Equestria 485,000

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 35: Cadenza

The other ponies were careful to stay silent- -something not at all easy when one fifth of the group was Pinkie Pie- -as they watched through the tree line at the clearing where Twilight’s cultists were gathering.

“I can’t see a darn thing,” muttered Applejack. She looked up to the trees overhead where Rainbow Dash was watching. “How about you?”

“Yeah. I can.”

“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know, cult stuff.”

“Well that is certainly helpful,” said Rarity, softly. “And that was sarcasm…” She looked over her shoulder, expecting to see Silken. “Great,” she sighed. “Now she’s gotten me announcing it.”

“What kind of cult things are they doing?” asked Fluttershy. She inhaled sharply. “They aren’t doing sacrifices or walking around with scary hats, are they? Or- -or- -robes?”

“They’ve definitely got the robes,” said Applejack. “Even I can see that.” Fluttershy quivered.

“I wish I could see them more closely,” said Rarity. “I’ve always wondered exactly what one should wear to a cult ritual. Is it supposed to behave more like a uniform, or do they each make their own unique outfit?”

“Every time I went to cult rituals it was more like a uniform,” said Pinkie Pie. All the other ponies looked at her.

“You were in a cult?” asked Fluttershy. “I didn’t know that.”

“There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know about me.”

“Makes sense,” said Applejack, turning back to the clearing. “I’ve met your family.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Take it as you like. But your family members to get married based on what a rock tells them…so…”

“Actually,” said Pinkie Pie. “Now that I think about it, you’re kind of right.”

“Hey! Hey!” hissed Rainbow Dash. “Something’s happening!”

The group looked out toward where the crystal tower stood, and they saw that the massive legged tank that had been trying to cut into the crystal had stopped its attempt. There was no light flowing from it anymore, and the spells it had been casting had stopped.

“Oh my!” said Rarity. “They’ve stopped cutting!”

“Maybe they’re taking a break,” suggested Fluttershy.

“Darling, one does not simply ‘take a break’ from cutting a stone! You lose your place!”

“This isn’t good,” said Applejack. “Have we heard any word from Twilight?”

“No,” said Fluttershy. “We haven’t.”

“We don’t even know if she got down there yet,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Or if there were zombies and ghosts and draugr down there,” said Pinkie Pie.

“Z…zombies?”

“There aren’t any zombies,” said Applejack, “but they wouldn’t be our biggest problem anyway.” She pointed to the clearing. “If they’ve stopped there, then they might be about to start looking for the other entrances!”

Rarity gasped. “But then we have to do something! If they find her- -”

Pinkie Pie stood up and began to bounce excitedly. “Ooh! It’s distraction time! DISTRACTION TIME!”

“Pinkie! Stay quiet!” ordered Applejack. “We still don’t know if they’re even going to start looking for- -”

“Who cares?” said Rainbow Dash. “I’m tired of just sitting here!”

Before Applejack could stop her, Rainbow Dash shot forward, leaving a rainbow contrail behind her. Applejack covered her eyes from the glare, and when she looked back she found that Pinkie Pie had vanished as well.

She sighed. “Well, I guess we’re doing this.”

The beam roared as it burned through the air, and Light Gloom’s optics immediately took readings of the impact sight on the crystal tower. To his dismay, the surface was completely undamaged. It had been superheated to the point where it was glowing with ultraviolet incandescence, but the crystalline surface had not melted in the slightest. The tower remained uninjured.

Light Gloom continued to watch, even though he knew that the project was not progressing. The sky overhead was growing darker and more gloomy, and he saw lightning coming from the eastern horizon, beyond the remnants of what appeared to have once been an impressive castle. As he considered how this might hinder his divine mission, a tall remnus with Cult colors approached him from the side, her narrow legs picking through the stumps of the crystal trees with ease. Despite her grace, though, she paused to twist one of her wrists as though it were damaged.

“Corona Fade,” said Light Gloom, addressing the remnus beside him. “I trust all of your repairs are in order.”

