The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

The god of fine cuisine, Robed in Splendor, a very dashing and charismatic god in the form of a mighty stallion who was as beautiful and fun to be around as the good food he held domain over, lit up with a smile and a heavenly glow that was both soothing and strangely appetizing as he recognized Sullen Hoof.

The night caste solar and the god rushed towards each other, Robed in Splendor’s exquisitely embroidered velvet cape flowing like the finest wine as he ran towards his most esteemed of guests and embraced Sullen Hoof in a most righteous hug – like a father reunited with a long lost son.

Sullen Hoof introduced the rest of the circle to his friend, and Robed in Splendor in turn welcomed the circle to the Jade Kitchen – the finest temple and workshop of the culinary crafts in all of existence, the place in which nearly all food in heaven is cooked and distributed from.

The food-god was understandably shaken to hear of the rabid gods that had been set on the circle, and Rose spared no time conjuring up a messenger spirit to report the horde of mad gods to the proper authorities. In the mean time the circle was shown to their seats in the main restaurant part of the establishment with instructions that this round was on the house. It was a bit awkward sitting down in what was arguably the classiest restaurant in all of heaven, especially since the circle was still stained with rabid god gore and Cash, Speaker, Shimmer and Red all had cuts and injuries from the fight earlier.
A spirit floated by and gave the circle some exceedingly exhaustive menus and for each of the ponies a single glass with a strange pale semi-transparent orange liquid, something that looked a bit like cider. It wasn’t cider. After a single tiny sip Rose burst out “Wow!” then downed the rest quickly, sloshing it around in her mouth for well over a minute before swallowing: “It’s celestial wine – you lot have to try this. You usually have to order this stuff centuries in advance!”

The circle sampled the heavenly drink and quickly discovered that it had the strange but handy side-effect of healing all of their injuries – the circle also unanimously agreed that it was the best tasting liquid that any of them had ever tasted, although Sunrise took a tiny sip and passed off the rest of her glass to Cash who eagerly accepted it. Sullen Hoof insisted that he could probably cook up something just as tasty, if not better, but for now it was time to order: “Let’s have a look at the menu shall we?”

Speaker couldn’t read most of it, for the menu – a scroll of thick and bacon-perfumed velum – was so tightly packed with the names and descriptions of quite literally every dish ever made, that it looked as if someone had just dunked the menu in a tub of ink. Rose noted that a lot of Yu-Shan paperwork looked like that, as most gods could easily perceive the multiple layers of writing, or they would have servitor spirits who could.

With some trying and some powerful perception-enhancing charms Shimmer was able to help Speaker ferret out a spicy southern dish from the menu, while Sullen Hoof helped the rest of the circle order as he seemed to know it by heart. Sunrise ordered a bowl of plain rise, Sullen Hoof looking quite offended but he didn’t object.

“Hey Sully, how do they get fresh pork up here in heaven? I mean, I don’t see any pig farms around here…” Red wondered as the circle slowly ate and savored the absolutely divine meals they had been given.

Rose answered before Speaker could finish chewing on his chili-infused bacon: “Prayers sent to heaven solidify and pool into quintessence. Gods can shape that into anything, be it housing, clothing, jade, or in this case food. It is quite literally what the gods both live off and live in. Sidereals use it to manufacture gear for work in Creation”

“So I’m eating prayers? Mmmm…. Tasty prayers” Cash mused.

Later as the circle was about to order desserts a loud sound of thick wood splintering came from the front door of the establishment. A servitor spirit flew across the room and crashed into the circle’s table. Everyone except Sullen Hoof tumbled backwards, Sullen Hoof leaping up and perching himself on a broken table leg as he looked to the door: “I think we’ve got trouble”

A pony assassin veiled in tight black silks and armed with twin hook-swords leapt towards the circle, but was intercepted by Robed in Splendor who made the assassin freeze mid-air, it just floating helplessly: “In my house? You dare intrude and assault my servants?!”

