Twilight sets out to learn more of the ways of the world, and soon decides that the whole planet is disorganized, insanely dangerous, and desperately needs to be fixed. And she's just the mare to do it... with a little help from her friends.
Twilight sets out to learn more of the ways of the world, and soon decides that the whole planet is disorganized, insanely dangerous, and desperately needs to be fixed. And she's just the mare to do it... with a little help from her friends.
Also, there are sky-pirates!
Book 3 of the Alicorn Adventure series.
A few extra, slice-o-life chapters are here: On the Rocks
In which Princess Twilight Sparkle laments that the universe is rarely arranged to her liking.
May 3rd, 1014, Late Morning In the Temple of Rushwa the Hyena God, Nagala, Marezambique, Zebrica
"Rarity!" I screamed, staggering with the effort of resisting the temple's magical deathtraps. "There are more armed zebras coming up the stairs! Can you buy us some time?"
Rarity turned from the wall she was hacking at and spared a second for a glance up at where Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash were hauling away at the crowbar wedged under the gigantic emerald set into the huge idol's forehead. She dropped her pickaxe, levitated five slim blades out of the scabbards on her back, stepped over the unconscious bodies of the temple's guards, and peered down at the onrushing foes.
"Those are the Sultan's elite bodyguards, dear. I might have to be less careful than usual."
"Do... uhnn..." I staggered under the assault of a new disintegration beam that spewed from the fanged mouth of the hyena god statue. "Do your... best," I gasped out.
"AHAH!" Rarity cried out, leaping to the head of the stairs. She spun her blades around herself so fast that they hissed through the air. "Who is so eager for death that they dare face the needles of Silver Mask?"
Corny, right? But it worked. Several of the guards balked and one lost his footing, tumbling off the narrow stairs to land with an unpleasant thud in the courtyard below. Their hesitation was partly because of Rarity's unexpected bravado and partly because her nom de guerre had gained a certain notoriety along the coast of the Eastern Sea.
But they were Sultan Zatar's elite guards, after all, and after a moment the remaining ones gathered themselves up and resumed their advance.
Rarity's blades flashed out, cutting the air inches in front of the zebras' noses, clashing against the short, heavy swords they held in their mouths. The guards each used a different parry or bind, no doubt hoping to overwhelm Rarity's ability to wield her multiple blades all at once. Fortunately for us, what Rarity lacked in raw magical power she more than made up for in precise and lightning-fast control.
She held them off until they realized that, for some unknown reason, she wasn't trying to harm them. The guards surged forward with murderous intent.
"Oh, I am so sorry about this," Rarity muttered and whipped the point of one of her blades along the face of the leading guard, just under his left eye.
The zebra hissed in pain and reared up, toppling into one of his fellows, effectively taking them both out of the fight for several precious seconds. That only left five of the guards, one for each of Rarity's blades. With a swooping moulinet, each blade drove at the hearts of the remaining guards. The move was showy and relatively slow; not very effective in a fight with a well-trained opponent. A quick back-step coupled with a block could easily counter that sort of attack.
Unfortunately for the guards, a short leap backwards worked much, much better on a training ground than it did on a narrow, steep staircase. All but one of the leading zebras vanished with a whinny of surprise as gravity betrayed them in time-honored fashion. The zebra that hadn't managed to throw himself off the stairs watched in horror as all five blades arced back to converge on him.
Rarity smiled.
In his haste to retreat, the guard stumbled into the other two who were just recovering themselves, and they all half-fled, half-tumbled down the stairs. Rarity cocked her head to one side, watching them withdraw. "Twilight, dear," she said quietly, "the guards are retreating, but there are more coming through the plaza gate to join them, and they have bows."
I cursed the mages that had been so paranoid about their temple that they had loaded it down with enough magical traps to fry a regiment of thieves. Ordinarily, resisting the death curses while putting up a shield against arrows would have been easy for me. But after nearly a quarter of an hour of battling against a flood of murderous energy, I was nearing complete physical and magical exhaustion. If we didn't catch a break soon, things would get extremely nasty.
"Anytime now, girls," I hissed desperately between my teeth to my friends prying away at the idol.
"Workin' on it, sugarcube," grunted Applejack.
Rarity held her position at the head of the stairs. She was spinning her blades in a valiant attempt to cut down some of the incoming arrows when there was a loud crack and AJ, Pinkie, and Dash tumbled to the floor as the emerald popped out of its socket.
Rainbow leaped up and caught the gem before it could smash against the tiles and Applejack made a dash for the rear wall where Rarity had been working. She spun into a hard double-hoofed buck at the partially demolished wall and the stone blocks exploded outward, clattering onto the roof of the gallery beyond.
"Time to go, y'all!" she shouted.
Everypony backed rapidly through the opening in the wall. I followed last, sweating and unsteady with fatigue. Arrows rained into the temple, bouncing off the walls and floor, but only a few ricocheted through the hole we'd made, and all of those missed us.
I dropped my suppressing spells and the temple room containing the idol turned into an inferno of deadly magic, which temporarily separated us from the guards on the stairs.
"What now, Twilight?" Rarity asked.
The plan was in shambles. I had intended for us to go in near midnight and make the grab quickly and quietly, but a bit of gossip gathering in the town revealed that Sultan Zatar intended to use the forbidden spells locked into the Eye of Rushwa to spread a magical plague across his brother's kingdom in a ceremony at moonrise that evening. We were forced into a hurried improvisation that hadn't gone smoothly at all.
I flung back my head and cast a red burst of light high into the sky. "We hope Fluttershy is watching and can get Nebula here quickly. Rainbow, you take the Eye and head for the rendezvous point at the oasis."
"No way, Twi!" Dash protested. "I'm not leaving you guys behind!"
"We can't let the Sultan get it back! Thousands of innocent ponies will die!"
"So we smash it right now!" Dash lifted the gem over her head.
"NO!" I was surprised I had enough energy left to shout as loudly as I did. "That will release all the dark magic inside at once, and probably kill everypony in this city."
Rainbow Dash, wide-eyed, lowered the emerald very slowly and very carefully. "Whoa, Twi! You coulda said something about that earlier."
"Well, now you know. So go!"
"Nope." Dash shook her head. "Not until there's no other choice. You can fly it out of here if you want."
I shook my head and shrugged my wings under the disguising robe. "I'm too exhausted to glide, let alone fly carrying a gigantic rock. You're the only one who can do it."
"Hey, guys," came a bubbly, completely inappropriately cheerful voice for the circumstances. "What's big and floaty and rhymes with 'friendship?'"
"Airship?" I gasped, turning to see a wonderful sight: Nebula rising over the minarets of the city. Her crew had given up all pretense of being a simple merchant vessel, dropped the fighting nets, and flown no less than three pennants displaying the skull and crossbones. My joy was quickly tempered by the three fast-attack zebra ships coming up quickly behind her.
Wherein Twilight learns, to her dismay, the limits to which logic will carry unpopular arguments, and makes plans to further educate herself.
September 13th - 22nd, 1011 Canterlot, Equestria
"Pirate" is such an ugly word. It is almost always applied as a pejorative, and it doesn't take into account any subtle gradations of circumstance. One pony's "archaeologist" is another's "treasure hunter," without necessarily devolving into the classification of "grave-robber." With "pirate" it's all or nothing.
Well, I suppose there's "privateer," but that term is used only in time of war and means nothing except to the nation that issued the Letter of Marque. Seeing as how I would have to be the one to write my own permission slip, nobody would take such a document seriously. In any case, I couldn't let even a hint slip out that the Free Company of Friends was connected in any way to an Equestrian princess, so I had to accept the label of "pirate." But I didn't have to like it.
As far as Princess Celestia was concerned, my foreign travels were for purposes of cultural and magical study, which was perfectly true in a way. The idea that quite a lot of people wouldn't want me to study some of their most powerful and secret spells and artifacts, or that I wouldn't take "no" for an answer, hadn't occurred to her. Or, if it had, she was too polite to mention it.
Besides, some of the "objects of interest" I collected were fairly dangerous and I was doing the world a service by removing them from where an overly ambitious or unstable person could misuse them. No, really. Think of the Orb of Annihilation in the claws of the Mad King of the Forgotten Lands, and tell me any sane pony wouldn't rather have it securely locked away in one of my magical laboratories, even if it wasn't technically my property.
The thing is, many governments don't behave in a strictly sane manner. Once a government gets ancient enough, its layers of nonsensical laws and bureaucracy get so tangled that a pony could get sentenced to beheading for stepping on the shadow of a king, or gifted with a fortune for petting the correct type of cat on the spring equinox.[1] ---------- [1] [And if you think I'm exaggerating, get a copy of volume XXVII of The Holy Codex of Quaggastan and look in the index for "cats, acceptable colors, markings, and treatment of." ----------
I never imagined I might become the sort of pony that would dare to even bend the rules, let alone break them. But I lost my unquestioning respect for the exact letter of the law shortly after I took the time to closely observe the Equestrian Parliament engaged in creating new legislation. I discovered that the process was more about political favor-trading than doing good for the common ponies.
I read through several of the most respected legal compendiums and discovered that the body of Equestrian law, on the whole, was a trainwreck. If Princess Celestia didn't have final legal authority, and therefore the ability to untangle all the contradictory legislation, the system would have collapsed centuries ago.
My disillusionment was more traumatic than I have the time or inclination to convey, so suffice it to say that I tried to resolve my inner conflict by synthesizing a new way to enact and reform legislation based on the philosophy of doing the most good for the most ponies. I would be perfectly willing to follow rules to the letter if they were good rules.
I published A Modest Proposal for a New and Scientific System of Laws and Judicial Proceedings and distributed it as widely as I could. It was completely disdained by the entire political establishment. One particularly critical MP very publicly suggested that I would better occupy my time cutting ribbons at school and library openings, and that I should leave politics to the politicians. I refrained from any direct reply, though I did send a copy of his financial records to the High Court and the Canterlot Times with notes pointing out the one hundred and seventeen ethical and legal violations that any competent forensic accountant should have noticed years before.
Maybe that was petty of me, but he ended up getting off with a fairly light sentence.
The book was only the first part of a plan to create a more perfect system of governance that I strongly felt was not only possible, but morally necessary. Yes, I was quite young at the time, and more naïve than my years. My treatise sank like a stone, leaving behind only ripples of derisive laughter. I was both surprised and depressed by the whole affair.
One morning shortly afterward, I sat with Luna on the balcony of the Tower of the Moon, sipping coffee and feeling sorry for myself.
"Maybe all of my ideas weren't perfect, but there were some good, solid reforms in there! Everypony dismissed the whole thing without offering any cogent counter-arguments at all!" I bit at my croissant like it had personally offended me.
"Perhaps," Luna said softly, "that is because your approach was very—ah—direct."
"You mean blunt," I said.
Luna carefully studied the swirl of foam in her cup and said nothing.
"Why should I have to pussy-foot around when I am making concrete recommendations? Not using clear and direct language just leaves room for misinterpretation!"
"Perhaps, it was not your remedies that were hard to swallow," Luna murmured, "but rather, your observations." She looked up at me out of the corner of her eye. "Blunt as they were, your criticisms may have cut some ponies deeply."
I scowled. "I tried to keep it impersonal, but these were things that needed to be said! Playing nicey-nice won't get anything done!"
Luna set her coffee cup down with a sharp clack and said, "Thou hast the right of it, no doubt. Wilt thou excuse me? 'Tis past time I was a-bed."
Uh-oh. When Luna lapsed into archaic Equuish, it meant her emotions were running high.
"Luna, what's wr—" The flash of a teleport spell left me alone on the balcony.
I replayed the conversation in my head. Was she upset because I had dismissed her opinion, or was it something else? I had no idea, but I knew that I would be greeting her after sunset with a bouquet and an apology. But it would be best if I knew exactly what I was apologizing for. I needed advice.
Luckily, Rarity was in town. Her social calendar was full to overflowing, but she happily added me to the guest list for her "business brunch."
When we met her associates at the restaurant, Rarity placed a hoof against her chest in a demure manner and fluttered her eyelashes, saying to them, "I do hope it won't be inconvenient. The Princess is a very dear friend and we never get as much time together as we'd like."
I smiled mechanically through the meal, and gave vague, polite replies whenever somepony spoke to me. At least the food was good.
"The general consensus seemed to be that my presence was a tolerable annoyance," I said to Rarity afterwards as we walked along Martingale Street toward Parliament Square.
"Oh, please, Twilight! They were thrilled to death to be brunching with a princess, and you know it! What's gotten you into such a sour mood?"
I scuffed the fore edge of a hoof against the curbstone and frowned. "I upset Luna this morning and I don't even know why."
Rarity's expression became an odd combination of concern and avarice. "Tell me all about it, darling!"
I did.
"Well, since you appreciate bluntness, Twilight," she said when I had finished, "allow me to be blunt with you."
Suddenly, "blunt" and "direct" seemed like distant synonyms. I cleared my throat nervously. "Of course."
"You called your dear Luna a parasite! Who wouldn't be upset by that?"
"What are you talking about? I never said anything like that!"
"I didn't read your book, Twilight. But many of my clients did, and they assured me that you were not kind to the 'do-nothing' nobles. The word 'parasite' was mentioned in particular. I can't count the number of times I've had to reassure ponies that your work was academic theory and not meant to be taken seriously."
"But it was serious!" I protested. "I meant it when I wrote that, 'A class held apart from common ponies is justifiable only if it is a symbiotic relationship, rather than a parasitic one,' but I wasn't calling anypony a parasite, and certainly not Luna! She guards everypony's dreams and raises the moon! She battles monsters in the night to keep ponies safe! She's a perfect example of what every noble should be like!"
"Perhaps she knows that intellectually, but does she believe it?" Rarity sighed. "Princess Luna is from a different age, and in her heart she feels naturally superior to the common pony. She has had her problems in the past, even though she now serves her subjects as well as anypony could expect. Your little book probably made her feel guilty for several reasons, and your outburst this morning only twisted the knife."
I groaned and plopped down on the sidewalk. "I'm an idiot."
Rarity sighed and leaned her head against mine. "Twilight, you are the most brilliant pony I have ever known, and if you would just consider how your words will make ponies feel in addition to what they mean, you'd be fine."
"I do know better. I just get carried away sometimes." I looked up at Rarity and gave her as much of a smile as I could muster. "So—will her favorite flowers be enough, or should I bring wine and chocolates, too?"
Rarity started to say something but cut herself short as wicked grin slowly spread across her face. "I know this discreet little shop not far from here. The owner makes the most delightful halters, hobbles, and accessories...."
"I don't think—"
She was definitely enjoying my discomfort. "No, really, darling! It would be like gift-wrapping! Add a snaffle bit, a crop, and a small sign reading, 'I've been a very naughty princess,' and it would be a fabulous way to apologize!"
"Not going to happen!"
"Oh, Twilight! You have no sense of adventure!"
That made me laugh out loud, and I got back on my hooves. "How many wild escapades have we been on together, Rarity?"
"Yes," she admitted, "there have been so many that I couldn't begin to count them. But if it wasn't trouble that came looking for us, they've mostly been ones that Princess Celestia or the map have sent us on. When have you ever set out into the unknown just for the sheer fun of it?"
"Every time I open a new book," I said, starting back down the street.
Rarity sighed. It was an eloquent sigh.
= = =
I patched things up with Luna, who was well accustomed to me shoving a hoof or two into my mouth from time to time, and life went on as usual, but the conversation with Rarity stuck in my mind. Maybe I did need to broaden my horizons in a very literal sense.
I had hardly put hoof outside of Equestria, and my only direct experience with different cultures was via visitors to Equestria, so I decided that traveling abroad to experience foreign lands and societies for myself would combine fun and a wonderful learning experience. My criminal career, if you can call it that, started out as mere curiosity.
After the failure of my book, I promised myself that my next attempt at reform would not only be more subtle, but it would also be based on much deeper experience and direct knowledge. I was determined to take the best from every race and culture I could learn about and synthesize it all into a blueprint for a utopia.
I quickly discovered that the public respect and celebration I was offered as an Equestrian princess, all the ceremony and protocol, could too easily be turned into a barrier to prevent me from learning what I really wanted to know. So, I decided to take a more clandestine approach to my new studies.
I had gotten very good at disguise spells, thanks to constant practice. My secret affair with Princess Luna had been very beneficial in that regard. Appearing to be a simple non-alicorn was an easy task, and I could cast several disguise spells simultaneously, which meant that my friends could accompany me on my travels whenever they could manage the time away from their increasingly busy lives.
I commissioned an airship from the Canterlot Yards as a replacement for my poor lost Evenstar. Their chief naval architect, Gudgeon, wanted to build a sleek, super-modern craft for me and was initially disappointed when I asked for something very different. In the spirit of keeping my explorations incognito, I asked for a ship that looked like one of the old style cargo vessels that hung beneath its gas envelope, but that lacked the disadvantages of that sort of construction.
Gudgeon's face was vastly entertaining as he tried to process my request, and then began to go over the possibilities of such a strange set of strictures. After a few minutes, I could tell he was lost in thought and had probably forgotten I was even in the room. I left him to his plans.
It was a week later, and I had almost come to believe that Gudgeon had forgotten my request or given it up as impossible, when he sent me a brief note. He was much better at his craft than I had given him credit for. I met him at the Canterlot Yards and got a pleasant surprise. He hadn't merely drawn out a design; he had constructed a rather large model of the proposed ship and hung it under one of the protective shelters in the yards. His pegasus assistant kept a steady breeze flowing over the model as Gudgeon explained its features to me.
"The bundles of cables are stiffened with rods inside to dampen any oscillation between the hull and envelope, d'ya see? And the shape of the struts help keep her tracking well and provide some lift at speed."
"Yes!" I said, catching his enthusiasm. "That's very clever. The hull is in the old style, but there's something—I don't know—sleeker about it?"
"Ya've got a good eye, princess. We tested the shape with wind and smoke and I shifted her planking about until the flow over her hull was smooth as silk. Would ya like to see?"
"Of course!"
Gudgeon lit a small tube of paper on fire and held it in front of the model. The wind from the flapping pegasus pushed the stream of smoke over the hull in a coherent snake-like trail that held its thin shape until it was well behind the ship's stern. "No turbulence to speak of that would drag down her speed. She'll fly true, there's no doubt of that."
"And—if I may comment, Your Highness?" the pegasus creating the breeze spoke up for the first time.
"Please do."
"As a flier, I really like the open deck design. The enclosed gondolas on modern ships feel too confining. Pegasi are happier when they can feel the wind in their feathers." He glanced at my own wings and became a bit flustered. "But of course, you'd know that, Your Highness."
I ignored his embarrassment. "That is an excellent observation, thank you."
He blushed and bobbed his head in acknowledgment.
I turned to Gudgeon and said, "This design is wonderful! Can magic armor and self-repair features be incorporated—discreetly?"
Gudgeon smiled. "Aye, I recall that ya be a bit rough on the ships ya pilot, princess. I've made accommodations for all manner of such things."
It was my turn to blush. "I promise I'll try to take better care of this one."
He gave me a mock-stern glare and said, "See that ya do, Your Exalted Highness."
I chuckled. "Your design is brilliant. Go ahead with construction and don't hesitate to use the best materials and parts for the job, whatever the cost. Call on me if you have any questions."
He nodded. "The spell-work will be tricky and will need to be woven in at just the right moments during her construction. I'll try to give you a good schedule in advance, but these things can't always be predicted with precision, particularly when it involves such a unique design."
"I understand. Believe me, I will put this near the top of my priority list. Could you send me a brief progress note each week, even if you won't be needing my input?"
"It'll be my pleasure, Princess."
"Thank you so much! I may even drop by from time to time, just to see how things are going, if that's alright?"
Gudgeon grinned. "I've got a dozen lazy apprentices, two old dogs, and half-blind tom cat underhoof, so I can't see how adding a princess to the lot will do much harm."
= = =
Surprisingly, Celestia thought that my plan was a very good idea. "Posing as a merchant should give you many valuable experiences. I would recommend actually trying to make a profit by trading. That exercise should teach you some economic lessons as well."
"You're really okay with this?"
"I am." She nodded, then added, "And what if I did have reservations? You are your own pony and should make your own decisions. I am grateful that you asked my opinion on the matter, though. Even if it is several weeks after the keel of your new ship was laid." She was smiling when she said it, so it was only the gentlest of rebukes, but it made me feel just a tad guilty.
"Well, I needed a new ship, anyway," I said.
"What will you name her? Evenstar II, perhaps?"
"No. I thought about it, but it would always make me remember the original, and I'd rather not stir up sad memories."
"I understand. But would you be willing to make a slight connection between the two craft?"
"What sort of connection?"
"Well—" Celestia hesitated, and frowned, considering her next words. We were sitting in the castle's private rose garden that looked out toward the Unicorn Range. She turned so that she was facing away from me when she spoke again. "You know that Luna became a bit disturbed when you were trapped in the Wheel of the World, and some of her actions may have looked odd to some ponies."
I had gotten the story of the civil cold war from several different sources, of course, including those principally involved, but something in Celestia's tone told me that a lot of interesting details had been omitted.
"What is it?" I could feel a nervous flutter begin deep in my chest.
"She saved all of Evenstar that wasn't burned, and brought everything back to Canterlot. It's all in a great vault deep inside the mountain."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"It isn't just a pile of wreckage. She restored your cabin, and—" Celestia cleared her throat before continuing. "—she slept in there quite a few times. She might be embarrassed to admit that, but I thought you might at least like to salvage the oak paneling."
Despite being a little weird, it was one of the most romantic things I had ever heard. I vowed right then that I'd incorporate my entire old cabin into the new ship, and then I'd find some very special way to show my appreciation to Luna. Maybe I'd take just a little peek into that shop that Rarity had mentioned.
In which Rarity flirts outrageously with a Prince, Rainbow Dash speaks what appears to be nonsense, and Fluttershy saves, if not the day, at least the moment.
May 3rd, 1014, Noonish On the roof of the Grand Arcade and onboard Nebula, on course for the Dragon's Teeth mountains, Marezambique
An arrow missed Applejack by a hair's-breadth and shattered on the roof tiles next to her hoof. She shied away with a surprised snort and looked up.
The archers couldn't see us, but they knew approximately where we were and had begun lofting their shots over the burning statue room at the top of the temple. Rarity used her blades to cut a few more shafts out of the air before I got a shield up. I used a flat disk shape because it took the least amount of energy to cast. That also meant it was fairly weak, but I kept it at an acute angle to the flight of the arrows, and it was enough to deflect them.
I glanced back over my shoulder and saw that Nebula was closer, but the pursuing ships were gaining on her quickly. Nebula was built to be speedy but she was still a cargo vessel and the attackers were military craft, overpowered and deadly. If Fluttershy came to a stop to pick us up, they'd be on us and we'd have to fight our way out—if we made it out at all, given their numbers.
An arrow cracked into the tiles near my front hooves and I thought for a second that it had somehow gotten through my shield. But it was blackened and smoking, and had come in at a low angle.
The roiling energy of the magical traps had begun to gutter out and I looked back through the hole we'd broken in the wall of the statue room, past the blackened shoulder of the hyena god, and saw that two archers stood at the top of the stairs, along with the captain of the Elite Guard. The archer who had fired through the flames was putting another arrow to his bowstring.
"You cannot escape, Blackmane!" the zebra captain called out. "Surrender and you will be treated fairly."
Ah yes, Captain Blackmane, scourge of the Eastern Skies. I felt more like a hunted rabbit than a dread pirate at that moment. I didn't deign to answer, and it wasn't just because I couldn't think of a snappy comeback.
I was summoning up the energy to turn my little disk shield into a hemisphere when Rarity stepped forward. "Your wound must sting quite a bit," she said, motioning to the line of red she had cut beneath the captain's eye. "Wouldn't you like a chance at revenge?"
The zebra stiffened. "I assure you that I will treat you with respect. Despite what you might have heard of my father, I do not ill-use prisoners. You have my word on that."
Rarity and I exchanged a glance. That was interesting.
"What about a duel to settle this—misunderstanding? You and I." Rarity slid all but one of her blades back into their sheathes. "Your reputation would certainly be in no danger. If you win, you would be the one who had beaten the notorious Silver Mask, and if you lose— you'll be in very good company, at least."
She was playing for time, of course. I really didn't expect the captain to go for it, but his head rose and he stared at her through narrowed eyes as the archers to either side of him exchanged nervous glances.
"I win," Rarity continued, "and you let us leave with the gem."
"And if I win?"
"We surrender peaceably and..." she struck a pose; one which she knew showed off her figure very well indeed, "...I will personally reward such a gallant warrior."
The zebra's nostrils flared. He was actually considering it, the fool.
"Your Highness—" began one of the archers hesitantly.
"Hot Frog Tongue!" yelled Rainbow Dash.
The zebras were understandably confused, but we all knew what it meant and there were groans all around. Except for Pinkie Pie, who grinned and made a happy little oohooh! sound.
I staggered a bit as I turned to look at the approaching Nebula. Sure enough, she had flown the H, F, and T signal flags from a weighted line: Fluttershy wasn't planning on slowing down. I did a quick estimate of the ship's course and velocity. If we remained where we were, there would be a good chance we'd be slammed into what remained of the temple wall at high speed.
"This way!" I shouted and stumbled along the roof top to put us in a better position.
"Oh dear," Rarity called over her shoulder. "We shall have to postpone our affair of honor until some other time, Your Highness."
"Wait!" he called after her. "I agree to your terms! Wait!"
I got us all into a tight group near the roof edge at the lower end of the building just as the "frog tongue" dropped over Nebula's side. It was a long piece of sturdy netting that would be easy for any pony to cling to... in ordinary circumstances. But the "hot" part of the signal meant that it wouldn't be ordinary at all. Nebula wouldn't be slowing down to make the rescue maneuver, but would drag the netting over us at speed. It was something I had planned for extreme emergencies, but had never thought would actually be used.
"Rainbow, if any of us fall, you'll have to be the catcher. Are you up for it?"
"Of course I am!" She grimaced. "But what if two of you fall?"
"Pick yer favorite, sugarcube," Applejack drawled.
Then Nebula was upon us. Exhausted as I was, I abandoned any attempt at grace or precision and just tried to jam all six of my limbs through the netting, hoping that at least one of them would stick.
There was a confused welter of shouting and the clatter of roof tiles, and then I was yanked painfully skyward by my left wing. I scrabbled desperately with my forehooves until I got a decent grip and could take my weight off my wing. I ignored the agony in my shoulder and quickly scanned the rest of the net. We were all firmly, if not gracefully, clinging to the "tongue," with Dash soaring nearby.
A couple of arrows zipped past from below, but then we were over the palace walls and out of range. All we had to worry about then, were the attack ships full of angry warriors coming up quickly from behind. Their archers tried a couple of shots, but at the speed we we traveling, their arrows were practically blown back onto their own hull. We were hauled aboard Nebula without any further injuries.
"Ket!" I called out for my Third Mate.
The changeling was by my side a few seconds later. "Captain?"
"We got the Eye. It's in AJ's saddlebag. Get it stowed somewhere secure and well padded. We may be in for a rough time."
"Aye aye, sir," she said. "Shall I send the doctor up to look at your wing?"
Was it that obvious? "No time. Just get the gem secured."
She scurried off with the eye and I plodded my way up to the quarterdeck, trying to shift my wing to a position that didn't hurt. "Good thinking, Fluttershy," I said to the wide-eyed mare who had a death-grip on the wheel.
Her jaw muscles were bunched up in hard knots, and she just gave a warbling wheeze through her nose by way of reply.
"Steady and precise," I said to her in a soothing voice, "just like you always are, and we'll get out of this just fine."
She gave another little squeak, which I interpreted in as positive a manner as I could.
"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash called out to me from where she stood, tugging at the locked door of the arms locker. "Give me a couple cutlasses and I can go to work on those guys' gasbags!"
"Just a second, Dash." I lifted a spyglass out of the binnacle and studied our pursuers. "No, they've got pegasus mercenaries on board, waiting to close range. If you go out there, they'll swarm you."
"We can't just do nothing! They're gonna catch up with us pretty soon, anyways!"
I was well aware of that. I needed to slow them down somehow. I brought up my magic... and the world went dark. I staggered and dropped to the deck. The spyglass rolled into the scuppers.
"Twilight! Are you okay?"
"'M fine, Dash, I'm fine," I gasped, struggling back to my hooves.
"No, you're not," Pinkie Pie chirped, pointing in turn at my injured wing and horn. "Your flapper's dragging and your zapper's flagging. You've got nothing left but your big ol' brain, and it's too mushy to hurt anypony if you hit them with it!"
Years ago, I'd given up asking "why" about anything having to do with Pinkie; she had her own special brand of logic that most ponies accepted as indecipherable. But I'd come to appreciate her unique way of interpreting the world around her. It still took me a couple of seconds to get the message, though.
"Right, right," I muttered, looking around the deck. There! "Rainbow, get that grappling hook and line and get to the top of the envelope. Go up forward where the zebras will be less likely to see you. Where's AJ?"
"Down here, Twi!"
I looked over the quarterdeck rail and saw Applejack raising her dripping muzzle from a water barrel. "Have you got enough energy left to haul a ground anchor up topside?" I asked.
She eyed one of the huge iron hooks with a sour expression, but rolled and flexed the big muscles in her shoulders. "Ain't much more than a half-dozen hay bales would weigh, I reckon. Should be a cinch."
I was asking a lot of her, I knew, but there weren't many options left to us. "Take it up through the accessway and meet Rainbow Dash at the top. Fix her line to the anchor when you get there."
"Oh, I get it," Dash said, grinning. "Where do you want me to put the hook?"
"Top of their forward gas cell if you can manage it. Try to avoid any frames or ribs. And no heroics!" I didn't like the gleam in her eyes.
She twirled the grappling hook in a tight circle. "Twilight, this is heroic!" She was gone before I could protest.
"Fluttershy, that weight up top is going to change our balance. Can you deal with it?"
Sweet little Fluttershy shot me an oh, please look. "As long as it doesn't need to be up there for more than fifteen minutes."
"No, it'll be gone by... wait, why is that?"
She pointed forward. "I'm going to try to lose them in there."
I turned to see the jagged line of the Dragon's Teeth dead ahead. At our altitude, we were well below most of the mountain range's peaks. It was a good plan. Our attackers could climb above us and out of the danger of collision, but their ships were made to attack and board other aircraft from alongside, and they wanted to capture us and retrieve the Eye, not wreck us.
"Good. Hold your course."
Fluttershy's mouth had gone tight again, and she merely nodded in reply.
The waiting was excruciating. Ket returned from below and reported that she'd stowed away the eye of the idol. Then she began improvising a sling for my injured wing.
"That can wait, Ms. Khaatarrekket," I told her.
"Begging the captain's pardon," she replied, not stopping her work, "but if this engagement gets down to hoof-to-hoof, as it looks like it might, you'll be better off not being hampered by a dragging wing."
"I... thank you, Ket."
She gave a last tug to tighten the sling and said, "My pleasure, captain. Now, I know as how you don't like the using of it, but I also brought up your cutlass. Best to be ready for anything." She settled the scabbard's strap over my shoulders.
I nodded glumly and turned to my Second Mate, a stallion from Saddle Arabia. He'd been standing at his post by the lee rail, as calm and serene as if we had been out for an afternoon's pleasure cruise. "Mr. Taleb, prepare the crew to repel boarders."
"Aye, aye, captain," he said, in a low, serene tone. He crossed to the arms locker and used the brass key that hung around his neck to open it, then called for the crew to line up to receive their weapons. As Master of Arms, he already wore his own sword, a long slender blade that curved slightly from hilt to tip.
My voyages were unusual to say the least, and the crew that stayed with me came to fit that description as well. They were quite a mixed bunch, but all good at their jobs. My first voyage out, I'd hired merchant airponies from Canterlot and Baltimare, but I seemed to lose and acquire crew at every port we visited, until Nebula's complement was a sampling of most of the peoples of the eastern hemisphere.
I turned my gaze over the stern rail and went back to waiting. Fortunately for my nerves, I didn't have to wait long.
Rainbow Dash appeared over Nebula's tail fin, streaking upwards and trailing a long line.
The leading pursuer made the mistake of only sending two pegasi to intercept her. Dash not only outflew them but also managed a bit of aerobatics that caused the two mercenaries to collide with each other. One was injured too badly to fly and his partner had to save him from dropping like a stone, taking them both out of the fight.
Four more pegasi flung themselves out of the airship, but by then Dash had set the grapple and turned back toward Nebula. The pegasi were confused. Why would we grapple with them? And at such a long range, as well? The small barbed hook was stuck in the envelope high above the long blade mounted on her nose cone. It was a shallow puncture, something that would normally be considered trivial damage.
That's when Applejack heaved the ground anchor over the side. The heavy iron weight snapped the line taut almost instantly, and the grapple began ripping through the fabric. The pegasi were slow on the uptake and by the time they got to the line and cut the anchor free, the ship's forward gas cell had a gash three pony lengths long. As the gas rushed out, the ship lost lift and began to nose down. Her engines were already at full ahead, so the only thing she could do to compensate was to crank her forward elevators to the full up position.
Like many airships built purely for speed, she didn't do well in extreme circumstances. She slowed and yawed drunkenly through the sky as her helmspony tried to deal with a suddenly cranky craft. Soon we were gaining distance on her, and the other two pursuers swung wide to pass their crippled companion.
Wherein an airship is launched, Pinkie Pie reveals to Twilight her true position in the nature of things, and the Bearers of Harmony rudely ignore Twilight's wishes.
Early June, 1012 Canterlot, Ponyville, and onboard Nebula, on course for Zebrica
Sooner than I expected, Gudgeon pronounced my ship finished and well-appointed. I managed to reign in Rarity, and the paint job on the envelope and hull were within the range one might expect... if at the very edge of a theoretical bell curve delineating stylishness of merchant vessels.
All that was left was to give her a name.
"Shooting Star?" suggested Luna, as she carefully examined the ship's lines.
"Hmn... some clever double meanings possible with that one, but no, I think I've decided," I replied. "I'm going to name her after you."
Luna smiled but then raised an eyebrow. "Will that not compromise the anonymity you seek?"
"Oh, I won't call her My Darling Luna, if that's what you're thinking." I grinned at her and moved my wing, gently lifting my primary feathers through her cool, ethereal mane. "I was thinking that 'Nebula' would be nice."
Luna laughed. "Thou art naming thy craft in honor of my hair?"
"Dark, sleek, and beautiful... with constellations, you'll note," I said, pointing out the decorative stars painted on the envelope. "I think it's appropriate."
"I'sooth, 'tis a blue not unlike my own." She was trying to sound casual, but her eyes sparkled in the torchlight.
Luna broke the bottle of sparkling cider across Nebula's bow at her launching; a perfectly acceptable gesture from one princess to another, signifying nothing else... as far as the general populace was concerned.
I had my ship, I had my plan, and I had a tough choice to make. Up until then, I had to be available whenever the map table called. I hadn't thought about it much because I rather enjoyed being given missions of importance at a moment's notice, and every task had worked out pretty well. On the evidence, the map knew what it was doing. But the maiden voyage I was contemplating would take at least a month, and maybe more.
I have to admit that I was moping around the castle in a pensive mood, considering what I would do if I was halfway to Zebrica and my cutie mark lit up, when Pinkie Pie made up my mind for me.
"Hiya Queenie!" Pinkie called, as she bounced into the throne room.
I chuckled. "Did I get a promotion?"
Pinkie snorted and rolled her eyes. "Silly Twilight! I was talking to the table!"
"The table."
"Yupperoonie!"
"Do I really want to know?"
"Well," she said, ticking off the points on her hoof, "you're a princess, and the table bosses you around, so that means it outranks you, and that means it's a queen." She paused to rub her chin. "Or maybe an empress... but definitely not a marchioness!"
It actually made sense in a twisted, Pinkie sort of way.
"So—"
"Don't worry, Twilight! Just because you're the lackey of a piece of furniture, doesn't mean you aren't super-duper spiffy!"
"'Lackey.'"
"Yuh-huh."
"Of a table."
"A maaagical table!"
I was told that ponies heard me shouting as far away as Town Hall.
= = =
"I'm leaving Monday morning," I told the girls as we enjoyed a light lunch together on the grand balcony of the castle. "I've got an itinerary set, and Spike will be along to send messages. I'll write letters to you all at each port, and Luna has arranged to forward them. I'll be so far away that shared dreams would be impractical, but you can ask Celestia or Luna to send a letter if I'm needed back here. I think that covers everything."
They all looked at each other.
"Yeah, everything except who's going to take over our jobs while we come along with you," Rainbow Dash said, scowling at me. "I can ask Spitfire to assign me to your guard again, but that means somepony else will have to take over at the castle."
"Well, I reckon I can hire Caramel for the hayin' and maybe Noteworthy to help take care of the stock. He ain't much for heavy labor, but he's good with critters," Applejack said.
"I could finish up my outstanding orders in a week. Sassy and Coco should be able to take care of any emergencies. Could you put off the departure for a few days, darling?"
"I suppose I could..." Fluttershy began.
"Wait, wait!" I interrupted. "I'm not going to upset your schedules for this! It's just a trial run, and if the table comes up with a..."
"Cloud Kicker!" Dash said suddenly. "Yeah, I'll put her in charge and then everypony will be extra glad to get me back!"
"Maybe Noteworthy could stop by my cottage for the evening feeding? Then I could..."
It was obvious that they were going to ignore me. Some leader of ponies I was. "Listen!" I half-shouted. "This isn't a pleasure cruise and I don't want to be recognized! I'm going in disguise and..." I really should have known better.
"Oooooo! Secret stuff!" Pinkie Pie clopped her fore hooves together. "I'm in!"
"Some sort of nom de guerre would be in order, wouldn't it? 'Dashing Blade' sounds nice! He was the hero of a fabulous romance novel I read last month."
"I'm the one who dashes around here!" Rainbow objected. "Hmn... I've got a Daring Do costume..."
"I s'pose I could put a colored hatband on one o' my spare hats."
I don't know why I even pretend to have any control over my life.
= = =
I shifted my scheduled departure to Monday the week after and managed to keep the girls from making it look like I was exporting fancy costume parties. I worked up some charmed jewelry to alter their appearances, though Rarity insisted on making her own setting for her gem, trying very hard not to let on that she thought my simple bezel and gold chain was an affront to fashion through the ages. It didn't really matter, because I layered a charm on top of the jewels to make them unnoticeable,[1] but Rarity insisted that she would know, so I gave in to her whim. Rarity was right about something else: We needed cover names. But I didn't think we could manage to consistently use the pseudonyms without slipping up, so I developed a clever little spell to alter how other ponies heard what we called each other. The six of us could use any of our names or nicknames, and others would only hear our chosen aliases.[2] ---------- [1] Merchant crewponies didn't wear much in the way of accessories. [2] Spike made an adorable little colt, and was very eager to play cabin boy even before Rarity squealed with delight on seeing his disguise and gave him a big, nuzzle-y hug. ----------
Aside from Rainbow Dash snapping welts on her own ears and rump while practicing with her Official Daring Do Action Bullwhip, preparations went smoothly.
Celestia had her staff prepare and expedite all the paperwork that was necessary, including, interestingly enough, foreign health certificates and licenses. She gave me the final bundle, all tied up with a neat red ribbon and a sheet listing all the contents, and my last excuse for not leaving vanished.
I spent the last night before we left in Canterlot with Luna. She even canceled Night Court so that we would have more time together.
"Thou hast the charms and philters I prepared?" she asked me as I prepared to fly back to Ponyville early Monday morning.
"All properly stowed away," I confirmed.
"And a goodly store of enchanted paper for messages?"
"I will write you even when I have nothing of interest to say. I promise!"
"Nay, thy slightest thoughts are of great import to me!" She lowered her head until her muzzle was only a hoof width from mine.
"You're making it very hard for me to go," I said, moving my own nose closer until it almost touched hers.
"Would if be so horrible if thou wert ever so slightly behind thy time? There are not sufficient hours in a day to properly show my affection, but perhaps a turn of the glass to hint at how grievously the hours apart will wound me?" Like we hadn't spent most of the previous night doing just that.
I kissed her for the space of ten heartbeats and then broke away. "I'm the captain, and duty calls."
She smiled wickedly as she backed away. "Then fly to thy duty, but let it not weigh heavily upon thee, for thou shalt need all of thy strength to bear the welcome I will tender upon thy return!"
"So the trip won't be a total loss, no matter how it goes." I attempted a leer in return, but am fairly certain I didn't pull it off. Fortunately, Luna is very understanding.
= = =
"Grass?" Rainbow Dash peered through the hatch into Nebula's main hold. "We're hauling grass? That's so lame! We should have a cargo of exotic silks and spices! Maybe mysterious locked chests that make eerie sounds at night!"
"Canter Valley Bluegrass hay is worth a great deal in Zebrica," I told her. "They consider it a rare delicacy. And spices and silk come from across the ocean, so why in the world would we be exporting them there?"
"Lame," Dash muttered and she turned and clomped off toward the fo'c'sle. We were barely a day out of Ponyville and she was bored already. She'd been on self-imposed pirate-watch for most of the morning and we hadn't even crossed the Equestrian coast yet.
But it wasn't just her. Crewing aboard an airship freighter took a certain kind of temperament, and I was beginning to suspect it was one that none of my friends shared. I tried to interest Dash in learning to steer the ship, but she was completely disdainful of a craft that could only manage a tiny fraction of her flying speed. But to my surprise, Fluttershy seemed intrigued by the idea.
"It's really like some big animal, isn't it?" she said, looking out over the main deck. "All the crew need to work together, like muscle and nerves and lungs."
"I suppose," I admitted. "Ponies who work aboard airships and boats are always careful to call them by name and often claim each vessel has its own quirks and personality, though there's probably a lot of superstition in that."
"Well—" Fluttershy paused for several moments, but I knew she just needed time to work up to whatever was coming next and waited patiently. "Maybe I could get to know Nebula. I've watched how the crew ponies handle the lines, and I don't know if I'm strong enough for that, but—" She ducked her head and let a long lock of her pink mane fall across her face. "Maybe—sometime—I could try steering. If it's okay with you and it isn't too hard, I mean."
I introduced her to Acorn, the unicorn helmspony on watch, and ran her through Driving a Balloon 101.[3] She listened attentively and even summoned up enough courage to ask a couple of good questions. ---------- [3] That's a joke, by the way. One pilots,sails, or steers an aircraft. Aeronauts cringe when ponies speak of driving a craft that flies. -----------
"Okay," I said when I was confident she had grasped all the basics, "take the wheel, Ms. Fluttershy!"
"What? Now?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, I don't know—maybe I should just watch for a little—"
"No time like the present!" I said cheerfully. I lifted her in my magic and plunked her down in front of the big wooden wheel. "Acorn and I will be right here if you need us!"
She immediately froze up. But since we were holding to a straight, level course, that was perfectly acceptable.
After about five minutes had passed, when most of the tension had left Fluttershy's shoulders and forelegs, I said to her, "That's really good! You've held a good steady line, no sudden or wasted motions. Right Mr. Acorn?"
"Yes, cap'n," he replied, solemnly. "As sure a hoof on the wheel as any I've seen."[4] ---------- [4] My crew had been hoof-picked, not only for their aeronautical capabilities, but for a certain phlegmatic outlook towards what might best be termed peculiarities. ----------
"Oh," Fluttershy said, softly smiling. "Really?"
"So let's try a slow easy turn," I said.
"I don't know if I'm ready for—"
"Turn the top of the wheel to the left until the second spoke from the top is straight up," I told her. I had to give her a little magical nudge to get her started, but she did it.
"Nothing is happening," she said after a moment. "Did I do it wrong?"
"It takes a little while for Nebula to respond," Acorn said. "And it's hard to tell when she starts to turn unless you watch the compass. There! You see the card moving?"
"Oh, yes!" Fluttershy smiled, proud of her achievement.
"Good," Acorn said. "Now, let's try to straighten her out heading Southwest by West. That's the mark on the compass card, there. The spoke with the fancy bit of ropework on it will be back at the top of the wheel when the rudder is amidships."
"Yes, I see it."
"Good! Now, it took Nebula about five seconds to start her turn, so figure how fast the compass is moving and try to turn the wheel back five seconds before the mark I showed you reaches the index line."
Acorn was being very kind and careful with Fluttershy, so I left them to the flying lesson and went in search of the rest of my friends.
Within a couple of days, everypony had gotten interested in some aspect of shipboard life and settled into a regular routine. Even if I thought some of the exercises that they went through were a little impractical, they were all happy, and that's what mattered. Fluttershy had gotten so interested in piloting that I could barely convince her to let go of the wheel long enough to eat. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash spent the afternoons whacking at each other with wooden cutlasses and boarding axes that Rarity had put together for them.
The only thing that didn't work out was one of Rarity's ideas; she just couldn't interest anypony else in playing shuffleboard.
I had assumed, with her martial arts background, that Rarity would join Dash and Pinkie, but she had gotten interested in fancy knot work and spent her free time with Halter Hitch, learning all sorts of ridiculously complicated ways to use up a lot of rope.
Oddly enough, Halter Hitch was an earth pony, but he could tie complicated knots faster than any of the unicorns aboard. Soon, we had "fancy work" covering railings, belaying pins, and anything else that afforded a decent place for Rarity to practice. She even wove a very luxurious-looking hammock that Dash commandeered for her mid-morning and late-afternoon naps, and a smaller version for Spike.
The crew didn't seem to mind all the unusual activity, and were positively delighted by the cooking skills of Pinkie Pie and Applejack.
I had packed two chests full of books and magical equipment, and spent most of my time reading or working on creating the Talisman of Night.
The Talisman had been another excuse I had used to delay my departure. I felt it was an unfinished piece of business that I ought to resolve before leaving Ponyville for any extended period. Unfortunately, the work had not gone well, and it was still far from complete.
The whole horrible affair with Luna's corrupted other half had left me in possession of another alicorn's twisted magical power. The Nightmare was no more, but she had left her indelible mark on the raw mana I had absorbed from her, and it made things difficult for me when using it to amplify my own magic. Like a filly who had become a good dancer and then undergone puberty, I found that things no longer functioned in the ways I had become accustomed to. A young mare stumbling over her own hooves posed little threat to the ponies around her, but the energies I commanded were of an entirely different magnitude, and potentially very dangerous.
It wasn't just the extra power within me that was the main problem; I had learned how to deal with that sort of situation when Tirek had escaped Tartarus. No, it was that the magic itself had been twisted somehow and preferred certain spell forms. It's hard to describe, and I don't want to ponify the magic; I am certain that there was no sentience to it at all. But the problem remained and I didn't want to keep playing host to the uncomfortable energy. It needed a safe place to reside.
My solution was to bind the Nightmare's magic into an artifact, much like the Alicorn Amulet. In fact, I had recovered the Amulet from its secure location in order to study it in preparation for my attempt. I took it to an underground workroom beneath my tower in Canterlot, and that's when I got a rather nasty surprise.
I recognized the magic bound into the Alicorn Amulet.
I never had any intention of putting it on, of course. I was confident that I had sufficient strength of will to resist its corrupting influence, but there was no sense in taking chances, and I didn't need to channel its magic to investigate the matrix that kept it bound into the jeweled necklace. But as soon as I opened the protective box that held it, my experience while escaping the Wheel of the World told me precisely what its source of power was.
The gem held a tiny fraction of the magic of the Red Queen. The power within the Amulet was a mote of the magical essence of the mother of Celestia and Luna; the amoral and merciless creator of our universe.
