Chapter 21
Inner Celestia continued to rant.
A part of Sunny was impressed by how doggedly she stuck to the comment. The mental mare went on and on about responsibility, robbing the cradle, and a bunch of other nonsense that Sunny agreed to in theory.
But none of it mattered because she wasn’t falling in love.
“Like Tartarus, you’re not!” Inner Celestia growled. “We’ve both been around long enough to know better. You have a bad habit of latching onto peers just because you don’t have a lot of them. You’ve done this every time you’ve gone out, for Sky’s sake! Then they find out you’re the Princess and just wither under your gaze. This is going to turn out exactly the same, and you know it.”
Sunny didn’t even think about what Inner Celestia just said beyond noting the irony that she was the one telling her to keep her distance now.
“I wanted to make sure Marble was safe, not float him down the tunnel of love in the middle of the wilderness,” the mental construct shot back.
Sunny rolled her eyes. The alicorn projection apparently had trouble with overreacting.
“I’m only saying it because you know, deep down, that it’s true. Don’t ever forget we’re the same mare, Miss Smiles.”
Celestia, dressed in a disguise, briefly became consciously aware of who she was. The thoughts and feelings of Sunny and Inner Celestia crashed together after she tried keeping them separate for so long. The simple act of being herself took over in a tsunami of responsibility, guilt, and a desperate desire to just be an average pony. The alicorn wallowed in it all for just a second before she compartmentalized again.
“Okay, look,” Sunny whispered to herself as she chopped a vine in half in front of her. “The fact is, even if you’re right, we can’t do anything about it. We’re stuck with him until we get to the north coast. The sooner we get there and get him to safety, the sooner we can let this all go and get back to having fun, right?”
Inner Celestia huffed but agreed.
“What did you say?” Marble asked, hovering above her and the knee-deep water.
“I’m getting tired of the water,” Sunny replied. “It’s slowing me down too much.”
Marble nodded. “I can understand that. Do you want me to help you out?”
“What, you’re going to carry me across the whole swamp? You’ll wear yourself out, and then we’ll both be tired and slow.”
Marble hesitated.
Sunny sighed. “Thanks for offering, but I’m not sure it’s the best move.”
“Fair enough, I guess.”
Sunny shoved some plant life aside, and she found the road finally rose up through the swamp, cutting through a valley between two hills. “Oh, finally,” she muttered before she pushed forward and climbed out of the swamp. “I was starting to think it’d go on forever.”
She stepped onto the smooth stones of the road and shook the water off her legs. Marble landed next to her a moment later, avoiding the water. “I guess that solves our problem,” he said.
“Well, it solves the problem of trench hoof,” she agreed before she finished shaking the water off of her. “We’re still days away from where we need to be, but we’re working on that.”
Marble nodded before he blinked.
“What?” Sunny asked, following his gaze.
“I think I see something.”
“What?”
“Just...hang on one second,” he said before he took off, flying up into the air and pushing his way past the canopy.
A moment later, he dropped back down, a frown on his face. “It’s another Windtower.”
“Okay, so a place to stay for the night. Why are you frowning about it?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense for it to be there. All evidence we have says that Windtowers were used to mark the borders of the Lusitanpec territory, but we’re obviously inside their territory. Unless they decided to build a temple right on the frontier, but that doesn’t make much sense.”
Sunny resisted the urge to roll her eyes but managed. “That’s why I don’t think they were used for that.”
Marble glanced at her. “Is this another one of your simple insights to the universe? The ones that you don’t have any reason for knowing, but you’re somehow right about.”
“Look, my mentor at Celestia’s school had some crazy theories, but he made sense.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Marble said. “You went to Celestia’s school?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Being a Royal Conservationist requires some serious schooling.”
Marble blinked as though he just now entertained the thought of Sunny being educated at all. “Oh...I...I supposed it does.”
Sunny decided that she wasn’t going to start a fight and let the slight go. “My mentor had some interesting ideas about the entire region and even more beyond. He was certain that the Windtowers—which is a direct translation, by the way—wasn’t used as political markers or anything like that. There were too many of them dotting the entire kingdom, and they were typically too close to towns and other structures. There had to be a different reason for them to be there, and this is another example of that.”
“So, what were they for?” Marble asked. “According to your mentor.”
“That’s the trick,” Sunny said. “He wasn’t sure what, and because he didn’t have the evidence for it, he couldn’t put forward an alternative.”
Marble blinked again. “Is this where you got the idea of the monument?”
“Of course,” she replied.
She wasn’t exactly lying either. There had been an archeologist that worked at her school years ago who spent his entire life trying to come up with some proof that the towers had another use, and the totem was, in fact, a monument, among other things.
The last time Celestia saw him, he lay on his death bed, terrified that he wasted his life trying to prove something that had no basis in reality.
She broke her rule about knowledge with him just for that.
“Professor Bristle had a bunch of ideas like that.”
Marble slowly nodded. “I...I see.”
“Anyway, there’s a tower, right?”
“Uh, yes. Tower. It’s not far, maybe a quarter-of-a-mile.”
