Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 4:4.1 - The Reappeared Past

Author's Note:

Translations

Chapter 4:4.1 – The Reappeared Past

“Well, at least I know she’s safe,” King Brama’an said, “Although, I wish she’d told me herself. I don’t know why I keep that scribe around.”

The Brave Companions, fresh off their adventure with Daring Do, had done as she’d asked and returned to King Brama’an with word that his scribe was alive but would be absent from court for some time—or rather, that such would be the case for her alter ego, A.K. Yearling. The king’s court within his pyramidal palace was much fuller than when the Brave Companions had been here before; understandable, since they’d first arrived unannounced. Even so, only a day had passed and already the court was replete with important ponies, gryphons, zebras, felii, and satyrs from both Teoxecala and beyond. The king had wasted no time in sending out messages bragging that the Brave Companions had come to visit his kingdom, and his neighbors had answered by sending their own representatives to see the ponies of legend. One felis shifted nervously back and forth on his padded paws during the audience, eyes fixed upon the Brave Companions with an intensity not found in the other attendees.

“I am glad you returned to tell me this,” the king said, “As is the delegate from Queen Arbetes, it seems.”

King Brama’an motioned to the nervous felis, who looked up at the king and nodded.

“Well, it is good that the queen and I have such fine relations,” Brama’an said somewhat threateningly. “Please, conduct whatever business you require.”

The court was released to do whatever they desired, but most remained in the throne room, talking amongst themselves. Some left down side passages, toward private rooms and refreshments. However, the felis that had been watching the Brave Companions approached them with a touch of hesitance. His coat was red like the bricks of Manehattan, with brown stripes running along it, though most of his fur was covered by a loose tunic draped over one shoulder. The tunic was of a simple, dull fabric, but the crescent-shaped golden plate that hung around his neck and stretched from shoulder to shoulder was anything but, studded with jewels and covered in elaborate engravings.

“Oh great Brave Companions, will you come with this one to discuss this one’s mistress’s request?” the felis asked as he bent at the waist until his torso was parallel with the floor.

“Of course,” Twilight Sparkle said, and the felis straightened. “What is your name?”

“This one is called Leyam,” Leyam responded as he led the group toward one of the throne room’s outward passages.

The Brave Companions followed Leyam to a modest room with various colored masks covering the walls. Plush divans and cushions waited for the ponies, dragonling, and felis to sit upon, and there was chilled mango wine available to sip while discussing business. The Brave Companions and Spike took seats, while Ream and Baldavin stood guard at the doorless doorway. Leyam also remained standing, interweaving and unweaving his fingers as he waited for the Brave Companions to get settled.

“Oh great Brave Companions, when this one’s mistress, Queen Arbetes of Sparz Eru—may her reign be bountiful and long—heard that the Brave Companions were at King Brama’an’s court, she sent this one to find you. This one speaks Bruandish and some Low Equestrian, so this one was chosen, you see,” Leyam said. “This one’s mistress seeks your help in a matter of great importance. For over a year now, we have been plagued by a sorceress’s tower that appeared mysteriously in Penum, the seat of this one’s mistress. The felii of Penum are assaulted daily by gargoyles from this dark tower, and no matter how many are felled by Hunters, they return the following day. No sorceress has been able to enter the tower and live, but this one’s mistress believes an alicorn may succeed where others have failed. Will you accompany this one to Penum, to speak to Queen Arbetes of Sparz Eru—may her reign be bountiful and long—and to save us from this plague?”

“Well, if I rightly followed ‘this one’s’ explanation, I don’t see how we can refuse,” Applejack said.

“I agree,” Rainbow Dash added. “If Hunters and sorceresses can’t take care of this, maybe they really do need the Brave Companions.”

“Yes,” Twilight Sparkle said, “It sounds like the felii of Sparz Eru are in serious trouble. I think Countess Sundown can wait a little bit longer to regain her knowledge of how to speak Bruandish.”

***

The Brave Companions wasted no time in setting off for Penum with Leyam, but they couldn’t go to the city immediately. Ever since the tower had appeared, Leyam shared, sorceresses had complained of an inability to teleport within Penum; the same was true when it came to opening portals, which intrigued Twilight to no end. The city was only a half-day’s journey away, but the Brave Companions were not equipped for a long journey through the sweltering jungles of southern Stygra. Fortunately, King Brama’an was generous enough (and grateful for the prestige granted by their appearance at his court) to provide them with more appropriate attire that would still fulfill Equestrian modesty. After spending the night in Teoxecala, they set out before dawn, in the cool of the morning, for Sparz Eru.

While Brama’an’s kingdom was predominantly pegasi with large minorities of gryphons and earth ponies, in the patchwork nature of Stygra, Queen Arbetes’s neighboring kingdom was felisne. The cat-people were in charge here, a fact abundantly clear as the Brave Companions entered through a side door off a main gate that was proportioned for taller creatures. Many buildings along the street they exited onto had upper floors reachable only by ladders with rungs that were too narrow and curved to work well for pony hooves but would be ideal for creatures with fingers[. Statues of felii in suits of harsh-edged armor were tucked between the buildings wherever space allowed.

“Where is everybody?” Pinkamena wondered aloud as they trotted down the empty street.

“They are hiding from the gargoyles,” Leyam said at a whisper. “It is near to the time they usually come to life, and nobody wishes to be caught outside.”

