• Published 28th Feb 2018
  • 6,862 Views, 760 Comments

Northern Venture - Chengar Qordath



Sunset Shimmer journeys to Northmarch to meet the ancient dragon Argentium the Runescaled. Her dreams of becoming an alicorn clash with a threat that may require sacrifices—not just for her dreams, but survival.

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Not According to Plan

While everyone else stared at my biological mother with dumb gobsmacked looks on their faces, I got straight to the point. “What are you doing here?”

Scarlett looked down at me and sniffed like I was a particularly stinky sort of cheese. “Isn’t it obvious? I came here to bring you home.”

“‘Home’?” I scoffed. “Tell me, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Home’s been Freeport for the last couple years, and before that it was my tower in Celestia’s palace. Unless you’ve still got that old room you stuffed me in back when I was an unmarked foal, I don’t think you know much about what counts as home to me.”

“Canterlot,” Scarlett answered tersely. “I’m taking you back to Canterlot. I’m sure Celestia and I will sort out the exact details of your living arrangements once you’ve returned. That’s hardly important. I’m sure you had fun gallivanting around Freeport and pretending to be a magus, but it's past time we put a stop that.”

“Pretending to be a magus?” I repeated incredulously. I suppose it came as no shock that she didn’t have the first clue what I’d actually been doing for the last several years. Not like that was anything new. “I don’t know how you expected this to end, but we’re a long way from when you could tell me what to do.”

“You are my daughter,” Scarlett growled out. “And I am your mother. I know you’ve put considerable effort into pretending that’s not the case, but it is. And it doesn’t change just because you spent the last few years as a disreputable Freeport mercenary.”

Kukri cleared her throat and took a hesitant step forward, trying to play the peacemaker. “Um, the Shimmer-mare has actually done a lot of good. She’s destroyed monsters and saved this one’s life more than once.” She hesitated when Scarlett glowered her, but did her best to keep going forward. “Um, hi. This one should introduce itself. Kukri Doo. This one is, um, I’m the Shimmer-mare—Sunset’s apprentice.”

Scarlett let out a disdainful huff and turned her gaze away. “I know what you are, changeling.”

My teeth clenched at her tone. I could put up with her attitude towards me—well no, that actually really pissed me off too, but her taking that tone with Kukri made me a lot angrier. “There something wrong with my apprentice?”

Scarlett scoffed. “It’s hardly the sort of apprentice Celestia or I would have had in mind for you, is it? Doubtless that’s precisely why you’re going through the farce of taking a changeling in the first place—just another bit of childish rebellion to try and embarrass me.” She sighed and shook her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, considering the company you keep.” She shot a rather pointed glare at Puzzle. “It did make it just about impossible to approach you in Freeport.”

Puzzle grinned in a way that rather prominently displayed his fangs. “If you wanted to have a meeting with your daughter, Archmagus Runeseeker, you only had to ask. This one could have made arrangements under the right circumstances.” He smirked and added, “Of course, this one isn’t surprised that it might be difficult to find bounty hunters willing to target one of its associates, especially for an archmagus who would want them to be both competent and reliable. Not to mention available at a reasonable price.”

“Hiring bounty hunters.” Strumming smirked and nodded. “Obviously the right way to reach out to your estranged daughter, rather than just talking to her.”

Scarlett scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I can’t afford to drop everything and leave my march unattended for more than a month just to have a single conversation with my runaway child. Even arranging this meeting was a waste of my time and resources.”

That was the story of my life with her: more important things to do. “Well if you had so many better and more important things to do, I’m surprised you bothered. I was perfectly fine on my own and didn’t need anything from you, so...”

“Hardly,” Scarlett sniffed. “It’s been an absolute scandal ever since you left, and judging by the company you’ve been keeping...”

“Um...” Kukri made one last effort to salvage things. “This one’s proud to call herself the Shimmer-mare's apprentice! She’s one of Freeport’s greatest heroes, and has saved its life at least twice. It’s learned a lot about magic from her.”

“Well of course you learned a lot,” Scarlett scoffed with a dismissive wave. “You were starting from nothing.”

Kukri’s head snapped back. “Th-this one wasn’t starting from...” She quickly ducked her head, rubbing at her eyes.

I wrapped a leg around my apprentice. “Don’t listen to that nag,” I whispered to her. “She’s not worth the effort.” I shifted my attention back to Scarlett, glaring at her. “So, what exactly was your plan? Come here, insult me, my friends and my apprentice, and then somehow that would make me want to go back to Equestria with you? Because even by your laughably horrible standards of parenting, that’s a new low. So, you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here—I see an easy solution to this whole issue that would make both of us much happier.”

