Chapter 41
Despite being the princess of something that shouldn't exist from any scientific perspective Lotus understood, Twilight Sparkle approached their initial conversation with a familiar method of investigation. She wanted to know about kirin—what made them different from ponies, how their magic worked, and how they could transition between Nirik and kirin and back again.
She also seemed to know about humans and other worlds, or at least about something called a “mirror portal.” But whenever Lotus pressed her on the subject, she always redirected things back to their ongoing war.
“Equestria has to survive to be able to help you,” she would say. “When ponies aren’t in danger, we can help you get home.”
That meant several physical demonstrations—showing her some basic magic, learning a new spell and casting it in front of her, and sharing details of her other experiences. She approached every answer with a detached, clinical attitude, never questioning or arguing with what Lotus said.
Mislead her. Misdirect. Confuse. The less she knows, the weaker any countermeasures will be. Equestria must fail. So whispered the little voice, whenever Princess Twilight asked any questions of magical significance. That was when Lotus knew to give the most detail, and to be as honest as possible even when she was uncomfortable.
"Does all this give you... ideas? Anything we could use to stop Searing Gale?" she finally asked, after about an hour of examination.
Princess Twilight settled another page of notes into a binder. "Every detail forms a part of the complete picture. Kirin have been extinct for longer than modern medical or magical practice. We knew almost nothing about you. Until now."
Lotus nodded along. In this alone she kept her silence. Twilight did not need to know about Hono to fight an evil sorceress. The fewer ponies had that knowledge, the harder it would be to spread.
"What about the original spell that imprisoned her?" she asked. "Have you tried to find a way to activate that again? Even with one of the books gone."
Twilight sighed. "Unfortunately not. That combination of spells was an accident to begin with, one that won't repeat itself now. Whatever chance we had of using that technique, Searing Gale knew it was a risk, and she took measures to prevent it. Even if..."
The princess walked away from her to a large junction of chalkboards and piled books. They'd obviously been arranged in a very specific way. Several boards had half-finished spells scrawled on them.
Lotus might not know enough about magic to construct a spell like this for herself, but she could at least recognize when one was valid. Or in this case, when they weren't. "There is no logical reason for her to do this. She should've suffered significant consequences, yet her power seems unaffected. Neither side of the equation is balanced."
She stopped in front of one particular chalkboard, larger than all the rest. This showed a single sketch in the center—a Nirik, and a kirin, separated by arrows pointing in both directions and dense blocks of text. "What you've told me confirms my theories on kirin metaphysiology, but it only makes Searing Gale's actions seem more bizarre."
"Confirms... what?" Lotus prodded. Maybe she was overreaching, to ask questions to one of Equestria's rulers. But this mare didn't tower over her like Luna had, and she didn't seem to think of herself as some untouchable superior either. "Maybe I've noticed something that can help."
She braced for rejection, but the pony nodded instead. "Maybe. You are a... not unicorn, but... spellcaster yourself. Not inconsiderable talent, considering your origin. Perhaps... right." She levitated a pointer from the desk, gesturing up at the illustration. "All the magic you've ever used comes from the soul. We can skip most of the details. Just know that the soul determines your magic. The bigger it is, the more connections it has to other ponies, the more it shares their friendships and love, the stronger the spells it can cast. Searing Gale already violates everything we know about this rule."
"Because that's not how she casts," Lotus said. "Nirik... don't use the power from their own bodies when they do magic. They burn things around them and use those instead. Anything alive… and the bigger and more alive it is, the more power they get."
Twilight scribbled something onto the board. "I don't believe we covered that yet. You've... experienced that aspect of kirin life as well?"
Lotus retreated a step, her tail curling around her legs. "I've been a Nirik before. I can feel it when I change, but I've never done it. Searing Gale tried to make me burn my friends—Gus and Iron Feather downstairs. I wouldn't."