Ream, Baldavin, and Rainbow Dash stayed alert as they trotted through the silent town, the only discernable sound being horseshoes ringing off cobblestones. The buildings of Penum were closely packed, making it difficult to view the city’s scope or many features beyond what was immediately visible, especially when Leyam kept leading them down hidden passages and alleys in order to reach the royal palace while also avoiding the cursed tower.

As they emerged into a market square where the fabric covers of abandoned stalls flapped in the slight, hot wind, another sound broke the tense silence. The frantic pattering of paws against stone revealed a felis in similar attire to Leyam running between the stalls, a clay amphora sloshing with water held tightly to his chest.

“I thought you said nobody would be outside,” Rarity mentioned to Leyam, who was urging them with a forepaw to continue following him, his posture suddenly more hunched and stealthy.

“That one is a slave whose master or mistress neglected to send him out for water earlier,” Leyam disclosed in a whisper.

“A slave?” Fluttershy asked in surprise.

An ear-piercing shriek sounded from above, and Leyam instinctively hunched even lower. The slave’s eyes widened, and he put on a desperate burst of speed. Suddenly, a hideous gargoyle plunged down from the sky and grabbed him. The amphora fell and shattered as the monster rose into the sky, the felis kicking and screaming until his neck was snapped. The gargoyle dropped his prize, and the felis crashed into a market stand, the fabric draped over the top caving and wrapping him up by the time the broken body struck the ground. The necklace that had been around his neck soon followed, a broad iron crescent with simple engravings.

“Come, hurry!” Leyam said desperately. “We cannot linger! The palace is not far!”

Reluctantly, the Brave Companions heeded Leyam’s urging and left the felis’s body while the gargoyle winged away over the rooftops. The palace’s entrance dominated the eastern end of the market square, a long set of shallow stairs ascending to the grand doorway. Along the ascent was a progression of felisne statues holding spears regally. Many of the statues had lost their heads, long furrows from gargoyle claws gouged in the stone. There were no guards posted at the grand doorway, but Leyam led them through another side entrance. Through that door were several nervous felii, wielding fresh-forged gisarmes, who nearly attacked the group as they rushed in. Leyam conversed with them rapidly in a felisne tongue none of the Brave Companions could understand, and they were allowed to pass.

“Come, this way,” Leyam said to the Brave Companions. “My mistress will be awaiting us.”

“Leyam, are you a slave?” Rarity asked as they trotted into the grand entryway; it would usually be open to the market were it not for the gargoyle attacks.

“Yes, this one belongs to Queen Arbetes of Sparz Eru—may her reign be bountiful and long,” Leyam replied matter-of-factly.

“That must be awful,” Fluttershy said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Do not be. It is a great honor to serve her majesty. This one is fortunate,” Leyam replied. He then stopped to consider that these foreigners would not understand how things were done in Sparz Eru, having come from a place that had eradicated slavery in any form long ago. “While all would prefer freedom, this one’s father failed to fulfill his debts, and so this one must atone for his sin through service. This one’s children, if this one were to have any, will be free of debt and free to do as they wish. This one’s slavery shall not pass to them.”

While the system sounded fair on the surface and a way to completely repay debt, Twilight knew from her studies that such systems were innately flawed, tending to keep families in slavery—even if only every other generation. Slaves’ children often ended up getting into debt as their grandparents had, whether maliciously or accidentally, condemning their children to servitude all over again. It was a cycle with no hope of breaking free, since it was in society’s interest to keep slaves around and to continuously create new slaves by forcing its free members into debt. However, this wasn’t something she could bring up to Leyam as they were approaching Queen Arbetes’s throne.

Queen Arbetes was a felis with light gray fur, with concentric rings of white, then black, around her eyes, causing the bright blue orbs to appear sunken and luminescent in her face. Her face’s fur was drawn out in tufts that made it appear wider than it truly was, and her whiskers were excessively long and painstakingly straightened. She wore no crown upon her head in the Equestrian sense, though a crescent-shaped golden plate studded with jewels hung on her forehead, suspended by string colored in colorful beads. Another strand of beads and jewels hung down from the bottom of the plate along her nose, ending in a sizeable sphere of amber. How she didn’t go cross-eyed from looking at it was a mystery. Her attire matched that of the statues lined up outside the palace, loose-fitting robes of fine orange silk draped over her body in an elaborate pattern of folding, wrapping, and tucking that must have taken considerable skill and time. A spear sat across her knees that looked to serve a purely ceremonial purpose, as the diamond-studded, golden, blunted tip would be no good in a fight.

“Hekí Tekkiteriko’un, metik g’deka tlega’ek dera melegelek tegeriga ezeme akerege^[1],” Queen Arbetes said as she looked down at the Brave Companions from atop her golden throne.

“Brave Companions, Queen Arbetes of Sparz Eru—may her reign be bountiful and long—thanks you for coming at her request,” Leyam translated as he scurried forward to stand and face the ponies.

“When we heard of your problem, we could not help but come,” Twilight Sparkle replied, and Leyam translated for the queen.

“You will take care of the alicorn, tower, then?” Queen Arbetes said in Feltlaka and Leyam translated. “What would you ask in return?”

“Can we get paid for this?” Rainbow Dash asked the group.

