The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

The captured sorcerer had to be held by Speaker, Spellward and a second armiger to simply keep the unicorn stallion still, such was his frantic thrashing.

Cash sat down in front of the unicorn, silently observing the sorcerer as his robes frayed.

Speaker couldn’t tell if the guy was a senior student, a junior teacher, or just a random scholar who had happened to be studying something at Valkhawsen at the time, but as Cash remained silent the need for immediate information became all the more pressing – Morning Dew could be escaping for all they knew: “Cash, you can start asking him questions now!?”

“Oh don’t worry. With every twist and kick he’s telling me everything: Him and the others promised Morning Dew to kill us once he saw us coming – he left for his office…” Cash calmly stated, appearing more focused on watching the demon blood that had stained his heavenly silks vanish in golden puffs as his collar of dawn’s cleansing worked its magic.

The old Spellward shot Cash a look of utter disbelief as he struggled to hold on to the sorcerer: “Wha- what? Are you reading his mind or something?”

To Speaker’s knowledge then Spellward’s confusion and disbelief belied in the ‘fact’ that among unicorns then there simply was no such thing as mind-reading charms or sorcery, beyond that one heavily restricted spell that fully yanked memories out of ponies – So by that logic, then Cash shouldn’t have been able to learn anything from the sorcerer. Of course, he didn’t know of Solar charms, like the ones that grants its user a most sublime and sagacious reading of intent, be it the intent behind vicious glares, frantic thrashing or absolutely venomous threats and swearing.

Cash seemed quite well aware of this, but like Speaker had pointed out then Morning Dew might very well be escaping, so he opted not to explain how his charms worked and simply point out that so far the circle had been dead on with regard to rogue sorcerers being up to no good – and that the intelligence that had led the circle to Valkhawsen had been obtained by similar means.

“Alright, if he’s making a run for it we need to be quick. Spellward, do you know where his office is?” Sunrise asked, looking around at the doors leading out of the auditorium.

Spellward quickly led the circle to the Sohei offices nearby, all the while quizzing Cash about what else he had learned from the sorcerer. Cash happily obliged: “It seemed that our captive shared a similar worry to that of Jui Niang: Fear that anathema was secretly taking over Lookshy by mind-controlling the general staff – but you know what the really fun thing I learned was?”

“Do tell” Speaker urged.

Cash noted that from what he could tell from the sorcerer – which admittedly was limited on the specific topic since the sorcerer had quite preemptively stated that he would ignore any questions asked – was that this fear of anathema taking over had been informed by Morning Dew’s preachings, with Jui Niang similarly having acted based on the same information.

“So Morning Dew is looking like the architect behind this coup – interesting” Spellward noted, his thick bushy beard hiding a grim frown.
Speaker quickly pointed out that Morning Dew could still very well just be a go-between: “Being an immaculate priest he could just as well be acting on secret orders from the Mouth of Peace or some other foreign influence – maybe demons? I mean, usually its ponies who perform a coup who set themselves up as the new rulers, but Dew would never qualify for a martial staff position since he’s a Sohei”

“No but he could get on the civilian staff… but to your knowledge they haven’t been targeted, right?” Spellward noted, his breath ever so slightly ragged as they galloped to the Sohei offices near the campus chapel.

Cash was quick to point out that as far as he knew then that wouldn’t matter: “Don’t the martial staff appoint your civilian council members?”

“Civilian staff, but you’re right – that would be his ticket in if that’s his plan” Speaker said, hoping earnestly that Morning Dew was just another go-between or misled patsy – even entertaining the notion that this could all have been set up by a fellow born and raised Lookshyan made him sick to his stomach.

The chapel offices turned out to have nobody in. Only a fat mare sat at a front desk, as she was chapel secretary, and she cheerfully said that Morning Dew had just been by to pick up something, then left for the day, after Cash had flirted a little with her.

“Ya been a quiet day here. Master Dew only had a visitor today, an armiger was asking about some magic something – you know, business as usual really” the mare said with a giggle, batting eyelashes at Cash.

Spellward knew of no armigers sent to Morning Dew: “…but armigers are trained to operate independently. It could have been for any reason”
“Who was this armiger?” Speaker asked the secretary.

