Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 4:10.2 - World of Frost

Author's Note:

Translations
Pronunciation Guide for Centaur Words

Chapter 4:10.2 – World of Frost

“No, no, dis fill not do,” Shazira sighed in disappointment as she reviewed the diagrams with Twilight Sparkle for the Saddle Arabians’ new homes, specifically the future home of Sultana Rashida and her family. “It is farrr too closely packed.”

“If it is too spread out, then you will need a hearth for every room. The amount of firewood needed to keep warm in the winter will be immense,” Twilight explained. “The latest design already takes up much more space than a structure with similar capacity. I am afraid that we cannot—at least for this winter—have perfection. We will be running short on time soon; is having protection from the snow not more important than having the perfect homes to start with?”

Shazira shivered involuntarily at the mention of snow. Equestria’s summer had barely left, yet the magus was already swathed in heavier clothing than she’d ever worn in her life. Equestria experienced high and low temperatures over the course of a year, but in Saddle Arabia there had been only one extreme: heat. Shazira and her fellow Saddle Arabians knew how to deal with heat, but they were pitifully equipped to deal with the cold.

Rents suddenly opened in the air nearby, startling the workers waiting for orders on what strange structure they would be building today, as well as some curious Saddle Arabians. Three sorceresses trotted out of each portal and closed them once they were through, cutting off images of a Cant’r Laht manor. Twilight Sparkle was familiar with the first group through their repeated collaborations during White Procession invasions and wars: the Cant’r Laht 2^nd Mage Cadre. The other trio she also knew, but only by reputation: the Cant’r Laht 1^st Mage Cadre.

At the head of the group stood Olgalômme du Candlais, the leader and founder of the cadre. After Celestia, Olgalômme was the most ancient and powerful of Cant’r Laht sorceresses, renowned for acts of greatness going back over two centuries. Her coat was pure white; her mane, pulled into two braids on either side of her head, was a steely gray with growing white streaks. This change in color was also accompanied by prominent wrinkles around her eyes. There was no question Olgalômme used sorcery to extend her life, but she wasn’t so vain as to have tried maintaining perpetual youth. She stood regally and with a stern expression, amplified by the fact that her face had very little fat on it, causing the skin to appear stretched across her skull. Navy robes trimmed with dazzling patterns of golden thread covered her body. She carried nothing else: no tools for directing spells, no pouches filled with components for casting magic. Olgalômme was famed for her mastery of sorcery to such a degree that she needed nothing more than her mind to cast spells—a truth that her opponents knew all too well.

To her right was Katchan Battlar, a unicorn stallion dressed in robes so dark it was nearly impossible to tell if they were black or blue. He was swathed from head to tail, making it difficult to divine his coloration, but a bit of the gray hair on his shaggy fetlocks peeked out over his black hooves and the tip of his black tail could be seen as he flicked it under his robes. A hood covered his face apart from his horn, and golden eyes could be seen staring out of the darkness. As he stepped forward, Twilight caught a glimpse of the long lines threaded with crystals that hung beneath his robes but over his armor. Sometimes called the Darkmage in Cant’r Laht, Katchan was well-known for his abilities with illusions and pocket dimensions, and he often appeared from the shadows when least expected.

The third member of the cadre, the sorcerer Bellerophon Ioxacos—more commonly known as Bellerophon the Red—stood to Olgalômme’s left. Bellerophon was an oddity among powerful Cant’r Laht sorceresses: a pegasus, but one who had proven his people’s potential to be as powerful as any unicorn long before Cadence had come to the city and done the same. His coat, mane, tail, and wings were all red, giving him his name, though his robes were blue to match the rest of his cadre, of a lighter shade than both Olgalômme’s and Katchan’s. A scar ran down the right side of his face over an empty eye socket, but the loss hadn’t seemed to have affected him much. Upon his head was a golden circlet with two wings rising up to flank a sizable blue crystal located where his horn would’ve been if he were a unicorn. Upon his back was a long staff wrapped in red-dyed leather with an ornate golden head holding even more crystals, a strap halfway down allowing him to use it with a hoof and foreleg as Solith of the Cant’r Laht 2^nd Mage Cadre did with her much simpler staff.

“What are you doing here?” Twilight Sparkle asked, looking back and forth between the two cadres. “Both of you?”

