Chapters Twilight Sparkle was bored. Again. Or maybe constantly? She wasn´t sure, as there was noticable lack of anything interesting in her life. She could´ve swear, that there was lot more going on, when she was just an unicorn, whether it was a friendship problem or something as simple as watching Rainbow pick a suitable pet.
But lately it seemed like everypony else were the ones going on adventures to places like Griffonstone, while the most entertaining thing, she has done was wondering, why are others laughing at Discord´s jokes.
Just to be clear, Twilight realized, that lack of adventures meant, that nothing was going wrong and she was happy for that, but still! She did sometimes do something to relax, like reorganize her books, but it was nothing compared to the daily lives of her friends. She was a princess, for Celestia´s sake! Shouldn´t there by something to keep her occupied?
„Twilight! A letter from Celestia!“ Shouted Spike from one of the siderooms. She couldn´t be sure, which one, because of the ever present echo, caused by insanely high ceilings and amount of empty space.
She wasn´t fan of that happening, but listening to Spike´s echoing stomping, as he run to deliver the letter always made her smile. But there was an interesting thing to think about: how does Celestia always seem to know, when Twilight needs an advice, or wants to do something? She had to remember to ask her, next time she´d see her.
„Thanks. I wonder what it´s about. The Map isn´t doing anything, so that can´t be it,“ she said and impatiently unrolled the yellowish list of paper.
„It´s been pretty long, since she actually wanted anything from you. But how funny would it be, if she sended you something annoying, like the tickets for the Galla?“ Wide grin appeared on little dragon´s face, as he recalled old times.
„Funny?! Don´t you remember, how difficult choice it was? I almost went crazy! But what a good lesson it was.“
„What a stupid prank it was,“ responded with one eyebrow raised. „She knew you had five friends, yet she sended just two.“
Twilight patted him on top of his head.
„That´s what made it a lesson.“
„Well, considering the reasons, why others wanted to go there, your choice was pretty dumb, but whatever,“ purple alicorn was about to ask what he meant, but Spike had more to say: „What is in that letter, anyway?“
Oh! The letter! Spike´s nagging comments made her completely forget about it.
Dear Princess Twilight,
if you don´t have too much work, I´d like to ask you to come to the Crystal Empire and take part in a very interesting research, that we are currently doing with other Princesses. Just to entice you a little, let me tell you, that what we found was made by your favourite magician...Starswirl the Bearded.
We hope to see you soon.
Princess Celestia
„Oh my gosh! Spike! This is exactly, what I was waiting for!“ Her companion knew better, then to ask her for details. She would tell him about them sooner or later.
„Celestia wants me to come to the Crystal Empire and take part in studies, she and the others are doing. Just us four, reading old books and discussing magical matters!“ exclaimed, dropped the letter on the floor and ran to the bookshelves to pack things she deemed needed.
„Fascinating,“ whispered Spike with his typical sarcasm. Nopony could deny the usefulness of magic, but he couldn´t care less, about the theoretical part, or about it´s history. But if Twilight likes it, then who was he to judge? As long, as he was left out, he was happy. To be fair, wasn´t lying in a bed all day much better, then reading some dusty old books?
„I expect, that you want to stay here, right Spike?“
„Good guess, I think I will chill out with Big Mac and play some hoofball instead.“
„What else? Well you boys do whatever, but for now, I need you to help me pack my things. Can you please bring my notes on Starswirl the Bearded and the Crystal Empire? Seems like I will be needing both of them.“
Later that day.
It´s been long, since I´ve visited Crystal Empire. I am so looking forward to this. Because of the 1000 years long banishment, there could be informations, unknown to the rest of Equestria. But Starswirl related? Yes, he was around at that time, but what did the Empire have, that the rest of the world hadn´t? Their books are special now, but were they back then?
Twilight was so lost in her thoughts, that she didn´t notice, her train arrived to it´s destination, until the majority of other ponies started getting out. She propably could´ve just fly there, but even after defeating King Sombra, the Crystal Empire was still in the middle of frozen tundra. There were pegasi, who were able to do it, but she wasn´t as confident in her flight abilities. So she went by a train, where it was nicely warm and where she could focus on her thoughts.
But the young Princess had to admit: an alicorn going by a train, would´ve been a strange sight, if she wasn´t wearing a warm coat covering her wings.