In which Twilight makes several poor decisions while not in full possession of her faculties, and takes a rather large risk based solely on a tenuous connection between appearance and appellation.
May 3rd, 1014, Afternoon Onboard Nebula, approaching and within the Dragon's Teeth range
"No!" I yelled, "No shooting!"
Rainbow Dash stopped trying to fit a quarrel into the crossbow and stared at me in disbelief. "Twilight, if they catch us, they're going to kill us!"
The energy it took to stomp my hoof on the deck made my head swim. "Unless you can take out an entire airship with that thing, put it down! Those zebras aren't bad ponies. They're just defending their sultan against pirates... well, defending his property, anyway. We're in this mess because we're trying to save lives."
"An' we're gonna fail at that in a right unpleasant way, if'n they catch us," Applejack shot back.
Rainbow glared at me and dropped the quarrel into the slot on the top of the crossbow. Then she raised the stock to her cheek, squinted along it, and fired.
"Rainbow!"
She scowled at me and jerked her head toward the closest airship. I turned to look and saw that she'd hit its steering fin. She had used one of those quarrels with the crescent-shaped cutting heads, and the fabric panel between two of the fin's spines had been sliced apart from end to end.
"Right. Sorry. Uhmn... please continue."
I was exhausted and not thinking clearly. Far from helping the situation, I was actively detracting from our defense. I'd have done better to just collapse against the stern rail and provide some cover or….
"Ket!"
"Yesh, Capt'n?" the changeling hissed around the grip of the short serrated blade in her mouth.
"Go to my cabin and get the small black box that's in the locked cabinet over my bunk." I pulled the cabinet's key out of my vest and dropped my head to let the chain slide off of my neck.
"The one you told me never to touch under any circumstances?"
"That's the one. Hurry."
She sheathed her blade, scooped up the key, and vaulted over the quarterdeck rail to the waist of the ship.
In under a minute, Rainbow Dash managed to shred most of the nearest pursuer's forward steering fin on her starboard side. The ship's crew had shifted her course to protect that side, but were slowing because of the damage. I was impressed.
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who was impressed. The attack ship's captain had taken Dash's actions personally and had launched a squad of four pegasi, armed with bows, to get rid of the threat to his vessel. They climbed as they raced toward Nebula, to make it hard for us to return fire, and when they'd gotten within range, they began doing their best to turn Rainbow Dash into a pin cushion.
Believe it or not, Rainbow was fast enough to dodge arrows. If they came one at a time, that is. The third arrow cut through her left wing, missing the flesh, but chopping at least a half-dozen of her primary flight feathers in half. Rarity cut the fourth arrow from the air before it could lodge in Dash's chest.
"Git under cover, ya idjit!" Applejack yelled at Dash. "It's you they're shootin' for!"
"Hide? Are you kidding? I'm..." Another volley arrived, one crescent-headed arrow thudding into the deck between Rainbow's forehooves, and another clipping even more feathers from her ruined wing. "Yikes!" Her sense of self-preservation finally kicked in and she dove behind the binnacle.
One of the archers unwisely got within the range of Rarity's magic, and paid the price. She wasn't magically strong enough to pull a pony out of the air, but she didn't need to be. The first four primary feathers on the archer's left wing glowed briefly and snapped in half. Without his main flight feathers, the pegasus couldn't stay in the air. He had enough control and lift to flounder to a soft landing, but our enemies had been reduced by one.
The others back-winged and shot another volley. Rarity cut another arrow out of the air and the feathers of the severed end smacked me across the nose. Chestnut, a crewpony who had been helping rig anti-boarding netting, cried out and I glanced at him to see a long shallow cut along his ribs, just beginning to bleed.
"I'm sorry, but I'm tired of pussy-footing around with these ruffians," Rarity said, sliding her blades back into their sheathes. The remaining archers were out of her magical range, but where her levitation left off, physics took over. She neatly flung a belaying pin straight into the forehead of one of the pegasi with enough force to knock him cold.
One of his companions dropped his bow and dove to catch the unconscious pony, leaving only one other, who hurriedly retreated to his ship.
The damaged airship slipped further behind and yawed to one side to allow the untouched third vessel to come alongside of her. There was movement on deck, and the captains held a shouted conversation that we couldn't quite make out. The pegasi from the crippled ship took to the air and moved to flanking positions high and on each side of us. They were carrying long sections of what appeared to be iron chain with many hooks attached. Evidently they had a way to deal with magically strong opponents. That was definitely not good.
"Capt'n?"
Khaatarrekket stood on my left, holding the little box from my cabin in her mouth. She could have levitated it, but was being understandably cautious with the little don't-ever-touch-it item.
I nodded to the deck and Ket set it down. This presented me with another problem, as the box was magically locked and protected. The mechanism of the lock was an intricate matrix of thaumic nodes based on prime numbers that would be impossible to figure out for a unicorn without the key value and a knowledge of higher mathematics, but which I could calculate and manipulate in my sleep. It just needed a touch of magic. Magic which I didn't have at the moment.
"Mr. Fairlead!" I shouted over the quarterdeck rail.
My first mate looked up from the main deck, where he was levitating the heavy booms for the anti-boarding netting into place. "Captain?"
He was a strong stallion with strong magic. He had proved himself to be a dependable and unflappable officer. And I still hesitated to ask him for what I needed.
"Captain?"
"I—" I leaned over the rail and lowered my voice. Fairlead took the hint and moved to just below me. "I'm going to ask you for something. Ask, Mr. Fairlead. This is not an order, and if you refuse I will understand completely."
He nodded briefly. "Aye, Captain."
I took a deep breath. "I need to take your magic for just a little while. You weren't in Equestria when Tirek went on his rampage, so you don't know what it's like, but I assure you, it isn't pleasant."
His eyes widened and he took a half-step backwards. "You can do that, ma'am?"
I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded.
He glanced astern to where the attack ship was closing fast, his mouth went tight, and then he gave a nod of his own.
It was ugly. There are some things that should never be done, and I felt a deep uneasiness as I watched the color fade from Fairlead 's eyes and the cutie mark fade from his thigh. But it was something that had to be done.
I unlocked the box as quickly as I could and then slipped the talisman over my head. I shuddered with the sudden rush of magical power, then vaulted over the quarterdeck rail and dropped to the main deck beside the slumped form of my first mate. I held up his muzzle with a hoof and breathed out his power. I waited until he had scrambled to his hooves, while trying to avoid looking at his horrified expression, and then returned to the quarterdeck.
The enemy pegasi were out of sight above Nebula's envelope, but with my new magical strength, it was easy to detect them. They were far to each side and gaining altitude in an effort to make sure they were out of telekinesis range before they unleashed whatever nasty tactic they were up to.
Well, they weren't out of my range! I duplicated Rarity's little trick on a grander scale. The first thing the rest of the crew knew of it were the surprised and anguished cries of the enemy pegasi. Next, they saw the long hooked chains dropping to either side of us, followed seconds later by cursing and screaming ponies thrashing useless wings as they shed gear and floundered in the grip of remorseless gravity.
I spared a moment to laugh at the sight, then turned my attention to the airships. "Now..." I could feel myself grinning as I walked to the stern rail. Crewponies hurriedly got out of my way.
The first bolt of magic hit the airship with the crippled fin. I'd aimed it to take out the forward gas cell just above the long blade at the bow, but the skin of the envelope lit up and crackled, dispersing the energy of the shot. It seemed the zebra sultan could afford talented magical artificers... for his military, at least.
"Oh, it's going to be like that, is it?" I snarled. I fired three more blasts in quick succession. Each hit and dispersed, but I could sense the energy retained by the fine enchanted mesh that covered the ship's outer skin. A dozen or so more shots would be enough to heat it to the point where it would fail or set fire to the fabric it was supposed to protect.
"If you want to burn, so be it!" I flung five more blasts into the ship's defenses before a hoof slammed into my chest.
"Just what in tarnation are you doin', Twilight?"
I looked down. Applejack had a hoof planted solidly on my chest. I raised a leg to slap it away and then paused. The enemy ship was smoldering and turning away, frantically maneuvering to escape. If it had caught fire, everypony aboard that wasn't able to fly would have died horribly.
"I—" Oh sweet Celestia, what had I been doing? Fighting the enemy. Destroying the ponies that would have killed me and my friends without a thought. They deserved to die! Who would mourn the loss of mere peasants? Who cared for such lowly….
The hoof caught me across the face, and Applejack shoved her muzzle right against mine. "Twilight! What's wrong with you?" Her voice was angry but there was a tremble in it, and I realized with horror that my friend was afraid of me.
I frantically glanced around and saw that I was the center of a circle of terrified ponies. Before I could think, before my thoughts could turn back to the cold, remorseless track they wanted to follow, I lowered my head and scraped the talisman off of my neck with a hoof.
I dropped like a wind-broken tree branch. I couldn't even turn my head but I heard AJ snapping out orders.
"No! Don't touch that cussed thing! Any of y'all got a stick or... yeah a marling spike will do. Just scoop it up and drop it back in that there box. Be careful!"
A moment later I felt a nudge at my ribs. "Twi, can you git up?"
"No," I gasped weakly, "too stupid to stand."
Strong hooves circled my barrel and I was dragged behind the binnacle and dropped next to Rainbow Dash. "You just rest, Twilight. We'll take care of it."
Dash started to get up but I asked her to stay. "You can't do anything... until they board us. If you could... keep me filled in on what's happening, I'd appreciate it," I wheezed.
She sighed but said, "Sure, Twilight," and looked sternward. "The last one is coming up fast. Couple of unicorns are doing something with her engines. I think they're gonna ram us. Try to stick us with that long blade mounted at the bow, y'know? There's zebras on deck with little catapults... loading them with pots of green, steamy gunk. This doesn't look good, Twi. You sure you don't have any umph left?"
I didn't have enough "umph" to turn my head. All I could see were the onrushing peaks of the Dragon's Teeth. We were nearly there, and it was amazing how much the mountains looked like actual fangs. In fact, they looked exactly like dragon dentition. Exactly.
"Fluttershy!" I gasped out.
"Umn... kinda busy now, Twilight."
"This... is important," I took as deep a breath as I could and tried to get my instructions all out in one rush. "Once we clear that first peak to starboard, turn us hard right and keep as much speed as you can. You'll have about two furlongs of narrow canyon and then you'll need to take a hard left just opposite the jagged outcrop that will be to your right. You won't see it, but there's an opening there."
"How do you know that?" Rainbow Dash put in. It was good timing on her part, because it gave me time to get my breath back.
I grinned. "Spike sleeps with his mouth open." Before she could ask the obvious question, I continued to Fluttershy. "After you make that turn you'll have half a furlong to get us another five hundred feet of altitude, or we'll smack into a sheer cliff. Hopefully, the zebras won't be as good at piloting as you are."
"Are you sure?"
I wasn't. The shape and the name of the mountains could have been sheer coincidence. But I didn't believe in coincidences of that magnitude. And there was nothing left that would help us unless I wanted to risk going full Nightmare Twilight. And I didn't... not even if my friends would let me. "Absolutely sure," I said.
"Oh. Okay." Fluttershy swallowed and then bellowed out, "Everypony hang on to something!"
Applejack heard her and repeated the command loudly enough that the crew could hear it. Then things got exciting.
Rainbow Dash hooked one foreleg through the railing and grabbed me around the barrel with the other. We slid a bit as Nebula heeled over before her hull swung with the first turn, but Dash's grip kept us more or less in one place.
There was some quiet but heartfelt swearing from the crew as our port lateral fin scraped the granite, but it turned to cheers as they saw the wild yaw of the pursuing ship as she tried to keep up with us.
"She's not going to make it!" shouted one over-eager crewpony. He was almost right.
The attack ship scraped the mountainside with her port elevator in almost the same place we had hit, then over-compensated and rammed the long blade on her nose into the opposite side of the canyon.
A cheer went up from Nebula's crew, but it trailed off when the whole blade structure dropped off of the attacker's nose cone, and the ship swung back on course once again. The blade had been built to be easily discarded if it was damaged... or wedged in an enemy vessel, I supposed.
They closed fast and arrows began arcing toward us. Then one of the catapults fired. If Fairlead hadn't deflected it with his magic, the smoldering pot of burning green goo would have burst on the quarterdeck. When it hit the granite below us, there was a violent hissing and black oily smoke billowed up into the air. Five more catapults readied their shots, looking to overwhelm our ability to deflect them.
I had just managed to raise my head to see how far we had to go until the blind canyon when Fluttershy yelled for everypony to hang on again. I was half rolled over by the inertia of the maneuver, and cracked my horn and the side of my head against the binnacle.
By the time my head cleared, we were in the shadow of the narrow walls of rock and there were unpleasant scraping and grinding noises coming from all around me. But the sounds from aft of us were worse. We were close enough to hear the cursing of the zebra officers, the dreadful prolonged crackling of skeletal spars, and the sharp hiss of tearing fabric as their ship slammed the side of her envelope against the jagged rocks.
We'd done it! Our last pursuer was too damaged to continue the chase. I had about a second to start to relax when the pony on watch in the bow screamed, "M-mountain! Mountain dead ahead!"
The dead end of the canyon was a bit closer than my rough estimate predicted. Okay, a lot closer.
Fluttershy screamed. It was a weird, quiet sort of scream; a high, nearly ultrasonic eeeeeeeeeeeee of terror that went on and on. Fortunately, Fluttershy could scream and fly at the same time. Her hooves flew over the ballast controls in a yellow blur and then pounded down on the big release levers.
There was a hollow boom as all six emergency dump valves slammed open and then the roar of tons of water falling into open air. Then Nebula's deck leaped upward and I slipped and hit my horn hard against the quartedeck rail. There was an ugly cracking sound and everything went black.
Containing a surfeit of aeronautical jargon, in which it is discovered that Fluttershy has acquired a new pet, and Twilight has a revelation about an old enemy.
June 9th - 14th, 1012 Onboard Nebula, on course for Zebrica
"Out stu'n's'l bones!"
Our Second Mate and Sailing Master on that first voyage was Lee Helm, a grizzled old stallion who was having the time of his life. Commercial vessels rarely used the wind for propulsion any longer, and having a chance to exercise his expertise once again made him a very happy pony.
Of course, Nebula didn't need to use her sails; her power crystals stored enough energy to run her engines at cruising speed for a nearly a month. We could make landfall across the sea and return to Equestria with a 15% safety margin, and I could recharge the crystals myself if necessary. But it is always best to be prepared for anything. Plus, sailing was a new skill for me to learn; variety in one's study leads to greater mental flexibility. And it was probably good for the crew to keep them busy while on watch.[1] ---------- [1] Oh, all right... it was also really cool to be sailing to mysterious foreign lands. ----------
"Bones?" Rainbow Dash quietly asked me out of the corner of her mouth.
"Booms," I told her. "It means 'rig the studdingsail booms,' though I think they're technically yards. I'll have to ask Mr. Helm about that."
In the waist, the crew were running out the long wooden beams that would support the sails to either side of Nebula's hull.
"Why doesn't he just say what he means?" Dash muttered.
"He does, actually. As I understand it, naval and aeronautical jargon evolved so that it's short and easily heard over the noise of storms and such."
"Plus," Pinkie Pie added, "it makes 'ya sound like a salty sea-dog, right enough! Aye, maties?"
Rainbow chuckled at her. "Pinkie, do you even know what a stunned sail bone is?"
"No idea!" Pinkie Pie giggled and hopped off to get in the way of the crew.
Acorn was at the wheel, keeping Nebula steady and on a heading directly downwind to make the crew's work easier. Fluttershy stood near him, carefully watching everything he did.
"I don't think I'll ever understand half of what those guys say," Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, you'll probably pick up a lot of it as we go along. It's going to take us almost a week to cross the ocean riding the trade winds. By the time we get to Zebrica, you…" Seeing I had lost Rainbow Dash's attention, I trailed off. After a moment's thought, I teleported a book from my cabin. "Here. This might help alleviate the boredom."
Dash looked at the cover. "Ms. Midshippony Breezy," she read. "Looks old. This isn't like… history or something, is it?"
The tone of disdain she put into the word set my teeth on edge, but I kept smiling. "It's an adventure story. Yes, it's set in the past during the age of exploration, but it's full of sword fights and pirates and stuff like that. You'll love it! Captain Merry Yacht wrote lots of others, and I've got all the best ones onboard."
"Okay," Dash said, cautiously taking the book from me. "I'll give it a shot." She sounded like she thought I was trying to put something over on her… which I was. By the time she'd gotten through three or four of Merry Yacht's books, she'd be able to rattle off aeronautical terms like a seasoned deckhoof.
I gave my full attention to the work of the crew, enjoying the practiced and economical way they went about setting up the various yards and sails. When all was ready, Lee Helm came up to the quarterdeck and saluted me. "Ready to make sail, capt'n."
I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling with joy. "Very good, Mr. Helm. Give the orders, if you please." I couldn't help feeling like I was playing at being the captain of an airship. At that moment it felt like a promotion from ordinary old "princess."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." My sailmaster turned toward the bow and called out, "Loose sprit's'l!" It wasn't as loud as the Royal Voice, but the command could have been heard for a mile. The sail hanging from the yard fastened crossways below our bowsprit unfurled and made a solid whumph as it caught the breeze and filled. "Take up on the larboard sheet."[2] Helm watched until he was satisfied with the set of the sail and then ordered, "That's well." ---------- [2] A sheet is a line that controls the corner of a sail. It isn't really sheet-like at all. And Celestia help you if you call it a "rope." As far as sailors and aeronauts are concerned, it's only rope if it's coiled on the wharf. If it's involved in the rigging of a ship, it's a line. ----------
Lee Helm paused for a couple of moments, and I realized that he was getting the feel of how Nebula was behaving before continuing. "Loose kee's'l!" he called out. We couldn't see the mast and sail that had been fixed to the keel below Nebula's hull, but the crewponies out on the stu'n's'l booms who hauled on the sheets could, and the sound of the sail catching the wind was clear enough.
"She's drawing well, sir," called out the pony on the starboard boom.
"On deck, then," Helm replied.
As the ponies worked their way back onto the deck, Lee Helm lit his horn and cast a spell that I had only read about. It connected Nebula to the magical essence of the ocean below her, acting as a keel would on a watercraft and allowing her to tack into the wind as well as run before it. I watched carefully as the spell unfolded and took hold.
When it was done, Helm turned to Fluttershy. "Ring for Full Stop, Ms. Fluttershy," he said in a much quieter voice that had somehow acquired a more gentle tone. I could have kissed the old guy.
"Oh… yes… I mean... aye, aye, sir. Full Stop." Fluttershy blushed furiously as she took hold of the brass levers of the engine telegraph, but she moved them with confidence and left them at the correct position. After a second, the markers duplicated her motions and the deep hum of the engines faded away.
After another pause, Helm ordered, "Loose fo'ard stu'n's'ls!" The matching sets of sails near the bow unfurled and were set, then the process was repeated with the bigger ones closer to the quarterdeck. He ordered a few adjustments of the sheets until he was satisfied and then turned to me and said, "Nebula is under sail, capt'n."
As if I hadn't been there and watching all along. But there was a precision and formality to the whole process that hit all my happy buttons and I couldn't help smiling. "Thank you, Mr. Helm. I want to get a feel for how she steers under sail. Could you stand by to advise me?"
"It would be my pleasure, capt'n."
From behind me came an incredibly dainty clearing of a throat.
"And also for Ms. Fluttershy when she takes her turn at the wheel," I added.
= = =
Something else I learned on the trip out was stellar navigation. My astronomy studies gave me a huge head start on the process, but there was still quite a bit to learn. A side benefit was that the complex math involved was very soothing to work through.
And I often needed soothing. The work on creating a talisman to receive the Nightmare's magic power did not go well. Several times, I thought I had created a perfect matrix, only to have the magic rebound, the gem crack, or some other disaster occur.
The fourth night out, I had climbed up the access way that went through the middle of Nebula's envelope, between her second and third gas cells, to the small open-air cupola at the top. It was the best place aboard to get an unobstructed view of the stars, which made it the ideal spot to take latitude readings. It was also a great place to get a bit of privacy to think. I had my own cabin, of course, but I shared it with Spike and there were always ponies coming and going for one reason or another. When a pony had to climb a 45-foot ladder to talk with me, the reasons were usually pretty good ones.
So when Fluttershy popped up out of the hatch, I was a bit surprised.
"Oh!" she said when she realized I was there. "I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't know you were up here. Am I bothering you? I can come back later."
"No, it's fine," I told her. "I'm just relaxing a bit."
"You're sure?"
"Absolutely,"
She smiled at me but didn't come aft to sit next to me on the low wooden bench. Instead, she went and leaned out over the short rail at the forward edge of the cupola, spreading her forelegs out on the surface of the upper envelope. After a few minutes, she laid her head down between her hooves, with one cheek pressed against the fabric, almost as if she were listening for a heartbeat.
I waited patiently. She was obviously intent on something, and I didn't want to interrupt her.
She shifted a bit from time to time and then finally sat back. She was frowning and her lower lip was caught between her teeth.
O—kay. "What is she unhappy about?" I asked, carefully not rolling my eyes.
"I know you think I'm being silly, Twilight, but she talks to me. No really! Half of what animals say is in the way they move or stand or even just breathe. Nebula isn't moving the way she should. Everything I could check below seems fine, so that's why I came up here."
"Alright, that does make some sense," I admitted. "But I haven't noticed anything wrong with the way she's moving."
Fluttershy put on her "stern" look. I'm really not the maternal type, but it made me want to wrap my wings around her. "That's because you think of her as a bunch of separate parts all stuck together! Like they're all individual things instead of one big creature. I can tell when a mouse has a toothache by the tension in her hips!"
"So…?"
"So, if I knew Nebula better I could tell what was wrong with her. As it is, I just know there's something not right…" Fluttershy frowned and waved a hoof toward the starboard bow. "Somewhere over there."
I nodded. "It might be something that's easy to miss in the dark, so I'll order a thorough inspection first thing in the morning. Will that be soon enough?"
"I don't like to think of Nebula hurting, but I guess that's okay. Thank you, Twilight."
Fluttershy went below and left me to my thoughts. Her ponification of the airship was silly, but if it put her into a mindset that allowed her to make an intuitive diagnosis that was accurate, it could be regarded as a tool rather than superstition. Considering a complex system as an organism might give an advantage when approaching a seemingly simple problem that had hidden holistic repercussions. After all, I knew the dangers of becoming too reductionistic when studying—
And, just like that, it hit me.
I had assumed that the Nightmare's magic within me was just raw power. I had told myself that the particular forms it had taken on were the result of her habits and attitudes molding the energy, not an actual echo of her personality. Based on a flawed premise, I had been trying to design a purely mechanistic matrix to contain it.
It didn't work because I had been dead wrong. She was still in there… somewhere.
= = =
The next morning, Lee Helm came to my cabin to report on the inspection. I had my tools and crystals scattered over the surface of the work table that folded down from the bulkhead, but I pulled a sheet over it all before I gave Mr. Helm permission to enter.
"It was a cracked strut inside the fore starboard elevator, capt'n," Lee Helm told me. "Must have been a stress fracture, because the fabric over it wasn't damaged at all. A little splint and glue made her right."
"Thank you, Mr. Helm," I said, nodding. "Well done."
"The thanks should go to Ms. Fluttershy, ma'am. How she noticed the vibration from that strut way down on deck is a mystery to me. Could have caused us some trouble if it had broke free in bad weather."
"I'll be sure to thank her personally. Is there some traditional way to reward a crew member for good work like that?"
"I doubt she'd value an extra ration of cider as much as most old sailors. Havin' her hooves on Nebula's wheel seems to be reward enough for her." Lee Helm gave me a crooked grin. "She's there now, singin' a little tune to herself so soft you can barely hear it."
I smiled fondly and dismissed him.
My smile leaked away when I uncovered the project laid out on the table. The gem was a black opal, the fittings moon-kissed silver, and the matrix prepared for it was nothing like a simple container. The design was based on ancient patterns meant to ensnare the essence of a pony, imprisoning spells from the Age of Chaos that hadn't been used in centuries.
I worked on the talisman for another couple of hours after Mr. Helm left and then prepared myself to attempt the transfer. When I had hit on the solution, I was disgusted and repelled. But at the crucial moment, I was seized by a strange sadness and regret. My hooves shook and rattled against the wood as tears streamed down my face. I found myself mumbling, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" over and over again. I didn't even know what I was sorry for.
Finally, I gave up and placed all the components back into the little locked chest that sat on my bunk. I was in no frame of mind to attempt intricate magical manipulation; at least that was clear. I composed myself, went on deck, and tried to let the fresh ocean air blow the worries from my mind.
In which appearance and appellation are reconciled to a surprising degree, several risky and unsatisfactory plans are debated, and there is an unwelcome mention of stairs.
May 4th, 1014, Early Evening Onboard Nebula, holding station above the Dragon's Teeth range
Somehow, I was aware of my throbbing headache before I regained consciousness.
I was in my bunk with heavy blankets covering me up to my chin. It felt like there was something wrapped around my horn as well. The shutters had been closed and the only light came from a lantern on my desk, leaving the cabin dim. Rainbow Dash sat beside the bed reading. Her breath puffed out in little white clouds, which was odd.
She glanced up and saw that my eyes were open. "Twi? Hey, how're you feeling?"
"Head hurts," I said. My breath made clouds, too. I took in a deep breath and winced, but my question was answered; the cabin was extremely cold.
"Don't try to get up," Rainbow said, marking her place with a scrap of sailcloth and closing the book. "I'll go get the doctor."
"It's okay," I mumbled. I pushed a hoof out from beneath the covers and shifted onto my side. "Why is it so cold in here?"
Rainbow Dash crossed to my bedside and pushed my hoof back under the blanket. "It's not okay, Twi! Just stay there." She went to the door and stuck her head out. "Somebody get the doc down here. Twilight's awake!" I winced at both the volume of her voice and the sudden light that flooded into the cabin.
She came back and put a fore leg across my chest. "You need to rest."
"What I need is to be brought up to date... and some aspirin." I considered casting a pain relief spell, but decided to wait until I got the okay from the doctor before using my horn. Magic burnout can be a serious matter. "Where's Ket? I need a status report."
"She's wrapped in, like, a gazillion blankets next to the galley stove. I guess bugs don't handle the cold very well."
"Rainbow! Don't use that word!"
"Why? Does it bug you?" She grinned down at me.
"You know very well... wait... you're stalling me! You need to tell me what's going on right now!"
She stopped smiling and shoved me back down. "As beat-up as you are, I don't think you can out-muscle me, Twi. You'd better not try to use your magic, either. Your horn is kinda cracked and all singed-like." She grimaced. "Look, just relax and I'll tell you what I know. Mr. Fairlead can fill in all the details later, but he's pretty busy right now."
I relaxed and sank back on the bunk. "Fine. Are we in danger?"
"Not right now, but we're still in a bad spot."
It was then that Doctor Woundwort came in and began fussing over me. I told Dash to keep on with her report, and grudgingly let the doctor poke and prod.
"We scraped bottom dodging the mountain but didn't wreck anything too important. Thing is, we dumped every last drop of our ballast and went up like a rocket. Mr. Fairlead thinks we must have set some kind of altitude record." She smiled at that. Of course she did. She'd probably envy a pony who won a "Most Spectacular Non-Fatal Crash" award.
"Anyway, we had to vent a whole bunch of lifting gas to keep the cells from popping, and to keep us from, like, bashing into the moon. So that means if we try to go back down to cruising altitude, we won't be able to stay there for very long. Fluttershy says she can land us soft, but we'll need to get more gas and ballast before we can really go anywhere."
I craned my neck to see past the doctor's shoulder. "How far can we get by using the engines to stay aloft?"
Dash shrugged. "I dunno. There's some deal with the engines not working so good up here, and the power crystals are, like, way low on energy, but that's not the big problem."
I groaned.
"Did that hurt?" the doctor asked, lifting his hooves away from my temples.
"No... well... yes, doctor, but I just need some painkillers to get me on my hooves. I have to formulate a plan."
"You need to stay in your bunk and get some rest, captain," the doctor insisted.
"Ya ain't gonna win that fight, doc," came Applejack's voice from the companionway. "Twi thinks I'm stubborn, but I could take lessons from her." She came into the cabin accompanied by an absolutely divine smell. "Help her sit up, doc. Pinkie Pie sent some medicine."
The doctor grumbled but did as he was told. Applejack held the steaming mug up to my mouth so that I could sip from it. Most medical professionals wouldn't classify a cinnamon and nutmeg cafè latte as a proper pharmacological treatment. More fools, they. The coffee and a hooffull of aspirin had me feeling much better pretty quickly.
The doctor finally admitted that I was physically well enough to go about my business as long as I didn't try to fly or put any strain on my left wing. My magic was another matter. "Don't use spells at all until you get checked out by a specialist," he warned me. "You could risk permanent impairment."[1] ---------- [1] Yes, the doctor, who (like most of the crew) believed I was a unicorn mare twice my apparent age, could examine my wings and horn in quick succession without realizing there was anything odd about the situation. The Just Don't Think About It component of my disguise spell worked so well because ponies seemed to have that particular mental quirk as part of their basic psychological nature. ----------
Short of killing me outright, there wasn't any damage that I couldn't eventually recover from. But I needed to be healthy in the short-term and if that meant not using my magic for a while, I'd have to accept the limitation. I had to get my crew out of this mess and safely home.
"Mr. Fairlead," I called out as I came on deck. "Can you apprise me of the situation?"
He had been standing in the waist, peering over the starboard rail. He jumped a bit at my words and turned, giving me a crisp salute. "Yes, captain!"
"Capt'n on deck!" somepony called out from the quarterdeck. That made me jump a bit. I had gotten used to that sort of thing long ago, but the yell went through my aching head like a knife. I glanced around as I walked over to my First Mate and saw that everypony on deck was watching me with hopeful expressions. We were in a tight spot, no doubt about it, and they were all looking to me to get them out of it.
"Rainbow Dash gave me the gist of our altitude problem," I said to Fairlead as I joined him at the starboard rail. "I take it we don't have any reserve gas?"
"No ma'am. We hadn't loaded any of the gas cylinders we'd bought or recharged the power crystals when we saw your distress flare and didn't think we should waste any time."
I didn't nod for fear of feeling my brain bang around the inside of my skull. "Absolutely correct, Mr. Fairlead. I take it there's some reason we can't ground and make repairs while I figure out some way to get us some lift?"
He opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it again. He lifted a big spyglass in his magic and pointed it at a steep angle over the starboard rail, inviting me to take a look with a motion of one hoof.
It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. The airships below were so tiny that it was only when I used the spyglass that I could make out that they were battleships. It appeared that the entire airfleet of Marezambique was pursuing us.
"Have any of them tried to reach us?" I asked.
"No ma'am. I doubt that any of the Sultan's craft could make anywhere near this altitude anyway, but I'm pretty sure they don't know we're up here. They wouldn't think a craft that looks as old as Nebula could manage to fly so high, and we've slung sails below her keel as camouflage, in case any of the zebs think to look up. Ms. Fluttershy offered to try to scrape up some cirrocumulus, but as there aren't any other clouds in the sky, I figured it might backfire on us."
"Good thinking, Mr. Fairlead. Any reason why we can't run at this altitude until we get into neutral territory?"
"We can try, but a lot of the non-pegasus crew are altitude sick already, and we don't know what the winds are like up here. Nopony's charted the high currents in this region, so we may hit some heavy contrary flow that'll exhaust what little energy the crystals have left or take us where we don't want to be. It'll be a couple of days before the hull is repaired, so a water landing would be a very bad thing."
"Any good news?" That was awful of me. He had done an excellent job keeping things together while I napped, and didn't deserved my snippy comeback. I could blame my aching head, but I should be able to be gracious even when out of sorts.
"Well, there's other news. Something I'm sure you will be interested in, captain." He led me to the larboard rail and gestured to the desert below.
From our height, nearly the whole of Marezambique was visible below us, and I could see that the Dragon's Teeth mountains had been only partially well-named. As I had suspected, we had flown through the jawbone. The skull was off to one side, in a position that suggested it had fallen off the jaw in the direction of the Sea of Sand, to become partially buried there. The vertebrae ran in a line out toward the horizon to gradually disappear beneath the waters of the Eastern Sea, and I could make out rocky ridges along the coast that looked like a gigantic outstretched claw emerging from the water. It was so mind-bogglingly enormous that, without our high-altitude perspective, I didn't see how anypony could have recognized the whole for what it was.
And what, exactly, was it? Had the mountain range once been the skeleton of a living dragon? I could hardly credit the idea, and the part we had gotten an all-too-close view of had certainly been granite rock. But then, so had I at one time.[2] ---------- [2] I'm truly thankful for my wonderful friends. Having my last words be, "Oh, so that's what a cockatrice looks like!" would be awfully embarrassing. -----------
Mr. Fairlead floated the spyglass over to me again, and I took hold of it between my hooves. The rock showed a great deal of weathering, but there were convincing details that remained as worn-down lumps. If it was some sort of crazy ancient sculpture, it was a ridiculously detailed one. The frontal process of the left zygomatic bone had collapsed at some point in the past, sending tons of rock cascading into the eye socket. There seemed to be several sizable sand dunes at the bottom of the socket as well, though the shadows cast by the lowering sun made it hard to be sure. If there had once been an eye in that socket, it would have been big enough to enclose all of Canterlot Castle.
The apparent age of the range, based on the evident erosion would place it well before….
Dragon. Ancient, gigantic dragon. Information from several sources suddenly clicked together in my brain. I reflexively tried to teleport my private logbook from my cabin, and gasped as a lance of pain shot through my horn. I dropped the spell before the vortex had even started to form.
"Captain?"
"I'm fine, Mr. Fairlead," I said, "A thought just struck me, and it was a heavy one."
He didn't laugh at my joke.
I passed the spyglass back to him. "How long before full dark?"
He glanced up at the sun. "Three hours or a bit more."
"I've been out for nearly a day?"
"Yes, ma'am."
I ran a few more calculations through my head. I glanced up at the quarterdeck. "At the turn of the glass, bring the girls to my cabin. I'll want to discuss our options."
Mr. Fairlead allowed himself a slight smile. I could see that he assumed I was working on some clever plan to get us all out of the predicament I had put us into. I wasn't looking forward to the moment he learned that I intended to drop us right into the middle of our enemy.
= = =
"You should go back to bed, dear," Rarity told me in a patient voice that one usually uses on truculent foals. "You're not thinking clearly."
"Pffft! You mean she's gone completely nutso!" Rainbow Dash put in helpfully.
Mr. Fairlead just sat there, stony-faced. He wasn't the sort to go against his captain, but I could see he was mentally making out his last will and testament.
Fluttershy chewed on her lower lip and tried to hide behind her hair.
"Look," I said, as calmly as possible, "we just don't have many viable options. We can try to run north for Neighrobi, but it's a long ways, and we don't have nearly enough energy to get there, even if we don't have to buck headwinds. Or we can try and find a jetstream and let it take us… somewhere,and hope our lift gas holds out. But those are very risky gambles."
"And your crazy plan isn't?" Dash growled.
"Yes, it is, but there's another consideration that you didn't let me get to." I hesitated. I had sent us haring off after this particular goal several times now, and none of my efforts had gotten us anything but trouble and empty hooves.
"Yes?" Rarity asked. She accompanied her mild prompt with a graceful lift of one eyebrow that clearly said, "You'd better make this good, darling."
I reached over to the little table beside my bunk and grabbed my big notebook. I opened it and awkwardly flipped through the pages with my hooves until I came to the passage I had remembered while on deck.
I cleared my throat and began to read a particular part of the ancient poem I had copied down. "'The twisting steps lie beneath the gaze of the Father of Dragons. He guards the way…'"
"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash interrupted me with a shout. "The Labyrinthine Stairs, again? How many moons have we wasted chasing that fairy tale?"
Rarity frowned. "Perhaps now is not the time for treasure-hunting, Twilight. We are in an unfortunate situation and survival should be our first priority."
I closed the book. "I've always thought that passage was a metaphor, but right beneath us is a gigantic dragon skeleton that's a near match for the literal meaning, and we know the Stairs are somewhere along this coast. The Old Equuish word that was translated as 'gaze' could just as well be 'eye.' This is the closest we've ever gotten!"
None of the faces around me wore sympathetic expressions. "Alright. Suppose the Stairs aren't there. My plan is still the best chance we have. Getting us down into the eye socket where we'll be mostly hidden and protected will be a tricky bit of flying, especially at night, but Fluttershy can do it." I looked at her, and she nodded immediately. "Once we're down and get the top of the envelope covered in sand, it'll be almost impossible to spot us from the air. We will have the days we need to repair the hull and let me recuperate enough to use my magic again. That soft sand will work almost as well as water for ballast and there's a good chance I'll find the right sort of minerals to generate at least a little bit of lifting gas. The unicorn crew can trickle charge the power crystals even if I don't recover the use of my horn."
"And if they spot us, captain?" Mr. Fairlead asked.
"If the Stairs are there, they'll give us a way to retreat. If they're not… there should still be a cave where the optic canal enters the skull. We've still got the Eye of Rushwa to bargain with, and if they're completely unreasonable, I've still got the Talisman of Night as a last resort."
Fairlead shuddered. I didn't blame him.
"I think it's a good plan," Fluttershy said quietly. All heads turned toward her and she ducked her muzzle, letting more of her mane fall across her face, but she kept speaking. "I don't know how the cold is affecting Nebula in general, but it can't be good for her, and we've lost some altitude since this morning. I think we'll only be able to stay in the air for a couple more days at most. If we have to land in the open desert, the Sultan's airfleet will be able to see us from leagues away. We'll be helpless."
I nodded my thanks to her and said to the others, "If anypony has a better idea, I'd like to hear it."
None of them said anything.
"Alright then," I said, getting to my hooves. "We fill in the rest of the crew, wait for darkness, and then make a run for it."
Wherein the delights and annoyances of foreign travel are explored, and also a philosophy of gift-giving is examined.
June 17th - 19th, 1012 Stone Town, Zanzebra
Our experienced crew took it in stride, but the rest of us were terribly excited by our first look at the isles of Zanzebra.
I was in my cabin when the call came down from the cupola. The speaking tube whistled and I leaned over and put my ear to it.
"Land ho!, Twilight," came the tinny voice. "There's an island ahead of us!"
I grinned. "Thank you, Spike! Good work!"
Then a different voice came through the tube. It was Acorn, who had been on lookout with Spike. "Land, fine on the starboard bow, capt'n. I make it the southern end of Ungula. We should see Stone Town within the hour."
I grabbed a chart and went on deck. The crew on watch were soon busy with spyglasses, compasses, and quadrants, fixing our exact location and course.
Lee Helm put a series of pencil marks on the chart and laid it on the binnacle for Fluttershy to see. "Here's our course, lass. We'll take in sail, and on engines at half-ahead we'll be good for another half hour or so until we pass the southern tip of the island. A league past the point, you should bring her right to North Northwest and hold that course as we run up the bay. The mooring ground is a league further on after we cross the coast, just southeast of the city."
"S-shouldn't I give the wheel to somepony more experienced?"
"Nonsense, lass!" Mr. Helm scowled around at the rest of the ponies on deck. "None of these lubberly louts have your fine touch on the helm. I'll be on the engine telegraph right here beside you until we moor. It'll be a piece o' cake."
There was actual cake involved. Pinkie Pie had baked it in the shape of the island and had little zebra and palm tree figurines all over it. She also arranged a four-confetti-cannon salute as we slowed to a stop at a mooring tower. The port officials took it all in stride, though they did make quite a bit of low-voiced conversation among themselves. I supposed that living in a city that was one of the hubs of the spice trade gave them a certain blasé attitude toward bizarre foreign customs.
Speaking of customs, the customs officer spoke Equuish fluently and preferred to converse in it, but she seemed genuinely pleased by my greeting in the local Zebrish dialect.
"You have a Zwahinny accent," she observed. "You did not learn this from a book, I think."
"No," I admitted. "I have a very dear zebra friend named Zecora back home. She tutored me and helped me practice."
"A zebra in Equestria? That is unusual, no?"
"She's studying our plants and animals. She's amazingly good at making potions and infusions."
"Ah, an mganga,[1] she must be! An odd sort, such zebras. I would not like to live so far from home." She finished the inspection, collecting the fees, and stamping our paperwork, and trotted back across the gangplank to the platform circling the mooring tower. ---------- [1] The word can be translated into Equuish as shaman, doctor, wisemare, or witch depending on context. The plural form is waganga. ----------
While I had been dealing with the officials, a swarm of colts and fillies had surrounded us. They were calling out from the tower platform and from various rickety-looking flying machines that hovered just beyond our rails. Most were advertising the services of various chandlers, provisioners, and other merchants who sold necessities of the shipping trade. A few were trying to sell local fruits and vegetables directly to the crew.
I wanted to give my friends some advice on being careful to respect the local culture and to be wary of dubious enticements, but most of them were across the gangplank and out of sight before I could draw breath. Only Fluttershy and Rarity remained aboard. And Spike; he stuck to my side, playing the captain's servant to the hilt.
"You'll be going to the trading hall, Twilight?" Rarity asked me.
"Yes, Halter Hitch is taking me there. He's been here before and knows the procedure."
"He may know the routine but I doubt he's a better haggler than I am, and I know you're hopeless at it… no offense, darling... so I'll be coming along."
"Ah… sure. I don't see why not."
Fluttershy still stood at the wheel, looking out over the bustling, colorful city with wide eyes.
"Are you going to go ashore?" I asked her. "Maybe you'd like to come along with Rarity and me?"
"Oh… I don't know. I think I'll just stay here and look at the town for a while."
Lee Helm made a sad tsk tsk sound. "It would be a shame for you to miss the Caliph's animal garden. And there's beast sellers in the Grand Market. Why, they've got creatures that nopony in Equestria's ever heard of!"
Fluttershy practically dragged poor Mr. Helm down the mooring tower stairs.
"Don't let her buy more than her body weight in animals!" I called after him.
= = =
Books are wonderful. Books enable me to learn from others far removed by distance or time. But there's nothing like learning directly from a pony who really knows their subject.
Rarity had always had a flair for the dramatic. Though I would never have said so, I had often thought of it as a weakness in her character. That day I learned that flamboyant acting could be a definite asset in trading, even when filtered through a translator. A scientific approach would have been much less productive in a setting where value depends more on attitude than hard data.
We came out of the trading hall having promised our cargo in exchange for a load of whole nutmegs and cloves, with some complicated side exchanges that had yet to be specified. At a rough calculation, we would make a tidy profit on our voyage even if we didn't pick up any other cargo.
"That was amazing, Rarity!" I said as we worked our way toward the Great Market.
"Oh, it was nothing, really," she said, though she tossed her head happily and wore a smug smile. "Just shopping on a larger scale, and I'm very good at shopping!"
Though I was itching to see the Grand Council in session and do some focused research in the Royal Library, we spent the rest of the day exploring the city.
The Great Market was a riot of colors, sounds, and scents, and it was crowded with the most amazing people. It was the first time I had seen camels, antelope, gnus, and water buffalo in the flesh. There were also many zebra, of course, as well as a few griffins, horses, llamas, and even a hippogriff! I tried not to stare like a tourist from the sticks.
Rarity did some more trading with the exchange tokens[2] she had received from the spice merchant and I picked up several little gifts for friends back home. There was a hanging incense burner whose chains were interlinked with dozens of little silver crescent moons. I was sure that Luna would love it. I also bought a gold serving platter with an intricate raised sun on its surface. ---------- [2] These are like a blend of private currency and promissory notes. A clever idea and very useful when engaging in barter trade involving bulk commodities. ----------
Then I had an awful moment of realization: How many useless sun and moon themed gee-gaws must Luna and Celestia have been given over the centuries? I was going to bring them back stupid stuff that would immediately be forgotten and probably disappear into a huge pile of junk in some storeroom.
"What's wrong, dear?" Rarity had noticed my sudden distress.
When I had explained, she dismissed my worries with a flip of her hoof. "Piffle! They will love them because they love you, Twilight. Though…"
"What?"
"Well… the moon one is just the teeniest bit tacky."
"Oh no! Oh no! You've got to help me, Rarity! I can't give her the equivalent of an 'I HEART Manehattan' tea-cozy!"
She smiled. It was a complex smile. "Well, then… do you know what this calls for?"
"A party?" asked Pinkie Pie from right behind me.
"Eeeagh!"[3] ---------- [3] No, years of exposure have not made me immune to Pinkie's sudden appearances, and I don't really think there is any justifiable reason for finding humor in my distress at that moment. ----------
"Please, Pinkie Pie! Twilight is having one of her 'moments' and you're not helping. What this situation calls for is more shopping! From this moment, we are on the hunt for the perfect gifts for the royal sisters."
We found them, too. For Celestia we bought a mnara mwanga, which is a golden sculpture of a flame hung with pure crystals that make the whole thing sparkle and shimmer in even the lowest light. They are traditionally used in a ceremony welcoming the rising sun at the Winter solstice. The one I picked out was so impressive that I thought some sort of magic must be involved. But a quick check revealed its beauty to be wholly due to the skill of the artist who made it.
For Luna, it was a carpet woven in a traditional pattern called The Goddess of the Night Passes, Unseen. It was a subtle design in black, dark blues and purple, accented in thin streaks of white, representing in abstract the touch of the light of the moon hidden behind clouds. When I heard the name of the pattern, I knew I had found the perfect gift for her.
Not that we didn't pick up lots of other stuff. Poor Spike was groaning under his load, even though I was floating the majority of our purchases along in our wake.
I could write an entire book about our visit[4] but here I'll just say that it was a wonderful whirlwind experience. Not all of it was pleasant, though. I could have done without the old camel offering to buy my "pretty cabin-colt" from me. On the second day, when I visited the library and sneaked[5] into the Council Ground, the mlo damu I bought for a quick snack from a nearby stall didn't sit well with me at all. Rainbow Dash lost a pouch of bits and was pretty sure that a nimble little zebra filly had plucked it from beneath her wing. But, all things considered, those were minor irritations. ---------- [4] I did, in fact. It's out of print now, but a copy of Opening the Gates of the East: A Traveller's Observations on a Visit to Stone Town, Zanzebra, One of the Great Trading Ports of Zebrica can probably be found at most good used book sellers. It was written under the nom de plume of Gloaming Gleam for obvious reasons. [5] Non-noble zebras were not allowed on the Ground, let alone non-zebras. I felt a bit guilty about it, but my disguise spells and a surfeit of local jewelry let me slip in and out without any fuss. ----------
By the third day, we had off-loaded our cargo, made mutual inspections of the goods, and loaded the casks of spices. Rarity had made a great fuss about stowing the various bolts of fabric and jewelry she had picked out as speculation items.
We had twenty bales of the bluegrass hay left in the forward hold and were going to trade it at our next port. The merchants in Stone Town would have taken all of it off of our hooves, but my main reason for the voyage was to learn about foreign customs and government. The next leg of our trip would be a long one, but I was eager to see how the Saddle Arabians ran their nation.
So far, I had learned that the Zanzebra approach was to talk problems to death. I couldn't imagine the Equestrian Parliament getting anything done if they required unanimous approval, but there was at least some merit to the idea that no action was preferable to something that caused serious division in the ruling body. It was certainly an element to consider.
