My Little Balladeer

by Ardashir

Chapter 10

My Little Balladeer
Chapter 10

John rose and turned towards the door. He said nothing, but the look on his face showed he was ready to try something if he had to. Dash and Applejack and the rest of her friends started to rise too. Twilight did not trust the look on Dash and Jackie’s faces at all.

“Wait!” She hissed. They all froze as she walked up to John, Spike tagging along behind. “John,” she said, “If any of what you said is true, then it might be best if any of Thorn’s friends don’t know you’re here yet. Please, go upstairs with Spike and stay by the top of the stairs. You’ll be able to hear what we say but not be seen.”

“That sounds right smart. I’d not have thought of it,” John said to her. He headed for the stairs, moving with a silence that impressed Twilight. He held his guitar as he moved to make sure it made no accidental noises. When he reached the stairs he stopped and looked back. Spike still stood beside Twilight. Worry filled his green eyes.

“I want to stay down here with you,” Spike hissed at her. “What if something goes wrong?”

“Then you send an emergency letter off to Princess Celestia asking for all the help she can send immediately,” Twilight answered back, her voice low. “And you explain to her about John and everything he’s told us so far.” When he hesitated, she smiled and gave him a gentle push. “Now go on, Spike. This isn’t Thorn. This is just Lyra. We all know her.”

“Maybe we only used ta know her,” Applejack grumbled softly.

“Twilight Sparkle?” The knock at the door came again, sounding a trifle more insistent this time. “Can we talk or not?”

“Coming, Lyra,” Twilight called out, hoping her voice sounded calmer than she felt. She said to her friends, “AJ, you and Dash go and stay behind those shelves there, back by the safe. In case anything does happen come out and help, okay?” Dash looked ready to argue, but she jerked her head in a nod and went off with Applejack, her wings beating softly. Twilight then turned to Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. “Just act casual, okay?” Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically. Rarity and Fluttershy both looked less certain, Fluttershy scraping at the floor with one forehoof. But they still nodded. Twilight gave one last look at Spike where he stood by John at the bottom of the stairs.

“Okay, okay,” he grumbled, preceding John to the upper floor. “C’mon, Stretch.” John’s feet on the stairs made less noise than Spike’s claws.

Twilight waited until they were out of sight before she went to the door and opened it, her horn glowing. Lyra stood right in the doorway, grinning like Pinkie Pie. She wore something around her neck that looked like an iron pectoral set with the strangest gem Twilight ever remembered seeing, either crimson shot through with black or black shot through with crimson. The way the colors rippled and flowed in the light, it looked almost liquid.

“Well, hello, Twilight Sparkle,” Lyra said gleefully. She stepped inside, forcing Twilight to step back to avoid being pushed back. Lyra looked around the library, taking it all in. She grinned at her friends. Twilight found herself beginning to think of it as needlessly smug. “Oh, hello, Rarity, Fluttershy. Hi, Pinkie Pie!”

“Hi, Lyra!” Pinkie said, bouncing up to her. “Oooooh, it’s great to see you again! We were kinda worried about you! Everypony wondered what’d happened to you after you went off into the Everfree with that big meany-face jerkpants Thorn. Hey, maybe we can do a ‘Welcome Lyra and Bon Bon back to Ponyville’ party, and…”

“Don’t you talk about him like that!” Her voice lashed them. She stomped forward, her hooves striking the floor so hard Twilight wondered if they would leave hoofmarks. Pinkie’s mane deflated slightly as she fell back before Lyra’s tirade. “Master Thorn is a great man! Don’t call him names just because we, I mean all of you, couldn’t appreciate real wisdom when you heard it!”

Twilight started. She’d never heard Lyra speak like that to anypony, no matter how mad she’d been. To judge from the looks on their faces, this was a side of her new to Rarity and Fluttershy as well. Even Pinkie looked shocked. Lyra looked around and saw the expression on their faces. She smirked, and it reminded Twilight all too well of Trixie, and even a little of Nightmare Moon.

“Well, dear friends, what is the matter? Surprised to see Crazy Lyra standing up for herself for once?” She trotted back over to Twilight, that superior look still on her face. Her breath blasted into Twilight’s face as she said, “You laughed at me for years whenever I talked about humans – all of you! Even Bon Bon thought I was crazy! But now everypony knows they’re real. Now you all see that I was right all along!”

“Umm, Lyra, where is Bon Bon?” Fluttershy asked, her voice barely audible. Lyra cast a scornful glance over her shoulder. Fluttershy wilted. But she still asked, “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

“Bon Bon followed Master Thorn and me into the Everfree when you chased us away, and right now she’s staying with him and the ponies we found there…” Lyra began, only to be interrupted by Rarity.

“What? Lyra, darling, do you mean to say that there are ponies living in the Everfree? I thought that was an old mares’ tale.”

“You ought to know,” Lyra shot at her, “Since you’re an old mare yourself.” She smiled at Rarity’s furious spluttering, then stood upright on her hind legs and walked over to the nearest table, leaning against it for support. Looking down at them all, she said, “Besides, I didn’t say these ponies were living in the Everfree. I said they were staying there. They tried to frighten Master Thorn and us away, but he made some marks on the dirt and said some words and now they do everything he tells them to do.”

“He made slaves of them?”