When Twilight got out, she headed straight to the castle. One of the guards would surely point her in the right direction. Along the way, she noticed several houses, that definetely weren´t there, when she visited the place last time. It made sense: with the Empire´s return, there were bound to be ponies, who´d like to live there. And for that reason even the new buildings were in the same style, as all the others, so the newcomers would feel accepted.
What a wonderful thing, that anypony could move anywhere they wanted to in order to persue their dreams. If she hadn´t friends in Ponyville, Twilight would´ve definetely loved to live there, so she would be close to the local library. But truth be told, the Empire propably wouldn´t be in such state, if she hadn´t friends to help her in the fight against Sombra. Thinking about about the dark king, was it possible, that whatever princesses were researching had something to do with him? He was an incredibly powerful pony. And not even an alicorn! Twilight would never be able to do half of things she heard he did, or saw him do.
I wish there was a way to study dark magic, without loosing my own will. Maybe today we will discover something.
„Twilight! Over here!“ She looked in the direction the voice came from and saw her beloved sister-in-law, trotting towards her. And wow, she looked good! Cadence was always really slender, but now, she was...curvier. Not that she would be fat by any means, but she was now much more similar to Luna, both of them being of roughly same height.
She looked good, that was the conclusion. But why did she have a ring on her horn?
That´s not the one she got from Shining at their wedding.
„Cadence!“ The two Princesses had a short hug, then Twilight followed her former foalsitter, leading her presumably into the castle.
„Nice ring you got there. A gift from my big bro? Maybe?“
It took a second for Cadence to realize, what she meant, as she clearly forgot, she even had it.
„Oh this? This is a safety measure we all had to undergo in order to do the reaserch. You see, we found an arcane book!“
Pink princess smiled, when she heard Twilight gasp next to her. Arcane books were simply said: books made of magic. They were supposed to be capable of containing nearly infinite amount of informations and could not be damaged by time, nor elements. It was believed that the idea came from Meadowbrook and some even say, that such book was her ninth enchanted item, but it was never found, nor confirmed.
The reason why it was believed, that arcane books could not be created was that they were entirely made of magic, and magic, unless it was bound to an item, disappeared, when the caster died.
But what kind of safety measure?
„You see, it was not created, as Meadowbrook intended it to be. It has a physical core, made of crystal and it actually has a weakness. You remember, how easy it was for King Sombra to corrupt the local crystals? Entire castle and town went black, because of piece of his horn. That´s because crystals are very sensitive to magic.“
Cadence took a deep breath and looked at Twilight, if she was paying attention. Princess of love was pleased to see, that Twilight was all ears to hear the rest.
„The book gets damaged by any aggresive magic, that get´s near, causing it to lose it´s contents. And as you know, there was quite a strong aggresive magic all around it several times and it did not leave the book untouched. That´s why we wear these rings. It´s to block our magic, so that there wouldn´t be any way for us to accidentaly damage the book any further.“
That explained lot of questions, Twilight was about to ask. Starswirl didn´t come to the Crystal Empire to read books. He was here for the crystals. Or a crystal. One that he could use to create one book, that would be capable of informing ponies even 1000 years after his death.
There were just few more questions to be asked, but Twilight decided to wait, until they´d get, wherever Cadence was leading her to. Like how much of the informations was left and more importantly, what was in it?
„How did you find the book?“
„Believe it or not: by a complete accident. We are currently strenghtening our military, and recruits, living in one particular room, were complaining about headaches anytime they were in their room. Turned out, that there was a secret door hidden inside the room, leading to Starswirl´s study.“
That couldn´t be the whole story. Magic was so common in Equestria, that there was no way, simple hidden door could cause any form of harm.
Cadence seemed to notice Twilight´s doubts, because she quickly explained: „That door wasn´t the cause and actually it wasn´t the arcane book either, but let´s talk about that, when we get there. We are almost there.“
She wasn´t kidding. They went just few more meters, until they reached an entry to a building guarded by two members of Crystal guard. The door opened into a long hallway with many doors on both sides. Since all the doors in the hallway were the same, Twilight assumed, that the one they were heading into was also the only one guarded by additional two crystal guards.
The room looked just like she expected it to look. No paintings, nor any kind of decorations. Just a table with four chairs and same number
of beds lined next the the walls. Pretty unsignificant, if not for a hole in the wall in front of them, leading into darkness.
„Well, it´s not how I imagine a door, but sure. Why not?“
As they entered the tunnel Twilight realized, that it had to be made by magic. The crystal walls around them were smooth like a glass. Propably Starswirl´s doing, but why didn´t he just use the room? And when did he visited the place? During King Sombra´s rule? Before that? If before, then why was he so secretive about it?
