Sisters in All but Blood

by scifipony

Chapter 9 - Precipice of Failure

Author's Note:

To fill a plot hole, on July 30th I modified the last paragraphs of the previous chapter. Check the author note at the end of the chapter 8 before continuing. Subtle, but important.

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I also accidentally published chapter 10 before 9. I apologize for any confusion.

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Long time coming, but there will be more, quickly. I decided to break 5000+ words into two smaller right-sized chapters.

This was falling off a cliff, for real. I screamed as my levitation spell snapped.

What had been precisely cut stone brick that had fit together without need of mortar, suddenly liquified into sliding gravel and sand. Instinct to lunge only shoveled the loose ground from under me. I landed flat and scrabbling. The bridge abutment receded while bouncing gravel, falling faster than me, pelted my legs and face. It was like swimming in a sea of toy marbles, each clacking loudly together, except these were sharp.

Were there a time I needed my teleport spell to work, it was now. I worked the calculation, despite the non-linearity of my recession from where I needed to appear; solving for time was my only real choice.

Pegasi filled the air.

Hearts appeared on the bridge and leapt into the air toward me. She smacked down with such force it sent a wave of clattering rock to swamp me, forcing me to close my eyes as I scraped further toward an inevitable precipice. Alkaline dust bit at my tongue. An instant later, she shouted, "Grab on!"

She struck me, outstretched legs going around me, as her faster velocity shoved us into an embrace. I lunged, getting my legs around her chest as hers went around my neck—and my rear legs slid out into the air above the gorge. Hooves hit my rear as two pegasi pushed down to keep me from sliding further.

We jerked to a stop and Heart's chartreuse mane flopped over my eyes. Hearts' size and strength kept me from ripping free. Bits of brick and gravel rolled over us as Hearts grunted. "Gotcha!"

Perhaps due only to desperation, I solved the spell equation, neon numbers flaring in a chrysanthemum firework burst behind my eyes. As a red flare from my horn lit Hearts' triple-heart cutie mark, I let the spell loose.

I felt an instant of in-between blackness, just long enough to know wherever I was it was unbearably frigid. The next instant, I saw gravel arcing through the air as a force drove both Hearts and me into the ground. At least we weren't slipping. A bang echoed from the gorge.

I heard a carriage guard grumble something angrily about "unicorns." I could feel Hearts' voice through her neck as she said, "If that was a teleport spell, it didn't help much."

Hooves again pushed my behind.

We jerked, suddenly, inching upward. I looked up. Applejack had wrapped a rope around the greased pole, which now lacked a rope bridge. Between her and her red workhorse brother, the two blondes pulled the rope, ratcheting us upward.

Soon we were on the roadway of the bridge abutment. No longer trusting of what had seemed firm ground, I and everybody else scrambled back from the bridge.

As Applejack untied Hearts' haunches, I said, "Thank you. That must have hurt."

"Like being cut in two," she said.

"Applejack, and, uh…"

She filled in, "Big Mac."

"Yes, and Big Mac. Quick thinking. Thanks."

She doffed her rodeo hat and bowed, "T'weren't nothin'." She put the hat back on and said, "But, begging your pardon, Your Highness, but perhaps it would be a might better if'n you let one of us go ahead of you from now on."

Her brother added, "Eyup."

"No," I said, turned, and walked up the roadway only close enough to see the pole, and look at the disintegrated side of the abutment. "No. I wasn't acting stupid. I looked first and saw nothing amiss." I gasped and faced the herd. "I walked into a trap! Whilst landing in the timberwolf nursery might have been inconvenient luck, I think we walked into three traps, and..."

I thought about my friends and what had transpired. Maybe I was putting hope above reason. Thinking out loud, I added, "And, that we handled two of them may be related to the Elements of Harmony we're searching for. Lyra handled the Manticore; I think may align with the element of kindness. It was Lemon Hearts that immediately jumped into action when the bridge abutment disintegrated; she may align with the element of loyalty. I triggered my trap with my magic when I used it on the ropes. Not sure what that means, but intuition tells me it means something."

