A HiE finds himself in an Equestria caught in the middle of a war with invading forces of another realm. D&D crossover.
A human has been transformed by a god of the D&D universe and sent to Equestria, where said human found it to be in the middle of a war with humanoids like himself. After earning the natives' trust and aiding them as best he could, he is finally asked to do something that doesn't bode well for his moral compass: Join in on the fight. Disclaimer: This story is in the same continuity as MGiE: Odyssey, and I will be trying to write these stories to where you can read either of them first without getting lost, but both will reference the other and reading both will get you a fuller picture. Profanity tag placed for technicalities, but not a focus.
It had been months since I first arrived on Equis, in this relatively peaceful country of Equestria. Despite being populated by most every kind of sentient creature except humanoids, the place was oddly similar to Earth. It had one sun, one moon—though definitely not the same moon—gravity similar enough to where I couldn't tell the difference, and several of the same kinds of plants and animals. They even had technology comparable to feudal era Earth, though with a lot better sanitation and some other improvements over feudal era technology due to the existence of a resource not discovered on earth: Magic.
Oddly enough, magic wasn't what brought on the war. From what I could gather, creatures from another world were trying to pour through a rift in the desert to try to steal natural resources from this world to fuel their own wars. This world was just the next on the pillaging list. Magic might be on the pillaging list too, but I had no way of knowing until I met one of the invaders.
Strangely, the war was well contained to just one corner of the land, even though a relative stalemate was preventing them from ending it. And so, life had went on for most the populace with only being a little worse for wear in spite of it all. Hopefully, it wouldn't get any worse than that.
In some ways, I was glad I hadn't had the chance to see the invaders yet. From what I was told, the invaders looked an awful lot like me. I was even mistaken for one when I arrived, causing me to be imprisoned, magically interrogated and subsequently released. There was still a lot of tension, as not all the natives were fully convinced that I was safe to not be kept locked up. That's to be expected though. The bias of the crowd isn't something easily quelled, nor would I want it to be in my particular case. But that subject was for another time.
When I was finally released, I was put in the care of a pony that was to help me get along in society. This was my Junior "Rehabilitation and Reintegration Escort Officer," or RRE Officer, Fluttershy. We had come to be used to each other, and I had grown to love her kind heart as much as any animal she cared for. There's a good chance I'd take an arrow for her, she's done so much for me.
And so here I was, staring at myself in the mirror, trying to clean up and think about what had gotten me to this point, all while trying to not dwell on what was proving far more distracting despite all the time I've had to adjust to it. The thing right in front of me. My own reflection.
I was still human, kind of. It was a face I recognized as a character I once played as in a table top role playing game. A water genasi. A hybrid of a human and a distant genie ancestor. Apparently the forces that brought me to this world used his character sheet as a model to mold my new form from, including his fin ears and water breathing. I even had unlocked some of his abilities like his druidic shape shifting and his portent trick, though I had just come to call it my good luck charm. His main abilities, however, remained largely locked behind a "sure you 'can' do it, but you don't know how and it's too complicated to stumble upon by accident," wall. I mean sure, I was able to mimic some gestures I was shown to cause "something" to happen here or there, but I was being guided at the time and even then I still don't know if I did it quite right.
I couldn't really cast any spells, and he was a full on spell caster type. That made my form pretty puny compared to if I had come as a muscle bound barbarian who just had to get angry to get to his full potential.
Even if I could choose, though, I'd still rather just have my old face back. And that brought me up to the present, trying to get my self presentable for my first day at work since I had arrived. After all the hard work of trying to get acquainted with local customs and such, I finally got a job. A good one, too.
Fluttershy came to the doorway of the bathroom and called out, "Are you ready, Moss?"
With a nod, I followed her outside and she escorted me to work. She didn't have to, but we figured it would be a good measure to take on the first day.
"Note to self: Never, ever, ever use your maxed out luck charm on the job again." I thought to myself as I used a small hoof towel to clean the oil off my hand. I went to the front counter of the spa and turned in my headband brandishing the spa insignia. My face would have been a beet red were it not for the permanent solid hue of green my skin had taken masking it as an only slightly different tint.
"I do not understand" My employer, Aloe, responded, "Minotaurs with their hands make excellent masseuses. You passed your lessons with flying colors and Rarity specifically asked for you to support our choice in hiring you. What went wrong?"
I could only shift my head slightly towards the room I had just left, then look down to avoid the stares of the patrons. Discreetly, I picked up and handed her an extra towel then gestured her towards the room I had just left.
Even though I could just tell her, the front counter wasn't the place. Out of professionalism, I had to quit. To care to the needs and integrity of the customers, which was the top priority of the spa, I had to take the fall. She'd figure it out when she tended to Rarity in a minute.
I marched back to Fluttershy's with as much composure as I could muster without being too obvious. "They even knew what hands were too," I thought to myself. I doubted I would find another job that would have fit my unique situation quite so well.
When I entered the room, I got through the condolences of the others I was living with because of the RRE program, as best I could.
As I finished going through the pleasantries, Fluttershy asked me, "So what happened?"
I looked straight into her eyes and spoke in a glum voice, "Please don't ask me that. I can't tell you. Confidentiality." I wasn't sure if the twitch to my cheek gave away that I was just trying to dodge the question or not.
Regardless, Fluttershy changed the subject.
"Well, I've been told your owl friend is done helping princess Luna and will be strong enough to finally come home to Ponyville tonight. Do you think we can take him to the picnic with us tomorrow?"
I didn't respond to her question, save for a slight withdrawal and a bitter expression.
"Oh come now," She insisted, "You declined every chance to come with me to Canterlot and visit him since he came into your life. You two need to get to know each other. He is stuck here in a strange land, the same as you. And besides that, he's your familiar."
"Not by choice..." I grumbled, but I quickly changed my tune as I saw the fringes of "the stare" starting to form on her face.
"But I guess it's going to happen sooner or later. Just don't expect me to pretend to be happy about it."
I mean, how could I be happy seeing the creature that was basically the whole reason I was kidnapped, transformed, and dumped here against my will?
A pegasus mare with a set of eyes that didn't quite line up right was playing with a unicorn filly a short distance from the spot we had chosen to set up our picnic area. When the filly saw us, she called out "Doggy!" before trotting towards us. The mare, being a rightfully cautious caretaker, flew in and picked up the filly before she got too close. When the filly tried to ask questions, the mare apologized and quickly flew away with the disappointed filly in tow.
"It looks like you're going to be popular with the foals, Scraps," I called out to my roommate, who happened to be a diamond dog.
His full name was Thaddeus Rex, but unless he knew he had to be formal or get in trouble, he always just called himself Scraps. He was the real reason we were having the picnic. It was some variant of exposure therapy. He had been in prison for years, solely because no RRE officer would take a diamond dog on as a parolee and he wasn't used to life on the outside anymore.
He didn't even understand what he was doing to get in prison was wrong. From what I had been told, he just did what he had to to survive and that got him stuck with the wrong crowd. Other than being slightly bigger than an average pony with claws that could rend flesh easily enough if he ever needed them to, he was pretty much as innocent a soul as the foals playing in the park.
"Just remember to not roughhouse with the foals," Fluttershy cautioned him, "Handle them with the same gentleness as you would Angel Bunny. They're just as fragile."
Tempest, Scraps's RRE officer, and the Senior officer Fluttershy worked with me under, placed her hoof on the eager diamond dog's shoulder. "We need to set up." She spoke in an almost military fashion. "Permission to play granted, provided you do not venture further than that tree." She pointed at a sturdy tree only a few yards away from our picnic spot. "The tree or with us. Got it?"
"Scraps play in tree while Boss Tempest set up camp!" Scraps answered back in a respective, but still hyperactive tone, "Scraps treat little ponies gently, same as Scraps treat white bunny! Scraps understand!"
He waited for the final signal for permission to go, but Tempest waited a few seconds in silence before finally asking, "And what was the other thing? The thing we always do when we go out?"
Scraps closed his eyes and gently bit his lip in thought. When he put his paw to his head he shook it for a moment then snapped is eyes open. "Don't take baubles when it look like baubles belong to others, and bring all baubles Scraps finds to Boss Tempest when Scraps and friends done to see if Scraps can keep!"
Oh yea. And I forgot to mention he was a borderline case kleptomaniac. Loved to pocket anything that interested him, but didn't totally understand what was right or wrong to pocket.
And so the morning went off pleasantly. The foals and their caretakers overcame their fear of Scraps as he played and laughed. Fluttershy introduced them to him, and some of the tougher foals were even allowed to play with him. Meanwhile I chewed on the mixed nuts I was rationed in substitute to meat while waiting for the time we could share the sweeter items. Even Tempest, despite completely hating the job of being an RRE officer, managed to relax and laugh a little at his antics.
Even though she wasn't technically his RRE officer, Fluttershy worked so well with Scraps. Fluttershy and Tempest had an interesting silken glove and iron fist dynamic with him.
Sadly, I knew I couldn't stay quiet and hidden forever. When Scraps was settled in, Fluttershy turned to me with an expectant look on her face.
I gave the look back to her as I pressed my amulet. "Fluttershy, you know I love you, and that's the only reason why I agreed to do it." I took a pause to steel my will against my urge to just cave in. "But you're going to have to say it. I'm not doing it otherwise."
Fluttershy didn't need Tempest to complete the silken glove and iron fist combo when it came to me. She raised an eyebrow and met my terms with a flat, yet still sweet tone, "Bring him out already, Moss."
I slumped down and took a breath in defeat. With my arm brought out to a level position, I mentally called out, "You there, kidnapper? It's time to humor them."
An owl appeared, perched on my arm, as I heard a response back in my head "I am here, master. I have to be." I could sense a tone of undirected disdain in the voice.
I wasn't prepared for what happened next.
While the more gruff n tough foals still played with Scraps, a lot of the other foals started forming a crowd around me and the owl. With a quick mental request and a "I don't care" in response, the foals quickly were awed at him and how he could respond to my complex commands. Despite being unexpected, the owl did prove to be entertained, and a bit of his disdain seemed to waver as he would jump from head to head of the foals with increasingly complex directions. When that finally lost its novelty, I used my druid shape-shifting to turn into a cat and pretended to hunt him while ordering him to "outwit" me time and again so as to keep the children laughing.
It was going so well until I heard one foal ask a question with the word I recognized as "name."
I could only pause at the question I managed to piece together with my cat ears. "Do you have a name?" I asked him as I transformed back and let him hop to my arm.
"Of course. But I can't tell you my name any more than you could tell them your name, 'Moss.'" He responded in a knowing tone. "A true name has power over entities not native to a world and we've both been bewitched to never reveal ours as a safety precaution. Just call me whatever name you wish, and I will respond to it."
The foals stared at me as I looked at the owl, conversing in secret. I shook my head and turned back to them, pressing on my amulet of translation as I did so. "I haven't given him a name yet because I haven't found one that fits. I'll be sure to tell you all when I do."
* * *
Lunch was decent, even if it was limited in items Scraps and I could enjoy as meat eaters, most of which he was allowed to hog, being the one that leaned towards meat eating the most. The afternoon was spent draining the children of their energy, which even with our combined efforts, Scraps, myself and the other distractions at the park were barely able to do without exhausting ourselves too.
We were about to pack up and Scraps had just spilled out his bauble bag for Tempest to check when we heard a commotion coming from the entrance to the park.
The zebra shaman, Zecora, and a small creature that barely stood as tall as her, but only on two legs marched towards us with the local alicorn princess following behind, shocked. I could only describe the creature as a tiny satyr with a goat lower half complete with tiny hooves and a loosely humanoid upper torso.
The satyr looked up at me as if he recognized me. Once he saw he had my attention, he gave a courteous bow. "Hail the Beast-kin, who was so blessed by our surrogate mother, the Animus Mundi of Equis. Your Fey brethren seek your aid."
The little satyr simply looked up to me in hope while everypony else, except Zecora, stood there dumbfounded.
"The Fey of Far Everfree, here..." The young bookworm of a princess rasped in a barely audible voice, "There hasn't been a sighting of even one of the Fey in decades." It almost sounded like someone giddy over something they never thought they would see happen, like meeting big foot or something.
The Fey had twisted his ear to hear what she had said. He turned to her with a glare. "We are not fond of coming to the lands of those that go so far as to fold Æther." He pointed up to her horn. "Much less a land ruled by those that-"
He was lightly kicked by Zecora, causing him to stumble forward a little. He turned back to Zecora to see her shaking her head in warning.
He rolled his eyes, nodded and stood himself up. "Much less a land ruled by alicorns. We do like to keep to ourselves, and we are grateful for you leaving us in peace for all this time."
He turned back around to face me, dusting himself off, and gave one final message to her. "But desperate times call for desperate measures. Now, you have the right to arrest me for being in your lands if you feel you need to. Otherwise, leave me be, or at the very least remain quiet. I have nothing further to say to you, alicorn."
Despite the obvious vinegar in his voice, I could tell that he was trying to respect the fact that this wasn't his home. He was just holding onto a dignity of an unknown source. Probably deeply rooted. It didn't exactly bode well for my opinion of him, but I could respect that he was trying to swallow as much pride as he could.
"I'll hear you out," I called to him, "but first explain to me why you consider us 'brethren,' if you would be so kind, Mr?"
The silence that followed as he looked at me funny was awkward to say the least. I blushed in embarrassment, gave a quick gesture to ask for a moment, lightly pressed my amulet to wind up how much time I had with my outgoing translator and repeated myself.
"I'll hear you out, but first explain to me why you consider us 'brethren.' And what is your name, Mr..?"
He glanced at Zecora and sighed.
Zecora turned to me. "An impossible situation you have placed the satyr in. To gain trust, he has sworn to not lie to the beast-kin. But those in his village are called by title, not name. For with it, power over their soul, any could claim."
It was then that it hit me: The Fey weren't native to Equis. They were from the same world my familiar was from. That could complicate matters.
I looked up to Fluttershy, who seemed to be hiding whatever her true feelings were behind a synthetic, but genuinely supportive, neutral expression. With no help from her, I looked to Zecora, but lightly scowled at the idea of getting advice from her, then skipped over her to look over to the princess.
Her response was far more transparent. She showed eagerness to interact with the Fey, nudging her head to encourage me to continue.
I looked down and bowed in apology. "OK. So no names. But is there still something I can call you?"
He gave a nod and continued with a tone of moving past the awkward item. "Speaker. I am known as 'The Speaker.' Or more fully, the one who speaks to outsiders. It is the closest position we have to what ponies would call an 'ambassador.'"
"OK then, Speaker," I responded as I sat down on the ground in the park to listen, lightly gesturing to a bench he could use if he wanted. "Why do you call me 'brethren' and what aid were you needing?"
The Speaker looked at the bench, but then simply turned back and started explaining.
"As you may have surmised, we are not native to Equis. But the Animus Mundi, what the pony mages stubbornly refuse to recognize as the Soul of Equis, sheltered us in our time here, fleeing a great horror of our original world. In time, we came to recognize her as our new mother. Our surrogate mother. We still speak to the natives that are servants of our surrogate mother, such as the zebra medicine mare that escorted me to your location, but we try to avoid contact with others where possible. Both for their protection and ours."
With this, he pointed towards me. "You, however, have blood that is just as foreign as what runs in our veins. We were able to observe your first few steps into our world, as you first awoke in the wilderness. Our surrogate mother took to you more quickly than we had ever seen her take to anything before. She truly loved you at first sight. She blessed you with the ability to don the forms of her wild children within mere days of your arrival. We have to recognize that your bond to our surrogate mother is as valid as our own. This is why we call you both our brethren and the beast-kin."
I sat there, listening and, eventually, worrying. He made a point to be straight forward with me, and the standing hairs on the back of my head told me the strong luck charm I had was still active and telling me he was indeed being truthful. The thing is, I had a feeling he didn't have the whole story. My shape shifting abilities came from the fact my character was built as a druid. That was essentially a hack, cheating, not love at first sight.
"My abilities are... 'given', but they may not have been given to me out of love. This form was forced on me by the one that sent me here, and I think that they may have forced your... mother to fuel my powers."
At that moment, the Speaker, the princess, Zecora, and Tempest laughed in some way at my comment.
The princess was biting her lip to quell a giggle, Zecora and the satyr were looking at each other with big smiles and barely keeping the laughs from coming up their throats while Tempest was straight up rolling on the ground, laughing at me as hard as she could.
Once the laughing died down, save for Tempest continuing to giggle to herself quietly, the Speaker explained. "You truly must be an outsider to magic to not know this. The Animus Mundi has a will of her own, where as Æther does not. While Æther can be forced-" He gave a shutter. "-or as ponies may call it, 'folded,' it is well known among both servants and mages that Animus Mundi cannot be forced to do anything she does not choose to do. At most, one can work alongside her will to perform magic with her blessings. While what you say may have made it easier for our surrogate mother to affect you, nothing could have forced her. The choice to accept you was still hers. Thank you for reciprocating the spirit of honesty and telling us this."
I tried to ask, "So what do you need?" but I found the confusion had set in again. I pressed on my amulet, to more fully "wind up" the energy of the amulet with what energy it had left. I had been hoping to avoid asking Tempest for a recharge of Æther after this, but it couldn't be helped. Her horn wasn't exactly the most efficient, and tended to send out more than a few stray sparks.
He looked down and gave a deep sigh. "We seek your aid in battle. A menacing force has come to our forest and our abilities to keep them disoriented and lost will not last forever. We cannot fight, at least not very well with only one brave from the servants able to help us fight directly. The opponent is proving relentless in their attempts to re enter our woods again and again no matter how many times we turn them back around to the edges. Your battle prowess as a beast is formidable. Combined with our magics of distraction, we can whittle their forces down and eventually take them out."
"Wait a moment!" Tempest interrupted "I'm not letting one of my charges-"
"Actually, he's my charge," Fluttershy commented so quietly, no one besides me heard her.
"-go to slaughter somepony that might just be lost! I'm going too to make sure this isn't just a misunderstanding."
At this point Tempest and the Speaker were glaring at each other, bantering back and forth for reasons why her coming along should or shouldn't happen. In the meantime, my amulet had used up the last tidbit of charge I had left in it, because nopony seemed to hear me. Fluttershy finally gave me the signal that my amulet was shut off, and I broke up the heated debate with a strong whistle.
They both turned towards me. I raised my amulet towards Tempest, then lightly tapped my throat.
Tempest grew smug and put her horn to the amulet, recharging it with a great deal of sparks flying out and singeing the limbs I couldn't get out of the way.
"See? A unicorn is going to have to come for recharging his translator anyway."
At this point, I could swear I saw the Speaker turn a tinge of green. He looked at Tempest's horn, then back at me and the amulet. "Very well. Since you have lost your ability to 'fold' Æther, and can merely bend it, we will tolerate you out of necessity. But we will tolerate no other Æther user."
"Then that doesn't exclude me or Scraps, " Fluttershy called out.
Tempest was about to object, but Fluttershy shushed her with a hoof to the mouth and explained, "Moss is my charge, not yours. I have to go where he goes. And Scraps is your charge, so he has to follow you if you're going. And you're going, so we're all going."
With both the Speaker and Tempest sighing at the sudden expansion of the party, it was settled.
While I hadn't said yes, I would have, so I didn't argue. But out of curiosity, however, I pressed my amulet and asked one last question before we got to the pesky details of supplies for our sudden mission and whatnot.
"So, since Tempest wants to try to resolve this without a fight, what kind of creatures are invading your forest? What do they look like?"
The Speaker thought hard for a moment.
"Two legged, some very thin. They are hard for us to describe but if we were to put it simply, they look a lot like you, Beast-kin. At least when you are not assuming the form of a beast."
Everypony shy of Scraps stopped in their metaphorical tracks at the Speaker's words.
The princess's eyes were so wide I'd swear it looked like they were about to come out of their sockets.
"Some have gotten through our lines. The stalemate's been broken." She immediately nodded to Tempest—who nodded back in a knowing fashion—and the princess teleported away.
Suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this.
Chapter 3, The Calm Before the Storm (The First Mission, Part 1.)
"I don't want you on the mission," I told my familiar, "I don't really trust you. Just stay here and help whoever is running the cottage while Fluttershy is away."
I watched him hop from Fluttershy's head and fly to the custom owl house in the rafters Fluttershy had made in anticipation of his return from Canterlot. The Speaker hadn't caught on to the connection between me and the owl yet. For that, I could thank Fluttershy going along with pretending he was just one of her animals when I told him to act like it.
"You won't have any argument from me," he responded. His tone was once again flat. "The Fey of the other world were never particularly fond of celestials. I doubt these Fey will be any different when they realize I am more than just an owl."
I heard Scraps rummaging around in the kitchen, looking for whatever he insisted on bringing. I saw him collect things like vinegar and baking soda from the pantry, charcoal from the fireplace and whatever other odds and ends his obscure mind thought might be useful from his collection and around the cottage. I could see an old vest with lots of closable pockets and a small row of jars attached to it steadily being filled.
Tempest said he would be doing this and insisted he knew what he was going to be doing when we just arrived at the cottage. I couldn't help but have my doubts, but she had immediately went off to the guard station to pick something up after she said this. So I couldn't argue.
Other than collecting my old makeshift knives, getting my original outfit of furs out again, and putting my old backpack together with the supplies I had all but forgot about when I came to live at the cottage, I didn't really have much to do while the others got ready. My old supplies kept well and pretty much had anything I might need while traveling. So I took my time and tried to mentally prepare myself for the task ahead while thinking of how to fill in the one potential gap in my supplies.
Diplomacy didn't really need weapons and, while I didn't like the idea of the situation devolving in the slightest, Moss' build didn't really use weapons in a fight anyway. Even without the spells his build had access to, I didn't need a weapon with my shape shifting. But just in case my shape shifting ran out of juice before I had a chance to recharge, I picked up a sturdy stick from outside and made sure I could put my flint knife on the end after we left town to turn it into a crude spear. It wasn't ideal at the table, since it used Moss's dump stat of strength. But this wasn't the table. It would still be better than relying only on my other knife. Hopefully, I'd just wind up using it as a walking stick and nothing more.
After I had my things together, I saw Fluttershy going over notes with an orange pony while the Speaker admired the wooden structure of the cottage, briefly muttering to himself in awe now and again. He did a mild nod of courtesy when he saw me looking at him, but thankfully he didn't start up any conversation.
When I looked back over to the living room table, I saw the worry in the eyes of the pony across from Fluttershy, as well as the nervousness I could tell Fluttershy was powering through. She was determined to support me, but I could tell she was terrified. I couldn't blame her. She wasn't a fighter, but she was effectively going into a potential battlefield scenario. I mean, I wasn't exactly either, but at least I had my shape shifting.
I wanted to pipe up, say something along the lines of she didn't have to go, but I could see that fire in her eyes. I didn't know what was causing that flame, but I could tell it was something she had to do. That desire to go the extra mile in the care of others. That was the part I had fallen in love with like an adopted puppy. A part of me twinged at the idea of stifling that part of her.
Besides, she was technically right. Other than when I was at the cottage or the workplace or going to and from them, I had to be with her at all times. Combine that with the fact that I had only a bad luck charm remaining that day, I couldn't even artificially steel myself to tell her she needed to stay.
But another part of me still insisted I needed to do... something about it. Something to help her be safe. I looked around and weighed my options. Ultimately, I decided to go into the kitchen and discreetly get Scraps' attention.
"Hey, Scraps," I called to him, briefly fiddling with my fin ear in nervousness after pressing my amulet. "You remember when you used to call me 'fish friend' when you first came to the cottage? Well, your fish friend kinda needs a favor. Could you-"
At that moment, the door slammed open, revealing Tempest fully clad from broken horn to hoof in a very darkly colored and well fitted armor with an uncharacteristically brighter crest of Equestria on both of her flanks.
"I've retrieved my old things from storage and am ready to go once all of you have your supplies together," She called out as she came in. "Scraps, do you have your vest packed and ready?"
He perked his head up and turned from me at Tempest's voice. "Almost ready, boss Tempest. Scraps have only a few things left to grab."
"Well, be sure to get a normal travel bag ready after you're done too," She ordered him in an odd blend of caring and distant militaristic orders, "Take what time you need, but don't you dare be the last one ready!"
He then went back to obsessively examining a large metal button from Fluttershy's sowing kit like I wasn't even there. And with that, my window of opportunity was gone.
A little bit of time passed and I did my best to contemplate on what seeing another humanoid could mean, and getting ready for it inevitably devolving to trouble.
After speaking with Fluttershy and the Speaker for a bit, Tempest called out to me, "Moss! I need you to come here."
Surprised, I got up from my cushion on the floor and came to her.
She looked me right in the eyes and took a deep breath then let it out in a sigh.
"When you first crashed here, some of your things were scattered. We collected them and studied them alongside the items we confiscated from you when we captured you."
She signaled the guard, who went outside to retrieve something.
"I ran into one of the researchers assigned to study them on the way to pick up my stuff. Now that we are on better terms, the researcher felt she had something you might find useful."
The guard came back holding a rather large bag that was hanging off of his far side oddly.
"One of the items was badly damaged, but we managed what we think was a fairly accurate recreation of it for better understanding of enemy equipment. The researcher thought you should have it for the mission."
The guards brought out a large wooden kite shield and presented it to me. It was big enough for him to completely hide behind if he crouched down, so I could tell it wasn't meant for them.
"And, before you ask, no." She gave me a cold and distrusting glare she had used on me often enough for me to recognize as her grudge glare. "We do not have any intention of giving you any of your magical items back."
I only gave her a quick glance and said, "I wouldn't know how to use them anyway," before looking back at the shield.
I was taken back at the quality build. It wasn't metal, but it was strong. It looked strong enough to handle multiple hard blows without breaking. When I looked at the front, I could see the outside had been heat treated so as to better deflect blows from blades rather than catch them, at least most of the time. Putting some metal on it still might have made it better though.
"Its missing the emblem," I heard my familiar call to my mind. I could almost feel him from behind, staring over my shoulder at the shield from within his bird house.
"The holy symbol spell focus? Good!" I quipped back while almost failing to turn a glare into the start of a teary eye smile to hide the conversation I was having in secret. "I have no intention of following your god anyway. So I don't need it. Bah-humbug!"
I gave the shield a try and slipped my arm in, finding it to be rather well fitted. "Aw, thanks for caring for my safety, Tempest." What few shields I had seen ponies use weren't exactly compatible with human arms. I had to admire the quality of their handiwork on something so alien to them.
I didn't have to keep faking my smile after I saw her face go from bland to positively disgusted.
"Don't thank me. I'm just following orders to deliver it to you."
A few minutes later, Scraps had declared he was finished and Fluttershy's friend gave her a firm hug goodbye. We then went back outside to start our trek. Our first goal was to meet up with Zecora again at her hut in the woods.
I seemed to be unfocused when Fluttershy called to me at some unknown point in our trek. Her voice brought me to attention. "Are you feeling alright, Moss?"
I had failed to mask my nerves and she had seen me shaking. Well, shaking more than I normally would while holding a shield that was tall enough to guard my shins and shoulders at the same time.
I finally decided to stop holding the shield actively on my arm and sling it over top my pack to give my arm a break and try to form my words. Even if it didn't use strength in the game, my arm was starting to hurt. The pace they could travel at was surprisingly fast for creatures so small. This was the first time I had to keep up with their normal pace for an extended period while carrying pretty much everything I owned on my back. I could manage it, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone.
I glanced at her worried face before putting my eyes back to the path and deciding to press on my amulet.
"I don't like the idea of killing another sentient being," I answered with a slight huff, "but you're at war and they probably aren't going to just sit and talk. A fight might be inevitable."
She lowered her head in apology.
"I'm sorry. They're your kind, or at least closely related. I can only imagine. I should have been more sensitive."
I hopped up a small break of earth in the path, slipped and slammed on my knees. The spot I landed on had soft soil and a firm layer of moss at the top, so I was unharmed. It was still embarrassing, though.
Fluttershy gently jumped up and easily landed the two foot ridge that I had tripped over as I saw Tempest shake her head and continue on as I got back to my feet.
I got my footing, continued the trek and corrected her, "It's not that they are my kind, but that they are sentient. I don't bear a whole lot of good feeling towards my own race. Blood is-"
I forced the words to die in my throat. The full version of the phrase I was going to say was "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb," to imply that blood relations shouldn't be a significant reason for loyalties. But I remembered that these ponies had a past of gods invading their lands. I had to be careful with any proverbs or other words of wisdom that came from my faith. I could only imagine what the Fey thought of a god if they thought so poorly of celestials.
"Blood is very little to me. I try to respect all life, if I can. I've had to fight to defend myself against animals in the past, and I'd do it again. But sentient life is more complicated. It's worth more in theory, and generally I'd save one of your kind over an animal if I had to choose. Yet, at the same time, sentient life is supposed to be held to a higher standard. We should be better than..."
I paused my words, pulled my flint knife from my belt, tied it to my walking stick and lifted the finished spear for her to see.
"...Than turning on each other and killing on a whim for small gains. It's when we fail at this, when we take the easy way out, we start down a path that makes us greater monsters than any rabid beast could ever be."
Fluttershy cocked her head and tried to process this.
"So you're afraid of them?"
I closed my eyes and let out a quiet huff. "...Yea. I'm... afraid of them."
It was so much more complicated than just being afraid. It was like revisiting a piece of yourself that you wanted to stay buried. I was sure I would feel better if I could just come out and say it, but I had trouble finding the words, much less words I wasn't afraid to say to them. How couldn't she misunderstand what I was saying when I sounded like little more than an idiot bumbling through his own thoughts?
Fluttershy gave me a comforting "I'm here for you" expression with a pinch of not fully understanding. She then went up to the front of the group and started chatting with the Speaker about something.
Meanwhile, Scraps slowed down enough to hang back with me. For some reason, while he seemed to have the same casual walking speed as me normally, he had little trouble keeping up with the ponies.
"Friend Moss still have talk time on speak stone?" He asked, seeing if he could squeeze in a small chat on the same charge that I used with Fluttershy. With the limited time on each charge on my amulet, we had learned to have my two way conversations requiring more than gestures from me to come in bursts at the cottage where possible.
"What did you need?" I asked to test it.
"Moss wanted favor, Moss call Moss name Scraps asked to not call Moss when Moss asked for favor. Scraps understand Moss need favor very much to bring up name that make Moss upset. What favor Moss need?"
My mood picked up again at the second chance I had to ask him.
"I don't know if you can understand, but Fluttershy has done a lot for me. She took me in despite the stigma of looking like those that want to fight ponies. She was supportive with me when I was released, and patient with explaining each and every custom as many different ways she needed to until I understood them. She fought tooth and hoof when I was being openly persecuted, at one point literally."
My time was limited, but I needed to drive home the point. "She has shown me almost nothing but kindness, and I've grown to care for her."
Scraps nodded. "Fluttershy is big sister to Moss, like..."
At first, I thought he was going to compare Fluttershy to Tempest, being our respective RRE officers. But then he paused, stopping in the middle of the trek to shed a tear and press a paw up to his vest.
"Like Scraps once had big brother. Big brother Nicknack do many same things for Scraps that Moss say Fluttershy do for Moss."
We started up again to catch up with the group, knowing we were understanding each other.
I gestured to myself then Fluttershy and finally down the path as I spoke.
"Well, if it gets too dangerous or if something happens to me, please take-" I could see the tilt of his head as I finished, giving me the cue that the translator had died off. "-Fluttershy, and get her back to Ponyville with the guards to protect her."
He looked at the places I had gestured.
"Take big sister of Moss, Fluttershy, and put Fluttershy in village? Safe spot?" He guessed multiple interpretations of what he thought I said as the amulet's outgoing translation faded.
I quickly did a gesture with my hand with a single finger extended, then a thumbs up, and then two fingers extended, followed by another thumbs up, indicating both guesses were right.
After we kept traveling for a little bit, the Speaker told us to stop in the middle of a part in the path that was straight as an arrow. We didn't seem to be anywhere special, but he insisted we stand in some seemingly random spot. Once we got into position, he turned to the side of the path and called out in a tone that seemed to flex and wobble that made it laced with some power, it was so eerie.
"Father Gatekeeper. I return and I ask for passage for our guests."
All of a sudden, the path we were on bent backwards into a moderate curve, and before us lay a village intended for people roughly the size of the Speaker, built into trees and a the cliff side of an isolated strut of earth sticking upwards that wasn't there before. We found ourselves standing just within an intricately placed pattern of small, carved stones embedded into the trodden earth of the path.
"Oh, my!" Fluttershy exclaimed with glee, "This village is beautiful. It reminds me of the breezie village."
Tempest stomped her hoof just loud enough to get everyone's attention again. "Yes, but what are we doing here? We need to keep traveling to get to Zecora's hut."
"There is no need for you to fear. For as you can see, I am right here."
I turned to see Zecora walking up the path behind us.
The Speaker gestured us into the village. "I apologize for not telling you earlier, but it would have only complicated matters with you not believing me. We have been traveling far longer than you realize. About ten to twelve times more time has passed than what you likely felt pass as we traveled. It is a side effect of our defenses against the intruders. It is a difficulty for those that haven't entered our village before, and is unavoidable without shutting down the entire web that is keeping us safe. We are not on the path to the shaman's hut. We are already in the heart of what you would call Far Everfree."
I looked up and saw the sun setting at the horizon when it felt it should have still been much higher in the sky. I also found my arm felt well rested from not carrying my shield on it anymore.
"Scraps!" I heard Tempest call out, "Don't take or touch anything without permission! I don't care how interesting it is! Now is not the time!"
Scraps was well hidden behind one of the trees, with only his paw reaching around to pluck a bit of bio-luminescent mushroom, when he suddenly jumped out of his cover in shock and bolted back to her side. I didn't even notice he had left our side.
I did notice that while the village was well maintained, it was completely empty besides us. With an amulet press, and a signal to Tempest to show I'd need topped off again soon to keep it strong, I asked, "Where is everybody? The place looks deserted."