"We suspected something like this must be taking place. The confirmation is... useful, if disconcerting." The mare scribbled another few notes onto the board, packing some of the few empty spots with text.
The power you could've wielded, if only you obeyed. The raw magic of your world offered no resistance. You could have remade it as you saw fit. You could've been a goddess. Any who ever wronged you could've been made to suffer for their crime.
Shut up, she thought back. She burned the book already. You shouldn't even be alive anymore.
I haven't been alive for a long, long time.
The princess turned again, dropping the chalk back into place. "I nearly lost track of our discussion. See! We're already making progress." She tapped the board again. "Regardless of the source of her magical energy, the soul should still determine the extent of Searing Gale's magical strength. All sources we have suggest it was the Nirik herself who trapped her kirin half within a spellbook in the first place.
"It meant we could never completely destroy her, as Equestria had with other threats. There was always an anchor holding her in our reality."
The spellbook excised my weakness, said the voice, along with high-pitched laughter. Not so much like an ancient sorceress anymore. More like a petulant child, one who knew they were right about something, and wouldn't shut up about just how wrong you were. Kirin are too easily bound by their emotional attachments, too easily turned from the correct path by compassion or hesitation. I desired to be unbound by all these things.
But Twilight couldn't hear, and she continued her explanation. "Destroying the phylactery meant that part of her soul was gone forever. It should've cut the power of her magic instantly in half. Even if she remained more powerful than any ordinary pony, we should've seen an impact. More importantly, no sorceress as powerful as Searing Gale would make a mistake like that."
Twilight dropped the pointer, voice trailing to a whisper. "Rainbow says she's stupid and didn't realize what she did until it was too late. I don't think so. It's too easy to assume your enemies are just being dumb. Usually, it means they're acting on information you don't have."
Lotus had some of that. Questions Twilight Sparkle couldn't even think to ask. "I had the spellbook the whole time I was a kirin in my world," she said. "That's how I learned so fast, I think. Searing Gale was a really good... sorceress. Before she turned evil."
"And after, unfortunately," Twilight said. "Or Equestria wouldn't be in so much trouble."
Lotus nodded. "When I had the book, it talked to me. Like the first time I was a Nirik, it tried to make me burn my friends, my neighbors. After that, it kept talking. Sometimes it helped me, so I would trust it. It wanted me to learn how to get the spell working so I could bring it back to its master."
The Alicorn looked up, holding her chalk in her magic again. But she didn't add any new notes to the chalkboard this time. "That's common for the phylactery of a lich. The soul trapped inside is still... not alive, exactly. But intact. Strong enough to exert an influence on those connected to it. In your case, that's probably because it transformed you in the first place. That meant it could choose the outcome, and probably made one that would be useful to it. Sensitive to its promptings, and powerful enough to accomplish its goals."
She reached for Lotus's shoulder, patting her with one wing. "It's probably for the best that spellbook was destroyed. No matter how strong your will, nopony can last forever. She would've worn you down eventually. Either made you as evil as her, or... completely insane." She let go, turning towards the window. "But she failed. I heard what happened on the Svalinn. You used your powers to save ponies from the fire. If that isn't defying Searing Gale, I don't know what is."
Be silent, commanded the voice. Say nothing further. Imposing as its vocabulary might be, that childlike voice no longer wielded the same irresistible power as before. Why should Lotus do what she said?
"What if she didn't stop talking to me?" Lotus asked, so timid she was barely even whispering. "Hypothetically. What would that mean?"
The princess turned, making her slow way back. "Most likely? Lingering trauma. Having an evil spirit whispering into your head can't be great for a pony's mental health. There could be scars."
That's all this is. You're insane. Ponies will look at you with pity and shame and never listen to what you say, ever again.
"Maybe." She looked away. "The thought... had crossed my mind. It's an easy explanation. It doesn't feel like I'm insane, but what crazy person realizes they're crazy?" She rubbed at her temple with one hoof for a few seconds, as though that would help. But she had no headache, or any other symptoms for that matter.