“They are,” she said, somewhat defensively. “All my diagnostic checks indicate that the new body is functioning perfectly.”

“But?”

Fade sighed. “You know how it is for us. Two bodies that for all purposes should be identical never feel the same. But I will adapt to it. I always do.”

“And you no doubt disagree with my use of your old body parts.”

“As the base parts for the body of the Prodijila’s former captain? I neither disagree nor disagree. That decision falls to you.”

“But?”

Fade’s narrow eyes stared at the crystal before her, and she watched the area where the plasma beam was failing to cut, even with the assistance from a number of cultists who were directing their technomagic into the target point as well. “Did you know that, in life, I loved you? You never returned my affection. I do not think I ever told you.”

“Those times are past us, Corona.”

“I know that. Such things have far less meaning to remni. But I do hold some part of my former living self, as we all do. And I worry that my failure may have cost me your respect.”

Light Gloom paused for a long moment before speaking. “The dimensional hammer would have vaporized this stone in an instant, and the tomb beneath it as well,” he said. “But I failed myself.”

“You were undermined.”

“No, I underestimated those who stood against the Will of the Goddess. And I failed. What caused that failure does not change that fact.” He turned his head to Corona Fade, and their optics met. “You were a great general in life, and are a great ally in death. No. I would only lose my respect for you if you had given up. Your failure does not concern me.”

Fade’s expression did not change. “Thank you, High Priest. And I will not fail again.”

“See that you do not.” Light Gloom looked at the crystal and saw that it remained unchanging. He sighed, and then signaled the cutting to stop. The mech- -her name was Vast Six- -silenced her beam, and it attenuated quickly until it went out entirely. The others stopped their magical attack as well, and Light Gloom stared at the point where they had been aiming. The crystal was still glowing, but as he watched it cooled to its normal state. There was not even the slightest scratch on its surface.

“That beam could have cut through the hull on five naval dreadnaughts,” said Corona Fade, sounding mildly surprised.

“Indeed,” said Light Gloom, pleased by the accuracy of her calculation even if it was a relatively simple one. He stared at the undamaged crystal. “I am familiar with the concept of lost arts, but this is the first time I have ever encountered a lost science. This substance is several orders of magnitude more durable than anything we can currently produce, and yet was built over four hundred fifty thousand years ago.”

“And that impresses you?”

“Corona, do you not feel a certain excitement in finding something that every living pony has forgotten how to make?”

“No,” she said, being entirely honest. “I feel excitement when my mission progresses. And this one is clearly encountering a block. I do not believe this is the time for curiosity.”

“But it is,” said Light Gloom. “We will have to study the crystal if we want to break through it. That may take some time. Are you in any particular rush?”

“No,” said Fade. “Of course not. I am in no hurry, and will be happy with however long it requires so long as I am engaged in this mission.”

“I had only hoped that it would go quickly, especially considering…” Light Gloom paused as he suddenly noticed a rainbow-colored contrail moving through the atmosphere overhead. Corona Fade noticed it as well, and they both looked up to see it rising over the clearing, rising up amongst their floating secondary ships and into the upper atmosphere. Then, as it dropped suddenly, it exploded with a tremendous plume of rainbows that shot out across the stormy sky in every direction. The physical force of the rainbows was so great that it buffeted the ships, causing them to drift outward slightly before returning to their original positions.

“A sonic rainboom,” said Fade, sounding mildly amused. “My great great grandmother told me stories about such a thing. I had never expected to see one with my own eyes, though.”

“Such is the glory that ponies once had, in ancient times,” lamented Light Gloom. “If only my mask allowed me to see color. Oh well.”

Part of the rainboom shot forward, leaving a trail behind it. Light Gloom began tracking that portion, as he knew that it was a pony. As he did, he suddenly noticed something pink and organic standing near him.

“Hey…” said the pink monstrosity as it stared up at Corona Fade. “I know you!”

“I do not know how you could,” said Fade, “my body is literally identical to that of all other Cult remni.”

