The Ash

by Raging Mouse

Progress

Chapter 8:

Progress

Twilight Sparkle tossed and turned while images, half dream and half memory, assaulted her. The common theme was that they brought confusion and frustration.

The moments when she’d asked Celestia to let her try the Elements of Harmony on the alien matter played themselves on the canvas of her mind like a silent movie. Celestia had agreed, urged and supported by her sister, though she had been strangely subdued. The princesses had glanced at each other in wordless communication and Twilight was bewildered about the gloom she could sense pass between them. Asking about it was unthinkable, of course, so she was left to wonder about it.

Then came the tests. Marble Chalice had surprised Twilight twice, first by asking questions that betrayed Chalice’s ignorance about the Elements of Harmony. She explained to Twilight that although she lectured in theory of harmony the artifacts had been myth until Twilight had recovered and activated them. Celestia had refused Chalice any previous opportunity to study them.

The second surprise, and first source of frustration during the tests, was when Chalice’s questions forced Twilight to confront an unsavory fact: she was just as ignorant as Chalice about the finer details of the artifact. They worked when needed and that was all she knew. Chalice’s incredulous face was portrayed large over Twilight’s slumbering consciousness and she cringed and shivered.

Twilight knew how rigorous scientific testing could be, but that didn’t stop her frustration from rising further as she tried to accommodate every request Chalice and her assistants made, imposing a seemingly infinite stack of variations on how Twilight manipulated her artifact and the element it was tied to, only to have no results to show.

Since the goal was to render the alien matter harmless the tests all involved directing the magic of the element at a piece of fallen mountain, but no matter what they tried they got the same results as the saturation test: a release of dangerous and chaotic magic that sapped the harmony from all it affected. Additional bricks and panes of glass had twice been carted down to the testing range from the castle’s stores. Sometimes the tiara remained inert when Twilight tried to apply the variation in technique or focus she’d been asked to produce, and though Chalice had dryly commented that the failures could tell as much about the artifacts as the successes, and Twilight agreed, she still felt tired, irritated, defeated and above all ashamed.

She felt shame because she’d been entrusted with the care of one of Equestria’s most powerful items – The six artifacts activated together at their bearers’ consensus were able to overpower deities – but she knew next to nothing about their inner workings. She knew what powered them, of course, but nothing about what power they themselves added. It was a glaring absence in her knowledge, and now that she’d become aware of it the hole ached mentally like a molar gone bad. It presented a frightening scenario: suppose the Elements could help neutralise a danger to Equestria but failed to do so because the bearers didn’t know how to use them?

Like what was happening right now?

Twilight woke up due to her own wordless yell of anger. She was sitting up in the middle of the bed, facing her pillow. She’d apparently tossed and turned enough to realign. Her blanket was missing. A weak ray of sunlight shining through her window told her the time was perhaps half an hour after sunrise.

She became aware of her stomach muscles aching from the unnatural position, so she relaxed them and fell back onto the bed with a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. For some minutes she luxuriated on the edge between dream and reality, her mind finally empty, but the morning noises filtering through the window eventually forced her fully awake. She groaned and rolled, landing on all fours beside her bed. She looked down at her blanket, discarded at some point during her restless night, and picked it up with her magic. It was wrapped around her like a cloak as she dragged her hooves towards the door.

She hadn’t had a specific goal in mind, just letting her legs wander aimlessly, but was brought out of her distracted meditations by the bracingly cold mountain wind gusting over the parapet. She’d walked up onto one of the castle’s walls and was leaning over the crenellations, gazing without really seeing out over the lands of Equestria below, eyes fixed on the horizon where the ash plume still rose. Lightning flickered within its mass, amplifying its ominous appearance.

Twilight squinted and could just make out Cloudsdale in front of the pillar of ash. She knew how large the city was, yet it was a mere speck against the dark grey background. The inhabitants of the pegasus capital were brave, or possibly some less positive mental attribute that was closely related to brave. Time would tell.

She turned away and inspected the castle. Canterlot Castle during winter was decorated by frost and icicles, and girdled by smoke from countless fireplaces emanating from a myriad chimneys. She spied a pegasus flying thorugh the air over the opposite side of the castle, making loops and corkscrews around the rising smoke. Twilight let the display of exuberant joy move her until she smiled widely. Then the pegasus flew closer and she made out details like the yellow coat and pink mane.

“Fluttershy? Fluttershy!”