Thinking for a moment, the secretary shrugged: “No idea what her name was – but she had the most gorgeous mane, like it was washed in powdered rubies"

Cash tentatively pointed out that this description sounded a lot like Speaker’s armiger… but Speaker had already broken into a gallop towards Morning Dew’s office, fearing the worst.

Inside the office, which was plain and quite unassuming, there was little out of the ordinary for an immaculate priest: On the worn wooden desk were writing tools, inkwells and blank sheets of paper, along the walls were woefully plain bamboo filing cabinets, some bookcases and rows upon rows of neatly archived scrolls. On the few bits of wall not dedicated to storage there were beautifully caligraphied scrolls with wisdoms drawn from the immaculate texts.

Speaker quickly pointed out the scorch-mark on the floor: With essence sight there were traces of an arcane sigil. Quickly tracing it on paper, Spellward identified the ward: “The sign of essence consumed – for the ravenous fire spell…”

“I’m going to guess that this fire smokelessly burns anything away…” Cash inquired, Spellward nodding in return.

“It doesn’t burn the living – but it’s great for making corpses disappear” Spellward added grimly.

With the exact line of events leading to Ruby seeking out Morning Dew and subsequently getting killed and incinerated, the circle and Spellward could do only one thing: Keep hunting Morning Dew.

Getting Morning Dew’s home address wasn’t difficult either: A visit to the armiger archive on campus to check his file was all that took – though that did assume that Morning Dew had gone home, not run off to somewhere else…

“It’s all we got – and baring that we should return to the Yushoto compound to update the martial staff. They need all the protection they can get right now” Speaker suggested, looking from the apologetic clerk with Morning Dew’s file over at Cash, Sunrise and Spellward.

Getting to Morning Dew’s home in the eastern residential district turned out to be surprisingly easy: In this residential district there were no riots and the justicars patrolled the streets like normal… though it quickly turned out that the justicars also thought that Speaker, Cash and Sunrise were wanted in connection to a recent assassination attempt on the martial staff.

“Gee, I wonder who put that idea in their heads” Cash sarcastically quipped as a fang of five justicar ponies advanced on the circle, swords drawn.

Between Spellward vouching for them, and Cash once more using his recorder of everlasting glories to show how it was the very martial staff they were accused of trying to kill, who had sent them out to find the real culprits, the justicars at least sheathed their swords, but they were still somewhat skeptical.

Apparently the justicars had been ‘informed’ that the circle had tried to kill the martial staff during a riot in the western residential district shortly after dawn by a messenger who arrived from the Gens Yushoto Compound about an hour earlier: “The messenger just stayed long enough for a clerk at our blockhouse to copy the scroll she was carrying, before leaving for the rest of the city”

“If the message she is bringing around has been altered to blame us for the coup-attempt then the rest of the city will think we’re… aw shit” Cash groaned, not looking forward to having to explain this a million times over to ponies thinking he’d tried to kill their heads of state.

Spellward, looking disgusted by this turn of events, wondered: “Wait, so why didn’t the messenger come by Valkhawsen? If she was by here an hour ago she should have been by us as well, before you lot arrived to find Morning Dew”

“The conspirators likely think that we have fully subverted Valkhawsen, thanks to Speaker healing Headmaster Drip Crank. Why waste time trying to convince him that a friend has turned evil when the rest of city, if fooled into believing this lie, would just pressure him into accepting it as the truth after the fact?” Sunrise pointed out, eliciting a respectful nod from Cash as he agreed with her assessment.

The justicars weren’t really sure what to think. They had apparently more than once been exposed to local Gens youths falsifying recorder footage, but at the same time Spellward was vouching for the circle and saying that Morning Dew’s co-conspirators had already tried to kill them once back at Valkhawsen.

With subtle charms that ferreted out the five justicar’s preferred hobbies, as well as a charm that ever so slightly altered his behavior to fit that of a local pony, making his mannerisms and accent come off perfectly as a local Lookshyan, Cash engaged the five justicars in a conversation about duty, honor, the ways by which one might find if justice truly has been achieved, banana plantation management and zen meditation, all at once – and he did so without any of them even even consciously noticing that he had changed the topic from whether the circle should be brought in for questioning to figure this supposedly false attempted regicide charge out.

