Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 2:14.1 - The Old King

Author's Note:

Translations

Chapter 2:14.1 – The Old King

Dusk was just starting to fall when the Brave Companions arrived at the gates of Fillidelfiyaa. The city looked even drearier than when Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had been here in the spring. King Hadish’s armies had never reached the city, which was fortunate, given the dilapidated state of its defenses, but the blow to morale from King Alhert slinking back here in defeat had done damage enough. Beneath their heavy winter cloaks, the guards’ green-and-blue barding was ragged and dirty, and they hardly spared the six ponies and dragon a look as they trotted through the half-closed gates. It was as if they didn’t care, or even that they would welcome an invasion if only it would change things. Gloom seemed to hang everywhere, including around the few ponies still out and about at this hour, making their ways home with heads hung low.

“Good captain,” Twilight Sparkle addressed a guard wearing armor with an officer’s knot seated near the guardhouse just past the gates, “Would you have one of your guards carry a message to King Alhert that the Brave Companions wish to speak to him on an urgent matter first thing in the morning?”

“Uh, I suppose so,” the guard captain said after scratching his chin with a hoof, and motioned for the pony sitting across the draughts board from him to go, which he did after some grumbling.

“I wouldn’t count on an audience,” a stallion behind the Brave Companions said.

“You?” Rainbow Dash said as she whirled.

“Ser Gavron,” Twilight addressed him more politely (and because she actually remembered his name), “What are you doing here?”

The king’s fourth cousin wasn’t wearing a suit of armor this time, but a heavy cloak pulled over a doublet embroidered with his family crest that half-matched the king’s. Ser Gavron of House Inthrid-Caramon, second in line to the Crown of Fillidelfiyaa, after Prince Robar of Manehattan. No proof had been found that Ser Gavron had been involved in the plot to assassinate Robar and his wife—Alhert’s daughter—Persimmone, but Twilight still didn’t trust him. Him showing up here as they arrived in the city did nothing to allay her suspicions.

“I’m here to meet you. Really, protégé of Celestia, I would think you realized that many more mages than just you have the ability to scry. Though I don’t tend to involve myself in the matters of sorceresses, I understand that the six of you are popular subjects for that hobby. I’m sorry, seven,” Gavron explained venomously, adding the last sentence as Spike raised a claw to protest, “You won’t be able to get an audience with King Alhert. He has secluded himself in the Sea Keep and barred anypony from speaking with him.”

“You came all the way here and waited for us to arrive just to tell us that?” Rainbow asked.

“No, of course not,” Gavron said with a frown, “I came here to invite you to come with me. There are friends of mine who would like to speak to the Brave Companions. They are willing to provide you with a place to stay tonight, and maybe help you get in to speak to King Alhert tomorrow, if the matter with which you are coming to him is suitably urgent.”

“I thought you said that nopony is able to get in to speak to the king,” Rarity pointed out.

“For the kingdom’s high nobility, exceptions can be made, but we would be taking a risk. Hence, why you’ll need to explain your business here before we help you,” Gavron said, “So, will you come with me, or will you find a run-down inn to wait until spring or later to speak to Alhert?”

***

It wasn’t much of a choice, really. If what Gavron said was true (and the guard captain at least had said it was), then waiting around to speak to Alhert wasn’t an option. Of course, there was nothing that said they had to speak to the king in order to search for the pony possessed by Discord, but it would certainly make things easier. Running around the streets of Fillidelfiyaa after somepony while firing spells willy-nilly would certainly cause problems without the sovereign’s blessing, but they would still do it if they had to. Twilight Sparkle also had to admit that she was curious just who these ‘friends’ of Gavron were, and why they wanted to speak to the Brave Companions.

She got the first answer soon enough. Ser Gavron led them straight to a noble estate in the city belonging to Countess Arethea of House Dawnskimmer. The countess herself welcomed them and had the servants see the Brave Companions to the rooms already prepared for them. On the way, Twilight caught a glimpse of the ponies gathered in the sitting room, all of them in the finery of Fillidelfiyaan nobility. When the Brave Companions returned to the room, she was glad to see that none of them had tried to slip away. Either that, or those she shouldn’t have seen had already slipped away before passing the room the first time.

