Old Wounds 3
Two days later, I met up with Strumming and Puzzle in what passed for Freeport’s industrial district. It was the poorer, uglier neighbor to Freeport’s docks, and the docks weren’t all that pretty and prosperous to begin with.
It was quite an eclectic mix of different businesses. Sugar mills and distilleries for the farms that couldn’t process their own crops, some canneries for fish, breadfruit, and any other food that could go into a can. Lumber mills to process what lumber we could get locally as well as anything we imported, though the mills hadn’t been very busy lately. Northmarch had been the biggest timber exporter, and with Coldharbor still being rebuilt they needed all the lumber they could get for themselves.
Most important for us however were the foundries. Much like with the lumber mills, it made sense to import metal ingots and let the foundry turn them into whatever we needed. One of the up and coming foundries had gone out of business a couple weeks ago, priced out by the more established businesses. An abandoned metalworking facility sounded like exactly the sort of place a rogue ferromancer would set up shop.
The three of us took a seat on top of a warehouse to do a bit of observation. Waiting until late at night wasn’t ideal, but trying to take down a warlock while the neighboring foundries were full of workers made it a lot more likely things would get messy. At least waiting until midnight did confirm one thing for us: there was way too much activity inside for an abandoned building. It could just be squatters, but if that was it Puzzle wouldn’t have called us in.
He didn’t waste any time confirming it. “A couple days back there was a shipment of fresh tools and materials into the foundry, and there’s been quite a bit of activity. The local rumor mill says someone’s bought the place and is renovating it to put it back in business, but there’s no record of any purchase from the current owner, and the property’s tied up in bankruptcy proceedings anyway. It might be that the paperwork hasn’t been filed yet, but any reputable business wouldn’t start sending in workers and supplies until all the papers were in order.”
Strumming grinned. “Knew we kept you around for a reason, bug boy. Still, you’d think someone would report a bunch of trespassers taking over the foundry.”
Puzzle shrugged. “If they are trespassing, yes. Given the current owner’s dire financial straits, it’s entirely possible they’re here with his permission. If they offered him a pouch full of ducats to use his property and not ask questions...”
“Yeah, that’d be tempting for anyone going bankrupt,” I agreed. “If his creditors come asking questions, he can always just say he’s doing a bit of maintenance work on the equipment to make sure everything’s still in working order. They’d want the place in good working order, either to run for themselves or just sell it off for a higher price.”
Puzzle nodded. “It’s enough to satisfy idle curiosity. Especially when some of the creditors would probably not object to some illicit fundraising. After all, it means there’s more money to pay them back.”
“So what about Steel herself?” Strumming pressed. “I mean, it sure sounds like there’s something fishy going on here, but what makes you sure its Steel Rose and not just some crime boss or merc group doing a little side venture?”
“We can’t be certain until we see her,” Puzzle conceded. “However, this one did identify several of the disreputable individuals involved in this venture. All petty freelancers with no ties to an established group in Freeport. Not to mention that it would be quite a coincidence.”
“Forging metal usually isn’t of much interest to criminals,” I agreed. “I mean, I guess they could want to make their own weapons or something, but ... yeah, like Puzzle said, it would be a big coincidence for that to happen right now of all times. And even if they are just normal criminals, stopping whatever they’re up to isn’t the worst thing we could do.” I frowned and looked the building over. Most of the windows had been boarded up, but I could see light leaking out from between the boards, and judging by the shadows, people were moving around inside. “Do we know if there’s anyone other than minions in there?”
Puzzle frowned and shrugged. “There are reports of missing people—vagrants and other types who can go missing without anyone making a fuss. That’s consistent with a warlock getting up to something horrible and needing some victims to practice on, though there are a dozen other far less sinister explanations.”
“You say that, but when was the last time the less sinister explanation wound up being right?” Strumming shot back. “Just saying, it’d be nice if just once it turned out to be a false alarm and the missing pony report turned out to just be on account of the guy getting drunk and falling asleep under a bridge or something. Y’know, harmless stuff.” She sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “Then again, nobody bugs us about boring routine stuff. So yeah, horrifying dark magic requiring hobo sacrifices. Didn’t Solar say that Steel Rose was mixed up in trying to replicate that crazy blood sacrifice steel?”
“Yes, he did.” Puzzle scowled. “That’s something we don’t need to see happening. The fact that someone is actually trying to recreate it almost makes this one wish the Do-mare never published her book about the City of Giants.”