Sunrise, Speaker and Spellward wasn’t really sure what to make of it, until Cash somehow produced a little flutter of essence behind the five justicars that spelled out: “Get going you idiots – they won’t notice you leaving”

Quickly hurrying away, though doing so while trying to avoid making too much galloping noise, the three ponies arrived at one of the many gated communities that made up the nice and quiet western residential district. Beyond the gates were hundreds, if not thousands, of two or three family homes, built artfully in accordance to solid geomantic principles to yield safety and good health – ideal conditions to raise a family in.

It was in one of the smaller of these houses that Sohei Morning Dew lived alone in, occupying half of a two family home. A group of foals were playing around in the communal garden shared by the circle of homes built around it, one of which being Morning Dew’s.

“Should we evacuate the ponies here first?” Speaker quickly asked, looking at Spellward for hints of how armigers would normally handle situations like this.

Spellward shook his head: “No time – plus he’s clearly trying to escape, not make a last stand, otherwise he would have remained with his co-conspirators in the auditorium”

“I’ll herd them away from the house” Sunrise volunteered, telling Spellward and Speaker to go as she broke into a brisk trot.
Speaker took a second to see her anima light up in a particularly calming and attention-drawing light, effects afforded by her charms no doubt. He had to poke Spellward a few times to make the old unicorn look away from Sunrise: “Come on – lets go before he realizes we’re here”

“Oh he’ll know that we’re here already – catching a seasoned sorcerer off guard isn’t really possible” Spellward mused as the two approached the house.

His thoughts on whether the other half of the house had anyone home were quickly disrupted as his essence-sight told him that a lot of essence was being thrown around in the house: “He’s shaping sorcery!”

With an experienced and almost instinctive maneuver, Spellward moved up to the front door of Morning Dew’s house and reared up and pulled a hoof back, aiming to punch the door down. His horn glowed with bright white earth essence, his punching-hoof shimmering as it was wreathed in concussive force.

The punch didn’t just break the door it – it made it explode into a hail of splinters going into the house, which was quickly followed by a line that Spellward usually only used around the Valkhawsen dormitories when raiding it for forbidden magic, all the while his horn blazed with white light as it projected a counterspell ward in front of him: “Armigers! Cease all sorcerous shaping and banish anything you have summoned!”

That was also the last thing that Spellward managed to say, as beyond the door was a glowing light in which the words of a mystic koan was written – Speaker was too far to the side of the door to see the thing, so he avoided the effect of the spell, but Spellward’s mind was trapped an unable to do anything but ponder the impossible words of wisdom put before him. This also meant that Spellward dropped the counterspell ward he had been holding up in front of himself…

Thus It was while in this fugue that a brilliant saber wrought of bright flames shot out from the house, right into Spellward’s chest. Now, Speaker would have been able to save Spellward from simply being stabbed through the heart – but the sword was made of magic fire, incinerating the contents of his chest and abdomen.

Spellward instantly snapped out of his fugue from the intense shock of pain, but as his stomach bulged out from the steam and ashen gases created from his internal immolation, he barely had time to look over at Speaker and gasp before collapsing in a smoldering heap, the flaming sword tugging at his mass as it seemed to be trying to dislodge itself. Speaker quickly struck at it with Gift, augmented with his spirit-cutting charm,and the sword disappeared in a puff of burning essence…

Looking at the smoldering remains of Spellward in disbelief, Speaker turned to the doorway: “Morning Dew! By orders from the martial staff you’re charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government of Lookshy, murder, and anything I can come up with once we figure out exactly how many of the attempts on my life you’re connected to! Face me!”

From within the house the calm voice rang out – it was just tad higher pitched that Speakers, but it had that wonderful warmth one might expect to hear from a favored grandfather or wise uncle: “Calm yourself, please – and do remind yourself that duels are illegal in Lookshy”

Speaker seethed with rage. Looking at the blue-grey stone brick walls of the house, the alchemically treated timbers visible under the shingled roof and a few other places on the house Speaker deduced the structural weaknesses of the building in a matter of seconds – and then applied his disassembly charm, bringing the entire half of the structure down in a giant plume of dust that gushed out to cover the area in a grey haze that was painful to breath and keep your eyes open in, unless you had an elemental immunity charms.

Whatever Morning Dew had been doing had clearly been interrupted. The muttered swearing that came from the pile of rubble that Morning Dew began to emerge from certainly seemed to indicate that Morning Dew was upset.