We were scheduled to set sail at moonrise, and everything had been made ready. I had several hours of free time left before departure and decided on one last visit ashore before we left. I went in search of one of my friends to accompany me, but didn't have much luck. Fluttershy was content to stay aboard and tend to her new pets. Spike had discovered that the local honey-drenched pastry could be made "totally awesome" by the addition of garnet shards, and was sleeping off his dessert binge in his little hammock. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were busy preparing a farewell meal to be shared by some of the tower crew and officials they had made friends with. Rarity had swatches of damask and brocade pinned to her cabin bulkhead and was furiously scribbling in her sketchbook and giggling to herself. I couldn't find Rainbow Dash, because I hadn't yet learned about her napping spot over the crossvent between gas cells one and two.
I considered asking one of the other crewponies, but by then I was feeling very worldly and confident. I had picked up quite a bit of the trading pidgin and didn't have much trouble making myself understood in most circumstances. I wasn't afraid of being robbed; the little money I carried on me I could well afford to lose.
And so I was alone when I discovered the changeling drones posing as merchants.
In which the reader is invited to speculate whether a mouse that hides beneath a cat's food dish is extraordinarily wise or exceptionally foolish, and if the term "mixed blessing" is applicable to the situation at hoof, or not.
May 4th - 6th, 1014 In the Dragon's Teeth range, Marezambique
I spent the remaining hours of light closely observing the airships far below us and making detailed notes about their movements. I was able to determine a pattern to their courses that could help us avoid them on the way down.
I showed my diagram to Fluttershy and she nodded slowly. "Yes, I can steer Nebula around them, but I might have to use her engines more. It'll be noisier."
"Can't be helped," I said. "Hopefully the sound of their own engines will hide our ours, but try to limit it, anyway. We're really low on energy."
I tried to avoid worrying about all the things I had no control over, but with nothing else left to do, I fretted over the multitude of "ifs" that lay between us and safety. If the airships flew pegasus patrols at night… If our descent became unmanageable because of unexpected winds… If our power crystals held out… If only I could fly, or use my magic….
As the last of the evening light faded from the sky, the crew went silently to their stations. All were carrying the weapons that I desperately hoped they wouldn't have to use. Pinkie Pie paused to give me a nuzzle as she went past. She didn't offer any empty words promising a good outcome, but the touch of silent support was exactly what I needed at that moment.
I turned to Fluttershy and Fairlead and nodded. Somepony had stuffed a rag into the bell of the engine telegraph, so when Fairlead rang for Slow Ahead, there was only a muffled clanking from within the housing. Fluttershy pulled back on the vent controls as gently as if she were scooping up an injured bird, and we began the long descent.
It was maddening. Since we couldn't see the running lights of the Marezambique ships from above, I could only assume that we were steering clear of them, and assume that they hadn't changed their search patterns after sunset. The light of the waning crescent moon lit the peaks of the mountains just enough to use them to navigate by. It limned the ridges of the great dragon skull sufficiently for us to make out the edge of the eye socket, but the bottom remained a pool of absolute blackness.
The air began to warm as we descended. As the gas cells compressed from the higher atmospheric pressure, we began to sink faster than expected. I opened the hatch in the side of the telegraph pedestal and threw the big knife switches to turn on the heaters inside the cells. I cranked the temperature control rheostat to the 75% mark, and the increased drain on our power crystals caused the engines to stutter a bit before they evened out again.
"The heaters pull a lot of juice," Fairlead said to me in a half-whisper. "Keep a sharp eye on the gauges."
I nodded and went to the rail to check on our descent speed again with my anemometer. We had slowed, but not as much as I would have liked. I went back and turned up the heaters to full, but then I could see the needles of the power gauges moving toward zero.
The air got hotter and our engines began stuttering again. I shut off the cell heaters when the power gauges went below the 1% mark and the engines steadied out, but we were still sinking too fast for comfort.
Mr. Fairlead signaled for the engine pods to be rotated from horizontal to 90 degrees straight up and rang for Half Ahead in an attempt to reduce our speed.
The two crewponies assigned to guide Fluttershy as we got near the skull whipped their little white flags back and forth. I turned to the rail in time to see the vast bulk of stone that was the edge of the eye socket rush upward past us as we fell into shadow.
Rarity lit her little bundles of twine, sailcloth, and tar and dropped them over the rail. I watched them fall and counted slowly under my breath. When they spattered on the sand below us, I did a quick mental calculation and said to Fluttershy, "Two furlongs, five knots!" We were still dropping far too fast, and didn't have much time to correct the problem.
Fluttershy's eyes went wide and she gasped out, "Full Ahead!" to Fairlead, who was already reaching for the telegraph handles.
The telegraph bell clunked and the engines roared in response. The deck pressed upward under my hooves for a moment.
Then the engines sputtered and died, our power crystals exhausted.
Nopony had time to curse before we hit.
There was a hollow boom as Nebula's keel hit the sand and some ugly cracking noises came from below deck. Those of us who hadn't had the presence of mind to hold onto something solid were knocked off our hooves.
Fluttershy hung from the spokes of the wheel, gasping out, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
The deck tilted to starboard as we settled, and the sound of our impact echoed around us for several moments. I went and hugged Fluttershy, shushing her and whispering, "It's okay. We're safe. You did it." Then everything was silent.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack heaved the boarding ladder over the starboard rail and climbed down to the sand, followed by two other crewponies. They spread out until they could get a good look at the night sky above and watched for anything making a black patch against the starscape above.
I organized the bucket brigade, and soon had most of the rest of the crew hauling sand up through the accessway to spread on the top of the envelope. Thanks to Gudgeon's brilliant design, the stiffening rods inside her shrouds wouldn't let Nebula's partially deflated envelope settle down onto the deck, and that gave us plenty of room to work below it.
We kept at it until dawn, covering as much of the fabric as we could to the point where the curvature caused the sand to slide off. Then we hung sails and spare canvas below that. There were still small areas of dark blue exposed, but it would be very difficult to spot them from any distance.
= = =
The first day, ponies worked at whatever came to hoof. Fluttershy went with the damage crew and inspected every bit of cracked and splintered timber below decks. She knew next to nothing about aeronautical carpentry, but ran her hooves over the beams and planks, making whispered promises to Nebula to "make it all better." Nopony laughed or even smiled at that.
Ket crawled up from the galley looking a bit gray. She was apologetic about being out of action, but I assured her that she could more than make up for it. She became a granite-colored pegasus with a sand-colored mane and flew up out of the eye socket to be our long distance lookout for enemy ships.
Rarity crawled through the sagging accessway and vents and inspected the gas cells and the inside of the envelope.
Rainbow Dash grumbled and complained. About twice an hour, she asked when the potion that Doctor Woundwort had given her would finish regrowing her flight feathers. The fourth time she came to me I gave up on telling her, "A half-hour less than the last time you asked," and threatened to pluck the rest of her if she didn't find something useful to do.
Applejack and I ventured out onto the dunes to the huge fall of stone at the bottom of the eye socket. She played pack horse for me as I collected mineral samples in the hopes of finding the right compounds to generate lifting gas.
Mr. Taleb led a team setting out block and tackle attached to sand anchors so that we could roll Nebula's hull to the best position to make repairs.
Others slung their hammocks and rested for their turn at nightwatch.
And all the while, in the back of our minds, we waited for the warning cry that would tell us we had been discovered.
= = =
I was almost hopeful by the dawn of the second day. We had been flown over by a couple of zebra ships, but they had been high in the sky and had held to their search pattern without showing any sign of having spotted us.
I had found some mareaposite and had given the bluish-green crystals to several crewponies to use as comparison samples while they spread out to search for more. Rarity had reported that Nebula's fabric bits were in excellent shape, and Mr. Fairlead had given me a very positive assessment of the hull repairs.
Pinkie Pie worked wonders at keeping everypony's spirits up, and even Rainbow Dash was in a much better mood. She had made several amusing shapes in the dunes around the ship, but was convinced she'd be able to reliably stay aloft, "tomorrow, for sure!"
It would have been nice if I had been able to say the same, but I'd been so busy that I'd neglected my wing and it had stiffened up to the point where moving it was pure torture. My horn wasn't much better. I could cast some light when I needed it, but even a little levitation made my head hurt after a few moments, which was beyond irritating. With my cobbled-together gas generator, I could have replenished Nebula's supply in a few hours if I hadn't been magically crippled. As it was, we'd need the unicorn crewponies working full time for at least a week to do the job, and that wasn't counting the time and energy they'd have to spend recharging our power crystals.
Add to that the fact that the rockfall we were mining for mareaposite seemed to have covered the opening to the dragon's optic canal, and it made for a very frustrated pirate captain.
I suppose I wasn't being the most cheerful pony around, and perhaps my nerves were a little bit on edge, so I think it's perfectly understandable that I got the slightest bit snappish when the big rumbling boom shook me out of my bunk on the morning of the third day.
"What was that?" I yelled as I ran from my cabin. "If Rainbow Dash hit the hull again, I'll strangle her with my own hooves!"
"Captain on deck!" somepony shouted. (Well, duh!)
"It was an avalanche, Twilight," said Rarity. She pointed to the cloud of dust rising over the broken zygomatic fragments in the distance.
"Celestia trample it!" I swore. "If that dust gets above the edge of the eye socket, the zebra ships could see it and come to investigate!"
Rarity put a hoof against my shoulder and I turned to see her frightened expression. "Applejack and Chestnut are out there."
"What?"
"They went to get more of the mineral about an hour ago, and…"
I was already over the rail and scrambling down the ladder. Rainbow passed me about halfway to the rocks and the muffled sound of hooves on sand grew behind me.
I skidded to a stop when I saw Dash dragging Chestnut away from a jumble of sharp boulders. The arrow wound in his side had reopened and was bleeding freely.
"Where's AJ?" I asked, dreading the answer.
Chestnut coughed and pointed to the new-fallen pile of rocks. "S—she's under there."
The smallest piece of stone in the pile weighed at least half a ton. Rainbow Dash threw herself onto it and began pulling. She somehow managed to dislodge a boulder twice her size and it crashed down, scattering those of us who were looking on in despair. Dash continued to frantically struggle with a slab that must have outweighed Nebula until I climbed up beside her.
"Rainbow, you're not going to…"
"Don't you dare tell me what I can't do, Twilight! I'm going to save her!" She turned away from me and pounded her hooves against the granite.
I caught the flash of pink out of the corner of my eye and dragged Dash aside just before Pinkie Pie hit the slab. Pinkie didn't have the incredible strength of her sister Maud, but she certainly knew her rocks. The slab split along its length and shifted under our hooves. Pinkie hit it again, and a smaller piece broke off and began sliding down the pile.
Dash struggled when I tried to drag her to a safe distance.
"Let the expert do her job!" I hissed into her ear, and she gave up and came with me.
Above us, Pinkie paused, eyeing the stone beneath her for a moment. Then she struck it with the edge of her hoof. It didn't look like a particularly hard blow, but the rest of the slab fragmented and the pieces rumbled down to the sand.
The rest of us cleared away the chunks as well as we could while Pinkie continued to work. More crewponies arrived and carried Chestnut back to Nebula. A few minutes later, Pinkie had tunneled down to nearly the level of the sand.
"Twilight!"
"What is it, Pinkie?"
"This rock is funny. I think it might fall if I break it."
"Hang on! I'll be right there!"
I scrambled up the slope and carefully lowered myself into the tunnel. Pinkie was standing on a flat piece of stone, frowning. She tapped a hoof against it and it rang hollowly, as if there was a void beneath it.
A moment latter somepony else knocked on the stone. From beneath.
"AJ, is that you?" I called.
"You're alive!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
"I ain't dead," came the muffled reply. "But I ain't exactly comfortable, if'n ya get my drift."
"Are you hurt?" I asked.
"Well, I got banged up a mite when I fell down the stairs, but there ain't no broke bones I know of."
"Stairs?"
"Yep. Looks like you were right 'bout the Labra-whatcha-call-it. Now all ya have to worry 'bout is gettin' that big ol' rock outta the way without dropping it on my head."
"Can you move away? Maybe down the stairs until you're out of the way of where the stone will fall?"
There was a long pause and then Applejack said. "I s'pose. But I gotta tell ya, Twi, If'n anypony told me before today that I'd be skittish of a buncha steps strung t'gether, I'd have told them they was nuts. But, this place…" There was another pause. "This place ain't right, Twi. It plum scares the sugar outta me."
"I understand, but the fragments of this rock could bounce quite a ways when it shatters, so you've got to get a good distance away from there. We'll be through as quick as we can, okay?"
"Alright, Twi." Applejack's voice became softer and more muffled. "I'm goin' down the stairs now. Gimme a minute and then bust 'er open."
I climbed out of the tunnel and gave the rest of the gang the good news. There was laughter and cheering and relieved sobbing. I gave them the few moments of emotional release they needed and then sent Rainbow Dash down to join Pinkie.
"She's going to crack the slab, but the place is so narrow that she's got nowhere else to stand. You need to support her until it's safe, okay?" I didn't bother to ask her if she thought she could do it. Dash's capacity for accurate self-assessment always erred on the dangerous side. I could only hope her nearly regrown feathers could support them both for the time it took the debris to settle.
I watched from the tunnel mouth but kept everypony else at a safe distance. It all went according to plan. At first, that is. With one precise kick from her left hind hoof, Pinkie Pie broke the slab into a couple dozen head-sized chunks. Rainbow Dash flapped furiously, keeping both of them from dropping into the darkness beneath until the fragments had stopped bouncing and sliding into the hole.
Dash set Pinkie down at the head of the stairs about the same time I made it down to them. I lit my horn, winced, and peered down into the area below us. The others all crowded behind me to get a look.
"Are you okay?" I called out to Applejack as I took a cautious step downward.
"I'll be better when I'm outta this place, I can tell you that!" came the echoing reply.
I couldn't see her. The meager amount of light my horn was shedding showed only a few lengths of the rock-strewn steps below us.
"Hang on. We're coming!"
Rarity thoughtfully took over flashlight duty from me and we carefully descended the steps until we came to a turn. Around the corner, the stairs ended at an uneven surface that acted as a landing. I realized we were standing on the orbital plate of ethmoid bone near the superior orbital fissure. It seemed the steps had somehow fused with the skeletal anatomy of the dragon.
"Applejack?" I called.
"I'm here!" came the answer. "Where're y'all?"
"Coming! Can you see our light?"
"Can't see much but this glowy writin'. I can't rightly tell which way I came down, neither."
That was worrisome. "Just stay where you are. We're coming for you." I assumed that the natural path leading further down would be through the orbital fissure and led the way.
"Don't trip over the edge of the lamina papyracea,"[1] I said as I carefully stepped over it. ----------- [1] A thin plate of ethmoid bone forming part of the medial wall of the orbit and the lateral wall for the ethmoidal labyrinth. And no, the irony was not lost on me. ----------
"The what?" asked Pinkie Pie, a second before she caught her hoof on the bone ridge and face-planted. She bounced right up and turned to the ponies behind her. "Hey guys, watch out for this sticky-up piece!"
Much to our surprise, we discovered that a spiral wrought-iron staircase descended into the orbital fissure. The railings were stylized acanthus leaves lightly sprinkled with gilded berries. The thing wouldn't have looked out of place in a fashionable Canterlot townhouse, but in that place, it was decidedly creepy.
Since Rarity was creating the light, she had to go first. She did so without hesitation, and I followed close behind her. I could only make out dim shapes past Rarity's head when she reached the bottom of the staircase. Even the startled way she said, "Oh, my!" didn't prepare me for what I saw when I stepped out onto the landing beside her.
We stood at the top of a cavernous shaft that fell away into darkness below us. From side to side it was filled with a profusion of stairs and landings in every imaginable style. It was so confusing that it took a moment for me to spot Applejack, nearly a furlong away from us and a half-dozen lengths below, waving her old battered hat to catch our attention.
"How in the world did you get down there, darling?"
"I don't rightly know. I swear I couldn'ta gone down more'n a flight or two!"
I scanned the maze of steps, trying to figure out a way to get to Applejack from where we were. The place was far too crowded to fly though, but the stairs were also too far apart to risk climbing or jumping between them.
Behind me, Fluttershy gave a gasp of fear.
I turned and saw what had scared her. The spiral stairs behind us were gone. In their place was a heavy oaken flight, covered in a plush carpet. Beyond and above it were... more stairs.
A seemingly straight-forward chapter, containing a number of ethically questionable actions and implicit moral conundrums.
June 19th - 22nd, 1012 Stone Town, Zanzebra, and onboard Nebula, on course for Saddle Arabia
The Grand Market was a very different place in the evening. Gone were the vegetable stalls and bulky everyday items. The booksellers were closed, as one might expect. The little cafes were still open, but they served items more suited to leisurely meals, rather than the grab-and-go food of the daylight hours. There were more jewelers and many merchants that sold candles and beautiful pierced metal lanterns. Luxuries rather than necessities seemed to be the main focus, and everypony moved at a much more relaxed pace.
I bought a fruit sherbert at a little cart and stood eating it and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. There was magic all around me, of course. Most was of the mundane sort that enhanced or eased the use of some trivial object, but there were a few little ripples that promised something more intriguing.
I finished my sherbert and wandered off toward one of the strongest traces, opening my magical perception until I could feel the presence of the mechanisms of earth and firmament. The silk-and-ribbon-draped stall that attracted me was decorated with innumerable variations on the theme of hearts, and there were several signs tacked to the poles supporting the silk canopy that read, "Love Potions" in various languages.
The proprietors were two beautiful Saddle Arabian mares, dressed in superb woven halters and brocade saddles, all of which were positively dripping with fine jewelry. They nickered a welcome as I approached, and greeted me in flawless Equuish.
"Good evening, gracious lady! What brings you to our humble shop?" said the first.
"Surely, a mare as amazingly beautiful as yourself cannot be in need of our wares!" said the second.
My magical disguise had not been designed to enhance my appearance in any way, and made me look quite thick through the barrel in order to compensate for the physical bulk of my wings. I knew for a fact that I was covered in dust and that the sweaty utility vest I wore did nothing to improve my looks, but this sort of unbelievable flattery was as common as a "hello" in Zanzebra.
I certainly didn't need any of their potions, but I was interested in the product in an academic way, so I chatted with the mares for a while. They described the effects in glowing hyperbolic language that was unfortunately short on details. I bought one called "The Dawn of Passion" with the intent of analyzing it later and gave it a little pulse of probing magic as I was putting it away in a pocket of my vest.
The magic was familiar. I couldn't place it at first, but it wasn't the sort that Zecora commonly used or that I had encountered in the few days we had been in Stone Town. It also gave me an immediate negative reaction.
I scanned the stall again, fully opening my magical sight, and everything fell into place.
I suppose my shock must have been entirely obvious to the faux Saddle Arabians, because they both went wide-eyed and stiff with surprise and fear. One took a step backwards, and I knew they were seconds away from fleeing.
"I won't give you away," I said quietly.
They glanced at each other and one said, "No. You won't."
I reflexively brought up a small shield spell before my conscious mind was aware I was being attacked. The bottle that one of the changelings threw at me shattered on the bubble of force and burst into greenish dripping fire.
There were gasps and cries of alarm from the nearby crowd. I inverted the shield, encapsulating the fire, and then hardened and expanded it quickly. The lowering of pressure and temperature extinguished the roiling green flames, but the sight of a suddenly appearing fire transforming into a large hovering sphere of smoke was far from a calming one and the crowd around the stall edged toward panic.
I flung the shield and the black, oily smoke it contained upward into the darkening sky. When it had gotten a dozen furlongs of height, I dismissed the shield. The inrush of air made a loud pop, and the smoke burst out into a ragged star shape that slowly dispersed on the wind.
"Magic show!" I said, improvising like mad in the trade pidgin I had only just learned. "Tonight big show here! Come, all-time! See Great and Powerful Trixie! Bring big money, yes!"
The panicked expressions of most of the crowd turned to disgust and not a little anger.
"Stupid pony!" a water buffalo bellowed into my face before stomping off.
When I could turn my attention to the love potion booth again it was, of course, empty. I opened my magical sense as much as possible, but the changelings had both speed and the confusing magical chaos of the market in their favor. I couldn't trace them.
But I could rummage through what they had left behind.
I made my way behind the market stalls, and when I found a little niche that afforded me privacy, I removed my disguise amulet and cast a spell that made me into a pretty fair copy of one of the Saddle Arabian mares. I returned to the stall, ignoring some inquisitive glances from the merchants to either side, and began to slowly, thoroughly, and unobtrusively ransack the place.
I had just stuffed a promising-looking bundle of papers into my vest when I had my first customer. He was a rather scrawny zebra, barely more than a colt, nervously gripping a coin pouch in his teeth.
"We are closed, now," I said in Zebrish.
He set the pouch down on the counter and pulled it open. "But you promised! Look. I have brought the money, as you asked!" There were a great many gold coins inside.
"Yes," I said, thinking frantically, "but I… I am a liar! You are a fool and I only used you to… to further my scheme to overthrow the Caliph! Ha ha!"[1] ---------- [1] I don't think I pulled of the evil laugh as well as I might have, but I certainly proved that reading pulp adventure novels could be educational in a very useful way. ----------
The young zebra gasped and backed away. Then he darted forward again and snatched up his money. He ran off trying to call for the guards.
"Don't shout with your mouth full!" I called after him.
I hurriedly gathered up a couple of other items, broke the rest of the bottles in the shop, and backed out of the stall. As soon as possible, I resumed my Blackmane disguise and headed back to the mooring tower. There was no time to try to expose the changelings, even if I could get the local authorities to believe me. But I had wrecked their cover identities, and I would have to be satisfied with that for the moment.
In the street that led to the tower, just before the big stone customs house, a zebra mare stepped into my path and bowed slightly.
I was alert and brought up my magic immediately. It was a changeling, but the bow puzzled me and I held back for a moment.
"Pardon me, Your Majesty," she said softly in Equuish, "May I speak with you for a moment?"
I expanded my magical sense and scanned the surrounding buildings and streets. There were no other changelings within my range, so the encounter was unlikely to be the prelude to an ambush. I nevertheless readied a teleport spell and held the penultimate configuration in my mind before I replied.
"Why did you call me that?"
"I was curious about a pony that could penetrate a changeling disguise. I observed you changing your form in the market after you scared off the love peddlers, and recognized you, Princess."
"I see. And you aren't… with those other changelings?"
"No, ma'am." She grinned. "I was keeping track of their activities for my queen. My next report will be a very interesting one, I think."
Things began to click into place. "You're one of Csharreee's."
She nodded. "I am honored to serve Her Most Glorious Majesty."
"Well, you know who I am. Could you tell me your name?"
"Khaatarrekket, ma'am."
Yikes! "I… I'm not sure I can pronounce that correctly. Would you mind if I just called you 'Ket' for now?"
"Not at all, ma'am."
"Well then, Ket, if this isn't an ambush or something along those lines, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Your amusing stunt in the market has caused more uproar than I think you know. The Zanzebrans aren't fools. They know about changelings, so they will be doing a very thorough search of the city for individuals of my kind. Unfortunately, they've got zebras who are very good at that sort of thing."
I could see where this was going. "And you think they might not believe that you weren't involved in whatever those other two were up to?"
"Attempting to overthrow the Caliph, I think you said?" Her smile was just a bit infectious. "It really doesn't matter, because the waganga won't bother to ask questions if they catch me."
"And you want a quick way out of town, is that it?" I suppressed my urge to grin back at her and reminded myself that she was a shape-changing agent of a foreign government, spying in a foreign land. Not exactly the sort of person I felt safe trusting aboard my airship.
She sensed my hesitation. "The next ship scheduled to leave port after yours will be two days from now. Without your help, there's a good chance I will be dead by tomorrow night."
I frowned. No, there was no way I could justify leaving her to be killed, but I didn't like feeling I had been maneuvered into helping her escape.
"Her Majesty has always spoken very highly of you…"
"Yes, yes, of course I'll take you," I grumbled. "But, when we get aboard and somewhere private, you're going to drop your disguise, and if your eye color doesn't match Csharreee's, I'm throwing you overboard." I pushed past her, ignoring her words of thanks, and trotted for the mooring tower.
= = =
Ket made a special effort to be useful and friendly on the run north for Saddle Arabia. She resumed her zebra disguise and only the girls were aware that she was a changeling. It made most of them uneasy at first, and only Pinkie Pie really relaxed around her. Ket assured me she would be able to last out the voyage without (mis)using any of my crew for "food," but it turned out that she got a fair bit of nourishment from an unexpected source.
Sailing over land was more difficult than over the ocean but Fluttershy wanted to do it as much as possible. To "get to know Nebula better," she said. We were in no great hurry, and it was good experience for me as well, so I agreed. According to Lee Helm, we made pretty fair time. Rainbow Dash helped out by scouting ahead for thermals and crosswinds between naps. There was always a mongoose, parrot, monkey, iguana, or somesuch on Fluttershy's shoulder when she was at the wheel, but her menagerie was so large that they really needed somepony else to help take care of them. Ket was the one who volunteered.
She fed and groomed them. She spent quite a bit of time playing with each of them. She gave them attention and affection, and they couldn't help but return it.
"I reckon, if the critters like her, she can't be that bad," Applejack said as she watched a mongoose play hide-and-seek through the faux zebra's bristly mane.
When I asked Ket to elaborate on her mission in Zebrica, she flat-out refused. She was deferential and polite about it, but she was adamant. "If I receive orders from Queen Csharreee to give you that information, I will do so without hesitation. But until then, I cannot do so in good conscience. I'm sure you understand."
I was a bit miffed at being lectured about espionage ethics by a shape-changing parasite, but as Khaatarrekket[2] was an agent of the good changeling queen, and I couldn't help but admire her for sticking to her principles, I accepted it with as much grace as possible. ---------- [2] It took me over an hour of practice to be able to say her name correctly. "Khaa-tar-REK-ket", said about as fast and "clicky" as I could manage, seemed to satisfy her. ----------
= = =
Almost every evening, after the crew finished their supper and the night watch had taken over, ponies would gather on the main deck to play music, sing, and swap stories.
Ket just sat and watched the party for the first two nights, but on the third night she joined in. During a spirited rendition of "Cider Before Breakfast," she rose, stepped onto the hatch cover, and began to tap out a matching rhythm with her hooves. She started with her fore hooves, and then brought in her rear ones in syncopation. The hatch acted like a drum and amplified her hoof falls so that I could feel the beat all the way up on the quarterdeck. The crew were delighted and the musicians ran through the song twice. Then they demanded that Ket drum for several more songs, until she finally had to sit down and rest.
Each night thereafter she joined in, and sometimes told humorous stories of life in Zanzebra as well. She was very convincing, and if I hadn't known better, I would never have suspected that she wasn't a real Zebrican native.
One night after the party broke up, I pulled her aside and had a quiet word with her.
"The crew have gotten very fond of you," I said.
"Yes, that is so," she agreed. "They are a very nice and welcoming group of ponies."
"I would be convinced that you've become friends with some of them, except for one thing."
Ket lost her slight, pleasant smile. I suppose my tone of voice gave me away. "Captain?"
"I know what effect friendship has on changelings, and you aren't having any trouble holding your disguise at all. Do you understand why that worries me a bit?"
Ket gave a sharp exhalation in relief. "Ah, yes. I understand your concern. I do truly think of myself as a friend to many of your crew, and the reason I am not subsumed is that I carry a charm against the effect." Her grin returned. "I will make a Pinkie Promise of my truthfulness, if that will ease your mind."
"What?" I had once promised Chrysalis to look into creating such a spell, but she had decided to do without my help. "Who developed that charm?"
Ket hesitated, no doubt weighing her perceived duty to her queen.
"Nevermind," I said. "Just tell me one thing. Does Chrysalis know about this spell?"
Ket nodded. "All of the false queen's agents in Zebrica carry such charms, though I don't know why they bother. They are not friendly sorts."
That brought up another question, and as long as Ket was being forthcoming, I continued my questioning. "All her agents? Does she have that many on this side of the ocean? The last time I checked, Chrysalis had less than a hundred followers left."
Khaatarrekket frowned and looked away. I thought for a moment she wasn't going to answer, but then she turned back to me, licked her lips and said, "Then, you must be unaware of the new hive Chrysalis has created beneath the Smokey Mountains."
In which, several surprising discoveries are made, and it is shown that poetry is not always pleasant.
May 6th, 1014, Morning On the Labyrinthine Stairs
"Rainbow Dash, Rarity, keep looking at Applejack! Don't take your eyes off of her!"
"What the hay, Twi?" Dash asked, even though she kept her gaze on AJ.
"I don't think the stairs can shift if they're being observed. We need to keep Applejack's relative position stable until she can get to us." Our obvious way out was gone and I'd have to figure out how to find it again, but first we needed to get into one group and stay together. "Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, you two look around for anything that might look like an exit, or those spiral stairs we came down. If you see them, say something but don't look away. Try not to blink."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Of course Pinkie would sound cheerful about being caught in an ancient magical trap.
I figured out a path and tried to keep it all in my field of vision. "Applejack, take the wooden stairs to your left. Climb up to the third landing."
She stumbled half-way up the first flight and scrambled to her hooves with a frightened gasp, looking around frantically until she caught sight of us again.
"It's okay!" I called out to her. "Dash and Rarity are watching you all the time. You can look at the stairs if you need to."
AJ said something too low for me to make out and resumed climbing.
It took nearly ten minutes for me to guide Applejack to the landing where the rest of us stood. She practically galloped down the last set of stairs and barreled into us, gasping in relief.
"It's okay, dear," Rarity said from somewhere inside the group hug. "You're back with us and everything is going to be fine."
"Oh, my!" Fluttershy said. "You're all scratched and bruised! You poor thing. Does it hurt a lot?"
"Naw, it ain't too bad. I'm just scuffed up a mite. Coulda been a lot worse."
Fluttershy insisted on giving her some painkillers and applying some ointments from her saddlebags. AJ made only a token protest.
"Applejack, didn't you say something about glowing writing when we were coming down?"
"Yeah, Twilight, that's right. Before Rares lit up the place, it was pretty dark in here. I could barely see my hoof in front of my face. There was these funny-lookin' letters on all of the steps. Not real bright, but glowin' sure as shoot. They weren't like any kind of writin' I ever seen before."
"That makes sense. If the Labyrinth is magically active, it would need a pattern to guide it. If my magic was back at full strength, I could make the runes glow. If I could read them, that might give me some idea how to find our way out of here."
"Shucks, Twilight! Just have Rarity turn off her horn for a bit. I could see them in the dark and I ain't the least bit magical."
I shook my head. "Not except as a last resort. In the dark we won't be able to see the stairs, and I don't know how far they might shift. We need to get out of here as soon as possible, because some of the crew are bound to come looking for us any time now."
Applejack's eyes widened. "An' if they go down the stairs by themselves…"
"Exactly."
We all turned to the search. It was Pinkie Pie who spotted the wrought iron spiral only a couple of minutes later. "Twilight, lookie, lookie! I found it!" she cried out pointing toward the stairs.
"Good work, Pinkie! Now, you, Rarity, and Applejack keep an eye on it while I figure out a way to get there."
The route I finally worked out was a convoluted one, and it was long enough that it took two of us working in tandem to nail it down at any one time. We leap-frogged our way along, alternately fixing each part of the way in our field of vision until one of the other girls could take over and let us move without worrying about losing sight of the exit.
It was nerve-wracking and took entirely too long, but we finally made it. The spiral stairs led up out of the optic canal just as it had when we first found it. We lost no time clambering up it.
"Well, that's a relief! Ain't nopony passed this way after we went down," Applejack said, pointing to the hoofprints in the sand. "Only six sets."
It seemed we had caught a bit of luck for a change.
"Great! Okay, girls; new plan!" I said as we headed for the last steps and the tunnel through the rock slide. "In two days, my horn should be nearly healed and I should recover enough of my magic to come back for some serious exploring. The repairs on Nebula should be nearly complete by then, and that'll free up some of the crew to make a sort of visual chain that will make it a lot less risky."
"I dunno, Twi," Applejack objected. "Them zebras are still lookin' for us and are all hot to tan our hides. Maybe we ought to skedaddle and come back when things have cooled down a mite."
"Don't be silly!" I said, as I climbed out of the tunnel. "If they haven't found us by now, they're not likely to any time soon."
From below us, at the base of the rockslide, came a voice in thickly accented Equuish.
"What you say is just not so.
"Come down here, and make it slow.
"If you make use of wing or horn,
"Your graves will fill this very morn."
The scar-faced old mganga who had spoken was backed by two other witch-mares and over a dozen spear-carrying zebra stallions.
"Oh, poo!" said Pinkie Pie.
I'm sure she spoke for all of us.
When I didn't reply or move immediately, Scar Face made a commanding motion and her two assistants unslung what appeared to be bandoleers of glass bulbs. Whatever those little spheres contained would surely be very unpleasant for us. It was well past time for me to shake off my surprise and do something.
"Protect the treasure!" I screamed as loud as I could, and shoved all my friends back into the tunnel with a rough burst of levitation. My head swam and I fell backwards, floundering with my wings to no effect. I didn't hit the ground because Applejack was quick-witted enough to get herself beneath me. It knocked the breath out of both of us, but at least I hadn't cracked my head open on the stone steps.
"What are you talking about, Twilight?" Rarity asked hurriedly, keeping one eye on the tunnel entrance. "What treasure?"
"No time," I gasped. "Run!"
One of the little bulbs of nastiness arced into the tunnel and Rarity tried to stop it with her magic. She gave a little eep of surprise as her levitation field slid off of the sphere without getting a grip, and it smashed against the tunnel wall. There must have been some sort of thaumophobic coating on it. I hated it when my opponents were clever.
I filled the tunnel with a shield just below where the contents of the bulb were flaring to life. My vision went white as a spike of pain shot through my head, but I managed to maintain the shield long enough to stop the primary blast.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash caught me as I collapsed, and carried me away from the roiling foulness that snaked down toward us when my shield failed.
"Keep… going," I croaked at them.
We made it to the head of the spiral stairs, whatever the bulb released having spent itself by then. But we could hear the echoing clatter of hooves on stone behind us.
"Twi," Applejack hissed at me, "there ain't room to carry you down the stairs! Can you…?"
I nodded and got my hooves under myself. "Go on. Down."
Rarity had to go first to provide light. AJ wanted me to go next.
"No," I said. "Last. In case they use another—"
"I ain't no kinda magical expert, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna kill yerself if'n you try another spell," she said, sternly. "You git down them stairs, Twilight!"
I didn't have the strength to argue.
We got down to the first landing, Applejack coming last and actually walking backwards. "Now what, Twi?"
"Okay… we need to…"
At that moment, Applejack cursed and I looked up in time to see Scar Face sling an entire bandoleer of the bulbs down the staircase and duck back into cover.
"Close your eyes!" I screamed. "Close your eyes!"
There was a second of darkness and then the bulbs detonated like flashes of chain lightning as they bounced and shattered on the iron steps. Multi-colored fire spewed from them and coated the landing and stairs below with hissing, burning destruction.
From where we all stood on a marble platform a furlong or so away, the conflagration was a terrifying sight, throwing a rippling pattern of light and shadow through the maze of stairs. If just one of us hadn't been brave enough to close her eyes on that onrushing doom, the magic of the labyrinth wouldn't have whisked us away in time. Heroes, those girls, every single one. Anypony who says different is a fool.
"Whoa," Rainbow Dash said quietly.
I'm sure she spoke for all of us.
"Now what, Twilight?" Rarity asked, as the flames and crackling sparks began to die down.
I turned to face her and vomited on her hooves.
"Sorry…" I said. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to…"
"No, no, darling," Rarity said with a tight voice and wrinkled muzzle, daintily shaking each forehoof in turn. "I understand completely. You're not well."
I pulled a bandanna out of a pocket on my vest with my teeth and offered it to her. She wiped off her hooves as well as possible while I explained the plan in a halting voice.
"They're going to come down the stairs. To look for the 'treasure' if nothing else. The labyrinth will catch them. Maybe we'll get lucky and more of the sultan's troops will come looking for them. Get trapped as well."
Rarity wiped my mouth for me with a clean corner of the cloth. "What about Nebula and our crew?"
"Captured… had to be. Standing orders to surrender if discovered. No way they could win a fight against the fleet. Musta seen the avalanche dust. Bad luck."
"So, we're just going to hide in here and hope they go away?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"No, no waiting. We have to hurry."
Rainbow frowned and looked around at the confusion of stairs. "Hurry to where?"
I grinned. "I know something you don't know," I said in a soft, sing-song voice.
Then I passed out.
= = =
"...ruffles my feathers."
"That there is called a breeze, if I ain't mistaken."
"We're, like, in a cave! There shouldn't be a breeze. And it's weird-feeling… sorta greasy."
"Greasy breeze! That's fun to say! Greasy breeze, greasy breeze, greasy breeze!"
"Oh! Uhmn… excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but I think Twilight is waking up."
"She looks just awful, poor thing!"
I opened my eyes slowly. I felt awful. "Howrng wuh ayy…" I stopped and tried to work some saliva into my mouth. Rarity floated a canteen over to me and I took a couple of small sips. The water fully revived the taste of dried vomit in my mouth and I nearly gagged. I spat out the water and rinsed once more before drinking.
"How long was I out?"
"Hard to tell, darling, but it probably hasn't been more than an a couple of hours. Fluttershy said you'd be okay if we let you rest for a while."
Rarity looked pretty awful herself, as did the rest of the gang. They were like fillies on Nightmare Night, holding red lanterns under their chins in an effort to appear ghoulish. I looked down at the floor and saw the ancient runes there, glowing like old coals. I looked past the girls and saw the spidery symbols on the stairs behind them, stretching up into darkness.
I rolled up onto my belly and tried to get my hooves under me.
"Oh, Twilight," Fluttershy said, "I don't think you should try to stand up just yet."
"I need to see the runes better," I explained. "We need to hurry."
Rainbow Dash and Applejack moved to my sides for support, and Rarity added her levitation to help get me standing.
"You said that about hurrying before you passed out, but you didn't explain before... you know... thunk!" Dash said.
"Mn," was my unhelpful reply as I began puzzling out the runes on the flight of ivory stairs in front of me.
"So, what's the hurry?" she persisted.
"The crew," I said. "Sooner or later, the zebras will take them back to the city to be imprisoned, or worse. They may wait to see if they can catch us as well, but they won't wait forever. There's the Eye of Rushwa, as well."
"Wait a second! We're gonna rescue the crew? How's that gonna happen?"
"Maybe… hopefully, and I don't have time to explain. Move your hooves so I can see that rune."
"But…"
"Tssst!"
Dash and the rest got the message and stood quietly at the side of the landing, so that I could examine the symbols.
The runes were ancient and complex. Written languages change over time to reflect the inevitable evolution of day-to-day speech. So do the sigils and runes used to embed and control magical energy. It seems a bit counter-intuitive because the mana used to construct spells doesn't change at all, but the attitude and philosophy of ponies toward magic does change, and thaumic symbology has to accurately model the mind-set of the mages who employ it.
Fortunately, I had made it a point to study psychothaumistics after I had been trapped in the Wheel of the World. Being unable to read most of the spells that surrounded me there had been unbelievably frustrating. My studies had the added benefit of introducing me to structural concepts that modern mages didn't even have descriptive words for any longer. All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that I could read the ancient symbols surrounding me.
"Hmn…" I muttered. "Yes… yes… that's fairly simple. So each step encodes a variable… yeah, makes sense. But doesn't… oh, wait!" I began to laugh out loud.
"Twilight," asked Pinkie Pie, "are you happy, or are you going nutso again?"
I waved a hoof at her. "'The body's natural response to delight,' right? I'm just starting to appreciate the deviousness of the pony who made this place! What a cunning, clever mind!"
"That's… good?" Dash asked.
"Now that I've figured out her little trick, it's great! The runes change when you walk over them! Look." I tapped the first of the ivory stairs and the symbol's transverse component changed from exothaumic to endothaumic. "See? Just walking along randomizes the effect of the spells! But now that I've noticed, it means I can set the runes to carry us to the other end of the maze… and back out again!"
"So, how is finding the treasure gonna help us to rescue the crew?" Applejack asked.
"Ah, that's the thing!" I said, as I tapped away at the rune components on the surrounding stairs. "What the labyrinth is protecting isn't mere gold and gems. I'm pretty sure it's magical items, maybe even… oh, darn… how did that happen?"
"What?" Rarity gasped and her left eye twitched a bit.
"That central symbol changed and I didn't… wait." I checked the relationship conduits between the mandala and the peripheral nodes on the landing, and then laughed again. "Oh, that deceptive, brilliant pony! There are reflexive controls between disparate components of separate runes. But… get this: They only activate on a set but unknown number of hooftaps! I'm going to have to figure out each number and the common denominator of all of the links from each staircase attached to this landing!"
"An' yer happy about that… why, exactly?" Applejack drawled.
"Well, it wouldn't be fun if it was easy, would it?"
There were sighs. There were eye-rolls. Rarity said, "I think you got hit on the head a few too many times, darling," almost too quietly for me to hear. But they stood silently after that and let me work.
"There!" I said at last, using a couple of precise taps to spin the delimiter of the mandala into its correct position. "Now, all we have to do is close our eyes!"
The ancient magic operated so smoothly, that I wasn't even sure anything had happened until I opened my eyes again. Then, the cavern echoed with our collective gasps and cries of surprise.
There was no gold. There were no gems, jewels, books, or piles of money. There was only a single gigantic structure. The mass of thaumically sensitive crystal in front of us must have been nearly twice the mass of the Crystal Empire Palace.
"What the hay is that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"It's an engine," I said.
"What, like a big motor or something?"
"Well… yes.[1] It's a motor that drives a set of spells with nearly unimaginable strength," I replied as I walked toward the curving panel of obsidian near the base of the engine. ---------- [1] No. The analogy is deeply flawed, and in that context, the word engine only came into use after the more appropriate term, michaní, had fallen into disuse in the late third century. But for Rainbow Dash, it was good enough. ----------
"So…" Dash began again, but Rarity shushed her.
"Can you control it, Twilight? Even without being able to use your magic? Will it be able to rescue the crew, or…?"
I ran my hoof over my vest, feeling the reassuring lump of the Talisman of Night in the secret pocket just over my heart. "Yes, I think I can control it. One way or another."
"Well, that's a relief to hear, darling." Rarity paused and frowned slightly in puzzlement. "But if it's so magically powerful, why isn't it…. Well, I'm sure you're much more knowledgeable than I am, but it doesn't feel alive."
"No, you're right. It's been deactivated," I said, peering at the golden knobs and levers set into the obsidian slab. "Something like this is very dangerous except when under direct control, believe me." I paused, debating whether or not to continue. "In fact, I'm pretty sure this thing is what killed that dragon." I waved a hoof in the general direction of up.
There was a profound silence for several moments.
I continued to study the controls, and a growing sense of familiarity began to build in my mind. "There should be a connector, a focus. With it in place there," I pointed to twin vertical needles of crystal that had a conspicuous gap between them, "the engine should become active."
"Like this?" Pinkie Pie asked, holding up an ebony case about the size of her head.
"Where did you find that?"
She just smiled and shrugged.
Wild magic, I told myself. Just don't ask. "Thank you, Pinkie," I said, taking the box from her.
There was no lock, just a simple catch. I took a deep breath and opened it.
"Oh," I said.
"Good 'oh,' or bad 'oh,' Twi?" Applejack asked, with only a tiny hint of panic in her voice.
"'Oh,' as in, 'Oh, it looks like I was right all along and I don't quite know how to feel about it.'" I said, and held up the focus, a beautifully carved crystal sun.
"That looks a lot like Princess Celestia's cutie mark," Rainbow Dash said.
"That's because she built this place, and the labyrinth that guards it," I said.
"Wait a minute!" Dash snapped. "We spent moons looking for this place last year, and you coulda just asked the Princess where it was? Are you kidding me?"
It was time to come clean. "I did ask her. Way back when I first found the old scroll that put me on the trail." I held the crystal sun up and pushed it between the two needles. It floated into place and slowly began to spin.
"Huh? I don't get it."
"She lied to me," I said. The sun focus spun faster and faster and the facets of the huge engine began to glow softly. "She told me that the Labyrinth was just a legend."
"Why in tarnation would the Princess lie to you?" Applejack growled.
"For the good of Equestria… and the world. Because this engine is incredibly dangerous, and she intended that it never be used again."
"But… that's exactly what you're fixin' to do!" Applejack's frown deepened. "Were you plannin' on usin' this here thingamajig even before we got ourselves in this pickle?"
The sun began to emit soft rays of light and the gigantic mass of crystal beyond brightened until the entire cavern glowed with the gentle colors of a summer dawn.
I nodded. "For the good of Equestria… and the world."
"Darling," Rarity said, stepping between AJ and I. "Perhaps we should discuss this before you take any hasty action?"
I gave her a sickly smile. "I always intended to tell you girls everything, and talk it all out with you when—if we found this place," I said, as I surreptitiously slipped the Talisman of Night out of my vest. "But there's no time, now."
I turned toward the obsidian control console to mask my movements. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't see me flip the chain of the Talisman over my head until it was too late to stop me.
Disappointments, disillusionments, and disasters are unhappy parts of life, as well as all-too-common elements of adventure stories, which, unfortunately, makes this chapter thoroughly disagreeable.
June 29th - July 2nd, 1012 Naghdad, Saddle Arabia, and onboard Nebula, on course for Canterlot
Spike sat bolt upright and belched out a gout of green fire. Then he flopped back into his hammock, groaning, "Not another one!"
The flame resolved itself into a scroll with a pop.
"Sorry, Spike," I said, smoothing back his head spines with a gentle touch of my magic. "Try to get back to sleep."
"It's okay, Twilight," he said, rubbing his eyes. "You'll probably want to send a reply pretty soon. I'll stay up."
I leaned over and gave him a nuzzle of thanks as I levitated the scroll from the floor. I quickly broke the seal and scanned the message before turning back to my bleary-eyed assistant. "It's okay. I already answered these questions. You can go back to sleep. There shouldn't be another message for…" I did a quick calculation. "...for at least three hours or so."
= = =
Messages sent by dragon fire aren't instantaneous. The enchanted smoke created by immolation has to actually travel the distance between sender and recipient, at about the speed of a hawk in full flight. From the coast of Zebrica to Canterlot, that meant an average delay of a couple of days, making a quick exchange of news very problematic. As they often crossed each other, it was sometimes difficult to immediately discern which letter was an answer to which.
My first message to Princess Celestia about Chrysalis's secret hive got an answer almost exactly four days later, which meant I had just enough time to catch a distant glimpse of the Great Library of Naghdad before a panting crewpony intercepted me with the return message as I was passing the Emir's palace.
Dear Twilight, This news comes as quite a shock, as you might imagine. How sure are you that the changeling spy told you the truth? It is not like you to leave out details, so I assume that you have told me everything you know about the matter so far. Is there any way you can convince the changeling to give you more information? I hate to ask it of you, but could you return to Canterlot as soon as possible? I am taking preliminary steps to address this matter, but I would like the opportunity to question the spy in more detail before I commit to certain courses of action. Your help and support in this matter would be invaluable to me. Yours, Celestia
I had picked up several "colorful" words and expressions in the Zebrican trade pidgin and, when I had finished reading the letter, I employed one of the less savory ones.
"Begging your pardon, capt'n?" the crewpony asked.
"Never mind." I let the scroll roll shut and stuffed it in my vest, then dragged him into a nearby alley for privacy. "When you get back to Nebula, tell Mr. Fairlead to round up the crew and prepare to set sail. I want to cast off by sunset, understand?"