“Oh. Well, sorry Corona Fade, I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to know it was you!” The pink pony then bounced off giggling toward another cultist who was moving a heavy cable lowered from one of the shuttles overhead. The pink pony promptly threw confetti into his face, although he did not deviate from his course. None of them did. Few among them seemed to even care that there were ponies around them, and continued with their work.

There were more than two ponies though. Light Gloom noticed a white unicorn, something that immediately intrigued him. Unicorns, after all, had been the primeval inventors of magic; with their extinction, a great deal had been lost and an even larger quantity of profound theories were left to remain permanently undiscovered.

This one, though, appeared to be no mage. She approached one of cultists.

“Oh my,” she said. “These robes are…well, a bit more drab up close in all honesty.” The cultist turned and the unicorn gasped and shrank. “Oh my, no no no no! That mask, no! NO. You just CAN’T do that! I know you must be trying to look imposing, but the asymmetry, the lack of color- -and wearing Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark on your face is just gauche!” She cleared her throat. “Haven’t you ever considered a simple mask? Perhaps flat black?”

“No,” said the cultist curtly. She then walked around the unicorn, ignoring her.

“Hey!” cried a pale orange earth pony at the edge of the camp. She was dancing around wildly. “Over here! Over here! Why don’t y’all come and fight me like a mare!”

“Distraction, distraction, distraction!” laughed the pink pony. “I’m a distraction!”

Fade turned to Light Gloom. “I shall have them removed.”

“Do not bother,” said Light Gloom. He performed a wide-field scan of the area and pinpointed the locations of each of the ponies. Only one of the five was capable of using magic, but she appeared comparatively weak. He compensated for a unicorn twelve times her power to be safe, and then engaged the spell.

Orange technomagic shot out from him, tracing the path he had mapped for it. Rather than a stun spell, it struck each of the ponies and formed spherical orange bubbles around each. The blue Pegasus above was plucked out of the sky, and the others were trapped easily, including a second Pegasus over one hundred meters away who had been cowering at the treeline.

Light Gloom quickly brought the spheres to him, aligning them in a row before him.

“Hey!” cried the rainbow-maned Pegasus as she struggled against the bubble. “Let me out!”

“No,” said Light Gloom.

“These are the ponies associated with Twilight Sparkle,” said Corona Fade.

“That confirms my hypothesis,” said Light Gloom. “It also confirms that Twilight Sparkle is here.”

“Wait, what?” said the orange earth pony. Her face scrunched. “Uh…no she isn’t.”

“You are a terrible liar. However, I do believe I ought to thank you all. It would only be polite. If Twilight is here but not among you, then she must have found an alternate entrance to the crypt. This central tower would be a decoy, then. Thank you for this information.”

“Worst. Distraction. Ever,” said the pink pony, looking disheartened.

“I will begin scanning the area,” said Light Gloom, interfacing with the ship in orbit as well as the support craft that surrounded him. “Corona, you will lead a search party.”

“There is no need,” said a voice separate from the others. Neither Light Gloom nor Corona Fade turned to see who was approaching, as they both already recognized the voice of the large mare who refused to use a name.

“I was informed you had elected to stay in orbit,” said Light Gloom.

“There is no point in it,” said the mare. She looked at the group, her optic focusing on them one by one. “So our intelligence was true, then.”

“No,” said the pink pony. “It was false! We’re not even here!”

“Quiet, Pinkie Pie.” The mare turned to Light Gloom. “These are ponies, then?”

“No. Perfunctory scanning and extrapolation indicates that although they have the primary signatures of ponies, their actual bodies are a combination of tissue from an unidentified type of organism and an unknown class of techno-organic technology.”

“Implying they were built. By whom?”

“I cannot determine that, nor is it relevant.”

“I suppose not. Right now I would assume that finding the tomb is the top priority.”

“That is a correct assumption. Hence why we need to begin scanning.”

“The monument is laid out like a star,” said the mare. “It has six points as entrances. The central crystal sits over the tomb but is not penetrable.”