It was rare for one of Cant’r Laht’s mage cadres to show up unannounced, but for both to do so was unheard of. Worried thoughts swirled around Twilight’s mind. Had something happened in Cant’r Laht? Was Celestia’s condition growing worse? Surely I’d notice if she died … wouldn’t I?

“Twilight Sparkle, your highness,” Olgalômme said without a hint of deference, “I have been given to understand that you have fought the White Procession in the past, at times alongside the Cant’r Laht 2^nd Mage Cadre?”

“That is correct,” Twilight replied, still confused but grateful that this visit didn’t seem to have anything to do with her ailing mentor.

“The White Procession is at this moment raiding a town in Grittish Conifex,” Olgalômme said. “I sensed an opportunity and decided that the Cant’r Laht mage cadres should join forces in this endeavor.”

“We decided to join forces,” Penumbra objected, his perpetual sneer from his injuries seeming altogether legitimate in the moment.

“Yes,” Olgalômme said coldly, though it didn’t sound anything like an admission. “Having another powerful sorceress along would only help our chances.”

“Your chances at what?” Twilight asked. “Why rush to the aid of a town on the Eastern Continent? Are the sorceresses of the Grittish Isles not equipped to handle it, or is there something different about this raid?”

“The White Procession is raiding the same as they have since the False Winter,” Olgalômme brushed off the suggestion. “However, I have a plan to take advantage of this incursion and enter Judd Caradain.”

Judd Caradain was the mythical world from which the White Procession came. The name had been learned long ago during the Long Winter, but little else in the way of knowledge had been gained. All they really knew was that it was the home of centaurs and bat-ponies, and it was colder than Equus. The White Procession was always invading from Judd Caradain, but nopony who’d ever tried going in the opposite direction had returned. Sorceresses had figured out how to open portals to the world, but immediately after stepping through them, the portals had closed for good. The hypothesis was that sorcery as ponies understood it did not work in Judd Caradain; only the White Procession’s magic could function there. Sorceresses had long given up on reaching this mysterious realm—except, it appeared, for Olgalômme.

“Will we not just become stranded there?” Twilight Sparkle asked, quite sensibly she thought. Though it was obvious, apparently it needed to be stated.

“I have a plan,” Olgalômme repeated. “If we can capture a centaur wizard and force them to keep a portal open, then we will be able to enter and return. We must leave soon in order for this to work and capture the wizard before they begin to return to Judd Caradain.”

“I see,” Twilight Sparkle said as she considered it. This plan just might work.

“Who are you?” Olgalômme asked as she looked past Twilight, apparently noticing Shazira for the first time.

“I am Shazirrra, a magus in dah serrrfice of Sultana Rrrashida of Saddle Arrrabia,” Shazira answered.

“I see,” Olgalômme said as she quickly took in the tents around them. “You are welcome as well, if you can face the White Procession.”

“Trrruly?” Shazira asked.

“As time passes, we must make adjustments to counterbalance,” Olgalômme said. “We must leave now if we are not to have your assistance.”

“I will accompany you,” Twilight Sparkle said, and Shazira nodded to indicate that she would as well.

“The town under attack is Rokegrath, located two leagues north of the Gratham Cut,” Olgalômme said.

“White Procession forces are spread through the forests to the north and east of the town,” Bellerophon relayed after unslinging his staff and staring into a ruby to scry the situation.

“I can find my way there,” Twilight assured them.

“Twilight! Twilight!” Spike called as he rushed toward the group, drawing each of their attention.

“Excuse me for a moment,” Twilight Sparkle said as she stepped out of the circle to intercept her page.

“Be quick about it, Twilight Sparkle,” Olgalômme commanded. “Every second is precious.”

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked as she reached the dragonling, who looked like he’d run all the way from Golden Oak’s laboratory. “I am afraid I will need to leave very soon.”

“What? Why?” Spike asked, and Twilight could feel Olgalômme’s eyes on her back.

“The White Procession is raiding the Grittish Isles. We may have a chance to learn more about them, but we need to leave right away before they vanish through their portals,” Twilight explained the situation as quickly as she could. “Did you have something you wanted to tell me?”

“There’s a dragonet in the Everfree Forest,” Spike said. “I was hoping we could go speak to him, so I could learn more about dragons.”

Twilight Sparkle felt for her assistant. She had raised him as best she could, but she, like most ponies, knew next to nothing about dragons. His last expedition to learn from dragonets had nearly ended in disaster, but that hadn't stopped his hunger for knowledge about where he came from. The White Procession was more important, though, and though Twilight made a mental note to contact Cadence and ask if she could teach Spike anything she’d learned during her long stay in Tyrannus, she knew what her answer had to be.

