The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Days of Darkness

Valey alighted on a balcony low to the shield over Garsheeva's temple, on the level of Grandbell where only the royal palace sat. The glass-domed throne room she had visited before was nearby, and she suspected her quarry couldn't be far.

"Yo," she said, greeting two griffon guards who stood by a door and stared at her with a minimal level of danger.

"You're that sarosian from the Stormhoof debacle," one griffon returned. "We know you. But I'm afraid this level of the palace isn't presently open to public visitors. What's your business?"

Valey tucked a loose strand of mane behind her ear, idly noting that she needed a trim. "Looking for Prince Gazelle. Got some stuff I wanna ask him. You guys have any idea where he is?"

"The prince comes and goes as he pleases. He doesn't keep a schedule." The second guard frowned, rain hammering loudly against the shield several floors below. "We can pass a message up through our superiors, but it won't get through today. Is it urgent?"

Valey felt a slight rush at the realization the guards not only knew who she was, they respected her for it. Or maybe Grandbell was just a much more respectable organization than Felicity and Selma's armies that she had dealt with in the past... "Uhh... not really, but I feel like wandering around anyway. Does the castle open up later? Are there other places he might be that are usually open? Just looking for a general direction, here."

The first guard nodded. "Public access hours for tourists are three to nine in the evening. Security is slightly more restrictive now that we're playing host to the lords who were attacked in Stormhoof, and the areas they're staying in will never be open. In or close to the castle would be my guess. If you're looking for ways to kill time, the public areas three stories up are open around the clock."

Valey blinked. "Wow, uh, thanks. You guys are cool. Tell your boss I said that. See ya."

With an amiable salute, she took off, weaving her way upward while staying in the rain shadow of protruding pieces of architecture. On the indicated level, the architecture opened up considerably, a wide ring of plazas and walkways built on the roofs and spires of the castle level before the vertical walls of the city hole properly began. This did mean some of them were exposed to rain, but there were enough spaces shielded by the higher levels that it wasn't hard for her to find a windowsill to sit on, comfortably looking out over a courtyard that seemed bordered by take-out restaurants.

"Mmmmm..." Valey breathed in, sucking down the scents of cooking food and spices as ponies and griffons went about their ways below. They noticed her, giving her more direct and deliberate looks than they spared for others, clearly evaluating her for danger, yet her presence didn't stop them from going about their ways.

It was too bad she didn't have an acquaintance to grab lunch with herself. For the briefest moment, she considered getting some anyway, maybe even trying to make a new friend... but nah. This was nice enough already, and if she was going to hunt down Gazelle and question him on why he allegedly bailed her out on the Stormhoof stuff, it wouldn't do to be in too good a mood. Or a bad mood, if things went south.

The lights inside the window she was sitting by went out.

"Huh?" Valey blinked, turning around, not realizing the room she was next to had been occupied. As fun as peeping had been in Ironridge, she wasn't quite sure if her recent talk with Shinespark solicited recreational spying... but the window led to a library, not a residence, and in the light it let in she saw rows and rows of darkened bookcases and several ponies looking around unhappily. A disgruntled unicorn huffed, lit her horn and continued reading.

Power shortages, indeed. She absolutely remembered Felicity telling her how the energy shortage in Stormhoof was caused by Meltdown and Gazelle raising prices to cause shortages and manufacture a weakness in the castle for sarosians. There had also been something about Chauncey's illegal generators she didn't quite remember, though it was probably that that was another excuse. But now that Gazelle's ambitions were ended, Meltdown really should have stopped...

Valey narrowed her eyes as the crowd's tone and volume began to change, those closest to the edge of the balcony shouting and the ones further away curiously migrating to join them. Within seconds, she couldn't resist going to see what everyone was looking at herself, though she had a tingling sensation she knew what it was going to be...

She glided to the plaza and landed, strolling to join the crowd gathering at the edge. Somehow, the creatures were too interested even to shy away or give her a wary berth, and even shrugged it off when she bumped flanks by accident. Finally, she reached the edge.

The shield that protected the temple core from rain and falling debris was gone.

"Hey, you!" a loud voice rang in her ear, and she turned to see a stallion with a fat, blocky jaw. "I've seen your face in the news. You're important, right? What can you tell us about what's going on?"