“Well, we are here on our own, not at the behest of Celestia. I do not see why not, though we have never asked payment for our services before. If we did, it might change the perception of the Brave Companions,” Twilight Sparkle said thoughtfully. “If it pleases your majesty, may we decide our payment after we have dealt with the … alicorn tower and know what it is we have faced?”

Arbetes nodded as Leyam translated and tapped her fingers on the shaft of her ornamental staff.

“That is acceptable to me,” the queen said. “Once you have accomplished your task, return here and we shall discuss your payment.”

“So, where is this mysterious tower?” Applejack asked.

The queen said something to Leyam in Feltlaka, and her slave nodded.

“The tower is beyond the market square, in the Plaza of Queens,” Leyam told the Brave Companions. “Come, this one shall take you there.”

Leyam led them back through the unusually dark and stuffy palace. All the windows had been covered to prevent gargoyles from entering and an excessive amount of torches had been lit to make up for the loss of natural light, resulting in a perpetual cloud of smoke hovering at the ceiling. They exited through the same door they’d entered by and descended the stairs to the market square. They kept to the walls this time, watching the sky for descending gargoyles, but none showed themselves. As Leyam led them through the square, he snatched up the fallen slave’s necklace without a pause and examined its engraving briefly before tucking it away in the pouch slung over his shoulder.

Past the market square was a street that had been closed off above as successive layers of homes had eventually joined together into an arch. At the end of the street, they emerged into a wide plaza filled with mostly defunct fountains and more statues like those in front of the palace. In the center of the plaza, surrounded by shattered statuary, was the tower that had caused Penum to grind to a halt. Twilight Sparkle gasped when she saw it, for it was familiar to her. Over a year ago, she’d spent a long time staring balefully at this tower. At that time, it had been located in the Principality of Stalliongrad, within the walls of Castle Garland. This was Yliiena’s Tower, absurdly out of place here with its gray northern Equestrian stone, teetering on the brink of collapse yet standing unmoved. When Castle Garland had been destroyed by chaos magic, Twilight had assumed the tower had finally fallen; instead, it apparently teleported itself here and started causing havoc. Twilight could sense waves of magic exuding from the tower, though they felt somehow broken or twisted.

“This is as far as this one goes,” Leyam told them, staying to the cover of the street. “This one has other business but will return and will report to this one’s mistress if it seems to this one that the curse is lifted from the tower.”

“Thank you, Leyam,” Rarity said and gave a slight bow to the slave, which seemed to shock him.

“Good luck to you,” Leyam said. “This one must be going.”

As Leyam departed, the Brave Companions approached the tower. Screeches from a gargoyle could be heard distantly but none seemed nearby, and those still perched on the tower (many missing large portions of their body) seemed inert. It became apparent as they got nearer why the queen must have considered an alicorn’s magic necessary to vanquish the tower. Twilight Sparkle had never gotten a chance during the Siege of Castle Garland to see Yliiena’s Tower up close, but now she could see that the base featured a weathered pattern of alicorns ascending in a spiral. When there had still been a wooden staircase wrapped around the outside to reach the door above, they would've appeared to be climbing it. The original staircase must have rotted away long ago and the most recent one destroyed by the teleportation of the tower, but getting up to the door (again flanked by alicorns) would be no problem for the Brave Companions.

Twilight was reluctant to use her magic here when she wasn’t certain what effect it might cause, so she flew up to the door instead, only once faltering in her flight. The door was unlocked and creaked open as she pushed a hoof against it, revealing a room flooded with darkness. The other winged members of their party flew up while carrying others. While they were still moving everybody from the ground to the tower entrance, unearthly cries sounded nearby.

“Hurry!” Twilight called as Rainbow Dash grabbed Ream and Spike scrambled onto Fluttershy’s back.

The two of them reached the door as gargoyles flew over the plaza toward the tower, and Twilight slammed the door shut behind them. They stood tensely for a minute arrayed around the door, but the gargoyles didn’t attempt to break in and instead flew off in search of other prey. Apparently, protecting the tower didn’t involve attacking intruders once they were inside. Yliiena probably had something else prepared for that. It was clear to Twilight now that she was among the spell matrix that permeated the tower—that Yliiena the First’s complex web of magic she’d laid over her home over six thousand years earlier was deteriorating, to disastrous effect. Teleporting from Castle Garland all the way to the middle of Stygra had been the final straw that had broken the ancient alicorn’s enchantments. If they were going to end the gargoyles’ repeated terrorizing of the Penumians, then Twilight was going to need to dismantle what Yliiena had built so long ago.

Around them, reality seemed to flicker back and forth between what the tower had become as part of Castle Garland and what it had been in Yliiena’s time. Barrels holding spare weapons gave way to ornate cabinets. A banner from Vasil’s rebellion traded places with tapestries featuring Yliiena. The only thing that stayed constant through the shift were the mummified bodies on the floor, mostly felisne. There were some who had entered the tower and never gotten farther than this room. Twilight felt the spell matrix strain as it struggled to keep two opposing realities in place within the same space. All at once, it snapped, and everything resolved to how Yliiena had left her tower.

“Um . . . could you please get down?” Fluttershy asked Spike.

“Oh, sorry,” he said as he sheepishly dismounted Fluttershy.