“Oh, Spike, I wish we could, but …” Twilight started, but then an idea came to her, and she looked around until her eyes lit upon the guards Celestia had assigned her. “Ream! Baldavin!”

The two stallions hurried over from the Saddle Arabians they’d been speaking to.

“Your Highness?” Baldavin asked as they bowed to her.

“I need you take Spike into the Everfree Forest,” Twilight explained, and sped up as Olgalômme cleared her throat. “Keep him safe. He will explain the rest.”

“Of … course … your Highness,” Baldavin said hesitantly.

“Thank you,” Twilight said before hurrying back to the other sorceresses. “I am ready. Let us go.”

Each of the cadres and Twilight opened a portal to Grittish Conifex. The pine trees of the forest that surrounded Rokegrath were visible for only an instant before the blizzard conjured up by the White Procession obscured everything and blew snow through the openings. Nearby Saddle Arabians whinnied in alarm, and the sorceresses hurried through before closing off the portals.

In an instant, they’d traveled across the Shimmering Sea all the way to the North of the Eastern Continent. They were still in the narrow band along the sea where the Zebrikaanian Empire had not yet come, but this land had been conquered all the same. Rather than governed by a local power or one of the Three Jewels farther south, Grittish Conifex was ruled by the Grittish Isles, a pair of islands in the Shimmering Sea that bridged the gap between the Eastern Continent and Equestria and defiantly refused to be classified as part of either. Ponies spoke Low Equestrian here, with little to no trace of Draenglic left, though this likely wouldn’t hinder the sorceresses in their quest.

They were here for one purpose only: to fight the White Procession. Somewhere in the blizzard that now surrounded Rokegrath were teams of wizards creating the blizzard and holding open the portals to Judd Caradain. There were also teams of armored centaurs and bat-ponies attacking the town and stealing food and other supplies, but they weren’t the sorceresses’ concern. They quickly found each other and set off in the direction Amaranth was certain they would find wizards, a protective bubble projected from Solith’s staff protecting their group from the worst of the storm. Twilight cast an enchantment over Shazira to keep her warm, earning her a dubious look from Olgalômme, but she knew she had more than enough magical reserves to handle keeping her friend from freezing to death and fighting the White Procession at the same time. Olgalômme was powerful, but she was no alicorn.

It was a rather small squad that they finally came upon; the White Procession must have been certain they would not face serious opposition here. Three armored centaurs carried the glowing staffs that marked them out as wizards. While one maintained the swirling portal behind them, the other two conjured up the unnatural weather. The trio was protected by six centaur soldiers in full plate and eight bat-ponies in lighter armor.

“¡Sïnettölï Equsïtïer balederenï!^[1]” one of the centaur wizards shouted in warning as he sensed the approaching sorceresses and ceased his weather magic to prepare for combat.

The eight ponies jumped forward to face the centaurs, crackling with energy. Solith whipped her staff around and threw a ball of resin from the tip, landing it near the centaur wizards. As it struck, a sphere expanded from it that held off the blizzard around all the combatants so that they could clearly see each other. All except for Katchan, that is, who vanished into a pool of shadow before reappearing on a centaur’s back. The centaur’s helm rang as he struck his hooves against the sides, whispering magic words, before vanishing back into another shadow as the nearby centaurs swung their swords at him. The centaur he’d bewitched began to scream and struck out at his fellow soldiers until they managed to cut him down.

“Bei’r magia acca Ye’r accael!^[2]” Penumbra shouted, and ribbons of flame burst from the ground where he stomped his hooves, streaking through the snow toward the centaur wizards before striking the ice shield they raised.

The bat-ponies launched into the air to begin raining down crossbow bolts on their attackers, but Bellerophon flew up after them. He closed in on one as they tried to shoot him, but before even a single bolt was fired, he swung his staff around as a blunt weapon. A thunderclap and the crack of splintering wood resounded as it struck the bat-pony, but the staff suffered no harm. The same could not be said for the bat-pony, who was instantly decapitated; her head struck one of her comrades in the air, startling him.

“Nefertit’r Ost, seysa nof kaya se’r fayaten hostoi!^[3]” Bellerophon yelled, and the crystal on his circlet shot out a beam of blue light that cut through the stunned bat-ponies one by one.

