The Prelude, Illuminate the Shadows Book 1

by SaphireTsuki

14 Duet

Ponies are not merely stallions in distress. Changelings, when faced with danger, will either overpower or manipulate our way around danger. Ponies, however, will work around it. There is an impressive level of diversity with them, some are more than capable of overpowering their foes, and others of outhinking them. The most common methods for dealing with dangers by ponies, however, is to combine strengths. Despite their individual differences ponies have, over all, a disparaging difference in power from other races they meet. Pegasi may be faster than a gryphon, but a gryphon has claws and a sharp beak to go along with their wings, allowing them to act as a beast of prey.

What all ponies have which other races do not, however, is an almost instinctual need to help one another. This "herd mentality" is similar to that of our Hive Mind, but instead of being built around magic and a genetic need to help the Queen, theirs is largely societal. As all prey animals, they have a propensity for sticking together, but no pony has a genetic requirement to do so. This is shown clearly by their history, for they once warred, one against the other. Yet, they show the greatest potential for overcoming difficulty and wielding magic when they work together. The Elements of Harmony are an example, but one need only look at the wars that have been waged over the past thousand years for proof.

No civilization has ever managed to overcome the ponies when they work as one. I imagine this shall remain true, even far into the future. Learn from this, my daughter.

SE 1015

Rarity and Twilight split off from the group after giving a brief explanation to Princess Luna. Rarity, to convince said Princess, claimed that the Princess' regalia would be simple enough to lock onto after they break the enchantment. While Moonlight and Pinkie led everypony through the mist, Twilight and Rarity dove into the mists, moving swiftly in the hopes that it would prevent the disorientation of the spell. They continued for a while, pausing every few minutes to recast the spell, before they eventually reached a point where no matter how much they travelled, they were always stopping at exactly the same distance from the magic crystal.

"Twilight, I swear we've passed this exact swath of... muck at least five times in the past hour." At this point the white unicorn had given up on shaking off the mud from her frocks, though she still shook her head to dry out her mane periodically. With a few more steps she was beside her friend, "Please tell me you have figured out what is jamming our magic."

"I... it's not so much jammed so much as, I think, we're still being mislead." She stopped moving, using her magic to lift a stick and start writing down calculations. It began with a diagram of their path, and then analysis, and by about halfway through Twilight had begun to mutter alongside them. This time, there were no arcane terms thrown around, instead it was all geographical, and then... "Ok, so I think... we're going to try it this way. This should be the last defense of the magic source." That made sense, it wasn't a physically dangerous creature, after all, but rather something that drained the... energy? No, now wasn't the time for semantics, Twilight! "Follow me!"

"That's what I've been doing, darling." Rarity laughed quietly before taking off after Twilight. The two of them resumed their frantic movements, but no longer were they moving in what, to them, felt to be a single line. Instead, Twilight took turns here and there, making sharp 90 degree turns at what Rarity assumed were carefully calculated moments, before at last they seemed to pass through what appeared to be a solid wall of fog. The other side was covered in a dome, but unlike the caravan... it was completely devoid of fog, save for a few streams seeming to come out of the ground in the center, each spreading just outside the dome.

The two stepped carefully further into the dome, noting that the grass under their hooves was dead, and the tree branches reaching in as well. Rarity noticed that her legs were shaking, and carefully adjusted her posture to hide this fact. The two reached the centerpoint of the streams of fog, though it was flowing too fast for them to see the source.

"Right," Twilight began, "How to destroy this thing."

"Could we overload it somehow?"

"Maybe, if I had time to study it. I have a bad feeling about this place, though. We shouldn't stay here for long." She didn't want to try to overload it without study, the backlash could be disastrous, depending on how much magic was being used. Rarity, seeing Twilight enter her magic calculation mode again, looked around for any handy tools. "I wonder if the placement has something to do with the magical array? It's frustrating that I can't see it..."

Ah, there was one! She trotted over to a boulder, poking and prodding it. She was no expert, not like Pinkie or Maud, but this seemed to be a very... rocky rock. It was large, she tried to lift it with her magic, and yes it was heavy. It looked like Tom. Yes, this would do nicely. It would either destroy the array, knock one of the gems off, or at least cover up the source of the fog. So, she dragged it over, and after nudging Twilight out of the way, lifted the boulder up, and tossed it onto the center of the streams.

"Rarity!" The boulder completely covered the amplifier, the stream of fog snuffed like a candle.

"We can't let that... thing, whatever it is that's hunting us, find us now can we?" Twilight slapped one forehoof to her forehead. "Now then," They both noticed that the fog was already starting to lighten, sunlight visible through the center. "We must dismantle this amplifier permanently, mustn't we? It would not do for the," She paused, oh, right it was called, "Ijiraq to find us before we do so."

"You're right, but you really shouldn't have done that. What if it exploded?"

"If it was going to explode, you would have set up a barrier first thing." Well, that was true, but Twilight really thought that Rarity was missing the point. She shook her head, lifting the boulder in her own magic, noting that what appeared to be the main part was completely smashed. She gulped, yes, that could easily have gone very wrong. Rarity usually wasn't this reckless, what had happened? Ah, but now was not the time to think about that... now she had to destroy the rest of the arcane formulas so it would take complete recalculation in order to use it again.

A few hours later the two of them found Princess Luna and the others. It had become a beautiful afternoon.

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Duet: A piece of music written for two vocalists or instrumentalists.

Author's Note:

In true pony fashion, the two solved the problem honestly pretty easy. The Ijiraq is still out there, but the fog is gone at least! Also, the image of Rarity ignoring Twilight and instead using her pent up aggression (towards Tom) to toss a rock onto the amplifier just seems funny to me.

Next chapter: The start of the Conclave arc!

(Partial edits credited to Tael Spinner pointing out a few things that could use improvement. Thank you!)

As always, thanks go to Everfree Pony for helping me to edit this story, even if it is at a snail's pace. Due to myself.