“Master Thorn was right, he said you’d try to make it sound somehow petty,” Lyra responded to Twilight with a sniff. “It’s like he told me, real philosophers and true brave thinkers are always feared and despised by the lesser minds around them. No, they’re not slaves. They serve him, I mean us, willingly. They’ve got some… problems,” an uneasy look passed over her face as she said it, “But Master Thorn said he can help them just as soon as he has the Letters of Cold Fire back. They’d do anything for us now.” She thrust her hoof at Twilight first before sweeping it around the room to include everypony else. “See, now if we’d been properly grateful here in Ponyville and if you hadn’t gotten scared by one simple spell, he would have been helping us. But you all ruined it with the way you treated him when he showed us what he could do…”

“Now just hold on, Lyra!” Twilight couldn’t take any more of this. She fought her anger down and stayed calm, saying, “Don’t you remember what Thorn did – to the Cakes, to Lily, to Applejack? He hurt them, and he was proud to do it! They’ve been your neighbors longer than they were mine, I’d think you’d be more bothered by what happened!” Lyra frowned and looked away. Twilight wondered if she was getting through at all. “And one more thing. Master Thorn?”

“It’s what humans call their teachers when they’re learning magic from them,” Lyra said with a sniff. Then, with a trace of her old exuberance, “He knows so much, Twilight, and he’s teaching it all to me! Secret, powerful human magic that no other pony knows! He even offered to teach it to Bon Bon when he gets his grimoire back, but she’s scared for some silly reason. I know spells that even you can’t do, Twilight,” Lyra’s voice went from excited to sly. Her eyes narrowed and her horn began to glow faint sea green. The book on the table beside Twilight, her copy of Thaumatological Theories and Treatises, vanished without the usual flash of light involved in unicorn teleportation. There was just a small pop of air as it disappeared before it reappeared in Lyra’s forehooves. She grinned at Twilight. “I never could do that before, and I studied for years! Now Master Thorn just gave me a few lessons and I can do it.”

“Just what does he want, Lyra?”

“Right now?” Lyra shrugged. “He just wants his grimoire back. And don’t say you don’t have it, Twilight,” Lyra tapped her on the chest with one hoof, “Master Thorn and I both know that you do. Even Celestia wasn’t able to get rid of it.”

“How do you know that?” Twilight asked. She glanced off into the shelves. She saw a flash of burnt orange from Applejack’s coat, thought she heard either her or Dash shifting around. Hoping to keep Lyra from noticing, she said, “That happened while you and Thorn were running into the Everfree.”

“Master Thorn and I just say certain words and draw certain images, and we can see and hear what happens at a distance just like we were there.” That thought did not please Twilight at all. Judging by the looks crossing their faces, her friends weren’t any happier. Lyra laughed at them all. “Oh, don’t worry. We’re not eavesdropping or anything like that. Master Thorn just wanted to know what you were doing about the gift he tried to give you. He wasn’t happy to see how you rejected it, but I think I am. After all,” and she puffed her chest up and raised her tail into an arch, “Now he says I’ll be his chosen student and apprentice and learn all of his secrets instead of you. You missed out on a good thing when you allowed Celestia to get jealous and frighten you into rejecting the Letters of Cold Fire, Twilight.”

“Let Celestia get jealous and frighten me away?...” Twilight stepped forward, eyes narrowing, until she was the one forcing Lyra back. “Lyra, that book is the most vicious magic I’ve ever seen. Only Discord was worse! It tried to use me to free him, and it nearly discorded me in the process! You remember what it was like when Discord ruled Equestria – and that was only for a few days! Would you wish that on anypony?”

Hurt and remorse swept over Lyra’s face like a wave running up on the beach. She opened her mouth, hesitated. Twilight hoped Lyra was about to admit to being wrong about Thorn and to offer to help them stop him from hurting anypony else. And then, just like a wave, the look on Lyra’s face swept back out again, leaving cold disdain in its place. She dropped back down on all fours and asked just one question.

“Where is the Letters of Cold Fire, Twilight? I’m taking it back with me.”

Twilight said nothing and hoped she betrayed nothing by her appearance. She just moved slightly to the side, hoping she shielded the sight of the safe from Lyra. Rarity looked dismayed but she moved over by Twilight. Fluttershy looked even more worried, like she wanted to run, but instead she went slightly behind Twilight and Rarity, backing them up. Pinkie Pie lay on the floor behind Lyra, watching everything with bright-eyed interest and munching on some popcorn. Another time Twilight might have wondered just how and where she’d gotten the popcorn, but right now she just took notice that Pinkie kept out of Lyra’s line of sight but close enough to help if something happened.

And Twilight suddenly felt quite sure that something bad was about to happen. Lyra was not about to back down or give in. Twilight felt ill at the realization that she might have to fight another pony. She hoped that Spike and John were keeping an eye on everything upstairs.

And Pinkie’s tail was twitching.

“I asked you where is Master Thorn’s grimoire?” Lyra snapped the question out. She stepped forward. Twilight heard the distinct soft clicks of her hooves on the wooden floor as she walked closer, the faint jingle of the buckle on her saddlebags. Her eyes seemed to burn from within. Right now she looked more like Nightmare Moon than Twilight ever thought possible. “Give it to me, right now!”

Twilight wondered at how her senses suddenly seemed sharper. She saw tiny golden dust motes dancing in the rays of sunlight streaming in through the windows, felt ever so slightly warmer where one of those sunbeams touched against her leg. Twilight even thought she could feel her own heart beating faster. She remembered an old veteran of the Royal Guard, pensioned out to working as security at Celestia’s School, once telling her that this was how you felt when your body was getting ready for a fight.

Another part of her wondered if this was how Pinkie felt when her wild-talent “Pinkie Sense” started twitching.

“If you and Thorn can see everything, why would you need me to tell you where it is, Lyra?” Twilight’s mouth and lips felt dry. She licked them and found herself oddly wishing that she could have some of Zecora’s tea right now.