The assassin paid little heed to the god who had caught it mid-air, for despite floating seemingly helplessly in the air a few yards from the enraged god it performed a kick that still managed to hit the god with such force that Robed in Splendor slammed into the ground – the assassin dropping down to the ground as well, quickly leaping again at the circle.

With the few seconds given by the god’s brief intervention Red had conjured her blade of golden essence and stood ready to intercept the assassin as it came hurtling – but Red intercepted the assassin with her hooves having somehow morphed into metallic prongs that snatched the assassin’s blades and yanked them away: “No you don’t!”

The assassin leapt back while throwing some rather nasty looking black glass darts back at Rose and Red who effortlessly parried them.

“Hold on, I’ve got this” Sullen Hoof said, stepping up in front of Red and Rose.

Rose didn’t seem pleased with Sullen Hoof’s proposal: “That is a sidereal assassin for sure, he’ll kill you!”

Sullen Hoof ignored Rose’s warning, instead turning to Robed in Splendor: “Please, form the arena”

“Well this wasn’t how I had expect to see the first kitchen battle done here since the first age, but very well” Robed in Splendor said, erupting with a flash of light as the heavenly restaurant suddenly changed and became something… else.

Speaker felt the ground beneath him shift as broken chairs and tables faded – but counters, sinks and cupboards appeared instead. The restaurant had turned into a kind of amphi-theatre, but there was not a stage in the middle… there was a really big and very well stocked kitchen, and Sullen Hoof stood in the middle of it, while the assassin stood at the edge of it, with the circle and Robed in Splendor standing up by the audience seats.

“You dare assault the orichalcum chef in the jade kitchen? I accept your challenge” Sullen Hoof said in a stern and feisty tone, his eyes aflame with culinary passion and his cleavers keen.

Robed in Splendor loudly announced: “Allez Cuisine!” and ate a bell pepper.

The assassin, fully encased in black silk wrappings – even the assassin’s head, with no apparent slits for eyes – said nothing in return, but made with a brief shout and slammed his hooves into the ground– and suddenly Sullen Hoof was bombarded with a rain of black glass shards from out of nowhere, but Sullen Hoof deftly dodged and weaved through the rain as his essence floated up multiple pots and pans which almost instantly began to radiate great heat – one of which quickly flipped itself at the assassin who shattered like glass…

Sullen Hoof frowned, while spinning around to avoid the last of the shards and floated up three dozen big amphorae of various oils and many more different strange looking powders and spices, each in grand amounts, spreading them among the pots and pans he had floating around himself – then he dropped flat to the ground to dodge the assassin who reformed from shards of broken reality as the assassin bucked at Sullen Hoof, but missed.

Rolling over to the side and somehow impossibly leaping backwards several yards – straight from lying flat on the ground – Sullen Hoof continued to ignore the assassin as he threw his hooves into the air and flared his anima, enacting the most powerful technique of his culinary martial art… for every single ingredient and kitchen implement around him seemed to awaken into some quasi-semblance of life, hurtling themselves against each other: Knives cut vegetables, cleavers finely diced meat, grates flew around cheeses and spices crushed themselves against each other to form exotic and colorful blends.

Dodging and parrying this whirlwind of exceedingly sharp cooking implements and heavy cast iron cookware that seemed ever so intent on striking the assassin, the silk-wrapped pony appeared to always stand at the right spot or in the right pose to never be struck properly - until a flying cleaver finally did – sort of – for again the assassin fractured into many pieces, but this time the assassin reappeared as three dozen identical assassin! By the sheer volume of their numbers they drowned out the whirlwind of cooking implements, ingredients and knives, and they all quickly descended upon Sullen Hoof like a swarm, but the solar flickered and faded into seven shadows that each leapt in a different direction, reforming at a dizzying twenty-four yards above the assassin at the crest of a supernaturally powerfully vertical jump… most of the still swirling cooking implements quickly rising into the air to join him.