Shazira cleared away the snow beneath her and placed her hooves against the soil. Slight ripples passed through the ground in a path toward the centaur wizards, and the earth beneath their hooves began to suck at them and draw them down. One of the wizards turned from defense to counteract Shazira’s magic, and his ice barrier fell to a blast as the cards Amaranth had been throwing into it transformed and detonated. More cards zipped through the air toward the wizard and turned into glowing lances that pierced his armor in multiple places before he could bring his staff back up to protect himself.

Olgalômme stood unmoving except to step aside and avoid crossbow bolts while she directed sorcery with her mind. A sinuous line of spellfire wove through the sky, burning through the armor and wings of the bat-ponies Bellerophon didn’t get. She flicked her gaze back down as one of the centaur warriors charged her, lance couched beneath his arm. Olgalômme kept her eyes locked on him as she lifted her head, and his hooves left the ground. The centaur turned upside down, panicking, as he flew through the air before becoming impaled on a nearby tree.

“Cant’r majia tanya Ye’r fecorar’i^[4]!” Twilight Sparkle called as she bent the unnatural storm clouds above to her will.

Lightning bolts lanced down from the sky in a torrent that temporarily blinded both groups of combatants. The air was superheated and the smell of ozone permeated everypony’s nostrils as the remaining centaurs were cooked in their armor, all apart for a single wizard who stumbled back from his dead compatriot. Scorch marks appeared on his armor where lightning had arced from the nearby wizard, but Twilight had directed her spell well enough to keep him from being seriously harmed.

“Ye seni cavan’r doros’i^[5],” Twilight said as the wizard tried to flee, and glowing chains appeared to hold him in place.

“¡Sïnettölï müsepetætïer ïssatesönï vitta dilky!” the centaur yelled in defiance before repeating himself in Low Equestrian. “Kill me already, foul wizards!”

“Bellerophon, Solith, hurry,” Olgalômme ordered as she trotted toward the restrained centaur. “We need him to open a portal before the others return to Judd Caradain.”

The wizard stared at Olgalômme with a stunned expression as he realized what she intended him to do.

“¡Tæn, tæn, tæn, tæn, tæn, tæn, tæn!^[6]” the centaur gibbered as he tried to strain against the chains holding him in place while the pony sorceresses approached him.

Penumbra removed the silvery helm from the wizard’s head, sliding the guards past his long, curved horns and revealing his face. Like all centaurs, his face was abnormally tall and flat to pony eyes, and without hair apart from a few patches over his eyes and upon his chin. In many ways, the face was similar to that of the humans Twilight Sparkle had encountered in the World Across the Divide, except the centaur’s nose was flatter and wider than any human she’d encountered, his ears were pointed, and his eyes were larger. Those eyes with their speckled blue irises shifted as the centaur’s emotions changed from afraid to angry to defiant.

He tried to bite Penumbra, using the only part of his body that was free to move, but Olgalômme fixed him with a glare and his neck became frozen in place as well. Solith and Bellerophon stood to either side of the centaur and raised their staffs so that the ends were positioned over his head. The defiance in the centaur’s eyes faded away, not gone but stuffed down as they took control of his mind on the surface level. Amaranth placed the staff back into his hand and Twilight released her restraints so that he could move with it freely.

In a trance, the wizard raised the staff and lights began to circle the end. A rift opened in the air ahead of him, tearing a hole in reality. It was not clean, like the portals sorceresses opened to travel across Equus, but unstable, the edges constantly in flux as the two worlds sought to destroy this abnormality that bridged them. Cold air blew from the rift, barely noticeable since the White Procession had dropped the temperature here to a similar level. Through the portal, the sorceresses got their first glimpse of Judd Caradain. It was a momentous occasion, even though all they could see for the moment was more forest. The intent had been to open a portal somewhere the sorceresses could enter without immediately being attacked by the White Procession; it seemed Solith and Bellerophon had been successful in forcing the centaur wizard to do just that.

Olgalômme led the way through the rift and the others, apart from the two maintaining control over the centaur, followed her into Judd Caradain. The six ponies walked slowly through the forest they’d entered, trying to take in as many details as possible. A chill permeated the air and the trees here (although coniferous) were not any species they’d seen, nor was the undergrowth at all familiar. Otherwise, Judd Caradain seemed very much like their own world.