Scarlett grimaced and shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving here without you. It’s past time we reconciled this ... estrangement.”

If not for the fact that we were in front of Argentium, I would’ve used some very colorful language to make it clear exactly what I thought of that idea. However, under the circumstances it seemed like a better move to at least let her say her piece. After all, Argentium would probably be inclined to take Scarlett’s side of things considering she was a former student. There was no way Argentium would help fund or support my school plans if she thought I was nothing but an immature runaway kid, so best not to give her any reason to believe that.

So I took a deep breath. “Alright. I’m listening.”

Her teeth clenched, and she all but ground out the words as if it they were painful. “I am aware that I couldn’t make it to every single event you wanted me to attend. If you’re still mad that I missed your birthday because I needed to hunt down a sludge monster, I would expect a mare of your age to understand. If you were actually a magus, you would know just how many other far more important things I have to deal with on a daily basis.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Is that the best you can do? I’d say that’s a ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ non-apology, but I don’t think you even did that.”

“More like ‘I’m sorry you’re not mature or intelligent enough to understand why I’m right and you’re wrong,’” Strumming commented from the sidelines.

“My work was important,” Scarlett snapped. “Let’s take that birthday I missed because of the sludge monster, since evidently it’s still such a sore point.”

I’d honestly forgotten about it until she brought it up, but whatever. “Fine. Let’s hear your latest excuse for being a deadbeat.”

“That sludge monster I was busy hunting down was a suspect in the disappearance of a seven-year-old colt,” Scarlett explained. “What should I have told his parents, that going to a party was more important than their son’s life?”

“Nice excuse.” Too bad for her I remembered the details of the case. “Didn’t it turn out that the kid had actually just snuck out and gone to a movie with some friends?”

“Magi don’t assume that sort of thing,” Scarlett snapped. “When a child is reported missing, we have to take it seriously.”

“Sure,” I agreed. “But there was always something. A report you had to follow up on right away, a meeting you couldn’t afford to miss—being a magus and moving up the ladder was the only thing you ever cared about. I don’t think you even noticed I existed until Celestia adopted me, and that was just because it gave you an in with the royal family, and maybe later because you realized that you’d screwed up so bad at raising me that I wouldn’t give you any leverage.”

Scarlett glared at me. “Did you expect me to put my entire life on hold every time you wanted a bit more attention?”

“That’s what mothers do,” Kukri cut in. “Mom never made excuses to this one about how she had more important things to do. She was just there for it.”

I followed up on that with the logical counterpoint. “Celestia was there every time I needed her, and she never missed a birthday. The couple times she had to leave early or something came up she let me know about it, apologized, and did something special for me later to make up for it. You want to say you were too busy and your work was too important? Well, the ruler of all of Equestria managed to find a way to clear her schedule. What’s your excuse?”

“I am not Celestia,” Scarlett snapped back. “And she isn’t your mother.”

“The hay she isn’t,” I growled at her. “She was way more of one than you ever were. Far as I’m concerned, you’re just a DNA donor.”

Scarlett blinked and took half a step back, several different expressions flashing over her face before it settled into a carefully blank mask. “I see.” She cleared her throat. “Agent Heartstrings, I have new orders for you: assist me in returning my daughter home and dealing with any potential outside interference.”

Oh horseapples.

Puzzle’s eyes flicked over to Strumming and he carefully shifted his stance. Not quite treating her like a threat just yet, but making himself ready for just in case she turned out to be one.

Kukri’s reaction was a lot less subtle as she whirled about the face the spy, her fangs bared. “This one knew it! It knew it couldn’t trust you, you backstabbing—”

“Wow, way to rush to judgment, everyone.” Strumming rolled her eyes and turn to Scarlett. “So, you’re ordering me. Well that’s a hay of a thing. You’re way outside my normal chain of command, so I’m gonna need orders from someone pretty high up. You know, just to verify this is all on the level, and not just you trying to conscript an agent of the Equestrian government into carrying out your personal agenda.”

I grimaced and pulled my apprentice back. “Kukri, go back to our quarters. Now.” I waved Puzzle over. “Make sure she gets back there safe.”

“I think not.” Scarlett murmured as she pulled out a scroll, levitating it over to Strumming. “I would rather not have the changeling come back five minutes later with whatever nasty bit of treachery he’s keeping in his pack.”

“This one’s not leaving!” Kukri snapped, pulling away from me. She stomped over to Strumming and snarled. “It should have known everything were doing was just you pretending to be nice so none us would expect it when you put a knife in our backs!”