The princess settled onto her haunches, now within reach. She still held the chalk in her magic, though nowhere near the board. "We can approach this scientifically. You're still hearing the voice from before, when you still kept the spellbook with you. Is that right?"
She nodded once, very slightly. "I haven't said... anything. Not to anyone."
"If you were trying to convince somepony it was real, and not the result of lingering trauma…”
You would fail, because that is all this is. You remember what Searing Gale would say. You repeat it back to yourself. You've lost it.
"I would say that... I spent several weeks without the spellbook. Before the Svalinn came to rescue me, the book was locked away where I couldn't get it. As soon as that happened... nothing." She tapped her head once for emphasis. "No whispers, no trying to convince me to burn things. No telling me why ponies and other creatures are inferior. No arguments. Like someone flipping a switch. No book, no words."
That prompted a few rapid taps on the chalkboard, scrawling something Lotus couldn't read. How Twilight could write without even watching herself as she did it, she would never know. An impressive talent for a princess of magic.
"That is a useful datapoint, certainly. When did symptoms start?"
You condemn us both! They will kill you for my sake! Equestria is not more merciful than I! They hide behind a facade of virtue!
"I first heard it when the Svalinn was attacked," she said. "But I don't think that was it. Searing Gale didn't hit me with any magic. I don't know if she realized I was on it. I think things changed when she burned the spellbook. She didn't just destroy it, she made sure I was right there. Could she have somehow, like... put it in my head?"
"No chance. A pony's body only holds one soul. One would fade, then be erased. Given you're intact, and the kirin half of Searing is... half, your soul would win. Only you'd be in constant agony every second, with both personalities fighting for control. If that had happened, everypony would know.
"But maybe..." Twilight's horn glowed suddenly brilliant, bright enough that Lotus couldn't see much of anything else.
She still heard something though—that voice in her mind, more childlike and helpless than ever before. I told you! She'll kill both of us! I don't want to die!
No pain, though. Searing's voice might be absolutely certain, but she was also wrong. As quickly as it came, the glow was gone.
Twilight's expression became an unreadable mask. She turned her back on Lotus, gathering several objects from around the room in a burst of magic. A thick scroll covered in spells around the edges, a quill pen, and a bottle of ink. "Please go downstairs and bring Spike back. Tell him I need to send Princess Celestia a letter, he'll understand. If I know a dragon, he's in the kitchen at this very second, trying to recreate some Kirin food he found in one of the old history books. It's probably good—he's become quite the little chef."
“I wasn’t eating it for very long. I’ll go easy on him.” Lotus rose, backing a few steps away from her. Under any other circumstances, she might've obeyed a princess without further argument. Equestria was her country, and this was her house—who was she to argue?
But there was a monster living inside her, one important enough to write a letter to the most powerful princess in all Equestria! "She's in my head, isn't she? She found a way to put the other half of her soul in there. You're gonna kill me."
"No." Twilight's tone didn't change, remaining deadly serious. She stopped writing her letter, lowering it to meet Lotus’s eyes. "I don't know what kind of world you're from, Lotus Cinder. But in Equestria, we don't hurt innocent creatures. Especially when those creatures are heroes who save ponies everywhere they go."
She lifted the quill again, gesturing vaguely in her direction. "It's exactly as I explained to you. Only one soul can exist comfortably within a body. Yours is entirely your own."
"Then why—" She twitched, then suddenly jolted alert. "But I'm a Nirik too! She stuck the other half in there somehow? The body I'm not using, like... a shadow."
The princess stiffened suddenly. "No, I... I don't believe so. Your soul may be divided between two forms, but it would still be you. This is... something else. She found... a truly novel solution." She lifted the scroll again, scratching at it as fast as any typist could do the same task with a keyboard. Maybe even faster—her control of levitation was incredible!
