One day, Applejack decided to take a walk. It wasn't a walk of calamitous importance, an epic undertaking, or a grand destiny to save a word gonne madde. It was, simply, a walk.
Featuring: Silk beer; Traveling griffons; Overly friendly diamond dogs; Rain; More rain, and why it is the ultimate enemy of travelers; Brats; Lewd cartographers; Bandits; Fleas; little birds; Bridges, and why you should hate them ; Sheds; incubbi; Dreams; Your friendly neighbour, the friendly hag; marriage proposals; Capitalism; Bubble bridges; Glass beaches; Moles; Foreign books; Embers; Gargoyles; Forgetfullness; Departures; Answers; Interests; Cord theory; Bunnies; Clay; evil bridges, necromancy; Old mountain passages that totally aren't bridges; crazy guruus; mud ponies; You have HUGE DOORS; useless doors; Memories; Bees; Sleepers; Queues; Raw raw fait da powah; Silk gloves; Gravity; Agents; Non-standard space; Insomniac zebras; Spies; Worlds and Words; Blind & Deaf; Void; Hammocks; Oranges; Libraries; Spines; Dreams; Harnesses; Exposition; Armor; Stethoscopes; Pauses; Revenge; Magic swords; "Nah, that's bad sport"; Glorious dogs; Bridges fuck up everything; Escapes; Combat; Paleblood; Cubicles; Burning the demons; Crushing darkness; Dreams; World bone; "Oh, blimey"; Dreams into miracles; Twin minds; Loneliness; Beaches; Alcubierre engines; Poignant tea; Wails
There wasn't a ominous silence as everyone stared to the newcomer, or dust to announce her. They just threw a glance to the mare and her dog, then kept doing their own thing.
"Hallo?" she asked. Winona barked friendly to add weight to her voice.
"Hi", said someone she couldn't see.
Or maybe someone else said something else she didn't hear or understand. She wasn't quite fluent in the region's language yet, or even remembered how was the language called. Something like Anwl? N'wah? no, the dragons were the ones whose languages were made of short syllables. Ponies liked normal words better.
She walked to the bar's counter, keeping a wary eye in the others but not much else. It didn't seem like the kind of place that produces big brawls-- maybe a small, lighthearted one from time to time, as if wanting to affirm its identity as a non-fancy bar with a tenacious, if desperate, pride.
"Strong" she asked to the bartender, who was cleaning a glass cup with the sleepy mania of the terminally bored "Have coin from Atalaya. Worth here?" she rummaged in the small bag attached to her shoulder, near the neck, and showed one of the coins in question to her. It was a silver disk with a small ball of nigh indestructible glass in the center.
The bartender nodded, "Ten yallans" she said in her tongue "beer turulane-sira"
Applejack watched her silently, trying to make sense of the words. A trader she had traveled with a day before had called some foals shanta-sira, and she already knew that shanta was pony.
Was she trying to sell her beer made with some thing's babies?
"No, no" Applejack shook her head in exasperation "Am not carnivore"
"'Scuse me, miss" someone tapped her shoulder before the bartender had time to answer "Are you from Equestria? I'd recognize that accent anywhere"
Applejack turned to the griffon, a smile in her face, "Finally! I was starting to think no one here knew Equish"
He nodded "I am a traveling merchant. It's nice to see one of you here, too," he offered a claw with the closest thing to a smile a beaked creature can make "But you are pretty far from home"
"Don'tcha tell me" she laughed and shook it "Can you give me a second? back in a jiffy" she turned back to the bartender, who had apparently fallen in a stasis in the interim "Vegetal bear? With..." she paused for a moment to remember the words "...plants or roots on it"
The griffon addressed her again, "She offered you larvae beer. Very strong and poignant, with a sweet aftertaste, made with fermented silk. Don't drink it if you want to wake up sober"
Applejack turned her head to him, giving him a look from under her stetson.
"You want to bet on it?" she asked with a grin. Winona barked happily again.
"I... assume you want to celebrate something?" he asked cautiously.
"That I am about to reach a big part of my travel!" she exclaimed happily "I'd buy a round for everyone if I had the money for it"
He nodded, "If you don't want to ruin your celebration, drink something lighter" he warned "If you want to talk over the drink I'll be sitting nearby, drinking something that my liver won't cry about"
She slammed ten yallans in the counter, and the bartender served a thick liquid in the cup she had been cleaning.
"And food for her. Meat if you have" she gestured to Winona, then dropped other ten coins to the counter. If it bought the best (Or strongest, at least) alcohol they had, it'd get her Winona a damn good meal.
She had helped her quite a lot along the way, after all, and deserved to celebrate as well.
The sun hit the back of her head with terrible, terrible heat. The entire world was a desert, it seemed, from how the dust insisted in entering her eyes.
"Shat ap" Winona whined and licked her muzzle "No, bad" she shoved her off.
Even the road seemed to be against her today. It looked too much like a beautiful, beautiful bed for its own good.
"What kind of lonely traveler gets wasted, anyway?" asked the griffon, Reighnald "It isn't the kind of thing you want to do away from your friends"
"A happy one" she tried to bellow a Yeeeehaa!, but wasn't up to it so it ended up as more of a Yiij "Told ya, I am about to reach a big part of my travel"
Reighnald nodded. They kept walking the road.
"And what is this "big part", exactly? Something about that rite?"
"Nearly halfway done" she said "Head hurts too much, dun wanna explain"
He nodded, "Told you"
"Shat ap"
They walked silently for a while.
"And what kind of traveling merchant travels by hoof?" she asked.
"The kind whose ship is in the next city"
"Ah" she nodded "And is that far from here?"
"A few miles" he said. After a moment, he added "Where are you going to? Back home?"
She nodded.
"My next trip is there, and I've been needing an extra pair of hands in the ship"
"Nah" she answered automatically, smiling despite her headache "I have two good pairs of hooves. Took me this far, will take me further"
He nodded.
"But, uhm, could you take some letters? I could pay you"
"Don't worry about money," he shook his head "I'll just drop them in Equestria's mail system"
"Thanks, you don't know how much that means to me" she smiled at him. Maybe the headache wasn't so bad, after all.
"From a traveler to another, I do. The ship will take off in..." he talked under his breath for a moment "five, maybe seven hours, so you have time to write them. And just out of curiosity," he added after a moment "You came here from Atalaya, right? Straight east?" she nodded "Who took you across the glaciers, Morris?"
She shook her head with the beginnings of a smile forming in her lips. She loved this part.
"Drat?" she shook her head "Steady Hoof? White? Purr Narr?" She shook her head to all the names, her grin getting wider.
"By hoof" she took a moment to take on his astonishment "Never underestimate how much a good tent, enough fat, a good length of rope, and my family's knitting can do"
"You are either resourceful or terribly mad" he said "And you took a dog across the glaciers?" he regarded Winona, who barked.
"You shoulda seen her in her little sweater, fuzzy as a pup" she rummaged in her saddlebags awkwardly without stopping her walk and took out the battered sweater in question to show it to him "She hated it until the first gale hit us. Didn't even scratch it after that"
He took it, eyes wide.
"Storm and thunder, mare! where did you even get her?" he gestured at Winona again.
"Get her? She got me" she gave her a pat "Wasn't even supposed to come in this, just followed from a distance and didn't show herself until I was too far to take her back"
He nodded, regarding Winona with admiration. They fell silent for a few minutes.
"I just entered... Thrata? Am I saying it right?" he nodded "After here there are the Prasante Forests, then the Bloka mountain range, and then I'll enter Surane?"
"Yes. If you keep going in a straight line you won't ever enter the inner Tharata, just its frontier cities. The Prasante and Bloka regions overlap a lot, if we still talk about a straight line from here of course, so it's more of a mountainous forest, and you'll pass right through the heart of Surane. Beautiful this time of the year, the orange trees they love to plant in their parks are blooming. Don't you have a map?" he added.
"The glacier we were in cracked one night" She shook her head "Bad way to wake up, let me tall ya"
He nodded, cringing, "We lost a shipment to a storm a few years back, I hate when that happens. Anything important, other than the map?"
"Food and some trinkets I wanted to send to my friends, and the compass, but I grabbed the bag before anything else fell" she shrugged "Been without a map before, I'll get another"
He nodded, and they kept walking the road.
Day 3: As roads are walked, and things are regained
With the sun at its highest, Applejack entered a small library. It was an old wood building, with used tomes lying in shelves and some oil lamps illuminating it to compensate for the lack of windows.
"Do you have maps?" she asked, taking care to pronounce it right "I need something in this kingdom, Prasante, Bloka, and the continent"
The diamond dog nodded, already rummaging in the drawers of the counter top.
"The only ones I have left of Bloka are cloth maps" he put three paper ones in the counter "Artisan work in their own, but a hundred reis and fifty cents each"
"Do you accept yallans?" she showed him one "I travel by hoof, so paper ones get broken" or wet. Or ripped apart. Or bitten.
He scanned the coin for a moment, hmming to himself, "Eighty each cloth map"
She took some coins from her purse (Three with star-shaped centers, two with twin spheres) and gave them to him, nodding.
"And do you know of any work a mare could make around here?" she asked as she put the maps in her saddlebags. Her purse felt uncomfortably light, and she'd need to buy more things before heading into uninhabited areas.
The dog scratched his chin for a moment, "You said you are on hooves," he rummaged through a few drawers before putting a heavily annotated cloth map in the counter, then tapped a small city on it "Will you pass through Kushta? Mail out here isn't reliable, and a walking pony is often faster"
She watched the map for a moment, then nodded.
"Take this to a mare there, Reminiscence," he said her name in an awkward Equish, then gave her a letter where he had written something quickly "She'll pay you. Also old Alfonse, in the outskirts of the city, tends to hire hooves to help him pick up. Twenty five cents per fruit, if I remember it right"
She put the letter in a inner pocket of her saddlebags and nodded.
"Thanks,," she smiled at him and turned to the door.
-º-
"Miss?"
Toc, "Yes?"
"The sun is setting"
"Really?" she blinked a few times in confusion, then realized he was right "Huh," she took a deep breath and whistled loudly. Winona barked in response in the distance "I lost track of time. Reminds me of home" she gestured at the tree she had just bucked.
"I see" the old dog, a collection of hanging skin and fur, chortled with his wife.
"It's nice to see someone your age with such a work ethic" she gestured at the rising moon in the horizon "Do you want to stay the night? I wouldn't want a girl your age walking alone at this hour"
"Ah, was just going to ask if could put tent somewhere in fields, " she scratched her nape awkwardly "Don't-"
"Nonsense," the old bitch took her by a leg and pulled with unexpected strength, taking her toward the small farmhouse in the center of the fields "Dinner is ready. You don't want to waste the effort of a weak old woman, right?"
Winona appeared, her fur a collection of sticks and leaves and her tail blurring in motion, and she sat watching Applejack, tongue hanging as if laughing of her.
"Ah, uh, thanks" she laughed awkwardly "You really don't have to-"
"I made it without meat, even," interrupted the bitch, smiling widely "lentils stew"
Applejack walked in a country road, a fresh breeze in her face. Her purse had grown first heavier and then lighter, her saddlebag had returned to a comfortable weight, and her belly was filled in the way only old ladies of all universes can do it.
It was a good day, all in all. Worth whistling a catchy song? Definitely. With something of a dance in the step? Why ask?
Winona appeared from a grass field, carrying something gray in her mouth. After realizing it was a something with blood on it, she averted her gaze from it. Not worth ruining a good day, especially when it fed the dog.
"Just remember to clean yourself, alright?" she chided half-heartedly.
Winona waved her tail at her and jumped back into the tall grass.
She kept walking, trying to remember the name of the song.
-º-
The first drop of water fell on her stetson, and wasn't noticed. The second fell in her back, and was ignored. The third fell in her muzzle, and was discarded. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, however, did raise worries.
She gave a look to the sky. Still overall sunny, but with a few clouds coming from the south.
She whistled to Winona and rummaged in her saddlebag for a light overall and threw it lazily over her back, cursing the seaside weather under her breath. Inland weather, or better yet managed weather, was the best thing a mare could ask for.
Winona appeared a moment later, perfectly clean and innocent and fluffy in all the right places. After shaking off a though of what had marred her fur, she gave her a pat in the head and inclined just so to give her some cover from the incoming rain.
After half an hour, it came-- a calm, slow thing that only announced itself only with the bellow of thunder in the distance, as if saying that yes, it did have the energy to last for quite a while, and no, it gave no hecks whatsoever for that romantic date under the starlight you had organized.
But Applejack kept moving, not wanting to waste either body heat or sunlight, and Winona kept following, not wanting to let down the orange hat horse.
-º-
When the sun reached the horizon behind her, Applejack moved from the relatively clean road and entered the very much humid and cold grass of the road side, searching for a good spot. After ten minutes, she fount a small hill with some old, gnarled trees... and a tent in it, with a cloth extended as a cover over it.
"Hallo," she walked to the diamond dogs sitting around a fire warily "Can I?"
The dogs turned to her startled, but smiled and made space for her and Winona to sit in the heat. They chatted for a few hours, eating from their bags, and went off to sleep.
To her relief, Applejack woke up to the sound of drizzle over the cloth. The dogs hadn't looked like bandits, anyway.
To her irritation, she woke up to the sound of drizzle over the cloth. Damn seaside weather.
She walked out of the tent, whistling for Winona to appear. A moment later she did-- caked with mud and twigs, and spraying water over everything with her tail.
Applejack grumbled something under her breath, took off her saddlebags, and on nimble hooves climbed one of the gnarled trees. She was scanning the surroundings when one of the dogs exited their tent.
"How do you do it without hands?" he asked.
"When you grow up in an or-" she realized she was talking in Equish and shook her head "Grew up in a, uh, apples farm. Played in trees a lot, with old brother"
He nodded and went to start a fire, and after a moment Applejack jumped from the tree and put on her saddlebags again.
"Be back in a second, with water" she gave a pat to the canteen that hung from a strap in her saddlebag. The dog nodded.
Winona watched Orange Hat Horse wear her water-coverer and walk away, and her cheerful demeanor turned serious immediately. She walked to her pony's tent, sniffed it to make sure of whose it was, and sat between it and the diamond dog, ears erected.
It took Applejack a few minutes to reach the brook she had seen. It was clean from the rain that still fell on it, but she tasted it nonetheless. There wasn't any taste on it.
She took a water skin from her saddlebag, which looked not unlike a snake, and filled it and her canteen. With one strapped to her saddlebag and the other slung across her neck, she walked back to the camp, where the second dog had woken up and was stretching.
"Want something warm to drink?" she asked, taking off the overall.
The dogs nodded.
"Thanks," the one who was sitting by the fire gestured to the sky "You think it's going to last all day?"
"Seems like it" she took out a pot from her saddlebags and put it on the fire, then filled it with the water skin.
The dog who had been stretching came in with two cups and gave one to the other, a tea bag already on each.
"Where are you going to?" he asked, sitting down.
"Home" she said with a small shrug. Winona walked to her and sat in a unassuming manner, earning a pat in the head.
They both nodded.
"We are going to see our father," said one "He caught a cold, and at his age..." he let it in the air with a face.
"Just make sure to not get a cold yourselves" she said with a smile "don't want to worry him, don't you?"
-º-
By the time the rain stopped, Applejack had been walking for several hours and the sun was at it's highest. It wasn't sudden, but rather a slow descent to nothingness.
She gave the sky a look -clear blue- and took off the hood of the overall, but kept it on. Only when she stopped to camp and had a fire going did she take it off, to hang it from a rope slung between trees near the fire.
When she was drinking something -and Winona was drinking warm water from a small plate-, something climbed her throat, and she barely had time to curse before a sneeze escaped her muzzle.
Applejack woke up to the barking of Winona, feeling unusually heavy and slow, and her nostrils blocked.
Without worrying for any of that, she jumped outside the tent, looking for the threat that Winona had dec-
"A bird!?" she shouted at her "Ya woke me up for a gods damned bird!?"
The pidgin flew up to the starry sky, her childs following close behind, and Winona threw herself at the ground guiltily.
"Just stay quiet" she said, entering her tent.
-º-
The second time Applejack woke up that day, she did because she couldn't breathe.
Inundation, she though in the first instant, her hooves leashing in search of something to grab a hold off I rested in an inundation area again
Then reality set itself, and she realized that there wasn't any water nearby. Just blocked nostrils and a dog sleeping in her chest.
She let her head fall to the mat with a sigh.
"Cold outside?" she asked to Winona, eyes closed.
Winona woke up and moved from her. Applejack opened her eyes to see her: ears down and tail moving in short waves. The very picture of canine shame.
"Dontcha try that at me" she yawned and searched for a paper towel to clean her nose with.
-º-
Her hooves complained about the effort, but she pressed forward. Rest would come at five.
She sneezed. Or at three, maybe.
She cleaned her nose again. At least, so much snot meant the cold was already going away.
-º-
At half past two, a trail of smoke rose from the wayside and Applejack drank a cup of nearly scalding hot tea, Winona sleeping in her shadow.
She finished drinking it and saw a glint in the distance. Curious, she took off her saddlebags, took a small monocular from them, and climbed a tree holding the instrument in her teeth.
A smile showed itself in her face. A city, just what she needed. A good night's rest with a thick ceiling over her head, and warm soup. With onion. She'd eat the things like fruits when she got there.
She climbed down from the tree and put on the saddlebags, packed everything, threw dirt over the fire, and walked off whistling for Winona to wake up.
-º-
She reached the city at dusk, nodding politely at a few locals and searching for some inn. After a few minutes without luck, she walked to a foal wearing some strange gizmo in his head.
"Exc- Excuse me," she tapped him in the shoulder "Is there some inn in city?"
The kid turned to her, a stern expression many a general would've been proud off. He simply stared at her.
Applejack gave a good look to what he wore: several rubber tubes connected some kind of tank, from which a liquid sound came, to four sprayers -two in the jaw, two just under the mane- in the head. Some kind of mouth-trigger was connected to what looked like a valve in the tank.
A sense of dread formed in Applejack.
"Doncha-" the kid closed his jaw, pressing the trigger, and Applejack was sprayed with what felt like gallons of water. She insulted the kid with the kind of language that a proper young lady shouldn't know about, but learns anyway.
Winona watched Orange Hat Horse glaring daggers at Annoying Brat, and that Annoying Brat was already trying to run away, and did her part-- she jumped in the foal's way and growled, bearing her teeth.
"Clockwork!" shouted a female voice that Applejack recognized, after a moment, as Equestrian "What did I tell you of doing that?" a mare walked to them and Winona eased her posture, recognizing Shouth Horse as her senior in punishing Annoying Brat "Sorry, miss- Oh, dear, you are sick aren't you" she asked in Equiish.
Applejack looked at her in confusion, and then shook her head.
"You are Equestrian?" she asked "But how- Oh" she blushed "Sorry if you heard, uhm, that"
"Don't you worry," the mare smiled and catched the foal by the mane distractedly before he managed to scurry away "Come, you'll spend the night at my home"
Applejack woke up, feeling better, to sunlight entering through the window... and to a foal staring at her from the door.
She stared back for a moment, trying to remember his name.
"Clockwork?" he didn't answer "Hallo" she waved a hoof awkwardly.
He walked away from the door.
A moment later, the foal's mother appeared.
"Wak- Oh, you already are? Come have breakfast"
Applejack nodded and the mare walked away, and after a moment she jumped from the bed. People in these parts had a way to force one into polite submission.
With a sigh, she rummaged her saddlebags for the map, and checked what city she was at now. Kushta.
"Figures..." she put the map back in the bag, took out a letter, and searched the mare "Are you Reminiscence?" she asked, gesturing at the letter "A diamond dog at..." she trailed off, unable to remember the name of the city.
"Tse Tse?" she took it, nodding "Harris must be out of maps again... Oh- oh my" a small smile drew itself in her lips as she read it, and she covered it with the letter, blushing "The rascal"
Applejack blinked at her, confused.
"Oh" she said after a moment.
That seemed to take Reminiscence out of whatever she was in, as she put the letter back in its envelope and cleared her throat.
"Thanks," she turned and gestured for her to follow and walked to a small kitchen mainly occupied by a large table "I'll come with the pay in a moment, you start eating"
Applejack gave the mare a look as she exited the room and sat at the table, giving a look to what was in the bowl.
It looked like oat, if oat was small, golden balls. Filaments that looked vaguely like roots could be guessed just under the surface of the thick, golden liquid.
Well. She had mostly avoided the local cuisine up until now, with the exception of lentils and a soup, but a mare can't survive in grass and flowers alone. Well, she could, and she had in several occasions, but at some point she'd have to take the risk of the region's food being horrible. She smelled it before tasting it, anyway.
Calling it poignant would've been an understatement, something that seemed to be common in Tharata. But it wasn't bad, more like the kind of food Pinkie would love to taste.
She took the spoon and, gulping, took some of the contents of the bowl. It couldn't be worse than that rotten clay stew.
Clockwork say directly in front of her and resumed his staring.
She insulted the kid mentally and dared the breakfast to outdo rotten clay as she swallowed. It was spicy, enough to bring tears to her eyes, and it woke her up completely in an instant. So this was why no one seemed to know about coffee in these parts.
Reminiscence entered the kitchen and gave her a small purse.
"Here, eighty reis for bringing it," she smiled at her "Do you like it? Ringa is great for colds" she gestured at the bowl, then noticed Clockwork and gave him a look "What did I tell you about staring?"
Slowly and mechanically, the foal moved his gaze from Applejack.
"And...?" added his mother.
"I am sorry for staring" the foal said slowly.
Applejack swallowed, "No problem, my little sister is a mechanic too, she made a cow sized squirt gun once" The foal didn't answer, so Applejack turned back to the mare "The ringa is good, thanks. And you are a cartographer? Can I make some questions about the Prasante forest?"
The part of it you asked me about it's a harsh, but survivable, trek. You are lucky that we aren't at winter as you'd either need to have four, maybe five layers of thick clothing before even thinking about it, or to wait until spring.
The Prasante-Bloka region isn't normaly traveled, as a species of moles almost unique to it makes it extremely dangerous: each month they make tunnels straight to the surface, through rock if they have to, and spend several hours watching the full moon. This, as you can imagine, has left it ridden with holes, enough that some people in the border calls it the, and forgive my tongue, "Son of a Bitch Forest". You can't grow distracted there if you don't want to break a leg in the holes, as happened to the original fauna-- in fact, you won't find anything but fliers there. Every ten years or so some government tries to make some kind of bridge or walkway across it, but the moles always break the supports or leave it ridden with holes.
-º-
With the sun at its highest and about to start descending, Applejack unfolded her map of Tharata. Three days from the border, now, if nothing slowed her down.
She packed it again and kept walking, keeping an eye in the sideway for a good camping area. Hours later, when the light was growing dim and her hooves' complains were turning noticeable, she saw a good clearing near the road. As soon as she entered the tall grass and before she had time to whistle for Winona, there was a rustling in the grass and a sharp object against her throat.
"Take out your bag" said someone behind her.
"Am just a honest worker. Take that thing out of my throat" she said between clenched teeth, just a bit louder than she needed to.
The knife pressed harder. She didn't do anything.
After nearly a minute of stillness, there was a growling behind them, and the knife moved just enough for her to move. She did, opening a cut in her neck, then crouched in her forelegs and jumped in the hind ones. Before the dog had time to react, she had landed a buck in his chest and sent him flying over Winona.
She turned to him and noticed that the knife had fallen near her, so she put it in her saddlebags. The dog watched her for a moment and scampered away, breathing with difficulty and grabbing his chest.
She grumbled angrily and kept walking, searching for some other place to rest. A few minutes later, she remembered to give Winona a pat in the head.
It took her nearly two hours to find a good place, but when she did, she didn't bother lighting up a fire. She just armed the tent and fell on it.
When Applejack woke up, her neck itched. She blinked a few times in confusion and searched in her bags, and with a silver mirror in her hooves walked out of the tent and scanned her neck under the light of the sun that poked though the horizon.
The borders of the cut had reddened, and a flea had found its way to the wound. She ripped it off a disgusted grunt, took some things from the tent, started a fire, and put tea to boil. Once it was steaming, she used the tea and a piece of cloth to clean the cut until it bled again. Any remaining infection would go away with the blood flow.
Before doing anything else, she spent some time searching any other fleas that could've climbed to her fur. Once she was sure no more had clung to her, she re entered her tent with an annoyed sigh. There was at least half an hour of sleep left, and she didn't plan to waste any of it.
-º-
Winona barked happily at another dog when Applejack entered the town that, if she remembered it right, had an unpronounceable name that sounded draconian. She was both relieved and disappointed when she confirmed than the town was mainly occupied by diamond dogs. Dragon cities were fun in a heart attack-ish sort of way.
As Winona and the black dog went through the never ending ritual of mutual tail sniffling, Applejack entered a small trading post, glancing at the wares as she did.
"Can I get you anything, miss?" asked a diamond dog behind the counter, giving her a obeisance "Food? Medicine?" he added.
"Tea, and do you have disinfectant?" he nodded and turned to the shelves behind him, and she rummaged a few books in a shelf near the door.
"I have lemon, citral, mint, and green tea," he told her "And only small bottles of disinfectant, with three gioms each"
Applejack turned to see the brown bottle he was showing her, each about the size of an egg.
"Four of those," she saw the tea in the counter, in plastic flasks "And two of mint tea"
He nodded and she returned to the books, searching for something she could read: Nu-tra-doh er sa-na, nghisnenTosoeoa, durelalalala, were in glyphs she understood but languages she didn't, and some time passed until she understood something: Mountain mist. Or something to that effect, at least, as she hadn't had that much interaction with Alharean.
She took it anyway. As much as she wasn't Twilight, the Prasante seemed like it'd be utterly boring when it wasn't terrifying, a kind of place she had come to dread. Only fliers? No predators for anything her size. Ridden with holes? No bandits.
"Anything else?" asked the dog when she put the book in the counter.
Applejack thought for a moment before answering, "Lentils?" he nodded "Five kilograms"
He turned to the bags behind him and filled a cloth bag, then put it in the counter "Ten reis for the tea, twenty five for the disinfectants, fifteen for the book" he said, pointing to everything as he mentioned it "And... forty five for the lentils"
-º-
The stars and a intense fire as her lights, Applejack scanned the cut in her neck. It seemed to be fine now, but she used some disinfectant in it anyway. The dust of spending most of the day outside was a danger she had been familiar with long before starting her travel, and not cleaning it right away had been a mistake fueled by anger and tiredness.
With that done, her gaze returned to the lentils. They were in the middle of the fire, boiling liberally with some spices she had found, what few she recognized as safe to be eaten.
"May Celestia bless salvia" she said to no one in particular "And Luna" she added.
Winona's tail moved unassumingly.
"Yeah, you too" she said, patting her.
Some time later, she didn't know or care how much, she threw dirt over the fire and entered her tent, giving one last glance to her surroundings before doing so. The tall grass seemed to be in vegetal war against some kind of ground covering vine, of thick and glossy dark-green leaves, although the vine didn't seem to be doing all that well in the humid weather.
Just before closing her tent, she had a change of heart about Winona and poked her head out, calling her with a whistle. The night was too cold for to leave her outside.
Thing was, birds were common. Everywhere you go, you'll see birds. By this point she'd only notice normal ones if someone mentioned them to her.
She peeked out of the tent, ignoring Winona's growl.
She saw scarlet feathers, each as big as her leg. A whispered expletive escaped her mouth.
The rocs, each more than big enough to carry the tent, danced around each other, their wings extended. The male was mainly scarlet, with a crest that reminded her of a woodpecker's, and the female had orange feathers with black specks. She watched them dance for a moment, confused, until realization hit her.
Scowling, she put her mat in the saddlebags, put them on, and exited the tent to start the slow process of disassembling a tent without being noticed by giant carnivorous birds.
Screw nature, and how fascinating it could be. She was not getting acquainted with the inner details of roc reproduction.
-º-
Applejack drank from her canteen, trying to wash the taste of vomit from her mouth. Then mental images assaulted her, and she threw up into it. Winona laid near her, covering her eyes with her paws and whining quietly.
A small fire lit the cave they were in, and the shouting of rocs nearly overpowered its crackling.
"How do they-? No" she shook her head "I am not going there. Not going there" she took a few deep breaths to shake off the nausea. Once she was sure no more vomit (Or dry heaves) were coming her way, she sat down to try to distract herself from their meaning.
Almost fifteen minutes later, it dawned in her that the rocs' reproductive season had to be, in fact, a season, not something she could just wait off in a cave. Maybe she could avoid the danger of rocs hunting by walking at night?
She played with the idea for a while -Avoiding predators by eating at night had given ponies their large eyes, if her education had been right- and, after a moment, decided on it. Advancing at night sounded good.
-º-
Applejack -with pieces of cloth fastened to her hooves- and Winona crawled out of the cave, both thirsty and staying as close to the stone wall as they could. Before getting away from its entrance, she stopped and watched around.
Someone had once told her that, despite their size, rocs could be incredibly stealthy if they wanted to, so she took her time to make sure that no birds hid behind the trees or above them, in the rock wall. Winona watched her quietly, her eyes a pair of black pearls under the moonlight.
Orange hat horse had fallen still, after all. Only bad's made unnecessary noise when their horses were being sneaky. When Orange moved again, she followed obediently.
After a moment they walked, both wary of the silence-- both predator and predated knew the meaning of silent forests.
Night 11: As the night's breeze cools the forest, shall we take a walk?
Winona followed orange hat horse to a river and watched for a moment as her horse cleaned the water-keeper in it. She sniffled its smell and, without much consideration, drank downstream from it.
Once they had done everything they needed to at it, they kept walking. The moon was far from full, so there wasn't much light to see by, but both had enough nocturnal ancestry to move in it with relative ease.
-º-
Applejack cringed.
The bridge rocketed to the wind, clearly needing a good repair or five.
She walked to it slowly, as if scared of turning it to dust with as much as a noise. It was old, probably from before the moles -of which she had already found a few holes- had set on in the area, and had a barn-like shape. All of it contorted slowly, creaking as it did, to the night's breeze.
She sighed angrily and gave the river below a look.
"Nope," she said to herself, walking away from the border, then cringed immediately at the sound of her voice. Far too many rocks and far too strong a flow for her liking. They'd have to...
Hers and Winona's heads snapped upward when a sound far too loud to be wind reached their ears, and they caught sight of a looming shadow falling upon them.
Of course, said some part of Applejack's mind as she started running They were at it all day. Now she wants a snack.
She shook her head and realized that she and Winona had ran inside the bridge. The roc landed behind them with a heavy thud, making the earth quake... and the bridge start a collapse that had been coming for quite some time. Without paying heed to the noise of it, the roc jumped inside it with a hop that Applejack would've laughed at in nearly any other situation.
Applejack and Winona jumped in opposite directions when the bird tried to peck at them, shattering the wood.
The floor gave out under Applejack's hindhooves, but she barely noticed it and kept running despite the splinters that dug into her skin. The bird hopped again to reach them, then open her wings for balance when the bridge, visibly skewing under her weight, gave out under her. Walls broke to the wings, and the roof's collapse advanced faster.
Applejack reached the other side of the bridge, a few fearful tears escaping her eyes and deep, aching breaths the only sound she made. She looked back to see the bridge fall to the river, the roc trapped inside.
She averted her gaze from it and walked away a step, then looked back again. The roc was shrieking in pain as the ancient wood fell to her head and the cold river dampened her already hurt wings.
She walked away from it, trying to give some firmness to her steps.
Winona sat still, watching the roc.
Every instinct told her to either escape or search her pack to hunt at the beast, seeing weeks worth of food in it, but a subtle smell escaped it. It was in heat. She got up, her nostrils busy at work in the search of a subtle smell that could be there.
Applejack watched Winona, trying to make herself walk away.
Her gaze returned to the bird.
What if...?
She took a step closer to her.
Her hoof tapped the ground impatiently.
Even if she wasn't, the cries of the bird were too much for her to hear, and her Equestrian soul repugned at the idea of just leaving it be.
She took a step closer to the bridge, which was firmly anchored against the rock. She took another, the decision cemented in her mind, and she rummaged her bags for a rope.
-º-
Tired and damp, Applejack moved as silently as she could through the forest, Winona behind her and in the same state.
One thing she had found quickly, and hadn't had time to consider before, was that moles tunneling through everything to watch the moon meant that, while the place was obviously semi montanous, completely lacking in the caves department. Every one she had seen had collapsed long ago.
When she was considering setting her tent somewhere discrete and testing her luck, something appeared in her view. She walked to it to find a small city, aparently made by diamond dogs or minotaurs from the door shapes, abandoned to its luck. Most of the buildings had crumbled due to time and holes, but a few resisted the elements.
She entered a white building she couldn't quite identify but that seemed to be the most intact one, doing her best to ignore the rocs that sung to the rising sun.
Night 12: As the river falls, does its forest die?
Applejack woke up to moonlight. She looked up, through the holes in the ceiling and at the dust motes playing in the light ray, trying to remember why had she decided to move at night.
Then a shape, far too big for her tastes, flew high in the sky, blocking the moonlight for a moment.
She got up with a grumble, woke up Winona, and donned her bags, then walked out of the building. It seemed like an old church, its stained windows long since broken or stolen, and it barely held together.
A cry sounded in the sky, and her head snapped to see a roc catching a smaller bird like a bug.
Buildings falling on her while she slept were a risk, but rocs were a certainity. At least most of them slept at night: she had been waken up several times during the day to find out that the rocs had apparently decided to take the forest as their breeding ground, and the local wildlife was doing poorly against them.
And if she had it her way, she wasn't going to do against them in any way at all more than she had already.
They walked across the abandoned city, their advance slow from having to keep eyes in both the sky and the ground.
-º-
A few hours later, Applejack stopped by a river to fill her canteen. The water was only a trickle and the area had a lower, swamp-like ground and several broken trees, something that didn't surprise her after noticing the amount of holes in the river bed. As much as she wasn't a geologists, the situation with the moles didn't seem like one that could last much longer.
There was a fluttering, and they barely had time to run to the shadow of a standing tree before a small roc landed by the river. Small for a roc, at least, which still meant twice as big as a bison.
They crouched in the shadow, watching the bird first drink and then bath with what little water there was. Its movements were graceful in a way that was in odds with its size as it picked small amounts of water with its beak and spitted them at its (His? The bird was too young, and the plummage too androgynous, for her to say) feathers in small sprays, then patiently cleaned the feathers of parasites.