Strumming took the scroll and opened it up. “Shush, Facon. The adults are talking.” She slowly went through the scroll, nodding along and mouthing the words as she read. “Dang. Who’d you have to sleep with to get this signed off on? Or kill? Or sleep with, then kill? Or hay, kill, then sleep with—I don’t judge.” She pulled the scroll a bit closer to her face, frowning at it. “Hey bug-boy, could you do me a favor and get a candle or a torch or something? Need a little extra light to confirm the seals are all valid.”

Puzzle trotted over to Argentium’s reading table and picked up a candle, carefully holding it towards her. He kept it extended a far as possible, so he’d have enough room to make it hard for Strumming to grab him.

Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Everyone's always gotta be so cagey. It’s like I’m a nigh-on pathological liar with a track record of attacking ponies when their guard is down.” She held the scroll as close to the candle’s flame as she dared. “Dangit. Stupid treated paper, why won’t you...” She shoved it directly into the fire, and after smoldering for several seconds it finally caught. “Oh no,” Strumming deadpanned. “What a tragedy. The scroll was destroyed before I could verify that these are fully legitimate orders. Such a shame. I guess now I have no choice to but operate on my best judgment.”

Scarlett stared at her incredulously. I was pretty stunned by what she’d just done, and I was used to dealing with her. It was Scarlett’s first time being on the receiving end of Strumming’s ... Strumming-ness. “What are you doing, Agent?”

Strumming shrugged. “Well ... the way I see it, you pulled Sunset here to where you had plenty of local support, even though you know the big white be-horned and be-winged boss-mare wants her staying in Freeport. Pretty sure if she was here, she’d put a hard veto on what you’re trying to pull, especially since she had her own plans to get Sunset back in Canterlot.” She shrugged and added. “And by the way, knowing Bacon as well as I do, you probably just ruined Celestia’s plan, ‘cause now Sunset’s not gonna go within a thousand miles of Canterlot willingly. All because you went and pissed her off. So ... yeah, well done. Really gotta wonder how you saw this whole thing playing out where you come out on top.”

“Doubtless she assumed the Shimmer-mare wouldn’t be so stubborn about maintaining her independence,” Puzzle commented dryly. “Which goes to show that she really doesn’t know anything about her child.”

“This one could have told you that,” Kukri stubbornly placed herself between me and Scarlett. “You should leave, Runeseeker-mare. You’re not wanted here.”

“Well,” Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “That’s irksome. I was hoping we could simply talk this out and you would see reason, but if that’s not an option ... is there any doubt in your mind that I’m fully capable of making you come home?”

I should’ve known it would come down to this sooner or later. She’d come too far and, judging by what Strumming said and the fact that she’d gotten Argentium involved, she’d obviously called in some favors. Walking away empty-hooved wasn’t an option. Not that I planned to give her any choice in the matter. “You’re welcome to try.”

Scarlett rolled her shoulders. “I suppose I should have known you would want to fight. Well, if it gives you the chance to work out a few of those issues of yours, so much the better. And there are worse ways to gauge your progress...”

“You keep thinking you mean a lot more to me than you actually do,” I grumbled. Though a fight wasn’t the worst outcome; after all, once I finished kicking her all the way back to Canterlot I’d be entirely within my rights to promote myself to Archmagus of Freeport. Beating another archmage in battle would be simple and undeniable proof that I was on that level. It might even be enough to make the Council reconsider their decision on my school.

Of course, beating her probably wouldn’t be easy. Scarlett shook open her archmagus cloak, revealing a set of silver ring mail underneath. I wasn’t close enough to get a good look, but it was a pretty safe bet that she had plenty of runic inscriptions on it. More concerning was the large battleaxe she drew from beneath her cloak with a flourish, spinning it a few times to make her point before settling into a ready stance.

Kukri stared at the massive axe, her eyes wide as dinner plates. “Holy feathers! Where did she pull that from?!”

“Dimensional pocket, just like Strumming’s snack bag,” I answered. I was a bit surprised considering that splitting my head open with an axe would obviously go against the plan of bringing me home in one piece, but odds were she could do a lot more with her axe than just chop things with the sharp edge. Especially since I could plainly see the runework on that weapon, and it was quite impressive.

I spared a brief glance for our host, wondering if Argentium would say anything about the fact that we were about to start a fight in the middle of her throne room. I noticed my gift and the rest of her treasures being quickly hauled out by her staff while the dragon herself reclined on her throne, her eyes fixed on both of us. Evidently she was content to sit back and see how this played out. She was probably curious to see how my skills compared to her former protégé’s.

I frowned and pointedly pushed Kukri back towards Puzzle and Strumming. “Stay back. This could get a little dangerous.”

