War of Another World's Conquest

by bearcat

in which we learn more about the prince's mental makeup

Luna tried to be as discreet and unobtrusive with her shifting from hoof to hoof as she could. But there were three of them, now.

The "greater pony magic" that was only available to royalty -- it wasn't crowded at the top per se but the sisters could feel each other. Like being in a narrow, short corridor. Any fast movement shifted the air so much the other could feel it. It had made that fateful fight rather more stale a mate than would have been so if they were just unicorns, just over a thousand years ago.

Now that narrow corridor had accepted an uncultured and inexperienced oaf to shove in with them. It already felt crowded at the top of the magical chain.

Jack flapped his brilliant white wings. They left her with the impression of translucence, but as Luna watched she realized it was just on odd form of off-white, perhaps multiple colors of white as his wolf-hairs had been multiple colors of gray.

She was snapped out of annoyed reverie when the pegasus Rainbow Dash blurted out "So, what, you think you can fly now? Just because you have your own set of wings?" She flapped her own wings, and Luna was impressed anew with Jack's non-pony magic, whatever its source, but the wings had been without blood for nearly three days. As a flier herself she felt pity for Dash's inability to leave the ground yet. "It's not fair, you big griffon dog pony ... thing!"

A little orange pegasus came out of the bushes. Luna was thankful the Filly had not tried to participate in the fighting but obviously she and Rainbow Dash knew each other. "What, Dash? What'd they do to you after they stole you from me? I mean us!"

Rainbow Dash just flapped her wings slowly, mournfully, while glaring white-hot disdain at the little filly.

Jack turned to the orange and purple filly to explain. "No you two, there is no unfairness, because I was not born with wings. I can feel them, I know how to bend and shape them as any part of my body but I know nothing of flight."

Dash turned her glare on Jack "I'm not teaching you how to fly. I sorta promised Scoot here and just one student is cramping my style."

Jack had a broad, easy grin on his muzzle, and as the guards landed from their patrol he answered her. "Very well, Rainbow Dash. I shall seek instruction elsewhere. Twilight Sparkle, can a unicorn levitate himself?"

Startled, her sister's pupil shook her multihued purple mane as she shook her sudden look of confusion off her face. "You have to push against something, just like if you lifted it with your hooves. You can't lift yourself with magic anymore than with hooves."

Luna felt the magic move, knew where he was going with it. Celly could probably be more forgiving of his oafish grasping but it was already pushing her buttons.

Jack hadn't physically moved, but he answered Twilight's explanation. "But you push against the ground when you lift yourself to stand. If your legs are suddenly longer, you are suddenly taller, is it not so?"

Luna snuck a glance at Celly who was smirking. No trolling gag here other than to keep her mouth shut. So be it, Luna thought. I'll go along but he needs to know it's impolite to jostle in this corridor of magic.

Twilight said "Well, but since your horn is the focus of your magic, that's where you push from. To levitate yourself you'd have to ... well, do a horn-stand."

Jack dove his dust colored horn into the ground and bucked high, magic aura already bright as he floated up. "Just so, Twilight. Thank you for your instruction." Straight up, tail first and legs all akimbo he rotated to he could sort of see the crowd.

Princess Celestia, no longer hiding her impish grin, turned to Luna and said "I think we've just been ... shown up."

"Put a sock in it, sister."

\_- | || || || || | -_/

As the ocean was some distance away, all the ponies were instructed to wait. To eat, make camp, to restore their strength. While Spike was not present to receive a letter apparently one of the fiddiken could accept magical fire sendings. Celestia promised to keep her body guards well informed if they were needed. They didn't like waiting when their charge was charging off unarmed but none of them were pegasi, and the guards that were, were tired enough they couldn't make a speed run to the ocean only to begin a massive battle there.

So the sisters flew up alone. High up, a quarter mile by levitation magic alone, they found Prince Jack, drifting very slowly as he balanced on his horn and pushed the earth behind him, effecting floating forward.

They hovered, massive wings beating slowly.

Celly started with "Since we know how to fly, prince, we can get there in an hour of hard flight. Do you have any suggestions that don't involve us towing you, as we need to hurry."

It was a little hard to read the newborn alicorn's expression, as he was upside down and drifting away from the pair, who had to drift with him as they tread on air. But Luna thought his face was screwed up in deep thought, more than magic expenditures.

"I think I can cast a propulsion spell. Magically extend my spine with the release of force, not unlike how I'm pushing down now. Hafta make my back hooves push too. Then just lock my wings and try not to steer myself into a mess." His eyes focused on the ground, and he was silent for a moment. "No sense you two waiting I guess. If you're not going to tow me I need to get there myself." He adjusted his rotation a little and held a forehoof straight out. "At the ocean in that direction. They're carrying a tarpaulin over their main encampment so you won't see them, I think but I can still feel them grinding rocks together beneath their feet."

As the moon was not in a phase to be above the horizon during daylight hours, she couldn't look to confirm through her moon's line of sight, but the fact that Celly didn't comment suggested they did indeed know to hide from the glare of the celestial bodies.

