The Forest of the Golden Abalone

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 6: The Iron Mages

They moved quickly through the ferns and undergrowth. Snails was recovering quickly, but he had taken the resonance injury hard. His life as a naturalist had kept him apart from society as it had advanced, and especially from the rising technological prowess of the Crystal Empire. The reactors were still rare, and he had not developed a tolerance.

Why they would be here, though, Fluttershy did not know. The ship did not match any designs she was familiar with. It was too small, and lacked the Royal Seal that most of them were marked with. It could have been privately owned, but that was almost unheard of. There were perhaps four ponies in existence who could afford such a vehicle, and Rarity knew all of them—and Fluttershy knew second-hoof that none were interested in flying yachts. Mainly because the ten richest ponies in Equestria were unicorns, and nine were white. They tended to avoid crystal technology. It unsettled them.

They needed only to follow the vibration—and, eventually, the shadow. Until they reached it.

It had not landed but rather suspended itself in a passive gravity well, holding over an open clearing lined by twisting, gnarled palms. The grass below it shook and quivered, the snails within it fleeing from the downdraft. Fluttershy and Snails took a position on the edge, peering out over a mossy log buried in thick ferns.

After a moment, Fluttershy finally got comfortable—only to nearly scream from the thudding sound of four enormous bipedal constructs slamming into the ground.

Snails stared wide-eyed at the machines. They were about fifteen feet tall each, made from riveted iron and platinum encased in crystal. Each had a pair of large hands that held a sword-staff, and stood on a pair of thick mechanical legs.

“What are those?” whispered Snails.

“Crystal Empire mechs,” replied Fluttershy. “But why they’re out here, I have no idea.” Nor why they carried strange, unauthorized heraldry. The same shield insignia that the ship overhead bore.

They fanned out. From Fluttershy’s understanding, each would have carried a pony pilot, either a mage or a crystal pony integrated into the frame. They were part of the Crystal Empire’s ever-increasing army, a deterrent against the threat of Chaos. Ostensibly.

Something overhead thudded loudly. Mechanisms retracted from the ship, separating a portion of it that spread its own wings and reactors. It slowly descended, a dropship gently falling to the field below. It landed between the mechs, centering itself in the clearing and automatically leveling itself. It moved with peculiar silence and as it descended, Fluttershy saw a thin strand of silver liquid dripping from one of Snails’s eyes.

Then it fell totally silent. A door opened on its surface and a ramp extended, unfolding into a staircase. For a moment, nothing moved—but then a pony stepped through. One clad in black armor edged with dark, dull-colored metal. He wore a mask thath seemed to have no apparent means for him to see though, one that almost abstractly resembled the head of an animal. Although his face was covered, a black, red-tipped horn emerged from his skull. A horn that took on an odd shape that Fluttershy had initially taken to be a curve.

Snails swore. “Celestia’s cellulite! Of course it would be Tuo...”

“Who?”

Snails gritted his teeth. “My sexy arch nemesis, Tuo Perr-Synt-Milk.”

Fluttershy vaguely recognized part of the name, although could not fathom what the Milk family had to do with any of this. “Sexy?”

“He’s a collector,” growled Snails.

“A collector of...what?”

“Everything he’s not allowed to have.” Snails’s expression had changed from one of surprise to one of vicious anger. “Cultural artifacts. Magical items.” He looked up at Fluttershy, his eyes filled with rage—and fear. “Trophies. From animals.”

Fluttershy felt her own spark of rage, but maintained her composure far better. “I think he’s the one that shot down our plane.”

Snails nodded. “That’s about his style.”

Fluttershy looked back out to see the pony descend the stairs—and stand at one side. As he did, another emerged. One in similar, all-covering armor, although this time in white edged with turquoise and iridescent violet. She, like him, was a unicorn, although her horn was straight and pale pink. Or at least Fluttershy interpreted her as a mare, due to her slight build. She was shorter than him, but she realized that both of them had the same insignia on their shoulder and rump. It had just been harder to see on Tuo’s dark armor.

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Snails. “I’ve never seen her before.”

She took her position opposite him. Once they were stationed, the staircase shifted, projecting railings and extending the upper portion outward to form a balcony. Two more ponies stepped out of the craft. This time, neither were dressed in armor.

The first was an earth-stallion. His color was dark brown, his mane almost fully white, his face unshaven. He wore a brown shirt and, although he had the strong musculature of an aging earth-pony, he walked slowly and with a severe limp in one of his rear legs. At one point, he stopped to cough into a handkerchief.

The mare that followed him was a sallow unicorn dressed in fine silk. Her eyes were a disturbing shade of teal, and she eyed the area around her suspiciously. Fluttershy knew she had never seen the unicorn before, but for some reason could not help but think she knew who the stallion was. Not from an in-person meeting, but perhaps from a picture somewhere. For some reason, it brought thoughts of Rainbow Dash to her mind.