Sunny nodded. “Great, let’s get going! I could use a rest in an actual room tonight.”
They pushed forward, now crossing ground much faster now that they had a good road under them, and soon found their way to the tower.
That’s when they heard a scream. The pair glanced up and saw a stallion in a black vest falling from the top of the tower.
Sunny and Marble both went on edge when they saw him, and Sunny quickly pulled him into the underbrush. She forced the branches of the greenery around them to grow thicker, covering them completely.
“What are you doing? That stallion’s hurt!” Marble asked.
Sunny shushed him and wrapped a leg around him to hold him close. “No pony would walk out into the middle of the jungle to commit suicide. Something pushed him.”
The pony wheezed as he hit the ground, and before either Sunny or Marble could do anything else, a creature leaped down the tower, gripping into the stone with powerful fingers to slow his descent. He dropped to the ground and heaved his way over to the wheezing pony. “At least now you do not need to worry about any more deadlines, eh? I’m sure that pleases you.”
The mandrill then grabbed the pony by the throat and squeezed hard enough for the two hiding ponies to hear the crack. With the pony in his hands dead, the mandrill looked back up to the top of the tower. “Find the last piece of the key,” it roared in a deep booming voice that made Sunny’s bones vibrate. “Lady Dusk’s patience wears thin.”
Sunny carefully moved a leaf and cleared her view to the top of the tower, where three ponies stared down from the open balcony.
They all looked terrified.
The mandrill began to walk away with a snort, using all four legs to propel it into the jungle.
Sunny glanced back up the tower and shook her head before turning to Marble, whose mouth hung open wide. “Th-that thing...that thing just killed that stallion.”
“Keep your voice down,” Sunny warned, hoping to catch the panic rising in his voice before it got too loud. “But yes, it just killed him, on someone else’s order.”
Marble blinked and looked at her. “A pony was just killed right in front of you, don’t you care?”
“Right now, we have to deal with the living ponies. We can worry about the dead ones later.”
---☼---
Marble gaped at the unicorn as she began moving forward toward the tower. She completely blew off the murder that just happened in front of her and continued to sneak to the building as though nothing happened.
Sweet Celestia, he just witnessed a murder!
Sunny pushed herself up to the side of the tower and glanced back at him. “Come on!” she whispered.
How could she…? How could she do any of this? This mare just watched a stallion die in front of her, and she barely reacted.
Sunny waved him over again, and he moved, though not entirely sure why. “What are you doing?” He hissed as he closed the distance.
“The Mandrill—”
“The what?”
“The giant monkey monster,” she continued. “That thing mentioned a key, and whoever this Lady Dusk is wanted it. I need to know why.”
“What possible reason would you have for needing to know that?”
“It’s why I’m here, Marble,” she said as she began to creep toward the entrance. “The Royal Conservation Committee has a vested interest in making sure that Equestria as a whole is conserved.”
“What?” Marble asked. “Do you hear yourself? You sound like a Daring Do novel!”
Sunny didn’t even look back at him as she poked her head around the corner and glanced into the tower. She slipped back and turned to Marble. “How are you in a fight?”
“What?” he asked.
“They’re two stallions in the first room. Both earth ponies, but they’re armed with crossbows. Can you help me fight them, or not? You did pretty well with the thessalhydra, but fighting ponies is a different matter. Do you think you can do it, or am I on my own?”
Marble couldn’t believe her. “Why are we even here? A pony was just murdered by a monster, and you want to go fight them?”
Sunny sighed before she pressed forward. Marble tried to back up, but Sunny wouldn’t let him before he felt her voice in his ear.
“Marble, do you know how often the country has been in danger of some terrible calamity? Just in the past ten years or so?”
It’d been a few, Marble wasn’t ready to count them all off the top of his head, but he knew that there had been more than one occasion where everything nearly fell apart.
“Somepony needs to make sure that whoever these are don’t make another near-crisis for us, and we’re the only ones here. We’re the only ones who can make sure that this doesn’t spiral out of control and become another Storm King. Now, are you able to go fight these ponies, or do I have to do it myself?”
Her words were cold. They had a bite that Marble could only imagine being matched by a Guard sergeant training soldiers. He felt like he could forge a sword of ice that had a core of steel.
“I…” he hesitated. “I’ll let you handle this, but I’ll be right behind you.”
She nodded and seemed to accept the answer before she turned and faced the door.
Marble watched her take a deep breath before she rounded the corner and unleashed. Yells and crashing stone rang out, and Marble could only stand there as he heard Sunny tear them apart.
He shakily grabbed the dagger from his side before he closed his eyes to strengthen himself.
The yelling stopped, and Marble chanced a look around the corner.
The entrance hall of the tower, a stoneworking piece of art according to the last building, was a mess. Sunny must have ripped the stones apart to use as weapons as she did with the Zorbs, and in doing so, she destroyed an incredible piece of art.
He couldn’t say she was wrong, though.