“From what I’ve seen of warlocks, she’d just be chasing after some other equally horrible project if this one hadn’t come up.” I sighed and shook my head. “Not like she was lacking for horrible dark magic projects if she studied with the warpsmiths and the dark side of shamanism.” I took a deep breath. “Alright, so let's hammer out a plan. I don’t think the minions she’s got will be too much of a threat. From what you said, she’s just got low-level thugpower.”
“So far as this one knows,” Puzzle confirmed. “But while this one is very good at finding things out, it is not all-knowing. If this one was on the run from an Archmagus with a vendetta, it would want to have a few nasty surprises. Even if the Rose-mare hasn’t had the chance to prepare anything, she is likely to be a formidable opponent.”
“I’d be surprised if she wasn’t,” I agreed. “But I should be able to handle her. Or at least I’m the best equipped out of any of us.”
“Especially if you have someone who can watch your back,” Strumming agreed. “Like an ex-spy who keeps a couple throwing spikes that were special-made to mess with magical defenses and drop warlocks in their tracks.”
“Might want to be careful with those,” I warned her. “Last I checked they’re great at punching through magical shields, but we’re going up against a ferromancer. Odds are she’s going to be protecting herself with metallic armor that’s some special alloy she’s used magic to make even better. Probably enchanted too, but ferromancy tends to be one of those styles that puts a lot more emphasis on preparation than battle spells.”
“Less blasting with spells and more making a super-awesome set of weapons and armor, then using those to kick butt,” Strumming concluded.
“Pretty much,” I confirmed. “So she’ll probably be using armor for defense, not magic. Ergo, weapons that counter magical defenses won’t do much.”
Strumming sighed. “Oh. Well, I’ll improvise. I’m good at that. Though if we’re dealing with a warlock swinging around a crazy good sword, maybe you oughta snag Chainbreaker. Having your own super magical sword could come in handy if swords are gonna be swinging.”
“The Council really doesn’t like me using it,” I pointed out. “Even if it’s not exactly a secret that I can call the sword, it kinda upsets everyone when a priceless historical artifact suddenly vanishes out of the museum.” Plus from what I’d been able to tell by studying the blade, being in a museum for so long had been part of what made the sword what it was. Being such a potent and venerated symbol had changed the sword. Still... “Not saying I won’t call it, but that’s not going to be Plan A.“
“Guess that’s fair,” Strumming conceded. “Still, better to ruffle a few feathers than let your head get chopped off.”
I certainly wasn’t going to argue with her. When I didn’t say anything else, Puzzle decided to bring up what else was on his mind. “This one is somewhat worried about what might happen should Shimmer-stallion come up behind us, or the Rose-mare or any of her minions if they’re out. The Heartstrings-mare can watch the Shimmer-mare’s back, but who will watch hers?”
Strumming snorted and swatted his chest. “Sounds to me like you’re just looking for an excuse to watch my backside. But yeah, it’d be nice to have someone on lookout duty. Bug boy’s no slouch in a fight, but it’s not the best use of his talents.”
“Makes sense to have someone keeping an eye on the big picture,” I agreed. “If Strumming and I are busy with Steel, we’ll have to be pretty focused on her.” I frowned. “You said Solar’s following up on a lead on the other side of the city right now, but that could always change.”
Strumming nodded. “I’m sure an Archmagus like him has some tricks for getting around quick.” She tossed a look my way, clearly hoping I’d have some insight.
I shrugged helplessly. “He never really got around to sharing his spellbooks with me. I haven’t had more than very brief visits with him since I was younger than Kukri.”
“Then this one will simply have to be ready for anything,” Puzzle concluded. “If his specialty is light magic, that at least gives this one some idea of what to expect. Likely the Rose-mare is also going to have some sort of means of escape from that warehouse. She’s always managed to get away from the Shimmer-stallion in the past, so...”
Strumming nodded along. “If she’s evaded capture this long, it’s a safe bet that getting two or three good escape plans is one of the first things she does whenever she gets a new base. Makes sense to have bug boy keeping an eye out so he can snag her if she does slip past us.”
Puzzle nodded. “This one wouldn’t enjoy fighting what is presumably an Archmagus-level warlock on its own, but then it would be very foolish to face in an open battle. Ambushing her, especially if she’s already worn down from fighting the Shimmer-mare...” He didn’t really need to say anything past that to make his point. “What should this one do if the Shimmer-stallion shows up?”
