Chapter 18: Ambush
Chapter 18: Ambush
Rainbow Dash tore through the skies above Equestria. Thin streaks of color trailed behind her, cutting an uninterrupted path straight to the heart of the mountainside capital city.
Stealing a glance behind her, the blue pegasus checked the saddlebags strapped across her back. The top folds rippled violently in the wind, straining against the metal clasps holding them closed. Rainbow shook her head and forced herself to slow.
Dash cursed under her breath. When I get my hooves on that bucking showmare… Argh! If Fluttershy could’ve flown the letter I’d be hunting Trixie down right now. There’s no way that Twilight, Cobalt and the others will be able to catch her on hoof, even with that freaky not-blood-magic or whatever it is. Rainbow pressed her hooves against her head and rolled her eyes. I hate it when I have to go slow.
The mare squinted in the direction of Canterlot. It was hard to gauge the distance to the city; the scale of the towering castle buildings ahead and the empty valley below made it seem as if she was hardly moving at all.
Princess Celestia looked up from her writing stand and set down the quill beside the half-finished letter. Sighing and shaking her head, she plodded towards the chamber door. Outside her room, she could already hear the clang of metal armor and the voices of guards barking orders.
Slowly, she eased open the reinforced door with her magic. For a moment, she halted at the scene before her, blinking once. Just in front of the threshold, two of her royal guards lay prone on the floor, a struggling blue pony pinned beneath them. Three more unicorn guardponies stood in a tight circle around them, their heads lowered and horns aglow.
Celestia cleared her throat. Instantly, the guards froze. The sandwiched pegasus continued to shout and squirm for a moment before her magenta eyes finally locked with the princess’s. With a grin, the mare forced herself upwards, slamming her back into the stomach of the guard on her right side.
“I told ya you couldn’t keep Rainbow Dash down for–” Dash stopped mid-sentence as a yellow field materialized around her body. Her eyes flicked away from the guard and back to Celestia. “Hey! That’s not fair!”
The alicorn raised her chin and glared down on the pegasus in front of her. “Rainbow Dash, you had better have a good explanation for attacking my royal guards.” Celestia tilted her head forwards, frowning. “And you would do well to address me as ‘Princess’ when you speak. Now, why are you here at this hour, and where are your friends?”
Celestia let her magic dissipate, gently dropping Rainbow Dash to her hooves. The pegasus brushed herself off with a forehoof and muttered, “Second time today I’ve let one of you magic-types order me around.”
“Dash,” Celestia warned, raising an eyebrow.
“Yah, yah, yah. Sorry, Princess. Twilight sent me off to give you this letter. Starshade and Spike were foalnapped last night and we figured it would be good for you and Princess Luna to know.”
Celestia’s eyes snapped to the guard on Rainbow Dash’s left. His armor was inlaid with a single blue star, marking him as a commanding officer.
“You,” Celestia said, “wake Shining Armor and inform him that I desire his presence in my personal quarters as soon as possible. The rest of you are dismissed.”
In a shuffle, the guards bounded down the spiral staircase behind them, leaving Celestia and Rainbow Dash alone.
Celestia motioned Rainbow Dash into the room. As soon as the mare was inside and the door was closed, Celestia said, “I received a letter from Spike only several hours ago, intended for Luna. She left as soon as she had read it. I cannot imagine why she would have left alone if she knew he was in danger. They must be using him as some sort of bait. Do you have any idea where they are being taken?”
“No,” the pegasus answered, “I don’t.” Rainbow reached into her saddlebags and extracted the letter. “But I have this letter for you, from Twilight. She told me it has everything that she knows about what is happening in it, that way I wouldn’t have to remember. She said that she would teleport in another letter as soon as she learned where Starshade is being taken. I don’t know why she didn’t just teleport this one, though. It would have been way faster.”
The alicorn shook her head. “Teleportation from such a distance is very unreliable. I doubt, even with Twilight’s skill, that it would end up in the correct wing of the castle, much less in my hooves. She was right to send you with this.”
Celestia grabbed the letter in her magic and unrolled it, scanning its contents as quickly as she could. After a moment, she set it down beside her on the writing desk, her brow furrowed.
“Tantalus Starshade,” she muttered, “even after a thousand years you still have your wits about you. I was wrong to expect less.”