“This one wants to help...” Kukri’s eyes flicked between myself and Scarlett. “But it would probably just get in the way, wouldn’t it?”

“Yup,” Strumming answered far too cheerfully as she took charge of my apprentice. “Besides, even if you could help her win it, Bacon wouldn’t want the help. This is pretty much a textbook case of ‘This is something she’s gotta do for herself.’”

“Not to mention Argentium might frown upon it,” Puzzle pointed out. “A magus duel is far more respectable than a four-on-one fight.”

Scarlett leveled her axe at me, pointing with the spiked top. “Your gallivanting about and pretending to be a magus in Freeport has been an embarrassment I’m putting to an end. I’d rather not fight you, but if making you see sense requires showing you what a real magus can do then so be it. Last chance: Back. Down.”

“Never.” I took a deep breath and fixed my attention on my opponent. “If you think I’m just pretending to be a full-fledged magus, you are in for a big surprise.”

She snorted and shook her head. “You’ve been fighting petty criminals, c-list warlocks, and the odd no-name monster. If you think that makes you capable of matching an archmagus with decades of experience, I’ll be doing you a favor by breaking you of that delusion.”

“Sounds like somebody didn’t read any of the reports I sent back,” Strumming mumbled under her breath. “Not that she was supposed to, but she could’ve stolen them or something. She didn’t even try. That’s hurtful.”

I did my best to shut out everyone else. I couldn’t afford any distractions. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.” I conjured up balls of fire and ice so I’d have them ready once we started.

“Yes, I do,” Scarlett growled. “Celestia took you on as a student. If you came back to Equestria and resumed your studies, you could become an archmagus in just a few years. I have had enough of seeing you squander your gifts and ignore your potential while pretending to be a magus in Freeport.”

“I’m. Not. Pretending,” I growled. “Now are you just gonna keep running your mouth, or will you actually do something?”

Scarlett smirked at me. “I already did.”

I was about to ask what that was supposed to mean when a flash of blinding light made it a moot question. For anyone else the attack probably would have blinded and disoriented them enough to render them easy prey for whatever followup Scarlett had in mind. Too bad for her I’d been trained by the Princess of the Sun.

I snatched up all that blinding light and concentrated it down a small tightly packed ball that looked almost like a miniature sun. “Was that supposed to be your knockout sucker punch?” I grinned and sent fire and ice hurling towards her.

“Just an opening gambit.” Scarlett swatted aside the ice with the flat of her axe, then let the fire just wash over her to no effect. I caught a brief flash of several runes underneath her armor and grimaced. Of course she would’ve prepared something to defend against fire. Back when I’d been in Canterlot I’d relied on it almost exclusively for combat magic.

That ... had some worrying implications. One of the general rules of magic was that there are few things more dangerous than a magus who’d had time to prepare for their opponent. Scarlett was obviously way more ready for a fight than I was.

Scarlett swiped her axe through the air, unleashing a wave of arctic ice. My first instinct was teleport clear of the spell, but a second after I winked out of existence I ran up against the wards hanging over Argentium’s caverns and popped right back into place. By now the ice was far too close for comfort, so I grabbed that light ball I’d been saving and focused it down to laser-like intensity to burn through her attack.

Scarlett must have caught my slip with the teleport spell, because she barked out like a drill instructor. “Amateur mistake! Failing to account for the battlefield!” She drew a pair of runestones from her robe and tossed them to the floor. A pair of rocky tentacles shot out, rushing in to try and entangle me.

I took what was left of the light I’d stolen from her and used it to bisect those tentacles, then fired it straight at her. I’d used up enough of it that I didn’t need to worry about inflicting serious injury. Well, unless I hit one of her eyes, and since I was aiming at her knees...

She caught my attack with her axe, the blade deflecting the beam away. “You thought I wouldn’t be ready for that? Another mistake! Not reading your opponent!” She stepped forward, swinging her axe and unleashing a wave of raw force.

I put up a partial shield to deflect the blast, letting it knock me back a bit rather than get into a raw power slugging match. Scarlett was using runes to supplement her natural magic, so if I tried to turn this into an endurance contest she’d win for sure. “Underestimating your opponent!” I snapped right back. “A mistake that’s gonna cost you this fight!”

“How could it?” Scarlett asked, smirking. “You’ve already lost.”

“What?” A second too late I spotted the runestones she set up at some point during our duel, and an all-too-familiar shield bubble snapped into place around me. “Oh please, this old spell? I broke this before I even set hoof on Freeport's shores.”

