Chapter 56: Blood Offering
Lilac stared up at these two furious ponies. Here was Amaranth, looming over her with an armed pony, weapon ready. What did he expect to happen, that he thought he needed weapons?
"I don't know what happened to her," she repeated. It was the same lie she'd already told. But now that she fully understood her own powers, it was far less true. Though it was still close enough that she could probably fool a lie detector. She didn't know the exact effect. "I'm an earth pony, Lord Vale. I couldn't use dark magic on her even if I knew any."
The unicorn loomed over her, eyes full of doubt and fury. "That is such a simple explanation, isn't it? The earth pony isn't capable. Yet her mind is completely undamaged, except with regards to you. The crew saw you together a dozen times, they speak of your lessons in the smoking lounge and the mess. Captain Aurum remarked with her on your progress. Yet now, nothing."
Lilac stared back, defiant. What was she supposed to do, admit her magic to him? Amaranth was no member of the Lightless Star. He couldn't understand her, and had no desire to try.
She shook her head again. "Did the crew also tell you about the week she spent not visiting me? Did they tell you that my door was kept locked, and not even opened for food? Maybe whatever happened to her has something to do with that."
It was crossing the line. She already knew it when she said it—but she could only keep her mouth closed so well. She wasn't a god, no matter how much Lightless Star thought so.
"I would ask my wife to search you for magical corruption, if I believed I could trust her judgment. But Iris has shown herself entirely taken in by your act, filly. This is it—these are too many worrying signs. You are a danger to Equestria, one that Princess Celestia must understand."
Lilac caught one last look through the bathroom at the cracked linen-closet door, before something yanked on her, pulling her by her hooves. It was Amaranth's magic, dragging her towards the door. She slid without resistance, eyes wide with panic. "W-what?"
"I don't know if this will rate the intervention of the princess herself," he continued, as though he didn't even hear her. "She has many affairs of state to concern her time. But I will do everything necessary to see she is there to evaluate you. She will see when others don't."
Celestia. The thought of that name filled her with panic. More than her strange origins, there was now a sympathetic connection binding her to the Void, something that even Iris could see. If she could, than the princess everypony said would murder her on the spot certainly would.
"No!" Lilac drove her hooves into the ground, hard. Power flooded into her through the floorboards, wood bringing with it the strength of earth. Moss sprung up from under her, spreading from the edges of her hooves. Little white flowers bloomed there, expanding in fractals from where her hooves touched.
Despite no physical bonds between them, the stallion tugging her went flying off his hooves, smashing into her desk and snapping its fine wooden legs. It toppled sideways, taking books and bottles of ink with it.
"No," she repeated, turning in a slow circle. Her voice sounded lower than it should. It didn't just come from her, but the wind in the branches of a whole forest. Grass sprang from the cracks in the wood at her hooves, and thin vines crept up the walls. "I will not see her. I refuse."
Where had the strength come from? It was no weaker than when she faced down Keen Focus, only this time she didn't call to unseen, terrible places.
The forest was distant, yet within reach. Saffron was still here, along with a balcony covered in plants and flowers. The forests of Equestria would all come to her aid, if only she asked. She didn’t need to be a unicorn to use magic.
"How dare you!" Lord Vale stumbled to his feet, fine jacket stained by ink. He yanked free of pale green feelers trying to entrap him, albeit slowly. "You've revealed yourself now, sorcerer! Dark magic, in my own house!"
"It doesn't seem dark to me," Iris said. She stepped inside, walking calmly through the grass and growing flowers. They rose almost to her fetlocks now, yet none of them were trying to grab her. "Amaranth, look around you. That's earth pony magic. Some of the most powerful I've ever seen." She stopped not far from him, offering a hoof to help him stand.
He ignored her, stumbling forward on his own. "She attacked me, in my own house! Look at her destroying it, even now! It's completely out of control—she's a monster!"
He turned to the guard, expectant. "Iron Gate, grab her. We'll drag her unconscious to the carriage, if we have to. If she refuses to surrender, you may use your weapon."
Iris glowered at him. "You will not. Lilac Empathy is our daughter, Amaranth. You attacked her with magic, you know how young ponies can be. Defending herself was not an attack, and may not have even been under her control."
Iron Gate, though, didn't seem to care about what they were saying. He approached Lilac, blade raised in his magic. He might be a stallion, a full head taller than her, and fully armored—she faced him down anyway, glowering at his weapon.
"Downstairs," he said. "Please, Miss Vale. Down to the carriage. We'll just take a little ride to Canterlot."
"I will not go," she said flatly. "Now decide what to do."