The most extraordinary thing was that their sorcery seemed to still be available to them. Twilight Sparkle did not feel the same lack she’d had after arriving in the World Across the Divide. The others quickly realized as well that they were still able to cast spells and tried them out on some of the nearby trees. No sorceress who’d gone to Judd Caradain had ever returned, and the assumption had been that they’d been unable to create a portal back because their sorcery did not work here. However, that appeared to be untrue. Perhaps it was the rift back to Equus kept open by the centaur wizard, or perhaps something else had kept the other sorceresses from returning. The fact remained that each of the sorceresses here now still had their magic.

The sorceresses subconsciously picked up their pace as the edge of the forest came into sight. and they hurried toward it to see what lay beyond. The tree line came to an abrupt halt and was met, after a short span of stumps, by fields filled with pale stalks of unknown crops suited to the cold environment. The fields were not what captured the ponies’ attention, as strange and expansive as they were. Instead, the city that lay beyond was what drew them on through the fields to get a better look.

Across the horizon, dominating the skyline, was a city so massive that they could hardly believe their eyes. Crystalline spires soared into the heavens in the hundreds alongside massive fortifications of white stone. The city could easily swallow a thousand Cant’r Lahts, and though Twilight knew there were cities on the Eastern Continent that dwarfed those in Equestria, she doubted even Zebrikaan could compare to the metropolis before them. Judd Caradain no longer seemed quite so familiar, and the true threat of the White Procession became apparent.

“They are too many,” Olgalômme said.

“I never took you to be a defeatist,” Penumbra criticized, though he didn’t take his gaze away from the city any more than the other sorceresses.

“Not too many to be defeated. Too many to live off Judd Caradain alone,” Olgalômme clarified. “Their world is colder than ours. It has less land to grow crops, and their population is so great that, even if this city is above average, if they continue to multiply, they will soon run out of food to feed themselves. This is why they take our crops, why they keep coming no matter how many times we drive them off.”

“There must be a way to stop them … permanently,” Katchan whispered. “Our sorcery works here, despite our assumptions. We can invade them in turn and force them to cease their raiding.”

“A fohrr betfeen forrrlds,” Shazira said, daunted by the scope of such a conflict.

“If they are invading us to feed themselves, how could we convince them to stop?” Twilight Sparkle asked rhetorically.

The sorceresses’ ponderings were interrupted by a crossbow bolt that nearly struck Penumbra. A squad of bat-ponies approached from the sky, clad in simple armor far inferior to that worn by their counterparts who’d invaded Equus. Penumbra struck back, and two of the bat-ponies spontaneously combusted. The others drew back in shock and horror, seemingly as surprised as the interlopers that Equestrian magic worked here.

“Back to the portal!” Olgalômme commanded as other bat-ponies reinforced their retreating comrades.

The sorceresses ran back through the fields toward the forest in the distance, pursued by a growing swarm of bat-ponies. Intermittently they fired back with spells to thin their pursuers’ ranks and deter them, but the winged forces kept coming, driven by the same desire to defend their world that every pony felt whose home had been attacked by the White Procession. As they jumped irrigation ditches, it became apparent just how far Judd Caradain’s residents had gone in conquering their own world. The ditches were spaced precisely the same distance apart, and an overhead view would doubtless reveal a perfect grid. As they neared the forest, they could see now that the trees were arranged in exact lines. Is there any wildness left, or have they conquered the entirety of their world, as Olgalômme supposes, and have now come for ours?

As they left the fields and broke for the tree line, shouts came from their right. Armored centaurs stood beside others wearing only work clothes and holding axes. Fallen trees showed where the lumberjacks had been working and seen the sorceresses emerge, then left to call for the aid that was now pursuing the ponies. Several of them pointed toward the group, and the centaur soldiers took off toward them. They too were momentarily stunned by the sorceresses’ ability to do sorcery but soon recovered and continued to pursue them.

A blast of ice tore through the trees from the ponies’ left as a centaur wizard appeared, but Penumbra managed to deflect it with a wall of fire that set the shattered trunks ablaze. Amaranth threw cards ahead of the group to lead the way back to the portal, and they burst into colored flames to light the way through the trees. They had roused the anger of Judd Caradain by daring to do exactly what they had been doing to Equus for millennia; it was a fighting retreat all the way, but eventually the portal back home came into sight.

Shazira was the first through, skidding across the ground in front of the captive centaur wizard before turning to face the portal. Penumbra backed through while continuing to shoot tongues of fire at the pursuing centaurs until the portal warped his shots and he was forced to stop. Twilight Sparkle came through next after knocking back a centaur wizard who was attempting to trap Katchan in ice.