He would never admit it, but he missed riding upon Twilight’s back. Both because of her new wings and his own growth, he was no longer allowed to occupy the place he once had, easily taking notes for Twilight as she handled the locomotion. Now he stood nearly eye-to-eye with most adult ponies and was too heavy for most to carry him comfortably. If only he had his own wings to help carry him around—though from watching Twilight get accustomed to hers, he had the feeling he wouldn’t be able to fly immediately.

“What now, Your Highness?” Ream asked.

“Well, it appears that Yliiena the First’s protective spell matrix is disintegrating.” Twilight explained what she’d only been analyzing in her own head up to this point. “It must have brought the gargoyles back to life and be maintaining them. That is the least of our worries, though. If the spell matrix collapses, it could wipe out most of Penum.”

“What are we goin’ t’ do?” Applejack asked.

“I am going to collapse the spell matrix,” Twilight Sparkle announced, to shocked reactions. “Carefully and in a controlled manner, it should merely fold in on itself and dispel rather than erupting explosively. I can sense several key nodes above us that I will need to dismantle.”

“Well, up it is, I suppose,” Rarity said.

Pinkamena bounded ahead up the stairs, holding one of the cold-flame torches that had appeared on the walls as the tower shifted back to how Yliiena had left it, and the others followed. The struggling spell matrix made a hum that was audible to all, not just Twilight, serving as a constant companion as they ascended. They passed by and through several floors furnished by the first alicorn, for both living and study. Twilight longed to pore through the scattered books, but there was no time for that; perhaps later, if they remained after the spell matrix was destroyed. Twilight warned the group when they were about to enter the floor where she sensed the nearest node, and Baldavin cautiously advanced first, sword drawn. A quick double-tap of a hindhoof near the stairway let them know it was safe to follow.

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect this,” Baldavin expressed as they joined him.

“Oh my, that is a lot of red,” Fluttershy said.

When Twilight Sparkle entered the room, she saw what they were talking about. This entire floor had been converted into a chapel, with stained-glass windows ringing the walls. Between some of them were bookshelves, but the remainder of the walls were covered in banners of the Inquisition. The banners were blood-red and featured the “I” character with an eye atop it and three thin crossbars representing Faust’s wings. Yliiena the First had lived during the Age of Uncertainty, a chaotic time following the Conjunction. With the appearance of sorcery, the Church of One, like many things, had been left divided and in disarray. There was disagreement whether they should view sorcery as a gift of Faust or a dark power gained from communion with Ruthus and his Sundered. A schism rent the Church and threatened to tear it apart completely, so the Pontiff formed the Inquisition to investigate sorcery and determine the appropriate response to it. Inquisitors of both persuasions roved Equus with a free hoof, often abusing their power to persecute fledgling sorceresses; in the end, the consensus was that sorcery was good, not evil. As the story went, it was Yliiena the First’s actions that had finally forced a determination, so perhaps that was why she had so many accoutrements of the Inquisition here.

The Brave Companions looked around the room, unsure what to do, as Twilight paced to a vestibule, grabbing a book off a shelf and idly flipping through it. It was written in Old Equestrian, as she’d expected, so she could only recognize one word in thirty from half-remembered scholarly research on truly ancient texts. This language was closer to the Language of the Horns than modern High or Low Equestrian, and it was what Yliiena would have spoken in her day and age. There was one word Twilight did recognize, repeated over and over: alhikon, Old Equestrian for alicorn. There were also familiar diagrams sketched in the tome, detailing how to undergo alicornification, but they were not quite the same as those in the book Celestia had given her prior to her alicornification. It must have been part of Yliiena’s study of how to undergo the process she’d pioneered and every sorceress since then had tried to mimic. How had she come up with such a mad idea to transform one’s body and gain immense magical potential?

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the book at the stained-glass windows in the alcove; impossibly, direct light shone through all of them. Each window featured Hea and Eoi, the mythical original ponies the Church of One claimed to be the progenitors of all intelligent life. Together the four windows told the story as the mare and stallion were created, rejoiced in Paradise, were deceived by Ruthus into releasing his Discordant Hymn, and were finally expelled from Paradise. Prior to the Crusade for Equestria, the pair had usually been depicted as unicorns, but in attempt to convert the pegasi the unicorns had conquered, the Church had taken to depicting them as a conglomeration of races. Faust was depicted as a six-winged alicorn and her Holy Chargers as four-winged alicorns, so they had chosen to make Hea and Eoi two-winged alicorns. They didn’t look entirely like the alicorns Twilight knew, with cloven hooves and scales upon their backs, but it was clear that this was where Yliiena had gotten her inspiration for alicornification. She had been attempting to restore ponykind to a more ancient, more complete form, and what shocked Twilight most was that somehow, in some way, it had worked.

“Twilight, come look at this,” Rainbow Dash called, and Twilight turned away from the vestibule, closing her book.

At the other end of the room was a wooden ponnequin wearing an Inquisitor’s attire: blood-red robes and a wide-brimmed hat. Rainbow Dash had been examining it but was now looking at a portrait hanging on the wall nearby. The painting depicted several mares and stallions in Inquisitorial robes, though one in the group caught Twilight’s attention: a unicorn mare with a blue coat and golden mane. It was, without a doubt, Yliiena. Nopony ever thought of Yliiena the First as religious, but this room proved that not only had she been a believer in the Church of One but also a member of the Inquisition, at least before she had become an alicorn. Twilight suspected that her role in causing the Inquisition to rule favorably on sorcery had been rather greater than anypony guessed.