“Calm your, please – aren’t priests supposed to set a good moral example to other ponies? Swearing doesn’t fit that” Speaker spitefully remarked in the general direction of the swearing, though he couldn’t quite see the unicorn yet.

Morning Dew didn’t dignify Speaker’s comment with a reply, instead a giant hound wrought of magic wind leapt from the ruble and attacked Speaker, who had no means of dispelling such a conjured creature – though with Gift he was able to fight it, but the damned thing was a lot tougher than a being made of up enchanted wind had any business being so hurting was surprisingly difficult.

As Speaker fought the hound of five winds he knew that he needed to end the fight quickly: Every moment given to Morning Dew could result in some terrible spell unleashed on him – and without Spellward or Shimmer he had no means to protect himself against such things. In the first age the Solar host, faced with similar challenges against the reality-twisting powers of the primordials, deviced a martial technique Speaker remembered as that of the Spellshattering Hoof technique, but for the love of it he could not remember how that charm worked.

Of course, the hound was a conjured being – not a real one – so if Morning Dew could be defeated, then he could be forced to terminate whatever essence the unicorn was using to maintain the hound. To this end Speaker adopted a defensive strategy against the hound, using his jumping charm to leap around the ruble as a means to avoid it – and then swat it aside forcefully whenever it would get close – all the while looking for Morning Dew who seemed to be manipulating the air around him to cloud himself in dust from the collapsed house.

The hound, fast as the winds it was made of, was easily able to keep up with Speaker as he leapt around – and at the same time its primitive and instinct-based attack patterns made it easy to handle, wrestling it aside when he would land and then jump away again. No doubt a less mobile Solar would have had to face the hound on more directly, but Speaker opted for the path with less resistance, seeking the true threat instead.

Morning Dew, having extracted himself from the ruble, now found that the dust that gave him cover also prevented him from killing the Solar who had brought his house down around him. Calling on elemental winds Morning Dew drew the dust down the ground quite suddenly, giving Speaker a very good look of the unicorn.

Tall and very gaunt, Morning Dew was clad in slightly torn and dusty immaculate monk robes. His coat was plain light brown, as was his horn, with the only hints his dragonblooded nature being the slight aquamarine highlights in his otherwise black mustache and goatee. His mane was shaved off, as was the norm for immaculate monks, though the one thing that really stood out to Speaker was an ugly scar that ran up the bottom part of Morning Dew’s throat, the rest of which was covered up by his monk robes. All in all Morning Dew did not look very impressive for a dragonblooded pony: No draconic features at all, with even his green eyes weren’t slitted, no bits of him covered in scales, nothing.

Speaker landed not far from Morning Dew, having thrown Gift so that it would hit the hound just before it could bite him – impacting the magical wolf-beast in a way that it was flung about twenty-something yards away, impaled partially on a broken wooden beam, leaving the creature squirming to free itself so it could keep hunting its designated pony quarry.

“Who put you up to this? Six Heavens Hunter? Did you listen a little too closely to a demon you had summoned? Why? Why try to get the martial staff drowned?” Speaker demanded, his expression livid and his body taught and ready to fight at a moments notice.

The priest beheld Speaker intently. Cash or Sully might well have been able to make all kinds of curious observations on the exact meaning and implications of Morning Dew’s furious gaze, but such was not among Speaker’s abilities. What Speaker did react to was the unicorn’s horn lighting up with a grey and silvery haze as essence and reality was shaped into a new sorcerous pattern – Gift was sent, striking the pony with force just like that of the impact on the hound, meant to send the pony flying… but Gift passed right through the pony!

“An illusion? Come and fight me like an honorable pony!” Speaker shouted, Gift zipping back to his right hoof.

It was a slight rattling sound that made Speaker look to his left, and it was Gift’s primordial nature that made it respond preemptively, it zipping up to parry the spinning length of conjured metal chain that seemed to trail off in an edge of sorcerous nothing that Morning Dew had just shot at him.

There stood the real Morning Dew, his flesh magically transformed into bronze – causing Gift to harmlessly bounce off him as Speaker threw it with great force.