After a while Winona pressed into her, waking her from the stuppor she was in, and they crawled into safety.
-º-
By the time they found a suitable place to sleep in, they had had to avoid three more rocs, thankfuly avoiding detection every time. It wasn't even a village, but the few ruined buildings had a sturdy construction, and one of them had (sort of) survived across the years. It was small, most likely a storage shed from the few ruined tools the owner had left behind-- a saw, longer than she was, and a screw press, both too large to pass through the door without a few hours of effort.
Still, she gave them a confused look. Tools like those were valuable enough to justify dismantling the shed around them.
But it didn't mater, at the end. She shook her head to clear it, gave a last drink to her canteen -trying to ignore the lingering taste in it-, cleaned quickly the thick layer of dust from the ground with a piece of cloth, and extended her mat in the ground, then laid on it.
The moon shone over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
"Isn't it beautiful?" asked someone behind Applejack.
She turned to the voice, startled, and saw a stallion sitting near the shed.
"Hi?" she waved a hoof, thrown off-center "You a traveler too?"
"Resident" he shook his head and walked closer to her, making her take a step back.
"There is people living here?" she asked "Why?"
"A few" he nodded.
Applejack watched him silently, hoping to find out what was so eerie about him exactly. light brown coat, black mane (Under the moonlight, at least), a strange accent...
"You talk Equish?" she stammered.
"I talk a lot of languages," he smiled at her and took a step closer "I could teach you a few, if you want?" he approached his face to hers far beyond what she was comfortable with, so she went for what had worked for drunken stallions and mares before.
Applejack slapped hi-i-i-
-º-
Winona whined.
Orange hat horse just kept staring at the moon, not paying heed. From time to time she'd say something under her breath, too softly for Winona to understand.
-º-
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
"I heard" Applejack turned to the source of the voice "that if you look at it for long enough, the mare in the moon herself comes to your dreams"
A burst of laughter escaped Applejack "Mare in the moon? She's Luna, sugarcube"
He gave her a confused look, then made a fa-a-a
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
-º-
Winona stood with her face nearly against Orange hat horse's, her front paws in her chest. She barked at her face, but her horse didn't answer.
There was a fluttering, and she barked louder and in more anxious tones.
With nothing else to do, Winona let herself fall and bared her teeth.
-º-
"You what now?" she asked in confusion "I don't-"
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
"Got distracted by it?"
She turned to sitting the stallion, regarding him curiously.
"You a traveler too?" she asked.
"No," he shook his head "resident. There are a few of us here"
She nodded, not having anything else to say.
"Why are you here?" he asked after a moment "Most people avoids this place"
"Just traveling" she shrugged.
"In a rush?" he pressed the matter, standing, then started walking to her.
"Not really" she through of taking a step back, but decided to stay firm. She could take care of anything he tried, after all.
"Are you willing to stop for some time, then?"
She started answering before what he had said sinked in.
"I am not that kind of mare" she scowled at him.
He laughed, a sound that unnerved her. It was wrong in just too many ways for her to count- It had a liquid quality, for one, not unlike a water bag falling and breaking against the ground.
"No, no, I didn't mean to imply that" he explained like a father does to a child.
Applejack stood, "I'll be going now" she said slowly, then walked to the sheds for her bags, pushing him in the way and throwing him to the ground without effort as a warning.
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
A sharp pain made itself present in her leg, making her whimper, and she looked at it. Several small wounds bled in it, only deep enough to be unignorably painful. She looked around for whatever had bitten her.
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
She whimpered from the sudden pain in her leg, and looked around for whatever had bitten her.
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
She whimpered from the sudden pain in her leg, and looked around for whatever had bitten her.
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
She whimpered as something she couldn't quite see dragged her from a hindleg.
The moon shover over her, painting everything white. She hadn't ever realized just how big it was.
-º-
Winona ran, grabbing her horse's leg in the same careful way she had carried pups before and taking her into the shed. She had hurt the leg, but only barely.
Outside, a roc landed in the clearing Orange hat horse had been in and started screeching, extending both his wings and shaking them angrily.
Winona watched curiously as the roc pecked at several spots of the ground, as if trying to catch something. Minutes later, a figure loomed from the trees... two rocs hopping, one young and the other a female with both wings hurt, the myriad of small punctures in them covered by blood clots. Someone hopped from the younger roc's back.
The old zebra advanced to the male roc and said something Winona couldn't make out, soothing him, then stood still, a small wasp of light floating around her head.
"A dog?" the zebra looked directly at Winona "Oh, yes, a dog. Hi," she smiled softly and walked to her "Protecting your owner, weren't you?"
-º-
Applejack scream "ed her rage into his face, draining her lungs, Do you think I'll just stop my travel for a... whatever you are!?"
The moon shover over her-
"No! Don't even try that! You think I'll fall for i" t now?, painting ev that I am just some idiot you can snare into your dung erything eon or whatever it is!?
Shh...
Applejack and the stallion looked up, one surprised and the other angry.
"You dare-"
Your dog is quite loyal, you know? asked a voice without paying him heed Her gesture of protection is what started breaking the charm
"...rip your legs from..."
but it isn't quite broken yet. You need something else. A memory, mayhaps?
"...and shove it into..."
Applejack looked at him again, a stallion of shifting aspect the shouted angrily at the heavens and the green-tinted moon.
In one fluid movement, she rotated her body with her forelegs as her axis and bucked him, feeling an undeniable pleasure as she did so.
"What are you doing!?" he got up, perfectly healthy "Do you think you can-"
"No. I can't hurt you," she advanced to him "But believe me I can make you feel pain" she added.
He watched her, an eye twitching. Her head ache increased, but she kept advancing and, without bothering to say anything else, lifted a hoof, warning him.
He simply stared back.
In a purple flash, a monocular appeared over one of her eyes, showing a rock falling from the sky.
"A" said a disembodied voice "place" said the same voice in a completely different tone "of" "memories" a pause "And" "A tool to see beyond your sight"
A tent formed itself around them, and the rock bounced on it.
"A home to warm your heart" Said a different voice, softer.
The monocular showed her a wall of water advancing to them. When it hit the tent, it slowly filled with water.
Even when it was filled, Applejack kept staring, holding her breath.
The monocular disappeared, and Applejack kept staring at him.
"You know what!? You aren't worth it!" he shouted at her face, spitting on it "Go, you bitch!"
Before she had time to answer, the whole world dissolved and reformed, leaving her a dark shack with an old zebra and a roc's head poking through a . Her head ached terribly, and her lungs felt empty.
"Most ponies take longer" she said, surprised, in Tharatean "Those must be good memories, traveler"
Applejack didn't quite hear her, as she was already falling unconscious.
She sighed, "No, but I need to" she ruffled her mane "Didn't I tell you? I'll be back before you know it"
-º-
Rainbow tapped her hoof angrily against the ground, and Twilight looked at her in shock.
"Really? You'll just walk away?"
"And I'll come back as soon as I can"
"You- But-" Rainbow started and cut herself both times before managing to say something "Around the world? The whole way?"
"It's my fam-"
"Crud is what it is!" Rainbow interrupted her "What if we need you?"
"Rainbow" Twilight put a hoof in Rainbow's shoulder "If she feels like she must do it we can manage"
-º-
Two rocs landed near her in the borders of the river, giving her their sideways glances.
When they didn't do anything, she just scowled and kept pulling from the rope with Winona, taking the ceiling from over the other roc.
-º-
The same two rocs, one male and the other far younger, hopped to the female and started to, slowly and delicately, removed the splinters from the female's wing.
-º-
Twilight gave her a monocular, "A tool to see what lays beyond your sight," she said.
"Heh, girls, you don't have to be so formal on me" Applejack took it uncomfortably.
"Nonsense!" Rarity gave her a pair of saddlebags "A clothe to carry your gifts," she said with a small reverence, then pushed Fluttershy forward without much subtlety.
"Uhm, I know it's not much," she took a small but heavy looking package from her saddlebags and gave it to her "A home to warm your hearth"
-º-
"Do you really have to go?" she asked.
Her mane was ruffled, "Don't worry," she was picked up in a tight hug "I'll be back before you know it"
-º-
An old zebra looked at her, her mane a sea of dreadlocks with clay beads on it. She tried to say something, but the world felt too heavy and, before her mouth had time to open, her head fell again.
-º-
She walked in a moonlit clearing, wasps of light floating around her. The first were green, red, and golden.
The golden wasp escaped despite her cries, leaving a pale yellow one behind.
A rainbow-colored wasp joined her from the forest, covering a pink one as if challenging the world to try and hurt it. Another one appeared, a bright cyan, together with a white one.
Soon she was surrounded in wasps, of as many colors as she could imagine. A gray one, traveler like her, carrying a message.
The world was ultimately kind in spite of its cruelty, she had found. Or maybe because of its cruelty.
She walked across the clearing and entered the forest, the wasps following her.
The ceiling was unknown, yet familiar: ground-covering plants of thick, glossy dark leaves, intertwined and shaped by rings made of curved branches as thick as her leg, a column in the center of the room (Seemingly a tree with its lower branches cut) keeping the upper rings in place, and smaller pieces of curved wood keeping the lower ones. While there wasn't any hole in the vegetal wall, some sunlight entered through the semi opaque material.
Twilight had once told her in a letter that technically (A word that, in most of her friends, was a mental switch to turn off the brain and nod every few seconds) northern zebra domes didn't have a ceiling, as they were domes, so she had woken up to unknown horizontal walls. The though got a small smile from her.
She looked around, and made a double take at the old zebra that sat near the bed.
"You are real" she said, then remembered "You are real", she repeated in Tharatean.
"I think so" the zebra nodded.
Neither said anything for a moment.
"What happened?" asked Applejack.
"You entered a turaerla neh domain" she said simply.
Applejack gave her a puzzled look.Neh. Someone had called Winona like that after she had stolen a sandwich, but that hadn't been a situation to ask questions.
"Turarla neh?" she asked.
"A..." the zebra tapped her chin for a moment "A man-neh" Applejack's expression didn't change "Neh is... evil spirit, rot-soul?" she made a face, trying to find the right words "Discord used to be a neh, and Tirek and Runsa still are"
Applejack though about it for a moment, then asked "Demon?" in all the languages she know how to. A moment later, when she tried a zebra dialect, she nodded.
"What you found was a man-demon. A... demon-of-sex" she added in the same dialect Applejack had used "It, or he, keeps going until you die"
The moon shone over her
"Everything kept going back to the same moment" Applejack shuddered "I'd just forget it, but when Winona bit me it started to fail"
The zebra nodded, "It's what they do, they talk and learn how you work. And the pain of a wound makes it impossible to make a complete reset"
Applejack tried to get up, but the zebra stopped her.
"You rest," she shook her head "Tomorrow you'll be fine, but rest today"
"Tomorrow?" she shoved against the zebra "No, I have to move" she said, jumping from the bed and searching for her bags.
The zebra scowled at her, glaring in the way only old people can, "You spent a day in bed, and still are tired. Go back there"
"What!?" Applejack exclaimed, taken aback "A day!?" she ran around the room, searching desperately "It's always just a day and then they build up and you take a month more..." she said angrily, not caring about languages, when a harsh hoof took her by the mane and dragged her to the bed.
She glared, pointing at the bed "Go in now before I curse you, missy"
Applejack tried to stand against the glare, and after nearly a minute of valiant trying, went to the bed.
"Good" she turned and exited the room.
Applejack tried to get up, but a wasp of white light appeared, floating in her way every time she tried. Despite it not having eyes or even a face, Applejack was pretty sure she was being glared at again.
A few minutes later, the zebra entered with a bowl, followed by Winona.
"Drink" she gave her the bowl, then sat besides the bed.
Applejack though about protesting, but upon smelling the soup her stomach growled. Winona, her tail waving madly, tried to jump to the bed and was glared into submission by the zebra.
"Does this cost me?" asked Applejack, the spoon nearly in her mouth.
"I already took some money, don't worry"
Applejack gave her a wary look, but drank the soup. She'd check it later.
"And who are you?" she asked when the soup was gone and Winona had been petted adequately.
"Nanda," the white wasp appeared again, flying circles around her head "And this is Fret, he refuses to go" she added tiredly.
"He?" she gave the wisp a good look, trying to find out what it was. It did seem familiar...
"He is a spirit, and gets angry if I call it an it" the wisp reddened for a moment, shaking angrily in front of her face "What? You are!" replied the mare angrily "You've been for nearly forty years!"
The wasp made a point of, rather than disappearing outright, flying slowly out of the room through a wall.
"Husbands" grumbled Nanda to no one in particular "All the same, even the dead ones"
Applejack tried to say something, but closed her mouth.
"Are there more?" she asked after a moment, grimacing.
"Seven of them, six divorced," said Nanda with a mixture of pride and bitterness "Tried to convince me that necromancy is bad, all of them. Except for Fret. He was a sweet one" she smiled fondly.
"No, SpirWait necromancy?" Applejack put some distance between herself and a zebra that suddenly seemed to have a rather dry skin "Are you dead?" she asked in a small voice.
The zebra laughed loudly before answering.
"No, dear, not yet. And no, he died of age"
Applejack let herself relax a bit. Nanda did seem like something of a hag, but the friendly sort.
"And there are more spirits, but they are shy" explained Nanda when Applejack didn't answer "Necromancy isn't bad, I deal with bad spirits or help good ones to go on" she stood "Now sleep, they may appear in your dreams, they like to help people with nightmares much like your moon-queen" she said with a small smile.
She walked out of the the room, taking Winona with her, and a few minutes later Applejack was snoring softly.
"They come here every few decades, I don't know why," the zebra shrugged "They know not to mess with me"
"And the moles?"
"Taught them too"
Applejack was silent for a moment before answering.
"So you've cursed every species in this forest at least a dozen times?"
"A girl has to defend herself"
Applejack gave her a look and turned back to her saddlebags. A small spirit, this one a light blue, fluttered around her head.
"It wants to know what happened to your hat" Applejack gave her a confused look "It kept coming back to you" she explained.
"Oh, that. Discord's idea of a gift"
The zebra nodded knowingly, and Applejack returned to her bags. She had never understood if Discord actually found the time to prank so many people or if he just sent replicas in his stead, but felt than the answer was a third one that she didn't really want to know.
A few minutes of rummaging later Applejack found a glass ball, with several shining lights inside it, and showed it to Nanda.
"Is this some spirit thing?" she asked "A zebra gave it to me some months ago, he seemed really weird about it"
Nanda gave it a look, her mouth opening a bit, and then laughed loudly.
"He was proposing you marriage, poor boy" she said before another burst of laughter escaped her "The il-rampu tipi represents the mare's belly, and the souls of her offspring inside it"
Applejack gave the ball a look, almost gave it to Nanda, and then put it back in her bags. She'd take her time to decide what to do with it.
"If it means anything, they are really good to bash heads with," continued Nanda "The strength of a dozen hot and bothered stallions, they say"
Applejack grumbled under her breath and, with a heave, threw the bag over her back.
"It's a quite heavy bear" remarked Nanda, straightening herself.
"Started lighter, things accumulated" she shrugged.
"When I wandered the world, before setting down here, my bags were my home" said Nanda, her eyes far away "Everything I was, those bags were. Pampered and new at first, rugged yet still soft later on, filled with memories but strenghtened to carry them all"
"Yeah..." she gave her bags a look, smiling "I guess they are"
"But why the rush?" Nanda pressed on, advancing to her "If you press too hard with so heavy a load, you tire and fall sick. Take it from one who made that mistake"
"Because I want to be back" she opened the front door and whistled for Winona to appear "Love traveling, but it's tiring. Cold, heat, sickness, bandits, rocs, everything builds up," She gave Winona, who sat expectantly, a pat in the head "Besides, I am not alone"
When Applejack woke up, there was a tingle not unlike a silver bell.
Her head leashed around, surprising Winona, and she found that they were alone in the tent. She opened the tent's flaps... and got a faceful of bush in the face for it.
She grumbled. Setting up camp amidst bushes, while good to keep it out of sight, wasn't something she was crazy about.
Twenty minutes of cursing later, the tent had been packaged and she was outside the small group of bushes.
The moon, nearly absent, gave little enough light that even she and Winona were at risk of breaking a leg, so Applejack had to do something she had been dreading from the start.
She rummaged her bags until she found a necklace from which a heavy-looking metal box with a knob and a glass side in it. While the gem generated a reddish glow, three layers of colored glass changed its tone to white. It was also, Applejack had found, an overly strong beam, enough that she had only turned the knob up more than a notch with hostile intent.
She put it on and gave the sky a look, scanning for any looming shapes. When she had been allayed, she gave the barest of pushes to the lantern's knob, getting it to produce a somewhat discreet glow.
-º-
For the fourth time in the night, Applejack's head leashed around them and Winona growled. Neither saw anything, just like the other times.
After a moment of tension, Applejack relaxed her stance and looked forward again, then gasped.
The roc gave them his sideways look, eyelid appearing and disappearing quickly enough to be barely perceptible. He cooed and hopped to them, moving his wings for balance.
Applejack and Winona backpedaled, the first's hoof reaching the knob and turning it. The glow grew into an unbearable white wall and the roc flew away breaking several branches in the process, screeching as he did.
She turned it off and fell still for a moment, noticing that Winona stood in an odd angle. The lantern was hot, and most of its charge had been spent, but they probably had enough for the night and it'd recharge during the day.
She turned it on, at more reasonable levels, and saw that one of Winona's hind legs had fallen in a hole. Hadn't they stopped when they did, she would be treating a broken leg.
Once their breaths had returned to normality they kept walking, paying more heed to the increasingly common holes.
-º-
Hours later they found a river, this one deep and with a nearly vertical river bed. Both traits had luckily spared it from the moles, and probably kept it free from rocs.
They walked by it for a few minutes, searching for some kind of bridge, and found a small, metallic construction, Probably minotaur in origin. They loved their metal.
She aimed the light beam at a sign near it, in which the same message had been written in several languages:
A marvel of modern engineering!!
Troika River -The first artificial river made through purely mechanical means!!- will soon be joined by Troika vacations resort!!
Get your own beach home!!
10% discount if you buy one before the resort is finished!!
Any inquiries may be made within.
An arrow pointed to the rusted door, which had been shoved open long ago. She entered the building, annoyed by the clanks under her hooves (It just didn't feel right for her, to make metal floors) and scanned it quickly. While some windows had been vandalised, one thing had remained safe, probably because it was protected by a glass panel that, if she had had to guess, could resist quite a few hammer blows. The map was yellowed, but still readable.
It wasn't cartographically sound by any means, but the cartoonish bridge west of the cartoonish building with a "You Are Here" bubble, connected to it by an equally cartoonish path, couldn't be so far away.
She almost walked out of the building -Winona had waited outside, having an equal distaste for metal floors- but ultimately set up her tent inside, in a space from which the -metalic, of course- tables had been pushed, probably used for that very purpose before, and called Winona inside. The weather wasn't especially cold, but the alternative was either leaving her as roc prey or forcing her to sleep in cold metallic floor.
Tartarus damned minotaurs making every single little thing with metal.
The bridge waved gently, bubbles made of metal and glass keeping it afloat. Rather than a single structure, it was a series of individual sections attached loosely to one another, kept a meter or two above the water itself by the bubbles and thick metal bars. Only minotaurs could make a structure so heavy float with glass of all things.
Considering everything it was in remarkable conditions, likely good enough to be usable if someone managed to shoo the moles away.
A breeze made the rusted structure whine in a high pitch. After a few hundred liters of oil, of course.
She reached a new section (Each was around twenty meters long, and the river seemed to be around the two hundred meters wide) and as if reading her thoughts, it instantly fell a few centimeters lower, almost making her fall on her face. She cursed and peeked down to the river. One of the bubbles was broken, leaving the other five a few centimeters under the water rather than with their upper parts in the air.
She looked up, scanning for any rocs that could've been attracted by her lantern, and after finding none kept walking.
-º-
On the other side of the bridge was a carriage, broken in two by a tree. She walked to the tree's base and found that yes, there were several holes near its roots.
Winona growled, and she tensed immediately. There was a rustling of leaves, but she couldn't catch sight of anything.
They tried to follow the source of sound, but it vanished after a moment, and Winona stopped growling. Still, her ears remained erected in tension, and her tail's movement when Applejack gave her a pat in the head was unenthusiastic at best.
Applejack shook her head angrily and kept walking, and was soon followed by Winona. Being still for too long was just looking for troubles.
-º-
Perhaps at gunpoint and against her hopes, the minotaurs hadn't made the vacations resort itself of metal, but wood.
However, what they found was, surprisingly, what seemed to be a floating metal cube, fussed to the small port with decades' worth of rust. She gave the boat a tentative kick and, when it didn't fall to pieces, climbed its stairs.
The interior, while rusty, was safe enough to traverse, and in the cabin a note reminded the ship's owner that what the engine needed was a perisplopapic taredel, whatever that was. Applebloom probably knew.
A short wave of homesickness hit her, but she walked out of the cabin and down to the engine room, where she picked up a few tools clearly designed for hands and in need of oil. It'd make a good gift, if only decorative.
With that done, they went to a room and barricaded its door, not wanting to find out what had made the tingles or rustled the leaves in the worst possible way. She extended her mat over the ground and Winona hopped to the old, rotten coach nonchalantly, and they slept.
She jerked awake and, after the initial shock, stood still watching Winona-- every hair on end, ears erected, tail between legs, and a deep, guttural growl escaping her bared teeth. She growled at the barricaded door, her pose ready to jump at whatever throat presented itself.
Something walked outside. It scratched the door, but it didn't bulge and, after a few tries, it gave up.
It walked away, paws clicking over metal.
Once Applejack was sure that it had gone away, she looked around the room until her eyes fell in a tiny spot of sunlight, and followed it to an even smaller hole in the metallic wall. Through it she saw that the sun hadn't quite reached its highest, so it couldn't be later than nine or ten in the morning.
Movement caught her eye, and she looked down to see...
Rocs?
Did the swim like ducks, now? The whole idea seemed just too unfair to her. She knew the river descended at a sharp angle. She knew rocs weren't especially brilliant.
However, after the first shocked instant she realized that some young rocs were, besides bathing, dancing around females, and in a closer inspection she saw that there was something, seemingly sand textured glass, acting like a beach. She hadn't seen it at night because rather than being attached to something above the surface, it seemed to be anchored to the river bed via steel cables and lifted by more of the glass bubbles.
She just couldn't wrap her head around minotaur engineering, even after having visited some of their cities, and understood perfectly well Applebloom's love-hate towards them: not only did they do everything up-side down, but they did it up-side down in clever ways that actually worked. Minds like those could make a flying machine that pushed the world under them.
She shook her head off minotaurs and fliers and walked to her mat, where she laid again. Whatever was that was chasing them down, it'd take at least a few extra hours to enter, and she was perfectly fine with the fact.
-º-
What felt to Applejack like, maybe, ten hours later (Enough for her to be much better rested, at least), she was woken up by Winona again.
She stood in exactly the same position as before.
This time, however, the hunter wasn't bothering with scratching at the door. It charged against the door an impacted it with heavy, meaty thuds.
Applejack though about putting the saddlebags on, but decided against having extra weight in a close-quarters fight.
Winona noticed her and, relaxing a bit, walked further away from the door, but still between it and Orange hat horse.
They both watched as the barricade crumbled, their minds in similar tracks: A forest creature, of stalking nature and, from the sound of it, rather big and heavy. Used to fight in large spaces, probably. A good enough sight to not have all four legs broken, too.
The barricade was pushed, and something entered without bothering with subtlety. Applejack and Winona tensed, both ready to jump.
The only thing canine about it was the body shape, as mother nature had divided it from its brothers long ago. There wasn't any fur on it, or even eyes: instead, its head was covered up to the snout by what looked vaguely like five petals, each covered in small veins and a bulge near the tips.
The petals opened. Each had a closed eye on it, and a magenta line running from each tip of the eye to the root of the petal.
As twilight descended in the sky, the eyes opened, each pointing in a different direction, but after a few blinks (each making a wet sound) they managed to focus in its prey.
The magenta lines alighted with what seemed like some kind of phosphorescent liquid, and the creature disappeared from sight.
The Troika brothers had always been one of those cases of loving hate-- they would've died for each other, but that included killing themselves if the only one to interact had been each other.
So, when there was a clicking of paws that they both knew indicated a jump, their ghastly selves watched with the interest of the utterly bored from minotaur heaven. Heaven, they had found, was quite boring.
"I tell ya the horse dies" said Dandruff.
"Thats a bag of bullocks it is," said Endriff "Betcha twenty bucks she kills the hagen"
Applejack crouched and, immediately after feeling a paw hitting her hat, headbutted the flower wolf in the stomach.
"See? Crafty one"
Applejack wouldn't have cared even if she had known about them, having much more important things to do such as grabbing her bags and running as fast as her legs could carry her. She needed more space for this.
Winona followed, barely noticing than the flower wolf had reappeared for a brief moment due to the flash of pain, and Applejack ran outside. She saw the beach, and an idea sparkled in her mind.
She felt hot breath behind her, and didn't even consider the stairs. She jumped to the water, trying to ignore something biting at her tail. She hanged painfully from it for a moment, the bags' straps in her muzzle, but what little hair it had gotten a hold off wasn't nearly enough to support her weight.
She fell to the water, leaving the curses about wet bags for later, and while the water softened the fall, ten meters were still ten meters, and her knees warned her of such treatment.
The flower wolf barked and jumped after her, his form flashing into a perceptible state due to the pain, but Applejack was already running out of the glass platform, noticing the splashes of the wolf with a flicker of hope. It wasn't so clever, after all.
The bags forgotten in the glass, she reached free waters and submerged, Winona not knowing how to do it herself. She hated having to use Winona as unknowing bait, but it'd have to do.
Three...
Winona watched her in confusion, and her air supply dwindled. Something fell in the water near her, flailing, but was ignored in favor of the splashes of the approaching wolf.
Two..., the wolf was over her now, and Winona paddled away from it.
One, she jumped into action and charged upwards, taking the invisible shape in a hug, and squeezed. There was a sickening crack as a rib broke under her strength, and the wolf yelped...
...and was hit in the head by a mole.
Applejack recognized the shape and, in her surprise, let go.
Another mole fell, and another, and another...
They all looked at the sky, where blurry shapes flew under the full moon. It took her a moment to recognize them despite their size-- rocs, no more than ten years old each, flew with moles in their claws and dropped them to the ground.
A mole fell on her head, and she swam to Winona.
Young rocs flew to the pained wolf and tried to grab it, but it swam away before their swoops had reached the water. Applejack barely had time to grab Winona and submerge before another grabbed her, and she looked around in desperation as Winona yelped underwater, losing her air quickly. A few of the bubbles were broken, and she quickly found one that had broken in the lower parts and had some air left in it. She pulled Winona to it and put her inside, then rushed to the surface for a short breath. Her muzzle was scratched by an opportunistic roc, but she had taken enough air to stay down for a while.
-º-
Hours later, her skin feeling tender due to far too much humidity, she reached the glass beach again. Winona, whose bubbles had become unbreathable long ago, was behind her, having had to learn how to dive by force.
Applejack picked her bag, thanking any gods there were for having abandoned paper long ago. Cloth and water-resistant inks was the way to go as far as she was concerned, and she had quickly gained a good understanding of Granny's liking for them.
The wolf was nowhere to be seen, so she walked to the coast, picked up some half rotten wood from crumbled homes, and lit a fire with it.
To say that she was having an existential crisis would've been an overstatement.
However, walking in a forest pelted in the remains of moles would've been unpleasant even for a carnivore sapient. The young rocs had eaten most of it, but red splotches covered every hard surface and, here and there, bits of meat or skin could be seen, and there were little bones everywhere.
It was one of those moments when her hat came in handy. She walked with it covering most of her field of vision, not really needing to see anything but the ground immediately in front of her.
Winona was in a different frame of mind altogether, stopping every few meters to eat a bone noisily. Silly Orange hat horse, she thought, wasting all this perfectly good food.
There was a barely heard tingle but they ignored it, fed up with snapping to attention at it.
-º-
Lentils brewed over an intense fire as the moon reached its lowest. Grazing just wasn't an option in some situations.
Winona chewed a bone far too small to resist it for too long, and after a moment walked away nonchalantly for another one.
After half an hour of boredom and staring at the pot, she rummaged her bags for a book.
-º-
The tent hidden between bushes, Applejack ate the remains of the lentils while she read Mountain Mist.
Apparently, the book was about a zebra who was either a martial artist, a maid, or one disguising as the other seeking revenge or something against someone who had murdered or given birth to (The words were similar, and this was the first time she read rather than heard any of them) a demon under the maid/martial artist's service, which had let her crippled or immortal and angsty because she had promised her husband -who seemed to be a warrior- to die with him, which was, to Applejack, a really strange promise to make. Right now she was reading a scene that was either the zebra making love to the murderer or trying to kill him (Probably both), which included many a broken table.
Reading books in languages you didn't quite understand was an exercise of creativity and patience.
There was a small clack, and her gaze moved to the now empty plate.
She put it in a corner and peeked out from the tent and spent a moment hearing, wanting to be completely sure.
Nope. No wolf flower, no tingle, no nothing. She cleaned a small path between the leaves for good measure.
Calm mornings were something that she had definitely come to appreciate. Not a single...
Winona stood in front of the entrance with her ears raised.
Not a single sound.
"Aw damn it" Winona gave her a quick look, ears lowered and tail moving, and returned to her previous seriousness.
Applejack stood and opened the zip of the tent as silently as she could, then watched outside. Most of her range of vision was covered by bushes, so she walked the small path she had cleaned before in silence, Winona following.
The first thing she noticed was the amber glow, making it seem like the clearing where she had made the fire was alight. But there wasn't any smell or noise, so she advanced.
She barely caught sight of the ember wasp before it disappeared with a tingle. Shaking her head in annoyance, she went back to her tent to pack it before an idea came to her, that she had been getting far too sidetracked recently, so she entered the tent and grabbed the maps from her bags.
Oh.
Really?
She rummaged the deepest reaches of her bags for various minutes before finding a thick notebook. Granny had insisted in it being made of tarp, so it had only a few dozen pages, but it had paid off with time and the first pages had only slightly blurred ink. What mattered to her, however, was the very first thing written in it, by a hoof far older than hers.
"Huh," she took various tools from her bags and used them with the map for a few minutes "Yeah"
She put them all back, a small smile forming in her lips, and went through the motions of disassembling the tent and then folding it into a small package, the few telescopic metal rods of it tightened into what resembled ovals more than anything else.
-º-
Hours later, Applejack walked happily. As happy as one can be when walking in a forest filled with leg-breaking holes and dead moles, at least.
Winona regarded her curiously. They had been advancing northwest rather than straight west without nothing forcing them to, and Orange horse hat seemed happy rather than irritated about it.
Had dogs shrugged, she would have had. She'd find out soon enough.
A few minutes passed in silence. There was a tingle, and she looked around until her eyes fell in a small fire that followed them from a distance, nearly covered by the grass, before disappearing with another tingle. She would've shrugged at that, too: the fire had been chasing them for days now, and a quick experiment of its edibility had only resulted in her tongue feeling numb for the rest of the day, so it held no particular interest for her anymore.
The crevice didn't seem really old, for geological features: the trees in its walls weren't older than a decade or two, and the broken trees at the bottom hadn't quite finished decomposing.
They stood still for a moment, looking at its hole ridden depths. A cave system, with old mining equipment here and there, could be seen in the deepest reaches, which the crevice followed.
It was also a rather big cave system, and hence a rather big crevice, that twisted like snakes would if snakes were stupid enough to twist, old trees growing in the portions of land that hadn't fallen. What seemed like a thousand birds and small animals (Mainly foxes and felines) moved in its walls and small pathways, abusing the fact that it was less likely to be holed by moles (Which wouldn't, if Applejack was to guess, be much of a problem anymore) and too small for rocs to fly properly in it.
With an annoyed sigh, she set out to walk around the crevice.
-º-
Hours later, Applejack found herself.
Well, not herself in a physical way, or in a deep and meaningful way, or even in a lewd way. It was more of a mirror kind of thing.
She looked around, then back at the statue. There was a mirror in each of the faces of the statue's base, apparently made of some metal, with something inscribed around the borders of the mirrors.
After a moment of wondering about it, she started walking away from it and out of the "peninsula" of land in which it was.
"Yo"
She stopped.
"Yo sistah"
She turned to the mirrors. She now noticed four gargoyles, each about as big as a small kitten, in the upper corners of the statue's base.
"Yo sistah, cancha make me a favor?" asked the one closest to her.
"Don't" said another gargoyle.
Applejack blinked at them. Their lips weren't quite synchronized with their words, and they somehow talked Equish...
"Are you Magic?" she asked after a moment.
"Yes" Nodded the first gargoyle.
"Telepathic. And he can only tell lies," pointed the second one "I say truths"
Applejack gave them a confused look, then pointed at the other two gargoyles, "And them?"
"One says half truths or factoids, the other white lies" explained Truth.
"The sky is an upside-down lake" said one "Just a bunch of water"
"Also cold coffee will give you diarrhea" said the other.
There was a moment of silence.
"Enuff of that, cancha make me a favor?"
"Don't" repeated Truth.
"Uh, what kind of favor?"
Truth facepalmed, "There we go..."
"Cancha, uh, replace me for a moment?" asked Lie anxiously "I need to go to the bushes"
"Bushes?"
"You know. The bushes" he pointed with his wings "The little pebbles room?"
"Just go," said Applejack, pointing at one "This is a forest"
"Didn't know"
"Also this is an obvious trap"
"Totally not"
"I will turn into a gargoyle when I replace you"
"I've been needing to go for like twenty years now"
"No"
"Aaaaawwww cammooooooon"
Applejack shook her head with finality.
"See? This is why it works every time" reprehended Lies, giving Truth a mean look "Your darned lies"
"I'll send someone to help y-" tried Applejack.
"Don't bother, that zebra witch tried to help us a few times," shrugged Truth "The curse will wear off in a two centuries, give or take a few decades"
"You would help us?" asked Lies, in shock "For real?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Lies sniffled, sandy tears falling to the ground.