“Huh?” Dash asked, her head cocked to the side. “Who’s Tanta-whatever, and what did you say about Starshade and a thousand years?”
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed; it was going to be a long day.
Tantalus leaned over the small water-filled bowl and released his magic, letting several drops of blood from a small cut on his foreleg mix with the magical energy. He muttered under his breath, eyes scanning the pool for any sign of Starshade, Spike, or Trixie.
Twilight stepped alongside him and rested a hoof across the back of his neck. “It’s getting harder, isn’t it?” she asked.
The stallion nodded. “There’s other magic interfering, now. It’s powerful, but this spell is almost impossible to stop.” The blue glow around the stallion’s horn faded. Sighing, he shook his head and looked at Twilight. “I don’t think we’re going to get any more than this. I may be his father, and we have my blood, but getting past the magic isn’t going to be possible without a better focus – which we don’t have.”
Tantalus backed away from the applecart that held the bowl of water and spell reagents and, turning around, faced the other ponies traveling with him. He looked between Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. After a moment, he asked, “Where’s Fluttershy?”
A squeak sounded from a nearby patch of tall grass just off the road. Twilight shook her head and trotted up to it. Rolling her eyes, she stuck her head into the brush and, pushing aside the grass, revealed a quivering Fluttershy with a burst of magenta magic.
“Uh,” Fluttershy said, blinking once amidst otherwise wide eyes, “I’m here.”
Twilight extended a hoof, offering it to the yellow mare. “I told you it isn’t blood magic. You don’t need to worry about it. Besides, it’s the only way we can find Starshade and Spike.”
“I… I know.”
“I have a feeling that that’s not going to change anything,” Twilight said, as Fluttershy hooked a forehoof around hers and stood.
Tantalus cleared his throat. “Alright. So, as best as I can tell, Starshade and Spike are somewhere inside of a cave about thirty minutes’ gallop to the southwest of here. The wards there are very powerful so my guess is that there at least five other unicorns, probably with some pegasi and earth ponies too.”
“My, my,” Rarity said, shaking her head. “Whatever are we to do, then? It’s not like we can fight ten or fifteen other ponies to get Starshade and Spikey-wikey back. And in a cave, too. Can you image what the damp air could do to our manes?” The white mare shuddered at the thought.
“The odds aren’t good,” Applejack added.
Tantalus sunk back to his haunches, ears folded back and eyes on the ground.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked, cocking her head slightly.
The stallion nodded. “I’m just thinking. You can still teleport a letter to Canterlot, right?”
“I can,” Twilight said, “but it could take Celestia a while to find it.”
“That’ll have to do,” the stallion said, returning to his hooves and trotting over to the cart. “All of you should get a bite to eat; it’s almost lunch…” Halting where he stood, Tantalus trailed off. After a second, he said, “Actually, forget that. I have a different plan. Let’s get moving.”
The other ponies standing around the cart stared back blankly.
“Uh, what, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Beside her, Twilight said, “No, actually. I think Cobalt has the right idea.” The unicorn smiled, nodding slightly. “We need to move quickly.”
Russet trotted briskly through the damp tunnels of the conclave’s cave network, his hooves splashing noisily through the shallow pools of water that dotted the ground. Gripping the lantern he held in his mouth more tightly, he glanced backwards. From the blackness beyond the lantern’s ring of light, he only heard the faint echoes of a distant dripping stalactite.
The pegasus stallion’s stomach rumbled, starling him slightly. Frowning and shaking his head, he turned back around and continued down tunnel in the direction of the kitchen.
After three or four minutes of walking, Russet stopped in front of the thin and rotting wooden panel that separated the kitchen area from the tunnels. On the other side, he could hear the cheery voices of several other ponies chatting over their meals. Pushing aside the door, Russet stepped inside.
The next thing he knew, there was a flash of purple and the resounding sound of splitting rock.
Applejack walked up to the massive pile of rubble that filled the cave tunnel in front of her. Nudging a small round chunk of ceiling idly with a forehoof, she asked, “How many do ya reckon were in there?”
Beside her, Tantalus shrugged. “I don’t know. At least ten, though. Probably more.”
“Are… are they going to be alright?” Fluttershy asked, standing motionless as she stared at the wall of boulders.
