Evergreen Falls

by Meep the Changeling

29 - Daemon Intrare Machina

Junebug - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Medeis’ Workshop - Magia Domus

June followed along behind Medeis and Trixie as they levitated the astrolabe’s core out of the workshop and into the garden. Just as June was about to ask why they needed to relocate, Sam beat her to the punch.

“Is there some kind of special alicornization chamber in another wing or something?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at Violet’s crocodilian friend.

June spared a quick look as well. The archmage had asked them to remain in the workshop to “ensure only pony magic is a factor”.

Seems legit to me. If the mass production of alicorns needed a huge factory, surgeons, and blood magic, and making one like Twilight needs an Ascended Alicorn, the spell has to be one of those real deal kinds of magic.

“We need to use the garden,” Medeis commented. “It’s a ritual chamber for… General purpose high-level magic.”

“That’s not really how you say that,” Trixie pointed out as the two passed through the workshop’s still open doors into the garden.

“Do you want me to think about how to explain what we will be doing to people who are not masters of the craft, or focus on how to successfully perform this operation with the scraps we have?” Medeis retorted in a remarkably respectful tone of voice.

Trixie nodded to herself and pursed her lips. “Well… With what I know, if we’re going to be altering somepony’s biology using their ancestry, that’s biomancy. With how little of Cadence is going to be in June, even with a harmonic anchor like the axe, we’d need an immense power source and an even bigger amplifier… Oh! Is the entire garden area—”

“A botanical ritual chamber arranged using ‘sacred geometry’,” Medeis sighed. “Which just means the ratios, lengths, and angles are calibrated precisely for controlling the flow of mana. Please. I need to focus. Just cross the garden to the gazebo.”

The five ponies quickly and silently trotted down the slate paved path and across the bridges to the opposite quadrant of the atrium to a simple nine-sided gazebo made from a bone white wood and topped with a blackened metal shingle roof. Medeis and Trixie set the astrolabe’s internals down within the gazebo, then the archmage turned to everypony and cleared his throat.

“Right, so…” he paused for a moment then shrugged his wings. “Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be an issue, but today it is. I will require some mechanical assistance with this spell. The items in question are in my vault, and thus only I can retrieve them. I am going to send the elevator up and seal the atrium, while beginning the warm up process. Please remain in the gazebo. It’s a magically isolated control pod. If any of you were to so much as put a hoof outside of it, I will need to know so I can compensate. Do you understand?”

Everypony nodded one at a time as Medeis looked them in the eyes.

“Good,” He finished, then lit his horn and dismissed an illusion spell. “Before you ask, it’s calibrated to ignore my presence. There simply isn’t time to add you all to the… Erm, skip it. Going now!”

A series of brass faced dark-oak control panels shimmered back into existence on the gazebo’s railings. He flicked a hoof and pressed three buttons on the panel closest to him, then jogged off the gazebo and down the northern path.

Sam turned to June and gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry… Here’s hoping we get that thirty five percent.”

June sat down and sighed. “It’s… Not likely. It’s more than me growing a horn. You got to see an alicorn brain today. Notice anything different from the normal pony tribes?”

Violet frowned thinking for a moment. Sam shrugged, and then Violet’s eyes brightened. “Oh! Right, they have the third hemisphere attached to their horn, unlike unicorns, whose corpus call—”

“Trientsphere.” Trixie corrected reflexively. “Hemi means half. Changelings have three, that’s what they’re called.”

“Sorry, over-explaining.” Violet’s ears drooped, eyes dimming.

“This will literally rewire my brain,” June continued, her wings trembling. “Not just so I can cast spells easily, but parts of my left and right hemispheres will route through the new part, and currently they are directly connected. I’m not a computer, Vi. You can’t just slap new hardware into me without it changing… Unless we’re super lucky, whoever comes out of this, she won’t be me.”

“You might not change drastically, but there will be some change,” Sam said with a distant look in her eyes. “I’ve experienced something…similar. I got tossed in the h o l e , back in the war.”

“What hole?” June asked, frowning slightly as she tried to remember what little of Sam’s past the mare had talked about.

Sam bit her lip. “A gryphoneese torture aparatus in a PoW camp. I don’t want to talk about the h o l e ,” she admitted.

Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but a loud click and stony rumble cut her off. The ponies looked towards the center of the atrium where a large stone plug began to levitate upwards in pursuit of the elevator car, clearly intended to seal the sky dome above them.

June turned her eyes back to Sam. “It… It seems like you wanted to—”

“What I wanted is to tell you I understand what you’re doing. Voluntarily,” Sam agreed, turning her attention back to the conversation. “Why do you think I hate being called my old name? It brings back memories of me being someone I don’t see as myself anymore. Old me died in there. And that’s without brain rewiring. So, I get it.”

