Ranger
Chapter 220: Fallen
By Wanderer D
"So, now what?" Gilda asked.
After what little remained of the day had faded into darkness, Twilight had teleported Caballeron's goons to Canterlot prison with a note from herself. Caballeron himself, exhausted was still tied up and his mouth tied shut, and had been magically attached to a chair. He would not be going anywhere.
And so, after helping clean up a little, they had made tea and gathered together around Daring's dinner table to consider their next move.
"I had a plan," Daring Do said. "The intention was to let Caballeron think he got away with the ring, so I could figure out who wanted it in the first place."
"Well, we've figured that the one that wants it is this Ahuichicle guy, right?" Gilda said. "Why don't we go to their meeting place and take care of him then?"
Daring shook her head. "If Caballeron doesn't show up himself, Ahuitzotl will know things went wrong and they'll all be on guard. He's not as smart as he think he is, but he's not stupid. We'll need to figure out a way to trick him into taking us to the temple."
"So, what's so important in that temple that you need to go there?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"The temple itself needs to be destroyed," Daring Do said, "if we simply destroy the ring, it a new one can be forged later on. No, the Temple must be brought down by removing all other rings from the dias. Once the whole thing topples down, then we can destroy the rings and Ahuitzotl will never control the valley."
"Ahuitzotl is a powerful foe," Twilight said, "especially from what we base him on all your previous adventures and encounters, Daring. But he's also generally not stupid nor prone to do things without an endgame of some sort. What's he going to gain by activating the rings and burning the valley down?"
Daring almost rolled her eyes. Almost. Then she remembered that Princess of Friendship or not, she wasn't playing around. "The valley would be doomed, but the rings could be used for more than that," she said, "Ahuitzotl could bring war and raise an army to attack other countries."
Twilight sighed. "Always wars." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We can get more information from Caballeron and help you destroy the temple."
Daring huffed. "I always work alone. But since it seems I have no other choice, why don't we get to the point of your visit. You said you needed help? For what?"
"We do need your help…" Twilight cleared her throat. "I have a friend that needs help. She's… been through a really tough time, and is currently in a place with very little magic around… she's also... a blood witch."
The cup in Daring's hoof cracked. "A blood witch?" she said carefully. "As in, forbidden magic blood witch. Scourge of the land, bring down the apocalypse kind of forbidden stuff?"
Twilight nodded. "She's been practicing for years without much of an issue, but recently during a mission, it seems like she was possessed… she's… calling herself something else. She's a good person… a good pony." Twilight looked down. "Please help me save her. There must be some sort of ancient artifact designed to fight ancient magics like that."
Daring stood and rummaged through her books, bringing out an old tome and opening it on the table, flipping the pages until she found an illustration of a city in flames and ruins.
"A long time ago, the great city of the Calpolli tribe was one of the ancient wonders of the world. It is said that their greatest priest, a unicorn of great power named Camazotz, was the first spellcaster to discover blood magic. Whether that's true or not, nopony knows. But what we do know, is that as his power grew, so did his lusts for other things. Mares. Stallions. Gold. Food. Magic.
"At one point, it wasn't enough. One night, he slaughtered everypony in his temple. From the walls and halls of it, massive blood-like tentacles emerged, bringing down the entire city in one night." She raised her eyes to Twilight. "Tell me, Princess. Why do you think the ancient ponies had so many powerful items like the Rings of Scorchero?"
Twilight shook her head, eyes fixated on the image. "Why?"
In answer, Daring flipped the page, where a pegasus pony in golden and white armor held aloft a golden feathered lance. Lightning and fire rained on the city below. "Because blood mages were not saved. They needed to be destroyed."
"I refuse to believe that!" Twilight snarled. "There has to be another way!"
"Your "good" pony already has surpassed the transformations of anypony in history, except perhaps Camazotz himself!" Daring countered.
She stood up, gathering more books and shaking her head.
"There are many forbidden magics, as you well know, and all of them had to be fought somehow! Most often battling these creatures required a great sacrifice." She opened another book, sliding it over to Twilight. "The shadow mage, Tonameyotl, who became powerful enough to inhabit and control everypony that cast a shadow before the heroine Icetlacatl hid her own shadow in a gem and absorbed all the shadow magic within her before throwing herself into the ocean."