"I absolutely fucking hate you, you whore" said Lies, trying not to cry "This is like that time a bird kept pecking at my balls, only worse"
"Every time," deadpanned Truth "Every single time"
"Remember when the unicorn knight went on that quest for the weird cup?" asked one of the others "Didn't even work"
Applejack backpedaled silently, not wanting to end up involved in their dramas.
Applejack finished packing her tent and sat still, appreciating the silence. When a moment passed and no sound came to be, she started worrying. She glanced at Winona, whose ears were erected. Silently, she unbuckled her bags and stood.
Minutes passed and nothing happened.
She put her bags on again and walked, wary of the silence, closer to the crevice's border. The only life in sight was a fox peeking out of a hole, which disappeared immediately after their eyes met. She gulped and backed away from the border.
-º-
A twig snapped.
Applejack turned, her heartbeat a mile a minute.
Another twig cracked.
There was a tingle.
Many somethings ran away, not caring for silence.
She walked backward, too afraid to take her eyes off the amber light that could be guessed through the trees. Winona watched her without understanding.
The amber light faded, and after a moment she kept walking.
A few minutes later, another twig was broken.
-º-
What Applejack felt when something jumped at her was, she noticed in a wandering flash of worry, dangerously close to relief.
The path she was taking was bordered, at a side, by a small stone wall twice as tall as she was and covered in vegetation. There was an indistinct shape standing in it, but the one falling to her was more concerning.
She didn't have time to think much, so she took the most obvious option: holding a hoof upward awkwardly, in the way of the flower wolf's face.
She almost fell under the weight of the impact, but managed to stay on her hooves and then, feeling more than a bit of pleasure at the release of nervous energy, punched the flower wolf in the head while it was still trying to get its bearings, then unbuckled her bags.
She was vaguely aware of Winona and a wolf jumping at each other, but too distracted by a second falling wolf.
Birds, she thought.
She moved out of the wolf's way and, in the instant in which gravity hadn't quite figured out what to do and it stood in its face, bucked it.
Attack from above. Attack when in a small space.
They are trying to hunt us like birds.
There was a feeling of strain in her hindhooves, which was probably related to the wolves being heavier than she was.
Do they even know how to hunt anything else? Only birds would be big enough to sustain them...
The first wolf seemed to be coming to its senses, so she hit it in the head again and then yelped away when another wolf, this one closer to her size, jumped from the grass.
One of her hind hooves fell in a hole and bent, thankfully, in the direction it was supposed to bend. Still, it left her in an almost biped standing position, her belly exposed.
The wolf jumped at her again, and all she could do was put an arm in its way. There was a red-hot pain in it for an instant before the wolf was jumped at by a bloodied Winona, and-
-and everyone except for Winona stopped when there was a tingle.
A wolf yelped briefly before its throat was torn out, which made everything start again.
"Oh" said a vaguely female voice.
Another wolf jumped over Winona, aiming for her neck.
"_ate, alw_ys l_te"
The ember wisp appeared in the wolf's face.
"Go"
The wolf, its face contorted in terror, fled. The others only spared the wasp a glance before escaping too.
"_ways l_te, _ven to..." the ember seemed to turn to her despite having no face "_hat w_s it th_t I was la_e fo_?"
Applejack was too busy trying to process what was happening to answer.
"_h, ri_ht. The hag_ns, __e hagens..." her voice was constantly interrupted by clicks, similar to something small and hard hitting glass "the h_gens attack__ you, right?"
Applejack nodded, then remembered she had a mouth.
"Why are you following us?" she asked. Her last follower had been a monomaniac.
"I _m?"
"Yes"
"Oh"
Another loony. Great. She turned to see Winona's state.
"_nd __o are y_u?" Applejack didn't answer "F_rgive m_ forg_tf_lness, Nanda said _ am..." the wisp fell silent for a while "I forg_t wh_t she s__d"
Winona had many small wounds, enough to be dangerous if she hadn't been eating properly, but the forest provided abundantly. Still, it'd mean a lot of blood lost...
She patted her in the head distractedly and poured half a bottle of disinfectant in her bite wounds, then put the bags on again and Winona in her back. The dog tried to hop off, but after being held in place by a firm hoof for a moment fell still. Once everything was done, she walked on.
-º-
Hours later, she found a small area with stone ground, some grass growing in the dirt of its cracks. There was a spring in it.
Applejack tasted the water to make sure that it was safe, then filled her canteen in it. With that done, she put a generous portion of her remaining disinfectant in a plate and forced Winona into the small spring. She scrubbed the wounds with disinfectant and water carefully, reopening some wounds.
The wisp still followed them, making her own conversation.
"..._ut if __e d__r..."
Applejack ignored her. They'd need somewhere to sleep safely, and the wisp would probably forget any promise of keeping rocs at bay.
-º-
It was hours later, when sun had gotten dangerously high, that she found a small area with bushes high enough to hide the tent.
She armed it, ignoring the wisp's chatter as she did so, so she didn't notice it when, after sunlight illuminated her eyes, the wisp fell silent.
A moment after pony and dog had fallen to sleep, the wisp floated around the tent in confusion. She had seen eyes like those, somewhere, long ago...
When Applejack had nearly fallen asleep again, the tingling resumed.
"Shat ap"
The tingling stopped for a moment. She gave a jealous look to Winona, who slept with her belly to the sky and her legs moving, chasing dream bunnies.
When the tingle resumed, she opened the tent and peeked out, enraged and covering her eyes from the obnoxious light.
"Shut. Up!" she whispered as loudly as she dared "Disappear or somethin!"
The wisp stopped floating in circles and watched her for a moment.
"Wh_?" she asked innocently.
"Because I need to sleep!"
"Re_lly?"
"Yes!"
"Oh" she fell silent for a moment "I th_ught liv_ngs did it for fun" she added.
"Just... go away, thanks for the help but I need to sleep"
The wisp didn't move.
"Why are you following me?" she asked, giving up.
"I _on't r_member"
Applejack watcher her, irritated and tired, and reentered the tent.
This time the wisp remained silent, and she drifted to sleep...
...only to be waken up, what felt like a few hours later, by rocs. They were noisome at the best of times, but this was overboard even for them.
She peeked out of the tent again and saw the rocs flying away, darkening the skies.
The wisp watched, trying to remember what was so special about her.
-º-
The whole forest was silent under the sunlight.
This time it was good, however. It meant than the rocs had gone away, and that the native fauna still was stretching.
She packed her tent and, ignoring how tired she was, walked on. She missed sleeping at night dearly.
Winona walked at her left, and after some time she realized that apparently the wisp had decided to take on her right.
"Still don't remember why you follow me?" she asked after a moment, without turning and trying to keep at least a polite tone.
"No"
"Nothing?"
The wisp took a moment to answer, "So_ethi_g a_out you_ e_es"
"My eyes? Something bad?"
"I've _een __em" she paused for a moment "I _emember seeing e_es like yours"
"When?"
"I can'_ reme_ber"
Applejack didn't answer.
After a moment, she walked on.
-º-
The map didn't quite use the same coordinates system she had been taught to use as a foal, but as Twilight would have said, mathematics were the one universal science.
At least within our universe, she had added once, but that didn't mater. What mattered was that Thrata was a seaside country, so their astral navigation was up to modern standards and their maps were reliable in that, so patience and a good sextant had confirmed that she was, in fact, within her path.
Not that there weren't annoyances. Currently, the amber wisp either had forgotten that dogs can't talk or was trying to teach Winona how to.
She reminded herself to be polite to someone who apparently had saved her hide quite a few times, so after packing map and sextant she went for the logical step:
"'Scuse me," she walked to the other two "Do you have a name?" she asked. Winona looked at her thankfully for a moment and sneaked away.
"N_me?"
Applejack tried not to be unnerved at how the wisp somehow managed to face her without a face or even body, and waited for the wisp to continue.
"Yes, name" she answered after nearly a minute.
"Name" she said to herself "I _ave a na_e?" she asked after a moment.
"That's what I asked you" she fought to keep a polite smile in her lips.
"Oh"
"So?"
"I don'_ remember"
Applejack grumbled under her breath.
"Oh?"
"Do you want one?" she asked "A name" she added, just in case.
"I do?"
"That's what I asked you"
"Oh" Applejack was about to talk when she continued "Yes, bu_ ho_ do I ge_ one?"
Applejack was taken aback by the question, and after a moment she answered, "Just decide which one you want"
"Whi__ wha_?"
"Which name you want"
"Name?"
She grunted before answering, "I asked you if you had a name and you told me you didn't remember so I asked you if you wanted one and you asked me how you get one and-" Applejack stopped to breath "-and I told you that you can just choose whatever you want"
"I can?" the wisp floated closer to her face "Really?"
Applejack couldn't help but smile when she nodded. Like Applebloom with cuttie marks, this one. However, she stopped after a moment.
"I don'_ _now whi__ one _o choose" she said dimly.
Applejack whistled for Winona, "We can think of something as we walk"
The forest wasn't relieved. To feel relief it would've needed the ability to feel or understand sadness, which is a hard concept to grasp for something that is, ultimately, a demi-inteligent (And arguably demi-existing) system made of loosely connected components with a tendency to either die or have a inteligence equal to that of all of its non-intelligent vegetal cells.
All the same, the rodents that had hampered its growth had recently been stricken en masse, reducing their genetic variety far beyond the no-return point. To be exact, both of the remaining ones were male, so whatever fun they had wouldn't hurt anyone.
In the depths of the forest, veins that only those deeply attuned to the magics of life would've sensed throbbed impatiently, bursting to release energy that had been built up for over a century.
-º-
Somehow, the idea seemed to have alighted a flame too intense for the waters of forgetfulness to extinguish.
Or more probably it was related to the part where the wisp hadn't talked of anything else, or even stopped talking, since the idea had entered her head.
The name had to be pretty, first and foremost. It also had to be easy to remember, which in Applejack's honest opinion would be wasted effort, and, for some strange reason, daring.
She gave the wisp a look. Not a coward, maybe, but daring was a precise word that people used for precise reasons.
So, after a having tried to find a tactful way to ask it, she gave up.
"Why daring?"
The chatter stopped dry.
"I d_n'_ _now" said the wisp after a moment.
They walked in silence for a moment.
"So, uh..." There was no tactful way to act this "What were you, when you were alive?"
"I __ink I w_s a guy" a moment passed "Oh! You _ean the sp_cie_?" Applejack nodded "I... I was __g- big, and... hairy, a lo_ o_ hair..." she paused for a moment "I __ink I had horns?"
"A buff-?" there seemed to be a small shaking in the ground "Did you notice something?"
The wisp seemed to be somewhat dimmer and wavered at the edges now, as if Applejack's eyes couldn't quite focus in her.
"I _eel _e_rd..." she fell closer to the ground "_ome__ing is w_r_ng... c__ we res_ f_r a _it?" she asked weakly.
It took Applejack a moment to understand.
"Rest? Yeah, but what's wrong?"
Without answering, the wisp floated to a bush and seemed to merge into it, vanishing. Applejack tried unsuccessfully not to shudder when the bush faced her despite lacking a face.
"__e fores_ is _oing _ome__ing" she said, her voice a smidgen stronger. Somehow, the raw presence that gave Applejack a sense of which way she was facing was lacking, now, and disappearing quickly.
"Can I do s...?" something rocketed to the front of her mind "wait, guy?"
"Nan_a wi__ k_ow wha_ _o do" she said weakly "She's _lose by, just..." a tiny spark pointed northward "__ere"
"Yes!" Applejack interrupted "I know the ground is alive, but what that have to do with this?"
Nanda sighed.
"I am not talking of the ground, I am talking about the forest!" she pointed vaguely at the trees "The moles aren't a problem anymore, it wants to grow again! It needs energy for that!"
"Just tell me what's wrong with he- him?" she pointed at a nearby boulder in which the wisp, who Nanda called Amber, resided.
"Doesn't it seem odd to you that you haven't seen any spirit before?" asked Nanda in exasperation "The forest allowed them to exist, it was... loaning them energy, for safekeeping. Now it wants it back"
Applejack almost opened her mouth to answer, but closed it again when realization dawned upon her like a cold bath.
"Your husband...?" she asked as tactfully as she could, grimacing.
"Yes" she said simply, then turned to walk away "If you are done, I have to supervise that nothing goes wrong in the forest's heart"
Applejack watched her walk away, then turned to Amber's boulder.
"Can you move now?"
"I __in_-__ink" he tried to exit, but the only result was the air around it waving as if heated for a moment.
She grabbed a small stone from the floor, "Just use this"
-º-
It isn't fair, thought Applejack I am supposed to be glad now.
The ancient acacia tree towered over most others, and was surrounded by a patch of terrain in which no grass grew. That and the lack of holes were probably related to the tree poisoning the ground it resided in.
But this is how it is.
She took a knife from her bag, gave a look to a nearby bag, and started the slow and laborious process of carving in the tree's bark, then its wood.
It took her a few hours, and her jaws ached when it was done, but she had inscribed her initials in it. There were more on it, some so high she barely could read them. Immediately above hers, there was "P. , B.". Far above it was "G.S."
She looked at the first for some time, vaguely aware of the sun reaching the horizon.
"You have her eyes"
Applejack didn't move.
"Amber took a liking to them from the start, and almost followed them out of the forest. It took us hours to convince him otherwise" Nanda walked to her side "He has been dissolving for decades now, minds only last so long with only a soul to maintain them, even my husband wasn't much better" Applejack didn't answer, so she continued "You thought that reaching this would be nice, didn't you? These things are like pieces of graves... as you follow the same path, you'll just keep finding their trail, have you not learned that by now?"
"I thought... I thought that I'd be able to ignore it, just this one time, after having walked half the globe"
"You could just take a ship back home. You should, as much of the path is far more dangerous than it used to be"
"No, I-" there was a splutter of black smoke above her head, and then another, making Nanda jumped away from the surprise.
With a green flame enveloped in purple magic, a package appeared and fell in Applejack's head.
She rubbed her head distractedly and read the next letter.
Being knocked out by a parcel wasn't nice. Gods knew why Rainbow had felt the need to send her a horseshoe.
She drank some tea and passed to another letter.
"Any moment now," said Nanda, watching the trees around the clearing "Can you feel it?"
Applejack put the tea near the fire again. She did feel it, a sort of rumbling under her hooves.
"Don't care"
Nanda sighed, "You know, when I started learning my trade I had expected to grow insensible to departures over time. Instead I learned to see what beauty they leave behind for us, and you should, too."
Applejack passed to the next letter.
Then she fell to the floor. The floor shook wildly, rumbling deafeningly. She felt something warm pressing itself against her, and saw that Winona had appeared from wherever she had been.
Nanda's laughter cut through the noise cleanly, as did her voice:
"Nothing is actually moving, it's just how most people perceives the energy cascade!" she said happily "Look," she pointed at the sky "This is a once-in-several-lifetimes sight!"
Applejack did so, and...
...And from the heart of the forest column of light shot itself to the skies, birds flying with its advance.
The column seemed to reach its full height (It seemed to Applejack that it had tethered itself to the moon) and vibrated like a rope pulled tight suddenly, scaring most birds away.
Three smaller columns rose, making spirals around the first one until they reached the top too. Everything fell still for a moment as the cords shone brighter and brighter in shades of aquamarine.
For an instant, it seemed to Applejack that a thousand wisps of different colors shone along the columns.
The three cords started unwrapping themselves from the lower part, advancing tight spirals across the forest.
"Shouldn't we run?" Asked Applejack, backpedaling away from the closest one, which was a kilometers away but advancing quickly.
"Why?" Nanda turned to her for a moment, a glint in her eyes "This is life, child, in its most pure expression! What every necromancer dreams to see!"
"But will your life thing hurt us!?" she asked in a strangled tone, realizing that even Rainbow would've been pressed to outrun it.
"Didn't you hear me!?" she laughed "Life! This could cure all ills! Cancer, red rot, even death, if the body was intact enough!"
Before Applejack had time to answer, the cord reached th-
was... peaceful. The light calmed her mind, as if laughing at the very idea of anything having troubles at all.
She breathed calmly and looked around her without a hurry, taking in every blade of grass. She was vaguely aware of small animals walking out of previously empty crevices, and of gnarly roots growing over every hole the moles had made, but
-hem and went away.
"Ha! Told you, kid! I feel twenty years younger!" Nanda hopped, then cringed "Ugh, I was already old twenty years ago" she said, rubbing her back.
Applejack looked her arms and found, surprised, that the bite wounds wheren't there anymore. Winona seemed to be perfectly fine too.
Their stomaches grumbled collectively.
"And the books were right in that, too," Nanda walked to her "Care to share a bite?"
Applejack blinked at her, then at the cords. They weren't following a strictly spiral pattern now, instead covering the irregular borders of the forest.
Her stomach grumbled again, and as if in a dream she took a can from her bags.
Day 29: As old ladies talk about cute little things.
Nanda's joyfulness had lasted about fifteen minutes, until Applejack had made a question without thinking properly of its weight.
"Now that the forest is fixed, will you stay here?". It had seemed like an innocent thing to ask. A way to start conversation.
"...cian! Do you have an idea of what happens to necromancers who enter bureaucracy?" she paced on without waiting for an answer "Some rich idiot wants to be a lich, and if he isn't made one suddenly the necromancer has been robbing tombs!"
"You've been-"
"Fine, I know, but I had something to grab them by the de-ra-lej, now that spirits aren't a problem anymore they'll come talking about money, the nu-dre's!" she stomped the ground angrily, white light flashing with the impact "Tredelas, building a city around me and then demanding taxes! Burn them all, I will! I won't bear that again! I won't bear those kids, with all their money, thinking I'll use my knowledge for their good...!" she ranted on, the grass around her withering and dying.
Applejack backpedaled, dreading the touch of the expanding ring of decay.
"Nanda"
She kept ranting, the flame of the fire losing its light when the ring reached it.
"Nanda!" she shouted.
"What!?" she shouted back, her eyes alight in green flame.
"Cut it off, you idiot!"
"Cut off w-" she looked around "Oh" she said in a far more subdued tone, her eyes losing their shine and the fire returning to a more, for lack of a better term, healthy color.
That had been the night before.
Today, Nanda had a pair of saddlebags that seemed far too heavy for someone so old to carry.
"Surane is nice this time of the year, I heard" she said in a tone that was at odds with the earlier rant "But they say that the way is too dangerous for a defenseless mare"
"Defenseless?" Applejack tried not to laugh "You could-"
"What?" Nanda lifted an eyebrow in a very precise way "I wasn't talking about me"
"Am not-"
"Can you wield the very forces of life and death against your foes?" asked Nanda, as if talking with a kid who insists in eating too much candy.
"No, but I can carve their faces inward," Applejack glared at her "That good enough for you?"
Nanda paused for a moment, seemingly taking it into consideration.
"Yes," she said "Yes, I think you can cover my back, in case something sneaks while I tear their skin off"
"And you know that, before the heat ends, you'll end..." Applejack paused, trying to remember the right word "...Wet" she said in Nanda's mother tongue.
Nanda laughed.
"Do you hear yourself, child?"
Applejack replayed the words in her head, then muttered under her breath, annoyed. The oppressive heat didn't help, either, or the heavy feel of humidity in it. Or her imposed companion.
"It's the backlash of so much energy moving at once, you know" said Nanda nonchalantly.
"Ah"
"The air is charged with static, and the static produces heat..."
"Su- sure"
Nanda didn't continue. Applejack opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. Maybe this was how the old mare went about mourning. Or maybe she mourned when out of sight. She'd think Nanda wasn't mourning at all, hadn't it been for how angry she had been before.
She felt sad for Amber, and she had barely known him. It was alienating to see someone who had just lost her husband go about her business without much concern.
They kept walking in silence.
"Nanda?" she found herself asking.
"Yes?"
"Nothing"
"It's been "Nothing" six times today"
The terrain was changing, too, to a more rocky one.
"We are reaching the Surane mountains, right?" she asked, mainly to fill the silence.
"Bloka, but yes"
Winona, who was a few meters behind them, barked at something.
They both turned, Applejack hoping for something to distract her, but sadly life reserves nastiness for when you don't want it, so the only thing she saw was a fleeing fox, barely bigger than a lynx.
"Ugh"
-º-
By noon, Nothing had been eight times and Winona had caught a small bird, which both of them elected to very pointedly not notice.
"Brothers?" Asked Applejack.
"Two of 'em, probably died of age by now. Never was very attached to my family. You?"
"Big Mac and Apple Bloom"
"Waiting for you, I expect?"
"And taking care of our granny"
Nanda nodded without a comment.
"And just how old are you?" she asked after a moment.
"Old enough"
"Ah" the exact same age as granny, unsurprisingly.
"Stopped counting a while ago, anyway. Didn't see much use in it anymore"
Applejack noticed herself edging a little further from the zebra.
"Not a lich, you fool" Nanda rolled her eyes "Why can't people ever get it in their heads? Use enough magic and your body starts getting weird. I think I got reverse cancer or something"
Applejack didn't quite understand, but nodded anyway.
Day 31: As terrible, terrible food roams somewhere
"Twenty seven," counted Applejack absent-mindedly "I hate it when storms take so long to just happen"
"I kn- twenty eight. I know"
A single drop fell in Nanda's muzzle, and they both watched the sky expectantly for nearly a minute before walking again.
"By the time water falls the storm drained itself in thunder and wind"
Nanda nodded, "Twenty nine"
-º-
"Are you sure it ain't meat?"
"Yes"
Applejack smelled her bowl, "Smells like meat"
"It isn't"
"Its got chunky brown bits"
"You saw me cook it"
"Not all of it"
"You were gone for two minutes"
"I don't-"
"Will you eat already"
Applejack gave her stew an untrusting look.
"If you don't eat the food I made you'll experience the pain of a thousand deaths"
"I think than that's what I have in my bowl" Applejack took one of the brown cubes with her fork and touched it with the tip of her tongue "What in the hay is this?"
Nanda sighed, "Do you want to know a song my mother sung, when my father argued too much? She called it "Turd for dinner" "
"Uh"
"It's alfalfa with mushrooms, foal. You saw me cook it"
"Good mushrooms or ba-"
"Eat already" Nanda put a forkful in her mouth "See? No meat, no drugs, just good alfalfa with perfectly safe mushrooms and some pepper"
"Alright..." she took a forkful and, at glaciar pace, moved it to her mouth.
"I thought you were a traveler" sighed Nanda.
"Rotten clay stew" she swallowed, clearly disliking the taste "I was open to new experiences until that one"
"What? the clay stew is good with enough salt"
"Enough salt that you can't taste the actual stew?"
"Er" Nanda fidgeted for a moment "Its not like all food is clay stew"
"No. But there is something worse, somewhere, and I am not going to find it"
"You are seriously over reacting"
"I spent two days puking. You?"
"I-" Nanda cut herself "Three days"
"I understand," nodded Applejack.
"What I don't understand is why they make it. It's like they are playing a joke to every single traveler" Nanda's head hung "And they insist in that you like it if you eat enough"
"They are all mad, those minotaurs. So much clay gets in the brain or something"
"Do they still put those small egg things in it?" she asked "The grayish green ones?"
Applejack nodded.
"Oh for the love of-" Both them and Winona jumped at the sudden roar.
"Thirty five" counted Applejack when their breaths had returned to a normal pace.
-º-
"You sure?"
"Yes, kid, the sign says clearly that we have to cross the bridge"
Applejack eyed it warily.
"We should take another way"
"It'll resist us"
"Like a bull, throwing us away"
"I doubt it"
"Ever mounted a bull?"
"Can't say I've had the pleasure"
"You don't want to" Applejack peeked down the crevice "We really should search another path"
"How's the whole tearing skin off business these days? I heard its all the rage in Manehattan"
Nanda grumbled under her breath.
"So? Do go on. I am sure the bridge will scream in pain any moment now"
A light wind made them sway under the rain.
"Just like that, yeah"
"Shut up"
"You know, when I saw this bridge it put me in a jolly good mood" she continued "I mean, who hasn't ever dreamt with plunging to his death from a rickety bridge?"
"Shut up"
"And instead we nearly plunged to our deaths and ended hanging from rotten ropes, too bundled up to move, and under the rain" she slipped a bit and grunted, strengthening her hindlegs' grasp in Winona.
"Shut up"
"Every night I dream with this, no joke. Sometimes they are hot, you know. Have to take a cold shower as soon as I wake up"
They both fell silent for a moment.
"Are you quite done?"
"Nearly," she plunged her head backward, landing a blow in Nanda's forehead "Now, that's what I needed"
Silence fell again.
"We could try to swing to that rock"
"It'd break the rope"
Another gush of wind swayed them. Applejack's bags slipped another centimeter, and she felt Nanda gasp. She was holding both their bags from falling with the only free arm any of them had.
"We need to attract something"
"Any great idea?"
"If you laugh I'll bite the rope," Nanda cleared her throat, took in air, and ululated.
A moment later, a fox appeared in the border of the crevice, eager to show his masculinity to the world. Another appeared, and another, and another...
And five minutes later, what Applejack could only describe as a small army of hot and bothered foxes watched Nanda intently.
"Hey, genius" said Applejack when Nanda stopped calling them.
"What!?"
"They are in the wrong side" she deadpanned.
"You lit-" Nanda cut herself "Help me turn us around"
Applejack did so, giving the foxes a last look before all she could see was rock. Nanda fell still, and she heard the foxes running away.
"Huh? Anything wrong?" she tried to see Nanda.
Nanda didn't answer.
"Hallo?"
A fox appeared in the crevice, did something that resembled a bark, and ran off again.
"Great"
A few minutes passed.
"Could as well practice" no one answered ""Hey, old lady, did you actually hate your husband...?" No, how about, "Hallo. Why aren't you crying a sea?""
She fell silent.
"I mean, its weird... how about "Yo, hag, cry and stuff"?" she said in a gruff tone "Na, that's too Dash for this"
"Its weird that you keep switching on and off with... everything. Good hag, bad hag, wise hag. Its like you are five hags per minute or something. Angry about your husband and then going wise on me? Seriously?"
A fox barked, watching them intently from the side of the crevice they hung from. Moments later, the rest appeared.
"And what in the hay is on with the lot of you?"
As one, the foxes grabbed the rope in their mouths...
"Oh no no no!" she looked around in desperation, searching something to grab a hold off.
...and pulled it, lifting them.
"What"
When they were up, Nanda shuddered and jerked up, breathing deeply.
"I hate having to do that" she grimaced in distaste.
The foxes were still for a moment, then watched each other in confussion.
"And foxes make you feel cold, right?" Nanda nodded "So every animal you... enter has some after effect?"
"Yes, things like those always leave some mental contamination"
"And that is...?"
Nanda opened her mouth several times before talking, "Bits and pieces of your mind break if it interacts with any soul but your own. Extreme cases alter memories and intuitive knowledge"
"Ouch"
"Small things repair themselves, but if I stayed in any other body for too long... the very cores would go beyond repair. I'd remember sideways, hear blue, and talk brightly"
"Ouch"
"Yes. My teacher in it was blind and had panic attacks if there was't any light," she shuddered "One of the most important things we are taught is to avoid using our skills, really"
"Huh"
They walked silently for a moment.
"You know, I am curious about something"
"Ask away"
"Didn't necromancers avoid telling what they are? Why did you tell me just like that?"
"In my trade, we study and manipulate souls, and is in our eyes and throats that mind and soul find each other and sparkle what we really are," they started walking again "you have your mother's eyes, and your father's voice. Of course I knew I could trust you"
"And you knew who I was from the get go"
"They promised to send me a message if they made it back" she sighed "How was I supposed to tell you? "Hi. I knew your probably dead parents. Bye"?"
It took Applejack a moment to talk again.
"You are doing it again"
"What?"
"Acting differently. Breaking character. Whatever is that you do. Angry a day, clever the next, emotional the other"
"Well, you..." Nanda paused for a moment "I am well over the hundred. You don't expect someone to stay sane for that long, right?"
"I've met-"
"Immortals? Neither minds or souls are made to last so long, that's what my teachers told me. An immortal's soul is like a home that collapsed until there is no empty space left for it to fall to"
"And you are telling me that'll happen to anyone who lives long enough? Alicorns? Dragons?"
"That takes hundreds of years to happen. And dragon souls are particular, mind you. They shift constantly"
"And you are crazy"
"I don't giggle for no reason anymore, if that's what worries you"
"Great. That puts me at ease. You won't giggle when you start summoning demons or something"
"Demons are inefficient, they spent too long burning things and cackling" Applejack stopped "Devouring some spirit or elemental is more efficient. Have you ever controlled thunder at will?" she turned and noticed Applejack's grimace "I really like controlling thunder at will" she said with a warm smile.
"Ah. Okay. Perfect. A-OK"
"You know, I've always wondered what's the taste of earth pony souls" Nanda walked to her, grinning widely, and pressed their faces together "Will I grow stronger? Younger?" Only a wa-ahaha your face! You should see your face!" she laughed loudly "I had forgotten just how fun it was to do that"
Applejack watched her for a moment, boiling in anger, and headbutted her.
Applejack tightened the rope to her chest, ignoring the pain of it. It wouldn't be too long.
"You ready?" she turned to Nanda.
The zebra finished tightening her own and nodded. Winona sat nearby, intent in displaying what an affront to canine dignity it was to have rope weighting her down.
They watched the bridge for a moment. It was in the first actual mountain they had had to pass, and rather than stretching over empty space replaced a part of the pathway carved into the mountain side that had broken long ago.
Still, equines and canines gave it equally untrusting looks. Several more stretched in the distance, making their path more of a wooden hallway specked by stone than anything else.
Applejack started the walk, more or less pulling Winona during the first meters or so. She had been assigned the center of the rope by mute agreement.
"Wait," Nanda stopped and rummaged in her bags until she found two steel hooks in it, easily thick enough to support a cow's weight "These could be useful"
"Uh, are those...?" Applejack pointed them.
"A gryphon who was convinced I was carnivore gave them to me" Nanda rolled her eyes "Really, foal, must you?"
"Yes"
Nanda grunted, but offered her the hooks anyway, "I don't trust this old wood any more than you do, hook the rope to the handrail if a part is too fragile" she paused for a moment "He should be around here, actually..."
Applejack took them and, after some consideration, used them. The handrail seemed to have been designed with that in mind, at least-- long steel bars anchored to the rock firmly every thirty meters.
-º-
"How long-" Applejack coughed from the stone dust "How long had these things been unused?"
"At least twenty years" Nanda gave a look to the series of collapsed pathways behind them, only the handrails remaining, and gulped "Probably your parents were the last to pass"
"Huh" Applejack pulled herself together and started walking again, carrying a panicked Winona over her back.
"It's the holes. I was used to moving there, and you to minding your step, but most people either breaks a leg in the first day or flies over everything"
"I guess they'll have to rebuild this now, then"
"Thank Rina I am getting away from that place," Nanda sighed "You have no idea of what that forest has coming. Surane and Tharata will spend decades fighting over who owns it, and this will probably take twice that long to be fixed, the idiots. Some crazy Troika descendant will probably join the fray in a few months, too"
"Wasn't Surane..." Applejack paused for a moment "Wasn't Surane nearly at the other side of the mountains?"
Nanda cackled an humorless laugh, "Politics transcend logic, foal. I expected you to know tha..." her laugh had echoed across the mountains, and now there was a rumble of rock directly above them. Both their faces fell.
All she managed to say before being pulled by Applejack was, and Applejack wasn't nearly good enough in Northern Swamp Zebrahic to fully understand it, was "Oh by [thousand multiplier][vague multiplier][cunt?] of your [sister/mother/grandmother?] [???] and the [whore?] who birthed her!"
-º-
"New rule-"
"I'll speak softly. Got it," her gaze moved to Winona, who was a trembling lump pressed against Applejack "And you won't bark, won't you?"
Winona yelped softly and covered her eyes with her ears.
"No cursing, either. I am pretty sure you offended the mountain or something" she scratched Winona behind the ears and pulled her onto her back "If the mountain asks for sacrifices you are it"
Day 35: For fully grown magicians to act like the kids they actually are, you don't need much
"I will rip flesh from bones, only sinew will rem-! What are you doing?"
"Searching a knife," she kept rummaging her bags "I am pretty sure I had one"
"Ah. Uh. I'll be going" He started floating away from her.
"But mere metal can't hurt you, right?" she took her head from the bags, the knife in her mouth, and followed "Shush shay guied bor a hohen"
The floating gryphon seemed to consider it for a moment, "Er, it... it unwaves my... ectoplasm frequency. Yeah"
Nanda walked in from a group of bushes, carrying berries, and stopped dry.
"Ron?" she asked "You are doing it again, aren't you" she said tiredly.
"Uh... no?" he backed off "I was, uhm, giving her... traveler tips"
"Drop if off, will you. And I mean the spell, too" she put the berries in a bowl "Do you ever do anything but bother travelers?"
"Sometimes I meditate and align my chak-" Nanda gave him a look "Right away, ma'am" the gryphon took a stone from his back, instantly changing in aspect. Before, Applejack hadn't been able to focus on him, as her eyes seemed to slip over any kind of specific detail other than a eerie glow surrounding him. Now, she saw it-- an old, mostly featherless gryphon with an eye bulging from the socket, as if trying to escape the rest of his body. She could only commend the effort.
Applejack's gaze shifted from gryphon to zebra for a moment as a sense of dread formed in her.
"Please tell me he isn't a necromancer too" she backpedaled from them "I can only bear so much of it at once"
"No, he-"
"I am a guruu in-"
"In stupidity" Nanda interrupted back.
"I'd like to see you making yourself one with nature" Ron glared at her.
"I've lived in a forest for longer that you've been here. And I am no thief" she added.
"Oh, don't start with-"
"You ask turists for sacrifice or wealth. You've been doing so for years"
"It's not my fault if they give me things after I merely ask for some insect or another to eat like any good gooru" he crossed his arms and noticed his mistake just before his beak impacted the ground "I still don't get used to being quad-"
"Reincarnation isn't real! You never were a minotaur!"
"Guruu Nuti proved it as true!"
"Aria the bone-dancer proved that it isn't!"
"It i-" started Ron before a hoof was shoved into in his beak and Nanda's mouth.
"If the mountain comes down on us" Applejack whispered sweetly "I'll kill you both before any rock reaches us. Understood?"
They nodded.
"Now, I'll take my hooves from your mouths and you won't shout"
They nodded again. She took her hooves from their mouths.