“Yes, Sigil told me all about how you escaped,” Scarlett answered with a disdainful sniff. “I can assure you, it will take a bit more than pretending to set yourself on fire to get out of one of my traps.” She pointedly set her axe down and made herself comfortable.

I sent a quick analysis spell at the shield. Sure enough, she’d added temperature regulation runes to keep me from overheating it. Not that I’d been eager to try the nigh-suicidal brinkmanship gambit a second time, especially against someone way more cold-hearted than Sigil. Besides, I had grown a lot since then.

I made my first move, blasting the floor with raw force. The stone cracked and the ground trembled, while Scarlett scoffed. “Did you really think I wouldn’t consider all three dimensions? You knew that didn’t work against Sigil’s shield, and you think I would forget it?”

I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Never know if you might have made an amateur mistake.” I’d actually been up to something a bit more sophisticated than she gave me credit for, but why give that away. I fired off a couple more blasts, making a decent-sized dent in the floor. Sure enough, I could feel the rune barrier continuing underneath it, blocking any progress.

More importantly, I could feel that the vibrations from those blasts had knocked the runestones out of alignment. Nowhere near enough to make the shield collapse, but there were weak points now that hadn’t been there a minute ago. I took a moment to find the best one, then rammed a spear of pure willpower into it, creating a crack that I could slowly wedge into a proper opening.

Scarlett scowled when she spotted her shield collapsing, then pulled another runestone and threw it down. A second later the stone let out an ear-piercing shriek that shattered my concentration, disrupting the spell I’d been using.

However, she’d miscalculated with that sonic scream. I’d lost my first opening, but the sound wave had vibrated the shield stones even further out of alignment. My second effort had an even better weak point to exploit, and this time I tore the shield open before she could do anything to stop me. “What was that about how I’d already lost?”

“You merely delay the inevitable,” Scarlett snapped. “Still using nothing but brute force to solve all your problems, I see.” Her axe swished through the air, leaving a bright green gas in its wake. “I had hoped you might learn a little subtlety.” A second swing sent the gas barreling towards me.

I quickly got a bubble of clean air around my whole body to protect against whatever she was trying. “Brute force? Fine! Let me show you just how much brute force I’ve got!” I snarled and cut loose with fire and ice, letting each one of my spells feed into the next as I did my best to hammer down her defenses.

Scarlett sat back and let my spells fly in, looking bored as the fireballs washed over her to no effect, while she dodged or blocked the blasts of ice with almost no effort. “Didn’t you learn anything about fighting other casters? Preparation is everything.” She stepped into the arc of one of my fireballs, then swept her axe in a wide arc that unleashed several lightning bolts.

I was so far into my offensive momentum that it was hard to shift gears to defense fast enough to keep up with her. I managed to block the worst of it, but I still got hit hard enough to make my entire body tingle and my mane stand on end. “Easy to talk about preparation when you’re the one pulling off an ambush in the middle of a diplomatic meeting!”

“A true magus is always prepared!” Scarlett snapped. “No excuses! If nothing else, you should know enough to stop using tactics that aren’t effective!”

“I do.” I took the remnants of all those fireballs that had gone through her with no effect and pulled them all back together, making every single one of them converge at a single point. Trying to brute force my way through her defensive runes was an obvious non-starter, but I had an equally useful target: that damned axe she was using for half her spells.

Scarlett’s eyes shot open when her axe went from cold steel to cherry red in the space of a second. For a moment I dared to hope I might have actually destroyed it, but then she clenched her teeth and lit her horn, cooling it down in an instant. “Hmph. Better, but still nowhere close to good enough.”

Damn. Taking away at least some of her offensive options would’ve made my life much easier. Oh well. “I’m just getting started!” I pulled every last scrap of light out of the room, plunging it into pitch black darkness.

Or at least, almost completely dark. The runes on Scarlett’s axe and armor lit up, casting the entire battlefield in an ethereal blue glow. “Trying to change the battlefield in your favor. That’s a step in the right direction.” She tossed down another stone, unleashing a new sonic attack. Where the last one had been a high-pitched shriek, this one was a low almost infrasonic thrum. I staggered on my hooves as the wave of sound hit me, and it was all I could do to hold onto the spell I’d been working on. The darkness was nice, but what I really wanted was to take all that stolen light and turn it into a cutting beam to go after Scarlett’s runes. If I could damage her weapon or armor enough to spoil her enchantments...

Scarlett wasn’t going to let me do that in peace. While I tried to bring my spell to bear she used another one of her stones. “Sleep.”

The command hit my distracted mind like a sledgehammer, the spell I’d been trying to build up fell apart as light returned to the room. I almost succumbed to the attack, but without my attention split between resisting and trying to keep my own spell going I was able to throw it off. “I’m not ... giving .. up!”