The light source Cadence conjured, was for at least a minute too weak to show them the end of the tunnel, but eventually they reached another room, which was, much like the way in, just a cubic shaped space with nothing much in it, except for two more alicorns, an earth pony holding a book and pen, this time legit door and spectral looking item floating above a pedestal.
„Twilight! You are finally here!“ Celestia was the first one to notice the newcomers and immediately walked towards them, to give Twilight a hug.
„Greetings,“ said Luna and then returned to the pedestal, clearly more interested in it and in the item it holded.
The earth pony simply bowed and then proceeded to Twilight, pulled a ring, same as Cadence had, from a pocket and handed it to her. It was a strange feeling to not have magic to her disposal, she realized, after putting it on her horn.
„So my student, how much was Cadence able to tell you so far?“
„Not much. Just that we have an arcane book on our hooves and how it got damaged.“
„Fine, this is something you really should see for yourself. Yes, this is an arcane book created by Starswirl. It contains his notes from an adventure into another world.
You see, the mirror, that leads to the human world was created by him, but that´s not what the book is about. He created another one and it seems, that it´s exploration wasn´t a nice experience.“
Twilight stayed silent, knowing that Celestia would continue eventually. But so far she didn´t understand, what was the big deal. What kind of bad exprience could´ve he had? If not for Sunset and the Sirens, the human world, for example, would´ve been fine. And all those dangers originated from Equestria.
„But rather then talking about it, I think you should read the notes, that survived. I just don´t think, it´s possible for me to explain it.“
This doesn´t sound good.
But she listened and walked to the regular book, that the earth pony obviously used to write everything, Princesses told him to. After a short look Twilight couldn´t help, but sigh in disappointment.
„Is something wrong?“ Asked Cadence behind her.
„It´s just that I expected more. More then barely one page,“ and she wasn´t kidding. There was only one list of paper, covered in carefuly written sentences and sometimes just words, without any context.
„You have to remember, that even though, this book would easily contain all the knowledge of the Crystal Empire and Equestria combined, it doesn´t mean, that it was meant for it. We believe that Starswirl made it in hopes, that informations about this new world would prevail, even if there wasn´t much of them.“
It made sense, so with little less doubt and more curiosity Twilight read first few sentences, barely blinking, stopping just to think about, what words were missing.
...mirror from black crystals. It works...first one. My book...not get damaged...black core.
This other Equestria is pony... like ours. ...new, no counterparts. It has very similar, if not...laws. But that´s where the similiarities end. What is the main difference is the...of ponies. Emotions, that...have been chained and used to defend... But they are not evil! No, they... They are just different then us, so much...understand.
But beware...the powers! Politics... The Emperor...servants! Emperor rules all with iron hoof! They...freedom like us. Soldiers are everywhere and...punishment...death. But...judge.
...nothing stronger then pride.
Following part was divided from the rest. Twilight figured, that there was propably huge gap in the book itself. And it seemed, like Starswirl really wanted to stress this part out and used more power, because there were no words missing.
This is my warning: attack what those ponies hold dear and you will beg even King Sombra to save you from them. It is not world for us. They don´t want us there. Do not enter the mirror.
After that, there was whole bunch of single words, or phrases. Some of them uniteresting, but other seemed to have a hidden meaning behind them, but without context to explain them.
feared by all
friendship
Inquisition
Cantergrad
the First
loved by many
Sisters can
arrogance serves
Union
And the list went on, but nothing that could provide any more informations about this „different Equestria“.
„This is...“ There were no words Twilight could´ve think of, to express her emotions. She didn´t forget Starlight Glimmer and how the whole village was living under her tyranny, but an entire world? Why didn´t Starswirl help them, instead of just warning future generations, to avoid it?
„Quite terrible,“ finally spoke Luna and for a minute stopped examining the arcane book. „It´s tragic, that nopony here could´ve gone help them back then. King Sombra wasn´t defeated yet, Discord and Tirek came soon after him...then there was me and before all of that Starswirl alone defeated the Sirens. Our Equestria wasn´t safe and we couldn´t spare anypony.“
„What I don´t understand is why didn´t he tell you two about that. He mentioned „powers“, but if the laws he also mentioned were laws of nature, then ponies there shouldn´t be able to be more powerful, then ponies here.“ Cadence seemingly expected the sisters to know more, as they lived back then and were taught by Starswirl, but he seemingly didn´t tell them anything.