"Yes, ma'am, but…" He cast a doubtful glance at the late afternoon sky. "I'm not sure I can even make it back to the ship before then."
"Don't worry." I said, crafting a teleport matrix, "you will."
I knew approximately where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were, so I went to fetch them myself. I found Pinkie outside a café, literally trying to talk Dash down. There was an overturned table, several tiny broken white cups, and a dozen interested spectators surrounding the two. Dash's wings were beating so rapidly that they were barely visible and her eyes were horribly bloodshot.
"What the hay is going on here?" I shouted.
"Huh?" Dash spun in midair. "Twi! This guy called me a 'colorful cutie!'" She stabbed a hoof in the general direction of the crowd.
"Dashie," Pinkie called up to her, "you are cute and colorful!"
Rainbow Dash sputtered for a moment and then said, "Yeah, but it's the way he said it! And what was that comment about me not wearing a saddle? The guy's a creep!"
Pinkie sighed and then turned to me. "I told her the coffee in this place was strong, but she wouldn't listen."
"How many cups did she have?"
"Seven."
I used the word again.
"Hey!" Dash called down from where she was jittering through the air. "Are you guys talking smack about me?"
"I don't have time for this nonsense!" I wasn't going to teleport us all back to Nebula with so many witnesses looking on. Unicorns who can master the spell are few and far between, and exactly none of them would stoop to working as a lowly merchant aeronaut.
I grabbed Dash out of the air and hauled her down until she was muzzle-to-muzzle with me. "Ms. Rain Storm!" I bellowed out in my best Displeased Captain impersonation. "You were due onboard at four bells! You are coming back to the ship with me now, and you'll be lucky if I don't stop your pay!"
"What? What the hay, Twilight?! You're…" She made a muffled grunt as I squeezed her mouth shut.
I flung a hoofful of coins onto the table to pay for the damages and turned to go, Dash floating in my wake. There was a good deal of laughter from behind us, and Dash struggled futilely to escape my levitation field. When we got onto the broad avenue that led to the port, I let go of her mouth and let her vent her frustration on me.
During one of her few pauses for breath, I broke in. "Yes, you're right, that stallion was probably working up to propositioning you, or worse, offering to pay you. And yes, he probably thought of you as a 'loose' mare because you weren't wearing a saddle and bridle.[1] You had every right to get angry." ---------- [1] Saddle Arabians customarily use various sorts of tack to indicate marital status, class, and even profession. A horse wearing nothing at all is usually very poor, working a job that is considered "distasteful", or deliberately being provocative. ----------
"Huh? I did? I mean, yeah, I did!"
"But," I continued, "you didn't have a right to break up the café's furniture and dishes or take a swing at the creep. A mature mare would have put it down to cultural differences and laughed the whole thing off." I paused and floated her around until we were nose-to-nose. "A coffee overdose is no excuse. You seriously need to learn some self-control!"
She took a deep breath, but I was fairly angry myself by then, and in no mood to get into a prolonged argument in a crowded street. I clamped her mouth shut again and kept it that way until we got back to Nebula.
= = =
Three days later, over the ocean and out of sight of land, Rainbow Dash still wasn't speaking to me. The first day, she was suffering from horrible caffeine withdrawal and didn't say much to anypony. The second day, she concentrated on her resentment and understandably vented to anypony who would listen. The third day, she went about her business, seemingly her old self, but managed to be on the other side of the deck from wherever I happened to be, and took her lunch off to eat privately when I joined the rest of the girls for the meal. I'd never seen her hold on to a grudge that long before.
"I suppose I should go apologize to her," I said, poking at my food.
"Best wait a mite longer," Applejack advised. "She's still got her tail in a knot. Give her some time to cool off."
"I guess so. I just… I was in a hurry… I didn't mean to…"
"Yup," Applejack nodded. "Tell her all o' that when she's in a mood to listen. She'll be…"
"Captain Blackmane?" Acorn called from the quarterdeck, a bit hesitant to interrupt me at my meal.
"Yes, Mr. Acorn?" I shoved my plate away and stood up. I wasn't hungry, anyway.
"Lookout reports a vessel ahead. Says she looks a bit battered."
Overtaking other airships wasn't unusual for us. We were under powered flight and, despite her antiquated appearance, Nebula could really move with her engines at Full Ahead. We'd passed four other craft along the northern trade route since we'd departed Naghdad.
"Battered?" I asked. "There haven't been any storm systems moving through that I know of."
Acorn looked uncomfortable. "There have been some stories of pirates in these skies, ma'am. More of them lately, it's said."
"You think the ship might have been attacked?"
A whistle from the speaking tube to the topside cupola interrupted us and I flipped the cover up. "This is the captain. Go ahead."
"Vessel ahead, Captain. Two points off the larboard bow. She's drifting, and looks a right mess. May be ponies on deck, but I can't be sure yet. You should be able to see her in a minute or so."
"Very good. Keep an eye on her." I flipped the cover of the tube shut. "Mr. Acorn, come two points to larboard. We'll intercept and offer assistance if needed."
Belladonna was a 'right mess.' She was an old-style ship with her hull hung beneath her gasbags, and we could clearly see the broken crates and tangles of line that covered her open deck shortly after we were near enough to read her name on her transom.
Rainbow Dash flew over to take a look and zoomed back after one pass over her deck. "There's some ponies on board. They all look hurt, and some of them..." She swallowed nervously. "Some of them might be dead, Twilight!"
"Thank you, Dash," I said, and leaned over the rail to the main deck. "Fluttershy! Get a couple of medical kits and go with Rainbow Dash. Do whatever you can to help them. We'll get there and get the doctor on board as soon as possible!"
The crew rapidly got out the boarding ramp and grappling lines, and we adjusted our altitude to match the crippled ship as we made a careful final approach. What few of Belladonna's crew were on their hooves helped secure the lines and ramp when we came alongside.
A big unicorn stallion with a loose, torn shirt came across the ramp as soon as it was in place. "Thank you so much, Captain!" he called out to me as he stepped onto Nebula's deck. "We're very glad of your assistance, as you might imagine!"
If I had been a more experienced captain, I might have caught on right then. Another two ponies from Belladonna followed, both also offering effusive thanks. Then several more appeared and made for the ramp. But what they did not do was ask permission to come aboard.
It might seem like a small thing, a courtesy forgotten in the midst of a dire situation, but it was a custom so deeply ingrained in sailors and aeronauts that they would be likelier to forget to breathe than to forget to ask leave before stepping onto a ship's deck.
"Somethin's not right about them," Applejack whispered in my ear as two more of the foreign crew came aboard.
I craned my neck, trying to get a glimpse of Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy on Belladonna's deck, but they were nowhere to be seen. "Just stop there, if you please," I said to the big stallion.
He didn't stop approaching, and he didn't stop grinning.
I didn't want to possibly further injure an already hurt pony by grabbing him with my magic, so I hesitated, and that's when they attacked.
The pegasus stallion that had crossed over just after the big unicorn flipped something out from beneath his wing and flung it at my head. It whirled through the air and hit me, wrapping around my horn. Something dense and heavy whacked me on the side of the head.
I brought up my magic and… it was like trying to take another step down past the end of a staircase in a dimly lit basement. A pulse of pain went through my head, and my magic backed up on me with a jolt.
I saw what the thing was when the pegasus threw another one of them at Rarity. It was a length of barbed silver chain between two metal weights, thrown with a spinning motion so that it would wrap around whatever it hit. The barbs made it nearly impossible to scrape off and the silver was no doubt enchanted and acted as a magic suppressor ring when in place.
Rarity dodged the one thrown at her and jumped the pegasus, putting him into a very painful-looking wing lock within seconds. Then she snatched up a belaying pin in her magic and went to work on another of the stallions. Both crews were at each other almost immediately, cutlasses, boarding axes, and knives suddenly appearing from beneath the supposedly wounded crew's clothing.
The silver chain wasn't as sturdy as a real suppressor, and after a pulse to test its strength, I knew I could burn through it in a couple of seconds if I concentrated my magic correctly.
I didn't get those seconds. I had built up a focused blast of energy and was just about to release it when I heard Fluttershy scream.
"Drop your weapons or I'll cut her throat!" yelled a voice from Belladonna's deck. The fighting ponies drew apart and I could see a stallion at the rail, holding a heavy blade just below Fluttershy's chin.
The crew looked to me and I gasped out, "Do it! Surrender!"
Weapons clattered to the deck and the pirates all began to smile. One of the pirates dragged a bound and gagged Rainbow Dash onto our deck and dropped her in a heap. The big unicorn in front of me lifted my muzzle with the tip of his cutlass and sneered. "Now order your ponies to bring out all your gold and gems, and you can watch as I share them out to my crew."
"I've got my treasure already!" called out the stallion who held Fluttershy. He ran a hoof down over her belly. "Ain't that right, pretty filly?"
She whimpered.
"Don't you dare…" yelled Lee Helm, taking several angry steps toward the boarding ramp.
The pegasus pirate next to him slid his sword into Helm's chest as quickly and casually as if he were putting it back into its sheath. The old stallion froze and gasped, but never took his eyes off of Fluttershy's. The pirate pulled out his blade with an easy twist, and Lee Helm dropped, his blood flooding out onto the deck.
The big unicorn made a tsk tsk sound. "That's how fools end up, my ponies. Don't any of the rest of you be foolish, now."
There was a moment when I felt as if I were floating, when I knew that I'd cast my spell of destruction even if the pony in front of me ended my life at the same instant.
That's when Ket saved us.
"Run!" screamed the duplicate of the pirate captain. "Back to the ship! Flee! They're cursed! Run, you fools!"
Some of the pirates jumped at the sound of their captain's voice, some ran, some just backed a pace or two, looking back and forth between both captains in confusion. It was enough.
I jerked my head down, cutting a line of red along the underside of my jaw on the tip of the captain's sword. When my horn was in line with his face, I pushed my spell with all of my strength.
Breaking through the enchanted chain took me enough time for his eyes to widen in surprise, and for him to raise his cutlass for a decapitating stroke. Then, the searing bolt of magic spattered molten silver across the quarterdeck and blasted him up and over the larboard rail.
The rest of the pirates all recovered their wits and went for killing strokes, but I caught them all in my magic before anypony else could be hurt.
"Doctor!" I screamed. "Get the emergency case! Now!"
It seemed like it took forever. I eased my grip on the weapons, and my crew went about disarming the pirates.
Dr. Woundwort returned with the red and yellow striped box and knelt beside Lee Helm, gently pushing a weeping Fluttershy aside. "Look away, everypony!" he said sharply. Then, he held the box in front of the old stallion's face and opened the lid. There was a long moment where nopony made a sound. The only thing to be heard was the angry cockatrice hissing and struggling against the restraining wire mesh inside the box.
Then there was the thump of the lid closing, and the sound of Dr. Woundwort clearing his throat. "I'm sorry, captain. He's gone."
Fluttershy's wail nearly broke my heart.
I forced myself to look down. There should have been a statue of a kindly old stallion, awaiting revival by the best mages of Canterlot, but we had been too late. He had known so much about sailing an airship, and trading in foreign ports, and gentle encouragement, and… how could such treasures simply vanish from the world?
"Captain?"
My crew were waiting for me.
"You," I hissed, lifting the trapped pirates in my magic. "None of you asked my leave to board my ship! GET OFF OF HER!"
With all of my strength, I threw them at Belladonna. The ship's timbers shattered, her shrouds snapped and fell, and her envelope ripped and tore. There was a groan as her hull and keel twisted, spilling gear, cargo, and bodies, and she dropped out of sight.
But there was one pirate I had held onto.
I turned to the pegasus who had so casually killed Lee Helm. "You have a lot to think about," I said, as I wrenched the red and yellow case out of the doctor's grip. "And you will have a lot of time to think about it... down in the cold and the dark."
I shoved the box into his face and opened the lid. I had to peel his eyelids back and turn his eyes in their sockets to get him to meet the cockatrice's gaze, but his green coat finally turned gray and hard.
I dropped the statue overboard and gave the emergency case back to the doctor. "See to the wounded, please," I told him.
I was the captain. There were things to be done, and it was my responsibility to see that they were. Grief would come later. Numbness was my friend.
"Mr. Acorn, resume course for Canterlot. Make all possible speed.
"Khaatarrekket, please drop your disguise. It's alright, nopony will harm you.
"Everypony, this is Ket's true form. She is a changeling of the Great Desert Hive, and we all owe her an enormous debt. She is to be treated as an honored guest, and anypony who offers her the least discourtesy will incur my deepest displeasure.
"Mr Fairlead, see that Mr. Helm is taken below and treated properly. If anypony knows what his wishes were in such an event, you will make them known to me and I will make arrangements.
"Mr. Hitch, see to it that the deck is cleaned, and those weapons properly stowed.
"I am going to retire to my cabin and explain... " My voice nearly cracked and I had to pause for a moment. "I will explain the situation to Spike, and then I will return to the quarterdeck to stand watch."
"Pinkie, I think that Spike may need somepony to be with. Could you please…? Yes. Thank you."
"Twilight, you can't just…" Rarity began.
Applejack stopped her with a hoof laid on her shoulder. "Leave her be, Rares. Trust me on this."
The great villains are remarkable for their laughter, the heroes for their grim countenance. Yet a pony's cutie mark urges her to do what she loves.
May 6th, 1014, Afternoon On the rim of the Wheel of the World
I'm not a good fighter. I just don't have the temperament for it. That may sound strange, coming from a pony who owns a suit of armor that's worth more than a Manehattan penthouse, but it's true. I'm often very effective in combat, due to the combination of my magic, earth pony strength, tactical ability, and improvisational skill, but I never want to hurt anypony. Not really. Even in dire circumstances, I subconsciously hold back.
Except when I lose my temper.
I'm sure my friends understand that about me. That's why Applejack's hind hooves smashed into the shield I popped up an instant after I flipped the Amulet's chain over my head and the Nightmare's magic flooded into me. She probably thought I would be slow to defend myself, as I had been so many times before. She bucked twice again, trying to penetrate the shield, no doubt hoping to "save" me by applying some blunt force trauma to my head. Applejack is nothing if not direct.
"Stop that, AJ," I said calmly. "You'll hurt yourself."
I felt good. All the pain and bone-deep exhaustion had vanished. Without my own magic at full strength as a balance, the Nightmare's own certainly had an effect on my… outlook, but I was sure I could compensate for that.
I turned to my friends, who were all eyeing me warily. All but one. I glanced up to where Rainbow Dash had turned at the apex of her climb and was starting her high-powered dive. I dropped my shield, canceled her inertia, and teleported her so that she was eye-level with me, with the end of her muzzle lightly touching my own. "Boo!"
Dash gasped and I let go of her. The look on her face was so funny that I had to laugh. The girls backed off and held a hurried, hushed conversation, probably along the lines of, "What're we gonna do?" and "How should I know?"
"It's all right!" I called out to them. "I'm fine. You ought to know that I would never deliberately hurt any of you no matter what happens!"
"So, y'ain't gone all Nightmare Moon, then? 'Cause it kinda looks like you have."
I laughed again. It was so good to feel powerful and unconstrained again. I made a dismissive gesture with one wing. "Oh, maybe just a teensy-weensy bit, but it doesn't matter! You're my friends and I love you! I'm going to save you!" The black tips of my wings were only a minor side effect, nothing to be concerned about.
"That's… good?" Rainbow Dash said.
"And our crew?" Rarity asked.
"Oh, yes, yes, them too, of course!" I paused. "Well, I'm going to save them from the zebras, at least."
The girls traded glances.
"There's Crazy Good and Crazy Bad, Twilight," Pinkie said, narrowing her eyes at me. "Which one are you going for here?"
"Why crazy at all? Why can't it be determination and vision?" I flared my wings, beginning to feel a little bit irritated.
"Vision?" Pinkie tilted her head. "Are you seeing things, Twilight? Because along with maniacal laughter, that's one of the warning signs of…"
"Oh, don't be like that, Pinkie Pie! I don't have time to explain it all. In fact…"
"Twilight, you've got to stop and think!" Rarity interrupted. "You can't just…"
"Don't tell me what I can't do!" I snapped. "You wouldn't believe what I can do! In fact… just… go to sleep!"
My friends all slumped to the floor. I relaxed and smiled. Time to get to work.
First came the important part: The real reason I had been seeking out the crystal engine for so long. I had planned on explaining it to them. I didn't see how they could possibly refuse, but it had been important to me that they be given full knowledge of my plan, and each agree to it of their own free will. Had been important… for some reason.
I laughed once more, banishing my doubts. How incredibly naïve of me! They'd be falling over themselves to thank me when they learned what I'd done to them!
Celestia's masterpiece stood before me, the knife in the back of her merciless mother's plan for the whole universe. It did something no other magical construct was capable of. All the others used active magic to bypass the natural laws in various ways, but this could change those natural laws.
From all that I had been able to discover, the engine had been integral to Celestia's plan after the overthrow of the Red Queen. Once that had been accomplished, she had tried to change the world so that virtuous ponies were rewarded for being good as part of the basic way that things worked. When they saw that there were direct rewards for virtue, everypony would want to be good. It made perfect sense. But Celestia hadn't been entirely successful because natural laws are an intricate web, and changing one can have unintended effects on a host of others. She had done her best, and then shut down the great crystal mechanism and hidden it away.
It had taken me years to puzzle it all out. A crystal engine took consummate skill and magical strength to construct. They weren't just giant-sized versions of common amulets, because the power requirements went up exponentially as they got larger, and even one designed with a single, simple purpose involved nightmarishly complex spell-coordination requirements.
I had foolishly been awed by the dark crystal engine beneath the Crook-Tail Canyon ruins in the Badlands when I'd first laid eyes on it. It wasn't long before I knew it for the brute-force piece of hackwork that it truly was.
The Crystal Empire was a different and more subtle approach, and I was fairly certain Celestia had created it well after she had shut down the one beneath the labyrinth. It was an engine that comprised an entire city and gently drew its power from the emotional emanations of its inhabitants; a remarkable feat of magical engineering, indeed. It served its purpose well; happy ponies were good ponies.[1] It wasn't perfect, of course. There was the unintentional side effect of the crystallization of living beings surrounding and within it, that slowly became permanent over the generations. But as they took no apparent harm, that was a minor concern. ---------- [1] Apparently, a positive influence that was "reflected" in the attitude of the Equestrian ponies, was a bit of mind magic that Celestia had designed as a slight adjustment in her long-term plan for Equestria. ----------
That the Imperial City was also susceptible to corruption and misuse was a much bigger problem. An engine that broadcast happiness and contentment could just as easily transmit negative emotions when powered by dark magic. But that wasn't a failing so much as something inherent in any tool: If a thing can be used, it can be misused.
A lesser-known danger was that sometimes the great engines decided to use themselves. The changes that Celestia had made to the world had unintentionally led to the growth of the Tree of Harmony, and by extension, my castle and the map table at its heart. The Rainbow Power was a gift from a construct that somehow thought, and more importantly, judged. When Luna had rebelled and Celestia had sealed her within the moon, the Tree had severed their connections to the Elements, despite the fact that Celestia had created the definitions of good and evil that it operated on.
The Tree of Harmony's power was limited. It needed ponies to act as its agents and it wanted them to be good ponies. My friends and I had received the Elements only when I realized and accepted the goodness in them and the value of their friendship. I don't know why the Tree had decided to test us a second time, but we passed reevaluation as well. We had each made a friend of someone who we could just as easily have dismissed as an enemy.
What is the phrase? "Third time's the charm," isn't it?
We six had done great good in the world. We continued to do great good in the world. I was determined that we would always do good despite the whims of a semi-sapient mass of rock. But it was only possible because of the special bond we had. I had seen what the world could have become without our friendship, and I never wanted to see something like that again.
And that's why I had to do what I did.
I touched the engine with my magic and set it to producing the artifacts that I needed. I wove the matching patterns between the engine and the resultant gems. I tuned the spells and components with subtle adjustments of the golden knobs and levers on the obsidian slab until everything was just right.
I had the impulse to double-check all the structures, but banished it from my mind with a sneer. That was old Twilight's timidity and uncertainty trying to creep back in. I knew how brilliant I was, and I knew that there was no need for hesitation.
I started with Applejack, pulling her sleeping body to me. I smiled down at her, admiring her wonderful strength and beauty while I used my magic to shape a bit of crystal into a razor-sharp blade. Then I brushed her mane away from the base of her skull, and began to cut through her soft golden coat.
= = =
All my life, I had disdained superstition and any reactive behavior tied to it. And that is probably why I cleared my throat and said in a clear, distinct voice, "What could possibly go wrong?" before I touched the golden lever that activated the spells.
The unconscious bodies of my friends twitched a bit when the crystal engine made contact with the tiny gems I'd implanted near the posterior edge of their foramina magna. Everything was going as expected, and I was pleasantly surprised by the speed and efficiency of the spellwork.
In only a few minutes, the integration was complete.
I thought about waking them one at a time, but I was under a little bit of time pressure. Going over what had happened five separate times also seemed like it would be unutterably boring, so I just threw the lever that connected the engine directly to the power of the main World Wheel.
If the self-powered engine had been impressive in its ability to create and power the magical gems, when tapped into the magic that kept the world turning, it was overwhelming. The flood of energy was even more intense than I'd expected, and I was more experienced in channeling magic than nearly any pony alive.
It staggered me, and it woke the girls right up.
There were several seconds of confused exclamations, and then one clear voice from the crowd.
"Oh, good heavens! What's happened to us?" Rarity gasped, turning her head over her back so that she could stare at her wings.
"It won't last," I said. "It'll wear off in a fairly short while, like our crystal bodies did back when the Empire returned. I'd advise against trying to fly until you've got some room."
"Are we, like, princesses now?" Rainbow Dash asked, going somewhat cross-eyed trying to get a good look at her horn.
"No, Dash. You've just got a supercharged injection of magic from all three tribes, and that manifests itself through wings and horns. Hooves, too by the way, so try not to stamp too hard. You'll break things."
"What about you, darling?"
I frowned. "What about me?" I looked down at myself. "Oh."
It was a long way to the floor, and my coat had become jet black. I stretched out a wing and examined it. The primaries were sharply pointed and threw deep purple highlights as I wiggled them. I ran my tongue over my teeth and discovered that they were pointed.
"Y'all figurin' on doing the 'Eternal Night' thing? 'Cause, if'n you are, we're gonna have a discussion, Twilight Sparkle."
I laughed long and hard then, and not just because Applejack's hat looked ridiculous hanging crookedly from the tip of her horn. She didn't seem to be reassured, so I added, "I don't like astronomy that much!"
Nopony laughed.
"It was a joke! Why can't you believe I haven't become some kind of evil monster?"
"Maybe because right now you make Nightmare Moon look like a grumpy puppy?" Rainbow Dash said.
"What? It's not that bad, is it?"
Rarity sadly shook her head. "Of all the times to be caught without a mirror!"
"Really, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "You are so super scary! Isn't she scary, Fluttershy? Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy had fainted.
"Huh." I thought for a moment. "Actually, this is probably a good thing! I was going to mess around with the nature of causality a bit[2] to let us escape from the zebras, but now I think I'll just deal with the situation directly." ---------- [2] Just a teeny bit. Nothing drastic or really dangerous. Honest. ----------
I trotted over to the base of the big crystalline stairway that led up into the labyrinth. "Do you girls want to help out, or are you just going to watch?" I called back over my shoulder.
"What are you going to do?" Applejack asked, as she and Pinkie Pie helped Fluttershy to her hooves.
"Improvise," I replied, shrugging. "If I'm that scary, I can probably frighten them away! What do you think?" I reared up and flung my wings wide, using the Royal Voice to amplify a throaty growl into a roar that echoed through the cavern.
The girls all flinched and their eyes went wide. Except for Fluttershy. Fluttershy fainted again.
"Oh, yeah! I can work with this!"
"Uh-huh, and that is what worries me," Applejack grumbled as she trotted over to my side.
"Trust me!" I said, grabbing her hat with my magic and forcing it down so that her horn pierced it and it slid down to its proper place.
"Alright, Twi. I'm gonna trust you for now. But I'm gonna keep a real close eye on you, y'hear?"
I wanted to tell her right then. I knew, if I explained why I'd spent so much time and effort finding the engine, that she'd see that I had the purest of motives. But there wasn't any time. It would have to wait.
I reached out with my magic and adjusted the staircase runes to set the mandala to transport us to the top of the labyrinth. "C'mon, girls! Let's go have some fun!"
It was a shame I didn't notice the binding sigils changing on the face of the engine, but they had been set up specifically to be unnoticed. Clever old mare, indeed.
In which lessons that are difficult to learn produce knowledge that is unpleasant.
July 4th - 8th, 1012 Equestria
We sighted the Equestrian coast in the early evening. I was at the helm, alone on the quarterdeck.
"Position?" I asked the lookout.
"South of Vanhoover by a few leagues, capt'n. We should see the lights of Tall Tale off the starboard bow within the half-hour."
"Very good," I said, and snapped the cover of the speaking tube shut. I shoved the lever that engaged the self-steering mechanism and went to the aft rail to take a reading with my anemometer. I noted the airspeed in the log and then took the wheel again. Six hours out from Canterlot.
Applejack came up from below and climbed the ladder from the waist up to the quarterdeck. I frowned and kept my eyes on the horizon. The hint was clear but she didn't take it.
"Twi, I ain't one of your crew, so don't get all captain-y on me, y'hear? This is gonna be hard enough as it is."
At least she had managed to engage my curiosity. I glanced at the compass and then up at her.
"I'm gonna ask you for a big favor. I'm gonna ask you for a princess favor, and I wouldn't feel right doin' it if'n it was just for me."
I didn't feel much like talking, so I simply cocked my head.
"It's for Fluttershy, y'see." Applejack looked down and scuffed a hoof across the deck. "An' it's Princess Luna that'll have to help her. I want you to ask the princess for me if she'll…"
"No nightmares. Got it."
Applejack looked at me for a long moment. "Yeah… that'd be nice, but it ain't the main thing."
I raised an eyebrow.
"I reckon you're gonna find this out yourself, Twi, and I'm pretty sure you're strong enough to deal with it. I ain't so sure about Fluttershy. Y'see…"
She paused for a long while, and just when I thought she was going to give up and go away, she began speaking again. She never once took her eyes off the deck while she spoke.
"Y'know I lost my ma and pa awhile back, so this is somethin' I know about." She paused again briefly, swallowed, and went on. "The nightmares are bad, yeah, but it's some good dreams that're the worst. You'll be doin' somethin' ordinary, sittin' on a log and eatin' an apple, maybe. An' you'll look up, and there they'll be, smilin' back at you, maybe talkin' about somethin' or other. You know how dreams go. You just accept it. Maybe you say, 'Hey… for some reason I thought y'all was dead.' And they'll laugh at that, and you'll laugh, and you'll go on, havin' a good time.
"And then you wake up.
"That's the worst, Twi. It weren't no nightmare, but when you wake up and you know it was only a dream… well… it's pretty hard to take. Fluttershy loved that ol' pony, an'... she don't need that wound poked at. I don't know if Princess Luna can do anything about those kinda dreams, but if you could ask her for me, I'd be mighty obliged."
Applejack attempted to make it all sound casual and impersonal, but I could see her pain in the way her mouth tightened and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I thought about my own parents and how I would feel if… I tried to stifle a sob and failed. She looked up at me then. "Aw… aw, Twilight, sugarcube, don't cry! I didn't mean to… aw, ponyfeathers! C'mere!" She flipped the self-steering lever on the binnacle, and pulled me into a hug. I curled my neck around hers and sobbed for quite some time.
= = =
Applejack had just gotten me settled and was trying to convince me to go below and get something to eat when the guards arrived.
"Permission to come aboard?" the pegasus in bright armor called out as he came up fast from astern.
I glanced at the other pegasi following in his wake. "Yes, lieutenant, you and your flight are welcome aboard. I'm Captain Blackmane. What can I do for you?"
The lieutenant landed on the quarterdeck, his ponies on the main deck and fo'c'sle. "May I see your log and manifests, please," he said.
"Is there a problem?"
"No, ma'am. Just routine."
I knew routine when I saw it, and whatever was going on wasn't it. But I nodded and made for the companionway. "I'll get them for you."
He moved to block my way. "It would be better if you sent a crewpony, ma'am."
I couldn't help but notice that he and all his ponies wore short swords, and that they were carefully watching all of the hatches.
We held our course for Canterlot while the lieutenant went through our papers and the guards went through the ship, comparing everything in the cargo hold to the manifests, and even going so far as to thump the decks, bulkheads, and overheads in search of hidden compartments. The only thing I had hidden away was my magical instruments and the letters from Luna and Celestia. Lacking a high-level unicorn, they would never be able to find those.
"I have been very patient, lieutenant," I said, around the end of the third hour of the "routine" inspection. "Would you do me the courtesy of telling me what this is all about?"
He held up the ship's log and gave me a long, hard stare. "It says here you were attacked by pirates. Not a lot of detail to the entry, though."
"That's right," I said through clenched teeth. "They attacked us and we fought them off. They're dead and their ship is sunk. Not much more to tell."
"I see." He tucked the log back under his wing. "You've got an awful lot of weapons aboard for a merchant vessel." He let the observation stand, not asking a direct question. No doubt he was hoping to get me talking and perhaps letting something slip out.
I said nothing.
The lieutenant then held up a set of the little weighted silver chains. "Were you aware that possession of these weapons by civilians is illegal?"
"We took those from the pirates. Keep them if you like."
"So you disarmed the pirates before you killed them?"
"Now look here, you consarned…" Applejack began, stepping toward the lieutenant.
There was the hiss of a sword coming out of its scabbard and AJ turned to see one of the guards holding his blade pointed just behind her ribs.
The lieutenant gave up any pretense of politeness. "We have a report of a merchant airship being sunk by pirates two days ago. The description of the attacking vessel matches yours. Not many ships with dark blue envelopes in the sky."
"What?! But that's crazy! We were the ones what got attacked!" AJ growled at him.
He nodded to the other guards and they closed in on the quarterdeck. He pulled out a suppressor ring from under his wing, and one of his ponies produced a couple of sets of hobbles.
"Then, I'm sure we'll get this all straightened out in a day or so. In the meantime…"
There was a loud thump from the main deck and the guards whirled, all swords coming out of their scabbards at once. Then there was the clatter of all the armored ponies coming to attention at the same time.
The lieutenant dropped the suppressor ring in his haste to salute. "Your Majesty!"
Princess Luna coolly surveyed the scene for a moment. "You are from the Vanhoover garrison?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
She nodded. "This is not the ship you are looking for. Canterlot is under two hours flight from here, so you and your ponies can spend the night in the barracks there and return to Vanhoover in the morning."
The guard frowned in confusion. "Yes, but…"
"You are dismissed," Luna said quietly.
He hesitated only a moment before snapping off a second salute and calling out, "Flight! Formation on me!" He dove over the rail and the other pegasi followed.
Luna gave me a level gaze from beneath lowered eyelids and smiled. "You should be at Canterlot by midnight, Captain Blackmane. I hope you enjoy your stay in the capital."
She reared up, spreading her huge wings so that they caught the wind, lifted her from the deck, and carried her over the rail. She disappeared into the night almost instantly.
"Well, i'n't that somethin'!" Halter Hitch said in a low voice. The rest of the crew on deck muttered their agreement.
= = =
We cleared customs and paid the various fees and tariffs, which took most of my attention for several hours. I paid the crew and gave them promissory notes for their share of the profits when we sold Nebula's cargo. They secured their personal effects and said their farewells.
"And, as for me, Captain?" asked Khaatarrekket.
"If you take the morning express for Ponyville with the girls, you can change trains there for Dodge Junction. That'll put you pretty close to your hive. I'd advise a different disguise, though. A zebra in the territories is just as likely to cause a commotion as a changeling would."
"You're not going to take me to Celestia for an 'interview,' then? She won't be happy about that."
I shrugged. "You've given me all the information you're willing to give, and that will have to do. I don't think she'd coerce you even if I didn't consider you a friend."
She carefully considered me for a long moment. "Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. I think we will meet again."
"I look forward to it, Ket."
We had an early breakfast in a restaurant near the station, and afterwards, I said my farewells to the girls and made it a point of telling each of them how much they meant to me, singling out Fluttershy for an extra-long hug and nuzzle. Rarity said she'd be back in two days to assist in selling off our cargo.
I stood on the platform for a long while after the train had departed. Spike finally nudged me and complained that he was cold.
"Okay, Spike." I said. "Sorry about that. I was just thinking… woolgathering, Mom used to call it. We're going now."
"Good! Uh… where are we going?"
Celestia was waiting for me.
Luna was waiting for me.
The weight of my crown and a thousand responsibilities were out there, lurking.
I took a deep breath. "We're going home, Spike."
= = =
My parents were surprised but delighted to see Spike and me. They loved the little gifts we had brought them from Zebrica. They made the usual fuss over Spike, and I got the usual interrogation about my life and travels from Mom. I glossed right over the terrible part, which didn't fool her for an instant, but we all silently agreed to accede to my editing of reality.
I had Spike send a couple of short notes to Luna and Celestia, and then I took us out for brunch at Mom's favorite place. Afterward, we walked through the gardens surrounding the Royal Museum of Art and puzzled over the new "installation" beside the koi pond.
"I think it's a bird's nest," my dad said, tilting his head nearly horizontal and squinting.
"It's an expressionist piece, dear," my mom replied, patiently. "It's not meant to be a particular object."
"I'm a scientist. I like things to have meaning."
"But it does have meaning! You remember Twilight's first burst of magic? When she threw the whole bowl of pickled beets at the wall? That spatter was a representation of an emotion, something one can't directly depict. Expressionistic, you see?"
"Anger," I said, an image of red splashes against a smooth surface suddenly leaping into my mind.
Dad looked back at the jumble of poles and boards. "Really? I don't see it."
I forced a laugh. "Not this, the beets. I still don't like pickled beets!"
"Well, thankfully, the curators have placed a little informational plaque here," Mom said, levitating her reading glasses out of her bag. "Let's see… oh. Oh dear!"
"What is it?"
Mom straightened up, putting her glasses away. "The art piece is due to be installed next week. This," she said, blushing slightly as she waved a hoof at the jumble, "is scaffolding."
We left the museum and ambled through the old neighborhood, poking our noses into shops and chatting. We bought lemon tarts from a street cart and ate them while Spike rampaged through his favorite comic shop.
In the afternoon, we had tea at the Phaeton Hotel and Mom filled me in on the news from the Empire. Little Flurry Heart was growing like a weed and having truly epic bursts of magic that were driving Shining and Cadance to distraction. (Nothing like they had been, thank the fates!)
The day was unremarkable. It was ordinary. It was exactly what I needed.
"I'll see you again, soon," I said to my parents as I kissed them goodbye. "Thanks for looking after Spike for a little while."
The little dragon in question stood with a foreleg around one of mine, reluctant to be parted from me. "You sure you don't need me, Twilight?"
I gave him a hug. "I'll always need you, Spike. But it's all going to be pretty dull stuff for a while, and those comics aren't going to read themselves!"
"Okay, I guess," he slowly let go of my leg. "But come get me if there are any emergencies, alright?"
I nodded and gave his head spines a ruffle. "I will, I promise."
= = =
"I'm glad to discover that the reports claiming you had turned pirate were slightly exaggerated," Celestia said, as we shared a pitcher of iced tea on her private terrace.
"How could they have gotten it so mixed up?"
"Sky Dancer's captain saw the engagement through a spyglass from almost a league away. And when a ship is so quickly and thoroughly destroyed, some assumptions are reasonable."
"About that… When I get angry I… I stop thinking. I act. I'd like to blame it on the Nightmare's magic I carry, but the truth is that it's always been a part of my character. Sometimes my actions are appropriate, and sometimes they're not."
"Yes," Celestia said, studying her glass of tea carefully. "Inappropriate and unfortunate, but I understand how, in the heat of the moment…"
"'Inappropriate?' But I… I killed those—"
"You are a princess of the realm," came a low, sultry voice from behind me. I turned to see Luna standing in the shadow of the archway that led into the castle. "You have the right of High, Middle, and Low Justice. Your word is law, and if you condemned those ponies in your heart, what you did was right and proper."
"Hello, Luna," said Celestia. "Won't you join us?"
"Thank you, sister." Luna poured herself a glass of tea and added a sprig of mint, but didn't emerge from the archway. "I will stay here, if you don't mind. I find the summer sun a bit oppressive." The glass floated over to her. "No offense."
"None taken," Celestia said, smiling. "I know you can be somewhat delicate at times. Incidentally, the laws of Equestria have changed a bit in the last thousand years."
"Perhaps, but the essential rights and responsibilities of royalty have not changed," Luna said as she sipped her tea. "I read that in a book, written by a very smart pony." Her smile was bright in the shadow.
"Legal or not, I don't want to be the sort of pony who would do such a thing!" I protested.
"Present regret often moderates future behavior, I have found," Celestia said. "If you find yourself in a similar situation in the…"
"Fie!" Luna snorted. "They were murderous villains. Such as those deserve no mercy!"
Celestia didn't continue after the interruption. Perhaps she didn't entirely disagree.
I couldn't think of anything appropriate to say, so we all drank our tea in silence for a while.
"Maybe I shouldn't mention this," Celestia began.
Luna chuckled.
Celestia threw her a look.
I waited patiently.
"Discord came to see me this morning."
"Discord? What did he…" Then my brain caught up with my mouth. "Oh. Fluttershy."
"Yes," Celestia confirmed. "He had set up a welcome home party for her. Bunnies big enough to ride on, flying weasels, cupcake trees... things like that. But Fluttershy wasn't in the mood for a celebration, of course."
"Was Discord…"
"He was most vexed with you, Twilight," Luna interrupted. "But I will wager not for the reasons you might imagine."
"I took his best friend into danger. She was almost hurt, and I—"
"Hah! I am victorious! Thou owest me a forfeit, dear Twilight. Discord was wrathful that thou didst not afford him his own revenge upon the knave who touched fair Fluttershy! Hadst thou not slain the villain, e'en now he would be wishing himself in Tartarus to escape the clutches of Epona's jester!"
Celestia's glass hit the table with a sharp clack. "Luna!"
"Thou thinkest it not a subject for levity, sister?" Luna paused, cleared her throat, and took a sip of tea. "Well, perhaps not. My apologies."
"We have other matters to discuss," Celestia said. "The changelings, for instance."
"Yes," I nodded, glad to change the subject. "I apologize for not bringing you Khaatarrekket, but I don't think we would have learned much more from her. And she did save us all from the pirates."
Celestia nodded. "No, I think you made the right decision about her. I have made sure my ponies in Zebrica know about the changeling presence. That situation will need to be closely monitored."
"Wait," I said. "You have spies over there, too?"
"Not spies, Twilight! Just ponies. Diplomats, merchants, and travelers who correspond with me on interesting or unusual things they might encounter."
Luna snickered.
Celestia sighed.
"Okaaay," I said. "There's also this 'anti-ponification' charm that Ket had. I probed it a few times and I'm almost positive it's the work of my old Amulets and Charms professor or one of her students. Since it is exactly what Chrysalis asked me for two years ago, that probably means it was she who… commissioned it."
Celestia nodded. "I will look into that."
"And the hive in the Smokey Mountains?" I asked. "We've got to verify that, and take action as quickly as possible."
"Yes… about that," Celestia said. "There is a changeling hive there."
"Ah!" Luna smiled again, and it wasn't a very nice smile. "Should we don our armor? It has been too long…"
"No, Luna! That attitude is exactly why I haven't told you about this until now. This is not a situation that can be resolved by galloping in, horns blazing."
"Is it not? You disappoint me, sister. How otherwise can we root out the vermin?"
"We can't. Not yet, at least." Celestia looked a bit sheepish. "There are complications."
"What manner of complications? The most intricate knot will yield to a keen blade, thou knowest."
Celestia gave an exasperated sigh. "We can't take action against the hive, because it was created legally!"
There was a long, shocked silence, and then Luna and I simultaneously said, "What?"
Celestia began to look downright embarrassed. "The Smokey Mountains have been given a royal charter as a nature preserve. Endangered species within the preserve are protected by a very stringent set of laws, and any species that undergoes a drastic population reduction can usually qualify for endangered status."
The horror of it began to dawn on me. "You mean…?"
Celestia nodded. "Chrysalis filled out all the correct forms and paid all the necessary fees. A Parliamentary committee approved the designation by a narrow vote a month ago. And yes, I will be carefully looking into those MPs who voted 'yea' on that bill. But, at the moment and because nopony thought to limit the original legislation to unintelligent creatures, changelings are officially an endangered species. Her hive is perfectly legal, and protected by the full force of Equestrian law."
= = =
Luna hung the rug I gave her on the wall of her bedchamber, as if it were a tapestry. She placed two short pillars bearing nightpearl lights to either side. "There! 'Tis a proper setting for so noble a gift!"
"I'm so glad you like it!"
Her response was non-verbal. And wonderful. And long.
We spent the next two days together, alone or in disguise when we went out. I told her everything about the trip, even the unpleasant details. She listened carefully, but didn't offer much comment, at least not immediately.
It was on the second day, when we had gone flying after lunch, that she suddenly said to me, "You must rid yourself of the Nightmare's magic as soon as may be."
"Really? I've planned to for quite a while. I know the way to do it properly now, but I haven't gotten around to it. Why the rush?"
She stilled her wingbeats and settled into a long glide. "Because the Nightmare's… because my magic has influenced you, and I would not have it so."
I side-slipped, moving closer to her and matched her glide. "There's a certain… attitude to it, but I'm fairly confident that there is no agency within the magic, I'm sure of it, Luna. I'd love to have an excuse for my behavior, but I can't justify it."
"There need be no intent to influence you, my love. To a pony who wields a sword, all problems become foes to be defeated. That you cut your way out of danger is a deed to be laid at my hooves."
"The danger was over, Luna. I killed those ponies only because I was angry."
"Mayhaps. And yet, that speaks to my character, not thine own."
"You can't take responsibility for that, Luna!"
"Can I not?" Luna shook her head. "I am closer to the age of chaos and war than any pony alive, Twilight. My thinking, my magic, was shaped in an age of violence and struggle. I truly see no wrong in your actions, which my sister asserts is a fault in these times. You carry within you not only that power and mindfulness, but its less constrained half. It is a danger to you, and what ill befalls you because of it is a wound unto my heart."
I still wanted to argue the point, but I could see that Luna felt very strongly about it, so I only nodded and said, "I have all the materials I need to make the amulet. I can do it, and make the transfer tonight, if you like."
Luna smiled. "It would ease my mind greatly."
= = =
I hadn't thought I would miss it, but the next day as Rarity and I bargained with the spice merchants and various other traders for our cargo, I kept probing at the space where the Nightmare's magic had been. It's not a very good analogy because there wasn't a particular allotted place the magic had occupied, but it was an awful lot like constantly sticking my tongue into the empty space where a lost tooth had been.
"Twilight?"
"Mn?"
"Darling, aren't you happy about the deal? I got us a very good price for the cloves."
"Oh, no, not at all! I'm kind of astounded at the profit we're going to make, and that's all down to your skill, Rarity!"
"Is it about the pirates, then? I know you blame yourself, but…"
I almost didn't tell her. But she was one of my closest friends and it wasn't a secret I could keep for long. "I've done a lot of thinking about it, and I can't help but conclude that, logically, I was in the wrong. But that's not what I feel." I paused. "Oh, Rarity, I really hope you don't despise me for saying this, but in my heart, I want to hunt down all the pirates preying on innocent ponies and kill them!"
I waited, dreading her reaction.
Rarity lifted her head and calmly regarded me for a moment before speaking. "Did I mention that I've rearranged my schedule?"
I couldn't believe it. I had bared my most shameful secret to her and she was going to ignore me?
But then she went on. "I'll be in Canterlot an extra day every week, because I've engaged Maestro Flèche to teach me telekinetic fencing. Pirates, darling? Just point me at them!"
A smart pony learns from her mistakes. A wise pony learns from the mistakes of others. A desperate pony invents entirely new and fascinating mistakes.
May 6th, 1014, Twilight, edging toward Night Between the heavens and the deepest depths
.
The rubble of the landslide blasted into the air as I hit it with a concentrated cone of telekinetic force. I shot upward as fast as my wings could carry me, trailing dark purple flames and a roiling darkness that was not smoke.
"WHO DARES DEFILE THE HOME OF THE NIGHT-BRINGER?" I bellowed out with all the force I could put behind the Royal Voice. Several small falls of rock tumbled down as my shout echoed within the cavernous space of the eye socket.[1] ---------- [1] During the short trot from the top landing to the base of the stone stairs, Rarity had convinced me that it would help my plan to frighten away most of the zebras if we made a dramatic entrance. Of course, Rarity likes to make dramatic entrances no matter the occasion, but I agreed with her in that instance. ----------
There was an airship tethered beside Nebula and two holding station overhead, just above the rim of the eye socket. A small squad of zebras were running full speed for the tethered ship. Apparently, they had been standing guard near the landslide, and rightly assumed that anything that could fling tons of stone around was something they didn't want to face down.
So far, so good.
The first thing to do was to free Nebula's crew and regain possession of the Eye of Rushwa, so I immediately swooped down toward her. Rainbow Dash's job was to provide me with air cover. The rest of the girls were to pitch in wherever they felt it would help the most. Just before we made our grand entrance, I had cautioned them all to stick to tactics they would normally use, and not try to rely on their newfound, temporary abilities.
Right.
Just try giving Pinkie Pie and Rarity wings and telling them not to use them.
The engines of the two airships above roared to life and they began to accelerate away, leaving behind a couple flocks of pegasus mercenaries to cover their retreat. At a glance, it was ten-to-one odds, assuming Pinkie and Rarity went to support Rainbow Dash. The pegasi-for-hire were in for a rather unpleasant surprise.
The tethered ship began to rise but I ignored it as I dropped into the group of zebras on Nebula's main deck.
I glared balefully around at the zebras, bared my fangs, and said, "SUCH TENDER MEAT FOR MY DINNER!" I'd always wondered why villains tended to be showy and loud, and finding out that it was a whole lot of fun was a bit of a shock.
"Do not fear this illusion here!" cried a mare near the center of the group facing me. From the gourds slung on her saddle and the bandoleer of glass bulbs across her chest, I assumed she was an mganga. The rhyming was a pretty good clue, too. Her word must have carried a deal of weight with the warriors, because they all stopped shuffling away and threw a volley of spears at me.
As long as I had energy to burn, I could use something a bit more fun than a simple shield spell. I locally increased the entropy around the spears, while simultaneously spreading out the waste heat caused by vastly accelerated oxidation. Before they got anywhere near me, the weapons transformed into dusty streaks of rust and ash that dissipated on the wind.
"I will reveal the form you conceal!" the mganga shouted, and threw a half gourd of powder at me.
I was just about to fling it back in her face when I recognized it: It was the Truth Powder that Zecora had used on Spike and me when she'd thought we were changelings. So I grinned and let it hit me in the chest.
All the fight went out of the zebras. The warriors dropped their weapons, and most turned and leaped over the rail. Only one of the stallions remained, and he moved to place himself between the mare and I.
For her part, she desperately fumbled at her bandoleer until I used a bit of magic to shove her forehooves down and stick them to the deck. Then her head drooped, and she leaned against the stallion's barrel.
"This is the end." She shut her eyes and laid her head against the stallion's neck. "Goodbye, old friend."