She waved and shouted, and the pegasus flew closer to hover in the air in front of Twilight. Fluttershy radiated such an infectious happiness that the unicorn started chuckling without really knowing why or caring, which prompted the pegasus to embrace Twilight in a hug. The normally timid pony squeaked and giggled and wouldn’t stop flapping her wings, not strong enough to lift a unicorn but making both of them stagger back and forth.

“Fluttershy, what’s gotten into you!”

“They wrote a letter! They got sent to Ponyville!”

“Who?”

Fluttershy calmed down a bit and sighed lightly while folding her wings, a far-away look in her eyes.

“The Spinners. Remember? We met them at the train station. I asked Notary Inkstain if there were any injured or sick families I could lend my cottage to, and he said no because they shouldn’t travel in their weakened state and wouldn’t be sent away before they were well again, but that there were plenty of families in need of housing and able to travel, so I asked if it was all right to let the Spinners have it and he promised to arrange it!”

Fluttershy’s voice had risen into an excited squeak by the last sentence, but now she gasped and hid her face behind her hair, lowering her head and peering shyly at Twilight with one eye.

“Um... Was that wrong?”

The unicorn chuckled and nuzzled Fluttershy on the forehead.

“Wrong? That was just fine, and it’s so you, Fluttershy! I’m happy your mood has improved.”

Fluttershy blushed lightly.

“Thank you, Twilight. I feel that now that I know they are safe and looking after my animals I see hope for all the other ponies here as well. There's hope, Twilight!”

This caused Twilight to remember her night and sober up. She sighed and looked down at the stone floor.

“I’m glad you’ve found hope. I really am.”

Her tone made Fluttershy look properly at her friend and she gasped at what she saw.

“Twilight, you look so tired! Is there something I can do?”

“I just need a cup of tea. I haven’t slept that well. I keep running yesterday’s events through my mind, trying to figure out why nothing we do is working. We will run more tests today, but I feel it’s hopeless and it makes me so tired.”

Fluttershy stroked Twilight’s mane while she gazed sadly at her friend.

“You poor thing. You shouldn’t strain yourself if it makes you this worn out. How about I do the tests for you? Maybe my element works better.”

Twilight moved to shake her head and dismiss the suggestion, but hesitated. She stared at Fluttershy with widening eyes, her ears coming to attention and her mouth opening.

“You know, that’s not a bad suggestion at all.”

~~~~~

The pebble sparkled with a silvery light. Then it disintegrated with a dry, muted pop, spreading a fine whitish powder over the inside of the brick box. Then nothing happened, except for the dust in the box settling. Twilight stared, dumbfounded. She only became aware that she’d been holding her breath when she let her air out in a great exhalation of disbelief.

Fluttershy blushed crimson and whispered demurely.

“Was that good?”

Marble Chalice chuckled by Twilight’s side.

“Miss Fluttershy, that was better than good. That was progress!”

Chalice trotted up to the box and peered inside.

“The brick looks perfectly normal. We’ll leave this untouched while we probe it with magic and see how it responds. That’s your job, Ruler. Scales, I want you to prepare four additional saturation tests.”

She turned to Twilight.

“I think that with these results we’ve established that there might be differences in how the elements operate on this alien matter. This begs the question: are there further variations with the remaining four elements?”

Twilight nodded and stopped gaping at Fluttershy.

“I’ll get the others.”

~~~~~

Five brick boxes side by side contained a fine light gray powder that had shown no further activity during the last hour and a half. The mood was jubilant, and Twilight’s friends were hopping and dancing together with the research team. Twilight was staring mutely at the sixth box, where she’d five times been asked to use her magic to trigger the corrupting burst of the alien matter and then watched as each of her friends in turn had wiped out the corruption, restoring harmony.

She was interrupted when Applejack placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Come on, Twi! I say we blast everypony in Canterlot with a good old dose of harmony right this moment.”

This made Chalice stop dancing and hugging Ruler.

“Miss Applejack, I can appreciate your impatience to see us rid of this, but doing that is a bit premature at this point. There are three things we must consider.”

“Oh yeah? What things?”

“First, we need to ascertain the nature of this powder. It seems it is stable but we can’t be sure until we find out what it is. Once we know that we’ll also know what it will do to the ponies who are poisoned by the ash once they are treated, and hopefully how to treat that as well. Otherwise we risk endangering them further.”

Applejack nodded.

“Sounds reasonable. What else?”

“The creature. It’s made of the same matter. If you cure all of Canterlot in a single burst you are likely to disintegrate and kill it. And third, we don’t know what happens when all the elements together affect the rock. We need to plan carefully before we try that experiment, considering that events involving all six elements tend to be quite energetic.”