She’d thought she might have to deduce who they were, but they surprised her again by all introducing themselves. Almost all of them were vassals of King Alhert, directly or indirectly, though their ranks varied greatly. There were a few exceptions, such as some wealthy merchants and twin sorceresses that Twilight resolved to look up in her newest edition of Rossin’s Registry of Mages when she returned to Golden Oak’s Laboratory. Once pleasantries had been exchanged, the Brave Companions’ hosts were ready to get down to business.

“What matter has brought you to Fillidelfiyaa?” Linter, an aging merchant with drooping mustaches asked.

“First I will need to know where you stand, so I can decide if I trust you enough to share our quest,” Twilight replied.

“Ridiculous!” Linter sputtered, “The countess has invited you into her home, an offer you accepted, and now you have the audacity to question our trustworthiness!”

“Arrogance typical of a Cant’r Laht sorceress,” Lókki, one of the non-Cant’r Laht sorceresses, said dreamily, and her sister nodded curtly.

“Be calm,” commanded Arethea, raising a hoof to silence other complaints before they were spoken, “It is okay. What reason have they to trust us? So that you know, Twilight Sparkle, we are concerned subjects of King Alhert one and all. The king, he has allowed his melancholy to consume him, and through him, consume his kingdom. Ser Gavron tells me that you have seen the effect throughout the city, but it is more widespread than you know. All across the realm, ponies have thrown down their implements, their tools, their crowns, even their lives in the grief shared with the king. This cannot be allowed to continue or, treaty or not, King Hadish will invade and spread Manehattan’s borders before his son ever inherits the Fillidelfiyaan throne.”

“You tried to sway the king once,” Ser Gavron said, though he looked displeased with the words coming out of his mouth, “I have been told that the Brave Companions have a peculiar effect on the ponies around them, able to shift minds and events in a way nopony else can. If we were able to get you to speak to the king, would you try to break him out of his gloom? It could mean the salvation of Fillidelfiyaa.”

“I see,” Twilight Sparkle said thoughtfully, “It may not be why we came to Fillidelfiyaa, but I see how important it is to this land. Very well, you have shared with us your purposes, so I shall share with you ours. The reason we must speak with King Alhert is to obtain his permission to search the city. As recently as a week ago, somepony possessed by the soul of Discord was here. We must find them and stop them before they grow too powerful.”

“Discord is a myth,” Sátti, the other twin sorceress, said airily.

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d been through what we have,” Rainbow Dash grumbled and Lókki gasped, “We fought Discord and he very nearly won. He would have if it weren’t for Twilight. And that was just the start of this year! Since then, we’ve fought a vagabond consumed by Greed, a centaur bent on Treachery, and a sorceress well-versed in Chaos.”

“One week ago, you felt a surge of chaos magic in the city, did you not?” Twilight Sparkle asked before anypony had time to react to Rainbow’s boorish behavior, “When we vanquished Discord, his soul escaped and split into seven pieces, each of them finding their way into somepony in Equestria. That surge of chaos magic was that pony Awakening, realizing their power and Discord’s soul fragment taking over.”

“If what you say is true, then it is of dire importance indeed that you get in to see King Alhert. We will begin preparations at once,” Countess Arethea said, “As soon as we can in the morning, we will get you into the Sea Keep to speak to the king. While you are there, I pray you will consider what we have told you and will try to break the king out of his gloom.”

“We will,” Twilight vowed.

“Very well,” the countess said with satisfaction, “All of us who will be going to the Sea Keep tomorrow had best get to bed. I will send servants to wake you if there is any change.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said as she and the others left the sitting room, along with most of the others who’d been seated there, “For your hospitality and for your aid.”

***

Fluttershy tossed and turned on the plush bed made up for her, but still she couldn’t get to sleep. In cities, this was often the case for the druidess. She was aware of all the animals around her, and while there wasn’t an absence as some ponies thought (mostly those who’d never been to a real city), there was a difference. Creatures of the field and forest were replaced by animals who’d made their homes among ponies: bats, rats, pigeons, and other creatures city-dwellers considered vermin.