“We watched you as it returned here over and over until the day before yesterday, and then you all got your Elements and we couldn’t –“ Lyra shut her mouth a moment too late. Twilight’s mind raced to think about anything other than the fight she expected. So apparently Thorn’s magic isn’t all-powerful. Celestia’s safe blocks their scrying spells, and so long as we bear the Elements on ourselves we’re protected to some extent. But how much? She looked off to the side to see where they’d all set the saddlebags with their Elements in a pile. What was that John said, Twilight thought, about good and evil spirits involved in this kind of magic? If Thorn’s power comes from something bad and wicked, then does that make the Elements good magic?

Twilight glanced at the safe just for a second, but Lyra caught it. She stomped forward.

“It’s in there, isn’t it? Step to the side, Twilight,” Lyra warned her. Her eyes locked on Twilight’s, looking cold and hard. Twilight heard Fluttershy’s small frightened whimper, but knew without looking that she held her ground, just like Rarity, like Pinkie, like herself. Lyra saw it too. She made a noise like a growl in her throat before saying, “I am taking Master Thorn’s grimoire back, and you do not want to get in my way.”

“Ef she don’t, maybe we do!”

Lyra stepped back, almost falling in her haste as Applejack came from behind the shelves, nostrils flared. Rainbow Dash flew over them and landed behind Lyra, cutting her off from the door. She dropped into a crouch and made a very intimidating face, almost snarling. Pinkie dropped her popcorn and rolled to one side, ready to back up Dash while Applejack set herself between Lyra and the saddlebags containing the Elements.

“You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack said under her voice to Twilight as she passed her.

“Never better,” Twilight answered, wishing her voice sounded less shaky. She said to Lyra, “Lyra, listen to us, please. We’re your friends. We don’t want to have to fight you!”

“Then give it back to me!” Lyra pointed her horn at the safe. She backed away, trying to keep her distance from all of them. “It’s not yours, Twilight, and Master Thorn promised he’d show me everything in it when I bring it back to him.”

“He promised you WHAT?” Twilight stared at her in horror. She stepped forward, Applejack beside her and Pinkie Pie getting up off the floor to bounce forward. “If you knew what was inside that book you’d be terrified at what he promised you!”

“You gotta be crazy, Lyra!” That was Applejack, pushing up beside Twilight. “Ef you saw what thet grim-more of Thorn’s did ta Twi, you’d know better ‘n ta even touch it!”

“Master Thorn said he’d teach me how to handle it, and Twilight just got scared…” Lyra began, sounding rather less certain than before.

“I got scared for the very good reason that it gave me plenty of things to be scared of!” Twilight said. She stepped close to Lyra, catching her eyes and hoping this warning finally got through. “That book isn’t like any normal spellbook, it’s dangerous! We have to get rid of it!”

“No! Y-You can’t get rid of it,” Lyra said, her eyes getting wide. She tried to step back again from Twilight but stopped when her rump hit the reading table. “Master Thorn and I need it. Besides,” and some of her former arrogance rang through her words, “He said there’s nopony in Equestria who knows how to get rid of it.”

“Yeah, well maybe we got somepony who isn’t from Equestria, and they do know how to get rid of it!” Rainbow Dash set her hooves on her hips as she snapped out, “We’re gonna take it out and bury it the right way, and that’ll be that!”

The look on Lyra’s face went from angry to terrified. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide at Dash’s words. Twilight realized with sudden dismay that they’d said things they shouldn’t have said. She opened her mouth to try and calm Lyra down but stopped when she tilted her head to one side, turning an ear as though listening to some unheard conversation.

“Okay, okay, I will,” she said, fear making her voice brittle. She looked back at Twilight. “Twi, please. What if you could ask Master Thorn himself your questions?” She smiled brightly at her. For a second she looked like the old Lyra again. “Then he can explain everything to you and it’ll all be fine.”

“How can we ask him anything, Lyra?” Twilight tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure out what Lyra was talking about. “He’s not here.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lyra gasped and gave a shudder. She looked about to collapse. Twilight stepped forward in sudden concern. Fluttershy hurried past her to stand at Lyra’s side.

“Oh, Lyra! Are you alright?” Fluttershy bent her head down close to hers. “Do you need anything?”

Lyra’s eyes snapped open. She glared at Fluttershy and Twilight. A cold and superior smile curled up along one side of her muzzle, nothing like her usual look. Fluttershy shrank back as Lyra spoke in a tone that dripped contempt.

“Yes, child, you can give me something. Room.”

Fluttershy gasped and hurried back by Rarity. Twilight almost took a step back herself. Her voice sounded clipped and short and strange. Just like Thorn’s. Lyra turned her gaze on Twilight. Awareness of who really spoke blossomed in Twilight, and she chilled inside.

“You wanted to meet and speak to me, Twilight Sparkle,” Thorn said in Lyra’s voice and out of her body. “So here I am. Now what is this nonsense about thinking you know how to destroy my book?”

Twilight glanced back at her friends. She wondered if she looked half as shocked as they did. She swallowed and got the words out. “Hello, Thorn. As a representative of Princess Celestia, I should tell you that this sort of body-possession magic is very, very illegal in Equestria.”

“One does what one must when necessity demands,” Lyra/Thorn shrugged at her words. “Especially when I’m trying to stop you from engaging in very foolish behavior. Namely, trying to destroy the Letters of Cold Fire. I would have thought a fellow scholar and student of the magickal arts would display more curiosity and less fear.” Thorn sighed and shook his head. “I confess myself disappointed in you, my dear.”

“It’s unfortunate that you’re displeased,” Twilight said back to him coolly. “I wasn’t very happy myself with what nearly happened to me. Neither was Princess Celestia.”