The Speaker gave a bemused smirk. "Of course it does to you. I am called the Speaker for a reason. The Fey hide themselves well. You won't see any Fey here besides me."
Tempest took a look around, then back at the Speaker and pointed to a section of trees. "I see two tiny Fey peeking from the window of the second building of the third tree that way, and one slightly larger than you hiding among the roots of the tree nearest to the far mound."
We all looked at those locations, but saw nothing.
The Speaker shook his head, still keeping his grin. "Nice try. But I can tell you are lying."
Tempest didn't seemed phased in the slightest. "The two in the window have very delicate wings akin to a dragonfly in texture, but shaped more like a butterfly's wings, and the one in the roots has a gimp left hoof."
I could see the grin on the Speaker's face fade into genuine shock.
"But if its any consolation," Tempest stated with a grin of her own, "Those were the only ones I saw on an immediate search and I'm sure your population is higher than the ones I see. Several dozen by the looks of the village. Your kind are indeed good at hiding."
"Yes, good at hiding the Fey are, even the lame," Zecora called out when the air got thick. "But little protection that will provide if the village is touched by war's flame."
She gestured us to follow her towards the center of the village, "But now they face enemies with resolve and magic that lets them tire not. So the beast-kin and friends, the Speaker has brought."
A rustling of wind pushed through the village. The Speaker seemed to be focused on it as we walked, almost making faces as if he were in an argument.
"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked.
The Speaker held up his hand and the rustling stopped. "They do not approve of me bringing outsiders besides the Beast-kin here. I'm trying to reason with them, but they will not have it."
My fist clenched as I processed this. A stubborn family was one of the biggest roadblocks I had in my life back on Earth before I came to Equis. They thought they knew me, but never tried to slow down and understand my view fully. I had to play nice as long as I depended on them for anything even when I felt they were utterly wrong on something.
He may share some of their bias, but the Speaker was at least willing to listen. He wasn't going to win this argument, though. I had to step in. As an outsider I could be bold where he couldn't, at least in this particular situation.
I leaned down and asked, "Can they understand my words?"
After a confused look, he gave me a nod. I immediately stood up and looked around.
"Listen up! Beggars can't be choosers! You asked for me and I had no obligation to come! I have to have these ponies with me right now! It's a package deal!"
I spun around slowly after I did this, and added one more thing after they had a moment to process. "If you want them to leave, so be it. This is your territory. But if they leave, I leave with them."
A pause fell for several seconds, followed by a brief rustling of leaves. The Speaker gave a few more odd expressions as he did before, though this time less frustrated. At one point he pointed to Tempest's horn.
Finally, he turned to me and spoke formally as he did when I first saw him. "Very well, Beast-kin. It is unfair for us to ask for your aid and not expect conditions. But know this: We do not make any guarantee for their safety if they stay. We also do not trust them, and we will act swiftly against them if we smell treachery."
I looked down as he said this. I could tell by the flex of his tone he wanted a confirmation of their conditions being met too. But I had no right to speak for the others in that regard.
I turned around and called to them, "I can't make that call fo..."
My voice failed me when I saw them all stepping forward without hesitation.
"I'm with you on this, Moss," Fluttershy called with the same unshaken determination.
"Equestria has a stake in this too. I'll take the risk," Tempest answered the Fey.
"Scraps go where boss Tempest go." Scraps gave a brief glance towards Fluttershy and gave me a nod.
It wasn't all that epic, but it helped me feel better about turning back around and answering the Speaker.
"It looks like we have an understanding then."
"Then come with me. I will direct you to the rest of the forces."
"Rest of forces?" Scraps asked as we started moving again, "Scraps thought Fey have no fighters."
"The Fey cannot fight in the traditional sense, at least not at a significant level without taking heavy losses. The servants of our surrogate mother have sent a brave that has been doing his best to slow them, but the poisons he has used in his traps don't seem to affect them anymore and he cannot battle them head on without help. We just can't seem to isolate a small enough chunk of them for a single brave to take on."
By the time the Speaker was finished explaining, we had gone to the far side of the strut of earth to see a familiar face a bit further along, whittling away at a piece of wood.
"Speaks with Talons?" I called out in surprise, "I haven't seen you since you guided me to town!"
The black feathered face of the griffin before me grew shocked with a slack beak when he heard my voice in a legible form.
"Beast-kin," He called as he approached me, "You have learned the pony tongue, and you even learned my name, at least how the ponies speak it."
"Kinda sorta. I've only learned a small number of words and still can't say them right." I gestured to my amulet. "The amulet helps fill the gaps."
As he came close, I became worried and backed off a few steps, calling out, "You aren't going to make me stand there and exchange blows again, are you?"
He shook his head, "Though I could evoke the rite, now is not the time. You could simply cheat again, anyway."
"Ahem!" Tempest called out, "Its nice to see that we're on good terms, but could we please get to business? I want to know what the crow knows about the situation."
The griffin looked at Tempest with a very stoic and unreadable face. With a strong intake of breath, he spoke coldly, but calmly to her. "I am a long way from my homeland, and so I must remind myself that I must forgive local ignorance about my tribe."
He came right up to her, invading her personal space, but she refused to back down. "But know that I am a griffin of the Raven-blood Tribe. Do not call us crows. There are no such things as crow griffins."
He raised his talon to within inches of her face, though not pointed towards it, and brought forth a pitch black wing from his other side to match. "This is raven power you see before you. Not quite as mighty as the eagle power my ancestors had forsaken, but not as prone to the temptations of greed either, and still far more powerful than any crow. Be sure to remember it from here on out."
I drew two things from watching them. One: I was grateful I wasn't the one pulling a slip of the tongue and insulting someone this time and that I had the language barrier keeping me from doing it back then. And two: Judging by the "I'm not backing down" look on Tempest's face, I wasn't the only one on her list of who she hated the guts of but still had to work with anymore.
I could see the relations between everyone were deteriorating as we moved forward the next morning.
The Speaker kept insisting that talking to the creatures wandering into the forest was pointless while Zecora insisted they should at least try, Scraps was stinking up the village by messing with the materials in his vest for reasons he wouldn't tell me, and Tempest and Speaks with Talons spent more time keeping an eye on each other from a lack of trust than preparing for the day.
Fluttershy was about the only one that was being productive, running through the medical kit that Zecora had left with her, making sure she could reach what she needed and knew what she was working with.
Two tiny emergency vials were secured just on the inside edge at the top of Fluttershy's pack. The last remaining stock of Zecora's healing potions.
Well, at least the potions that the Equestrian military wouldn't accept anyway. All of her potions that were well preserved were eagerly accepted as donations to the war effort, but the ingredients of each recipe she knew were in limited supply and not all of her recipes for the potions could keep indefinitely once brewed.
But she was happy to send what she did have already brewed up, though, as using a potion to heal up a wound magically within a few seconds could very well be the only option in the middle of a battle. She could brew more later if need be, once the crisis threatening the Fey and the forest was over.
Zecora would have been a better battle medic than Fluttershy, but she had to leave to tend the web that was keeping the village safe and would give us a realistic chance to isolate enough of the intruders for our group to approach. Being used so frequently wasn't good for the web and its integrity was vital for the mission.
Just before we parted ways, however, she briefly spoke to me specifically. "Beast-kin, now that you can hear my words there are many things I wish to speak of, but for now we must focus on our task. Know that when you wish to understand the blessing of Animus Mundi the Fey spoke of, you only need find me and ask."
I was already focused on the situation, and wasn't sure of what to think. I wasn't all that fond of her but she was still being nice, so I could only stand there looking confused and stupid.
When Fluttershy saw this, she stepped in, nodded her head and responded. "I'm sure he'd like that, I know I'd enjoy another visit. I'll keep that in mind."
I mentally thanked her for stepping in as we parted ways.
The Speaker guided us to a spot that he said had an isolated group coming in. Apparently his remote connection to the web had been restored with Zecora's efforts the day before and could coordinate with those back in the village on where we needed to be to not get overwhelmed when we ran into one of the groups they were trying to separate.
I recognized the spot where I had first woken up, right next to a small lake. There were even the small remnants of what used to be my crude fire pit, worn away with the passage of a few months weather.
"Alright. This is the best place we have for now. If we take a few of them out, managing the rest will become easier."
A shiver went down my back as my mind broke away from the memories with his words.
"If we can't talk, yes," Tempest corrected, gesturing us to a position of higher ground to wait.
"When we can't talk." Speaks with Talons retorted, flying up to the branches of a thick tree nearby.
* * *
We had just ran through the plan, where we try to speak to them, but if they give resistance, we hit them as hard as we can and take them out fast.
It all seemed well and good until we saw the shapes of four humanoids coming up along the bed of the stream that the lake eventually fed into when overfilled. That's when it fell apart.
"Alright, it's your turn, Moss," Tempest whispered to me, "Go out and see if you can talk them down."
I just looked at her with a dumbfounded face as I pressed my amulet.
"What? Me?"
"They're your kind. Go talk to them. We can't."
"'My kind' have over six thousand different languages, presuming they even are my kind, and I only know one!"
Everybody in the group looked at each other in confusion at this, then looked back at me. Tempest responded back, "Even if that is the case, it's too late now. You're all we got."
I was dreading every step I took out from cover. Even setting the possible language barriers aside, making up a convincing speech on the fly was definitely not one of my fortes. Combine that with charisma being Moss' second dump stat right along with strength, and I could practically see the situation falling apart before it even started.
I took my shield out, slung my arm into it and rested the bottom point onto a rock on the ground. I then stuck the butt end of my spear into the mud of the lake bed so as to have it at the ready, but not actively in my hand. A weapon in hand wasn't the best way to speak peace, but this setup might give them the indication that I want to at least try communication. It took all of my willpower to keep from shaking as they got in range.
But that proved to be the least of my worries as I got a good look at them. One was about my size, but the other three were considerably larger, with sharp teeth. All of them, however, had glazed over eyes and pale, off colored skin.
The thing that terrified me the most, however, was the way they were shambling along. Things I had heard the day prior fell into place.
"The poisons he has used in his traps don't seem to affect them anymore..."
But a part of my mind was telling me to deny that possibility. I needed to at least try.
"He...Hello? You seem lost and sick. If you could-"
I didn't have a chance to finish as I saw them scream and start running at me.
They were quickly closing the gap when I saw something strike one of them in the face, erupting into flame on contact and splashing over onto the one immediately beside it.
By that time my muscles had caught up with my mind and I bolted towards the water. Stupid for any other individual, but for me it was actually a safe haven.
I dove under the water, and had to dislodge myself from my wooden shield after a few seconds so as to move freely and not float to the surface. Behind me, I saw two of the attackers follow me into the water, burning oils of one of them lifting up and setting the surface on fire.
Maneuvering around them was easy at least. They couldn't move well in the water, but I could. Yet, without the spear I left on the shore, I saw no point in trying to hit them back. I wasn't about to try to get in close with my knife without my shield protecting me. It was all I could do just to keep out of the range of my attackers' swords and wait for the oil to burn up on the surface so I could see what was going on.
I didn't even have to let go of my breath and force myself to breathe water before the oil on the surface finally burned out, though. I internally sighed in relief as I surfaced next to my mostly unharmed shield. Switching from air to water breathing was never a comfortable experience for me.
I lodged my shield as a flotation device and swam down the shore line a ways before coming back to avoid the ones that were following me under water. Meanwhile, I saw the others fight the two remaining enemies.
Speaks with Talons had tackled one of them to the ground, swinging his talons at whatever he could get them into and Tempest danced around the other, carefully looking for openings while Scraps threw rocks at a distance.
When I made it to shore, I pushed my shield back onto my arm and immediately shifted into the biggest bear I could remember seeing to join the fight.
Keeping a healthy distance from the shore so as to not get surprised by the ones that I was sure were making their way back from the water, I arrived just as they were finishing up. Speaks with Talons ripped off the burnt head of the one beneath him, chucking it into the water, and Tempest managed to take out the other in a flurried combo of strikes across the torso.
"Huuf ug youto kuop us," Tempest quipped at me in equestrian, my mind only able to recognize a portion of the words with the amulet not actively translating. Her pose wasn't one that a pony would give to an ally, but rather an enemy. I think she wasn't entirely sure if I was going to help or hinder. She still didn't trust me, but that wasn't a big surprise.
As sure as clockwork, the two enemies that were in the water after me came lumbering back up to shore. I put myself in front, along side Speaks with Talons, while Scraps and Tempest were content lobbing stones from behind us.
The enemies went down quickly enough with us mauling at them together. Fluttershy came up to me to treat my wounds, but found that I was unharmed after I changed back, leaving only Speaks with Talons needing any attention.
"What in Tartarus was your little mut thinking!?" Speaks with Talons yelled at Tempest, one foreleg being treated by Fluttershy while the other pointed at Scraps in accusation. "He could have burned down the entire forest with that stuff!"
"He was following a vague order to hit them as hard as he could. I should have clarified." Her horn started glowing momentarily, but she willed it to simmer down before sparks flew. "I'm still not fully aware of what range of substances he can make."
"You had better keep-"
"I will reprimand him my own way, thank you!" She shot him the stink eye. Had he not been restrained by Fluttershy tending the particularly sore cut on his foreleg, I had the feeling he would have been up in her face.
"Scraps! Front and center!" she promptly called out.
Scraps came forward with his tail between his legs and whimpered in front of Tempest.
She took a moment to steady her voice to a calmer, but still stern level before continuing, "Scraps, that was very dangerous for us. The griffin is right that that could have burned down the forest. We're here to protect the forest, not hurt it. So no more stuff that burns or explodes or otherwise could risk a wild fire..."
Tempest shot Speaks with Talons one last ugly face. "...Unless I expressly order it, understood?"
He didn't even speak, he just responded with a meek nodding of his head.
Finally, when the argument had settled down, everyone turned to me looking at the remains of the smaller one of our opponents.
I looked up to them on the edge of a panic that I was barely keeping in check. My mind was going a dozen different directions, with only one question able to escape my lips.
They all stared at me with that familiar odd look, indicating my amulet's second ability was turned off again. A quick press and I repeated myself.
"Why didn't you tell me they were zombies?"
"Zombies?" Tempest raised an eyebrow. "As in creatures reduced to a virtually mindless state, with only enough cognitive function to handle a simple set of tasks given to them by their handlers because they can't do anything else to take care of themselves? Did your amulet get broken?"
My mental gears ground to a halt as I processed what she said. I gave myself a shake of the head and let some of the panic get burned up in a frustrated reset, coming down to a simple adrenaline filled alert.
"Right, right. That's the original meaning of zombie. I mean an undead. As in the living dead? A reanimated corpse that has only a facsimile to being alive again? Able to move around but their bodies are still dead?"
Fluttershy perked up. "Oh! You mean draugar!"
The rest of the party looked at Fluttershy as she said this, who shied back as the focus shifted to her.
"Oh... Discord tells me a lot of his adventures from guys night with Spike and Big Mac."
"Corpses?" Tempest raised the same eyebrow slightly higher as she turned back to me. "I know they look sick and smell vile, but you honestly expect me to believe we were fighting corpses just now? I think I'd have heard from the front lines if they were fighting any corpses."
"Hey! It fits, alright?" I retorted.
I looked over to Speaks with Talons as he was putting weight on his injured limb to test it. "You said your poisons were working but then they stopped, right? Well what if they stopped because they stopped having a metabolism for them to work on?"
While I was trying to convey my thoughts, Scraps moved towards the remains nearest to him and started prodding and probing them with a small bit of stiff wire he had in his baubles bag.
After a few seconds, he brought his head up and called out, "Boss Tempest!"
"What?" She turned towards him with a slight glare. "This had better be important."
Scraps didn't wince like before. Instead he just gave a somber nod in response.
"These creatures dead for many days at least. Creatures possibly even dead for weeks."
Tempest's jaw went slack for but a moment before snapping right back to position.
She went up to the corpse herself and asked, "Are you sure? How do you know?"
Scraps went about pointing his metal wire at different spots. "Muscles too stiff for fresh kill, kind of mold on inside not grow unless long time pass and never while alive, and maggots in face. Take full day to hatch when seasoning meat back home."
Everyone else in the group had their stomachs churn a little at that last comment, even myself and Speaks with Talons, the other meat eaters.
"Too much information, Scraps." I called out. "Please don't mention eating habits pertaining to rot unless we have to know."
"Please don't mention any more details on how to use rot in eating habits if you can avoid it," Tempest repeated while looking back at me with a familiar expression. "You're running low again. Come here and I'll recharge you. Then you can tell us what you know about these... things."
After a quick recharge, I spent the next few minutes describing what I knew about zombies while everyone double checked their equipment.
"Well there are different interpretations, and all of them were fictional, at least they were believed to be before I came here. The biggest thing is if I look like I'm about to turn into one, take me out. Some versions have them infectious..."
* * *
Tempest and Speaks with Talons were listening in closely.
"So stabbing and slashing will likely have diminished effect, but crushing seems to work fine." Tempest gave her horseshoes a once over while mulling over the tactical data she extracted from my explanation. "Taking out the brain is a good spot to aim to stop them, but the heart or internal organs are pointless, limbs may or may not still be animate when severed and there is a chance that they may be infectious."
I gave a nod. "That's my best guess anyway. There are multiple interpretations. We'll just have to keep our guard up and learn as we go."
Speaks with Talons came forward. "They sound like something unnatural enough that some of my brethren among the servants may be able to detect them. Let me check something." He went up on his hind legs, closed his eyes and threw his talons out to both sides.
Almost immediately, he gave a shiver. "Yes. That is something I can detect." He came down back to all fours and pulled some well made cloth wrappings from his pack. "It is far different from what monstrosities feel like, but there is definitely something there. Something that wasn't there when they first arrived."
"Alright, lead the way," Tempest called to him with impatience.
Speaks with Talons looked back at her in irritation, wrapping the cloth around his wrists and talons like sports tape. "Can't you just whip up a piece of fancy-smancy unicorn wizardry and track them?" he jested, "It's not that simple. I can only tell that they are within a range of a few miles. I can't discern their location or number."
"But we can," The Speaker called from above.
I looked up and saw him with his ear to the tree. He pulled his ear from the tree and dropped down the branches to the ground.
"We have another group this size misled that you should be able to tackle coming to an area close to here, if you've the strength. But we must hurry or the window to catch them will close. If they get too close to another group again, we won't be able to disguise the noise of the battle and you will have a much larger group upon you."
The group looked at each other before Fluttershy spoke up, "Well, should we go or do we need to take a rest? I know you can only transform so many times before resting, Moss."
Scraps and Speaks with Talons simply gave nods while I shook my head. "I have one more in me before I have to rest, and I have my reserve of that lets me heal as a beast if it gets bad." I gestured to the corpses. "I'm good for one more this size if you all are."
Tempest raised an eyebrow again. "I still have enough in me to go another round, maybe two, but you seem calm about this. I thought you said you hated killing."
I looked back down at the corpses. "Don't get me wrong. I'm sure I'll have a breakdown when we get back, but I think discovering ponies can talk and all the other little things I've seen in this world has numbed me enough to handle myself after the initial shock. As for killing, it is bad, but this isn't killing in the normal sense. Once dead, the dead should stay dead. This is a twisted mockery of what makes life sacred. Its inability to be restored once lost. I'm just helping them get back to being properly dead."
We traveled to the next spot fairly quickly. While my amulet was still on a strong charge, Fluttershy came up and asked, "Are you alright? You're looking at the path like you're trying to dig into it with your eyes. It must have been traumatizing seeing your kind..." She paused and changed her words. "-Seeing something like that."
I shook my head and gave her as forward an answer I could, "The three big ones definitely weren't my kind. We don't get that big and the teeth were too sharp. As for the small one." I bit my lip. "Well, maybe. It seemed the right size at a glance but the body was too far gone to tell for sure."
Fluttershy nudged me. "You told me you weren't much for blood relations, and I'm taking you at your word. But if that's true, something else is bothering you about it."
I gave a huff in defeat and nodded. "They were tool users. They weren't clawing and biting at me but rather still knew how to properly wield weapons-"
I briefly turned to her with a short burst of positive flex to my voice. "-which is good in the sense they likely weren't the infectious kind, I hope."
I rubbed my shoulder where I had gotten slashed as a bear. "But, it also meant they weren't just apes or some other mere beast that looked like my kind. They were people once. I don't know what it's like being brought back like that but it can't be pleasant. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
I saw that at the end Fluttershy gave me the look to tell me that my amulet was turned off again. I could tell she got the point but I had more. Something that Tempest—who I knew was eavesdropping from the start by how she hadn't moved her head to look around like she normally did and had one ear flipped back our way—needed to hear too. In turn, I grimaced as I decided to use one more charge on my amulet even though most of it was going to be wasted.
"But what bothers me more so is that something did that to them. If it isn't just some infectious disease, then it was some'one' bringing them back. Someone that was able to do it here in the forest as they died off from Speaks with Talons poisons. Someone that might be still here. Someone dangerous."
We came to a clearing that looked rather barren. I soon discovered it was because it was created by some meteor crashing here a few months back. It was strange, because I didn't recognize the area from when I lived in the woods.
Tempest sighed and mumbled, "And it all comes full circle," before shaking her head and focusing on a battle plan.
The second fight was fairly easy, three on four with a solid ambush taking one out quickly. I could have sworn I saw Speaks with Talons deflect a scimitar with nothing but his talons.
After the fight, however, we were exhausted. I hadn't been permanently harmed, but some of those blows really stung and Tempest looked like she was powering through the pain of a solid mace blow to a flexible point in her armor.
In spite of her injury, she had managed to solo the second enemy while Speaks with Talons, Scraps and myself had tackled the last one.
"Think you can use that thing?" Tempest asked Speaks with Talons as she pointed to the leftover mace. "It might bash skulls in faster than your talons if you can."
"..." The griffin looked at her with as cold a prideful stare as I had ever seen.
"Not to say your claws aren't good, but my hooves seem to be getting better results on these than both your talons and Moss's claws combined."
"Why can't the Beast-kin or your minion use it?"
"Scraps can't fight normal way," Scraps said as he picked up the mace and clumsily swung it once. "Scraps must find opening to strike with controlled blow to make blow count. Metal club too awkward to use with control. Claws and sometimes thrown thing about all Scraps can do. Scraps would love to try griffin string stick that shoot pointy stick some time, though." With this, Scraps promptly went to lightly gnawing on the weapon's different parts with a look of curiosity.
Speaks with Talons rolled his eyes and turned to me.
I pressed my amulet to speak. "Borrowing a bear's claws and fangs would still be better than me swinging that mace. I barely have any muscle to swing that thing in this form and I can't use it as a beast. It might be a improvement over my spear, but only a minor one. I'd rather have someone use it right and keep me from having to use my frail normal form in a fight in the first place. So... can you?"
The Speaker came down from the tree at the edge of the clearing and interrupted. "We are sorry, but you need to move or a much larger group will find you." He gestured us in a direction.
The griffin grimaced at this news.
"We need to find a safe place to rest," he said as he took the mace from Scraps, "I will take the mace with me for the sake of time, but realize that this one was wielding a shield and armor while yours was naked." He promptly pointed to a small buckler still strapped to the corpse's arm and rusted chain peaking out from under a tattered tabard with an image of a claw on it. "My talons were working fine. It was just harder to land a blow."
We were just leaving when both Tempest and Fluttershy heard a rustling off to the side of the path.
"What was that!?" Fluttershy cried out.
A few seconds went by as Tempest walked closer to the source.
A loud chittering could be heard as Tempest looked up and around the tree, centering in on something higher up.
"Just a squirrel yelling at me from its nest."
With this, she went back to point alongside the Speaker.
We walked for a little ways when I saw Fluttershy was still uneasy.
I nudged her in a way that we had developed for me to ask what was wrong without using the amulet.
She whispered in my ear, "I know my animals, most by heart. Whatever that chittering Tempest heard, it may have sounded like a squirrel to her, but it was just mimicking a squirrel."
"What?" I asked more in expression than word.
"That squirrel wasn't a squirrel."
We tracked a long way, but eventually we arrived a safe place to rest. Though, by then it had gotten dark. The speaker said it was surrounded by a cluster of nodes in their web or something like that. All I saw there was a skeleton sprawled to the side of a chest.
The Speaker said the bear that I borrow the form of had taken out the human and scared the others enough for them to be scattered when the Fey first put the full power of their web against them. The chest was magic, being larger on the inside, but it was also empty. Such magic wasn't a tactical advantage that couldn't be circumvented with less effort than they had been giving in trying to reenter the forest, so the Fey had no idea why the enemy were constantly trying to get back to it.
After tending wounds and getting some basic but functional rations in us, we talked and sat for a bit to rest. Tempest spoke with Scraps and Fluttershy on supply management while also keeping one ear pointed towards me.
Speaks with Talons was sitting notably on the far side of the circle from Tempest. "So that stone on your neck takes the words of the pony tongue and puts them in your tongue?"
"I think so? It's based on a spell that was in the books that were sent with me when I came. I think it was intended to let understand how to read any language too, but that part was lost in adapting it."
The griffin thought for a moment, briefly glancing at Tempest. He then spoke in what I could only describe as a thick accent. "Does the unicorn soldier ever stop spying on you?"
I gave a raised eyebrow for a moment before returning my gaze to the fire and answering. "Not really, but I've gotten used to it. She still has the idea that I'm secretly with them-" I pointed a ways away from the circle we were in to the skeleton still grasping its sword. "-in the back of her mind, and I can't really blame her. I wouldn't really trust one of my kind in her situation either."
The griffin smiled as Tempest stood up in shock.
I looked back and forth at both of them. "What?"
Tempest spoke up, "You understood him just now."
"Well yea," I retorted defensively, "That's what the amulet does, isn't it? Translate Equestrian?"
Tempest pulled her head back slightly with her mouth agape. "You didn't even realize it..."
With a feeling of awkward confusion, I turned to Speaks with Talons.
He gave a chuckle. "Just now, I asked my question in my native tongue, not the pony tongue."
He looked over at Tempest with a sense of pride. "Even though I am not versed in the intricacies of pony magic, I still managed to discover something about it even your demi-mage did not know. Even if it allows you to speak it and it alone, your amulet lets you hear far more than the pony tongue."
I had seen many a variant of sourness from Tempest in my time, but just then I discovered a new flavor of contempt being radiated from Tempest's face. She had just been one upped, and she didn't like it.
A faint whistle could be heard in the woods around us while the metaphorical lightning shot between their eyes.
Tempest finally backed off and called to the whole group, "It took us a while to get here, and none of us have very good night vision. It seems we are bunking down for the night. Who's on first watch?"
"That won't be necessary," The Speaker called out with a slight slur before swallowing the last bite of food up in his tree. He steadily swung down from branch to branch in a much more casual fashion, eventually landing on the chest. "We are watching you and everything surrounding you. Short of our village, this is about the safest place you can-"
Fluttershy screamed just as everyone else saw the sword stab right through the Speaker's chest from behind. The rattling of bones showed the skeleton rising and pulling the sword out of him, ready to fight.
The next things happened almost before I could even react.
The Speaker fell to the ground as Fluttershy ran up to him with one of the red vials of healing potion, knowing she needed to apply it post haste. Speaks with Talons sprang out of his seat, flying straight into the fray and swung the mace at the skeleton that had become animated, only to miss.
I couldn't get up fast enough, and as much as I wanted to, my shape shifting was still exhausted. But when I saw the skeleton turning its attention towards Fluttershy, my mind went into an adrenaline filled focus.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I released my good luck charm into Speaks with Talons' back swing. It landed solidly, crushing the sternum and passing right on to the inside of the front of the skull, which in turn shattered as the mace went through.
The remains of the skeleton that hadn't been shattered fell apart into a pile of bones. The fight was over as fast as it had started.
The Speaker gasped as the potion reconstructed and reconnected his severed organs within the wound and managed to stop the bleeding.
Fluttershy called out to us in a shaky voice, "The wound is going to need further rest to heal properly, but he's OK."
With confirmation of the Speaker's condition, Speaks with Talons looked back at the mace. "The unicorn was right. It is good for crushing skulls."
The Speaker looked up at Tempest as she towered over him. In a suddenly cold, but calm voice, she spoke to him, "Like I said, who's on first watch?"
The Boiling Point (Chapter 8, The First Mission, Part 6)
Scraps, Speaks with Talons and Tempest were perfectly fine after the fight. They had each seen their fair share of fighting and gore in the past. While the Speaker hadn't, he was managing like a champ for a person that had just been ran through. But Fluttershy an myself were utterly unnerved.
I took first watch along with Scraps, mostly because I couldn't sleep right away after seeing someone get run through. Tempest took second watch and I dried to lean back on the area of a large tree where the roots met the trunk at an angle above ground, but I had trouble getting to sleep.
Fluttershy did too apparently, because she came and quietly curled up next me, laying her head on my lap. Whether she came to me more to calm her own nerves or to help me get to sleep, I don't really know. I know some of the humans I used to hang out with would think this was a sign of her having less than platonic feelings towards me, but I could only roll my eyes at the idea. We were close and I had fallen in love with her much like every animal she cared for did, but I had absolutely zero interest in her romantically and I was pretty sure she felt the same.
I gently stroked her main to help calm her nerves. I was still awake a good deal into the second watch, but I managed to finally get to sleep at some point.
When I woke in the morning, I could feel her completely my lap with her head laying up on my belly and a softly breathing. I was a little perplexed. My hand moved to gently wake her only for me to find a much rougher fir meeting my palm than I expected.
My eyes burst open to see Scraps' mug looking back at me.
"Aahhhh!" I screamed while shoving him off me and scrambling to get away.
"Oh, good. You're up," Fluttershy called out as she finished petting a pair of foxes. The foxes left as Fluttershy moved towards me. "The rest of us are just about ready to go."
With a brisk march, we found ourselves at a vantage point to where we could see the enemy below us at the bottom of a small dirt ridge, but they couldn't see us at the top. That was great, because we needed to assess how to approach, but there was a problem. There were about a dozen of the undead below us, tied up together so as to not get separated.
"Tied together? They're learning. Or, whatever is driving them is learning," I whispered to Speaks with Talons beside me.
"four on four is risky enough as it is..." he mumbled as we crawled away from the edge and back towards the rest of the party. "We can't take them on like this. We need to find a way to separate them."
Tempest met us as we stood up a safe distance away from the ledge. "We can't keep playing games with them. The more we encounter the enemy, the smarter they will become. We need to find a way to finish this now, their numbers be damned."
Speaks with Talons got huffy and got into her face. "This isn't a battlefield with expendable soldiers. We are all the Fey have for defense. we can't afford to risk any losses."
It was clear by his aggressive stance that he wasn't just talking in terms of strategy at this point. That was just the excuse that lit the fuse.
Tempest met him glare for glare. "For your information, I never consider soldiers expendable. But there is always a risk, and right now its a bigger risk in the long run is if we try to play it-"
Tempest cut herself off just in time to twist and have the griffin's talons glance off her helmet instead of across her face.
He followed up with another swipe that narrowly missed the undercarriage of her armor as she flipped back out of his immediate reach. "I'm not going to risk this mission on some half baked logic pulled from some aristocratic book by a half baked mage!"
Fluttershy managed to speak up, but only I heard her. "Come on every creature, calm down. We're on the same side."
Tempest's horn flared up with sparks as she backed off and reset herself for a conflict, her fuse now lit too. "I learned my skills from a lot more than just books. But if you want to do this the hard way then I'm game, crow."
His eyes became blood shot just as he barreled at her. Sparks flew, scorching the feathers of the griffin, and the unicorn got a couple solid cuts as they went back and forth, taking shots at each other.
At one point one of them landed right next to Fluttershy, who had only barely managed to roll just out of the way enough to not get crushed under the body landing full force next to her. She still got stopped in mid dodge roll, however, as the one tossed landed right on the medicine bag side of the saddle bags strapped to her, keeping her from rolling further away until they got up.
They continued for a few moments more before I noticed a red liquid coming from Fluttershy's bag. When I brought it to her attention, she gave a whimpered "Oh no..." as she checked the bag.
She pulled out the broken remains of what was the vial that housed our last healing potion, both to my relief and dismay.
Furious myself now, I carefully took the top of the vial from her, pressed on my amulet and turned to the two that were fighting.
"Hey! Sparkles! Thinks with Dick!" I called out in a demanding, but not yelling voice. Somehow despite the tempers, we all still managed to stay fairly quiet.
They both stopped in their tracks at the names I had called them, then turned their heads just enough to give me their attention without dropping their guard.
I showed them the broken vial. "If the two of you are quite done with your pissing contest, then for the love of all things sacred: Can you get your heads out of your asses, back into the god damn mission and kill each other when we're finished!?"
They looked at the vial, then back at me and finally to each other with a nod.
"Gods be damned indeed," Tempest responded with a resolute face.
"I have no love for mages, but if it means defending Equis from the plight of the gods' return, I can set aside my hatred for unicorns and their archaic ways long enough for that."
I pulled back, not expecting them to calm down so quickly. I realized I had only hit jackpot due to a misunderstanding with my use of the words "god damn." Part of me wanted to consider myself lucky... but it just reminded me of the looming risk I had of what would happen when they learned that I was a follower of a god, just not the one that sent me here.
The awkward silence was broken when Tempest piped up, "Where's Scraps?"
We all looked around for a moment, before discovering a burrowing hole in the ground. With the tunnel leading towards the ridge, we all went to the edge.
We all were shocked when we saw Scraps popping out of a hole, biting the head of the last enemy clean off at the neck from behind. The little guy had used the ropes against them by pulling the farthest ones under and using them as an anchor to keep the others in place while he pulled them down and took them out one by one from underneath.
"I forgot diamond dogs could do that..." Was all Tempest could say as he jumped out of the ground and came up to us.
"Scraps fix numbers problem! Scraps do good?"