The pathetic whines from the conjured hound of five winds terminated abruptly as Morning Dew recalled the essence bound to keeping the beast’s form coherent – Morning Dew had better things to use that effect than let it wasted on a impaled on broken wooden beams.

“Just tell me damnit. Who put you up to this?” Speaker implored, wanting nothing else than to hear Morning Dew pass the blame to a deathlord, or the realm, or something else – anything. To countenance the idea that Morning Dew was the mastermind behind this… it simply couldn’t be.

The priest, about as tall as Speaker, but gaunt and slim to the point that his limbs seemed to be more bone and sinew than muscle, merely shook his head: “Show some respect anathema. I have merely followed protocol for when an enemy of Lookshy compromises the general staff. You should be the one brought up on charges for consorting with dark powers, to gain the healing abilities you have acquired”

It was difficult for Speaker to comprehend what he was hearing: “So… you really don’t think you did anything wrong? Arranging my assassination to lure the martial staff into a trap? Getting Yushoto Boribap to trap the martial staff? Getting Jui Niang to summon brine curs to drown the martial staff? Just how many Lookshyan ponies have died from the results of your actions?”

“This is Lookshy. To die for the greater good of this glorious city-state is the greatest honor any of us can aspire to” Morning Dew stated plainly, with great conviction.

The image of Thundermane with her eyes gouged out flashed before Speaker’s eyes: “Does that include the mob at the Yushoto compound that gouged the eyes out of a retired Gunzosha veteran because I cured her cateracts? Or the ponies who’s limbs they broke because I had given them an alternative to being fitted a prosthetic when they had been amputees?”

With a derisive smirk and a slight huff Morning Dew craned his neck: “Like the general staff then you corrupted these ponies. The gifts you gave them were obviously tainted. To let them keep and display such mockeries would have been sin”

“And Ruby? My armiger? Those two Just how quick are you judge a pony not fit to live?” Speaker shouted furiously with tears in his eyes.

The priest stood unphased and unimpressed: “Do I need to repeat myself? Has your infernal dealings addled your senses? It is sin to let the tainted live - even more so fail killing tainted”

At this point Speaker was quite ready to stop talking and start fighting – he had heard more than enough. As much as it pained him to accept that it genuinely sounded as if Morning Dew had somehow masterminded this, then he had to take action… only problem was that Speaker knew that he couldn’t make a dent in Morning Dew because of that bronze flesh spell he had on – and it appeared as Morning Dew was well aware of this, as he shot Speaker another derisive snort and began clearing away debris, likely to resume whatever Speaker had interrupted by crashing the house down.

“You seem upset. Kindly spare Lookshy any further embarrassment – of all the anathema I’ve helped kill you’re by far the most oblivious” Morning Dew continued, his horn glowing with bright blue light and sparkles.

One quick flick of Gift later and Morning Dew was flying about twenty-some yards up in the air – and then he remained hanging up there, floating helplessly.

“I might not be able to hurt you – but I can sure as hell prevent you from escap-“ Speaker barely managed to say before having to leap out of the way from the brilliant eagly of diamond and ruby fire that launched itself from Morning Dew’s blazing horn, exploding with a furious shriek that lit most of the ruined house around that spot on fire.

Throwing gift and using the technique he had deduced while buried in neomah demons to make it keep attacking on its own, along with augmenting it the force-imparting charm that let Gift’s attack throw struck targets around, Speaker called his singing staff to himself.

Morning Dew, floating up in the air, quickly found himself battered around – no longer floating, but instead being bounced around by Gift striking him like a foal running around keep a ball up in the air. This kept him unable to shape up any new sorcerous attacks, while Speaker used his singing staff to draw in stone from the bricks of the rubble to make a big ‘ol nasty spike.

Speaker followed this up with giving new orders to Gift: Instead of bouncing Morning Dew around randomly, bounce him upwards quite a bit… which Gift did, sending Morning Dew well over a hundred yards up into the air. Finally, Speaker had Gift do the opposite: Slam Morning Dew down again and then return to Speaker, the unicorn quickly reaching terminal velocity… down towards the spike.

Even with his flesh enchanted and magically fortified, then falling at terminal velocity and just upon impact being struck again by Gift in a brilliant flash of golden light – its strike augmented by the Linear Flight Principle, as known to Speaker via his strange mechanically inspired martial art, was far more than Morning Dew could hope to survive…