He shoved up against her with an armored shoulder—then went sprawling backwards the other way, sliding along the wooden floor. As he touched down, vines wrapped around him, weaving through the little fasteners and clasps of his armor.
He started to fight, straining and tearing to free himself. “Let me go!" The sword faltered, then dropped to the floor as well. He was panicked, fighting to tear free.
Lilac smiled faintly—the guard might be muscular, but he didn't have the concentration to keep up a single levitation under stress.
"I don't know what's come over you, wife. Open your eyes! My house is under attack! All these years, it was no child you let through my doors, but a monster! She's running completely amok! Guards! Guards, we need everypony in here! Sound the alarm!"
I can't keep this up for long. Even a few of the house's real soldiers would make short work of her. Earth ponies could stop landslides, but all they had to do was get her hooves off the ground, and she'd be as defeated as any of the children of Gaia that Hercules had fought.
"Your house," Iris repeated, standing calmly beside him. Amaranth rushed to the aid of his guard, struggling to tear him free from the strangling vines. "Amaranth, can't you see? Lilac is our daughter. Her powers are rare and beautiful. We can't bring them to Canterlot, or risk some cruel pony without understanding destroying her."
He stopped pulling on Iron Gate, roaring with frustration. His horn flashed, and he severed a few bits of little green vine. The spell was inexpert, singing the floor underneath, and bleeding most of its energy as light. It made him pant with effort, raging.
"Guards! Guards, we need you!" He yelled again, louder. "Where in Celestia's name are you? I'm under attack in my own house!" Finally he reached the sword, lifting it in his magic. He kept it right in front of him—not some vague gesture, or weapon he was holding nearby.
He advanced on Lilac. "I'm not asking again, demon! Surrender now, and I will take you to Canterlot for evaluation. Perhaps you can even be saved, if there's something of a normal pony buried in you somewhere."
Lilac glared back, defiant. "Or what?"
The answer was a surge of sudden violence, one so outrageous she hadn't imagined he would actually do it. Amaranth swung the sword, slicing down directly for her neck. It came so fast that she couldn't react, not even to roll out of the way.
The blade hit, and she felt a brief moment of pain. Not much—less than a papercut, really. Much less than the terrible burns she took when she encountered a spirit of flame. Those scars remained forever etched on her coat, with little fur growing there even after years to heal.
The blade shattered, hot metal spraying away from her and all over Amaranth. He screamed, flesh searing with the heat, and dropped from the shock. Blood seeped from a dozen little wounds—none of them life threatening, but all painful.
"G-guards!" he yelled. His voice was hoarse, catching in his throat this time. "W-where are you?"
The broken sword lifted into the air, glowing with a different color now. Only a thin line of steel remained, glowing faintly red from the impact. "They aren't here," Iris whispered. She stood over him now; had she teleported to cross the room so fast? "This is house Vale, Amaranth. Whose staff do you think they are?"
She glanced across the room, to where one was completely buried in vines at this point. Lilac couldn't even see a face through all that.
"What are you doing?" Amaranth asked. He looked between them, eyes wide with terror. Enough blood dribbled from his face that he was almost blind.
"I act for the honor of the True Gods," Iris whispered, so quiet that Lilac barely heard.
He froze. Even greater horror spread across his face. "Y-you're one of them? That evil cult, festering in Willowbrook? That was supposed to be the domain of the common ponies. The lunatics who want to dethrone Celestia!"
She nodded once. "And you tried to murder my daughter." The jagged knife zipped down towards him, slicing across his throat in a neat line. Iris stepped to the side, blocking Lilac's view of what followed. But she heard the desperate gasping anyway.
There could be no mistake about what was happening.
"I would have made you forget, as I've done so many times before," Iris whispered. She bent down, holding the stallion's head like she was cradling a frightened foal. He struggled, kicking out in vain with his limbs. None did anything to her.
"But you attacked my child, in my home. You can't have her. Celestia can't have her. The Watcher can't have her."
A few seconds longer, and Amaranth stopped struggling. He fell lifeless to the floor. Lilac felt the life flee him, with those same senses that intuned her with the trees and flowers.
Should she feel... horrified? Relieved? Even satisfied, that someone who had just tried to kill her was dead himself?
She felt only emptiness and confusion.
Iris stepped back, retreating slowly from the corpse. She reached Lilac, then wrapped one hoof around her, squeezing her tight. Lilac squeezed back. She whimpered, and tears welled up.
It hurt, yet—the pain came mostly from confusion. A guard still struggled to escape, his voice muffled, vines straining. With Lilac's focus broken, he would probably tear himself free soon. "W-what... what do we do?" she whispered, terrified. "Mom?"