As she turned to look back at those still in Judd Caradain, disaster unfolded. Amaranth tripped as the cards around her providing a protective shield suddenly fluttered to the ground as if they were no more than paper. The copies Katchan had made of himself to mislead the centaurs vanished into thin air, and a group homed in on the real one. Olgalômme, who had been levitating herself through the air in order to avoid obstacles and fight the bat-ponies above, fell from the sky and crashed through branches before landing heavily on the ground just on the other side of the portal.

“Olgalômme!” Bellerophon yelled in alarm as he saw the leader of his cadre crash into the undergrowth, and his staff rose the tiniest distance away from the centaur wizard.

A measure of the centaur’s control over his own body returned, and he swiftly reached for the knife at his belt and slit his own throat. With that decisive move, he collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut, gurgling his last words as he drowned in his own blood. As he perished, his hand left his staff, and the portal to Judd Caradain collapsed.

The remaining sorceresses stood frozen in shock as the White Procession corpses, along with their armor and weapons, began to disintegrate into ash now that the last link to Judd Caradain had been closed. Nopony knew what had just happened or why. They had succeeded in opening the door to the world of the White Procession, and their understanding of magic in that world had turned on its head only to turn back again just as they were on the cusp of returning home.

Why? Twilight Sparkle wondered as she stared at where the rift had been only seconds earlier, where she’d been able to see her fallen companions. Why did sorcery cease to function the moment I left? Did it have anything to do with me, or was it merely a coincidence? In the past few years, Twilight had learned not to trust coincidences, especially around the Brave Companions. Why did sorcery function in Judd Caradain in the first place? We thought we could learn about the White Procession’s world, but we’ve only gained more questions. What really happened? And what is going to happen to those trapped in Judd Caradain?

***

Grandmaster Nattalïer stalked angrily through the halls of the Great White Bastion, lesser members of the White Procession giving the wizard a wide berth. Though he was the most powerful of the White Procession’s four grandmaster wizards, it was unreasonable and unjust for Knight-Commander Bittræen to place every mishap at his hooves. The Knight-Commander has an axe to grind with me, that is all. Though our beliefs align on the White Procession’s proper purpose, he’s never been able to tolerate any questioning of his brother’s commands. Emperor Hæsthür the Gold-Draped will lead the Third Empire to starvation and destruction—I know Bittræen believes the same—but he is too loyal a sibling to speak it openly or take any action.

Nattalïer had not been involved in the slightest with what had occurred during the raid into what the Equus-dwellers called Grittish Conifex, yet he was expected to answer for the incursion of pony wizards into Judd Caradain. It wasn’t as though they had appeared in the Imperial Palace at Yar Tussych to threaten the emperor; the pony wizards had apparated far from anywhere important, within the lumber-fields near Nörs Præedu, and the local garrison had chased them off. The issue that had the wizards of the White Procession in an uproar, the Imperial Secret Service on the hunt to contain the information, and the local garrison left decimated was this: somehow the pony wizards had managed to work magic in Judd Caradain.

That they had learned how to do so was troubling, to say the least. Though the occasional pony wizard had managed to find their way to Judd Caradain over the past few millennia, they’d always lost their magic upon arriving in this world that was not their own. To think that their magic could ever work here was impossible to believe for everyone but the wizards of the White Procession.

When the first centaur wizards had discovered the existence of Equus and how to travel to the ponies’ world, the situation had been much the same. They could travel to Equus, but their magic would no longer work once they stepped through their rifts, leaving them with no way home. Then, they had discovered the source of magic in Judd Caradain: the Seven Relics of Creation. Long ago, one had been carried with the White Procession whenever they entered Equus, and so long as it remained there, their magic would continue to work. After the Betrayal millennia ago, only six of the ancient artifacts remained in Judd Caradain. As long as the Betrayers remained in Equus with their stolen Relic, no more needed to be carried into the other world. All this was a closely guarded secret of the White Procession, so knowledge of ponies being able to do the same was rightfully alarming for anyone else. Have the pony wizards managed to find the source of magic in their world and discovered the effects bringing it to another realm can have?