I grimaced. “He gave us the runaround last time, so return the favor. There’s enough weirdness going on here that I’d feel a lot better not having an unpredictable element mixed up in it all.”
“This one can certainly try, though if he’s determined to go past this one...” Puzzle shrugged helplessly.
I knew how he felt. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him to throw the first punch at Solar, and even if I did, it could end very badly if Puzzle’s first attack didn’t go perfectly. Or even if it did; in Puzzle’s shoes I wouldn’t hold back.
Puzzle nodded, and then with a flash of green fire he adopted a new disguise, making himself look like just another rough-around-the-edges dockworker out for a late night. Strumming passed him a bottle of cheap rum to complete the illusion. Puzzle splashed a bit onto himself, then took a sip and grimaced. With that done, he pulled out four small gems. “If the red one is glowing, enemy reinforcements are coming in. The blue is for the Shimmer-stallion showing up. You can use the green one to ask for this one to assist you, and the purple one is a tracking gem.”
“Handy.” I send a quick pulse of energy into the tracker to make sure I could follow it too. If Steel did end up making a run for it, getting a tracker on her would make our job a lot easier. At least as long as she didn’t think to check herself for those. “Thanks.”
“Coming prepared helps,” Puzzle answered with the barest hint of pride. “No sense having this one outside if it can’t tell you something is up. It could try imitating bird cries or other means of signalling, but those are far less efficient and could easily be drowned out by ambient noise.”
“Darn, I was all geared up to make two tweets of a blue jay followed by a cardinal’s mating cry to let you know we needed backup.” Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Stop ruining my fun, bug boy.” She turned to me. “So what’s the gameplan? Are you gonna just run in head first, or do we sneak around?”
I thought it over. “Bit of both. You’re a lot better at being sneaky than I am. You scout it out, and I’ll take the take the direct approach once I know what we’re getting into. You can watch my back and ambush anyone who needs it.”
“You’ll want to be very careful scouting the place out,” Puzzle warned. “This one can tell there are magical wards, though it didn’t get close enough for details. If she’s half as smart as her record suggests, she’s also got a few mundane tricks. A tripwire connected to a noisemaker is simple to set up and can catch an Archmagus much easier than elaborate magical wards.”
I nodded. “I’ve been looking over the magical defenses since I got here. She kept them subtle on account of the location. The background ward’s no surprise, since it’s gotta deter anyone with a bit of idle curiosity. Otherwise it seems to mostly be alarms. Anything flashier would be at risk of drawing the sort of attention she wants to avoid, especially if there are any false alarms.”
“Everyone would notice if a random passerby suddenly got skewered with a dozen iron spikes,” Strumming agreed.
Puzzle chuckled and grinned. “This one should probably know better than to tell you how to do your job. Doubtless now the Heartstrings-mare will remind it that she is every bit as skilled as this one is at finding tripwires.”
Strumming shrugged. “Nice of you to say it, so I don’t have to.” She leaned over and faux-whispered to me. “I’ve got him so well trained he even scolds himself.”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe, but we’d be stupid to ignore his advice. Even when it’s not strictly needed, it’s just his way of showing he cares.”
“Yeah, he’s a big old softie that way,” Strumming agreed, pausing to ruffle the mane of Puzzle’s new disguise. “Plus, if we ignore his advice he gets all cranky.”
“This one does not get cranky,” Puzzle grumbled good-naturedly. “It merely expresses its displeasure with the foolishness of its friends. That being said, this one is glad to hear you’re not going to stop listening to it anytime soon.” He cleared his throat, then turned to me. “In any case, are you confident you’ll be able to handle the Rose-mare?”
I shrugged. “I beat Blackfyre, didn’t I?”
I wasn’t expecting Strumming to bap my nose like I was a misbehaving puppy. “Nope. None of that. No getting cocky and thinking you can’t be beat, Bacon. That’s just asking for trouble.”
“Especially considering the personal angle,” Puzzle added. “She did kill your godparents. She might try and throw you off by throwing that and the Shimmer-stallion failures in your face.”