June’s shoulder slumped. “Thanks for understanding.”

Sam nodded, thought for a moment, then got up and hugged June tightly. “I’ll be here for you, after.”

Trixie flinched as she suddenly understood. “Oh! Right. Changing anatomy is different for ponies. Our minds don’t care about any of that… Maybe there’s another way?”

“There isn’t another way that won’t end up with a ton of ponies being dead,” June dismissed, closing her eyes for a moment.

“What about Dusk?” Violet said, a hoof to her chin. “Sam says she’s her foster mom. Couldn’t we just ask her to resurrect anypony who died?”

Sam shook her head rapidly. “No. No we can’t. The number of people she can influence without her boss noticing is very small. The number of people she can bring back to life without getting punished is not much higher than that. The divine is corporate.”

June’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Wait… Wait. But you’re on that list, right? So if you die, she’ll bring you back.”

“She can, and will,” Sam agreed, nodding then looking June in the eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. We could risk my life, since that’s not permanent, and you don’t have to do this. Yes. We can. I don’t mind the pain. But if we do that we only have one chance, not two. She won’t bring me back right away, because she can’t. She’s busy. Remember the briefing? She’s looking into how the monster we’re fighting deleted Grape Vine’s soul from motherbucking time itself or whatever can fully erase all traces of it.”

June mmmed and looked down. “No. This still gives us the most opportunities to save the day as fast as possible. Minimizes harm to others. We’re sticking with it.”

Violet looked up to the ceiling, watching as the stone plug slid into place. “I wonder how they are doing up there? We don’t know. Maybe it’s not so bad?”

“If the navy wasn’t shelling, I’d say we could wait,” Sam said softly.

“That’s… That’s something I should have realized,” Violet agreed, her shoulder slumping.

The deep bassy pulsing of some unthinkably titanic thaumic resonator rumbled underhoof as the garden began to activate.

“Then nothing’s changed. This is still the best way,” June said, shrugging her wings. “If any of you have some alicorn ancestry and want to swap, by all means. But, well, I think I’m it. So…”

The sound of hooves on slate made their ears turn. Medeis was coming back up the path, carrying a pair of saddle bags rather than waste mana levitating whatever he had needed.

June winced. Oh, colt… If he’s that low on mana, I’m probably screwed. No! No bad June. Remain hopeful. Emotions influence magic, right? They said that in school. Pretty sure. Unicorns literally use friendships as magic amps. So just remain hopeful and positive. It will be okay.

“Anypony leave the gazebo?” Medeis called out.

“No,” Violet answered.

“Good!” he said as he stepped back onto the gazebo’s floor and progressed to one of the nine panels.

Sam cleared her throat. “Hey so… I’ve had a day, this is stressful as looking into tartarus. Would it buck with the spell if I lit up a joint?”

“A what?” Medeis asked, not looking up from the controls.

“Some marijuana. Hash. Whatever old tiny word for ‘thing you smoke because it relaxes you and old people insist is a gateway to hard drugs’,” Sam clarified.

“Not at all. In fact, that will help,” the archmage said, entirely unconcerned. “Any sort of incense will help.”

“Cool,” Sam said, reaching into her bag for a herbal cigarette and a lighter.

“Just not tobacco, because that might summon Dusk and she’d be pissed at me for doing magic with low mana,” he added.

Medeis began to immediately adjust the controls, muttering to himself in a way nopony dared interrupt. The atrium responded to his inputs, shifting the daylight to the bright silver-blue of a full moon. Stars shimmered to life, their light looking and feeling exactly like real stars as they shifted and moved into place.

Trixie whistled. “Impressive,” she murmured. “Its set up to match the conditions needed for—”

“Nature itself is the best amplifier for harmonic magic,” Medeis interrupted. “The sun, moon, and stars' relative positions, frequencies, and the resulting wave harmonics from their overlapping electromagnetic emissions— Uh, nevermind. I’ll explain later if you're interested. June, how much do you weigh? I’m not judging. I need to know. The more right the stars are, the better.”

June blushed and kicked one hoof. “Um… About eighty-nine kilograms.”

Medeis paused then turned to slowly look at June. June squirmed, feeling more than a little judged.

“I have a hard time losing weight, okay?” she said, her ears drooping back.

Medeis faehooved. “You’re a plump nerd. There’s no shame in that. But there is some in using units of mass I don’t know.”

Sam arched an eyebrow. “How have you never heard of a kilogram? It’s the international standard unit of mass since 783— oh.”

Medeis nodded slowly. “Yep. Do you know pounds?”

June shook her head.

“Stones?” Medeis proposed with a worried frown. “I don’t want to pick you up to guess by feel.”

June hissed uncertainty. “About 14 stone?”