As Sullen Hoof arched his fall and hurtled down towards the multitude of assassins he had his essence fling the now boiling oil from many of the glowing cherry-red pans all over the throng of would-be killers below him. The many duplicates screamed as they were doused in oils of temperatures far beyond what was possible for ponies to live through, or for glass to not warp and melt under – and they all shattered into a mess of half-molten black shards of glass – but the assassin reformed on their remains and launched himself at Sullen Hoof who was hurtling down at him.

The two nearly impacted hoof against hoof, but Sullen Hoof flipped and twisted mid-air, ‘landing’ on one of his whirling and now empty pots, zipping away and out of reach from the assassin.

“Damn you! Stop cooking and fight properly!” The assassin shouted as he landed with a crunch on the shards of his destroyed, the gruff and deep voice of the assassin revealing that the assassin indeed was a stallion.

Sullen Hoof leapt down from his orbiting pots and still chopping, dicing and stirring utensils and ingredients – which followed suit: “Why not fight my guardian or my other circlemates and leave me to cook?”

The assassin chuckled and threw five broad throwing knives past Sullen Hoof. It was clear to Sullen Hoof that they were not to aimed to hit him, but as he saw them collectively pass him he saw the reflections of his circle-mates and Rose… and they were screaming and shouting, but he couldn’t hear of them. He turned to look up at the audience stand, but they were not there, not even Rose. Sullen Hoof did not shout or get angry, for a true orichalcum chef was always in a state of culinary fury and concentration, but he understood the grave nature of the situation.

“You will fight me properly now you damned anathema!” the assassin shouted, his breath ragged. The strange fighting charms he had been using were clearly wearing on the assassin, while Sullen Hoof didn’t even appear to have broken a sweat.

Sullen Hoof ignored the assassin and sampled a floating spoon that held a few drops from a saucepan that had just flown near him. He smiled and turned to the assassin: “No”

The assassin roared and fractured into half a dozen seemingly identical reflections of himself, each leaping to attack Sullen Hoof simultaneously and with a level of coordination that was as beautiful as it was deadly. Barbs of essence formed around each assassin’s fore-hooves mid-jump as they each were poised to deal a killing blow.

Sullen Hoof sighed and leapt up some twenty yards once again, disappointed that this assassin – clearly skilled in some very strange martial art that he wasn’t really sure how worked – was so unimaginative with those skills. He quickly took that back as the assassins below each grabbed at silver spoon, obsidian knife, polished bronze casserole or some other kitchen implement and struck them – for it was not the things that the assassins held in their hooves that were struck, but Sullen Hoof’s reflection and through that Sullen Hoof himself. Sullen Hoof tried to twist and weave mid-air as he began to fall, but his reflections all focused on him, and so he could not move out of the way of them – as the spoons and knives bent and casseroles were dented from being struck those damages formed on Sullen Hoof. It looked as if his skin cracked and bled all over his body as if he was a shattered mirror.

Landing surprisingly well considering his multiple injuries, Sullen Hoof looked up at the multiple reflections of the single assassin. He finally addressed the assassin: “Very well, I will fight you”

The remains of the whirlwind of cooking implements banked and steered itself towards the assassins, pummeling the assassin and his solid reflections with high speed potatoes, forks and heavy cast iron pans. The reflections all shattered and reformed, but some reformed right in front of other things flying at them, so three of the reflections were shattered as they were struck head on by cast iron pots or in one case a carrot drilled its way into one reflections’ forehead at a clearly lethal speed.

The assassin leapt at Sullen Hoof, but he deftly sidestepped, ducking to avoid another. Two other reflections shattered as the kitchen whirlwind continued to hound them, even as they assaulted Sullen Hoof – for the kitchen implements never struck the solar, moving out of the way and occasionally leaving a spoon with a sample for him to taste behind.

