Chapter 9: Break for Day
“Not even a giggle, Catch?” I asked my assistant. “Normally you’d—“I got a look at Lucky Catch’s face. It was twisted into an image of anger and rage.
Outside the shield Fabulator paced to the left and the Panther mirrored the move, staying between him and Blueblood. The prince had quietly moved to stand behind Lieutenant Armour and the previous courage he showed paled as he saw the magic Fabulator was wielding.
Watching the Panther, Fabulator sent a tendril of shadow floating around it toward the prince. The Panther snarled and swiped a paw through it, disrupting the magic. The display was echoed by my assistant as I saw her growl in sync with the Panther. Catch’s empathy with tame animals now simply another conduit for the hate the Panther showed toward Fabulator.
I leaned toward Blueblood and Armour whispering, “We need to get out of here. Let the Panther keep him busy, the best we can do now is to make sure the guard know what’s going on.”
Blueblood nodded but the Lieutenant objected saying, “I can’t move the shield. If we start moving we’re going to have to worry about those two.” He motioned towards the traitorous guards.
“We’ll just have to go with it,” I said. “Because that thing’s not going to—“The Panther decided it didn’t want to wait any longer and pounced. “Go, now!” I shouted.
The shield dropped as the panther flew toward Fab. The shadow caster fell back on mundane magic and threw a raw burst at the Panther. Just as the spell impacted, one of the pegasus guards also hit the Panther from the side. The twin impacts threw the Panther down to the ground where it quickly reformed.
As soon as the shield fell Armour and Blueblood made for the exit. Lucky Catch did the opposite and charged toward Fabulator.
I looked toward the fleeing prince and then back at my assistant, torn for a moment. “Damn it,” I cursed and I went after Catch as she ran into the second guard. Just as the guard started to get a hold on Catch I slid over and spun around to buck the guard off Catch.
The pegasus was thrown across the room. The best thing about pegasi is those light frames make sure they go flying. As turned back around to face Catch I saw her attempt to throw herself at Fabulator as he ran past us toward Blueblood, Panther following close behind. Once Catch was on her hooves she went charging after as well, echoing the Panther’s growl.
The Panther growled again and shot forward. It ploughed into Fabulator and threw him forward. As Fab landed he looked toward Blueblood and fired a burst of magic at a statue on the wall above him. The statue’s supports gave way and it began to topple. The Panther dissolved into a mist again and reformed above the prince to catch the statue. A smile crossed Fabulator’s face in the brief second before Catch reached him.
Catch threw herself at Fab like a mare possessed, which she was. She struck without coordination or method forcing Fabulator to block all her blows physically.
Feeling a gust of wind above me I reached up and wrapped my hooves around the passing pegasus on his way to help Fab. I pulled the pegasus down and we tumbled across the ground together, scuffling with each other as we came to a stop. We traded several blows as we each tried to pin the other down. Eventually he slapped me across the face with a wing and his feathers made me sneeze.
While I was getting my wits back together the guard broke free and started toward Catch. Not done, I bit onto his tail to try and stop him. Instead of bringing him to a halt he dragged me along with him. I cursed through the tail in my mouth as I tried to get my hooves together and finally managed to stop him a pony length away from Catch. As I started to pull him back I heard a cry from behind me and saw the other guard flying toward me out of the corner of my eye.
Preparing to take the blow I was surprised to see a purple field appear in front of him. The traitorous guard crashed into the shield and fell to the floor, stunned. Looking toward the stairs I saw Blueblood sprinting down with Shining Armour, who had his horn lit. Good timing with the shield I supposed, it was the single most useful thing I’d seen Armour do.
There was a flash as Lucky Catch was shot across the room by a concussive magic blast and hit a wall. Her cry of shock and pain was echoed by the Panther as it moved toward Fabulator again.
I let the guard’s tail go, figuring the Panther could handle two ponies while I checked on Catch. As I got to her she threw herself to her hooves, her face still a mask of rage. Earth ponies are resilient – I’m proof of that – but this wasn’t right. The flow of rage running through Catch must have clouded any pain she that she was feeling. She charged off in the direction of the fight, ignoring me entirely.
I followed her to the stairs. Fabulator was galloping down after Blueblood while the remaining guard attempted to distract the Panther. Catch ploughed through the last guard and joined the Panther in charging down the stairs, with me just behind.
As we reached the ground floor I saw Fabulator, Blueblood and Armour by the door. Fabulator shot a blast of magic at Blueblood and Armour put up a dome over them to stop it.