Scarlett scowled and shook her head. “You are being completely unreasonable. If you would just stop and think a moment, you would realize I’m trying to do what’s best for you.”

I’d had far too much of her thinking she knew anything about me, especially what was best for me. Maybe it was time to start taking this fight a bit more seriously. If she got hurt, it was on her for starting the fight. “Buck you!” I fired off a blast of pure black flame.

Scarlett’s eyes widened and she quickly threw up a shield to catch my attack. I poured it on to try and break through her defenses, the stones around her crumbling to dust as the dark flames ate away at them, breaking them down on a molecular level. Her shield still held when I was done, and she dropped it to glare at me. “Where did you learn a spell like that?!”

I shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of studying in between the magus work.” I’d actually learned about blightfire from Celestia, albeit her lessons had been a bit more focused on how to defend against it than casting it. Back when I’d just been a kid she hadn’t been too eager to teach me any of the high-grade combat spells, though she had recommended a few books for me since I’d gotten to Freeport.

Scarlett clenched her teeth. “I see. Now I have even more reason to bring you back home. I had hoped your brush with dark magic was just a one time thing, but clearly you’ve gone much further down the path of the warlock.”

I was tempted to point out that there was absolutely nothing dark or illegal about blightfire since it was just an entropic combat spell, but it wasn’t like she would listen. Really, if she wanted to argue about dark magic I could point to the mental compulsion she’d hit me with earlier in the fight, not to mention the fact that she was trying to kidnap me while I was defending myself. Equestrian law gives a lot of weight to the circumstances. If I’d actually gone back to Equestria for trial over the dark magic I’d used I almost certainly would’ve been acquitted, since it was all in defense of myself and others.

Scarlett clearly didn’t agree, as she leveled her axe at me. “Enough! I’m ending this before you do something you’ll regret.” Green flames shot up along the length of her weapon, and a second later she fired off a bright green beam.

I had no idea what it would do if she hit me, and I didn’t want to find out. I ducked down, but a bit of it managed to catch my mane, which was still frazzled from the lightning bolt. I grunted as my hair suddenly got three times heavier and pulled me off balance. A quick cutting spell removed it, and it fell to the ground with a heavy stone thunk.

Oh. A petrification spell. That would be bad.

I tried to hit back, but before I could prepare the spell she had another beam heading for me. I barely had enough time to conjure up a shield before it, and while I didn’t get turned into a statue the sheer force of it sent me sliding back.

I snarled and fired off a dozen blasts of raw kinetic force, trying to smack her around or at least knock her back and buy a little breathing room. Scarlett did a few quick sidesteps to avoid most of them, then smacked one aside with the flat of her axe, making it collide with and negate my last blast. Worse, it didn’t even look like she’d needed to try very hard to pull that off.

I started to prepare another attack, but she swiped her axe at me, unleashing a blast of compressed air that caught me in the chest like a punch, knocking the wind out of my lungs and leaving me gasping. “Too slow!” she barked out.

I let out a breathless snarl and fired off a blast of blinding light to try and buy a bit of recovery time. Scarlett brought her cloak up and shielded her eyes in time to avoid the worst of it, and in the same move threw several runestones at my feet. Each of them exploded with a deafening crack, the sound and force sending me staggering as I struggled to stay upright. She snapped out another one of her insults about my performance, but I couldn’t make anything out through the ringing in my ears.

I needed to do something to change this, now. I started to cast an earth spell that would soften the ground beneath her hooves, but Scarlett swiped her axe again and unleashed another lightning bolt while I was halfway through the spell. I tried to counter it, block it, or anything else but it was too strong and coming in way too fast.

I must’ve blanked out for a little bit after it hit, because the next thing I knew I was lying on the cavern floor with all my limbs twitching. I was pressed up against the wall of the throne room, and judging by the pain in my back I’d hit it pretty hard. I tried to stand back up, but my limbs refused to obey my commands. I was having a hard time remembering why exactly it was so important to get back up, but some part of my brain that didn’t feel as sluggish as the rest of me kept screaming that I needed to get up right away.

“Shimmer-mare!” Kukri started to rush over to me, but Puzzle quickly grabbed her and held her back. He exchanged a few words with Strumming, but even if I hadn’t been in the middle of recovering from a lightning bolt I wouldn’t have been able to make anything out.

“It’s over,” Scarlett announced, setting her axe down. “Are you ready to give up, or am I going to have to carry you back as a statue?”