Fluttershy climbed out of bed and pulled on her druidess robes. It couldn’t hurt to speak to just a few of them before going to bed. She might even learn something that would help them on their quest here, though that was a long shot.

“Hello there,” she whispered to a mouse that had crawled through a crack in her wall, and it swiftly retreated as means of reply, “Oh, no, don’t be afraid. I just want to talk to you.”

Something was off about the patter of the mouse’s paws as it fled through the wall before coming to a stop. It sounded as if it were in a much larger passageway than there should have been there. Fluttershy examined how the mouse had left and discovered that the panel of the wall slid away, the mouse having slipped through the gap where it closed. The druidess crept into the passageway, which was barely large enough for her to crawl along, and spotted the mouse’s eyes in the dark.

“I won’t hurt you. Come back,” Fluttershy said as the mouse sped away.

She followed the rodent, listening to the sound of its feet to know where she was to turn in the passageway. It branched several times, and she began to worry that she wouldn’t be able to find her way back to her room when this was over. Well, she could always ask the mouse the way once she caught up to it.

As she crawled along, voices caught her ear—pony voices. There was light up ahead, coming through a small hole in the wall to her right. She couldn’t hear the mouse anymore, so she stopped at the hole and peered out to see where she was. It wasn’t a room that she’d yet seen in Countess Arethea’s manor, but the countess was there, along with a pegasus stallion who’d earlier identified himself as a duke, and a merchant mare Fluttershy couldn’t recall the name of.

“It is best this way,” the countess was saying as Fluttershy started listening in, “Gavron may desire the throne more than anything, but he would never do anything to seize it without just cause. No, he must never know, or it could undo everything.”

“And the Brave Companions? They are a complication,” the stallion said.

“Fitting scapegoats,” Arethea replied, “There may be better options, but they will do.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” the mare asked, “Ponies may get the idea that Cant’r Laht was behind this, which doesn’t suit us at all.”

“Ponies will get the ideas that we put in their heads,” Arethea scoffed, “And we will make sure they come to the conclusion that Manehattan was behind this. Robar will never assume the Crown of Fillidelfiyaa, not after it’s revealed that his father was behind the assassination of King Alhert.”

Fluttershy gasped involuntarily before clapping her hooves over her mouth. King Alhert assassinated? And it sounded like these ponies were planning it. That was … that was … treason! Not to mention regicide. She had to tell somepony. She had to tell Twilight. First, though, she had to get out of these cramped passageways.

“What was that?” Countess Arethea said in alarm as Fluttershy began to back away, “Quickly, get that open!”

The panel with the peephole slid away, and the non-noble mare stuck her head into the tunnel.

“It’s the druidess!” she exclaimed.

“Stop her!” Arethea commanded, and the merchant reluctantly crawled into the passage.

Fluttershy shuffled away as quickly as she could to get away. It helped that the merchant was concerned about her fine clothes whereas Fluttershy’s druidess robes were of no importance to her. Also, she’d spent more than a little time in animal burrows, and this tunnel was more spacious than many of them. Soon, the merchant was out of sight, but she wasn’t the only danger. Arethea had called upon servants and co-conspirators to chase her down, and whenever she thought she might be safe, the sound of somepony else in the passages forced her to flee again.

She wasn’t sure exactly where she was in the manor, but she was trying to get back to her room. Instead, she found the end of the passage, a door latched from within that led out into the night. As somepony spotted her, she pushed it open and flew out over Countess Arethea’s estate. Guards were milling about now, and she quickly made her escape. She had to find someplace to hide, and some way to warn her friends and the king about what she had heard.

***

Four ponies and one dragon left with Countess Arethea and her entourage at first light the following morning. Rainbow Dash had left the manor while it was still dark to look for the Awakened pony on her own, to shorten the group’s overall search. Also, she would be searching for the missing member of their party. The Brave Companions were surprised to find Fluttershy gone when they awakened, Countess Arethea claiming she had left the night before and hadn’t given a reason. There was a chance she had gone to see the local druids’ circle, but Twilight found that unlikely, especially that she would go without telling them and while they had important business to do.