“Stand back, everypony,” Twilight warned as she stared down Yliiena’s set of Inquisitorial robes.

While she could easily spend all day here perusing Yliiena’s tomes on alicornification (and rather less time on her religious texts and Inquisitorial guidebooks), Rainbow Dash had led her to the node on this floor. The local nexus of the spell matrix’s power was within the ponnequin. Twilight didn’t know what to expect as she reached out with her magic to dismantle the node. There were more mummified corpses here from sorceresses that had tried and failed to do the same thing, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The spell had been created by the first alicorn at the height of her power, and the node was incredibly strong. The pushback from it would’ve certainly destroyed Twilight Sparkle had she not been an alicorn, but with her newfound power, she began to collapse the spell matrix—slowly, carefully, compressing it so that it would burn itself out.

“Twilight!” Pinkamena cried in alarm, and Twilight opened her eyes.

The ponnequin no longer stood in front of her, but rather a hulking monstrosity, a golem formed from candelabras, Inquisitorial banners, and stained glass wrapped around the ponnequin. It bellowed, shards of glass tinkling, as it faced down Twilight. As Twilight had suspected, the gargoyles weren’t the only defenders Yliiena had left in her tower. The alicorn used her wings to dodge out of the way as the stained-glass golem attempted to crush her. Rainbow Dash, Ream, and Baldavin rushed in with their swords, attempting to help Twilight slay the awoken creature. Blades shattered glass but glanced off the candelabras, and the golem swung back at them. Ream and Baldavin were saved only by Twilight using her sorcery to push them away. Rainbow Dash hacked at the golem from above, but it ignited its candles to send gouts of flame shooting at the ceiling, forcing Rainbow to return to the ground. Its banners blazing, the golem stalked toward Twilight.

“Noya fekoti Ye’r ilardy!^[2]” the golem somehow managed to speak, accusing Twilight of not being Yliiena.

“Twilight, move aside!” Rainbow Dash called and she complied, dodging the golem’s attack at the same time.

The Hunter hurled a bomb at the golem, and the explosion sent glass and twisted iron flying.

“Falan otha Ye!^[3]” Twilight called, putting up a shield before she was perforated.

The explosion had torn a chunk of glass from the golem, opening a hole in its surface through which Twilight could see the node she had been attacking, now visible and glowing. With melted candle wax, Twilight quickly drew a magical semicircle on the ground in front of her.

“Ye seni cavan’r affle!^[4]” she cried, and a bolt of magical energy shot out from her, passed through the gap in the golem’s armor, and struck the sorcerous node.

The glow grew blindingly bright as Twilight’s attack joined with the immensely compressed power already there. After a moment, the light faded as it collapsed in on itself and shrunk away to nothing. Stained glass, candelabras, and banners crashed, clattered, and fluttered to the ground as the golem lost its shape, leaving the ponnequin at the center of the mayhem, the Inquisitorial robes untouched.

“Well, now we know what to expect,” Twilight said as she wiped her brow. “Come on, we should keep moving up.”

Twilight Sparkle led the way as the companions passed through more floors of Yliiena’s tower, ascending until they reached the next place she sensed a node. This floor, despite being higher up, was considerably larger than the ones below. Clearly this tower contained some powerful layered compressions spells. If they released unexpectedly, the tower would spread across Penum, crashing through buildings as if they didn’t exist as the tower tried to expand to fill its true size and beyond. Yliiena had taken advantage of this space to construct an orrery imbued with sorcery. The model of Equus at the center was twice the height of Twilight and actual water clung to the surface, tides shifting in tune with the moon that swung around it. Light beamed from the sun, which also orbited the globe at the center. Farther out still were various bands containing constellations, none of them familiar to Twilight.

Yliiena’s next great achievement after becoming an alicorn had been to create a way for a single pony to control the movement of the celestial bodies which no longer moved themselves after the Conjunction. Sorceresses had already discovered how to move the sun and moon when assembled together into cabals, but Yliiena had wanted to take that burden from them for herself. So far as Twilight knew, the spells that Yliiena had created for this purpose were the same spells that Celestia and Luna now used and kept very secret. Twilight examined the books lining the shelves along the walls and confirmed her suspicions; they were on Yliiena’s research into how to move the sun and moon. Perhaps somewhere in here were grimoires containing the final spells, which would have been useful to know at the solstice. Twilight Sparkle appreciated that her mentor desired to keep some important things secret like how to move the sun, lest her rivals attempt to imitate her power and dethrone her, but it made things difficult when she was unable to perform her duties. Her search at the solstice for spells to move sun and moon had been completely unsuccessful, so meticulous had Celestia been in eradicating them, and this room might be the last place to find them outside of asking her mentor to share the secret.

However, Twilight wasn’t going to learn anything at the moment. She needed time to decipher the texts and translate them from Old Equestrian into a more modern tongue, and in order to have that time, she needed to collapse the tower’s spell matrix. She examined the matrix here until she was confident in her plan to collapse the local nexus without causing the compression spells to release and explode the tower. They would need to be released eventually, but ideally after the rest of the spell matrix had been collapsed (and Twilight had saved the ancient, irreplaceable texts within). She approached the orrery, where the node was concentrated. Ream, Baldavin, and Rainbow Dash drew their swords, ready this time for a defender to appear. Twilight Sparkle followed the same pattern as before, unraveling and compressing the node in on itself to engineer a fizzle-out.