A growl from both the Panther and Catch got Fabulator’s attention as they charged toward him. I watched Fabulator smile as his horn turned black with shadow magic. I was level with Catch as he fired and saw the spell hit Catch. Instead of doing any physical damage to Catch she brought to a halt, a dark green glow in her eyes as the rage left her face. She whimpered, fell to the ground and started to curl up while crying in fear as some form of nightmarish vision assaulted her.
Fabulator smile turned into a victorious grin. The Panther had stopped as well, seemingly experiencing the sheer terror radiating from Catch in a twisted reflection of the rage it shared with her before. The odds in our favour had turned severely against us without the Panther’s help.
Fabulator summoned a cloud of shadow magic. He probably intended to wipe our memories of his involvement and leave us blissfully unaware of what he’d stolen. He might even leave us as a bunch of drooling morons.
I gathered myself. It was time to do something stupid, “reset.”
Time flew back and we were charging across the ground level toward Fabulator as he charged his magic. I slipped a hoof under Catch to trip her up and swung past her to take the blast of shadow magic in my back.
I felt warmth across my body as I woke up. I was bathed in light and my eyes winced as they adjusted.
“Timey!” came a relieved voice and I was suddenly pulled into a crushing hug. I blinked as my eyes adjusted, slowly taking in the scene around me. We were still in the Royal Canterlot Archives and the sun was shining in through the window.
“Oh, the sun’s back. That’s good,” I murmured. Looking down I found Lucky Catch wrapped around my ribs with tears falling onto my coat as I lay on the floor.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said. “How did you know Fabulator was about to curse me?”
“Ancient earth pony secret,” I replied.
“You were so heroic. Sacrificing yourself to save me,” she said as she hugged me tighter. Great, she thought I did it for her.
“Where’s Blueblood?” I asked.
“Right here,” said a voice from above me. I rolled my head backwards to look up at the prince from my upside down perspective.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Fabulator escaped,” Blueblood huffed. “The Panther chased him outside as he attempted to flee. Just as it was about to get him the sun rose and the Panther dissipated. I’ve sent the Lieutenant after him but it’s probably too late.” The prince shook his head and began to pace. “And would you believe those two traitors also escaped by flying out the upstairs window? I can’t even imagine the kind of damage that Fabulator will be able to do with the books they escaped with.” The prince sat down with his head in his hooves. “Auntie is not going to be happy.”
Not one to stay sad Catch quickly brought up the bright side, “At least he wasn’t able to wipe our memories, and the sunrise also got rid of the shadow he put on Timey.”
“Bravo,” Blueblood muttered.
Ignoring the prince Catch hugged me again. “Timey, whatever he did to you made you really scared. What did the curse show you?”
“I can’t remember,” I replied. “It’s probably best that I don’t know what it was (1).” I yawned as the lack of good sleep over the last few days finally caught up to me. Catch also yawned and I’d wager Blueblood did as well. Without anything stressful to keep us awake we were quickly tiring.
“Alright,” Blueblood said. “We’d better get back to the palace, I need to alert the guard and make sure they find Fabulator.” We all got up and walked wearily out into the late morning sun.
Blueblood worked up a temper as we got back to the great hall of the palace, looking around for somepony to abuse. The unicorn guard was still in parade formation as we walked in with the captain inspecting their posture and uniform.
As soon as Blueblood spotted Captain Ironsides he stalked directly toward him, head tilted down and horn pointed forward.
“Captain Ironsides!” Blueblood called out.
The captain looked over his shoulder and then back toward the guard he was inspecting to say something before he turned his attention to Blueblood.
“Yes Blueblood?” The captain said as the prince approached.
“That’s Prince Blueblood to you, peasant,” Blueblood said as he came to a halt a horn length away.
“With all due respect, sir,” the captain started with guard slang for ‘kiss my flank’. “That title is purely ceremonial.”
“I think you’ll find it’s very real, not like your title after your failure today,” Blueblood shot back.
The captain scoffed, “what failure. All a see is a jumped up politician with delusions of grandeur.”
Blueblood’s horn lit as he seized the Captain and threw him against the wall. The captain’s own horn lit but Blueblood extended his magic over it and threw the captain’s magic back at him. None of the guard even flinched at Blueblood’s outburst.
“I suppose you know all about Celestia’s student, correct? She’s named Twilight if you’ve never bothered to find out,” Blueblood said as he stalked toward the captain. “Now, while my dear auntie was teaching the little filly somepony else had to run the government. Who do you think did that?” Blueblood slid the captain down the wall so they met at eye level. “Today my title might be ceremonial, I’m not going to inherit the throne from an immortal after all, but there are responsibilities that come with it. That and my bloodline…” The prince added as he increased his magic flow.