“I’m used to handling personal baggage,” I grumbled. “I lost a limb to Blackfyre. Compared to that, two friends of Solar’s who died when I was nine years old aren’t that big of a deal. I mean, about all I remember about them was that they were nice to me. You know, the usual thing of spoiling your friend’s kid because you don’t have to be responsible. The only reason I even remember what they looked like is all the photos Solar kept around.” I sighed and shook my head. “But yes, I’ll take her seriously.”
Puzzle nodded grimly. “Consider her to be at least as dangerous as the Glimmer-mare. She might not have the same raw power infusion Starlight got from Blackfyre, but after a lifetime of dark magic she’s almost certainly enhanced herself in some way. Not to mention she’ll have a lot more experience and presumably a much cooler head. This one is far from an expert on shamanistic magic, but it was always told that metal as an element requires considerable discipline to master. Or at least vast reserves of stubbornness and determination.”
“Sounds like a perfect fit for Bacon,” Strumming quipped. “But yeah, disciplined and determined enemies are bad ones to go up against. Also, pretty sure you’ve already thought about this, but it does spring to mind that if she’s good at messing with metal she could probably cause trouble for you and your metal leg.”
I sighed and nodded. “I thought about that. It should be pretty well protected against anyone trying to mess with it—it was one of the things Celestia and I accounted for in the original design. It’s certainly more protected than, say, my armor.” I rapped a hoof against my armored chest. “Besides, going into battle with something like a wooden pegleg would probably mess me up just as much, except against everyone instead of just Steel.”
“Not to mention it would stand out quite a bit more than this.” Puzzle tapped the synthetic cover over my prosthetic. “So once you’re done scouting, the plan is to hit them hard and hit them fast. With any luck, all the minions will run or surrender if you seems sufficiently scary and firey.”
“I’m pretty good at doing both of those.” I agreed. “Hopefully they’ll throw in the towel before it gets bloody. After all, I’d bet some of Steel’s thugpower consists of stupid kids who don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.”
Strumming frowned. “Maybe. ‘Course, if they go along with the crazy blood sacrifices just to get a bunch of evil super-metal or whatever Steel’s up to, they kinda lost any ground to say they’re not bad guys.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But all else being equal, I’d rather take them all alive and then put them on trial to figure out which ones are bad apples and which ones had no idea they’d be signing on with a warlock who planned on killing dozens. Especially considering Steel’s response to anyone trying to quit would probably be to just add them to the sacrifice pool.”
Strumming rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, relax, I won’t go all murder-happy on the warlocks and accessories to warlockery in the first degree. I’m not making an ironclad promise none of them will die, but I won’t go for a kill unless there’s a situation where lethal force would be justified and there’s not a viable nonlethal takedown.”
“Most of them don’t seem to be the diehard types,” Puzzle pointed out. “This one doubts the Rose-mare expects them to stand up to serious opposition. While it’s possible a warlock like her might have played with their heads to make them fight to the death, so far as this one has been able to learn she normally doesn’t use mind control as part of her operations.”
“So let’s hope she doesn’t decide to break pattern,” Strumming grumbled.
I shrugged. “At this point, there’s only one way to find out.” I started off towards the not quite abandoned foundry. Strumming followed on my heels, while Puzzle took station in his uninteresting disguise, pretending to sip from his bottle of rum from time to time.
Disabling and bypassing Steel’s wards was a lot easier than I’d expected it to be. They were fine alarm wards, but from the looks of things, someone far less skilled had done a bit of tampering already. Probably some lazy minion who didn’t want to bother with all the procedures needed to get through them properly. Once again, the laziness of others worked out in my favor. Getting through the wards would’ve been a lot harder without that low-level internal sabotage.
Once I was past the compromised wards, I thought my next move over for a second. After tossing out a couple more complicated plans, I decided to brute force it. The plan was to go for shock and awe, after all. Ripping that heavy reinforced steel door off its hinges and tossing it aside like a piece of rubbish would be pretty shocking. I lifted a bit of debris off the street and rapped it against the door, waited a moment, then ripped the door out of the frame and flung it aside. It worked, since they looked pretty shocked.
The abandoned foundry Steel had set up shop in looked odd. Her minions were clearly in the process of restoring it to working order for whatever she was planning, so there was the strange contrast of having cobwebs and trash in the corners while a meter away there were pristine new tools being set up. Not to mention the collection of scared hostages tied up in the center of the room, and the dozen or so thugs guarding them who were looking almost as scared after I’d made such a dramatic entrance.
One of the hired goons eventually managed to figure out how to speak again. “Who are you and what’re you doing?!”
