Divine Move

by Ice Star

十一 (He's Not That Old)

"Whoa, look at that!" called Mayfly. His voice rang throughout the small cave, but it was drowned out by the roar of the waterfall and hoof points to something I can't see unless I turn my head to the right a little bit.

It really isn't much of a cave since I had to duck and hold back part of the waterfall to get in here, although it did open up a bit when we got inside to the point where I don't have to duck my head. Water has worn most of the walls smooth and it looks like somepony might have caused parts of the stone in here to shift and conceal most of the entrance. It might be some kind of disruption from when they were building the city.

Something has been carved into the stone that made up the back wall. Since I'm actually intrigued on what it could be, I do the sensible thing of utterly ignoring the witless child nearby and walk up to the strange carvings. The metal boots I wear caused pebbles underhoof to crunch.

I light my horn enough to properly illuminate the stone. It is not a mural, since I don't see any traces of paint, but whatever art I have found is very colorful with reds, grays, and other hues that shouldn't be in this particular type of stone. A quick tap of my hoof reveals that not only is this covered in a fine layer of debris - which isn't important - but that there are some fragments of dully gleaming stones embedded inside which lets me know this was the work of a geomancer. That could prove to be useful later.

"Look at all the weird colors! What do you think this does?"

Mayfly is not useful. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."

None of these colors are the results of natural magic, especially now that I've concluded that a geomancer took direct action to make this. I don't know much about geomancy since äerint crystals don't fit into it at all even if the basic concept of them seems similar at first. In fact, I'm entirely sure that äerint isn't a mineral at all but I haven't been successful in trying to break the structure down or isolate whatever components could be in it. That was how I tossed my theory that they were a combination of a variety of gems that were corrupted and fused together. It really didn't work and that was one of my earliest theories, so I'm not very proud of it since I ended up realizing that if it were true, äerint would be remarkably similar to what I've seen of crystallokinesis, which is a magic I don't use or know. It's a somewhat similar situation here, after all I doubt I'll find out anything by trying to gather knowledge I don't retain so I'll just work with what I have.

Geomancy manifests in two forms, one kind for earth ponies and one for unicorns. Since I'm not an expert, that's all the background knowledge that I have. Blame the library of the crystal palace for not having enough materials to educate me on that particular field. Pyromancers like myself are better anyway.

However, geomancy is often used to conceal and preserve objects and because of that and my adequate knowledge of geomancy I know that this is some kind of puzzle. Perhaps a secret compartment where somepony hid their last work or the tomb of a monarch. I do recall reading that deep beneath the city of Canterlot are the remains of another city, which was called Canterlote, and its cave system. I have no idea how old this structure but it is best if I examine it up close and carefully at that, after all I already blew up part of an archive.

"Umm, are you just gonna stand there and judge that weird wall all day?"

Lo and behold! Fate once again tries to remind me that I am within the vicinity of an annoying child! It's as if some cosmic force that believes it can exceed me wants me to blow something else. I turn to face the mere insect without a shred of experience to their name.

"Listen to me, you stupid brat, you just picked me off the streets to help you sneak into this cave, and you already gave me everything I wanted, so I could just stroll out of here and you'd never find me again, but you've got me interested enough in this so the least you could do is not interrupt me when I'm technically trying to help you, even if it is indirectly. Or so my name isn't Sombra, the Duke of-"

"Wait, you're King Sombra?!" Mayfly calls. He's standing about midway between myself and the exit.

If he slips those saddlebags off, he'll be able to fly much faster and if I can't come up with a spell in time... well that's unlikely to happen.

The light on my horn dies. Crap. "What would you have done if I had told you?"

He doesn't run yet but he does look nervous and makes no effort to conceal it. He's the type that wears his heart on the outside but the problem he has is that I can figure out exactly what anypony like him is feeling so as long as I can see what guides them.

Mayfly swallows slightly, "Well I would understand why you didn't want to tell me your name. It scares a lot of ponies and is pretty ugly."

"Like your mother?"

A perplexed blink from the fool. "What? How would you know my mother?"

The naivety is so painfully strong with this one that I'm tempted to go for a few more low blows just to see his various reactions. "Well, I'm older than I look."

He blinks stupidly again, "Alright, but it's not like I'm going to tell Princess Celestia or anything."

"Is it because you'll tell your mother instead?"

"No, my mother's dead and you seem really nice anyway."