She nodded with a slight dumbfounded look, "But don't wander off on your own like that without talking to me about it first, even if it was for something we needed. We're a team."
He went submissive in recognition of what he did wrong, but was smiling at a job well done. The way his face had changed from cold blooded killer back to the happy go lucky, cheerful oddball I had come to know was scary. He was a total goof, but he could be dangerously smart if given the chance.
A short rest was taken to tend our wounds, mostly self inflicted, and then we got back to tracking what remained of the enemy. From what the Fey reported through the Speaker, only about half a dozen of the enemy were left thanks to Scraps' actions.
Unfortunately, while the enemy numbers were dwindling, they seemed to be getting smarter too. The Fey said their misdirection was having only a nominal effect on the enemy now. About the only spots they could keep them away from were the nodes in the web like the place we rested the day before and the village. To make matters worse, the reports showed that they were traveling in what Tempest recognized as war maneuvers instead of simply a search pattern. They were on to us and readying for a fight.
Tempest took the lead, making us maneuver in unusual ways. We wouldn't move through one area, but another seemed just fine despite looking the same to me. It slowed our pace, but she said it was vital for keeping the tactical advantage.
"OK, the Speaker says there's a node up ahead that blocks a passage to what is a good tactical position. The enemy were stopped by it and were starting to take the long way around according to the last report. We're going to take this shortcut and set up an ambush for them on the other side when they finish going around." She told us, satisfied on a final battlefield.
We went through a passage made of dirt and roots to a small area with high ridges behind it, but a solid path that I recognized as the same path we took to the Fey village two days ago.
"They're going after the Fey," Speaks with Talons spoke coldly. "They know the village is on this path. They would have no other goal finding the path. But how would they deduce that?"
Regardless, Speaks with Talons pulled out darts from his supplies and started embedding them into the ground immediately outside the passage while everybody else, save the Speaker, went out to find good places for the ambush. Fluttershy stayed near me, ready to do her part as a medic.
Scraps found his hiding spot right away, as he could just dig through the dirt and keep the enemy off balance from below, but the rest of us took a bit more time.
"There, those should give us an initial advantage when they go off." Speaks with Talons said as he finished setting up his trap with his last bundle of darts.
Just as Speaks with Talons jumped into the air to hide in the trees, the Speaker let go of the root he was listening to and ran to the edge of the root passage, screaming "Run! It's a trap!"
Before we could react, I heard a voice scream from above the ridge containing the dirt and root passage yell, "Kill the yellow healer first!"
I barely had time to register the thick accent translation my amulet performed before I saw several animated corpses atop the ridge, shambling to draw arrows from their quivers and setting their sights on Fluttershy.
Victory and Consequences. (Chapter 9. The First Mission, part 7)
The rest of the party was caught by surprise, but time almost seemed to slow for me as my brain went into a fight or flight overdrive. A single arrow flew through Fluttershy's mane and harmlessly behind her, but I beat every other arrow to the punch. I transformed into a bear, tackled her right as she started to react to the arrow with a look of shock, and carried her behind the biggest piece of cover I felt I could reach. Shoving her down behind cover on the far side of the path, I shielded her the rest of the way with my own form, doing my best to shrink behind the moderate sized bolder myself.
She was safe, but only as long as I could hold out being her shield. Many arrows tinked off the bolder and flew over us harmlessly, but a few met their mark and sank deep into my back.
I gritted my fangs and willed myself to stay hunkered down to protect her while giving my borrowed body the order to dip into the well of energy intended for spells to heal itself. I had to make sure I could withstand the rest of the punishment that was sure to come.
And then I heard it. The sweet sound of the griffin's war cry and the unicorn calling out "Figiptevsoz hipvit!" My team was taking up arms.
The wound around the arrow seemed to close up as best it could with the arrow still lodged inside, but just as it healed, two more arrows found their way through the bears hide to repeat the process all over again.
After a while, fewer arrows were shot my way. Nevertheless, one of them managed to hit me so hard that I dropped out of bear form with an arrow shallowly lodged in my shoulder. I had a brief moment of panic while the other arrows fell around me. I realized that was the first time I had been forced out by the form taking too much damage, but since I was still alive, I had to keep fighting and chew on it later. Still, oh sweet mother of mercy did that arrow sting in my real flesh!
With the second use of my transformation, my bear body was back up just in time to let another arrow hit it. Only a few arrows came at me after that. Two more embedded themselves in me, with one smacking across the hide without damage. The diminished number of arrows were good, because I could feel the well of energy I was using to heal my bear form dwindling.
Finally, things went quiet but I refused to move just yet. Fluttershy called out from underneath me but besides making sure she wasn't suffocating, which she wasn't, I still didn't move.
It ultimately took a stick being poked at me to lift my head up and snarl at the griffin, who was using the bolder as partial cover.
After he backed up, I looked around to see the enemies strewn about the place, some with heads smashed in, others with limbs missing and two of them lying flat on the path with about half a dozen shattered bolts embedded into each of them.
A second look around showed Tempest coming towards me with the two emblems of her armor now detached, circling around her in the air and shielding her on their own.
I finally got up and let Fluttershy out from underneath me.
When I transformed back the arrows stuck in me as a bear fell again, but the arrow in my real shoulder came back along side my real form and almost made me keel over from not being ready for the sudden increase in pain.
"How in the pits of Tartarus did you know they were after you!?" Tempest burst at me as soon as I was back in normal form. "I thought you were being a coward when you hid, but they never stopped shooting at you, even when we were right on them."
I knelt down to let Scraps pull out the arrow, pressed my amulet and briefly said "be careful," before answering Tempest.
"They weren't after me. They were after Fluttershy. Or more specifically, our 'yellow healer.' And-Gah!"
Scraps pulled the arrow out nice and clean, but it still hurt. Fluttershy came up and started treating my shoulder as I continued.
"I knew because my amulet did its job and translated what the leader was yelling."
"What leader?" Speaks with Talons pipped in while in the middle of salvaging the darts that didn't leave their hiding places. "These were all just more of those walking corpses. I didn't see any leader."
Fluttershy paused in her treatment when she saw the two warriors doubting me, Tempest giving me her suspicious eye squinting again.
With a shake of my head, I reasserted myself. "I can't make you believe me, but that's my answer."
Fluttershy got their attention with a meek but loud enough, "Excuse me."
With a few quick movements, she managed to get her treatment to a stopping point and moved to stand in front of me. With a brave face but shaky knees, she spoke, "My mane had an arrow pass through it right before Moss protected me." She lifted her mane for the others to see the severed ends of hair. "I was several yards away from him, so it couldn't have been an accident. I don't know who he heard, but I'm thankful that he heard them."
Tempest looked at the break in Fluttershy's mane, then over to where she was standing before the fight.
She must have seen something because she nodded and turned back. "Targeting healers first is a low, but effective, tactic. I do also recall briefly hearing a voice say something that I couldn't make out. Being the only one not looking like a fighter, they may have deduced that you were a medic on their own while we were getting ready. Choosing a strategy of attack would explain why they didn't attack us right away."
* * *
With the enemy wiped out, the others got back to collecting themselves and getting ready to go home while Fluttershy took a few more minutes to get me patched up. With my body starting to numb the pain, I felt a little sick from coming down off the adrenaline high. She backed up to talk once she finished with my shoulder.
"Moss, are you feeling alright?" Fluttershy asked.
I nodded and pressed on my amulet. "I'm a little nauseous now that the situation is over and my body is letting itself feel the after effects of all the stress. I'll be fine though."
I shifted myself to a kneeling position to better look her in the eyes and get ready to stand. "I'm just glad you're alright. You've helped me so much that I don't know what I'd do without your kindness in my life."
As I stood up, I could hear laughter from the same voice as before.
"A small setback, but nothing more." I heard the voice speak in a cold and confident tone. Something about how it sounded made me feel uneasy.
"Nevertheless, those months of planning have now proven fruitless, thanks to your interference."
Tempest was searching frantically for the source of the voice with no luck as the rest of us were just scared.
Fluttershy spoke up, "That almost sounds like the squirrel from before."
"I think a repayment of this debt is only right. You took something from me. Now I will take something from you, and thanks to my observations, I know exactly what to take."
Suddenly, a flash of movement between me and Fluttershy appeared and I saw what looked like what I could only describe as a ten inch demon with a pouch almost as big as him slung over its shoulder. It turned around to reveal a long, sharp piece of flint in its hand and an amulet around its neck.
"I so look forward to meeting you in person some day, champion." With a smug grin, he waved at me. "Bye!"
I could finally see what I felt off with on the voice this entire time but I didn't have time to process it. The creature turned back around to run and went invisible just as I saw Fluttershy drop to the ground in my peripheral vision.
I was horrified at what I saw when I turned to her. Fluttershy's throat had a deep gash cut straight across it, bleeding out.
I dropped to the ground beside her as the rest of the team did... something. I had no idea what. My mind was solely focused on the look of helplessness on Fluttershy's scared face.
My hands hovered inches above the wound, unsure of what to do. Our last potion was gone and I knew of no normal way to fix something like this. My ears were filled with the sound of my heartbeat and I could barely hear my whimper of "H-help..."
Her breathing became shallow. My hands started shaking and my throat was dry. My voice cracked, but I painfully forced my vocal cords to finish. "He-elp!"
The light started fading from her eyes. Tears were flowing down my face as I forced my raw throat to call out again, "Somebody! Anybody! Please-"
As I spoke my next word, I felt an imposing presence looking down upon me, suffocating me with its disdain from every direction at once.
"-Heeeelp!!"
Just as fast as the presence came, it was gone. I also felt the last big chunk of energy I had left in my well was gone along with it. Not that I cared.
I collapsed to sob over her body but found a hoof kicking me in the chest and forcing me back to where I was before. The rest of Fluttershy's hooves joined the first in a spasm as I heard her cough up blood.
My mind ground to a halt when I heard her cough turn into a deep gasp for breath.
A pool of blood still stained the ground where her neck was, but no more was coming from the gash, because there was no gash.
Other than the blood smeared all over it, her throat looked normal at a glance. She breathed deeply, carefully moving her head with no signs of pain.
The light in her eyes was back, but the rest of her face was confused. "What happened?"
My hand went to her neck, carefully examining the area for any sign of the wound. It looked like there was a small bit of scar tissue, but I could only see when I pulled back the fir with my thumb. Even then, the tissue looked like it had been healed for some time.
"I have no idea," I answered her with a smile and a failing whisper, "But you're alive."
I carefully threw my arms around her in a hug as she sat up, throwing out one last painful cry before my voice finally failed me. "Hallelujah! You're alive!"
I held her for only a few seconds before I suddenly had to let go of her, turning away to vomit.
Fluttershy weakly leaned towards me and rubbed my back. "And your body just reached its limit too. I think it's time to go home now."
* * *
We sat there in the same spot for about twenty minutes with nobody around except for the Speaker, who only stared at us from the root passage in shock. We barely had the energy to sit there after all the shock, much less do something useful. So we just sat there and rested.
When the rest of the team came back, Tempest had a look of remorse while Scraps was gazing into the pouch that the ten inch demon had with him.
"The creature got away, but I know what it was after," She called out in an unusually melancholy tone, "Where going to have to go back and get that chest. It's dangerous."
Scraps then opened the pouch and revealed it to have the same effect as the chest with being bigger on the inside.
"It has folded space magic placed within it, just like the chest. If one were to be placed inside the other, a portal to the cosmic plain would have been created from their mutual destruction. If they had managed to get this to the crash site where the local rift is sealed on our end, it would have torn the seal open instead."
She took a deep breath. "If that happened, the enemy would have another way to get to our world and we'd have a war on two fronts instead of one. We need to get back and report this to the princesses. The allied nations need to redouble their defenses around the other rifts."
The Speaker came up and went right to Speaks with Talons and tried to speak. Before he could, Tempest stopped him with a raised hoof and had Scraps pour out the pouch.
A little over dozen or so intricately carved transparent whistles came pouring out as she asked, "Do you recognize these things?"
My heart sank as I nodded. I ushered Tempest in close and answered in a raspy wispier. "Night callers. They're what were reanimating and controlling the corpses. But even one was rare in the stories. So who are we up against for them to have so many?"
Tempest gave a grim answer, "The army of a god that surely has had time to gather many treasures."
Once Tempest dropped her hoof and gave the Speaker her attention, he spoke with great anger.
"Do what you must, pony," he told Tempest, "You will have no resistance from the Fey with retrieving the chest and we will be happy to coordinate with your people to guard the Everfree rift. We have agreed to work with our neighbors to end this mutual threat and we will send the griffin warrior as our formal liaison. But first I must share something I have discovered about the beast-kin."
He turned his anger towards me as he continued, "He is a wielder of quintessence. The magic from the gods. Our enemy's magic. There is no mistaking it. My Fey eyes saw his magic flare as he cried out and then I heard him declare his allegiance, clear as day."
He looked squarely at me. "'Praise ye Jah!' he said."
My eyes went wide at yet another realization. My amulet didn't just translate every language to English for me. It also translated every language I spoke to Equestrian. Praise ye god. That was the literal meaning of Hallelujah.
"The high counsel has reached a unanimous decision. The beast-kin is here by banished from Far Everfree and placed in the custody of our nearest militarized ally, Equestria. He is no brethren to the Fey! He is the follower of a god!"
Debriefing and Detention (Chapter 10. Lab Rat Days, Part 1)
I stood tired in the room that was devoid of any furniture save for a small desk. Across the desk in a chair sat the pony who was debriefing me.
"And that's all?"
I looked down at the five pound stone in my hand that I was told to hold out in front of me the entire time.
"After the Speaker made his accusation, Tempest insisted that we head straight to the castle without rest. When we arrived, I was told to keep this stone held up no matter what until told otherwise. But other than that, yea. That's all."
Tempest had been eyeballing me the entire time while Scraps and Speaks with Talons stood next to her. Fluttershy was in another room, having a medical examination after her bizarre injury and recovery. The Speaker was taken home by Zecora after she met us part way through our trek home.
"And what exactly was it about the little 'devil looking' creature that put you off?"
I sighed for a moment, shifted the stone to my other hand, then pointed to my mouth with my first hand. "When the amulet translates for me, I hear my own language, but I still see your lips moving normally. That is to say, I still 'see' you speaking Equestrian while I 'hear' you speaking English."
"What does that have to do with the creature?"
The pit that had been in my stomach seemed to want to dig itself in further as I forced myself not to grimace. "I saw his lips moving in sync with the words I was hearing. It was actually speaking English, which meant the opposing force has at least had contact with my home world, if not also drawing upon it to fill their ranks."
The pony seemed to be calm, but the delay he had in a response gave away the fact that this disturbed him on some level.
"Very well. I believe I have all I need from you for your debriefing."
He scribbled one last note then closed his notebook and called out, "Sharp Sentry!"
Two guards came in at the call. "You called, First Lieutenant Cold Stone?"
He nodded at the guards and at Speaks with Talons. "The debriefing is over for the prisoner. Escort him to his cell and make sure you allow the griffin to see you do so. It is absolutely crucial we do not endanger our newly formed allegiance with the forest dwellers."
Both Tempest and Speaks with Talons called in unison, "They're called 'the Fey.'" They looked at each other before Speaks with Talons continued with a slight grin.
"They fought diligently in their own way to protect their lands, and in turn yours. The bravest of them nearly gave his life in the process. The least you can do is call them by their proper title."
The pony gave no sense of apology, but rather gave the griffin a raised eyebrow and said, "Very well. I'll make note of that." He and the griffin exchanged a set of cold glares, but beyond that the friction didn't escalate and we were allowed to leave.
Speaks with Talons and the guards escorted me up into the upper parts of the castle to a tower with a small number of lockable rooms. Once I was locked up, I was permitted to finally let go of the stone.
Before they finally took my amulet from me, Speaks with Talons asked them to hold off for a moment.
He spoke to me in his native tongue with a sense of remorse, "I am sorry for this, but to ensure peace the demands of the Fey must be upheld. Stay strong, battle brother."
I looked at him oddly as the guard's magic pulled the amulet from around my neck and back through the small barred window in the door. With my communication with every other sentient being I had any desire to be around on the entire planet cut off, all I could do is wonder what they would do to me now that I was imprisoned again. I eventually had to force myself to bed, knowing I didn't know what was going to happen or even what the hell was going on.
Having been up for about thirty-six hours, an arrow wound in my shoulder, trekking for hours on end throughout the day prior, and then finally holding that ball while telling my story, I felt pretty tired. I hadn't had a rest in some time. So it wasn't long after I curled up on the small bed in the cell before I was out like a light.
I awoke when I felt myself falling out of the bed and abruptly landing on the floor below. I quickly got my bearings, finding it to be the evening with the light coming through the door. I braced myself to listen for the quips of good or bad fortune I could invoke that day with my good luck charm, but the feeling never came. Instead, I found myself clutching my stomach when it growled.
"No food, no long rest benefits I guess."
I had no backup in that regard. It was odd how I tried not to rely on it, but still kinda felt naked without it now.
A few hours went by as I just sat in the cell, waiting to hear whatever they planned for me before I finally heard the door's bar being released.
Sitting up straight on the bed, I saw Fluttershy fly in with a meal tray for me in her front hooves and an uneasy but genuine smile.
I tapped my throat as the door closed behind her to ask about my amulet.
When she saw this, she frowned and shook her head. She then sat the tray down in the middle of the cell and backed up to sit several yards away from it.
As hungry as I was, I didn't look at the tray. Instead, I looked at her neck and made a brief gesture with my thumb nail across my own, followed by my fingers performing a gentler pass to try to ask about how she was recovering. I wasn't sure if she understood me, however, because she just gave me that same uneasy smile and gestured towards the tray to dig in.
When I got up and started towards her instead of the tray, she backed up in a panic. I didn't see fear in her eyes so much as I did worry. When she glanced towards the door, cuing me in on the guard watching through the bars, I caught on. She was just there to see to it that I ate something.
Looking back at the tray, I saw the food was in tiny, bite-sized chunks. It took me a second, but combined with the fact that she kept her distance I was able to deduce they had to make sure Fluttershy wasn't sneaking anything in for me.
As I ate, I did my best to not delay any more than needed and eat it as fast as I could manage. The food was the most horrid tasting thing I had eaten since I first made it out of the woods, but I didn't balk at it. As bad as it tasted, it didn't taste rotten or poisoned, just cooked without flavor in mind. I think Fluttershy could see my distaste for the food in my face, though.
When I was done, I stepped back from the tray and sat on my bed again. She then took the tray and left with an uneasy smile and a nod.
The second and third days went by with nothing in particular happening. The two meals I got each day were identical to the first, save for they were slid through the small gap under the door instead of being brought in by Fluttershy. My shoulder bandage was checked through the bars by a unicorn to make sure it wasn't getting infected, but otherwise I had no interaction with the outside world.
On the fourth day, however, I got another visit.
Fluttershy and another pony with odd bat like wings entered my cell while Speaks with Talons watched from outside the cell.
The mystery pony slid my amulet across the floor towards me. Once I had it on, the mystery pony spoke up.
"I saw in the reports you haven't given the guards any more trouble after your first feeding. That's good."
I pressed on my amulet and turned to Fluttershy. "Yea. Sorry about that, Fluttershy. I didn't mean to make you jump when you brought me my first meal."
"I mean the meal prior to that," The bat winged pony retorted, "The one that the guards had to pull out again when you didn't touch it."
I gave them an uneasy look. "After I woke up, the first meal I saw was when Fluttershy came in."
The bat wing pony's eyes widened for a moment, revealing their cat like slitted nature, then she closed her eyes and shook her head a little. "You were asleep for the first one. Great. Iron Bastion, you block head. Now I have even more paperwork to do over this."
"Well, even though it meant I raced through a stack of paperwork to let Fluttershy in for nothing, at least you weren't trying to starve yourself again."
The bat winged pony opened up a case she brought with her and pulled out some papers.
"Now that we have that settled, we need to address the issues presently hanging over your head."
She pulled out a piece of paper, and read from it. "As per the treaty signed by Princess Celestia and every member of the high counsel of the Fey of Far Everfree, the water genasi, Moss, is to be detained in Equestrian custody until such time that the accused crime of his being a servant of an exalted being and aiding the enemy have been confirmed or disproven to a degree that the Fey High Counsel and the Courts of Equestria both agree upon a verdict. Upon such a bi party verdict, Moss is to be processed in the maximum way allowed by equestrian courts. Should this verdict be guilty on all counts, Moss is to be executed by beheading with the presence of a Fey representative to confirm his death."
I could see Fluttershy wince back at that last part.
The bat pony put a hoof to Fluttershy's shoulder to comfort her for a moment. She then put the paper back where it came from and looked me square in the eyes. "Fortunately for you, we know beyond a doubt you are innocent of these crimes. We just have to convince the Fey of this. Unfortunately, doing so will likely take some time. In the meantime, however, we need your help with something. Some things actually."
"Please help them, Moss," Fluttershy asked me with tears forming in her eyes, "It will only help speed your case along."
"There are other things we will get to soon enough, but, before we get to them, one thing that will help tremendously is if you to tell us what you know of this being you called, 'Jah' in your own words."
That was a lot of information to process at once, but I needed one more piece of information. I looked the bat pony square in her face and spoke, "I have no problem answering your questions about him to the best of my ability, but could I ask a question first?"
She nodded her head and smiled a bit too eagerly.
"I've never seen a pony like you before. What are you?"
After having a brief explanation of the bat winged ponies being a rare type of generally nocturnal pegasi called thestrals, Fluttershy introduced me to the apparent thestral, Moon Beam.
Upon hearing they were generally nocturnal, I had my suspicions about her, but I digressed and started answering their questions.
* * *
"So this being you call 'Jah' is supposedly powerful, but does not require the faith of followers to amplify that power?"
I lightly shook my head. "He used to answer the call of select individuals to perform miracles, if the theology is to be believed, but his power is his own. He doesn't need anything to do what he does, not even a follower."
"Ah, yes." She said, looking at her notes from before, "Holds together all existence, and can see everything with no effort but is wise enough to generally let things play out naturally. An odd combination of descriptions."
She looked back at me with a flat tone. "And what about conquering? What precedence does this being have for spreading its influence?"
I shivered a little at the question. "People in the past have wrongly used his name to conquer other lands. Although many nations waged war with each other in the theology thousands of years ago, his supposed chosen people of the time did conquer the surrounding lands. I won't deny that. But after key events in the theology, the spirit of how to go about spreading influence shifted some. I am not well enough versed in it to give the exact written details of the text, but I do have a self made parable I could use to describe my understanding of it."
She simply nodded at me to continue as I shifted out of my bed/chair and onto my knees on to the floor.
"A first group of people who believed in their ways is conquered by a second, and the second group said 'convert or die,' to the captives of their conquest."
At this point I was using tidbits of loose bedding and tiny bits of debris as a visual aid, moving them around to indicate the different groups.
"The ones that refused died, and those that converted were spared. But then a third group comes in and conquers the second group, then tells captives from both the first and second group to 'convert or die' just like before. And like before, some converted, others died."
I then moved my hand to point towards the debris indicating the captives. "But here's the paradox. If the survivors of the first group changed from the second way of believing to the third, were they ever really believers of the second way to begin with? Are they even truly believing in the third way by the end? That's the core point of the teachings that I feel most people that claim to be of my faith don't get. The belief has to be of their own free will or it isn't true faith. Conversion by force lacks loyalty and is pointless, especially to a being that could just will anything to happen like-"
I snapped my fingers. "-that if he needed it. I feel the true goal of my faith isn't to show his glory by wealth or by dominance, but to show glory by persevering through tribulations."
"Uh, huh..."
Moon Beam blankly listened to what I was saying as she wrote down more notes. After I finished, she looked back at me.
"Just a few more questions. Do you believe the people of your world would try to push their god or gods upon us if we ever made contact?"
I coughed on a little spit I was swallowing when I heard this. After I managed to get settled, I looked her square in the eyes. "Absolutely, yes. It wouldn't be a matter of if, but when. They might not do it with swords or other weapons of war, but they would do it. But if you are worried about them using it as an excuse to take from your lands, they wouldn't have to. They'd find other ways."
She nodded with a flat expression. "Yes, I read the records of your testimony on the subject. Next question."
She looked me square in the eyes.
"Do you yourself intend to spread faith of your 'Jah' here in our lands?"
I slumped a little. "That's a bit of a loaded question. I'll have to break it down. Do I intend to preach or otherwise spread his word the same as it was in my home world? Not really. Despite trying to understand my faith, I wasn't all that well versed in the texts. So even if I wanted to I don't feel I'd be qualified. But I also don't believe that I'd have to. I don't think there is one absolute way to worship an infinite being, much less one that a single species got exactly right. There may be a number of fairly universal truths, but also some things that may be species specific due to how that species functions. I believe he'd apply his lessons differently in different worlds, depending on what would be the best route to explain to the different mindsets and biology of the different species. Each world would have its own way of seeking insight. It would be wrong of me to force my exact version on you. At most I could share a few words of wisdom as I felt needed and let you digest it as you see fit."
She smacked her fanged lips after I finished, but otherwise showed no reactions to what I said.
I steadied myself from the piercing gaze that felt terrifying, yet... not quite familiar.
"Is that a sufficient answer?" I asked her.
She just nodded and said, "Yes. Two more questions to go. When the Speaker saw your quintessence flare and heal Fluttershy's wound, do you believe it was 'Jah' that caused it to happen, and if not, what do you believe was the presence you felt when it happened?"
I honestly snorted at the first part of the question. "Though it's not impossible, I find it pretty unlikely. There's the 'he sets all things in motion' clause, but if you mean a direct miracle, I doubt it. I was calling out to anyone, not to him specifically. That's kinda a key requirement for a prayer to him to work in the theology. Combine that with the fact that I felt a drop in my..."
I paused for a moment, unsure what to call it. "...My inner energy reserves, for lack of better word, I think it was something inside me that I tripped over by accident. I still don't know what the presence I felt was."
Moon Beam nodded while Fluttershy seemed to be quietly growing more tense about something.
"Last question."
She took a brief moment to put away her notes and look at me with her undivided attention. "Would you be willing to reject your faith in 'Jah' in order to appease the demands of the Fey?"
My mind drew a blank at the question for several seconds as it processed the question a few times over to make sure it was the question I thought it was. It was logical from their point of view I supposed, but a very bold question nonetheless.
Fluttershy leaning forward caught my attention. She didn't say anything, but she was very interested in my answer. Her eyes were focused solely on me and her expression was the most pleaful I had ever seen it. Her overall hopeful aura for my answer practically stabbed a knife in my heart, screaming at me to do what it took to make her happy.
My tears rolled down my cheeks when our eyes met and several more followed as we sat there, staring into each others' gazes.
I finally broke eye contact with her, whimpering like a child. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists for a moment before letting them go slack. I closed my eyes, turned back to Moon Beam in a broken state and gave her my answer.
"Absolutely not. As poorly versed in it as I may be, my faith is an integral part of what makes me who I am. If I give it up then I may as well be dead."
My entire form slumped as I hung my head. "Do what you must. I'll give no resistance." My eyes winced tight. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy."
Seconds passed as I sat there, waiting for whatever they had in mind for me. I was expecting them to call the guards in or something, but I didn't hear that.
Instead, I heard a drop of water hit the floor.
My tears were either getting soaked up in my shirt or falling into my lap. It wasn't my tears that I heard.
I looked up to Fluttershy, expecting it to be her tears, but I found her face dry. It was bitter with sadness and pointed down at her hooves, but dry.
I heard another drop hit the floor, and immediately looked over to Moon Beam. A tear trail could be seen along both of her cheeks as she sniffled a runny nose. "As complicated as that makes matters for us now, I can't help but respect that."
She picked up a hoof and wiped her tears. "Guards, bring it in."
The guards came in with a collar that was clearly intended for me.
"Lift your head up and let them put this on you."
The guards put the collar on me almost as soon as I lifted my chin and the unicorn guard put his glowing horn to it.
"This collar has a tracking enchantment placed on it," Moon Beam told me with a touch of sorrow she failed to hide, "If you take it off, an alarm will sound, and if we can't sense it anymore then the alarm will still sound. If you are found to be without the collar, we will be obligated by the Fey to bring you back under control with extreme prejudice, likely including the use of lethal force."
After the guard pulled back and let me bring my head back down, I looked between Fluttershy and Moon Beam. Fluttershy had scrunched back further and was practically hiding herself behind her mane and I couldn't see her expression anymore. Moon Beam seemed to be mostly recovered and back to her blank face as she continued.
"It is now also sensitive to your exact biology. So we... I... we recommend you don't shape shift into one of your animal forms while you are expected to wear it if you don't want the alarm to go off that way either."
I touched the collar, trying to look down at it but failing, a bit confused as to why they would give me something like this.
"Beyond that," Moon Beam said with an authoritative voice to get my attention again.
When I looked back at her, she calmed her voice. "Beyond that, you have free reign of most of this castle so long as you are within range of your armed escort when outside of your cell. So long as you don't go where they say you can't, you should be fine. Just don't stick your head out of the outer doors or windows. The collar will think you're escaping."
With that, Fluttershy and Moon Beam left the cell with the guards following behind. A pegasus guard had a device similar to my collar clipped to his armor, which was promptly activated by the unicorn guard. Then, everypony except the pegasus guard left.
My legs were cramped and my arms could hardly reach anywhere I needed them to as I moaned one aching moan after another.
"If this is torture, chain me to the wall," I muttered to myself just loud enough for it to not be called a whisper.
Sharp Sentry, the pegasus guarding me, cocked his head with a confused look. As he did so, I finally turned off the hot water and stepped out of what I was told was the second largest bath tub in the castle. The largest was sadly in one of the few areas I was not allowed. Even so, the tub I did have access was just large enough to let me sit in and bathe myself, though standing just wasn't an option.
As I dried myself, I found my aquatic features seemed more lively and I had a solid spring in my step.
I spoke out loud to nobody in particular. "Why is it I can only seem to get a hot shower when I'm a prisoner?"
Sharp Sentry adjusted the amulet on his neck that matched mine and spoke back, "I couldn't really say."
With a quick check up on my shoulder by one of the medical staff after the shower I was washed and refreshed. After getting dressed properly with the wound patched up again, I didn't really know what to do. My belly was full, and I wasn't exactly going to get a job while I was a prisoner.
I called to Sharp Sentry, "Should we just go back to the cell? I don't really know what else I'd need." He looked down in thought. A few other servants and guards nearby gave me the familiar odd look of not understanding my words, but went back to what they were doing so quickly I almost didn't catch them doing it. My sense of not feeling welcome kicked back in as I saw the ponies around me made absolutely no eye contact after that and seemed to want to hurry past me.
Sharp Sentry brought his head back to attention, "I could give you the tour, Moss."
I gave a huff of disappointment. "They don't seem too receptive of me. I don't think lingering about is a good idea."
I turned when I heard a groan from Sharp Sentry. His face was failing to hide an underlying frustration.
"Is something wrong?"
He looked about and then signaled me to follow him into an empty room. Just within the doorway he whispered to me.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but the fact is that the whole castle has been informed to try to either make you feel welcome or continue on without noticing you like you belong. I've also been given the task to try to convince you to go to the study some time in the next hour."
I looked down and touched my collar. "You guys were planning on giving me this thing regardless how I answered, weren't you?"
As I looked back up, I could see him shake his head again. "I don't know. I'm not that high up. There were probably a few scenarios they had in mind where they might have had to do something else, but I wasn't savvy to them."
I looked back down, noticing how he seemed to be leaning to one side with his back hooves.
"You were one of the guards that I had to be chained to back when, weren't you? One of the ones that got lifted up into the air?"
He scrunched his mouth with indignity and looked away. "If the other guard on my side of you hadn't grabbed on to me, I would have just used my wings and not gotten hurt."
I cracked a smile and gave my best suave and solemn whisper. "Today, I repay my debt."
"What? What are you-" he started to ask before I raised my hand to interrupt him.
"It's in reference to a... a play from my world. Just for you, I'll take the tour."
"So that's the main hall, and the kitchens down. Remember the west wing and the upper part of the central tower are the two areas restricted for you and you should be fine. I'll show you the ball room and the rest of the east wing under your cell right after we-" Sharp Sentry gave a light cough and a nudge. "After we take a brief look at the study."
I gave him a nod back and smiled inwardly. 'One debt paid, three to go.' I thought to myself as we approached the study doors.
Right as we entered the doors, I found myself in front of the white pony who was just leaving.
"Oh my!" The unicorn said with a blush. I recognized her as Fluttershy's friend, Rarity.
As our eyes locked, her eyes widened, her ears were at full attention and the blush on her face deepened. She turned her head to address the ponies behind her at the table while not breaking eye contact with me.
"I'm afraid I left something in my boutique..." She seemed indecisive for a moment. "...Incorrectly patterned? I think I need to go fix it, right now."
She ran past me and down the hall. While I watched her move with sudden urgency, I couldn't help but feel bad about making her upset. 'Make that four to go.'
I turned back to the study and found a small number of ponies I recognized sitting at a table. Speaks with Talons was there too, off a little ways and scratching his back on one of the rough edges of the crystalline walls.
"Well speak of Discord. We were just talking about you, Moss. Care to join us?" princess Twilight called out to me.
I just about went over and sat down, but noticed everypony at the table looking directly at me, giving me a slight creep out.
I gave a slight glance to Sharp Sentinel, finding him positioning himself at a guarding position to where I could sit at the empty spot at the table and still be in range of him. As he did so, I gingerly walked over to the table while pressing my amulet, took the cushion off the seat, moved the chair and sat on the floor next to Moon Beam and princess Twilight.
"Alright. I'll bite. What are you guys wanting from me?"
I half expected princess Twilight to turn around and scowl at Sharp Sentry, but I found him receiving a scowl from Moon Beam instead.