With two reflections left along with himself as the original, one of the three reached for another polished bronze pot. Seeing this Sullen Hoof began to notice a pattern in the assassin’s use of reflective choices, but as he beheld the reflect Sullen Hoof saw himself: The assassin had not made another reflection of the assassin, but one of Sullen Hoof! …and in a single swift motion of an essence-fanged hoof did the assassin cut the throat of the reflection while the two other assassin-reflections held it tight, Sullen Hoof feeling his own throat first tighten and then open up as the reflection of himself faded into shattered glass.

The assassin’s remaining reflections crumbling into shattered glass as well as the assassin strode over to the dying Sullen Hoof: “Pitiful. I expected an honest fight here, not to have my targets lined up with you fooling around and trying to serve yourself a last meal before I kill you. Let’s hope that your next incarnation learns to show proper respect to his betters”

Sullen Hoof smiled up at the assassin. He didn’t speak, for his throat was supposed to be slit and he supposed to be dying. No. He had learnt well in Nexus when to play dead to end beatings from thugs and the cruel mercenaries that functioned as the city’s questionable form of law enforcement – and he wasn't done yet.

As the assassin stood over Sullen Hoof and sighed, watching as the last of his blood spilt forth from his slit throat, Sullen Hoof suddenly flickered into many shadows again and reappeared in front of the assassin with a sauce pan floating next to him.

“What? Impossibl-“ the assassin almost managed to say, as Sullen Hoof tossed the contents of the saucepan over the assassin. The assassin, while surprised enough to end his own word mid-pronunciation smirked at the silly sauce attack and laughed. The clear sauce dotted with tiny grains of many flavors sailed through the air and splattered all over the assassin – some even getting into the assassin’s mouth as he was laughing.

Sullen Hoof took a step back and removed the throat prosthetic he had been wearing, including the red-ink pump and thin tubes of colored starch as veins that he had created back at Rose Heath’s mantion as a way to test his new crafting charm taught by Speaker, after having eaves-dropped on May Blossom and Rose having whispered together, them having clearly talked about some unnamed threat that wanted to kill the circle – quite possibly via throat-slitting in the night. The ingenious prosthetic looked like a natural part of his throat, but was not, for it even came with a thin metallic lining that ran flush with Sullen Hoof’s throat that had protected him from certain death.

The assassin finished laughing and gave Sullen Hoof an appreciative nod: “Ok, that is impressive. I should have suspected something when you didn’t bleed that much from your wound… but now I will ensure that you die properly”

Sullen Hoof shook his head and frowned, as if speaking to a foal: “No”

“Oh don’t give me that again. At least have the decency to fight back properly when I kill you” the assassin said, rearing up into a strange martial stance. Sullen Hoof wondered if the assassin, with his eyes covered by strips of black silk, could even see properly? Oh well, that wouldn’t matter much now…

It started with the assassin smacking his lips. He then nodded: “Well that certainly is tasty…”

“Isn’t it good? Don’t you want more?” Sullen Hoof offered.

The assassin found himself nodding as he dropped down to sit and sniff at himself smelling so good with that sauce all over himself… he sniffed at his hooves and then gazed – through the silk wrappings covering his eyes – up at Sullen Hoof in terror: “What did you, what- what did you do to me!?”

Sullen Hoof smirked but didn’t answer, only floating more pots and pans over to the assassin, using his essence to whirl the air with the scent of the food in them towards the assassin – then Sullen Hoof floated the food out of each pot and pan, using his essence to mush it together and strain it into more clear liquid…. Which he unceremoniously splashed down on the assassin.

The assassin began to quiver noticeably, with jerky and erratic movements holding up things on the floor next to him that had sauce on it and licking at it – even if it was some of the shards of black glass that his own charms had form. With a tongue that was quickly being reduced to a shredded and bloody mess the assassin wept: “What did you do to me!?”
Sullen Hoof said nothing, but simply looked on as the assassin cried while hungrily crunching his way through bizarrely delicious shards of glass without being able to stop himself – but there weren’t many of those shards… very quickly the only thing left with the sauce was on was the assassin himself.