“Yeah, and neither were the rest of us, either!” Dash flew past Twilight. Hovering before Lyra/Thorn, she pointed at the safe. “We’d be nuts to give that thing back to you after what you did to Twilight. So unless you’re gonna play smart and give up, you’d better just get back out of Lyra and go hide in the Everfree, pal.”

Thorn looked at Dash from under Lyra’s half lidded eyes. He turned a bored gaze on Twilight and said in an equally bored tone, “Call your horsefly off or I’ll say a few words and have the bones jumping out of her skin.”

“Horsefly?!?” Dash choked and spluttered. She raised her hooves and boxed at the air with them. The look of barely amused contempt Thorn gave her back only incited her temper further as she snorted, “I’ll show you a horsefly, jerk! Put ‘em up!”

“Uhhh, Dash?” Twilight kept her eyes on Lyra/Thorn as he/she spoke. He looked and sounded so utterly calm she knew better than to doubt his ability to do just what he said. He would kill Dash with no more concern than stepping on an ant. “I think it’d be a really good idea to come back here by the rest of us. Right. Now.” Dash looked at her and then at Lyra/Thorn. She opened her mouth to complain but Twilight repeated, “Please, Dash.” Dash grumbled under her breath and flew back to hover by Applejack.

“You saved your friend’s life.” Thorn buffed one forehoof against his, or rather Lyra’s coat. He idly examined it for imperfections. “But do know, next time I won’t bother with a warning. Now give me my book back, Twilight, and I’ll be going.”

“What would you do with it, anyway?” Twilight asked him. “It’s no good for anything but cursing and hurting ponies.”

“It has greater uses when you truly understand it,” Thorn responded with a sniff. “If you were stronger, you’d know. As for what I want with it, well, that’s simply told. I want to use it for myself and for those others who choose to acknowledge my guidance. That can still include you and your friends if you’re willing to be reasonable. I’ll bless my friends and curse my enemies, the same as your Princess does.”

“Celestia isn’t like that at all!”

“That’s right, she’s not like me at all,” Lyra/Thorn said back to her with a laugh. “I don’t ask for servitude or taxes or any of the things she and her sister demand from you. I’ll provide whatever your hearts may desire. In return I only expect the gratitude and respect such a good friend ought to receive. Grant me a suitable place to dwell in, students willing to embrace my wisdom like dear Lyra, and whatever other rewards such generosity as mine deserves by your rights. These are all I ask for. I dare say they’re less than I have a right to expect.”

“Right now, the only thing yah deserve is a kick in the flank!” Applejack moved forward to stand beside Twilight, with Rainbow Dash going to flank the unicorn on her other side. Applejack added, her voice rising, “Yah tried ta hurt mah friends ‘n me, yer hidin’ behind Lyra, and yah near freed Discord with that trap you left for her in that book ‘o yours. We’re not givin’ you anything ‘cept more trouble than you can handle if you keep on doin’ this.”

“She’s right, Thorn,” Twilight said. In her mind she began running through protective spells, feeling power gather in her horn. “I’m sorry, but unless and until Princess Celestia says otherwise that spellbook will NOT be seeing the light of day again, in anypony’s hooves!”

“Yeah,” Dash added, “And we’re getting’ rid of it just as soon as we can! So there!”

“Oh, you will, will you?” Thorn laughed at them. “Go ahead and try. You’ve made several efforts already and what good did they do you? But if you’re not going to keep it, then I’m taking it back.” Lyra/Thorn began walking to the safe, hooves clicking over the wooden floor. Twilight hurried between Lyra/Thorn and the safe. Rarity and Fluttershy went to back her up, Rarity looking determined and Fluttershy only slightly afraid. Applejack and Dash went to flank Lyra/Thorn, boxing him in. Pinkie Pie bounced over to stand by AJ. Thorn looked at them and smirked. “Is this meant to impress me? I’m not even truly here. I can leave whenever I want.”

“That’s right,” Twilight answered him back. “You’ll leave, but without Lyra and without that spellbook.” She shifted uneasily at the way Thorn looked around at them all. He planned something, but what?

“I made my wish before this,” Thorn said suddenly in Lyra’s clear, musical voice. “I make my wish now. I never saw the day in which my wish was not fulfilled. All of you, let your flesh be stilled and your joints be bound and your breath be taken away. Until you can count all the drops of water in the sea and all the stars in the sky…”

* * *

Right as soon as I heard those words coming up from downstairs, I took hold of Spike’s shoulder and began saying some of my own. The owl who’d been a-watching us since we went upstairs ruffled hisself up to hear them.

I said a few quick words I’d read once in The Long Lost Friend, that’s the good magic book I’ve carried with me many a year. It promises right on the first page that it’ll help keep you safe from any evildoer or bad spell hurler, and right then I was a-hoping for it to help me again.

“Beneath thy guardianship we are safe against all tempests and all enemies,” I said, and then quick added the three holy names you mustn’t write down or it’ll never work for you again. It sounded still as a graveyard the morning before Judgment Day downstairs, with no sounds at all from either Twilight or her friends. I flexed my hand to be sure I could still move. So could Spike. Once he saw that he made to rush right down into the room. I kept a good grip on him. He shot me a look that burned, but had enough wits about him to whisper.

“But Twilight, Rarity, all of them…”

“If Thorne meant to kill them, they’d be dead right this moment,” I whispered back to him. “He wants to fetch his grimoire back, and we got to make sure he doesn’t. I’ll go and keep him busy. You keep patient for your friends’ sake and wait.”

He gave me a right determined look and nodded his yes at me. I turned and began to creep down those stairs, quiet as I could.