I looked down, thinking it through. What element did that mean I aligned with? Was it wishful thinking to think I was aligned with any element, and did it matter? Was alignment a key to manipulating the magic we needed against Nightmare Moon? Did missing a pony aligned with an element prevent the magic from working?

So frustrating.

I looked up at everypony. An equally frustrating conclusion to finding traps was, "Nightmare Moon knows we're here. And we can expect to find more traps."

In the resulting silence, seemingly in response, I heard a voice from the opposite side of the gorge. A fog bank hid the castle. Twinkie faded in and out, muted and not completely intelligible.

"Ugggh! How are we going to get across there?"

Rainbow Dash flexed her wings in reply and said, "Duh!" She shot into the air and then down into the gorge. Night Wings followed. In a minute, Applejack and Big Mac were tying the ropes to the poles and carriage guards were checking the ropes on the opposite side. Two pegasi went heavily across on foot before they let me and the rest follow.

With me at point, Twin Forks and Night Wings on either side, I clearly heard Twinkie say, "—but why now—?" Moving fog banks going in opposite directions slid aside, revealing a pale pony with a pink mane, and three ponies in midnight-blue pasteboard caps and and light-blue gowns, academic regalia reserved for formal occasions.

"Twinkie!" I called.

"—The library is not going to just disappear—"

But her voice had faded. One academic looked at us with eyes that seemed to glow yellow. Fog condensed and rolled our direction, completely obscuring the scene. Night Wings swooped in. Moments later, judging from the crackle of sticks and his curses, he crashed into the branches of a tree off to the left.

As I tried to think of some variation of a fire spell that might dissipate the fog, I heard, "Even if that's true, helping my friends end the nighttime that will last forever is far more important, don't you think— What?"

Hooves pounded the ground coming toward us. The fog simply vanished directly ahead as Twinkie came galloping out of the resultant tunnel, the green magical aura surrounding her horn lighting the way. As she skidded to a halt before me, she immediately turned.

She shuddered and said, "I was sure it was the metaology dean and the two professors under him. I was convinced it was them. Then I said no to their generous offer and they just, they just—disappeared."

She was loyalty. She had to be aligned with loyalty. "It was a trap laid by Nightmare Moon."

Twinkie shuddered again, and turned to face us. "I think I'll leave scouting to someone more qualified…" Her eyes looked up, then her face followed, her voice petering out.

"I agree with that suggestion," said a gruff voice, above.

I heard dozens of hooves shift as we all looked up to see a fancy brass-clad chariot pulled by two carriage guards, accompanied by two pegasi royal guards. In the carriage stood a grizzled purple mare with a white mane and blue eyes that reflected the moonlight. She wore armor, with a rank I was sure exceeded Shining's. Shining stood beside her on the chariot, looking miserable as it set down. The officer jumped down before the chariot stopped rolling.

She had flown down in full view of the castle. "If Nightmare Moon wasn't sure we were here, she is now," I said.

"Twilight Sparkle, I presume?" the officer asked, approaching me.

Shining followed her and stumbled, clearly in pain. He said, "This is 1st lieutenant Bright Noon."

"You, and the rest of your group, cross back over to the other side. Officers and guard, assemble around me."

I looked at the mare; my mouth had dropped open. Night Wings had returned, shaking leaves from his wings. When he and the other guard started trotting toward the officer, my jaw snapped shut. I said, "No. Don't." I said it in dismay, the thought of yet another of Celestia's numerous tests failed, but it came out sharp enough to be construed as a command.

Eyes wide, expression grim, the 1st lieutenant turned to me and said, "Young filly—"

Lunettes stepped out between me and the officer, like a royal minister, careful not to obscure my view of a petitioner. "Ma'am," she said and dipped her head. "Are you aware of to whom you are speaking?"

"Guard, assemble at my side, now!"

I went from dismay to frustration. "I asked for re-enforcement and I got this?"

"Lieutenant Twin Forks, please escort this filly across the bridge." Dismissing me, she turned to the other guard who had nonetheless slowed their approach toward her.

"No," I said, grabbing Bright Noon's muzzle in my magic, turning her to face me.

Lunettes said, her voice still proper and level, "Ma'am, you are addressing the Crown Regent."