The archmage nodded twice then adjusted a few knobs. “Venus in quadrant five. Six degrees up… How old are— Actually, do you know how the First Kingdom’s calendar worked?”

“No,” June admitted bashfully.

“Maybe it’s not a problem. Do you track years in terms of degrees of a circle around the Dead Sun?”

“No.” Trixie said, her face growing grim. “Celestia controls how long a day is, so everypony accepted her four hundred day long years so everything is easily split into fours. Hundred days of spring, hundred days of fall, and so on.”

Medius threw his hooves up in desperation. “Dammit! Okay… Thinking time… Machine pony! If I show you my watch, can you use its second to compare to your own second?”

Violet nodded and didn’t even have the chance to speak before Medeis put a pocket watch in her hoof and clicked it open.

“Ignore the stallion posing lewdly in the photo holder and focus on math please,” Medeis pleaded as Violet’s cheeks turned just a little pink.

“Is it him?” Sam couldn’t help but ask.

“No,” Violet said then looked to the archmage. “The seconds are the same.”

“Great! Makes the math easy. Sixty seconds to a minute, one thousand four hundred forty minutes in a day on average, three hundred and sixty five point two five days in a year on average,” Medeis said before turning to face June. “June, how old are you in your calendar?”

“I just turned thirty-four this year. Firth of Lunar D—” June facehooved as she realized the best way to do this was with raw numbers. “I’m thirty-four years and sixty-five days old. Do we need hours? I don’t think I can do hours.”

“Hours are not important,” Medeis dismissed as he turned back to Violet.

“She’s thirteen thousand six hundred sixty-five Equestrian days old,” Violet said out loud while doing the more tricky conversion in her head. “Which makes her eighteen thousand six hundred twenty-nine point nine-five of your days old, or fifty-one-point-zero-zero-six years in the same system.”

Medeis hummed, thought for a minute then made some fine adjustments to the positions of several simulated planets. “There we are. This is our best chance, given you have alien biotechnology in your body.”

June’s cheeks flushed. “Ha… Right… I literally forgot about the body mods.”

“It works that well?” Trixie asked, genuinely curious.

“Yes,” June answered with a shy flick of her tail.

“Nice,” the proto-queen admitted.

Medeis decided not to ask. “Well, at any rate, the sky is calibrated. Taking the manaflux baseline measurement now…”

He pressed a button and a loud humm like a camera’s flash recharging pierced everypony’s ears like a knife, leaving them all wincing and cringing, hooves over their ears.

“Sorry,” Medeis shouted over the ringing. “It… worked? But clearly doesn't like being discharged for thousands of years. Noted.”

“What the buck is powering this thing?” Trixie demanded, rubbing her forehead to try and soothe her newly budding headache.

“Philosopher's stone the size of a marching fort,” Medeis said, continuing to make adjustments to the atrium’s controls. “Which I now need to expose. Are any of you photosensitive epileptics?”

Everypony shook their heads.

“Great!” Medeis said, pressing a button.

The centermost plaza within the atrium split into segments, retracting into itself as it irised open to expose a perfectly round dull red gemstone that occasionally flickered and rapidly pulsed with light. The cabin-sized stone was impaled on a series of nine silvery metal spikes that vanished into a bronze plate covering some hidden arcane apparatus.

Trixie yelped. “What the buck?! Those are supposed to be the size of a hoof, I thought you were lying! How the heck do we not have enough mana if we have this!?”

Medeis rolled his eyes. “If it was raw mana, we would be sorted. We need alicorn magic specifically. Remember?” He explained, making another set of adjustments.

“What are you even doing with a thing like that?” Trixie demanded just as June was about to ask herself.

“Keeping a variety of pocket realms existent. Made them for my Masters dissertation. I don’t like to discard things that are useful, so I moved them here and whipped this up incase power went out. It’s also great for barbeques,” Medeis said like that wasn’t anything worth noting. “Okay. Powered up. In position… Activating moonlight bridge.”

Medeis flipped a lever and a shimmering silver platform appeared over the exposed philosopher’s stone. June instinctively knew she’d have to stand on it.

“So, do I go over there now, or—”

“After giving me your axe, yes,” Medeis said. “Whoever is going to supply mana to help me with this transmutation, stand in front of that picnic table there. Trixie, take the candlestick-looking-things from my bags and put them on the pink flagstones in a ring around the inner circle. Whoever is not supplying the mana, stay here.”

Violet and Sam shared a quick look, with Violet nodding to Sam. Violet stood up and walked towards the table.

June took her axe off her back and handed it to the archmage, then began her own walk, sparing a few looks over her shoulder towards Violet. We even think alike. Sam would come back if she died, but not fast enough. It’s worth it to stop this before it becomes a disaster.