"What makes you think we want anything from you?" Twilight asked with a uncomfortable tone and an uneasy laugh.
"Well for one..." I began but stopped when I felt somepony lifting my hand up.
I turned to see a rainbow maned pegasus hovering over the table with my hand in her front hooves. "Huh. So these are the hands that-"
"Rainbow Dash!" Princess Twilight interrupted in haste. Both I and the pegasus mare turned to see her giving the pegasus mare a death glare.
The pegasus mare backed off and gave an uneasy reply, "Right. Well, you guys need to get to your egg head stuff anyway." She swung her front hoof in an energetic motion. She then went to pick up a suit of chain mail and a set of war saddle bags at the entrance. "I think its time I take your report back!"
With that, she threw both in the air and bolted so fast I couldn't see her clearly. But then I saw her out of the study window a few seconds later flying off into the distance, already in her armor.
I shook my head and looked at the remaining ponies. Starlight was sitting patiently and Zecora had found her way to the table alongside Speaks with Talons, who noted my style of sitting without a chair and mimicked it.
"Well, for one I know all of you are fairly high up in the chain of command, or at least well connected to somepony that is, and you still invited me to sit. Second, everypony here locked eyes on me the moment I walked in, but everypony else in the castle has been avoiding eye contact like the plague. So just come out and say it. What did you want?"
Everypony seemed uneasy for a moment and Moon Beam seemed to want to say something, but differed to Starlight.
Starlight looked over to the guards at the door, who promptly locked the doors and did a proper headcount of every pony inside the room.
When the guards nodded back, Starlight started explaining, "Well, you see, when the owl that came with you to this world shared..."
She rolled her eyes at me when I started looking at Speaks with Talons and Zecora with worry. "Oh, stop worrying! These two knew about the familiar almost as soon as we did. They aren't nearly as bias as the Fey. It's fine."
She reset herself and continued on her main point. "When your familiar shared his tactical information on the invaders, one thing scared us in particular. They were using a deceptive strategy. They've been letting the corpses of their weaker soldiers pile up on the battlefields and have been holding back their stronger warriors and mages. Soon, they will feel we've gotten complacent enough and unleash their own magics into the war in an attempt to overwhelm us before we can get ready. Magics like yours."
Moon Beam took over when Starlight nodded at her. "While Tempest was surprised, our intelligence has been expecting their inevitable use of necromancy and have had a standing order for the soldiers to dispose of as many of the corpses as they can find. We have also been reviewing the materials I extracted from your familiar to better understand how to counteract their other magics."
I looked at her in confusion. "Wait, you extracted information from the owl? I thought it was Princess Luna using her Astral Judgement to extract information from him."
Moon Beam became unsteady for a moment before Starlight chimed in. "Princess Luna only used her Astral Judgement to determine if your familiar was being truthful and was actually our ally. Once we determined that, it wasn't necessary to force the information from him with Astral Judgement. Normal, non trauma inducing, dream walking suffices once trust is established."
Moon Beam smiled and came right back to the conversation. "Although Princess Luna is certainly considered the strongest by far, she isn't the only dream walker in Equestria. While there is a chance that anypony could be born with the rare gift, it is far more common for thestrals to be born with it, and gifted thestrals choose to train it far more frequently than those gifted in the other tribes. Despite thestrals always being only a small sliver of the population, about eighty five percent of all trained dream walkers throughout our nation's history have been thestrals."
"The point is!" Princess Twilight called out as soon as Moon Beam was finished. "The point is, we can only study so much about the invaders' magic through Moon Beam's notes and the spell books and scrolls that came with you and we're about finished with those. While we can replicate the end effects well enough, we can't duplicate their magic perfectly with our methods." She gestured up to her horn with her eyes. "We need an actual invader to perform magic so that we can study it as it happens with their style."
I sat there for a long moment, knowing exactly what they were asking of me but still letting it sink in.
I took a deep breath. "Or rather, you need someone that is like an invader to do the same."
The others at the table all nodded together in unison and the princess answered me.
"Yes. We need you to figure out how to use your magic. As much of it as you can."
A Day of Many Meetings. (Chapter 13. Lab Rat Days, Part 4)
I slammed my head down on the book. After that, I picked it up and slammed it down two more times, each time a decent bit harder than the last.
"Hey!" Starlight yelled at me from across the table. When I lifted my head, she calmed her voice.
"I know I said we need to get this in your head, but I don't think we can do it that way."
She closed her copy of the spellbook we were studying from and came around the table to try to comfort me. As she did so, she lifted up the amulet I was wearing. "And be careful with the new amulets, OK? I only have these two and your original. The gems inside these aren't as robust as your first one and Doctor Pie informed me that even frail ones of this quality are hard to come by."
I looked down at my old amulet sitting on the table. I couldn't speak Equestrian with this new amulet, but unlike my old one, it did translate Equestrian writing for me. With Starlight wearing the third one she was borrowing from the current guard, however, it was possible to understand each other and have an extended study period without constantly having to keep an eye on the first amulet's charge.
I turned back to her and gave her a look of defeat. "I'm able to read the separate words, but I'm not really getting whats going on when they are strung together into sentences. On top of that, even some of the individual words I'm reading don't make sense to me."
She hesitantly lifted a hoof towards my shoulder. When I leaned towards her, she finished the comforting motion. "Hey, I know these spells are a little advanced for somepony that hasn't had any training-" She cocked her head and gave a brief whimsical tone. "-At all, but I am here for you and I will help you absorb this."
I put my hand over her extended hoof, let my head fall backwards and gave a long, wail like sigh.
Speaks with Talons was fletching a new batch of his custom made darts at another table. He set down one of his own feathers he was using in the process and piped up, "Might I make a suggestion?"
We both gave him our attention as he came over to us. Closing my copy of the spellbook, he looked at me. "I also was not a quick study with my father's lessons in the shaman arts. I may not have studied with paper and written words, but I can see similar troubles in your eyes. One thing my father taught me to do was to take care of myself. In order to keep me at my peak performance, he would often bring me a small bit of food and tell me to come back to my studies with a fresh mind."
He looked at the clock on the wall, then back down to me. "I believe it is around the time for the pony mid day meal. Why don't we take a break?"
With a quick shuffle of amulets with my original back around my own neck, we managed to have a proper meal sent down to us in the study. I was mildly surprised they were able to cook meat for us, but I remembered that castles were meant to have ambassadors from other lands, and many of them were meat eaters.
Speaks with Talons was managing his meal with a bit more predatory mannerisms than the ponies or even I would have liked, but otherwise the meal was going on well enough. Just a little after he and I were finished with our fish, Moon Beam came into the study while talking to a pony behind her.
"I say it again, thine worry is needless. He is not the type that would be angry over..." Moon Beam stopped in mid sentence as soon as she laid eyes on me. Her eyes slitted even tighter than usual. "Oh! I see you decided to have lunch in the study." She tried her best to swallow a lump in her throat without being obvious, but I still saw it.
I also saw Fluttershy peaking out from behind the door, and my mind forgot about everything else.
"Fluttershy!" I said with great enthusiasm. Everypony in the room except her looked at me weird.
She poked her head out with an uneasy smile and eyes that couldn't quite meet mine. Having recognized her name in my untranslated voice from hearing it so many times before, she stepped out and gave me the signal that my amulet was off.
"Oh! Right." With a press of my amulet, I stood up from the table and met her part way across the room.
Her stance was even more timid than usual. It was downright submissive, like a dog admitting another dog was superior in order to run away from a potential fight over territory.
I knelt down to her level and spoke as softly as I could. "Are you doing alright? What did the doctors say about the wound?"
As I reached out, Fluttershy shrank away from me and whimpered, "Why won't you be mad at me already!?"
I pulled back and just stared for several moments while everypony in the study went completely quiet. When her question finally sank in, I cocked my head.
"What?"
It was like she didn't have the meanness in her to be angry or be accusative. Her voice, while not too quiet to not be heard, was still confused and mournful.
"I tried to make you give up something so important to yourself you were in tears over it. I thought it was just some phrase from your land but you said that faith was an integral part of you. I may as well have been asking another pegasus to cut off their wings."
Speaks with Talons and Moon Beam visibly tightened their wings to their sides as Fluttershy said this.
She knelt down before me, not from faltering, but pleading. "So why won't you get mad at me over it?"
I could only shake my head and answer truthfully.
"You've been nothing but kind, and you didn't know. I basically condemned myself as a believer in one of the gods you hate so much."
I finally managed to have her lift her head. "Getting mad at you hadn't even crossed my mind. I thought you were going to be mad at me."
"Actually," Moon Beam called out after doing a quick inspection of the room, "What we call gods is a simplified term for the exalted beings we are at war with. They are powerful only when they draw upon the faith of followers. As such, they often warmonger to expand their power. This is exactly what the invaders are trying to do with the resources of our world and why we will not tolerate them. What you described is more akin to a cosmic or even higher scaled version of the Animus Mundi that has no need to warmonger for followers or resources. Sadly, it will take time to convince the Fey of this. This is also why we had to ask you so many questions. They won't take the evidence of an Astral Judgement since it involves the Æther folding they have come to hate, but your faith in your master is no more illegal than their desire to call the Animus Mundi their surrogate mother."
Starlight walked and put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder then looked at me and added to Moonbeam's explanation, "So long as it doesn't break our other laws or forcibly draw from our world, that is. But regardless, you may still want to keep it on the down low if you can. The general populace wouldn't understand the difference between your master and the one sending his army."
I leaned my head back and responded in a bitter tone. "Just don't let my home world have any slack if you ever meet them."
Moonbeam nodded. "Indeed. We haven't forgotten princess Luna's report and your testimony."
Fluttershy sniffled, bringing my attention back to her.
"So you really aren't mad?"
I paused for a moment, looking down at her uncertain face. A simple answer wouldn't suffice, not if I wanted there to be no doubt. So I leaned towards her and asked, "Does this answer your question?"
I reached in and gave her sides a good rib tickling.
She immediately jumped out of my reach with a shrill laugh and smacked my arm with her hoof hard enough for it to actually hurt. A blush formed on her face, but more importantly to me, a genuine smile also appeared with her continued giggling.
The look of that smile on her face seemed to lift my own spirits too. "There's that smile I know so well."
"I'd like to say the same," Starlight piped in, "but I think this is the first time I've seen you smile like that, Moss."
I looked over to her and put a hand to my face. I found that I too was smiling contently.
"And it's good to see your mood pick up again too, Fluttershy, but I think we need to finish lunch and get back to the studies."
Fluttershy composed herself, nodded at Starlight and turned to me. She then gave me an even wider smile. "Study hard, Moss." With this, she and Moonbeam left.
I found that from her words of encouragement I had gained a renewed desire to study. I went back and practically wolfed down the remainder of my lunch while Starlight aided Sharp Sentry in getting his tracer pin activated so he could take over as my guard for the afternoon.
I carefully removed the new amulet I was wearing and promptly slammed my head on the book three more times in a progressively harder fashion.
"Gay, areyou ukqefgr?" Starlight asked me in a concerned voice.
I slipped the amulet back on and tried my best to fill in the blanks of what she said.
"Oh, I'm just peachy, " I snarked at her, "I'm making absolutely zero progress in deciphering what any of this techno bauble means and everypony is counting on me to figure this out. Isn't there anything else we can do? Simpler stuff?"
Starlight felt uneasy, and Speaks with Talons shook his head in confusion from his listening spot at the other table.
"There are reasons we have to work out of this book. This stuff is no more complicated than that trick you learned from Speaks with Talons. So I had hoped we would be able to start at this level."
She went over to a mobile book shelf from the library, picked up what looked to be a school book for children and opened it. "I wonder if there's some teaching methods I could adapt..."
A portal started opening in the middle of the study. From it stepped chancellor Neighsay. Before anything else could happen, he pointed his horn at me and I found myself being knocked off of my seat cushion, bound and gagged in a tar like substance.
"Ah-ha! I knew you would start teaching him Equestrian wizardry sooner or later! I'm so glad I made sure to enchant every book in this castle that had our magic in it to warn me when you did!"
"What is the meaning of this!?" Starlight demanded.
Looking at the book starlight had just opened, he snickered. "You were about to teach him school foal spells, from our own books, expressly violating our agreement."
"Correction, my agreement with the intelligence preservation committee, which you weren't a part of! And even then, I was just trying to reference teaching methods, not the spells themselves!"
"It matters not! I have all the evidence I need to finally remove your-"
A stiff chunk of wood smacked the Chancellor on the head, getting his attention.
Speaks with Talons gave him a blood chillingly cold glare and tone.
"I am Speaks with Talons, son of Chieftess Blood Bath of the raven griffin tribe, ambassador of both of the tribal collective of the eastern continent and the Fey of Far Everfree, holder of diplomatic immunity of those nations while in Equestria."
He barred his talons in an aggressive manner and came up to only a few yards short of the chancellor.
"If you do not wish me to demonstrate how I earned my name, you will state how you have authority here, or you will untie my battle brother and leave."
The chancellor was in a huff from the griffin's actions. With gritted teeth, he answered, "I am the chancellor! I have every-"
The griffin interrupted him with a guttural shout. "And how does that grant you this authority!? What articles of your laws say this!?"
Starlight picked up on this. "None! Chancellors and other congress ponies are solely meant to establish law! They don't enforce it!"
The chancellor backed up and looked to Sharp Sentry, who had stepped over to guard me by then. "But I still have sufficient evidence to have the guard arrest you!"
"Evidence you gathered unlawfully by bugging the entire castle library and would not hold up in court! Besides, all you have is me opening a book, which isn't illegal, nor violating the agreement. I just can't teach him our spells, which I haven't."
He looked back towards the portal.
"Chancellor, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the guard spoke blandly but firmly.
He gave one final huff of anger. "Of all the indignity! You will be hearing from my contacts in the committee for this."
With this, he finally jumped back through the portal as it closed.
Starlight gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Speaks with Talons. I don't know if I could have handled him on my own."
He lifted his foreleg to his face and calmed the risen feathers on his head. "To be honest, I don't think I could have talked him down without you, either. I was bluffing. I have trouble reading the sign posts of your country fluently, let alone fancy paperwork. I barely even understand an article is how you divide your big papers into manageable pieces."
Starlight then came over and did her best at undoing the spell that was binding me.
"That's why I have to work with the spellbook that came with you. I can't teach you any of our wizardry."
She raised her head while her horn kept working at my bindings. "Which sadly seems like it also means no stepping stones in learning techniques either. There's no telling how fast he'll act to tighten the restrictions around your lessons."
She suddenly lost her grip on the bindings and jumped back. Instead of feeling like I was bound by a tar like substance, the bindings now almost felt like a snake.
"Gah! Discord! What are you doing here?" Starlight exclaimed. Discord had somehow replaced the tar with his own form, coiled around me.
With his tail staying in my mouth the whole time, he somehow managed to slither out from around me without turning me or moving his tail. I found myself mostly freed but the last bit of his tail was still wrapped around my head and stuffed into my mouth to keep me gagged.
He gave a disproving gesture to Starlight and spoke almost as if he were hurt. "You'd think as a pony who was trying to teach another creature magic from outside Equis, one of the first thing's you'd do is ask the one being you know is both magically powerful and has traveled many worlds outside of Equis."
He turned to me and spoke with mild approval, "Oh, and by the way, I heard how you saved my dear Fluttershy's life." He gave a disgruntled shake of his head. "Despite being what caused her to want to put her self in harms way to begin with. Lets just say this short visit is me giving a little token of gratitude."
He removed his tail from my mouth finally, and spun a weird bit of narrow metal on the index digit of his paw.
"Discord! You know that's not meant to be removed from the vault! What are you doing with that!? It's dangerous!"
The bit of metal stopped spinning and I recognized it as the wand that was confiscated from me when I was first captured. He came up to me and lightly tapped me on the head with it.
"You're familiar with magic item attunement from the game your current body was pried from, yes? You talked about it in great detail your first time around as a prisoner. I think you sitting down and focusing on this wand for an hour or two should unlock a few secrets hidden away inside that thick skull of yours."
He turned to Starlight. "And you want to know the best part? It's not Equestrian magic, so it's not illegal for him to use!"
With that, he teleported away, leaving the wand to fall into my lap.
I looked at Starlight, who looked back at me and Speaks with Talons.
They gave a somber nod and looked back at me. "Lets get back to your cell. I don't know how long we have before we loose even more options."
She levitated the wand over to Speaks with Talons, who promptly hid it under his wing. Starlight went her own way, saying she needed to find Moon Beam again. Meanwhile, Speaks with Talons escorted me and the smuggled wand back into my cell.
Sharp Sentry wasn't too happy, but he agreed he'd stay quiet.
* * *
After sitting with the wand for a long time, gently turning it in my hands while meditating, I felt some kind of link open up. My mind suddenly burst with information. At first it was just how the wand worked, knowing how to tell it to help me cast the spell stored inside, but more importantly, that information tripped other bits of know how that flooded my mind with a practical download from one part of my brain to another.
I screamed for a moment, throwing the wand away from myself.
The wand bounced across the floor while Speaks with Talons came up to me in worry.
"Are you alright, Beast-kin?"
I was breathing heavy as my mind processed the information that had seemed so alien only moments prior. I looked at him and took the opportunity to say something I knew I wouldn't have another chance to say. "I know Kung-Fu."
I gave one solitary thump to the book in front of me. With a huff I finally gave up, lifting my head up to look across the table at Starlight.
"Even with my new edge, this stuff is still like a tech manuel for brain surgery."
"Are you at least able to understand more of it than before?" Moon Beam asked from her spot right next to Starlight.
I rubbed my temples and gave her a nod. "I'm able to put most of the separate sentences together now. I also managed to almost get the gist of one section before it flipped itself upside down and lost me."
"Then that will be noted in Discord's favor for breaking into the vault and harassing you in your cell last night," Tempest called from the other side of the room, which had just finished being cleared of furniture or other breakables to act as a demonstration area. "It doesn't justify the means, but now that it happened we may as well use it."
Starlight fought hard and just managed to keep a straight face, while Sharp Sentry curled up a smile and gently bit his lip.
Tempest came up to me. "Now tell me again how this new magic of yours works? Zero spells?"
Happy for an excuse to finally stop looking at the book, I turned towards her.
"They're called cantrips, which are considered 'level' zero spells," I clarified, "Most spells in the game require the caster to fuel them with a limited stockpile of energy, are..." I glanced over at the book. "Are definitely more complex as you grow in level and have to be manually memorized."
I gave a shiver and continued.
"The wand had a pretty complex one in it, but the bulk of the technical stuff was in the wand. I just had to invoke a little bit of what was inside and it would have done the rest pretty much for me. But it caused my mind to access something I didn't realize was in there, the cantrips."
I got up and went over to the demonstration area, seeing an assortment of items I had requested. "Sweet, you got them all. Wait... the stem with thorns is missing."
"Sorry, Moss. The guards saw Scraps messing with it and they took it from him before I came."
I saw the diamond dog resting on the sofa on the far end of the still furnished side of the study, snoring.
"Probably for the best. It's a bit of a scary one."
I turned to the bowl of water sitting at the table.
"OK. Cantrips aren't spells that are learned, but rather are infused into a person. They become a part of the caster. They are still spells, but they don't require any significant amount of energy to cast. It's no more taxing than them moving their hand around and only slightly more complex once it's a part of them."
I lifted my hand and waved it at the water in a gesture that almost looked like I was asking it to move. I wasn't entirely sure if I should trust the new part of my mind I was accessing, but I tried anyway.
I stepped back a little when I saw the water rising out of the bowl to form a crude and lumpy, pillar of water standing up in the bowl.
All three ponies came up with looks of surprise on their faces. Starlight then lit up her horn and levitated her notepad over to her.
"You looked surprised," Tempest called to me.
I nodded. "The part of my mind saying I can do it isn't even a day old, but I spent the rest of my life before that being conditioned to think I wasn't supposed to be able to do this kind of thing. First time doing it on my own, on purpose to boot, is kind of surprising."
I shook my head and approached the small pillar of water again.
"Some spells only require one component, like a gesture." I focused on the pillar, put my hand out and performed a grasping motion, freezing the pillar solid.
I then went and brought over a candle stick from the study table. "Most require multiple components, such as a gesture and a magic word."
I snapped my fingers and spoke the incantation "Barada."
On cue, the candlestick lit up. I repeated the process to snuff it out again while Starlight took notes.
"Other spells require special materials to help focus the magic in the right manner."
I barely grabbed hold of a firefly carcass at the table, making a point to not move it at all, touched the frozen pillar in the bowl and spoke, "Lumos," making the frozen pillar light up with a soft white light.
"Beautiful," Moon Beam softly called.
Tempest nodded but didn't smile. She looked up at me coldly and asked, "and military applications? I'm guessing that's what the dummy is for."
I looked down in shame. "Yep, there's some combat worthy cantrips in here." I knocked lightly on my head.
I looked over to the dummy, thrust my hand out aggressively and threw an equally aggressive, "Gelu!" out with it. As I did this, a bit of white fluff shot out from my hand, coating the dummy and causing frost to form around the straw pony.
"Aggressive and cold," Tempest noted, "And you could do this all day?"
I lifted my arms in an unsure manner. "In theory, maybe? I'd probably get tired after a while, but it definitely isn't a one and done if that's what you're asking."
She gave no indication of response, and simply asked, "Any more?" as blandly as I'd come to expect from her.
I nodded and stepped back, putting my hand out and drawing a pentagram in the air, followed by the word "Tutela!" The symbol appeared for a moment, following close to me as I moved. It faded a few seconds later.
"And what was that?"
"It's called blade ward. It is supposed to help a person by mitigating damage. It isn't perfect, as it only works against weapons and a few other minor things, and doesn't last long, but if you know you're about to get hit bad and can't avoid it, this can cushion it to where you aren't as badly hurt."
Tempest was quiet for a moment as Starlight continued scribbling on her notes. Finally, Tempest asked, "It doesn't seem to have all that much substance. Can I see it again?"
I nodded and repeated the process.
When she saw it, she moved a little ways around me, then suddenly turned around and lifted both back hooves in the air towards me.
"Oh shit!" Was all that I could get out before she did exactly what I knew she was going to do.
I landed hard on the sofa across the room, waking up Scraps and being in immense pain.
"Huh. I could definitely feel the extra resistance. I like it."
"Tempest!" Starlight and Moon Beam both yelled, though Moon Beam seemed to yell unusually loud.
For the next several hours, we swapped more notes than I could ever care to recall about the cantrips.
As Starlight recharged my amulet for the ump-teenth time, princess Twilight came in. Fluttershy and the owl that was bound to me and had been staying at her place followed close behind.
"What are you doing here?" I asked it bitterly via our mental link that reactivated after he got close enough to me.
"Bringing you good news, or bad." It answered back plainly. "It depends on how you want to look at it."
The princess stepped forward and greeted the ponies with a grin. "The committee ruled in our favor!" She winced for a brief moment before going right back to her grin. "Well, mostly. The committee was apparently so fed up with chancellor Neighsay that they not only shot down his claim that you were violating the terms, Starlight, but actually expanded them in our favor."
The princess jumped a giddy jump. "Oh I'm so excited! We still can't teach him any of our spells, but we are allowed to do any thing else, so long as we have somepony certified in magical theory attending the lessons with you to double check the methods you use while you teach!"
Moon Beam smiled. "I guess I'm pulling double duty then."
I looked at her weird. "I thought ponies had to have a horn to do magic."
She looked at me blankly, then rolled her eyes. "To perform it, yes. To be certified in magical theory? That just takes study. It's an encouraged elective in the basic Dream Walker training program and there are several mandatory semesters of it in the advanced program."
I thought about that for a moment, and somehow the way she said it seemed off. I used the high quality good luck charm I had from that morning to re analyze what she said. The result said what she said seemed legitimate, but it also seemed... practiced. I didn't really know what to make of it.
I looked back at the owl and blandly asked, "So what is that doing here?"
Fluttershy gave me a cold glare.
I swallowed a lump in my throat and shifted my tone to a more neutral one. "Allow me to rephrase. So what is he doing here?"
"He's your new tutor." Moon Beam chimed in. "Apparently before you were sent here, he knew the one that made these spell books for us and he is going to help us help you understand what the author was meaning."
Under the cautiously warm gaze of Fluttershy, I kept my attitude towards the bird in check.
"I guess we're throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks at this point. May as well try it."
"Then let me put the record straight before we begin." The bird flew to the study table while clarifying to me in my mind. "As much as I know I need to help, and will do so, I can't deny that I detest having to do this. I feel that if mortals were meant to wield magic, they'd be born with organs to do it, like with the unicorns."
I chewed on his words for a moment, but then they hit home with something I recalled that just rang out too perfectly.
"If they were meant to do it, they'd be born with the organs to do so?" I rhetorically called out loud while looking at the bird opening the spell book with his beak.
"What?" Tempest asked in irritated confusion.
I looked back at her and tapped my temple a few times. "Mental link, we're talking."
After that I looked at Fluttershy with a grin.
"I have a message for you to take to the school foals."
She saw my grin and eased up on her glare, but also looked at me with confusion. "What is it?"
"They once asked what was my owl's name, but he didn't have one. I have one for him now and I want you to tell them for me, when you can?"
She perked up. "What is it!?"
"I'm naming him after an owl in a... a play that has a similar grumpy personality. Archimedes."
Everypony except Tempest and Scraps, who were leaving, seemed to light up at this news.
Fluttershy's wings were pinned to her sides with a rope at the top of the tallest balcony of the ballroom. My face started to sweat and it felt like my already fast heart beat doubled as I saw her tip over the edge.
The moment I saw her fall, I gripped the feather in my hand and called out "Defluere!" in an attempt to slow her decent, only to have her crash.
I ran from Starlight's and Tempest's sides to Fluttershy, finding her setting herself upright from the mats she had landed on, unharmed.
She let go of the rope she had held on to with her mouth and called out to me, "I'm alright, Moss. We'll just try again."
I knelt at the foot of the mattresses and let out a sigh. "Why won't this spell work? I got the sleep spell to work on the second try. So why are we on number eight here?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "I said it's alright. Spells aren't easy to master, and you're actually making amazing progress with Archimedes's help. Twilight says it takes several times longer for a beginner to learn something of this level."
"You're too tense." I heard Archimedes call to me in my head. "You're thinking about it too much and you're tensing up. And for the record, the sleep spell did work the first time. It just didn't impact the dog hard enough to put him to sleep."
"I am not any more tense than I was with the other spell!" I turned to look at the owl above me, perching on the far edge of the balcony. "And he's called Scraps, not 'the dog.'"
The owl turned his head towards me from facing the other direction as owls do. "Speaking of... Scraps," he called in an informative tone.
Scraps jumped from the balcony and yelled "Dog-pile!" with a crazed look on his face. He then went into a cannon ball position, set to land on the still occupied mattresses below.
Without thinking, I threw up the feather and screamed in a sheer panic, "Defluere!"
Scraps descended down to the mattresses and gently touched down right next to Fluttershy, then promptly flopped over onto the mattresses away from her.
"It worked!" Fluttershy cheered as she hugged me around my neck in celebration.
"Are you crazy!?" Starlight and I screamed at Scraps in unison.
"Idea was from Fluttershy!" He called out, pointing to her while backing up to the other side of the mattresses.
I pulled back from the hug as Fluttershy did the same. With a face of guilt, she answered meekly, "Well... To surprise you was my idea. Yesterday, Scraps got hold of your spell book out of boredom, thinking it was a puzzle book. He didn't realize what he was looking at was a spell but he recognized that the text was implying that it had to be done on reflex. When he told me about it today, we agreed to do this after you were having trouble."
I looked at Scraps, who upon realizing he wasn't in trouble, was putting his back toes towards his face in a silly fashion and found himself rolling off the mattress with a playful thud.
"Scraps was able to decipher the stuff in the spellbook, thinking it was just a puzzle? That dog is full of surprises."
"Like I said, you were over thinking it." Archimedes messaged me with a flat tone.
Fluttershy looked up and behind me for a moment then turned back to me. "Do you want to do it a few more times? Make sure you have it down packed?"
I shook my head. "My nerves are racked. Maybe we can come back to the spell some other time, but only if we leave the surprises out of it. OK?"
I heard a disgruntled voice from behind. "Good. Then we can get started setting up already?"
A group of castle staff were behind me with several large bits of equipment in tow.
"We have a party to set up for the soldiers tonight before they leave for their rotation to the front tomorrow and another to set up for the princess and her friends right after they leave. Personally, I'd rather not get the troops angry."
Starlight gave the stallion an understanding nod then came up next to me. "That's enough for today." She looked at the party supplies that the castle staff were bringing in, then to a bored Sharp Sentry. "In fact, we've been studying non-stop for over a week now. I think you need a break. Why don't you take the rest of today off to detox and then join us for the princess's get together for some fun tomorrow?"
Fluttershy got off the mattresses as Tempest and Scraps got to work cleaning them up. Tempest smiled at Scraps as they did so.
Fluttershy spoke up as Archimedes landed on her back. "It's been so long since we've been able to just be around each other, Moss. I was hoping to catch up."
I saw Archimedes nestling himself up into the back of Fluttershy's mane as she leaned her head back to nuzzle the tops of their heads together. When she looked back at me with a pleading face, I could tell that she intended to have him come along.
"Get on my nerves and I will send you to your pocket dimension until the next lesson," I firmly informed him.
As I turned my attention back to Fluttershy, I didn't bother hiding my frustration in the unspoken conversation with him. I gave her a pained, but genuine smile and pressed my amulet to make sure it hadn't shut off. "Sure. Just let me get Starlight to top me off."
Fluttershy and I had been wandering around the halls with Sharp Sentry in tow, who was happy to at least be moving again. He was my most frequent guard, probably because he had more clearance about the stuff pertaining to me than those few that rotated shifts with him. Regardless, guarding a prisoner that was almost a guest so frequently was definitely starting to become boring for him.
Regardless, Fluttershy and I were finally able to ask about the wound as we chatted, leading to surprise.
"So the doctors were impressed?"
Fluttershy nodded. "They said that even my larynx had been cut from the measurements they took and had we used one of Zecora's potions, the wound would have still closed, but the scar tissue left over from the potion would have messed with my voice. Whatever it was that you did, it was certainly potent."
In her happy mood, she stopped and stroked Archimedes's head again before continuing.
"My voice seems to be no worse for wear because of how well it healed, though. The skin on my neck seemed to be the only thing with any permanent scarring and my fir covers that up fine."
We turned a corner to walk down a hall with some paintings decorating it.
"So, this castle seems fairly new, yet ponies are coming and going as if the princess doesn't live here. What's up with that?"
Fluttershy turned her head down and grimaced. "Twilight wasn't always a princess and she still isn't really used to having a castle. It's just to big for her to be comfortable in. With the war going on, she's made a point to utilize what she can of it for the war effort instead of just letting it go to waste."
Finished with her explanation, Fluttershy turned to me to ask a question of her own. "By the way, did you ever figure out what the presence you felt was when you healed me?"
I shook my head and was about to answer when Archimedes few off of Fluttershy's back. He moved towards a painting he saw and started hovering in mid air in front of it.
Fluttershy had to put a hoof to my arm to remind me to be patient with him when I gave him a glare.
I took a breath and then called out to him out loud so that Fluttershy could hear, "What are you looking at?"
"It is a portrait of the pony that forced her way into our dreams to determine if we could be trusted, master. But something is off."
As we came to the portrait, we saw two alicorns, one of a white coat and one of a darker coat, fighting. The white one was pushing the darker coated one to what looked to be the moon.
Fluttershy turned to the painting alongside me and explained what she could.
"This is from a little over a thousand years ago, Moss. Even back then, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to rule side by side. But when Princess Luna became jealous of her older sister's one sided adoration of the ponies she became Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia had to banish her. She's only recently come back and been cured of her affliction."
My mind was hearing her words, but my heart was beating harder and harder as exactly who I was looking at sank in. I knew she hadn't done it out of malice, but Princess Luna had basically forced open my mind and shuffled through it to determine if I was with the army invading them after I was first captured. As much a I tried to have a level head while looking at the paining, she still had a serious psychological scar on me and it was festering. I think the only reason why I wasn't in a full on panic was because it was only a picture.
"She had a sister?" I asked, trying to keep some semblance of a normal conversation as I did my best to calm myself.
Fluttershy's ears dropped when she saw my nerves and she started to walk back the other way. "We can go."
I lightly tugged on her tail as she walked past me to get her to stop. "Hey, you said-" I gulped. "-she had a sister?"
I think she saw the brave face I was putting on when she turned back around, because she nodded and did her best to answer my question. "Yes. Princess Celestia is the elder of the two royal sisters and still reigns from Canterlot to this day. When Princess Luna came back from her banishment and was cured, it was Celestia that welcomed her back with open wings. Everypony else was unsure of what to do with her."
"We all have at least one regret somewhere in our past. This must be hers." Archimedes called to me with a feeling of sadness, laced with a hint of disdain.
I had an eerie shiver of deja vu and finally turned to leave, losing my nerve.
* * *
I was sitting down on the ground back in my safe spot, that was to say my cell, with Fluttershy. It took a few minutes more after arriving, but I finally started to get my nerves under control again with her supportive smile.
"I normally can be pretty good at staying level headed." I looked at Archimedes sitting next to Sharp Sentry on the bench outside the open cell door. "Well, staying level headed save for a few grudges I still have to sort through."
Fluttershy's smile gained a hint of glee as she turned her head towards where I was looking, then turned back to me.
"But I turn panicked and weak when I feel her presence, even if its just a picture."
I put my face to my knees. "It's embarrassing."
Fluttershy put her hoof to my shoulder as I just sat there. I looked back at Archimedes and asked him the first thing I had ever asked him without any sense of grievance for my kidnapping, "How did you manage to not be traumatized when she did it to you?"
