• Published 3rd Nov 2019
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Ant-Mare and the Wasp - IndigoMoon

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 4
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Issue 4 - Morning, Noon, and Black Knight

“So, my little ponies,” said Zecora. “I hear that the potion you need me to brew, can make you so small, you can fit in a shoe.”

Fizzy and Shrinky glanced at each other. “Yeah, I guess,” said Shrinky. “I have the recipe if you need it.” She floated it out of the saddlebag and over to Zecora.

Zecora plucked it out of the air and looked over it. “Oh my,” she said. “There are enough ingredients here to fill a whole tome. Luckily, I have most if not all, right here in my home.” She set the scroll down on a nearby shelf, and began pouring ingredients into the cauldron in the center. The liquid in the cauldron bubbled. “Can you do me a favor, my shapeshifting friend?” asked Zecora to Fizzy. “Take this spoon and stir until the potion turns red.” She placed a spoon in Fizzy’s hooves. Fizzy nodded and lifted the spoon in her magic, lowering it slowly into the cauldron, and began stirring slowly. Zecora then handed a vial of orange powder to Fizzy, and a similar vial of green powder to Starlight, both taking their respective vials into their magic. “I’ve made sure the amounts are quite right. Now pour them in at the same time, because to restart would cost us our sleep tonight.”

Starlight and Shrinky followed her instructions, pouring the powders into the cauldron in sync. As Fizzy stirred the potion slowly faded from neon green to a vibrant red. “Excellently done. Now to produce the inverse, we must follow the steps in reverse.”

Starlight groaned. “I can see what you made what little you did. This must have been tedious with just the two of you.” Shrinky nodded. “Exactly,” said Shrinky. “We had minimal potion experience before this project. After about a bajillion tries trying to get the ingredients right, when we finally got it, we just said screw it, and made the bare minimum, as well as a bit extra, just in case. At least this is going much quicker.”


About half an hour later, Shrinky’s saddlebag was filled to the brim with potions. They had needed to borrow a saddlebag from Zecora to fit the rest in, as well as carry their suits in, which Fizzy now carried as Starlight led the back to the castle. A trial run in Zecora’s hut proved the potion did indeed work.

When they arrived back at the castle, they saw two ponies standing outside the door. One was a large white unicorn stallion with a long yellow mane and a suit piece. The other was a pale blue unicorn mare, wearing a helmet similar to the ones of the old helmets worn by the unicorn night guards, but with a few exceptions. Most noticeably was that it was black, with yellow highlights. It also lacked a plume, and obscured the mare’s eyes from view. She also wore a brown jacket, with a sheathed sword strapped around her middle. Her tail was a sandy orange-brown.

As the trio approached, the stallion turned around, smilingly. “Ah, there you are. I was starting to get worried that no one was here, and I’d have to talk to one of the commoners.” He shuddered, as if the thought terrified him. Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Prince Blueblood, I presume? Twilight mentioned you were coming.”

Blueblood perked up at that, walking down the step, the mare following. “She did? Lovely. Then you must already know I am here to offer my assistance! As well as the assistance of my assistant here,” Blueblood shoved the mare next to him forward, into Starlight’s face.

“Hi,” she said nervously, leaning back, trying in vain to give Starlight some of her personal space back after violating it against her will. “I’m Dane. Dane Whitmare.”

Fizzy looked on in confusion. “Who is this guy?” she asked.

Blueblood gasped dramatically. “You don’t know who I am? Oh, wait. You’re one of those bugs who invaded Canterlot a few years ago. Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Prince Blueblood, nephew of Celestia.”

“Add about 11 ‘great’s in front of nephew,” Shrinky whispered into Fizzy’s ear. Fizzy snickered. Blueblood paid them no mind, continuing. “And as you heard, this is my assistant, Dame Whitman. She’s my loyal protector and servant.”

Dane stared at him. “It’s Dane. With an ‘n’. And I’m just your protector, not your servant.”