I groaned and closed my eyes, focusing on trying to make each one of my limbs stop twitching and actually obey my commands. It took a couple seconds to get my first leg properly planted underneath my body, but once I’d managed that the rest slowly fell into place. “I’m ... I’m not done yet, nag.”

“Yes you are.” Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “Look at you, you can barely even stand up straight. You haven’t managed to land a single hit on me, and the only reason you’re not a statue or unconscious yet is that I’m giving you one last chance to see reason.”

There was really only one answer I could give. “Go to Tartarus.”

That last bit of bravado aside ... she wasn’t wrong. It was taking just about all my strength and concentration just to stay upright, never mind actually fighting back. She’d been ready for me and I’d been ambushed, not to mention ... yeah, I couldn’t exactly deny the experience gap. There was something terribly unfair about the fact that a mare thirty years older than me was so much faster.

Ugh. No time to think about how screwed I was, or else I’d lose whatever slim hope I had of turning this around. What was it Mom always said to do in situations like this ... ‘If you can’t win, change the rules.’ So how could I...?

My eyes flicked over the massive dragon who’d been content to sit back and watch the fight, and a desperate plan started coming together. “Is this the sort of hospitality the world can expect from Argentium the Runescaled?!”

Argentium’s serpentine neck swung around, and she turned to regard me with a raised eyebrow, a hint of a warning growl leaving her throat. “Excuse me?”

Oh. Having that much dragon focused entirely on me and looking just a bit peeved was ... well ‘intimidating’ wasn’t a strong enough word. I was committed to it now, though, and if nothing else my gambit had forced Scarlett to back off for a bit. I did my best to ignore her and keep my attention firmly on the dragon. “You led me here on false pretenses so that one of my enemies could ambush me! The world will not forget such perfidy, and you can be sure I will tell others of what passed here today.”

Argentium rose from her throne with a snarl. “You dare?!”

“Is anything I said untrue?” I challenged.

Argentium scowled down at me, showing off fangs that were long enough to go all the way through my body. “I arranged a reconciliation between mother and daughter. I only neglected to mention her presence because Scarlett feared you would not come if you knew.”

Considering the circumstances, I was inclined to say she had a point. I mean, maybe if she’d showed up at my tower and apologized I would’ve given her a chance to make her case, but now... “Does this look like a reconciliation to you? Because it sure feels like an ambush and abduction to me—one you helped arrange against your own invited guest.”

Argentium let out a sound halfway between a growl and a snarl, and Scarlett stepped forward. “Lady Argentium, she is just—”

“SILENCE.” Argentium didn’t raise her voice, but the amount of Power in it sent dust trickling down from the ceiling. She kept her attention firmly on me several long seconds, then grimaced and nodded. “Your ... assessment of the circumstances is not inaccurate. It seems I was unaware of the broader circumstances, and the full intent of my former protégé. As my guest, you are of course entitled to my protection. This fight ends, now.

Scarlett took a deep breath and slowly stepped forward. “Lady Argentium, she is my daughter. I have the utmost respect for you, but in this matter—”

Argentium’s neck snapped around so she could stare Scarlett down. “You arranged this meeting under false pretenses and attacked one of my guests. I would be well within my rights to cut you down as assurance that I had no part in your perfidy. Take it as a sign of my immense fondness for a former student that I have not even considered doing so.”

Scarlett flinched back, but didn’t surrender. “But I—”

Argentium leaned in closer, until her snout was almost touching Scarlett’s. “Was anything about that statement unclear, Archmagus? Did I stutter? Stumble? Slur my words? No? Then you have nothing more to say on the matter. The North is mine. My word is law here. You did not ask me if you could arrest my guest; you did not say you wished to fight her. You deceived me, and your actions have cast aspersions upon my own honor.”

Scarlett still refused to back down. “She. Is. My. Daughter. You have no right—”

“I have every right!” Argentium snapped. “She is an adult under the laws of Equestria, the North, Freeport, and every other civilized nation, and capable of making her own choices.”

“And it’s been a decade since I was your daughter in any sense other than biology,” I added. “You can’t abandon me for another mare to raise, then just waltz in years later and pretend you’re still a proper parent.”

Scarlett looked back and forth between the two of us, her teeth clenched. She started to open her mouth, but Argentium didn’t even let her start. “As long as Sunset Shimmer is within Northmarch, you are not to touch her, nor use any proxy or ally to act against her. If I so much as suspect that you have acted against her, I will take this matter directly to Celestia.” She showed her fangs. “There have been very few Archmagi of the Northern March who could retain their post in the face of my displeasure.”

Scarlett flinched back, her shoulders slumping and ears wilting in defeat. Big surprise, the threat of sinking her career ambitions was exactly what it took to make her down. “I understand.”