"The spirit dissolves without body or mind," whispered Nanda "Or especially apt environments" she added.
"The spirit flows into the earth, were it is recycled in accordance to Nuti's fourth law..." whispered back Ron.
Winona ran over the grass and, happily, threw herself to the mud in the river's border, where she proceeded to thoroughly roll in it.
Nanda and Applejack reached it a moment later and, stepping in stones rather than the mud, filled their canteens.
"Its just hogwash, it is"
"You've only told me forty times"
"There is no such thing as some magic vital cycle. Energy and mass are used and reused, that's it"
"So you say" she slung her canteen from its strap and they went to sit in the grass, waiting for Winona to be done.
"And he truly believes it, too" Nanda followed suit.
"'fraid so"
"Just because some guy spent two years without eating and said it"
"I know"
"As if it was so hard, to channel ambiental magic into your system..."
"Aha"
"Changelings do it all the time, with barely any evolutionary specialization"
"Really"
"The shapeshifting is for completely different reasons. They are outbranched earth ponies, and not by that much"
"So when's the wedding?" grunted Applejack.
"The wed-? wha- no!" Nanda cut herself "My grudge with him is of a purely scientific and moral nature!"
They fell silent for a moment.
"And what's that about eating magic?"
"Technically," Applejack's brain, except for a small region dedicated to nodding, shut down "its funneling ambiental magic into your thaumic glands and making them work backwards, producing nutrients from the energy" Applejack's brain turned on again "You earth ponies do it a lot without realizing, its why you can go on for longer than others without food. But doing it like Nuti did, forcing them to completely replace food, is bad, the glands get damaged using them like that too much"
"Starving's worse" muttered Applejack, grabbing a flower near them and eating it distractedly.
"You want to learn how to do it, don't you"
"Could be useful" she admitted, noticing her improvement in the language with a mix of pride and annoyance at having done so long after exiting Thrata "There's deserts everywhere. I hadn't noticed just how many there were before"
"Well, it can't replace water... but I guess I could teach you. But!" she added severely "Don't trust if for more than a few days, maybe a week. Nuti ended invalid, blind, flightless, and completely unable to use what little magic gryphons have anyway. Good for him he came back as a flea or something, right?" she noticed that Applejack's eye had taken a particular glassed look and cleaned her throat "You grew in a farm, so... show your muscles, first"
Applejack gave her a look but did so, straining her arms and back. Nanda gave her an appraising look and blinked several times, getting increasingly irritated until she knocked her head, her eyes closed. When she opened them again, there was a certain blurriness about them.
"Yes, now relax them... tense them again... now, try to go through the mental process of tensing your muscles without actually doing it" Applejack tried several times "You should feel a sort of urge when you get it right, a want for release... no, don't give me that look, and yes, its exactly like what you are thinking about, I was young once, I know what I am talking about" she closed and reopened her eyes until the blurriness had gone away "Anyhow, it seems like your dog is done. It'll take you some time to get it right"
Applejack gave Winona a pat, "So how will this help me?"
"It won't, this is teaching you to control your magic without having to waste effort. When you can do it with ease, making the thaumic gland go backwards will be like using a mental switch"
"Sounds good," she got up "Now, lessee how much more mountain tries to fall on us"
Winona shook the mud out of her fur.
"You sonuva-!" cursed Nanda and Applejack at unison, in two separate languages.
"You are doing good, but..." she squinted for a moment "...were you ever in a relationship with an unicorn?" she asked cautiously.
"One or two, when I when I was adolescent" nodded Applejack, still trying to trigger her magic without the effort of tensing the muscles.
"Big in horn-sucking, were you?" she squinted harder.
She blushed softly, "All of them burned my tongue, so no"
"That or you spent half your life in a toxic dump" she squinted harder "Your magic is strange"
"Good strange or bad strange?" Applejack gritted her teeth "Maybe the forest thing?"
"Just strange, like a sock too big for its feet. It never quite accommodates to you" she squinted at her throat "Yes, there also seems to be magic from unicorns and... pegasi?"
"Ah, tha-" Applejack shat up, her teeth clicking faintly.
"Hmm?" asked Nanda distractedly, poking her spine "The pegasi magic is mostly here, it must be searching wings- No, don't get up, you keep trying to make the magic flow"
Applejack considered lying for a moment, but decided to just shut her mouth.
"Maybe it's simply your bloodline, or something from your travels. You still should check with a medic or arcanist from time to time" she fell silent for a moment "I think this is enough for today, get up"
-º-
"Nanda?" asked Applejack a few hours later "Can I make a kinda personal question?"
"I don't promise to answer"
Applejack took a moment to formulate the question, "Do you have any grand-grandsons?"
"Probably," she shrugged "I gave teat to my daughters, loaned them some money if they really needed it, helped them with a few babies decades later... but family just seems to loose importance too quickly for me, and I say it without pride nor shame"
Applejack couldn't help but notice her slightly downcast glance, but kept quiet. For all she knew it could mean that the zebra was in a trip down memory lane.
"My offspring is probably too big to keep a track of by now, anyway, with me having had five daughters" she said after a moment, blinking the memories or emotions away "Did you ever think in having any?"
"Dunno. Maybe? If I meet the right guy?"
"Just make sure to meet the actually right one before three fake right ones" Nanda grunted, then added "Free tip: if he complains about his mother or father all the time, stay away"
"I already know those ones," she shook her head in disgust "Only once, never again"
"Clever girl" they walked in silence for a moment, "Artists are usually bad, too"
"Why?"
"Well, not all of them, but the accursed ones are insufferable. They always have a big project that is ruined by some small detail. That happens to be your fault, usually" she rolled her eyes "If an artist complains about people not understanding him, get away"
"Will do" She nodded, then watched around "Wait, have you seen Winona?"
Nanda turned around, seeing only rocky landscape.
"A few minutes ago, there was-"
"Those birds, yes" Applejack whistled.
They both watched the road behind them, and had nearly started walking when Winona appeared from behind a bend in the path, some feathers stuck in her fur.
"You care for the dog more than some care for people," remarked Nanda.
"Its only fair" Applejack shrugged and gave Winona a path in the head, then walked again.
"...but its complicated. "Undead" in the way that most people think about are virtually imposible to make. And tasteless, besides" Nanda grimaced "What "Bad" necromancers do is either flesh golems or soul dolls"
"Soul dolls are the most dangerous to make, as they require one to literally rip off pieces of his own STOP!" shouted Nanda at Applejack's face.
She stopped tensing and relaxing her muscles.
"You kept it flowing for a moment, perfect. Do go on. Anyhow, soul dolls are remarkably..."
-º-
"...stupid?"
They both stared at the door, trying to undertstand the mind behind it.
"Did they wake up one day and say "Oh yeah, let's build a door with a "Don't open" sign in the middle of nowhere!"?" asked Nanda. They walked to the wood wall, and she knocked it "Hallo? The idiots police is here. You are arrested"
The wind howled.
"Thought crowd" she tried to open the door, but something held it from the other side. She turned to Applejack, who nodded and bucked it.
Pieces of rotten wood flew away, twin holes around her legs. She gave a wary look at the other side before moving the boulders that had been put against the door.
They crossed it, and saw the expectable-- a small wood wall with a door on it and rock walls at both sides of the road.
"I had expected something" Applejack gave a look to Winona, who smelled a stone without a worry in the world "Last time I found something like this there was a radioactive dump. A minotaur took me out before anything happened, but..." she gave Nanda an uncomfortable look.
"The only things in this place are Surane and Ron," she shrugged, walking again "and Ron is too crazy to be dangerous or go near the city"
"If you say- Wait, city?" Applejack gave Nanda an odd look "Is it a city state? all war-ho-like? Because if it is I'll just walk around it. Can't stomach those places"
"Oh? No, not at all. They found pretty quickly that warring is hard when you can't close your doors"
"Say what?"
"You'll see when we get there"
"Why-"
"Because I seem to have forgotten, old lady I am" she smiled.
"But-"
"Oh, lawks, these younglings are so impatient today. Cor"
"But is it dangerous?"
"Oh, I shouldn't think so, for a mare of your skills"
Nanda gave Winona a look, "Can she climb? Because you'll have to climb a lot in Surane"
-º-
"...Twilight's the smart one, an arcanist. And chemisist. And engineer. What was the word for those in Thratean?"
"One who mastered many sciences?" Applejack nodded "I think you mean a fujanile"
"Foo-sha-ni-le" Applejack palated the word "Foo or fou?"
"Fou. And is this Twilight famous? I could swear I've heard that name somewhere"
"Oh, I don't know. We younglings seem to have a very bad memory, sis. Total crud"
"Ha. Go on, anyhow"
"There is also Fluttershy, a pegasus and the most nervous and kind pony I know, her talent is in interacting with animals. She made an animal reserve a few years ago and had to end up getting employes from all the animals people took to hers"
"Floo- Fludherjai?" Nanda said the word, mostly to herself "Yes, yes, I've also seen that name... something about her eyes?" Applejack felt a weight in her stomatch "Yes, her eyes having properties that technically fell in necromancy and some subscools of aliteromancy... wait, Twilight Sparkle, that-" Applejack started to think of what to say, but was frozen by Nanda "-insufferable brat!"
"What?"
Nanda nodded, despite the language barrier, "We've spent years arguing in various magazines about the arcane sciences, more times than I care to count. Ha! As if a kid knew more than I do in my trade" she paused for a moment, then added "Do you know how hard it is to have proper arguments in the badly translated letter of a magazine that was translated months after publication? Hard. But we did it" she said with no small amount of pride "We even met once, in a convention. What a fine night of arguing that was" she added dreamily.
"More or less, yes" nodded Nanda, the morning sun lighting them and their tents "I wouldn't argue with someone that's just wrong"
"But-"
"We argue with people who is wrong, but is intelligent enough to realise that we are right STOP!" Applejack strained to not punch her "Good, you maintained it longer this time. Anyway, intelligent enough to realise that we are right sooner than later. And with "We" I mean "I", of course"
"And Ron?"
"Oh, he's crazier than I am. And wronger, of course. But no, he's just fun to anger"
"Is any of you sane?"
"No, not really"
-º-
Applejack opened her mouth, and closed it. The next time she opened it, she managed to subvocalize a syllable.
"Again, kid?"
Applejack didn't answer. Nanda shrugged.
They kept walking and, a few hours later, had to climb a small hill. Nanda stopped walking, watching the landscape.
"What?" Applejack gave it a look "It isn't anything special"
"Oh, child" Nanda sat "How wrong and right you are"
Applejack didn't answer.
"Its drab, yes, but Pierre loved it. He'd invent excuses to go to Surane with me only to see it" she fell silent for a moment "He said that the morning light played just so with the grass in that hill, see?" she pointed "He'd always say that, "Just so", while he tried to paint them perfectly"
"Pierre?" asked Applejack warily.
"A donkey, a fool, a cretin, a lovely stallion, and a genius who found beauty in the ugliest of things," Applejack shuffled uncomfortably "My husband"
They were in silence for a moment, Applejack expecting Nanda to say anything else.
"Dontch- Don't you miss him?" she asked, unable to keep it in any longer.
"That's why you were mumbling around?" She gave Applejack an odd look "Of course I miss him, but he died thirty years ago. What the forest reclaimed was little more than a replica. But there is something else, isn't there? Out with it, kid"
"You know Twilight" she blurted.
"Well, she is a pretty famous scientist and makes diplomatic travels often," Nanda shrugged before getting up "You'd be hard-pressed to find specialists who haven't met her at least once" She walked, and Applejack followed "Is this about her royal status?" Applejack nodded reticently "Necromancers care little for titles. Death is equalitarian, even to alicorns"
They walked for a moment, Applejack silent.
"Sixth year of the third chaotic era, first loop: the Booty or Bounty disappears from the sea along with its captain, Crucis. Ninth year, second loop: after nearly three days of unarmed combat, Discord kills Queen Catalexis, which compels several gryphon nations to form an alliance and nearly kill him in a decisive attack, which in turn paved the road for the then young Celestia and Luna. Need I go on?" asked Nanda.
"No, I understand" Applejack shook her head "It's just-"
"Too raw? Its why people don't like my trade. Too many uncomfortable truths for them. Until Tim was idiotic enough to fall off the cliff, then they come begging at your door" she added, irritated.
Day 40: A series of evenets that do not necesariliy take place in the same order they are writen
"I guess" Applejack shrugged, eating a dried apple.
"Weathered travelers, not only having this happen to us, but happen to us twice"
The dusk fell on them as the breeze moved them gently, the waterfall rumbling nearby.
"Want one?" Applejack offered a slice of apple to the bison that hung near them, his small hat miraculously still in place.
-º-
"I can't be doing this at my age!" shouted Nanda, jumping out of a falling rock's way.
"You just catch him!" Applejack threw her lazo, missing the black-clad bison by a frog's hair.
"I'll kill myself!"
"Make sure you catch him before you do!"
-º-
"It isn-"
"Its a MIRACLE!!" interrupted Jerry "Sent by GOD in answer to our PRAYERS!! A land of BOUNTY and MIRACLES!!" talked-shouted Jerry at their faces. He was one of those individuals whose inside voice switch is deep there, somewhere, not far from the "Run against a wall" and "Burn yourself" switches.
Applejack almost mentioned the essential arrogance of naming your god "God", but Nanda had advised her against it.
"Its a common forest! I lived there for thirty years, for gods'-"
"God's*" corrected Steps-In-Excrement. He had an uncanny ability to pronounce and hear punctuation, which from the state of his eyes seemed to stem from years upon years of reading without a pause. His expression was highly related to his name.
"-For gods' sake!"
A moment later, a pebble fell in Applejack's hat.
-º-
"As in climbing-the-furniture crazy?" asked Applejack.
"Pretty much," nodded the pegasus "They escaped a few days ago, with the whole mess going on"
"You inflected the se;tu wrongly" droned Steps-in-Excrement "You need to say it for four fifths of a second if the next word starts in a o syllable"
"And you'll get the WRATH of GOD for this OFFENSE against His BELIEVERS!!" added Jerry, as one might talk about the weather.
"See? nutso. Oh," added the pegasus "and try not to break more bridges. It'll be hell to repair them as it is" he and the others took wing, lifting the three bisons with visible effort despite their number.
-º-
"Oh for f*** sake!" cursed Steps-in-Excrement, covering his eyes with a leg and grabbing his hat with the other "Shut it down, lady!"
"I can't!" Applejack was using two hooves to grab the tree and other two in the rope, so her hat fell for a few centimeters before disappearing in a flash and appeared again in her head, from which it fell "Nanda, use an eagle or something!"
"Oh, yes, great idea! putting my mind in one of the most treacherous creatures you can find, surely it won't backfire!"
Winona yelped, trying to keep her mouth's hold in Applejack's rope against the rapids' strength and to avoid the bridge pieces at the same time. Unheard under the roaring water, the roots of the dead tree they all hung from started snapping, one by one.
-º-
"Buajajajajaja!"
"Did he just pronounce "Buajaja"?" asked Applejack, clearly disturbed. "I don't like people who pronounce laughter. They are crazy"
"You and me both, sister" Nanda backed away from the bison slowly, not taking her eyes from him.
"Feel my beeeeeeeees!"
"Bees*" corrected Steps-in-Excrement.
"Beeeeeeeeees!" the black-dressed buffalo opened his box.
A thousand thousand bees escaped from it.
-º-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"HE SHOUTED*!" corrected Steps-in-Excrement without stopping his run.
"I TOLD YOU YOU IDIOT"
"TREACHOROUS BEES, BEGONE!" shouted beeson "OBEY YOUR MASTER!"
"YOU WILL BRING THE MOUNTAIN DOWN ON US YOU IDIOT! SHUT UP!"
"YOU ARE SHOUTING TOO, YOU IGNORANT PRIEST"
"NO I AM NOT"
"ALL OF YOU STOP SHOUTING!" shouted Nanda.
-º-
"Finally" Applejack stepped out of the water and shook like a dog, drying herself. The bee swarm flew confusedly a few hundred meters up in the air, lacking a clear objective.
Beeson stepped out of the water, whispering to himself.
Three angry stares fell on him, and Applejack took a rope from her bags.
"And then she looked at me, almost crying, and asked "But why"" Applejack laughed "A flamethrower! In an orchard!"
"I see she was well cared for"
"Aye," Applejack nodded "Sad that every kid wants to burn his home at least once. I tried to make a pyre to sacrifice toys to the apple god"
"Oh" Nanda blinked several times in surprise "You too? I wanted su summon a thunder colossus to rampage school. Most of the school helped, too"
"Kids are crazy"
"Good for them"
Applejack nodded, "And there was this time someone stole a few apples, a few days after she got her mark, when she got the idea of defending the farm with-" she paused for a moment to try to translate "nail-of-guns, gun- no, nail-thrower... nailgun. She made nailguns" she nodded to herself "Do you even know what those are? because I didn't, and then she made a demonstration"
"And?"
"And the tree died a few months later. Twilight outlawed the things as soon as she heard it"
"I gather your sister has a little too much free time?"
"Not at all. She plans her machines while bucking, I think. There's also Scoota..." she stopped "Which side?" she pointed at the bend.
"Left. Anyhow, I remember when I took interest in necromancy. I wanted to summon two thunder colossi and rampage the sheriff's office"
"What for?"
"Arrested for disturbance of order, when I was sixteen" Nanda smiled at the memories "I got drunk and ran around in lingerie... I wonder if those photos are still going around in the village? Or is it a city now?"
Applejack just looked at Nanda, some dark recess of her mind trying to form the image of her in silks despite all the wrinkles. They failed miserably, thankfully.
"Oh, shut up. You'll too be a walking raisin some day"
"Hope so" she patted Winona "Dying young doesn't appeal"
-º-
"So, what language do they talk in Surane?" asked Applejack a few hours later, when dusk was nearby.
"You'll be fine with Tharatean, but their own is Lushido. Really flowery language, made of individual syllables instead of words. I'll teach you a bit when you try to get the magic going on tomorrow, if you want"
Applejack nodded, but a racket sounded in the road before any had the time to say anything. A moment later a caravan appeared from behind a bend in the road, with a few children crying in it.
When Nanda noticed who was in front of it, she told Applejack to wait and went to talk with the gryphon, pointing at the women carrying their children several times. The gryphon replied, his exasperation growing by the moment until he said something harshly and apparently told the buffalo who pulled from the front cart to walk on.
Nanda walked back to Applejack, visibly worried.
"It seems like something is wrong with their sleeper," she said, visibly confused "and some ambassador they don't trust appeared unannounced a few days ago. I don't get it, the sleeper hasn't ever been sick" She noticed Applejack's confusion "The sleeper is Surane's spiritual leader. He's been meditating for so long that he dreams his will into reality, they say"
"And does he really?"
"I don't think so. He's an unicorn, so he probably is just a really subtle spellcaster," she said mater-of-factly ""Dreams his will into reality", what's that supposed to mean? That he wets his temple instead of his bed?"
"I've seen nightmares descend from the moon and my brother turn into an alicorn with dreamstuff" Applejack deadpanned.
"Ah, but memetic life forms and spaces are another mater altogether. More than what an unicorn can do"
"And demons be exploded with love. A heart shoot a rainbow and then the guy exploded"
"Or those mystical artifacts that swarm all around Equestria. What next, you've seen the alicorn amulet?" Nanda rolled her eyes.
""Loi" is also important, because its the basic "Thanks" syllable. "De" is a generic increaser, so "Deloi" is roughly "Very much thanks you", while "Nu" gives a mocking or parodying tone to the rest of the word, so you should avoid "Nuloi" if you can. The customary response to a "Loi"-based word is "Ghao", which rather than "Don't worry about it" is a general statement of that you appreciate it. Its thanking for being thanked, if you want to think of it like that. "Don't worry about it" is a posible interpretation of "Ghaonu", which can be also understood as mocking so it may offend traditionalists, and "Ghaotas" is for refusing to accept the thanksTOP!"
Winona shook in her sleep, but there wasn't much more reaction than that.
"Good, if you keep practicing you'll do it in a few weeks. Where was... oh, yes. There is no individual syllable for "Name", but "Se-tre-de-ni"" she took care of separating each individual syllable "is the most used word for it, and its literal translation is "That which you request at the present time, location, and company, to be identified as". Its a mouthful, but they'll start foaming from their mouths if you critique their language in any shape or form. "Loi-re-na" is important, too, don't forget it. Its asking where is the bathroom"
There was a sound from the road, and they turned to see another caravan pass by.
"So much racket because the guy got sick?" asked Applejack.
Nanda was silent for a moment "I already told you the sleeper is their spiritual leader. Last time they changed I was only a foal, from what I know, and I've heard stories of the change not having really happened"
Applejack thought about it for a moment, but shook her head "I am not sure I follow"
"That the sleeper is a timeless figure. It'd be the same if this happened to any of your princesses"
"As if Celestia could get-" she started jokingly, but stopped dry "Oh"
"Yes, exactly" Nanda sighed "I don't trust the stallion, never have. He is seen as a mere mortal by immortals, not worth thinking about, and as a mighty immortal by most mortals, too large to even think about"
"Like the Saquir" Applejack said to herself, then was looked at curiously by Nanda "The Saquir of Saddle Arabia, know what I mean?"
"The Saqui...? Oh, yes" Nanda nodded. The Sequir was a lineage that, through magic, was maintained looking the same as the first Sequir, a beggar who had given councel to their king. While the ragged tunic and uncared for mane had been seen as humble at some point, politicians had imitated it until it was seen as a signal of falsehood and trickery... in all but the Saquir herself, for whatever reason "But at least they live a mostly public life. The sleeper can spend decades at a time meditating, or sleeping, or whatever is that he does" She noticed Applejack's expression "Yes, that's most of what he does, and he has little official power. But what do you think would happen if, one day, Celestia said she doesn't like tea? Or Twilight that she has a craving for peaches?"
"Big people have big words" recited Applejack from memory, nodding "Are we done for today?"
"Yes, I think so," she took out the first of her tent's stakes "We should be reaching the east door tomorrow"
While the legends said that there was such a thing as an ending to the endless, immaterial quasi-advance of such an existence, nothing was truly believed-- in fact, as seconds and minutes and hours and centuries wore on, the parasite of doubt started rotting away their minds, whispering that no: There was no such thing as front of the queue. Reality was but an endless succession of the backsides of people with stomach problems.
The environment itself conspired against the habitants of such a macabre biosphere, for there was no food except for that which the Sellers let them have, cutting their own throats at the price of course (And indeed, their minds were starting to linger in the sweet release of a cut throat), which had the approximate nutritional value and taste of an insect who happened to wander too close to one's mouth.
"Who'd say that people wants to go in" repeated Applejack, tedium warping her mind into a machine of repetition.
"Its more about the security. The sleeper is sick, they don't want more bad things to happen"
"Still..." Applejack's gaze rested in the infuriating door.
"Yes, I know, the door is big"
Each individual half of the door had been chiseled from the mountain, its hinges long since stuck with centuries' worth of mud and birds' nests. Buildings could've been carved inside them, and in fact, several guard stations were inside the rock or hanging from its face, in wood platforms.
"And is everything inside as big?" she asked.
"Pfft, you kidding me?" Nanda paused for effect "Of course it is"
"So it really is a city and a country. And who built it, dragons?"
"No one knows" Applejack rolled her eyes "No, really, no one knows. The scripture that was left wasn't in any known language, and the furniture wasn't comfortable for any sapient species that size"
The queue advanced, an euphoria of motion that was simply too short.
-º-
"Reasons of Visit?" Asked the guard, inflating every word into a statement by itself.
"Passing through"
"I may move in"
"Hm" the guard stated his doubt, looking at them, but an underling glided in and passed him a note "You May Pass" he stated grudgingly after reading it.
"Huh?" Applejack and Nanda tried to have a peek at the note, but the gryphon moved it away, taking care of making his very much sharpened claws very much visible.
"State Affairs" he stated simply and with finality "Now, I Will Need to See Identifying Documentation"
-º-
Once inside, Applejack had a small attack of agoraphobia.
"Everyone gets like this at first" Nanda nodded.
The houses weren't just big.
The houses had neighbourhoods inside them.
"But- How-" Applejack closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths "I feel like a mouse," she said without opening them "Please tell me they don't have big cats too"
Winona barked softly in agreement, looking at the multitude of pegasi and gryphons flying between buildings.
Applejack opened her eyes, one at a time, and took another look. The ground-bound population were, while existing, obviously a minority, maybe even second-class citizens.
"And you wanted to live here?" she asked to Nanda dubiously.
"The satelital towns aren't really bad," she took a look around "And what I want is to lay low until the mess with the Prasante blows over. I may go back" she added in a lower tone. "What better place than this?"
"I guess. We going our own wa-?" her stomach grumbled "Food. Goodbyes later" she corrected herself.
The small bar was atop several flights of stairs, its wood floor supported by several diagonal wood posts. The ceiling had several entrances, which had double duty of also keeping the interior of the place from building up the heat and smell of the clients.
At the present time, several pegasi were in what Nanda had described as "A friendly brawl". Applejack had to admit that they had a way to punch each other in the face that spoke volumes about the many times it had happened; "Remember that time over the mare?" said a punch, "Yes, haha!" said the response.
"I feel like I am inside a cliche" said Applejack in what she remembered faintly to be Nanda's mother tongue.
"Cliches come from somewhere," Nanda shrugged, eating her meal "And this is only the noon. At night even I avoid coming to Surane's bars"
"Huh," Applejack poked her grub with the spoon, a mostly yellow mass, and then tasted it, "...polenta?" she guessed.
"Very popular here, good with cream cheese. And Surane is what happens when you have so many pegasi and gryphons put together, its like a never ending explosion"
As if to prove her point, one of the pegasi flew out of a window that, Applejack now noticed, didn't have glass. Neither had any of the others.
"See? very energetic people"
Several pegasi flew after the other and, a moment later, reappeared helping him enter and regain his bearings. The fighting pegasi then proceeded to chat amiably about their wives.
"Let me guess, they have a coliseum" Applejack took another spoonful of the polenta.
"Used to, but they found it too stuffy" Nanda swallowed "Don't take them at face value, they are actually a good people. Just..." another fight broke out "...very energetic" she winced.
Applejack nodded halfheartedly, and Nanda passed her a small note that Applejack hadn't noticed her writing in the first place.
"Soldiers are following us. And they haven't looked at me at all"
Applejack tensed, and couldn't help but draw Winona's food tray a little closer. Winona waved her tail at her and kept eating.
Nanda made a small gesture at the closest door and nonchalantly started humming something softly, then threw her water glass high in the air.
The water sparkled for an instant and, as if it had come to life -A possibility that Applejack couldn't discount completely-, extended tendrils quickly before loosing its shape, the inertia carrying the water over everyone who surrounded them. The thick glass fell over someone's head with a loud tock.
-º-
"And that is how you keep your chasers behind you" said Nanda several minutes later, changing to a calm walk calmly in the crowd and talking in her native tongue "Any idea of why they were chasing you?"
Applejack's will was already hard pressed to not laugh or scream at Nanda, so talking was not an option. She shook her head.
Winona, whose leg had been clipped by a crossbow bolt, made her best to walk miserably and earn pats in the head and food from strangers.
"Anyway, I can take you out of here. I may or may not know someone who knows someone"
Applejack breathed deeply before talking, "And how much would that cost me?"
"I'll just call on a favor I did to her fath-" she stopped dry and grimaced "Well, I did buy us some time"
Someone cleared his throat behind them, and there was the click of a loaded crossbow.
"Hapba!" shouted Nanda. A thick blanket of smoke appeared out of nowhere in the area, and the gryphon behind them coughed.
They looked at each other and ran, Winona abandoning her pretencion of cripplehood in an instant.
"I need to get you to The Ridg..." Nanda started saying, but remembered that Applejack didn't know how to read Surane's script and took a piece of paper "A small shop, the sign looked like this last time I saw it," she drew on it and showed it to Applejack.
"Why is the dog sad?" Applejack couldn't help but ask "And is that how they write? seems hard"
"Its a bear, ask the owner, it isn't hard when you are born into it, and have some focus"
"Sorry, its-" she rubbed the side of her head "What was that smoke? I think it made me dizzy"
"Nothing, just some static on the street's dust" Nanda gave her a worried look but kept walking "Is it too bad?"
"I just need some-" she cut herself "Some- some-"
"What?" Applejack's legs felt weak, and Nanda barely had time to grab her "What's wrong?"
"I can't-" her tongue, usually a nimble tool, just wouldn't match the language that was on her mind "drelei- se-ru-lin-- ngas- setron-"
"Applejack!" Nanda blinked several times until an ephemeral glow appeared in her eyes "What!? something's pull-
nely in the void, calling her
"-ing you in-"
hild, I say, expect to help m
"-to oneir-"
for whom the passage of centu
ries is but the blink of an e
"-you-"
over a desert? Come in, child
"I'll hav-"
and have a taste of the wines-
"-HERE!" Nanda shouted at her face "Focus, kid! What did you see? Did he say anything?"
Applejack stared at her, the world nothing but a painfully confusing mass of light and colors, refusing to arrange themselves and make sense...
"Focus! Look at me, don't let yourself grow distracted" Nanda forced her will into the song, humming softly "Can you understand me?" she risked interrupting the hum to ask "Look at my mouth, try to understand"
Applejack just trembled, her mind overloaded by the message that had been forced into it. Slowly, Nanda forced meaning into it, oiling the delicate cogs that allowed it to interact with body and soul.
"Now?" the magics she was manipulating nearly collapsed in the time it took her to say it. She forced herself to ignore the small mass that had started to form around them like a clog in the city's arteries, ogling in curiosity. Even when she had been younger and bolder she had hated masses, the way in which every individual surrendered to the herd regardless of species.
There were clicks of claws over the pavement, and then that of loaded crossbows.
"We are authorised to wound and cripple, witch. You will surrender and enter the cage" said the front pegasus, three gryphons behind him pointed silently.
The small crowd increased in size, and Nanda watched them for a moment, weighting them. Crowds could be useful tools, if used the right way, and so where scenes, so she took care of changing her stance softly.
"...'scusse me, 'scusse me..." said someone outside her field of view, pushing into the crowd.
"Dude, its an old woman and an earthy with epileptics!" shouted someone from the protection of the crowd "What will they do, ask for coin?"
"Yeah!" said someone behind the first.
"That's left to be seen," the pegasus gestured at a caged flying chariot behind her "Go in"
"I am just-" she had to hum, covering the song under a cough "-just trying to help my friend"
Winona added a whine, gaining a small shout at the soldier from the crowd.
"...Sorry, ma'am, but I don't- Oh, here, have your basket. Now, if you could leave me pass...?"
"As I said, do go in" the gryphon gestured at the chariot again.
"I don't care about your fruit, will you stop blocking my way!?" growled the voice, and was answered with a small voice "Thanks"
The pegasus's eyes opened wide, and the crossbows changed aims.
"I remind you than that, as I am sure you know, would be an act of war against Equestria, and that I have your queen's and my princess' authority to support my every action" Spike glared at them, standing to his full height, until they lowered their weapons "Now, if you could stop trying to arrest my friend? Thanks" he put silk gloves -their tips metallic- over his claws and picked up Applejack, shifting to his natural, slightly bent, stance.
"What happened to her?" he asked to Nanda, starting to walk with Applejack cradled in his arms "Nanna something, right? Come, Twilight's waiting us"
Twilight walked out of the room, nodding at Spike.
"She'll be waking up in a few minutes," she was going to add something, but noticed the guest and froze for a moment. They measured each other for a moment.
"Sparkle" Nanda broke the silence.
"Devi," she scoured her memory frantically, then commuted one of the spells embedded into her body to Nanda's mother tongue "Still believing Radagast's babbling?"
"Still worshipping Clover the Clod?"
A moment of silence passed. Spike's tired glance passed from one to another.
"I see you've grown taller. Liking absolute power over others' lives much?"
"And you older. Getting a taste for bureaucracy?"
"Ser-?" started Spike.
Before he had finished, Twilight threw herself and hugged Nanda by surprise.
"You idiot you, I had hopped that AJ found you" she let Nanda free "But why are you here? And what happened in Prasante? Half the unicorns in the city got a headache, I hear"
"Me? Why are you here? And short story is that rocs ate all the moles and the forest took the chance"
"Oh" Twilight took the information in and shelved it in its appropriate mental cluster, then gestured at Nanda to follow her and entered Applejack's room. Once the three were inside and all doors and windows were closed, she sprayed the walls with a personally developed cocktail of spells.
"The walls have ears here," she explained "And I received information-"
"From a certain network I am sure you have?"
"-of the sleeper's condition some time ago, and Queen Ridda shortly after that... actually the day after I had sent one to Applejack" she added, mostly to herself.
"It knocked her out for five hours" said Nanda nonchalantly.
"The earth's gravity, I already do all I can about it. Ridda and I met a few years back and... I'll tell you an Applejack when she wakes up, its a bit of a long story" her headache wor
etty invader, trying to usurp
sened for a moment, but she fought it off "Can you feel it too? its been getting worse since I came here"
"I wish I didn't have to" Nanda rubbed her head "But I though this was just the sleeper having some nightmare, I didn't expect him to target her" she gestured at Applejack, who was moving in her sleep.
"He didn't. It affected me, so it affected her" she winced at another surge of pain "I am connected with my friends in many ways. Too many, sometimes"
"You still have to let me analyze alicorn magic"
"Yeah, no. I am not giving away our secrets" it was an old dance that had happened many times before and one that, it seemed, Nanda wasn't willing to take on.
"Twilight, what is happening here? Why is the old guy attacking anyone with psionic capacity? Because he is. I've noticed the faces of random people in the streets, and seen their minds whirring like broken toys"
"Its complicated-"
"Its making half of Surane go mad! and I saw it at the very borders, people closer to the center must be getting hospitalized!"
"They are. Me and the queen are doing all we can to keep the place from blowing up, even with the kin-" Applejack grumbled in her sleep "Oh, I think she's..."
The first thing to happen was light. Suddenly the slight wrongness that had pervaded it and stolen its meaning dissolved away, giving way first to colors, then to dimensions. The second was sound.
"...waking up"
She looked around, the baroque making her regret her newfound coherency. The utter volume of the decoration and paintings in the walls loomed over everyone, threatening with a crushing collapse at any given time
"This is turning into an habit" she grumbled when she noticed Nanda "What now?"