He walked past the two guards she mentioned, lying flat on the floor, unconscious and bound by stone manacles. However, Marble didn’t stay to study them too long beyond a cursory glance that they were still breathing. After all, he told Sunny that he’d be right behind her.
He started climbing the stairs and passed a pony struggling to get out of the stone bindings that pinned him to the wall. Marble gave him a passing glance before he continued up, moving at a slightly faster pace.
Marble reached the landing just in time to see another unconscious pony slide down the stairs with a broken leg to his name. He flew over that pony and up the next flight of stairs until he could hear the combat ringing in his ears.
He turned the corner to see another pony flying toward him.
Marble ducked, and the pony flew over his head, the rock that slammed into his gut carrying him down the stairs.
Sunny moved like a dancer, just like she had in the swamp against the hydra. The ponies around her simply could not touch her as she danced around them with such skill and grace that it seemed wrong for it to be on the battlefield.
A unicorn fired beams of fire, light, and lightning against her, but Sunny’s own magic intercepted it. Clusters of rock rose up out of the ground in front of her snatching the magic from the air. With Sunny’s little shields, she managed to weave her way through the battle unscathed.
A pegasus got between them, interposing himself between the unicorn and the Dancer. Sunny answered with an actual, honest-to-Celestia cartwheel. The action was so smooth and so ridiculous that Marble didn’t notice the stone bracelets Sunny strapped to his hooves until the pony she just cartwheeled past cartwheeled himself.
Unwillingly.
The pegasus slammed into the wall, pinned like the one Marble saw on the stairs, leaving only Sunny and the enemy unicorn on the battlefield.
Sunny paused in her dance, stuck in a pose of grace.
The unicorn glared at her, horn sparking.
Marble looked down at the knife in his hoof.
The unicorn’s eyes shot over to Marble, and she unleashed her spell.
Marble yelped and leaped into the air, but the fire spell arcing toward him already began to turn and reach up for him.
A rock dropped from the ceiling, intercepting the attack, and Marble turned to stare at Sunny, who just saved his life.
Just in time to see a bolt of lightning slam into Sunny’s chest.
She dropped to the ground, the fur on her chest ignited by the blow. Marble dove for her, putting out the fire on her chest before the enemy unicorn shot another flaming bolt at him. He leaped back, taking to the air as he felt panic rising in his heart.
A rational part of him said that Sunny probably survived the blow. Most ponies struck by lightning survived, though there were long term side effects, and the burns from the heat would usually leave her in the hospital, but—
Another fireball interrupted the rational part of his mind, and he stared down at the enemy mage.
Sunny’s chest was on fire again.
The mare wouldn’t let him get close to Sunny, and he needed to get close.
He felt the dagger in his hooves.
He moved. Marble didn’t even have the time to think about it. He just moved. He dropped to the ground under another spell before he shot forward, skimming the floor before he drove the knife into the unicorn’s neck.
She gasped, a whistling sound escaping her throat that—
“Don’t think about it! Don’t think about it! Don’t think about it!” He thought to himself before he spun and kicked off the body, flying as fast as he could to Sunny’s side.
He patted out the fire on her fur and risked a glance at the red flesh beneath. The burns were bad, but she was definitely breathing. The burning embers in her coat nearly lit up one more time, and for a third time, he put out the flames.
He glanced around, ignoring the bleeding corpse behind him. This wasn’t the place to tend to a wounded mare. He carefully hefted Sunny onto his back and moved down the stairs.
---☼---
Sunny blinked.
She looked around and immediately regretted moving. She pushed it aside for the fight before realizing it wasn’t happening anymore.
Soreness flooded her body, and she took in her surroundings. Sunny found herself on a stone bench in a room that she vaguely recognized. It might have been the same kind of room they camped in the last tower.
“Well, the sudden memory loss feels like we were hit by lightning,” Inner Celestia said.
The soreness was a great clue as well.
She tried to sit up and clenched her teeth in pain as she looked down at the burns on her chest.
“Good thing we brought Body Spells,” Inner Celestia commented.
Someone inhaled beside her, and she looked up to see Marble staring at her from across the room. “Sunny! You’re awake!”
“Yeah,” she muttered. “What happened? I was fighting a unicorn and….”
“And you saved my life,” Marble said. “You used magic to defend me, and it left you open. The unicorn got to hit you with a lightning bolt, and you dropped. The burns are bad, but you’ll probably live. You might have some side effects, though, some personality changes, dizzy spells, or depressive episodes….”
Sunny knew that. She’d been struck by lightning enough when flying, and luckily, she shared the pegasus’ ability to shrug off such blows.
“And the unicorn?” she asked.
Marble blinked.
And then a vacant look passed across his face.
“Oh, Marble,” she said before she pulled him into a hug. Sunny held him tight, despite the burns, because she knew that he was hurting more than she was.
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It's good to be flexible with rules like that in appropriate circumstances.
Fairly lucky circumstances to discover the presence of the other group without being discovered in turn and to also get reminded of how murderous they are at the same time.
Nice.
That was going so well right up until Marble had to be saved. Definitely some nice ass kicking by Celestia, though.