“Mhm, sure. Anyways, what are you fine fillies up to?” asked Blueblood, rudely disregarding Dane’s corrections.

“Well, we just got back from Zecora’s with more shrinking potion, and we’re going to check the Cutie Mark map to see if we can find out where the supervillains are hiding,” said Starlight, clearly wanting to get as far away from Blueblood as magically possible while going to open the doors to the castle. She even thought about sending him to the moon, but decided against for two reasons. One, she may be powerful, but not that powerful. And two, she didn’t want to have to deal with legal paperwork over a missing prince.

Blueblood’s eyes widened. “Shrinking potion? Supervillains? Twilight left out quite a bit of detail. Well, she was quite frazzled over losing Grogar’s Bell, so I guess she was mentally preoccupied. Well then, shall we head inside. I can have Dame-”

“Dane,” corrected Dane.

“Dane,” said Blueblood, eyes rolling. “Make us something to eat while you catch me up.”

“I am not your-! Oh, never mind,” grumbled Dane. She trudged up the steps and into the crystalline building, clearly disliking Blueblood more than anyone else present. Fizzy winced in empathy, before she and Shrinky also headed in, closing the door to the castle shut behind them.

While Shrinky and Fizzy wandered up to their room to deposit their saddlebags, Starlight led Trixie and Dane to the map room in the center of the castle. As they walked to their room, they ran into Sunburst.

“Oh, hey guys,” he said. “Uh, who came in with you guys? I heard voices I didn’t recognize.”

“Prince Blueblood,” said Shrinky, with loathing.

“Oh. Great,” said Sunburst with equal loathing. “What does he want?”

“He says Twilight sent him here to help,” said Fizzy.

Sunburst laughed. “Help? Twilight sent him to help? She must be really out of it over losing Grogar’s Bell. I can guarantee she’d have never sent him if she was thinking rationally. A bucket of rocks would be more useful.”

Fizzy cocked her head in confusion. “Seriously? Is he that bad?”

“YES,” said Shrinky and Sunburst. “He came in to demonstrate magic during one of my classes while I was at Celestia’s school,” said Sunburst. “When he tried to teleport an apple across the room, he turned the room into a swamp! It even had flash bees!”

Fizzy winced. “Yikes. Okay. He’s bad. I believe you.”

Shrinky resumed walking towards her and Fizzy’s room, with Sunburst now tagging along. “You know, I heard that Prince Blueblood was mad that Twilight inherited the throne instead of him,” said Sunburst.

“That’s just a rumor,” said Shrinky dismissively. “He only has one emotion: vain. I doubt his brain can process anything else.”

Sunburst nodded. “True that.”

When they reached their room, Shrinky lifted both her and Fizzy’s saddlebags off of them, and carefully slid them under her bed, careful to not spill any of the potions or crack the vials.

“Well,” said Sunburst. “Shall we go see if Starlight has made any developments?”

When they entered the map room, they say Starlight grinning, while Blueblood reclined in Twilight’s chair, eating grapes from a bowl being held by Dane, who had taken off her helmet to reveal shocking red eyes, and a messy mane. She looked like she was about to murder somepony.

“Oh, great! You guys are here. Guess what? I know where the villains are!” said Starlight, excitedly. Before she could continue, Blueblood suddenly began hacking as he choked on a grape. He quickly leaned forward, trying to cough it up. Dane reached over and whacked him in the back as hard as she could, and going by her expression, took great joy in being able to hit him. The grape launched out of his throat, and narrowly missed Starlight before landing in the chair next to, which was adorned with three diamonds at the top of the chair’s back.

“You said you found the villains?”

“First, gross,” said Starlight. “Secondly, yes I did. That tracking spell from Twilight worked a treat, and I’ve been able to find out where they are.” She pointed to a glowing dot on the map, situated directly under Canterlot Castle.

“They’re hiding in the catacombs under the castle,” she said.