„But we can go help them now. Equestria has been at peace for some time now, and the only real problems are regional. It is our duty to send somepony to at least find out, how are things going. And we have only one option.“
Celestia looked at Twilight, who felt slight feeling of déjà vu. Even though she realized, that if Celestia said so, she had a very good reason,
Twilight still had to ask: „Why me?“
„Princess Cadence has to stay in charge of Crystal Empire, as it has much more problems to take care of then Equestria and me and Luna are not as versatile in the use of magic as you, my student. Your talent is magic, so if there is a very powerful magic using bad guy on the other side, you with your strengh and knowledge of friendship are the best suited for defeating him.“
She was right and Twilight knew that. There just were situations, when she wished she wasn´t the only option, but it also filled her with pride, that Celestia was counting on her. Still, if her friends could...
„I suppose that I can´t take my friends with me, can I?“
„Even though, we have no way of knowing, if multiple ponies entering would cause any problems, like with the human world, it would still be way too dangerous for your friends. Remember, this is a world that forced even Starswirl to run away and write this fear-filled book. I don´t feel good about sending you, let alone anypony else.“
„Then there is only one more thing do find. Where is the mirror?“
Twilight and the other Princesses turned to the door. The only thing in the room left to examine.
„Behind this door. It´s a second reason, why I called you. We don´t know how to open it. But you´ve studied everything that there is to magic.“
Twilight used her power to see the structure of the lock in her head. And what she saw suprised her and made her inner researcher squeel in joy.
The lock on that door was utterly unique. It wasn´t even really a lock protecting that door. It was „door opening spell“ and a very powerful one. What made it hold shut was fact, that it had part missing, so it didn´t work, while at the same time, nothing else could replace it.
„The spell is missing something. Some sort of key. What we have here are four streams of magic, almost creating a cross. The missing part was supposed to connect them and so open the door. But I think there is a way to go around it. If each of us grabs one of the streams and stretches them, we could complete the spell on our own.“
„You never stop making me proud Twilight.“
Horns of princesses all simultaneaously shined with their colors and each magic engulfed specific part of the door. For a random observer it would seem, as if they were just standing there and heavily breathing. In fact each of them were doing what Twilight told them. Holding the streams of magic and pulling on them as hard as they could, until all the ends finally touched and created a cross.
„Well, that was anticlimactic,“ said Cadence, when the door just silently opened, as if they didn´t just used magic powerful enough the destroy the Empire.
„Yes. Typical Starswirl. He had no sense for drama. If a spell worked, then that was all he needed. These things need mare´s touch, I would add some sparkles, and bright light when it opens,“ answered her Celestia and all four alicorns entered the room, which was the same as the other one, only emptier.
And in front of them was a tall dark mirror, with pitch black glass, framed in some grey metal decorated by green and purple crystals. The source of headaches.
„Well, now when that´s done, I should be off to Ponyville to pack my things and say goodbye to my friends. I want to be in one room with this thing as little as possible.“
„Fine, we will see you tomorrow in the morning, my student.“
Canterlot, morning of the next day.
„Are you sure, you have everything Twilight?“ Asked Celestia will truly worried look on her face. Everypony in the room realized, that this quest was more dangerous, then difficult.
„Saddlebags, food supply, bits, coat hiding my wings, pen and most importantly – enchanted diary, just like the one you gave Sunset. I think I am all set.“
This assurance didn´t make Princesses any less worried, but that could be expected. All of them gave her hug and together walked to the mirror.
„Please, do be careful.“
„I will Cadence. I promise.“
With that Twilight took a deep breath and reached with her foreleg to the ebony glass. Upon contact with the hoof, the mirror bubbled and sissled with dark magic, same as the one Sombra used. But unlike when Twilight had to use tiny bit of it to find the Crystal Heart, this time it didn´t hurt. It was actually kind of pleasant, like having a hot bubble bath.
And so, filled with determination, Twilight fully entered the mirror...
...and suddently there was nothing below her. But before she could even realize it, her body fell on the ground. Thankfuly it wasn´t too high
of a drop. Maybe half of meter, not even enough to stagger Twilight, but enough for her to lose her balance.
„Huh, this doesn´t seem too bad,“ whispered to herself when she got on her legs and looked around. Twilight was in the middle of meadow, surrounded by forest that could as well be part of her Equestria. Soothing healthy shades of green everywhere, birds singing in the distance, definetely not a world, she expected to enter through dark and evil looking magical mirror.