Oh my gods, forever and always I shall remember this moment of extreme density. Are all foals like this? How is that even possible? They can mass produce written materials unlike the extremely limited copies of the Tribal Era. Who else but the most foolish of all proverbial peasants would trust somepony just because they 'seem' nice? There is nothing definite about the assumption and it hardly has a steady foundation to go off of. Clearly this colt is trying to get himself killed and is doing a bloody splendid job as well. "So, now that you know my name, which I will point out is not ugly, what exactly are you and I going to do?"

His hoof points at me and I feel my eye twitch slightly because it almost looks like he's trying to accuse me of something. The crystal ponies did this often. "We should figure out what that is."

"Yes, and who will be interrupting me every few minutes?"

"Nopony!" He adds cheerily.

"Correct. Now that you have finally answered a question correctly in your miserable life, but only because of me of course, can you tell me how exactly we're going to do this? Me conjuring a proper werelight would be too noticeable, as would a fire."

"I glow!"

"Not really," I say with a yawn, "you're actually quite dim."

"That's 'cause I'm not glowing right now!"

"It's quite obvious."

"No, just watch. I can glow, I promise, " Mayfly says and he just stands very still and crosses his eyes as if that is how one like him would believe the secrets of the universe are discovered.

"Listen, you pathetic lifeform, if you wish to explode so badly I don't disapprove but simply and kindly request that you do it elsewhere so I won't have to clean up the mess, otherwise I will kill you myself."

"I... will... glow...!"

"You're going to turn purple any minute now, and let me just say that I'm not fond of that color but I do encourage you to seek your death where I won't be blamed or tasked with disposing of anything, because it's not like I haven't had to do enough of that in my life."

Apparently if you threaten this kid enough, he does in fact glow. A faint sheen of whitish light has surrounded his form, and I'm entirely sure that this isn't natural but then again neither am I. It isn't enough to alert anypony outside or bounce of the waterfall in the background, but it is still brighter than the controlled reddish aura I had been using.

...

I had originally thought that the alterations left behind by by the anonymous geomancer was a tomb's entrance for some long-lost mortal king or queen.

It isn't.

If Firefly and I exchange places, so he's close enough to shine light on the mural and I stand where he was just moments ago, I can see the bigger picture. Each whorl of color bends to form the outlines of various landforms that I don't recognize. The swirls are indistinguishable up close but far away each blends together to show what might be a very stylized map of the Equestrian nation's place on the continent.

Everything starts with Canterhorn Mountain. From there I can see that each landform is just a piece of the outline of an Alicorn. The mountain is the horn, forests make up the feathers, and the contours of the hills and rivers outline the faint image of a body. This predates all my guesses on when this was made, so I know that this is more than what it seems just by origin alone.

It doesn't take long for me to spot something intriguing, the rocky canyons near the bottom form legs and hooves. When I drifted south and stayed there before returning to the Magicspire I met some curious creatures called buffalo. They alerted me of a few bandit locations and didn't care what I did from there or how I did it. Buffalo don't ask many questions either, so I wasn't on horrid terms with them even if there weren't exactly keen on my history they were alright with me.

The buffalo didn't tell me much about themselves, but one of the things they showed me was a small structure they were quite protective of. According to what they told me, it was built by a pony called the First Sage. That was never elaborated on but they went on to say how the place was called the Sage's Gate, and it helped guide the replacement for this individual known as the First Sage to wherever it was they were supposed to go. Even more amusing is that the buffalo said that the successor - who was usually one of their own - was 'chosen by the sky' and that was how the gate worked as well.

All of that is just a way to say that lightning had something to do with everything. I don't know how to summon or control lightning, although I do know one who can, since it does tie in with certain very specialized fields of magic I know nothing of. However, with the colt's strange ability to glow - which does make some sense now - and the pyromancy I lean towards I think that I'll be able to open this, and perhaps even discreetly too.

After all, this has buffalo written all over it. I can see how one of the mural Alicorn's 'hooves' is raised so it creates a space that looks very much like a switch of some kind.

This may be quite the relic, but it really can't compare to me.

Comments

[Witch_King_of_Angmar]

This story is HILARIOUS!

[Ice Star]

11025360
Thank you! Getting to craft such a caustic voice for Sombra is one of my favorite parts of his character, so whenever he gets to narrate, I get to indulge in it.