If so, they were just beginning to discover how to use their own version of the Relics of Creation. Their incursion into Judd Caradain had been imperfect. They’d come only with wizards, and three of them had been left behind, magicless. Nattalïer made his way down to Judd Caradain’s dungeons as he pondered the implications of the pony incursion. Perhaps the Knight-Commander’s charge to him was not an outlet of the hostility between them, but a chance for him to redeem himself in Bittræen’s eyes. He was rightfully concerned about this, and if anyone could get to the bottom of it, it would be the greatest grandmaster wizard of the White Procession.

Nattalïer stopped before the cell of the wizard the other ponies called “Ölgulöm.” The door’s lock glowed as he tapped his staff against it, and the door swung open. Within was the pony who appeared to have been the leader of the invaders, a powerful wizard according to witnesses, but now no more than a fragile mare. There were no chains or guards; there was no need. Stripped of her magic, there was nothing she could do to fight back against her captors. Still, she stared up defiantly at Nattalïer as he strode into the room.

“Congratulations, you made it to Judd Caradain. How do you find it?” Nattalïer asked, but the mare remained stone-faced. “How did you enter our world?”

“As if I would tell you anything,” the mare replied haughtily.

“You have no chance of returning to your home. Why not make your life here easier?” Nattalïer asked, but Olgalômme refused to respond. “The lavender wizard with you, did she always have wings?”

Olgalômme studied the centaur curiously before responding, “No.”

I knew it! She is the same wizard who bested me at Ponieville twice. What does she have to do with this? The strange power I sensed in her the last time I saw her, could that be the key to how they were able to work magic here? No, that power was of neither Judd Caradain nor Equus. Then what then? Has something changed?

“Who is she?” Nattalïer asked, and Olgalômme continued to stare at him inquiringly.

“Twilight Sparkle … of Ponieville,” Olgalômme dropped and saw the twitch in Nattalïer’s cheek. “So it is you. Oh, you are right to be afraid of that one. She’s ascended to alicornhood since you last met, and her power only continues to rise. She’s beaten far more terrifying foes than you, and if anypony is to burn Judd Caradain down, it will be her.”

“Tell me about this Twylyt Sparkul,” Nattalïer demanded. “Was it she who discovered how to bring Equus’s magic to Judd Caradain?”

“You know all you need to,” Olgalômme said confidently as she continued to stare down the grandmaster. “I’m finished speaking with you.”

“No, you aren’t,” Nattalïer said forcefully as his staff began to glow and he extended a hand bursting with runes toward Olgalômme. “You are going to tell me everything.”

Comments

[Xanderfox]

Magic artifacts allow the centaurs to use magic in Equis huh? Kind of like a certain artifact ina lavender alicon's crown?

[TasermonsPartner]

Nice tie-in with the previous chapter. That makes twice in a row that you've twined in two chapters from differing perspectives into small story arcs.

Huh, so Judd is trying to supplement its foodstuffs and supplies by raiding Equus. I guess its no different than how the various nation-states of Equus just invade each other for resources. Still, with a population of billions, ya wonder just how much the occasional raid of some small hamlet's foodstuffs can really impact? Less than one percent, maybe? They aren't even taking the majority of the world's foodstuffs at any given time/growing season, and Judd's population is at least ten fold that of Equus? You'd think a larger population would've come up with more technological solutions to solve their food production problems, like, say, greenhouses or climate controlled glass domes?

Too bad Equestria hasn't developed large-scale explosives yet. Then they could just open portals over the Judd cities and drop them away until a peace was sued for. Guess Twilight will just have to go visit Sunset and the gang and borrow an atom bomb for replication purposes. Hmm...or, I wonder, since her magic works in Judd (at least when she has her artifact), could she open a portal to Tartarus and unleash the demons? Would their powers work in Judd? Even their sheer size alone would cause massive devastation. Of course, Twilight would prefer to do so without massive civilian causalities, but that seems par for the course in this timeline.

Also wonder how this would've related to the original migration of ponies and other species to Equus from...wherever world they were from originally. Did they leave because of overcrowding? To flee natural disaster? Or just to do like Judd is doing and take and conquer, except with the portal system back home collapsing and leaving them stuck on the other side? So much potential backstory.

Still, a good chapter overall. Look forward to more!

[hamster wizard]

Have the pony wizards managed to find the source of magic in their world and discovered the effects bringing it to another realm can have?

Interesting implication, I'd imagine that Twilight as the Element of Sorcery serves as some sort of innate connection to the magic of Equus. Although it could have something to do with her nature as an alicorn as well. Either way Twilight seems to become more and more important by the day, and is getting quite the target painted on her back I'm sure.