She pulled up another book in a completely different language. "Pevka had similarly to deprive herself of sounds… any sounds… trapping her voice and essence before she could take Ritem down forever. She left behind her home and family to stop a monster that could kill anything that even rustled. It's said that even before she reached Ritem, she was half mad."
Another book came out. "Sivil did the same… perhaps the most tragic, capturing her very soul to take down the Time Wizard Lord Murthod by trapping her essence outside of time… while she was still living!"
For each name, she put down a book on the table, flipping pages to show the illustrations of each of their gruesome deaths. "None of those villains were half as dangerous as a blood mage," Daring said. "And all the heroes that tried to fight them, even if they won, died."
"Twilight?" Alejandra asked when she noticed the princess was not answering. Instead, she was staring at the images. One was a blue, earth pony with a feathered headband. The other was a purple unicorn in light armor, and the last one a yellow pegasus in traditional battle armor.
Each of them were depicted wearing a red gem around their necks.
"Oh Celestia…" Twilight murmured, "it's worse than I thought."
o.0.o End Chapter 220 o.0.o
What was it at the end of the page?
Holy shit, blue, purple and yellow? Any sirens ring any bells with the same colour scheme guys?
Oh shit. They became sirens.
I’m getting a “oh shit” feeling right now and I don’t know why. Now it kinda clicked. No no it hasn’t. I’m lost.
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Ding. The hero’s from the stories became the sirens. Maybe?
I'm a little confused by this line, since if Camazotz was the only blood mage to go full blood tentacle then how do they measure how far blood mages go? Like if all the other blood mages got stopped way before that point, how is the progression of blood mages known? I don't know if what I'm trying to say is super clear, but I guess without a clearer understanding of what they already know about blood magic, and blood magic in general, it's not super clear to me how much daring can infer from what Twilight told her, since it didn't seem like alot?
Something went though my head when I saw this updated. It was a debate. Should I wait for there to be more to read at once, since the last chapter ended on a fairly resolved note, or should I read this one, on the off chance it won't have a horrible cliffhanger?
You can guess how that turned out.
(Also, love the plot of this story, by the way.)
as soon as I read the words "gem" and "Ocean". I felt a sinking feeling... and while reading about Pevka it had already clicked before I even read that last sentence which just served to confirm the Damning evidence. . .
You're wrong Daring. . . They didn't die, they all became something MUCH worse than a blood mage. . . both collectively and on their own
The horrifying ramifications of this revelation. . . Blood of the ancients. . . Sunset what have you done. . .
- Thunder
"the ring, it a new one can"
"the ring, a new one can"?
"especially from what we base him on all your previous adventures and encounters, Daring"
I don't understand what this was meant to mean, sorry.
"a blue, earth pony with"
"a blue earth pony with"?
So the heros of old have become things worse than what they fought? I guess they stared into the abyss a tad too long.
Is Twilight aware of Sunset's plan B? Because even Daring might decide to do something if she knows Sunset arrange to have her very Soul erased!
In addition to Reese’s corrections down there:
thinks
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No, the heroes of old sacrificed their lives – or accepted fates worse than death – to defeat the those with forbidden magic.
And yeah, knowledge a plan to erase Sunset’s very soul would put things in a hurry.
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Actually I do believe the part of Rolk's comment about "becoming things worse than what they fought" refers to the fact that this chapter basically confirmed (Without outright saying it, though I suspect that part will probably happen next chapter), that the heroes of old in question became either the first Sirens, or became the Sirens now known as Aria Blaze, Sonata Dusk, and Adagio Dazzle, in fact it's entirely possible that they may in fact be both. . . barring Sonata/The Hunter's comment about the so called "Queen Seabiscuit", though it's just as likely that it was just a thinly veiled sarcastic remark she to Tirek out of disrespect for him.
- Thunder
Did not see that Coming. Very Bad
I binge-read 80-some chapters. Now I'm caught up and I hope for more.
To fight monsters, they had to become monsters themselves. The story of the Sirens is more tragic than we thought.
So they accidently made themselves into pseudo-liches, via the hive concept of hidden-death, and then trapped themselves in the crushing black until magic adapted their forms? That has to be one of the most spectacular errors I've ever heard of.