Archimedes flew off the bench and came to the floor at the edge of the doorway. With an order I had given him back when of never entering my cell unless someone's life was on the line, he was still compelled to stay out.
"Physically, I was. My current form barely survived the ordeal in the material plane and only was able to be nursed back to health shortly before I returned to you from Canterlot. Its constitution is much weaker than most humanoid or poninoid life. My mind, however, is that of a grand celestial and we have far more mental fortitude than found in most mortal minds. Combine that with the fact that I willingly let her into my mind, surrendering control to her instead of dealing with the forced entry you suffered through, any shocks I had were minor enough for me to fully recover from long before my physical body healed."
I processed what he said for a few moments before I stumbled on something and had to back track.
"Wait, you're not mortal? How could you be sent here? I thought the contest between your master and the other god had the stipulation that the armies sent to this world had to consist of mortals."
He nodded from the doorway. "The armies must, yes. However, the selected champion of each god is not bound by the same rules as the armies. I'm here as an extension of your will, and only physically taking on the form of a mortal owl. I am considered a piece of your power, as I am fully bound to you, and thus my presence here does not break any rules set in the challenge between the gods. Even if I wasn't bound to you, a champion in these contests do not have to be mortal, just able to be slain by mortal means."
His tone shifted to a heavy sense of disdain, so thick I could practically cut it with a knife.
"In other words, I was going to be the champion sent here by Oghma to defend this world before we were forced to pick you instead."
I chewed on several items from Archimedes after Fluttershy left and my cell door was closed and locked for the night. But one grave thought kept coming back up again and again between the other thoughts for the rest of the night. If the champions didn't have to be mortal like the armies, what kind of champion did the invading god, Bane, send to aid in the conquering of this world?
A thick fog surrounded me as I heard a maniacal laughter on all sides. I couldn't tell who or even what it was, but I knew it wanted me.
"Where are you!? Show yourself!"
I felt a presence approaching from behind. So I turned around to see a hooded figure coming forth through the slightly parting fog. The pale skin and fangs it grinned with as it looked at me unblinkingly gave away that it was a vampire, thirsty for my blood.
I threw a spell of radiant damage at it in hopes of fighting with an elemental advantage, only for it to roll aside and take on the behemoth form of a wyvern—a savage and beast like cousin to dragons.
I backed up in a panic for a moment before remembering something.
"Wyverns aren't evil! They're unaligned and primal! You can't be the champion! You'd just tear up both armies without bias and would stop spreading havoc as soon as you established your territory!"
The wyvern gave a deer in the headlights stare, then shifted into the shape of a humanoid with a tiger face and started approaching me with a smug grin.
"A rakshasa. You'd be immune to any spell I could throw at you." I smirked back. "But I have more than just spells!"
I mentally willed myself to my bear form and started to charge, to which the rakasha shifted into a tentacle faced mind flayer.
It threw psyonic waves of energy at me from its forehead, knocking me out of my bear form. I knew these guys were devastating and not to be underestimated by any means. Their culture was all about creating more thralls to serve their elder brain... I suddenly knew what logic I could throw back at it.
"There can only be one opposing champion! You're only at your most powerful when you are backed by your thralls and brethren. Without your elder brain you're not as strong a tactician as you think!"
I shrugged off the next blast in defiance, but the creature didn't back down. My logic made it to where I knew it wasn't an excessively overwhelming opponent on its own, but I also couldn't deny it was still a powerful and valid foe that I had no particular counter for.
We circled each other for a moment, sizing each other up and searching for weaknesses. As hard as I tried, I couldn't think of an opening that could easily be exploited against a mind flayer. Yet, as soon as I feared I would trip up and give him one, I found myself doing so.
He came forward and threw is head back to prepare for a particularly powerful blast as I stumbled and tried to get to my feet without success.
Suddenly, a loud voice called through the mist, "Enough!"
I saw a massive beam of raw energy smack into the mind flayer and carry him off with the sheer force of the blast just before he was about to release his own blast at me.
"Are you alright, Moss?" I heard a voice call out from the fog.
As the fog was starting to dissipate, I turned to see the silhouette of a dark colored pony with both wings and a horn.
"No! Not you! Please!"
I turned backwards and tried to crawl away, but I found my limbs harder and harder to lift as my fear overwhelmed me. Eventually, I curled up into a ball and pouted "Please, no more..."
"Hey! It's OK! It's just me." I heard Moon Beam's voice call to me as a hoof gently rested on my calf, nudging me to come out of my ball.
After a few moments of her calling to me it managed to sink in enough for me to brave lifting my head enough to take a peek.
Sure enough, I saw Moon Beam looking at me in worry. I calmed down more as I saw her face but eventually found myself looking up at her forehead. When I properly registered what I was looking at, I asked her, "Moon Beam... Why do you have a horn?"
She pulled her head back up with surprise. "Oh! Well that's as good a spot to start as any."
She closed her eyes for a brief moment and the horn disappeared from her forehead, leaving her looking like a normal thestral again. "We're in a dream. I'm a dream walker, remember? I use my horn when I need a focus to give me a boost in lucid manipulation."
As I got my bearings, I found myself on an island sitting in a sea of stars.
"A dream?" I asked.
She nodded and continued. "Pretending to be able to perform magic with a horn is a common way for dream walkers to help their willpower manifest properly here in the astral realm. I must say, you did some pretty impressive manipulation yourself there, for a non-gifted."
She then sat down right next to me as I sat myself upright again. She extended one of her bat wings around me and didn't quite fold it in around me in a hug.
"Care to talk about what that was about?"
With the wing almost surrounding me, I found myself uncomfortable and pulling out of the almost-embrace post haste.
"You're creeping me out getting so close," I said as I settled myself a good meter away from her. "What's with all the friendliness all of a sudden?"
She blushed and pulled her wing back to her side meekly. "Oh... That's right. You have only ever worked with the cold and bitter Moon Beam."
She turned her head away from me. "That's just a mask I had to wear to make sure I got honest answers from you when we met and I found it hard to take off after that with chancellor Neghsay still prying at every lead he could to try to treat you like a criminal."
She shook her head while steadily turning it back towards me. "I hate being so cold and business like. It's counterproductive to my work."
With a still glum look, she made eye contact with me again. "Dream walkers are charged with monitoring the dreams of the ponies of Equestria and intervening when the emotional states of the dreamers get to be unstable and vulnerable to the nightmare realm."
I cocked my head. "Nightmare realm?"
Moon Beam closed her eyes for a brief moment and nodded before looking back at me. "A natural aspect of the astral realm that embodies negative emotional magic. It's not evil. It actually can be beneficial to many ponies in helping them have healthy amounts of fear of different things. But like field mice or locusts or other beasts that eat voraciously, it has to be kept in check or it can become like an infection of the mind, growing too strong and harming ponies instead."
I pondered on this. "Like how princess Luna became jealous of her sister and transformed into a monster a thousand years ago?"
Moon beam's eyes went wide at that statement as she said nothing for several seconds. "Y-yes. That was the incident that brought about the proper establishment of the Dream Walkers' Guild to make sure that the burden was never carried solely by any one pony, including a guild rule that members had to monitor each other's dreams too, in order to avoid another incident like that from ever happening again."
I nodded my head and put my eyes out to the sea of stars again. "Kinda reminds me of the old phrase 'who guards the guardians?'" I rhetorically added.
After a pause, I could see her nod in agreement in the corner of my vision. "Occasionally dream walkers have to help other creatures too, though it is pretty uncommon for the nightmare realm to outright attack non-ponies. Still, I'm here to help you through whatever it was causing that bad dream."
After hearing her offer, I tilted my head back and forth in consideration. "Nopony else is listening in?"
She gave a small nasal giggle and shook her head. "Active dream walkers can always sense each other. We are so sensitive to each other that extra caution has to be taken to not disturb other dream walkers that we check in on when they are just sleeping. We are alone."
I relaxed for a moment but then tensed up again and looked at her with a deadpan face. "What did you do when I refused to give up my faith?"
She cocked her head. "What?"
"What did you do when I refused to give up my faith? I have to know this is really you I'm talking to. You were able to fake a horn, you could be somepony else faking Moon Beam's entire appearance."
Her jaw went slightly slack and her eyes widened again as she realized what I was getting at. "A... A wise caution. Very well. To answer your question, I cried. I cried tears of respect for your choice."
With this I managed to properly relax and gave her a smile of relief. "Now that I know for sure it's you that I'm talking to, get comfortable. This will take a little explaining."
* * *
Moon Beam listened intently, though didn't seem too surprised at any of what I told her.
"Archimedes has managed to share that with you, then? We knew it was inevitable. He is bound to you."
When she saw the confusion on my face, she sighed. "I'm the one that entered his dreams so he could warn us of what's to come, remember? He's been with us in Canterlot, aiding our intelligence for some time now. So he has had the chance to share a lot with us. More than I could explain here and now. We invited you to visit him regularly but you declined every time. He's not hiding anything from you. You've just not been receptive to what he has to say."
She took a deep breath and looked out to the sea of stars I had been staring at while I explained my worries.
"As for the fear you have of the opposing champion, it's understandable. Even we do not know what threat they will present, but know this."
She turned to me. Her face was littered with concern, her eyes wide and ears limp. Her voice was akin to the voice of a worried aunt.
"We have every intention of facing this threat and protecting the citizens of Equestria and our allies. That includes you. Even if you do wind up having to face the other champion, we are going to do our best to make sure you do not have to face them alone."
She extended her bat wing out to me again to offer a comforting hug. I pulled back just an inch or two, showing my reluctance to hug, but reached my hand out. I gripped the joint of the wing and let her curl the thumb like bones of her wing around my hand. With an uneasy smile, I said, "Thank you."
After letting go, we sat there for a few moments, letting the calm of the resolution to my concerns wash over me. As she got up to presumably leave, I reached out and asked. "How have you been? I missed you yesterday. Tempest standing in as Starlight's teaching chaperone was dull at times and, to be honest, a little scary."
She gave me a bittersweet smile and turned back around. "I was catching up on sleep. I am nocturnal after all."
She stood there, waiting to see if I had another question with a mild eagerness.
Without much else to say personally, I asked a more professional question. "So, has my time learning magic helped you guys much?"
She gave an uneasy smile and sat back down. "Yes and no. The cantrips were a moderately useful surprise, discovering spells that existed outside the spellbook. As for watching you learn the spells in the spellbook, it hasn't really turned up much new data, but it has been giving us a good baseline."
I looked at her perplexed. "A baseline, for what?"
She pulled back and looked downward with a sad expression. "I wanted to tell you the fuller extent of what we were needing from you from the start, but they wanted to ease you into it."
She looked back up to me with a somber expression. "Don't you think it's odd how we are just now asking you to learn magic? We could have started this almost immediately after Archimedes came to us."
I raised both eyebrows at this. I hadn't thought of that before.
"It's because of what happened when you healed Fluttershy. More specifically, because of how the Speaker described your use of quintessence."
She willed different colored orbs of light into existence in front of her. One a purplish red, one a vivid green, and another one pale blue.
"Æther, the Animus Mundi and quintessence are the three known energies capable of tapping into magic in our world, though quintessence is faint and classified. I won't go into detail on the Animus Mundi or Æther, as those are fairly well studied and not very relevant to our concerns."
She pulled the redish and green orbs aside, bringing the pale blue one front and center.
"You know that quintessence is the power wielded by the followers of the exalted being we are at war with, but you may not know that it has existed on Equis for possibly even longer back than the first rift war and has been harnessed by natives in the past."
She pulled the red orb forward again and pulled wisps of energy from both it and the pale blue orb, then re merged the wisps with the opposite orbs. Pushing the mostly red orb forward, she continued. "This is an approximate mixture of what our Alicorn Princesses use naturally. Their æther is laced with a trace of quintessence. It is why their magic tends to be so powerful. The lord of chaos, Discord, has power over æther and quintessence even beyond their level, but we can't study it due to his chaotic nature."
She brought the mostly red orb back and the mostly pale blue orb forward. "This is the level of purity we've seen in rare individuals who believed with their whole being in a cause, such as the Pillars of Light or the modern element bearers. Don't worry if you don't know of them. What you need to know is that it can only be done at this level with the use of powerful artifacts or with extreme strain on the user, but even then it isn't quite pure."
She put the orbs down and looked at me. "But the Speaker of the Fey described yours as having a complete absence of Æther. In other words, it was pure quintessence that healed Fluttershy, the same as the priests of the first rift war had. It is a power we thought was lost to us. A power that we need to learn to harness, fast."
Thoughts I had been suppressing were coming to the surface. The character my form was based on was one level of cleric, a class that drew its powers directly from the gods they worshiped.
"That's why you guys have been asking me if I'd figured out the source of that presence I felt. So we could investigate it."
Moon Beam nodded. "Close, but we already investigated it. We knew what it was before we asked you. But due to the kind of personal attachment proper, high purity, quintessence use requires, we wanted to try to get you to approach it yourself and form a personal attachment with it in your own way."
"So Oghma has a connection with me?"
Moon Beam cocked her head at me in surprise. "What!? Goodness no. That would make you his follower by technicality and disqualify you as his champion. No. The information I gathered from Archimedes's dreams showed that they infused you with the essence of another being less powerful than a god but still naturally able to use quintessence. Doing so allows a creature to become what we understand to be an artificial priest. More accurately, it provides a substitute for them to connect to instead of an exalted being, while allowing the creature to have the quintessence abilities of a priest. It was not an easy feat and it causes permanent damage to the being bound to the subject, but we have record of it happening once before."
She stood up and dismissed the orbs back to the nothing that they came from. Approaching me, she asked, "So, have you figured out what the presence was that you felt?"
I sat there for a moment then shook my head. "I've been trying to not think about it, really. About the only clue that I had was it was suffocating me with..." My eyes widened in realization. "...Disdain for me."
I looked over at Moon Beam and muttered "I got to go!" before mentally forcing myself to wake up with sheer willpower.
Waking up in my cell, my body was stiff as it was every morning, curled up on my undersized bed, but I forced it to move. I stumbled out of bed with my stiff joints and found the door to my cell open with my tray of breakfast sitting just inside, ready for me when I woke up. Archimedes was sitting across from it, just outside the doorway.
"Are you OK, master? You awoke early."
My side was wanting to cramp up as I crawled towards him. "It was you! It's your quintessence inside me, isn't it!?"
The owl stepped back a few paces at my approach, but otherwise made no attempt to flee.
"What is left of it, yes," he spoke plainly but remorsefully, as if openly admitting to something terrible, "The rest of it was used to seal up the sky rift we were sent through and the forest rift that was about to burst open."
His straight forward answer left me at odds. I stared at him for a moment and processed what he said, alongside what Moon Beam said.
"...How badly were you hurt? When you were bound to me?"
He nodded and faced me straight on.
"To insure you do not get the wrong idea, the process is not normally as devastating on the donor as it was on me. They would simply become weakened or wounded in a way that can never be healed akin to a solder that must use a cane to walk after an injury. The more powerful the bond, the greater the injury, but our bond in this regard is at the most basic of levels."
He came forward again as he saw me dedicate my full attention to him.
"However, in order to ensure the forest rift would hold tight once we restored its strength, every last spare bit of my essence beyond what was bound to you was put to the sealing power of the meteorite. Save for the form your magics grant me, I have no more physical form. I was once what some may have incorrectly labeled as a demi-god, but I am effectively only a spirit now. When our bond is severed upon your eventual death as a mortal, I myself will be rendered mortal in whatever form I am in at the time of the severance. If I do not have a form at that time, I too will die."
The paranoid side of me used my good luck charm to help ensure if I could tell whether he was being truthful. When the hairs on the back of my neck told me he was, I backed down.
Going into a sitting position, I reached for my breakfast tray. I held the tray there but didn't eat, just staring at it in thought. I sighed and looked back at him.
"I still have a bazillion and one bones to pick with you, but..." I struggled to get the last words out.
With a huff, I looked down and closed my eyes.
"But thank you. Thank you for helping me heal Fluttershy."
Party of Surprises. (Chapter 17. Lab Rat Days, Part 8)
Speaks with Talons and I were in one of the highest rooms of the castle area where I was allowed. It was just high enough to allow for a telescope to be set up and pointed at the entrance of the Everfree Forrest and Fluttershy's cottage.
I could see a dozen troops entering the forest from the direction of the road the cottage was on. The majority were armed to the teeth with gear that would allow for easy maneuvering and combat in the forest.
"They tell me that about half of the forces assigned to the task are pegasi, as they are able to fly above the forest for easy movement in emergencies. Now that some level of defense is established in Far Everfree, the troops are steadily being ordered to report to the ground entrance near Zecora's hut to be trained on how to recognize the signals sent through the web by the Fey village. When that is complete, the Fey will be able to coordinate the lent Equestrian forces more efficiently. Soon the Speaker will be able to relinquish the finer details of training to the servants of the Animus Mundi and take over my role as ambassador."
Turning the telescope towards Fluttershy's cottage, I saw her looking through her own telescope back to me. When I saw this, I waved at her as best I could while staying inside the window. Seeing her wave back while looking at the telescope made me smile.
Another pony walk up to her from the village. When this happened, I saw Fluttershy give one last wave to me, greet the new mare with a hug and walk her to the forest with a happy smile on her face. Whoever this was, it was someone close to her.
"Who's that with Fluttershy?" I asked Speaks with Talons as I relinquished the telescope for him to look.
With a quick peak, he brought his head back up and gave a hearty smile. "That is one of Equestria's few citizens that is also a proper servant of the Animus Mundi. Tree Hugger, they call her. She is not nearly as attuned as Zecora, nor even myself, but she does have a connection to our master that the Fey will recognize and allow into their village directly without complaint. Her presence should ease the load on Zecora's duties in the forest considerably."
The griffin quietly laughed to himself for a moment. "Where it not for her duties tied to this nation's royalty, Fluttershy would have probably been trained as a servant as soon as Zecora had come to be accepted by the ponies. Fluttershy has the knack for it. But alas, her calling is elsewhere."
We turned towards the stairs with Sharp Sentry in tow and Archimedes flying slightly ahead.
"I am told you were invited to the princess's party," the griffin stated, seeing if I wanted to talk about it.
I nodded as we walked. "I'm still a prisoner, and I'm not the best at social events. They say Fluttershy will be there to help and that I can come as either her or Starlight's plus one, but I'm not sure if I want to go."
As soon as those words were said, I knew it was a mistake. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew.
Maybe a second after I realized this, I felt the stairs beneath me shift into a flat slope. Me and the others slid down the rest of the stair case, passing our intended floor and landing in a lower room of the castle.
Speaks with Talons jumped over me as we landed on the floor and hovered in the air while Sharp Sentry did the same only landing in front of me with his short sword at the ready for whatever had happened.
"Weeeell-" I heard a familiar voice call out, "-If you aren't sure then I have another option for you!"
Discord popped into existence in front of Sharp Sentry and snapped his claws. Sharp Sentry's sword went limp like rubber and the staircase went back to being normal stairs.
I stood up and started rubbing my sore back.
"Always one for theatrics I see," I called to him while trying to sound neither impressed or annoyed so as to not feed the ego I'd learned he had. "Now that you have my attention, I may as well hear you out. It's not like you'll let me do anything else until I do."
Discord smiled a sinister smile for just a brief moment then snapped his claws.
A table appeared in the air in the middle of the storage room we were in, narrowly missing Sharp Sentry as it clattered to the floor.
Discord popped himself on top of it, laying on his belly, and spoke with a glee. "It turns out that I'm attending a guys night at the exact same time as the party with Big Mac and Spike and I was wondering if you would like to join us?"
He snapped his claws yet again and several large bits of cardboard like cut outs started animating on the table.
"We're starting a new game of Ogres & Oubliettes and we thought you might like to get out and have some fun with us."
He magically donned an outfit with a striking resemblance to Robbin Hood then rolled several dice out of his paw and onto the table. With some weird ability of his, he locked eyes with me and kept me from turning away. With particular emphasis on key words, he said, "We really, really like to get into our characters. I'm sure you'll have a blast."
As I felt myself regaining my ability to look away, I still stared at him in cold, heart pounding, thriller, fear.
A sinister and knowing grin spread across his face. "So shall I help you build you character sheet now, or later this afternoon?"
I stepped back several paces, tripped a little over the small crate behind me, then turned back towards the stairs. "Nevermind! I've suddenly decided I want to go to the party! Like, right now!"
Sharp Sentry quickly followed. "But the party hasn't even started yet. The staff are still just starting to set it up."
I turned to him with a panicked look in my eyes. "Then I'll go help set up!"
As the final touches of the party were being put in place, Fluttershy and the other ponies I had come to recognize as her friends came in along with Princess Twilight. Starlight and Moon Beam were setting up a special stage to have a singing contest on and Tempest was somehow managing to get Scraps to behave himself on the floor next to the bar.
Scraps was sleeping with only his head sticking outside of the bag of holding he had managed to keep after the issues in the forest. Thinking about what he could do with a new baubles bag that was way bigger on the inside than his old one kinda scared me, but Fluttershy and Tempest insisted it was alright.
The party started with lots of casual chatter, which I didn't really have much to contribute to, but it was kinda nice to just be left to my own devices in a crowd and not be the center of attention, for once. Friends hugged, recent stories were exchanged and I came to find out that somehow the barrels of cider that had been brought in was strangely both non alcoholic and alcoholic varieties.
As I was about done sipping on my second mug of the non alcoholic variety when a pink pony got up on the stage and declared a roast contest.
"That's right! Now everypony..." She looked straight at me. "I mean, everycreature write your name on a piece of paper and get it in the hat."
At this point I noticed the hat on a stool next to her. Everypony put their names in and Starlight wrote down a second one for me, since I didn't really know the language.
The pink pony pulled out Moon Beam's name then her own name. With how the rules followed, the one that gets roasted was to roast the next pony that got their name pulled from the hat.
I learned many things that night, though I think I had to take them with a grain of salt in some cases, as I didn't have any of the full stories.
The pink pony seemed to be oblivious to people's feelings at times. Starlight was blushing from me finding out she was a former criminal herself in some way. The princess was a bit of a high strung perfectionist. Rainbow Dash was a total macho tomboy that was denying ever being seen in the spa that I worked at briefly. Rarity interrupted Rainbow Dash about something, saying "It was an accident!" with a face that was red from anger before I could catch what the accident was. Rarity seemed to not get the concept of making sure her audience had context because I was not the only one lost when she described the orange pony's fashion sense. Fluttershy blushed immensely when the orange pony described how she could even get a manticore to purr but had trouble speaking in public.
Apparently that last bit was true in some way, because when Fluttershy went up and drew my name, she froze up for several seconds, unsure of what to say. When she looked down at me, I summoned Archimedes to my shoulder and pretended to scold him. When he followed my orders to look scared, Fluttershy lightened up and managed to roast me on some of my difficulties with not liking certain ponies. At first it seemed innocent enough but then when she mentioned my anger with Zecora over her keeping me safe, I had to pause at her wording.
I was actually angry at Zecora for lying to me in a way that seemed needless at the time, not the safety part. Thinking back I had to really pause and wonder.
I couldn't think of it for too long, however, as I was nudged and told to take the stage.
Tempest stopped me at the edge of the stage. "I can do the math. The only name left in that hat is mine."
I looked at her unsure of what she was getting at.
She rolled her eyes and looked square into mine. "Everypony here has been pulling their punches. Going easy on a warrior is one of the biggest insults you can give them. So when you go up there, roast me right or so help me Celestia you will be sorry."
As could be expected, the one name left in the hat was Tempest's, though I had to have the pink pony read it for me to make sure. All I could do was stand there with shaky knees and press on my amulet.
"You all have me at a bit of a disadvantage. I don't really know Tempest all that well, and what I do know about her seems to indicate that no matter what I say she's going to get angry with me and want to beat me to a living pulp after."
The entire audience laughed and Tempest actually smiled. They must have thought I had started already.
"Go on..." She stated flatly.
I rubbed the back of my neck. "No, really that's all I got. I mean she's a bit broody and I don't know-"
A door slammed open and a white pony that was even taller than Tempest came in. "Good evening everypony. Sorry about missing the early parts of your birthday party, Twilight. The meeting ran a bit late. Am I too late for the karaoke?"
"Princess Celestia!" Princess Twilight practically launched out of her seat and ran up to greet the pony with a hug.
From my point on the stage, I saw the crown on the larger pony, accompanied by a horn and a set of wings.
"So that's princess Celestia? Princess Luna's sister?" I looked down at Fluttershy, who nodded in response.
"No, you're not late at all, Princess Celestia! It's good to have you. We were about to start after we got done with Moss's turn."
"The Moss is here!?" Princess Celestia looked up at me on the stage. She shrugged off her guards concerns as she approached. "I am sorry for interrupting your turn with my entrance, but it is lovely to meet you. My schedule has been terrible and while I've always been curious about you, I've barely had the time for anything of my own desires since the war began. We owe so much to you and your familiar, though I am sorry that you were brought here against your will."
When she addressed me, it felt like I was being introduced to a queen. The sincerity of her voice. The way she moved with effortless grace. The way she spoke to me with the respect of an equal despite being clearly the highest class pony I had ever met. It all positively radiated the skills of an experienced, nay ageless, matriarch.
And then it all snapped as she giggled, jumped and glided back to a vacant seat in the audience with a liveliness of a pony that was still young at heart.
"Please, don't let me interrupt any further."
An awkward silence filled the room for a few seconds before I recovered and just said, "Actually I was pretty much done already. I don't know enough about Tempest to say anything else."
Tempest seemed to be a bit disappointed with my excuse and Princess Twilight was suddenly a bit more nervous than before the other princess got there when she said, "Well, that settled, let's get to the karaoke, shall wee? We just need get all the names back into the hat and decide who goes-"
"I think Moss should go first." Princess Celestia called out, "He's already on stage and didn't get to take a proper turn last time."
Moon Beam was on the stage, collecting names back into the hat when it had pretty much been settled just by the ruler saying it should be that way. So she scooted off the stage and said "We'll just do the name drawing after Moss takes his turn then." She seemed a little off center but enthusiastic otherwise.
I went back to the center of the stage, wondering if this was a good thing or a bad thing. "Well, I don't know any of your country's songs and I doubt your machine carries any of the songs I know from my homeworld."
"Do your best without it then!" Tempest called out, clearly still irritated and wanting to see me squirm, "Just sing a song that doesn't have to have music backing it up! Its Karaoke. It's not meant to be good."
I gave them a signal to give me a minute to think up a song. It needed to be one I knew well, but could be sang on its own. I went through a few in my head and wound up with two that I could do. Brother My Brother seemed easy, but when I looked out at the audience, I saw leaders and ponies that could sway the war effort in ways that could be a disaster. I couldn't let my first song I sing do that to them.
So I closed my eyes, pressed my amulet and went with my other choice.
"Well my daddy left home when I was three..."
* * *
"I still hate that name!" I finished off with a loud rant in the rhythm.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw the audience in shock. Not the good kind of shock. Most of them had a look showing that they meant well but hated my singing. Celestia was smiling but clearly was crying tears of pain and Moon Beam had a look of utter confusion on her face.
The pegasus called Rainbow Dash came up to the stage after the orange one finally let her go.
"Dude. I had no idea you were that bad. Just don't ever sing again, OK? You really stink."
"Rainbow Dash!" half the room called out to her.
I gave her a solemn look and walked off the stage. "It's alright. I wasn't that good back home either. I think I need some air. Just carry on without me."
As I left with Sharp Sentry in tow, the orange pony took the stage, making noises with operating the karaoke machine.
Out in the hallways, I walked for several minutes before I asked a question to my guard.
"Hey, Sharp Sentry. Just how bad did I stink at singing, really?"
He was silent for a few moments before I got him to stop and look at me.
He sighed and gave me a frustrated face. "To be honest, sir, when you try to speak our language directly, it is barely recognizable, like a pony with a speech impediment. The amulet makes it far more clear, but your voice still sounds crude to us. Your actions give signs to your true intelligence level, but even with your amulet, the words you speak in our language do not. We've grown accustomed to filtering that shortcoming of the amulet out for normal speech, but singing is a very different beast for us."
A sinister voice came from behind me. "It's because the way you speak your language is a bit simpler than we speak ours when it comes to the intangibles. There are nuances that translate fine for you once simplified a bit, but the amulet can't fill in gaps for intangibles that you just don't find a way to pronounce."
I gave a shiver as Discord placed his mismatched paw and talon on my shoulders.
"So you're done with the birthday party, are you? We're actually still early in our campaign and can still squeeze you in as a little swamp creature that just appeared in our story. I have the character sheet for him right here!"
A piece of paper formed near me right as I bolted with a firm march. "Nope! Just getting some air! Going back to the birthday party now!"
As I approached the ballroom where the party was happening again, I heard the stomping of a hoof on what must have been the stage.
Coming closer, I heard the words "Standing by your side!" made with great gusto.
I saw Moon Beam taking her turn on the stage as I tried to rejoin the others. She walked up and down, occasionally making a heavier than needed stomp to make an acoustic effect. What was the most interesting was that the karaoke machine was turned off. She was winging it.
"-Just as you are there for me!" She turned her tear filled eyes to Princess Celestia and nopony else. "Nothing feels as good as a sister's loyalty!"
My eyes went wide. A part of my mind wanted to not believe it. There was no way anypony of this world would know this song. Nopony but one, that is. My fears were confirmed when she kept going after a few seconds, "I'm talking about family! If my sister's in trouble I will-"
Her song was cut short from my sudden knocking over one of the pieces of furniture.
Her eyes went just as wide when she looked up and saw me struggling to get out from under the table I fell over and knocked down. I knew she could see my mind putting the pieces together, making me terrified. I ran out again, this time straight to my cell. My safe haven in the castle.
* * *
Later on, in my cell, I get a knock.
"Will you please let me in?" I heard a familiar voice call.
"Just order him to open the door. It's not like I can deny any of you."
"I know I can, but I'm here to help you, not force you. I won't enter if you don't let me. I just want to talk."
I heard a set of light thumps on the door and I turned to see that familiar thestral face, leaning up against the door and staring at me through the bars.
"Please, I just want to explain."
I quickly turned my face away from the object of my fear, my heart rate rising. "Maybe when I'm ready to come out again. Right now I just want to hide and process! If you really want to respect my choice then please just go away!"
"I didn't meanto..."
I shoved my pillow as hard as I could into my ears to block out her voice and to try to find a center.
"I said go away, Princess Luna!"
Communing with Nature. (Chapter 18. Lab Rat Days, Part 9)
I didn't venture out of my cell the next morning. Instead, I just asked Iron Bastion to close the door and let anyone who was visiting know that I didn't want visitors. They could force me to grant them audience, of course, as I wasn't a resident. I was a prisoner. I didn't have that right, technically. But being a privileged prisoner, I made my "request" quite clear.
I needed the time to process. A pony that had been near me fairly regularly for days now had been revealed to also be the pony that was burned into the back of my mind as a thing to fear above all reason. The concept was about as easy an idea for me to chew on as a quality jaw breaker.
The morning went by without incident, save for Iron Bastion insisting I needed to eat or he'd be forced to call somepony. When shift change came for Sharp Sentry to come relieve the crystal pony guard, I found my peace and quiet being disturbed by a rather insistent visitor.
I saw princess Celestia enter my cell, standing there in silence. Her face was uneasy, quietly asking for me to start the conversation.
I sat up on my bed, stretched the parts of me that felt that they couldn't wait, then pressed on my amulet and looked her in the eyes.
"If you're here to apologize for your sister, there's no need. I understand why she did it. She needed the disguise to get to know me without me bunching up in fear. I just need to process it and let it settle in my mind before we cross paths again."
Her unease didn't dissipate, but a smile formed on the princess's face none the less. "Actually, that was only a fringe benefit to the exercise she was doing with that form, though I am glad you understand."
She composed herself, masking her unease with a calm, professional face. "However, that is not why I am here. Some developments have happened, and we need to act quickly."
She turned to the cell door and called out. "Thank you for waiting. Please come in."
Looking to the door of my cell, I saw Zecora, the pony I recognized as Tree Hugger and the Speaker of the Fey come into sight and enter my cell too.
The look on the Speaker's face held complete contempt for me. "First things first!" He called in a voice of restrained anger, "We need to test him. If he fails, then the deal is off!"
I looked around the cell with an uneasy glance to each occupant. "Test?"
I could see the princess give an exhausted sigh. "He means he needs to do something to find out something about you. If he is satisfied, we can proceed."
"Not once in your time here have you spoken with the Animus Mundi," Zecora spoke in rhyme, much to my annoyance. "When a servant or Fey do so, all others connected hear what our mother knows them to be. If you connect to her and we learn what she sees in you, then forward we can go on tasks we need to do."
The speaker came forward. "Normally we learn to tune out this aspect of her voice as white noise in a few months of connecting with her, but if the ponies are so insistent on their-" he brought his hands up and shook them about in a mocking fashion. "-'astral judgement' being accurate, then they wouldn't mind us using this as our own variant."
I looked around uneasy. "This isn't going to hurt, is it?"
Celestia gave me a comforting smile. "It is nothing like the astral judgement, if that is what you are worried about. Zecora has actually performed the very same feat we will be asking you to do countless times. The process is harmless, but only those with a bond can perform it, such as the Fey, the servants, and hopefully yourself. We just need to let them be present and connected to the Animus Mundi while we guide you to do the same."
The Speaker looked back at me when the princess was done. I could feel the bitterness in his voice as he forced the words out. "If our surrogate mother notices nothing about you that upholds your status as the threat you are accused of being, then we will honor a pending arrangement with Equestria to have you work off your sentence for the crime you committed instead of punishment."
I looked at him weird. "What crime?"
I could swear he just about lost his cool and jumped me before restraining himself. "While the ponies claimed that your 'Jah' is not what we understand to be an exalted being that feeds off its followers, and that the quintessence you used was a different source, they still stated you recognize this 'Jah' as a being to be worshiped. With the ways the laws are written in the pony lands, that is not illegal, but by the laws of our forest, it is most definitely still a crime. A crime you committed while in our forest."