"This is bigger than any of us," Iris whispered back, staring down at the limp body. Grass and moss covered the spreading pool of blood from around his throat, and the damp dagger resting there.
"You may not have known—Amaranth was the constable of Willowbrook. By manipulating him, I shielded the Lightless Star from Celestia's eyes, led him down false trails, and kept our brothers and sisters in safety. His death is..." She sniffed, wiping the tears from her face. "A tremendous setback. I must consult the Watcher."
Lilac nodded once. "Before we do, there's something—" She pointed across the room, towards the linen closet. "My best friend Firefly is in the closet. Can she go home?"
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Sorry Lilac, but Iris isn't letting her leave. She's the other "true God", remember?
At least Iris cares, even if her beliefs seem to be misplaced.
Is not a proper cult until we see someone with a bloody knife next to a fresh corpse.
11288473
I mean 'go home' means 'to the other cultist who's taking care of her' though?
This is going to cause problems for Lilac and the Lightless Star for sure. A case of star madness showing up in Willowbrook followed by the death of the constable will draw a lot of unwanted attention to Willowbrook. Amaranth did go too far when he tried to kill Lilac thouhg so I doubt he was a good constable. I wonder what Iris will do to the guard but she'll probably make him forget.
I can't imagine Iris would have any issue with that request— she knows exactly who Firefly is. Unless the two of them being together is already to their benefit…
11288489
Yep, and now we've got one. 'Tis official, mares and gentlecolts.
Things just got real. What now?
All that resulting from a little help from her Earth pony magic, her contract with the fae, and possibly her godly powers.
Was that from the elemental or Lilac's raw magical power?
Guess that was the final straw. She did not hesitate to kill a man she knew for a long time. Even though the marriage was more or less a sham, Iris is still a scary pony.
The Watcher? I'm seeing more of a mother bear than a devout cultist. Perhaps the sisters have a weapon against the cult if they push too far.
Memory spell or the... alternative. There can be no outside witnesses at this point.
Between Lilac's incredible display of power and Amaranth's murder, I wouldn't be surprised if the closet needs some cleaning now. It's very clear Lilac's abilities are in a different league compared to Firefly's. Also, Iris will not let anyone get between her and her daughter. Despite Firefly's own status in the cult as a "goddess", She might be a bit more afraid of her friend and the House in general.
11288495
I'd think after recent events, Iris would want to keep a close watch on both of them.
Well they've done it now.
I mean if HE was the crown's highest representative in town, no wonder everyone joined a cult to revolt. They seem to think she's a tyrant, which would be kinda understandable if he's probably been using her authority to be one.
11288539
I wouldn't say Firefly is not as gifted as Lilac, neither of them know what abilities they have. Lilac has had guidance from the breezies and the right incentive from fate, while Firefly only knows the generic pegasi abilities of flight and weather manipulation.
ah amaranth was a celott
11288588
going by what dash had to say, there seems to be some untapped potential there
I am feeling excited we get to the more meaty action! Though, I find your writting style hard to get a good read on; good or bad, I have no clue. The stake can suddenly be immense but remains plausible, which I would say is pretty good.
Based on "Message in a Bottle" and "Forbidden Places", I am led to believe a finality is close. You are probably at 4/5 of act 2 of this three part act.
11288579
At least the chapter explains his role in the story. It was not clear until now if he was associated with the Cult or not.
Turns out he was a victim, albeit a fairly unsympathetic one.
What about the guard?
Yeah Go Iris!
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11288607
Not so much that Lilac is by nature more magically powerful than Firefly but as was said, Firefly's potential is still very much untapped. Lilac is increasingly tapping into hers.
Oh boy. Star madness, followed by the death of the town's constable. However you slice it, Equestria's gonna be investigating this one MUCH more aggressively...
Although, the cult DOES have a changeling on their side... Hmmmm....
The ONLY thing I think they could pull off is the departed Lord had Star Madness too and tried to kill a foal... but even then, things are too hot already for that to be dismissed, let alone the fact both ponies that had it had close proximity to 1 pony.
This is not good at all.
Worrying development.
For Iris and Lilac, that is. For us? Satisfying, and I can't wait to see the fallout. Great work!
”I don’t see what her crush on you has to do with anything, dear.”
“What?”
“What?”
In all seriousness… Yeah, this is definitely a point of no return for both Lilac and the Lightless Star. We may be racing towards the endgame, or at least a new stage of it.
(Also, yeah, Amaranth did not give a good account of the Diarchy.)
Definitely looking forward to seeing where things go from here.
Loyalty has been affirmed.