* * *

“Ooh, I bet I can count them all!” Pinkie Pie shouted. She began ticking marks off against the library wall. “One, two, three…”

Thorn winced and hurried through the rest. “Be bound and held silent by my will!”

Pinkie’s gleeful, “Four!” was cut off as her jaws clicked shut. Dash thudded to the floor as if she’d been instantly turned to stone, landing half on Applejack. Twilight tried to open her mouth to say something, use a spell, but nothing happened. She couldn’t even close her eyes. Lyra/Thorn chuckled and walked past her to the safe. She knew that there had to be some sort of counterspell against this in her repertoire, but the problem lay in finding it. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Thorn point Lyra’s hoof at the safe and begin saying another spell.

“Now fly open lock, to the Dead Man’s knock! Fly bar and bolt and band!”

Twilight heard the tumblers start to click as they worked. The handle of the safe began to turn and then stopped.

Lyra/Thorn snorted his annoyance as he looked the safe over.

“Ah. Three locks and three symbols atop it, and Lyra’s mind shows me they’re signs for an earth pony, a unicorn, and a Pegasus.” He looked around the room and caught sight of the piled saddlebags in the far corner. He smiled thinly and licked his lips. “Let’s see what we can find there of any use, shall we?”

Thorn began to head for the saddlebags, walking up on Lyra’s hind legs. Twilight couldn’t see, but she heard Thorn rummaging about in them. Twilight wondered why he didn’t just use unicorn magic to bring them over. Maybe it would affect his control of Lyra? She began mentally running through her dispelling magic even faster as Lyra/Thorn returned, bearing her tiara and Dash and Applejack’s necklaces in his hooves. He seemed to be wincing from touching them but he held on to the Elements. She found herself able to slowly move her eyes and follow his progress, but nothing else. Then, at a soft cough from the stairs, he turned and stared. Twilight, still mentally running through her spells to find one to free them all, could only wonder what Thorn saw.

“I don’t kindly think I can be letting you do such a thing, Thorn,” John’s voice came from where the stairs were, together with the faint music of his silver guitar strings.

* * *

“I don’t kindly think I can be letting you do such a thing, Thorne,” I said to that little sea-green unicorn with the white mane choppy-cut like Dash and the lyre mark on her flank where she stood upright amidst Twilight and her six friends who might as well have been statues just then. I said it, and I meant it, and I hoped to think of a way to make those words true. To help with thinking I drew my fingers along the silver strings of my old guitar. They gave off a clear music. Thorne looked annoyed like the sound pained him. I tried it again and he flinched a bit.

“Enough of that,” he said. He waved his, or I suppose I might say Lyra’s, hooves at me like he wanted me to stop. “I thought I felt something else from Earth show up. I figured as much when my sending didn’t return the other night from watching Ruby as I commanded it. Now, who are you and what are you doing here amongst these creatures?”

“My name’s John,” I replied him, “And from what these here folks told me, I’m here because they asked for help in some way and it brought me. And I reckon that if you a-conjured that sending the other night, Applejack there might have some words for you, with what near happened to her little sister before I showed up.” Thorne looked thoughtful at me like as though he knew me now.

“I’ve heard of you,” he said, slow and deep, or as deep as he could make Lyra’s voice air way. If he cared about what I’d said about Applejack and Apple Bloom he didn’t show it. “I half expected my old enemy Thunstone to show up, but you’re that other John I’ve heard of. The hillbilly from Appalachia. You’ve interfered in the affairs of people like me before and to no good end. Onselm, Shull Cobart, and more besides.” Thorne kept a-moving closer to that safe while he bespoke me, like he hoped I’d not notice. I moved between him and it, holding my guitar out before me. He flinched back. Like I hoped, the silver of it was a danger to a witch-man like him.

“I don’t know how it’s to no good end where all those folk you named went, Thorne. I think it was a right good end for some of them. The one they deserved, anyway.” I leaned back against the safe and wondered me if I saw a bit of purple light along Twilight’s horn. If she could get free of his bewitchment, then I wanted to give her the time for it. “I wonder me how you got here. What little I heard about you from an old friend named Reuben Manco suggested you were gone out of our world forever. It’s a right shame you ended up here to make trouble for these little horse-people, though.”

“Ah, but I didn’t come here,” he responded. He stood by a desk and leaned on it with one hoof the way some people will with their hands, to make it look like they don’t need the help. I reckoned that it hurt to stand up manlike too long in a pony’s body. They wouldn’t have been made for it. “I didn’t come here, not by my own will, not at first,” he repeated himself. “I was brought here by a certain someone who wants to remain nameless at this point.”

“Might could their name be Discord?” I asked him. “They seem like the sort to want to be a-friendly with you, from the way these ponies told it to me.” His eyes went wide at my guess. Then he gave a small laugh.

“Oh, no, John,” He said and waved one of Lyra’s hooves like he waggled a finger. “I’ve got to keep some secrets for now. Suffice to say it’s someone that young lady knows.” He gave a mean-eyed look at Twilight. I reckon her eyes narrowed the least little bit in return. Thorne pointed at the safe. “Now I mean to reclaim the Letters of Cold Fire. Stand aside.” I made no move. Thorne snorted. “I imagine you’ve got some protection against me, or think you do anyway. What, a copy of The Long-Lost Friend?”

“Some such a thing,” I agreed him. He scowled at me and crossed his arms, or maybe his forelegs, across his chest.

“Were I in my own body I could take it from you by physical force.”

“You might could try,” I answered him. “I don’t much like to fight, but I’ve held up my end of it now and then.” He scowled back at me. It might have looked more impressive if he didn’t use little Lyra’s face to do it.