She kept her eyes open this time and was witness to the appearance of not one, but two elemental defenders. The light of the sun was siphoned off to form a flame elemental, and the water left the globe of Equus to join the moon before coalescing into a water elemental. The two elementals were unlike the stained-glass golem below, with upright torsos and arms instead of pony shapes, but they shared its intent to destroy Twilight for the crime of awakening them without being Yliiena.

As they came at her, the sorceress teleported away and cast an ice spell on the water elemental to freeze it. Its body fell to the ground, and the sword-wielding ponies began to hack at it, shattering the ice to pieces. There wasn’t much they could do about the fire elemental, but it pursued Twilight, screeching with a hot, throaty voice. Twilight stayed one step ahead of it, teleporting, as she tried to figure out how to defeat it. She was stunned when she found herself struck by water from behind and turned to face the water elemental. It had melted and reformed, none the worse for wear after her attack.

She tried to dodge attacks from both of them as they came at her more quickly, attempting to drown or burn her depending upon the composition of their bodies. As they pursued, she began to anticipate their reactions and used it to her advantage, positioning them by teleporting around the room. At last, she teleported to stand atop the globe of Equus, nearly slipping upon the north pole. Both elementals charged her instinctively, and she teleported away at the very last instant. The elementals collided and vanished in a puff of steam, extinguishing each other. As they did so, the node within the globe of Equus began to fold in on itself, fizzling out to nothing in a matter of seconds, just like the elementals Yliiena had created to protect it.

“How many more of these are there?” Rarity asked as Twilight examined the detail on the globe of Equus, including the ocean floor—visible now that the water had been removed.

“That should be half of them,” Twilight Sparkle announced as she made to lead them higher in the tower. “I can sense four nodes, and then a final lynchpin.”

“What kind of lynchpin?” Pinkamena asked.

“It is at the top of the tower and holds the whole spell matrix together,” Twilight explained as she climbed. “I need to collapse all these other major nodes first; otherwise, the consequences could be disastrous.”

The Brave Companions continued up the tower, with Twilight at the lead. The tower was littered with Yliiena’s possessions, left here for over six thousand years, and while Twilight wished to take the time to examine each and every one of them, they had to keep moving. Up they went until they arrived at the floor with the next node. Unlike the locations of the previous nodes, this floor was not devoted simply to one purpose, but divided into multiple rooms. The Brave Companions investigated them as Twilight made her way to where the node was.

A study was tucked into one corner with a lectern and several bookcases. Twilight leafed through a few books, and she recognized in one the exercises that she, and most every other sorceress, had practiced when learning how to teleport. Other books contained studies on how to create portals. Sitting open on the lectern was a tome turned to a diagram of Yliiena’s tower with fields drawn around it. Twilight realized that it was a diagram of the spell that Yliiena had used to prevent other sorceresses from teleporting into her home. Examining the diagram, it appeared Yliiena had found a way to prevent instantaneous transportation into the home but had allowed it within. Twilight hadn’t considered when she was fighting the fire and water elementals that she wouldn’t be able to teleport; she’d just done it on instinct but should have realized there was something strange about it working. From Twilight’s brief studies, she had found that only an extraordinarily sorceress or large cabal could create places where teleportation and portals would not work, but they all acted as a singular field. Yliiena had managed here what Twilight knew did not exist anywhere else: a field that blocked teleportation but had a pocket in the middle where it would still be allowed.

The node was centered on the book, and Twilight focused on collapsing it while preparing to face whatever defender she also conjured in the process. As the node neared collapse, mist began to billow from the book, coalescing into an ephemeral guardian. Instead of making a move to attack her, it instead glided past her and passed through a wall. Twilight chased after it, determined to get it before it got her friends.

“There is a phantom!” she cried as she burst into the room where most of them were assembled.

The apparition made itself known by phasing through a wall and vanishing through another, but it made no move to attack. It didn’t seem aggressive, but Twilight had a hard time believing this defender was any different from the ones on the floors below. It would likely attack from behind when they weren’t looking and hide until then. Twilight divided the Brave Companions into groups, and they set off to find it. The ephemeral creature flitted about both through the current floor and above and below as they spread out. It would appear for a moment and a group would cry out for Twilight, only to have it vanish by the time she joined them. Gradually, they managed to corral it by moving through rooms and boxing it in.

“Get it, Twilight!” Spike cried as the groups all met up in the room where they’d first assembled.

The phantom tried to ascend to the next floor, but Twilight didn’t give it a chance to escape again. She went all out with her alicorn power, zapping it with so much raw magic that it burst in an instant and the explosion took out the ceiling. Twilight watched in horror as stone, furniture, and books fell through while the node within the phantom burned itself down to nothing. The tower shifted slightly but settled after a moment and remained standing; it didn’t seem to be in danger of collapsing soon.