Valey blinked harder, realizing that for all the Empire's sarosian animosity and her general bad luck, she was somehow a random stranger's default assumption for an authority figure... and that several other nearby ponies were looking at her too. "I mean, uh," she said, needing something to say. "At a guess? That stuff that Chauncey clod did with the power grid a month ago really did mess something up. Can't think of anything else that would have happened..."

"This is the first time I've seen the shield go out," a mare with a long mane said. "The outages have been getting more and more frequent over the last few weeks, and it feels like they're worse and longer every time."

A griffon growled under his breath. "Garsheeva's clergy say the Empire's power comes from the big cat herself. After Izvaldi, everyone was saying she'd be fine, and needed time to regain her strength. That doesn't jive well with these outages getting worse and worse. And we're the capitol! The rest of the Empire's probably completely dark by now..."

Valey frowned at the pit, rain falling and landing on the ruby tower below. Already, battalions of guards were in the air, keeping any curious citizens from flying into the depths of the hole, but very few seemed to be trying. "Yeah, she's got her secrets. Any goddess does. I dunno what to tell you."

Truth be told, she hadn't noticed the region's power issues, because for the last month she had been in Stormhoof, which was short on energy always, and living on an airship with a harmonic generator at that. That was clearly a crystal palace, down in the hole. It was a safe assumption that Garsheeva was using the harmonic flame in there for energy, extracting it with technology like Shinespark's machine or weird goddess powers or other magic. But why would a source like that fail?

They were at enough of an angle that she could see the glass throne room part of the way around the ring, just above where the shield was supposed to be. She could see a little dressed-up filly standing at the very edge, and a wheelchair-bound form by her side...

The palace might have been closed, but the lights were off, and that was an invitation for sneaking.

---

"Guess who, guess what and guess why," Valey greeted, dropping from the ceiling in the castle throne room, earning a gasp from Lyn, a single swiveled ear from Gazelle and the drawing of several spears from the two guards who accompanied them.

"Valey!" Lyn's eyes widened. "At ease," she commanded, spreading a single wing and sweeping it past her attendants. "I don't know whether this is good timing or bad, but welcome back."

Gazelle slowly turned himself to face her, raising an eyebrow. "Admiral. Drawn in by the scent of trouble? I didn't expect to see you coming to seek out yours truly."

"Just got kinda curious." Valey shrugged. "So what's up with the shield thing?"

She gave Gazelle a knowing look, and he tried to raise his forelegs in innocence, wincing heavily and failing. "Ow. It isn't me this time, I swear it! This is all on Meltdown, nobody lower than her knows anything about it other than the obvious symptoms, and why do you care anyway when you have a magic boat that powers itself? If you want to beat up the culprit, you've got the wrong pony."

The guards by Lyn's side bristled, but she gave them another reassurance, stepping forward. "Is there anything we can do for you? We have a problem on our paws, you can tell, but there's little we can do about it so we may as well help you."

"A problem called curiosity." Valey nodded, flicking her tail as she walked to meet the princess. "Initially, I kind of just wanted to ask Gazelle some stuff about Stormhoof, but now that there's something way more interesting going on..." She gestured below. "That shield's not supposed to go down, is it?"

Lyn shook her head. "The shield is enchanted to allow sphinxes through but repel everything else. It is only opened on the days when Garsheeva executes heretics for all the city to see."

"Which is a rather barbaric show, if you're into us being polite and dainty," Gazelle added. "Wings tied, horns bound, drop them from the top and someone gets a tasty snack at the bottom. When she was big enough, at least."

"...Ew." Valey blanched. "She executes heretics by eating them? Yeah, glad I'm not one of those. So I'm guessing the shield dropping isn't something you do just to con an entire empire?"

Lyn looked forlornly at the window. "Regular power shortages? Ask my brother. But if the public thinks Garsheeva's power itself is waning, that's a bigger problem than you know."

Comments

[Boopers]

What if Garsheeva is doing something with all that power herself? I wonder what she's up to.

[ZanyZapper]

9759193
Indeed. She may be using it to restore herself.

[alamais]

"...Ew." Valey blanched. "She executes heretics by eating them?

Per Chapter 693:

"The race of sphinxes is immortal by design. Their longevity comes from consuming the cutie marks of others, releasing their bodies and souls to mortal fates while deconstructing the emotional energy of their hopes. All sphinxes are capable of this."

That whole 'heresy' thing comes in pretty handy, eh?
I wonder if alicorn immortality comes with a matching sacrificial demand...