Fluttershy had tried to return to the manor, but Arethea and her co-conspirators had their servants searching the city for her as well, including those of the pegasus duke she’d seen with the countess the night before. Any advantage she’d have being airborne was nullified by the presence of fellow pegasi hunting her. She hadn’t been caught or spotted, but in avoiding the search for her, she had been kept away from the manor and from her friends.

The remaining Brave Companions had no idea they were walking into a trap as they entered the Sea Keep. Their hosts hadn’t been lying about King Alhert barring anypony from entering his presence, and they had had to pull quite a few strings to get them in. Still, it wasn’t through the main gates that they entered, but the servants’ door. Either way, it got them to the throne room and to Alhert.

The Sea Keep’s throne room was darker than when Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had been here. The high windows were shuttered, letting in no light, and the smoke from the few lit braziers filled the room. There were no squabbling nobles here now, just Alhert, slumped in his wooden throne without even a single guard in sight.

“Your Majesty, the Brave Companions,” a page announced upon their entrance before swiftly retreating from the room.

They were alone with the king now, Countess Arethea and her companions staying behind. Apparently, with all their string-pulling to get the Brave Companions in, the king had agreed to speak only to them. Yet, Alhert said nothing. Twilight Sparkle approached the throne and stopped as he raised his head to gaze at her with hooded eyes.

“It is … you!” the sorceress exclaimed upon spotting the distinctive crimson irises and yellowed sclera marking him as possessed by Discord, “Hold him!”

The others cautiously approached King Alhert, but he made no moves to stop them as they held him against the throne, everypony’s Elements of Harmony close. Spike handed Twilight a gem he’d carried here, and she prepared to extract the soul fragment from the king.

“Stop them!” Countess Arethea commanded as she burst into the throne room with several guards, “They’re going to kill the king!”

“No, we are not, we-” Twilight said, but was cut off as a guard knocked her to the ground.

She considered spells that would knock the guards back without harming them (severely), but it was too late for that. One of them clamped a dimeritium collar around her neck, and her ability to work magic was suddenly cut off. She tried to get up but was knocked down in the confusion as guards swarmed around, gathering up her friends, who tried to struggle free. Alhert sat in the midst of it all, unconcerned about what was going on around him, gloom exuding from him. Yet, a twinkle seemed to come to his Discord-like eyes, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward sporadically.

***

“What are we goin’ t’ do?” Applejack asked later as she paced the cell the Brave Companions had been thrown into.

Twilight contemplated their situation—there was not much else she could do with the collar around her neck. Perhaps they should have let somepony else know that King Alhert was the one possessed before attempting to free him, but with the previous possessed ponies, time had been of the essence. They’d all fought back, though, so maybe such haste was unnecessary. The Brave Companions had tried to explain as they were hauled away, but Countess Arethea had denied their claims of Discord and tried to portray them as an excuse only. She hadn’t seemed that way the night before.

There was something suspicious about all of this. Of course, it must have looked bad to see three ponies and a dragon holding the king down while a sorceress prepared to cast a spell on him, but there was more to it than that. Countess Arethea had believed their story, so why change her mind so suddenly? It even made the countess’s own account make more sense.

Dourness. That had to be the anti-Element that this soul fragment was aspected to. It explained how Alhert’s gloom had spread so thoroughly throughout the kingdom and had the effect on ponies that it did. She had tried to explain this on their way to the dungeons, but nopony seemed to want to listen. Some plot was afoot, but was it against the Brave Companions or something else, and had it been sprung yet?

“I never thought we’d end up in a dungeon,” Rarity moaned in a corner.

“There must be a way out of this,” Twilight said to try to assure the others, but she could use some assurance herself.

“Psst,” came from the cell’s single barred window.

“Ooh, maybe a snake has come to save us,” Pinkamena said as she bounded over to the window, jumping on Applejack’s back to reach it.

“Not a snake, it’s me, Fluttershy,” the druidess whispered through the bars, “Get away from the wall.”

“What? Why? I thought this was a rescue,” Pinkamena said, but Fluttershy had already fluttered away and wouldn’t be answering her questions.

“I think we better do what she says,” Applejack said as she brought Pinkamena away from the wall and helped Rarity up as well.

