The Lunar Chalice

by Spirals95

Chapter 16 - Early Departure

Chapter 16

“Stallions aren't supposed to cry,” thought Midnight Blaze, curled up at the side of his bed, a pile of used tissues accumulating on the floor.

Perhaps this was it, he'd never truly be able to bridge the massive divide between him and his father. Military service was not something he could see himself doing, and hunting down crooks, at least the way his father did it, was also not going to fly. Even if the mindstone project pulled through and he became a multimillionaire overnight, it wasn't going to satisfy his father's strange obsession with him paying back his country.

Midnight heard a knock at the door, almost making him wince. There were tears and mucus all over his face, and his slicked back mane was disheveled. A quick swipe over his face with another tissue and a casual hoof through his mane, and Midnight was ready to answer the knock. He jumped off the comforter, swept the used tissues under the bed with his tail, and opened the door with a quick spell.

Surprised at Midnight's failure to walk up to the door first before opening it, Techorse stood in the doorway with an unhappy expression, an unusual mix of pity and shock.

“Hey,” he said gently, “I just thought I'd check on you. I saw you run from Cadance's tea room.”

“I'm fine,” Midnight sniffled through a glob of mucus in his sinuses, “thanks though, Tech. You're a good friend to us.”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure,” answered the unicorn, letting his friend slip past him.

Techorse waited for Midnight to sit back down on the soft bed again before addressing him again, “I'm glad you agreed to come on this mission with us. I'm just sorry I wasn't really able to help you with your dad.”

“Yeah well, forget him,” sighed Midnight, “he hates you too now. Says you're no hero.”

“He's just like Arbiter,” said the inventor, shaking his head, “he's not going to learn until it makes him pay.”

Midnight had never really heard the full story between Techorse and his “uncle” Arbiter. He knew there was some kind of major dispute, with his relative wanting to end Techorse's existence, but the details had been sketchy. His mother claimed Arbiter had gone nuts, claiming he was some sort of king, and regained his sense when he bonked his head falling off a castle he thought he owned. But now that he was friends with his intended victim, maybe it was time to hear the full story.

“Techorse... what happened between you and uncle Arbiter?”

His friend paused, and smiled, “You don't want to know.”

“I do!” pushed Midnight, jumping off the bed, staring into Techorse's eyes, “Please.”

Techorse knew he wouldn't get away with not telling now, so he explained, “All right... when I first came to Equestria, I was seen as a threat by Arbiter. He tried to arrange for me to be beheaded in the courtyard of the Canterlot palace.”

Midnight's mane hair stood on the back of his neck, “Be... beheaded?!”

A sad nod confirmed the crime, “Arbiter set up an ancient guillotine from his weapon collection out in the courtyard. But Princess Celestia caught him, destroyed the evil device, fired him from his job as Captain of the Guard, and banished him from Canterlot.”

“But we were told by the Princesses in a letter that he went mad and ran away!” his worried companion protested, “We were lied to?”

“It was to protect Arby,” explained Techorse, frowning, “if Canterlot found out he tried to get rid of me like that, they'd never let him back in again.”

Midnight Blaze couldn't believe what he was hearing, Arbiter was his best friend growing up. Surely there was no way he had done such a horrible thing only to have it covered up.

“If Arbiter did such a terrible thing to you, it would be unforgivable. Who would have wanted that covered up? Who asked for it?”

Techorse looked at the ground.

“I did.”

His anger vanished, “What?”

The other stallion looked back at him, “I asked Princess Celestia to forgive Arbiter. He was only doing what he thought was best to protect Equestria, and I did come from a very bad background. I really hoped to earn his trust when he threatened to do me in, so I went out to serve Equestria by going on a rescue mission. My hope was he'd see how I wanted to help Equestria and he'd change his mind.”

“And he didn't? That's why he wanted your head rolling?” said Midnight, despairing his uncle might not have been so much better than his father.

“I made a good effort, but he didn't buy it,” said Techorse, very much making an understatement.

Midnight sat back down on the bed, downtrodden, “I thought he was such a great stallion growing up. He kinda accepted me when my dad wouldn't. I guess this means dad really will never change.”