Bright Noon's expression went from shocked at me grabbing her chin, to a smile, then a smirk. She coughed, then started laughing, the sound growing louder. Only the whip of her tail showed annoyance. She shook her head. "I saw your orders. Princess Celestia sent you to organize the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, nothing more."

I asked, "Do you understand the situation we face?"

Shining said, "I tried to explain—"

"Quiet," Bright Noon said, "I don't need to know more than that a powerful unicorn with a flight spell kidnapped the princess and is holding her in that ruined castle. Between me and my troops, we can handle that."

Lunettes had levitated a paper out of her saddlebags. I recognized the parchment of my commission paper. "Sir. You are mistaken on all accounts. Her Highness—"

The 1st lieutenant chuckled.

Lunettes continued, "—was commissioned by Princess Celestia and personally trained for this eventuality. This verifies her commission."

Bright Noon waved a hoof dismissively. The paper had been heading her way, but Lunettes detoured it to hover in front of the 1st lieutenant's pegasi royal guards and carriage guards—long enough for them to read the gist of it and see the signature. Lunettes sped it back toward Shining's friends and my carriage guards.

When a blue aura formed around the paper, Heart's stronger red aura prevented Bright Moon from grabbing it.

"Enough," the 1st lieutenant said.

Iinstead of looking at their putative commanding officer, her troops were staring at me.

Beside me, a blue aura lifted a thin branch by one end as Bright Noon added, "If you insist on acting like a foal, I am going to treat you like one." The makeshift switch swatted my flank.

Or would have, had it not hit the surface of something like a soap bubble surrounding me. The shield spell lit up bright red where struck. A crackle of energy expanded in a ring of orange and traveled with a wobbly woob sound to coalesce on the opposite side with a sizzle. Shining made a pained groan, as if he'd felt the strike, his eyes half-closed in concentration.

"Indeed, enough," I said as Rainbow Dash grabbed the switch—flashing in a rainbow streak past at full speed—just as Shining's spell ended with a pop. There had been an officer who had been obviously the oldest and most senior of Shining's friends. Time to delegate. "Crystalline?"

The battered mare stepped from the stunned group that had obeyed Bright Noon. "Your Highness?"

"What is your rank?"

"1st lieutenant brevet, ma'am."

"You are now a captain. Kindly take the 1st lieutenant aside. Please explain to her that we are facing an alicorn and ask her what she feels she can do to contribute—"

For the second time tonight, I went weightless. A blue aura surrounded me, lifting and sliding me through the air toward the bridge. "That is enough, Twilight Spark—"

Her blue aura flickered out and I landed walking. Meanwhile, I heard a grunt and looked to see every unicorn's magic paint the officer. By consensus, mostly Hearts overpowering the rest, they tossed Bright Noon into the air, flipped her, and with strong agreement, slammed her against the ground causing her armor to make a loud metallic bang.

As I walked toward her, I said, "Applejack?"

"Yes, Ma'am," she said enthusiastically, pacing me, her lasso instantly out, spinning. She wasn't going to be nice.

When I stood above the hooves-up officer, looking down into her blue eyes, I asked, "Are you insane?"

Her eyes stopped wandering and focused on me. She breathed hard, one huff after another coming out like a growl through flared nostrils. "You—!"

Applejack's lasso snapped her mouth tightly shut, clacking teeth audibly together before she could say something she was going to regret. As our rodeo star hogtied her with the other end of the rope, I said, "What I sent for was help. After I rescue the princess, I will let you explain to her what you thought you were doing instead. Should I fail, blame it all on me."

I turned to the others, only to have everypony not occupied bow to me on one knee.

I inhaled sharply. I would never be comfortable with this. I wanted to roll my eyes, but knew better than to disrespect the gesture. I nodded and said, "Since Bright Noon saw to it that Nightmare Moon certainly knows we're here, let's go meet her at the castle. Suggestions, please. How should we best do that?"

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[John Tannius]

There's always that one character that always thinks they know best and refuse to listen to anyone. They exist in real life, I've met a few. I often wonder how they get to the level of authority they often do...