Well, that dropped a wet blanket over my plans. Spooking the enemy was fine, but I'd been revealed as a princess of Equestria, and I had to comport myself like one. "DON'T BE AFRAID!" Oops. Inside voice, Twilight, I told myself. "If you surrender, I won't hurt you! I was just trying to scare you away! I'm not really a monster."
The mganga opened her eyes. "My spell is true. A fiend are you."
That angered me. "I am a princess of Equestria, and you should know what that means!"
They both just stared at me, resigned to their imagined fates.
I growled. Just because they were murderous, red-hoofed lackeys of a despotic ruler didn't mean they should assume everypony else was the same! Making them realize exactly what the situation was had suddenly become a challenge. I turned to search out my friends. Applejack had gone belowdecks, and from the hull-shaking thumps, I assumed that there had been a few zebra guards left with the prisoners. Blasts of air, swashbuckling battle cries, and high-pitched giggling told me that Pinkie, Dash, and Rarity were still dealing with the pegasi, and evidently enjoying themselves.
That left Fluttershy. It took me a moment to spot her, because even with alicorn-sized wings, she wasn't in the air. She was tending to the wounded and dazed pegasi that littered the sand at the bottom of the eye socket. She would be perfect.
"Look," I said, turning back to the terrified zebras, "Here's somepony who will vouch for me. She's the nicest pony I know. You'll see!"
I teleported Fluttershy onto the deck next to me. She gasped in surprise and then, catching sight of me, gave a little squeak of… well, it sounded an awful lot like fear. I resisted the urge to stamp my hoof and chide her. "Tell them I'm a good pony!" I demanded.
"Twilight is a good pony," Fluttershy said, woodenly. "Most of the time."
"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!"
Fluttershy squealed and flattened herself on the deck, peering out from behind her wings.
I didn't want to take my anger out on her, so I rounded on the shivering zebras. "YOU ARE GOING TO ADMIT THAT I AM A GOOD PONY OR I'M GOING TO PEEL THE STRIPES OFF OF YOU!"
I really don't know what would have happened if Applejack's sharp voice hadn't snapped me out of my obsessive little feedback loop.
"Twilight!" she shouted at me as she came up from belowdecks leading the freed crewponies. "What the hay are you doing?"
"I AM… uhmn… I am trying to convince these stubborn, stupid zebras that I'm not going to hurt them!"
She looked at me for a long moment as one of her eyebrows slowly climbed up her forehead. "Uh-huh. And how's that workin' out for you?"
There was no reason I should have been angry with her, but I felt a flare of heat in my cheeks and my teeth clenched at her impertinent snark. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I didn't bother with the hoof gesture, but I visualized it. It helped. A bit.
Before I could say anything, Applejack spoke again. "Look, sugarcube, I've got bad news. The crew is fine, 'cept for Ket. I don't know where she is, and neither do any o' these lot."
"That's not too bad, " I replied. "She's probably hiding out among the zebras."
"That ain't the bad news. The Eye o' Rushwa is gone. The zebras took it, an' it's on one o' their ships, on the way back to the sultan in Nagala."
"We can't let him get that gem back!" I said. "He'll kill thousands of innocents!"
"How're we gonna stop 'em?"
I thought furiously for a moment and then reached out for the mganga's weapons. The thaumophobic coating on the gourds and glass bulbs made it difficult even for my supercharged telekinesis to take hold, but that didn't stop me. I surrounded each container with a little shield and tore them off off the zebra's saddle and bandoleer. I then conjoined the fields and threw the whole mess out toward a distant patch of sky. It made a very interesting explosion when the shield released.
I turned to Nebula's crew. "Tie up these two. We'll release them later when it's safe."
Mr. Fairlead peered at me doubtfully. "Is that you, captain?"
"Huh? Oh yes, just regular old me. I… uhmn…."
Several of the crew were bowing, and I heard a muttered "Highness" or two. I may have heard a whispered "Nightmare," but I wasn't certain. They weren't buying it.
"Look! This is just temporary. We found an ancient magical artifact and... Argh! I'll explain later. Right now I've got an airship to run down."
"I don't know if'n I can fly all that well, Twi," Applejack said.
"It's all right, AJ. I don't want to depend on the magical boost not wearing off when we're all mid-air. You stay here and keep an eye on things. Get everypony together and be ready to lift as soon as I get back."
"I'm not so sure that…"
I teleported away before she could finish.
= = =
I reappeared so high up that the sky above me was black and pocked with stars. The fleeing airships were easy to spot. Even from my vantage point, it was simple to figure out which one carried the Eye. It had to be the fastest one, the one all the others were trying to screen from pursuit. They must have taken off with the Eye as soon as they had recovered it. The ships were already through the Dragon's Teeth and approaching the city walls of Nagala. I didn't have much time to stop them.
The envelopes and gas cells of the warships were shielded from direct magical attack, and burning though that protection would set fires that could endanger the lives of the crews. I didn't much care at that moment, but if what I was doing was to be laid at the hooves of Equestria, as it looked all too likely it might, I had to show some restraint.
So I threw rocks at them. I threw them very, very fast.
Hundreds of hoof-sized stones rose from the desert below and accelerated. The cascade of sharp bangs as the missiles broke the sound barrier was fairly impressive. The armor and shielding didn't slow them down at all and they passed through the forward two cells of every ship except the one carrying the Eye.
The nice, neat formation of warships fell apart instantly. They swerved off course and pitched downward. I had to use a blast of magic to shove one away from the lead craft to avoid a collision. It would take the concerted efforts of all their crews to land them safely, and that left me free to address the real problem.
Taking a page from Applejack's book, I tried the direct approach. I swooped down to half a furlong from the transom of the ship carrying the evil crystal and called out to them.
"SURRENDER THE EYE OF RUSHWA TO ME OR DIE HORRIBLY! MWAHAHAHAHA!"[2] ---------- [2] I really got the laugh spot-on that time. The secret was to let go and enjoy myself. ----------
Quite a number of arrows, catapult shots, and strange spells comprised their immediate answer. I was shielded, of course, and let it all bounce harmlessly away. Perhaps I had not been direct enough.
I tightened my shield around myself and dove on the ship. A second before I landed, I heated my hooves up so that the deck smoked and charred where I stepped. I thought that was a nice touch.
Lots of things continued to bounce off of or shatter on my shield, and it was beginning to annoy me. I cast a general stunning spell and dropped all the unprotected zebras in their tracks. One, who had been in the rigging trying to draw a bead on the back of my head with a crossbow, hit the rail and went over as he fell. It was hard luck for him that I didn't feel like saving a pony who had been trying to put a steel shaft through my brain.
There was no sign of the Eye, so I paused and extended my magical senses. I found it below decks and surrounded by a network of other spells. Well, I wasn't about to go crawling down hatches in search of the thing. The whole imposing foe act was hard to pull off while crouching in cramped quarters, so I tore away the intervening decks and flung the shattered timbers overboard.
And there they were.
I certainly couldn't be considered an expert in zebra magic, but I'd studied with Zecora for several years and had a good grasp of the essentials. So it only took me a few seconds to realize what the six waganga surrounding the Eye had set up.
Three had created a shield around it and themselves, designed to violently collapse if any one of them stopped feeding energy into the spell. Just the feel of the mana field told me that the implosion would be more than strong enough to shatter the gem. It was, essentially, a deadpony switch. If I tried to interfere with what they were doing, we would all die in the resulting release of hideous force.
As close as we were to the city, many of the inhabitants would be killed as well. But the sultan's war-witches didn't seem to care about that little detail. I was starting to lose sympathy for them.
The other three inside the shield were crafting a set of directives to guide the power of the Eye into an attack. An attack directed entirely at me. I knew the thing contained enough dark magic to infect a whole kingdom with a deadly plague, and suspected that it would be more than capable of dealing with me.
That left me with a decision to make, and not a whole lot of time to make it.
I mentally ticked off the obvious choices. I could back off to a safe distance and throw one last supersonic stone, condemning thousands of innocent zebras because of the evil of their ruler. I could flee, give up on recovering the gem, and let the Sultan carry out his vile plan. I could try to act in the instant between when the waganga would have to drop the shield and when they would launch the attack... and probably die uselessly.
Or I could devour them.
I've never thought of myself as a truly bad pony, not even when I'd first returned home and found myself branded as… unworthy. I'd made mistakes, of course. What pony hasn't? Because I am more gifted than most, my mistakes can have extraordinary consequences, and I have always tried to be mindful of that. With a few exceptions, for which I am properly ashamed, I have always tried to do what is right and correct and good.
And that is why I spent several precious seconds announcing my intent. Oh, I'm sure they could hardly hear me over their own chants of "Sifa Rushwa! Heshima Rushwa!" and I spoke in Equuish, which they may not have understood in any case, but I needed to say the words.
"For your crimes against everything that is good and right in this world, I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, condemn you to death. I am truly sorry for what I am about to do."
Maybe it was the tone of my voice. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was my imagination. But in the instant before I struck out, one of the zebras met my gaze and her eyes widened in horror. She couldn't have known what I was about to do, and she had obviously been fearless in the face of death. But I was sure she looked at me… and was terrified.
The needle-sharp lance of force that I had carefully shaped rammed through the defensive shield and pierced the gem before anypony could react. The dark energy erupted out of the hole and my precisely crafted tubular shield guided it into my waiting jaws, the flow accelerating as the collapsing spell of the waganga crushed down on them and their holy relic. The zebras were killed, disintegrated in a fraction of a second, and their magic and their essence joined the flood that I struggled to absorb.
= = =
If a foal is forced to eat nothing but garbage, she will grow up sickly and weak.
If a brilliant mind is forced to learn nothing but lies and dogma, it will never develop the ability to reason clearly.
If a heart desiring goodness is forced to do evil, can it ever come back to the light?
I don't know.
I spread my wings wide and grinned with satisfaction at the huge, jagged shadow I cast across the walls of the city. Crowds had begun to gather in the streets, and I could hear cries of surprise and fear in the still evening air.
A light flick of my razor-edged pinions drove me forward and downward, toward the palace complex. Sultan Zatar and his corrupt court were about to become an object lesson.
In which plans are created, discoveries of a scientific nature are made, and some incidents of great significance to the future of Equestria are uncovered.
July 9th, 1012 - July 12th, 1012 Equestria
Since Chrysalis's new hive was a matter of public record, no matter how well it had been buried in obfuscating bureaucracy, I saw no reason to pretend I didn't know about it. So, as an opening salvo, I wrote to her and asked for a little of her time to discuss the matter.[1] ---------- [1] Celestia, according to her nature, was working on the situation from behind the scenes. Luna had enthusiastically volunteered her services if things came to outright warfare. ----------
I had expected Chrysalis to offer any number of excuses and to try to dodge me at any cost. So, it was to my great surprise that I received a reply from her the very next day.
Dearest Princess Twilight Sparkle, How very good to hear from you! I understand that you have been adventuring abroad, and I am certain that you must have many fascinating stories to relate concerning your trip. I would dearly love to see you, but I am afraid I am not in Canterlot at the moment and will be absent from the capital for the remainder of the month. Nevertheless, if you are not too exhausted from traveling the world and can muster the strength to make another, much shorter journey, I would be delighted if you would accept my invitation to visit the Blueblood country estate. It is quite pleasant at this time of year and would only be enhanced by your presence. I understand if you are not able to accept. You must have so many important matters to attend to that a visit to an old friend cannot take precedence. If you are unable to come, I will make it my first priority to contact you when the prince and I return from the country. Sincerely Yours, Queen Chrysalis
"It's a trap," Rainbow Dash said, reading over my shoulder.
From over my other shoulder, Rarity said, "I'm inclined to agree, Twilight. She's being far too polite!"
"She didn't write this letter," I said. "She undoubtedly has a secretary who fixes up her correspondence for her. Like what Periwinkle does for me."
"So… not a trap?" Dash sounded disappointed.
I shook my head. "The original was probably something like, 'I'm on vacation, Sparkle. If you want to blather, you can come to me.'"
"Yeah." Dash grinned. "That totally sounds like her!"
= = =
While letters went back and forth between Chrysalis and I, arranging the particulars of my visit, I spent more time with Luna and caught up with my Canterlot friends.
Most importantly, I arranged an intensive research party with Moon Dancer and Starlight Glimmer.
It was great to hit the books with a couple of congenial companions, but I've got to say, the expression on Starlight's face when I described the design structure involved in the Alicorn Amulet and the Talisman of Night was just a teeny bit unnerving. She's a wonderful pony and a good friend now, but she has tendencies.
"There isn't much known about crystal dynamics on the scale you're talking about, Twilight," said Moon Dancer. "There might be some more information in the Imperial Crystal Library."
"I think there's a scroll in the Starswirl wing of the Canterlot Archives that mentions something about resonant crystal engineering," Starlight Glimmer said. "I remember skimming it when I… uhm…"
When she snuck in to steal the time spells. At least she had the good grace to look embarrassed.
"Let's take a look at it," I said.
None of us slept that night, and by the time we staggered out of the Archive building in the late morning, we'd filled an entire scroll case with notes and drawings of several prototype devices that had nothing to do with the original thrust of my research. That's the way science goes sometimes.
But one of Moon Dancer's ideas did have direct bearing on what I was working toward. In fact, it was the key to what I had been thinking about ever since that horrible day onboard Nebula. She'd worked out a way to vary the amplitude of the power transmission between crystal nodes independent of the level of input. It didn't seem like a big deal until Starlight Glimmer pointed out that such a device could transmit information along with the power.
"Like a magical semaphore," I said, tapping my chin with a hoof. "How fine and how fast can the variations be?"
As it turned out, the only practical limit would be the ability of the artificer who created the paired crystals.
"Nopony could read a signal that fast," Starlight said, pointing to her calculation on a scrap of paper.
"But they don't have to!" Moon Dancer put in. "We could use the crystal vibration to vary a second power source connected to a speaker! We could transmit speech or music without using wires!"
"Hmn… the crystals would take an awful lot of magical power and skill to create. It's a neat trick, but hardly cost-effective," Starlight replied.
"Unless we could make it work over a very long distance," I said, fervently hoping that we could.
That triggered another round of furious calculating. When we all double-checked each other's math, there was a long moment of stunned silence, and wild hope surged in my heart. I remained silent while Moon and Starlight began excitedly discussing the possibilities of our discovery.
"We should call the device a rapid amplitude-deviation interpretive oscillator!" Moon Dancer said.
"That's a mouthful," Starlight replied. "Maybe something shorter?"
They kept it up as we made our way to Donut Joe's. They rambled on through coffee and doughnuts. They made plans to get together again after noodling around with the ideas independently for a while, and I grunted my assent. Before we parted, Moon Dancer asked me if this was what I'd had in mind when I'd come to them with my request for research assistance.
"Something like it, yes," I said, smiling back at her. "But we've done so much more than I expected… thanks to you both."
We shared a hug and went our separate ways. My mind was still racing as I plodded up the High Street toward the palace. With modifications and the addition of certain adaptive structures, the device could be made to carry matrix information as well as linear. It would take incredible levels of power. It would take a base structure so huge that it boggled the imagination.
But it could be done, I was certain of it.
Tirek's evil spell could be mechanized, automated, and turned to the service of good.
= = =
It was a bit of a shock to meet Sesseressia at the gates to the Blueblood country estate.
"I'm head of Her Majesty's personal security detail, now," the ex-changeling general told me, as she ushered me into the foyer of the mansion.
"Well, I'm sure that was an easy decision to make. Is Jigsaw still at the University?" It was as close as I wanted to come to asking if they were still together.
"Oh, yes. On the tenure track. I'm very proud of her. If you'll please wait here, Your Highness, I'll inform Her Majesty that you've arrived."
I thought she had put particular emphasis on the titles. A not-so subtle way of indicating how she thought the two of us ranked relative to each other?[2] Maybe I was just being over-sensitive. Still… having the "muscle" meet a visitor instead of a steward or butler was a breach of etiquette, and was not something usually done by mistake. ---------- [2] Chrysalis was still technically "Queen-in-Exile." Though, with the new hive, the qualifying "in-Exile" might justifiably be dropped. ----------
The foyer was gilded to within an inch of its life, and appallingly expensive paintings and knick-knacks occupied every available space that wasn't taken up with displays of the Blueblood coat-of-arms. That message was very clear, and one I was used to seeing in the homes of most of the old noble clans: "We are an ancient, wealthy, and powerful family… don't forget it for a second."
"Princess! It's so good to see you!"
I turned… and was completely stunned. Fortunately, my mouth worked pretty well on its own. "Your Majesty! You're looking well."[3] ---------- [3] No courteous fib, that. She was looking amazing. She'd taken on the form of a gorgeous slate-gray alicorn with an emerald mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a convoluted symbol in black that somehow invited association with the changeling race. ----------
"Yes, I am, aren't I?" She smiled at me. "But please, there's no need for formality here! You must call me Chrysalis."
I was completely off balance. She was being so nice. Maybe the letter hadn't been written by her secretary after all. Her manners were practiced and perfect. "And you must call me Twilight, of course."
"That's so kind of you!"
"Not at all."
Oh, ponyfeathers. My cheeks were beginning to hurt from keeping my smile from becoming a rictus.
Chrysalis' grin was just a bit lop-sided. I assumed that was because she was taking some sort of perverse pleasure out of all the forced niceties. She was a creature that thrived by deception, after all.
"Won't you come and have some refreshment on the terrace? Our chef makes a wonderful saffron-infused lemonade, and there are some splendid tea cakes."
"Aaaagh! I can't stand it any more! What the hay has gotten into you?"
Chrysalis threw back her head and laughed. "Point to me, Twilight! I've out-Canterlotted the nicest princess in the land."
That was more like it.
"I was beginning to suspect that some evil creature had kidnapped you and taken your place," I said.
She took a second to parse what I'd said, and then laughed again, longer and louder. "Ah! Much, much better, Twilight. Believe it or not, I miss having a little snark aimed in my direction from time to time. I'm so respectable nowadays that ponies are unfailingly polite to me."
"Any time," I muttered.
We walked the grounds and gardens as we made small-talk. I duly admired the statuary, fountains, and topiary, and we ended up on a spacious terrace overlooking an artfully channeled trout stream. Blueblood's little country place was bigger than most townships and must have taken a fortune to maintain.
Chrysalis hadn't been joking about the lemonade. As weird as it sounded, a bit of saffron in the drink gave it an intriguing flavor. Knowing Blueblood, I supposed that the fact that saffron was hideously expensive played a big part in developing the recipe.
"So you haven't become a pirate, then?" she asked when I finished relating a condensed and heavily edited version of my trip to Zebrica.
"What? No! How did you even hear about that?" I hurriedly shuffled my wings back into place at my sides.
"It's the hottest gossip in town, Twilight. The mysterious Captain Blackmane, who nopony's ever heard of before, and who seemed to have disappeared as soon as she sold her cargo? A delicious mystery! Accused of piracy and murder, but saved by the unprecedented intervention of Princess Luna. Why, it must be a conspiracy at the highest levels of government!" Her pony form had a sweet, honest, and open smile that completely hid the fact that she was thoroughly enjoying twisting the metaphorical knife.
"That's all nonsense!" I protested half-heartedly, recalling the look on that poor pony's face as I…
Chrysalis let her over-done grin drop. "Yes, of course it is. But the nobility are so unbelievably bored by their ridiculous lives that they'll fasten on anything at all to enliven them."
"But you know it's all a mistake." Mistake, yes, but not completely false, I reminded myself.
"True, but enlightening the twittering class would mean breaking my confidence with you, and I'd never do that!" She tossed her head, looked out over the stream, and took a sip of her lemonade. "Besides, knowledge is power, and I am loath to relinquish any of either. Marechiavelli advised as much in The Princess. She put quite an emphasis on the necessity of good information. 'The more unlikely it is, the more highly it should be prized.'"
"That book isn't in general circulation. In fact, it's almost impossible to find a copy." Was that a little twinge of jealousy I felt?
"Well worth the effort and cost, though. Very insightful. I can see why Celestia might want to suppress it. I'll loan you my copy, if you'd like."
"Thank you, but I've already read it."
"I imagine that was some time ago," she said, casually refilling our glasses. "If I were you, I'd consider going through it again. With more experience under your hooves now, you might get more out of it."
Rarity wasn't the only pony that was getting fencing lessons. Why was Chrysalis telling me all that? She was as much as admitting to me that she was up to something. I tried to keep my ears from pinning back and only partially succeeded. "I'll bet it's full of handy tips on how to undermine an enemy while appearing to work within the law."
Chrysalis laughed, and demurely covered her mouth with a hoof. "I'm sorry, Twilight, but you're terrible at this! And you've completely got the wrong idea."
"Have I?"[4] ---------- [4] Yes, I can recognize a desperately defensive conversational gambit when I blurt one out, thank you. ----------
"Of course!" she said, waving a hoof in airy dismissal. "I'm not trying to hide another invasion swarm. If that was my plan, there are far more secure locations to create a hive. I am doing what I can to unite the changelings and ponies in peace and harmony."
"Yeah, right." By then my ears were fully flattened and I was trying not to snarl at her.
Her smile got even wider. "Will you take my oath on it?" Her horn began to glow.
It was horrible manners to insist on such a thing, but with the security of Equestria at stake? "Yes, if you don't mind."
We wove our magic together and she said, "I give you my oath that my new hive was created as the first step of my plan to unite the changelings and ponies into a common society, coexisting in peace and harmony."
I lifted my horn from hers and the magical bond flickered out. She was actually telling the truth.
"Oh, the expression on your face, Twilight!" Chrysalis laughed.
"But… but… how… no, why?"
"Would you believe it's selfless generosity on my part?" She actually batted her eyelashes at me! Before I could begin to find a way to express my outrage, her normal, predatory grin reappeared. "No, of course you wouldn't. Whatever else you are, Twilight Sparkle, you aren't a complete fool. My motive is selfish. When my subjects are an integral part of pony life, I will be one of the de facto rulers of Equestria. It's as simple as that. As I said, I'm quite fond of power."
"Wait," I said, trying to get my mental hooves under myself. "You mean this is a plot to take over Equestria?"
"A small part of it, at least. I tried a more ambitious plan, but that didn't work out... thanks to a certain meddling little unicorn." At least she was smiling when she said it. "But now, I've discovered that many ponies are willing to take the very thing I tried to force on them. More lemonade?"
"It… it won't work! Ponies won't… won't…" I trailed off. I had started speaking from pure emotion and had nowhere to go with my thoughts.
"Ponies have, Twilight," Chrysalis said, calmly refilling my glass. "Many highly placed and important ponies in Canterlot have made use of the services my subjects provide, and have even come to depend on them. It is quite an equitable situation, sustainable and satisfactory to everyone involved."
"That's disgusting!"
"Oh, you think I mean the sort of shape-changing games that you and Luna get up to? Well, that's a part of it, yes," she said, casually selecting a tea cake from a golden platter and deliberately not noticing my growing anger. "But a surprising number of ponies just want to have somepony to talk to… somepony they aren't able to, ordinarily. Love frustrated or lost can be a powerful motivation."
I stood up, barely able to keep from shouting. "Maybe a few of the jaded Canterlot nobles have fallen for your tricks, but most good, honest ponies will never—"
"Like the ones in the Smokey Mountains?" Chrysalis gave up the pretense of politeness and sneered. "The salt-of-the-earth ponies who seem to be not much more than a life-support system for crooked teeth and five-pound eyebrows? They know my drones are there. Who do you think helped to dig out the caves? When a pony has a choice between a cousin who's so stupid he has a bag of hammers for a cutie mark or a handsome, witty, and attentive stallion, who do you think will come out on top? The more ponies come to associate with changelings, the more normal it will seem. It will be a very slow process, but I have time, and I've learned to be patient."
"Celestia will put a stop to this!" Wait! Don't say that, my brain told me just after my mouth had blurted it out.
Chrysalis shrugged. "Perhaps, but I don't think so. What harm is there in what I am doing? Not one pony who has entered into a relationship with one of my drones will say that they are unhappy with the arrangement. Ask them yourself if you don't believe me. What was the phrase the minister used? Ah, yes! 'A symbiotic relationship.' I'm sure you know what that means. The nobles and ministers who understand how valuable my subjects can be will be opposed to Celestia making peremptory use of royal fiat, and my new family has considerable influence and wealth to fight against any such misuse of power."
"Your new family? You don't…"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? The prince and I will be married at Midwinter. The ceremony will be held in the great hall of Canterlot Castle, as is the custom for royal weddings. You are, of course, invited."
= = =
"It was a trap," I said to Rainbow Dash when she swooped down to fly alongside me as I approached Ponyville.
"Huh?"
"I don't understand it, either," said Spike from his perch on my back. "It all seems weird and icky to me."
"Not a bad summation," I muttered.
"What happened?" Dash demanded.
"Let's wait until all the girls can join us. Then I'll only have to go over it once. Can you round them up and have them all meet at the castle this afternoon?"
"Sure thing, Twi!" Dash flipped herself over into a power dive and then did a snap turn and zoomed toward Sweet Apple Acres.
I continued on at a more sane speed, and touched down on the little balcony outside of my bedroom in the castle.
"It's good to be home," Spike said, hopping off my back.
I felt the same way until I entered the throne room and got the shock of my life.
"Hey, Twilight, what's wrong?" asked Spike when I came to an abrupt halt. He was standing behind me and I blocked his view.
I reached out with my magic to try and sense the flow of energy within the castle, and found… nothing. "The thrones, Spike," I choked out. "Look at the thrones."
He walked around me and glanced at the slabs of inert crystal. "What? I don't see any… oh! What happened to the cutie marks?"
"They're gone, Spike. They're gone because the Tree of Harmony knows. It knows, and it's decided I'm not a good pony anymore. I…" I choked on a sob and tears burned in my eyes. Spike didn't understand. How could he? But he could see how upset I was and rushed to hug me.
Wherein it is seen that an alicorn, possessed of great power and in need of catharsis, is not at her best when combined with architecture.
May 6th, 1014, Darkest Night The palace of Sultan Zatar, Nagala, Marezambique
The Temple of Rushwa made quite an impressive show when I flattened it. It must have contained a considerable amount of bound magic to explode the way it did. Probably a lot of trickery to awe the populace in addition to the defensive traps in the inner sanctum.
I paused to watch the burning stones arcing through the sky. There were a lot of zebras in the plaza doing the same thing. They didn't seem to be enjoying themselves anywhere near as much as I was, and none of them made the appropriate oooh and aaah noises that you'd expect at a fireworks show. "Tough crowd," Pinkie would have said.
I shielded myself against the falling debris and expanded my magical senses, searching for the Sultan. Nothing stood out immediately. There was a great deal of magical energy at work throughout the palace complex but no heavy concentrations that would indicate a cluster of defensive magic. In fact, there were even a few areas nearly devoid of mana. And the biggest gap was... right behind the throne room.
I grinned. Clever, those zebras. Just not clever enough. Hiding all of their magic left an eye-catching void.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," I whispered to myself as I toppled the pillars of the arcade around the reflecting pool. Might as well make a pretense of being fooled, I thought. They obviously worked so hard on this.
I wondered briefly if the tactic was something they'd improvised or if they had thought to be prepared for an attack by some magically powerful enemy.
"What a shame," I muttered as the twin minarets fronting the Peacock Gate slammed into the ground. "I'm in the mood to play, and nopony else wants to!"
The magical void was moving away from the throne room; it was time to end my little farce. I leaped into the air and hovered over the spot where the Sultan was being hidden. I used a great deal of energy to rip the roof off the palace, so that there was another impromptu fireworks show as the molten bits of stone, brick, and tile fountained up into the night. I'm making a grand entrance, Rarity! Are you proud of me?
"THERE YOU ARE!" I cried out at the suddenly exposed crowd of zebras. It was a mix of guards, waganga, and heavily bejeweled mares, with one lone stallion who wore a fantastically complex headdress and more jewels than all of his harem combined.
I dropped out of the sky, not even bothering to flap once to soften my landing. Ornate tiles exploded into fragments under my hooves. "SULTAN ZATAR! I HAVE COME TO…"
An armored mganga to my right snatched a glass sphere from her harness and flung it at me in one fluid motion. I enclosed it in a little shield and it burst into searing green filaments of energy. I turned to the mganga, floated the contained spell over to where she could get a good, close look at it, and said very quietly, "If this sort of thing worked on me, I wouldn't even be here. You are a stupid pony and I am getting very, very tired of stupidity in general. How would you like it if—"
That's when the triad of waganga hit me from the other side.
They tried to pin me in position, literally. A unicorn mage would have used bands of force or a crushing increase of gravity, but the zebras took a much more direct and deadly approach. They threw tiny enchanted slivers of wood into the air that instantly transformed into large spears. The shafts shot downwards and would have pierced me in a dozen places if I hadn't reacted quickly enough. Unfortunately for the first mganga, tracking and incinerating multiple targets caused me to stop concentrating on the little shield containing her spell, and her own potion made a rather messy end of her.
The leader of the waganga lifted a curled, crooked staff and shouted, "O Mare of Night, my curse I send! The light of day will be your end!"
From within the curve of her staff, a burst of brilliant light erupted and passed straight through my shield. I winced and shielded my face with my wing. But aside from a great deal of heat, there was no pain, no effect at all, unless you count my sight being temporarily dazzled. I threw a few analytical spells toward the staff and was surprised to discover that what it emitted was only controlled, concentrated sunlight.
My first thought was that it was cover for a more potent attack. But no, the rest of the crowd was simply standing there, waiting in anticipation. I tried to grab the staff in my magic, but it was just as thaumicly slippery as the rest of the waganga's equipment, so I shattered it with a set of spinning, interpenetrating crescent-shaped shields. The light went out.
The ridiculously ornamented stallion waved away further futile attempts on my life and stepped forward. "You may take me, monster, but spare the others, I beg of you!"
I suppose they weren't really any less intelligent than average, and their little traps and ruses may have worked on somepony else. But it all seemed blatantly obvious to me. The "Sultan" was big and powerfully muscled. Beneath his finery, I could see scars crisscrossing his neck and shoulders, and there was a fresh one under his eye. I ignored him and scanned the rest of the guards. In the very back was a soft-faced stallion with a hay belly so big he couldn't buckle the girth strap of his ill-fitting armor. I plucked him up and dropped him to the floor between my front hooves. His helmet fell off, revealing wide, terrified eyes and a brow soaked with sweat.
"Spare me, oh mighty demon of the night!" he whined. "I bow before you! I will serve you as a faithful follower and obey your every command! I beg you to spare me, great Nightmare!"
"Y—you think I'm Luna?" I laughed and laughed. "Okay… I get it! Sunlight! That wouldn't have worked even if I was Princess Luna, by the way."
"Then… who are you, oh mighty one?"
I reared and snarled, "I AM TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP!"
The sultan fainted. The waganga and guards made assorted expressions of disbelief. The mares of the harem began to weep, except for the one that went up in flames.
Flames? Green flames?
"Uhmn..." said the changeling, edging away from the rest of the harem. "I'm not really with these ponies, Your Highness. Can I go now?"
It wasn't Ket. She was one of Chryssy's. "And you are…?" I asked. Nicely.
"Lieutenant Khahrvveen, ma'am, of the Ghastly Gorge hive, attached to Her Majesty's Foreign Service. Just observing. Really."
"So, you'll be telling Chrysalis all about this, then?"
"I—I guess? Well, maybe if you don't want me to, I could forget what I—"
"OH NO! Oh, excuse me," I said, dragging the trembling changeling closer. "No, I want you to tell her all about it. Stay and watch the fun!"
"D-do I h-have to?"
"YES!"
"O-okay."
I nodded and smiled in satisfaction.
Then, I ran a few thousand volts through the sultan to wake him up. I flicked away the acrid smoke and smell of singed hair while he recovered his wits. Once he managed it, he began grovelling again.[1] ---------- [1] What is it about an obsequious whiner that makes you want to stomp them into the ground? ----------
"Oh, majestic one! I will serve you faithfully! All my treasures are yours for the asking!"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Shut up."
"I obey, perfect one!" He flattened his face against the floor.
"Can't you imagine anything other than a master/slave relationship?"
He slowly lifted his head and stared at me in blank incomprehension.
I sighed again and gritted my teeth. "I am the Princess of flipping Friendship! I am here to SOLVE AFRIENDSHIP PROBLEM!"
The sultan moved his mouth, but nothing came out other than a few strangled squeaks. A lot of his court seemed to be having the same problem.
I took a few deep breaths and tried again. "This whole thing started because you wanted to annex your brother's kingdom, and thought that using the Eye of Rushwa to smite it with a magical plague seemed reasonable. That's not very friendly. I don't think you've ever had a true friend in your life, and I think that's because you lack any sense of empathy. You don't understand how other ponies feel when you treat them like mere things."
"I—I shall mend my ways, oh beauty of the night."
I permitted myself a tiny smile. "Good. That's the right attitude! And I'm going to help you with that."
Maybe it was the way I said it. I tried to keep my voice perfectly even and reasonable, but the sultan's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to pinpoints. "What—what are you going—"
I was suddenly tired of the whole charade, and wanted to get it over with. "I'm going to teach you empathy. You were going to put thousands of ponies to a slow, horrible death just because they were in your way. I'm going to show you exactly how that feels."
He tried to crawl backwards away from me, moaning out, "No! No! Mercy, great one! Spare me! I will—"
I couldn't stand another pitiful, self-serving whimper out of him. "I'm returning your plague spell to you," I said. I vomited up the modified disease magic and shoved it down his throat.
He tried to scream but only managed a choked gurgle. He tried to stand but his legs kicked uselessly. Large boils rose up under his skin and blood began to drip from his nostrils and eyes.
"See?" I said quietly, leaning down so that he would be sure to hear me. "Not very nice, is it?"
"Twilight Sparkle, stop this at once!"
It was hard for everypony to tear their eyes away from the writhing horror that the Sultan had become, but they managed it. I sighed tiredly and looked up.
She glided down out of the night on huge silver-white wings and came to a gentle landing beside me, her hooves barely making any sound as they touched down.
"It's alright. It's over." I said, not quite looking her in the eyes.
"It most certainly is not over!" Rarity snapped. "You release that poor pony from whatever spell you've cast on him, this instant."
"It's the spell that he had his witches make to infect his brother's kingdom." I chuckled. "Not exactly a dose of his own medicine, but in the same spirit. Still want me to release him?"
"Yes, I do!" She gave a stamp for emphasis and cracked one of the beautifully patterned tiles. She looked down and gave a little cry of dismay.[2] ---------- [2] With all the wanton destruction surrounding us, I was amazed she had any thought for a single bit of flooring, no matter how aesthetically pleasing. ----------
Rarity stepped between me and the moaning Sultan and pushed her head under my chin so that I would have to look at her.
"Twilight, the bad behavior of other ponies is no excuse for imitating them! You are better than that! You are a good pony who sometimes—"
My bark of harsh laughter interrupted her. "A good pony? No, I'm not. I'm officially not a good pony. Just look at me!" I roared at her and bared my fangs. I arched my neck and loomed over her, topping her by several heads. "I AM A BAD P—"
She slapped me. Hard.
Suddenly, the patter of little bits of masonry occasionally falling from the shattered walls seemed very loud.
"You are not," Rarity hissed, rearing and putting her forehooves on my chest so that she could press her muzzle against mine. "No matter what some judgmental rocks may think, you are a good pony, and I am not going to let you deceive yourself into thinking otherwise."
"I—"
"I know what you did, Twilight. Ket was aboard one of the zebra airships and saw you ingest the Eye and... well… the waganga."
Yes, I thought. Having a hard time reconciling that with the idea of a "good" pony, aren't you?
She shook her head. "That dark magic is affecting you. Clouding your thinking. You have to get rid of it, Twilight!"
That made sense. What did I need with all that black magic for, anyway? Of course, my traitorous brain immediately came up with several interesting experiments I could run…. "No! I mean, yes. Yes, you're right, Rarity."
She let out a huge sigh of relief and dropped back to all fours. "Oh, I'm so glad, darling! You'll feel so much better! You'll see."
I nodded.
"So, if you'll release the Sultan…"
"No, I don't think so."
There was a very long pause before she said, "What?"
"He won't die," I explained. "He'll suffer from the plague for a year and a day, and then it will leave him. Maybe it will teach him something. Maybe not." I shrugged and shook out my vast wings. "I'm going now, Rarity. I have to find somewhere far away to release all of the foulness inside of me. If I can do it. It certainly won't be safe to be anywhere near me."
"Dear, are you sure you won't let the Sultan…"
"He's lucky I don't set him on fire as well!" I paused to think. "I could. Wanna see?"
"No! No, I think he's properly regretful as it is!"
"Are you sure?" I couldn't resist. Rarity is so adorable when she's flustered.
"Absolutely, darling! I think it may be best if you did leave." Her look of alarm softened into a sad smile. "Twilight, please be careful! You know I'd go with you, but I don't know when I'll lose my wings and…"
"Huh," I said, suddenly realizing how long it had been since I'd activated the crystal engine. "You should have reverted to normal a long time ago. Maybe there's something prolonging the effect. Some… thing… oh, Sun and Moon!"
Rarity took a step back. "Twilight? What did you…"
I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Most of the zebras took the opportunity to escape, but there were a couple who stayed, notably the brave guard captain who had been willing to give up his life for his worthless father. The changeling scuttled around to take cover behind Rarity.
"Twilight, please! I'm becoming concerned."
That only made it worse. I flopped down and rolled onto my back, kicking my legs in the air like a filly, and howling with laughter. "Don't—" I gasped. "Don't be con—concern… oh, ha ha ha ha ha!" I couldn't get it out.
Rarity backed away a few paces and waited it out. The zebra prince approached her cautiously and spoke to her in a low voice. She nodded and he went and made a mat of some discarded capes and lifted his father onto it.
"Okay," I gasped, when my epic fit of laughter had finally ebbed away. "It's kind of a funny story. When you were unconscious down in the labyrinth, I cut open your head and stuffed a magic gem into your brain."
"You… what?!"
"No, no, wait! I told it wrong."
"I'm waiting." Rarity was the only pony I knew who could manage to give a short line like that a simultaneously frosty and horrified tone. She's a multi-talented pony.
"It's based on rapid amplitude deviation of… uh… yeah… never mind." I cleared my throat and began again. "After Lee Helm was killed, I realized that it was pure luck that none of you were hurt or killed. I was near panic at the thought of losing any of you, so I came up with a way to fix the situation, you see?"
"No, darling, I'm afraid I don't."
I waved a hoof at her. "The gems! They are capable of recording and transmitting incredible amounts of data. Magical and physical. All they needed was a structure with enough storage capacity and power to make them work."
"The engine?"
"Yes! You see now?"
"Sorry, darling. But you said, 'record' and 'transmit,' didn't you? Record and transmit, what, exactly?'
"You!" I'm sure my jagged mouthful of fangs made smiling a less than reassuring sight, but I couldn't help myself. "All of you, physical and mental! The gem transmits it to the engine and the engine stores it and feeds it back, making sure your form and thoughts are maintained in an optimal state. That's why you're still an alicorn! I should have realized that the recording wouldn't kick in until after the starting pulse elevated you into a higher state! That's why you're going to be an alicorn from now on!"
"I… you…" Rarity fell back onto her rump with a thud, and her voice rose into a squeak so high that if there had been any diamond dogs within a league, it would have set them to howling. "I… I'm going to be an alicorn... for the rest of my life?"
I laughed and lowered my muzzle until it was nearly touching hers. "You're going to be an alicorn, forever."
Rarity just gaped at me. It was clear she didn't understand, so I bit her. She gasped and jerked her wing away, holding it up to her face to inspect the damage. There wasn't any, of course.
"See? Instant reconstruction. Even if you get obliterated by something really nasty, the engine will build you back up and you'll start right back where you left off. Neat, huh?"
"I… I don't know what to say…"
"Say goodbye… for now."
"But you can't go!" Rarity protested. "The others will be here in a little while and they… they…" she paused and frowned. "You should have asked us, Twilight. I'm… well, I'm delighted, but perhaps Fluttershy and Applejack won't feel the same way about…"
"Too late! No take-backs!" I rose and stretched my wings again. "And I really need to go now, or I'm going to forget what a good pony I am and I'm going to stomp every one of Zatar's guards, waganga and courtiers into greasy little smears. Really… I'm practically salivating at how good their corrupt guts will feel under my hooves."
"Oh." Rarity blinked. "Well, maybe that's for the best, then. When will we see you again?"
"I don't really know." I shrugged. "Sorry for leaving you with this mess to clean up. Explain things to the girls and take care of Nebula and the crew, won't you?"
"Yes, darling," Rarity stepped forward and gave two flaps of her wings so that she was high enough to kiss me on the cheek. "You take care of yourself, and come back as soon as you can."
"I will," I said. "I… oh, roadapples!"
"What is it?"
The interstitial exit vortices were forming with alarming speed and power, and there were only two beings in existence that could create such high energy teleportation spells. To my horror, I found myself instinctively preparing to fight both of them. If my first reaction was to attack Celestia and Luna, I needed to be far away from… everywhere.
"Gotta go!" I yelled, and tore my own hole in reality.
The difference between success and failure is often irrational perseverance.
July, 1012 - December, 1012 Equestria
I did everything I could. I did everything that was reasonable… and quite a number of unreasonable things, as well. It seemed like everypony else handled the situation much better than I did, and I think that made me feel even worse. I was the one that severed the chain between us. I was the broken link.
I don't think I could remember every dip and curve of the emotional roller-coaster I rode for the next several months if I tried. But there were moments I'll never forget. Moments that made a difference.
= = =
"Do you think I did wrong when I banished Luna?" Celestia asked me, about a week after my return. We sat on a cloud high above Ponyville, where she had joined me after lowering the sun.
I wasn't as impartial a judge as I had once been on that subject, but it was hard to find fault with her actions in the matter. I had seen for myself that she had only used the Elements as a last resort.
"No," I admitted. "I can't see what else you could have done."
"I could have surrendered to her, Twilight. I could have given her the kingdom. You've told me what Equestria under her rule would have been like, and it doesn't seem so very terrible."
I knew she was following that line of reasoning just to make a point, so I went with it. It felt like I was back in school practicing logic and debate, and that was actually comforting. "No. Even if she accepted your surrender instead of... well, you know. Maybe most ponies wouldn't have suffered much physical harm under her rule, but they would have been harder and colder, less trusting and open. There is value in quality of life as well as quantity. And, anyway, back then you had no way of knowing Luna wouldn't cause great harm. What you did wasn't good for Luna, but it was good for most ponies."
"So, perhaps my failing was not realizing how neglected and lonely Luna had become?"
I considered it. "Maybe. But the Elements did not break their connection to you before it was too late. When Luna… went wild, they were still bound to you. It was the banishment that severed the bond."
"So the act that the Elements considered my failing was using them?"
I frowned. "That doesn't make sense. As far as I can tell, the Elements do the best thing they can to restore Harmony, or they don't act at all. How could they blame you for letting them make the judgment?"
Celestia nodded and smiled. "Because, even though I blamed myself, that would be unfair, wouldn't it? It would be punishing an already remorseful and grieving pony."
"But they did."
Celestia's horn glowed softly, and tiny wisps of cloud beneath us swirled up and transformed into a chessboard with fluffy little pieces. She'd often done this sort of thing when I'd been her protege: a continuation of our discussion, not an abandonment. She had placed the white pieces on my side, so I obliged by making the first move. We played in silence for a while, until I realized that she had made a bad blunder. Unless she could pull off something spectacular, I was going to easily win the game.
"Check," I announced, moving my dragon into a position that threatened her princess.
She nodded and moved her remaining knight clear across the board, blocking my threat and establishing a fork on my rook and princess. "Check," she said calmly, as if she hadn't made a blatantly illegal move.
"You can't do that!" I protested.
"I just did."
"I mean, it's against the rules," I clarified, knowing she was leading up to something.
"Oh, didn't I mention it?" She smiled slyly. "There are secret rules you don't know about."
I tipped over my princess. "Alright. I've lost the game. It's according to the rules, but it isn't fair." I looked up at her. "But what do I do now? I've lost, and starting a new game would be pointless unless I know the 'secret' rules."
Celestia got to her hooves and swept the board and pieces into mist with a flick of her wingtip. "Consider a different game."
To anypony watching, the conversation would have been puzzling to say the least, but not to me. It was the closest Celestia would come to saying, "It was something that was bound to happen sooner or later. Get over it and move on. I did."
If only it were that easy. Celestia, who seemed to be the pinnacle of perfection to most ponies, had failed many, many times in her long life. To her, winning in the long run[1] was all that mattered. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have a few millennia of experience as a buffer. ---------- [1] A little family argument with her sister took a thousand years to resolve. No big deal. ----------
= = =
There were good days and bad days. My determination to move on made the bad ones fewer and easier to bear.
It wasn't hard to keep busy. There was the political chess game against Chrysalis and her allies, the refit of Nebula, and the preparations for pirate hunting to keep me busy when nothing else was pressing.
To add even more complications to the mix, my secretary, Periwinkle, came into my study one morning and announced that there was a strange zebra in the audience chamber that wished to speak with me.
"Please rise," I said as I entered the chamber. "How may I help… Ket?"
"Good morning, Your Highness," she said, rising from her bow. "It is good to see you again."
I really didn't think I needed more changelings in my life right then, but I found myself smiling, anyway. We hugged and exchanged pleasantries, then settled in with some tea and snacks in a smaller side-chamber that was much more cozy.
"What brings you here?" I asked.
"Queen Csharreee sent me with information, an offer, and a gift," she replied. "This is the information." She passed over a thick scroll in a leather cover, and continued, "It is a summary of all the intelligence we have on Chrysalis' operations, both within Equestria and abroad."
I briefly skimmed the small, neat writing, taking care not to physically touch the case. Just that quick look told me that it contained invaluable information. "This is extremely generous, Ket."
"Not at all, Your Highness," she replied. "We realize that if Chrysalis achieves her goals, our hive will be at a huge disadvantage, and Chrysalis is not the forgiving sort. Queen Csharreee considers this a matter of survival."
"Then what Csharreee is offering must be an alliance above and beyond our current treaty."
Khaatarrekket gave a small nod. "A clandestine arrangement to our mutual benefit."
"I will have to consult with Celestia and Luna about this," I told her. "But I think they will be… receptive."
"Of course." Ket nodded again. "And that brings me to the gift." Her zebra disguise dropped away in a flash of green fire. She lifted her right fore hoof and placed it across her chest, bowing deeply. "I am yours to command."
"Huh? You mean Csharreee is offering me your services?"
"More than that, Your Highness," she said, not rising from her bow. "Her Majesty is offering you me. If you accept, I will no longer be a subject of the Desert Hive. Your interests shall be my foremost duty, even should they run counter to those of Queen Csharreee."
I should have outright refused. It smacked of slavery. I said as much to Ket, and she said that service freely and gladly given couldn't be considered such. We went back and forth for a long while after that, and it all wound up with Ket being entered in the castle register as an employee with a set salary, benefits, and vacation plan.
"And, unless we're in a formal setting, you should call me by my name, understood?"
"Of course, Twilight Sparkle."
It still felt weird. Technically she was a servant or employee, but I couldn't really think of Ket as anything but a friend.
= = =
After her refit, Nebula was taken out for a shakedown cruise. If all went according to plan, we wouldn't go back on the trade routes until spring, but there were several short-haul jobs we could take on in the meantime.
I met Gudgeon at the airship docks in Canterlot, and was surprised to find Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash already aboard. Well, Dash wasn't much of a surprise; she had joined Rarity in expressing eagerness to "kick some pirate rump." I took her aside when Fluttershy went topside to inspect the cupola.