“So I’m not powerless, something that Fabulator realized and used to steal forbidden knowledge from the Royal Archive.” The prince released the captain. “Now we have a dangerous fugitive on the run with a dangerous wealth of knowledge, along with a pair of guards that have betrayed Equestria. The ever competent Lieutenant Armour is already in pursuit but I also want you to send out every pegasus we have to comb the city for him.”
The captain stuttered something. Blueblood took a deep breath to calm down and asked calmly, “what was that captain?”
“All our pegasi are en-route to Ponyville to rescue the princess,” the captain repeated.
Blueblood tapped his hoof against the ground. His voice was calm and empty of menace as he said, “In that case, Captain. You are to send out every guard we have to find him. If you fail I assure you I will do everything possible to ensure the rest of your career is short and unpleasant.” Finished, the prince walked away with Catch and me following close behind.
Once Blueblood turned a corner, and was out of sight of the guard, he fell against a wall to cradle his horn in his hooves. He groaned, “My magic’s going to be stunted for days after that.”
Catch and I remained diplomatically silent.
Looking around the Prince realized we were still with him. “It’s a wonder we even bother sometimes,” Blueblood said. “Most guard officers are just second born noble colts sent to inflict their incompetence on the world instead of their family. That idiot probably only got the captaincy because all the other lieutenants were morons.”
Catch hummed in thought. “How does the guard work if all their leaders are incompetent?”
“It’s quite simple, Catch,” I said with a smile. “Think about it, what’s between the idiots above and the grunts on the bottom?” Catch blinked, waiting for an answer. Mares couldn’t care less about the guard most of the time. “It’s the sergeants,” I answered, “the only ponies in the guard who actually earned their position instead of getting it with politics (2).”
“Then why have officers at all?” Catch asked.
“I wonder sometimes,” Blueblood grumbled. The prince straightened up and stifled a yawn. “Right, follow me.” The prince led us back to the great hall and pulled aside the first sergeant he saw. “Have somepony escort these two to the palace guest rooms, the nice ones, and let Lieutenant Armor know where they are when he returns.”
The guard saluted, “yes Sir.”
Then Blueblood turned to me, “At least this way I can satisfy your need to stay in a gaudy room without it coming out of my personal account.” He snorted. “Consider your expenses paid. Have a good day.”
I nodded in response and Prince Blueblood set off toward to south tower, probably to get some rest himself.
“Well, this is spacious,” I said when we got a look at the palace’s largest guest suite. “I think I could fit half my house in here.”
Catch went across to the princess sized bed, dropping her bag as she went, and threw herself onto the soft surface. I caught a brief hiss of pain as she landed. Concerned, I went over to make sure she was alright and shucked my bags onto the ground next to hers.
“Something wrong, Catch?” I asked.
“Oh it’s nothing, I just—ouch,” she yelped in pain as she rolled over to face me.
‘That’s not nothing, roll over,” I ordered. Catch rolled onto her front and I touched her back, she hissed in pain. Gently, I used my hooves to separate the coat on her back to see the skin underneath.
“Catch, you’ve got a lot of bruising on your back.” I followed the bruising up past her neck. “It’s really bad, how was this not hurting you before?” Catch smiled sheepishly.
“So it was hurting all this time?” I asked. Catch nodded. I ran my hooves along her body, feeling for anything out of place. Catch groaned, and I wasn’t sure if she was in pain or enjoying it. “Doesn’t feel like any of your ribs are broken, but I’ll bet you have some cracks from when Fab threw you into that wall.”
“So, I’ll be fine then?” She asked.
“Well, you’ll want to avoid sleeping on your back for a few days but you’ll be fine.” I chuckled, “Consider yourself lucky to be an earth pony, those pegasi are going to be feeling their bruises for weeks.” I rolled over onto my back and got comfortable under the sheets.
Catch slid herself over to me. “Timey…” she put a hoof over my chest.
“Yes, Catch?”
“Could you close the curtains?” She pointed to the huge windows that were letting in the sunlight.
“Huh, I’d forgotten the sun was up.” I rolled out of bed to shut the curtains and turn the lights out.
It was the first bit of decent sleep I’d had in days. No gemstone beds, Discord dreams or rough surfaces. However it only lasted until I heard a knock on the door.
Unable to get up I shouted, “Come in!”
The door opened and an increasingly familiar lieutenant walked in. “Time Turner, I’ve been sent to get you—oh I’m sorry I’ll come back in a minute,” Armour finished nervously.
“No, she just sleeps like this,” I explained. Catch was, of course, wrapped around me and still fast asleep. “What were you going to say?”
“I just received a royal summons for the three of us to go down to the throne room,” Armour explained, “It seems the princess has heard about what happened last night.”