They really would need his help, but it still rankled that an untrained commoner had been elevated -- no, elevated himself out of ignorance -- into this confined space. She gathered her power to herself, and beat her wings more forcefully. Celly, bless her, shot a concerned look at Luna, feeling the sudden power draw that was totally unnecessary. Jack would too, of course; that was the point. "We will speak about your magic, after we have won the war. I'm not angry but we must speak soon. So win soon, king under the mountain."

She released her energy to pull and push the wind, to drive herself forward, and to keep the airflow across her delicate eyes to a minimum. No goggles needed when you were the regent of the moon. As she powered off so quickly, she missed Celestia's kinder words to Jack. "She's self conscious about what she fears is a net loss of power. We'll work it out without heated words, prince Jack. See you at the beach!"

As Celly wisely conserved her power, and flew with only her wings, the 1500 hoof lead that Luna had created stayed the same now that she was likewise just flapping hard. A tiny bit of power to see where Celly's sun had heated the air -- thermals would speed her, and she wouldn't just have to draw as much power to replenish her strength later.

She looked behind her, and saw Jack fold his wings, rotate so he could be right-side up once he was flying. Luna felt the draw of power -- far more than that spell would need. His wings locked straight out she felt the flow of all Equestria's magic divert itself into Jack's backside. He made a few tests of his wings to see how to steer, already going faster than either sister but easily a third of a mile behind them now.

Suddenly he shot upward, a 30 degree climb and still accelerating. Suddenly Luna felt the spell double. that fool. He's going to cross the sound barrier right as

She didn't get to finish the thought as Jack created a rainboom whose expanding rings of light and turbulence passed not 10 feet in front of her nose. She drew power again, forcing air under her wings, forcing the her body to stay upright.

/_- || || || || -_\

Dash saw the rainboom, eventually heard's its crack of distressed air. Straight up and down, that foal had somehow powered across the invisible barrier while traveling in a straight, flat line.

can't fly, my tailbones. Out loud, she shouted "Colt crudder!" It was not really a word, she knew. But couldn't come up with anything better. It rolled off her tongue though, as if she had said it before. Perhaps in another life she had dealt with so annoying a ... a ...

Colt crudder. That's what..

\_- | || || || || | -_/

By dint of sheer practice, intimate knowledge, and long millenia of experience, the sisters could draw power, could shift in that small corridor, so as to speak to one another. It was far from precise but they could call for each other, and give an idea of their intentions.

Luna caught her breath for a moment. The last time she had received a magical sending this way from Celly had been a polite -- no, pleading -- request to back down. To stop the fight before, well before what had happened had needed to.

But this time was not that. The image sent could be summed up in the word unexpected. By response she drew power as if to call up vast amounts of water as she set fire to the ground around the well, all while calling an avalanche up the site of failed conflagration. sloppy

Luna had lost some ground to dealing with the worst of the rainboom. Celly now was close enough that her peal of laughter, open and free as the sky, could reach Luna's ears. the oaf doesn't bother her, it seems. While Luna wanted to be upset for almost dumping her into the forest below, that laughter reached too deep into her soul. She chuckled. Perhaps she could teach him about magic, and normal pegasus-style flying without the magic. Raise the once-dead sergal into a proper member of royalty.

But now there was a battle before them. As the sisters approached the edge of the forest, where a short stretch of grasslands separated it from the ocean, they found prince Jack, 'regent of the rocks beneath your feet' floating horn-down again. His back was turned to them and his wings were folded tight, and he was using just enough magic to fold the light around him; to be almost invisible to those on the ground.

Upon realizing that he thought there was aught to hide from, the sisters quickly copied his spell. They could see each other with their magesight, and of course the rainboom's rainbow, ended a mile distant now, had pointed straight at Jack. So he was not trying to hide from Luna, but on the ground was naught to hide from either.

Treading air again, it was Celestia who spoke first. "Why are you up here hiding? I don't see, physically or magically, anything down there." Luna looked again, and saw Celly doing the same.

Prince Jack pointed to a place halfway between tree and seashore, and said "I feel them there. Two hundred, still. Easily fifty who can cast but I have felt spells from only eleven."

Luna concentrated her sense of power at the place indicated, and gasped. What looked like open grasslands had two places where a thing, probably a dinner plate, being levitated. And just there, was a candle lit. "That tarp of theirs is magically augmented!"

Jack turned his dusty, dusky head towards her, still keeping his horn, not unlike his mane, pointed down. "More devious still. They have received word that spells can be seen. Perhaps by their casters calling out what spell the other used. So they have devised a false image whose power is craftily diverted in many places. All eleven who know they have magic have agreed to take a corner and they actively, in their own way and place and speed, keep a part of the spell up."

Luna saw out the corner of her eye, Celly nodding. "Many small spells are harder to see at a distance, compared to one big spell. But it's strong -- even knowing that's what's there I can't pierce it."

Jack looked out over the ocean now, adding gravely, "There is more bad news. This magic pressure, that you feel when each of us moves in higher realms. Do you not feel it? The flow is diverted again." He pointed to a distant spot of the vast surface of water. "They have a god-king."