The Brave Companions continued up the tower to find the final node. Occasionally, a gargoyle could be heard from outside now as they neared and then passed the altitude of their perches. The last node led them to a floor more familiar than the last, with a large open room apart from the stairs. Each of the previous floors with nodes had had a theme, and this one seemed no different. Here the theme was monsters and Hunters. Ancient Hunter equipment was scattered around a workshop, something Rainbow Dash flew around and examined with delight. Yliiena the First had had a close relationship with the Hunters, much closer than most sorceresses had. She had been rumored to actually go out into the field with them and kill or capture monsters herself. Some of her trophies remained in this room, stuffed and hung from the walls or suspended overhead. The bookshelves were filled with incredibly thick tomes containing the results of her dissection of many monsters.

It hadn’t just been common monsters that she and the Hunters had gone after; they had also hunted the greatest monsters of all: the Great Ones. Twilight found a tome that seemed to be a comprehensive guide to all known Great Ones, with listings on some she recognized, either through studies or in the flesh, like Tirek and Ahuizotl, as well as others she had never heard of, like the Smooze and the Glassmare. Upon one wall was a framed map of Tartarus with its many layers and defenses constructed by Yliiena to imprison the Great Ones she and the Hunters had captured for all eternity. Perhaps it could prove useful, now that the Elements of Harmony were beyond their reach, to know how to imprison Discord here if he ever changed his mind.

On the table beneath the diagram lay another project Yliiena had apparently been working on near her death. Hunter orders had existed prior to the alicorn’s life, but not in their current form. She’d had a hoof in shaping them and, it seemed, in another important aspect of them. On the table were plans for an elite order that would recruit only a few members: the Wonderbolts. Parts of Wonderbolt armor also littered the table, dyed blue and yellow, the same colors as Yliiena. If they were able to remove things from this tower when they were done, Twilight wouldn’t be the only one eager to do so.

“Okay, everypony, one last time,” Twilight Sparkle told the group as she prepared to collapse the final node.

As it compressed near to the breaking point, a final defender revealed itself. The various trophies that Yliiena had collected during her life combined to form a hulking flesh golem in the center of the room that stared down Twilight with glassy eyes.

“Relax, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said as she drew her sword. “This is my expertise.”

The Hunter, emboldened by the memorabilia of her profession all around her, charged the flesh golem. She dodged its claws as it tried to swipe at her and circled around, drawing her blade across its side. Its maul-like tail struck her and flung her back into the stuffed remains of a serpent, but she soon recovered and flew back down at the golem. It snapped at her with three sets of mouths, but she dropped a bomb down one of its open jaws, blowing that head off. She sliced through the neck of another as she circled around, decapitating it. The golem tried to pin her with a paw, but she managed to wriggle free and slice at the wrist. She flung knives from her belt at the beast, but it shrugged them off and barreled at her, knocking aside tables in the process. The Brave Companions scattered as the golem charged Rainbow Dash. Doing the unexpected, she leapt into the open mouth of its final head and drove her sword up through where its brain ought to be, were it not stuffed. It seemed to have at least some effect, as the beast became confused and struggled to stay upright, the crude spell powering it at odds with its perception of life and death. Twilight Sparkle took the opportunity while it was crippled to strike the node within with a final burst of magic and collapse it.

“Is that it?” Fluttershy asked as the flesh golem returned to inertness and the spell matrix covering the tower shuddered.

“Only the lynchpin is left, and that should not have a protector,” Twilight replied.

There were only a few floors left in Yliiena’s tower, and they quickly ascended them, ending in the ancient alicorn’s bedchamber. The lynchpin was even higher, and Twilight found a trapdoor in the ceiling.

“Locked,” she cursed as she tried unsuccessfully to open it.

“I can get it,” Pinkamena offered, and Twilight humored her and lifted her up with her magic.

The bard produced some tools from her saddlebags, and in a few minutes the lock clicked open. The trapdoor fell down and a ladder descended, opening the way to the room above.

“Have you always been able to pick locks?” Twilight asked uneasily.

“Of course,” Pinkamena replied cheerily.

That did nothing to ease Twilight’s mind as she ascended the ladder into the small room above. There wasn’t much room here beneath the eaves for more than one pony, so Twilight went alone. There were no windows here, and darkness abounded. As Twilight felt her way forward, she found rows of candles on the floor and crossbeams and lit them with a short incantation. She gasped as she saw what they illuminated; a skull larger than any pony’s hung on the wall, wires holding the jaw to the cranium.

“Yelo’rf helesen oren m’yelo ostaart, caerf Yelo fent?^[5]” a voice sounded in her head as the jaw moved up and down, mimicking speech.

“What are you?” Twilight wondered aloud as she looked at the skull-lynchpin.

“I am sorry,” the voice sounded in her head again, “I find it … difficult. Time is … hard for me. My purpose is to hold together the enchantments Yliiena placed around this tower. I’ve failed in my task, haven’t I?”

“I am afraid so,” Twilight said.

“I thought so,” the skull replied, “When I jumped the tower it … didn’t go quite according to plan.”

“Who are—or were—you?” Twilight asked.

“I was once the Great One Scorpan. When I learned that my brother, Tirek, intended to consume all life in Equestria, I came to Yliiena to warn her, but I was … betrayed,” the skull said. “She believed that she needed to imprison me to learn what I knew, but I would have shared it openly in order to stop my brother’s scheme. I gave her the idea for what would become my brother’s prison: Tartarus. For Yliiena to embrace the idea, first she had to know if a prison was necessary. When she discovered she could not truly kill me in her lifetime, she found another use for me, here.”

