III: When Logic and Proportion Have Fallen Sloppy Dead
Skyward Strike looked at the still-smoldering ruins of the Western Keep. The castle had done its duty and served as a hidden retreat for many of the Solar Forces in their struggle against Nightmare Moon and her Lunar armies. And though the battle had taken place with enough power and magical force to tear a massive castle down to its very foundations, it had held out long enough and she had done her duty to her liege, even if it had cost the pegasus lord her very home.
“I am sorry for what you have lost,” Princess Celestia told her knight. “This home has been yours for generations and I even recall it fondly from when I was a filly. My mother had brought me here once to enjoy the view while she visited one of her most trusted knights. I will have this rebuilt, Skyward. I promise.”
“No, my lady,” the pegasus told her. “The land suffers so under Nightmare Moon’s dark whims and malice and so long as she rules free, our ponies cannot have a moment’s rest. Besides, your own castle, Everfree, not only suffered as badly as mine has, but her dark magic is tainting the very forest around it as well. That cannot be a good portent, my Princess.”
“You have the right of it,” the alicorn sighed. “Still, to lose the great Western Keep….”
“It will be a worthy loss once we win this war,” Skyward told her liegelady. “Plus, I have a summer manor in Radourmeire’s Rest. I can make that my main home, and it will suffice. A greater reward for me would be to ensure that you remain on the throne of Equestria, my princess. Our ponies – and dare I say it, the world – needs you there. The Western Keep has fallen, but the reason behind it never will.”
Celestia gave a soft smile. “You do me an honor I don’t deserve, Dame Skyward.”
“If you do not deserve the honor of being the daystar we set Equestria’s hopes by, none of us deserve honor,” the knight replied.
Beat’s eyes opened in the tent. She wasn’t sure why she recalled the passage from The Skyward Sword, a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of the Western Keep and its aftermath, but it almost felt as though she’d lived it in her dream, word for word. If her ancestress, Skyward Strike had been half the mare that she’d been depicted in the book, Beat felt honored that she was of that bloodline.
Hitch poked his head into her tent. “Hey, morning! You hungry? I made breakfast burritos!”
Beat climbed out of her sleeping bag. “You made breakfast burritos? Here?”
He mock-pouted. “I’ll have you know that my girlfriend loves my breakfast burritos!” he insisted.
“Well, then, can’t say no to that! Let me run a comb through my mane and I’ll join you shortly!”
“Okay, I have to admit I haven’t been this way in a while,” Beat admitted, “but I don’t remember this being here.”
As they reached the far side of Mareington Gulch, a wild, psychotic landscape greeted them: several groups of giant mushrooms, each with unnatural colors and their undersides glowing with powerful magics, had sprouted up, each nearly as big as a house. Flowers of various types never seen before in Equestria and in a riot of colors, stood tall and majestic as if they were fanciful replacements for trees. It had been as if someone had challenged Discord to come up with something to make the Everfree look positively normal and then after he was done, bombarded the whole place with poison joke concentrate just to make sure.
To their chagrin, even the blades of grass were larger than normal; while it was, thankfully, the normal everyday turf that was encountered in Equestria, it had grown to barrel-height and made it harder for them to get through, to the point that Beat had to take lead and summoned a machete to cut their way through.
“You seem to be pretty capable with that thing,” Hitch noted.
She laughed. “Not anywhere near as good as my brother. He and I used to spar a lot, because the neighborhood colts weren’t interested in joining the Guard or such. So, me and Stonehoof were the only ones who practiced with him and as you can guess, being a sheriff doesn’t call for much need for a sword,” she commented. “As it is, this is a machete. It’s not anything like the sabers and swords the Guard carries. It does its job against plants and such, and that’s about it.”
“Have you ever had to use one against pests in your, um, job?” Hitch asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know if I’d be comfortable enough to. I’m not saying I haven’t dealt with creatures before; parasprites are incredibly hard to put down. But I haven’t had to rely on anything other than my magic an—”
The two noticed a gray lizard crawling up the side of one of the glowing mushrooms and then take a bite. It seemed to blow up for a second like a balloon before popping with a scream that made both shake.
“I, er, don’t recommend that we cut the mushrooms,” the professor noted.
“I would agree with you,” Beat nodded in agreement. “Wait…what’s that noise?”
A deep rumble sounded from behind them and something sleek and massive began to roll at them at a high-speed. The pair dodged out of the way, seeing what appeared to be a giant grayish-black wheel, which crashed against one of the massive fungi, stopped and began to flatten itself, until it looked at them with beady eyes.
“Is that a…?” Hitch asked.
“Yes, that’s a giant roly-poly bug,” Beat told him as the thing just continued to watch their movements.
“Don’t they just eat decaying plant matter?”
“No, they eat decaying matter, period. And I don’t intend to find out if it eats anything alive, either!”
As if on cue, the oversized armored beast began to run towards them, its dozens of short legs giving it a speedy gait for its size before it conglobated into a ball once more, threatening to squash them.
“Quick, this way!” Beat shouted, as the pair dodged the titanic bug once more. “If we head due east, we should hit the mouth of the gulch. Either way, it’s probably safer than sticking around here!” she barked as she started galloping in the intended direction.
“What gave you that idea?” Hitch snarked as he rushed to keep up with her and in fact had passed her.
“Look, I just don’t want to know if we’re going to be in hot water!” The steady rumbling of the land crustacean rushing towards them filled her ears and she was once again in a situation where she knew she was going to have to deal with the abnormal.
But that’s my job, and I have to protect Hitch! she thought. With that, she turned and fired a spell from her horn, cutting the ground behind them. While it wouldn’t stop the pillbug, it would slow it down enough that it would have to temporarily unroll itself to cross.
“Did whatever you do work?” came Hitch’s question.
“Not a clue, but just keep running!” she told him.
Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as the pair rushed through the ad-hoc forest of mushroom stems and floral stalks, desperate to get away from their pursuer and hoping not to run into anything else that could end their journey before they even got to their destination. As for the giant insect, it seemed to take a hint and ran at them in its normal form, the steady drumbeat of its multiple feet providing a haunting melody in the ears of both ponies as it slowly began to get louder.
“It’s gaining!” Hitch told her. “Can you do anything else!”
There was a screech behind them and Beat turned to look. The pillbug had been attacked by a starspider, turned impossibly huge somehow, and intent on feeding.
The two ponies skidded to a halt, crashing against a boulder that, given the scale of this bizarre landscape, may as well have been a pebble. “I take it you didn’t do that?”
“Not at all,” was Beat’s answer as she began to rush off once more. “I suggest we don’t stick around and find out what else is going to need a new exhibit in the Royal Canterlot Zoo!” Hitch said nothing and instead caught up to her, both practically hurtling themselves in the direction of safety while there was still a chance.
The two finally came to a halt as the sun reached its zenith in the sky. They climbed over a series of boulders that had fallen, cutting off the bizarre garden from the rest of the gulch and into what had been normally a dry, dusty crossroads, but instead had become a lush, verdant, grassy area. To their absolute relief, on the farthest hill, surrounded by a sea of green and thankfully not any titanic flora, were the remains of the Western Keep.
“That’s a sight for sore eyes,” Hitch said, audibly grateful that the first part of the trip was coming to a close.
“Something weird is going on here,” Beat told him. “The Mareington Gulch has been dry as a bone ever since I was a filly, and even my pop said that when he was a foal it wasn’t any different. For all of this to sprout in a year….” She thought. “I don’t know if it’s safe to continue, Hitch. I mean, I’ll still protect you as that was the agreement, but now we’re getting into a situation where it might not be entirely safe – and it’s definitely not safe to go back the way we came. As it is, when we’re done, I’ll probably have to send a flamefax and let them know that we’ll need somepony to arrange for a hot air balloon or airship pickup for us, and that might add a couple of extra days to the trip.”
“Sometimes that’s just how the research rock rolls down the hill,” he said sardonically. “Remind me to tell you sometime about the trip I made in the south, well beyond the range of Equestria’s borders. We had a report of a temple dedicated to the Megan in the hedgehog lands and so me and a friend went exploring. We didn’t exactly find anything, but it was a journey dealing with a bunch of savage creatures and a whole bunch of other things I’d rather not discuss. Thankfully my friend was a retired Navy combat pegasus, so she was able to put the hurt on them with her combat magic, but even still….” He chuckled. “I guess a man’s reach is meant to exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”
Beat looked at him oddly. “Uh…what’s a man? And what’s heaven?”
He thought about it for a second. “Has to do with humans, I guess,” he explained. “I briefly spoke to one of them during one of the coronation balls I had to attend – it’s tough having to go dance and be wined and dined on university expenses,” he laughed.
“I thought you said that you didn’t meet any of them earlier?”
He gave an apologetic glance. “Apologies, but your mother didn’t seem to take the news well, so I thought it would be best if I left that out. In any case, I got to meet one: she had a long pink curly mane and blue eyes, kinda reminded me of Lady Pinkie Pie, the Knight of Laughter, to be honest. Funny and charming, but she also reminded me a lot of the Megan, if you can believe that. Anyway, she told me that phrase and said it basically means that humans – and I assume ponies, too – always try to reach beyond what they can do.” He grinned. “To be honest, I see that in you, too.”
She gave him a smile as she fished out some sandwiches, as it was lunch time. “I’d disagree, but thanks for the compliment all the same.”
After a quick lunch, the pair headed up the hill towards the Western Keep. Despite Beat’s earlier jokes about it being “a collection of rocks that used to be castle-shaped), the truth was that most of the castle still stood; though it looked as though it was a shadow of its old self, there was still enough of its majesty that reminded both ponies that history had been recorded here, that generations of ponies had stood the protective watch on its parapets and that it had fallen in service of protecting Equestria from such monsters as Nightmare Moon and the Calamity.
“This is….” Hitch’s words trailed off. “I really don’t know what to say.”
Despite everything she was going through now, Beat couldn’t help but feel a swelling of pride in her chest as they entered the ruins of her ancestral home. “Dozens of my ancestors stood the watch here, both for Queen Faust and for Princess Celestia,” she said, softly and solemnly as they entered the shattered foyer. On the ground, there was a mosaic in the shape of Blazing Lance’s cutie mark: a burning lance behind a round shield decorated with a pony’s head, while the script underneath it read EVER WATCHFUL.
“I suggest we split up,” Hitch told her. “We’ll cover more ground that way.” He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a paper. “This is basically what I’m looking for. If you find anything, take the time to record it and then come find me. As old and weathered as this place is, I don’t want a wall with important information to fall and break because we were being careless, you know.”
She nodded. “I’ll do my best to get everything.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
With that, she walked through the halls of the western wing of the castle, looking at the ancient rooms filled with moldering books and ruined furniture from a bygone time. In one case, she saw an ancient sword, bent from having been crushed by part of the ceiling falling on it and left behind, a reminder of what the structure’s main intent was. The dusty and grimy marble flooring beneath her was cracked with plenty of tufts of grass growing in between the cracks and at one point, she had to cast an illumination spell in order to keep going, as there was no light at all.
But even as she moved through the ancient bones of the old castle, she could still feel the power of magic, strong and cloying, everpresent and potent, surround her. A grand mystic strength still remained in this place after all these years, more than she, or maybe anyone else, ever expected. It wasn’t unheard of; the Battle of Everfree had so soaked the very ground with various magics that the place was forever marked, wild and uncontrolled; the Crystal Empire vanished for a thousand years due to the complex magics that had been placed into the grounds in the frozen north. Maybe this wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as the other two, but it was clearly strong enough to remain after all this time.
Wondering if this was a clue to what Hitch had been looking for, she turned a corner and walked southwards, down a long hall whose walls were adorned with shelves and filled with books. Something about the passageway made every hair of her coat stand on end, but she wasn’t sure why. Had she been here when she was younger and didn’t recall? Was there something in the spell that was calling to her, a distant daughter of Blazing Lance’s line? She wasn’t sure and she didn’t have an answer. She just continued on, knowing somehow that the answer would be waiting for her at the end.
Finally, she reached a room with closed doors. As she attempted to open them, the rotted condition of one of them finally gave way to the weather and so both collapsed, revealing an oval-shaped room. Filled with a checkerboard marble floor of ivory and ruby, the room was surprisingly clean even though the great window that let sunlight into the room was all but ruined. Within the room, lining the walls at locations were small statues of the masters of the Western Keep, ancestors all, with each statue detailing the strong countenances of earth pony, pegasus or unicorn, mare or stallion, in their armor and ready to do their duty for their respective leigelady.
Something in the room reminded her of the dream she had from the other night and she felt a powerful emotion pierce her heart: shame. These were her ancestors, great heroes of Equestria, and what was she in comparison to them? Nothing, an ember where a spark should have existed. If fate had been kinder to her, she could have been a Guild mage, and while not at their level of fame and legend, she could have felt worthy of being part of their bloodline.
“I’m sorry,” she told the statues of her ancestors; she felt she had to. “I’m not as good as you were, though I tried. I wanted to be, I really did.” The shame grew greater in her heart and before she realized it, she’d run out of the room, feeling the accusing stares of the statues on her back, pointing that she was the end result of the fall of the bloodline and that the halcyon days were well and truly over and done.
She finally came to a pause at another room, her heart hammering in her barrel as she gasped for breath. She needed to get a grip, she realized. Though she would never be worthy of the same level of note as her ancestors, it didn’t mean that others didn’t rely on her. Now that she had to give up her dream of being a Guild mage, others would need her, more than ever, especially the pony that she had come here with, the one that had paid her for assistance and protection. And now that the job was far more complex than she’d originally thought it to be, she had to see it through to the end.
With that set in her mind, she decided to go look in some of the other rooms in this part of the castle. In fact, she was so focused on that, that she barely noticed the metallic sound of something as her left foreleg accidentally kicked it while taking a step forward.
What was that? She looked down and noticed the very modern opened can of beans that lay at her feet. Finding that incredibly odd, she looked around the room and found more examples of modernity within the ancient room: blankets, a magic lantern for light, a portable cooking plate and various other things. Lastly, however, was a small diary, the kind that was sold at her parents’ general store. In fact, it wasn’t beyond reason that a lot of this had come from either their general store or Mr. Paintpot’s hardware store next door.
But why would anypony want to come here of all places? she wondered. Was there somepony here to study the bizarre garden that had popped up in the eastern portion of the gulch? And if so, why didn’t Hitch know about it? He would have said something if he had, she figured. Curiosity got the better of her and she picked the diary up in her magical grasp, rifling through the pages until she found something that caught her attention:
DAY 46
Thanks to our source within Nobility House, my group has finally come close to unearthing the secret of the Western Keep: The Bane of Blazing Lance. Captured by the knight millennia ago, the creature is said to be of incredible potency and, given that it was trapped here by the loyal forces of the Solar Tyrant, I have little doubt it wishes to enact a revenge. We will release it and let it know that King Sombra is on its side and will aid in its attempt to gain its revenge.
Oracle Dynamine and Lord Lux both told me once that even in the dimmest hour the Covenant must continue, that we are the only true hope left for Equus and ponykind. There will be unfortunate deaths caused by this, but if it will help to return our true master to the throne, it will be a payment that is worth the price. The martyrs will be sung about in the halls of the Imperial Palace for ages.
The Bane is our salvation, and I will see to it that it is so.
Beat nearly dropped the log as a look of horror quickly spread across her muzzle. The Covenant? That meant that the magic she was feeling wasn’t some ancient spell left over, some remainder of some great enchantment left behind by an ancestor or one of their allies, but was instead a sealing spell, possibly meant to hold an ancient creature here – and the Covenant was trying to free it.
They’re here to find something that my ancestors buried a long time ago – that can’t be good! I’ve gotta find Hitch and we need to get out of here. Quickly rifling through her brain, she found a dimming spell; while she didn’t have the training or experience to be able to use an invisibility or stealth spell, anypony with enough training could use a simple dimming spell. Casting it, she moved slowly through the shadows, hoping that she wouldn’t run into somepony or give herself away in some manner.
She managed to make it all the way back to the lobby when she heard the shouting. Still hoping that her spell would hold, she moved in the direction of the ruckus, and just before she got in, she could hear the voices reverberating, a sign that the ceiling in that room might have collapsed and it might be accessible from the upstairs. Quietly and carefully, she moved upstairs, afraid that creaking steps might give her away and end with both her and Hitch captured. Fortunately for her, though, that did not happen and as she entered the already-open door from downstairs, she noticed she’d entered the upper viewing floor of the castle’s great ballroom, where she got a better view of the situation, one she soon regretted: Several ponies had captured Hitch, who was being held in a very secure binding spell. They were taking magical shots at him to try to pry information from him and from the looks of the trail of blood dripping from the side of his mouth, they had already started.
A unicorn mare with a verdigris coat, beige mane and red eyes glared at the professor; she had yellow goggles around her neck and wore a green top hat and a stained labcoat; if the situation weren’t so dire, Beat would have declared her the ideal “mad scientist” type. But the lightning spell she cast at Hitch was no joke, nor was his grunt of pain as his body convulsed from the blast.
“Did you really think you could hope to catch us unaware, as if we were some foals on a field trip?” she hissed at him in a Trottingham accent. “We knew you were coming – we still have those loyal to the cause in Nobility House and elsewhere, those prepared to give all for our lord’s return. You were given up the moment you departed Canterlot!”
Hitch defiantly spat a glob of blood at the mare. “Thanks for confirming that; we were wondering if we’d caught all you Covenant goons. I guess some of you managed to scurry away like rats for a little bit, so we’ll just have to do another sweep. I’ll give you this much credit, though: you’ve managed to be a bigger pain in the plot than the changelings were.”
“You say that because you know your position is precarious, fool.” A second pony, an earth stallion with a blue coat, balding yellow-and-red mane and orange eyes took a swing at Hitch, slamming him against a wall hard enough to make some of the crumbling plaster fall like rain. “You may have toppled one of our garrisons, but you will never extinguish the fires that are kindled by the One True King of Ponydom! You will all be swept clear from the chessboard and we will stand upon your corpses and laugh!”
Beat watched the ponies below, counting five of them. Were there more? She wasn’t sure. But these five held Hitch and if she could find a way to overcome them, they had a chance to escape. But between Goggles and Baldy, they clearly had exceptional magic and muscles. She wasn’t sure what the other three had, but she did notice a sword on the batpony, which likely wasn’t just for show.
It was then that somepony else actually did laugh – Hitch himself. Chortling as if he’d heard the funniest line in the world, he ignored him, his guffaws echoing in the room.
“I think you broke him, Manxome,” the mare told her. “He won’t do us any good if we can’t question him further.”
“I doubt it, Millinery,” Manxome told him. “Anypony that can survive your magic blasts is made of sterner stuff.”
Hitch grinned. “Glad you think so; my Aunt Luna would agree with you, though I respectfully disagree.”
“Aunt Luna?” What’s Hitch talking about? Does he mean….? From her cover, Beat covered her mouth before she could give away her position via gasp. Does he mean Queen Luna?
She wasn’t the only one that caught his words. “Aunt Luna?” the batpony, a mare with a white coat, black mane and red eyes, pulled her sword immediately. “I thought this guy sounded familiar!” She looked at her henchponies. “Handle, Candle, search the rest of the castle. If I’m right, we’ve got trouble!” The two other ponies also drew their swords and rushed off.
“What’s going on, Mischmasch?” Milliner asked.
“Think about it, Millie – what kind of bookish professor would have that kind of bravado? Or would refer to Princess Luna as his aunt?” The batpony pointed her sword at Hitch. “He’s got a disguise spell on, I’ll bet on it.”
“Then let’s find out who this deluded fool truly is,” Milliner stated as she cast her magic, as red power encircled her horn before lancing out at the bookish academic…
…revealing a far more muscular, white-coated unicorn stallion with a purple mane and golden eyes.
“You!” Mischmasch accused. “It’s—”
“So glad you remember me, though I’d like to know how you escaped prison,” the stallion replied. “I’ll spare you the effort of introducing me; you’d probably get it wrong anyway.” Looking at the trio, he announced, “Prince Divine Right, Captain of the Friendship Guard, definitely not at your service.”
“I should gut you for what you did to me,” Mischmasch said.
“What, for having you arrested, cashiered and thrown in prison for trying to steal the Emerald of Zebrazabar? You do know that’s a national treasure of Zebrica, right? If we hadn’t caught you, the zebras would have, and trust me, even they say that Equestrian prisons are nicer than theirs. As it is, you were part of my platoon, Mischmasch. I wasn’t going to let a traitor like you stain the good name of the Guard.”
Mischmasch looked at Millner. “Can I kill him?”
“No. We still need him – for now. Afterwards, you have my blessing.”
From her perch above, Beat’s jaw practically dropped. Hitch…was an officer in the Guard? He was Prince Divine Right? She covered her mouth to prevent a gasp of surprise from coming out. He was a prince! Why was he acting like a normal pony, even if in disguise? He acted no different than any other pony on the street. Granted, the only noble she’d ever come across was her distant relative Baron Seigneurie, whose side of the family had inherited the family title; he was a fat, stuck-up earth pony who only ever came back to the province of Potok when it suited his needs. Needless to say, he wasn’t popular amongst his constituency and most were glad that he remained in Canterlot to “avoid the country stench”, as he was reported as saying.
But Seigneurie was a small fry compared to a prince, especially one who held such a major rank in the Guard. And yet, Hitch…Prince Divine? He seemed so down-to-earth he may as well have been an earth stallion.
Regardless, she had to save him. Not because he was a prince, or even because he was in danger, but because it was the right thing to do. Even if it had been Aurora down there – a pony who, in Beat’s mind, probably deserved it – she wouldn’t do that. Not here, not in the home of her ancestors and not while she held their blood.
They had all been cavaliers…and that meant she couldn’t afford to be cavalier.
With that, she began to focus on a particular opening spell she tended to use. It was a particularly difficult spell for Troubleshooters and typically used by basic Guild mages. She definitely needed a Guild license to legally use it, so if she got caught doing it without one, she’d be in trouble. Nonetheless, she knew it would hopefully provide enough of a distraction to allow the prince to escape safely.
A violet glow began to envelop her horn.
Meanwhile, Mischmasch refused to withdraw her sword from the prince’s neck. “He’s too dangerous to keep alive, Millie,” she told her boss. “He’s trained in the courser combat style, a particularly fast blend of swordfighting and magic casting. Keep an eye on him, or else he might catch us unawares.”
Despite everything, Divine grinned; his smirk only served to infuriate his captors even more. “Thanks – I try.” The result of that was that Maxnome belted him once more across the face, drawing more blood. But all it did in the end was to let Divine give an even cockier grin towards his captors. “Figured you’d try to deal with an unarmed captive. The cowardly way is the only method you understand.”
“He’s trying to get on our nerves,” Maxnome said before turning his attention back to Divine. “Well, let me tell you something, punk; I’ve already dealt with the biggest plothole there is and if a jackass like Barkeep can’t get on my nerves, what makes you think you can do any better?”
Divine thought about it. “That’s that slobby, boorish moron that was one of the top Covenant operatives, right? I distinctly recall Princess Sunset backhoofing his ass hard enough to knock the stubble off his muzzle.” The unicorn leaned forward, so that his face was inches from Maxnome’s. “Just like I’m going to do to you.”
“That’s it. I’m going to end this pain once and for all,” Mischmasch snarled.
“No. Not until we find out from him the status of our operations. It’s been too long since we’ve received a flamefax from Oracle Dynamine or Lord Lux. We shall have the Bane freed soon and we must inform them of our progress.”
Divine’s eyes lit with glee. “Wait…you don’t know? You really don’t?” He broke into laughter once more. “You guys lost! Canterlot still stands, and the Covenant has been defeated for once and for all, thanks to our new human allies.”
“Humans? You really think me stupid enough to believe that old ponytale?” Milliner retorted.
“You’ve probably been here so long that you don’t even realize how badly wrong it went for you guys, do you?” Divine asked. “Well, let me tell you: Lux is dead. Your Oracle Dynamine is also dead. The seniormost of your troops left is Barkeep and his plot is sitting in the palace dungeon awaiting trial – if he’s even still in a condition to know if it’s the sun or the moon in the sky. We’re busy rooting out your conspiracy – gotta give you that; it was a large and well-planned one – but we have allies now, and if you think I’m dangerous…the humans on our side now make the old stories of the Megan look like Tales of Princess Primrose the Peaceful.”
“ENOUGH WITH YOUR LIES!” Millner snarled. She looked at Mischmasch. “Fine – end him. We’ll get our information another way.”
“And gladly,” the batpony said, raising her sword.
It was at that point that Beat jumped down from her location and activated the spell. The moment she hit the ground, a massive electrical blast channeled from her horn to her legs and as all four of her hooves connected, the Downburst spell sent a combination of strong bursts of wind and lightning into the three offenders, lighting them up like Hearth’s Warming trees. The trio screamed as they fell in unison, hitting the ground unconscious.
She immediately moved to undo the binding spell on him. “Are you okay, Your Highness?” she asked him.
“So you heard then,” “Hitch” – or Prince Divine, to use his actual name – stated. When Beat nodded, he said, “I apologize for misleading you on the real reason on the whole Prof. Hitch thing, but I couldn’t exactly tell you the real reason we’re here, both for security and logistical reasons.”
“I’m sure you have a very good reason,” she said matter-of-factly, though the tone of her voice intended that she sounded pissed about it.
“Look, Beat…we’re still dealing with issues in Canterlot as some of Tirek’s holdout forces are still out there, so the nation’s security forces are stretched more than a bit thin and this whole Covenant thing has practically pulled it to the breaking point. Add to it that we don’t really know who we can trust right now and I thought the safest bet was to go with the town troubleshooter instead of the sheriff or deputies.”
“Look, I’ve known Stonehoof since we were foals—”
“You’ve known her. The Ministry of Justice’s files on this part of the country are sketchy at best, so I rolled the dice,” he told her. He walked over and picked up Mischmasch’s sword. “Okay, let’s go find the other two and end this before it’s too late.”
“Don’t worry, took care of Tweedledee and Tweedlestupid for you,” a new voice crowed. A forest-green pegasus mare wearing a combat flightsuit showed up, dragging the two unconscious ponies by her wings – the fact that she had that kind of wing strength, combined with the fact that she dealt with them, said volumes. Setting them down, she then stretched. “Oh, and I also shattered that large spell-enhancing crystal they had in the back courtyard; the spelljammer scroll really came in handy.” She felt something on her back and then remembered the third thing; she then removed a sword holstered on her back and passed it to him. “I guess you’re going to want this?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. Anyway, glad to see you’re in one piece, Corner Shot,” he told her.
“Yeah, well, it’s my first major mission as an Agency combat flyer, so getting you killed would look bad on my report,” she cracked. “Besides, putting the hurt on those other Covenant idiots and wrecking their favorite toy let me take out some frustrations I needed to work on.” She then looked at Beat. “This the mare you were telling me about last night?”
Beat looked at Divine with shock. “When?”
“While you were asleep,” he pointed out. “But like I told you, Corner, she’s completely trustworthy.” Divine slipped on his sword belt, then handed Beat Mischmasch’s sword and scabbard. “You’re going to need this.”
“That bad?” Beat said, taking it without a question. She then looked at Corner. “Who are you?”
“Ens. Corner Shot, Agency Special Activities Squadron 3. I’m kinda a big deal,” she boasted. “Anyway, I saw what you did to them. That’s some pretty advanced combat magic for a civvie. You sure you’re not a pegasus or something?”
Beat chuckled. “Fairly sure.”
“Well, let’s get these guys wrapped up and we’ll call for an airship pickup,” Divine told them. “Of course, Beat, I’ll still pay you for the original time and expenses as agreed.”
“I guess. So does that mean I get a raise for protecting a prince?” Beat said with a grin.
Divine nodded. “I’m pretty sure I can arrange for that.”
Without warning, the three were slammed to the floor in black fire. “What the hell?” Corner shouted before the rest of her words devolved into an anguished scream of pain.
“Black magic?” Divine grunted, trying to counter it with a magic shield, which immediately began to buckle under the pressure of the black magic spell.
Beat’s jaw dropped. “That’s a forbidden spell! Are they nuts?!”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Corner said, watching Divine’s golden shield begin to warp and buckle under the onslaught of the other spell.
Cruel laughter suddenly sounded. “What, surprised? I have been a true and faithful follower of the One True King and so I took the time to learn the true path of magic when I quit the Guild!” Milliner stood up, her body blazing with black magic. Behind her, the others got up as well, though something seemed a bit…off about the other four.
With that the dark unicorn began to cast a second spell, slamming it down against Divine’s shield harder. Cracks began to form and he grunted, “I can’t hold this!” Beat immediately pumped her own magic into his, trying to boost the spell. However, without formal Guild training, she wasn’t able to do much and the counter attempt failed. The shield shattered into nothingness, and the three suddenly found themselves slammed hard enough to the ground to knock the air out of them, pressed to the ground by the massive dark wave of eldritch energy.
“You’re not going to get away with this!” Divine snarled.
“You don’t even know what it is we’re most definitely going to get away with!” Milliner taunted. “Admittedly, you broke the crystal I spent time making, but that’s easily remedied!” The look on her face took on a very creepy look, the kind that heavily implied she wasn’t entirely there mentally any longer. “So, let me show you what true devotion to a worthy ruler is!” She turned to her four allies. “Are you ready?”
“As always,” they droned as one. Their eyes seemed blank, empty, as if they were in a trance – or worse. Seeing that, Milliner twisted the spell around her horn…
…and as one, the necks of the four snapped.
“You killed your own allies?!” Beat asked, horrified.
“Our lives are to give to our master,” Milliner cooed, as if speaking words of love. “He will forever remember us for this devotion.” As one, she brought the four corpses of her allies together and as each cadaver touched one another, they began to twitch and writhe as the dark magic began to envelop them. A second later, a second massive dark spell crystal appeared, malignant and cunning.
“Granted, I’m sure any of the four Scions could have created such a great work, but I don’t believe I’m a slouch myself,” she said with a note of pride. Though she didn’t know it, a look of guilt briefly washed over Corner’s face.
“You’re out of your mind,” Corner spat.
“Perhaps, but my dearest lord will forever remember me when he is reborn! Perhaps he will think of me fondly enough to take me as a concubine!”
“Oh, now you’re really out of your Faust-damned mind, lady!”
“MAD WITH FAITH! MY LORD AND MASTER WILL PREVAIL, THE ONE TRUE KING!” Milliner maniacally roared, cackling in insane fervor as she sacrificed herself to the spell, the flames enveloping her body as her face took on a diabolical cast. “WE WILL WIN AND THE ALICORNS WILL BE FOREVER FORGOTTEN! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!” With that, her own neck twisted and hung grotesquely before her body merged into the crystal, expanding it to encompass nearly the whole room.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Divine commented.
The crystal flickered with an eerie iridescence before cracking and shattering at an ear-splitting volume. The world collapsed into a black tunnel and the three felt themselves fighting to stay conscious as incredible magics, far more powerful than they’d felt a second ago, buffeted the room.
“A SOMBRAIC SPELL!” Corner shouted. “We’ve got problems!”
“Are you sure?” Divine called back.
“Might not be able to cast one, but I know what one is!”
The building began to crumble around them, a centuries-old piece of historic antiquity now reduced to nothing more than rubble and detritus. The tremors, now having expanded into a full-on earthquake, grew fiercer, and it was by sheer luck that none of the three had been hit by any debris large enough to seriously injure them.
Finally, with a loud, inequine roar, a massive figure of green erupted into the sky in rainbow fire. Beat looked up and saw the creature from her nightmare. What looked to be a titanic caterpillar the size of a mountain, glaring at the world with burning, sulfurous eyes, its spots glowing red and yellow as if they were made of pure flame.
“i Am FrEe,” it boomed, “AnD sOoN tHiS wOrLd WiLl KnOw My PaIn. iT iS wRoNg FrOm BeGiNnInG tO eNd – I wIlL mAkE iT rIgHt!”
It’s real, she thought, looking at the beast as it towered over all in the area. The Bane of the Western Keep. It’s real – and it’s free….
Unable to withstand any more of the magic forces buffeting her, she slid into darkness.
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Well. This doesn't sound the least bit ominous.
Nope, not at all.
Beat, darlin', just what in every level of Tartarus have you gotten yourself into?!
On another note, this is a great chapter, and an awesome birthday "present" for yours truly.
Can't wait for the next chapter, and beyond!
That is an interesting cover art. Alice in Wonderland reference. I wonder what this is about...
SOLD! ...err, I mean, good to see another fic in this series. Paint the Sky is only a few chapters away from completion.
Wow. Every single instance of Oracle Dynamite's name was misspelled. That is impressive in and of itself.Also, sheesh! The Caterpillar exists outside the confines of the Fourth Dimension, and was watching our heroes before it was released?!? No wonder it considered Discord's antics as "quaint" last chapter.
Edit: Also:
11149400
A dynamine is a species of butterfly.
11149504
Is this a Berenstain Bears thing? Because I could swear that every single instance of her name in GAoA was spelled Dynamite. Because every time her name came up, I wondered "But why Oracle Dynamite though? Did she come from a mining family or something?" Every. Single. Time. Right until the big reveal. And then nothing.
*Skimming "The Veil"*
...huh. Have I been misreading it this whole time?!? Because at least Dynamine (as you have explained; Google keeps talking about medical supplements) has some sort of payoff!
*Copious amounts of HeadDesk can be heard*
11149564
Nope, it was always spelled Dynamine. I've been using the name since AAG.
11149564
The association with butterflies is why I chose Tiny Dynamine as the cover identity for Chrysalis in GAOA proper. In the research done for 7DSJ and GAOA, there's evidence to suggest that 'Crisalide' actually was an old Italian word for Butterfly.
11149578 11149832
I thought I made it clear that I was acknowledging the error as being on my side. Can we please change the subject to my Power Rangers joke? Or how Caterpillar showed up in-story before he was freed? Or literally anything else that doesn't make me want to slam my stupid-assed head into a flat surface?