When she looked back, there was no sign of portal, instead there was a huge rock, taller then twenty ponies.
Maybe I should fly on top of it and have a look around. Or maybe not. What if there was somepony watching and the secret of me being an alicorn would be blown right away?
Teleporting was out of question. Twilight didn´t know, how the top looked like and if she slipped, the fall from such height would definetely hurt her, if not killed her. But maybe, she could levitate herself up.
Which was exactly what she did. And after a bit of patience and effort she finally stood on top of the rock.
Good thing I did. This forest is massive. It could take days getting out.
It was barely visible, but there seemed to be something to the west resembling houses. After adjusting her eyes a bit with magic, she knew for sure. There was a village there. And where was village, there had to ponies.
*Yawn*
„I have to hurry, getting up here and going through the mirror was kinda exhausting,“ whispered to herself, yawned again and teleported down on the grass. Then headed out in the direction she saw the village.
She felt more tired, then she had any reason being. Figures, that a dark mirror wouldn´t let her through without a price and the tall grass looked so inviting. Perhaps it wouldn´t be so bad to have a small nap.
Just few minutes. What is the worst that could happen?
Her legs just gave up under her and let Twilight fell into the soft grass. She just wanted to sleep for a short while and then she would continue her journey.
That´s funny, I am so tired it looks as if the nature and sky were dark purple. It´s also wavy and... *Yawn* Wait, something is not right!
Twilight mustered up all the energy she had left and casted a magic shield bubble around her, effectively cutting her from anything, that could possibly affect her. Her energy immediately returned and when getting up, she noticed several dark purple magic streams, retreating into the forest. And was it just her imagination, or did she saw something one green and one purple eye?
Whatever it was, she had to focus on escaping and so, once the alicorn was on all four she ran in the direction of the village in hopes of finding safety there.
Her face was constantly being whipped by branches, but she couldn´t stop just yet. There was the option to just face whatever was attacking her, but staying incognito in this foreign world sounded more important. So far her enemy just almost put her to sleep, they didn´t attack her directly, so she might´ve not been in an extreme danger yet. She will fight, but only if there is no other option.
For now Twilight had to focus on the running. The forest was getting really dense and instead of slapping her, the branches seemed to be catching her legs and getting stuck in her fur. Twilight used her magic to protect herself, but she couldn´t block all of them and using bubble shield again would cause her too much precious stamina.
And so, when she tripped over a root, there was nothing protecting her from the fall. She tried to get back up, but her legs were being held by more roots coming out of the ground and wrapping around her limbs like snakes. The pony was stuck just for few seconds, before she felt her energy disappearing again, faster then before. This time, she knew, how to defend herself and immediately focused on casting the bubble shield.
„I am running out of patience,“ spoke voice behind her, the young Princess heard her protection shatter like piece of glass and before she could turn her head around and have a look, she felt something touch her mane. Her vison went black and the last things Twilight heard, before passing out was heavy breathing of something very close to her.
„Wake up! Wake up, before he comes back!“
Twilight didn´t like that voice, nor what it was telling her. Sleep felt so nice. Whatever was the pony sleeping on was firm, but comfortable and her blanket was just so soft. There was nothing in the world she wanted more then to sleep there, so Twilight just swatted the sound away and tried to think about what was she dreaming about, before that annoying voice interrupted it.
But her effort was rewarded only by hooves joining the voice in an attempt to ruin her beatiful rest.
„You are under his spell! Break it, or we won´t escape!“
Spell? Escape?
She tried to remember, but the memory was slipping from her grasp. Where was she? Why would she be in any danger?
„I will try to help you, but I can´t break the spell on my own.“
Twilight saw clouded images in her mind. It felt like that kind of dream, she sometimes had, when she was half awake. To one part of her brain it seemed, as if she actually dreamed, but her eyes saw only darkness.
Forest. Dark purple magic, creeping up on her. Branches and roosts grabbing her legs and coat. And finally the memory of somepony standing behind her, saying that they ran out of patience.
Twilight´s eyes shot open, drowsiness leaving her mind like steam above a pot, as she jumped out of the bed.
„Thank the First, you are awake. Quickly, we have to leave, before the grand inquisitor comes back,“ the voice belonged to a young looking unicorn with turquoise coat and same, if bit darker, colored mane made into a ponytail.
„What happened? Where are we?“
„No time for questions! We can figure out, why would the Inqusition kidnap a random unicorn later. Now grab my hoof and do everything I do.“
Unicorn?