“Hang on, it doesn't end there, Midnight Blaze,” continued Techorse, smiling, “Arbiter eventually did change. It wasn't pleasant, but we're friends now.”

“Friends?” gasped Midnight, “How could you be friends with my uncle if he wanted you dead so badly?”

“It's a long story but... eventually Arbiter resurfaced in a distant mining community as their king,” continued the other stallion raising a hoof, “he still wanted to prove himself right about me, so he set me up, and I ended up on the roof of his castle in a showdown!”

“And that's when you made friends with him?” asked Midnight, lightening up.

“Actually, he stabbed me in the lung,” Techorse answered, blushing and avoiding eye contact.

Midnight was almost about to cry again, so Techorse changed the topic, “But I was healed by Twilight Sparkle, and she stopped Arbiter. He lost his memory in the fight, and was taken to Canterlot again to be put on trial for his crimes.”

“And you let him go again?” groaned Midnight, burying his face into the bed, “Techorse, how gullible are you?”

“Very,” he laughed, “Midnight, the point is Arbiter did eventually decide I wasn't so bad.”

“I guess Techorse, it's just... if what you're saying is true, Arbiter went up to the precipice basically before changing,” answered his worried friend slowly, “I guess it's going to be the same way with my dad.”

“I really hope Ignitus doesn't take things as far as what happened with Arby,” answered Techorse.

“I hope not too,” answered Midnight, “I'm glad you told me what really happened with my uncle. He seems a lot happier ever since he came back to us.”

“And Ignitus will be happy too,” assured Techorse.

Midnight let out a loud yawn, having been worn out by his emotions and thinking over everything, “Oh, sorry...”

The contagious effect grabbed Techorse too, forcing him to yawn as well.

“Yikes! Guess we're tired...”

Techorse turned away and opened the door for himself to go back to his own room, “We'll get up and head out tomorrow after gathering some information on Ross.”

“Sounds good Tech, thanks again for coming to check on me,” answered Midnight, finally at peace.

“You're welcome, sleep well!”

Once the door was shut, Midnight turned off the room's electric lighting with another spell, and slipped himself underneath the covers of his bed for a well-deserved rest.

---

“Midnight,” trailed a sweet voice.

He opened his eyes again, seeing his mother smiling gently above him.

“Mom... hey,” he said softly, lifting his head from the pillow drowsily, “you're still awake?”

“Yes sweetie,” she said, “I want you to get up. I have something to show you.”

Midnight obeyed, dropping out from underneath the covers and rolling onto the cold floor of his room. He closely followed his mother out into the hallway, still very dark except for a couple of candles left burning by the night watch. The cream-coated mare slipped out of sight down the hallway while her son was groggily stumbling along. It was shadowy where he was walking to follow her, but it was the Crystal Palace, a safe place to explore at night.

Once he had pushed into the darkness though, something seemed to be wrong. Midnight couldn't remember having entered a doorway, but now he was in a large room, similar to the planning room he and his friends had been in that evening, but many things had changed. There was no longer a large number of chairs, many of them missing or overturned, and the model of the Crystal Palace in the center of the table was smashed to pieces.

“What's going on?” asked Midnight Blaze, raising an eyebrow at the state of the room, “This place is a mess!”

“That's because you missed your party sleeping,” cooed his mother, “congrats Midnight! You've just entered a contract to make four million bits selling your mindstones to Equestria! Everypony will soon have their own magical tools, with your name on it.”

His face brightened up, and he felt his heart soar at the news, for a moment at least until reality started to sink in. Faerie Tail seemed very off to him, something about the way she held herself and talked was very different from his mom.

Midnight asked his mother, “Wait... I never told you what my project was called. How did you know?”

She closed her eyes, “Well, mothers always know!”

The unicorn turned around and squinted, searching for any others in the dim room, “Yeah, but... where's everypony else? Dad? Twinken? Techorse and the guys?”

As soon as he turned back, he gasped, his mother had vanished into thin air. Now he was surrounded by the shadows of the planning room, the soft glare of the bulb above the table the only light in the room. Midnight felt his pulse start to quicken, and his horn ignited with magical energy as he prepared to defend himself.