She took a few more steps then smiled. Heh. When you’re a foal reading adventure novels, this kind of choice seems dumb. But when you’re living through it, well…

June continued out onto the bridge of light. She couldn’t help but look down at the massive pulsing orb below her. She had no idea what she was looking at. Unsettled, but without any other logical choice, June took her position at the center of the circle.

“Ready!” She called loudly.

“Done,” Trixie said, having finished placing each of the candlestick-like objects down.

June cast an eye over them. They appeared to be silver candlesticks that held up small brass wire wrapped crystal eggs. I get the feeling that if I knew what all of this did, it wouldn’t make me feel any better about this.

Medeis nodded and waved a hoof for Trixie to come over to the table, which he was standing atop. The two had a quick conversation, leading to Trixie taking a gold ring from the archmage’s saddlebag and slipping it onto her horn.

June frowned and squinted. What’s that, a null-magic— No, there’s inlaid gemstone. That's an amp. I guess she gets to help?

“Okay, we’re ready!” Medeis shouted across the open plaza over the pulsating stone’s rumbling. “Are you?”

June flashed a hooves up to try and hide her nervous tail swishing. “Ready!”

“Alright. One last thing,” Medeis shouted. “Doctors say it won't hurt so you won’t tense up and they won't hurt you more than necessary. This is the opposite of that. Tense up!”

June winced and nodded, tensing everything she could. At least that is easy to do right now…

Medeis said something to Violet. The android mare closed her eyes and engulfed herself in her usual cyan nimbus. June couldn’t be quite too sure, but she swore she saw Medeis wince as the aura manifested. Whatever his feelings on the matter, Medeis lit his horn and drew tendrils of Violet’s aura to the tip his his horn, closed his eyes for a moment and—

The entire garden came to life. Arcane light blazed to life within the plants and swirled within the rivers, all feeding inwards towards the pulsating stone. Metaphysically at first, then literally as sluice gates opened and the magically charged water flowed in to surround the stone below.

A sphere of blinding light webbed its way around June the moment the water touched the stone. The light swirled, flowed, and ebbed at first, then lanced inwards, stabbing into June’s flesh soundlessly, but very, very, very painfully.

June couldn’t help but scream.

⁜ ⁜ ⁜

Ultra Violet - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Medeis’ Workshop - Magia Domus

Violet yelped as June’s screams filled the atrium. She began to take a step, instinctively wanted to run to help.

Medeis stopped her with a hoof. “Don’t. If you touch the circle, I don’t know what would happen.”

Violet winced, bit her lip, and continued to focus, doing her best to ignore the screaming.

“It will stop in a minute when the throat gives out,” Medeis groaned. “Come on… Form, you dumb orb…”

Violet looked up at the archmage. She could feel her magic flowing to him, but lost sense of what it was doing once it drew near to his horn.

Am I doing it right? Violet wondered. Is he being slow because of me?

“Violet,” Trixie said firmly. “You're fidgeting. It’s not helping. Focus on being a battery.”

Violet froze and closed her eyes. For a long moment, June’s pained cries were her entire world. Then they stopped. She didn’t dare open her eyes.

“Thank the gods,” Medeis said quietly. “Step one complete. Thank you, Trixie. Violet, for the record, your mana flow is running dangerously hot.”

Violet's ears drooped. “I— I huh?”

“It means energy dense,” Trixie explained. “Medeis, do I—”

“Yes. Any of those coronal flare ups you see, push them back into the surface,” He clarified, taking a moment to breathe. “Alright. Time to initiate the transformation. Violet, as much as you can spit out, please do. It’s hard to capture your mana since your creator didn’t give you a horn to focus it through.”

Okay. Violet thought, hoping that was less disruptive than talking and pushed her core to just below the safety limit.

“Holy—” Medeis yelped. “Who the buck designed— Okay! Yeah, good old terran tech! Keep that up. Trixie, you’re on your own. I have to weave the matrix.”

I really wish I knew what they were doing. I wish I could help. It feels like this is magic I could do if I just knew how, Violet lamented, opening her eyes for just a moment to try and see what was going on.

Medeis’ horn glowed like a lamp. His spellcraft was so refined and well focused that almost none of the mana was burning as waste. The massive orb of light in the center of the room boiled and bubbled, rotating on its axis almost exactly like a star. Medeis’ horn unleashed a ray of light which struck the orb, turning it from white to orange, then slowly to a lovely blue color. As soon as the blue spread across the orb’s surface the gates above the atrium’s waterfalls opened, and columns of bright gold light blasted inwards, striking the core of the orb as the atrium’s harmonic resonance cycle began.

“Okay…” Medeis moaned, taking several deep breaths. “Okay… Good… Trixie, keep it up.”