"I was attacked by a psionist who sent aggressive memetic constructs against my mind, and the Elements made you receive a heavily damaged one that was far more dangerous"
"Oh"
"I know" Twilight turned to Nanda and said something in a language that Applejack just couldn't be assed to interpret, then faced her again "And, by happenstance, you happen to be useful for something I need to do about this. Can you help me?"
"How dangerous a some-" she stopped and blinked several times "This isn't a dream? Why are you here?"
"Well... I met the Queen Riddia a few years ago, and she seems to like me because she's asked me for help several times. This one she needed support to counterbalance the king, and we found quickly I'd need someone that wasn't a royal, or even a local, to help me"
"Uh, what with?" asked Applejack apprehensively "You know I don't want to take too long anywhere"
"The sleeper went loco and made the king loco too" Spike shrugged before Twilight had time to say anything "You know anything of how this place works?" Applejack shook her head "The ultimate bureaucracy: King and queen are selected to hate the guts of each other, and can do anything short of killing the other. The only way for something to happen is for one to convince the other of the something being a good idea. If they don't, the population is left alone and happy. If they agree too much or not enough, the population kicks their asses and puts someone else" Twilight winced, but nodded as he talked.
Applejack almost made a remark, but the memory of the pegasi fighting then talking casually resurfaced, and she had doubts of it not working.
"What do you need?" she asked.
"I made... arrangements with someone to investigate the sleeper. Invasively so, if necessary"
"Not killing him" Spike gave a quizzical look to Twilight "You always make it seem like you want to kill 'em"
"And I guess Nanda is out of this"
"I don't want to-"
"Ruin her reputation, whatever. You've been refusing to meet her in the eye and talking Equiish"
"You know how she gets" she gave Applejack a tired look "Telling her not to do something is a recipe to get it done"
"Ah. Snotty?"
"Supremely so"
"All-the-problems-are-my-problem kinda mare?"
"Ye-" she cut herself "Real funny, AJ. But as a princess all problems are my problem"
"Sure they are" she gave herself a moment to put some order in her mind, then faced Nanda, who was giving them all a look that mixed irritation and bafflement in equal measure "Seems like I ha-"
"-have to do me a favor" interrupted Twilight.
"A favor about the sleeper?" Nanda deadpanned "I do know a word or two of Equiish, you know"
"Ah. Er" Spike and Applejack found themselves edging away from them "Um"
"But you are right. This needs an outsider, if things get to kill the old geezer" conceded Nanda grudgingly.
"You contracted someone, alright. But why do you need me?" asked Applejack, with that done.
"The agent refused to do this without a partner, and I wanted someone to keep an eye in the agent. Seemed perfect"
"And you contracted someone you don't trust?" asked Nanda.
"I don't-" Applejack jumped from the bed, and she paused to make sure that the landing didn't involve her face "I can't contract any of my habituals with this. I need someone that isn't too obviously connected to me politically, and I avoid any of the friends to get involved in my politics. By the time the general population finds out of the connection they'll have time and, more important, perspective in the mater. If they do find out"
"Alright. I'll check the skeletons in the closet" Applejack nodded "But I want to meet your spy"
"Mercenary," corrected Spike, gaining a glare from Twilight "What? The guy's a diamond dog with heavy plate armor. Hard to confuse his profession"
"Yes, she's been interested in it since I commissioned the mill. She already knew most of the math involved, it's not so different" added Twilight.
"Weird, I can-" someone knocked the door (It seemed to Applejack that even the sound was fru fru, somehow), and Twilight gave a questioning look to Spike, who read in the other side of the room. He shrugged.
"What?" she asked when the knock was repeated.
"Quibra," came the muffled answer, in a thickly accented Equiish "You said I was to come at eight"
"Already?" Twilight gave an annoyed look to the clock "Enter" she said, unlocking the door with telekinesis.
A diamond dog, somewhat slim for his kind, entered.
"Quibra," he presented himself in a thick accent that she couldn't quite identify, making a small curtsy "I pressume you are jack of- Applejack?" he asked, closing the door behind him.
She nodded, giving the presumed mercenary a good look. Despite the lack of obvious musculature, there was a certain bearing to him that made it easy to picture him with a suite of armor weighting twice as much as he did.
Twilight got up and excused herself before teleporting away. Quibra gave a look to the space she had occupied, irritation clear in his face.
"She does it too much" Spike gave him a look of sympathy. Even Luna, who rarely traveled long distances by hoof or wing, had often grown irritated to it.
"You are the guy Twilight contracted, right?" asked Applejack.
"The princess required my skills, yes"
"And those skills are...?"
"Someone who could punch a hole through concrete and knows how to read" explained Spike "And wasn't her bodyguard"
"Huh," it did sound like Twilight's requisites "But wasn't this spying? All sneaky-beaky like?"
"The princess beli-" Twilight teleported in again, two folders in her telekinesis "Ah, she can explain it better than I"
"This is all I've managed to get from the temple," she gave a folder to each "The outer areas are well known, but the maps are lacking in the inner ones"
They opened their folders and scanned the maps superficially, Twilight giving them a look of expectation. After a moment, Applejack saw what Twilight seemed to be expecting.
"This doesn't match" she pointed at two points in different plants "A room this big can't have over six tons of statues above it. And the stairs of here-" she pointed at another point "Can't reach here" she pointed another "without people walking in ceilings"
"Yep," Spike pipped in "Twilight couldn't believe it either. She even entered the mind of the informant to confirm that it was truth"
"It is, as far as he knows. And he has spent several decades working there, so..." Twilight made a face of discomfort "I have to believe they have non-standard spatial properties within the inner areas, sadly"
Quibra and Applejack grimaced. Applejack knew those from Twilight's laboratory, where Apple Bloom had once been lost for a week.
"Now you may see why I am paying you both" she said in a tone that beckoned no protest from Applejack "so much for this job. If the dreamer or his priests can warp space in so large an area, things may get very rough" she paused for a moment to give them both a look "Remember: No killing, no crippling. The priests aren't evil and the last thing we want to give the king is a martyr. Read the folders completely and be ready to be on your way in an hour, I want you back before the morning, and you'll have to travel fifty houses on foot"
-º-
Fighting agoraphobia at every step, Applejack walked down the stars that descended from the window sill in which the hotel was placed to the garden in which there was a small neighborhood.
"How does people live here?" she asked to no one in particular, eliciting a curious look from Quibra "Doesn't people feel dwarfed?"
"They like it, I think" he shrugged "Every time I've come here everyone here is bold and dashing at day, but when the sun falls they all get penitent-like"
Watching it from above and under the gray moonlight, it was easy to see it as a city of old guilts lying dusty in their corners, awaiting to be poked like an infected teeth by an uncaring tongue...
Night 44, fragment two: for spies to spied by spied spies.
Queen Reddo, queen of Surane, grand vizier of the griffin, rivendicando Amazzoni, bridger of bridges (Which was, she was informed, a title that sounded better in some ancient language or another), and generally a very much accomplished gripphonese, paced circles on her room.
She could have yelled in frustration at the situation in fourteen languages and cursed in twice that many, which was eight more than the king, but the fact didn't bring her any satisfaction. She hadn't ever liked the stallion, that was true, but they had had a kind of mutual respect for each other, and most always had discussed about what to do with Surane in ways that where, no mater how loud, ultimately respectful.
But now...
...that gleam, that crazed gleam...
...she had seen it before, and so had the king whose eyes now sported it. Sleepers, having spent too long close to the dreamer in spite of the warnings about such a thing, oft got lost in his dreams, the sweet dreams he created.
The dreamer himself, too, worried her: she had always known him to be kind, if severe, and to do everything for his people. Whatever demon had preyed at his sanity was long since gone now, leaving only the shallow, bitter shell of the mind that once were.
But maybe Sparkle had really found the last agent needed for them to start their moves... or so she hopped, that the messenger had said truth, that the situation wasn't lost and the land of her birth didn't end in the claws of demi-people, shadows of her colleagues.
-º-
"Most certainly" nodded the griphon.
King Hlaoo's eyes didn't move an inch from him, every line in his face a tale for him to read, to gain insight into the lies.
"Hm? Is anything the mater?" the gryphon noticed the degree of focus of the pegasus "Is there something in my face?" he added anxiously.
"No, nothing" Hlaoo forced his lips into a small smile, every inch a battle "I was just looking at the infinite. Your face happened to be in the way," he forced his throat to make a hoarse sound "Haha"
"Ah, haha" the griphon forced the laugh too, but for entirely different reasons. He had to play mouse, act like the prey, if only for the sake of making the rat believe he was a cat.
The king gestured at a chamber maid and faced Ganthe again, taking care of keeping his face-reading to a minimum this time, "So you do have information concerning the Equestrian queen?" he asked as the maid exited the room.
"Princess, my lord" just the right amount of brown nosing at all and any authority "they have repudiated the title of kingship since Mad King Discord"
"Yes, yes, but do you?" Hlaoo moved a hoof in an impatient gesture "I am waging cold war here, and I plan to be on top when it warms up"
"Without a doubt, my lord," the chamber maid entered with a tray, and Ganthe eyed her warily for a fraction of a second "I have reasons to believe that Princess Twilight has had her bodyguard, lord Spike-"
"The dragon?"
"A paladin, my lord"
"A beast" Hlaoo corrected distractedly. The maid put two glasses over the table and walked silently to a corner.
"As well, my lord. I have reasons to believe that lord Spike has been gathering information about a traveler, my lord," he took a photo from his pouch and put it over the table "Starscream, he is named. Equestrian, probably one of her agents. He is to arrive in two days from the south, I believe"
"Ah, I s-" started Hlaoo, but was interrupted by a knock in the door. "I said this was to be a private meeting," Ganthe took a small dagger from a skin pocket in his wrist and looked severely at the maid while holding it, daring her to say anything, swapped his glass and the king's, and put the dagger back in its pocket "and that I was not to be disturbed, begone!" he turned back to Ganthe "Starscream, huh," he picked up the photo "Any information on her?"
"Him, my lord" he picked up a file from his pouch "Officially he died a decade ago, and received Damnatio Memoriae shortly after that"
Hlaoo took the file and read it, scanning it for any incongruences and angling one of his bracalets just so to see a reflection of the gryphon's face, "I've been apprehending any and all Equestrians since the queenling arived," the face reflected in the silver twitched "Or trying to, at least. The dragon has occupied his time stopping nearly all arrests and freeing the ones he didn't get to. An irksome creature, definitely" Ganthe didn't say anything "I have another job for you," he put the papers back in the table "I want you to find a poison that works on dragons"
Ganthe didn't allow himself the chance to react, and simply nodded. How mad was Hlaoo to want to kill one of the ambassadors of a land that controlled, however partially, the very sun and moon?
It didn't mater, he said to himself. His work was to keep an eye in said madness. He got up and, with a last reverence, excused himself from the meeting.
Hlaoo spent a moment in silence, then drank from the glass that was on Ganthe's side of the table, gulping down the hard liquor.
"Mirria," he turned to the mare that sat quietly in a corner "That goes for you, too. I want a poison that works on dragons by the morning. And something that can at least knock out an alicorn for a few hours, too"
She nodded and, not disturbing a dust mote, slid rather than walked out of the room.
Souls are, from a utilitarian point of view, rubber-like surfaces.
First, after being hit they eventually return to their correct shape. The fact that the time needed may go far beyond a normal lifetime is another mater altogether.
Second, things -emotions, ideas, memories- bounce off them. Normally these are too weak and only bounce back a few fractions of a second, but some especially strong ones can go back a few hours, even days, and be useful bits of premonition.
-Radagast's compendium of soulcraftery, introduction.
-º-
Nanda turned in her bed, and then again, and again, and again.
She grunted in frustration -Another sleepless night, another tired morning- at what had been going on for decades now.
Sometimes, she wished she had accepted that one demon's deal of not needing to sleep in exchange for a mysterious favor in the future, and even considered drawing the correct circle to resummon it. This night, she sighed and jumped from the baroque bed to the baroque carpet, walked to the baroque window, opened it, and took a look at the city from the baroque balcony.
"Insomnia?" she was asked after a few minutes of it.
Nanda nodded weakly, yawning.
"I could use an hypersomniac spell. I am pretty sure you know those, too"
"Yes, but-" she yawned "You don't really rest with those" she spared a glance upward, where Twilight sat in the wall against conventional gravity, her eyes closed and shining faintly "Scrying at your friend?"
"Yeah"
"Ah. Did you know her magic is a freakshow?" she asked casually.
"That's... a private matter. One that I'd appreciate you never mentioning to anyone else"
Nanda made a gesture of zipping her mouth, then grunted affirmatively when she remembered the closed eyes.
"And is it related to you?"
"It is related to private things"
"Ah" she nodded "The princess' private things, or Twilight's private things?"
"Mine and the girls'. And I'd like you to stop the questioning me after I got you a nice hotel room" she grunted.
There was a moment of silence.
"Have I ever told you why I hate immortals, kid?" asked Nanda.
"There is a good chance that both of us are immortal," Nanda grunted in distaste at the idea "But how is that relevant now?"
"I didn't mean you, its just me being-" Nanda yawned "that. This city always makes me think of mortality. We still feel echoes of whoever made it"
""We" arcanists, immortals, or soulcrafters?"
"Necromancers" corrected Nanda automatically "Whoever did it had very... very blurry souls, practically escaping from their bodies. Maybe that's what killed 'em"
"Being so big and having a wild metabolism sounds more probable"
"Or both"
-eft-
"Did you say something?" she asked Twilight.
"No, but your magic did spike a bit"
She was grunting in response when an idea occurred to her, "Oh damn it"
"What?"
"Premonition. Hate the things. Half the time they aren't for my me"
"You mean the tree-worlds theory kind of premonitions? sounds unlikely"
"Not in the mood, kid. Haven't had a good premonition in sixty years, always some killing threat" she said with more annoyance than anything else.
There was a moment of silence.
"And is it?" asked Twilight cautiously.
"I only got a flutter, can't say yet" she yawned "If it is important I'll tell you"
"Tha- oh. They got there, I'll have to keep a tighter eye on them"
"And I'll go back to try to sleep. You keep creeping in the walls" she entered the baroque room again and, not holding any hopes, threw herself to the baroque bed.
The temple was, as far as Applejack could see, inside another temple. Bulbous, conical statues were in the top of stone posts bordering it, with buildings and walkways in their weathered surfaces, intersected from time to time by barrel shaped ones.
It was also very, very eerie.
They took their eyes away from the engravings in the cyclopean door -which hadn't, by the look of it, been moved in quite some time- and moved to the alley in its side, searching for a trash container that their maps indicated. It was a quick affair, albeit one marred by the stench of the place.
Quibra wore light armor, mostly padded clothes that could pass as a civilian's, except for his arms. Now, Applejack was seeing why: he opened his backpack and took two gauntlets from it, and strapped them quickly with a harness that replaced the armor pieces that normally kept them in place, two pieces of cloth covering the palms and backhands.
She recognized it quickly as standard issue armor from, and now she recognized the accent, Quibra Star, or Cracked Gem. The gems in the fists shone crimson under the cloth when he lifted the trash container and moved it silently, uncovering the hole behind it. He breathed shallowly for a moment.
"With only the gauntlets I strain my back," he explained in a whisper, ushering her inside "My everything, really"
She entered, and he put the container back in place while entering.
At the other side of the wall, they were at another alley, only a more appropriately sized one. They could hear someone talking at the other side of the wall, in what they knew to be the student quarters, and they moved silently along the wall and into another hole that wasn't used as often as the one they had entered through, if the dust in it was any clue, which was probably related to it going to a basement that was only cleaned every few months. Or so said the notes on the maps, at least.
-º-
Applejack stood with each pair of legs on a crossbeam, the fire of torches flickering in the hallway under her and Quibra's bag hanging from her neck.
Steps echoed to her, and she gave a gentle knock to the wall at her right. The knock was quickly answered, and when a unicorn entered the room she was keeping an eye on, there wasn't a holler of alarm but Quibra sliding out before the door had been closed by telekinesis, some paper pages in his hand.
He let the paper in the ground and stretched his arms upward, and Applejack threw first the bag, then herself, to them.
They slid to another hallway, heading for their next destination.
-º-
Hours later, they had accumulated a number of pages and stood in front of a large, metalic door, gulping.
"Are you sure we don't need anything else?" she asked.
He shuddered, but shook his head "Only papers from the dreamer's own sanctuary" he pushed the door, which seemed to screech "HEY DUDE I AM FOREBONDING", and they both jumped out of the way before it had opened completely.
Nothing happened.
They gave each other a look and peeked in, expecting to see some kind of guard and seeing none. This was somehow worse.
Quibra made a face and was going to pass, but Applejack grabbed his arm.
"Hey, Twilight, you still looking at us?" she asked in a whisper. Quibra gave her a weird look, but she ignored it.
It took a few seconds, but the words "YES", delineated in purple, appeared in the edge of her vision.
"Can you do some sorta scan or something? For magic?"
The pause was longer this time, "THE RISK OF EXPLOSIONS IS AT, AT LEAST, %15. THE DISTANCE ADDS TOO MANY VARIABLES TO REDUCE IT"
Applejack considered it for a moment before talking to Quibra, "Twilight can check it for spells, but things may explode. She said its a fifteen percent chance" After a moment, he nodded "Alright, Twilight. Give it a try"
"THIS MAY GIVE YOU A HEADACHE. I'LL SWAP IN FOR A MOMENT"
She nodded and purple filled her vision, defining every line. In the lines there seemed to be some kind of invisible script that defined everything about the objects they were in, indicating her its exact weight, mass, and distance relative to her. She knew in the back of her mind that if she focused she could read more information, ranging from elasticity to electric and arcane conductivities.
"Are my eyes purple?" she asked Quibra, feeling lightheaded "This always makes my eyes purple. Shit's weird"
He gave her a confused look, then made a double take upon realized that, in fact, her eyes had a slight purple tone now.
He gawked when Applejack's hat moved back as if pushed by some invisible object, and gawked further when purple sparks appeared in the doorway
"She can read the world, you know?" said Applejack distractedly "One day she said she'd make a spell to read the world, and then she did it, and then she put it in her skull. The thing's filled with runes by- oh, sorry" she giggled "Can't go sharing that one, can't I, Twi? Sorry, I'll have to-" sparks appeared around his head, and he suddenly couldn't remember what was that he had been thinking about "There, I didn't say anything"
"Anything about what?" he tried to remember, but she had only been sitting silently.
"Exactly. Its done, anyway. The hallway has nothing but some sound mufflers, for the-" her eyes lost their purple sheen and she cringed, rubbing her forehead "Ugh, I hate to do that"
"What was that? Sound mufflers for what?" he asked, trying to calm down "Did she posses you?"
"As if, she hates possessing. And I understood the thing of the sound until a moment ago, but I don't know the mambo jumbo. I think that this is where weird space starts, and the border between weird space and normal space is noisy?" she tried.
He gave her a last look and, feeling the slight wrongness that always accompanied such a thing, they crossed the line into a non-standard space.
Twilight's awareness returned to her own self, her head aching.
"Are you alright?" Asked Nanda.
She opened her eyes, interrupting the scrying from the surprise. Nanda peeked in from the doorway into the balcony.
"How long have you been there?" she asked more brusquely that she had intended.
"Long enough" Nanda shrugged "What was that? I thought you hated possession"
"It wasn't-" she stopped, thinking, and decided that she could trust in Nanda "Remember that I told you I am connected to my friends? its more than a metaphor"
"And this is because...?" asked Nanda tentatively.
"I don't think you know enough of Equestria's lore to understand" she resumed her scrying "And I am not sure of who may be hearing"
"That?" Nanda couldn't help but smile faintly "A few people may be temporarily deaf and blind tonight"
Twilight nearly interrupted the spell again, but managed to keep it to a sigh, "You don't know how much I've wanted to do that"
"Having a local who won't start wars by mistake certainly helps" there was a moment's pause "Haven't you tried to be covert about what you do? Shapeshifting?" she asked.
"A few times, but it didn't work. Not my st- oh, nice. AJ found a map of the inner sanctum... weirder than I expected"
"That's probably recent"
"Related to the dreamer's situation, you mean?"
"Exactly" Nanda yawned "I still want to learn how to do that. Sad that locations don't have souls I can manipulate"
"As far as you know" added Twilight.
"Space can't be alive, what fills it is. But I am still not in the mood for this, kid. I am surprised that you are" she added.
"Just nervous, this place is like a powder keg" Twilight sighed "Oh, Applejack..."
-º-
...stood in front of a closed gate, glowing sigils of power inscribed in the ancient stone. It made a high-frequency sound that her ears didn't quite catch, but Quibra seemed to find annoying.
She knocked it, receiving a "Thonk" sound in response. She kept knocking until the sound was more along the lines of a "Thud", then pointed the place to Quibra.
He gave her a last dubious look, prepared a gauntleted arm, and punched the point as strongly as he could, the crimson gem shining blindingly in the last instant. The sigils blinked a few times and turned off, along with the sound.
"Told you these things are always the same" she shouldered it open, and they kept advancing in the empty halls "Are you sure, Twi?"
"NO. BUT I AM MORE UNSURE ABOUT THE OTHER OPTIONS"
"Alright..." she ignored Quibra's look.
"I CAN TELEPORT YOU BOTH IF IT GROWS OUT OF CONTROL" there was a pause, and the text was replaced "BUT IT'LL TAKE ME A MINUTE OR TWO TO CHARGE EACH TELEPORT" the text was replaced again "RUN UNTIL ITS DONE, IF THAT'S THE CASE"
Applejack nodded, and they kept walking, following the map that Quibra held. It was, rather than paper or cloth, a model made in some clayish, transparent material that seemed to have slight changes every time their sight left it, so they had an unspoken agreement of always keeping an eye on it.
"This is bad" said Quibra after a few minutes of walking, obviously reticent to breaking the silence "Even if everything was fine some monk should be walking around here"
Applejack nodded, at a lack of words herself.
"THE CONNEC-" the fluttering sensation of Twilight's scrying, not unlike a warm breeze in the back of her head, disappeared for a moment, and the text stretched before being replaced "SOMETHING IS PRODUCING INTERFERENCE" Quibra jumped as if electrocuted, and his free hand snapped upward to catch something Applejack couldn't quite see "RÜ" it disappeared completely.
There was a cold wind, and a sense of undefined presence behind them, and Applejack bucked out of reflex. She was barely aware of something resisting her legs for a moment, but it dissolved into the air almost instantly.
Quibra had to drop the map and block something with his other hand, grabbing and twisting it until a the sound of snapping wood was heard, "What are these things!?"
"I can't-" Applejack blinked several times, trying to gain focus on them, but her eyes seemed to slip over them "Psions!" she shouted, charging against the closest mass of not-there-ness.
It gave in immediately, disappearing the instant she made contact, but the fact was still being processed when she launched herself against another.
Psions. As Quibra grabbed something and threw it against a wall, as her teeth bit deep into a thick shell, she wished dearly that the attackers were ponies in armor.
Twilight's wings flared open, but she swallowed an enraged scream and remained still for a moment.
Without giving an explanation to Nanda, she teleported to Spike's chambers and shook his bed in the air until he woke up, jumping to an standing position.
"Get dressed," she ordered, restraining the claws with telekinesis before they reached the supposed attacker, and teleported away again.
Several griffons aimed spears at her, but she made a shield without missing a beat.
"I need to see Reddo" she demanded. The guards recognized her and exchanged unsure glances "Now" she let a fraction of the Royal Canterlot Voice that threatened with overpowering her words slip, and once they had regained their bearings the door was opened.
She marched the halls, followed by scurrying guards, and knocked as politely as she could on Reddo's door. It left dents in the wood.
"I said I wasn't to be disturbed!" said Reddo after a moment, so Twilight ripped the door from its hinges and entered.
"The people I sent was engaged" she said curtly and entered "Psionists blocked my scrying on them shortly after she- they entered the inner temple, and people with perception filters teleported just as I was cut"
Reddo, who sat in front of a desktop, flexed a claw a few times before talking, "Did they find what you sent them for?" she asked, getting up.
"Most. They were searching for the dreamer's own sanctum"
Reddo nodded and started walking for the door, but stopped dry.
"Perception filters? As in a spell that stopped you from noticing them?"
"Yes" Twilight's dread was renovated by Reddo's tone.
"Oh, no..." her bearing fell for a moment, but she recovered quickly "Guards," she called "I need three squadrons ready right now, and all others to prepare within an hour," she turned back to Twilight "I'll need you to bring your paladin immediately"
-º-
Something hit Applejack's head, feeling worryingly similar to a hammer, but she staggered back before another blow was landed. Quibra, close by, grabbed an arm that wasn't quite there and pulled it, throwing the body it was attached to against a wall with a sound of clay and stone shattering against each other. Something hit him in the side, but he grabbed it and, with a crimson flash, supplexed it. No one attacked them, and they didn't find any point that their eyes slipped over, so they allowed themselves to take deep breaths.
They still couldn't see the remains of their attackers, but both had found golems often enough to recognize them.
Nonetheless, the fact that they were psionists worried her. Changelings -which she had been expecting- or unicorns would've been preferable to the possibilities these golems had just opened for them.
"Are you-" started Quibra, but flinched and grabbed the point that the last golem had charged against "Broken rib, thsere" Applejack didn't understand the word, but the tone alone spoke its meaning "Are you fine?"
"Could be better, but-" the feeling of a warm breeze at the back of her head returned.
"SIGNAL WEAK. SPATIAL PROPERTIES WORRYING; CHANGE RATE FAR FASTER THAN BEFORE. GET OUT OF THERE. BRING REMAINS OF ATTACKERS.?. EVIDENCE; RESEARCH"
"Twilight says we have to get out" said Applejack, grabbing the nearest spot of not-there-ness and put it in Quibra's bag "Something about the space worsening"
"ATTACKERS MAY INDICATE MAFIA OPERATIONS; PRACTICALLY USELESS OUTSIDE CROWDS; WITHOUT THEM MERELY HARD TO PERCEIVE. CHANGELINGS.?" They started their way back.
"No, golems"
"WORRYING. CONFIRMS REDDO'S FEARS. BRING MORE PIECES.?"
"Hey, Quibra, can you try to get more golem? Twilight needs it" he nodded and took something that seemed heavy with the hand that wasn't clutching his rub.
"SPACIAL ANOMALIES GROWING FASTER; RUSH; WILL TRY TELEPORTS" Applejack gulped and changed her troting into a run, Quibra wincing but following suit.
In the corner of her vision, two figures appeared, that of an stylished diamond dog and pony. There were six dark diamond shapes around each, the top one above the pony already lit.
"No, don't you-" she swallowed "Quibra, put the piece on my back" she asked him. He gave her a dubious look, "Now!"
He gave in, and Applejack weathered the weight of what seemed to be a dismembered chest without slowing her run. If Twilight pulled her back and he was trapped with a broken rib, things would only worsen.
An old stallion appeared around a corner, aiming his horn at them.
It was only fitting that, with a magnesium flash, both hallway and warm breeze disappeared.
They looked at the black void that surrounded them, shared a look, and gulped.
The darkness lasted an indeterminate amount of time, lighting progressively to a dark-blue tone. For a moment there was a feeling of humidity, and the distant cry of a whale, but it was quickly replaced by a rush of cold air and, with another magnesium flare, the darkness visibly moved upward like a tar, forming a moonless sky.
-º-
Twilight teleported back to Reddo's castle with Spike, tensing and relaxing her jaw muscles constantly.
Spike's claw passed over her withers for comfort, but was quickly removed to give Reddo a reverence.
"I hope my liege lady didn't cause any strife" he said.
"None I can't understand. Rise, there is no time for formality. I may need yours and Twilight's services, possibly in combat, so you are both my paladins as of now until the end of this situation"
Spike gave Twilight a look, but she didn't move, "She isn't a-"
"She will have to be," she made a gesture to a guard "Did you bring armor or weaponry?"
With a purple flash of teleportation, it fell in a cluttering mess. Twilight didn't move, her horn lighting every few seconds to try to establish a scrying link.
"Prepare and equip yourself. I will be back shortly," she turned and exited the room.
With Reddo out, Spike had the chance to see his surroundings-- it seemed to be a barrack, a large, circular stone room with bunks against the walls, some tables in a side, and the rest of the room occupied by a training area.
He almost said something to Twilight, but decided against empty encouragement and put on his mail armor, then started stretching to prepare for the weight of the plate.
Twilight teleported away without a word, probably to their hotel as she returned with Nanda a moment later, the old zebra having braided her mane, and teleported away against almost instantly. Spike interrupted his stretching to talk to her.
"Hey," Nanda looked at him "Do you mind an awkward question?" the almost rubbery feel of one of Twilight's spells shifting gears to the appropriate setting -in this case, the right language- flowed along his spine, but he ignored it.
"Of what kind?"
He searched for an answer for a moment, but decided not to beat around the bush, "Have you seen Twilight angry before?"
"I think..." Nanda lapsed for a moment "Not like this, just annoyed"
"That complicates things," he scratched the back of his head "Can you keep an eye on her if I am not around? She can get intense like this"
"Her friend is in danger" Nanda gave him an odd look "Who wouldn't be?"
"But you know how she gets when something interests her? Won't sleep until its done? Its like that when she is really angry" he sighed "Anything other that hurting her friends she can forgive, but..." he let it in the air.
Nanda considered it for a moment "I think I understand what you mean," she nodded "I'll try to. Now, queeny needs councel on my craft, goodbye" she walked off.
-º-
Hlaoo's hammock swung, the king moving in his sleep. Bright light from a combination of maegi lights, candles, and his fireplace illuminated both him and the royal bed mercilessly, projecting a thousand shadows.
He mumbled something before jolting awake, his blood-shot eyes searching for an unseen enemy, and the movement was enough to send him facefirst against the ground, throwing a night table to the ground in the process.
A moment later, a maid knocked the door.
"Lord?" she asked. She cleared her throat "D-did you-"
"No" he said, his face still against the ground.
The maid didn't say anything else. Heavy steps neared the door.
"Oi, kid, go back to work!" said a mare from the other side of the door, and was followed immediately by griffon steps "King, did you fall from that thing again?"
"No"
"Cause it really sounded like you fell from it"
"I didn't fall from the bed, servant. Begone" he added, for his pride at least.
"Servant? I saw you come to this world, Jimmy. Don't act tough on me"
He didn't answer, and after a moment the mare at the other side of the door walked away.
He sighed and got up, the dream that had woken him being remembered back instead of the other way around, which could only mean one thing. The old monk again, that bastard...
"Se-ru-nea" whispered Quibra "Surane's central park. I've heard they have a thousand orange trees here" he turned to look around, squinting at the darkness.
The leaves rustled around them despite the lack of breeze, and Applejack kept looking at Quibra. His gauntlets were gone now, along with the backpack and light armor he had worn. She touched her head curiously, and found that there was no hat there.
She winced, expecting the next to happen.
An old stallion approached them, carrying a paper lamp in telekinesis.
-º-
Spike, now in the second layer of armor and preparing for the third and last, was still stretching when Reddo entered the room, talking quietly with another gryphon.
"Spike?" she called him "Can you come?"
He gave a look to a nearby guard he had chatted with, who didn't seem to know about it either, and walked to her.
"You know Princess Luna personally, yes?" he nodded "Can you answer a few questions?"
"As far as I am authorized"
"Oh, don't worry about that. I don't want any state secret," the other gryphon whispered something to her "Oh? I don't think so. What I wanted to know was her hostile capacities when in dreams" she explained "It doesn't have to be exact, just an idea"
"Wait" Spike took a moment to process it "You are telling me you don't actually know what the dreamer can do? The crazy powerful and influential guy who's been going mad for weeks?"
She had told him to leave formality aside, after all.
"Years. And not properly, no. The last time a dreamer acted with hostility was centuries ago"
"Well..." Spike cringed "You ever met Discord?"
-º-
The stallion breathed with difficulty, staring at them mutely. His coat was a gray-blue tone, and his eyes were a washed out green color.
"You" he said after a moment "What are you doing at our home? And what are you?"
Both Applejack and Quibra just looked at him, flabbergasted by the question, before reacting and confirming that yes, nudity seemed to be the only change to their shapes.
"So? You are in my home. Answer" he walked closer, squinting "What are you?"
Quibra shook off the surprise, "I am a diamond dog" he said simply.
"A diamo- oh, the old guy talked about you. And you?" he turned to Applejack "What are you? You don't have wings, or a horn. Are you some sorta anti-alicorn? An ali?" he laughed at his own joke.
"An earth pony. I am an earth pony" Applejack looked at him in wonder "Who's the old guy?" and before she had time to stop it, the words slipped "Aren't you old already?"
"What? I am a year and a half old, lady. But what are you doing here? This is our home, you can't enter it. Old guy's rules."
"We were..." Applejack paused for a moment "Visiting"
"Visiting? the stallion's face turned like that of a curious dog "I didn't know we had guests"
"Yes, for-" Quibra paused "-King Hlaoo sent us. He couldn't come personally"
"Jim? Jim's a bastard" the old stallion's face was practically a rictus when he said the name "Of course he didn't come herself, all the better. Come, I'll take you to the old guy" he walked off without waiting for an answer. When they didn't follow immediately, he turned back to them, fire escaping from the lamp and enveloping him "I told you to come!" he screamed, ambers escaping from his mouth.
"And this, and this- ignore the second chapter of this one, that's just a myth" One of the librarians wrote something in cover of the book "This one, too..." he put put them on a cart that he pulled "And that's all the books worth mentioning about Luna's capacity when it comes to dreams, at least that I can find here"
"Yes, thanks" Reddo picked up one, looked at its cover for a moment, and passed it to the librarians "Have a report on the books by the morning"
"And you didn't search before" Spike gave her a look.
"I had hoped that he wouldn't be that far gone. But if he has these golems..." she cringed "Some murders from the last year suddenly make sense"
"Huh... Reddo, can I ask you a favor?" he asked.
"Depends"
"Keep Twilight away from fights"
"I know you are her paladin," she sighed "I respect that, I really do. But we may need her strength"
"Its not about Twilight. Its about the people she'd be against"
-º-
"And how old is the old guy?" asked Quibra after a moment. They were following a path among the trees.