“Why must you be so stubborn?” He asked. “I can understand why these creatures have a bias against me. I’m alien to them and they see I have more power than they do. But you, you could do better for yourself if you worked with me. You could see your way to a greater profit for yourself.”

I thought to myself how I’d heard those words before, from Brooke Altic and the Shonokin, from the Voth Brothers, and from Ruel Harpe, all of them mighty evil and evilly mighty and now all gone to the place they were right sure to go. They’d all sought to bring me over to a-helping them when they’d seen I couldn’t be scared out nor yet struck down by the powers they owned. So right then and there I gave Thorne the answer I’d given all of them, one after another.

“I thank you, but I think that what will profit me best is whatever doesn’t help you,” I replied him. He glared at me and snorted like an angry old horse. I thought maybe I saw more of that purple light along Twilight’s horn, and her ear twitched a bit. Then I asked him just because it curiosed me, “Why do you have to try and frighten these ponies? They’d like as not give you all you asked for if you were just polite with them. And they nair did you any harm before this that I can see.”

“Tell me,” he said to me, not bothering to answer my question, “do you know what it was I set after Ruby that night that you so thoughtlessly destroyed?”

“Reckon I can guess,” I replied him. “It was a sending, that’s something from Icelandic stories. You take a dead man’s bone and carve certain marks into it and say certain words, and you get a thing kindly like a ghost that can kill people. You tried such with Apple Bloom and me, but we killed it instead.” Thorne blinked like he was surprised I knew that answer, and then he smiled.

“Very good!” he said to me like how some folks say to little children when they answer a difficult question right. Pointing at the safe, he added, “I learned it from someone who went to the Svartaskoli, the Black School.” Then in a tone that suggested he didn’t think I knew how to tie my own shoes, “Oh, you likely don’t know of it. It was a place in Iceland where the art and knowledge of magick was taught.”

“Like that big school for sorcerers legend says was in Spain, by Saragossa,” I replied him. “Like the Scholomance in the Balkans. Or what some folks say was at Salem, back in old Massachusetts.” I drew my fingers along my guitar and sang a few bars from an old, old song that I’d once sang to another witch-man named Mister Loden

There was a fair and blooming wife

And of children she had three

She sent them away to Northern school

To study gramarye

But the King’s men came upon that school,

And when sword and rope had done

Of the children three she sent away

Returned to her but one…

Thorne nodded at me as I stilled the strings.

“Yes,” he said, almost grudging. “Gramarye. Magickal knowledge. You’re far better educated than I’d have thought. I say again, you and I should work together rather than at cross purposes, John. I only want to bring a new knowledge into this world.”

“That might could depend on what this new knowledge is,” I answered him, “And what all you mean to do with it.” I wondered if Twilight looked worried at me from where she stood. I wondered what her friends thought, what her little dragon upstairs thought of all they’d heard.

“You’re direct. Good,” he said, like I’d already agreed to everything he said. “So shall I be direct then. My original plan was to humor my ally however I could and then flee back for home at the first opportunity. That was before I saw just how much raw magick there is here.” He licked his lips like he hungered for it, like it was just there for him to eat up. “These beings have so much power, but they lack the kind of magickal knowledge you know something of and that I know so much more about. With the Letters of Cold Fire I can recreate the Svartaskoli here. A new Deep School, and a new place to teach my science and wisdom in, and new students,” and he looked at the ponies then, “to absorb my wisdom. You could play a part in all this. You could grow great beside me.”

“I rightly reckon I will play a part in this at that,” I told him. He started to smile. My next words stole the smile from his face. “You mean to teach these ponies black magic and use it to make yourself a ruler over them. I remember from a-talking with Reuben Manco how you tried this before in other places and the things you did to those who didn’t do as you wished. I want no part in either your school or in you. You’ve done them evil already and you’d do more if you got any kind of a chance. My answer is no.”

“So that’s your answer, John?” He said with a smile, and it wasn’t what you’d call a friendly smile. “Tell me, have these ponies given you any idea on how they’d return you home?”

I was ready to say more, but at those words I stopped. I reckon I’d been a-thinking on that in the back of my mind ever since I got here, but until now there’d been so much happening that I’d had no chance to work it over. Whatever my face showed, it pleased Thorne. He smiled broader still, the way nasty children do at littler ones when they tease them.

“So, they’ve mentioned nothing to you about it. I confess myself unsurprised. I imagine they thought of nothing beyond their own needs when they summoned you here. Help me and I could easily send you home, to the very time and place you were taken from by their sorcery. And if not, then well?” He shook his head. “What would these creatures do with you once you served your purpose? Might they stick you in a zoo, poke you with sticks and throw rotten vegetables in to you? Or perhaps they’d just kill you and dispose of your body in the Everfree.” He chuckled to himself. “Even if they did try to send you home, who’s to say they could manage it properly? Who knows how time flows between their world and ours? You might be like Rip Van Winkle, John, or like the people who entered Faerie and found themselves lost forever from their own time and place.”

“More like Jabe Mawks,” I wondered myself, not happy. Thorne looked at me like he didn’t know that name, and I didn’t tell him. I’d heard of the things he spoke of, and more aside. Of places and people up and taken out of time for howair long, only to stumble back in years and years after all they’d known and loved was gone, like that Jabe Mawks fellow I’d just named. He left a neighbor’s home the one day with some fresh venison and vanished for twenty long years before he came back, looking like he’d just left and knowing nothing of where he’d been or how long he’d been gone. Like that place some call the Bermuda Triangle away down in the sea south of Florida, or one-two places here and there in the mountains. I wondered me about Evadare and our home place. I wondered me what would become of her if I nair came back to when and where I’d been taken from, or if I ended like Jabe and found her dead and gone for years when I returned. I thought all that and more as I heard Thorne right there.