"Do you think you should have brought her here, Dash? It's got to be dredging up awful memories for her."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "She's the one who insisted, Twi! She was all, 'They just don't understand her like I do!' and 'They won't talk to her the way she likes!' She's really nutso about it!"
"Alright, but keep an eye on her and make sure she's doing okay, would you?"
"You mean Fluttershy, or Nebula?"
I tried to smack her upside the head with my wing, but she ducked away and laughed.
Ket came aboard also, and at my insistence, she did so undisguised. She followed Gudgeon around, absorbing as much about airship operations as she could. During a free moment, she commented to me, "That old pony certainly loves his job."
I didn't ask if that sort of love was of particular interest to her.
After the cruise out to Ponyville and back, I worked out a schedule to keep our hooves in as part-time aeronauts without taking too much of our time away from our normal jobs. We decided that if the gang rotated as crew on a triangle route from Canterlot to Los Pegasus to Van Hoover and back, it wouldn't keep any of us from home for more than a few days, but it would still keep our skills sharp and turn a modest profit.
Several of our crew from the first voyage had decided that they'd rather work for a less "interesting" owner, but most of them were willing to sign on again, especially for an easy domestic route.
= = =
"Luna?"
Luna was wonderful. She seemed to know when I needed company and when I needed to be alone. She also knew exactly how to be alone together.
She was such a huge help and comfort to me that I'm afraid I depended on her too much. I was so wrapped up in my own situation that I really didn't pay enough attention to how she was feeling.
Late one night, when Hearth's Warming was fast approaching, I returned to the Tower of the Moon after an extended research session with Moon Dancer and Starlight Glimmer. I found Luna leaning on the rail of the topmost balcony, gazing at the waning crescent moon, softly humming a slow, sad tune under her breath. I was shocked by how sad she looked. She didn't answer me when I first spoke, so I called out to her again.
"Luna?"
She gave a little start and turned her head to look at me. "Ah, Twilight. Forgive me. I was lost in thought and did not hear you come in. How went it with the books?" She smiled, but it was unconvincing.
"Really well," I replied, levitating my saddlebags over to a side table. "I think we may have come up with a way to help counter Chrysalis' influence."
Luna nodded, and turned back to the moon. "That's well."
I walked out onto the balcony and sat down beside her. "What's wrong?"
She didn't answer right away, but eventually dropped her gaze and said, "Naught but a little melancholy. Perhaps 'tis the season."
I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "How can I help?
She put a wing over my back and leaned her cheek against mine. "Just be with me."
Maybe it was true. Maybe it was her comforting me again. I wasn't sure. "What were you singing when I came in?"
Her eyes widened a bit. "Oh, that? 'Twas nothing. An old tune that came to mind."
"Will you sing it for me?"
Luna shook her head. "'Tis a sad song of winter. Not one to lift the spirits."
"We can be sad together," I said, only half kidding, and nudged her.
She arched her neck and turned her head so that she could look into my eyes. After a moment, she said, "Very well," and began to sing.
"Wynter wakeneth al my care, "Nou this leves waxeth bare; "Ofte I sike ant mourne sare "When hit cometh in my thoght "Of this worldes joie, hou hit goth al to noht."[2] ---------- [2] Winter awakens all my sorrow,
Now the leaves grow bare.
Often I sigh and mourn sorely
When it comes into my thoughts
Of this world's joy, how it all goes to nothing. ----------
Well, I'd asked for it. It was a sentiment that had been weighing heavily on my mind lately. Thankfully, she stopped after the first verse and we held each other tightly and cried on each other's necks.
Weirdly, we both felt a little better after that.
And that was what made me look back on my actions of the last few months with a critical eye. I didn't like what I saw. I decided it was time to buck myself into shape, and the first thing I was going to do was to make sure all of my friends knew how much I appreciated and valued them, particularly after all they had put up with from me.
I worked my tail off in the next week, and it was kind of amazing how happy everypony seemed to be. And it wasn't just the visits, presents, and helping hooves. I think it was relief on their part that I seemed to be coming out of my funk.
And then there was Luna.
I thought long and hard about our relationship and came to a decision. I made a plan, and the first step was a visit to the Canterlot Conservatory of Music.
= = =
On Hearth's Warming Eve, I arranged to be with Luna when she ushered in the night. Afterwards, we lingered on the balcony to admire the lanterns, strings of colored lights, and decorations in the city below.
"Oh, look!" I said, as nonchalantly as possible. "There's a group of carolers in the Lotus Garden!"
We shifted over to watch the dozen or so ponies arrange themselves facing the tower. Luna shot me a questioning glance, but I pretended not to notice.
As soon as they began to sing, it was obvious that they weren't amateurs, and what they sang certainly wasn't a traditional carol.
"Regal beauty grace our land, "Noble power, pure and grand. "Fledged with shadow, crowned with the night, "Darkness flowing, bearing starlight. "Hail, Goddess of the Night! "True Goddess of the Night!"
"Pearlescent orb that rules the night, "Who keeps thee steady in thy flight? "To light our way with softest glow, "Through silver fretted lands below. "Hail, Warden of the Moon! "Pure Warden of the Moon!"
"Royal princess prowls the Dreamlands, "Against terrors, mighty stands. "We slumber, safe beneath her gaze. "Her courage now we rightly praise. "Hail, Defender of Our Dreams! "Fierce Defender of Our Dreams!"
"Regal beauty, grace our land, "Noble power, pure and grand. "Fledged with shadow, crowned with the night, "Darkness flowing, bearing starlight. "Hail, Goddess of the Night! "Our Goddess of the Night!"
The singers all bowed deeply at the end of the piece. The look on Luna's face was worth every bit of the ten thousand I'd spent commissioning the composer and hiring the singers to perform it all over the city.
It took her a moment to find her voice, and when she did it was precise and formal. But for all that, it bore an unmistakable affection. "Our gentle and gracious subjects, We thank you for your pleasing performance and give unto you a token of Our regard for your masterful skill in song."
Luna's horn lit and her magic sparkled on the foreheads of the ponies below. When they rose, they each wore a circlet of silver, studded with fire opals, and fashioned to look like a wreath of laurel leaves framing a central crescent moon.
There were heartfelt cheers and a few shouts of "Long live Princess Luna!" Then they trotted briskly out of the garden. It wasn't long before we heard the song again, echoing up from Parliament Square. Those ponies had amazing voices.
"You do not fool me, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, after a long while. "I see your hoof in this."
"Oh, I admit I got the ball rolling, but you know I'm hopeless with poetry and music. I left it all to Grand Crescendo." I stepped toward her and lifted a wingtip to caress her cheek. "It certainly was an inspired composition." I kissed her. "Inspired by you."
She kissed me back, and her cool mane flowed over my neck and shoulders, tingling where the stars touched me.
I lit my horn and stroked her… well, let's just say that things went on that way until we found ourselves in the bed chamber.
"What shall I be for thee tonight, my love?" Luna asked as we tumbled onto the bed. "How shall I please thee?" I could feel the shape-changing magic rising into her horn.
"You," I said. "I want only… thee as thou art. None can compare to the great and glorious Princess of the Night, and tonight all shall be as thou desirest."
She hesitated, her ears flickering back. "But… surely thou dost not wish me to remain..." She glanced back over her shoulder to where her tail swished nervously. "...entirely as I am?"
"I do. With all my heart, I do!" And I proceeded to prove it.
We forgot to open our presents.
= = =
It was a simple decision. There comes a time when the happiness of the pony you love becomes more important than your own. What surprised me was how quickly her happiness infected me, and how our shared happiness quickly became something greater than the sum of its parts.
Perhaps I was fooling myself all along? Maybe when a lover can take any shape, shape becomes less important. Or can "nurture" overcome nature? And if that's so, can determination overcome destiny?
At that point, I simply didn't care that I no longer had an arcane piece of furniture and a glowing flank to chart my course through life. I was determined to make my own way.
It's really too bad that that way led straight to the end of the world.
Wherein it is seen that good may be defined as evil aimed in a convenient direction.
May, 1014 - September, 1014 The Forgotten Lands
Airships and sea-going vessels outbound for Zebrica swing south to the San Palomino Desert to pick up the westbound trade winds. On the return trip, they go far to the north to find the easterlies. The winds there shave a considerable amount of time off the trip, even for strictly powered vessels, and the mid-latitudes of the Lunar Sea are empty and devoid of anything of interest. All the maps of Equestria show a rugged coastline running pretty much straight south from Tall Tale to Los Pegasus and nothing offshore but empty ocean. Even the magical map table in my castle agreed; nopony goes there because there's nothing there.
The Middle of Nowhere sounded like a good place to be.
I didn't take a direct route, of course. I didn't want to be followed, so I used a randomized teleportation pattern to confuse anypony trying to trace my course. I even attempted a very clever move that I thought up on the fly: I dropped my exit vortex just below sea level. I thought that the resulting explosive displacement of the water would add a good deal of noise to the energy dispersion.
It would have worked perfectly if I hadn't appeared inside solid rock.
There sure was a lot of noise, though.
Despite what pulp literature tropes maintain about teleporting into solid objects, it isn't always a fatal error. A well-crafted interstitial exit vortex will jitter around within a limited distance from the target area, seeking a spot of low enough density for the caster to appear safely. Failing that, the vortex will exert pressure on its surroundings to force open a big enough void.
At that point, it becomes a contest of strength; the magical energy of the caster against the pressure exerted[1] by the material at the targeted exit point. ---------- [1] More precisely, it's the amount of energy needed to accelerate and/or compress the material away from the exit point. But of course the same is true for teleporting into "open" air, and so it actually takes slightly less magic to open an exit vortex on a mountaintop than it does at sea level. ----------
Water isn't a problem if it's shallow. Stone is another matter. I felt the exit vortex pulse in an alarming way an instant before it began to collapse and I instinctively poured as much energy as I could into it. Too much, as it turns out.
The vortex blew away the rock at the exit point, and most of the atmosphere for several yards around. I appeared, was immediately jolted by the surrounding vacuum, and then slammed by the inrush of ionized air, which also carried superheated stone fragments.
It was a shame I didn't have a magic gem in my brain that could instantly repair physical damage. I don't know how long it was before I regained consciousness, but the sun was in the sky when I did, so I would estimate ten or twelve hours.
It was a soft, insistent voice that brought me around. "Sina moli anu seme?"
For a moment, I couldn't make any sense of it, but the question was repeated, and I realized it was in the far eastern trade pidgin I'd picked up the year before.
"Mi moli ala," I replied. Which, given the vagaries of the limited language, either meant "I'm not dead," or "I'm not deadly." But in the circumstances, I figured it would be taken as the former.
But there's no sense in being imprecise if one can help it. "Can you speak Equuish?" I asked, trying to lever myself up onto my hooves and get some sense of my surroundings. It seemed I was in a slightly smoldering pit.
"Small Equuish, yes," came the reply. "Are you eating meat?"
Maybe the strange voice had been asking if I was deadly. Rocks and dirt slid off of me as I rolled onto my belly and pulled my wings against my barrel. I peered upward, but my vision was so blurry I could only make out a white blob against the sky. "I don't eat meat. I'm not a carnivore if that's what you're asking."
"You have teeth for meat."
"They're for intimidation," I said as I managed to stand upright.
"Please?"
"Teeth fake. Scare away bad things."
"This one think maybe you bad thing."
I would have shrugged if I hadn't been worried about losing my balance. "Well, perhaps I am. It's getting kind of hard for me to tell anymore."
There was no reply.
I examined the sloping side of the pit. There was a lot of loose rubble, but if I was careful and took it slow, I was confident that I could climb out. The way I felt,[2] flying was out of the question. ---------- [2] Like the end product of the process wherein hay is often a principal ingredient, if you must know. ----------
"I'm coming up," I called up to whoever it was at the edge of the pit. "You can run away if you want to, but I won't hurt you."
No answer.
It took around a half-hour to drag myself up to the surface, and I had to stop several times to rest. The dark magic energy within me had kept me in my Nightmare Twilight form, but it was as depleted as my natural strength, and I seemed to be able to think a bit more clearly.
I had intended to burn away the dark magic by boiling away as much seawater as necessary from the ocean and degrading the structural matrix as I went along, in lieu of an actual transfer. Yes, the magic would have had a corrupting influence on the target, and probably created a great many unpleasant chimerae and babewyn, but it would be widely dissipated and only affect an isolated and empty part of the world. That had been the plan, anyway. I tried to touch the Wheel of the World to get some idea of where I actually was, but my magic wrenched at me and I almost fell back down the slope.
Later, I told myself.
I scrambled up over the edge of the pit and flopped down onto a patch of grass that was clear of rocky debris, panting heavily. I didn't fall asleep, but I drifted into a vague half-waking state of mind, not really thinking, just taking in the view in front of my muzzle. Blue sky, rolling green hills covered by scattered copses of oak and yew, tall mountains in the distance. Very pleasant, actually.
Then, my suspicious white blob warily stepped into view. That close, I was able to get a detailed look at her. Her body was long and supple, covered with feathery scales. Her head was half equine, half draconic, with stubby antlers and long whiskery tendrils that trailed back from her muzzle. Her tail was more snake-like than anything else, but with a terminal "fin" of silky hair. Long flame-like tufts of hair sprouted just above her cloven hooves, and all of her except for her amber eyes was a shimmering pearlescent white.
"A kirin?" I groaned. "Holy Sun and Moon, did I teleport all the way to Neighsia?"
The kirin[3] cocked her head at me, and her little antlers glowed softly. I let her examine me, but I formed the matrix for a shield in case I needed it. Whether or not I could have managed to cast the spell was another matter entirely. ---------- [3] Most ponies know of them only from stories, and they're often referred to as dragon-ponies, but in fact, they are a unique species and not a hybrid. ----------
"Dark magic in you," the kirin said.
I gave a harsh bark of laughter. "Tell me something I don't know!"
She frowned in puzzlement.
"Sorry," I groaned. "I know. Dark magic bad. I want to make dark magic go away."
"Not easy do," she replied.
I sighed and rolled onto my belly. The kirin floated back several yards. Flight magic without wings to channel it was incredibly intriguing. If I hadn't had other, more pressing concerns, I would have been asking her a thousand questions.
"I can do it," I said, after a pause to catch my breath. I thought for a moment. With no convenient empty ocean to boil away, I would need another way to expel the evil without infecting something or somepony else. "I need a good deal of brass or copper. And some anisotropic crystals would be useful."
"Please?"
I sighed. "Brass, lots of it," I said, articulating the words as clearly as possible. "Kiwen jelo. Mute, mute."
She scowled. "We give you treasure, you no do evil?"
I shook my head. "No! This isn't a shake-down! Not gold, brass. Kiwen jelo lili, I guess? I need the brass to make a… a tool," I clarified. "Mi pali ilo."
The kirin backed away, still frowning. Evidently, I hadn't gotten through to her. She considered me for a moment and then said. "You stay. This one bring other."
I watched her snake her way up into the sky, fascinated.
The gruff shout abruptly woke me and, understandably, I was a bit cranky. I jumped up in alarm, and saw an elderly burro quickly backing away from me. I was muzzy-headed and looked around in confusion.
"Where?" I asked. "Where is she?"
The old burro was galloping away by then, so I lifted him in my magic and turned him around. "You said… oh, you meant me, not Luna, didn't you? Never mind." Disappointed, I set him down.
He backed away slowly, but didn't turn and run again. The kirin glided down to his side and they held a brief whispered conversation.
The burro cleared his throat nervously, and then said, "If it ain't too much bother, Ao would like to know who you are."
"That's her name?" I asked, nodding toward the kirin.
"Yes'm," he replied. "An' my name is Ajo. Bit of a coincidence, that. It means 'garlic' but in Ao's lingo it sorta means 'stupid,' would you believe it?"
"You speak Neighponese?" I found that fairly hard to believe.
"Just a little bit. We get by in the Old Tongue, mostly." He was so nervous it looked like a strong breeze was blowing his long gray ears every which way. "Now that you know our names, ma'am, could you be so kind as to tell us yours?"
"Twilight Sparkle," I replied, watching him carefully for a reaction.
He didn't seem surprised. "Pleased to meet you," he said, gravely.
"No, you're not."
He swallowed. "Well, you're a bit… intimidatin'. An' up until now, I thought there was only three alicorns in the world, so you're a bit of a shock in that department, too." He frowned for a second and then rushed to add, "Are you a princess? Should I be callin' you Highness an' such?"
I dismissed that notion with a flip of a wing, I didn't want to add more awkwardness to the situation. "You haven't heard of me or Flurry Heart?
"No, but it's been a while since I came to the Forgotten Lands, an' we don't get a buncha news hereabouts."
The kirin spoke to him again. I couldn't understand her, but it sounded tantalizingly familiar.
"Ao would like to know why you're here… if'n you don't mind us askin', that is. There was some talk of gold, was it?"
"No, it was brass, actually. How about we trade information? I think I have as many questions as you do."
There was another exchange between Ao and Ajo, and something clicked in my mind. "Is that Proto-Equuish you're speaking?"
Ajo turned back to me. "I ain't sure about that. Everyone hereabouts calls it the Old Tongue. So many critters come here speakin' all sorts of crazy stuff that we need one lingo to all get along in."
"Interesting. And where are the Forgotten Lands in relation to Equestria?"
"You don't know?" The old burro was surprised at that. "You came here, didn't you?"
I tried to fight back a flash of anger. The dark magic was resurging within me, and it was making me… impatient. "Where?" I growled through gritted teeth.
Ajo's ears went back and his eyes went wide. Ao's antlers began to glow softly.
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a long, deep breath. "Excuse me. I'm lost and… burdened by this magic. I don't intend to hurt you." But I might, anyway.
The whole conversation from there on out was disjointed and edged up to the border of magical combat more than a few times. It was tedious, but I learned several interesting things.
The Forgotten Lands were on a peninsula that jutted out from the Equestrian coast between Tall Tale and Los Pegasus, exactly where every map I'd ever seen said it didn't. I'd heard the name before, along with "The Undiscovered West", in old legends, but always assumed those names were a storytelling convention like, "long, long ago." From what Ajo told me, I estimated it to be nearly as large as the entire Northwestern Territories combined.
Evidently it was under some powerful enchantment similar to my "Just Don't Think About It" spell, and the "forgotten" part of its name came in because anypony who managed to find it forgot about it as soon as they left its borders.
There was no government other than the leaders of small villages, and most of the inhabitants preferred it that way. Or so Ajo told me. There was a "king", but he was nothing more than a crazy old pony who wandered around passing edicts and giving out titles in exchange for food. Villagers who weren't feeling charitable often found themselves condemned to exile by royal order.
Unfortunately for me, lack of civilization meant that I wasn't likely to be able to lay my hooves on the half ton of brass rods and wire I needed to build a thaumic wave-guide, let alone the specific crystals that would make the operation easier and safer. I considered object-specific teleports to get what I needed, but they would be easy for Celestia to detect and trace, and there was no way I was going to face her until I was… purged. I would have to do it the hard way.
Ao was fascinated by my description (as translated by Ajo) of the mechanism I intended to build. "Magic not be destroyed. Not be created. Yes?"
It was a fractured phrasing of the law of Conservation of Magic, but accurate as far as it went. But, willing translator or not, there was no way I was going to get across even the basics of Quantum Thaumodynamics, so I did the next best thing. I lied.
"I can destroy magic," I told her, grinning.
She flinched back from my display of fangs, but held her ground. "This one give help. You teach this one, yes?"
Brave girl, I thought. "It's a deal! I think we are going to be good friends, Ao!"
She looked doubtful. "Friends," she repeated slowly.
It was a start.
= = =
Days and nights went by. I worked. I slept. I dreamed. Sometimes I had nightmares, but never the Nightmare I wanted.
= = =
The Forgotten Lands were even more monster-ridden than the Everfree Forest—which was a good thing.
At least it was good for me, because if I hadn't had something to unleash my anger and frustration on during the long weeks of mining copper and zinc ore, and then smelting it to create the alloy I needed, I might have gone full Trixie on the locals. Or worse.
I was surprised by how many of them were willing, even eager to help. Their "Old Tongue" trade language was undoubtedly a direct descendant of Proto-Equuish, which made learning it fairly easy. I even picked up several phrases in Neighponese.
By the time my thaumic wave-guide was half built, there was a nascent village surrounding it. Ponies and other folk often came to catch a glimpse of the strange dark alicorn who was building the mysterious wire-work tower, and some of them decided to stay for one reason or another.
I was universally treated with great respect. Oh, sometimes it was the adoring respect given to a powerful ruler, and sometimes it was the wary respect given to a large and dangerous animal, but it was respect. Some of the ponies went even farther than mere respect.
I was flattered, I suppose, but I'd never been one to crave adoration and sycophants actively irritated me. Ajo was a smart little ass, and he usually dropped very heavy hints to ponies whose antics threatened to chafe my patience. He also carefully kept anypony away from Ao and me while we were working. There were still unpleasant incidents,[4] but they didn't seem to affect my popularity… except with the ponies involved, and sometimes not even then. ---------- [4] No permanent damage was done. ----------
That's why I was more than a little surprised when, one afternoon, Ajo rushed up to me as I was fitting crystals to a helix of brass wire, rudely shouting. "Yer Majesty! Come quick!"
I ignored him while I finished with the crystals, but he kept up a low, breathy drone consisting mostly of the word "please" until I set the coil down.
I had taken up the habit of letting dark magic rise into my horn and eyes when I was displeased,[5] and I did so then. "There had better be an excellent reason for distur—" ---------- [5] It was amazing how often that simple act cut short conversations that promised to become long and boring. ----------
There was an earth-shaking rumble, and boulders and trees blasted skyward from inside the woods near the village.
"Oh," I said, pulling more magic from within. "Alright, then."
I was halfway to the woods, rising as I flew, when the aurocks erupted out of the treeline, bellowing in anger. The huge, bull-like monster had a set of crystal horns wider than two average ponies stretched out full length, and his "skin" was slabs of granite that rumbled and crashed together as he moved. When he roared, he revealed a blast furnace mouth that flung gouts of molten stone like spittle.
I threw a lance of pure destructive force that crackled and spattered off of the thing's rocky skin like water. Thaumophobic crystalline structures in his stone hide, no doubt, I thought, sighing and rolling my eyes. Well, I'll just have to do it the hard way.
Hubris is not only generally agreed to be a character flaw, it is also often a contraindication for long-term survival. While I hovered, considering what tactic to employ, the beast charged his horns with energy and unleashed a devastatingly powerful twin lightning strike directly at me.
Only a reflexive teleport saved my midnight hide.
"Wait," I gasped, when I reappeared behind and above the monster. "Aurocks can do that? Why haven't I heard about this?"
The giant beast, having lost sight of me, decided to run down some of the screaming villagers instead.
"Oh, no you don't," I hissed angrily. "My friends and I will…" I paused. Where had that come from? I was on my own.
Or maybe not entirely.
Fluttershy knew animals, even the unnatural, ridiculously deadly ones. And she... I appeared just at the edge of the aurocks's vision, bellowing wordlessly in the Royal Voice. I reared and flared my wings to their fullest extent. It was a challenge that his instincts wouldn't allow him to ignore. He spun away from the villagers and his head started to drop, bringing his horns down to aim at me again.
I had to keep him guessing and off-balance. I darted to one side. "Over here!" He began to turn, and I teleported behind him, swatting his haunch with a wing. "Too slow!" I dodged again. "Ooh! Almost! Try again!" I'm not saying that Pinkie Pie's style of improvised play is irritating, but the aurocks was quickly driven to complete frothing rage. All I needed was a tiny opening, and the beast became so angry that he gave it to me.
Rainbow Dash relied on her speed in situations like that, and she had this trick… I scooped air with my wings at the same time as I leaped forward, using all the strength in my six limbs. I streaked under the aurocks's chin and landed an uppercut with both fore hooves. Because of the awkward angle, it wasn't nearly as hard as I could have hit him, but it got there in time to keep his head up and give me room enough to spin in place and unleash a buck that would have dropped every apple that AJ had ever grown.
The blow rocked the beast's massive head skyward, but did no appreciable damage. Magic couldn't penetrate its skin. Brute force was something it shrugged off. What I needed was precision. And something else.
I silently blessed Rarity for every time she had dragged me away from my books to fencing practice. I twisted and curved as I struck, driving the full length of my horn into the exact spot where five plates of stone met in the hollow of the aurocks's throat.
The heat and shock of the impact made me gasp, but I'd done what was necessary. My horn had penetrated to the monster's molten interior. Inside his anti-magic armor.
"Eat this," I snarled as I unleashed my spell.
I hadn't had any time to do a proper estimate, so the violence of the resulting explosion caught me off guard. It flung me backwards, spinning me through the air to crash down in a tangled heap in the middle of the ruins of somepony's garden shed. I sat up, spitting out potting soil.
The aurocks was in much worse shape. Several shapes, actually. Fragments of stone hide were scattered everywhere, coated in still-glowing molten rock. Little fires were breaking out wherever something flammable had been spattered with the stuff. The only piece that was still recognizable was his head and huge crystal horns.
Ao was at my side almost immediately, asking if I was injured.
I glanced up at my smoldering horn. "It hurts a bit, but the damage is superficial." I used my magic to wipe myself clean and put my mane and tail in order, just to make sure.
"Such a powerful blast!" Ao said. "What spell did you use to utterly destroy this formidable creature? Most mages cannot hope to battle one of those things."
I chuckled. "Frog pond," I said.
Ao got that adorable look on her face that meant she was confused and trying to hide the fact. "This one has not heard of that spell, my teacher."
"It's not a spell," I told her. "I literally used a frog pond on it. The magic was teleportation, acting on the water, which neatly side-stepped the monster's innate resistance."
Ao rarely expressed overt emotion, but her muzzle tendrils rippled in an agitated fashion. I assumed it was an expression of amazement at my extreme cleverness.
I grinned. It was what Celestia would have called an excellent teaching moment. "This is a good example of why it's wise to study the physical sciences in addition to the magical ones. Cold water in contact with super-heated rock in a tightly closed container, such as an aurocks's stomach, works just as well as any magical burst of power." I waved a wing in a sweeping gesture at the shattered monster bits littering the landscape. "Perhaps even better."
By that time, the villagers had returned to survey the damage and trample out the little fires. They made way for me and bowed as I passed. I lifted the aurocks's head in my magic and examined it with a critical eye.
I was merely analyzing the crystal structure of its horns, and thinking of some experiments I could run on it, but the villagers took it as some sort of display of victory, and began cheering me. I went with it, rearing and flaring my wings as I lifted the head high above the crowd. They loved it.
The "Hurrah, We're Not Dead!" party went on well into the night. I put the aurocks's head on a tall spiked post[6] and used a little geomancy to raise a dais of dark basalt where I could survey the festivity while remaining a little apart from it. ---------- [6]It's barbaric, but traditional. ----------
Ajo brought me a platter of vegetables and marshmallows that had been roasted on sticks above the cooling but still hot aurocks innards. Ao ushered a few of the ponies who wished (and were brave enough) to thank me personally into my presence.
I was given a large tankard of cider, which I sampled and set aside. It wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as delicious as the stuff Applejack made.
Incredibly, the mare who owned the garden shed I'd flattened came to apologize to me for putting it where it would inconvenience me.
I surveyed her coolly. "Don't let it happen again."
"N-no ma'am!" she stammered and bowed.
"Oh, and here…" I said, levitating the tankard of cider over to her. "Go and celebrate with everyone else. I'll have some carpenters come over tomorrow and rebuild the shed for you. Hmn… no, make that the day after tomorrow. The way this party is going, nopony will appreciate hammering in the morning."
She stood there and gawped at me.
I flicked my wingtip at her. "Go on… shoo!"
The next pony who approached me was a comfortably built yellow mare with a cutie mark involving bees and golden splotches. She carried a stout wooden keg on her back. "I couldn't help but notice that you didn't care for the cider, Your Majesty," she said, after rising from her bow. "I don't blame you. Our Queen should have nothing but the best!"
Queen? When had I become their queen? Oh, they Highnessed and Majestied me quite a bit, but I hadn't seen anything significant in that. I had been much more concerned about building the construct that would harmonize away my dark magic, and returning to my friends. Yes, I organized the villagers, "paid" them in magical tasks for the mining and smelting, and kept things safe and running smoothly in the little community, but that was all just to serve my own ends.
While I was contemplating the matter, the mare drove a tap into her keg and filled a crystal goblet with a sparkling amber liquid. She held it up to me. "Best metheglyn in the Undiscovered West!"
It smelled like a blend of honey, cider, and spices. It tasted like a burst of sunshine and choir music. I was stunned.
The mare grinned proudly. "I'm glad you like it."
"Did you make this,... I'm sorry, but I don't know your name." I took another sip. It hadn't been my imagination. It was that good.
"Yes, I did! Everypony calls me Buzzy, Your Majesty."
I chuckled. I'd had a little stuffed bee when I was a foal that I'd called Mrs. Buzzy. "I wonder what ever happened to her." I said aloud.
"Beg your pardon, ma'am?"
I took another drink. "Nothing. Thank you Mrs. Buzzy! We are well pleased by your gift, and declare you to be Baroness Buzzy of… what do ponies call this place?"
Her smile had gone a little lopsided. "Most ponies call it Twilight Town, ma'am."
"Good! You're now the Baroness of Twilight Town. It doesn't come with a salary, but titles are fairly useful in a lot of other ways."
She stared at me in confusion for a moment and then said, "Thank you, ma'am."
"My pleasure!" I took another drink. "Really. Now go and party it up! Leave the keg."
My memory of the rest of the night is a little fuzzy after that, but I had a lot of fun and nopony got permanently injured, so I count it as a success.
= = =
More ponies moved into the village in the weeks after the aurocks attack, and it grew into a thriving little town. I tried to discourage the ponies and other folk from depending on me for protection and guidance, but they seemed to take my aloofness as only natural for a monarch, and were perfectly capable of governing themselves as long as I was available for pronouncing the occasional judgment or setting down a needed guideline.
The mining produced a lot of gems and precious metals as a byproduct, and various artisans and traders made good use of them. The traditional barter economy of the Forgotten Lands began to evolve.
I had several other projects to hold my attention in addition to the magical harmonizing tower and was glad to have a clever person like Ao to assist me. I didn't want to reappear in Equestria unable to explain my absence of nearly half a year, so I worked on a memory storage gem that was designed to work in concert with the Talisman of Night. When I wore the two of them, I would be able to recall the experiences stored in the gem.[7] In theory. ---------- [7] Of course, I thought of simply writing a journal, but evidently the surrounding spell was designed to take such obvious tactics into account. Whoever had isolated the peninsula had been powerful, brilliant, and paranoid. -----------
Even though I kept busy, it seemed to take forever to complete the tower.
And then it was finished, and it seemed like the past months had gone by in a flash.
"You will not stay with us?" Ao asked me, while I made the final preparations and adjustments.
"No, I need to go back home and face the music. And I miss my friends." I turned to her and smiled with my lips together. "My other friends."
"You keep us safe, here."
"Only because I'm a bigger monster than most of the things lurking out there."
"You are our monster, my teacher." She rippled in mid air, twisting and turning in an agitated manner.
I shrugged. "I won't be that for very much longer, Ao. Neither a monster, nor yours... if I ever was. You're strong, and you've learned a lot. You, Ajo, and Mayor Buzzy should be able to cope with things."
She said nothing, but continued to knot around herself.
"There will be quite a few folk glad to see me go," I said, in an attempt at levity. "That stallion I turned into a slug, for one."
Ao made a sound of scorn. "He was inexcusably rude! A week as a lowly insect was a light punishment."
I chuckled and shook my head. I could see I wasn't going to convince her, and it wouldn't do any good to correct her taxonomical error.
Ajo trotted up then and bowed. "Yer Majesty, the townsfolk would like to hold a goin'-away shindig tonight if'n that's alright by you."
"Of course. As an old friend of mine says, 'Never pass up a chance to celebrate.'"
So, it turned out that a party decoration wrecked my plan and endangered the entire world.
Comprised mainly of pleasures and delights of the mind and of the flesh.
January, 1013 - March 21st, 1013 Equestria
I was exhausted. Luna ought to have been exhausted, but no, there she was, Princess Sleep-Through-the-Day, nudging me gently and telling me to wake up.
"I want to stay here with you." I murmured into her mane.
"As dearly as I would love that," she replied, mercilessly pulling the covers off of the bed with her magic, "you will be late for your appointment with your friends at the library."
I rolled over and spooned with her for warmth. "Dancer won't notice. Once she sticks her muzzle in a book, she'll lose all track of time."
"I can see why you two are friends," Luna commented dryly. "Nevertheless…" She prodded my rump with a little bit of magic.
"Mmmm. Do that again!"
"Oh, Twilight, you are impossible! You must get up."
I sighed. "Well, you are the senior princess. I suppose I have to obey your commands." I wiggled toward the foot of the bed and indulged in a long, luxurious stretch, keeping my head pillowed on Luna's side. I gazed up at her through half-lidded eyes, lifted a wing to stroke her cheek, and said, in as sultry a voice as I could manage, "So command me."[1] ---------- [1] I often encouraged Rarity to write down all her romantic tricks and tips, but she insisted that seduction was something that shouldn't be learned from a book. It's a pity, because she would make a fortune in sales. ----------
The look on Luna's face was wonderful… for a moment. Then her expression clouded over and she turned away from me. "You must keep to your appointment, Twilight," she said flatly.
"What's wrong?" I tried to turn her head back to face me with a wingtip, but she pulled away.
"'Tis nothing."
I teleported to her side of the bed, with my muzzle almost touching hers. "Look, I'm an insensitive dummy, and I have no idea what I did wrong, but I'll never know if you don't tell me. Hurting you, even accidentally, is something I can't bear to have on my conscience, so please tell me what it is, or I'll go nuts trying to figure it out, and…"
"Nay, 'tis no fault of thine, my love!" Luna said. "I am the one to blame. Thy gentle teasing deserves not such unseemly thoughts."
"Whoa there! You mean you…" I forced myself not to smile. She was taking the situation very seriously and I was at least socially competent enough to know that making light of her distress would be the worst thing I could do. "Luna, I meant it. If you thought of something you'd like to do with me, I want to hear it."
Luna's coat was so dark it was usually difficult to tell when she was blushing, but at that moment it was foal's play. "I would not have thee think less of me," she said, quietly.
I thought furiously for a moment. I wanted my reply to be perfect. "Luna… no, don't interrupt! I would never presume to judge you for anything you ask of me. Never, understand? I… I might refuse, but I would never think less of you for asking."
She nodded, but still kept her eyes downcast.
"Luna…" I was frantic to get through to her. "I trust you, and I want you to trust me. Tell me. If it's something that you would enjoy, I want to give it to you."
"But if my desire repels you…"
"Then we'll find a work-around!" I said, earnestly. "I'm the best problem-solver in the kingdom! You think I can't do it?"
She finally looked at me. "Truly?"
"Yes," I said. "Thou art my true love, and naught that thou canst conceive will e'er serve to lessen my heart's love one whit. Speakest thou to me of thy desire… uh... of that which thou desirest? Oh, Tartarus!" I shook the tangle of Middle Equuish off my tongue and took Luna's head between my fore hooves. "I can't put it as poetically as you can, so I'm just going to say it straight out. The fact that you want to do kinky stuff with me makes me feel loved and sexy and desirable and proud. So, tell me before I die of anticipation!"
"I… I have thought how it might be enjoyable to… to.." She bit her lower lip and hesitated.
"Go on, lover."
"To make love on the wing… in a violent storm!" She gasped out. "To be buffeted and tumbled by the winds… to be soaked by warm rain and touched by lightning as we… we…" Her eyes were wide and her nostrils flared. "Is that too strange to be thought of?"
I was grinning my head off by that point. "Are you kidding? That sounds like fun!"
I missed the research session entirely.
= = =
I planned to depart for Zebrica sometime after my birthday. It wouldn't be considered an early start for a serious trader, but it fit in perfectly with everything else in my over-full schedule, and our primary goal wasn't making money.
Pirate hunting was going to be dangerous and I was still worried about the safety of my friends and Nebula's crew. I spent a great deal of time working out new protections, as well as improving on old magic like my Fail-Safe spell. I convinced Celestia to let me take the Amulet of Night out of the Deep Vaults with a promise to use it only as a last resort.
That's when I found the old scroll that mentioned the Labyrinthine Stairs and what lay beneath them. I was intrigued and excited. So many wonderful things could be accomplished with a magical engine of such power!
My Fail-Safe spell was designed to restore "normal" conditions to a catastrophically[2] altered system, but it had to be cast directly and needed a template or example to work from. Hardly practical for use on a unique living being. But, if the "template" was constantly being recorded remotely, the spell could capture the essence of a pony and be triggered by an interruption in the flow of information. With the rapid amplitude-deviation interpretive oscillator[3] as a method to carry that flow, I could create a pair of amulets that would... ---------- [2] In the mathematical sense. [3] Which we'd agreed to call RAPTOR after the first and last three letters of the longer name. ----------
"Twilight, aren't you coming in?" Celestia asked.
I realized I had been standing outside the door to her study for some time, lost in thought.
"Sorry," I said. "Multitasking."
She matched my grin as I trotted into the room. Twilight Sparkle, staring off into space and muttering to herself was not a new experience for her.
I set out my notes on the little table by the fireplace. "I think we can use raptor crystals to control the changeling's anti-friendship amulets if we can tap into a strong, reliable power source."
Celestia nodded. "Good. I've spoken with Cadance and she's confident that she will be able to integrate the control system you've designed with the Crystal Palace. It already spreads magic across Equestria, and a small addition should be easy to implement."
"We still need to alter the changeling amulets to receive the signal," I said. "It won't be easy to get hold of them without blatant use of royal authority."
"I have taken care of that little detail," Luna said, appearing out of the narrow shadow of a tapestry. A shiver of delight ran through me. I loved it when she did stuff like that.
Celestia didn't look up from the paperwork, but a smile spread across her face. "Crystal Star has agreed to allow us access to the amulets she makes for Chrysalis, then? You are amazingly persuasive, sister. Perhaps I should include you in more diplomatic situations."
"She is afraid of ants." Luna said, flatly. "After three nights of dreaming of swarms of them crawling into her ears and nose and…"
"Perhaps not," Celestia interrupted, still smiling.
The corner of Luna's mouth twitched upward a tiny bit. "She will also tell Chrysalis that she needs to service and upgrade the amulets that have already been given out."
"I am very impressed, sister!"
"There were a great many ants."
I hated to interrupt their playful banter, but we were behind schedule. "Shall we decide on what spells we want to be able to induce?"
A tracking spell was reasonable. A thaumo-reactive cantrip to detect high-energy magic was even obvious. But the third spell Celestia wanted… "That would kill them outright!" I gasped.
"Yes, but I can't think of a situation where I would actually use it," she said, shrugging off my concern.
"Then, why include it?"
"Do I really have to trot out the old proverbs, Twilight? Chrysalis might have been truthful when she claimed she only wanted to integrate with Equestrian society." Celestia's ears twitched with a tiny sign of irritation. "But with a significant number of her drones in place, she could just as easily put herself into a position to dictate terms to us. It would be a bloodless coup, but a coup, nonetheless."
"And you'd kill countless changelings to prevent that?" I don't know when I'd become an advocate for the insect-Equestrian citizens, but it just popped out of my mouth. I suppose having Khaatarrekket as a friend and Queen Csharreee as a pen-pal had something to do with it.
She paused for a moment. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because she had any doubts as to the action she proposed. It was because she didn't want to admit it to me. Finally, she lowered her head and looked me in the eye. "If there were no other way, then yes. Without hesitation or remorse, I would, Twilight. Any changeling who went along with her plan would be a traitor to the realm. Any who opposed it, need only remove their amulet to be free of Chrysalis forever and safe from my wrath."
Before I could absorb that, there came a slow clip-clop of applause from where Luna stood. "And here I'd thought that a millennium of unchallenged rule might have softened you, sister. I am glad to see that it did not." I knew her well enough by then to be able to tell that there was no sarcasm whatsoever in her voice. Another shiver ran through me.
"I did not survive a millennium by being soft, dear Luna." Her smile would have made a timberwolf cringe.
I suddenly felt very, very young.
"Okay…" I said, trying to keep my voice light. "Localized Implosion spell it is, then."
= = =
The Tree of Harmony wasn't feeding magic into my castle any longer, but that didn't mean I couldn't. The map table was still useful, even if it wasn't throwing us at friendship problems every other week. A few charges from my horn got all the lights and other housekeeping spells working, and it was almost like normal again.
I had Pinkie Pie organize a huge party for my birthday, inviting all the citizens of Ponyville. It cost me nearly all of my share of the profits from our first voyage, but it was worth every bit. The main hall of the castle was done up in elegant style, with an orchestra and formal dancing for the ponies who liked that sort of thing, and the rest of the grounds were a chaotic carnival of food, music, and games for the majority of the population.
I relied on Pinkie to advise me on the little gifts I wanted to give out to everypony attending. Her files were invaluable. I also prepared quite a number of extra presents in case travellers or relatives of citizens were in town on that day. They were all color-coded by wrapping paper and ribbon to signify what age and gender the gift inside would be appropriate for.[4] ---------- [4] That was my idea. Left to Pinkie, they all would have contained chocolate cupcakes. ----------
It went perfectly, exactly as I had planned, except for the pirate attack.
I was in the castle, talking with Mayor Mare in a quiet corner of the ballroom, when Periwinkle approached and demurely cleared her throat.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry for interrupting, Your Highness, but something's come up which requires your attention."
"I'm sorry, Mayor," I said, putting my drink down on a side table. "Will you please excuse me?"
"Of course, Princess! Thank you again for the beautiful gavel."
Periwinkle walked by my side as I left the room, and motioned to the stairs that led up to the grand balcony. "This is a bit unusual," she began.[5] ---------- [5] That should have tipped me off right there. Periwinkle had been with me since shortly after my castle had sprung out of the ground like a giant, glittering toadstool, and after all the things she'd seen, labeling something "unusual" was a highly significant act. ----------
"Dangerous unusual?" I asked as we climbed the stairs.
"Yyyee… I'm really not sure." She bit her lower lip. "He seemed very polite, but he's got a sword."
"Perhaps you should start at the beginning."
But by then we'd reached the doors to the balcony and they swung open on a suspiciously timed gust of wind, revealing the scene beyond.
"Well! If it isn't Princess Twilight Sparkle!" came a deep, silky-smooth voice. "Or should I say, Captain Blackmane?"
He was a buckskin pegasus stallion who looked like he'd stepped off of the cover of a fantasy romance novel. He wore a red bandanna on his head and had a cutlass hung on a baldric over his muscular shoulders. Behind him a small sleek airship was moored to the balcony railing, and several more piratical types lounged around the balcony, making free with the dessert buffet.
"Should I get the guards?" Periwinkle asked, nervously backing away.
"Oh, no need to be involving them," the handsome stallion said, making a motion with a wing to one of his crewponies. "This is between the captain and me."
The crewpony tossed a cutlass onto the floor near my hooves.
"I'll get the guards," Periwinkle said.
"No, it's alright," I said to her as I levitated the cutlass up and fitted my right fore hoof into its grip. "Just keep the guests off the balcony until this is settled, please."
"Are you sure, princess?"
I nodded and swung the doors shut with my magic.
"Rules?" I asked the stallion. Several of his crewponies laughed at that.
"No magical hanky-panky. Otherwise…" He shrugged.
"Terms?"
"I win, and you acknowledge that Dashing Blade is King of the Northern Fleet, and swear never to meddle with me or mine again!"
"And when I win?"
"Oh-ho! Very sure of yourself, aren't you, lass?" He grinned, and I had to admit that it was a charming, if roguish expression. "Name your forfeit if you win. No need to waste breath on fantasies."
I grinned back. "Stop talking and start fighting."
He was strong and fast, but I was a bit quicker. I tried for a bind on his blade and managed to deflect his first cut, but didn't get the disarm I had been going for. Cutlasses are terrible for thrusting, so that's exactly what I did. Four lighting-fast thrusts at his face and neck surprised him enough to get him to back away from the doors, giving me room to maneuver.
He came back with two savage downward chops that I easily dodged. They were slow enough I didn't need to parry, but they were only the setup for his third attack.
He snapped both wings downward and together, flipping himself up and over my back, slashing out as he reached the apex of his leap. I dropped to the floor and snapped my cutlass into a parry septime. The sound of our blades clashing together came an instant before the sounds of his hooves hitting the marble behind me.
"Ooh," he said mockingly as I spun to face him. "Fancy blade-work, that. Bet you learned it in a nice comfy school somewheres."
I had learned it from Maestro Flèche, who, often as not, had Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and I practicing dirty tricks outdoors in all weathers. A master of the sport of fencing, he was also an eminently practical stallion who had a great deal of experience with blades in the real world. And had the lack of scars to prove it.
I struck a perfect en-garde and took three precise steps forward in an advance that would have earned a nod of approval in any salle in Equestria. Then I pretended to stumble, knocked the pirate's blade aside with a savage beat in the instant he was distracted, and hammered my hilt into his belly in a completely non-regulation sucker-punch.
It felt like I'd slammed my hoof into a stone building, but it knocked him back a bit and certainly surprised him.
We traded a flurry of blows, dancing back and forth across the balcony. Sometimes we took to the air, but he didn't seem to care for the additional complications that aerial maneuvers added any more than I did. It was a down-and-dirty fight.
We threw kicks and wing-strikes into the mix and I toppled the cupcake cart into his path just in time to save myself from an unexpected rush. Pretty, it wasn't.
What it was was a whole lot of fun.
I banged my rump into the balcony railing, and Dashing Blade seized the opportunity to force me into a corps-à-corps. His chest pressed against mine and our hilts locked together below our chins. He opened his mouth to deliver some clever quip and I thrust my muzzle forward, mashing my lips against his and sliding my tongue deep into his mouth.
He tensed up for an instant, and then melted into the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine. That's when I hooked a hock around his hind leg and yanked with all of my strength.
He crashed to the floor, his cutlass spinning out of his grip, and I followed him down. He was far too strong to be pinned by my lighter body, but my cutlass laid sideways across his throat made up for that disadvantage.
"Time to name my forfeit, I think," I cooed down at him, grinning from ear to ear.
"Well then…" He thought about it for almost a full second. "Nopony can say Captain Dashing Blade doesn't honor his word. Name your prize, lass."
"You're mine for the night," I told him, getting to my hooves and tossing aside the cutlass. "We'll see if you have other talents beside brawling."
His eyes went wide for a moment, and then a slow smile spread across his face. "This isn't how I thought this would go, Twilight."
"I'm glad I can still surprise you." I smiled, and conjured up a length of soft cotton rope to truss up my prize. "You can wait in my bed until I arrive. If you're lucky, I may bring you some dessert."
I slowly ran a hooftip over his chest and down his taut belly, then teleported him into my private chambers.
The "pirate" crew were grinning their heads off as they got back aboard their airship. I gave them a cake that had survived the mayhem. "It's a long way back to Canterlot," I said. "Scurvy pirates need snacks."
I found Pinkie Pie and got her to break out the emergency backup desserts for my guests, then headed for my rooms. I thought it would heighten the anticipation to keep Luna waiting, but I couldn't resist for long.
It was a memorable birthday.
= = =
I woke some time before dawn and turned to nuzzle against Luna's neck. She made a soft mmmm noise and lifted her chin so I could nibble at the soft skin below her cheek. "How did you know it was me?" she asked quietly. "I made sure to damp all traces of magic, and I'm very good at that."