Starlight, Shrinky, and Fizzy stood with Blueblood outside the front of the castle, as the sun sank on the horizon.

“I will inform Princess Twilight of this as soon as I arrive,” said Blueblood as the chariot landed in front of the castle. “I’ll meet you at the train station when you arrive.”

“Wait,” said Fizzy as Blueblood climbed aboard the chariot. “Where’s Dane?”

“I’ll be accompanying you, at the behest of Prince Blueblood,” said a voice from behind them. Shrinky turned to see Dane leaning against the doorway of the castle. She had put her helmet back on.

“Well, I should be off,” said Blueblood. “Farewell.” With that, the guards pulled the chariot off the ground and into the air, turning towards Canterlot. As Blueblood flew away, Starlight headed towards town, citing the need to go pick up supplies before Dane, Shrinky, and Fizzy left for Canterlot on the train tomorrow.

As Fizzy and Shrinky headed inside, Dane joined them as they headed to their rooms. The silence permeated the space between them, making everyone uncomfortable. When they passed Dane’s room, she headed in with a short “Goodnight,” before closing the door.

“Well, that was awkward,” said Fizzy.

“Yeah,” agreed Shrinky. “Although, I feel bad for her, having to work for Blueblood of all ponies. That’s gotta suck.”

“I can only imagine,” said Fizzy as they reached their rooms. They each climbed into their beds, wishing each other a good night’s sleep as they did so. Soon they were both asleep.


They had woken up the next morning to blueberry muffins, courtesy of Starlight, as well as a magic bag that led to a pocket dimension, so they could hold their extra potions without having to use a second saddlebag, which she had gotten last night for them, as well as some snacks. After transferring the potions to the new bag, Fizzy gave the spare saddlebag back to Starlight, to return it to Zecora. Dane was quiet the entire morning.

They arrived at the station just as the train for Canterlot arrived. They turned in their tickets (part of the supplies Starlight bought for them last night), and boarded. This time, the train was a fair bit more crowded than the last train they had taken. They found open seats in the middle of the train, with Fizzy and Shrinky sitting together on one side, and Dane sitting alone on the opposite. She had taken off her helmet, and was carrying it in her own saddlebag, which had an image of a shovel and a book emblazoned on the buckle. Shrinky presumed it was Dane’s cutie mark, but didn’t ask, not wanting to pry.

A ways into the train ride, Dane still had said nothing, preferring to just stare out the window as the countryside whizzed by. Fizzy couldn’t stand it. Rather, she couldn’t stand the silence. It was making her uncomfortable.

“Soooo, Dane,” she began slowly, trying to capture the distant mare’s attention. To her surprise, it worked. Dane looked at her. “Yes?” she asked, seemingly hesitant.

“So, I’ve been wondering for a while now, what’s your story? Like, why do you work for Blueblood? He seems awful to work with. And what’s with the sword. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take it off.”

Shrinky had lowered the book she was reading, equally interested in Dane’s response. Dane, for her part, tried to not look too uncomfortable, with moderate success. “I-I don’t like talking about it,” she said.

“Oh,” said Fizzy, mildly disappointed. “Well, if you don’t like talking about it, then I won’t make you. I just wanted to get to know you better, since it seems we’ll be working together for the meanwhile.”

Dane pondered this. “I suppose you’re right. But it’s a long story, with no comprehensive short version.”

Shrinky shifted in her seat, getting comfortable. “Well, the train won’t get to Canterlot for a couple of hours at least, so it isn’t like we’re pressed for time.”

Dane nodded her head to the side in agreement. “True. So what do you know of the Black Knight?” she asked.

Fizzy blinked at her. Shrinky tried to remember if she had heard the name before, but kept drawing up blanks. She shook her head.

“Okay,” began Dane. “So, a quick history lesson first.