I stepped all the way into the room so they could get a good look at me. Judging by the way several of them flinched, they knew who they were dealing with. “You’re all under arrest. I suggest you come quietly.”
A thug who I promptly labeled ‘the stupid one’ spoke up. “Who’re you supposed to be?”
A thug who actually had a working brain smacked him upside the head. “That’s Magus Shimmer, you idiot! Oh, we are so bucked!”
“I heard she took out a dragon!” another hired good moaned before bolting for the side exit.
One of his friends blocked him from getting out. “Get it together, you coward! Don’t you see we have her outnumbered?”
The stupid one perked up a bit, smirking with completely unearned confidence. “Yeah, this is our chance to get rid of her!”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Really? You run into someone who defeated an ancient dragon and the first thing that pops into your alleged mind is ‘Yeah, I can take her!’?”
“Bet that’s just a story you made up to make yourself sound better!” he shot back. “Besides, it’s just you against all of us!”
“Yeah!” one of the others chimed in. “There’s no way she can handle twelve-to-one odds!”
I shrugged and almost rolled my eyes. “Watch me.” I opened up with a stunbolt at the ringleader. He didn’t even think to try blocking or dodging the attack, taking the hit straight in the chest. He dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, limply twitching on the floor as the residual energy coursed through him.
I’d hoped that would be enough to convince all the goons that messing with me was a bad idea, but instead it just set them off, charging at me in blind panic-driven fury. I had a good answer to that, quickly calling up a circular shield of solid flames to block their line of attack. Most of them stopped in time, but one got hit from behind and stumbled into the flames. Fortunately he had the sense to immediately fall back, drop to the ground, and start rolling to extinguish himself.
I stunned him as soon as he was done putting out the fire, then tossed one last spell his way just to make sure he wouldn’t burn to death. Then I dropped two more of them with stunbolts while they distracted watching their friend. I glowered down at them, laying on the contempt as thick as I could. “For the record, I’m not sure if I should add resisting arrest to your crimes right now. I mean, usually it needs to be remotely effective to count.”
Most of them goons who were still standing looked like they were trying to decide which of the exits to run for, but then the other one who’d talked them into this stupidity stepped forward. “Yeah, big mare when you can use your magic. How about you fight fair and we’ll see how tough you are?!”
I was tempted to just stun the idiot then and there. Why would I ever go along with whatever this stupid street thug’s idea of a fair fight was? However, I saw a chance to put a bit more fear into them. “Fine.” I dropped my fire shield and punched the ringleader in the face with my prosthetic.
My new foreleg doesn’t have superequine strength. After all, it was still attached to a flesh and blood upper leg and shoulder, and overtuning it would end with torn ligaments and a dislocated shoulder. However, even when there’s only normal equine power behind it, getting punched in the face with a hoof made out of solid adamtine hurts. Especially since while I only had normal strength, it wasn’t like I needed to pull my punches for fear of hurting my own hoof.
The goon dropped to the ground howling about how I’d broken his nose. I stunned him a second later now that I’d made my point.
That was enough to break their already shaky morale. “Screw this!”
“I'm not getting paid enough to fight her!”
The smartest one of the bunch dropped to his knees. “I give up! Honestly, the nag who hired us was weird anyway!”
A few more stunbolts took out all the ones who tried to run for it. I also took down the one who surrendered just to be safe. Didn’t want him getting any ideas about jumping me once I turned my back on him. However, while I was distracted with that, the first of the goons I’d stunned staggered back to his hooves. He was still twitching from the aftereffects of the bolt, but he managed to make it over to the group of hostages and pull a dagger on them. “Stay back! Stay away from me or he dies!”
I glared at him. “You don’t want to do that. Right now a good lawyer could get you a pretty light sentence. You hurt any of them...”
“I got a better idea!” he growled, picking up the bound stallion and holding the knife closer to his throat. “I walk away and don’t go to jail at all. Once I’m gone and sure you’re not following, I’ll let him go. Just play ball, and nobody gets hurt.”
No way I was letting him go after this. However, I still wasn’t sure how I wanted to take him down. A stunbolt was the obvious way, but it might make the knife twitch, or when he and the hostage both fell down the hostage could land on the knife. I could just try disarming him, but if there was any struggle over control of the knife, it had the same risk. Maybe an ice spell to cover the blade with something way less sharp, or a concentrated fire beam to just cut the blade off entirely? Those could work, but neither was guaranteed. Better to keep trying to talk him down “You don’t want to do this.”