"Then I don't understand," she said. She took another step back, but not to take off running and fetch the dragon. This was her sanity at risk, and her body.
"Our enemy knows us far better than we know her," Princess Twilight said. "But what she doesn't know is how much magical research has advanced since she was first imprisoned. She may have gifted us the solution."
"But how?" Lotus demanded, lifting her voice to shout now. "You're telling me everything that didn't happen, but not what she's doing to me!"
There was the first brush of anger, and the heat that came with it. Not as strong as it could be—like a summer breeze had appeared behind her, lifting her coat with it.
Princess Twilight stopped writing. She lowered the scroll and turned the quill around. At first, she pointed it at Lotus—but she moved it sideways, touching her belly instead. A little lower.
"I don't think even the most powerful transformation spell could change you in this state. Creating life is one of those magics even ponies understand poorly. You told me the Nirik receives all her strength from consuming the lives of others. I don't think she could've caused this. She saw an opportunity and seized it."
"I don't..." Lotus whimpered, wiping away tears from her face. They were from confusion, obviously—nothing more. She had no idea what Twilight could mean.
"If the timing was exactly right, Searing Gale wouldn't need to fight you for control of your body. She could find another host for her soul; with all the power a living pony would grant her. Because she would be a living pony."
Lotus stumbled backward, heart racing in her chest. She had spent weeks with Iron Feather in Hono. All that time without a thought for the consequences.
The consequences had evidently been thinking of her, though. "That shouldn't be possible. Iron and I are so... different. He's a pony, I'm half dragon!"
I have seen it once before. Seen what ponies do when they see the foal for the first time. Now you will see as I saw and know as I know. You will learn how empty their professions of love truly are.
"You and the royal guard? That... well, that resolves the last variable in my mind." She lifted the quill, taking the scroll back into her magic. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you." She patted her back with a wing again. No dagger was hidden beneath it, no matter what that presence in her mind seemed to think.
But—the voice wasn't in her mind anymore, was she? She was somewhere else.
"You've been very brave so far, Lotus. If you can be brave for a little longer, we might just save Equestria." She vanished, taking the scroll and quill with her, and leaving Lotus alone in her study.
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Hah, and solution to all these questions was right under our noses. Well played, Star : )
sounds like the big battle has yet to happen.
Didn't see that coming. So, the host that Searing Gale has found is the yet-to-be-born child of Lotus and Iron.
That's a hell of a way to learn that you're pregnant.
Curious what will be done about that though.
Or possibly both.
Actually, this makes sense. Searing Gale seems to empower herself by burning things. The voice within Lotus Cinder's head has been talking about how other life forms tend to have fuel to the fire. If a Nirik were to set a life form ablaze, they could absorb that fire, and functionally brute force a connection with that life form by "absorption".
But Lotus isn't a pony. She's a Kirin. And Kirin have two souls, which is why Searing Gale had two phylacteries. And before she was a Kirin, he was a Human. And Humans only have one soul. When a Human becomes a Kirin, where would that second soul come from? Searing Gale chose to be a full-time Nirik. By destroying the book, she made it impossible to become a Kirin again. But all she lost was her Kirin form. In fact, that explains why Lotus becomes little more than a mindless zombie when becoming a Nirik. She doesn't have a Nirik soul. And even with Searing Gale's Kirin soul making up her second soul, it's still a Kirin soul and not a Nirik soul.
This could be a good thing or a bad thing. The bad thing is that Searing Gale will take over Lotus's child. But it would be Searing's Kirin half. And that's where this could be a good thing. If Searing's Kirin half is given the chance to experience life again, but this time being accepted rather than rejected, it could allow her to be reformed. The question is what this means for Searing Gale's Nirik half. Will they have to kill a child in order to save Equestria from Searing Gale? Did Searing Gale ensure her own success by putting her Kirin half into a living child? Or could that child be Searing Gale's Achilles Heal with the power to stop her?