“Who are they?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” replied Snails. “But the mare is a changeling for sure.”

“How can you tell?”

“I went to school for invertebrate biology, half my class was changelings. And I’ve dated enough to know they have tells. She a really high caste though. An overseer, or maybe a weaver.”

The stallion and mare descended the stairs, standing beside the two stationed at the base—and only then did Fluttershy finally get a perception of their scale. Tuo was massive, standing at least two feet higher than a fully grown earth-pony, practically looming over him. The armored mare was of a relatively normal height, but still quite tall.

“The area is clear of hostile creatures,” noted Tuo, his voice audible even at a distance. Although it was distorted by the vocal systems of his armor, Fluttershy immediately recognized that he had a strong Singapone accent.

“We are too distant from the incursion point,” snapped the changeling mare. “You were not hired for your incompetence.”

The armored mare’s horn sparked, but Tuo gestured for her to stand down.

“The site projects a significant amount of interference. In addition to the hazardous wildlife. Approach by air is impossible. This will be the sight of incursion. We will proceed forward by ground.”

“Through infested forests?”

“It would hardly be the first time, Argiopé,” said the elderly stallion. His voice was quiet and hoarse, but projected a strange sense of power—even if it faded in his old age. “And in my experience, I find it unwise to distrust the mercenaries. We require haste, and yet cannot afford to rush.” His smile fell, his expression becoming unexpectedly dark. “And you know as well as I do. She will not interfere. Not this time.”

Fluttershy shuddered as their quiet conversation was overwhelmed by a series of guttural snaps and hisses, spat with great aggression from the armored mare. The unpleasant tones to Crystallic.

“Speak Equestrian,” snapped the changeling, momentarily bearing her teeth and confirming the fact that she was most certainly not a pony.

“She is explaining,” said the elderly stallion. “That it seems our dear Lord Tuo was in fact unsuccessful with eliminating that unexpected surprise yesterday.” He grimaced. “You left witnesses.”

“In addition to one unanticipated unicorn, yes. A biologist who dwells within this forest.”

The earth-stallioned frowned. “And how do you know this, my boy?”

“Because I have been staring at them for the last minute.”

Snails gasped, but Fluttershy had dealt with enough giant and ultra-giant centipedes to have developed unusual or even superequine reflexes. Before she could even become afraid, her body was in motion, slamming him down into the mud—as a blast of red magic swarmed past her, shattering trees to sawdust ash as their trunks exploded from the rending spell.

The blast took out everything within twenty feet to the side of her, and as she stood to run, she threw Snails back—only to suddenly turn and find Tuo behind her, looming over her, his faceless armor staring at her with unbridled interest.

“Fluttershy. The Element of Kindness. How unexpected.”

He was nearly double her height and his curved, bladed horn erupted with magic so corrosive she could feel it even from a distance—and a condensed cutting spell whined toward her, nearly striking her before instead rebounding of Snail’s own shield spell.

The force was immense, and the shield shattered. Snails responded to what should have been critical feedback with barely a smile, acknowledging that he had been overpowered—but not outwitted. As he was thrown back, he tossed his bottle of flammable mucous onto Tuo’s shoulder, where the joints in his armor were the weakest—and with a snap of violet magic, it ignited.

Tuo was immediately consumed in flames and utterly immolated. Fluttershy cried out.

“SNAILS?! What did you DO?!”

“Come on, Fluttershy!” He grabbed her and pulled her along as he ran. “That won’t last long, trust me!”

They ran, and Tuo turned toward them. By this time, his female counterpart had arrived, walking slowly. She spat an obtuse Crystallic statement, and he nodded.

“Third degree indeed, if not farther. I can hear the sizzling.”

“Lucky.”

“Would you like the honor of the pursuit then, Lady Fear?”

She laughed a shrill, unpleasant laugh. “Like you even could in half a ton of dark-iron.”

She took off in a dead sprint, her magic already locked onto their trail. Tuo, underneath his mask, smiled. Her motions were of such grace, but more to the point, none could escape her once she was actually compelled to set her mind to something. And, considering that Fluttershy was the target, the pursuit might as well already be considered over.

He instead attended himself with is business, returning to Caballeron. The fire had cooked him alive, but with a simple spell he extinguished it. The pain was immense but faded quickly, so he did not bother to respond to it in any way. In his line of work, professionalism and networking were of the utmost importance. And with Lady Fear at his side, he could not allow himself even the barest hint of a mistake.

Comments

[Opium4TmassS]

Oo, getting interesting now.

[Thought Prism]

Ah, of course a Perr-Synt is involved. They just love poking their uncanny, greedy noses into everything.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Concerning on multiple levels, short-term and long-. We'll see just how bad it gets.

[Opium4TmassS]

11426936
This was spanned over his series of stories. Satin Veil has always been one of my favorite characters. She looks a lot like an older earth pony Fluttershy but with a red mane and tail.