His voice got louder and shriller as he tightened his grip on the hostage, his eyes wide with panic. “I’m not bluffing! Believe me, I’ll do it!”
I saw something mint green blur past in the rafters overhead, then drop down behind him. A second later a throwing spike slammed into the back of the thug’s head, and he dropped like a stone. Strumming smirked as she kicked his dagger clear. “Don’t worry, I believe you.”
I quickly checked that the hostage hadn’t been hurt and the rest of them were okay. Once I was done tying up all the goons that were still alive, I whirled on her. “I could’ve talked him down!”
“Yeah, maybe you could’ve,” Strumming agreed. “Or maybe he would’ve gotten dumb and scared enough to cut that guy’s throat. Either way, I saw a shot and I took it. Now the bad guy’s down and the hostage didn’t get hurt. So ... um ... why’re you looking at me like I screwed up?”.
I stomped up to her. “You didn’t have to kill him!”
Strumming blinked and took half a step back. “Uh, yeah I didn’t. S’why I didn’t.”
The goon she’d taken out groaned, one hoof going to the back of his head. I took a closer look, and realized that the spike she’d hit him with had a broad, blunt head instead of a sharp piercing tip.
“Oh.”
Strumming chuckled. “Come on, give me a bit of credit, Bacon.” She gave me a pat on the back. “I’m not going to waste my good stuff on some two-bit thug. Though he does probably have a concussion after that. Then again, does brain damage even count when you do it to someone who has so little brain to work with in the first place?”
I sighed and shook my head. Strumming and I had gone over the whole thing about trying to avoid killing whenever we could, and yet I’d immediately assumed she’d thrown that out the window the instant I saw something that looked a little bit bad. Sure, Strumming had a bit of history when it came to that, but she’d promised to follow my lead, and so far she hadn’t given me a reason to doubt her since then. “Sorry, I kinda jumped to conclusions.”
“S’alright.” Strumming shrugged. “Things get heated in the moment. Motives called into question. Methods reexamined. I mean, wasn’t all that long ago I would’ve dropped him for good. Anyway, all that matters is that it works out in the end, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the most important thing.” I offered her my hoof.
Strumming gave it a quick shake. “Yay, bonding. Guess I should be glad I got to shake the real hoof, the fake one could’ve been some kinda backhanded move. Or not. Anyway, we bonded. Not that I don’t like that, but if it’s all the same we still have Queen Steel to catch. It’s a pretty safe bet she heard all the banging, yelling, pleas for mercy, and so on.”
“Right, so let’s...” I trailed off as I glanced down at the pouch where I’d been holding the gems Puzzle gave us. The blue one was glowing. I couldn’t be sure if it had just started or if it had been going for a while and I hadn’t noticed. The battle might have been one-sided, but it had still occupied most of my attention.
“Uh-oh, daddy’s here.” Strumming tossed her head, flicking a bit of mane out of her eyes. “Well that’s a lot of trouble we were hoping to avoid. I’m sure bug boy’s doing his best to try and slow him down, but if he wants in, he’s getting in. For all we know, he might already be in. I wasn’t watching those gems too close.”
“Me either,” I admitted. “So great, one more problem to deal with. Let’s just hope Solar’s already got Steel taken care of.” I headed through the door that took us deeper into the foundry, with Strumming slipping into the shadows behind me. The next room seemed to be where they’d stuffed all the leftover equipment and inventory, all of it covered under tarps to keep out as much dust and moisture as possible. There was a huge loading door at the far end of the room that would have let in boats back when the place was still running. Now all it did was let in enough light that I wasn’t tripping over anything.
As I wound my way between all the covered boxes, I half-heard Solar’s voice drifting through the air. “...can’t keep this up, the Corps is going to take me off the case soon. Not to mention Scarlett and Sunset have both gotten curious.”
I started to gasp, then quickly bit down on it before I gave myself away. For all the talk about how Solar might have gone bad, I’d never wanted to believe it. But there he was, talking with what had to be Steel Rose.
I felt Strumming’s hoof on my back, and she whispered. “You okay?”
I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths. I’d known this was a possibility. Now wasn’t the time to start freaking out about it. I’d just have to deal with it, and if that meant arresting Solar along with Steel, then that’s what I’d have to do. “I’m fine.”