“Sounds like fun. One moment, I’ll just get ready.” I looked down at the sleeping pony on top of me. I tweaked one of her ears to face me and blew down it. Lucky Catch instinctively tightened her hold on me with all four limbs and sent me into a coughing fit as she crushed my lungs.
He head shot up and she looked around the room to spot Shining Armour, “What did you do that for?” Armour quite wisely remained silent as Catch returned her attention to me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that again,” she apologized as I reinflated my lungs.
“Right,” I said between coughs. “The princess wants to see us, best not to keep her waiting.”
We left our bags behind and I put my tie on as we walked down to the throne room. Night had fallen again on what must have been Equestria’s shortest day in recent history, and the stars were out in a fantastic display.
At this rate I was going to be nocturnal for weeks with my sleep pattern this far out of place. One thing I noticed quickly was the absence of guards patrolling the hallways. I asked Armour about it and he replied, “They’re still out searching for Fabulator. So far the news isn’t good.”
“Is there something wrong?” I asked.
“I’ll explain later,” Armour said as we arrived at the great doors to the throne room.
Armour’s horn lit to open the door and reveal the dark room. None of the lanterns were lit and the only light was cast from the hallway, revealing the unoccupied throne.
“We must have got here early,” I said and led the way in. We followed the light on the ground toward the throne and stood waiting.
The great door behind us shut, leaving the room in total darkness. Catch squeaked and I could hear Armour’s armour clank as he shot into an alert pose.
I felt a cool breeze run through my mane, like somepony was breathing on me. I turned my head to look but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. When I looked away the breeze returned stronger, becoming a gust of wind.
The curtains were caught and were blown open to reveal the full moon over the horizon as it cast light into the throne room.
At the moonlight crossed the room it revealed a figure standing before the throne, wings outstretched, light blue mane billowing in the unnatural breeze as she stood above us. Almost instinctively we each bowed before the mysterious figure.
“Greetings fair subjects,” its tone was strong and just shy of shouting. “Count thyselves most fortunate to be midst the first to witness the restored glory of the true Princess of the Night!”
Luna’s Notes:
(1) Tis more likely that Time Turner does not wish Catch or anypony else to know what the dark vision inflicted upon him. Such a vision would have probably shown him his greatest fear and we suspect he wants to keep that to himself.
(2) In theory Officers exist solely to act as our mouthpiece to relay orders to the sergeants. In practice we often speak to the sergeants directly bypassing officers entirely.
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I think, overall, you did well with Fabulator.
He was an interesting change from the usual villain stuff- both the over-the-top bad guy who does things "for the evulz", and the angsty (sometimes even whiny) would-be anti-villain. It's not often that the Big Bad turns to the person he's taken advantage of and claims that, while he did take advantage of them and betrayed their trust, he still considers them friends. Ballsy, certainly- but what's some bad memories when you can simply erase them via brainwashing?
If there is one thing I'd criticise, it'd be that it felt like we didn't know too much about Fabulator, making it a bit more difficult to invest in him- however, that is a minor point.
Wow, it's weird -- refreshing, too, I'd say -- to read Blueblood as something other than a complete jerkass waste of space. I've read 'Best of all possible worlds', in which the Blueblood office is there to be somepony to take the blame and be despised when necessary, I've read something called 'Batmane' I think where he's essentially Bruce Wayne, and I remember that in 'A slice of life' he was reasonable; other than that, can't think of any other stories. Not that he doesn't make for a good bad guy, like in 'Earth and sky' (where he's not so much a villain as, well, a bad guy), and not that I actually normally LIKE the character, but... yeah.
Yay, Luna!
As to what you asked, he seems like a pretty good villain thus far. Doing it for power is pretty common, although perfectly sensible; doing it for KNOWLEDGE (which leads to power) is less commonly seen, but also makes perfect sense. I enjoy reading villains who aren't complete puppy-kicking jerks with an acted-upon Oedipus complex (if you know what I mean); good people doing bad things for the right reasons make compelling villains, but my personal favourite would have to be nice guys who make no apologies for their actions.
i love almost everything about him......except his name
"fabulator" i mean it sounds weird to say in my head u can imagine wat it sounds lie out loud dontknow....it just sounds kinda like a fashion "fabulous" robot name
I have enjoyed this one so much that I have forgotten to take the time to comment during my reading!
It is a real shame that this (and your other stories) have so few views. Your stories are just so much fun and your characters are a joy.
Your stories remind me of adventure novels I use to read as a kid. You know, 'cept with ponies.
I would say that Fabulator made for a rather well done villain of the more subtle type. I am actually looking forward to the chaos he will bring in the future, as well as the part that Time Turner will play in it!
I also really love how you manage to weave the Canon into your stories, without ever compromising it at all!!