“The Black Knight was a pony from ancient times, before Equestria was formed. The Black Knight was one of King Bullion’s elite guards. (King Bullion was Princess Platinum’s father). The way the legend goes is that when he was passed over for a promotion to leader of the army, he went rogue, but not before stealing a magic sword forged from a meteorite, named the Ebony Blade. The sword had been enchanted by Starswirl himself, giving the sword a number of powers, including the ability to deflect magic, and even absorb it at times. That’s how most swords got their ability to deflect magic, by the way.

Anyways, the sword could also cut through any material, though as far as anyone can tell, an exception hasn’t been found yet. It also forms a psychic link with its wielder, allowing the wielder to summon it if they lose it, and it also can prevent the wielder from being killed. But Starswirl also placed a curse upon the sword. If anypony were to use it with nothing but pure intentions, it would slowly turn the wielder to stone the more it was used for evil reasons.

The Black Knight didn’t know of the curse. Nopony did until the Princesses discovered some of Starswirl’s notes. But he became a highwaypony of sorts, robbing rich nobles and such. But that soon wasn’t enough for him. After Equestria was founded and the Princess took power, he decided to try and rob them, despite the fact they lived in the Everfree Forest. It was said that by the time he executed his heist, the only reason he wasn’t stone was through sheer willpower. He was said to have appeared like a moving statue, with only his eyes and horn not yet stone. When sneaking through the castle, he was spotted by a guard. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to finish his heist, he fled. Nopony knew where he went after that. Some say the Princesses hunted him down, and before he could be arrested, he allowed the curse to take over, turning him to stone. Others believe that he went globe-trotting in search of a cure, but found none before the curse overpowered his will and claimed him. There are a couple other versions, like one where he lived in the Everfree Forest until the curse got him, but the general consensus is that he turned to stone after vanishing.

But I know what actually happened. When he was in the Castle of the Two Sister and spotted by the guard, he killed him, as the guard who found him was the guard that got promoted over him by King Bullion. He then was able to steal a number of trinkets and treasures before the Princesses found him. He tried to fight them, but the Princesses were far more powerful than him. Now, this is where that first story becomes accurate. This is when he allowed the curse to claim him, instead of being arrested. You can even find his statue in the sculpture garden on the castle grounds in Canterlot.”

“Woah,” interrupted Fizzy. “He sounds like a bad dude.”

Dane nodded gravely. “A ‘bad dude’ is putting it mildly. Now, this is where I come in. This is gonna take a bit of a turn, so just bear with me on this.

“I got my cutie mark when I was a foal, same as you. However, I got it when I went on a school trip to a dig site, where they were working to uncover an ancient pony city in the San Palomino desert, hoping to find ancient artifacts. As it turned out, it was where the lost seapony city of Atlantis used to be. When we were there, we were allowed to do some digging, so I grabbed a shovel, as well as my copy of Pony Artifacts Lost to Time, and got to work. Maybe about 10 minutes in, I noticed something sticking out of the sand. When I picked it up, and cross-referenced it with my book, and realized I had found the Amulet of Aurora. I also accidentally activated and almost flooded the dig site, but that’s not the point. During the chaos, I had failed to realize I had gotten my Cutie Mark. In a nutshell, it means I have a knack for discovering lost artifacts, and being able to use artifacts with little trouble. After graduating, (maybe a year or two before our current Princess, actually), I spent about 3 years working at dig sites, until Princess Celestia sent me a letter, asking me to become the new Head Archivist for the Canterlot Archives after the old one retired. I accept the offer, requesting I come on after finishing the dig I was at. A few months after I accepted the position, I actually started the job. While working there, I noticed that there was a section of the Archives only the Princesses were allowed into.