“If I listened to you,” I told him. “If I paid the least heed to your mumbling talk.” Thorne scowled at me.

“So be it, then.” He said through tight lips, “I’ve destroyed fools like you before and if I must do so again, I will. I regret your lack of wisdom in choosing to oppose me. But now I’ll be reclaiming my book, and after I do, I’ll deal with you and these foolish creatures.”

“You won’t be going anywhere with airy thing,” I said to him. I saw the light of Twilight’s horn growing brighter all the while. Her legs began to twitch. I said to Thorne, hoping to keep him looking on me, “And don’t be any too fond of that spellbook. I know rightly how to be rid of it and I’ll be a-showing these ponies how as soon as I’m done here with you.”

“Will you now?” Thorne bit the words out at me. “Do you think you’ve got magick enough to defy me? Let’s put your so-called power to the test, then.” Then he began a-saying more words, words I’ve heard before and nair been happy to hear. I felt the air began to lay against me with a damp heat like it does right afore a big storm, like it pressed down on me as he said, “Molech. Hakabe. Rika, Modeca, Tasarith…”

And right afore I could say or do air thing, someone else spoke up.

“Want to try your magic on me when I know what’s going on, Thorne?”

Thorne started and Twilight charged into him from behind, knocking him head over heels. Thorne gave a sudden yell and I felt that pressure on me stop. Lyra blinked of a sudden like she’d just woke from a long sleep. She saw Twilight right by her and jumped up with a shriek. Twilight looked up at me.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” I yelled to her. “Stop Lyra before she gets away!”

Because Lyra was up and a-running for the door with all four hooves down on the floor like she ran for her life. Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated, and that purple flash of her magic filled the room. I had to blink it away from my eyes but I saw her friends all moving again.

“Stop him, er, Lyra, whatever!” Right at her words Applejack and Rainbow Dash sailed after Lyra like two hounds a-chasing a rabbit, Applejack on the floor and Dash in the air. Lyra ducked out the door and they chased right out after her. Twilight and I ran out after them and as we did I heard them both yell their surprise.

“Where the hay is she?” Applejack looked all around herself out there in the street. Some ponies stood there, both the local ones and the soldiers I’d seen before. They looked curious at her. I saw more than a few little ones there too, fillies and colts I reckon they were, including one I’d seen before. Apple Bloom stood right by two other little ponies her size, an orange Pegasus with a short cut dark purple mane and tail and a little white unicorn with a pink and purple mane and tail that looked like cotton candy. Apple Bloom looked right happy to see me again.

“See? I told ya’ll he was real!” She said that to her friends. Then she went to Applejack. “Hi, big sis! Kin I help ya with something? Y’all act like you’re lookin for somepony!”

“Thanks, Apple Bloom, but not right now,” Applejack said to her. She gave her sister’s mane a quick stroke and said, “None of y’all saw Lyra, did yah?” They all gave her no back, and she frowned. She turned and said to us, “Say, Twi, did Lyra turn invisible? I didn’t see any flash like unicorns make when they teleport.” She reared up, cupped her hooves by her mouth and called up into the sky, “How about you, Rainbow Dash? You see any sign o’ her?”

“I can’t see Lyra anywhere!” Dash’s voice came down faint to us. She dropped back down by us where we stood, hovering off the ground as she seemed to like doing. “I didn’t see her teleport either. So what happened to her?”

“Just a second,” Twilight said. She must have worked more magic, because her horn glowed for just a second. “Huh, that’s weird.” She frowned to say it. “I can’t pick up any magical residue. No invisibility and no teleportation. What did she do?”

“Might could be she did teleport,” I said to her. She looked at me, and so did Dash and Applejack. “I recollect you a-telling me that you didn’t pick it up when Thorne used his magic, either. And she said she was learning magic from him.”

“But teleportation spells just don’t work that – Oh. Right. Not Equestrian teleportation spells.” She sighed and headed back for the library door. Applejack and Dash were about to follow when Apple Bloom and her two friends started after her. Applejack saw it and turned around to face them.

“Not now, Apple Bloom. Y’all get on home to the farm. This here’s for big ponies.”

“Ah am a big pony!” She drew herself up as she said it, and her two friends agreed her. Applejack looked like she wanted to order her home, but instead she sighed.

“Okay, fine. Come along in. But you have promise ta be quiet, yah understand? This is important talk here.” They all agreed her and went along in with the rest of us. Once in, I saw Twilight talking with Rarity and Fluttershy. Applejack stood off to the side and so did those three. As soon as they stopped moving, they started asking her questions. Fluttershy saw the little ones and went right to them. She talked soft to them and they answered her the same way. It looked like Applejack gave a sigh as she sat down.

“I asked the guards if they saw Lyra enter or leave, and they didn’t see anything, Twilight!” Rarity said, and she sounded right confused. “They said they just heard some talking inside, and then we all came charging out. How could they have missed seeing Lyra? She must have come right down the street.”

“Thorne’s magic,” Twilight said, a-sounding tired. She walked to her library desk and sat herself down with a sigh. “That’s the best answer I can give right now. Where’s Spike? Is he okay?”

“He’s okey-dokey, Twilight!” Pinkie came down the stairs with Spike behind her. I saw that he held some paper in his claws and he held it out to her.

“It’s from the Princess, Twilight,” he said. “It came right after you ran out the door.” A purple glow surrounded it and she floated it up before her eyes.