“Of course, silly!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “Twilight waited to make sure that brown one got inside so he wouldn’t get squashed. He wouldn’t have been alright if she didn’t.” Pinkie raised her forelegs and brought them down on her head, sticking out her tongue limply as she pushed her head down to the cave floor.
Fluttershy was not watching Pinkie, however. Coughing slightly from the cloud of unsettled dust, she mumbled, “They’re trapped in there.”
Tantalus trotted alongside her and slung a hoof across her back. “Don’t worry. It’ll take quite a bit of work, but once Celestia gets here and this is all over, we’ll be able to get them out with magic.” Looking to the side at Twilight, he continued, asking, “Are you ready to move on? We don’t have much longer before somepony comes to investigate.”
Wordlessly, the purple mare nodded.
Trixie looked to her side at Sanguine. The white mare’s ears were still on end, her gaze directed down the same passageway that Trixie’s had been moments before.
Trixie’s voice shook slightly as she asked, “What was that?”
Sanguine shook her head. “Cave collapse, I hope.”
“What do you mean, you hope? If it’s not a collapse then…” Trixie trailed off.
“… It’s an attack,” Sanguine finished, rising to her hooves. Glancing back into the depths of the cavern, she continued, “I can’t leave them unattended, Trixie, not even for a moment. Round up as many ponies as you can find and try to figure out what happened. Get back here as soon as you can.”
Pushing herself onto her hooves, Trixie nodded and turned towards the entryway tunnel. “I will,” she said. Slipping through the charged glow of red energy that shielded Luna’s prison, she trotted down the tunnel and into the darkness of the conclave’s cave network.
“Oh! That was weird.” Pinkie’s voice echoed down wide tunnel, soon tapering off into silence.
Beside her, Applejack rolled her eyes. “What now, sugarcube?” she asked, her voice nearly a whisper.
Still speaking loudly, Pinkie explained, “I haven’t felt one like that before.”
“Be quiet,” Tantalus snapped, spinning around and placing a hoof to his lips. “Unless you have something really important to say, don’t say it. We can’t afford to be found right now.”
“But–” Pinkie protested. Tantalus’s glare cut her off.
“Maybe we should listen to her,” Fluttershy offered, whispering even more quietly than the stallion had been.
Tantalus looked to his side. Twilight’s eyes were also locked on the pink mare.
“What is it, dear?” Rarity asked, taking a step alongside Pinkie Pie.
“I’m not sure, silly,” Pinkie said, placing a hoof on her chin as she sunk to her haunches. “But I have a really weird feeling that something bad is–”
“Now!” a mare’s voice cried from somewhere farther down the passageway. Blue, orange, and green blasts of energy materialized out of the darkness ahead of Tantalus. Instinctively, he dove to the ground as the magical bolts streaked over his back. Behind him, he heard two ponies yell.
Tantalus focused forwards, his horn already charged with energy. The eerie blue glow of his magic lit the tunnel, revealing the forms of three unicorns galloping towards them. Above them, a single red-colored pegasus hovered, eyes squinted and wings flared wide.
Another fluid bolt of blue energy flew past him, splashing against a hastily-summoned purple shield.
“How does that feel?” the voice of the mare called out again. “You’re ready to fight the Great and Powerful Trixie aren’t you, Twilight Sparkle?”
“What?” Tantalus heard Twilight mutter as he readied his own magic in retaliation.
“She’s the one that foalnapped Starshade,” he yelled, glancing slightly to his side as two gray-blue lances burst from his horn and traveled in the direction of the two other charging unicorns.
“I know,” Twilight shouted in return, sending forth a bolt of her own towards Trixie. “But last I saw her she was just a traveling showpony.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie has learned much since you shamed her,” Trixie called back. “Now, she will make you pay, Twilight Sparkle.”
Eyes narrow and mouth wide in a grin, a blue bolt shot from Trixie’s horn and collided with Twilight’s spell. In midair the colors mixed and exploded into a muddy shower of sparks.
Tantalus tore his eyes away from Twilight, heart pounding as he squared off against the other two unicorns. She would have to fight Trixie on her own.