Well... now we know that all known methods of destroying dark magic users just turn you into dark magic users... meaning even IF we were satisfied with just killing our friend-turned-monster, research for a new method is still necessary. Might as well go for the full victory while we're at it though!
You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. And every villain is the hero of their own story.
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I think you're onto something there but I don't think it's quite that simple. From the sounds of it the essences/powers of all three (or is should that be six?) combined somehow.
Speculation:
Daring only said Icetlacatl threw herself into the ocean, not that it killed her. From the sounds of it Icetlacatl, and the other two may have survived, as Daring never elaborated on the exact fashion each one allegedly died in.
Observation:
Each villain and the respective hero who defeated them is an analogue of each aspect of a Sirens abilities, Icetlacatl and Tonameyotl are mind control, Pevka and Ritem are sound/voice, while Sivil and Lord Murthod are unclear but seem to relate to immortality/longevity. (The Siren gem itself seems to relate more directly to both Sivil and Icetlacatl than Pevka). Combining all three would certainly explain a siren's ability to use Mind Controlling Singing to Feed and thus likely increase the lifespan.
Theory:
Somehow the three survived and met each other, the essences of themselves that they each trapped, possibly along with the powers of each one's respective opponent, in some as yet unexplained manner combined, laying the foundation for what they would later become.
- Thunder
That's EXTREMELY curious. Specially because it seems that Daring herself, and most if not all pony historians, don't actually know that all those great heroes became blood witches the gem is always described, it seems, but did anyone have enough information to connect the dots? I believe no one in equestria bar the princess, and that's a stretch, might know just who the blood witches really are.
The heroes that survive
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Yes, it does seem as if the three combined to become what we know now. One hid her "shadow" inside a gem. Now Shadows have all kinds of mythic properties. But can often be a reflection of your soul.
Ergo, "soul gems".
Another removed herself from the time stream, this would than explain how they have lived for at lest 1000 years and yet look the same. Or, barring that, how they highjacked/twisted Stairswirl's spell and landed in near modern times.
Lastly, one removed all sound and was driven half mad before she even got to the fight. It would be no small stretch, that after winning she removed such a spell and changed it, or used notes from her enemy to never deal with silence again. My money is on Soni for that one.
But that is also the big worry. If they spawned at different times and locations than how and why did they join powers and forces?
The worry here, is that Sonata, Aria and Adagio are "sisters" though the gems, and that the gems themselves are connected. If so, Sunset's change and gem is doing to same to Sonata and Sonata and Aria's could be doing the same to Sunset. If true they will become, in time, an amalgamation of all four's power set.
Dang, Daring sure didn't have any good news.
Interesting.
... Time travel?..
...WELL THEN.
Ladies and gentlemen, we may have a code: Wildbow on our hands. (To those who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, search up the web serial Worm. Word of warning, it's tagline is "Doing the wrong thing, for the right reasons.")
To be honest, I'm very much so wondering why I simply disregarded this when I saw it long ago. This has been a simply beautiful read.
Sincerely,
Hunter Redflame.
Ohhhhh thats bad....... Very very very bad.....
I hear "Ahuichicle" and I imagine that Ahuizotl funds his schemes with licensed bubble gum.
In any case, I certainly didn't see this coming. Live long enough to see yourself become the villain indeed. Still, Twilight has an excellent track record of dealing with threats that no one else can. I'm not saying it'll be easy, but I definitely think it's possible.
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The Assasin (the one who captures Pratal Mox at the end of the meeting between the Reapers and the Skirmishers). Sorry if my XCOM 2 lore is muddled, I've only recently got WOTC (though I do agree with most people on here that Mox is a badass).
9452050 Introduced in the story, yes. Sunset arrives a few years before XCOM: WOTC happens.
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Ah, thanks. I did get a laugh out of the exploding Purifiers. Can anybody here name a time they DON'T blow up when shot?
I'm... curious how that happened. Even though I know it's best not to question these things.
I don't see how Daring Do would know that. I imagine it was meant to be clear from what Twilight said, but I don't think it is.
And also, wow, yikes, awesome/terrifying revelation there at the end. Great stuff.
O for the love of... They are all Sirens?!
All - of - them?!!!
The Gems... are they the true enemy? Maybe purification or destruction are the key to saving a Siren?