“I don't know what's going on, but it's not funny!”

“Relax, Midnight.”

The voice was back, again.

Midnight shut off his aura and groaned out of frustration, “Oh great, I'm dreaming. Of course I wouldn't be rich all of a sudden. So, why are YOU here again?”

“You forgot to bed down next to the Crystal Heart. It can't detect my presence. Again, Midnight Blaze, you must trust that I mean you no harm.”

“Robbing me of my sleep counts,” growled Midnight, trying to find the stranger in the darkness, “I've got enough problems as it is! Can't you let me be?”

The voice made an offer, mixed with quite a bit of sarcasm, “You want me to leave? Don't you want to catch... the zebra? Princess Luna needs her cup back for her evening hot milk.”

Midnight saw a physical shape of a pony emerge slightly from the darkness, but much like the classroom dream, he couldn't actually see the other pony, who maintained the strong voice so much like that of his father.

“You want to help me?”

“I do. You may not like my... methods. But I have the information you need. All you have to do... is follow my instructions.“

It was getting very cold in the room, Midnight felt shivers despite it being a dream, “Ok. What do I need to know?”

“Rosseth is going to the Valley of Shadows, a place to the east of here where an ancient castle lies dormant,” explained the darkness clearly, “The Valley of Shadows has volcanic activity beneath it, you will notice the snow thin down as you get closer. I will even grant you a map to the castle in your very memory.”

His brain instantly felt like it was on fire as information surged through his synapses at lightning speed. Just like that, Midnight understood exactly where the castle was out in the cold beyond the Crystal Empire, and the sudden surge of information to his brain shocked him. A feeling of having been violated in some way came over the unicorn, and he struggled not to vomit.

“That will wear off,” said the voice assuredly.

“All right, I've got your map, now what?” asked Midnight, swallowing hard to prevent sickness.

“Wake up your friends, and leave the palace unannounced. Go to the Castle of the Valley, and intercept the zebra. Rosseth will be no problem for you, even if he prevails in his plans.”

“No problem?” Midnight snarled, “If he wins, he'll bring back King Sombra! That's a big problem!”

There was total quiet, as the voice thought of a response.

“King Sombra? That is serious. He took the Crystal Empire for himself... and when he was on the brink of defeat... he brought it down into the darkness for centuries.”

Midnight's ears perked up... was the voice agreeing with him?

“So you get that this is horrible?”

“It is truly horrible,” it said back, “from certain points of view. That is why I must help you. Will you follow your orders and take your friends to the Valley? We will meet shortly after.”

It was the same old thing he had heard from the disembodied voice since the start of this whole adventure. Go here, do this, do that... listen to me, I know what's best. Midnight had ignored the voice or wished it gone for so long, but now, something made him want to work with it. His father had pushed on him too hard, and had made it clear he would always refuse to accept him. Perhaps listening to the voice would be the best way to spite him back.

“Despite you invading my brain, I guess I'm going to cooperate,” he said slowly, but with confidence, “who knows? Maybe it'll be nice to meet you finally.”

“Glad you are finally responding to me positively, young one. I too look forward to our meeting. Now, go to your friends!”

---

“This had better be good, Midnight!” grumbled an exhausted Flaming Ivory, “It's four in the morning. I wouldn't even get up this early for Hearth's Warming Day!”

As requested, Midnight assembled his friends in the now dark and empty tea room downstairs. All of them had dark bags under their eyes, although Shadow Breeze still smiled and radiated patience. The stallions had hastily thrown together a few pots of coffee and some scones to help wake up, but it didn't make Flaming Ivory any happier with having his beauty sleep disturbed.

“I know where Rosseth went,” explained the sapphire unicorn, “he went to the Valley of Shadows.”

“The what now?” mumbled Flaming Ivory, confused.

“It's a place far away from here in the east,” he continued, pacing as he repeated the words the voice had told him, that map still burnt into his memory, “Rosseth is going there to bring back King Sombra. I'm going to guess that's the land where he came from.”

“How did you figure this out?” asked Techorse curiously, grabbing a nearby mug of coffee and taking a deep sip.