“Harder than it looks,” the changeling groaned.

“I know.”

Violet closed her eyes again. She took note of her core power. Well, I am charging ambiently up here… But nowhere near as fast as I should be. I’m at twenty percent power. I should probably warn them…

“Hey, no pressure… But my batteries can’t self sustain like this for… I don’t know, more than five more minutes?” Violet warned.

Medeis swore in his native tongue, prompting both mares to flinch at the harsh tones.

“Great! Okay! Double time it is!” Medeis growled. “Deus, you owe me something going right after this or I swear to math I’ll revise the gravitational constant! Fuck! I don’t have the time to even be mad. Violet, I hope you weren't programed to feel pain because—”

“I was and still do,” Violet interrupted.

“— because I am going to have to time travel and kick your creator’s ass!” the archmage distress-yelled. “Gods, damn, it! Axe! You’d better deliver real quick!”

Violet opened her eyes again. Medeis picked up June’s axe with one hoof and lit his horn again, scanning over it with a multitude of hair thin rays. He found whatever he was looking for after a moment, nodded to himself, then cleared his throat. “Hello, ma’am. Bit of a life or death situation for a few thousand here. Might I borrow most of your energy to transform your descendant? … Yes… No… Yes I did, you’re welcome… Uh huh… Okay, thank you. Last thing, do your best to remember your lover for me. Oh, nothing like that, it’s because I need to target her arcane signature to bring it out in June here… Thank you again. Yes, goodbye. Ok bye. Hanging up now.”

Medeis put the axe down next to Violet’s hoof, noting her open eyes. “Stand on that to conduct power from it, please.”

Violet put a hoof on the axe. A single large pulse of power surged up her leg, into her body, then out into the air where Medeis took hold of it, formed it into a blue orb, and pushed it into the star at the center of the circle. As the orb made contact, the star flickered like an old electric light, pulsing off and on, just long enough for Violet to see June’s limp form floating in the center of the mass of magic.

“Mmmm…” Medeis said, wincing slightly. “It didn’t like that…”

“What’s wrong?” Trixie asked, her voice strained from her own spellcasting.

“This system isn’t designed for—” Medeis began. “Well, we can’t stop now. Literally. If we let this fizzle, that star will explode, killing us all. And the town. Whatever kind of Alicorn she’s related to, they’re linked to a force of nature, but not ascended. That’s not a type I was aware of, so not one I designed this spell to forge. Let’s hope June doesn't turn out—”

The magic star rumbled. Its blue light began to fade and sparkle as a brilliant gold welled up within the heart of the star.

Medeis squeaked like a young filly who just knocked over her mother’s favorite vase.

Violet heard Trixie’s radio crackle and Luna’s voice speak into her ear.

“June, status report? We need you to—”

“We’re on it!” Trixie said into the radio. “Got a solution. It’s kinda work—”

The star within the circle suddenly became angry. A two pony thick pillar of arcane light lept from the surface, arced through the air with the smell of ozone, then plunged back into the surface, causing the star to ripple.

“For the love of pie! Mare, CONTROL THE FLUX!” Medeis shrieked, lighting his horn to cast a laundry list of spells.

Violet’s concentration slipped ever so slightly as she tried to process the star’s sudden instability while reconciling it was under the control of a stallion who swore by a pastry.

“Gotta go!” Trixie squeaked.

“OW!” Violet shouted as Medeis’ spells pulled energy from her faster than her body could supply.

“Sorry! I have to! This is bad!” Medeis shouted with the calm of a surgeon whose patient just went into cardiac arrest during an appendectomy.

Violet heard Trixie make a pained noise, like somepony who just got punched by someone who didn’t know how to punch well. “I— I think the spell’s actively fighting me.”

“It’s not! She’s conscious,” Medeis yelped. “June’s mind-brain has somehow become conscious mid—”

Violet’s eyes flew open. “WHAT?!” she shouted, her magic flaring and sparking as her distress mixed with her power output.

Violet felt something reaching out from the star, seeking not her magic, but her.

“Mind-brain?” Trixe half-laughed.

“Shut up! It’s a thing!” Medeis panic babbled, casting another dozen spells.

Violet saw Sam stand up in the Gazebo. Do you feel it too? Violet thought, looking Sam in the eyes.

Sam looked back, and nodded. She did. She could feel June’s desperate pleading begging for an anchor. For something to hold her to this world. To not slip into the dark.

I want to reach out to her… But is that the right idea? Violet pondered. You know, the guy who would know is here.

