travelled higher up, the metal work became more intricate in its design, until the very top where it appeared to splay out, forming a basin for the orb that sat within. The orb was absolutely mesmeric, the same shade of pink as Twilight’s own eyes, with many black lines crossing and intersecting over it to create a bizarre geometric pattern across the whole orb. Along the edges of the lines was minute writing in runic letters while the empty spaces created by the lines were where the majority of the light pulsated from.

Blueblood charged at Twilight and she swept the sceptre through the air in front of her, creating a shockwave that hurled Blueblood and a couple of his agents flying. Before they landed however, she raised the sceptre high and the orb shone bright, as it did, Blueblood and his two agents were stopped still in mid-air as if frozen in time. Twilight then aimed the sceptre at a point in the air between all three ponies and focused her magic through it, creating a dark singularity that dragged the three in in an instant where their bodies collided and began flailing about in the gravitational pull, rag dolled by the force of the singularity.

I watched this all while duelling a single agent of my own, I was awe struck by the magical prowess of Twilight Sparkle. Remembering all too well that she was the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, and was commonly revered as the greatest magic user in the world, it was easy to see why. My fascination with her abilities cost me dearly however, as I misjudged a swing and ended up getting my leg cut just above the knee, causing me to drop my sword and forced to dodge roll out of the way of having my head taken off my shoulders.

As I landed awkwardly, lost my balance and fell defenceless to the ground, the agent who I had been fighting with charged at me, his sword raised, ready to swing down upon me. I prepared myself to roll out of the way again, but I didn’t end up needing to, as just before he swung down, he was flung to the side after receiving a blow to the head with a mace. Fluttershy stood there, looking down at his unconscious body, horrified at what she had just done.

“Thanks Fluttershy,” I said appreciatively as I stood up and levitated my sword back to me from where it had fallen.

“I just killed a pony!” she cried out, tears welling in her eyes.

At that moment the pony she hit let out a pained groan and began writing on the ground, no longer paralysed by the shock of the hit.

“Oh, never mind,” Fluttershy said, calming down instantly.

I looked around at the others, Applejack, Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn were naturally making quick work of their opponents, making sure to only knock them unconscious as Twilight had specified. I looked over to the mare herself and saw that she was still handling herself expertly, Blueblood had gotten out of her singularity, most likely the work of one of his agents as Twilight was now fighting both of them. She tossed out a flurry of spells from both her horn and her sceptre, neither of her opponents could get a single hit in past her various defence spells, while her attacks kept them constantly on the guard.

When the two other agents who had got caught in her singularity recovered and ran to aid their leader, I briefly considered rushing to her aid, but it turned out I didn’t have to as Twilight appeared to have grown tired of fighting and decided to bring it to an end. Bringing her sceptre to float directly in front of her, spike directed towards the ground, she brought her front hooves together before waving them wide apart. The sceptre shimmered as it was split into six identical copies which all circled around Twilight, forming a wall where they began to spin slowly around her.

They picked up great speed very quickly, tilting until they came to float horizontally, with their spikes pointing directly outwards. She had essentially created a small tornado around her with the spinning sceptres, which were all bursting with magic, a tornado that none of her attackers could hope to escape from. When the fluctuating pillar of light that had formed around herself, Blueblood and the others, began to fade and her sceptres slowed down, the fight was ended.

Her sceptres came to a halt, and with a wave of her hoof they reformed into one which she fastened to her belt before walking over to where Blueblood lay in a bloody heap on the sand. The rest of us had finished fighting already and were simply standing back, watching as Twilight made short work of casting sleep spells on the last of the conscious agents, and now approached Blueblood. He was still half awake when she reached him, his head rolling over to look up at her, his breathing strained.

“Sorry for the deception,” Twilight told him, although her tone was not sorry in the slightest. “But I was honest about one thing… I am disappointed in you, and you can be damn sure Princess Celestia is as well.”

Blueblood's eyes lulled shut and the battle was ours, but there were no celebrations to be had. As I looked across at the others, the expressions on their faces told me they were thinking the same thing as myself. Our job was not yet finished, and we only had until sunrise to do so.