Luna was still too upset to tell where precisely the pressure was pulling, but she thought she could feel a strong magical presence out to sea. Given the apparent distance, it would have to be another regent like themselves, but whoever it was didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Still, "That's going to complicate things alright. Orbital bombardment again Celly?"

Her sister shook her head. "Too broad a target. Solar flares are good for cutting a pony in half but a whole town?"

"Does it not take nearly nine minutes of preparation to enact a solar flare into light upon Equestria?" That, from the newly ponified. Part of Luna wanted to be shocked, but her analytical side was racing.

With another corner of her mind she heard Celly try to explain pony magic. "No, prince. The sun is right there" She helpfully pointed a hoof in its direction. "And while it has to be kept out of the atmosphere so it won't burn everything up, it's only outside by about a hundred feet. And as regent, as you know it follows my commands pretty closely."

Luna needed more clues. "Why nine minutes, prince Jack?" This should tell her something about his non-pony magic, perhaps. Or something unfathomable.

"That is. Are you serious princess Celestia? That is how far the sun is. Where I am from, the sun is eight and a half light-minutes distant." Below a single sergal could be seen dragging a pair of diamond dogs out of the forest towards the invisible encampment.

"What's a light minute, prince?" But as Celestia spoke Luna had already guessed, and it fascinated her.

"Light travels at a speed. If it were to be convinced to travel in a curve, then by the time you said, one thousand and one, the beam would have traveled all around the whole world five times. That is one second, there are sixty seconds in a minute, the sun, a billion times the size of the land, is eight and a half minutes distant. Is it truly not so here?"

This suggested to Luna that where Jack was from, they may not even need Regents to control such unfathomably massive celestial bodies. And his math was off a bit too. "This land is not that big, Jack. I think I know how fast light travels and it would travel closer to seven times around. And the sun, here at least, is smaller than my moon. About half the size as most of what you see is just a continuous fire's flames. The moon is held inside the air by a quarter mile or so."

She spoke truth, but Jack seemed dumbfounded and even bordering on mistrusting. Celly responded by extending a lot more trust that Luna would have thought to offer given the circumstances. "Prince, I trust you know not to move it, but ... reach for the sun. Find it, I won't stop you."

Luna felt the draw of power, and inwardly cringed. It was the same spell she ... Nightmare Moon she reminded herself ... had used to usurp control of the day/night cycle.

But once his hooves were upon the sun, the spell held, and asked no more of pony's magic. Luna saw his yellow eyes turn to saucers, and suddenly he was falling, all magic forgotten. Clearly this pulled a big rug out from under him. At least he had a quarter mile to find a rug again, she thought with a touch of cynicism. eight and a half light minutes

He did recover, although seeing his rump as he floated back up towards them felt awkward to Luna. Celly too was pointedly looking out to the ocean until he was back to his original height. "My apologies." said the prince, sounding to Luna like he was pleading for a deep offense. She wasn't really sure if he meant his rump showing or thinking the sun was a billion times the size of the earth.

Luna decided it didn't matter. "Lightning bolts? What, then?"

Again with an uneducated blurting from the newcomer. "Can you create a second, smaller sun, right in their camp? Destroy a few unsplittable pieces of matter and unleash a fire that will consume them faster than they could blink?"

split the unsplittable. Luna shuddered.

Celestia quickly quelled the notion, trying to sound encouraging, Luna thought, probably to make sure Jack didn't try it on his own. "That would poison more ponies than anyone here wants. The forest might not recover for a century or two. Better to chase them down and cut them individually and miss a few than to doom ponies hundreds of miles downwind to a mysterious and painful death."

Luna watched Jack. No surprise, so he seemed to know the consequences of what he'd suggested. Just didn't think it was that far out of the risk/reward scale. Best weigh in, then. "We're a peaceful lot. I don't know where you came from, but it's very deep in our psyche not to injure by accident. Not by intent either but sometimes ... So we will have to do this by hoof and mouth."

Just to illustrate, she summoned a sword of pure force, and folded her wings. Calling up a shield spell she would simply have to cut each attacker down, one by one. They didn't like flying things as much for their own psyche as the tactical reasons. So she would agree to wade in hock deep into their blood. split the unsplittable And hopefully not drop her force-sword in fear and shock, although she already knew what kinds of things she would see under that tarp. She steeled herself as she dove. Her ponies would be preserved, whether they forever feared the night or not. They deserved that freedom.

\_- | || || || || | -_/

Celestia watched her younger, slightly impetuous sister dive into the unknown. Of course the regent of the moon, and of nighttime, would feel more comfort with what she couldn't see. This was her realm. Until she saw the horrors under the tarp, and no pony should be forced to own that realm.

"I think we've been shown up, prince. Earthquakes could be useful here you know." She winked, and folded her wings to follow her sister, force sword already in her mouth. She heard the unfurling of the prince's wings but couldn't see if he tried to summon a sword. It didn't matter, so long as he kept it a melee thing.