It took all my effort to not look him square in the eyes and state it was a crime I would do again if needed.
We had gone down to the study for more room, with a few more familiar faces watching on. Starlight had to hold Sunburst back from wanting to charge forward and bombard Zecora, Tree Hugger and the Speaker with questions. Fluttershy was by my side acting as some kind of support, and princess Twilight was working as hard as she could to document everything, having knocked the normal record keeper aside for being too slow.
"So, to recap, you need me to meditate and connect with the Animus Mundi so that you can watch and hear what she has to say about me?"
The Speaker nodded. "Zecora and I will activate our connections first. While connected, I will be witness to the Animus Mundi's words of you for the Fey, and Zecora will witness for Equestria's interests. Meanwhile, Tree Hugger will act as your guide to opening up to her."
Zecora stepped forth and smiled at me. "Do not fret if you cannot hear your new mother's voice, or at least hear it very clear." She gave a confident turn and went to sit on her prepared mat. "We who are trained will hear it just fine, provided we stay near."
The words 'new mother's voice' rang in my mind. I had no problem talking to the planet for them, but the way she said that reminded me too much of preachers back in my home world. Knew everything and was certain they were right and everything worked the way they said it did and people should follow them blindly.
"Shut the hell up!" I shouted at her, surprising the whole room. "Just because I'm stuck here doesn't mean I can forget where I came from like nothing happened! I'm not her child, nor would you want one of my kind to be!"
Every creature in the room stared at me in shock.
The princess came a step forward. "I know from the reports that you have your reservations of you own kind, but surely they are not that bad. You make it sound as if they were demons."
Fluttershy tried to comfort me with a hoof on my arm, but I gently grabbed her hoof, pulled it off and moved it back towards her.
A tear rolled down my cheek as I closed my eyes. "I... You're technically right. They aren't demons. They are mortal."
I came up to them with the most solid glare I could muster. "But in some ways that makes them even worse. They will pretend to be your friends, then betray you. I don't want you thinking that they can be trusted just because I choose to cooperate."
I looked back to Zecora with that same glare. "So shut the hell up and stop trying to coddle and control me! Now, lets get this over with already."
Every creature was still staring at me. Fluttershy asked with worry, "Control you?"
It had to be her that asked. I could have shaken off any other creature in the room had they asked, even the princess, but it had to be her. I found myself unable to stay silent with her asking. So I took a breath to calm myself and explained.
"She lied to me to keep me away from the village back when I first arrived. She manipulated me into thinking what she wanted me to think. Even if it was with good intentions, I can't stand that."
Fluttershy's eyes widened as I saw her recalling the scene from when we first met.
I turned towards Tree Hugger as Fluttershy was at a loss for words. "Like I said, lets just get this over with already."
* * *
"Ah! For the love of all things sacred, please stop!" I called out.
Shortly before hand, Tree Hugger had given an attempt to sooth me with what she called "calming auditory therapy to open my connection with positive vibes." It was the third thing we had tried to get me to open up.
"I don't mean to be rude, Tree Hugger," I called out as I steadied myself, "but that sounded more like a dying animal wailing while also getting violated than anything calming, at least to me."
She just titled her head in a calm form and smiled, oddly not offended. "That is the ticket, an honest answer from the heart. If we can keep open like this we can find something eventually. Different creatures have different paths to a calming center. Once enough paths have been walked, we will stumble upon one that lets the world open up to you."
I steadied my breathing again and tried to focus my mind back to the task at hand.
"I can only imagine what kind of exercises it takes to open one's mind to the Animus Mundi," Sunburst said in excitement. With about half an hour of nothing but me stumbling through Tree Hugger's advice, he was the only one in the room still excited.
Tree Hugger turned in a calm fashion to Sunburst. "Loving the positive vibes you're giving off, Æther dude, but it's not the mind we're trying to open up."
He and I both looked at her weird. "Wait, what?" we both called to her in unison.
She went even more relaxed than usual and started to sway in her seat, bringing her forehooves to her temples. "Æther is used with the mind. Whether it's by clear and calculated thoughts or through sheer force of will, any advanced Æther manipulation is done purely through the mind."
Once she finished this part, she kept swaying and brought her hooves down to her barrel. "The Animus Mundi, however, doesn't care about the mind. She cares about the heart. Her magic isn't based on thought or knowledge, but rather our amount of faith and-"
"Wisdom!" I called out, interrupting her.
Everypony who wasn't in a trance looked at me in slight shock. Tree Hugger simply gave a calm smile, nodded and confirmed what I said. "That's right. Way to go."
I looked at Starlight. "Do you remember when I said there were different classes in the game? Intelligence was what wizards used to cast their spells, but druids used Wisdom. Maybe I'm approaching this wrong. I have an idea."
I looked back at Tree Hugger. "I've managed to cast a few spells while studying under Starlight. With one of them I worked more with feeling it, rather than thinking it. Do you mind helping me with that positive vibe thing again, but with a twist?"
Tree Hugger grinned as wide as her chill face would allow. "Absolutely, Fish Dude. Just tell me what you're needing."
I calmed myself a little and mentally tried to recall a few instances from my past experiences. I held onto one with emphasis of what I was feeling, then combined it with another that was more recent.
I turned back behind myself and found an open area of the room where nopony was standing.
"Gelu!" I called out, sending a fluff of white essence of frost out of my hand and onto the wall where I was aiming. I wasn't trying to hit anything, but rather noted how I went about casting the spell I just did. That is to say, the druid spell I just did.
I turned back around with my eyes closed and a nod at understanding what I was feeling.
I opened my eyes and focused on Tree Hugger. "OK, I'm going to remove my amulet and start chanting. Just repeat whatever you hear me say in rhythm."
I just about took off my amulet before I turned to Sharp Sentry with a slight scowl.
"This is going to be rather personal and embarrassing." I eyeballed his amulet. "Do what you got to do as a guard, but otherwise you tell nobody what you hear, OK?"
He looked at princess Celestia, who nodded back at him, then he turned and nodded at me in confirmation.
I closed my eyes, squeezed Fluttershy's hoof, then took off my amulet and started to chant.
"Que que natora. You will understand. Listen with your heart..." I continued through the song and signaled when it ended. After a few times through, Tree Hugger was chanting with me in harmony. Oddly, her raw English was pretty good, despite not knowing what she was saying.
As we chanted a few times through, I stopped trying to focus on the words and took the songs advice of letting it "break upon me, like a wave upon the sand."
It didn't happen right away, but after a few more chants, I started to feel something. I wanted to hold on to it, but it faded as soon as I started analyzing it with my mind. When I realized this, I went back to chanting and soon felt that same presence. It was stronger than before and I quickly found it overtaking me with great intensity. I didn't know what was in store, but I knew right then I was past the point of no return.
The room I was in quickly faded away. I lost all sight, smell, and hearing. I could still feel the floor and Fluttershy's hoof held tightly in my hand, but otherwise I was cut off.
Soon I felt that presence that swept me into whatever state I was in dissipate. It wasn't gone, but it seemed to be all around and inconsistent. It felt as if I were in the middle of a pile of dust being stirred up or like the static of an old TV screen that had nothing plugged into it, but from all angles around me at once. I still couldn't see anything, though. This was more akin to how one would know what part of a room they were in from memory even when their eyes were closed than actual physical sensory.
I also felt two more concise forms that I could tell were Zecora and the Speaker, but they felt distant. It was like they were the only two fans in a stadium, looking down at a field from the stands. I thought I felt Tree Hugger next to me for a split second, but that immediately faded.
Then came the voice. It spoke, in a way, but not in clear words. Concepts were coming together and projecting themselves in my mind. My mind then put words to some aspects, and visual effects to others.
"Star Rider," I "heard" from the odd, incorporeal presence. As it relayed this thought in what I could only describe as the equivalent of a calm tone, I saw what looked to be a meteor crashing down to the forest. As quickly as the image entered my mind, it was gone.
The voice continued again and again, showing me scene after scene. Some images, while crisp and being logged into my memory without trouble, were brief, others took a little more time. I saw the image directly in my mind, and didn't have to spend time focusing my eyes and searching through a photo. I saw all of each image as it appeared, all at once.
"Crow Feeder." I saw several birds eating at the pickings that were being tossed to them at the side of a lake.
"Life Cherisher." A loud whaling could be heard, as a humanoid with a spear ran towards the sound.
"Toril Blessed." I saw a scene with a Zebra being jumped by a wolf, with her humanoid companion changing into a bear in response.
"Fury Embracer." I saw that same bear in a different scene pick up a log and tear it in half with its raw power and subsequently roaring.
"Sin Confessor." A pair of bowls being filled with palms full of sand.
"Fury Embracer." A pegasus was tossed by a humanoid who had its back up against a tree.
As the next image came, I could feel a cloth being put to my cheeks in the real world.
"Fate Bender." A dog could be seen attacking an armed pony, an unusual emphasis was placed on the humanoid that appeared to be doing nothing and the dog slowed down immediately after, just missing the armored pony's throat.
"Humility Accepter." A crowd of ponies could be seen shouting at a humanoid, who simply stood there silently while another pony defended him.
"Serenity Seeker." The humanoid stood up with two ponies next to him, purposely avoiding a third pony that was snarling at him as he walked away.
"Life Cherisher." A group of animals looked upon a kneeling humanoid as he held a collapsed pony.
"Shame Bearer." A humanoid stood in the middle of a room, moving as if he were speaking, unaware of the crowd of ponies forming around him.
"Life Cherisher." A small satyr stood next to a bench in a park and gestured to the humanoid to follow as he turned to walk away. The humanoid did so.
"Fury Embracer." A bear fought alongside a griffon and dog to take down an armored humanoid.
"Fate Bender." A scene were a griffon swung a mace at a skeleton played, slowing as the griffin made its second swing, the direction changing subtly. Then the mace landed true, shattering the skull of the skeleton.
"Fury Embracer." A humanoid yelled at a griffin and pony while holding the broken remains of a bottle in his open hand.
"Life Cherisher." A screaming humanoid could be seen, huddled in a panic over the dying body of a pony. A vibrant energy emerged from the humanoids lips and the pony jumped with life.
As the last image faded, I could feel the static surrounding me become more lively, as if making itself purposely known.
The essence of the static flowed in and out of me in rapid, but not aggressive, motions. As it did so, I felt parts of me awaken. It wasn't so much knowledge or innate know how, like the wizard spells or cantrips, but rather understanding. It was almost overwhelming. I understood how to ask for many things. I could ask for healing, to move unnoticed, for food and many, many other things. I even discovered what I was doing wrong with the animal speaking spell I could barely cast before. It was all potentially available to me, though some was still too strong for my current ability, and I could only contain so much at once.
This was the spell casting of the druid. One didn't force it like with other forms. One asked and the Animus Mundi would work through them to answer. It wasn't know how that wove the spells. It was her wisdom that she focused through me when I asked for her aid.
"Fury Embracer." The voice imposed one last time. This time, however, the image had no particular context. It was just a flame burning and nothing else as I felt another bit of understanding coming to me. It was more rudimentary than the spells just before, being woven more thoroughly and becoming permanently infused into me.
After that, the image faded and everything calmed down. I felt the static get fuzzy, for lack of better word, and almost warm in its aura.
"Joy from your presence, son of Gaia."
I sat there relishing in the sheer amazement of what I felt from that aura for a few moments. I felt like I could just sit there for hours, but I felt something hit me, hard.
I slowly came to as I felt punch after punch to my face. The presence faded and the real world came back.
I shoved Tree Hugger off of me, who finally stopped punching me upon seeing me move.
"What in the world was that about!?" I called to her. Pressing the amulet I found was around my neck again, I repeated the question.
"Sorry about that, fish dude," she called as she wiped the blood off of her hoof.
Princess Celestia came up. "We didn't think your first connection would be that strong. We were expecting you to feel a few sensations while still being aware of us, maybe a whisper or two, but your connection was pried open from the other side. At least that's what Zecora said a moment ago."
Tree Hugger looked at me and bowed apologetically. "The Animus Mundi must have needed to get a lot off her chest to pull you in that deep. When we noticed you weren't responding, I had to stimulate your remaining senses to think you were in danger so that you would lose your center and come back to us. Otherwise you'd be stuck in there for, like, a really long time. It takes time to learn how to navigate connections that deep."
Zecora came up to me, with one of her potions for me to apply to my face. Her own face had a slew of emotions within it.
She turned to the room as soon as I started applying the potion. "His magics are far beyond what I had known, as if evolved in a war zone. His magic in origin, from Equis is not. From the other world it was brought. A powerful destroyer could sprout from his inner flame."
She looked at me. "Though his spirit may have the strength to keep it tame."
She bent down to bow to me, her front knees hitting the floor. "My past mistakes can not be excused, nor undone, but my apologies and counsel are yours to take as you wish..." She gave a slight pause for emphasis. "...Gaia's son."
The Speaker came forward with mixed feelings too, though more notably negative. Turning to Celestia, he twitched and spoke with measured irritation. "He's still a potential threat, with the raw power I saw in him just now. Yet he's the lesser of two evils, and not associated with the invaders. Put him to work and we will uphold our end. I need to get back to my village."
Celestia turned to me with an uneasy smile. "I think it is safe to dispose of this now."
She bent her horn down to my neck and released the collar from it.
The collar hit the ground as we made eye contact. She then spoke to me again, "I need to take counsel with the other leaders for a moment before I get to the details with you. Feel free to take a stroll if you need to clear your head after that, but please don't stray far from the castle so that we can call you when we are ready."
I asked Sunburst to accompany me and Sharp Sentry to a walk around the castle grounds.
"That was fascinating! So many new details!" Sunburst exclaimed to nopony in particular. With a spring to his step, he practically pranced circles around me while I marched and tried to sort my thoughts out.
"Hey," I called to him in a melancholy tone while pressing on my amulet. "Can I ask you something?"
He slowed his pace just enough to keep by me, though still clearly excited. "Certainly."
"Zecora said my magic was from the other land. Is that bad? Are my new spells going to throw the balance out of whack? Did I end up polluting the Animus Mundi with new magic?"
He stopped his giddy mannerisms and lost his smile. "Oh! I see what you're concerned about. While I'm not a servant, I have studied the Animus Mundi from a mage's perspective for some time. So I think I can address those worries."
He reset himself and gave me a calm but confident smile. "I think what Zecora was talking about when she said 'evolved in a war zone' was what you would call your game's spell slot system. Natives of Equis don't use lumps of internal energy to wield our magic like you appear to do. Ours is more fluid, like a well we draw upon and steadily replenish."
We sat down on a bench as I gave him my full auditory attention while blankly staring at the ground.
"The difference is that it is far easier for you to cast a spell in the heat of the moment in a battle, but more difficult to fuel spells for longer periods of time as we do, as your methods are less energy efficient. We actually had to develop a technique to build up our energy to mimic the properties of your spell slots in the early stages of working with the spells from the spellbook that came with you."
He laughed a little. "We've sense managed to adapt them to something more suiting our methods of casting, but there were certainly some funny moments in the early parts with Starlight literally having the magic blow up in her face."
He shook his head and looked at me. "The spells you have access to are most likely from the Animus Mundi of Equis. Those were developed over eons and most are probably fairly universal between Animus Mundies of different worlds with similar life. You are just more capable of accessing combat ready spells than most servants, because you have the concentrated energy packed in your spell slots to fuel them in the brief time they need to be cast to be practical."
"The only magic I think you brought over from the Animus Mundi of the other world that wasn't already present was your shape shifting into animals. I have not seen any servant that has managed that in my studies before, at least not in the way you perform it. The chances are slim, but even if some servants do learn to do it we already have natives that can shape shift naturally and it shouldn't throw off the balance of power significantly."
I gave a pained smile and pulled my eyes from the ground to look over to him. "Thank you for easing some of my concerns. But I have another I need to deal with too. Is there some water nearby? A pond or a stream?"
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Not in range to answer Princess Celestia when she summons you."
I gave a solid whimper. "That sucks, but I need to know now."
"Know what?" Sunburst asked me.
"I think I learned a new cantrip from the Animus Mundi when I was in there. But that seems to imply something else that I need to test. Just don't step on me, OK? Stand back."
I stood up from the bench and made my way to a flat surface of grass while Sunburst and Sharp Sentry gave me a little distance and watched.
I took several deep breaths of air to the point of not quite being dizzy, then willed myself to change shape.
As soon as I did, I found myself flapping around on the ground in my new form, suffocating and getting my scales all dirty. I immediately willed myself to change back.
With a gasp of breath, I laid there on the ground, wide eyed.
When Sunburst came up to me, I had caught my breath enough to speak. "That confirms it," I said with great worry.
"That confirms what?"
I sat up on the grass. "In the game, druids learn a new cantrip at level four. Among other things, the character my form was designed after was a level three druid. There is also another thing unlocked for druids at level four. That's the ability to shape shift into swimming creatures. I wasn't able to transform into a fish before, but I can now."
I gave a bitter laugh and flicked my fin ear. "Not that I need it. But it confirms I leveled up."
Sunburst adjusted his glasses and looked at me in concern. "Does that upset you?"
I closed my eyes, gave a huff and stood up. "Upset me, no. But it does make me worry about what's going to happen to me from here."
I turned back towards the way we came and opened my eyes. "I think I'll just head back in and wait for the summons. I got what I needed for the moment. Dwelling on it won't do me much good right now."
We waited as close to the meeting room as I was allowed, though we only had to wait for a little bit before I was called.
Being escorted by an extra guard on top of Sharp Sentry, I was taken to a room I had never seen before.
Upon entering, I saw several different creatures sitting at a large, round table. I saw princess Celestia, the governing princess of the crystal ponies, Fluttershy and some of her friends from the party, including princess Twilight, a dragon that looked about six to seven inches shorter than I was, a more traditional eagle headed griffin that looked a bit larger and a great deal gruffer than Speaks with Talons, and finally Discord. There was also a notably vacant seat that sat right next to Celestia's with Luna's symbol on it.
Princess Celestia looked at me with as much joy as she could muster through her stressed face. "Thank you for staying near, Moss. I think it's time we finally discuss what we need from you."
The dragon looked at me funny and threw up her claws. "This frail meat sack? Whatever, I'm bored now. Seriously, there are too many meetings in this war. You ponies do what you have to do. I'll be over here doing a power nap if you need me, but I know you will just need my troops to do the heavy lifting like they always do."
With this, she went over to a corner with a pile of coins dumped out on the floor, pulled a dark crystalline staff with a red stone at the top under her protectively and laid down for a nap with a small yawn. "Not that we mind doing the heavy lifting."
The gruff griffin eyeballed me from across the table. "So, this is the sorry excuse of a traitor my team is being hired to protect? Pretty scrawny for one of their kind, if you ask me."
I was mildly insulted, on multiple levels, but before I could respond, Discord beat me to the punch.
"Oh come now. Traitor would imply he had loyalty to them in the first place. You know that's not true from what was discussed just a few minutes ago."
Discord was unusually calm for the meeting. No showboating or other shenanigans came from him. That, combined with the calm tone of his, seemed to unnerve me in a way that was only slight, but I couldn't shake it.
"Traitor to his kind at least." The griffin slumped back in his seat while resting his beak on his talon.
"I'm sure you would know all about that. Griffons seem to have no particular loyalty for each other, either."
The griffon bolted upright in his seat, reaching for his weapon in reflex, though not drawing it. "That may be, but my company knows loyalty!"
Discord gave a simple, cocky smirk. "To your pocket books."
I could visually see the griffon's talons grip his weapon more tightly as he glared across to Discord. "To our contracts! We understand seeing a mission through to the end even when there is more profit in turning our backs than in the reward will promote returning customers and more money in the long run. A good reputation is vital to good business in our trade."
"Enough!" princess Celestia firmly stated in a calm, yet demanding voice.
"And to answer your question, lieutenant Gizzard, yes. This is Moss, the one that we need to escort to our destination safely if the mission is to be a success. But I must ask that you let him be filled in on the situation before we continue."
The room went quiet for a moment, then princess Celestia nodded to princess Twilight.
The young princess lit up her horn, creating an image to be viewed in the middle of the table.
"As you were already briefed on before, our world has had invaders like this in the past and we managed to drive them out and seal them out of our world."
A display of generalized figures portrayed the scene fighting off humanoids and closing portals once the forces were driven back. The image then focused on a partially transparent portal shaped seal.
"What we didn't tell you about was how hard it was to seal the rifts. Seals made with conventional magic are fine for sealing off normal portals until they close entirely. This can work even with lesser rifts connecting nearby worlds on a multi-dimensional scale."
Her demonstration showed a line acting as a barrier between two flat images of two separate worlds, with a blockage covering a hole in the barrier. As a few seconds pass, the hole in the barrier closed on its own.
"But if hostiles are on the other side, a conventional seal can be blasted through pretty easily. And with rifts too large or connecting worlds that have a great distance of multi dimensional void between them, the rifts close up extremely slowly."
A new scene showed with a much larger break in a thicker barrier with a seal in one side of it. The time in the demonstration was sped up and showed many generations of ponies pass with the hole in the barrier barely shrinking at all. Soon a force breaks through the barrier and crosses over.
The image shut off and princess Twilight turned to princess Celestia.
"There is however, a specific type of seal that, once established, cannot be broken from the other side and is extremely difficult to corrode. Even so, this seal can be bolstered by the use of the Animus Mundi to slow corrosion and general aging further down still, and Æther can be used to repair the seal from the side the seal was made on indefinitely..."
The room was silent for a moment as I waited for her to finish, but she simply kept eyeing the princess that had been quiet and looking away from me the whole time. The governing princess of the crystal ponies.
Finally, I broke the silence. "But? I can see a catch coming."
Princess Celestia glared at the crystal princess and spoke oddly, almost as if in code. "There is, but I think my niece needs to explain the rest, in her own words."
The crystal princess spoke in a sour voice, "This kind of seal is what currently protects all other rifts that we are guarding. They can be maintained indefinitely once established, but getting them up and going is near impossible. We already have every..."
She stopped, closed her eyes and scrunched her nose in an angry huff then looked straight at me with a glare.
"I'm sorry I did what I did to you. I shouldn't have been so eager to sign off on your Astral Judgement. My husband was out there on the front lines and I saw a way to end the war quick and get him home when I saw Tempest give me that paper to sign. In my worry, I had sought out every measure I could to ensure his safety out there. In my paranoia, I thought you had enemy secrets that would help us end the war. You're still scared of Aunt Luna because of it, but I'm the one that forced her to do it for the wrong reasons."
She sat there, looking at me and waiting for me to respond.
I opened my mouth a bit cockeyed and chewed on her words for a moment. I then looked back up to her and calmly answered, "With what you said, I can get why you did it. What's next?"
"That's all you have to say!? 'What's next?' Are you trying to say it like you'd really do the same in my position?"
I shook my head. "No. I'd have done a whole lot worse if I were in your position. But that's why I'm not a leader."
The crystal princess wanted to comment more, but princess Celestia raised a hoof and interrupted her. "Like my niece said, the seals are almost impossible to get started. For the longest time it required a priest. This was something that could only be created by the followers of the very exalted beings that wanted to open the rifts. So these seals were often only squandered in ways that benefited these exalted beings. Embargoes, sealing off rival gods from worlds, shunning unfaithful colonies that would start on new worlds, leaving them to the wrath of natives without backup or retreat while the ones responsible for the suffering that caused the wrath remained out of reach, eventually opening the seal from their side later on to try colonizing again."
Celestia cracked a smug smile. "That is until our predecessors discovered the secret to these seals, thanks to the traitors of the other world that aided Equis in the original war. The secret was that the seal simply required to be seeded by a mortal who was a wielder of pure quintessence. The only known way for this to happen at the time was for a mortal to become a priest of an exalted being. But our ancestors managed to make an artificial bond like a priest's by striking a deal with an immortal being with quintessence and allowing some of his energy to become bonded to a mortal. Normally, this would simply make what you understand to be a warlock, but the process was extended, forming a lifelong link that could only be severed by the mortal's death and also permanently harming Discord in the process."
I looked at Discord with shock, who was simply turned away in a grouchy mood.
"Yes, indeed," Princess Celestia commented at my glance, "Every native of Equis alive today owes their lives partially to Discord's sacrifice."
Discord gave a harrumph. "It was a business venture, nothing more. I was compensated... adequately. But I'll never do it again. Not while you have nothing of sufficient value to me to offer for the service."
He looked at me. "And especially not while there is already another candidate primed and ready to go."
I nodded as I put the pieces together.
"So you need me and Archimedes to get the seal started for you."
Celestia nodded and Twilight spoke up. "All you really have to do on a technical level is get the first part started, but quintessence isn't just used to seed a seal. It is also an excellent catalyst to stabilizing a seal. It's several times faster than even our best Æther based methods."
She waved to her friends on her right, and Fluttershy on her left.
"If you can use as much of your quintessence spell power on the seal as you can, it will help get the seed stable. Then me and my friends can come in and take over getting it reinforced further for the-"
"Absolutely not!" Both Discord and I screamed at the same time.
We looked at each other, then I let Discord continue. "I will not see my dear Fluttershy on the battlefield. She nearly died once already."
"Discord," Fluttershy piped in coldly. "We are only going to have one shot at this. We can't afford to risk it."
Princess Twilight gave him a glare. "A new seal seed of any kind is very fragile until its reinforced, even a quintessence seal. Either we pour all the mortal quintessence we have at our disposal into it to get it stable enough to not be destroyed from the other side, or we run the risk of it breaking in the multiple days it would take our Æther teams to get the same result. You know from the efforts to help keep the seal closed before the war that the Pillars of Light alone aren't strong enough for this. They will need me and the other element bearers to get enough quintessence to protect the seed in its infancy."
Discord grumbled and started smoking, glaring at everypony in the room except me and Fluttershy.
"And besides," princess Celestia chimed in, "If we can't get the rift closed, just how much safer do you think it will be for Fluttershy, or indeed anypony, in the long run? The military will do everything in their power to keep her safe, as I am sure you will too."
I could swear I saw Discord's pupils turn to literal flames as I saw him coil around Fluttershy in a protective circle with a snarl and a look of bitter defeat.
With the explanations made, Archimedes summoned to get him onboard—which wasn't hard—and plans made to move out the next day, the meeting was adjourned.
Fluttershy finally managed to get Discord to let her go as I approached her with a bit of lingering shock.
"So you and your friends are the element bearer's I've heard about? You're able to wield mostly pure quintessence?"
She blushed and tried to hide her face behind her long mane. "In a short burst with my friends, yes. Like I told you before, it makes sense when you know our history."
I looked back at princess Celestia with a tidbit of lingering disbelief as the rest of the attendees left. "So this isn't some kind of elaborate joke? You guys are actually serious?"
Princess Celestia quietly held still to show that she was taking what I asked her into deep consideration. With a brief exhale, she pulled out a familiar piece of narrow metal from behind her seat.
She levitated my Wand of Lighting Bolts and placed it down at the edge of the table next to me.
"I believe the term my sister recommended I use is 'dead serious.'"
The Forgotten Soldiers (Chapter 21, Battle for the Rift, Part 2.)
I sat there on the bench of the train station with Sharp Sentry. My legal status was still somewhere between prisoner and freed, so he was staying with me until the commanding officer that I'd be answering to on the battle field came. From what I was told, they would have to fill in their squadron on the details surrounding me to make sure I wasn't mistaken for one of the invaders.
The night before, about every academic mind I had come to meet in my time here were working with me to help ensure I knew how to use the device I would need to start the seal for the rift. It wasn't working all that well though. I was able to get the seal seed formed on the test portal they made, but it took a lot longer than expected.
A lot of the common ponies in the station were ones from the village that still avoided me. As could be expected, one or two of the rich ponies wanted to start trouble with me, but were quickly dissuaded by Sharp Sentry's spear point. When one said they would be back, more guards were called in to ensure nothing happened to me while I waited.
After a while, I found myself looking down to the sleeve of my furs where my recently returned wand was tucked away. Contemplating on the wand, as well as the new spell I had at my disposal as of the night before, I wasn't feeling too giddy about entering a war zone.
In the distant corner of the station, soldiers were starting to gather and a fashion savvy pony was singing to them to help boost moral. I couldn't catch many of the lyrics, something about Equestrian pride, but the sheer energy of her voice still brought a tear to my eye.
Right as I wiped the tear from my eye, I heard a pony come close, past Sharp Sentry and the other guards, and sit on the bench next to me.
When I looked over, I saw a pastel blue pegasus that was getting on in years. He still looked quite fit despite clearly being past the peak of his prime. But what interested me the most was that the wing nearest to me had absolutely no feathers on it, save for a stubby layer of overgrown down.
"I lost them in a street fight, kid." The pony answered the question he saw me asking with my eyes.
"What?" I looked up to his face. His eyes had a certain wisdom to them that could only come with living with a disability and still choosing to stick with it. I pressed my amulet and almost apologized, but I could see a smile come across his face, wanting to share the tale.
"A couple of young punks that thought they knew everything didn't like me dating a unicorn about three decades back. So they decided to try to send a message by pulling out all my feathers on this wing. It was two days after they dumped me out of the city when I managed to crawl back to the hospital."
He waited a moment before continuing, possibly to read my reaction.
"They thought it would scare ponies into behaving the way they wanted them to. It had the opposite effect though. After I was treated, the city worked to improve emergency medical transport, the punks are still rotting in prison for their crimes and I was made into a hero for a little while."
He leaned back and threw his front hooves in the air as if reading a banner.
"Plasma Wave! The stallion that still soars! That's what they called me for about a year or two after the uproar."
He gave a laugh as he put his hooves back down. "Not literally of course. But I still lived a full life despite the doctors not being able to get my flying feathers to come back. Married that same unicorn, the best noodle maker in Equestria I might add, had a high spirited daughter and..."
His face positively lost all of its prior cheer. In a glum mood, he put his head down and shook it from side to side.
"I'm sorry. You're probably focusing on the big mission and I'm rambling on about days past like some has been. You're Moss, right? The fish-monkey that is wanting to help us end the war? I'll be one of the volunteers making sure you can."
Tempest, who had been coming up quietly while the stallion was talking, stepped forward and stamped her hoof firmly on the train platform. "Don't give me that, Plasma Wave. I've read your file and agreed to you joining the mission on the condition you can keep your head on straight. I can have a flightless pegasus on my team, but I can't have a distracted soldier."
Other soldiers came up behind Tempest. Some were older, like Plasma Wave, and some looked scarred like him too. Some looked like specialized civilians, while others looked like seasoned veterans. One thing that they all shared, however, was that each of them looked like they had led a hard life in some way.
"This team was picked out specifically to keep the package safe without bias, but I need them to perform at one hundred percent." Tempest signed the papers to gain custody of me as my commanding officer, letting Sharp Sentry and the other guards finally leave. "Now spill whatever it is and get it over with or go home. That's an order."
Plasma Wave had tears coming down his cheeks as he steeled himself to comply. "My wife was pregnant with our second child when an accident happened. They managed to save her just fine, but the accident forced her to miscarry my unborn son."
Another older soldier came up and let him lean on him for support. With a sniffle he continued. "The surgery that saved her life also wound up rendering her infertile too. The worst thing is, nopony but the doctors, myself, my wife and our daughter knew about the pregnancy. We were about to announce it at a get together the day after the accident wound up taking him from us. My wife took it so hard, but it was my daughter that took it the hardest."
He sat back up on the bench, leaned back and let it out. "He was due to be born around this date that year. When we were getting ready to bury him, my daughter brought out her special baby blanket and begged us to bury him with it. She was so looking forward to having a little brother that she still holds dear to his memory today. Due to a lot of politics that would have arose if the event was shared, the rest of the family still doesn't even know he existed. My wife and I mourn this time each year."
He sniffled as he let out the last of his tears. "Now all we have is our daughter, and I'm here to make sure she has the best chance of coming home safe and sound after the war. I still remember when she used to use that same baby blanket as a wing cover in the winter. Softest home woven blanket I'd ever seen. It was a special gift, you know."
He turned to me with the cheer back in his face.
"From what my wife told me, the mare that gave it to my wife as a gift for our new born daughter had made it years prior out of rare materials, just waiting for the right foal to give it to."
Tempest, content with his confession, turned to the group of soldiers with her. "All of you have some similar story for being here, be it some relative serving in the forces or some other reason to end this war. If any of you still secretly have a bone to pick with the package, then for the sake of those you're fighting for, act on it only after we finish the mission."
With this message received, Tempest gave the order for some of the group to aid in loading the train and the rest to guard me.
Plasma Wave got up off the bench and took the spear from the other soldier.
As he did so, I said, "That mare that gave the blanket. She sounds like a nice lady, the kind of pony I might like to meet some day."
He turned back to me for just a second to reply. "Me too, kid. Me too."
As the guards got into position and the train was finally cleared for loading troops and supplies, Zecora and Speaks with Talons came walking up to us.
"And what in the world are you doing here?" I balked her with as much vinegar as I could muster. Just because she apologized didn't mean I was going to just let her off the hook. I still didn't like her.
Tempest talked to her for a moment, then looked into the bag Zecora had and finally back at me.
"She's here delivering the supplies you asked Sunburst to collect for you. An odd collection. Are these for the new spells?"
I got up and nodded, taking the bag from Zecora without a word.
"Then would you mind giving me and the troops some examples of what we are working with?"
I noticed the station was clear of civilians, save for those in my group, then nodded.
I took the sprig of mistletoe from the bag and held my hand out. I used my thumb and index to brush the mistletoe across the palm of the same hand and attempted to speak, but nothing came out.
"..."
"And? What is that supposed to do?" Tempest asked.
I looked at her in worry. "It's supposed to make some edible berries appear in my hand, but something is wrong. I can't think of what the verbal component is."