Argentium nodded sharply. “Good. Now go. In time, I will forgive this lapse. The burdens of parenthood can make fools of even the wisest mares.”

Scarlett nodded and slowly slunk out of the room, refusing to look at me as she left. I probably would’ve been a bit smugly satisfied to see her beaten so thoroughly if not for the fact that the adrenaline was starting to wear off enough for me to feel my impressive list of injuries.

I cleared my throat and did my best to block out the pain. “Thank you for your assistance, Lady Argentium. Considering the circumstances, I hope you’ll understand if I would like to return to Freeport sooner than I’d planned.”

Argentium sighed and inclined her head. “These events have cast a pall over your visit. I hope that perhaps you might return in the future.”

“Of course.” I winced as a particularly nasty twinge shot down my spine. “I hope you won’t mind if I take a few days to rest and recover before I depart?”

Argentium nodded. “You are my guests, and may avail yourselves of my hospitality for as long as you desire. It is the least I can offer in light of recent events.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to bow, but barely got past inclining my head before my back let me know that wasn’t happening. “I promise we won’t impose on your hospitality unduly. Though if it’s not too much trouble, would Sigil or someone else be able to escort us back to Coldharbor?”

“Of course,” Argentium agreed at once. “The winter roads are hazardous, especially to those who are unaccustomed to them. I would be a poor host indeed if I did nothing to ensure that my guests were safely returned to their homes.”

I smiled and nodded, ignoring the lance of pain that sent down my spine. “I assure you, I will have nothing but praise for your hospitality.”

Argentium smiled and nodded. “As I would hope. Now, unless there is anything else you would ask of me, I expect you have other matters to attend to. And I have a former student who is in need of one last lesson.”

“I believe that is all. Thank you once more for your hospitality.” I lead the way out of her throne room. As soon as the doors shut and we were out of her sight I stopped blocking out the pain, groaning and slumping down to the floor.

“Shimmer-mare!” Kukri rushed to my side. “Are you okay?!”

“Fine,” I lied, mostly so she wouldn’t panic. “Just a little sore.”

Strumming and Puzzle exchanged a look, and she spoke up. “I’ve got painkillers and some other medical stuff in my travel pack. Could you go grab my bag, Kukri?” My apprentice immediately rushed off to go get it, and Strumming gave me a quick once-over. “Doesn’t look like anything’s broken or cracked, or you wouldn’t be keeping up that brave face so well. You were coherent and on-the-ball enough that I’m not too worried about a concussion, so it’s probably just gonna be a ton of bruises. Better do a nerve check too, considering the lightning bolt.”

“Yay,” I groaned.

Puzzle sighed and nodded along. “This one apologizes for standing on the sidelines, but jumping into the fight would have been unwise. Archmagus Runeseeker is a formidable opponent. In a straight fight there was no way it could hope to challenge her unless it held absolutely nothing back, and even then...” He trailed off with a shrug.

“Yeah, I get it.” Considering how easily she’d handled me, I didn’t think the two of them would have been enough to swing the fight in my favor. Especially since if they went all-out on her, Scarlett wouldn’t hesitate to respond in kind. “Besides, Strumming was right about one thing: I wanted to do that fight for myself.”

“Gotta let Bacon keep her pride,” Strumming agreed. “For what it’s worth, if she did end up snagging you we were gonna jump her in her sleep and free you then. Way safer than trying to pick a fight with her when she’s awake and ready for us.” She shrugged. “Guess I could’ve tried out that special ace-in-the-hole anti-warlock throwing spike of mine, but I left that in my pack. Probably oughta start carrying that, just in case Scarlett tries something. I mean, yeah, she’d have to be pretty stupid to do it when Argentium is already pissed at her, but sometimes ponies do stupid things.”

Puzzle grimaced. “Yes, this one should make sure it’s ready for any possible threats as well. It should have known that the one time it left all its weapons behind, it would promptly get drawn into a battle between two powerful magi.”

“That’s what you get for not being paranoid enough,” Strumming chided.

I sighed and trudged up to the entrance to my quarters. “I’m ... gonna rest for a bit. Let me know if anything comes up.”

Puzzle nodded. “Rest as long as you need to. This one doubts the Archmagus would dare to try anything while we’re still in Argentium’s home, but we’ll keep watch just in case.”

“Let me know if you need anything for the pain,” Strumming chimed in. “I might ask around and see if our host has anything. Think I heard that runes are a bit better for deep tissue stuff than most of the traditional Equestrian medicine.”

“Thanks.” I flopped down on my bed and fell asleep within moments.

Author's Note:

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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