Strumming didn’t say anything, but she did give me one more pat on the back before she slipped back into the shadows. I could guess what she was thinking, mostly because I was on the same page as her. I wasn’t fine. Hard for anyone to be fine with everything I’d just found out. But I would have to keep it together long enough to get the job done.
I stalked forward a bit further and finally got a good look at the two of them. Solar looked a lot more tired compared to how he’d been the last time I’d seen him. Or maybe it was just the contrast to Steel. The descriptions I’d heard of the warlock who killed my godparents didn’t quite capture just how damned unsettling she was. Being clad from head to hoof in black iron armor with a facemask in the shape of a snarling demon just made everything about her seem ... off. The design of the mask and armor made her look like something that wasn’t really equine anymore.
Then again, for all I knew she wasn’t really a pony. From what I’d read up about Warpsmiths and Kare Demir practitioners, they were pretty fond of using dark magic to blur the line between pony and metal. For all I knew, under the armor she was some sort of twisted monstrosity, or else the armor had just fused to her flesh and wouldn’t come off at all.
As I closed in, I felt the tingle of a privacy ward. I guess that explained why they hadn’t heard the fight. Steel spoke, the mask distorting and deepening her voice. “I tire of this discussion, Solar. How many times have we had it in the last decade? It is far past time you learned that—”
“You don’t understand,” Solar cut her off. “Things are changing, and if I don’t—”
It probably would’ve been smarter to sit back, let them talk, and see what they’d reveal about their conspiracy, but after finding out my father was in league with a warlock I wasn’t in the mood to be patient. I could figure the rest of it out once I had them captured, ringed, and in an interrogation room. I teleported right in, a spell on the tip of my horn. “Solar Shimmer and Steel Rose, consider yourselves both under arrest!”
Solar’s eyes snapped wide open when he saw me, and a second later his shoulders slumped. “Oh Celestia, no. Sunset...”
Steel whirled on him, her masked face snapping back and forth between the two of us. “Ah, now I understand. So, that's the way of things, is it Solar? You serve as a distraction while your daughter gets into position. Fine then, I’ll—”
I never found out what she was going to do next. Honestly, I didn’t care. After finding out Solar was colluding with her, I’d been spoiling for a fight, and if Steel wanted one I was more than happy to oblige. I snarled and unleashed a blast of blightfire straight at her. Probably not the smartest spell to use when we were all in a confined space, but I was too pissed off to care about little details like that. Besides, after the trip to Northmarch, I’d learned a lot of new tricks for how to control it.
The one thing I really should’ve seen coming was Solar. “No!” He fired off a beam of light that deflected my fire before it could hit Steel. Or at least, that had been the plan. He didn’t put quite enough power behind the attack, so instead of knocking my fire completely clear it only clipped Steel. The entropic black flames immediately started consuming her mask.
Steel tore off the snarling demon’s visage, casting it aside before the Blightfire could spread to her flesh. Then she turned to face me.
I knew that face. The last time I’d seen it was in old family photos, from over a decade ago. The mare in those pictures didn’t have the vicious scars over the left side of her face or the metallic eye threaded with sickly black veins, not to mention all the other side effects of over a decade of aging and all the dark magic she’d used. Still, there was no mistaking her.
I completely forget about using a followup spell, just staring at her. “Golden Aster?! But—but Steel Rose killed you...”
“Golden Aster is dead,” Steel Rose snarled. “She was weak, pitiful, and pathetic. I destroyed her and became something greater.” One of her armored hooves slammed down on the floor, and several objects tumbled down from the ceiling. I had just enough time to recognize them as thunderflash stones before they went off.
“AUGH!” The world vanished in a blinding white flash, and a concussive wave of sound staggered me. Blind and deaf, I started putting up as many defensive spells as I could. A dome of ice, a thin plane of blightfire, and a traditional force shield. I was tempted to teleport too, but doing that while blind, deaf, and disoriented could end very badly. So instead I just threw up as many layers of defense as I could while I tried to recover.
Eventually I started to see blurry shapes resolving themselves once more, and I could hear Strumming’s voice through the ringing in my ears. Between that and the fact that nobody had tried to bust through all the defensive spells I’d tossed up, I had a pretty good idea what had happened. It took a couple more minutes to get confirmation. By then Puzzle had come in to check on us.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. “They got away?”