Applejack digested this.

“All right. So, how long?”

Chalice shrugged.

“We should know what the powder is by a week or so, two at the most. I’ll have samples of it sent to the University: my colleagues and the students there are also working on the problem. They might not have access to all the information and resources I have at my disposal but they are still very capable ponies and the dust isn’t much of a secret. We’ll start planning for the combined experiment immediately but I hesitate to give a time schedule. Volatile things shouldn’t be rushed. Any more information about the Elements would also help, since this set of experiments has raised some intriguing questions. Why, for instance, does Miss Sparkle’s element of magic cause the alien matter to react the same way as common magic but yours do not?”

“Maybe the princesses know?”

“If they do they are not telling me. I’ve made numerous requests to study these artifacts before now and they were all denied. I suspect the elements are a touchy subject to the princesses, but I can only speculate why. One obvious explanation is that they might prove dangerous to the princesses if misused. Your victories over Nightmare Moon and Discord certainly indicates as much.”

Twilight breathed in.

“I’ll ask if there is any literature on the subject.”

~~~~~

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I feel it is not in your best interest, nor the best interest of Equestria, to give you access to that information.”

Twilight stared wide-eyed at Celestia and backed up a few steps. Celestia’s face was drawn and she was leaning against her sister, who looked as startled as Twilight did.

“But – but why? Princess Celestia, we are so close to finding a solution, but we know so little about the elements that it is slowing us down!”

Celestia nodded once and looked distraught.

“I will not risk it, Twilight. You will find your answers eventually: I have faith in you. You will not need what you ask for.”

Twilight’s eyes were like saucers and she stammered her response, barely stronger than a whisper.

“Ponies are dying, Celestia. Right here in Canterlot. What is so dangerous that you would gamble so many lives against it?”

Celestia didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and sniffed. Luna stroked her neck gently and spoke quietly.

“Beloved sister, you said you have faith in Twilight Sparkle. But have you actually foreseen that she will not need what she asks for? Or are you merely hoping, praying to the stars not to lose her so soon?”

Luna waited, and when Celestia started sobbing into her shoulder she sighed gently.

“I see.”

She placed a hoof under Celestia’s chin and nuzzled her gently while wiping away the tears moving down Celestia’s cheeks.

“Dear sister, you are speaking of the mare who not only faced my darkness and emerged triumphant, but who managed to cleanse me. If she cannot read it then who can?”

“Read what?”

Twilight jumped and crossed her eyes when she realised she had spoken out loud.

Celestia turned to Twilight and sniffed.

“I am sorry, my faithful student, I am ashamed to say I fear what this knowledge will cost you. There is indeed literature on the Elements of Harmony, but we have let it be stored in an unconventional manner. The knowledge is dangerous and has twisted many well-meaning ponies.”

She sighed and composed herself.

“But my dear sister is right. I was wrong to deny you, even though it probably is in your best interest to forget about this and walk away. Luna? Will you – will you escort Twilight?”

“Of course, sister.”

Luna kissed Celestia on the forehead and withdrew. She walked over to Twilight and looked down into her eyes.

“Celestia is right to be worried even if she isn’t right to refuse you this opportunity. Still, this must be done. Follow me and keep the Scroll close.”

“What is so dangerous about this knowledge?”

“What you are about to learn is not the magic you are familiar with. This is raw, wild magic from the dawn of time. It existed long before Harmony cast its protection over our world. Ponies who stumble upon it frequently embark upon dark paths where nopony is safe and harm lurks everywhere. Tragedy is a constant companion to these powers.”

Luna stopped walking and sat down on her haunches. After a slight delay she turned her head and looked straight into Twilight’s eyes. “Twilight Sparkle, most of this knowledge falls under my jurisdiction. Cataloguing it is part of my duties. And it was most definitely partly to blame for my eventual downfall into Nightmare Moon.”

She resumed walking and Twilight was so stunned that she didn’t move until Luna had disappeared around a corner. Twilight rushed to catch up to the princess, and when she did Luna spoke again.

“After that, of course, Celestia found another way to secure the knowledge. And that’s part of the problem actually.”

“What do you mean?”

Princess Luna’s face was perfectly neutral.

“She put it in a book.”

Comments

[Florida]

“After that, of course, Celestia found another way to secure the knowledge. And that’s part of the problem actually.”
“What do you mean?”
Princess Luna’s face was perfectly neutral.
“She put it in a book.”

GEE
I DIDNT KNOW YOU COULD PUT IT ANYWHERE ELSE AT THE TIME