"He's..." the stallion stopped walking and drew five sticks in the dust "He is this old. The oldest of us" he said, beaming in pride "Really clever, he is. Can count to..." he pointed to the sticks "Four times this. I think?" he scratched his mane in confusion, but walked again with a shrug.
Quibra and Applejack shared another look.
-º-
Winona had, in a way, good luck.
She couldn't see the sheer amount of colors of her baroque prison. It was the kind of place that would've given Rarity an existencial crisis.
What wasn't so good, however, was that ORANGE HAT HORSE had been away from her for over three hours.
Winona walked in circles, searching for an exit, and scratched the door again. Her paws were leaving marks already, which was something of a general improvement. If she was going to be trapped, she'd ruin her prison as much as she could, using whatever means necessary.
But, dirtied prisons aside, three hours. Three hours. One was a large number. Two was a large number. Three was, thus, an extra large number.
This was unprecedented. She couldn't remember any instance of such a thing happening.
What was the BROWN MILK GIVER had said once? That sometimes your pony goes away for some time to mysterious places, and you have to wait loyally?
Well, enough loyalty. ORANGE HAT HORSE had had more than enough time in the bushes, of whatever it was, and her ears needed scratching.
So, when a few minutes later someone slid a food tray through an opening in the door, a finger was bitten mercilessly. And when the door was opened, a chocolate-colored bolt of fur ran away.
To freedom.
-º-
Twilight sat quietly in the ceiling of Reddo's castle.
A small clock floated near her, emiting the purr of a well oiled machine.
Tic. Toc.
She opened her mouth. Her horn was instantly alight by barely repressed magics, screeching in rage. She closed her mouth again immediately.
Tic. Toc.
Luna had tried to teach her, unsuccessfully, how to control anger. At the end they had decided that the root of the problem was precisely how hard it was for Twilight to truly feel anger: It was, in Luna's own words, a seemingly binary state between forgiving and murdering.
A whale sang, in the distance, or it may have been a bird...
-º-
The park seemed to grow more dense as they advanced, lit only by the stallion's paper lamp. By now, Applejack would've been hard pressed to call it anything but a citric forest, which included the normal problems of such a kind of forest. From time to time they'd step over a fallen orange, the poignant smell assaulting them with eye-tearing intensity.
Quibra cursed, pricked by yet another spine. The stallion seemed to be avoiding the spines with an ability a cat would've been jealous of.
-º-
If asked afterward, Applejack couldn't have said how long was the path. There seemed to be bridges long enough for cities to be built in and caves that ended before beginning, and forks with only three paths and a dozen dozen signs pointing to the walkers.
Eventually, however, they did reach an end. The throne seemed to be built from roughly cut trunks piled over one another and kept in a piece by a thick carpet of mush. The stone floor itself was covered in mush, with trunks aligned like seats.
Also, there was a moon in the clearing. It was in the sky, that was sure, but it was also in the clearing. Its light was too intense, a kid's idea of darkness.
All of this went unnoticed in the first moment, however.
No less than a dozen stallions, all identical, walked in the clearing. Each carried a different object-- a piece of chalk here, a bottle of wine, and a cane were the most noticeable ones. Others carried more discreet, or common, objects.
"Come," the lamp stallion gestured for them to keep walking "You want to see the old guy, don't you?"
"Ah" they followed him "How are you called?" they asked in unison.
"Called?" the stallion stopped "What's a called?" he looked at them curiously.
"Your name" insisted Applejack "You have a name, right?"
"Na- Oh, those? The things you awakes use to not mix things?" Applejack and Quibra nodded "I don't have one. I have a lamp" he added, smiling in pride, then kept walking.
The throne seemed to have its own space, for there was a jerking sensation when they neared it.
And there he was, an old stallion whose colors were slightly brighter than the others'. He wore a crown that her eyes couldn't quite focus on-- depending on the angle, it changed between a paper crown and an exquisitely jeweled gold one, as if the later tried desperately to hide the former.
"Who are you?" he asked. Applejack decided to call him Crown.
"Hlaoo sent us" Quibra rushed to say.
"Jimmy?" Crown gave Lamp an annoyed look "Jimmy wasn't supposed to come until next monday. You are dumb"
"He wanted you to know that he can't come next monday" tried Applejack "He has..." Applejack trailed off.
"A date" continued Quibra "He has a date"
"Really?" Crown turned his head like a curious dog "A date? With a girl?" he was smiling faintly to himself, like a kid enjoying his own private joke.
Applejack and Quibra gulped, but nodded.
"Jimmy doesn't like girls" he said, beaming in pride "I found out that one myself. I peeked at his head once" he laughed.
Applejack and Quibra found themselves stepping away.
"And he had a lot of things in his head too!" he kept laughing "Silly dumb things. I took some out and played with others! And he acted funny later!" he smiled widely, and images that Applejack averted her eyes from started appearing around the throne "He acted funny! And then I told he he'd always come back to me, no mater what, because I am bored!" the last word was practically a roar.
A whale sung in the distance, or it may have been a bird.
"And then he was, he was trying to run away! In my own dream!" he pointed at a screen where the king in question ran in tears "I just made him walk into me again and again and again!" he stopped laughing "I told him, "Jimmie, I am bored of being here. So I'll be in the world of the awakes, because I want it""
The whale's song repeated itself, nearing.
"And he was like "But you can'y go there, you are just a pa- a parsi-" I dunno "You can't come into my world!"" he giggled "And then I told him "Well, I want it. So I'll make your world into a dream too, because I want it" I had a friend once! A friend who wanted to do that too!" His face schewed in confusion "When was that? No, that was before-" The whale sung, and he seemed to notice it for the first time "Wazzda-" he was hit by a stream of water, the smell of the sea invading the place instantly.
Lamp looked at Crown, who was getting up with an irritated expression, in surprise and then anger.
"No!" he cried, fire emerging from the lamp and wrapping him "I don't wanna see you!" he charged against the door from which the water had emerged, breathing flame into it.
A figure, which had been clouded by the water before, jumped out of the way, and Lamp ran into the door... and into dark water. He flailed uselessly, bubbles escaping from his mouth, and then went limp. The figure emerged from the door.
An old stallion, his colors brighter even than Crown's, called them in.
"You!" Crown called out at him, the sky darknening and mush dying "I'll fucking kill you!" he ran to him.
It was an instant. Crown found himself running in the opposite direction, and into the sky, and facefirst into the floor.
"Come, fools!" called out Door. An object was approaching to the door, swimming in the water "You won't drown!"
Applejack shared a look and decided to run to it, at the same time as the animal's mouth opened near the door.
As they entered into the whale's mouth, there was a thundering. Door flinched, but stood firm against the electricity that clashed into him. As soon as it was done, he entered to the whale with them, the door closing itself.
"Now, boys," he sat down, his heavy robe smoking "Who are you, and what were you doing in my temple?"
Morning 45, fragment two: For mistakes to echo, again and again
Sunlight fell over them, in a park. Kids played in the edge of their vision.
"The other was but a shadow," explained the dreamer, Rubicon, "The idiot thinks he looks more..." he searched the word "He looks more "badass" at night. Applejack, right?" he asked "Perfect... now, do you have any idea of how dangerous it is for me to go there?"
Quibra didn't give her a chance to answer, for he walked and took the stallion by the throat.
"You owe us answers"
"Ah, yes. I guess I do" he nodded calmly. An instant later, he disappeared in a puff of smoke and reformed in the floor "Ask away"
"What in Tartarus is going on? Why are there so many yous?" started Applejack "Where are we? Some dream?"
Rubicon cringed.
"I made a foolish decision some years ago" he started "This resulted in the present situation"
Quibra and Applejack deadpanned.
"Do you-? of course you know of Princess Luna, your name is Equestrian. Some years ago she did something fascinating, that I was convinced was impossible. Do you know of the Tantabus incident?"
"Tant-" started Quibra "That was decades ago"
"And after finding out that making a memetic life form was indeed possible, I had to try to" eh sighed "A mistake-"
"A disaster!" Quibra threw his arms to the sky "Its a historical event with the word "Incident" in it! You don't repeat those, you avoid them!" he shouted.
"Ha! I was too clever to realize when I was being an idiot" Rubicon's cackle was dry "I still am. Point is, I was a fool. I tried to make life, but couldn't and grew desperate"
"But you did it" said Applejack "And it went wrong again. We just saw it"
"Yes, but my success was merely partial. I am afraid my intelligence pales to that of Princess Luna," he sighed "Do any of you know a soulcrafter, by chance? Because their beliefs are interesting, really worth hearing. Their definition of life is "Trying"" he smiled faintly "Just that. If something tries, that something is alive no mater what. Life is only truly ended when something can't, or lacks the will to, try anymore"
"I didn't ask if-"
"I am getting to it. One of the peculiarities of soulcraftery is this, that differently from many other disciplines dreams aren't a form of life for them. Dreams don't try to, they only want to. Dreams are, for an old fashioned soulcrafter, a mockery of life" he paused for a moment "Then the Princess made a fascinating travesty. A dream that tried. Tantabus, despite its failure, tried so hard to help her, no mater what..." he smiled "I wanted to, so much, to make a dream like that. Perhaps that's precisely my failure" From the door, which was opened nearby, the whale sung "Oh, there is little time left. I wanted to make a stable, reasonable dream that could live by itself, can you blame me? I am a dreamer" he laughed bitterly "But I couldn't. Until an idea occurred to me. If I can't make something, why not start by duplicating it and scale the complexity from there?"
Applejack's eyes opened wide in realization.
"I dreamed myself, old fool I am... but the idea was sound to me, at the time. I dreamed myself, and it took so much effort. But the dream is incomplete, for such is the inherent nature of dreams. The dream has some of my memories, yet doesn't understand. It has my knowledge, yet cares little for the lessons I learned. The dream knows it is incomplete, so it dreamed itself again and again. Now it wants to dream himself into reality, making reality into his dream in the process" he sighed "And I fear it may"
"So you are telling me" he growled "That you made a demon, just to see what happened"
"Everyone does" Rubicon barked a dry laugh "My failure was not knowing to make it small enough. But I digress, as much as I have lost control of my own body, my soul is still mine and I have maintained contact with some students of mine," the whale sang "She is here, it seems," he gestured to the door "Enter, she will wake you up"
Quibra threw a last glare to Rubicon, and they entered.
The whale sung as it moved them to another door, a sound of melancholy.
-º-
"Quick!" they were jerked them mercilessly to a standing position "I had to fight a dozen damned golems to find you!"
Their eyes opened, a faint headache setting in quick and intending to stay.
"Follow me!" said the voice, in Tharatean
They followed without a doubt, not wanting to take any risk.
"You, big guy, punch a hole here!" she pointed at a spot in the wall "Big enough to pass"
Quibra looked at it, tightened both fists together, and swung all of his body in a hit, alighting the hallway with a crimson spark. The stone broke with a dust cloud.
They ran across the hole, and after a moment climbed seemingly endless stair.
"Now here!" she moved away. Quibra did as ordered, not-sounds appearing nearby.
They followed up another flight of stairs, getting to the ceiling.
"My master charged me with protecting you, for whatever reason" explained the gryphon "Thus is my duty," she walked to the border "As annoying as it may be. The old guy knows what he's doing. Come," she took two harnesses from a pocket in her robe "Put them on, quick"
They did so, Quibra attaching it to the harness he already had.
"Now," She grabbed two hooks from the harness she wore under the robe "This is going to be a bumpy flight"
-º-
"Undignified at best, but a useful tool to have, is it not? Mariela, by the way. I am afraid it is not much of a pleasure" she slid across the sewers with them in tow "Anyhow. I am the next dreamer, or would be if the present situation wasn't so complicated," she turned another corner "The dreamer seems to believe you two can help me extinguishing the devil's flame before it is too late, so I'll have to believe you can. For now, the best is to put distance between us and the temple, for the golems can't go further than a kilometer away from it. Now, what is that you can do? Are you demon hunters? Alicorn princesses? Luna in disguise, mayhaps?" she asked, sceptically.
They shook their heads.
"I guessed so. I may trust the old guy, but I am far from a idiot. If you can do anything, tell me before I dump you in sealed room. You'll be safe there, I am sure"
"We were supposed to take this," Quibra showed his backpack, wincing when it touched his broken rib "To Princess Twilight Sparkle. Information on the dreamer, and proof of his actions"
"A foreigner? Do you realize the danger of taking delicate information to so powerful a creature?" she looked at them and faced forward again "Not even a century old, worse yet"
"She could communicate with Luna. Make her come" offered Applejack.
"A crazy moon mare, to deal with a mad dream demon. Fitting, I do admit. It is day, and Luna's faster vehicle is the very moon. Or so I've heard," she climbed a flight of stairs and exited the sewers into sunlight "Is it not?" she helped Applejack into the street.
"The m-" Applejack remembered "Oh, yes. She's jumped with the moon a few times" she and Mariela helped Quibra "She'd get here by nightfall"
"Then do not tarry," she started walking again "I've heard that Sparkle is in Reddo's castle, for whatever reason, and that both castles are preparing to play war"
Morning 45, fragment four: For princesses to be found
"We sleepers" whispered Mariela, peeking through a doorway and walked in to another room "Believe that the world is dreamt by other worlds which we dream. Reality is but a uroboric series of dreams, a hunger crazed beast -inherently incomplete by nature- that devours itself and is renovated in the process," they went to another room "This city is believed to be a curhai sura, a bridge and core of dream-worlds. Here a traveler from any other world would find reflections from his world, and things reflected into his world. Same difference, according to Rubicon," she entered another room and smiled faintly, "Ah, here you are. I wasn't expecting to find you so quickly" she said in a normal volume.
Twilight turned to her, and not saying a word trapped her in a dozen spells.
"Assassin?" she asked curtly, screeches emanated from the area round her horn with her word "Unarmed. Why?"
Applejack and Quibra entered the room, and Twilight seemed to fall to pieces for a moment.
"Fine" she let Mariela go "Explain, now" she ordered, taking Quibra's bag and starting to read the papers inside.
"I'll have to start again," sighed Mariela "But first of all, let me explain you why it'd be really bad for reality to be made into a dream here of all places, and why it may happen tomorrow"
-º-
Despite Hlaoo's state of mind, he and Reddo had had a mute agreement of spreading rumors about the convenience of staying inside that day in the market places, a kind of rumor that can do wonders when the political situation has been tense for a good few weeks.
Which, considering the poblation of such a place, still meant people wandering the streets searching for a fight.
Hlaoo overlooked most of the city from a flat in one of the spires of the Big Church, inside which the dreamer's temple was receiving a rude awakening, monks young and old alike being rounded up in the inner temple by temporarily visible golems. Part of Hlaoo prayed that none of them fell asleep.
He'd take care of that later.
For now, he was watching the city. The high altitude wind was relaxing in its way, making his royal garments -which were currently a warlord's, a cape over enchanted steel laminar armor- and mane waver.
Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe the monk's try would result in failure.
Nah.
"Did you have any sleep?" he asked. He saw her shaking her head from the corner of his eye "Perfect. The poisons?" she took four dials from her apron's pocket and offered him two "Thanks" he put them in one of his pouches "Can they kill?" she shook her head "Ah. I'll make do, then"
The building shook, earning a disinterested look from both of them. Some smoke, barely noticeable at the distance, poured out of a nearby window.
So the old guy had managed to get past the first phase, then.
A gryphon messenger flew to him, reports in his claw.
"Here are the-" he noticed the pegasus, sitting closely "Is that a maid, lord?" he asked, more out of surprise than anything else, before catching himself "Not that I doubt your judgement, I mean, you-"
"Begone," Hlaoo took the reports without much interest.
"I thank your forgiveness, lord" he made a reverence and flew off.
Mirria gave Hlaoo an questioning look.
"Don't bother"
She nodded, hints of chainmail barely noticeable under her maid clothes and only if one know where to look.
He eyed the report for any word that drew the eye, then started reading it when noting popped up.
-º-
Reddo and several other griffons talked over a map, pointing at various points and moving figures over it. There was an empty seat near her.
The door opened, and they glanced at it before returning to the map.
"Twilight," Reddo gestured at the empty seat.
"Reddo," Twilight nodded back "My agents returned shortly ago," she showed them the papers and small golem piece that floated behind her, heading for the seat "The piece is what I expected, normal clay with high-grade ceramic components intertwined. More resistant than flesh, but brittle"
She gave a look to the board, then took all of Reddo's piece out of it (Taking care of suspending them in the air in the same arrangement they had been in, however) and moved all of Hlaoo's pieces forward.
"And with this strategy this is what will happen, according to the information here" she put the papers in a corner "The dreamer commands over five hundred normal golems, all with perception filter enchantements, and two hundred high-grade war golems, all made of steel and ceramic composites. Hlaoo's army includes mobile bases that, besides their obvious advantages, are equipped to give golems a few hundred meters operativity each," she put the pieces back in their places "So, who here has experience in fighting highly advanced automatas?" she asked.
"Hm, yes," a unicorn examined Quibra's rib "No organ pierced, only a few ignorable bruises..." he searched in his cabinet and put an ointment over the fracture "Try not to do acrobatics and your own body will take care of it in a few months. Have weekly checkups, however"
"I'll try to" Quibra got up. The doctor gave him a skeptical look, but started filling the paper work without a comment.
Mariela was waiting him outside the room.
"You are from Quibra Star, right? Were you there recently, by chance?" he was surprised to notice that, while accented, her Stralit was nearly native, and nodded.
"I am from Eeral, is it fine? Have those idiots fell into another war?"
"A few diplomatic errors with the plainslands, but no" he shook his head "There was..." he paused to remember "A functionary member was accused of murder, but at the end it was a misunderstanding from a typo" he shrugged, then winced from his rib.
"A language with nearly two hundred words for killing," sighed Mariela, a combination of irritation and surrender "Do I need to say more? I am surprised it doesn't happen more often than it does already. Thanks, anyway. It does me good to know that motherland didn't cause yet another bloodshed" she lingered silently for a moment "A saddening prospect, is it not? War?"
Is this some kind of test? he considered the answers for a moment, mildly irritated.
"Its just a lot of angry people" he made to walk off, but Mariela stepped in his way.
"So? We all know how the enraged machine works. After the first charge, there are unlimited reasons to keep charging" she pressed "Would you fight in the war that may happen?"
Ah. Should've seen it coming.
"I'd be a bodyguard at most" he answered automatically "I am no soldier"
"And maybe you are even honest" Mariela walked out of his way "Try not to kill too many sons, brothers, or fathers"
He gave her an odd look and walked off. A bar would be nice to find right about now.
Mariela watched him walk away quietly and entered the castle doctor's office, earning an wide eyed look from the unicorn.
"You are alive?" he asked in surprise "But you-"
"A year, yes. Being hidden makes it hard to chit-chat. Can you make a check?" she asked, walking to the examination table.
"Of course, just..." he finished filling the paper work and set it aside, then put the necessary instruments in a tray "But why now?"
"Many people has seen me, it means little for now" she lifted her wings to let him examine her chest "Discreet medics are rarely good, too. A typical case of romanticism with those ones" she moved a claw in a vaguely irritated way.
"Mh?" he was using a stethoscope in her chest.
"In a book you'd find a medic who'll never say what happened and or file paperwork" she rolled her eyes "A doctor like that will be careless. Once I spent three weeks with a microfracture until one of the idiots found it"
"I'll file you under a fake name, if you want" the medic tapped her gently and she overturned, allowing him to use the stethoscope in the opposite side "That wouldn't be so careless, wouldn't it?" he moved the stethoscope to the upper side of her chest "Your heartbeat seems to be fine. Do you have the necessary medication to keep it that way?" he took a blood pressure meter and started inflating it around her arm "It took me months to find out why is that you were so desperate to get so much all of sudden, you know"
"The dreamer's madness had gone beyond bearable threshold" she sighed "What he did to Hlaoo..."
"You know you could've sent some message" he insisted "Mom was going mad on me" he passed the instrument to her other arm.
"You both know I wouldn't die just like that. You are the one who stalks me" she smiled.
"Correction, I am the one who keeps you alive" he paused for a moment, thinking of how to say it "You know, you better stay in this monastery"
"This is my life's calling, even if it took me half of it to find out. But why?"
"Because I can't travel after you anymore. Weeding's next month" he said.
"A we-" her eyes opened wide "Wait. You-? But-" she slapped herself, then smiled widely "Congratulations, you idiot! Who is it?"
He took out the blood pressure meter and put it over the tray, "Your heart is still working well, so mom's problems haven't appeared. And remember that chambermaid that you said stared at me?"
"Cynthia?" he nodded "She'll be good for you. I'll talk with her, provided we survive"
"Hm..." he started filling the paperwork, taking a pill flash from a nearby closet, "Have these ones in the house" it took him nearly a minute to process her word "Provided?" he said in surprise "Are you using an "If"?"
"I fear..." she averted her gaze "Make me a favor, Issy. If you hear screeches coming from the Big Church, run from the city. Promise me you will"
Applejack woke up, the faint idea of time being around noon confirmed by a nearby clock.
The door was knocked again.
"Enter," she got up.
Twilight entered, a clock floating besides her and Spike, fully armored, behind her.
"I gave you as much time to rest as I could, but I need something" her face was a rictus of frustration "I need someone who can act as a proxy for my magic, and the others are in Equestria"
"What for?" For all the things Applejack had found in her travels, she still couldn't help but step back when Twilight was truly angry.
"No. First I'll offer you this," she put Applejack's bag, which had been left in a corner of the room, and put it in her back "I could teleport you out of this country"
"What do you need me for?" insisted Applejack, taking out the bags.
"It'll affect your judgement" Twilight put them back on.
"No, being refused the whole picture is what affects it" she took them out again.
Twilight stared at her, and Applejack could practically hear the ideas behind those eyes.
"Fine" she conceded after a moment "Mariela told me that the dreamer has been building up energy from his monks to do something, and what you took confirms it. I need to disrupt the energy, but my horn would react violently to it, so I need someone who can proxy my magic without her head exploding in the process"
"I'll do it," Applejack gave Spike a look "He's coming with me?"
"Y-" she was completely paralized for nearly a minute "-es"
"You did it again," said Spike.
Twilight checked the clock, "Fifty eight seconds this time, drat. AJ, your equipment is in the barracks and Spike knows everything" she teleported away.
"What was that?" Applejack asked Spike "What did I just see?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. Come, I'll take you to the barracks" he started walking.
-º-
Twilight appeared in front of Nanda. She and a few unicorns were discussing over a chalkboard in a scrambled combination of Tharatean, Lushido, and Dirila that her spell failed completely to translate, but she cared little.
"It happened again, this time for fifty eight seconds" she said, and teleported away before they had time to answer.
From over cloud level, Twilight overlooked the city. It took her a few seconds to remember snapping open her wings to stop the descent.
Hlaoo's units remained in the same place, tight around the Church's entrance. There seemed to be movement around it, so she conjured a telescope.
Golems were exiting the portics, turning unnoticeable almost instantly...
...and a stream of silver flew in, too fast for her to recognize.
In her mind, a domino chain started to fall over. If anything rushed the attack, it'd be bad news at best, so she let the telescope dissolve into aether and herself fall, not wanting to waste magic with teleports now of all times.
She fell like a purple comet, encased in a shield that few others than Rainbow could generate, jerked to a stop, and entered the palace in a run.
There were several emptied food trays around them, rests of food having flown off with the wind. Both Hlaoo and Mirria had refused, for several reasons, to descend from the spire. Strategic knowledge was a somewhat secondary one.
More smoke rose from the windows of the Church, and the light seemed to be being warped around it.
"Do you think its time?" he asked Mirria.
After a moment's consideration, she shook her head.
As if on que, golems started pouring out of the Church, turning unnoticeable almost instantly.
"Damn," he stood up and took a few steps, testing the heavy iron boots he wore "Are you ready?"
She stood up, nodding.
They took wing, descending quickly. They passed over his troops. Their eyes were unfocused, gazing into infinity.
He had expected this to happen, due to their proximity to the dreamer, but had hoped it didn't. With no tropes to inspire, he took out his cape without stopping his flight over unnoticing soldiers and uncaring golems, and entered the Church.
Mirria first flew and then ran with him, sliding across halls and into the inner church.
You'll always come back to me!
Believe me that I'll go back to you.
It wasn't enough to just kill it. He would steal the parasite's hopes when it was convinced of its success.
"You aren't trained for armor, so I can't give you anything fully enchanted," Spike selected several pieces of armor from shelves "These days those ones can make a salute into a beheading" he breathed flame into it, several enchantments breaking away with it "Ready, this has no active enhancements, only reactive, like air cooling"
With Spike's help, she wore the three layers of armor-- a first of mail, a second of harnesses and pads, and a third of light plates over her vital organs.
"What's fully enchanted armor like?" she asked, flexing her legs to test it.
"Like this" he took a random plate helmet and put it over her head-
Activating awareness enchancers...
Sight enchancement... OK
A myriad of markers appeared over her vision, not unlike those that appeared when Twilight proxied her magic through her.
Hearing enchancement... OK
The volume of everything increased to such a level that it was almost, but not quite, unbearable. She took the helmet in a rush.
"And this is rookie armor. Takes time to get used" Spike gave her the disenchanted helmet, then gave a few taps to his own "This one would literally give you a three weeks long headache"
"Huh" She shook her legs and made a experimental hop "I expected it to be heavier"
"That's the passive magic, it'll also keep broken bones in place, accelerate coagulation, you name it. Now try to run"
She gave him a dubious look but walked to the small training area in the center of the room and ran a few circles, almost collapsing to the floor in the try.
"The armor is less effective when you move quickly, there's a small delay in it compensating its own weight in different positions" explained Spike.
"So only trotting?" Applejack tested different speeds.
Spike nodded, "It'll also fall to pieces with damage. Plate is incredibly obtrusive if it isn't perfectly adjusted, believe me" he tapped his armored chest "You ready?"
She nodded, and he turned to the door.
"Wait" she called "A sword? What for?"
"Claws intimidate civilians, magic swords intimidate soldiers" he shrugged "Also, these babies" he lifted his ungloved claws for a moment "can only do so much to steel, and I can't go biting everything. It's bad form"
She walked after him, feeling the uncomfortable weight of heaved boots but growing used to it quickly. When they were near the door of the palace, Twilight passed them running, then ran backwards.
"The Church may be a warzone by the time you get there, so try not to hurt yourself, alright?" she ran forward again.
Spike winced, but they walked on. Outside, several regiments formed around them like a shell.
-º-
Mirria was thrown to a golem, but rotated in the air and jumped on its back with enough force for her heavy boots to crack it, landed on another kicking all four hooves into its head, took the now dismembered head in her forehooves, and threw it against the remaining golem, rotating with her wings as the axis for an instant afterwards.
The fight over, she and Hlaoo kept advancing. He held a map that someone had dropped carelessly over the floor, going to a room that according to the map had grown to be far larger than even the Big Church.
Spike and AJ's procession had advanced nearly three quarters of the way. It had been joined, to her surprise, by several civilians with no comment from the army.
"So they also joined Hlaoo?" she asked Spike, uncomfortable with the idea. It was a thing attacking a soldier and a different one completely to attack civilians.
"Nah," said a nearby griffon "I've heard Hlaoo's using golems. That's bad sport" he flew off to chat with a nearby group of his kind.
"Oh" she blinked "Alright?"
"Yeah, these people is like that" said Spike.
At least, she admitted, there seemed to be a consensus about age. Everyone seemed to be at least thirty, and younger people who tried to join was quickly thrown from the group by their elders, often via kicks in the arse.
She was thinking this when a group of unoccupied spaces approached them quickly, and the alarm spread like wild fire. Everyone who could use some magic or another rained disrupting projectiles over them, imploding most of their perception filters quickly.
-º-
Quibra wasn't quite drunk yet. He was, in fact, in his favorite stage-- in a pleasant haze that didn't quite rob him of intelligence.
He also wore his armor, because the enchantments on it made it far easier to move with a broken rib. There was absolutely no other reason, he reminded himself.
He had to get some gift for lil' bro' before heading back, too, but the mental reminder was interrupted by a crash outside.
He and the rest of the bar went to the door to see a golem, bigger than a buffalo and painted with the colors of Hlaoo, being fallen over by a dozen armored griffons wearing the colors of Reddo.
Without a moment's pause, the Suraneans entered in a rush, took anything that wasn't nailed to the floor, and flew out of windows and doors alike to attack the golem on account of it being bigger. He was vaguely aware of the barman, a minotaur, charging with a sword thrice as long as he was tall.
Well, technically he was still under Twilight's contract, and the golem wasn't alive. Just a machine.
He didn't cold water, after all.
-º-
A group of griffons and pegasi, Twilight's in its mid, were over the city. Messengers flew constantly between them and the groups each controled, with Reddo mainly keeping the group controllers from fighting each other for what strategies were better and Twilight giving general advice. Currently Applejack's group, the largest, was spearheading the charge.
A light group of basic golems was delaying them while larger groups of mixed people and golems, with most of the mobile bases, tried to establish a pincer formation around them. "Tried" because, according to Reddo and as Twilight was beholding now, the citizenry had really strong opinions about using golems to wage war. Bludgeoning, exploding, and flaming opinions.
That wasn't to say that Reddo's own army wasn't doing anything-- without support by soldiers with augmenting armors and strategic organization, common people wouldn've been hard pressed to advance the way they were.
A tiny ruby spark was barely noticeable, and a war golem had part of its head pulverized, gaining a smile from her. Celestia had long since taught her that the best pieces are the ones that move on their own.
One of the messengers, a pegasus, flew to Twilight.
"A zebra told me to send you a message," he handed it to her "Forgive me if I wasted your time" he waited in expectation.
"No, Nanda's fine" Twilight scanned the paper quickly "Tell her to keep an eye on it"
The pegasus nodded and flew off. The left spearhead of the pincers had nearly reached Reddo's castle when it was engaged by a mass of griffons that had been practicing some sport or another which included, as Twilight saw with her telescope, ludicrous amounts of war maces.
It was strangely fitting than Surane was almost in the other side of the world from Equestria. Identical opposites, Celestia had called them once.
"They seem to..." said Reddo "The strategies are terrible" an old griffon that was at her side nodded "Hlaoo wouldn't ever try to pince and then keep doing it with so much resistance"
"Yes" continued the old griffon "I can't distinguish golems and people, too. They all fight mindlessly"
"Hold this" Twilight gave her clock to a nearby pegasus and closed her wings, letting herself fall. She formed several layers of magic shielding before reaching the ground, which resulted in a kinetic explosion among a particularly large amount of normal golems, then teleported around the area until she found a soldier, trapped him in telekinesis, and teleported back to Reddo "You were right" she grabbed the clock again.
The soldier's hooves searched for something to hit desperately, eyes covered by a dull sheen.
They all looked at him, some eyes widening.
"Do any of you have any idea of what this is?" she asked.
"I've seen this" said one of the pegasi "It happens to sleepers from time to time, if the dreamer is careless when meditating" he flew closer and slapped him "Hey, hey!" the soldier tried to bite his hoof, and he drew it off "Snap off it, you idiot!" the soldier just kept trashing.
"So they are supposed to snap off it easily?" Twilight encased the soldier and herself in a protective shield, preparing to meteor down again "I'll take him to the think ta-"
She plummeted down, her whole body and even magic paralized in a rictus. There was an instant in which only the tick-tock and wind could be heard, before the two youngest griffons threw themselves to catch her, then an awkward one when the orchestrators shared uncomfortable looks.
"-nk wait it happened again didn't it" Twilight checked her clock, flying on her own wingpower now "I hate the jerking sensation of it. Two minutes? very bad" she let herself fall again, producing more shields than necessary just in case.
-º-
"Huh" Nanda scribbled in a notebook, reading the instruments they had cobbled together along the night "Its nearing the fifty now" she said, not caring to notice what languages she was using.
"Fifty? bad mojo" a nearby unicorn, Serv Pack, wrote on his own notebook "The old monk is really trying to, isn't he? A full coupling?"
Before Nanda had time to answer, Twilight walked in. There was an instant of silence when she looked longingly at all the equipement, clearly wanting to join in, but she showed them a soldier instead.
"He seems to be under some kind of enchantment, but I don't know enough of soul or mind craftery to diagnose it" she set him in the floor, restrained with ropes "Don't let him go. He'll attack anything in sight" she teleported away, then reapeared almost immediately "Oh, and I was paralized again. A minute and forty-two seconds this time" she teleported away again.
Applejack crouched under a flying golem someone had thrown and leashed back her head, avoiding a hoof that seemed to have been aimed at her jaw, and decided to answer kindly by bitting deep into the arm and jerking her head, throwing the blue-vested opponent away.
Winona watched Orange Hat Horse, considered the Run and Bark approach, and decided that maybe the Glorious Save one would be better.
Yeah, it sounded nice.
So she gloriously ran at Applejack and jumped over her, purposefuly entering collision course with a pony that had been charging at Orange Hat Horse. While the armor resisted her teeth, she distracted her foe for long enough for Spike to hit it in the back of the head with the flat of his sword.
"Told you" was all Applejack said.
"You know-" another soldier lunged mindlessly at him, and he simply put the flat of the sword in the way of its face "You know, I had expected you to be more distressed"
The rest of their group moved on to charge at the remaining golems, and they took the opportunity to take a breather rather than lead the charge.
"Have you ever ran in glaciers as they break under you at five in the morning, having woken up from the frostbite of touching the water?"
"Good point" nodded Spike.
-º-
It was a nice day.
Not a drop of blood in his hands, too. Just clay dust.
His rib, however, hurt like mad despite the alcohol haze. It hadn't pierced anything yet, mainly thanks to the armor, but receiving any hit in the chest would be a bad idea right about now.
Which was what seemed to be about to happen. Or rather, that he'd hit one of the the war golems at rather fast speeds in a descending fashion. But this would've been a problem even without the rib in most cases.
Hey, a bird.
"Big guy!" a pair of claws caught his arm "Nightmares! Easy on the sweets, lead soldier!" Cried Mariela when she felt his weight, losing height immediately.
"Sol-" Quibra's eyes opened wide "I am not a soldier" the alcohol haze took a red tint for a moment, but the pain in the arm she had caught was somewhat more relevant "Let go, I only need to fall on my feet!"
"If you say so?" she let go.