In front of him, about fifteen meters down the tunnel, the first of the charging unicorns slowed to a halt. The green-coated stallion grinned, and, lowering his horn, aimed several bolts to Tantalus’s side. In a flash of blue-gray light, the missiles vanished as they passed alongside Tantalus. With a grin, the other unicorn seized a long stalagmite in the glow of his magic and tore it from the cave floor. Tantalus dodged to the side, his hooves slipping precariously on the damp floor as the rocky chunk whizzed past him and shattered against the ground.
Steadying himself, Tantalus readied for an attack, but a sidelong blast from the green stallion forced him to summon another shield to his right. He gritted his teeth as he dove left to dodge a yellow bolt.
Another pair of green and yellow lances smashed against his shielding, pushing him backwards and down towards the ground. Tantalus strained his legs, trying to keep upright under the two unicorns’ continuing assault.
Stealing a glance backwards, he looked for some sign that the battle was being won on a different front.
Fluttershy yelped as a hazy blue glow appeared around the small collection of stalagmites and stalactites separating her from the fray in the tunnel. With a snap, the thin spindles lifted from the ground and tore from the ceiling, hovering momentarily in the air before her. She flinched as they whipped violently around in a quarter circle and leveled in parallel with the floor. With a flash, they shot away from her – and directly towards Pinkie Pie.
Squinting through a single open eye, she watched as Rarity dove in front of the makeshift spears, the light from her horn glinting off the damp cave wall. With a burst of energy, the white mare forced three of the rods off to the side, but the remaining four wavered only slightly in their path as they flew onwards.
A cloud of dust engulfed Rarity and Pinkie as the dripstones collided with their bodies. In an instant, Fluttershy was on her hooves. Her thoughts in a haze, she galloped towards the settling rocky powder. In her periphery, she saw Applejack trading blows with a grounded red pegasus, a rope wrapped tightly around his right wing and torso.
Slowing to a halt, Fluttershy hooked a hoof around one of Rarity’s forelegs and started dragging the stunned mare down the tunnel and away from the fighting.
Tantalus cringed as a wave of pain shot through his body. The smell of singed hair filled his nostrils as the side of his head slammed against the uneven tunnel wall. The stallion slumped to the floor, ears ringing and vision blurry. For a moment, he lay there as the red and yellow unicorns slowly approached.
An orange and brown mass collided headlong into the side of the green caster. Tantalus blinked, clearing his vision slightly. Applejack was barely distinguishable from the stallion as they traded blows on the chamber floor.
Tantalus charged his horn with energy, sending a bolt into the side of the distracted yellow unicorn. In an instant, he was on his hooves again, poised over the stunned yellow caster. The stallion halted for just a second. Save for a steady shallow breathing, the yellow one did not move.
Turning to Applejack and the green stallion, Tantalus prepared another bolt. As he leveled his horn to fire, out of the corner of his eye he saw Twilight and Trixie locked in combat.
Twilight stood tall, taking hoofstep after hoofstep forwards as she forced Trixie further back down the tunnel. The blue mare's teeth were gritted as she tried to force her horn upwards under Twilight’s continuing blasts. In a split second, Twilight watched as Trixie's eyes went wide, shifting back and forth across the walls of subterranean tunnel. Her eyes locking on something, Trixie grinned.
The purple unicorn barely had time to throw up a shield as a bolt from Trixie streaked towards Pinkie Pie. Above her, the ceiling exploded in a burst of light-blue energy. Twilight dove backwards as rocky splinters rained down in front of her. Her stomach scraped against the damp floor as she skidded away from the collapse.
Silence filled the tunnel. Blinking once, Twilight opened her eyes and looked up from her prone position. To her side, she saw Applejack lying motionless, just barely clear of the fallen rock. The purple mare looked up, squinting through the dust.
Above her Trixie stood, horn glowing and eyes narrowed.
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awesome needs a bit more detail though
NEED MOAR!
DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITs nice to see this update after a months wait
interesting story, can't wait for more
Very good, can't wait for more, but I did think that Tantalus would be a bit more powerful when it came to fighting unicorns in this peaceful era.
I mean, apparently he's the one who created Nightmare Moon and he fought against the Solar guards during on of the greatest conflicts Equestria has ever known. Not to mention he had enough raw power to freaking melt an inhibitor ring.
Next chapter soon please.
1549622 *only conflicts