"Well, it was a rather improbable scenario, but the kiss gave it away." I gave her a peck at the corner of her mouth. "You can't disguise that wonderful technique of yours."
Luna started to smile and then it hit her. "What? Thou didst not know before then? Thou wouldst kiss a strange stallion in such a wanton manner?" She turned her head over her shoulder to stare at me, aghast.
"He was a very handsome stallion! And I hadn't seen you in nearly a week!"
She was so taken aback that she overlooked my terrible acting and began to sputter in outrage.
I turned aside as if unconcerned, and nonchalantly examined the edge of a hoof as if looking for imperfections. "Oh, and the first parry I made, I could tell the edge of your cutlass wasn't sharp, even though it looked like it was. Nice illusion, by the way."
Luna gave a wordless cry of outrage followed by a pillow to the back of my head. "Thou art an impossible rogue, Twilight Sparkle!"
I couldn't help laughing, even under the multiple strikes of both pillows. "Also… hahaha… you shouldn't have… oof… picked your name from one of Rarity's bodice-rippers! Hahahaha…"
She abandoned her physical attack and settled for a Royal Pout. "I should be sore vexed with thee, but thy visage in such disarray couldst charm a manticore!"
A few delightful kisses mended the quarrel.
I sighed as our lips parted and said, "It was a wonderful gift. Even if it turned out I was the one doing the ravaging."
"That was not your birthday gift, lover," she said with a grin. "It was your gift to me."
I chuckled. "That's good, because what I'd planned on giving you was a home-made tea cozy. It has badly cut-out felt moons all over it."
"I would treasure it," she said. "From a great distance."
I gave her a playful swat on the rump with a wingtip. "Okay, maybe there's something else around here… oh yes…"
She was delighted with the little music box that played one of her favorite tunes. "'Tis cunning work. So tiny, yet the sound is full and rich… and no magic in it, for a wonder."
"The artisan is an earth pony from Baltimare. He's making quite a name for himself."
"Well deserved," she said and set the box down on her belly. "Speaking of cunning…"
A wrapped package appeared in a flash, and I caught it in my magic. I didn't even have to unwrap it to know it was a book.
"Fear not, my love. It is a tome that you have not read."
"Okay," I said, grinning at her. "Is it a book about mind-reading?"
Her expression grew serious. "In part. It certainly is a glimpse into the mind of some ponies."
Intrigued, I opened the wrapping. It was old. Very old. I could sense the subtle spells woven into the binding to keep it supple and free from dirt and mold. There was a heraldic sun embossed on the cover, overwritten by the title of the book.
THE PRINCESS by Nicker O. Marechiavelli
"Nay," Luna said, once again anticipating my reaction. "You have not read this book."
I opened the cover and turned past the fly leaf, title page, and dedication. And on the very first page of the text, I saw why the volume was so unique. The familiar text of the book was there, obviously printed with very early movable type. The page layout was the same as the early books that were individually copied in quill and ink, with wide margins, suitable for making notes. And there were notes. Copious notes.
"I know this penwork," I said, softly, my chest tightening.
"Yes," Luna said. "It is a presentation copy of the first edition, given to my sister by Marechiavelli. It is a gift from the both of us."
It took a while for me to control my breathing enough to gasp out, "Thank you."
In this chapter, it is discovered that the Balance of Nature lies on the point of a sword.
September 13th, 1014 Twilight Town, Beneath the Labyrinthine Stairs, and beyond what is known
It was the sun-forsaken aurocks skull that did it. It had become a symbol of the town. It was not only a heraldically decorative charge that adorned banners and was carved into roof beams and such. It was also a not-so-subtle message. This thing made the mistake of attacking us, and look what happened to it.
Somepony had chiseled the ragged neck down smooth and permanently mounted it on a tall, decoratively carved pole just in front of the Tower of Harmony,[1] our town's only other significant landmark. ---------- [1] Yes, it was pretty. Yes it was tall. But it really was only a large-scale thaumic waveguide. Turning it into a tourist attraction seemed nonsensical to me, but once Buzzy got an idea into her head, there was practically no stopping her. She was a mare of few passions, but immense determination. ----------
Without the roiling internal energy of the aurocks to power them, the horns were inert and harmless… unless they drew mana from some other source. Say, for instance, a huge thaumic waveguide powered by a gigantic charge of dark magic.
I may have been under considerable "influence" at the time, but it didn't turn me into an utter moron. I ran magic through the waveguide to test it at each step of the construction and there was never a glint from the horns, a quarter furlong away.
But the night of the farewell party, things were different. The townsfolk had decorated the meadow below the tower with banners, flags, streamers, and lanterns, all hung from poles put up for the occasion. Between the poles, they'd draped long strings of tinsel to reflect and sparkle in the lantern light, and there were dozens of strands of it looped over the aurocks horns.
Manufactured goods were very rare in the Forgotten Lands. There weren't any party supply stores to buy real tinsel from, so the ponies had made their own from wire mill scrap. Brass shavings, hung from brass wire to bear the weight. Conductive brass wire.
If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get back to normal and return to my friends, I might have noticed. As it was, I only figured it out much later.
The population of Twilight Town seemed to have doubled for the event, and the party started getting raucous as evening came on.
The King of the Forgotten Lands made an appearance, in a costume that would have made Rarity faint,[2] and was very entertaining. The mad old earth pony proposed to me at one point, though I don't remember if that was before or after he condemned me to the Pit of Despair. I informed the king that I was already spoken for, in both cases. He allowed as how I was a lucky mare, and awarded me a medal that looked suspiciously like a chunk of quartz tied up with an old bit of ribbon. ---------- [2] Whether from joy or horror, I really don't know. I don't have any fashion sense, but I know wildly extravagant when I see it. ----------
I contented myself with one small glass of Buzzy's metheglyn as the moon rose. I made personal goodbyes with the few people I had become close to: ponies, zebras, griffons, a young kirin, an old burro, and even the weird little diamond dog who was so good at finding veins of copper.
I clasped the Amulet of Night and the Gem of Remembrance around my neck and made my public farewell to the good folk of the Undiscovered West in a short speech. They cheered me, and there were many cries of "Don't go!" I had to clear my throat a few times and my eyes watered a bit, no doubt because of the smoke from the bonfires.
The crowd parted as I approached the finished Tower of Harmony. Ao and Ajo followed slightly behind me, to either side.
I lit my horn and eased my power into the input portal of the waveguide. The Tower glowed and began its job with a low hum as the dark magic flowed out of me and split into two halves. Crystalline sections induced identical harmonics in each stream of mana, matching the crests of one to the troughs of the other, and the final big crystal at the top of the Tower recombined them, canceling out the dark power and leaving behind nothing more than harmless light and sound.
But those waveforms were enough to induce a mana current through the tinsel wires webbing the meadow behind me. That current would have been harmless as well, if those brass wires hadn't been wound around the aurocks's horns. As it was, the current fed into the crystal until it reached critical density and then a twin blast of lightning erupted from the tips of the horns.
The lightning might have crackled into the sky without hurting anypony if there hadn't been a highly charged structure nearby to attract it. Millions of volts danced along the brass rods and struts of the tower, melting the thinner bits and causing the smaller crystals to explode. It was exactly the sort of event that a sane pony does anything to avoid when working with high-energy magic.
The catastrophic feedback caused by the disrupted mana stream blew away most of the eastern side of the tower, and made my magic spin wildly out of control for a few critical seconds before I could stop it. The sudden jolt felt like the aurocks had kicked me in the horn.
The party guests began screaming and running. It was understandable. Only Ao and Ajo stayed by my side.
And then came the whumph of displaced air from behind me followed by a horribly familiar voice.
"Well, well, well.There you are, Sparky! I was wondering where you'd got to. Can't say I like the new look. Goths are soooo gloomy."
Ao gasped. "The Deceiver!"
I turned slowly, still trying to grapple with the sudden destruction of all my hopes, and saw Discord. "You!" I hissed.
It must have been the horribly out of balance magic that had caught his attention. He hadn't caused the disaster, but at that moment, in my fractured state of mind, I couldn't believe that it was a coincidence. My best chance to get my friends, my lover, and my sanity back had just toppled into ruin, and there was Discord, grinning.
"Save us, Majesty! Please! Kill him! Please! Please!" Ao begged me in a terrified whisper.
"How rude! Some ponies!" Discord rolled his eyes. "Or… whatever."
I shook all over and my muzzle wrinkled up in an almost painful rictus, my jaw opening wide. I think I tried to speak, but the only sound that came out of my mouth was a bestial snarl of rage.
Discord's eyes widened and he lost his grin. "Now, now, Twilight," he began, raising his mismatched arms in a condescending "calm down" gesture. "Everypony's been worried about… ack!"
The counter-rotating helical shields I wrapped the draconequus in would have torn apart a normal, mortal creature. I pounced on him like a manticore on a stray sheep, crushing him and the shields into the soft turf, lining up the forces so that there was only one small channel open in front of his head. I used every ounce of my magical strength to rip his chaos magic out of him and breathed it in with one long, intoxicating breath.
"Twi—Twilight," he gasped in horror. "What… why…."
I dispelled the shields but kept him pinned beneath me. I could feel his heart hammering in his chest. I could see the blood pulsing beneath the skin of his long neck. I could hear the surging hiss of it. I could almost taste it. I wanted to taste it.
My jaws quivered as I forced them shut and lifted my head away from his throat. "You thought this was funny? You think you've won?" I growled. "Well, I can build it again! And this time, I'll feed your magic into it as well as Rushwa's poison. Harmonized to nothing. Dispersed into randomized heat and light. Gone forever! Won't that be fun?"
"Won? I—I don't understand! I…"
"And unless you're very, very good in the meantime, I'll feed you to the Yateveo. You'll love it! A plant that eats ponies! How wacky is that?" I was leaning forward again, having the most incredibly difficult time restraining myself from sinking my fangs into him. "I'm sure Fluttershy will get over it. I'll buy her a canary or something."
It was about then that he got it. He understood that I wasn't kidding and that I might kill him as casually as I might swat a fly.
"She might get over me," Discord said in a suddenly calm and eerily serious voice, "but she'll never get over what you did to her. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, too. They're devastated. When they realize you can't undo it, they'll hate you, Twilight. They'll hate you every second of their immortal lives."
The only reason I didn't tear his throat out in that instant was that I had to know what in Tartarus he was babbling about. "EXPLAIN!"
"What's the one thing Applejack values more than anything else?" he said in a rush. "More than wealth or friends or her own life?"
I didn't reply. I didn't want to be drawn into playing his game. But it was already too late. The first mental domino teetered and fell.
Family. That's what meant more than anything else to AJ.
And, ultimately, family meant foals.
But the crystal engine would always keep her in perfect condition, exactly as she had been when it made the connection to the gem in her head. Exactly.
I knew how Pinkie was with the Cake twins. How could she not want to have her own little ones someday?
And Fluttershy? The most nurturing pony I knew?
Discord probably saw each and every drop of the dominoes in my expression, twisted though it was.
I took a step back. "I—I'll undo it! I'll restructure the crystal engine…"
"Celestia tried that, Twilight! Even she couldn't do it. She won't allow the destruction of the engine, and there's no other way that your friends…"
"Allow? ALLOW?IF SHE TRIES TO STOP ME, I'LL TEAR HER APART!"
He cringed away from me, crossing his arms over his throat and face in an instinctive urge to protect himself. "You can't do that!" he gasped.
He almost overplayed it there. If I had been calmer, I'm sure I would have been instantly suspicious. But all that went through my mind then was a storm of fear and regret that manifested as blind rage.
"He has no power, now," I said to Ao and Ajo. "Tie him up, and don't listen to anything he says. If he refuses to shut up, feed him to the tree."
Ajo was still on his knees, head down and shaking, and Ao was too frightened to reply, but she bowed low to show her acquiescence.
I gathered my power, formed a single, monstrous vortex that would take me all the way to the skull of the great dead dragon… exactly where Discord hoped I would go.
= = =
"Twilight?"
I appeared in the spot where Nebula had been downed and found myself in a small camp of Royal Equestrian Guards. They all leaped to their hooves, but it wasn't one of them who had called out. No, I recognized the voice, and it was someone I didn't want to see right then.
More precisely, it was someone who I didn't want to see me.
"Twilight, is that you?"
The unicorn guards wisely didn't light their horns, but one of them said, "Spike, send the message, now!"
"Are you alright, Twilight? Please, look at me!"
Reluctantly, I did. "Yes, Spike. It's me, but I'll be better soon, I promise you."
"Spike!" hissed the guard who had spoken before.
Spike fumbled something out of the pouch he had slung over one shoulder. It was a scroll. He held it up in front of his mouth and took a deep breath. I watched him, silent and unmoving.
Spike hesitated, and then breathed out. It was a slow exhale and brought no fire with it. He held out the scroll to me. "It just says, 'Twilight is here.' I was supposed to send it if we saw you, but…"
"Spike!" shouted the guard.
I slapped him with the back of my wing and he went tumbling into the sand, his chamfron flying off and half burying itself in a drift.
"The next pony to interrupt, dies," I said quietly.
Spike's eyes were huge and his pupils had shrunk to pinpoints. "Please don't hurt anypony, Twilight!"
I nodded slightly, indicating that I understood what he said to me. If he took it for agreement, that was convenient.
Spike turned the scroll over and over in his claws, nearly dropping it once. "What do I do, Twilight? Celestia won't banish you to the moon or anything, will she?"
"I'm here to fix the problem, Spike. I'm here to make my friends happy again. Send the scroll if you want to. Celestia won't get it for at least a day, and by then it will be all over." I would have hugged him then, but I assumed that being wrapped in my huge black wings wouldn't have been much comfort to him.
"But…" He bit at his lower lip. "Do you still… are you still…"
"Do what you think is right, Spike. You may be wrong… disastrously wrong…" I broke off as a harsh laugh bubbled up from my throat, but managed to cut it off before it went on too long. "Do what you think is best."
"It'll be over by tomorrow? And everything will be back to normal?"
"It will be over very soon, yes," I said.
He stood for a while, his gaze on the sand, and then nodded. He looked up at the waiting guards with a sheepish expression, and tore the scroll to shreds. "It was specially enchanted to travel instantly," he said over the outraged gasps of the guards. "But I'm your number one assistant, and I trust you, Twilight."
I smiled, remembered to keep my lips covering my teeth. "Wait for me here. I will be back soon."
= = =
The Stairs were foal's play. I scanned and manipulated each group of sigils almost as fast as I could walk down the flights, slowly blinking to let the translocation magic take effect at each landing.
It was the engine that presented the real problem. I hadn't planned on destroying it. I could simply remove the crystal sun that acted as the power conduit and, as the stored mana was consumed, it would fall below the critical threshold necessary to maintain the links to the raptor crystals. I wondered why Celestia hadn't seen such an obvious solution until I caught sight of the engine.
The sun was enclosed in a cage of crystal branches. It looked as if a tree had grown up around the twin points of the conduit's contacts. They channeled not only power, but complex and ever-changing spell matrices. Breaking through them to remove the sun would cause a catastrophic failure in the system rather than a smooth discharge of power.
It would only last a moment, but in that time a thousand exchanges of corrupted template information could travel the links to the raptor crystals. I shuddered at the horrific possibilities that went through my mind.
Had Celestia done it, or had it sprung from the judgmental Tree of Harmony? It didn't matter. All that mattered was that I needed to find an answer. Soon.
An object-specific teleport would have been the solution if the spell could transport magically charged artifacts. There were dozens of times it would have saved untold trouble… if it weren't an impossible fantasy. I began groping for another solution.
I needed to cut the power. Stop the input and the output would take care of itself. But what fed the energy into the engine's input conduit was the Wheel of the World. And that was...
I snorted in anger and stamped the floor. Beyond me? Was that really true? I was powerful! I was brilliant! The Wheel was a mere magical construct for all its size and energy.
I opened my magical sight and stared down at the mechanism of the planet. Cycles within cycles, the simplicity of the circle multiplied and interwoven until each trace of energy became a complex, meandering dance of arcane power.
If I had weeks to study and plan, I might have been able to isolate the stream that fed the crystal engine and stopped its flow. But the Royal Guards surely had other ways of alerting Celestia, and my time was limited.
So I stopped the world.
It was my Fail-Safe spell that did it. The Wheel of the World had been modified long ago. Cycles had been stopped, redirected, and added by the Royal Sisters. The mechanism wasn't pristine. It wasn't pure. All those changes were flaws that gave my spell something to latch onto.
I used the Wheel itself to feed power into the spell, and so, just as it began to function, it stopped its own power source. Nothing changed. I hadn't intended that it should. The spell died before it could have any effect, but for the barest fraction of an instant, the Wheel stopped turning.
The pause before it began to turn again was just long enough for me to shatter the crystal cage of branches surrounding the sun, and snatch it out of the power conduit.
Unfortunately, it was also more than long enough to disrupt the prison buried at the heart of the world.
The cavern of the crystal engine faded away, and I was standing in a soft void that I had only seen once before.
"Twilight Sparkle."
The voice was not loud. It was not quiet, it was not harsh, it was not kindly; it was inevitable. It was terrifying.
Which contains various and sundry lessons of greater and lesser importance, prefaced by a touch of philosophy.
Spring to Fall, 1013 In various and sundry lands.
The best kind of knowledge is the sort that makes you look at ordinary situations in a completely new way. After going through Celestia's annotated copy of The Princess a dozen times, I was thinking about how other ponies looked at ordinary situations, and that occasionally made me a little distracted.
"Twilight, d'you mind me askin' why you been staring at that head o' broccoli for the last ten minutes?"
"Hmn?" I snapped out of my reverie. "Oh, hi, Applejack. How long have you been there?"
"'Bout ten minutes. I came to get the veggies for supper an' found you standin' there. I could see you were thinkin' and I didn't want to disturb you, but I need to get the carrots an' such[1] to the galley so's the cook can get supper goin'." ---------- [1] Nebula was the most unusual pirate vessel aloft for a variety of reasons, not least of which was that Applejack had lined the rail of the stern gallery with big window boxes and had planted all sorts of vegetables to provide the crew with fresh food when we were far from home. The ship somewhat resembled a market garden from astern. I drew the line at corn, however. ----------
I moved aside so Applejack could load up her basket.
"What were you thinkin', if'n you don't mind me askin'?"
"Oh… just how experience is a terrible way to learn things," I said, my mind still half elsewhere.
"Really?" AJ went on pulling carrots, but like most earth ponies, she could articulate perfectly well with her mouth full. "I don't know 'bout that, Twi. Books are fine an' dandy, but just about everythin' I've learned comes from experience, and I don't do too bad."
"I didn't mean it that way," I said, turning to her and giving her my full attention. "Experience is great for repetitive tasks and dependable environments, and also for refining knowledge, but there are times when it's not only not good, but actually misleading and potentially disastrous."
Applejack frowned and cocked her head at me. "Is this one o' those filly-sophical sorta things? I don't put much store in that sort o' foolishness."
"No," I said, a bit miffed. "This is something practical. I knew you'd be coming for the vegetables, so I was thinking about what the broccoli would think."
Applejack raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Don't look at me like that! I'll explain."
Applejack sighed and leaned against the bulkhead. "Go ahead, sugarcube. I'm sure this'll be fascinatin'."
I cleared my throat. "Look at it from the point of view of that head of broccoli. If it had a brain, what would it think about the world? It grew up in nice, nourishing soil, and every day you came and watered it. Its experience is that every day it gets bigger and healthier, thanks to a kind pony who cares for it. If it had to predict what was going to happen to it for the foreseeable future, it would say that it would get watered and grow bigger every day."
"'Cept, I'm fixin' to cut its head off an' put it in this here basket," Applejack said.
"Exactly!" I agreed. "But the broccoli's prediction was completely reasonable, given all of its experience. It could have drawn a precise graph of its predicted growth based on data gathered over its entire life and been completely wrong, because it lacked specific knowledge of typical gardening procedures!"
Applejack's expression had turned to worry and her ears drooped a bit. "Twilight, should I go get the rest of the gals?"
I sighed. "No, I'm fine. I just... "
"We're not far from tryin' out our big plan to clear out the pirates, an' you're gettin' nervous about it 'cause there's nothin' else you can do. That it?"
I gave her a sheepish grin. "I suppose so."
She smiled back. "Well, me an' Pinkie will whup up a big ol' cinnamon apple pie for dessert! That'll help take your mind off things for a spell!"
It was a great pie, but I still couldn't help worrying that there was a metaphorical pony with garden shears lurking somewhere in my future.
= = =
Up until that point, we'd had an easy time picking off pirate ships one by one. We'd load up a nice valuable cargo and have our crew do some bragging about how much money they were going to make in local watering holes, and the pirates would come to us. Sometimes we got hit before we were even out of sight of land.
Sometimes we'd play the pirate and capture the ships that came to join up with the notorious Captain Blackmane.
The encounters varied, but usually, I would freeze the pirate crew with my magic and we would chain them up, transfer their cargo, if any, and sink their ship. Sometimes they had magical protection, and that's when Rainbow Dash's speed, or Rarity's facility with her blades would come in handy.
Without their vessels, the pirates were harmless. We usually dropped them off at whatever ports we visited next, with a little advice on the viability of alternative career paths. This might seem like foolishness, but it was actually part of a bigger plan.
In the third chapter of The Princess, Marechiavelli wrote, "Ponies must either be caressed or else annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a pony must be such that we need not fear her vengeance."[2] ---------- [2] In the margin, Celestia had written, "Annihilation is easier to recommend than to achieve, but it is very convenient to have one's enemies believe one subscribes to this policy." ----------
For nearly five months I had been "injuring" the pirates of the West. Marechiavelli didn't write "might revenge," she wrote, "will revenge" (emphasis mine), and I was counting on it.
= = =
Rawboned Mari and her fleet ambushed us as we were navigating through a tricky pass in the Chimera Massif, headed for the lowlands of the Mareghreb. It was a vicious attack, and from the beginning it was clear she didn't intend to take any prisoners.
The unicorns Mari had stationed in the rocky spires above the pass opened up on us with everything they had. Without the protective web woven into her envelope, Nebula would have dropped like a stone within seconds.
Our attackers knew we had a seriously powerful spellcaster aboard but hadn't expected military-grade armor. That didn't stop them from continuing their attack. The next targets they chose were the tallest of the rock spires on either side of us. Their magic blasts might not be able to burn through our envelope, but several dozen tons of rock landing on top of us would down us just as surely.
Nebula's crew went to work without hesitation or orders from me. A season of fighting off smaller ambushes had made it almost routine for them. I cast a conical shield over Nebula, shedding the falling boulders to either side, as Fluttershy dropped ballast to get us above our attackers.
There were several loud cracks and the unicorns to starboard began firing wildly into the air. Rainbow Dash's multi-colored trail was visible looping and twisting through the spires, but she herself was traveling far too fast to be seen. Every second that passed, there were fewer bolts of magic being cast.
We rose above the jagged edge of the canyon into the turbulent upper air, and that's when the whole fleet hit us.
The reason that airships use the passes through the massif is that the hot air rising from the desert below creates a violent turbulence along the edge that is difficult to fly through at the best of times. Usually, the winds will cause severe damage to a ship even if they don't wreck it, so everypony uses a couple of long sloping canyons that descend to the Mareghreb. Everypony but a revenge-crazed madmare, that is.
Two big rebuilt merchant ships stood back from the edge of the massif, yawing and pitching in the wild air currents, while a dozen fast-attack craft darted in on us.
"Those are Zarabian military!" Rarity exclaimed. "The khan isn't even trying to hide his support of those rogues!"
"I don't think the khan is expecting any surviving witnesses," I grumbled, while modifying my shield to completely enclose Nebula.
The Zarabian ships charged in, probably hoping to overwhelm our shield with sheer force. They were lighter than the pirates' faux merchant ships and so flew erratic and barely in control courses toward us. Even so, almost all of them hit us on their first pass, slamming their bladed prows into the shield with enough force that it shook me.
Their mistake was that they came all at once. Against a unicorn of high magical ability, it was the right choice: Use overwhelming force to crack the shield, then dart in for hoof-to-hoof before she could recover. But I was stronger than they planned for. When they all rebounded from my shield at once (or completely missed as was the case with two of the craft), that gave me time to drop the shield and go on the offensive.
The craft were well armored with both conventional and thaumophobic systems, and it took me a half dozen attempts to find a spell that was effective against them. But when I did, I had the key to disabling all of them. Uniformity has its downsides. Ferrous metals are naturally magic-resistant to a high degree and the zebras hadn't thought to coat their propeller shafts where they emerged from the engine housings. Carefully teleported sand from our dry ballast compressed around the drive shafts with a high-pressure compounded shield spell heated the shafts quickly enough that they failed within seconds. They either jammed or shed their propellers, and that put the targeted ship out of the fight.
Pinkie Pie kept an ear to the speaking tube from the dorsal cupola, where Applejack was spotting for us. She didn't say anything, just pointed in the direction of the ships hidden from my view by Nebula's envelope. There were a couple of moments when I could have sworn she was using all four hooves… possibly more. Regardless, the information enabled me to accurately teleport to where I could get a clear shot and then pop back to the quarterdeck.
Working together, we crippled all of the fast-attack ships within minutes, long before any of them could maneuver around for a second pass. We took a few arrow strikes, but the turbulent air made archery ineffective. The disabled ships whirled away on the winds.
I appeared back on the quarterdeck after finishing the last Zarabian ship just in time to hear Pinkie say, "That mare is completely insane… and I can respect that."
I turned to look over the stern rail and saw Mari's ships bearing down on us at full speed. I'll say this for her, she was certainly no quitter.
I aimed a heavy blast below the prow of the lead ship and wasn't really surprised to see it spatter and dissipate off their own anti-magic mesh.
"Hey!" Pinkie Pie cried out. "She's got that stuff, too! Can she do that?"
Evidently, she could. She could also plaster her hull and envelope in the Zebra thaumophobic coating and employ some very powerful spell-casters, as it turned out. My trick with the Zarabian ships didn't work on hers, because her power linkages were all coated bronze, and her unicorns gave me no time to experiment further.
I popped up a shield as the first bolts of magic sizzled in and got a good idea of how strong her unicorns were. Fairly impressive, but nothing I couldn't cope with, as long as I didn't have several other things to cope with at the same time. Which I did.
It turned out that Rawboned Mari was even crazier than any of us expected. The burning green goo that was a common, if horrible, component of aerial warfare in Zebrica was very tricky to use, even in calm conditions. To try to catapult a mass of that flaming sticky stuff in moderately rough conditions was incredibly risky. To attempt to use it in what might as well have been a storm was complete insanity.
Rawboned Mari was completely insane.
The second ship went for altitude while I was busy keeping the lead ship's unicorns from burning holes in us. I was using a partial shield to conserve energy while trying to figure out a way to get us some breathing space for an attack of our own, when Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, "Twitchy-tail, twitchy-tail!"
I snapped my shield into a complete sphere around us, just in time to prevent the flaming green goo from coating the top of our envelope. I still don't know how they had managed to loft that stuff high enough and accurately enough to get it on target.
"Ooooh…" Pinkie said, wide-eyed, her ear still pressed to the speaking tube. "Applejack has a potty-mouth!"
Considering that AJ was in the cupola less than a pony-length below where the alchemical fire roared away, I think a little cussing was forgivable.
Stuck to a surface, even a magical force field, the green goo could burn for hours. I couldn't let the shield collapse without endangering us. But as long as the fire was outside…
"Fluttershy, bring us about!" I snapped. "We're going to ram her!"
I expected some surprise or reluctance, but Fluttershy spun the wheel without hesitation, a glint of anger in her eyes. "I'll aim our prow to hit just above their main deck. Even if the collision doesn't cripple them, that'll wipe off most of the fire onto the underside of their envelope."
"Uhmn… yeah," I answered her, a little taken aback at the cold anger in her voice. "Good plan."
I altered the shield to a spindle shape, giving it a sharp point fore and aft, while listening to Fluttershy muttering under her breath. "Try to hurt my baby, will you? I'll show you!"
Sun and Moon, I never want that mare mad at me!
The ship that had catapulted the green goo onto us tried everything they could to evade our charge, but their pilot was nowhere near as good as Fluttershy. The unicorns from the other ship tried blinding us by concentrating their fire forward, but the spindle shape of the shield kept the upper half of the sky clear for us.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" I called out in the Royal Voice.
Nebula hit right where Fluttershy said she would. Even with an alicorn-powered shield in place, the momentum transfer was brutal. Anything aboard that wasn't tied down went flying, a few lines of standing rigging parted, and the hull groaned in protest as the stern pitched upwards and the whole ship violently swung, rolling onto her larboard beam as she rebounded from the collision.
I winced as a stabbing pain shot through my horn. Keeping the shield intact under the impact of several tons of airship had taxed me to my limits, and the unicorns aboard the lead vessel never let up with their barrage.
I spared a glance for our target. Her bow was smashed and the forward third of her envelope was ablaze, sending green flames and thick, oily smoke swirling into the sky. Her crew were abandoning ship.
"Do it again, do it again!" Pinkie Pie stomped the deck in glee.
"Sorry, Pinkie," I said. "I couldn't take another hit like that." In fact, I was having difficulty maintaining the complete shield. "I'm going to have to shrink the shield! Stand by to repel boarders!"
The crew scrambled for their weapons. There was no time to rig the anti-boarding netting. I rotated the shield until the part that still had some flaming goo attached was under our keel and then shrunk it to a shallow cone that only covered line-of-sight to the remaining pirate ship.
Pegasi from the burning ship swooped down, strafing our decks with arrows. They had to get close to have any chance of hitting a target in the rough air, and that put them in range of our bows and unicorn telekinesis. The archery was next to useless. One of the pirates took an arrow through the flesh of his foreleg, but that was by pure chance. The two things that did have an effect were Pinkie's launcher and Rarity's blades.
The net catapult that Pinkie had cobbled together as a weapon of mercy fired a weighted net with a small parachute attached. In theory, it would tangle up attacking pegasi or griffons and then safely lower them to the ground. In practice, at least in that particular situation, the net worked perfectly, but the parachute danced all over the sky, caught in the vicious turbulence and updrafts. It was nauseating to watch, let alone experience. I had much more sympathy for the poor ponies caught up in Pinkie's device than the others who floundered earthward with their flight feathers sliced in half.
The remaining pegasi withdrew, meeting up beyond archery range with a dozen more that had launched themselves from the last ship. They wouldn't risk strafing again, and sure enough, Pinkie relayed Applejack's sharp-eyed report that the new pegasi carried small shields. They'd use them to cover a rush and go hoof-to-hoof.
"If we sit out here, we're going to get worn down," I said, half to myself. "We've got to take the fight to them."
"That's the spirit, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash's cheery voice came from behind me just before her hooves hit the deck. Her feathers were in disarray, and she had a magic burn across one shoulder and a shallow cut on her right cheek that was bleeding like crazy. She was grinning her head off. "What's the plan?"
"We go in full speed. Make them think we're going to ram them and then slew around to put our rails together when they try to evade." I turned to Fluttershy. "Can you manage that in these winds?"
She rolled her eyes at me.
"Right," I said. "So we grapple and board before they know what's going on. We'll have to soak up the magic blasts until I can grab the unicorns. They'll be sure to have some sort of protection, so it'll take a minute. Then I can let loose with whatever I have left."
"I'll roll Nebula, so her rail is higher than theirs when we come alongside," Fluttershy said. "Her deck will provide cover for our archers. But the crew will have to fix the grapples quickly so we don't swing away."
"Good idea!" I told her. "Dash, relay that to the crew, then grab our pegasi and get back in the air. You and they will have to threaten the pirate fliers to keep them off until we hit. But threaten only, understand? They outnumber us, so fighting them is going to get somepony killed."
"Oh, Twilight," Dash said, smirking at me. "Such big strong wings, and you still think with your hooves in the dirt!"
Before I could ask her what she meant, she took off for the main deck. I could only hope she wouldn't try something suicidal.
Fluttershy made a complex maneuver that had us slewing all over the sky but ended with us suddenly closer and on an intercept course with the pirate ship. In the waist, Nebula's crew were preparing the grappling hooks, lines, and poles.
"AJ says the pegasi are coming!" Pinkie Pie said. "They're going to hit us topside."
I bit back a curse, wondering what had happened to Rainbow Dash. "Rarity! Take two ponies and get up to the cupola! You'll have to hold them—"
And that's when the tornado hit.
As bad as it was for us, it was devastating for the pirate pegasi. It only lasted for a minute or so, but it felt much longer. Fluttershy clung to the wheel and rode it out, bringing us back on a collision course with the pirate ship only seconds after the funnel cloud dissipated.
Rainbow Dash thumped down on the deck next to me shortly afterward, still laughing. "Wow, Twilight! You should have seen those dumb pigeons! None of them knew a thing about weather work, and they only made it worse on themselves!"
"Your tornado took them all out?"
"Yup! Those dummies paid the gravity bill, big time! They'll be spitting out sand for weeks!"
"Nice going, Dash!" I gave her a friendly swat on her uninjured shoulder with a wingtip. "Grab a cutlass and give us cover when we board. They'll have kept a couple of their pegasi in reserve."
"Only a couple?" She sneered.
"Hey," I said, touching her again with my wing, gently. "Do not take any stupid risks, okay?"
She outright laughed at that. "Why should you have all the fun?" Then she jumped over the rail to the main deck and joined the boarding party.
"What the hay did she mean by that?" I muttered.
Pinkie Pie leaned over and looked me in the face, then shook her head and sadly said, "Oh, Twilight…"
Then things got busy.
The boarding maneuver went exactly as Fluttershy said it would. Nebula's crew fought valiantly, with skill and well-practiced coordination. My plan worked nearly perfectly.
It was horrible.
Rawboned Mari was a unicorn worthy of her name and murderous reputation. I took out all the other magic users quickly and efficiently, but she almost killed me. She was tall and not just lean but practically emaciated. Gray coat, violet mane and tail worn long and ragged. Her cutie mark was a red dagger with a wisp of black smoke rising from the blade. Even though magic was her primary weapon, she carried a long narrow scimitar in one hoof.
I leaped onto her quarterdeck after neutralizing the unicorns and gave her a chance to surrender. That's what good guys do, right? "You'll be treated fairly, Captain," I said. "I promise,"
"I'm going to enjoy gutting you, Blackmane," she replied, raising her sword to point at my eyes.
Despite the stories of her exploits, I didn't expect her to use dark magic. The sword was a distraction. As I lifted my cutlass into a guard position, black energy bubbled out of Mari's horn, crackling with green discharges, and lanced straight into my chest.
Failsafe. I'd practiced the spell until it was a reflexive fall-back, and with the last bit of my consciousness, I triggered it. My world narrowed down to the matrix of the spell, feeding the last of my strength into it to keep Mari's dark spell from tuning my heart into a rotting mass of black ruin.
I pushed it back. I won, inch by inch. But while I lay on the deck, insensible to anything but the magical struggle for my life, Mari stood over me with her scimitar.
It's nice to have friends.
I regained consciousness with a water bottle pressed between my lips. I took a drink before opening my eyes to find my head cradled in the crook of Fluttershy's thigh. "You'll be okay, Twilight," she said softly. "The wound isn't deep."
Wound? I became aware of a dull ache[3] and a sticky feeling in my barrel just behind my left foreleg. ---------- [3] Contrary to popular usage, a "stabbing" pain is nothing at all like the pain one experiences when stabbed. I am more than a little regretful that I know this to be true from personal experience. ---------
"Where's…" But a slight turn of my head gave me the answer. Rawboned Mari's body lay next to me on the quarterdeck, cut to ribbons, five slender blades standing up from her corpse like needles in a pin cushion. "Oh."
"Yes," Fluttershy said, almost too quietly to be heard.
"Is Rarity okay?"
Fluttershy lowered her head, her mane falling across her face. "Applejack is with her," was all she said.
I got up, despite her protests, and assessed the aftermath. Two of our ponies were so badly wounded that the doctor had used the cockatrice box on them, and there were a myriad of cuts, burns, and bruises, but none of the Nebulas had been killed outright.
Mari's ship was named Viper, which meant that her crew were referred to as Vipers. Unlike the natural animal, the Vipers had no sense of self-preservation, and unlike the Nebulas, they had fought until unconsciousness or death. I had never encountered such fanaticism before, and it sickened me.
"When I decided our trip would be too dangerous for Spike to come along, I meant physically dangerous," I said to Pinkie Pie as she helped distract me while the doctor cleaned and stitched up my wound. All the painkillers had been distributed to more deserving ponies.
Pinkie nodded. "Hurts need time to heal, Twilight. We should go home."
So we did.
= = =
Luna was furious with me.
"Thou hadst no right to risk thyself in such an addlepated manner!" she shouted as she stomped back and forth across the floor of her bedchamber. "Thy quest was noble, but thou art a fool for behaving as some pewling heroine in a saga! Thinkst thou that it is a game to play at like foals at clippy-clop? Hast thou learned nothing of the way of the world beyond our safe and coddled borders?"
"Uhmn… sorry?"
"Nay! Speak not to me of regrets, Twilight! Swear, rather, that thou wilt never again give a mote of advantage to those who oppose thee! When confronting a foe, every heartbeat the fight continues gives another chance to lose the advantage, or for ill fortune to strike. Thou must needs be swift, terrible, and remorseless in combat!"
I managed to choke out a half-whispered, "Okay."
"Ahhh… by the black pits of Tartarus, I despair of thee!" She collapsed to the floor and buried her head between her forelegs.
It took me a moment to find my voice again. "Luna…" I took a tentative step forward. "We did a lot of good. The pirate fleets are broken. There are some lone ships left, but merchants and traders can mostly move in safety. People in the cities are better off because goods are cheaper now, and insurance rates have… hey… Luna?" I bent down and nuzzled her head. "Are you crying?"
She lifted her head, and I flinched back from her. She was crying, but the expression on her face was frightening. "To the pits with merchants and tradesponies! Let all the lands be o'errun by villains and predators! Let the world be ruled by dark and terrible gods… if only those gods be we two!" Her eyes glowed, and her pupils narrowed into slits.
"Luna, stop it! You don't mean that!"
"With all my heart, I do," she hissed. The light in the chamber seemed to bleed away, and Luna stood and towered over me, her coat darkening. "An' the world be filled with joyous, laughing folk, all at peace and burdened only by prosperity, still 'twould be my unutterable torment if it lacked you."
Okay, I know that I am a strident proponent of logic, skepticism, and rational thinking, but there are some times when they aren't applicable to a situation. I grabbed Luna in my magic and threw her to the floor, rolling her over onto her back. Her eyes blazed in reflexive anger, but I slapped her horn as I threw myself onto her to disrupt whatever spell she had been raising. Then I used all of my strength to pin her to the floor and violently kissed her until she calmed down.
Then, I kept kissing her for quite a while after that.
In the morning, I swore to her that I would never again hesitate before a deadly enemy, and that I would be ruthless in the preservation of my own life.
Containing a surprising amount of conversation, and some information relating to broccoli.
September 13th, 1014 At the Meeting of Ways
Promises are promises.
The first blast of dark magic caught the Red Queen square in the face. It was disguised as pure force but carried a secondary matrix that enveloped and hardened around her head in an attempt to blind her.
The instant after the spell left my horn, I teleported one hundred and forty-four degrees to my left (centered on the Red Queen) and triggered the second matrix. A multiplied gravity field sprang into existence. It was a blobby X shape in cross section, which would cause far more damage than a simple increase in apparent weight.
Another one-forty-four displacement, and I threw an interlocking series of fast rotating shields that should have done to her what the grinder of a cider press does to an apple.
My next teleport brought me to the fourth point of the star pattern, and since there didn't seem to be much matter in the celestial realm we were in, I used hairs from my mane as hyperfast missiles, enclosed and stiffened in tiny cylindrical shields.
No mortal pony and very few monsters I knew of could have survived through my third attack, but the Queen was unaffected. Yet not unchanged. Though my lightning fast jumps and attacks gave me only a couple of seconds to observe her, she seemed—blurry.
Another teleport completed the star,[1] and I used two knife-like waves of super-heated air in an attempt to fillet her while simultaneously cooking her alive. I admit that the effort was a bit halfhearted. I knew by then that she was capable of resisting my attacks somehow, and was more interested in finding out how she was doing it. ---------- [1] The Star Attack Pattern is usually employed by a team of five unicorns, mainly to keep them from blasting each other when surrounding an enemy. Teleportation for confusion's sake was my own twist on the tactic. -----------
I continued winking from point to point, throwing ever more vicious spells, and noticed that the "blurriness" of the Red Queen increased in a way that matched the physically affecting portions of my spell. Interesting. Tirek's spell failed to affect her. A simple attempt to teleport her head two feet to the left didn't work. Combinations designed to fail in disastrous ways produced nothing more than a shimmer in the air.
After two more trips around the star, I stopped. The Queen hadn't moved or made any attempt to retaliate. I still kept a reflexive shield spell matrix on a hair-trigger. She came back into focus.
Pride or hubris or possibly a combination of both made me come to a halt facing the Red Queen from only a body-length away. I flared my wings and arched my neck, snorting in anger and frustration.
"You've changed since I last saw you, Twilight Sparkle," the Queen said calmly.
I had absolutely no idea how to respond to that. I'd just tried to murder the creator of the world in several ingenious and appalling ways, and she was speaking to me as if I had just dropped by for tea. Maybe it was a situation she wasn't entirely unused to.
She looked me over, and I knew she was using more than physical sight in her examination. Her gaze paused on the two necklaces around my throat.
"You wear an encapsulation of my daughter's magic," she said. Her voice was still low and even, but her eyes narrowed slightly. "Did you kill her?"
That surprised me for several reasons. For one, it meant that the Red Queen didn't know everything that had gone on in the world while she had been imprisoned. She might be invulnerable, but she wasn't omniscient. It was also a strong indicator of the complexity of my life that I couldn't answer the question with a simple yes or no.
"Celestia, Luna, and I destroyed the physical part of Luna that had been imprisoned in the Wheel of the World with you. This is what is left of her magical essence."
The Queen lifted the Talisman of Night off of my neck and floated it over to examine more closely. Her levitation field felt perfectly normal to me.
"My poor girl," she said softly, and set the necklace down between her forelegs. She also took the Gem of Remembrance from me. I had a moment of worry that I would forget the Undiscovered West, but my memories remained clear.
The Queen's only comment on the Gem, before she placed it next to the Talisman, was a soft, "Odd."
If I couldn't defeat her, my next best option was escape. "Well, if that's all, I should be going," I said, brusquely. "I imagine that your return will have a significant impact on the world and I should be with my friends and family to help them through it all. Sorry about the attacks, but that was because of a promise I made to Luna. I'm sure you understand."
She tore all of the borrowed magic out of me with tiny motions of her horn. The zebra waganga, the poisoned morass of the Eye of Rushwa, and Discord's chaos magic all sorted themselves out into glowing balls of energy that floated in front of her chest.
I don't remember collapsing, but the sudden clarity of my mind was like falling into an icy river.
"Did you kill Discord as well?" the Queen asked, unconcerned by my uncontrollable shuddering and convulsing.
Discord? Oh stars and moon, what had I done?
It took me several moments to be able to speak coherently, let alone regain my hooves. "He's not dead," I gasped out. "But he's in danger. Let me go get him."
She didn't answer. She turned and brought a construct into existence with a pulse of her horn. It was roughly spherical, about a pony length in diameter, a translucent blue color, and looked rather like a head of broccoli. I took a few shaky steps toward it to get a better look.
The Queen took hold of the thing with her magic and made some adjustments. The little outer spheres that looked like broccoli florets faded away, leaving a smooth sphere with little spots of color where they had been attached. Structures glowed to life within the sphere as she made another adjustment, but not before I had noticed a much larger spot of color, similar to the little ones in every aspect except size. Something tugged at the back of my brain.
But I was soon completely absorbed in observing the sphere as it underwent a series of changes. If Luna and I hadn't become so close, it would have taken me much longer to realize what I was looking at.
"That's the Wheel of the Moon!" I said, surprised by the sudden shift in my assumptions that allowed me to recognize it. The construct was a five dimensional model of the universe!
The Red Queen didn't respond, but kept zooming in on the model until the cycles of the firmament faded away, leaving only the terrestrial sphere. "Show me Discord's location," she said.
I examined the globe. It wasn't anything like a map, and it took me a second or two to puzzle out the part that represented the Forgotten Lands. On the model, the spellwork surrounding the peninsula was actually visible as a network of spheres and cycles.
"There," I said, pointing with a wingtip to the eastern end of the peninsula. "About—"
I was going to describe the location to her, but when I pointed, the view zoomed in further. I kept adjusting the primary feather I was using as a pointer as the model enlarged, guiding it to the location of Twilight Town. The detail was amazing. Distance, time, and magic were perfectly represented down to the level of individual ponies.
I made some final corrections, and discovered that my fears had been justified. Discord was no longer in the town. I had been gone for less than an hour, and already Ao was leading a crowd of ponies into the forest toward the Yateveo tree. There was a dull mote at the center of the crowd that had to be Discord's disenchanted body.
"They're going to feed him to the tree!" I cried out. "We have to go rescue him!"
The Red Queen gave me a brief glance out of the corner of her eye, then reached out with one of her own feathers. She flicked the mote that represented Discord off of the sphere like I might brush a speck of dust off of a book.
Discord tumbled to the ground[2] at our hooves in a tangle of limbs. ---------- [2] There was no literal ground where we were, of course. Nothing that could even be called a floor, by the loosest of standards. But mundane stand-ins will have to suffice for extra-dimensional structures that have no descriptors in Equuish. ----------
I teleported the chains off of him and swept him up in a hug. "Oh, Discord! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I know it wasn't your fault! I'm so stupid! All that dark magic had me doing stupid, stupid stuff! Please forgive me!"
I had my head buried against his chest so I couldn't see his face. Truthfully, I was afraid to look him in the eye after what I'd done to him.
He took a few deep gasps and then gave a weak chuckle. "You… you really had me fooled there, Sparky! Good… uhm... " He twitched a bit in my embrace. "Good prank. Yeah… had me fooled."
I sniffed, trying to keep from outright crying. "I've really messed up this time," I whispered, still not lifting my head.
So I felt it when he noticed the Red Queen. His body jerked like he'd touched an electro-thaumic transmission tower, and he shoved me roughly away.
By the time I looked around he was flat on the floor, prostrating himself. The Red Queen placed a hoof between his horn and antler and pressed down hard. Discord whimpered.
"Hey!" I cried out. "What are you—"
She glanced at me. That's all. Her horn didn't glow, but pain ripped through me as if her look had been twin burning spears. It only lasted an instant, but it left me screaming and writhing in agony beyond anything I'd ever experienced before.
So I missed the first part of their discussion.
"...even after I escaped, I opposed everything they tried to accomplish, I swear it! Believe me, Epona, I was true to my purpose! Always!" The Red Queen removed her hoof from his head and Discord looked up at her hopefully.
"Twilight Sparkle was concerned for you. She treated you like a friend. She should hate you, Discord. Explain that to me."
He glanced between me and Queen Epona several times, as if searching for a plausible answer.
"I'm not stupid," I interjected, shakily getting to my hooves and desperately hoping that I wouldn't get another disapproving glance from the Queen. "He tried everything he could to undermine the magic of friendship, then he suddenly became my friend? I wasn't fooled for a minute."
Epona cocked her head in an invitation to continue.
