Death Rides a Pale Mare

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 25

The house simply wasn’t big enough for the whole guild. Pale woke up on the floor swaddled in her cloak. Considering the circumstances, she supposed, it was good to be waking up at all.

She got up and went into the kitchen. Her sleep cycle still had her waking up at night. Jolly was there, yawning but vigilant in his watch at the window. Pale nodded to him and they traded places.

“Good evening,” he said. “Well, an evening, anyway.”

That summed it up. The attack at the cave was still hanging over them all. Pale had never known nor heard of such a loss to the guild before, not to mention in their own headquarters. The Weeds were nothing compared to the threat posed by the cyclops.

Facing their greatest enemy while at their weakest… Pale didn’t know how things could be worse, and did not wish to find out.

Jolly was working on something at the stove while Pale stared out the window. He came over with a plate. “Toast?”

“Thanks.”

Pale leaned down to take it, but Jolly pulled back. “I thought you wanted to practice your magic.”

Pale had forgotten completely. “Habit,” she muttered. After a moment, she managed to pick up the toast with magic and put it in her mouth.

She returned to staring out the window while chewing, her mind turning back to the problem. If the guild was to overcome this, to have a chance of surviving it, they would need every advantage they could get. They would need to develop new tactics. Anything that could be done to provide even the slightest advantage had to be put into place.

That meant Pale had to learn how to use her magic. Really use it, not just lifting small objects. As much as it pained her to admit, doing so might require Chrysalis’ help.

That, of course, carried far more risk than even dangerous experiments with magic. Pale hated that she was even thinking about it, but resolved to reserve groveling in front of her mother as a last resort, after all available methods of self-help had been explored and abandoned. There was no telling what Chrysalis wanted with the guild and caution was warranted.

When somepony replaced her on watch, Pale went back up to the open area under the observatory dome. Alone, she took out the brass button and examined it. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that it felt somehow unusual under magic.

Pale tried picking up various other things around the room, books, pieces of small telescopes, paper. For practice, she tried several objects at once.

She twiddled a few knobs on the main telescope in the center of the room. Something felt right about that, a strange sense of understanding. Pale stepped forward and looked into the telescope. It was centered and focused perfectly on the moon, the craters easy to distinguish and more detailed than Pale had ever seen them.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but had somehow intuitively known how the complicated telescope worked. Was her special talent astronomy? That was...Pale wasn’t sure how to feel about that. But surely that couldn't be it, could it? She checked. No cutie mark.

No other object Pale had touched with magic, save for the button, had even registered as special. What was different about the telescope and the button?

Pale started touching everything.

She moved downstairs, working her way through the house room by room. She tried complicated things like the telescope, she tried simple things like the button. She tried brass things, machines, cloth, everything.

She didn’t get a reaction from anything until she picked up the sabre she had brought from the cave. As she examined it, she realized she could feel what must be the metallurgy and stress points of the blade, though she wasn’t really sure how she knew that or why. Understanding that, though, could help her wield and take care of the weapon better. Pale swung the sabre experimentally, and it moved easily, despite being one the heavier things she had ever lifted with magic.

But why did it feel this way? What did the sabre have in common with the telescope or the button? Pale considered it. She knew she’d killed the previous owners of both the sabre and telescope.

She shook her head. Coin would say two out of three implied nothing. She needed more evidence.

Pale started going through everything in the house again. She was still at it in the morning when Coin found her. At the time, Pale was closely examining the spoon drawer.

“Can I...help you?” Coin asked.

“I’ll let you know,” Pale assured her.

“It’s time to feed the parasprites,” Coin said, turning away. “We don’t have much left. Somepony will have to go get food.”

“I can do it,” offered Pale. She needed a break from fruitless searching.

She found Piper’s three black parasprites resting in the living room. They perked up immediately upon seeing that she had food, though ravenous as parasprites were, one slice of bread was hardly a meal for the three of them.

As they ate it out of Pale’s grip, she felt the same connection she’d been searching for. Her heart leapt up. Piper’s signature parasprite spell?

Tentatively, she reached out, trying to feel the magic. The parasprites came to a halt and obediently turned to face her. Pale closed her eyes, and found herself looking at...herself. The view was narrower than her usual field of view, and dim, as if remembering a picture in her mind’s eye. It was somewhat fuzzy and distorted, but undeniably through the eyes of a parasprite. With a little will, Pale found she could swap between the three of them.

Elated, she tried moving them around the room. It wasn’t as if she controlled them directly, like playing an arcade claw game, more along the lines of she expressed her will and they followed along. With a little effort, Pale managed to see the view from more than one of them at once, though dividing her attention between two viewpoints strained her concentration.

It was still an amazing discovery. The opportunity to see the back of her own head was novel, but that was hardly the most useful thing about the spell. The guild had its eyes back!

Though, it didn’t answer Pale’s questions about how her magic worked. She tried to somehow connect the button, the telescope, the sabre, and the parasprites. She knew that at least three of the four previous owners were dead. They were also unicorns. Pale didn’t know her father, but from what little Chrysalis had ever said, he could have been a unicorn.

Pale still couldn’t figure out why she had a connection to any of the things. She hadn’t felt it on Piper’s journal or anything else in Cosmograph’s house. Was it only tied to one object per pony? Did they have to be dead? Did it have to have a special spell? If so, she’d figured out the others, but what secret did the button hold?

Pale shook her head. It would be good to know, of course, but she’d just discovered something more important.

The sun was just barely up, and Pale had been awake all night, but she strode into the kitchen and upturned a cooking pot, banging it a couple of times with her hoof. “I need everyone in the kitchen now!”

“What’s going on?” asked Shadow, who was already there with Whisper, standing near the window on guard duty.

Pale smiled, which probably surprised the two of them more than her answer. “We’re back in business.”

Comments

[BlueNinja]

“Good evening,” he said. “Well, an evening, anyway.”

I know that feel, bro.

Anything that could be done to provide even the slightest advantage had to be put into place.

So then, why not bring it to the attention of Equestrian authority?

Something felt right about that, a strange sense of understanding.

No, your special talent is knobs!

Pale started touching everything.

Everything? Good thing the Guild doesn't have a sexual harassment policy?

she’d killed the previous owners of both the sabre and telescope.

I'd ask what a murder cutie mark is good for, but Kkat and Somber already gave us that answer.

she controlled them directly, like playing an arcade claw game

That sounds like it would be incredibly difficult to do.

she’d figured out the others, but what secret did the button hold?

If you cast a color change spell, so that it's red, it launches the missiles!

[Dlaf rferg]

8242668

So then, why not bring it to the attention of Equestrian authority?

This has been addressed. It would a cause a panic, causing Blighted to bloom early, and ponies thinking that any cough means you're Blighted, leading to lynch mobs.

[BlueNinja]

8242688 Not make it public - but rather, arrange a clandestine meeting with Twi/Luna/Celestia and turn over everything they have on the Blight. For that matter, how Luna hasn't seen it in their dreams is still baffling.

[Dlaf rferg]

8242707 The problem has, again, been explained that the Princesses would not forgive anyone the act of murder, even for the greater good.

I do see your point on Princess Luna, though.