"Odd." Speaks with Talons said as he came up. "Usually, a servant's chanting is a personal request to our master. It comes naturally in the moment. My techniques use just a touch of Æther and thus are a bit different from most servants, but for you, you should just be able to call upon our master the same as Zecora, or as the Fey call upon her as their mother."
Right at that moment, Zecora's eyes and mine locked. We both knew exactly what was wrong.
"But she is not his mother, nor is she his master. A void has formed in the relation of this caster."
Speaks with Talons's eyes grew wide. "You mean!?"
"Our master loves you in ways most dear, but to you she means nothing, I fear. Until you know what she is to you, no more of her magic can you do."
I looked out at the dry patch of land next to the train station. Near the watering tower for refilling the steam engine was a patch of wet ground perfect for what I needed.
I gave her a brief look, walked to the edge of the platform, raised my curled fingers in an aggressive form and called out "Uro!"
Immediately, a large bonfire came forth right where I wanted it to, scaring everypony on the platform.
I turned back towards Zecora and let go of my mental hold on the fire. "Well, all the magic I need to call upon her for. But granted, that is a good chunk of the druid stuff."
I left her in her shocked state and completely ignored her desires to warn me about something. With a quick glance to Tempest to see if she was going to order me to stop, I showed my ticket to the train master, boarded, sat down out of the reach of Zecora's blithering and called Archimedes from his perch on top the train.
"I think we need to have a chat. Being wisdom based too, I think it's safe to say that the cleric spells work through you in a similar way to druid spells through the Animus Mundi. How do I access your magic? What are we to each other, really?"
While on the train, Tempest commandeered the entire cart we were in for her squad. I spent the first hour helping Tempest demonstrate my abilities, my shape shifting, what spells I'd learned, and what ones I could cast indefinitely and what ones required me to expend my limited stamina. Each of them were attentive, though some looked like they were more scared than impressed.
When that was over, I excused myself to one corner of the cart, and sat with Archimedes nearby for the remainder of the trip. We discussed what we could, but we definitely didn't become friends. He saw me as some unworthy punk which just got unlucky and that he wound up having to babysit. I, meanwhile, still saw him as a kidnapper.
I still had no desire to enjoy his company, but he had at least been forthright with me from the start. There was also the fact that he made no attempt to urge me to any action, just lay down facts openly and let me make my own choice. Those two things made it possible for me to cooperate with him despite my bitter feelings for him, at least on a rudimentary level.
He didn't like calling me master, as he still saw himself as a superior being, but the spell that gave him physical form also restricted his use of that form. His actions as a familiar were bound to me and my orders. When it came to the catalyzing of the cleric magic as a spirit, however, he was just as in charge over that as I was in charge over his physical form. I literally couldn't cast any more than a cantrip as a cleric without his cooperation.
"So that's why I had so much trouble getting the seal seed going yesterday?"
"Yes. Your access to quintessence is but a trickle without calling upon my aid. Once established, however, it will be pretty simple to call to me, unlike in the forest. I had to practically force the connection open from my end to help you. Were you not so passionate, I might not have heard your call to anyone listening."
I leaned back on the seat, my head hitting the wall, and gave a good, long sigh. "Then what can I call you? We're not friends. You're not my master and you're certainly not my servant, at least outside of being my familiar. What are we? What links us together besides circumstance?"
Archimedes looked over at the rest of the squad in the cart, doing various things from quietly meditating to packing and managing medical supplies to checking their weapons and armor over.
"To aid the natives of this world. To close the rift and tip the scales of this war in their favor. That is something you chose to do on your own, yes?"
"Sorta? I mean I'm kinda earning my freedom in the process."
The owl looked back to me. "But even when you were free, you chose to aid the Fey. You chose to help a people that you owed nothing."
I looked at him weird and nodded.
"That too is what I chose to do when I was going to become the champion sent here, and when I volunteered to render myself a spirit after I could no longer be the champion."
He came up to my hand and placed one of his talons on it. "It may be at different levels of conviction, but we both desire to aid the people of this world."
As I lifted my arm to a perch position, he hopped to it and looked at me face to face.
"That is one thing we have in common. So what does that mean to you then, Moss?"
I paused as the train started its final approach to the last station on the line. Rather, the last station left on what was left of the line. Once it stopped and the ponies started getting their things together, I stopped bracing myself for the stop and looked at Archimedes.
With a furled brow, I continued our quiet conversation. "I refuse to call you lord or anything that implies worship, and I don't think you'd want that anyway. We aren't friends, but we are working to a common goal. Allies seems to be a bit of a..." I looked back at the group for a second, then back at him. "...an impersonal a term. In regards to age and know how, we definitely aren't equals, but..."
I lifted a single finger in easy reach of his talons. "Partners?"
He looked at the finger with squinted eyes, then back at me with that same squint. I could tell he was thinking hard on it.
After a moment, he responded. "Only if it means I have permission to not have to call you 'master' as your familiar. If we are partners, it's both ways."
I gave a nod to him in confirmation followed by him taking my finger in his talon much akin to a hand shake.
"Agreed."
"Water!" I cried out in the middle of the rundown town. I had been gasping for air the moment I left the train, trying to get used to the local desert heat. Everypony seemed to be looking at me weird as I stumbled with my personal escort to the supply depot against orders.
"Water! I need water!" I called to the supply clerk at the front.
With Tempest and my escort confirming I was with them, the supply clerk pointed me to the nearest barrel of water in his area.
I all but tumbled over myself to get to the barrel. With a wave of my hand, I commanded a portion of the water to come up out of the barrel and soak my head and hair, letting the water drain down and cool the rest of me for an immediate measure. I then grabbed as many water-skins next to the barrel as I could and fed water into them with my shape water cantrip again until they were each halfway full. Once I sealed them up, I went about putting them around my body, under my furs. Once I had them secured in spots that wouldn't get in my way, I pulled my hand close to my chest and performed a grasping action, freezing the water in the water skins. Finally feeling the sweet relief of something to combat the desert heat being compounded within my thick furs, I sighed in content.
Tempest looked at me expectantly.
"Better?" She asked with a measured amount of vinegar to her voice. "Now that you got that under control, we need to get to the briefing. You're lucky the local troop knew you were coming."
"Yes, I'm good now." I answered, starting to get a grip on my breathing.
She gave me that familiar look that told me my amulet had stopped working, but just shook her head and signaled me to follow her.
We went towards the town square where every squadron of different species seemed to be gathering. I saw various snips and snarls from the dragons. Many of the ponies gave me their own form of stink eye and whispers, though not all of them. The two squadrons of griffins didn't seem to be too disturbed by my presence, but I did seem to get a few curious looks from a hand full of them.
"Remember the order from before! The supposed invader you see is not a threat! Let him and his guard escort through!" I heard a stallion call out in a commanding voice from a speaker.
The squads grumbled but otherwise parted ways for my group. When we reached our destination, there was a makeshift stand made of whatever lumber was around that looked solid enough to still build with. On top of that stand was a white stallion dressed in what looked like the armor and rankings of a medieval general.
When Tempest gestured me to follow up onto the stage, I got a good look at his worn face and the scrapes and scars all around his body that his grooming tried its best to hide. If I could deduce one thing from this stallion, it was that he was a leader that led by example, fighting right alongside his troops.
"Prince Shining Armor!" Tempest addressed him with a salute. "I have brought the package to the front most outpost of Appaloosa as ordered!"
"Thank you, Lieutenant." He brought the microphone up and spoke into it, letting the entire audience hear. "But he's not a package, Lieutenant Tempest. He's a friend and ally in our fight."
Turning to me, he continued to speak into the microphone.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Moss. I've heard so much about you."
With the understanding of him being royalty, I knelt down part way and bowed the rest, but couldn't stop staring at him when I did so.
He waved me up out of the bow with a blush, and put the microphone back to where it was before.
"What are you looking at?" He asked in a normal volume.
I turned my eyes to the floor and shrank a little as I pressed my amulet. With a steeling of my nerves, I forced myself to look up again.
"Prince Shining Armor was it?" I asked him, getting a nod in return. "Well, you don't have any wings. The only royal ponies I've ever seen all had both horns and wings. Why do you only have a horn?"
I expected him to get insulted, to give me a scowl or a huff or a backlash, but he didn't do anything of the sort.
Instead, he just laughed the chillest, heartiest, friendliest laugh I had ever heard. When he calmed himself, he looked back at me with a grin that I could tell hadn't been on his face for days at the least. "There's more to the equestrian royal family than just alicorns. To give you the short version, I married into my title."
Grabbing the microphone again, the prince turned back out to the squadrons he led. "Many of you have spoken up in the past, wondering why we didn't simply drive the invaders back to their rift. The answer is that while we had the numbers and power to drive them back, we didn't have the ability to close the rift. Indeed, if we did we could have simply kept the rift from opening in the first place. But that has changed."
He turned to my group, gesturing the civilians up to the platform. As some of them stepped forward, he continued.
"Our research and development teams have managed to increase their overall ability to work with the rift significantly since then, but we still could not overcome a specific hurtle that prevents us from closing the rift properly now that it is open."
He then gestured towards me. "Our friend here, however, has unique properties to his magic that has managed to overcome that hurtle. Despite our best efforts and his full cooperation, we simply cannot replicate these properties with our own magic at the given time. Indeed, it has become clear that such research has no guarantee of success. Even if were to decide to take that risk, to do so would likely take years at the very least."
He gave a dramatic pause, scanning the audience for their reactions.
"That's time we simply do not have anymore. Our scouts and intelligence have discovered that the enemy is fortifying the area around the rift and are soon going to pour through with forces much stronger than before. Among other new threats that we are unsure of, we believe this will include far fiercer fighters, as well as more deadly weapons and technology, and worse of all; many magic users. If we do not act now and seal up the rift, the war will drag on for years, possibly decades."
The crowd gave a collective gasp then fell silent.
"But that is why our friend Moss is here. We can't close the rift on our own, but Moss and our team of specialists can work in tandem and cut off those reinforcements, permanently. We just have to get them there and protect them while they do their thing."
He raised his hoof and spoke with a great passion, "So be prepared! For now we are going on the offensive! We are finally driving them out!"
The crowd cheered as he did this, followed by a loud explosion in the direction of the desert version of a hill just outside of town. From that direction, an exhausted pony came running.
Once he was at the foot of the stage, he took a few gasps then called to the prince. "Shining Armor! The dragons at the mesa nest are picking on their medic again! They've trapped him in the old mine shafts!"
Shining Armor put a hoof to his temple and rubbed it, hard, then turned to look at the pillar of smoke coming from the base of the mesa.
"I have to cut this briefing short. Continue to prepare as your commanding officers instruct," Shining Armor spoke into the microphone then went to leave the stage.
Turning to me as he passed, he showed a worn and ragged expression. "Excuse me, Moss. I wanted to get to know you a bit better, but I've got some internal affairs to settle... again."
Struggles of Mind and Might. (Chapter 23, Battle for the Rift, Part 4.)
As Prince Shining Armor went to the mesa, Tempest could see the desire on my face. With a role of her eyes and gesture of her head, Tempest ordered the squadron to follow him.
When we arrived at the foot of the mesa, I could see dragons flying into and out of the area at the top. A mine entrance was at the base, with a sturdy lift rigged to take cargo to the top of the mesa a couple yards away from the entrance.
Small amounts of smoke could be seen coming out of the entrance, but more importantly, the entrance was completely collapsed into a fresh pile of rubble.
"Mandible! Are you in there? Are you hurt?" The prince yelled into the mine.
"Y-yes! I'm f-fine! I hurt my wing when the c-collapse hap-p-happened, but otherwise I'm f-fine!"
The prince pulled back with a look of worry on his face. "His voice. He's suppressing a panic attack."
He then looked at the rubble, and up to the top of the Mesa. "We need to get to him soon. He's just barely an adult by his kind's standards and hasn't fully gotten over his nyctophobia. If we leave him in the dark of that mine too long then his phobia will take over and he'll hurt himself."
He looked at Tempest and Plasma Wave. "Tempest, take that soldier and any flyers you have in your squad up the mesa. Do what you can top side. See if you can get him out through the top entrance. I'll work with the remaining troops and see what we can do from this end."
With Tempest and Plasma Wave running to the lift and working the crank to go up and the pegasi among the squad flying up to aid as well, the prince turned back to the entrance and shouted again.
"Remember your emergency response training, private! Stay focused! Help is coming!"
With this, he ordered a soldier to go get more help for the cave in then started analyzing what was left of the entrance within the derbies. "It could be moved, but it would take too much time to do it without risking another collapse."
I looked at the entrance along side him. "The gaps between the rocks are too small for ponies to fit through without shaking something loose and risking further collapse, but I could fit in if I shape shift into something small like a ferret."
The prince looked at me with a face mixed with both admiration and tear welling pain.
"I'm sorry, Moss, but you are too mission critical right now. As much as I want to save Mandible, I can't take the risk of losing you in there too. Stay out of the mine. That's an order."
I clenched my fist, but saw the logic in his order. I spoke with a hint of rising frustration, "How else can we get to him?"
"Send me." I heard inside my mind.
"What?" I called out, looking up to see Archimedes descending to me from his constant watch overhead.
"Send me. You can't go, but I can. Even if I lose my body as a familiar, my spirit can still act as your clerical catalyst and help you seed the seal. Send me."
As he perched on my arm, I looked over to the prince.
"My owl thinks he can help."
When he gave me an odd look, I tapped my temple. "We have a mental link, and I can teleport him past the rubble." I then told Archimedes to pick up a clod of dirt on the ground. When he flew down and did so, I grasped my wand, still stuck in my sleeve and mentally willed him to channel my magic. With little trouble, I managed to get the clod of dirt in his talon to glow with light.
"We can calm him down and buy time."
The prince looked at Archimedes with a bit of shock, back at the mine, and then at the crew he had left to work with, and the soldier running back to the town.
When he looked at me with uncertainty, I answered the question he didn't need to ask. "Even if he dies, it won't affect anything mission critical, and it was his idea."
His face barely had time to shift is eyebrows up before they shot back down in the scowl fit for a general having to make a tough call.
"Do it."
* * *
Within minutes, we managed to get Archimedes to the other side of the rubble, got a stone to glow in his talon, and located Mandible near the entrance of what they told me was the elevator to the top. In order to stay in communication range with Archimedes when he turned a corner, I had to move a little ways down the mesa base.
"I see him! I see a bird c-carrying a l-light!" Mandible yelled to us.
"Good! Sit tight and he'll come to you!" The prince called out to him in joy.
"Tell them that I can see in the dark. Might help calm him further."
I turned to the prince and called to him, "Archimedes says to tell him that he can see in the dark! Should help calm him down!"
The prince simply beamed at this and turned back to the mine again. "Our friend we sent you can see in the dark, he'll keep a look out for you!"
"He's bruised up pretty bad, partner. Do you think we should heal him?"
"O-k-kay! I'll t-trust the bird to keep w-watch!" Mandible called out again as I waved the prince over a little.
"Archimedes says he's hurt worse than he's letting on. He's wanting to know if we should heal him."
The prince grimaced as he came over. "From what I'm told your healing is great for pony anatomy and likely most mammals, but Mandible's kind has a very different anatomy from any mammal. Healing with your magic may stabilize him, but it could also mess something else up even worse in the process. We need to get him checked out by another of his kind. So hold off for now. If he looks like he's about to keel over, fine, do it, but otherwise wait."
I looked back at the blank mesa wall with a frustrated sigh and put the fingers of one hand to my temple, mostly for symbolic reasons.
"Negative... Partner. The prince says we need to let his own kind heal him if we can. He gave us the clear if it's absolutely necessary, but otherwise hold off."
"...You need to see this then. Use my eyes. And before you ask, just will it like you did to make the stone glow."
I knew what he was talking about from the game, but I wasn't exactly comfortable with testing it in the field. Regardless, I had to do something, so I braced myself against the rock wall and closed my eyes.
Almost instantly, it looked and sounded as if I were in a dark cave. My field of vision moved on its own, down to the body of a grey bug the rough size and shape of a pony. Archimedes looked right at his horn. It was wrapped in bandages but clearly healing from an old crack down its side. Then he turned to the bug's leg, with a fresh wound still bleeding out, and to a full medical kit on the bug's side. Finally, he turned to the bugs face. His eyes were focusing heavily on the glowing stone to combat his phobia, which was good in itself, but the look on his face was awful.
I didn't want to admit to what I was seeing, but there was no denying it. Mandible wasn't just fighting his fear of the dark. He had the look of someone that wanted to give up.
Snapping out of my familiar vision, I called out to the prince and explained what I saw.
* * *
The prince psychologically wrestled with Mandible and got him to treat his wound, but he looked even worse emotionally as I peaked through Archimedes' eyes.
"I'm useless! I can't fight! My damaged horn won't let me shape shift! Now I can't even fly anymore with my hurt wing! There's nothing more I can do with my life! I'm a waste of hive resources! I just want to die and let the hive move on!"
"The hive isn't like that anymore!" I heard the prince call to him through the echoing of the mine.
"Bugs are bugs! Changelings are no different! When one gets hurt too bad, the others just leave it behind! That's what's supposed to happen!"
Archimedes heard a sound from above, looking up, we saw a pony coming down the elevator shaft on a rope. With the pony touching down on the ground and coming forward a few steps into the light, I could recognize the pony as Plasma Wave.
"I don't believe that for a second, kid. An injury isn't the end of your life. By Celestia, it's barely a bump in the road."
"How would you know?" Mandible turned around and snarled at him. "For all twelve years of my life that's how it's been for any drone or grub that couldn't keep up from getting hurt!"
Plasma Wave looked at him with a frustrated, yet extremely smug grin. "Twelve years, you say? Well I'll see your twelve years, and up you another two decades!"
With this, he brought his de-feathered wing forward to bare, causing Mandible to reel back in shock. "And from what I'm told, your hive had a major overhaul in management recently. With your hive rediscovering itself, you would be doing it a disservice to not let them try to learn how to deal with their injured now."
He knelt down and offered the second harness loop to the young bug. "If your hive's new ways still wind up saying that you need to die, that's... fine." I could sense a bitter undertone with the last word of that sentence. "But let the hive come to that decision themselves. Don't make that decision for them."
With a moment practically paused in time, Mandible stood there while gazing into Plasma Wave's eyes and soaking in what he said. Then, as time seemed to start again, Mandible lowered his head and gimped forward, putting his body into the harness loop.
While the rescue was taking place, the civilian members of the squad had been investigating the entrance. By the time Mandible was about finished being lifted out of the hole, the prince, a civilian and I were on the lift.
"The cave in was deliberate?" the prince asked as he operated one side of the lift mechanism.
The civilian nodded as he and I worked the other side together, combining our meager muscles to match the prince's moderate build.
"The timbers were still too new and there were several fractures in the stone rubble inconsistent with a natural cave in. It was struck hard by something." He looked above us, to the dragon nest. "Or some creature."
I could swear the prince practically went cross eyed with a migraine as we reached the top.
Turning to the small crowd around the top entrance of the mine, the prince marched straight forward. "Garble! I'm through with you!"
A red drake about twice my size looked up from the crowd and turned in our direction. "Hey! I didn't do anything! The little bug tripped and fell down the hole himself!"
Several of the pegasi that were in the group immediately surrounded me and the prince as the air got thick.
"And you know the arrangement." Garble continued to strut up to the prince confidently. "Empress Ember has forced us to follow pony orders on the battlefield, but if you want to impose your rules on our nests, you do it dragon style!"
He punched one curled up claw into his other claw. "Power by dominance! You want command up here? You take it by force!"
It was at this time I noticed Tempest, Plasma Wave and Scraps surrounding the injured bug, guarding him against the dragons. Scraps had glass bottles of a clear liquid in his hand, and Tempest was holding a strange spherical rock cluster in the frog of her hoof. One dragon had his arm encased in stone, locked into a blocking position, and another looked like he had a severe acid burn on his face and upper torso. The rest of the dragons were backed off, holding their line but otherwise letting the scene with their nest's leader play out first.
When I saw Speaks with Talons jump out of the bag of holding on Tempest's side to compensate for the reduced ranks, I realized how he and Scraps had gotten here.
Garble looked down at the prince. "So what is it going to be? Are you going to challenge me today, mamby pamby pony? Or are you going to take your little bug charity case and run back to your tiny pony town?"
When it came to a tactical battle with troops, the prince was clearly the superior fighter, hands down. But in a cage match against this dragon? Not so much.
After a deep breath and a sigh, the prince whistled sharply while not taking his eyes off Garble. With a gesture of his hoof, he ordered Tempest's group to retreat to the lift I was on.
With a smirk on his face as the group retreated, Garble looked up at me and gave a small laugh.
"Well look here boys! We've got an invader up here in the nest!" With the cocky and smug tone he was using, it was clear that he knew exactly who I really was, but didn't care. "Lets show him what happens to his kind when they enter dragon territory!"
With a leap, Garble was in the air, flying over the group, over the lift and to the back side of the lift, where he promptly plucked me into the air.
With the height of the mesa and his sharp turn upward, I was several hundred feet into the air. My mind went into overdrive, estimating scenarios of how this might play out and what methods I could use to get out of this. Not many came to mind, and they all basically ended with me falling.
With a deep breath, I reached for my wand and just about set off a lighting bolt, to be followed up by a feather fall spell.
I wasn't able to execute that plan, however, as Garble tumbled over backwards when a blast hit him, throwing me up into the air with a sharp spin.
I could see a dark blur zoom past me as I did my best to simply hold onto my wand, my only way to catch myself from this high up.
As I felt myself coming out of the sharper part of the spin and starting to fall again, I found several more blurs catching me.
I was carried back to the lift by a group of bug ponies that looked like Mandible, save for being an array of pastel colors instead of grey.
Looking forward again, I saw a darker, and slightly larger, bug pony yell.
"Nest Commander Garble! You have abused the changelings sent to your nest for too long!"
Garble got up and started brushing the dust off of himself, unconcerned with what the bug was saying.
"I, Changeling General Pharynx, do here by strip this nest of any and all privilege to call upon changeling aid!"
Garble looked over at the dark bug with an uncaring glare as the group finished getting Mandible settled on the lift.
"But since you only seem to understand violence, I'll just have to explain it to you in your language. Thankfully, unlike the rest of my kind, I still speak it fluently."
A seething anger could be seen from the bugs eyes as he twisted one of his front hooves back and forth, digging it into the dust on the ground slightly. Meanwhile, Garble casually walked forward without saying a word and the lift started descending.
"Commander Garble! In accordance to the ways of dragon succession, I challenge you for leadership of this nest!"
The last thing I saw before I lost sight of the two was Garble managing to smirk and extending a claw back to his other dragons, telling them to keep back.
I saw my human co workers slacking off and giggling up a storm like they were still in high school, even though they had graduated years ago. Meanwhile, I busted my ass and found myself having a hard time making ends meat.
A loud noise came from outside, with a man yelling into a megaphone about a way to have an easier life, for practically no effort. My co workers dropped the stuff they were supposed to be stocking and ran out the door. Although I wanted to just get back to work, I found myself outside with them, hearing the rallying cry of the next crazed person seeking a crowd.
Ponies were chained up, being marched up and systematically sorted out like life stock. I could swear I saw a thestral look up at me of his own accord, perfectly calm, before bringing his head back down with the others.
I was forced onto a stand where what looked like an upstanding guy came up to me and gave a smug grin of confidence. He gestured to the crowd he was stirring up, pointing to the Stargate like portal to Equestria.
"It's all ours for the taking." He put on a hat and an armband as a small mustache appeared on his face, becoming the splitting image of Hitler himself. "You just need to pull that trigger."
I looked down and saw a simple pistol in my hand. In front of the barrel was a frightened Fluttershy.
"Shoot it. They're in the way of our happiness."
I gave him a look of disgust and lowered the gun.
"They ain't people, son," I heard an old fashioned KKK leader speak to me in a tone akin to a preacher speaking to one of their disciples, only with twisted logic, "We're right to do what we need to do to spread god's word because we're god's chosen. How could we be wrong if we're us?"
A generic shaven headed white supremacist pointed his gun up to me while the KKK dragon pulled my arm with the gun back up to Fluttershy's face.
"Either you kill 'dis 'ding, or we kill you. Simple as 'dat."
"Now that isn't necessary, gentlemen," A rich man in a white suit stereotypical of an oil millionaire interjected. "Why kill 'em, when we can work em for all their worth? It might be a little slower, but ain't no laws against a man owning a pony. It would take a few decades to ensure they have none of them busybody animal rights hippies backing them, but soon enough we'll have a strong south again, ripe 'n full of slaves. Like it should be."
The KKK leader was still holding my arm as my hand went limp and did its best to pull the gun away from her, but failed.
"Her name is Fluttershy. She most definitely is a person and I don't care about having an easy life. I made my peace with that a long time ago. For all I care, you can all go to hell."
The KKK leader reached for the gun in my hand and I heard a loud bang.
Waking up with a start, I sat up in the tent that I was allotted and screamed. It wasn't the bang itself that startled me awake, but rather that I didn't know which gun the bang came from.
I took a few breaths to calm myself and realize it was just a dream then reached for the amulet next to my bedroll.
When I saw the fangs of a large bug gripping the amulet just inches from my hand, I jumped back in panic.
"Sweet-titty-fucking-mother-of-pearl!" I called out as I pulled my more recent memories together to recognize one of Mandible's kind passing me my translation amulet.
"Cec you have a bad dream?" he asked as I took the amulet and put it on.
With a nod I pressed my amulet and pulled myself out of my bedroll.
"Yea. A jumbled mess of old fears brought back to the surface, but I'll be fine."
I went about picking up the rest of my outfit. I had taken it off to better fit into my bedroll. Those furs were warm enough to keep me warm in the forest, but not warm enough to keep me warm in the desert night and having them and the bag was a bit too awkward to sleep. The amulet against my bare skin didn't help either.
With the firs back on and the water skins frozen and in place to counteract the excessive heat I'd strain under otherwise once the sun was high, I stepped out into the morning hustle and bustle of the camp.
I was quickly found by Tempest, who gestured me and the rest of the squad to follow her to a gathering point.
I spotted princess Twilight and a tall bearded pony, covered in a protective coal like glitter all over their body. They were administering the same treatment to the pony soldiers as well as the griffin mercenaries assigned to our group.
The rest of the princess's close friends were there too, likewise covered in the stuff. Fluttershy was so covered that none of her fur or mane showed through. It took me looking directly at her eyes to recognize her. Compliments of Discord, no doubt.
There were also a few new ponies I didn't recognize, carrying an assortment of odd items ranging from a shovel to a mask and even a banged up shield.
"Is that every creature?" The princess called out to the area as I closed the distance between us, "I know we're the ones who are mission critical, but I value all of your lives and have energy to spare. There's no need to be shy, I can grant every creature a body buffer."
She looked directly at the dragons as she said this, all of whom were untouched by her spell. They probably did out of pride or spite looking at the glares they were giving. Garble was not present and instead there seemed to be an older and more seasoned dragon—not quite as powerful or as big as Garble but still clearly the most dominant among those present—leading them instead.
I approached her and pressed on my amulet again.
"Body buffer?" I asked her somewhat quietly, "Is that what you're calling it?"
She gave me the same death glare that she had given her rainbow maned friend in the past. I met that glare with an equally strong deadpan "I'm calling bullshit" face.
Finally, when I could feel that she got the point, I broke contact, sighed and pulled out my wand. Pointing it up into the air, I pushed a bit of extra effort to up cast the spell an extra level. The spell Starlight taught me the night before I left.
"Corpus pulvinus!" I spoke in a bitter voice as a spray of the same coal like glitter flew out of my wand and attached itself to me like iron filings to a magnet. It was a little denser than most of the others, but still nowhere near as dense as the one covering Fluttershy.
I knew the spell's real name, how it worked and the school of magic it belonged to. It was called false life. It was designed to give a buffer made of a crude imitation of life that would take damage in your stead when you got hurt. It was a spell that sat squarely just inside the outer edges of necromancy. My version wasn't able to target anyone but myself, but apparently it was one of the many spells they had adapted and tweaked. There was no way the princess wouldn't know what this spell really was.
I wasn't upset with her using it, just a little frizzled with her fudging the name to hide the true nature of the spell. Pretending something useful wasn't also potentially dangerous was a good way to get someone hurt by not taking it seriously. In my mind, the benefits just didn't out weigh the risks, at least ninety nine percent of the time.
"OK, listen up!" Tempest called out to the entire area, "The rest of the forces under prince Shining Armor's command have taken the bulk of the load for us, clearing a path and will be securing the area around the rift within the hour. We need to simply protect the rift specialists, the pillars of light, the element bearers and the package..."
She paused, closed her eyes and pursed her lips bitterly. "...That is to say, Moss, from any potential enemies left in the area as we make our way behind and meet up with the main force at the rift."
Tempest gave the order to move out, looked at the wand in my hand and the coal like glitter on my person.
With a properly upset tone, she looked at me. "Stop wasting your energy. We need you to put out as much as you can once we get there. Your shape shifting and zero spells only. That's an order, Moss."
As she turned to march, I called out to her, "They're called cantrips," loud enough to know she heard me before slinging my shield on my back and following behind.
* * *
As we walked, the forces guarding us would occasionally take out the stray zombie that the other forces had missed, but we were mostly just marching without difficulty. Meanwhile, the princess and the bearded unicorn seemed to be producing a field that kept our "body buffers" from wearing off in an hours time, like mine normally would.
While we marched, the dark colored bug from the day before came up to me. He had a few good scrapes and burn marks over his body, but was still in fighting condition.
"So you're alright. I guess that means you won the fight?"
He nodded in a cold manner. It wasn't a bitter expression like with Tempest, just cold. "Yes. I gained authority over the nest and put Wild Storm back in charge."
With that he turned to me and cocked his head in curiosity. "And I've heard of you. You're a shape shiftier, like us, right?"
I looked at him with a bit of surprise. "Like you?" I asked in curiosity.
With a smirk, a green flame engulfed him for just a second, before suddenly finding myself looking at my own mug.
With a few steps, he lost his balance and changed back with another wave of green flame.
I stopped marching for a moment as my mind put the pieces together, ultimately having to catch up when Tempest yelled for me.
"You're the same species as that creature I met in the forest. I didn't really recognize you without the..."
I looked up at his head and noticed a small set of horns along with their unicorn like horn. "Without the horns being so pronounced. Come to think of it, you share a lot of traits with that guy that I don't see others of your kind have."
He gave a small huff of dry confidence. "Of course you don't see the extra horns on other changelings. I'm a lesser royal. And for the record, if you were fighting me back then instead of King Thorax, my brother, you'd be dead."
He lifted his hoof to stop me from apologizing. "And you don't need to apologize. You didn't pick the fight, and you not only let him live, but gave him your valued healing water. For the given circumstances, that was above and beyond honorable in our eyes."
He had an awkward look on his face as he did his best to give me a genuine smile. "At the end of that fight, you opened my brother's eyes to how weak he was as a fighter and tactician. He's taken my lessons more seriously since then. So..."
He paused in thought as we marched, as if trying to put his words together or pulling something from a distant corner of his mind. "So as the ponies have been teaching us, 'thank you.'"
With this he started to walk away but I called out to him, "Wait!"
With his stoic face restored, he turned back to me again. "Was there something else?"
I nodded and glanced to his scrapes and burns. "So what happened between you and the dragon. The fight I mean?"
He furled his brow and thought for a moment. "If you are asking if ex commander Garble is alive, the answer is yes. That said though, he won't be moving from his bed any time soon. The slow set paralysis spell he got hit with when we first arrived slowed him enough to where I was able to take him out without killing him during the fight. Thanks to the long term effects of the spell prince Shining Armor taught me, he will be fully paralyzed throughout the entire time it will take for his wounds to heal. The ponies say the spell is easy enough to dispel, but due to his history of being uncooperative with both changelings and ponies, they've opted to not tell him that."
* * *
We were coming close to the end of our march when Speaks with Talons came up to me, both receiving and giving notable glares from the griffin mercenaries.
With his eyes not fully leaving his surroundings, he asked, "How are you fairing, battle brother?"
I gave a glance at the griffins then answered, "My feet are getting tired from the march, but I think I'm still fairing better than you seem to be. Will you be alright with them?"
He gave a barely audible growl as he answered. "Raven heads do not trust eagle heads because they are known for having no sense of honor. They in turn do not think very highly of the raven heads due to a reputation we have for the reverse."
He shook his head for a moment before taking another look around. "As long as they stay loyal to the ones filling their pockets and do not endanger our mission, nothing will come of it. Tempest says their leader keeps them in line, but we will see."
He finally broke his constant searching for potential trouble and gave me his full attention.
"I did not come to you to speak of my kinds inner politics. I am in conflict in another manner. I fear I must ask for your forgiveness."
I cocked my head at him. "For what?"
He closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them again, beads of tears had started to form. "For the dual relationship I now face with you. Unlike today, when you aided the Fey, you did so of your own free will. We survived fights together that either of would have died in separately. Again, fights no creature forced you to be in. Fights you chose to aid in at your own peril, and of your own free will. When this happened, you became my battle brother in the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of my tribe."
The tears now flowed freely. "But now I am the representative of the Fey, and as such, they have ordered me..."
He took a gasp as he had trouble forming his words. Instead of forcing him to finish, I did it for him.
"They ordered you to take me out if I betray the mission."
He looked up at me and steadied his breathing. "If you fail to set the seed of the seal, yes."
He swiped a talon at the sand in anger, kicking up an impressive amount to the side. "What kind of creatures order a brave to kill their battle brother?"
I closed my eyes and calmly shook my head. Oddly, I wasn't surprised by this news. So I put a hand between his shoulders.
"The kind that are afraid for their very lives. And if I were to betray the mission like many of my kind might do, I'd have no right to be called anybody's battle brother. You'd be right to slay me then."