This certainly explains why Searing Gale was sounding more and more like a petulant child. Because functionally, she was one. This may also explain why she was afraid to die. She didn't think Twilight was going to kill Lotus, she thought she was gonna kill the unborn child. She likely anticipated that Lotus would be relatively safe.
Does this mean Searing destroyed the unborn foal's soul?
11869668
No, Kirin have 1 soul, split into 2 parts. 1 part is the Kirin, 1 part is the Nirik. Searing gale only had 1 phylactery, the spellbook that held the Kirin part of her soul, which served as an anchor that prevented the Nirik part of her soul from being permanently destroyed
Poor Lotus.
Her fetus was possessed by the Kirin half of Searing Gale before it even had a spark of a soul. I'm not sure HOW she's able to communicate with Lotus, though, as mothers don't generally hear anything from their children before birth. The fetus cannot be allowed to be born, for it will just be another Searing Gale, but it's her and Iron's foal...
I wonder if somehow Lotus could draw Searing's soul from her fetus to charge a spell in order to attack Nirik Searing? Would be the pinnacle of irony to destroy half her soul in order to attack the other half.
So...will she have to have an abortion? mate that's a 365°
Tall about dropping the mother of all bad news.
???
Oh, now THAT came out of left field! Yikes... Well, that's horrifying. Good thing Twilight caught it.
If her nirik half is still in contact with her kirin half, she is absolutely going to be beelining for them SO hard, now.
That's u huge shock for Lotus and I wonder how they are going to deal with this. I'm also curious to see how Iron Feather will respond to this.
With this latest shock revelation... I can't wait to find out what happens next! :3
I just wonder how our ex-human male is going to take being pregnant when all his neurons finally make the connection! 😄
Oh. Oh no. Oh, this is evil on several levels. Though at least Lotus knows that she and Iron can try again in happier circumstances...
Also, she may have avoided mentioning Hono directly, but saying she'd been eating kirin cuisine for a short time has certain implications. Though with Twilight hyperfocused on taking down Searing, that may have gone by unnoticed.
In any case, the grand feats of the ancients are great and all, but one should never discount the ability of the modern to catch up to and even surpass them. Especially not when the modern is represented by Twilight Sparkle.
Poor Lotus. Throughout this whole story she has been transformed, bitten, chased by cops, thrown around, and tormented by an evil socresss. Only to now find out that her yet to be born child may hold Searing's kirin soul.
After all of this Lotus deserves a vacation. ;-;
I started this last year. Got through a dozen chapters and put it on hiatus to read later. I couldn't stand the cliffhangers. Figured I'd wait a year to let it complete, but it just keeps going. Can't wait anymore.
To that end, great story so far. Way to subvert my expectations. Knowing your previous stories, I expected surprises. Especially from those in power. I was expecting Lotus to make it to Equestria and be imprisoned by Luna for being a Kirin. Specifically, the descendant of Searing Gale. I had a whole background based on the spellbook being sent to Eric's specific area with him being connected to Searing and turned (back) into a Kirin to give her a body to return to. Ironic, that Lotus is technically providing a body to Searing Gale in the end.
Now back to the waiting game.
oh, that ending reminds me of a fan-comic, "crazy future" by Vavacung on DeviantArt, where "Nightmare Rarity" did something like that.
11869718
most mothers do not have foals who are already alicorn-tier sorceresses
Okay. Yeah, that sucks. That poor child.
11872919
That's a great comic - A must read
11869671
More like become the unborn child's soul since its essentially a blank state Its a serious situation, but as Twilight pointed out, Searing Gale's attempt to survive might be the solution to everything.
11870091
I hope you're not suggesting that Iron and Lotus would kill their foal, just because s/he hosts a lich's soul?
Sure did not expect this, it feels wrong in some ways, but it just happen, or at least Searing used the opportunity. Sure do wonder what will happen next.