“Medeis,” Violet said as clearly as she was able, speaking over the crackling maelstrom forming at the center of the circle. “I can feel June reaching out for me. Should I—”

“Do Not Interact!” Medeis warned her then raised a hoof to shout for Sam. “Don’t! Stop! Stay back from the—”

Trixie cried out in pain, flying back as an unseen force smashed into her barrel. Her spell ended and the star’s corona became an undulating sea of coronal discharges and boiling light. Sam turned and locked eyes with the star, and reached out with her hoof. Medeis’s face twisted into a horrified grimace.

“She can’t hear me over the storm…” Medeis squeaked.

Sam’s body suddenly began to decompose into a white outline, which in turn became a tendril of light and drained away into the star. She was gone within moments. The pleading, tormented voice of June echoing in Violet’s heart was joined by Sam’s.

“Violet! Cut the power now!” the archmage ordered.

The bellowing command hit Violet and bounced off a wall of incredulity. Her family was in there.

“B— But I’m keeping them ali—”

There wasn’t time to finish her for her objection. With June and Sam within its core, the arcane star’s power reached out for Violet, following the threads of friendship and family linking the three mares. Violet’s window to act closed as it opened, with her heart yearning for the best for those drawn in. The spell took Violet in a literal instant, and she too was pulled into the churning star.

⁜ ⁜ ⁜

Time lost all meaning. There was only burning, and the otherness. Overlapping yet not touching the three were desperate to remain themselves, yet existed now within a singularity. Memories shifted, oozed, and slid between them as their boundaries of self broke down. Thoughts echoed and repeated as three minds struggled with sudden oneness.

They remembered awakening in a derelict ship. They remembered seeing their mother’s face for the first time, and its smirk of disgust. They remembered struggling to remember to call their dad ‘mom’ after her transition.

They remembered trying to tear their family from the jaws of death. They remembered being unable to not want to hold the hoof of a tortured friend. They remembered choosing to enter the star to save the world.

They hoped Medius would save them. He could not.

They pleaded with fate for release. Fate was fickle.

They called out to Dusk for an end. She was out for a smoke.

The star burnt out, leaving them behind. They stood for a moment atop the bridge of moonlight, then collapsed into a heap of amalgamated flesh and silicone. Or titanium and bone. Or organs and components. Or purpose and flesh.

Their fused form burned at the edges with pain beyond comprehension. Fortunately, their ability to feel their flesh and steel was distant. Nerves bonded to copper traces. Blood mixed with coolant. Myosin and myomer. Mitochondria and mechanism.

Undead. Abomination. Eldritch. These words did not describe, though they did not utterly fail to describe, their shared torment. Spellwork tied their minds and souls to a pile of mismatched components, functioning together out of axiomatic obligation and not much else. Alicorn magic demanded the pony-shaped assemblage retain life and form, and so while it suffered, live it did.

The only way out was for their mana to run dry enough for entropy to take them. They had an ocean of mana now, and no idea how to start bailing.

“Oh, starch my garters, no!” They heard Medeis yell as he ran towards them through the now eerily quiet atrium. “No, no nononono!”

They tried to stand, each in their own way. Their body tried to follow three separate sets of orders and thrashed like a seizing pony. Panic began to fill them, allowing them a brief window to feel one another’s presences. The three pulled back from each other, becoming more distinct.

I— I’m so sorry! He told me to stop. I hesitated. I couldn’t let you die! Violet thought to them.

It's my fault. I had to try and comfort June… Sam objected.

He could have explained the danger better, June added.

Medeis and Trixie reached the collapsed amalgamated alicorn. Trixie put a hoof over her mouth, eyes wide with horror as she muttered something nopony quite made out. Medeis sank to his knees to look the three in their eyes, flinching as their pupils tracked him.

“Oh no no… Oh, girls, I am so, so sorry,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if I can fix this. Rest assured I will try, and direct you better. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d understand the risks of getting near such a spell on simple instinct… Can you move? Can you stand? We still need your magic. There is still a monster above us and a world to save.”

The three tried to stand again and once more became a failing mess of limbs. Two of them tried to speak at once, their words slurring and mixing into a fragmented mess of mangled Equish.

Medeis and Trixie winced at their garbled attempt at an utterance.

“Can we take the magic from them?” Trixie asked, believing the three to be brain dead, or at least dying.

“Yes, but in this state, it will kill them. Last resort,” Medeis explained then turned back to the three. “Listen carefully. You need to try to agree to do the same things at the same time in the same way. Do you understand?”

I understand, Violet thought. We’re jamming our motivator functions with redundant commands.

Yea, I got that. Sam griped. But how the hell can we do it together?

Maybe we don’t need to? Can you two not do anything while I try to stand up? June asked.

Yes, and Affirmative, the other two answered.

June focused her mind, strengthening her influence as much as she could, and attempted to stand. A third of their shared body moved with coordinated grace. June stopped, focused more, then tried again. A different third moved.