I could feel his muscles lose their tension as he processed this.
"In fact," I continued, "You were pretty stupid even bringing this up to me. I could have told you the fey were wrong to do so to try to turn you against-"
One of the griffon mercenaries shouted out. "Take cover!"
Hardly before I could react, I heard a loud voice mockingly cry "EX-TERM-I-NATE!" and Speaks with Talons was planting my head into the sand, with him mostly on top of me.
That didn't stop me from feeling the extreme heat of the fireball I heard exploding around us, burning right through my false life barrier.
The fireball was over almost as quickly as it came. As soon as Speaks with Talons got off of me, I called out "Barada," with as nap of my fingers to extinguish the flames on my shield and furs. They were still intact enough to finish the mission, but they would definitely need to be replaced soon after.
Standing up, I saw every creature in a mild panic, rushing around and checking on each other. The Griffin mercenaries were firing more arrows than I could count at an unseen target on the other side of a sand pit, while the changelings swooped around to tend to the wounded.
The dragons were flying about and looking for any remaining enemy troops. Meanwhile, I looked around and saw a pony laying on the ground, burnt black and presumed dead, suddenly flinch and strain.
Running over to him, I recognized Plasma Wave, unlucky enough to be caught in the middle of the blast and apparently taking it in full force. Had it not been for his barrier, he likely would have been dead already.
Thinking quickly, I carefully placed my hands in a specific pattern and verbally called out to Archimedes to perform a healing spell. "Partner, hel-!"
Before I could finish making my connection to Archimedes, I felt a strong set of talons knocking the wind out of me and pushing my scorched side down into the sand, ending the spell before I could even get it started.
"Save your energy!" I heard the dragon leader, Wild Storm, call out before he hunched himself over top of me.
I twisted my face enough to see the dragon biting down on the cork stopper of a large bottle. After spitting the cork out unceremoniously, he poured a small portion of the pungent potion over Plasma Wave's throat, letting it heal, then promptly lifted his head slightly and carefully aided the pony in drinking it.
Charred skin flaked off and new, tender skin emerged in its place. All the while, I could see the muscles in his body relaxing with relief while his face clearly was forcing himself to drink the potion. I could tell the potion tasted as bad as it smelled just by the way he had to force each mouthful down, eventually grabbing the bottle in his mouth as soon as his mouth could.
Once the bottle was empty, Plasma Wave weakly stood up and Wild Storm got off of me.
I stood, brushed off some of the sand and called out "Nikto" with a sweeping motion of my hand a few times to clean out the sand that found its way into my blisters.
By this time, the battle had died down and the griffins were dragging in a corpse with what looked like five or six quivers worth of arrows sticking out of it.
Seriously, it looked like a dense forest of arrows with shafts thicker than my thumb sticking out of him.
With the pitch black skin, delicate features that definitely weren't human, small frame and pointed ears, I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking at. The best guess I had for it was a drow, or a dark elf.
My eyes also seemed to want to twitch back and forth as I looked at the corpse, as if trying to focus on something that wasn't quite there.
"It was a solo attacker. Must have had a death wish taking on a group with as many archers as we had."
Tempest looked at me for whatever Intel I could give. In response, I summoned Archimedes to my arm as I pressed my amulet.
"If the books are right, any male of the dark elves are considered expendable, and are severely punished for disobeying orders by any females that rule over them. This guy having a death wish is entirely possible to avoid that wrath."
I shook my head in uncertainty, and asked the only known ally that had first hand experience of the other world. "Is that right, partner?"
Archimedes was looking at the corpse with a slack beak, his eyes likewise twitching ever so slightly back and forth, as if trying to focus on something that wasn't quite there.
"Partner?" I called to him mentally when he wasn't responsive.
With this, he snapped out of his daze, looked at me and nodded vigorously. "Yes! Yes, this is a dark elf, and they do indeed punish failure severely." His tone seemed to be holding back a sense of joy.
With seeing his nod, Tempest gave a sigh and looked around to get her bearings. Every one of the element bearers and the ponies who were apparently called the "pillars of light" were being medically tended to by changelings, but weren't much worse for wear. Fluttershy was the only one that was unharmed, and still had a few flakes of the coal like glitter on her, aside from the griffin mercenaries. Most of them were out of the blast range.
"Scraps," Tempest called into her bag of holding.
With this Scraps jumped out of the bag.
"Scraps, I need you to escort the creatures that are too wounded to fight back to the Appleloosa camp. Wild Storm, do you have a spare sky claw that can scout for them?"
Wild Storm came forward, stroked his beard and looked back at his dragons. He pointed at the smallest among them and gestured him forward.
"Slate. I'm trusting you with this. You are my sharpest eye and fastest wing among the young drakes under my command. I know you want to join in on the fight, but you will do this first."
He looked deep into the young drake's eyes and glared at him in dominance. "You will escort every one of the injured sent back to the pony town safely before returning. If even one creature isn't safely returned then you had better not join the fight unless you want me to skin you alive then feed your bloodied carcass to a roc when I find out."
I thought he was joking at first, but when the older dragon took his claw and carefully scraped it on the belly of the young drake, I wasn't so sure.
Noticing that there were indeed children among the dragons, I whispered. "Drakes?"
I raised my hand to my amulet so as to be ready to press it if it had shut off, but Speaks with Talons caught my wrist.
"Dragons are different among the races of Equis. Any dragon that can fly is considered a worthy warrior, even the children. Some even gain this title through deeds before they are able to fly. Slate may be young but he is more than capable. I can teach you more about them later if you wish, but do not question it here."
I lowered my hand as he let go and gave him an affirming nod.
After it was all settled, Scraps, Slate, Plasma Wave, one griffin and another two pony guards and one of the specialists ponies were ordered back to Appleloosa. The injured changelings decided among themselves which one that was deemed the most injured and would be the one sent back to tend the others. The rest of them simply tended to their wounds and shook their heads when offered the chance to head back.
A quick mass spell was used to reinitialize the "body buffer" by the pony with the now singed beard before we parted ways with the injured.
Once we caught up with the main forces at the area near the rift, we were met by the prince.
"Shining!" The princess called.
"Twily! You made it here safe! I was worried." The prince called back as they hugged.
After a few seconds, the prince grew grim. With a bitter look on his face, he pushed out of the hug and looked at the group.
"Though many of the enemies fled into the surrounding area, we've solidly secured the rift, even more thoroughly than we had hoped for."
He looked squarely at Tempest, then at me.
"But there's been a development at the rift. I need you to follow me."
Upon reaching the rift, we found the area surprisingly not all that scarred with the signs of battle. There just a few small bits of derbies from smashed barrels, tents and the like and that's about it.
When I saw the rift, itself, however, it was an amazing sight. A fluxing ribbon of white energy, almost moving like a piece of fabric in the wind, and at the same time almost like a flame.
It was at least several yards taller than any tree in any normal forest. Near the center of the rift at the ground I could see the insides of a temple stone on the other side. Within that temple was a well dressed holy man carrying a shield not too dissimilar to mine in structure, save that it was made of metal. One big difference was the emblem of an open scroll on his, where as mine was otherwise blank besides the charring.
He stepped forward at the sight of me and fell just short of passing through before he stopped.
With a voice that echoed as if spoken from the back of a water filled cave, he called out to me in a thick accent.
"Greetings, Champion of Oghma." He turned to Archimedes. "And you too, old friend. It is good to see you both alive and well."
Hard Answers to Swallow (Chapter 26, Battle for the Rift, part 7.)
I looked at the human on the other side of the rift with a swirl of confused emotions while he looked back at me with a look that tried to comfort us, but still showed a sense of unease.
The priest closed his eyes. "I can see as much anger in your face as I do questions."
With a calm and slow hand, he took off his shield, tossed it behind him, then plucked the mace from his side with just his thumb and index finger and did the same with it.
"I will give as many answers as I have."
When I wasn't quite able to form my words due to the shock, the prince came up beside me and asked, "Why are your forces here at the rift instead of Bane's forces?"
The priest glanced at the prince, then back at me. When he saw I couldn't form a question, he turned back towards the temple with a sense of unease then looked directly at the prince.
"Because you are here. My master chose to approach his challenge to Bane in a less conventional manner than sending his army to fight over the lands directly. He knew your people were strong enough to fight back, and any army we send would likely do more harm than good, being far more like your enemy than yourselves. Instead, we've been working on this side of the rift, trying to hinder the forces of Bane before they even reach your world."
He looked at me and Archimedes.
"When we discovered you were attempting to close the rift, we coordinated our forces to hold this side for you, to aid you in sealing it. But know that we will not be able to hold it forever. We can give you another day before we will be forced to retreat, maybe two."
The prince gave a stoic face, but his tense body gave away the distrust in his next question. "How were you able to see into our world to discover our plans?"
The priest nodded in respect.
"A wise question. There is one rift long forgotten by your ancestors that has been open for a few thousand years due to being unattended. It was the sky rift. Our fore bearers under my master found the rift and guarded it quietly while also watching. When Bane's conquest of your world started, we knew the rift would no longer be safe. So when we sent our champion through-" He gestured to me. "We sent with him a sealing device with my delayed command to seal it just as he passed through. The sheer amount of raw quintessence donated by..."
He paused while gesturing to Archimedes, unsure as to what to call him.
"I've come to call him Archimedes."
The priest gave a smile as if he had just discovered a kitten with a bow tied to it. "Oh? That is the nickname they have stuck you with, old friend? That is positively adorable."
Archimedes puffed his feathers out in irritation. The priest stifled his grin and pressed on.
"Yes, well. The seal was forged just on your side of the sky rift with the inscriptions on the stone we sent through, then the raw quintessence shed from Archimedes was able to seal the rift up strong enough to keep it from being opened from our side, should we lose the rift."
He looked at a pony taking notes next to the prince and smiled again.
"It is a shame an immortal cannot aid such a seal directly without causing permanent harm to themselves, is it not, Discord?"
The pony rift specialist that came down with us stopped in his recording, looked up and slowly grew in size, changing shape and eventually forming the body of a furious draconequus.
"Come over to this side and I'll rip your throat out, priest." Discord's mere presence seemed to darken the room as he said this.
"That won't be necessary." The priest backed up a step and put his hands out apologetically. "And do not worry. None here, not even myself, know your original name. We only know the one that the Animus Mundi of that world gave you. We cannot force you to do anything as long as you remain on that world."
He turned back to the prince. "As for why we can still see through the seal, it is because my master knows the name of the one who made the seal. That is to say, my name. Even though it is now closed off, we can still observe simply by placing my name into the scrying spell. Though do be at ease, we cannot scry to places that cannot be seen from the rift."
The conversation prattled on between the priest and the prince. Meanwhile, Discord became more and more elaborate with his threats and taunts to the point that Fluttershy had to come over and ask him to stop.
"Just one last question," the prince called to the priest, "Why are you even helping us? What do you have to gain?"
The priest positively beamed at this question. With a hand to his chest he gave a brief bow.
"An excellent question indeed. In short, it has to do with my lord's namesake. Oghma is the god of ideas. Every rebellion, every feat of ingenuity, every song ever written or sang, indeed even every prayer ever offered all start with an idea. Every populated world has ideas in it, but so few we can observe are absent of what you would call the 'taint' of the gods for very long. They are quickly conquered and many of the ideas that can only form in the absence of the gods are destroyed or otherwise lost in the process."
He gestured out to us.
"Your world, however, is in a unique position. It is devoid of gods, and well fortified enough to have the potential to prevent any gods from returning. We wish to see it continue in this way so that we may observe it from afar through the rifts. Resources and temples are fleeting trifles in the scope of my lord's view of time, but the chance to observe the ideas you have formed, untainted by our observations, has been a truly rare treasure for him. Now that it has been threatened, he seeks to preserve as much of it as he can."
I decided to use my good luck charm to check for deception. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and settled as I pressed my amulet.
"It seems too good to be true," I called to the prince, "But either he's telling the truth or he's so good a liar that I can't even detect it."
The priest looked at me oddly. "You also doubt me, champion? Why did you agree to the mission if you do not trust us?"
My blood pressure practically shot through the roof at his statement and I lost all composure. "I didn't agree to diddly squat! You guys kidnapped me!"
It took a set of four talons and paws from Discord to keep me from jumping through the rift. I had a nice solid idea of some thick bear fangs at the priest's throat passing through my mind at the time.
The priest, meanwhile, was aghast at my statement. Although, judging by how he hadn't even stepped back, he was clearly not phased at my attempt to leap at him.
"I had no idea. My lord does withhold information from time to time, even from those highest in his order like myself. He spoke so highly of you and why he selected you as he prepared you for your travels. It never occurred to me to ask him if you had come willingly."
He shook his head and bowed apologetically towards me. "However, calling each other out on our actions is encouraged in our order, provided it is not done with malice. While I cannot properly atone for my lord's wrongdoing, I will at least let the entire order know about this. I hope that this knowledge will bring you some level of closure."
With Discord finally letting go, I folded my arms with a stern glare on my face.
"Not. One. Bit." I answered him coldly, before moving the conversation forward. "But why me? Why did you guys pick me?"
The priest smiled with a glint in his eye, almost as a grandparent would get when their grandchildren would gather for a story.
"My lord said your heart was practically made for this mission. You had no strong ties of loyalty to anyone, but still cherished life. You were a practical mind keen on finding useful situations, but disillusioned to the temptations of paths leading to quick gains. You also were strong in spirit and ready for battle, but not prone to do so. This combination had the best odds of you managing to make friendly contact with the natives and be willing to help them, while also having the least likely chance of being turned to the enemy's side should they approach you."
My jaw dropped as far as it could go. My fingers felt almost electric and a fire went up my body, ultimately collecting in my eyes as I processed him saying this as if praising me.
Catching my breath for a few moments, I barely managed to center myself enough to speak.
"In other words, I was just some tool. I was some puppet that you knew would do exactly what you wanted!"
The priest looked down and pondered on my words, ultimately giving a slight tilt of his head, acknowledging the validity of my argument.
"That is another way to see it. I cannot apologize any further, though, just acknowledge. Do you have any further questions?"
The prince and I shook our heads. With this understanding, the priest stepped back and away from the rift.
"I think it is time we start closing the rift then."
Every creature looked at me, expecting me to fetch the device I needed to get the seal started from my pocket. But I didn't go for my pocket. I just stood there and contemplated on what I needed to do. What I needed to do.
...Nothing happened as several moments of contemplation and indecision passed.
When I finally decided, I didn't go for my pocket. Instead, I went for the sleeve containing my wand.
I pulled it out, pointed it straight at Speaks with Talons and looked at him with the coldest hearted glare I could muster.
Bitter Choices (Chapter 27, Battle for the Rift, part 8)
"Don't move until I finish talking. I don't want to have to use this on you, battle brother." I tried to flex my tone on the words "battle brother" to give him a hint to cue him in, but I couldn't tell if I did it right.
Turning to the crowd for just a moment, then my gaze back on him, I called out loudly.
"And the rest of you hear me out to the end too, because I have a lot to say and you need to hear all of it. I have no further desire to seal this rift. I don't really care if it will end the war."
I could see Tempest, the prince, Fluttershy, even Discord and a handful of other creatures nearby become disturbed by this, but Speaks with Talons called out with an upraised talon. "Let him speak all of his peace before we judge him."
I gave a slight smirk on the cheek facing the griffon, while also shaking a little at the chill from Discord's fire breath not quite reaching my shoulder as he waited menacingly.
"I don't care if I have a death sentence hanging over my head. I don't care about the lives it will save, not right now at least."
I looked at the young princess who was apparently one of the special element bearers as well.
"I don't care if all the princesses and the leaders of every nation in this alliance came down here and groveled at my feet, begging me in the most undignified ways to close the rift. As a matter of principal, I wouldn't do it."
Speaks with Talons tensed a little on this, but held his ground.
"I don't mind trying to play by the rules where I can, but I hate being a tool. I hate being manipulated like a puppet, used and misled."
I could see Wild Storm's draconic eyes widen and his jaw slack at this, as if realizing something.
I looked down at Fluttershy, who would have put an arrow through my heart with the tears rolling down her face, had I not been expecting them.
I locked eyes with her, working on removing as much as my anger from my face while also not letting any sadness show. While doing so, I just waited expectantly with my mouth just agape enough to let the audience know I wasn't finished.
As Fluttershy stepped forward to meet me, I knelt down and brought my free hand to her head. Her pleading look was burned into my mind as I closed my eyes and nuzzled her forehead with my own. Even in her sheer disappointment, there was not a single trace of rage or accusation. She had a pained confusion, sure, but otherwise I could only see kindness coming from her.
Tears were in my eyes too as I broke out of the nuzzle.
With a calm smile, I spoke only loudly enough for us and the creature's immediately around us to hear.
"But my dear friend Fluttershy need only ask."
Fluttershy's positively glowing smile would have caused me to just cave in right then and there, had I not steeled myself against it.
She stared at me expectantly for a few moments as I stared back at her stoically, save for the tears. Finally, I broke the silence.
"You're going to have to say it. I'm not doing it otherwise."
I could see a sudden chunk of anxiety nearly overcome her. She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed the lump in her throat. With a brave face, she took a few shallow breaths and I could see her tapping into the well of inner strength I knew her for in her eyes.
With an uneasy voice, powered both with fear and sheer will, she asked me, "Please, Moss, could you close the rift?"
I lowered my wand, which had practically been held up for posterity more than anything else at this point, and gave her a simple smile.
"OK."
I turned around and got the device from my pocket. With Archimedes's help, I started pouring my spell slots into forcing the quintessence within me to work towards sealing up the rift.
As I felt the spell slots become expended one by one, I saw the rift starting to shrink, and the section that let the other world be visible become smaller and smaller.
There wasn't anything special about it, grand magic being released or otherwise showing off. The process was behaving more like a tool that had the broken parts in it replaced and the correct fuel added. It was simply working smoothly, but nothing special otherwise.
Shortly before the visible section was closed off, I heard the priest call out to Archimedes.
"We will never see each other again, old friend, but I do wish that once you finish your mission, you manage to see her again."
Upon hearing this, I could feel a sense of bitter sweet joy come through the active bond from Archimedes that was normally just filled with disdain.
With my spell slots expended, I stepped back to let the element bearers and pillars of light take over.
Discord met me just as soon as I was cleared from the central area. As the rainbow light show that was far more dramatic and full of flare ran on behind me, I could see Discord looking right at Archimedes in shock.
"You bastard!" He whispered in frustration.
With tears forming a moment later, he pulled up a claw for Archimedes to land on.
He whispered again as Archimedes landed on the perch he offered.
"You sweet, goody two shoed, romantic bastard. You've come back after all this time?"
Archimedes, gently gnawed at the claw he was on and asked me, "Could you tell him that I say 'It's been a long time, old 'frenemy' of mine?'"
After relaying the message, I asked Discord, "You know him, then?"
Discord looked at me and nodded in an embarrassed fashion.
"He's my old rival from the rebellion in the first rift war. One of the ones that jumped through the last rift alongside our leader, Harper, to buy us time to close the rift right."
He let Archimedes come back to my shoulder as he stood up again.
"His beloved was a mortal of this land. A gentle hearted healer who died late into the war."
Discord hesitated for a moment before Archimedes gave him a nod to continue.
"He's here to join her in this world's afterlife after he finally dies."
When I turned to Archimedes, he just closed his eyes and bowed.
"Luna can attest to this from my astral judgement. Likewise, she knows I was the one that approached Oghma and convinced him that this world would be more useful to him if left untouched."
When the light show behind us died down, Discord looked up and dashed in to the mix.
As I turned around, I saw him cradling a collapsed Fluttershy. Her main had extra streaks of color in it along with multiple renditions of her cutie mark all over her body.
Looking out, the rest of Fluttershy's friends were fine, but perfectly normal in appearance save for the golden necklaces they wore. Among the pillars of light, a large stallion wielding a shovel, and the two pegisi wielding the rusted shield and blindfold were likewise collapsed like she was with their friends rushing to them. Although they showed none of the added markings like Fluttershy.
A moment later, a wisp of energy quickly passed over Fluttershy and she was back to normal, though still faint.
"They gave too much," the changeling that was checking the other pegasus mare called to us, "They will be fine, but they will also be bedridden for several days now."
The collapsed were carried away as the specialists came forward and brought forth devices. Dragons promptly swooped in and took the devices from the ponies.
With carefully measured breath, the dragons pushed their flames into the devices, which in turn produced an almost ethereal thread.
The unicorns among the group promptly started taking this thread and weaving it into the space the rift had occupied just minutes before.
The dragon nest leader, Wild Storm, came up too, but he did not take a device from the ponies. Instead, he carried what looked like a staff made of a tall, petrified sapling with feathers, scales and odd looking shells dangling from the top.
He put the staff before him, bowed his head and began chanting.
"Mother, please lend these healers your energy, and make the stitches they now weave into your wound last for as long as they can."
When he finished, a green mist seemed to flow out where his staff touched the earth. The mist quickly moved to the rift and moved along with the threads the ponies were weaving, like dolphins swimming along side a boat. It didn't get in the way, but just its presence seemed to make the process smoother.
When Wild Storm was finished, he turned to me, gesturing Speaks with Talons over.
"I must say, little fish monkey, you started to scare us there when you pulled out your wand, but it all ended well."
I stared at the staff he was holding, pressed my amulet again and simply spoke what came to my mind, "You're one of the servants?"
He smiled and hugged the staff close. "Yes, I am one of the stewards of this world that are often called the servants of the Animus Mundi by mages. Although, before me there hadn't been one among dragons in three generations. From what I have heard, I am a bit of an oddity."
Speaks with Talons came up to me and gave a brief bow. "You have accomplished the task set to you, and so the Fey will honor their end of the deal. You are pardoned of all past crimes committed in the domain of the Fey. However, on penalty of death, your banishment from the realm of the Fey is still in effect."
He paused for a moment, wiping a tear of relief. "You are free now, battle brother."
The dragon gave a soft roar of approval then spoke as well, "Congratulations, cousin."
I looked at him oddly. "Cousin?"
The dragon shut his eyes tight and gave a smile thick with merry embarrassment.
"You may not know this, but we servants have our own language. The term battle brother is a fairly accurate translation of what the griffin would actually call you if he were high enough in the order to learn it. However, the term only applies to the two that fought directly beside each other in camaraderie. I cannot rightly call you battle brother. You are, however, the battle brother to my fellow servant. Loosely translated, the term would mean the battle brother of my brother in servitude. The translation breaks apart when we try to place it into a single word of the common tongues. To put it simply, to any who respect Speaks with Talons among the servants, your bond with him is to be honored much in the way a cousin would be. So that is the word we can best use to describe our respect for you."
I pondered over this for a moment, ultimately forcing the word off my tongue again, this time with feelings of uncertainty.
Wild Storm gave me a perplexed look. "Is your amulet working correctly, cousin? That choice of words does not make sense."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, of course it is. And I do mean a pile of fecal matter that is big enough for a male bovine to breed with. Of course not! Not literally. It's a phrase. I'm calling your statement's validity into question while also challenging it."
With the rift closed, celebrations were being arranged. There were still stragglers of the foreign army that had slipped through and needed rounding up, but the vast majority of the conflict was over. For some reason, I was brought to the capital to partake in some sort of pony equivalent of a cocktail party. I wanted nothing to do with it. The fact that the formal attire choices they offered me were not very appealing didn't help. Fluttershy's tailor friend had made what was essentially a tux for me, a silken toga like thing was also present—at least I was hoping it was a toga—and then the suit of armor that Wild Storm was offering me.
"But it truly is made of my scales and those of my brethren, is it not obvious?"
The pony that was styling my hair finally finished and brought up a mirror for me to see.
I didn't even look at the mirror and turned to him. "I don't care what it looks like. I'll trust your judgement. Just get out."
Turning back to Wild Storm, I took a breath.
"I know that. I mean the part about how I 'must' attend. I'm free now, right? I was 'invited' to this gala, not 'ordered to attend.' Last I checked that meant I was free to choose."
The stallion that was just about to leave called out. "Sir, that is true, technically, but it would be a bad idea to do so. If a publicly invited guest of the princesses does not at least make an appearance then every noble and business pony will go to great lengths to make their life as difficult as they can for making a fool of the royal family."
He opened the door and said one last thing before he finally stepped through. "And there is no end to what they would be willing to do. One poor girl's betrothal was canceled rather aggressively just because her messenger didn't get the doctor's note explaining that she was ill to the party she was to attend in time."
Once the pony left, I sighed and looked back to the dragon, slightly craning my neck up to do so. "It is an elegant and sturdily made suit, but I still can't accept this bribe for going to the party. I'd say I'd rather go naked, but they'd probably allow that without much thought and the intent of the statement would be lost on them."
The dragon snorted a bit of smoke in indignation.
"The gala has nothing to do with my gift. It was simply approved as an appropriate garment. I would have given it to you even if you weren't invited and I will still want to even if you refuse to go."
I had crossed my eyes with a migraine as I slumped down in defeat.
About an hour later, I was in the main hall. I was also dressed up in the new set of organically grown scale mail armor, save for my old boots that is. While natives only needed slight adaptations to their own methods of making armor to fit my form, neither dragons nor ponies really understood humanoid footwear to make any that fit right quite yet.
I was sitting in as far a corner from the center of the crowd as I could. They were oddly not shooting scowls at me like I had gotten used to, but I still wanted nothing more to do with this party than necessary. Not just the ponies or crystal ponies, either. I wanted nothing to do with the dragons, changelings, or the griffin mercenary leader and his plus one that nobody even pretended to not realize was really just his closely trusted personal body guard.
When it came time for princess Celestia to speak to the crowd, she went through a few items I either didn't understand, or didn't care about. One thing that made me almost fall out of my seat is that the collective losses between all the forces of all the nations barely totaled to a hundred an twenty four individuals with thirteen more missing in action.
"Dang you guys are efficient. Losses in wars on my home world that rage on that long are at least in the thousands."
Sharp Sentry, once again assigned to me, though as an honor guard this time, heard me through his own amulet and whispered back to me.
"It would have gotten there, if you hadn't intervened. We were mostly fighting off units intended for quick hit and run pillaging, sowing chaos against unprepared settlements and scouting parties before they hit us full force with more rugged troops."
I just rolled my eyes and shook my head for a moment before turning to look at Fluttershy on the stand along with her friends.
"I'm not the one you need to be thanking for that."
Sharp Sentry looked at me oddly but just shrugged.
Almost as if on cue, princess Celestia turned our way and called out.
"But none of it would have been possible without the aid of our friend and newest permanent resident, Moss. By closing the only known way for him to return to his home, he has ensured that our homes will now remain safe. While the weight of the sacrifices by those that died should not be overshadowed, his sacrifice was also that of a true-"
My mind went into overdrive as the faces of each pony turned to me. Their now unusually neutral faces were starting to even light up in admiration. "Oh no..." was all I could think as I saw this.
"-Hero."
The ponies then came charging towards me like hounds that had just been released. In a panic, I jumped behind Sharp Sentry and transformed into the smallest animal I could think of to get away.
With the sudden change in perspective, I prayed no one saw me leap my borrowed flea form onto Sharp Sentry to hide in his fur.
It was only a matter of time before my mere presence alerted him by causing him to get an itch, but I only needed to stand still and do my best not to tickle him for a few moments. The first chance I had, I jumped off at another nearby table that had just been searched under to hide long term.
Within about a minute of hiding under the table, I had to transform back because my flea body was getting sick from what my legs seemed to be tasting as a pesticide that was protruding from every bit of the under table's long term storage treatment.
So I just hid there, curled up under the table, and hoping nobody would look under the sheets that now hid me.
Sadly, it wouldn't last. As I heard a couple of mares chatting about sewing and form vs function or something or other, another pony that was with them accidentally knocked my knee with her hoof as she put it just under the table to lean in. I pulled it back as best I could, but I wasn't fast enough. Although it was a soft glance, I definitely felt contact and I'm sure the pony did too.
With another bout of quick thinking, I expended my last charge of shape shifting to transform into the best disguise I could think of at the time, given my limited options of only shape shifting into animals.
Hoping my disguise as Angel Bunny would be enough, my heart sank as I saw the inquisitive face of Fluttershy looking back at me.
Any other pony there I would have had a good chance of fooling, but not Fluttershy. Being both the RRE officer that had taken me into her own home for months and a professional animal care taker, she was always able to pick me out from a real animal without even trying. I had never fooled her with my disguises, not even once. I didn't even have to read the surprise on her face to know I was caught.
We looked into each other's eyes as my borrowed form trembled. I could practically see the cogs in her mind turning, though to what end, I did not know.
She looked back for just a moment before pulling a tiny, red clip-on bow out of her mane. Reaching forward, she carefully clipped it to the fur that sat just below my neck, making me almost look like I was wearing a bow tie.
With this, she called to her friends with a concerned tone, slowing down at one particular word just enough to emphasis it without being too strange. "Hosmt, Angel's not giimoph well. I'm huoph to take him cedl to my suun to vipf to him."
It was in that moment I wished I had payed more attention to my lessons on speaking Equestrian without my amulet active.
When Fluttershy came back down, she offered the frog of her hoof to me with an empathetic smile.
I hesitated for a moment, looking back and forth between her face and outstretched hoof, but ultimately I caved in, climbed on and let her pull me out from under the table.
Just as I was brought out to let her orange and white friends from the element bearers see me, Fluttershy gave me a concerned clearing of her throat. When I looked at her, she gave me a face as if she were feeling sick, then quickly came out of it with a wink.
With that, she carefully placed me on her back, nestled in the withers between her shoulder blades. I clung to her dress as we walked out of the ball room. I kept my head down and tried to not move, not wanting to draw any more attention to myself.
Princess Celestia and another pony I couldn't see met us just before we managed to leave. Princess Celestia brought her face around to look at me with a sense of inspection. For a split second, I could swear I saw her eyes widen before they went back to normal.
"Uj you quus thing." I heard her call in an empathetic, almost motherly tone.
The pony beside her came up on the side I wasn't facing with my head laid down and called out too.
In a whisper of broken English, I heard Moon Beam say, "Whee unn-deer-staund, Moose."
I could feel Fluttershy wince a little as my tiny bunny claws went right through her dress and into her back as I tensed up in fear.
* * *
With a quick retreat, Fluttershy got back to the guest room in the castle where she had been staying while she recovered. I got off of her and hopped to the floor on the far side of the bed where I could stay hidden from the door.
Transforming back, I quickly pressed my amulet and called out, "Thank you, and sorry about the claws."
She simply climbed up to bed and dropped in exhaustion. "Thank you for the excuse to leave. I'm still pretty tired from the work we did at the rift. And don't worry about it. That isn't the first time I've been clawed and I know your fear of princess Luna isn't something you can control."
I laid back on the floor as best I could in the semi stiff, semi flexible armor in an attempt to relax. "She still scares me senseless, but I think I'd choose to face her over facing the crowd at this point."
Fluttershy squirmed over and peaked her head over the side of her bed. "Why is that?"
I glanced at her, then closed my eyes and gave a huf. "One, I know she doesn't actually want to harm me. Two, Ponies don't need to be thinking I'm a hero."
Fluttershy spoke in a confused tone, "But you are a hero."
Without opening my eyes, I shook my head. "That's a debate for another time, but it's not what I'm getting at. What I meant is they don't need to be thinking I'm a hero. They need to stay cautious about my kind, and I don't want to be the exception that gets them to let their guard down. Not all the bad humans twirl their mustaches and come in carrying a war banner for all to see. They have a bad habit of hiding among the kinda good and few truly good ones then worming their way to power from the inside. All throughout my world's history, there are tales of this happening again and again. Often this happens by just one good human from one culture forming a bond of trust with another culture to pave the way for others to betray that trust, reforge it with false promises, then betray it again."
When I opened my eyes, I could see an empathetic pain in her expression. "I still think that this is an improvement over you being seen as a criminal."
With this, she passed me one of the many pillows from her bed so that I could rest my head.
"I think I can see what you mean by that," I responded as I put the pillow in place. "But I just can't agree with it. Even with my other argument aside, I know how to navigate being seen as a criminal or a low life without hurting anybody. I have enough experience to almost do it in my sleep. I can't really say the same about being seen as a hero, though. Someone is bound to get hurt by it, even if it isn't by me."
When Fluttershy didn't respond, I just finished up my point to try to get some rest.
"I think I'd rather be caught up in Equis having a mistrust fitting criminals for my kind, than be accessory to having them give a criminal the trust associated with a hero."
She gave me a sad look and pondered for a moment. Retreating back to the center of the bed, she responded.
"That might happen here or there, but it gets fixed quickly. Equestria is careful enough with who we trust to not let that kind of thing be rampant."
"I sure hope so, but I can't help but feel like those words have been spoken in my home world before too."
* * *
Just as I was starting to wake hours later, I felt myself being pulled into the hazy mist of the Animus Mundi again. The mist started showing me visions of actions I had taken since I last had contact with her. Not many of them were too vivid, but I could tell they were leading up to the rift.
I braced myself when I saw my wand being pointed at Speaks with Talons, but I did not hear the words "Fury Embracer" like I was expecting. Instead, the scene simply moved forward to me crying as I nuzzled Fluttershy, then turned around and seeded the rift seal.
As another chunk of new understanding flowed through me from that mist, I could hear two sets of words spoken in succession.
"Humility Accepter. Life Cherisher."
After that, I felt the warm glow wanting me to stay and just feel happy, but I was too disturbed to stay.
Sitting up with an adrenaline filled alertness, Fluttershy looked over to me from her morning reading with worry.
"Are you alright, Moss?"
Getting my bearings fixated and letting the panic die down, I leaned back on my hands and let my head droop backwards.
"Physically, yea. I'm fine. But I just got another visit from the Animus Mundi. Even Equis herself thinks I'm a bloody hero."
I let my arms loose and slipped back down to the floor. "Oh, and I need to tell Sunburst that I leveled up again."