It wasn’t pretty, and even Sullen Hoof had to steel himself as he watched the assassin bite into his own hooves and flesh, screaming in pain between moaning in ecstatic pleasure from the heavenly taste. It didn’t take long for the assassin to have cut enough flesh from himself to eat that he bled to death, but it was a gory and unholy sight to behold. Now his circle was avenged.

Sullen Hoof said nothing – but he did smile quite a bit as his friends suddenly all called out in a cacophony of confusion, only to stop again quickly as they all seemed to realize that they were back in reality. They each told the same story: They had seen a flash, the reflected image of the assassin and then they had been unable to see anyone else. Heath Rose had an idea of what had happened, something she confirmed as she unwrapped the assassin.

It was disgusting to look at the remains of the assassin – and Robed in Splendor was quite keen on knowing who it was as well, for his kitchen stadium was in ruins! Sadly there wasn’t much left of the assassin to identify: Not only had the sauce made the assassin eat his own lips and chef his own forehooves off, but he had sliced most of his skin off as well with the nearest kitchen knives he had been able to reach (floating them around, since he had no forehooves left…) so there wasn’t even a cutie-mark to identify. Still, Heath Rose could only say one thing as the assassin’s head was properly unwrapped, revealing a strip of paper that appeared glued over the assassin’s eyes, with a little bit of blood seeping out from under it: “He was a sidereal"

Sullen Hoof was just about to remark that this explained why the assassin had wrapped his head up entirely without leaving holes to see through, but Rose said that the strip gave supernatural fate-based sight, giving the user a slight measure of foresight into the future – or at least into fate – so one could see where your opponent was fated to move next, allowing for attacks to aim for where you would be in the future.

“That’s crazy… how does that work?” Cash wondered while Robed in Splendor shouted for servitor spirits to come and clean things up.

Rose drew a deep breath: “It works quite well – but only sidereals can do that – and only sidereal elders can master Obsidian Shards of Infinity style… so I don’t know who this is, but he definitely was a sidereal elder which narrows the field a bit”

The circle mused on this fact for a moment as Red inquired into the exact nature of this strange ‘style’ of martial arts – for she wasn’t even sure what the sidereal had done could be called martial arts.

“Oh it’s a real style alright, but it works very differently from more conventional magical styles. Obsidian shards of creation style holds up a mirror to creation… and breaks it. That’s how he could attack you through your own reflections, or pull your reflection out into the real world and wound you through it – or pull each of us into a separate mirror world where we were isolated. We would have been stuck in there forever if you hadn’t killed him Sullen Hoof, I owe you my life” Rose said, shuddering at the thought of forever being trapped in a mirror’s image of creation, unable to be seen or heard or felt by the world around her.

“That is a terrible power” Shimmer said, shaking her head at the dead sidereal, then turning at Sullen Hoof: “But you… what exactly did you do to him? I mean, you made him eat himself!?”

Sullen Hoof shrugged: “Orichalcum Chef Style works best in a kitchen and this is the best there is. It doesn’t focus on fighting foes physically, although it teaches that too – but its greatest power is how it assaults the senses and the mind. Your nose and tongue hold powerful senses rarely used in battle. I used that against him, covering him in a sauce that contains nearly every flavor that heaven has to offer, so powerful that it is both maddening and addictive – it is but one part of what could become a banquet for the gods”

Having heard this Cash had to stopped from sampling the sauce repeatedly.

Rose nodded: “Got to say, that was really impressive. For now I think it would be wise to leave this place. I don’t know how the bronze faction has held off celestial lions from storming the place yet, but I don’t think they’ll wait forever – let’s get out here before they come”

The circle bid there farewells to Robed in Splendor, but not before Sullen Hoof presented a spoon of the heavenly sauce to the god – who in turn gave Sullen Hoof his highest of blessings, as well as extracting a promise from Sullen Hoof to return and cook for the god again someday. Sullen Hoof gladly gave that oath and was rewarded with another sip of celestial wine causing his mirror-shattered flesh to heal as if it had never been hurt at all.