Puzzle’s voice came out in the slow, measured tones of someone who was probably speaking a lot more loudly than the words I could actually hear. “Right after the thunderflash. This one tried to get a tracker on either of them, but...” The Puzzle-shaped blur shifted in a way that looked kind of like a shrug. “Chasing either of them would have been very dangerous, especially when this one wasn’t sure if you were okay.”
“I’m...” I was going to say I was fine, but that was a long way from the truth. I’d need at least a couple more minutes to completely shake off getting thunderflashed. And after everything else that had happened, my eyes and ears not quite working was the least of my worries.
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Ok, given what's been put forward already, it's not too surprising to see Solar to some extent working with Steel. Trying to talk her down perhaps? Steel actually being one of the two magi killed by her I didn't see coming.
9776496
I mean there are spoiler tags that you could put up.
So it is Golden Aster. But its not at the same time. I guess whatever pact was made changed her. And I have a hunch Solar may have been a little closer to Aster than he should have been before whatever pact she made happened. It would explain why Solar has been 'chasing' her for so long. It would also explain why, after an agent of Scarlet's went looking for Steel and returned, why Scarlet is divorcing him. I just don't know if it is for political reasons only, or if Scarlet actually has feelings still.
The logical thing would be to inform the Equestrian Mage council that one of their archmagus has gone rogue, so I don't expect that to happen.
9776685
Sunset just washing her hooves of the whole situation after reporting it to the authorities would make for a boring story. Besides, Equestria’s magi are weeks away, and as far as Freeport is concerned she’s the one who should be handling any magus business.
9776751
Oh, I didn't expect them to just report it and leave it be (like you said, it would make for a rather boring story). It's more that she'd be likely to simply tackle it herself without bothering to at least send a message that hey, looks like one of your maguses has gone rouge.
So, is he just a really bad Obi-Wan to her Darth Vader, or is there more to this?
Because there isn't anyway he can spin this that doesn't lay a good chunk of her crimes on his head as well.
Ah, so Golden offed her husband/old friend, and Solar has been covering for her the entire time. Clearly Solar either has more than friendly feelings for Golden (and is blinded by his love/lust), or he thinks she is being controlled, but either way he is guilty of aiding and abetting every kidnapping, torture, mutilation and murder Golden (sorry, "Steel") has done since she fell.
But will he be called to account and punished for it?
Too bad Sunset couldn't have waited another minute, but that's Sunset for you. And of course things just got more complicated. Solar did mention warning signs before, but I wonder if a pact with something isn't out of the question either.
So Solar probably hasn't gone bad but keeping something like this hidden for so many years, yeah, if he survives and makes it back to Equestria his life is still ruined. I hope there isn't any old romance but rather just guilt over failing to save a friend. Who knew Sunset's mother trying to drag her back to Canterlot (as a statue) would turn out to be the less worse parent.
Whenever Sunset catches up with them, Solar had better have some answers if Sunset doesn't just throw him in a cell (not sure about the power and skill levels by now though).
9776751
More like if they manage to flee Freeport the rest of the mage core will be after them
You couldn't have waited just a few more sentences, could you, Bacon? Definitely looking forward to seeing the nature of the misunderstanding and the secrets of that strategically cut-off dialogue. I'm not saying everypony involved is innocent, but I am saying it's clearly a lot more complicated than Sunset thinks.
The plot thickens!
I kind of figured this is where we were going, but the details are going to be very interesting.
Dun dun Duuun! (Eagle sound)
>Sunset doesn't have a secret sister.
THE FAMILY CURSE IS BROKEN.
Yeah, makes sense.
Interesting.
Efficient!
That does sound like a job that would be hard to quit.
Minions outnumbering an archmage really just means providing her a target rich environment.
LOL
Character growth for Skyra!
Huh, so Shimmer dad really isn't conducting an honest warlock hunt.
Oh shit, so that's what happened. All along the "secret missing warlock daughter" theory felt right but never fit the facts, this is roughly the same thing but everything fits.
Heh, Sunset has an evil
fairywarlock godmother.I want to do a Kylo Ren quote, but I can't remember a single one
You killed my godmother.
No *kjjjjj* I am your godmother
Noooooooooooooooo
"My name is Sunset Shimmer, you stole my father, prepare to die! "
9803597
"From my point of view the Jedi are evil." Wait, that's not right.