"Friendship is powerful," I said, constructing the excuse only heartbeats before it left my mouth. "He tried to break it from the outside, and it didn't work, so he infiltrated. Subversion from within has always been a good tactic for an inferior force. I pretended to be his friend the same way he pretended to be mine."
Discord gaped at me for a second and then gave a shake of his head. "Oh… yes! That's it! Ha, ha, Sparkle, you're certainly the clever one! I had no idea that you had seen through my plot." He turned to Epona and his lion paw and eagle claw entwined in a nervous dance. "You see? I've been loyal to you!" His grip suddenly tightened and he turned to face me, frowning. "Wait a minute, Twilight! Did you just call me 'inferior?'"
"A statement of fact shouldn't upset you, Discord. You're too used to making your own reality to acknowledge the baseline everypony else shares, I suppose." I was putting on the upper class condescension act so heavily that I think my Canterlot accent got a bit thicker. "I'm sorry this had to happen. I was enjoying the game."
While Discord sputtered, I turned to Epona and gave her the angled nod that overstuffed nobility use in place of a proper bow. "What now, Your Majesty?"
She hesitated. She actually hesitated before she peeled me like an onion.[3] ---------- [3] Not literally, but that's as close as I can come to conveying what her in-depth magical scrutiny was like. ----------
It wasn't painful, but it was extremely uncomfortable and humiliating. I was all too aware that if she could use her magic to read my mind as well as examine my body, I would be rendered helpless if not killed outright, but either the examination didn't include such details, or I got lucky for once.
I staggered when she released me. It left me feeling dizzy and violated. But at least I felt whole again.
Epona spoke directly to me, but it felt like she was giving a detached summary for her own sake. "Superior intelligence, excellent physique, and truly exceptional magical capacity, but still only an ascended alicorn. A shame. Your genetics are nearly perfect for a natural birth." She considered for a moment. "Perhaps with the addition of some superior pegasus genes… I will preserve you in case the project can be salvaged."
Preserve? Sun and moon, I hoped she didn't mean it in the way that pickles are preserved.
"Project?" I asked. I tried to keep my voice level and confident, but there was a slight waver in it.
Epona had turned back to the model of the world… the universe, I suppose, and had expanded it to include the celestial spheres and the little spots again. She nodded at it. "Yes," she said. "The project."
Oh. Oh, horseapples.
She hadn't blasted me, and her reply had been conversational, so I cautiously asked another question to cover the fact that I was counting the connection spots that dotted the sphere everywhere and trying to analyze their pattern. "You're attempting to produce naturally born alicorns? What about yourself and your daughters?"
She chuckled. It was so unexpected that it took me a moment to recognize the sound. "I only look like an alicorn here," she replied in a distracted manner.
That off-hoof comment started the pieces dropping into place. The universe model had looked like a head of broccoli for sound mathematical reasons. From the largest scale to the smallest, the Fibonaggi Sequence guided the development of natural structures. Fractal shapes could be found everywhere in nature, from broccoli florets to… universes evidently. Of course the Red Queen looked like an alicorn in our universe. She appeared as she did for exactly the same reason I had looked like a mostly bald, tailless monkey in another.
I risked taking another step closer to the model. The little patches were where other worlds connected to our own. They were smaller than our universe and operated under different conditions in accordance to the underlying structure of the—megaverse? Multiverse? Science fiction had several terms for what had been, until then, a purely hypothetical situation. One of them had to be different.
Yes, I spotted it easily as soon as I knew it had to be there. It was one of the small spots, identical to the others in every way except one. The spot was very like an iris, and the magic of the diary kept that iris slightly open. I squinted and thought I could make out the tiny thread of energy that bridged the gap. Once I could see the magical structure all at a glance, I understood why the opening of the portals would be timed to the cycling of the heavenly bodies. It was all part of one intermeshed system.
I suppose I was obviously staring, and evidently the Queen noticed. She gave me a sharp look.
"This is… the whole universe, isn't it?" I asked, hoping that she hadn't noticed exactly what I had been studying and that I could distract her with an obvious, stupid question. She'd been imprisoned before Starswirl's time, and she didn't know we knew about other worlds. I was desperate to keep her in ignorance.
The following moment of silence was one of the most stressful things I've ever suffered, and her answer was more shocking than I could have imagined.
Epona finally spoke. "You are quite intelligent. Yes, this is your actual universe. How does it feel to know you could reach out with a hoof and kick stars from the sky or obliterate a continent?"
It wasn't a model.
I sat down hard and put my head between my forelegs, trying not to pass out. Which also gave me a way to hide behind my mane as I examined the big spot. Just like the portal interface that was kept open by Sunset's diary, the large iris was dilated and held open by a brilliant red column of magic.
"It's much more difficult to manipulate from inside, of course," the Red Queen continued after I didn't reply. "But that's something that your ponies have become very good at. Not quite good enough for my purposes... not yet." She zoomed in again, and the celestial spheres vanished. The outer surface of the world vanished, too, leaving the exposed Great Wheel and all the intricate cycles and epicycles that drove the magic of the world.
Epona sighed. "What a mess," she said.
From our perspective it was easy to pick out all the changes Celestia and Luna had made. I love them both dearly. I have the utmost respect for their abilities. They are, beyond doubt, two of the most powerful, clever, and skillful magicians in the world. But I had to agree with the Queen; it was all cobbled-together hackwork.
Epona looked over at me and I realized I had groaned out loud.
"Yes," she said. "Quite a mess. Obvious, even to you. I suppose it will be simpler to dismantle it all and start again."
"What? No!" The last time I'd shouted at her, I'd paid quite a price, but she only stood patiently, waiting.
She had given me a clue in regards to her motivation, and I thought I had a slight chance of convincing her not to crumple up our universe and throw it away like an ink-spotted first draft. There was no way I was going to let her learn about my niece, though.
"Look there," I said, pointing to a tangled cluster of mandalas. "That structure is drawing power from the fragmented cycle underneath. Removing it would collapse the primary ring, but not if we alter the output first. Repurpose the energy to reconstruct the original pattern and it'll practically repair itself."
"You seem very eager to meddle with the natural laws of your world," she observed dryly.
"As an alternative to being 'dismantled?'" I said. "You bet your cutie-mark I am!"
I'd just snarked the creator of my universe. I didn't even have the excuse of having any dark magic left in me. I held my breath until she decided to chuckle rather than strip me down to my component molecules.
"Cutie marks," she said, sneering. "What a horribly misguided idea."
"Wait. Cutie marks aren't natural?"
Epona spun the world and pointed to another tangle of rickety spells. "There's the matrix that produces them. Does that look like a naturally evolved process?"
Well, that explained CMDD[4] and associated illnesses like the Cutie Pox. Without thinking, I reached out and spun the globe to get a look at the other major alterations. I wasn't fundamentally opposed to magic-based social engineering, but it seemed like the majority of the alterations were some form of subtle mind-control, and that made me uneasy. "Ah," I said, catching sight of one fairly simple mandala. "That explains why we haven't had a conflict with the dragons for millennia. This must tie into the bloodstone crystals on the Dragon Lord's crown." ---------- [4] Cutie Mark Disassociative Disorder. ----------
"Very good," Epona said. "Your assessment that is, not the idea itself. If my ponies had been at war with the dragons from time to time, they would have been pressured into advancing much further, and I might now have all the alicorns I need."
"And thousands, perhaps millions would have died needlessly," I countered. I was becoming more comfortable with her. It seemed she was willing to engage with me on the level of a senior scientist in consultation with a junior.
"The number of survivors of a period of war or peace five hundred years ago would be identical. The advancements would not be."
It was a flawed and foolish argument. She was viewing the situation entirely from her own ideological standpoint. I could have argued the assertion, but as illustrated by the fact that Discord still cowered behind the Queen, trying to remain as silent and motionless as he could, her apparent willingness to engage as near equals was only a thin veneer over a ruthless personality.
So, I nodded instead. "Good point. Well, in any case, I think I can help you restore the world to its original condition. The firmament looked to be in good condition, aside from that weird thing that looked like a crack in the Sphere of the Stars."
It took her a few heartbeats to react, and I desperately tried to look like I was lost in thought, staring at one of the cobbled-together magic clusters. I had been able to reach out and turn the world in my hooves, but I had no idea how to "zoom" out to the level I needed. Epona would have to do it for me, and if she suspected what I was going to attempt…
She did it. She expanded the view until the little dots where the other universes touched our own were visible. More importantly, the big dot where our universe touched hers appeared.
"Show me," she said.
"It's right here…" I replied, quickly reaching out with both hooves and grabbing the outer edge of the big iris disk. "...you monster!"
I caught a small fraction of the pain from her gaze before I wrenched at the disk, twisting it against the lay of the fibers that defined the opening at its center. She screamed in anger as the iris closed, cutting off the red trace of power.
I teleported to one side, narrowly escaping a blast of her magic. A force lance of my own caught her behind her right shoulder and staggered her. As I had suspected, her "blur" defense was based on the connection to her home universe. Either it was some sort of alien magic, or she had simply retreated far enough into the interface to be immune to my own.
All that was left was to defeat an ancient, unknowably powerful alicorn to prevent her from reopening the portal.
Discord immediately dove in and snatched up the sputtering sphere of chaos magic, stuffing it down his throat like it was some delicious candy.
"Do something!" I screamed at him, dodging another blast from Epona's horn.
He did. He turned and jumped into the universe, disappearing as he dwindled down to an invisible size.
I didn't waste any breath cursing him. I teleported again, setting myself up to recreate the Star Pattern Attack, but realized that there wasn't any place I could start from that wouldn't put me at risk for hitting the universe sooner or later. I had no idea if my magic would be harmful to it, but since I had manipulated it using only my hooves, it was a risk I couldn't take.
A gravity flux hit me and I was barely able to create a counter flow in time to avoid being crushed. The pressure half stunned me anyway, and I stumbled and went to my front knees.
There, just in front of me, was the Talisman of Night. Wisdom is one thing, survival another. I reached out with my magic and slapped it around my neck. A surge of magical strength flooded through me as I teleported again and got behind the Queen. I knew I had the edge on her, and my horn flared to life as she realized where I was and began to turn.
I couldn't spare her. I couldn't risk trying to disable rather than kill her, because the fate of my entire world was at stake.
But I had made a terrible mistake. The power of the Talisman was the magic essence of Epona's daughter, and when she looked at me, and knew her defense would come too late, I hesitated. What unimaginable monster could strike down her own mother?
I cringed and poured energy into the shield I had raised to ward off the Queen's counterattack. Her magic sizzled and burned away at my own, as the contest became one of pure strength. It was a contest I was losing. My shield matrix deformed and cracks spider-webbed out from where the lance of force hammered into it.
And then she stopped. Her horn's aura faded away and her gaze lifted from where I crouched, my shield crumbling away.
"Hello, Mother," Celestia said.
The Red Queen took a step backwards and Luna walked out of a swirl of shadow behind her. "I beg thee, resist us not," she said.
Cadance appeared in a twinkle of light and wore an expression of determination that bordered on fury.
I recognized their relative positions, and I stood and moved to cover the fourth point of the star.
Discord made his big entrance, complete with spotlight, cane, and top hat. I suppose he couldn't help himself, even in a deadly serious situation. Especially in a deadly serious situation. "Looks like checkmate, Queenie!"
She didn't go quietly, of course, but the end was quick.
Celestia manipulated the sphere until it showed all the small universes that covered the surface of ours, and then she went further, revealing the even smaller realms that budded from the small universes. I supposed the fractal sequence must have continued like that until each new universe was not much bigger than a proton, but the tertiary worlds were sufficient to our purposes.
I guided the paralyzed form of Epona into one of the tiny, non-magical worlds and twisted the iris portal closed.
"I hope she will be happy there," I said, and cringed at how stupid it sounded when the words left my mouth. There was a pause while I gathered up my courage to face Celestia. Luna stepped to my side, wrapped a wing around me, and gently touched her muzzle to my cheek. It helped.
An example of how traveling can broaden one's event-horizons.
April 29th, 1015 (January 23rd, 5871, Local Δt+0.7%) The Everfree Citadel, Equestria r300.79, θ-0.891, φ24.56
I took a sip of my tea and began summing up. "So you see, it was a bit like stumbling while walking down a steep slope. I instinctively tried to get my hooves under me, and that only led to increasing my speed and worsening my hope of recovery, and after several iterations of that, I was galloping full-tilt down the mountain, with no hope of avoiding a serious crash."
"I am well acquainted with the phenomenon," my hostess said, chuckling. "You seem to have recovered fairly well."
"It took some time… but yes, things worked out okay. Fortunately, I have very understanding friends." I took another drink of tea, and Princess Twilight Sparkle floated the pot over to refill my cup.
It's always a bit weird meeting myself, and this version was no different, even though she had arranged to meet me in her library and was very polite and well-mannered. It was the significant time displacement that made her seem so odd, I suppose. She was taller than Luna, and quite striking in appearance. Not beautiful in the classic sense, she was far too lean and her face too angular for that, but quite imposing, nonetheless. I suppose it had been too much to hope for that I'd look more like Celestia as I aged.
Even though she wore a bejeweled peytral that positively reeked of powerful magic, my preliminary investigation into her universe had led me to conclude that she was solidly in the Kindly Guardian category,[1] so I felt I could be open with her about my history. The fact that she had a young dragon and a changeling as her assistants was also a good sign. ---------- [1] My spreadsheet, unfortunately, had several unpleasant designations such as Tyrant Queen, Mad Wizard, Nightmare Twilight, and Midnight Sparkle. (Yes, those last two might seem nearly synonymous, but there are some fine distinctions to be made.) ----------
"So…" Princess Twilight lifted a tea cake in her aura and turned it slightly, as if examining it for flaws. "What of the Red Queen that is imprisoned in the heart of the world… the heart of my world, I suppose I should say?"
"The wards that Luna and Celestia built are fine. They'll last forever unless you mess with them. And don't do that unless you want to turn your world into a nightmarish alicorn-factory!" I shuddered. "I managed to get a glimpse of the higher-order universe, and it makes Tartarus look like a beachside resort."
"Conflict, then? Alicorns for troops?" she asked with a tilt of her head. "Or worse?"
"Worse," I said and shivered. "Fuel might be the closest concept, but that universe operates on such different rules, it's hard to understand the simplest parts of it. A few glimpses were more than enough for me."
Princess Twilight took a delicate bite of her cake, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed. "If you don't use the higher world for transit, how is it that you're able to travel between universes at this level? Is there some sort of direct lateral connection?"
It always came to this. Cruel or benign, wise or foolish, I hadn't yet encountered a universe where I was stupid. "I'd like to get to know you quite a bit better before I tell you that," I said, watching her carefully to observe how she would take my refusal.
She smiled, and thankfully it was an understanding smile.
Her companions didn't react as well. The dragon didn't say anything, but she hissed through her teeth and scored the tabletop with her claws as she glared at me over the top of her glasses.
The changeling thumped the table with a hoof and swore. "Oh come on! You've had a look-see at this place, and you know that the Princess ain't got nothin' but good intentions!"
Twilight lifted a hoof. "Please, girls. It's alright. She's only being cautious, and that's quite understandable."
I grinned apologetically at her. "I'd like to talk with you about the way you've organized things here in your world. It seems like I could learn a lot from you."
The changeling wasn't quite done with her rant. "You little half-pint princess! You think she oughta give you all the secrets she worked so hard on without you willin' to share yours? You admitted that you durn near broke yer universe, an' you think that—"
Twilight laid a gentle wingtip on the changeling's back to silence her. "It's fine, Marigold. Besides…" She turned back to me and smiled ever so slightly. "Now that I know that it's possible, I should be able to figure out the details on my own."
Oh sun and moon, she was one of the clever ones.
After she had studied my reaction for a long moment, she changed the subject slightly. "So you say that the alterations to the universal mechanisms are… inelegant?"
I nodded slowly, collecting my thoughts. "Yes… remarkably well-done, considering that Celestia and Luna did all the work from the inside while they were struggling up the time gradient as quickly as possible, trying to get back to Equestria. But they're still flawed and need to be repaired… or replaced."
"I take it you don't agree with some of the reasoning behind the alterations?"
"Well, I'm not entirely convinced—"
"That's why you're traveling. You're collecting data on variant universes to determine the optimal way to make repairs… and possible changes."
"That's part of it, but—"
"Also, you're compiling a threat assessment of the neighboring worlds." Twilight fixed me with a piercing gaze.
'I… uhmn…"
The changeling threw back her head and laughed. "Face it, shorty, you are out-classed!"
The dragon emitted a burst of sibilant laughter that left wisps of steam floating in the air above the table.
"See?" the changeling continued. "Ol' slither-britches agrees with me, an' we don't hardly agree on nuthin'!"
I was seconds away from activating my portal gem when Princess Twilight frowned and broke eye contact with me. "Please excuse me, Twilight. I can be inappropriately intense at times."
The changeling opened her mouth to speak, but the Princess silenced her with a slight motion of a wingtip. "Marigold, Cutter, please return to your duties. I will continue my discussion with our visitor alone."
They bowed to her and left the room, the changeling giving me a quiet, "Nice meetin' ya, short-stuff!" as she went by.
When they had gone, the Princess dabbed at her lips with her napkin and set it down beside her saucer, folding it neatly. "Can we be honest and direct with each other?"
"I'd prefer it," I said. Before she could continue, I added, "That's why you sent them away, isn't it? They wouldn't understand. They might take bluntness for hostility."
She looked up from the table and grinned. "As you say."
I nodded. "Good. So… bluntness." I took a deep breath. "I admire a lot of what you've done with your world. It's very peaceful and the various peoples are generally happy and prosperous. It is what I would call... disorderly, but since it seems that factor is a result of maximizing personal freedom, I can't come up with a specific objection. But I couldn't help noticing…" My mouth went a bit dry, but I soldiered on. "You're the only alicorn here. Ponies seem to think that Celestia and Luna are goddesses or legends, and I haven't seen any sign of Discord at all. That concerns me."
She looked away, and her long neck curved downward. "It is a long and complex story, but if I have to give you a short explanation…" She looked up at me and sighed. "They got tired of arguing with me."
"Then this world is not the result of a consensus," I said, hoping she would elaborate but not wanting to pressure her.
She stood and gestured with a wing. "Come. Let's go out onto the balcony."
I preceded her onto the wide platform that clung to the side of the huge tower. I looked down over the railing at the enormous dragon circling its base. "It's hard to believe he's gotten so big. I wish he was awake."
The Princess joined me at the edge and followed my gaze. "Spike sleeps most of the time now. It will be another couple of centuries before he stirs again, unless he is disturbed. How big is he in your world?"
I held out a wing. "About this high, and that's standing on his hind legs."
She shook her head. "It is hard for me to imagine him that small, though I know he was. Does he still ride on your back?"
I smiled. "Yes. All the time."
She smiled too, though it was a wistful one. "He will return the favor when his wings come in." She looked back down at him. "He will be faithful to you, always."
I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.
A few moments later, she stepped back from the railing and pointed up at the sun. "There is an answer for you. Look closely."
I did. I opened my magical sight and saw, within the sun's boundary...
"Celestia…" Not imprisoned within the sun, but there, nonetheless.
"We are immortal, but not unaging," Twilight said to me. "We grow in ways that are mysterious even to ourselves. Celestia tends to a realm I am not yet able to perceive." She lowered her head and let her wing fall. "A realm I have no place in."
"I'm sorry," I said. It was pure reflex. After I'd blurted it out, I cringed, realizing the ways it could be taken as patronizing or insincere.
The Princess shrugged it off and shuffled her long wings neatly at her sides. "It is how things are, not how things will always be."
"Luna is…?"
"In the moon, yes, and she still visits the dreams of ponies from time to time."
She gave no indication that Luna meant anything more to her than did Celestia, but that was a subject I was not going to broach. It wasn't exactly a situation that made me happy, but it did make me feel more comfortable with trusting her. "Well, that leaves Discord," I said, trying to sound cheerful.
"Ah, yes… Discord." She nodded. "I killed Discord long ago."
"Y—you what?"
"He became a serious threat, and I had to protect my subjects."
"But… but… There had to have been something… another way…"
She looked away from me and studied the sky over the snow-covered forest. "He was never as close a friend to me as he seems to be in your world. He only loved Fluttershy, and when she died, he… well, describing it as 'going mad' is hardly adequate."
My guts knotted up. Yes, I could believe that her Discord had relapsed, but combined with the mention of Fluttershy… "Didn't you even try—"
She turned abruptly and went back into the tower with a sharp, "Come."
I was left with the choice of following her or leaving the world and checking it off my list. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, and followed.
We descended a broad spiral staircase and emerged into a rotunda with an arched roof. Statues of my close friends were set in a circle around the center of the room. I checked them with a brief pulse of magic, and they were indeed just statues. They all wore golden tiaras, shoes, and necklaces.
"The gems…" I began. The stones set into the necklaces were seething with magical energy. Complex matrices intertwined with active mandalas and thaumic nodes and other structures I had no terms for. I had never seen such intricate and masterful work before.
The Princess reached out and placed the frog of her right forehoof on the gem set into Pinkie Pie's necklace. Her eyes went wide… and blue.
"Omigosh! Another Twilight? An Alternate Universe Twilight?" Princess Twilight was speaking, but it was definitely Pinkie's voice coming from her mouth. "We have to give her a Welcome to the Universe party! We haven't had one of those in ages!"
Princess Twilight removed her hoof from the gems and her eyes darkened back to normal. "We took different approaches to the problem of mortality, it seems," she said. She nodded toward the statue of Fluttershy. "Discord is in there with her, if you'd like to talk with him."
I took a step back. "I… I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but that seriously creeped me out."
She frowned. "They are part of me." Her horn lit. And the five small white stars of her cutie mark glowed brightly. "I could no more let them go than I could erase these."
"But… but is it really them in there?" I had taken another step back without realizing it.
"As much as your Pinkie Pie is the same Pinkie you had lunch with last week."
I considered it for a while. "I don't know if that—"
"I have no interest in debating it. I settled the matter to my satisfaction thousands of years ago, and whatever thoughts you have about it will not change my mind. If you wish to speak with Discord and inquire as to his satisfaction with this arrangement, I can call him forth for you. If not, perhaps we can go on to negotiating an exchange of information."
Her sudden impatience and brusque manner confused me for a moment until I noticed the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "No," I said. "No, that's fine." I looked over my shoulder at the staircase. "Perhaps we could have a little more tea while we talk?"
When I turned back to her, she was perfectly composed once more, her mane and tail stirring gently in the still air of the room. "Of course. Would you like more sweets? Or perhaps some sandwiches?"
I forced a smile. "Yes, sandwiches would be nice."
I was going to have to come up with an entirely new category for my spreadsheet.
In which Princess Twilight Sparkle takes care of a few loose ends.
May 12th - 14th, 1015 Multiversal Nexus Prime and Pony Joe's Doughnut Emporium, Canterlot, Equestria
"Are you certain about this, Twilight?" Celestia asked as I prepared to trigger the warding spells around our universe.
I nodded as I mentally rechecked my math. "Yes. The reflexive feedback will pour more power into the barriers as more force is applied. Enough raw magical strength could overwhelm them, but if we're faced with an invader capable of that…" I shrugged. "We'll have to hope we're more clever than they are."
Celestia smiled slightly. "No, I am confident that your constructs will operate as you've designed them. I meant, are you certain about locking us away from everywhere else? By your accounts, there are wondrous things in the worlds beyond."
"There are also terrible things out there," I replied, "and some of them are me."
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances, but said nothing.
"I think the three-alicorn lock will be sufficient," I continued. "It won't be detectable from outside, but it will give us a way to open a lateral portal whenever we wish. Whenever three of us agree to do so, anyway."
"No other last minute changes?" Luna said, with a gentle, teasing smile.
I grinned right back at her. "We've repaired and reinforced all the secondary systems, and the Harmony Matrix is reset and adjusted for broader operating parameters. Yep, I think that about covers it. Believe it or not, my desire to meddle in the basic structure of the universe has pretty much been satisfied."
"That is well, for there are many concerns to be addressed on a secondary level," she replied, lifting an eyebrow. "The folk of Twilight Town have petitioned the Equestrian crown for return of their—and I quote—'dark goddess.'"
I groaned.
"Yes," Celestia said. "I'm afraid those fine ponies will be clamoring for the most inappropriate sort of leader for years to come, Twilight Sparkle. You have set their expectations of government quite high."
"Maybe we can ship Chrysalis out there?" I suggested, only half kidding.
"Fie!" Luna gave a snort of derision. "The Bug Queen is not half the villainess thou art!"
"Gee, thanks," I muttered, giving her swat on the shoulder with my wingtip.
"In all seriousness, Twilight," Celestia said, "despite the fact that ponies now think that the Undiscovered West was always there and remained unexplored only because nopony ever bothered, the appearance of a huge piece of new territory will probably require a lot of hooves-on attention."
"That was quite a clever bit of spell construction, by the way," I told her. "Was all that work really just to provide a refuge from Discord?"
"Yes, and it would have been much more clever if I had exempted myself from the spell," Celestia replied with a grin and a dismissive shake of her head.
"No," I said, not smiling back. "It was to ensure that Discord could never get the secret from you, wasn't it? You might have become trapped forever in his madhouse, but you still gave your subjects the possibility of escape."
Celestia cleared her throat and nervously shifted her forehooves. "I don't recall. Memory spells are like that."
I didn't reply for a moment. The sight of an embarrassed Celestia was something to be treasured. "Okay," I said, finally allowing myself to smile. "Let's go with that."
= = =
Chrysalis poked disdainfully at the éclair on the plate in front of her. "Is this some sort of joke, Sparkle?" She was wearing her "public" alicorn body and completely overdressed for a meeting in the back room of a student hang-out.
"Not at all!" I reassured her. "Princess Celestia offered me the use of a room in the palace, but I wanted this get-together to be more cozy and informal."
Prince Blueblood didn't even deign to glance down at the selection of pastries on the table. "An informal meeting hardly necessitates rubbing shoulders with the jumentous rabble, Princess. I'd take it as a great favor if we could conclude our business as quickly as possible."
"Certainly!" I said, in a cheerful tone. "You know that I've been away for quite a while—"
"And yet, here you are... again," Chrysalis said, sounding distinctly disappointed.
"Yes! And I thought you two might like to look at some of the pictures I took while I was traveling." My smile was quite genuine, though for different reasons than my words suggested. I levitated a photo book out of my saddlebags and placed it on the table in front of them.
"Your sense of humor, if I can call it that, completely mystifies me, Twilight," Chrysalis said, making no move to open the book.
"Still not joking," I said, and took a bite of my apple fritter. It was perfectly sweet, slightly crunchy on the outside and steamy warm and soft on the inside. Joe was a genius. He could have been working for any of the noble families as a pastry chef, making ten times what he earned from his shop.
Chrysalis exchanged glances with Blueblood.
I took a deliberately slow sip of my coffee, savoring the light hazelnut flavor. Nothing but the best for Joe's customers. I tried to hire him away once, but he told me that he loves the bustle of Canterlot and variety of ponies (and other things) he sees on a daily basis and would miss it too much.
Chrysalis sighed and flipped open the book. When she gasped, Blueblood turned his attention to the photos.
"What is this… this… foulness?" He growled at me, rising to his hooves in anger. "Some pathetic attempt to insult my wife? Celestia will hear of your unconscionable rudeness, Princess Twilight!"
"Sit down, Prince," I said. When he didn't, I quietly added, "I'm not asking."
His mouth and eyebrows twitched for a long moment as he mentally ran over his options, then he sat back down. "I trust you have an explanation for this?"
While her husband was making his show of outrage, Chrysalis had used her magic on the book of photos. "These are real, as far as I can tell," she said to him.
"Very real," I added. "And yes, I will tell you what those are all about, but it's a bit involved, so I recommend enjoying your coffee and doughnuts while I explain."
Blueblood didn't quite lean away from the table and cross his forelegs, but his disdain was clear.
"No? Your loss." I took another bite of my delicious fritter and launched into my story.
"You remember that little book on politics I published a few years ago? Well, you'll be happy to know that I've realized that I was dead wrong about all those reforms. Even if ponies were willing to give them a try, they wouldn't have worked in the long run, and that's because I based my work on abstract principles. Celestia's been ruling for over a millennium, and I thought I could 'fix' her system." I shook my head and gave them a sheepish grin. "Maybe in a few centuries, I'll be qualified to suggest some minor changes."
Blueblood's expression softened, but remained a bit puzzled.
"Experience is what it's all about. I recently had the chance to run the government of a… well, I suppose it was technically a principality, but it was more of a fiefdom. Anyway, I didn't follow my carefully worked-out principles at all. I had my own selfish agenda, and simply did whatever was necessary in the moment to ensure that my subjects were content and protected. I let them form their own society and laws however they wanted. I just stomped out problems when they came up, and pretty much ignored the place otherwise."
"How nice for you," Chrysalis said.
"That's my point!" I said, leaning forward for emphasis. "It was nice, and it worked really well, even though any outside observer would have concluded that I was a terrible ruler! My ponies were happy and safe."
"What has that got to do with this?" Chrysalis tapped the photo book with a perfectly manicured hooftip.
"I'm getting to that," I said, popping the last of my fritter into my mouth. "So, that experience convinced me that letting ponies find their own way while being protected from exceptional threats is the best way to rule. Micromanagement by enforcing broad conceptual legislation doesn't make anypony happy." I took a sip of my coffee and rushed on, hoping to get my point across before my audience's eyes completely glazed over.
"And that's what I really want. For ponies to be happy. As happy as they can be, anyway. And that includes me. All I have to do is to aid and defend them when they're in trouble. When they're threatened."
"Ah, I see," Chrysalis said. "All that was a pointlessly long-winded way of telling me that you consider me a threat. I suppose these photos of Canterlot's streets littered with the husks of dead changelings are supposed to intimidate me into renouncing my 'evil' plans?"
I shook my head sadly. "No, Chrysalis, those dead changelings are your plans. They're the result of a long campaign that you ultimately win."
"You're mad," she said flatly.
I sighed and drank the last of my coffee. "There are other worlds besides ours. You know the theory and possibly where some of the portals are, I suppose. If you don't, you should fire your spies. Those worlds that run alongside ours are often nearly identical except for a few changes. And most importantly, time often runs at different rates in them."
Chrysalis glanced down at the photos. "Then these were taken in one of those worlds."
"Yes. An alternate Equestria a few decades into our future. You out-maneuvered me there. You won."
Blueblood cleared his throat and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. This makes no sense!"
Chrysalis and I ignored him.
"This doesn't look like winning to me," she said, her eyes going green and her pupils narrowing to vertical slits.
"All of Equestria was your feast table," I said. "New hives everywhere, building unconquerable armies of drones… Hungry drones. Zebrica and Saddle Arabia fall. Then lands beyond, until—"
Chrysalis held up a hoof to stop me. She looked down at the photos again and then slowly and deliberately closed the book. "Starvation."
"Extinction. As well as the death of any life capable of feeling the smallest bit of affection," I told her.
"No need to hammer it home, Sparkle."
"I can't let that happen here."
"Yes, yes!" She held up a hoof again. "I understand."
"I don't think you do," I said, shaking my head. "I've decided that my purpose in life is to make sure that ponies are happy and safe by ending problems. You can choose to be happy and safe, too." I paused, and looked directly into her eyes. "Or you can choose to be a problem."
Blueblood had finally heard something he clearly understood. "How dare you threaten my wife!"
"Please forgive me," I said to him in a calm and reasonable tone of voice. "I did not mean it as a threat. It was a warning. A final warning to both of you."
He sputtered in outrage and grew red in the face. I had no interest in sitting through an aggrieved tirade, so it was time to play the game by the rules that had been bred in his bones. I drew myself up to my full height and looked down at him. "We thank you for your attendance, Prince Blueblood Polaris. You have Our leave to depart Our Royal Presence."[1] ---------- [1] As polite as this may sound, it is understood by any experienced courtier to mean "get out of my sight before I do something that you will sorely regret." ----------
Ah yes… convenient court protocol. By reminding him that he did not quite stand at the pinnacle of Equestrian royalty, I had undercut him completely. He swallowed his pride, bowed gracefully, backed away the requisite three steps, turned, and departed. Performed in the back room of a doughnut shop, the ritual was more than a little ridiculous.
"Am I also dismissed, Your Majesty?" Chrysalis sneered.
"I have seen many worlds where changelings live alongside ponies in peace and cooperation," I said, dropping the royal façade. "Make this world one of them."
She gave a demure snort and rose to depart.
"Please, Princess Chrysalis,[2] be happy… and safe." ---------- [2] Yes, she was entitled by marriage to Blueblood, but I meant it in a very different sense, and I'm sure she knew it. Without changing her nature, she could be a true princess of Equestria or she could be an alien queen, but not both. ----------
Chrysalis gave me one last look over her shoulder before she left the room. She didn't say anything, but her horn glowed briefly and the book of photographs crumbled into ash.
After she was gone, I got a sudden strong whiff of buttered popcorn. "I think that went well, don't you?" Discord said from behind me.
I didn't even twitch. "I dunno, they didn't seem eager to stay for the party," I said out of the corner of my mouth.
"Ooh, that's right!" Discord said, "The gang should be arriving anytime now!" He held out his lion arm and turned it over so that the wrist was facing me. A full-sized grandfather clock was strapped to it, each number on the clockface replaced with the word "PARTY!" The hands (all seven of them) whirled and twitched like snakes undergoing seizures.
I couldn't help myself: I laughed. "How accurate is that thing? Do I have time for another hazelnut latte before the mindless revelry?"
The little doors above the clock face snapped open and a tiny Discord popped out with a coo-coo. He wore a beret and a pencil-thin black mustache, and held out a steaming cup to me. "Voilà! Madam's caffè latte!" he said in an over-the-top Canterlot accent.
I took a sip without pausing to sniff it or anything. Surprisingly, it wasn't trout-flavored. "Mmmmn… Great coffee, thanks."
"I live to serve!" Discord said, still using the egregious accent and executing an elaborate bow that seemed to require more than the normal three spatial dimensions.
I chuckled and took another sip of my drink. "No you don't. You live to put sticks in the spokes of ponies' lives. You were literally made to mess with us!"
"Maybe I've reformed. Again." He reverted to his default form and then a glowing halo appeared over his head and his eyes—
"Eugh! Don't do that!" I said sticking my tongue out in a show of revulsion. "They look like oily bowling balls!"
He popped the oily bowling balls out of his eye sockets and set them down on the table, shrugging. "Fluttershy loves it when I do the gigantic puppy-eyes thing."
I snorted. "Fluttershy loves you. That's why she tolerates your antics!"
I had taken another couple of sips from my coffee before I realized that Discord hadn't replied. I looked up to discover him studying me carefully.
"What?" I asked.
"She'll take it, won't she?" he asked, nervously tapping his eagle claws on the tabletop. "Your offer of immortality, I mean. She won't—"
"It's her choice," I said. "But yes, I think she will. There will always be stray critters[3] that need her help, and she won't willingly abandon them." ---------- [3] E.g., Cats, dogs, bears, weasels, airships, draconiqui, and the like. ----------
"Yes," Discord said, brightening. "Of course she will!" He cleared his throat and dug deep into one ear, pulling out a live fish. "Sardine for your coffee?"
That was more like it. "Maybe later."
He shrugged, put the fish back into his ear, and cupped his lion paw around the other one. "I think I hear the first guests arriving!"
Sure enough, I heard Joe's gruff voice saying, "Nice to see you again, Sunny Skies! The party's down the hall, in the back room."
I peeked out the door and saw a white pegasus with a soft pink mane and tail and a slate gray unicorn approaching.
"'Sunny Skies?' Really Sister? Does that deceive anypony?" the unicorn said.
"I have successfully used this guise before, Luna," the pegasus replied. "You, yourself, are looking very… nocturnal. Black is a very rare mane color for a mare."
"I am merely following your sterling example, sister. I am certain that Moony McMoonface will serve as a suitable name should anypony ask."
"Please tell me you'll be teleporting back to the palace."
"Hello… girls," I said, grinning.
Luna shook off her disguise and swept me up in a hug with both wings. "Have you convinced the Bug Queen to forgo her evil ways, my dear?"
"It's hard to tell, but I think… uhm… It's hard to think with you nibbling on my ear like that."
"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" Discord said, sweating heavily and fanning himself with a folding lace fan.
Luna sighed and let me escape her embrace.
"I think there's a very good chance I've convinced her. There are three clear signs of a negative reaction, and I'll be watching for them very closely in the coming months." I grinned. "The advantage of foreknowledge."
Celestia, still wearing her disguise, picked up a doughnut and took a dainty bite. "Are you sure you want to take up this responsibility, Twilight?"
"Absolutely," I said, turning to face her. "I've seen where my organizational instincts can lead me when I apply them too broadly, and it's never to a happy place. I'm a good problem-solver, so I'm going to stick with that. I'm going to take care of the little problems that crop up from day to day, and when the big problems show up..." I stomped my hoof hard on the floor. Luna smiled.
I smiled back at her. "The way things usually go, I ought to have plenty of time for personal adventures and selenologic[4] research." --------- [4] Look it up. ----------
"No, no, no!" came Pinkie Pie's burbly voice from outside the door. "That's lollygagging! You were dilly-dallying!"
"Whatever you say, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash answered her. I could almost hear the eyeroll.
"Brace yourselves," I told everypony in the room.
Sure enough, Pinkie Pie came through the door cannon-first. Things livened up considerably after that.
= = =
The party was a whirl of conversations, games, and magical engineering,[5] but the room was too crowded for dancing. ---------- [5] Moondancer and Starlight Glimmer took over a corner table and scribbled furiously on napkins for well over an hour at one point. I only had time for a glance at their notes, but the transport-adapted related dimensional isochronic system looked promising. ----------
"Well, that's new," Ket whispered in my ear. It was a little before midnight when the two of us returned to the room after a brief stroll outside to chat and exchange intelligence reports with an agent of Queen Csharreee.
"Mn?" My mind was only half on her comment. Across the room, Luna and Minuette were laughing and talking and standing very close to one another.
"Jealousy," Ket said. "I've never felt that from you before."
I snorted. "What? Me, jealous? That's ridiculous!"
"Oh, it's just a little bit, but it's there." The cheeky bug actually smirked at me! "Would you like a big strapping stallion for a little tête-à-tête of your own? See how long it takes Princess Luna to come trotting over?"
I sputtered a bit before I realized Ket was teasing me. I cleared my throat and replied with as much dignity as possible, "I do not play games of that sort!"
She regarded me slyly for a moment. "Well, maybe not. But if I can give you just a tiny bit of advice, I think Luna would be very pleased if you went and interrupted her conversation."
"What? You mean she—" I turned to Ket but she was being dragged away by Pinkie Pie for a game of Mirror Mare.
Luna did seem glad when I crossed the room and practically shoved my head between her and Minuette, and neither mare commented on my close approach to rudeness. I made sure I was never separated from her for long after that, and always gave her a touch as I went by, whether it was a hip-bump, a brush of my tail, or a quick peck on the cheek. It seemed to make her happy.[6] ---------- [6] Late that night, there was an unexpected violent thunderstorm over Canterlot. ----------
= = =
Rarity dragged me aside at one point with a worried, furtive look, and I popped a little privacy bubble over us. "What is it?"
"I hate to ask this of you, Twilight," she said, biting at her lower lip. "It's a rather large favor."
"Let's see… one, two, three… hmn… probably four…" I took a second to enjoy the confused look on her face. "In case you're wondering, I'm counting the times you've saved my life. So… yeah, don't hesitate to ask."
She let her breath out in a not quite sigh. "Oh, darling, that's just something we do for each other!"
I couldn't help smiling. "You're a treasure, Rarity."
She cleared her throat. "Yes. Well, you see, this is about me becoming royalty, so it's… a delicate matter."
I was shocked. I'd offered the improved gem-based immortality to each of my friends. Rarity had immediately accepted, as I expected she would. But for her to ask for her lost alicornhood back was something that completely surprised me.
"I… I would have to ask Celestia and Luna about it," I stalled. "It'll be tricky to pull off, and it might upset the balance of things—"
"Oh yes, I know it will cause trouble, and that's why I hesitated to ask, but dear Xahjir is quite smitten and he's so traditional. He's uncomfortable with an affaire de coeur and insists on making me his sultana, but that means I'll be foreign royalty, and all my business is here in Equestria—"
"Wait, wait, wait!" I held up my hooves while I tried to shift mental gears. "What? Who's Xahjir?"
Rarity blinked. "Oh, That's right. You may not have heard. That's perfectly understandable, darling. You've been… away, and busy with other concerns since your return."
"Enlighten me, please."
"Xahjir is the new Sultan of Marezambique. You know him, darling. He was the Captain of the elite guard."
"The zebra you stabbed?" I gaped at her.
"Oh, piffle!" She waved a hoof dismissively. "It was only a shallow cut on the cheek. It gave him a very dashing scar, I might add."
"But… but wasn't he the seventh or eighth son? How did he get to be sultan?"
Rarity cleared her throat and averted her gaze. "Zebrican successions can be very messy affairs. After Zatar abdicated, Xahjir kept to his duty, making sure the city was safe and peaceful while his brothers… debated the matter among themselves. When the last two of them managed to finish each other off simultaneously, Xahjir was the only heir left."
"And you two…"
"I remained in Marezambique after you departed, to aid in cleaning up. When Xahjir learned I was Silver Mask, he… Well, I think he was more impressed by that than by my wings. We got to be very good friends."
"And he… You…"
She smiled. "'Sultana Rarity' has such a wonderful ring to it, doesn't it?"
I closed my gaping mouth and grinned. "You know something? It really does! Congratulations!"
"Thank you, darling!"
After we shared a hug, I asked, "But what do you need from me? Besides a wedding present, I mean."
Rarity chuckled and then became serious again. "It's the legalities involved. It's all such a tangle, dear, I couldn't begin to describe it! I was hoping you could issue an edict or something that would make me a dual citizen. Otherwise I'm a…" She tapped her lip with a hoof, recalling the exact phrase, no doubt. "'Foreign entity.' I'd have to pay international tariffs on fabric that I shipped from Canterlot to Manehatten, for goodness sake! And that isn't the worst of it! It's all so ridiculous!"
"Don't worry. In a kingdom where changelings can go from invaders to protected species to citizens, anything is possible. I'll have a word with the Minister of State."
"Oh, thank you so much, darling!" She threw herself around my neck for another hug.
"I won't have to cross the ocean every time I want to visit you, will I?"
"Heavens, no! I shall be back and forth all the time. I have my business to attend to and, as wonderful as Xahjir is, he could stand to become a little more cosmopolitan. So, I'm certain you'll see a lot of him as well. He's commissioning a private airship for us so that we can flit about as the whim takes us."
I thought for a second and then raised my eyebrows and put on as innocent a face as I could manage. "But won't you be concerned about pirates?" I asked.
"No," Rarity said, and a grin that was entirely too wicked for such a beautiful mare spread across her face. "No, I won't be worried at all."
= = =
"I have this pesky attachment to technical accuracy, transparency, and honesty," I explained to Applejack. "So, you see, I'm completely unsuited for government."
"Sounds 'bout right. Y'aint got such a terrific track record when you go makin' decisions for other ponies, neither." She said it with a fond smile, but it still stung.
I thunked my tankard of cider down on the table and hung my head. "I am so sorry about that, AJ! I've got a thousand excuses for what I did to you, but I know it was still me…"
She held up a hoof. "Naw, it's okay, Twi. It's fixed now, and ya done apologized 'bout half a hundred times already, I just hope y've learned your lesson."
"Oh believe me, I have!" I really didn't want to stay on the sensitive topic, but Applejack hadn't yet given me an answer. "Have you given any thought to—"
"Yup." She nodded. "I ain't interested in hangin' around for who knows how long. I aim to have a passel o' foals an' then get planted under a nice Golden Delicious sapling to make room for 'em all."
"I'll miss you," I said quietly.
"Ain't gonna happen for donkey's years, so let's not go borrowin' trouble tonight, sugarcube."
"You're a smart pony, Applejack."
"Shucks!" She pushed her hatbrim up and grinned at me. "Comin' from the Princess of Books an' Such, that's a pretty nice compliment."
"And coming from the Princess of World-Shattering Mistakes?"
She shrugged. "Nice enough, I reckon. Leastwise ya can recognize a goof once y'all've landed in it. There's a heap o' ponies who can't."
= = =
"I should have figured it out when I read that gloss of yours in The Princess, " I said. "Where Marechiavelli wrote about losing your influence and inviting anarchy if you're concerned about being good, and that you shouldn't let being good get in the way of your goals, you added a note in the margin that read, 'What if one's goal is goodness?'" I looked up at Celestia and grinned apologetically. "I thought it was trite when I read it, but that was a real glimpse at how you've kept the kingdom going all this time, wasn't it?"
Celestia shrugged and sipped at the tall drink in the frosty glass that Pinkie had given her. "Yet there is merit in the question of whether the goal justifies the methods taken to arrive there."
"But there's hardly been a time when all the ponies didn't love you for wise leadership, so you must have been doing something right."
"The passage of time softens the impact of the mistakes I've made, Twilight," she insisted. "I am not a perfect pony."
"I'sooth, I can vouchsafe her words," Luna said, approaching and lifting one of the little umbrellas out of her sister's drink and tucking it behind one ear. "Have you not read of her duel with the vile pony-eating ogre of the Hayseed Swamp?"
"Yes," I said. "That was one of my favorite stories as a filly! I loved the part where she tracked the ogre to his lair and called out, 'I shall hammer thy evil from this land!'"
Luna chuckled and gave Celestia a look. Celestia rolled her eyes.
"What?" I asked.
"No doubt thy book did not mention what transpired thereafter," Luna said with a sly grin.
I frowned. "They fought and Celestia won. I understand if the book omitted some details, but—"
Luna laughed and said, "The ogre called back to her, 'Never yet has a hammer broken an anvil!' and then he punched her though a mountain!"
"W—what?"
"It took me two days to dig myself out," Celestia grumbled. "The next time we caught up with him, Luna and I snuck up from behind with poisoned halberds. That did the trick."
"'Tis a pity Parliament cannot be dealt with in such a fashion," Luna said, wistfully.
= = =
"Yeah, I was pretty ticked off when I had to miss the Spring Tour," Rainbow Dash said. "Even if Princess Celestia hadn't wanted us to keep out of sight to avoid 'confusing and panicking ponies,' I couldn't have flown in close formation with those freakin' huge wings! I can see why it took you so long to get used to them, Twi!"
"You kept forgetting about your horn, too," Pinkie Pie put in. "Remember that one time you stuck it clear through a palm tree and the bananas—"
"Yeah, yeah," Dash said quickly, waving her to silence. "I'm just glad I'm back to normal and don't have to be a boring princess or anything."
"Hey! Not all princesses are boring!" I huffed.
Rainbow Dash regarded me for a moment and then grinned. "Yeah, maybe. Luna is pretty cool, I guess."
Pinkie gigglesnorted.
I threw up my hooves. "Fine, I'm boring! I guess you won't want to come along on any future adventures, then."
"Hey, now," Dash protested. "Let's not get carried away here! Didja have something in mind?"
"Well…" I thought about all the places in the world I hadn't yet visited, all the peoples I hadn't met. And beyond that, the nearly infinite variety of worlds that were only next door, if a pony knew how to get there. For the first time in a long while, I found myself wearing a smile of unalloyed happiness. "The possibilities are endless," I said.