As they left the Jade Kitchen the sun stood high in the sky, something Rose didn’t seem that surprised of. She hastily summoned an aerial rickshaw and as the circle flew off they could see celestial lions entering the jade kitchen.

“Sullen Hoof, when did you master Orichalcum Chef Style?” Rose asked, as the rickshaw. Sullen Hoof explained that he had done so in the first age… in this life he had simply slowly re-mastered it by remembering how it had been done in the past, just like how Speaker was re-mastering his fighting style.

“Ah yes. Solar exaltations were always best at retaining practical past life memories, or maybe it’s just Lytek favoring you guys, who knows. Either way I’m taking the lot of you to a gate back to creation” Rose said, instructing the spirit pulling the rickshaw to go to a ‘portal sixteen’.

Once again zooming through the broad gold-paved boulevards of Yu-Shan, the aerial rickshaw floatied above the ground while the this time dozen-legged spirit ran at a frightening pace pulled the circle and Heath Rose along effortlessly.

The trip took remarkably little time and Speaker was sure that Rose was using strange sidereal journey charms to connect them from where they had to left to where they were going much faster than what would be normal. Rose merely nodded and said that it was either that or spending three weeks in traffic: “You don’t want that, trust me.

Arriving at a surprisingly nondescript plaza in the eastern end of Yu-Shan, the plaza being surrounded by an oddly teal colored forest on one side and some very blocky buildings covered in mirrors on the rest, the circle lined up in front of the large torii gate that dominated the square.

Gods, lesser spirits and countless ethereal messengers were going in and out of the gate’s event horizon, making for a lively and trafficked but none the less easily accessible gateway into creation.

Stepping through, the circle found itself on the shores of a river surrounded by thick jungle. The sun was low in the sky but rising, which was strange since it had seemed to be noon up in heaven. Up the river it was possible to glimpse part of a port with ships and large sails, while a barge floated past the circle down the river with some very wide-eyed sailors on board. They seemed quite shocked in fact.

Rose explained that the sailors the circle and her just appeared out of thin air, so their confusion was understandable. The sidereal mare then threw a large chestnut into the water which somehow unfolded into a boat: “Come on, we have to cross the river to get the debriefing”

“Why don’t I just whip us up a cloud?” Shimmer suggested.

Rose shrugged and floated the boat up from the water, it turning back into a large chestnut again.

The ponies on the barge looked on and all agreed that their last ration of rice-wine must have been bad as they saw the circle of ponies fly off on a cloud.

Guided by the sidereal Shimmer made the cloud fly down the river, which turned out to be the Maruto river. When they reached fork where the river merged with the Meander river to form the yellow river Red guided the circle down to a temple that was built into the rocky promontory outcropping where the two rivers merged. It had some very pretty blue glass windows and some very tall spires, by creations at least, for to ponies who had just been to heaven it really wasn’t that impressive.

Landing in front of the temple, Rose welcomed the circle to the river temple of Anisatsis.

“And what flavor of god is that?” Cash wondered.

Sunrise knew that: “Fertility goddess”

Cash smiled, a lot: “I think I just found religion then!”

Rose laughed as they approached the temple gates: “No pleasure cults here, sorry – but they do have experienced midwives, plus it’s the secret headquarters of the convention of Wood, as well as the gold faction”

The circle and Rose were met by a priest who seemed to recognize Rose: “Welcome Heath Rose. It is good to see a pilgrim return again. Will you be needing to converse with the divinities?”

“Yes, in fact I’ve brought new acolytes” Rose said, nodding towards the circle.

After being led inside, the circle and Rose were guided down the halls of the temple past niches with clearly pregnant mares and their families who were praying for healthy foals, to an empty niche. Rose led the circle inside then pulled on a torch sconce. A hidden door opened and Rose trotted inside, calling for the circle to follow.