Oh… This isn’t good… G— Girls? Help? June begged.

“Please. Nothing complex,” Medeis urged. “Just try and raise your head. Remember you only have one, not three.”

Sam sighed. We’ll each get a third of us at random. So we need to be in total agreement… Try not to think about how impossible that is and let’s just do it. Lift our head, look at him.

Yes. The others agreed.

Together then, Sam finished.

The three focused every last ounce of mental energy they had on raising their head. Their neck shuttered, jerked, and twitched violently, but bent, lifting from the bridge to a mostly upright position.

The three began to tire rapidly. The concentration needed was absolute.

Medeis nodded and stood up slowly. “Okay. Good. You can hear me and mutually focus. I need you to relax, body and mind. No resistance, no fear of the unknown. Ordinarily you would have been conditioned from birth for this. I am going to need you all to master it in, eh… twelve seconds? Do any of you know how to meditate? Do that.”

June broke down laughing within their head. Like that could happen…

Maybe? This isn’t too much different for me. It— It hurts, but, my database. Subroutines. I’m used to similar things. I can sort of relax and autopilot. I think? Is that ok?

Good for you, Sam said quietly. I— I can’t. Not with you two sitting on the edges of my mind. It’s… I’m trying not to scream. Things would not be good for you in there.

I’m trying to back up further. I’m so sorry. I feel it too, through you. June thought quietly.

“Okay, that was a long shot. You three will have to charge it yourself. Trixie, get the astrolabe’s guts over here,” Medeis ordered.

Trixie lit her horn and began to levitate the apparatus over, maneuvering it out of the gazebo with slight difficulty then lightly setting it down on the edge of the open pit.

We’re going to have to move again, June realized.

Yes. The others agreed.

Can we?

It worked when we didn’t think about it.

That took so much… I don’t know if I can do more.

We have to.

Yes.

The world is at stake.

… Yes.

“Girls, you don’t need to do anything elaborate,” Medeis said as calmly as he could while moving one hoof to point to a specific small hole into the depths of the machine through which a dull white crystal could be seen. “Just touch your horn to this and push some power at it. That’s all you need to do. Can you do that?”

“Why ammmmmll trrraempt,” the three slurred together, attempting to say we will try and I will attempt at once.

They extended one leg and pushed down. It cracked as splinters of bone not fixed to titanium shifted. Pain rushed along the delaminating limb like the sound of distant traffic. It held. The other legs followed similarly destructive paths, and slowly but surely the three forced their amalgamated flesh to rise.

Shuddering, jerking, twisting, they lumbered the four steps to the elaborate assemblage of brass and crystal. They bent down, falling over, and with a sickening wrench of their head, forced their horn into the slot.

Holy buck that was hard.

What now?

Channel power. Draw on our core, push it out, Violet instructed.

Of course! Just like using the gem.

June retreated from the others slightly, making their body shake and jolt as their careful balance of control faded for just an instant. Girls? I— I don’t know how to do any of that.

Follow along with us. Monkey feel, monkey do. Sam paraphrased.

You have to try. For everyone. Violet begged.

June silently agreed and urged the others to lead her. She felt them start to reach deep down inside them, like drawing on weather magic, but higher, warmer, and with more attention and care. June reached along the same channels. Their horn started to spark and crackle with a muddy brown color as magic blazed to life along its long slender, titanium monocrystal studded length.

Their drawing on their magic burned like dry ice, without any of the merciful muting of pain that nerve death would bring. This was sharp, personal, and devastating, and reminded her of war. The three flinched, losing concentration. Losing her-ness. The spell failed, but the pain remained. Just like war.

“Come on girls, you can do this,” Medeis promised.

There was no choice but to try again. The three refocused, braced for the pain, and drew on their magics once more. The burning returned in an instant, tempered this time by naught but desperation and determination. Violet pushed their magic forwards, Sam added her strength to their effort, followed a moment later by June.

They held a brown ball of light on the tip of their horn for but a moment before passing it through an opening in the naked guts of the astrolabe. Medeis hit the power button and the machine shuddered as it sprang to glowing and whirring life.

“Good job, girls!” He said, nodding firmly. “It’s on… Power holding. Boot sequence… Yes. Yes! Okay!”

He pulled the astrolabe’s case out from his saddlebags and scooped the guts back into the case in a bizarrely cartoonish looking fluid motion, which ended with him holding the bronze device in one hoof. He glanced at the device’s display, and gasped in horror.

“What?” Trixie asked, wincing slightly.

“Power crystal’s damaged too. I didn’t notice before. It’s bleeding energy fast. We need to get it to the plinth within about a minute. How fast are you? Because I can’t fly. Ending the transformation spell took everything but my life support mana. Also, this body’s a slow runner, as you just saw.”