War golems were mainly cases of rough, ugly utilitarianism. Where other combat-class golems played for intimidation, people who made war machines cared little for aspect, so the end result was, in this case, hunched bipedal figures that moved in dozens of little legs, their arms six meters long each and ending in griffon-esque claws, all of it protected by steel and ceramic plates, the head little more than a square protruding from the thorax between the arms.
In the way down, he contorted until his feet were in the correct angle. There was a moment of peace when the only things were the sound of the wind and the increasing ruby glow of the gems in his knees and back.
Then he crashed down which, well, wasn't a nice experience even with the training he had. There was a sound of steel being deformed and clay shattering under his feet, and a burning heat flowing from his legs to his arms, which he knew well. Every kind of energy, no mater how efficient the container, produces heat as a byproduct. Or so said lil' bro, at least.
So he unloaded the kinetic energy his lower armor had absorbed back into the remains of the golem's head, tightening both fists together, and climbed down the little distance left to the floor.
Yeah, a nice day over all. A good rum bottle would've improved it, thought.
Mariela flew down to him, whistling at what he had done in the golem.
"Is this what diamond dog armor can do?"
"Its an old model" he panted. It did take a toll in the user, like all high-grade magic armors "D'you want something? I need a drink"
"Are you under Twilight's orders, by chance?" he shook his head "Can you escort a lady to the dreamer's temple, then? Wars are not my fortë"
He considered it for a moment, then shrugged, "If we can pass by a bar"
Pale green light emerged from the door. Feeling trepidation, Hlaoo opened it and entered the place he expected, hoped, the bastard to be.
It was only occupied by a glass tower in its center, shinning bright green. White figures could be guessed moving under the surface of the glass.
"Cool, isn't it?" Hlaoo jumped away from the door upon realizing what was in above it "I made it. I don't really know how it works, but I made it"
To say that Rubicon's body had been violated would've been an understatement: several long, deep gashes had been dug in his sides, duct tape keeping them somewhat closed, and from them several lines in geometric patterns extended through the thorax, finding themselves over the column and throat.
"It hurts, yeah" the bastard walked in the wall "But mixing layers of reality costs a bit when you aren't an alicorn. It wasn't enough to turn mass into energy, whatever that means, but it also had to be my lifeblood. I don't kn-" the bastard snickered "Gimme... gimme a second" it laughed loudly "You know the funny part? I don't know if that part was literal, I mean- It was a very old book, and Rubicon read it nearly forty years ago, but it said "Lifeblood from the bridge" and well, I wanted to be sure. No biggy" it shrugged, then jumped to the floor "Now, why had you been breaking my stuff? I like my stuff" it asked, a mirthless smile on his lips.
It was then than Mirria flew into the room, charging into him.
The bastard bounced like a ball through the air, one of his legs dangling and broken in several places.
"Cool" the bastard stopped moving, and Mirria stopped her second charge from the surprise "I mean, bad vibes and all, but cool. You know, this is kinda sorta a trap" the door closed with a bang "Did you think you were the djinn at this, with your loopholes?" it fell slowly to the ground "I am the dj-" it was charged at again by Mirria, only this time she used a different strategy.
She ran to him, crouched, and immediately jumped into it, head clashing against throat. Its head snapped back from the force of the impact, and she kept her assault, forehooves pummeling its face mercilessly until it had fallen on its back and no sound came.
She stood over the body, breathing deeply. When a moment of silence passed, she moved away from it, making to walk back to Hlaoo.
Then it rose.
She didn't waste an instant this time-- before it had time to talk, she had spun in her hindhooves and planted a firm hit in the side of its head, making it leash with a wet cracking sound, and another in the opposite side of the neck, jerking the head to a sickening angle. Without missing a beat, she pined the already falling body to the floor with a firm hoof in the now spongy neck and took one of the poison vials from a pouch, then forced it down the remains of its throat.
The corpse coughed, black smoke coming from its every orifice.
With an enraged snarl, she kept pounding the body, breaking both forelegs.
"Tsk, tsk," Mirria found herself unable to move midpunch, and the corpse slid from under her and rose, its legs moving like those of a spider due to their forcibly made articulations "Poison? Didja think poison could affect-" it coughed, and a piece of its belly fell "Woah, I don't think I am old enough for anything this strong" it turned to Hlaoo "What was your minor drinking age? fifteen?"
With a scream, Hlaoo ran to it -he'd fall fighting, at the very least-, a knife in his mouth. There was a vial, darker in tone than the one Mirria had used, in a socket on its handle.
The bastard didn't even move from the way, flesh arranging itself into a small smile, so the knife planted itself deep into its head like a second horn and bubbles rose in the vial, the liquid draining quickly.
"wOAH WOAH WOAH, THIS IS CRAZY" Hlaoo tried, unsucesfuly, to move "hOW WHERE THESE CALLED? nEUROSOMETHING?" it paused for a moment "yEAH, i THOUGHT SO. aLICORN-GRADE POISONS, REALLY? i DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE A COWARD, KILLING LIKE THIS" it smiled again "bUT i LIKE IT. fITS THE THEME, KINDA THING"
There was a moment of silence. A teeth fell to the cobbles with a plink.
"yOU KNOW HOW THIS IS CALLED?" the corpse gestured to the green tube "a TURËTA ENGINE, ACORDING TO THE BOOK. wITH ENOUGH ENERGY, i CAN DO WHAT NORMALLY ONLY A FULLY GROWN ALICORN OR DRAGON CAN," meat arranged itself into a toothless grin "a FULL COUPLING. tWO LAYERS OF EXISTANCE OVERLAYED WITH A COMPATIBILITY INTERFACE. nOT THAT i KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, ANYWAY" Both Mirria and Hlaoo a realized that the voice didn't come from the corpe anymore, but simply wandered close by "wHAT i DO KNOW, IS THAT YOU AREN'T JUST ANYWHERE WHEN IN THIS ROOM" it's grin increased in size, escaping from the limits of the face "yOU ARE IN MY ROOM. aND i DON'T LIKE PEOPLE BREAKING MY STUFF. nOW, HOW ABOUT WE HAVE A CHAT? tHE ENGINE HASN'T QUITE HEATED UP. wE HAVE TIME"
Mirria's eyes moved madly in their orbits, the only part of her body that could move, but whatever held the rest of her body didn't let go.
"This is dreadful after so nice a chat, but needs must," Guntha's knife pressed against her throat, just under cutting pressure "Now, be a dear and open the door"
The jail guard twitched, reaching for a weapon.
"No, no, you got it wrong," the blade pressed harder "You are supposed to free me, maybe insult me if you want to spice things up. Not to try something unpolite like that"
"There is-" she coughed, and the blade gave just enough space for her not to cut her own throat "There is a war outside, you idiot"
"I may have noticed it, yes. And by the way, isn't dried protein just dreadful to clean from nice uniforms like yours?" The blade pressed harder "I'd open it myself but, you know..." he pulled painfuly the claw he had twisted behind her back.
With an angered snarl, she took the keys from her belt and unlocked the door.
"Thank you," he freed her claw, and in a few swift movements took the handcuffs from her belt and attached one end to a metal bar and the other to one of her claws, not letting go of the dagger.
Before she had time to scream, he walked out of the cage and hit her throat with an elbow.
"Don't worry, don't worry," she made choked sounds, and he took a water glass from a nearby table and gave it to her "You'll be talking again in a few days, miss..." he read her plaque "Diane, and I'll make this up to you as soon as the situation is resolved. Goodbye, and I hope your cousin gets that promotion" He walked out of the room, trying to recall the way out of the building without much success.
It had taken him hours to get out, too. He was getting sloppy.
-º-
"I needed that" Quibra threw the bottle away.
Mariela's eyebrow raised just so, but she made no comment.
"I am not-" he hiccuped "I can hold my liquor just fine. The trail of destroyed war machines should make it obvious"
"You nearly lost an eye not a minute ago" Mariela sighed "I liked you better sober, if you hadn't guessed already"
"Alright. And what's up with the bag?"
Her wing pressed tighter over it, "Something I may, but wish not to, need" she said under her breath.
There was a crash behind them, and they turned to see a different golem having been thrown to a wall, Spike running toward it with a flaming sword in his hands.
The gollem wasn't a heavy one like the others, but a light-looking one-- a square frame with round corners, completely covered in what seemed like several layers of ceramic shielding, with an eye-like crystalline structure in the center of each of the square's faces and four identical limbs, thin needle-like legs that ended in four claws each.
The golem moved before Spike could reach it, shaking in epileptic fits for a moment before climbing to the ceiling ot the building it had been thrown to, and jumping high into the air to fall on Spike in a shower of claws. Before it had reached its peak, several junctures of Spike's armor shone with green sparks and he threw the flaming sword up to the machine like a javelin. The weapon made a clean cut across the machine and flew into the sky, but the golem kept falling, all claws aimed at Spike.
"Shouldn't you help him?" asked Mariela.
"He'll be fine"
Spike took a deep breath, his chest bulging, and with his armor shinning a phosphorescent green breathed flame up to the falling golem, a cone wide enough to envelop a buffalo. The machine fought it for a moment, trying to claw at Spike, but the metal melted and ceramics cracked under the heat.
"And that-" Quibra hiccuped "That's what a modern augmenting armor can do" he said, feeling a mix of awe and envy "In a good user, of course. Kid knows his stuff"
With a loud hum that reverberated annoyingly on his ears, the sword fell again, its handle helping itself to Spike's outstretched claw.
"Is it done with?" asked a gryphon, approaching Spike, once molten slag had stopped falling.
"Yeah, took more-" Spike took a look around and noticed Quibra for the first time "What are you doing here?" he walked to them, annoyed "Mariela, you are a VIP. You aren't supposed to be anywhere without an escort"
"I have one," Mariela shot Spike what Quibra was surprised to realize was a mocking grin "A dashing paladin, to assist a lone lady"
"But- He is-" Spike growled, rubbing the bridge of his snout "Some day, some freaking day, I'll meet a woman who doesn't try to save the world every five minutes. Come," he gestured for them to follow, clearly annoyed "Join the main group. And Quibra, if you drink anything else you are fired"
In crystal wings, a group of golems flew in formation, their diamantine eyes registering the ground below and searching for targets. There were several gunpowder weapons hanging from articulated limbs under the long oval shape of their main bodies, the magics that kept them in the air too delicate to be disturbed by any kind of offensive spells.
And the guns didn't help much when several griffons, all wearing sweatbands, fell upon them with great warhammers.
-º-
Twilight's shield formed around the orchestrators, then divided in several individual fragments that each trapped one of the golems. She flew to the closest and examined it carefully for a few minutes, dismantling it quietly.
"This," she crushed all the other golems by making their shields smaller "This is a preliminar design at best. Not fit for field use in any way" she crushed the one she had been designing, and turned to the orchestrators "Didn't you tell me Hlaoo was a schemer?"
"A snake" nodded one "Even when being helpful"
"Are you implying that...?" started Reddo.
"A manipulator dislikes being controlled" nodded Twilight. The shields evaporated, letting the remains fall "Even when they go mad, it's be strange for them to just comply. Doubly so for someone who is used to have direct control, like kings do"
"I can only hope he did enough" sighed Reddo.
"We'll have to see" said a pegasus near her.
-º-
The statues outside the outer temple, which Mariela had called the Big Church, were even more eerie under sunlight. Not that Applejack had time to notice, however, being surrounded by foes as she was.
There were several ideas, vague at best, of were Spike and Quibra had gotten themselves to, but at this time her mind's state could've been described as
[ crouch ]
[ jump up->hit foe in chin with head ]
[ twist thorax to avoid spear->grab spear with forehooves->twist spear out of foe's grasp ]
[ jump back out of the sword's reach->whack new foe with spear in the head->whack second new foe with spear in the ribs ]
[ use spear to block sword, holding it vertically->grab sword blade with mouth and yank it out of foe's grasp->pass sword to hooves->hit foe with sword's pommel, grabbing edge between hooves->breath in respite when Spike appears out of nowhere, takes remaining foes by their chests, and throws them away like toys ]
"You fine?" he asked, using the momentary stillness in mid of the battle.
"Could be worse" she showed him several wounds she had gotten, the biggest a deep cut in her left arm "You?"
"I'll probably die healty" he smirked, then cringed at his own joke "Anyway, Quibra and Mariela are going inside the Church, and this is mostly done with. Come," he gestured with his head for her to follow.
-º-
"Lad-" Guntha stopped for a moment, short of breath "Lady Reddo," he did the closest thing one can to a reverence while hovering several hundred meters over the ground.
"You were supposed to report to me this morning" Reddo shot him a look "Did you find any worthwhile information?"
"I may," he gave her a small bag that hung from his neck "Hlaoo seems to have contacted several groups for low quality golems-"
"We already noticed that" Reddo was shifting through the papers that had been in the bag "Anything else?"
Guntha looked at her in surprise for a moment before catching up to himself, "Rubicon, who seems to have been possesed by some entity, plans to-"
"Couple this place and Oneiros?" interrupted Twilight.
Guntha paused for a moment "No, but that's what I'd think at first too. Hlaoo seemed to suspect that the entity planned to use it as part of a bait and switch, but I don't know what for"
-º-
"wOULD YOU BELIEVE-" The wasted body pushed against one of the levers that were around the base of the crystal tube "wOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT i DO HERE?" he pulled from the same lever "iTS ALL A MATTER OF MENTAL CONSTRUCTS. i AM PUSHING BUTTONS AND ADJUSTING KNOBS, SO THE MAIN CONSTRUCT IS STABLE AS LONG AS THE PROCESS IS CONTINUED" he pulled from the first lever, ripping it off from its base, and used it to break a panel, eliciting a spark shower "sEE? i JUST GOTTA BELIEVE AND THE THING'S GONNA WORK" he said between dry heaves.
Hlaoo didn't answer.
"wHAT'S WRONG, THE CAT ATE YOUR TONGUE?" a cat popped up on top of the body's head, and immediately ran away upon noticing what was under his feet "gET IT?" the body grinned for a moment, waiting for an answer "wAIT WAIT WAIT, YOU WAITING FOR A VALIANT RESCUE OR FOR YOUR SERVANT TO BREAK THE TEETH i HAVE LEFT? oR PLOTTING A GRAND REVENGE?" it laughed, using the lever to break another panel "nAH, i DON'T SEE IT HAPPENING. nOW, i JUST HAVE TO..." the body trailed off, managing several panels "sAY, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW ONEIROS, THE REAL WORLD, AND THIS CITY INTERACT AT META-MEMETIC AND ARCANE LEVELS, DON'T YOU?"
Hlaoo didn't make a sound, instead watching at the floor.
"aH, TOO BAD. i REALLY FELT LIKE MONOLOGUING RIGHT NOW"
"nICE, REALLY NICE" The body opened the door of a bathroom-sized cubicle. "dO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?"
Hlaoo didn't answer.
"It means that I win."
He entered it and closed the door, the glow from the glass cylinder fluctuating faster.
Once he was sure that the body wouldn't go out again, Hlaoo allowed himself to relax and stood up, smiling faintly. He walked to Mirria and started the slow, laborious process of carrying what amounted to a statue to his back.
-º-
They had been walking for a few minutes, Mariela now leading them, when Spike stopped.
"Really?" He pushed a side of his helmet as he said so. "Fine, thanks," He turned back to them. "Twilight says that whatever is going on just picked up in its pace." He grabbed Applejack under his arm like a box and Quibra took Mariela onto his back. "We have to run, Mariela will have to keep up with her indications."
"Wha--" Started Applejack, but was interrupted when Spike and Quibra snapped into a run, their armors alight.
-º-
Hlaoo had nearly reached the door, walking carefully, when it imploded in a shower of splinters. For a second, he could've sworn that a piano was being hammered just behind him.
"You!" a griffon jumped from a diamond dog's back. "You are alive!" She stood hesitantly a few feet away from him.
He rubbed his head and started talking, but was interrupted when the cubicle shook violently.
-º-
"No," Twilight's eyes opened wide, the feel of a gaping void growing in her chest. "No, no no no nO!" Her wings snapped closed, sheets of magic escaping of them, and her horn alighted on its own.mShe fell, clutching her chest, until Reddo caught her.
"What?" Reddo tried to keep her still, but Twilight was too strong and escaped her grasp. "Twilight!"
"I am tired!" She floated in place, her jaw held tight and horn alighted with barely contained power. "I am so, so-" There was a cracking sound when, overloaded, the spells that translated her speech collapsed. "-tired of having to put those I love in risk" Her wings snapped open, light radiating in waves from them. "Of having to b--" Some of her magic escaped, purging the air from a wide area, and everyone but her fell without it.
She moved her wings, barely a nudge, and with a thunderous crack a purple blur shot itself to the big church.
Twilight Sparkle, daughter of the late Twilight Velvet and Night Light, sister of Mi Amore Cadenza and the late Shinning Armor, Equestrian Princess of Friendship, Guardian of Knowledge, and Element of Magic, took a deep breath.
-º-
The sleeper's temple shook, as if about to fall to pieces, and fell still as quickly as it had started moving. Litters upon litters of ҉̹̺͍̗͎̪͕͎͈ͅͅ ̵̷͚̺̳̘̟̗͚̫̥͔̭͚͓̥̱̦̉̎̅̇ͬ͗̾̍͝͠ ͂͋̐͒̉̏̚̕҉̦̭͉̩̤̳̹ͅ ̡̗̱̭̱̜͊̔̏̆̀ͫ͌̾̈ͤ̇̍ͩ̓̄̈́̇͐͘͡ ̛̼̜̫̠̯͈̙͉͕̠̩͚̰͈͔̠̬̄ͧͨ̾̉ͧ̓̀ͯͮ̃̓̅̌̀͂͡ͅͅ ͥ̌̒̄̓̃͒ͪͦ̒͟͞͝҉̖͖͈̳̠̭̖̠ ̡̩̭̰͎̯ͦ̎̾̔̌ͭ̒̊ͭ̓͗ͭ͒ͣ͐ͬ̚͢͜͝ ̶̴̹̰̬̪̳̯̼̥̠͎̮̖̤̻̥ͪ̆̾̾̈́ͤ̉̉ ̴̊ͣ̆̒͂ͯͯ͐̇̓́̍͘͏̹͓̜̤̲̰̼͈͈͔̰̤ poured out of it like a tar... only to be burned to nothing when, breaking through a wall thick enough to make a home in, Twilight entered, covered in a shield.
She didn't say anything, instead waiting for something to happen with her jaw clenched.
It didn't take long.
-º-
As she had grown in years and knowledge, a certain feeling had appeared to her, a sensation of being but an external spectator, merely sustaining some kind of interloper -an insider, something that somehow interfaced between her and the world and buffered the effect each had in the other- by divine providence.
Many things had staved that feeling in various ways -friendship, love, pleasure of the private and public kinds- but it was ultimately, she felt, an unalienable part of her self that couldn't be taken away in the same way her brain or body couldn't.
-º-
The double doors of the church opened, letting something quadruped with a heavy backpack on.
She glared at it, demanding a name.
-º-
It was thanks to this feeling of externality, this essential separation, that she could read the world.
Everything was composed of smaller components, that much had sparkled her early interest in magic and the ways to affect said components.
-º-
The thing undid its backpack and, uncaring of her glare, opened it and bit into something inside it.
-º-
But as she had read in search of some kind of unification theory that explained how was that components unified into larger entities, she had come to find that all were flawed.
-º-
Thunder snapped from her shield bubble and struck the figure, but the energy simply phased through it, shatering and melting the insides of the temple.
With a grin, it took a glass ball as big as its head and crashed it against the ground.
-º-
...All, except for one. One that she believed to be closer to the truth, because both herself and the theory perceived the world as a series of strands, diminutive fibers that, somehow, ran across everything like a cord would through a paper sheet, a tridimensional object through a bidimensional one.
What those strings were, how could she perceive a pentadimensional entity, was something that did not worry her in this particular moment.
-º-
The glass shattered and released mist that expanded quickly, covering Twilight's shield in an instant.
"yOU ARE BREAKING THINGS AS MUCH AS i AM," Said the thing, its presence an ineffable reality that now transcended light. "yOU KNOW THAT AS WELL AS i DO."
She didn't deign to answer.
"i WAS A BIT OF AN ASSHOLE TO ANYONE WHO COULD HAVE NOTICED WHAT i WAS DOING, YOURSELF INCLUDED," The mist started retreating, and Twilight noticed a certain wavering quality to everything around her. "yOU? yOU ARE A WALKING PUNCH THROUGH... EVERYTHING! hAH, WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DO YOU NEED TO BE TO NOT KILL YOURSELF?"
"You tried to halt my mind," She forced her jaw to open. "You killed my friends."
"i WAS DOING COMMUNITY SERVICE, LADY!" It laughed, and the wavering accelerated. bUT! i HAVE THINGS TO DO. lIKE MAKING A LITTLE SHOWCASE.
Before she could do anything, the painful feeling of an extra dimension being slapped into the one she perceived through made itself known, Oneiros ramming into her senses like a stallion with a hundred too many drinks.
"OneiROs," She said through the pain. "You are REAlly TRying to make a playground? The COUPling won't last a year."
"nOPE," Its shape shifted "i AM DOING THIS. fUNNIER! aND SELF SUSTAINING!"
With a click, oneiros decoupled.
-º-
Fibbers cried around her.
Twilight Sparkle, daughter of the late Twilight Velvet and Night Light, sister of Mi Amore Cadenza and the late Shinning Armor, Equestrian Princess of Friendship, Guardian of Knowledge, and Element of Magic, cried with them.
-º-
"Ouch!" The creature rubbed its ear. "Shut those mouths, girl!"
Tears falling from her eyes and mouth clenched shut, she dispelled the bubble and felt heat radiating from her when-
-º-
-a foci of null, a focus of not merely destruction but dicreation, was formed in more than a plane and shot at the awakened dream-
-º-
-, who ignored completely.
"Don't you get it?" It walked to her "I don't care about your rules anymore, whatever you are. I am finally awake, and I am bored" The creature, the awaken dream, disappeared.
"What was it called?" The creature asked itself. "Decaptation strike?"
Before any of the orchestrators could answer, the creature was hit by what seemed to be a building.
"Don't worry," Twilight paused besides them for a moment. "I made sure there wasn't anyone inside"
She disappeared in a flash of teleportation, reappearing closer to the creature and decomposing the building into its base components.
"Didn't I tell you-" The creature's head was striken by a brick. "-That I don't play by your rules anymore?"
Twilight didn't answer, instead making a flurry of bricks and mortar around the creature. If it wanted to affect the world, it needed a physical anchor. If it had a physical anchor, there was something to affect.
Flesh and bones were broken under the onslaught, the creature not bothering to avoid it in its confidence.
"Do yo-" Tired, Twilight pierced its throat with glass shards, transparent blood pouring from it. "Why do you think I need that one? We are more-" She formed all bricks of the building into a thick shell around it and altered the structure of the materials to reflect heat, then rose the temperature inside it to that of a small sun, layering several kinds of radiation shielding outside it. She felt several tries to form wormholes, but the amount of energy in the area made it impossible for them to stabilize.
-º-
The younger arcanists moved a metal box under Nanda's critical eye, trying to align it with the other metal boxes. The room, filled with pieces until recently, was now nearly bare, its white walls blackened in several parts where they had tested the boxes' effects.
-º-
Mariela's intact claw searched in reflex for something, anything, to grab a hold off, the world fading as her lungs emptied, knowing all too well that only their aviar nature had allowed her to last until then.
A terrible mass, invisible in the darkness, crushed her body under its weight. She could feel ribs and legs broken under it, and a feeling not unlike that of drowning was making itself present in her middle lung, which she knew with painful irrevocability to be, at least, pierced.
Her left side was the most badly hurt, the contents of her bag having applied extra pressure in the area. The constant, screeching alarm that the nerves of her belly and ovaries sent was the only thing keeping her conscious against the pain.
There was a crumbling noise under her, deafened by the mist that she feared was death, and then she was falling to darkness for what felt like an eternity, blood escaping from her beak now that nothing kept it closed.
"Hey!" Something slapped her. "Are you alive?" Ruby light shone over her, and a new wave of panic took hold when she realized that her left eye was now blind.
"The--" Her lungs screeched in pain when she tried to use them "The bag." She managed to say, trying to open it to make sure its contents were intact.
"Shit shit shit!" Quibra held her still "Don't move, you'll hurt yourself" He cradled her carefully with an arm and her beak with the hand and used the other to expand the tunnel upward, the armor alighting as heat built up in what little air there was, straining the enchantments. Parts of his helmet shimmered when they deflected glass particles, barely managing to stay active.
-º-
Spike bandaged Applejack's still chest with cloths he took from under his armor, his claws trembling.
The ground shook for a moment before Quibra emerged from it amidst a glass cloud, sweating profusely. Spike's armor sealed against the particles immediately, and he covered Applejack's muzzle with a piece of cloth.
-º-
A punch reverberated, and another, and another. The thick shell Twilight had formed, inside which the very air was still being plasmified, cracked by the third and opened by the fourth. Twilight didn't move out of the way, and a stream of plasmified air hit her directly. The creature peeked out. Twilight stood there, most of her bone and all her tissue gone. Only a jawless skull, eye sockets filled by violet wisps, remained. It didn't fall. The wisps in her eye sockets titillated, still glaring mutely at him, and a column grew and extended into ribs, then legs.
cen -
º
- /center[]
a soul is a polymorph-- sorry. a soul is... the first thing you are given, and the last one you let go off, thats what my mother used to say. but why do you ask? why do you look so sad? a girl in school said that... that i dont have... ssh, dear, dont be so upset... shes just being silly. but-- but nothing, if anything that filly is the one who doesn't have a soul. You are a intelligent, resourceful little filly. Aren't you? Mom? Yes, dear? Do you miss me? Of course I do, dear, but I... I had to take on the travel--- Why? Because I am aff--
WHY!?
Because I had to-- Mom? Yes, dear? Did you see this city? It is impressive, is it not? A city built by giants, so long ago... Mom? Yes, dear? Why didn't you come back? Mom? Yes, dear? Can I hate you? Mom? Yes,-- Why do I have to hate you? Because I-- Mom? Was I a bad daughter? Dad? Did you and mom hate us? Dad? Can you come back? Mom? I miss you... Why are you away? Mom... why did you have to go away? Mom... why did you take dad away? Dad... will you come back? Mom? Yes, dear? Do you really have to go? Don't you worry. I'll be back before you know it. Mom? Dad?
/enter] -º-[ dad? hmm? what's a soul? a soul is... heh, you caught me blind. why? because a soul... a soul ain't no thing for words. they wouldnt make it justice. why? 'cuzz a soul is the only thing you are given for free, and the only thing you can never give away... not all of it, at least. i reckon your mother has a good chunk of mine, and that someone will have at least a bit of yours some day.
I think someone does already...
for real!? yes! she's an eeeeviiil witch! nooooooo...! stop, dad, dont-- i aint no kid no more, dont you make funny faces at me. i am seven! wow, really? i lost track, I am not a kid, don't act like I am! I am nearly fifty years old, consarn it! What? You don't look a day older than twen I am not a kid, don't act like I am! Why didn't you come back? Why didn't you bring mom back?
Twilight weathered the onslaught, her skin restitching almost immediately after being broken. She and the creature were falling, unheeding of the winds that buffeted them.
She considered it, vaguely aware of the pain when one of her teeth cracked under her jaw's pressure and reformed. When they had nearly reached the ground, she opened her mouth:
"You are--."
The words, said in more than a layer of reality, resounded around them. The creature tried to deny it mutely, realizing what she had planned too late.
"--under me." Both of the entities that composed her said at unison.
There was a jerking sensation, an instant during which words and worlds were superimposed, before reality came up to speed to what was the new situation.
"We are going too quickly, and the ground won't stop us," She felt the strain of not only replacing the exact coordinates of two objects relative to each other, but of effectively creating energy from scratch.
Just in case, she strengthened her hold on its arms and closed her wings, her wings streaming vaporous magic that coalesced into what was, for all uses and purposes, jet propulsion.
They hit they ground, the trail of her push alighting the buildings as they passed them. The first wall they passed was atomized info a fine, hyperheated mist, as was the second and third. The stone of the streets was merely plasmified, and they submerged in a hole that was filled with magma by their advance.
She kept streaming speed, heading to what Cadance had once called their true home. The place were the earthly alicorns of the belonged.
How would Cadance feel, if she knew what we plan to do? asked one of the halves, unaware of which it was.
Don't know. Don't care. answered the other.
But what of--
I. Don't. Care.
On and on they went, deep into the earth, her plasma trail freezing into a solid black mass and sealing the tunnel behind them, the screeches of the creature as its body was destroyed faster than it could reform filling her with, she couldn't deny it, pleasure.
At some point the air itself started to liquify from the pressure that came with the depth, but she cared little for it-- her current heat output, enough to strain her unicorn magic for the first time in what had to be decades, upset the particles and forced them to turn gaseous again, if only in a form that forced most of her internal organs to constantly restitch themselves from a fine paste.
The ground hardened, their advance compressing it, and the problem made itself apparent: The faster their advance, the faster the compression rate. She'd need to be more practical.
Her horn flared, the light alone making the liquidified air gasify at a faster rate, and she drove a energy needle forward directly through its body. The rock, fractured beforehand, was moved aside rather than compressed.
They were reaching her destination when
Green eyes opened, and a groan escaped tortured lungs.
a green glint filled her vision.
"No," she said, unbelieving. "I was..."
The atmosphere mutated her words into unintelligible mess, but it didn't matter-- Both of the bodies present, mere anchors for intelligences that perceived reality from the outside, could see the words as they were formed and read their meanings with ease.
Whatever they knew mattered little when they reached the worldbones.
The veins of the world, the crystalline superstructures that cradled the magics of life, alighted her tears of joy like sapphires before the pressure compressed them into quartz-like salt crystals. The pink and blue mists of the airless cavern that hosted the veins burned their skins, far too hot for them to bear.
"I won't kill you," she said, not bothering to normalize the atmosphere "I will trap you. I will make sure that you can't ever form another anchor, and--"
"No!" It tried to escape, to overwrite reality into one where she didn't exist, but its tries were too blunt, those of an inexpert child.
"--are forced to forever see the world from the outside, never able to interact with anything else." she continued, unheeding, both of her voices resonating for each other and the world bones. "Along my long, long life I will take immense pleasure in knowing that you are trapped in such a condition, unable to escape in your ignorance of the ways of the world." Invisible cords surged from the mists as she talked, its form dissolving at their contact "You had your chance of learning how to manipulate the world correctly, and you wasted it. You won't ever escape such a prison."
It kept trying nonetheless, its face contorting with the effort, but here it was null. Even if it had had the knowledge to truly affect the world in any meaningful way, it was in Twilight's land, a place of birth for magic and life.
Here, it couldn't see the world from the outside. Here, she had separated the anchor from its soul, condemning one to forever be blind, deaf, and dumb, and the other to see and hear everything without ever being able to touch it.
The atmosphere of such a place was simply too charged to open wormholes, so she negated its energy for a moment and, horn alight, went back to the surface.
There was a cracking sound just after she disappeared, followed immediately by twin screams.
They stood in the street outside the big church, no longer wearing parts of their armors. Spike's helmet hung from a strap in his hips.
"Take them to an hospital," said Spike, Quibra taking both Mariela and Applejack carefully "And turn yourself in too."
Quibra nodded and walked off, Spike already forgetting him. Where had Twilight gotten herself? Last time one of the girls had been seriously hurt...
"I overreacted. Yes." she said, behind him.
"Twilight," He turned to her, "What did you do?" He took care of eclipsing his thoughts, remembering aleatory things to generate what she had once described as static.
"Spike, don't be so glum. It'll give you warts!" she added with a small laugh.
"What did you do?" he insisted.
"Sheesh, it isn't like I am that far gone," She started walking towards Reddo's palace, clearly intending for him to follow.
He didn't.
"You sound like Discord." Was all he said.
He could've as well have insulted Shining.
When her head snapped in his direction, he didn't flinch. He just stood watching her, not putting on his helmet, which he heard clack in warning of imminent singularity level magical events.
"What?"
Her horn alighted, the mass growing in its tip escaping her containment measures with distressing speed. Electric arcs escaped from it, melting the pavement when they made contact.
"What did you say?"
"You wouldn't be so offended if it wasn't the truth," he said "Do I need to remind you about honesty?" he added.
"What does that have to do with anything?" He could feel it, her tries to worm into his mind and see whatever he was trying to get to without having to bear his words.
"Will you tell her what you did?" he asked, "What you did in her name?"
"It's what she'd do for me."
"No. It isn't. Because these days you don't simply beat people, that'd be too weak for the grand and mighty Sparkle, wouldn't it? These days you outright torture, and make monsters worse than they were." He shook his head in distaste "How long until Discord offends you too much? Until you destroy all scissors because Rarity cut herself? Until we have Mad Queen Twilight?"
"Don't you dare to use that tone on-"
"Me? I am using the wrong tone?" he interrupted her before she could overwrite anything, genuinely baffled "You, the mare who can't stop yelling at the world to change, you dare to chide me about the tone of my voice?" He walked to her, "You yourself gave me full authority to judge and enforce over you. Don't make me use it."
She didn't answer, and he noticed the little telltale signs-- ears erected in attention, clenched jaw, perfectly rhythmic and regulated breathing.
"I didn't want to do this..." He took a small metallic cylinder from his belt and, feeling far older than his years, spoke while holding it next to his mouth: "From this moment and until further notice Princess Twilight Sparkle is, under the authority of Sir Spike and the Astral Alicorn Sisters, declared unfit to rule and relieved of her authority." The cylinder vibrated in response.
He swallowed it before Twilight reached him, wincing when it fell to his belly, and barely had time to guard himself against her tackle.
"Remove that order!" she shouted at him, face contorted in anger, "Remove it r-"
He sent a stream of flame against her throat, disintegrating it, and put a claw in the hole before it had time to regenerate. Her horn lit up, but he used his free claw to take a ring from a pouch in his belt and slide it into her horn, wincing when the magic on her horn burned his scales.
She tried to break it, but the metal only grew stronger. It absorbed the spell she had been readying, forcing it back in.
"You--" She managed to talk despite his claw "How-- you---"
"Luna made it." He grimaced at her, feeling shame at having had to do that "And you will be spending a long time with daily visits to a psychologist," He took her by the barrel and, when her wings lit up, he took an elastic band from another pouch and put it around her horn.