“What all does she say to you?” I asked her. “Does she want to get rid of Thorne’s spellbook now or not?”

“Just a second,” she said, and began to read it out loud.

“’My dear Twilight Sparkle,

“I am pleased to hear that you are well and still safe. Discord is still bound in stone in the Canterlot Garden, but it now takes a constant effort from either me or my sister to reinforce his prison. I fear that soon it will take both of us all day long to keep him contained. As for John, I wish I could meet him in the palace in Canterlot, but that is currently impossible. I will trust you to handle matters with Thorne. And if John can indeed destroy or disable that spellbook as you say, then do so at once and…”

She blinked like as though she didn’t believe what she read. Twilight glanced at me and finally said,

“’And… I trust you, and if you trust this ‘John’ then so do I. Please stay safe, my little ponies.

“Your teacher, Princess Celestia.’”

She rolled the letter up and set it in a drawer of her desk. Then she turned to me.

“John, if you really know how to get rid of that book of Thorne’s…” She stopped as Applejack got up and walked to her.

“What all else did it say ‘bout John, Twi?”

Twilight looked from her to me and back to her. I saw how her friends watched her and me both. They looked near about as curious as I felt right then.

“Princess Celestia asked us to keep a close eye on him, because his knowledge makes him, ahem, ‘a valuable asset’.” She smiled me a nervous smile. “I didn’t know how you’d take it, John. Sorry if I made you nervous.”

“You don’t make me near as nervous as air other thing that’s happened here,” I responded her. Twilight laughed a little bit. She headed for the safe.

“Come on. Ladies, let’s get our Elements on and open the safe.” Her horn glowed and the piled saddlebags all went to one pony or another, including the ones Thorne tried to use. I saw golden necklaces come out, all set with a different colored jewel in the front. They each flew to a different pony and they set them right on. I saw how the jewels on the necklaces looked rightly like the cutie marks on the ponies. The ladies theirselves looked like someone lifted a weight from off their shoulders when they set them on. I looked to Twilight and saw she wore that tiara she showed me afore, and I doubt you’ll be much surprised to hear that I saw a jewel like a star on it, like the one she bore on her flank. Twilight saw how I watched.

“These are the most powerful magical artifacts in Equestria,” she said, and her voice went solemn. “They defeated Discord, and they restored Luna from Nightmare Moon. I think they’ll be able to handle Thorne with your help, John.” She turned to the safe, and hesitated. “You’re sure you can get rid of that grimoire, John?” She sounded nervous to ask it. I didn’t see how air soul could blame her after what she’d said happened.

“I promise I can,” I told her. “We’ll need a place away off from the town to do it in.” She looked at me. Whatever she saw must have been good. She sighed her relief and turned to the safe. Her friends followed her, and I followed them. The first thing Twilight did was to use the magic from her horn on the lock. I heard the tumblers click again. The door opened a little bit and then stopped. She took a deep breath. I minded me of what she said the thing inside the safe did to her once before. I patted her on the shoulder. She relaxed.

“Okay, it’ll take three of us to do this,” she said. “Dash, Applejack, if you’d like to help?” They stepped up beside her and then all three of them set their hooves on the safe. The Elements they bore lit up then, not bright, but it still seemed to go all through the room. For maybe a moment I thought I saw people I knew from back home, ones I liked and trusted like Chief Manco, like Judge Pursuivant, like my own dear Evadare. I wondered me if I’d ever see them again or if what Thorne said would come true. Then the door of the safe opened and the light from the Elements faded. I felt just the least bit sorry to see it go.

“There it is,” Twilight said, and her voice sounded just trembly enough to hear if you strained. I bent down beside her and looked in. Inside, metal sides and top and bottom like you’d expect. And right smack in the middle, something that looked like a bundle made of hairy hide with that crimson many-pointed arrow symbol on it. I went to take it out, but Twilight stopped me. “No. No, I think I’d better be the pony to do this.”

Her horn glowed again. The book slid out. Her saddlebag opened, the one on the other side of her body from where she’d taken her tiara, and the Letters of Cold Fire slipped in. The saddlebag closed and I reckon both Twilight and I let out a breath we didn’t know we’d been holding.

“Okay,” she said. She started for the door and as she did, Spike got on her back to ride her. “Now let’s go get rid of it.” We all started for the door and when we did I asked her something.

“Begging your pardon, Twilight, but are you rightly sure you told what all else that letter from the Princess said about me, if air thing?”

“What?” She gave me a sudden wary look and relaxed. I saw how Applejack looked at her. “Oh, nothing more really. Just, just to be careful that you didn’t get into any trouble. I mean, you are new here in Equestria.”

“I rightly am at that,” I agree her and we walked out together. And as we set out across Ponyville I wondered myself something about that letter she’d gotten, and what in it made her tell me the first lie she’d said to me so far since I’d come here.

Comments

[CoastalSarv]

Thorn is one scary and contemptuous motherbucker, ain't he?

[Ardashir]

668038 That he is, but believe me, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Thorne has yet to show both the ponies and John just how utterly nasty he can get.

[fractalman]

Is...is he corrupting Celestia?

[Ardashir]

5076341 And if you mean is Thorne corrupting Celestia with the Letters of Cold Fire, the answer to that is 'No'. Celestia never read the book and it has no power over her at all. Unfortunately, she also has very little power over it.

[Godiswithus3]

Well. Thorn now knows that John is in the game. The game might get interesting.

And glad Thorn retreated with no casualties except for the capture ofLyra and Bon Bon. Poor girls.

[PinkDragonJr]

Wow, Twilight is really getting hit hard with the 'because magic' turnabout in this chapter.