An explosion suddenly rocked the cell as the wall was blown away. Guards rushed in from the adjoining room to assist the stunned guard already there in stopping the jailbreak, but they didn’t get far. Darts streaked in through the swirling dust filling the new, larger window and past the bars to strike each guard. They fell limp to the floor instantly as they were struck. As the dust settled, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew through the hole in the wall.

“Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! You saved us!” Rarity exclaimed thankfully, “How did you know we needed saving?”

“I found Fluttershy, and she told me everything,” Rainbow said, “Also, word is all over the city how you tried to assassinate the king and how ponies should be on the lookout for the two of us.”

“Countess Arethea and some of the others are planning to kill the king and blame it on us!” Fluttershy blurted out, “I heard them talking about it last night, but I had to flee to keep them from catching me.”

“If they succeed in their plot, you all might have been beheaded, and we couldn’t allow that.”

“I can’t believe they’d lie t’ our faces like that,” Applejack said in disgust, “We’d better get out o’ here. Surely somepony else heard or saw that explosion, so we’d better leave.”

“I need this collar off before we go anywhere,” Twilight Sparkle said, and Spike waddled over to breathe fire on the cell’s lock, to get to the keys on the belt of one of the guards, “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, it is not just a plot to kill the king that we need to worry about. Alhert is the pony possessed by Discord. We need the find the Elements of Harmony—Pinkamena’s in particular—and go after him.”

“And here I thought we could lay low in the city and search for the that soul fragment,” Rainbow Dash said, “No, of course we have to go after the pony you’re accused of trying to kill.”

If Twilight hadn’t had the dimeritium collar around her neck, she would have felt a huge burst of chaos magic at that moment. As it was, it was fairly obvious that something was changing. The bars of the Brave Companions’ cell suddenly turned to water and splashed to the floor, causing Spike to stumbled back in surprise as the lock before him turned to steam. Screams came from elsewhere in the Sea Keep, and the Brave Companions rushed to the hole in the wall to see what was going on.

The shuttered windows of the castle’s throne room were now open, and thick black fog was boiling out of them. Above the Sea Keep, the fog condensed into the form of a wingless dragon, glowing yellow eyes appearing in its face. More screams came from the city as the figure turned its gaze on the tangled rows of wooden buildings. It opened its maw and belched more fog into the town, sending tendrils winding down the streets before turning toward the dungeon tower.

“Get this collar off of me!” Twilight Sparkle yelled as the dragon opened its maw and lightning crackled at the back of its throat.

Spike hurried over with the keys and frantically tried to find the right one.

“Everypony get close!” Twilight yelled as the collar snapped off and the Brave Companions huddled together, “Nana falan otha Ye’i!^[1]”

A magical shield sprang up around the group as the fog-dragon’s lightning flew from its mouth and crackled all around, shattering stone and igniting wood. The remainder of the tower above them broke away and slid off to crash outside the castle’s walls. Chunks of stone, beams of wood, and the bodies of other prisoners crashed against the shield, yet it held firm as Twilight poured all of her energy into it. As the barrage of electricity ended, the floor fell through, landing the ponies and baby dragon on the next level down. Twilight waited to release her shield until the debris stopped raining down.

“Now what?” Pinkamena asked as Rainbow Dash peered through a wide crack in the wall to make sure the dragon wasn’t preparing to attack again.

“The Elements of Harmony are in this rubble heap somewhere,” Twilight said as she steadied herself, “Once we find them, we are going after Alhert. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, can you keep the dragon occupied?”

“I’m on it,” the Hunter vowed while Fluttershy meeped, but meekly nodded that she’d do what she could.

“The rest of us will make our way through the castle, find Alhert, and remove the soul fragment,” Twilight said. Being cut off from magic for several hours coupled with the spell she’d just cast had drained her magical reserves significantly. She hoped that when the time came, she’d be able to extract Discord’s soul from the king.

Pinkamena was the one to find the Elements of Harmony, locked in a chest with the rest of their possessions. After Spike unlocked it with the keys he’d held onto, the Brave Companions parted ways once again. The pegasi took to the skies and tried to draw the attention of the fog-dragon, whose attention at the moment was fixated on the ships wintering in Fillidelfiyaa’s harbor. The Elements of Harmony they were carrying brought it around, though, and a roar shook the city.