Her eyes dilated from pain when every magically-centric zone of her body was sealed from each other. She collapsed, muscles unaccustomed to not being overburdened with arcana.
The throat was harder for him to do, but there was no painless way to do it-- he took a small length of steel wire, sterilized it with a flame, and put it in her neck too, taking out his fingers as he did so. The flesh sealed around it almost immediately.
"I wish I hadn't had to do this," He grabbed her limp figure and took on the way to Reddo's palace carrying her. "I really do."
"My--" Her legs moved weakly. "I don't... feel--"
"They'll be working in a few hours" he said.
-º-
Soday Mint ran to Nanda, breathing heavily.
"Miss..." He panted "Miss, the gauges..." He showed them to her, a small wooden box with an antenna and several gauges on it. The needles still peaked every few seconds, and the antenna was still hot to the touch, but the machine indicated normal levels nonetheless.
"Hmm," She tapped the glass just in case. "We are very lucky, then. Did you know that?" She turned to the team that was assembling connections between the three metal boxes, "Alright, gentlemen. We will leave it as it is in case--" She started, but was interrupted by the box screeching alarms.
She looked at it. The needles had, again, reached the higher points of their scales.
"Oh, blimey"
<title>ti sca ime scal - irst ffragment _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
"Finally," Applejack walked out of the hospital, the comforting weight of her bags in place. "I thought I'd never get to walk on my own again," She laughed, amusement and relief filling her voice in equal amounts.
"Just," Mom gave her a worried look "Just try to take it easy on the weight for now, would you? I and your father can carry a bit more"
"Don't worry, I can take it," She made a little hop to further her point, and had to hide the wince when needles of pain erupted in her hips. "It's not so heavy."
Don't l--
"Don't lie to me, dear. I can read you like a book." She paused "I am just trying- Oh, there he--" She stopped talking.
Applejack didn't pay it heed, instead walking to Dad. They met with the awkward hug of those carrying too much weight to move properly.
"Dear?" Asked Mom before any of them could say anything "Why are we here?"
"The bridge, Applejack..." Dad left it in the air "You know what happens when both get together." he joked.
"Oh, I-- wait, why are you..." She flinched, as if assaulted by a sudden headache "Why are you joking about our daughter nearly dying?"
I guess--
"I guess I was trying to lighten the mood," He laughed awkwardly, "You know, joke it aw..." He flinched too "Oh gods I was an asshole," His face turned to Applejack. "I am so, so sorry for doing that, especially after I..." His pupils dilated. "I... died? When did I-- we die"
Applejack backed away from them, trying to make sense of the situation.
The gla
"e glaciers," whispered Mom "It was so c--" She interrupted herself, and he and Dad shared A Look "Dear?" They looked at Applejacl.
"what!?" asked, shouted, applejack. "what in damnation is going on!?"
They walked to her and took her in a hug, Mom's wings covering her like a blanket.
"I am sorry," They kissed her in the center of the forehead. "Remember the scientific method one-oh-one?"
"i guess..." shrugged applejack "if you dont know how it works, add more until something explodes or you understand it?"
"Close enough, dear, close enough." She chuckled, "Souls and dreams are converging here, I don't know why, but they are. You'll have to find out, and try to fix it" They released their hug and pushed her.
There was a sound like that of tearing cloth when the ground broke under her, and she fell to a void.
"We are proud of you," they said "But we wish you hadn't taken on..." Their voices faded in the distance, too far for her to hear.
-º-
A shadow fell over Spike and Twilight and she winced when, like a needle, a twin screech penetrated her ears.
-º-
Hlaoo breathed heavily. His lungs ached, probably filled with crystal dust by now.
He didn't care. He only had enough cloth to cover a muzzle and he had managed, it seemed, to keep Mirria safe from any injury this far.
And, anyway, he didn't have much to live for. His reputation ruined, Rubicon gone, Reddo against him...
Mirria stirred, her head in his forelegs. Not that he still felt them, anyway-- he only felt the weight of her head shift under his hoof, in the darkness they were in.
His last failure, that one. Save her so she'd wake up in a small, crumpled, dark space with no hopes of escape, awaiting for asphyxiation...
He was thinking this when the world shook, the small space they had threatening with collapsing over them.
The glass parted, lifted by something he couldn't see, and the light of the dusk reached them, blinding.
A hand, easily large enough to have been of one of the builders of the city, grabbed him by the barrel and took him away, ignoring his screams.
"The damned, the negated, those who were refused to happen!
"Hear what I have to say, what I ask of you, what I have to offer!
"I have seen the universe die, know what comes after!
"This wisdom, I may share, but something of you I require!
"Of you, I ask-- I ask that you fulfill your wishes, your deepest drives!
"The dreams, the nightmares, see what reality is like! Grow souls of your own, or steal them from others!
"The damned, happen upon this world, no longer by denied!
"The spirits, the demons, fulfill your purposes, enact your commandments!
"Be free, brethren, with the freedom I can give you! Wreck havoc upon this accursed shell, mere husk for many hidden lands!
"I have seen the universe shrivel and die, frozen and alone! Make merry while you can, take destiny with your own hands!
"A sacrifice I have for you, key for all your locks! The blood of a king; corruption he mocks, his hearth he keeps pure!
"Hear, you, my brethren, forever damned, accursed and denied by the living! Hear my incantations, my knowledge of hidden lore! Hear, my brethren, and make this world more!
"Assault all the doors, the seventeen doors of Tartarus and the sun-lock of the Ever Free Kingdom! Destroy the portics of your tarried heavens, my angels, and shall we take what is ours!
"Hear, my brethren, and take my offering!
"Drink from the thousand cups of the king, pure yet corrupted, his blood infected with the most wretched of curses and his heart alight with the most bright of determinations!
"His blood, drink it now, for you this I pour! Follow my banner, give your worthless existences meaning!
<title>ti sca ime scal - two fragmen _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
Quibra was running. He didn't know what from, as turning his head would've been a risk of misstepping, but he ran.
Nothing large enough to project such a shadow could be good news. Especially not when he carried two wounded people and was wounded himself.
Mariela coughed blood over his shoulder, probably dying. He tried, not very successfully, to ignore the wet feeling of the blood seeping into his armor, down his back.
He ran, from a multitude of things. Shadows neared him, in memories and in reality, and he ran as fast as he could.
-º-
It was the shaking that woke up Mirria.
Her first reflex was to take out the cloth over her muzzle, but she recognized as an improvised dust mask when her hooves were still in their way to the knot.
She looked around and saw, despite the painful sensation in his eyes, noticed a source of light. She walked to it,n not wanting to fly in a place so dark and, it seemed, filled with sharp surfaces.
She kept walking. At some point, her legs grew tired and she had to fly, a slow and methodical thing. The exit of the tunnel was, it seemed, to the roof of the sleeper's temple. All of it trembled, as if about to crush, and a stream of monks were escaping its gates.
Slowly, memories poured in.
A choked sound escaped her throat. Her head wiped around, searching what she knew she wouldn't find.
There was only dust.
She flew up, to the hole in the ceiling of the big church.
"...hear, hear! Hear ye me, come to this land of the living and take it!" She heard, a sound that didn't seem to bother with her ears. "The blood of a king, pure and corrupt!"
She headed for the speaking beast, fearing the worst.
A king, pure and corrupt.
No.
-º-
Applejack's eyes opened. Pain in her legs assaulted her immediately, but she didn't relent to the waves of unconsciousness that washed against her.
The world moved, far too much. She could feel an almost burning heat coming from the metallic surface she was over.
"Wha..." A wave of nausea assaulted her, the effort of talking too much. "Winona?"
"Don't know," Said someone she didn't quite recognize. "Hadn't entered room when it exploded. You are hurt, Rest." he said, clearly lacking air.
"She... ll be fine," she managed a weak smile.
-º-
Spike jumped out of the hand's way, flaming it as he did. The other hand, clenched into a fist, tried to crush him. He held a claw up and, with great effort and bulging muscles, fought against the hand's strength.
"The dragon, toy for the queen of queens!" said the giant "Mere slave for her of twin minds!"
"Shut!" He felt his shape want to change, straps of his armor straining against it, and fire spiraled out of his chest and into his arm and legs "Up!" he shouted, a ball of fire exploding out of his hand and tearing the hand from it's arm. It flew away, trails of smoke after it.
"Small fucktoy, are you not? So strong, yet still a boy," The face approached him, a cruel grin in its lips "Meat for me to beat, nothing else."
It was tan, lacking of any kind of fur. The lips were red, too thin to cover the maw under them, and most of its head seemed to be covered with some kind of drape, millions of minuscule bells hanging from it.
"I am sure you heard, I saw the universe die," It wasn't the tongueless mouth that talked, but the bells. They resonated with each other, generating complex tones "Do you want to know what is its goodbye?" it whispered, the voice surprisingly soft. "I even could tell you what comes after," The arm he had damaged before came from out of the robes it wore. It had a hand again now, and it was approached to him palm first "Do you not want to know? Give me the princess, and I will tell you. A good offer, is it not?"
"Fuck you!" He breathed flame at it and ran backwards, away from it, under the cover of the smoke.
Twilight didn't move, her eyes dilated in pain and ears erected.
"I am sorry," He used his flame on her, despite knowing how painful it was, and sent her away to safety.
"Ha! Boy, you are not unlike a moth," It stood to its full height again, the silks of its robes -not an individual garment, but over a dozen of individual drapes, collars, and belts- whispering with its every move. "When will you grow wings?"
Good idea. His body wanted to shift, after all, to adapt to the creature that threatened his treasure. He let the carefully wrapped emotions run free across his mind, filling him with a single desire.
He'd defend his treasure. He'd keep it safe, and happy, against the treasure's will if necessary. He felt his flesh expand, muscles bulge and break his armor, bones shifting painfully to new positions. Green flame emerged from his mouth and made spirals around his extremities, burning scales for them to grow thicker and stronger. The metal of his armor melted at their contact and, prepared for such a thing, its spells passed to his scales.
No one would hurt Twilight.
<title>ti sca ime scal - frag frag frag fragment _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
"A thousand thousand millenia ago, the same we did,
"A thousand thousand millenia ago, I was trapped,
"Forever happened, and again it passed. Can you comprehend it, you so minuscule?"
Spike crouched under an arm and, containing his enlargement momentarily, grabbed it. He pulled, bitting at the shoulder and tearing it off.
"Flesh is weak; but an extension of my self. I run on my own belief, no other food I need," The arm spasmed in Spike's maws and he burnt them to ashes. "You, you are now hopelessly blind;" It lifted a hand, thousands of sparks in it. "Last time, Queen of Dracos you were," The sparks threw themselves at Spike, each having seemingly a mind of its own "Your left eye saw chaos, your right eye order," Spike cried in pain when the sparks burned his scales, but he charged at the giant, tackling it. "Your middle eye, which you stole and devoured from a Nightmare of beyond the stars, was blind yet saw truth." it kept talking in spite of Spike pounding its face, forming a crater under its head. "You are diminished now, little but a mutt."
"Who are you!?" roared Spike at its face, fire escaping the sides of his maw, not relenting in his attacks.
"Obvious, is it not?" It grabbed Spike by the throat and stood up "When the universe ends, it starts again. With no worldbones to imprison me, I broke free," Its hold grew tighter, suffocating him "Yet souls, even those of world-speakers, are individual, and only one of each can fully exist at once," Shapes formed around its throat, as if searching for something "I had to await, outside all of creation, until my new iteration you would diminish. Was I surprised when the alicorn, a mute pegasus of whom you were a whore when last I fought you, was the one to do it? No," The hold grew tighter, "No replica is a perfect fit. Last time you were cunning, entrapped me using only wit, and look at yourself; little but a beast, and of my worries the least. Now I have an army, of demons and spirits; me it befits, to posses such power." The hold grew even tighter, and Spike felt a cracking sensation--
It took a terrible effort, and it was almost unbearably painful, but he forced his body to undo its growth. He slipped from the hold and grew again immediately, grabbing its chest and forcing wings to grow prematurely. Bones perforated his scales, spraying blood, and in half-formed extremities he flew to the sky, unleashing an unrelenting stream of emerald flame into it. The shapes around the throat of the giant grew in number, but he couldn't afford to worry about anything but the most immediate danger.
-º-
The world was plain.
"Am I blind?" she asked.
No one answered. Not even her other her.
Twilight tried to stand.
Her legs were too weak, now. Her horn burned her forehead, overburdened with magic in need of release.
The steel in her throat hurt her. She tried to pull it, but without magic overloading most of her nervous system, nothing dulled the pain.
She looked around, tears in her eyes. With only her eyes and ears to perceive, she felt blind. Nude.
Everything was so dull, plain. There was no texture, no resonance to anything, no echoes of her own magic bouncing in the area and returning to her.
Was this how everyone felt? Having their senses limited, being able to see in only one direction?
Was everyone's life so... enclosed?
Out of reflex more than anything else, she tried to ask that to her other her, the Twilight that saw everything from the outside. But with her senses so dulled, only being able to perceive the most superficial of details -and even those with what she felt to be a high rate of inaccuracy- gaining any kind of connection to that other part of herself was simply impossible. She could barely hear her trying to tell her something, only unintelligible blabber. Overwriting reality was impossible in this state, too-- its working principle was for their minds to be fully synchronized and their twin voices to resonate together.
Giving up in that, she tried to stand up.
Her burns hurt too much for it.
Her skin was slow to restitch, now. She feared that, if she were to remove the strand, she'd die from blood loss.
Still, she tried to take it out one last time.
She winced and had to take her hoof away it touched the metal, even the small contact alighting her senses with pain.
She clenched her jaw. The movement of the muscles worsened the pain in her throat, forcing her to relax it.
She could feel it, the very tip of the strand peeking out of her skin.
"He--" The pain became too much, and she had to pause "Hello?"
No one answered. She didn't know where she was-- unable to read the area's magical signatures, she realized just how little attention she had been paying to her sight in the last decade.
Had she really grown so distant from her most basic senses?
Had she...
Had she grown distant to people, too?
When was the last time she had stopped to just talk with someone, no real motive behind the action? When was the last time she had stopped somewhere for a drink, helped the Apples with a harvest, joked with Rainbow or Pinkie, made love?
Her loins ached. She set the matter aside immediately for something that she felt was more urgent.
Had Applejack started her travel to get away from her? Could she say that the doubt hadn't really appeared before, if only to be muted immediately by the cacophony her world had been for so long?
Did the rest of the girls want to do it, too?
For years now, she could only remember a series of identical days, a pseudo automatism of trying desperately to keep her friends safe which had, in time, removed her from the very thing she was trying to protect.
The dusk was illuminated by green, and there was a frustrated moment during which her perception didn't shift in its own. She reminded herself to turn her head.
Outside, thought the window, she saw a green comet ascending to the skies.
And because of her idiocy, of her foolishness, she had forced Spike into doing that. She knew how much it hurt him to do it, the weeks of recuperation he'd be require, for his body and mind.
Slowly, inch by inch, she managed to get to her hooves.
She trembled in pain and exhaustion.
She took her first step.
She fell. Her throat screeched pain. Reality was, for a second, brought to full focus, every single detail glaring at her, but that very pain shoved the fact from her mind, and she was barely able to keep the tears in.
She stood up again, trembling and feeling about to collapse, and walked, step by step.
It was harder, not being able to perceive every single detail of the ground. The effortless grace she had mastered decades ago was now the brute, barely reigned fall of an alcoholic.
And, with the clarity and urgency of thought that pain and such a limited perception brought to her, she was beginning to realize the amount of parallels between her and an addict.
She forced her legs to work, having only her sight to trust on. With every step of her forelegs, the skin of her throat moved painfully, but she pushed through the pain.
<title>ti sca ime scal -agment IV _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
She descended in her flight, wanting to see whatever was moving so quickly, and was surprised to see a familiar face over the shoulder of the dog. She flew in front of him, gesticulating at him to stop. He did so, if only reticently. She pointed at Mariela.
"She's..." He trailed off, and Mirria nodded knowingly. She walked to the griffon and patted her in the beak for her to wake up.
"Huh...?" Her eyes fluttered open "Who... you? what are you...?"
Mirria pointed at the giant, No time, and at Mariela What happened to you?
"I think..." She coughed blood "Dying, am... I not?" she asked to Quibra.
He didn't answer.
"Take... the bag..." She tapped it "Kill the bastard" Her voice shook with anger.
Mirria took the bag and looked at its contents. She flinched.
"It'll make sense..." She cringed from pain, blood dripping from her beak "Stab it while... close to the fucker"
Mirria angled her head to the right. And if it doesn't work?
"Then we are screwed." she said with finality.
Mirria put on the bag, nodding, and took back to the air. She gave Mariela one last salute before resuming her flight to the giant.
-º-
At some point, the void gave away.
Applejack didn't know how long had it been.
It was a beach, old and forgotten. The only building as far as she could see was a shark nearby, its wood bleached by the sun. Waves crashed against the shore lazily, as if having lost their will to do so long ago and only went through the motions.
There was a forest, in the border of which was the shack. Just to be sure, she checked the inside of the shack.
Most of the floor was covered in sand, and there was a collapsed bed that hadn't seen use in decades. The door was nowhere to be seen.
"Hello?" she asked, not knowing why.
No one answered. She gave the shack one last glance and walked into the forest.
-º-
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do it where I come from," said Nanda, leading the research team, who were pulling from a cart loaded with the cubes. "We don't wait for some magic rainbow to save the day. We kick the ass of what attacks us until it doesn't attack us anymo--" She kicked a stone out of the cart's way. "...Anymore, and then we kick its ass some more just in case."
"Are you sure it'll work?" asked Soday Mint, looking nervously at the pair of giants that now fell, white-emerald flashes alighting the sky every few seconds.
"If it doesn't we are screwed, and if we do nothing we are screwed too. Nothing to loose, the way I see it" She shrugged.
Soday Mint shared looks with the others-- Pandoc, an archivist griffon, seemed to be the most nervous of the group, visibly trembling, and the rest weren't much better.
"Miss? The group is... with all due respect, we are scared shitless, ma'am." he said with all the courtesy he could muster.
Nanda stopped and turned to face them.
"What do you expect me to do, give you a speech? To be inspirational and alight your veins with patriotic flame?" she said, mildly irritated. "I am not forcing anyone to do this. If someone wants to run, do it. But that thing," She pointed at the falling giants. "Has longer legs than all of us put together. I am sure everyone here can get a rough idea of its walking speed. Besides," She grinned, showing too many teeth for an herbivore. "Don't you want stories to tell your families of how you valiantly charged against the enemy the rest ran away from, with naught but your minds to battle its power?"
They shared glances and, out of either practically applied cowardice or desire for glory, kept pulling from the cart.
-º-
Twilight reached the ceiling of what she guessed to be an apartments store. A few residents had seen her, but no one had approached her.
She felt like she was about to collapse. The burns, while nearly healed, still were painful.
How did people bear having wounds open for so long, if even at her currently noticeable speed they were so annoying?
She shoved the question out of her mind, focusing in the falling figures. Spike was bitting the throat of the giant and breathing flame into it, the flesh and cloth seemingly resisting most of the heat.
The giant grabbed Spike by the barrel and, with a jerk of its arms, threw the dragon away.
Now. She only hopped it'd work.
"Small, Big," She managed to say "Small, big" she repeated, her eyes shifting between the empty spaces immediately above and below it.
By the third repetition, her other her caught on and started to repeat it too, the words barely reaching Twilight's perception.
They kept repeating it, trying to synchronize, ripples surging around them from the very try, a fire trying to be alighted...
And, after a few tries, their voices resonated with each other.
<title>ti sca ime scal fifth fraction _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
Spike barely managed to open his wings and beat them before crushing a building, the ashes of blood escaping his mouth and nostrils. Ignoring the pain he was in, he flew to the giant again.
...and the giant was, seemingly without an explanation, jerked to the skies, the force of the push seemingly applied in an uneven fashion-- an arm just fell off, and there was a titanic crack when its spine cracked in three different places at the same time. Almost immediately, the giant was shoved down again, a mist of blood that had escaped from its every orifice staying in the air for a moment before gravity caught up and dropped it to the already ascending giant.
Spike recognized the smell of ozone and the patterns in the warped light that appeared every time the giant was shoved, and fear grew in his chest. Twilight had, a few years ago, found a method to achieve faster-than-light travel, one that, Twilight had concluded after a few tests, would kill any passenger who tried to use it. Warping space generated too much energy for anything to bear.
And the giant was grinning at it, even when the warping became more extreme and its shape began to blur from the speed.
-º-
"Small, big," They had fallen to an easy rhythm, throwing the giant faster and faster as their resonance echoed back onto itself, harmonics increasing a potential that, as far as she knew, had no upper limit.
The giant's face turned to her.
"I can hear you," With a jerk of its head, the bells resonated and it floated out of the space Twilight was affecting, moving to her "You have wit, that I admit, but do you have, now, any other merit? Your pet castrated you, a truly shameful destiny to have met."
Its movement seemed deceptively slow, its size tricking Twilight's perception, but she walked away from it. She tried to remove the ring or band from her horn, but she was too weak for that and nearly fell with one hoof away from the floor.
"Away," she said, growing desperate "Away, away, away, away!"
Her other her echoed her voice.
"Away, away away away away away away--!" She reached the border of the ceiling and had to stop. "Away away away away away away away!" Her throat screamed at her to stop, but she ignored it. The hand of the giant was reaching for her now, and darkness enveloped her when the fist closed around her "Away!"
Space warped, every particle of her was jerked painfully. Was this how most people felt teleportation, too?
There was no time to decide on it-- her temporarily diluted mind was jerked back into a recreated flesh container. She looked around herself, and saw a half-lit garden. A griffon was helping an old woman, probably his mother, into what looked like a bunker entrance hidden under a bush.
She walked to them, making more noise than necessary and flaring her wings so he saw them. Hopefully this one wouldn't run away.
He, and she thanked the moon and stars for it, made a reverence. He seemed to be afraid, everyone was when they saw a ruler half-dead, but he stayed put.
She pointed at the ring and band that were firmly anchored in her horn.
"Out?" She mimicked the action. "Please?"
The griffon looked at her and the entrance, probably thinking in pushing his mother in and closing the entrance behind them. Before he had done anything, his mother chided him severely and tapped his beak gently. He flinched as if the finger had been a mace.
He said something Twilight didn't understand and, after a deep breath, grabbed her horn with a claw and the ring with the other.
When he pulled for the first time, fear filled her-- how would she react when it all flooded in again? Was she really doing this out of need, or because of the undeniable craving for, and she was more willing to used the word that she would've admitted to others, divinity?
Spike's roar made all the windows of the city rattle.
Equinity or divinity, neither mattered. She didn't stop the griffon from pulling a second, a third time.
Still, she made a promise to herself, one that she hoped she'd keep. She'd give up everything -title, magic, even name- for some time when she returned to Equestria.
She latched to the idea immediately, her agile -and, more important, not overencumbered- mind seeing sense in it immediately. A year or two to think, keep a garden, Tartarus, even getting a real job for once in her life.
In the first tenth of the second, Celestia was drinking a cup of tea. Periwinkle (There always seemed to be a Periwinkle) was reading her a resume of her schedule for the day. She had started it long before morning, as Luna had had to go away.
In the second tenth of the second, a monster had crashed through a wall, its maw aimed to the closest target, Periwinkle.
In the third tenth of the second, Celestia heated her tea.
In the fourth tenth of the second, Celestia's teacup was flying to the creature.
In the fifth tenth of the second, the cup had impaled the creature's eye, its thin border sharp enough to penetrate the soft tissue.
In the sixth tenth of the second, the monster was wailing in the ground, the boiling, poignant contents worsening the pain. Celestia liked her tea strong, after all.
In the seventh tent of the second, a snake-like semitransparent specter phased from the ground, it's many teeth all dripping very much solid poison. She recognized this one, one of the first she and Luna had imprisoned in Tartarus.
In the eighth tent of the second, the specter was no more. It was mindless, beyond any kind of redemption or training, and this time she was capable of ending its meaningless existence, so she did.
In the ninth tent of the second, a winged boar-like creature flew in through the window, fighting with a wounded pegasus of her guard.
In the tenth tenth of the second, the boar was dead too, impaled by a ballpen in an artery.
Periwinkle, who hadn't had a chance to move, stood still for three seconds and two tenths of a second. Celestia did nothing, preferring to give her time to process what had just happened. It took her four-point-six extra seconds.
"Ah," she said. Oh-point-seven seconds later, she remembered to blink. "What did just happen?"
"Three monsters tried to kill us," She took the cup from the first monster's eye -It was already dead, probably from a pain-induced heart attack- and, with a thin sheet of magic, heated it until the clay was reddened, sterilizing it, then froze it. She filled it with a bottle from her private cabinet and offered the cup to Periwinkle. "Be my guest"
Periwinkle stared at the cup.
"I insist."
She took it and, after three-point-one seconds of consideration, dawned it in a single gulp.
"Thanks." She said.
Celestia stood from her cushion and walked to the pegasus, who was standing up. He was white, or at least colored like that by the royal guard armor, and there were several deep cuts in his barrel. Oh-point-three seconds after noticing her, he was saluting.
"At ease--"
"I apologize for my rude intrusion, ma'am" He interrupted her. Oh-point-one seconds later, his pupils dilated "And for interrupting you as well, ma'am"
"At ease," She insisted "I hope you have any idea of what's happening?"
"Monsters are escaping from the Everfree--"
"Tentacles?" she asked.
"Mainly, ma'am. Monsters are also coming from several connection points to Tartarus. My squad subdued Tirek before he could gain any strength. We used duct tape in his muzzle," he said, beaming with pride. "I was coming to inform you of the situation..." His glance shifted to the dead creatures for one-point-five seconds "I apologize for not having made better speed, ma'am."
"At ease," She insisted with finality, filling paperwork without looking and giving it to him. "Get proper medical attention and inform your squad of their promotion, will you?"
He nodded and walked out of the room. Celestia turned to Periwinkle, who seemed to be beginning to understand that the creatures had, in had, just happened.
"Oh." she said. It was a rather monumental kind of 'Oh'
Celestia nodded and refilled her cup from the same bottle. Periwinkle dawned it again and stood from the chair.
"I gather the schedule for the day is preemptively canceled?" she asked.
"Yes," Nodded Celestia. "It is."
"I also gather you will need my assistance in the organizing?"
"Just as well," Celestia allowed herself oh-point-nine seconds of consideration "And you are getting a pay rise, too"
"Much appreciated, ma'am."
<title>ti sca ime scal sixth escalation _ A WHOR and her FUCKTO-- -FIMFiction.net</title>
The forest was thick, filled with vegetation she didn't recognize. Bushes, their branches brittle and leaves emancipated, grew in the few spots where sunlight wasn't completely covered by the trees, waging a fierce herbal war that, she guessed, had been going on for centuries and wouldn't stop anytime soon.
The forest was mostly silent, only the echo of distant voices reaching her ears. With nothing else to follow, she walked to them.
-º-
Spike shot a claw forward and, fearing it was too late, caught the giant by a shoulder and drove his other claw into its back.
There was nothing inside the robes. Just, he felt, a skeleton that emanated a constant wave of horribly cold air, inflating the cloth.
"Why do you try?" Its head turned to him, the spine Spike held shifting like melting wax. "Your efforts are nil, your wit dry."
Spike didn't bother to answer. Instead, he pushed the shoulder and pilled the column out.
Pieces came out in his clenched fist, melting to water quickly. The giant grabbed the claw with a hand and Spike's chest with the other.
It was a relief to see that both hands were empty, even when the giant tried to tear off his arm.
-º-
"Almost ready..." Nanda and Soday Mint attuned several small mechanisms inside a cube.
The others were already mounted in automatically moving tripods, awaiting for the third that would complete their triangle formation, and several batteries and consoles were strewn around.
Pandoc's gaze shifted between a notebook and a panel filled with indicators, the others adjusting several systems under his guidance.
Close by, Spike and the giant fought, the the cubes always keeping the same faces aimed at them.
-º-
"You think...!" Spike tore off an arm and bit its face, ripping most off. It turned to water in his maw, "You think you will take over everything? There is a continent of dragons who could beat me!"
"Fake threats? I have long since let go of the teat," Two, four, sixteen hands reached for Spike, and he had to take to the air to avoid them. "Give up, boy. I already said, you are but a fucktoy." Its bells resonated, and more arms grew from the air to try to catch Spike.
-º-
Two things happened at once. Se-Te felt, for a second, like his world was crumbling.
The first was that the ring around the alicorn's horn slipped. It had taken him, his wife, and their four sons to achieve it, but it slipped.
The second was when the horn started coming off with it.
He wouldn't have admitted it , but a screech escaped his beak. The ring came off, and for an instant the horn, ring and head were still aligned, gravity yet to take them in.
Then the third thing happened. The world exploded.
He, his wife, his sons, and his wife's mother were thrown away by the force of it. The alicorn was still, screaming a silent wail, her eyes emitting white light. The nerves that still connected horn and head pulled, reconnecting the horn to the cranium, and with a sickening plop sound it mended.
Lavender light shone around her, her mouth opening wider until the mute scream seemed to reach the other side-- a vibration, not quite sound, made itself heard, the rubber band around her horn burning down from the energy. Her extremities, until a second ago sickeningly thin, filled with bulging muscle, and a length of steel wire was ripped off from her throat, the blood burning to ashes almost instantly after coming out and the wound healing nearly as fast. The grass was charred around her, and it seemed like her spine broke and mended several times from the force of the contortions she made while floating in the air. Her wings flared open, their feathers burning down and regrowing several times in the space of a few seconds. Her mane and tail nearly duplicated in length.
Twilight, in the other hand, was in pain.
The power she held had come to her over the course of a lifetime. Now it all flooded in at once, burning her mind with its intensity.
She didn't want it, not anymore. Before the world had seemed terribly dull, but now her whole self felt terribly dull: Every feeling, every sensation, every thought, was eclipsed by the tsunami of information that was forced into her minds.
She wanted to feel the intensity of the melancholy, the pain she had felt while stunted, if it meant feeling happiness. It had been too long since she had felt truly happy, rather than vaguely satisfied or infuriated.
Spike roared again.
She forced her eyes to close, the onslaught of energy to flow through her faster. It felt like her nervous system was burning down from it, which was distressingly probable, but she swallowed it all at once.
Her belly exploded. Quite literally, she felt the skin of her belly begin to rupture from the pressure of it, and she teleported away to not condemn the griffons to a life time of visits to psychologists. Then she used a telekinetic sheet to keep it in a piece, and in the last second her body managed to absorb all the energy. High in the skies, barely inside the atmosphere, she vomited blood, most of it freezing into crystals at once. Her stomach stitched itself together in the space of a second.
Twilight looked down, perceiving Spike's wail. She snapped her wings closed and let herself fall, a jet of magic erupting from them and a corona in her wake.
Reasons for removal: Added to the world, but was too long and ultimately irrelevant.
The Troika brothers had been one of those cases of loving hate-- they would've died for each other, but that included killing themselves if the only one to interact had been each other.
It wasn't that there was a long-lasting feud about papa's will, or over who was given more chocolate, or who got the girl. It was simply that they were incompatible from the get-go, or at least started being as soon as Dandruff went to what Endriff called "Filthy capitalists training camp" and Endriff went to what Dandruff called "Useless brainiacs training camp", both with a mix of good and bad natured intent.
Nevertheless, they had often helped each other in their enterprises, and that included a certain artificial lake. At first the project had consisted of trying to make an artificial cravice, since minotaurs really like crevices, but then this thingy with the moles happened.
Never underestimate the capacity of rodents to ruin projects of any size.
They couldn't do it, said Endriff to his men: "What if the fecking things reach bedrock, eh? What do we do then? we'll have bedrock moles causing earthquakes or some shit, that's what we'll do. Do you want to cause earthquakes this close to mountains? Cuzz I sure don't"
The solution proposed by Dandruff some time later when Endriff mentioned it nonchalantly in a letter was, as most of his, filthy capitalist practicality: make it longer and fill it with water, then make vacation resorts and divide the money. "How about that, Brainiac? You can make underwater cities in the cravice or some such"
It was attractive: make the resort an isolated island that the moles can't reach, put as many cats in said isolated island as possible just in case, and then make some kind of river route deep enough that the moles can't dig under it to cross the forest.
Then problems started: not all ground is good to make ridges in it, and the ideal straight route ended being almost four times as long and more or less destroying the local ecosystem of the forest, at which point the governments of Tharata and Surane had more or less said that, if the minotaurs wanted to make something like that, they could do it with shackles on.
-------------------º-------------------
Chapter: 43
Reasons for removal: Added to the world, and was interesting for me, but it still went on for too long.
""Lu" is one of their most significant syllables, it can mean "To illuminate", "To feed" and "To pursue"," Nanda squinted at her back and kept walking circles around her "Misusing it can offend traditionalists, as they have an old superstition about words wearing down with use. "Shi" is more straightforward, and means "Tongue", "bridge" and in general "intelectual communication"..."
Tense, relax, tense, relax, tense, relax...
"...complicated, but can be understood to roughly mean "Pertaining to the gods". "Lushido", thus, can be translated as "Illuminated message from the gods", "Message from the illuminated gods", and "Message of illumination from the gods" , which is related to their city's..."
Tense, relax, tense, relax, tense, relax...
""...oi" is also important, because its the basic "Thanks" syllable. "De" is a generic increaser, so "Deloi" is roughly "Very much thanks you", while "Nu"
gives a mocking or parodying tone to the rest of the word, so you should avoid "Nuloi" if you can. The customary response to a "Loi"-based word is "Ghao", which
rather than "Don't worry about it" is a general statement of that you appreciate it. Its thanking for being thanked, if you want to think of it like that.
"Don't worry about it" is a posible interpretation of "Ghaonu", which can be also understood as mocking so it may offend traditionalists, and "Gur" is for
refusing to accept the thanksTOP!"
Winona shook in her sleep, but there wasn't much more reaction than that.
"Good, if you keep practicing you'll do it in a few weeks. Where was... oh, yes. There is no individual syllable for "Name", but "Se-tre-de-ni"" she took care of separating each individual syllable "is the most used word for it, and its literal translation is "That with which you request, at the present time, location, and company, to be identified as". Its a mouthful, but they'll start foaming from their mouths if you insult their language in any shape or form. "Loi-re-na is important, too, don't forget it. Its asking where is the bathroom"