“Then we know exactly where to look.” Light Gloom turned to Corona Fade. “Gather a team. I will join you personally, but I also want you to take Twilight Sparkle’s finest warriors. We do not know what we will fine down there.”

“Yes, High Priest.”

“And Corona: I value you both for your role, and as a dear friend. But do not fail me again.”

“No,” said Corona, bowing. “I will not fail you, nor will I fail the Goddess. We will prevail.”

Light Gloom nodded. “I know. Because we have to. It is the Empire’s only hope.”

Twilight pushed deeper and deeper into the hall. It had a downward slope, so as she moved farther and farther the path became deeper. In time, the roots grew thin and vanished, leaving the hallway clean with little other than dust and the occasional pool or small stream of water that ran down it from a higher elevation. Twilight was sure that at this point, she was somewhere below the clearing made by the cultists above. She only hoped that the thickness of the crystal would protect her from being detected by their spells, and that they had not yet discovered the true entrance to the tomb.

At this depth, the shape of the walls had changed. Their architecture now included wide crystal arches, both to hold up the stone above as well as to provide spacers between the crystalline murals that covered the walls. Twilight had forgotten many of them, but a few had been imbedded in her memory so well that replicas of them still hung in the more forgotten places of her complex on Dusk. They showed her brother in various stages of his life, glorifying him at important points of his personal history. Doing so was not hard; much of what he had accomplished was indeed epic. Many murals had been added later to depict Cadence, but doing so had hardly been necessary; both ponies were featured together in virtually every one of the images regardless of to whom they were dedicated.

“I wish I could have known him,” said Silken.

“He was a great pony.”

“Based on this, I would agree. Although is it strange that his depictions here greatly remind me of my husband?”

“No,” lied Twilight, recalling a certain fling she had had in her youth with a particular orange-colored crystal guard. “That isn’t weird at all.”

Twilight suddenly slowed. They had reached the gate to the crypt itself. It stood as a large door of crystal, flanked on both sides by enormous crystal statues in the shape of ponies. As Twilight approached, a dim glow of magic formed in the center of each of the statues. With a rumble, both of them suddenly moved. They awoke and each took a step forward, lowering crystal spears toward the interlopers.

“Oh my!” said Silken, excitedly. “I had heard stories about crystal ponies!”

“Those aren’t crystal ponies,” said Twilight. “They’re golems.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. I built them.”

Silken looked disappointed, and Twilight approached the golems. They saw her, their crystal faces tracing her path. When they spoke, their voices were booming and their language the spoken version of Equestrian Universal, the language that had existed when Twilight had first carved them.

“Only those who bear relation to those who lie here in peace may enter,” said one of them.

“Those who do not meet this requirement and who would disturb their eternal rest must face us,” added the other.

“I am Twilight Sparkle, sister of Shining Armor. All of us here meet your requirement.”

The golems did not lower their spears, but they permitted Twilight to pass. She walked by and to the door behind them. The pair of shoggoth queens followed her as well, and the golems did not react to their presence. When Silken did, though, they shifted, moving their faces closer to her.

“You are no longer living,” they said.

“No. I am not,” said Silken. “But I wish to see my grandmother, and my grandfather, even if could never meet them in life.”

The golems stared for a moment longer, and then raised their spears and stepped back to their original positions. They had accepted Silken as a legitimate heir of both Cadence and Shining armor. Twilight was relieved, but only partially. This was just another sign that this particular protection spell would be useless against modern ponies.

Silken smiled. “I got through,” she said. “Which is obvious I suppose.” She turned her attention toward the crystal door. “So. How do we open it?”

“We don’t,” said Twilight. “The golems are just part of the spell. They’re really just for show. Here. Watch.”

Twilight walked briskly toward the crystal wall. She did not stop, and as Silken watched, she collided with it. Rather than physically striking the thick crystal, though, she passed through it as though it were a liquid.