Meanwhile, the other five were hurrying through the Sea Keep, following Applejack, although she didn’t know the way better than any of the others. The difference was that she’d picked up a spear somewhere and was prepared to defend the group if need be. Usually, Twilight’s magic would be more suitable, but the farmer recognized how drained the sorceress was even if she tried not to show it, and she knew what had to be done. Fortunately, most of the guards they passed were more concerned with either fleeing for their lives or trying to get to Alhert and save him from the beast over his throne room than fighting them.

Guards were crowded around the doors to the throne room, which by the looks of things had turned to basalt and where too heavy to open. Some of them called out that the ponies who’d tried to kill the king were here and that the sorceress had to be to blame, but Twilight ignored them. As they charged with swords and spears and axes, she teleported the four ponies and her page into the throne room.

The chaos magic was thick here, as expected, and they emerged in the air, several paces above the floor. The opened windows let in some light, where the fog-dragon didn’t obscure the sun, but the darkness here was still ominous. It clung to the walls and seemed to move on its own, tendrils reaching into the light only to draw back and reconsider. King Alhert was still seated in his throne, looking much the same as this morning. Once the Brave Companions picked themselves off the floor, they approached him.

He made no move until they tried to hold him down. Then, the king began to sink into his wooden throne, whose planks writhed like supple branches. The throne put down roots and cracked the floor of the throne room. Branches rose up from the ground and grabbed the ponies and dragon, trying to pull them away from the king. As the darkness parted, they spotted Countess Arethea and her co-conspirators pinned to the walls and impaled with branches and their own blades. So, the shard of Discord’s soul hadn’t liked the attempted assassination of its host.

“Give it up,” King Alhert said ponderously, “There is no point in continuing to fight.”

“There always is,” Twilight said defiantly as the branches constricted around her, “Pinkamena!”

“Okily-dokily,” the bard said, before grabbing her amulet with her teeth.

After spinning it around a couple times, she tossed it, and it fell around King Alhert’s head, the string catching on his crown. As the Element of Mirth touched his face, the old king groaned painfully, and the branches turned to silk thread. The room shook as the fog-dragon above stumbled. Dark tendrils radiated from a wall as the fog-dragon tried to claw its way in to save Alhert.

The Brave Companions (and Spike) extricated themselves from the threads and hurried back to the throne. Alhert was sinking deeper in, and they all grabbed hold of him as best they could. Twilight prepared the gem to store the soul fragment and prepared to cast the spell.

“Elf ikrin tur rei siss, hy Ye broci noya!^[2]” she chanted, and the soul began to transfer from Alhert into the crystal.

As Discord’s soul was drawn out of the king, the chaos magic began to pull free. The throne released Alhert and returned to just a very plain throne. The fog-dragon above thrashed around and breathed lightning, setting fire to Fillidelfiyaa not for the first time, but the creature eventually dissolved into a shower of daisies. The gloom lifted from the kingdom, though Alhert, when he awoke, would still be depressed by the future of his lands. It would not be a supernatural dourness that consumed him and his subjects, at least. Lastly, the doors to the throne room returned to normal, and the guards outside crashed through. They stopped as the last of Discord’s soul flowed into the crystal and Twilight and Alhert both slumped down.

“I know this looks odd, but we can explain, honest,” Pinkamena said, flashing what she hoped was a winning smile.

Comments

[Snowdrifter]

Fluttershy tossed and turned on the plush bed made up for her, but still she couldn’t get to sleep. In cities, this was often the case for the druidess. She was aware of all the animals around her, and while there wasn’t an absence as some ponies thought (mostly those who’d never been to a real city), there was a difference. Creatures of the field and forest were replaced by animals who’d made their homes among ponies: bats, rats, pigeons, and other creatures city-dwellers considered vermin. She was aware of all the animals around her, and while there wasn’t an absence as some ponies (mostly those who’d never been to a real city) though, there was a difference. Creatures of the field and forest were replaced by animals who’d made their homes among ponies: bats, rats, pigeons, and other creatures city-dwellers considered vermin.

This paragraph has been brought to you by the Can'tr Laught Ministry of Redundancy Ministry.