After spending those two years wondering what was in there, I finally mustered up the nerve to ask the Princess about it. She explained that the Restricted Archives was actually a small, yet intricate series of underground tunnels that formed Starswirl the Bearded’s personal library. Much to my delight, it also housed a number of magical artifacts. While we were down there, I came across a sword, black as midnight. I felt compelled to pick it up, but as soon as I did, the sword bound itself to me. Celestia heard me panicking, but by the time she found where I was, the sword had already finished. Confused and panicked, I almost passed out on the spot. Celestia managed to calm me down, and explained the history of the Black Knight to me. She also revealed why the sword bound itself to me. I’m a descendant of the Black Knight, and the sword would only bind itself to someone of the same bloodline as its first wielder. No one, Celestia included, is particularly sure how I’m descended from him, but the evidence is irrefutable. But with the sword also came the curse, and now I’ll have that looming over my head. But, after the Princesses recovered the sword, Starswirl made an amendment to the initial curse, should a descendant come along, that if the sword is used for noblest of intentions, the curse will break permanently. From that point on, I’ve been trying to find a way to break the curse, even taking a leave of absence to protect that blockhead of a prince, at the request of Princess Celestia. But so far, I’ve had no luck breaking the curse.”

Shrinky released the breath she didn’t know she was holding as Dane took a drink out of the water bottle in her bag. “That’s… a lot. Too much for one pony to handle.”

Dane nodded in agreement. “It is.”

Fizzy raised a hoof. “I have one question.”

Dane raised an eyebrow. “Just one?” she asked, incredulously.

Fizzy nodded. “Yup. Where’d you get that?” she pointed at the helmet sticking out of Dane’s bag.

“Oh,” said Dane. “I just repurposed a helmet from a line of unicorn night guard armor that isn’t in use anymore.”

“Neat,” said Fizzy.

“Eeyup,” said Dane. Silence fell between them for a moment before Dane spoke up again. “So, what're your guys’ stories? Other than the whole super villains and changelings thing. I know about that already.”

Shrinky spoke up first. “Well, I don’t really have a story. Not one on par with yours anyways. I just went to a public school, and when I learned how to shrink things, I got my Cutie Mark. I went into the magical research and development field, and was hired by Princess Twilight soon after she took the throne. I was basically given free rein to come up with whatever I felt like, permitted I submit a yearly report to her, and she signs off on what I choose to do before I start. So, pretty boring until two days ago. Five villains in two days is exhausting.”

Dane turned to Fizzy. “What about you?”

Fizzy looked hesitant, but spoke anyways. “So, as you can see, I’m a changeling. Used to be all evil and scary-lookin’, but along with basically everyone else, I rebelled against Chrysalis after King Thorax did. I was part of the pony/changeling exchange program, where changelings stay in Equestria and ponies go live with the changelings. It’s only supposed to last a couple months, but after agreeing to work with Shrinky on her shrinking potion, I was basically made a citizen of Equestria, giving me joint citizenship between the Changeling Kingdom and Equestria. Also, despite the fact that it’s what we’re known for, I… I can’t shapeshift.” Fizzy looked almost ashamed when she said that.

“Why not,” asked Dane. Fizzy didn’t reply, instead laying down in her seat and nudging Shrinky, signaling that she wanted Shrinky to explain. Shrinky sighed. “She lost her ability to shape-shift. As near as we can tell, it’s due to a mental block stemming from her guilt over feeding on ponies’ love while disguised as their loved ones.”

Dane’s expression became one of incredible empathy. She stood up and stepped next to Fizzy, crouching down. “I don’t often do this, but I feel like you need one.” She proceeded to wrap her forelegs around Fizzy in a tender hug. Fizzy’s eyes watered as she hugged back.

Dane broke the hug first, stepping back and climbing back into her seat. Fizzy sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Can we keep her?” she asked Shrinky. “She’s nice. I like her.”

To both their surprise, Dane laughed at this. “Well, you can’t keep me, as I have a job to do, but the most I can offer is us working together until this crisis is done.”

Fizzy smiled. “Deal.”

Author's Note:

I've been wanting to tell this part of the story (Dane's backstory) ever since I came up with it. :twilightsmile: