Rehabilitation 12.1: Dilemma
It started with a buzz from the hivemind.
Riddle is hardly ever 'buzzed'. King Thorax doesn't mind (and can't do anything about) Riddle's access to their collective network, but while Thorax had many hours to get to know Riddle over long mental conversations, the rest of the Changelings didn't. Despite his mental presence in their community being helpful in the past, the Changelings know he is not one of them, that he is foreign and alien.
Many Changelings are grateful to Riddle for his help against Chrysalis. Some even defer to him as a leader, especially the Changeling members of the Equestrian reserves. But they don't particularly go out of their way to contact his mind directly if they don't have an important reason.
Riddle, likewise, does not particularly go out of his way to contact them.
For the most part, both sides of the connection maintain a respectful distance, which sometimes feels like neglecting their fellow ling to the Changelings, but he has the right to mental privacy if he wants it. At least under Thorax's new rules.
(Not that Thorax could have forced him to do anything – confess, be honest, etc. Riddle is an Occlumens, but even if he wasn’t, he has the status of Changeling King in their network. Only Thorax knows that little detail, for Riddle has never once forced a Changeling to act through mental command.)
In short, when someling began buzzing him in the middle of breakfast, it was immediately indicative of unusual activity. He'd been having a conversation with Luna – he was no longer content to eat his food in silence when he could be speaking with her – when he first felt it.
"…which of course is when I decided- is something wrong?" Luna asked, likely noticing his distraction.
He was impressed by the speed of her consideration. She has the attentiveness to instantly perceive social cues, the intelligence to instantly understand them, and the curiosity to care.
He spoke in a conversational tone that didn't draw attention from the other nobles and their conversations. "I'm being buzzed."
"Ah…" said Luna. "That is… good?"
He shook his head. "I suspect not. It's likely an emergency of some kind."
"Understood," she said, then seemed to focus on her food, giving him a moment of privacy and proving she truly had understood.
He accepted the buzz-
"General!" said a voice he didn't immediately recognize, though it must have been a soldier from the reserves- an insight which caused recognition.
Sly, the communications specialist. Sly knows how to send Patronus messages quickly and efficiently, even during times of stress and unhappiness. He knows the instant mail spell as well, just in case his Patronus fails anyway. He's a skilled teleporter, and keeps many portkeys about his carapace just in case. Most importantly, he has a knack for remembering and conveying key information accurately and concisely.
There had already been a few ponies with those qualities in the reserves, but Sly was the first Changeling. Thorax recruited Sly for hivemind oversight soon after his reserves training, if Riddle remembered correctly.
"What is it, Sly?" he asked internally.
"Emergency! Lings are going dark!"
It took no time at all for his mind to slip into old habits. The patterns of strategy and war were deeply carved into his being. "Relevant details," he commanded. "Now." He didn't make it an Order, didn't put any Kingly force behind it.
"I started to notice it ten minutes ago," Sly reported instantly, almost as if he had been Ordered. "Changelings not responding to pings. Not waking up from pings either. We don't know why, but we know it's regional."
"Where?"
Sly gave the exact location. "Viridia and Honey tried to investigate, but now THEY'RE out too. Thorax told me to contact you while he orders the hive away."
"Is it affecting ponies as well?"
"Don't know. Don't think we're going to find out either. We can't get close so we can't get eyes on the ground."
"Help with the coordination for now," Riddle commanded. "I'll inform the alicorns. Do you have a random letter you can send to me?"
A letter appeared before him in a flash of green flame.
After pretending to read and stow it, he transitioned from thoughts to speech. His voice cut through the morning haze of conversation produced by Celestia and a number of nobles.
"Emergency," he said, speaking to Luna directly and to everyone else indirectly. "Many Changelings are falling unconscious."
"What?" asked Celestia, head snapping towards him. "Why?"
"Cause unknown, but it's geographically isolated. A scouting attempt only added to the body count. We should evacuate the surrounding villages while we get far-sight spells on the area. It may be affecting ponies too."
"I'll go there myself," Celestia declared. "Where is it?"
"We will stay here," Riddle replied. "Our soldiers will go and evacuate nearby villages. Our captains will report to us when they are done. Our specialists will establish scrying spells. We will coordinate the efforts-"
The evacuation was not perfect, which according to Celestia meant it was a failure. They were experiencing comm silence – that is, Patronus silence – from the soldiers responsible for the eastern side of the anomalous area, suggesting that they'd fallen victim to whatever was going on.
Riddle, on the other hoof, considered this a successful intel op. The information implied the area was moving eastward – towards Canterlot – so now every village from here to the sleep zone was being contacted and cleared, starting with the one closest to danger.
Scrying spells were an utter failure. Horns glowed, magic was spent, nothing came of it. Crystal balls returned blankness. Two-way Mirrors showed nothing. Riddle's stash of wizard spells, secretly cast, also didn't work. He envisioned some kind of Mary's Room equivalent, progressing across the plains and inflicting unconsciousness to everything within its radius of reach.
The current concern among the alicorns is that the radius seemed to be expanding, and not because it was on the move.
The anomaly had first been noticed between Galluport city and Hollow Shades village, which were two miles apart. Neither settlement had suffered a single case of sleepiness. As the anomaly moved towards Canterlot, it passed directly between Barnsyard and Meadowfield, which were three miles apart. Half of each village – the halves closer to the anomaly – were feeling sluggish when soldiers arrived for evacuation.
The anomaly was growing bigger as it grew closer. And it was growing slightly faster too. The potentially good news is that it was non-lethal, at the edges and perhaps deeper in as well. It also seemed to have a more severe effect on Changelings than ponies – some ponies, especially earth ponies, could resist the effects to some extent, while Changelings were an instant blackout. And for whatever reason, it didn't seem to affect cows at all.
"Why would cows be immune?" Riddle asked.
"Perhaps because they have no magic," Luna suggested.
"No magic?"
"Yes. Like the… what did you call them…"
"Muggles?"
"Yes. That."
"Hm…" Riddle considered.
"At least it's not changing direction," said Shining Armor, looking at the map.
"So it seems," said Riddle. "If we are meant to deduce something from that, we may as well deduce it now. Gemino." A copy of the map appeared directly on top of the original. The copy would turn to ash in a few minutes – sooner if Riddle dispelled it – but that was the point. He drew a line on the false map from Canterlot through the center of the anomaly and through the path it had carved, continuing on through territory it might have traversed if the extremely simple pattern held true.
"Tartarus," he declared before he even got there. He turned the copy to ash and imprinted onto the original a red circle around the anomaly's likely origin.
There was a flash of teleportation within the command room.
Then there was a sigh.
"Instruct your Patronus to accompany your sister," he told Luna, "so that we may learn what she learns in close to real time."
He did not bother asking Luna for a list of likely candidates – with her thousand years of banishment, she would probably know exactly as little as he did about the prison's inhabitants, and the question would be answered soon enough regardless-
"It's Tirek," said Luna's Patronus in Celestia's voice.
"Abilities?" Riddle demanded. "Appearance?"
The Patronus left and returned. "A red centaur. He once called himself the tyrant of magic and pillager of power. It seems he has refined his technique."
"Do you know how to defeat him?" asked Luna, who apparently didn't.
"Special talents are immune to his manipulations," said Celestia, "I was fully immune in the past."
"His recent refinements may have fixed those flaws in his power," Riddle told the Patronus.
"Indeed. Luna, I must secure the prison; all the other cells are open, though thankfully most other prisoners are asleep. Can you inform Twilight about Tirek's powers and ask Discord for aid? Twilight might think of a better counter, and I believe Discord may still be immune regardless of any refinements."
Luna's Patronus had no trouble travelling to Twilight, who quickly joined them in the room, but Luna hit a roadblock when she tried to contact Discord. The first time, the Patronus started screaming a loud, annoying, ear-grating sound that Riddle recognized as a dial-up connection from the muggle world. The following attempts returned nothing.
"Do you know how Discord's doing it?" Luna asked after her fourth try. The look in her eye said she still remembers the time Riddle dispelled her Patronus messages.
"Do you think Discord knows my old favourite spell?" Riddle revealed. "Could he cast it if he did?"
"No…"
"Then I do not know how he's doing it," Riddle said, effectively informing her how he had done it. "Is it being dispelled right away, or is there a delay?"
"Right away," Luna answered. Riddle saw the moment she got it, the moment her eyes widened.
Earlier.
"Hmmmmmm…" Discord drew out the syllable as he considered Tirek's offer.
He had noticed the magical imbalances right away, come to investigate, became intrigued, and now…
"I guess I have been on the 'good' side for a while. Maybe it is time for evil to win, just to mix things up. And hey, can Harmony even complain? Good and evil, yin and yang, balance and all that blah. Anyhoo, time for fun!"
"We should assume the two have joined forces," said Riddle aloud. "Or are otherwise in close proximity. We should also assume that we are feeding him magic with every scrying attempt. And now every Patronus attempt as well. Luna," he addressed, "what did you feel when your Patronus was dispelled?"
"A… dip in my magic," she reported.
"Permanent or recoverable?" he asked gravely.
After a brief pause, "Recoverable."
He might be like a Dementor, his mind suggested. Eating away magic that gets too close. Extended exposure might cause permanent damage, but hopefully not brief exposure. An exclusively magic-eating Dementor, without the weakness of a Patronus charm… although now that he thought about it, he didn't know if mere messages could protect, he didn't know if Patronuses lost their power to ward Dementors at a distance, didn't know if Dementors could destroy a message by draining the magic if they were close enough to it. Assuming the worst…
"Presume targeted spells won't work," Riddle said. "Presume magic in general won't work, unless it's a special talent. And we should plan for special talents failing as well."
"I'll set up a shield around the city," said Shining Armor, whose special talent was shielding. "But how are we supposed to stop him without magic? There aren't many ponies with special talents about fighting."
Many methods came to mind. But most were…
"Luna," he said. "Is lethal force authorized?"
She looked at him for a long moment. "Only if it is necessary to save the lives of the innocent." She brought forth her Patronus once more. "Ask Celestia if Tirek is a lethal threat."
"He has yet to kill," said Celestia's voice when it returned. "In the past or present, to my knowledge. I would not put it past him, but he seeks supremacy over all magic, first and foremost. Unless his motives have changed since his imprisonment."
"Then no," Luna said to Riddle. "Lethal force is not approved."
"Do I have your authorization if he does kill someone?" Riddle asked, deciding to absorb the constraint for now instead of objecting. "Or threatens as much?"
"Yes," Luna conceded.
He still had one allotted horcrux according to his original Parseltongue promise, one allowance to kill a malicious menace whose immediate death would save more lives. Under the terms of his original promise to Mr. Silver, beyond that purpose he must not kill sapient beings unless it is necessary for his own survival (or unless Mr. Silver gives him permission, which Mr. Silver can no longer do).
Since Riddle can escape to the Astral Plane at any time, murder in general is no longer necessary for his own survival, meaning he would have to make a horcrux from the third and final death if he was going to kill at all…
Luna would say he is allowed to kill if it is the only way to stop an immediately lethal threat, but she would not allow him to make a horcrux from it. And yet, the only instance in which his binding promise allows him to kill is to make a horcrux.
A moral dilemma if ever he's actually had to ponder one.
...
He was not seeing an immediate answer that would satisfy Luna, and he worried that he would be forced to give an answer regardless, with the final judgement fully out of his control after that. It was an unsettling prospect.
For now, though, his other interests were still at risk, even if he himself was not.
He relocated his Elder horcrux from beneath Canterlot to an underground hideout deep beneath the badlands, which he built some time ago for exactly situations like this one. Few life forms, especially Dark Lords interested in powerful magic, had any reason to go to a random point of the desert and dig downward for miles, nor could the location be accessed in any other way without already knowing where it was. That hideout also now contains his maintained Transfigurations and his cloak's inventory, just in case Tirek's magic-draining undid those temporary magics and he suddenly exploded by the quick burst of physical mass directly next to his person- er, pony.
Then, of course, there was the Cloak horcrux.
It had only taken a minute or so to set up each new hiding place, and since Luna and his own promises were not letting him immediately handle Tirek before his threat grew any stronger, there was less downside to losing those minutes of time.
"What?" asked Twilight. "Could you repeat that?"
"I have hidden the Stone for temporary safekeeping," he simplified. He didn't know if it was possible, but he couldn't risk Tirek draining the Stone's magic.
"For how long?"
"Until the threat has passed," he said. He had used the Stone to permanently transfigure a letter, already encased in an envelope. He had also removed a portkey from his pouch, put it in the letter, then sealed it with a spell. "If, by some chance, I am indisposed-" if he is disembodied "-for more than a year, and Patronus charms are unable to reach me-" if he's trapped in his horcruxes "-then the portkey in this letter will take you to a certain location where you will find a cloak-" he'd removed it from Keen Eye's bedroom "-and the Stone beneath the cloak." With a sleeping, life-preserved rat beneath it, so that the cloak itself, and the Stone, would be invisible. "Put on the cloak. If you are still unable to contact me at that point, you are free to do whatever you wish with the Stone after you successfully duplicate it."
That would give her the motivation to follow his instructions exactly, if her Vow didn't already force her to do so.
"For now, put the letter somewhere far away, beyond Tirek's range of influence in the immediate future."
"Okay…" Twilight said in response to everything he'd just said about the Stone. She teleported away, then returned without the letter. "I'll remember that. And- before you go, do you have any ideas on how Tirek is draining magic?"
"If I did," he said, "you probably would have seen me using that power by now." Not quite true, he likely would have kept it to himself unless he had a reason to use it, but the principle of the point stands.
"Do you think that means it's a sacrificial ritual?" asked Twilight. "A ritual that sacrifices something you'd never want to sacrifice, but Tirek was willing to do it because he was in a life sentence?"
Riddle thought for a moment. "If it is a ritual, I don't think it is one he is currently performing. It would likely be a ritual he already performed, something he already sacrificed in order to attain the power of draining magic… and that lines up with it being a sacrifice I wouldn't do myself. Although if he invented it, guesswork would be largely pointless. It takes months to invent rituals and decades to carefully work out the details in your mind so you don't die when you first perform them."
"No," said Twilight. "I don't accept that. We have to be able to figure it out. Is there anything you've seen in magic that resembles what Tirek is doing? Anything at all?"
"…Dementors," he offered. "Also called life-eaters. They drain happiness, life, and magic within their vicinity. But Tirek doesn't seem to be draining happiness or life. Cows are left utterly unaffected by his close proximity. It seems to be magic only. And Tirek has a much wider range of influence than Dementors."
"What are Dementors?" asked Twilight, frowning.
"That I cannot answer," said Riddle. "I can only say that they have also been called wounds in the world, through which matter and magic pour out of the universe."
"Wounds…" Twilight repeated. "Wounds… do you think Tirek might have wounded himself, so that magic pours into him?"
Riddle tilted his head. "That wouldn't make symbolic sense. If he wounded himself, the magic would be pouring out of him, not into him."
"So… Tirek himself would have to be the wound in the world's magic?"
"Something like that," said Riddle. "If the Dementor comparison is even apt in the first place. There's no way to tell how close or far we are from the truth without asking him directly. And even then, he'd obviously lie. It could be something else entirely. That's why I said guesswork is pointless."
Twilight waved a hoof. "That's okay. It would help if we knew what he was doing, but at the end of the day, I just need to know how to stop and reverse it."
"And this conversation is helping you on that front?"
"…Yes," said Twilight, no longer meeting his gaze, looking forlornly at the wooden floor of her lab. "Riddle…" she said hesitantly, looking up. "Hug?"
"Why?" he asked, though he did not protest as she walked forward and draped her neck around his.
"Just in case this is goodbye."
"What do you plan to do, Ms. Sparkle?" Riddle asked, not encouraged by her tone in the slightest. "If it is an idea for a new ritual you just imagined, you will die if you attempt it. You need months at least for the intention to settle, but preferably years."
"I have had time," Twilight said quietly. "Ever since I got back from the Sombra escort… I've been thinking about it."
Riddle paused. That was over a year ago…
"About what, precisely? If you can share, that is."
Twilight took a few deep breaths, held a parchment and quill in her purple magic, and wrote.
I will tell no one about Twilight Sparkle's ritual idea unless Twilight Sparkle gives me leave. I will not use it myself unless Twilight Sparkle gives me leave. I will not put this information to any use unless Twilight Sparkle gives me leave.
He rose his eyebrows at the contract, then after a moment's hesitation, decided to sign.
Twilight examined it, frowned, removed the trace he put on the paper, then teleported it to a destination that was, to Riddle, both unknown and unknowable. Unless he used Legilimency...
Riddle mentally shrugged. He might still be able to find and destroy the contract later, but even if he couldn't, he had accepted that risk when signing it. Yet more proof of Twilight's growing wisdom.
A great series of privacy spells were erected, wizard and Equestrian alike, and Twilight explained her ritual idea to the world's most experienced ritualist – the same pony who, for the past few years, has tutored her in the field from time to time.
"You intended for this method to save Mr. Silver?" he asked when she was done.
"Not since you told me the details of his departure," said Twilight. "But yes. And even after you told me… well, I put so much work into the idea, I thought I should finish thinking about it, just in case I needed it someday. Do you see any flaws in the end result?"
"Not as such."
Internally consistent, the power demanded of the sacrifice matches the sacrifice itself, it seems possible within the bounds of magic…
"However, Ms. Sparkle," Riddle said in a voice of warning. "Far be it from me to criticize a desire to push and eliminate one's bounds, but there is often a reason they exist in the first place. Creatures without the ability to feel 'full' inevitably die of overeating… no, that is not a good analogy. Creatures with the deformity of extreme muscle growth tend to live uncomfortable lives, and die early deaths. That is the appropriate comparison. And such creatures are still bounded by how much muscle can fit in their skins, on their bones, with their tendons. If they weren't bounded in that way, they would probably perish within days. I can cast levitation magic through sight alone, but if I were to try a strong stunner through my eyes, I would succeed, and then go blind. What you are suggesting introduces that problem on a new order of magnitude. I repeat that you are likely to die if you try this, simply by the nature of what you would be trying, not because the logic is flawed. Or at least suffer extreme damage, even having thought about it as long and deeply as you have."
"…I know," said Sparkle. "I'm not going to unless the situation is helpless. But… in case I have to…" she hugged him again. "Thank you for everything."
"The Everfree?" asked Discord, concealing his tone of worry with a tone of light mockery. "Why go through the Everfree?"
"Why not?" Trees fell to the ground like blades of grass. "As you can see, I now crush trees underhoof."
"Well sure, but the Everfree's all hilly and canyon-y too. You might stub a hoof, or twist a hock. And it'll still be slower than plains. Besides, the forest's only got a single equine occupant anyway, if I recall correctly. And a not-so-magical zebra at that. Go around north, I'd recommend. You'll get more magic that way. And fewer splinters."
Tirek shrugged in acceptance and adjusted his course. It wouldn't add much time to the journey.
Discord held back a sigh of relief. His baby, who had once been on the direct warpath, would no longer suffer direct magic-draining exposure. Hopefully that, combined with the fact that Tirek is about to go on a direct romp through Ponyville, will be enough…
The reserves of Equestria had been gathered.
The Elements of Harmony had been gathered.
The Changelings had been gathered and deployed; after casting the anti-Chaos ward around Ponyville and Canterlot, they were now being sent to the settlements left in the wake of the enemy.
The alicorns had been gathered, aside from Celestia who was still in Tartarus.
Luna stood at the forefront, before all other soldiers, ready to attempt negotiation. Cadence was helping her husband fuel the shields. Twilight stood in the formation's center, her friends a bit further behind. Riddle hovered above her, surveying the defenses with a frown, suspecting this would not be enough.
Twilight had asked Riddle if Dementors had a limit of how much they could drain, or how quickly.
Riddle had said that they did seem to have a limit. A single Dementor cannot eat through titanium bars in a single day, nor can they eat more than one soul at a time. (That history records, anyway.)
Twilight had suggested they try force in numbers, that they concentrate enough magical power in one area that Tirek can't absorb it all. Then find a way to stun him.
The plan fell apart when a hole appeared in the shield, a hole which rapidly began expanding without cracks or other tell, as if the shield were simply being erased by a flat wave of annihilation.
The force in numbers did nothing. Pegasi fell from the sky, earth ponies to their knees, and unicorns to the ground, panting in exhaustion, and some outright fainting.
Riddle staggered at the sudden fight for control over his own magic, but managed to withstand the drain, due potentially to his experience, his alicorn body, his horcruxes, or a combination of the three.
Twilight also staggered, harder than he did, and Mi Amore Cadenza fell over.
But the Elements glowed, and Twilight found her strength once more, as did her friends behind her.
Luna did not waver, though her mane billowed wildly, as if being pulled by some unseen tempest, and her eyes narrowed.
Riddle followed her gaze to a speck on the horizon.
One by one, ponies were vanishing from the battlefield, their portkeys triggering upon their unconsciousness, as Riddle had charmed them to do. Thankfully the magic in the Portkeys still worked; if they hadn't, he would be teleporting them away manually.
"What's going on?!" asked Twilight, sounding panicked at the sight of disappearing ponies.
"Soldiers who cannot fight," he said, stepping up to the collapsed husband and wife who did not have portkeys, "and actively feed power to the enemy are what we call liabilities." He floated two portkeys to their bodies and snapped them over their skin, sending them far away from the battlefield.
"Eyes forward, Twilight Sparkle," Luna commanded in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
The distant speck was no longer so distant, nor was it nearly so small as to be called a speck. A great, tall equinoid towered over trees, galloping towards them without pause.
Black fur. A red humanoid chest. Great horns of jagged pitch black. A flowing ethereal mane like a great dark whirlpool.
A demon approached them.
A demon who, to their knowledge, had not yet killed anypony.
Luna stepped forward, tapped her back hoof on the ground twice.
Twilight and Riddle cast the strongest sound-amplifying spells they knew.
"TIREK!" Luna called, her voice amplified yet further by her own spell, a spell that worked by sheer volume, not magical ventriloquism, so that it might actually reach him. "WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE HERE?"
"Your magic is anchored firmly to your body," said a voice that reached them in turn. The volume was great, but the tone was casual. Like a pony with a mighty natural voice, not like a pony shouting. "Your gravity is strong."
"SPEAK YOUR PURPOSE!" Luna commanded. "OR LETHAL FORCE-"
An amplified scream cut through the ears and minds of the remaining defenders as their negotiator flew faster than an air-buck, pulled by some unknown force to the enemy's open hand.
"My gravity is stronger," said that enemy. He brought her struggling form to his open mouth, inhaled as if sucking something through an invisible straw, and when he was finished, a dull grey alicorn hung limply in his hands, mane a normal, non-flowing blue, and cutie mark gone from her flank. "That is my purpose," he declared. He raised his hands to the heavens, and the moon streaked across the sky, coming to a stop directly in front of the sun. "Call your sister, and your subjects will be spared."
A flash of teleportation, a regal white alicorn who took in the scene at a glance with wide eyes, rendered his threat moot.
"Celestia," grinned Tirek. "Right on time."
And in less than five seconds, another limp alicorn hung in his grasp, drained of magic, ethereal rainbow mane reduced to simple, straight strands of pink.
"PRINCESS CELESTIA!" shouted the voice of Twilight Sparkle, tears suddenly streaking her eyes. "NO!"
She went completely ignored. "You are sentenced," said the malicious voice of Tirek to the barely-conscious alicorn, "to an eternity in Tartarus." He snapped his fingers in command. "Discord."
"Discord?" gasped Fluttershy from amidst the other elements.
"Yoo hoo?" said Discord appearing from nowhere.
"Send her to my old cell," Tirek ordered.
"Aye-aye, cap'n!" Discord said with a salute, snapping his fingers once. Both the Draconequus and the white-grey alicorn disappeared.
Tirek rolled his eyes. "Idiot."
"Discord… betrayed us?" asked Fluttershy, sounding as if she was unable to believe it.
"The instant he could," said Tirek in a goading grin.
"But…" said Fluttershy, still sounding shocked. "But we're friends!"
"HA!" Tirek barked. "Friends?! Don't make me laugh. There's no such thing."
By this point, Riddle had retrieved Luna, her breathing weak and laboured, looking like she was on death's door. "What did you do?" he asked, not looking up from Luna, his voice strange in his own ears.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked the centaur. Tirek raised his hands to the heavens, pointing two index fingers side-by-side at the overlapping sun and moon. Separating his fingers, he sent the sun to set in the west, and the moon to set in the east, until there was nothing in the sky at all but a dull glow of red. He did not speak again, as if his actions were answer enough.
"Why did you not do it to Discord?" he asked, his voice still strange, trying to stall to buy Ms. Sparkle some time. Her ritual, she said, would take half a minute to complete; hopefully she had already started.
"Oh, please," said Discord, appearing directly in the midst of the Elements. "My magic would give him a tummy ache!" he declared. He tapped Fluttershy on the cheek twice with his paw, then disappeared in a snap.
Tirek rolled his eyes again, but allowed that answer to stand.
"Why are you not doing it to all ponies?" Riddle asked, eyes still on Luna. He needed information, needed to stall, needed to figure out how to undo this.
Tirek scoffed. "Only an idiot would do that. Who wants a useless power like party-throwing? Or clothes-design? Or animal care?" His sneer made it clear that he knew, that him choosing those exact three was not coincidence. Discord must have told him. "Most ponies are filled with useless magic. Some alicorns aren't even worth the bother. Love. Ugh. What a pointless talent." He narrowed his eyes. "Is yours?"
There was a bright flash and a surge of power directly behind him.
"I think you mean to ask," his voice still speaking as if on automatic, "is hers."
Tirek grinned like a shark, his hand already outstretching, but a frown flickered across his face.
"No," said the voice of Twilight Sparkle, amplified in the Royal Canterlot voice. "This ends now, Tirek."
"Very well," shrugged Tirek, apparently unbothered by her resistance to his pull. He shifted targets, and Riddle, along with six other ponies, began hurtling through the air. Riddle tried teleportation and Apparation, both of which failed, so he tried phoenix travel, which worked, sending him back to Luna- to where Luna used to be. She was now clutched in Tirek's left hand, the other five ponies in his right, their heads exposed to the air, the rest enclosed by his fingers. "Step forth and surrender your power willingly, or they end now."
"You don't want mine," Riddle said at once, his mind suddenly relaxing now that lethal force had been authorized. But which method to use…
"I was not speaking to you, strange whelp." He turned to face Twilight Sparkle, whose face had drained of color and determination, now replaced by horror. "What's it going to be, Element of Magic? Your friends, or your self?"
"Don't do it, Twi!" Applejack shouted, her consciousness protected by the Elements, but her body fully exposed to physical force.
The other Elements gave similar protests.
"This amuses me greatly." Tirek's face was full of malicious satisfaction. "If you surrender, you refuse their plea, proving that you do not heed your friends' wishes. If you do not surrender, you sacrifice them for yourself, proving that you value your own life above theirs. Either way, you will prove that friendship is non-existent."
Twilight was stunned. Her mane flowed behind her, her magic was about her, her abilities and knowledge and raw strength more powerful than ever. And yet she felt weak, impotent, less powerful than ever, with her friends' lives in the hands of her enemy.
"Brechden Anwee-eld Gefelueck," she heard to her left. Then an incredibly loud bang startled her, and she turned to see… a large, strange device, smoking at one end. Riddle stood behind it, frowning.
"Was that supposed to do something, whelp?" Tirek asked, rubbing his forehead with the back of the hand that held her friends. "I will deal with you next." He turned to face Twilight. "My patience wears thin. Or perhaps you do not believe my threat. Here. A taste of what's to come, if you do not submit."
And his left hand clenched…
…
…and dropped…
…
…bloody, to the ground, save for her head…
…
Twilight's eyes were wide with horror.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" bellowed Riddle's voice beside her, an incantation unknown to her…
(An emotion fueling the spell which had not fueled it for decades, with one exception three years ago)…
"More foolishness?" said Tirek with a sneer. He raised his bloody and empty left hand across his chest, putting it in a position to backhand the small green spell bolt. "Pathe-"
The moment the spell contacted his skin, his massive body crumpled to the ground, his sheer size and mass and girth rumbling the earth in the collision like a massive meteor dropped from a mere fifty feet in the sky. There was also an explosion of strange magic, a burst, a change in the world itself that just as soon vanished from her perceptions.
Twilight reacted on pure instinct and desperation, casting a shield spell around her friends. The spell was not instantly absorbed by Tirek. Her powerful magic was finally doing more than keeping her standing in opposition-
But the weight of the huge form, which had been falling forward and leftward due to the momentum of his backhand, landed directly onto his right hand, directly onto her shield, the strain breaking it almost instantly. For most spells have a maximum power input and output, a maximum amount they can be overpowered by raw magic. Even if you had infinite magic at your disposal, a Somnium would never be so powerful as to be visible, and the shield spell she'd just cast would never be so powerful as to withstand the weight of a mountain.
"NO!" she cried out, switching instantly to the tactic of magical (Equestrian) levitation, which could be overcharged almost without limit, and Tirek's form lifted once more to reveal what would certainly be bloody stains… but there was nothing at all… her eyes widened in horror as she realized the blood wouldn't be visible against his red chest-
"We're okay, Twi," said Applejack, and Twilight spun around to behold her friends encircled by Discord.
"We're safe," said Fluttershy, hugging Discord's neck, tears in her eyes. "But… the Princess…"
Discord snapped his fingers and a white-gray pony appeared, her pink mane motionless and smooth, her eyes closed. "Still alive," said Discord.
Pinkie Pie was crying.
"No," said Fluttershy, her voice barely a whisper. "Princess Luna."
Twilight's eyes widened, darted to where Tirek had fallen, still held aloft in her magic. Her eyes scanned… and again found nothing. Not even a crushed smear of dark fur.
Then there was a flash, and Riddle appeared beside her. Upon his back… Princess Luna was completely unharmed? Though her mane was as mundane as Celestia's, her coat still a duller shade of its usual midnight black.
"Ms. Sparkle," said Riddle. "Twilight. I cannot do this, it must be you. Cast your Patronus so that is born within her. You will lose some of your life and magic, but she will return. She only needs a spark of each."
(For the resurrection ritual had failed, the living blood of Tirek unacquirable, the blood of Sombra insufficient, or perhaps the bone of the father had failed, or his own flesh had been rejected. Regardless, there was only one path forward, one option that might yet work.)
Upon the instant of hearing the words, she understood the sacrifice. "Expecto Patronum!" she incanted. Nothing happened. "Expecto Patronum!" she tried again, and again it failed. The spell had never failed for her before. Not after she learned how. "I-" she stammered. "I- I-" She broke into tears. "I'm sorry!" she said. "I- I can't be happy! Not like this! Not with Princess Celestia like this! Not with Princess Luna…" She couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Then cast the cutie-mark swap," he said. "As you usually do."
She complied, but...
"No!" she gasped. "It's just you and Cadence! I couldn't swap out my own!" She readied the reversal-
"Wait!" Riddle said. "Cadence is unconscious. She will not experience my talent. The swap need only last a moment. Please wait."
Reluctantly, Twilight did not immediately cast the counterspell.
"Turn around," he said to the gathered watchers. "Discord, I know you'll peek anyway."
Discord shrugged, a zipper appearing on his lips, and he zipped it shut. Though his eyes were cartoonishly massive, staring directly and unblinking at Riddle.
Everypony else turned away.
Riddle, with his temporary talent of Love, considered everything that he had learned, everything and anything that would help him with what came next.
Despite everything, he thought. Despite everything, you have tried to help me. Even knowing some of my true past. Even knowing my choices, my actions, my wrongdoings… You have stood there, and understood, and tried to improve. And even if it has only been fractional, you have succeeded. All because you care for me. Not as words and pretense and manipulation. As undeniable, brute fact. So please let this work.
Upon the hilltop where Riddle Tome had stood, Tom Riddle appeared, for the Patronus Charm would ignore outside influences, like his pony form's Cutie Mark, or its inner phoenix. He stood unseen, protected even from the gaze of death. "Emergus," he said the unnecessary words. The Elder Wand appeared in his hand, for he wanted every potential advantage, even though it was not magic that was the problem.
Luna's body stood suspended by his magic, opposite himself beneath the empty heavens.
His fingers rose to the starting gestures of the Patronus, and he paused. He closed his eyes, considering the thought Mr. Silver… Mr. Potter had once told him might be the thought that would let him first cast the spell.
You don't belong here. You did not belong in me. You do not belong in her.
And then he called upon what he hoped was his happiness. They were very few, those supporting memories of light – feelings that were completely his own, not mirrored through the Changeling sense.
An unexpected compliment.
A laugh at his minor joke, drawn from her unwillingly, for she was embarrassed for laughing afterward.
An offer of help, unsolicited, unrelated to anything major, and done simply because she could, without any expectation to be repaid.
Twilight thanking him.
Mr. Potter saying he was unable to bring himself to cast Obliviate… and before that, stealing the unicorn from the herd… watching the stars…
Please. PLEASE let this be enough.
His fingers twitched once, twice, thrice, and four times, slid exactly the correct distances, and in a voice that cracked- for he did not think this would be enough, he already anticipated failure- he said, quietly:
"Expecto Patronum."
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This is a terrible point for a cliffhanger, you know. Which is why I suspect you picked it.
Simultaneously perfect riddle, and absolutely horrible to Celestia. Beautiful encapsulation.
Minor typo
Oh I love this. One time where it is conceivable that killing one being to save the lives of many may be worth it, and the master of killing cannot kill.
Extra "is"
Pfft. Love – it. When in doubt, send the big bad evil thing to Ponyville and it will be resolved in half an hour. :-)
Needs an "it"
Love the ending. Perfect.
Reminds me of E.F.S. Good times =)
And wow, Tirek really just Mami'd her.
It's a little funny that Riddle just dropped Tirek like that. Tirek must have been so surprised.
Given that much magical mass, am suprised Tirek even noticed an 88mm antitank round to the head.
no need to say more.
Nice chapter
11615365
No, I might have tried a long time ago but it never really interested me enough. This crossover diluted it enough that I pretty much enjoyed what you wrote(And I highly favor Twilight, so I like her getting some spotlight). I still find them very repugnant most of the time. If they aren't moralizing(Though they won't call it that) in a condescending way, they are bullying others through their self satisfied logic or being absolute hypocrites. I never really got why Hermione should have ascended to an Alicorn either from doing literally nothing except being resurrected.
All the Luna browbeating Riddles ridiculous notions was quite good and probably made him more tolerable. And Twilight leaning more on the magic side for her focus is always a treat IMO.
11617113
What is an Alicorn? A unicorn's control of magic, with a pegasus' control of air, and the strength of the earth from an earth pony. Now, what did Riddle imbue the Pegasus Hermione with again? A troll providing the strength of the earth, and a unicorn from their own world. She's an artificial alicorn, rather than a naturally ascended one.
Hm... I notice that I am confused. The patronus will succeed, of course. Even by Riddle's return, they haven't figured out how to resurrect the long dead, so it has to happen now.
But we are only on year 5 of Riddle's 35 year stay in Equestria. What causes him to stay another 30 years? Has he truly started enjoying his stay in Equestria? Perhaps he values staying with Luna more than returning after all. Alternatively, I believe my guess from last chapter still has merit, and Luna's lesson about Restitution means Riddle wants to do what he can to make up for it, using his time in ways that will help him do so upon his eventual return. Come to think of it, the trigger for his full memories of his time as Voldy returning was casting the true patronus, which may also play a part. And he does have plenty more to learn here, from Merlin if nothing else. There's also the stone and elder wand duplication, but those feel less like reasons and more like effects.
That leaves the flipped version of the question. Whatever compelling reason he has for staying, what causes him to finally leave? That one at least has a simple answer: Autumn Querry reaching the age to go to Hogwarts.
And it would seem I'm now less confused than when I started writing the comment. Though we shall see how accurate my speculation is.
11617365
That is the physical make up of the Alicorn as presented yes, but I was thinking more of the ephemeral quality. That the Alicorn ascension is from creation of new magic or something really impressive done by the individual at a destiny level. That is what I refer to about Hermione getting it from doing nothing herself.
11617674
Flurry Heart's existence (I know I haven't made that character's existence canon yet in this story, but still) suggests that ponies can be alicorns without making any inroads whatsoever into the true ascension process. So I made the executive decision to allow that in my story as well.
From an authorial perspective, it was mostly because it was funny/interesting, a good puzzle/cliffhanger, and it assisted in the set-up of the escape sequence. From an in-universe perspective, the Mirror does have a few thinking-far-in-advance, saving-the-world-compliant reasons to allow the otherwise unfair and unharmonious happenstance of unearned alicornhood to exist in the first place. You'll see why two chapters from now. Just one more detail that had to be taken care of before the world could be saved.
11617113
I'm not saying you're wrong, it's certainly true in Riddle's case, as I've had Luna go on at lengths about in-story by this point. But I'll point out that it's a minor pet peeve of mine when people write this sort of thing without providing the part of the story they're explicitly referencing, or if they're referencing multiple parts, pointing out the part that's most emblematic of their criticism.
In Silver's case, it's probably referring to some combination of his interactions with the Wonderbolts, Diamond Tiara, Night Light, the dueling club, his pegasus magic lessons, etc. With the original comment lodged in Chapter 42, it was probably how they treat the Canterlot nobility, and that newspaper article in particular, though my pet peeve is, again, that I have to guess at what you're specifically referencing. Getting others to accept criticism is hard enough without putting the burden on them to figure out which exact actions you're criticizing. If you offer what you might have done in their place, that at least gives them a chance to see if they agree with your fault analysis or not.
Without saying which part in particular, without saying precisely how his actions are hypocritical, how Harry himself has moralized at others, it comes across as the sort of moralizing that Riddle and Harry roll their eyes at. Again, not because it's necessarily wrong, but because without a detailed fault analysis and an offer of alternative solutions that aren't just "don't do the thing" (because obviously they're trying to achieve an objective with their current behavior, so telling them not to do it full stop won't work), it's not narrow enough to be a useful criticism. It's also exactly the sort of thing that bad-faith actors say in order to push themselves up by pushing others down, in their own minds if not in the eyes of a public audience. Even if that's not what's going on, the surface resemblance makes it far less trustworthy as constructive criticism.
Though at the end of the day, if all you're doing is expressing why you don't like the characters, that's fine. Feelings themselves can't be false. Just note that, if not backed up by hard evidence and solid reasoning, it remains a baseless character judgement. One that people who like the characters might take issue with, and disagree with on the premises - premises that weren't solidly established in the first place.
11617709
Interesting... I'd considered the idea of Riddle using his ritual to ascend ponies as a permanent mass immortality measure (don't need to keep de-aging via stone that way), but dismissed it due to equestrian sensibilities likely not being in favor of mass sacrificing Ursa Minors, even duplicated ones. Though that doesn't seem to be what you're implying anyway, since we don't see a ton of alicorns in the post-return part of the timeline.
Trying to think of any ponies that would need to be artificially alicornized for the world to be saved... none come to mind. Unless that specifically refers to Hermione's case. Either way, look forward to seeing what you come up with.
11617757
I'm not sure I can really put into words my feelings at the time of my original comment. I have since finished reading what there was and reread some things. It is kind of the way they have all these alternate identities and only seem to place actual value on themselves. To everyone else they will lie and manipulate without guilt.
I think in the chapter I started this was where Riddle goes into an obvious fake offended tone about Celestia not being respectful of his dietary needs, all used to segway into haranguing Celestia and insulting everyone around. Yes most of the nobles probably deserve such words, but the holier-than-thou way he delivers it is what irked me. Luna hired him as the Fool to speak down to her, more or less, but I don't think he is supposed to do it with impunity on Celestia.
There is also this line ("If you want to counter us, you have to think like us. And if you think like us, you're not thinking like Princess Celestia. And that means you'll probably take our side, not hers."). That train of thought makes it sound like Harry believes that only someone who thinks exactly like him has any worth, or if someone doesn't then they are automatically inferior.
I don't recall when, but there was some similar meeting with the Princesses where Harry just started lecturing Celestia at the end. If he has an opinion of how something could be done differently, that is fine, but he shouldn't talk down to someone like that in a presumptuous way.
In other places throughout the story, there is the way that Riddle immediately breaks laws and trust by having Harry stealing away to the mirror when revealed to him hidden. Then when Harry vanishes Riddle totally disrespects them again by invading the room again without permission.
The entire fiasco with Harry and the Circus and mind controlling everyone, I just couldn't get into that even if chaos is encouraged.
You have demonstrated character growth so it's not like it is a permanent opinion of them. Riddle after his rehabilitation I think I might be able to enjoy more. Hard to say with harry though, he shows good tendencies a lot of the time but other times he feels too self-important.
The biggest hypocrite thought I had about Harry is how he demands to be this little adult with no looking after, but he isn't above playing the part of a childish boy to deceive others or get his way in situations.
The early Cloudsdale where Harry is just starting his teaching, when Sorain gets fed up with his attitude and declares to leave, there was no reason for Riddle to then purposely antagonize with that put down about the Wonderbolts reality as he sees it. They could have just let Soarin leave, but instead he just kept getting pushed. Spitfire was way overreacting, but Soarin just wanted to leave and that was it. Sure his thought that his friends could tell him what they learn was wrong since they were made to be constricted by a magically binding contract, that sounds like they were not informed about sounding quite dubious, but if he wanted to leave unprovoked that consequence would have revealed itself in time and Soarin would live with the consequences of his own choice.
Maybe Soarin is supposed to be seen as more confrontational here, but as written and as read by me, he seems like he just wanted to leave but Harry and then Riddle kept saying more and more to stop him and have him hang back still. Felt like using their long eloquent words and convoluted logic to bully a more simple and uncomplicated pony.
Without actually rereading, these are some of the examples I can remember for my opinions.
11617890
Oh, just talking about this story. Yeah, all that's fine. And thanks for all the examples, much better this time. When I said I take offense, I meant if the original comment had been directed at HPMoR.
The only pushback I think I'll give is that it's not quite that Harry wants to be treated as an adult. It's that he doesn't want to be treated as "a dog to be trained." He doesn't want to be treated as subhuman because of his status as a child. I recently saw a scene of a father on his front lawn demanding his child to put a ball away. After his child stubbornly refused, he said "I asked you nicely! Don't make me come over there!" in a superior, angry tone, and I thought to myself, "You didn't ask him nicely, you told him sternly, and now you're threatening him menacingly. No wonder he's petulant. You're not treating him like a human being." But I was just a random stranger passing by, so I kept quite because saying that sort of thing only tends to make people like that worse. If, as a boss, you wouldn't use that tone on your subordinate employee because you'd be laughed at and the employee would quit, you shouldn't say it to a child. Nobody with any amount of self-respect would sit there and take that. So doing it on a daily basis as a parent either destroys a child's sense of self-respect, or it drives them away from you, or both.
I've begun to explicitly notice parent-child interactions lately. Most parents do the dog thing (not that I'm AT ALL good at depicting it in a story). I've seen ONE example to the contrary, in a restaurant in Boston half a year ago, where a guy was talking to what looked like his daughter as an equal - interested in her opinions, perspective, preferences, a real back-and-forth between them, and it looked so natural they probably did it all the time, every day. I was tempted to walk up and congratulate the guy, but I'm kind of shy. Other than that, I know of exactly one place on the internet where I can reliably see a genuine parent-child interaction like that. Wouldn't you know it's the same place I get a lot of Luna's wisdom. Anyway, Harry wants adults to treat him like that. Yes, he wants to have child-like moments of wonder, joy, and awesomeness. He just doesn't think that makes him any less of a person.
To be fair, looking back, I should have had Harry insist on siezing full responsibility for everything that happened in his Pegasus Magic classes, even if Twilight offered to take care of it all. Part of HPMoR's original message was what it takes to become responsible. Prophecy told Dumbledore to light a chicken on fire, calling it a phoenix, because if that hadn't happened, Harry would have been able to shove off final responsibility onto the genuinely good and competent Dumbledore, and if Harry did that, he wouldn't have grown into a person capable of beating Voldemort by the end of the story. At the start of this story, Harry was that person, but Harry stopped being protagonist after arranging the final condition necessary for Riddle's redemption and escaping the Mirror. He can now shove final responsibility onto the more competent adults around him, even for big important things like saving the world. He's getting some of his childhood back, even though it was irreperably damaged. He still has large responsibilities, he has a bright future, but he doesn't have to keep track of literally every detail anymore, and there's no longer a pressing Time and Prophecy need for him to become Magical Britain's most compitent adult by the time he reaches second year of Hogwarts.
Of course, the dog thing still bothers him, and if it happens he might just respond by being his special brand of brat, but hey, some kids' natural response to being treated like a dog is acting like a brat, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to the dog trainers. He's just making sure all is right in the world from their perspective. By which I mean to say he'll find rationalizations for impulses that run deep unless he's explicitly called on them, and the impulses carefully explained.
11613771
My cliffhangers are too strong for you, reader. You cannot handle my cliffhangers.
Minor typo
Come on, come onnnn
Tirek dead, as I hoped.