Girls, she has to do this. June thought firmly, realizing that for a moment they had acted as one and for another moment they would need to again.

Who do you mean she? Sam asked.

Think of us as one. As she not we. It will help. It’s what we did a moment ago.

“I might make it,” Trixie said as she reached out with her magic to take the astrolabe.

Can we? Violet asked.

She can.

Wait, we ask Trix to shapeshift!

They forced their head to turn towards the blue mare and slurred out a mixture of three ways to tell her to transform.

Trixie frowned. “What?”

No good. Talking too slow. I have to do this! The three thought as one.

They pulled themselves together and forced their body up once more. The distant pain grew closer, following the trail of their expended magic to make their heart, neck, and horn ache. They spread their angled, long-feathered wings, snatched the astrolabe from Trixie’s magic with an articulated crystal claw, and took off with a violent shudder and reflexive cry of pain.

Their left wing despised being moved. It ground against its socket, bone scrubbing against the edge of a splintering circuit lattice. They pushed past it, relying on the two pegasus souls within their amalgamated flesh to drive them forward.

“Girls! Wait you might—” Medeis’ objection was cut off as the three ignored sound to focus on flight and flight alone.

They raced across the atrium, flying almost at walking height, wingtips brushing the slate flagstones. Each flap was labored, but carried them further than Trixie’s gallop would have. They reached the door, managed to tuck their wings in time to avoid hitting the walls, and shot through into the workshop… failing to open their wings in time to avoid crashing into the floor.

The pain of the impact was nothing compared to the pain of their burning wing and thaumic pathways as hybrid tissues began to cook themselves. They stood up again, shuddering and shaking. They forced their wings back open and took off once more.

They turned and banked, weaving through the work areas with the grace of a housefly trying to pass through an open window. Their wings clipped bench after bench, but they pushed through, managing to stay aloft until reaching the small corner where Medeis’ tank and the pedestal sat.

The three twisted mid air, pulled their wings in, and crashed once more, skidding across the ground on her belly for a few meters, thankfully missing the pedestal.

I don’t have much left to give… June warned the others, her presence notably dim from the effort.

Me either. Sam added.

We just have to put it up there. We can do this. Violet thought, sending the others as much love and supportive feelings as she could.

Fortunately, that was just enough. The three crawled to the pedestal, levered their front half off the ground, reached out with their mottled leg, and set the astrolabe atop its resting place.

The device shimmered, its face displaying the familiar blue rune sequence reading [Charging…]

Then the runes shimmered into a new statement. [Battery Chamber breach detected. Recalling entity.]

Deep blue chains of light sprang forth from the astrolabe, vanishing into the workshop roof. They stayed slack for a long moment, then snapped tight with a crystalline clatter and began to retract one link at a time.

It’s done. We can rest. Sam thought, relieved enough to make their body smile on her own.

June let out a long breath. Lets not count those chickens just yet…

⁜ ⁜ ⁜

Princess Luna - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Hackamore Valley Observatory - Evergreen Falls

Luna panted and groaned, crawling across the ground towards her dropped saddlebags.

By the gods… Who knew a tentacle slap could hurt that much? Luna wondered, more than a little dazed from being slapped out of the sky and into the ground.

She reached her saddle bags and picked them up, managing to slip them on and slowly stand, ignoring the pain in her everything. She looked up from her position a few hundred meters from the pit. The bubbling oily monster above bellowed and roared in pain and rage.

<S̶͙͠ḵ̸̀i̸̞̅l̵̘̽l̸̘̆ ̶̰̽ḭ̶̀s̶̘̀s̶̒͜ū̶̦e̴̙̿!̵̞͝> it psychically bellowed.

Luna smiled up at it, spitting a line of blood.

“Hey! Asshole!” she shouted as loudly as her damaged ribs permitted.

To her surprise, the monstrosity bent down to look at her.

“I didn’t hear no bell!” Luna shouted with what was absolutely a concussion slur.

Luna lit her horn to fire a last spell bolt into its face. It raised a tentacle to squish the pest which had made it bleed. Nine chains of blue light burst from the magma below the horror and wrapped around it, sinking into its flesh as they tightened.

The monster shrieked, not in pain, but panic. It thrashed, it turned, it spun, it grabbed the pit’s edge. The chains only tightened as it struggled, and as they fully tightened around it, the shadow spawn it had unleashed froze, dimmed, then faded out of reality like smoke on the wind.

The chains creaked and clattered, drowning out the beast’s screeching as they drug it down into the lava it had created where it vanished into the bowls of the earth.

“Cool, I didn’t know I knew that combo,” Luna said wondering when she’d learned that spell then falling over.

Hello ground. You’re a nice bed today, she thought as she passed out from exhaustion.