Inside the hidden part of the temple it was clear that a celestial bureau operated: Spirits and godlings, many of which clearly had absolutely nothing to do with fertility, flittered about doing paperwork or discussing matters related to fate and other heavenly minutia.

Red led the circle to a large and well lit meeting room where an oddly familiar mare with a black curly mane, pretty amber eyes and some tasteful golden earrings sat at the end of a big table.

Speaker instantly pointed out to the rest of the circle: “Hey, isn’t that the concubine we saw run off at Lupo’s place?”

The rest of the circle collectively facehoofed. Rose turned a shade of red that was even more fierce than when she had originally seen her faction leader, Ayesha Ura, run half naked out of her master Lupo’s dojo.

Ayesha Ura, the sidereal leader of the gold faction, gave Rose a bemused but also condesening smirk: “Interesting choice of friends you have there Rose”

Rose stammered: “yes I… these are the solars and the lunar I have written to you about. Friends, this is Ayesha Ura, Chosen of Journeys, leader of the faction and chair of the convention of wood” She then very quickly walked over to a chair at the table and sat down, sweating profusely.

Speaker sensed that he might have done something wrong.

Leaning in to whisper into Speaker’s right ear, Cash quietly said: “Didn’t I say something about you not opening your mouth in public?”

What followed was an awkward but ultimately very enlightening meeting between the circle and the head of the gold faction. Other spirits joined the meeting temporarily on a few occasions, either to bring in refreshments, maps, new scrolls to take notes on or other things, although some of the time it was animated clockwork servitors that came in instead. Indeed, through the meeting and by seeing the different ‘things’ that the gold faction seemed to employ or use as part of their organization it appeared that the gold faction was very open and resourceful about what they used to get the job done. Ayesha made a point of this, arguing that it freed up resources for the gold faction ponies to pursue other goals: “Goals such as helping solars and preventing bronze faction assassins from getting to them”

“How do you explain the mess in the jade kitchen then?” Sunrise wondered.

Ayesha pointed out that as chair of the convention of wood she only had near-absolute heavenly authority over the east, not heaven.

The meeting lasted until nightfall, the circle explaining everything they knew about the ‘new’ deathlord they had learned off, as well as what they knew of the deathknights they had encountered. Ayesha Ura was extremely thankful for the information and several dozen scrolls were filled out with the information.

As per Rose’s instructions they didn’t mention the mind control issue with the Ruby and Emerald mare, but at the end of the meeting Rose herself brought up the subject. Ayesha Ura appeared to have been let in on the secret prior to the meeting, and she explained that this was why the debriefing was held in creation: “Rose was right to advice you all to secrecy on this matter. The bronze faction would have leaked it immedeatly to the celestial lions had they known. Now, in the mean time we’ve looked for a solution…”

Ayesha explained that removing magical compulsions who’s exact nature were unknown was more or less impossible to do directly. If a pony was consciously aware of such a compulsion it was just a matter of being aware of when it was trying to influence you and then consciously reject it – doing so would over time erode and remove the compulsion completely, but if you didn’t know what you were being compelled to do…

“This isn’t to say that we don’t have a solution. In fact we’re a little surprised that between the five of you none of you thought of it” Ayesha stated.

The sidereal elder proceeded to explain that in the first age among solars there was a technique, a part of the Hoof of the Daystar style of martial arts, which could do what the circle needed done: “Like most charms and techniques of this style it deals with striking. Striking evil down, striking true, and in this case striking at the bonds and illusions of the mind”
Looking at Speaker Ayesha asked if this sounded familiar. Speaker sadly couldn’t remember anything that fit that description, neither could Red or Cash who both practiced the style.

Furrowing her brows, the deceptively young looking Ayesha nodded towards Rose: “Fair enough, then you’ll have to go to someone who knows the technique and learn it. Rose, take them to the bull and try to make friends”

Hearth Rose looked like she just shat herself.