“I had no idea,” Twilight said. “Nopony did.”

“Of course not. It had to be kept a secret,” Scorpan chuckled, though it seemed to strain him. “I’m so very tired of existing. I tried to do my job for six thousand years, but it looks like I’ve failed at last. Will you destroy me, alicorn, and finally free my spirit for whatever fate I am destined? It should be possible now, after Yliiena’s enchantments have worn me down and broken me.”

“If I destroy you, will Yliiena’s tower be destroyed?” Twilight asked.

“Not immediately, not if you don’t wish it,” Scorpan said. “I hold the enchantments all together, but you’ve disassembled them enough that I can leave the spell matrix together to sustain itself long enough to let you dispel it in your own time. Is that what you wish, alicorn?”

“Yes, it is,” Twilight said. “I will release you from this existence, from this slavery to a pony who has been dead for thousands of years. I do not know anything about you, Great One Scorpan . . . but I hope that you rest well.”

***

When the Brave Companions emerged from the base of the tower, Queen Arbetes and her court were assembled outside in the Plaza of Queens. When Twilight had destroyed Scorpan, the gargoyles had fallen from the sky, and some lay shattered on the ground around the tower. Leyam must have reported this to the queen, and she’d had plenty of time to get here while the Brave Companions descended. Twilight was reserved after her conversation with the remains of a Great One.

“Is it done?” Leyam asked on behalf of his mistress as they approached the queen.

“The gargoyles will trouble you no longer,” Twilight Sparkle responded. “I will be able to collapse the tower safely now.”

“Well done, Brave Companions,” Queen Arbetes said. “Now, to the matter of payment. What do you wish in compensation for ridding us of this menace?”

“Your majesty, we wish to take the contents of the tower,” Twilight said. “It contains many ancient texts valuable to scholars and sorceresses, written or used by Yliiena the First.”

“This is acceptable to us,” Queen Arbetes gave her response. “The … riches of the tower shall be yours. I can think of no better reward for the newest alicorn than that which once belonged to the very first.” life.

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

The Brave Companions and Spike took seats, while Ream and Baldavin stood guard at the doorless doorway.

Ah, I'd forgotten they'd come through the portal too...ya know, since they apparently missed the whole adventure with Daring and everything. Good job trying to redeem yourselves for your earlier inactions with...even more inactions? At least they were of help here.

having come from a place that had eradicated slavery in any form long ago.

Uh, the peasantry of Equestria can be levied into war against their will whenever the nobles deem it, in order to pursue their own greedy purposes. Nearly all land and housing is owned by the nobles and very few farmers will ever actually make profit from their toil or labor, as all profit from the crops goes to the nobles. It leads to the very same multi-generational cycle of poverty and fealty to the nobles that Twilight was expositioning about (in her head).

Saying the slavery had been eradicated "in any form" is quite a stretch.

“Hurry!” Twilight called as Rainbow Dash grabbed Ream and Spike scrambled onto Fluttershy’s back.

This suggests that since Twilight can no longer carry Spike, that Fluttershy is actually at least somewhat taller and physically stronger than Twilight, despite Twilight being an alicorn now.

Also, with Spike being virtually fireproof, he could've easily helped with the fire elemental.

“If it pleases your majesty, may we decide our payment after we have dealt with the … alicorn tower and know what it is we have faced?”

Huh, how did Twilight know it was an alicorn's tower when she hadn't seen it yet? Or was she already suspecting it might belong to Yliiena?

“Your majesty, we wish to take the contents of the tower,” Twilight said. “It contains many ancient texts valuable to scholars and sorceresses, written or used by Yliiena the First.”

Huh, I thought for sure that in addition to the tower, they'd request Leyam's freedom. Especially with the analogy of Scorpan having been enslaved for so long, I thought it was going to be foreshadowing of Twilight's decision to free Leyam and his family from the cycle of slavery permanently, maybe even move them to Ponieville. Missed opportunity there.

Still, this was yet another excellent chapter that added world-building and exquisite detail to your world! The addition of Scorpan was a nice touch, as was the contents of the tower.

[FireOfTheNorth]

10999316

Huh, how did Twilight know it was an alicorn's tower when she hadn't seen it yet? Or was she already suspecting it might belong to Yliiena?

Arbetes had just referred to it as such. Looks like an errant comma made it in that changed the meaning.

[TasermonsPartner]

10999997
How did Arbetes know the tower belonged to an alicorn? The pictographs on the side, perhaps?

[FireOfTheNorth]

11000401
Absolutely

[Snowdrifter]

11000401
Like most rulers, she knows far more than she lets on.

[Snowdrifter]

Poor Scorpan, should have quit while he was ahead...

[Xanderfox]

Hoping this story will continue, I looks forward to how you adapt other episodes and characters to this setting.
For this chapter In was expecting you to chose a other G1 Villian to be an antagonist, one the show never got to, Katrina. A antagonist Fels Sorceress would fit this setting well.
I get a odd RPG vibe from this story too, making Equestrian feel more like a setting for a game like Fire Emblem, of Final Fantasy Tactics. Even Twilight's knights Ream and Baldavin feel like the Generic Units you end up drafting into your army to fill roles in the formation you lack Plot Relivent characters for.