“I... just sort of know, intuitively,” stuttered the other inventor, making Techorse take another sip of the hot liquid to avoid having to answer back.

“King Sombra had to have come from somewhere,” agreed Shadow Breeze in an effort to be supportive, “and that sounds like the right name. I'm just not sure how to get there.”

“I can lead us there!” said Midnight eagerly, “Then we'll catch Rosseth at a castle in the valley, and return the chalice to Princess Luna.”

“Midnight, somehow you've just all of a sudden managed to think up this valley and this castle we don't know anything about,” scowled Flaming Ivory, “I'm with Techorse, where did you get this info?”

Knowing he'd be called crazy, Midnight came up with a plausible lie, “Uhhh... a voice told me in my dreams last night. Must be, um... Princess Luna giving us help!”

Techorse answered, “That's weird. Princess Luna put me in charge of this quest. I wonder why she chose to contact you through your dreams instead of me?”

“Aren't you an insomniac, Tech? Maybe she has trouble connecting to you,” nervously responded his friend.

Flaming Ivory drained the entire mug of coffee in front of him effortlessly and stood up, “Ya know what? I don't care whose dreams Princess Luna's jumping into. We're gonna either go looking for Ross ourselves, or keep having the guards get in our way.”

“So you'll go?” asked Midnight hopefully.

“Absolutely,” agreed Techorse, also getting out from his chair, “if we wait too long, Ross will have a huge lead on us. Shining Armor is doing his best with his troops, but they won't be able to go as far as we can traveling together.”

“It's going to be chilly,” sighed Shadow Breeze, “my wings will freeze!”

“I can cast a bubble to lock out the cold,” offered Midnight Blaze.

“And I'll keep it warm,” added Flaming, stretching his back out with the sound of crackling vertebrae, “with that little bit of fire magic I know.”

Once again the tea room was shut closed, and the four stallions exited the palace undetected by the guards. The sun hadn't even risen yet over the Crystal Empire, but as they walked away from the building cloaked in the night, Midnight felt a small bit of light bothering his eyes. His friends walked away from him while he stopped to hold a hoof up over the ray bothering him. From the center of the building, a small beam of light seemed to plunge straight into his retinas alone. The Crystal Heart was active again, seemingly trying to get his attention.

“Are you calling me out for lying?” whispered Midnight Blaze as if the artifact could hear him, “We're trying to help the Crystal Empire by stopping Rosseth! I had to do it.“

The light dimmed, easing the pain in his eyes, and Midnight Blaze galloped to go catch up with his companions. After a long walk to the bridge where they had confronted Rosseth, the ponies approached the glowing thermal barrier separating them from the bitter, brutal winter outside.

“Ok, here goes nothing,” said Midnight, his horn blazing with turquoise energy.

A rounded hemisphere of shield energy surrounded the four ponies, and Flaming Ivory cast his own spell, hovering a small fireball in front of him to heat the inside. Once it was a cozy level of heat inside the bubble, Flaming dispelled his small fire, and the ponies walked in a square formation to the barrier. Midnight's bubble pushed into the barrier, creating a loud electrical grating noise that hurt their ears, but they made it to the other side into the snow unharmed and still warm. Snowflakes hit the bubble of translucent energy and melted instantly, keeping the ponies inside toasty and safe.

“This is so cool!” said Shadow Breeze, “Great spell, Midnight!”

“Thanks Shadow.”

“All right Midnight, lead the way,” commanded Techorse, pointing forward with a hoof, “we've got a chalice to get back!”

The stallions wandered out into the snow and darkness, the sun just barely peaking over the horizon as Celestia's influence reached out from Canterlot. Behind the barrier, just before the bridge, stood Captain Arbiter, his black cape fluttering behind him in the cold breeze filtering through the barrier.

“Ignitus was wrong,” he said, smirking, “Midnight truly is learning from Techorse. It's just not the lesson he wanted.”

Arbiter laughed heartily at his cousin's way of thinking, and disappeared back into the Crystal Empire with a swish of his cape.

Comments

[Grekoy]

I’m getting the feeling that the voice is leading them to a trap.