Without hesitation, the pair of queens followed her. Silken did the same, feeling the crystal that should have been hard and nearly indestructible give way and flow over her body. When she reached the other side, she found herself in a grand room lit by a line of luminescent crystals. Twilight was standing there, alone.

“Where are the others?” asked Silken.

“They left,” said Twilight. “Invisibility spells.”

“They are still in here, though?”

Twilight nodded. “I think they are waiting. But we need to hurry.” Twilight took to the air. “The central vault is not much farther.”

When they finally did reach it, the vault was exactly what Twilight remembered. The room appeared round, but was actually a complex polyhedron with regular, perfect sides made from pure luminescent crystal. The air itself seemed to glow around the contents in the center. This was something of a shock, even though Twilight was seeing exactly what she remembered. Nothing had changed, and it was still here, a room that she had shed so many tears in two times in the distant past.

She no longer flew, and no longer ran. This place was silent, and yet she could feel the air of reverence that remained. It was the energy of this room that had created the forests overhead, and where the magic of love was the strongest- -both from those who had been forced to abandon it in distant past, and from the one who had given her soul so that those ponies would have a chance to escape an icy fate.

There was a single dais in the center, one place where the two lovers- -one mortal, and one immortal- -had both come to lay. On the left lay Twilight’s brother, his bones encased in crystal that when viewed gave the illusion that he was still whole and just sleeping. Twilight felt tears run down her cheeks as she put her hoof on the crystal, and then silently hugged it.

“Hello, big brother,” she said. “I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long.”

She squeezed the cold crystal, and then released it, turning to the bench that had been constructed beside her brother’s grave. When she looked, Twilight felt herself gasp. She had known what would be there, but she could not help herself.

Cadence was there. Her body was not encased in crystal, but exposed to the glowing and reverent air while she lay on a bed of crystal. To Twilight, it looked like she was sleeping. In a way, she was, even though it would be impossible for her to ever awaken. The way she had been left had betrayed the illusion: the way the crystal ponies had arranged her mane, and the eternal crystal flowers that she held in her hooves between her golden horseshoes. Twilight thought she would have felt nothing, but she had been arrogant and wrong. She found herself crying unabashedly.

“Cadence,” she said. “I’m sorry, I should have known…you should be ruling beside me, not here, not like this…”

Twilight felt a narrow metal hoof on her shoulder, and she suddenly turned around to hug Silken. Silken hugged back.

“She is beautiful,” said Silken. “She looks like mother did.” Twilight did not answer. “And after all this time…”

Twilight sniffled, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof. “Yes,” she choked, trying to clear her head. “I know. It’s just…” she turned back to Cadence and cleared her throat. “Her biological processes never stopped. If you wait long enough, you can see her breathe. The crystal ponies probably would have considered it miraculous, if they had ever been able to come back here.”

“We came back,” said Silken.

Twilight nodded.

“Is there any way to wake her up?”

“No,” said Twilight. “I wish there was. Believe me, if there was…” She shook her head angrily. The tears were coming back. “This is part of the curse that makes us immortal. If there is a pony afterlife, she already passed to it. This is what the corpse of an immortal looks like.”

“I do not think there is an afterlife,” said Silken. She brushed a pointed hoof with incredible gentleness through her grandmother’s mane. “In fact, I know there is not. It is part of the reason the living cannot interface with us. Because we know what death looks like. But I hope there is one.”

“How can a machine hope?”

“I just do,” said Silken. “I do not ask why. Perhaps it is why I have existed so long.” She sighed. “But Goddess, I wish I could help her too.”

“There is nothing left to help,” said Twilight, “and nothing that can be done. But she can still help us.”

The air around them remained silent, but Twilight suddenly felt a change. She looked up and around, almost in a panic.

“What is it?” asked Silken.

“I can feel it,” she said. “Others…they’re here.” She met Silken’s eyes. “Light Gloom is here.” �I get the impr7U?� �4

Comments

[AppleTank]

Ah, the perils of training a genius. The unfortunate betrayals.