Could she not see the wings? Twilight turned her head and first thing she noticed was, that the coat she was wearing before was gone...as were her wings. Princess of Friendship was once again a unicorn.
That realization was like cold pair of hooves crushing her stomach. She didn´t care as much for her ability to fly, but what she feared was what made them disappear. Did this „Inquisition“ stole her alicorn magic? What exactly happened, while she was asleep?
Those all were questions to be asked later, now they had to escape whatever place they were in. When Twilight put her leg on her savior´s, she felt carefuly fabricated magic shield quickly surround them.
Once it was complete, the mysterious mare started walking towards a wall in front of them. Purple unicorn instinctively hesitated for a second, but followed. To a non-unicorn they might´ve looked crazy, but if a building was defended by magic, then the door was most likely the most heavily guarded part. At a situation like that, a simple stone wall was no obstacle at all.
That was proven true, when the turquoise pony, who was just a bit ahead passed through, what for many ponies would be impassable barrier.
Wow. She is skilled. There are multiple carefuly hidden alarm speels in this defense, not to mention traps. If her shield failed now, getting stuck in the wall would be the least of our problems.
Thankfuly it took only about two steps to get outside. Unfortunately Twilight still had no idea, where they were. What they left was a quite big house, in the middle of forest, that could or could not be the same, where they kidnapped her from. What was strange was the house itself.
It looked way too normal. She saw dozens of buildings like that all over her Equestria. It sure didn´t look like a base of any organization and it definetely didn´t look like a prison.
„What is this place?“
„It´s residence of grand inquisitor, Snaky Arcanum. Listen, now I have to do few teleportation jumps and then we will be taken by my people to the base. I swear, that I will answer all your questions there, where we will be safe.“
„Can you at least tell me your name?“
„Sunnyside Glimpse. Now keep holding my hoof and get ready for the jumps.“
Twilight didn´t know, how exactly should she do it, so she just prepared for the change of scenery and the possibility of there not being ground under her hooves right away. And that´s pretty much what happened. For a second like grass green magic flashed in front of her eyes and suddenly they were standing in a different part of forest.
Is this Equestria nothing but woods?
She didn´t have time to look around, because her world flashed green once again and now they were standing at a peak of a mountain. But once again, they teleported away way too quickly to have a good look. The only things Twilight noticed were that this world actually was not purely covered by woods. The other one was huge city towering in the distance.
After the third jump, the mares ended up in the middle of a meadow, next to a lake filled with pure sparkly water.
Twilight expected to get teleported once again, but Sunnyside instead fired a green shot in the air and lied down on the grass.
„Now we have to wait, for our pegasi, to pick us up.“
„Why don´t we just teleport, wherever we are heading to?“
„Huh, you don´t have much war experience, do you?“ Sunyside shaked her head, but it didn´t look, like she was upset about that question. „Sad to say, that Arcanum prick is pure-blooded unicorn. A true master of magic. Tracking down teleportation is a child´s game for him and that´s why we do this procedure. We give him, or his dogs a false lead to waste their time, while we get carried, where we need by pegasi and other winged comrades.“
Sunnyside focused on one direction on the sky and smiled.
„Here they are. Finally.“
Firest about five seconds they were just black dots in the distance, but soon she could recognise, what race they were. Pegasus and a gryphon. Both were flying really fast and after just few more seconds, they were standing in front of them. The pagasus was one to speak:
„Greetings miss Gimpse, I see that the mission was succesful?“ His voice sounded just as militarily, as he looked like. Short green mane, strong body, and stance in general reminded Twilight her brother. The biggest diference – besides the looks – was his voice. While Shining always spoke with care and solicitude, this pegasus´s voice seemed to contain much more cockyness and impatience.
But if Twilight learned anything while being friends with Rainbow Dash, it was that these emotions weren´t necessarily bad.
„Yes, militant. Take us to the base, if Arcanum himself went after her, there must be a reason.“
„As you say my lady. Greybeak, you take the girl.“
The gryphon just nodded in response, turned his back on Twilight and lied down, so she could easily climb on top of him.
„Don´t worry. They are both used to carrying ponies.“ encouraged her Sunnyside, herself climbed on the pegasus´s back and hugged him around the neck. Following her example Twilight climbed on the gryphon and once she settled, both fliers took off.
„You ever flew before?“ Asked Greybeak concerned. It was nice to see, that there still were kind ponies and others in this world, even though it was apparently really bad even in Starswirl´s times.
„Ye- No. Not like this anyway,“ he didn´t question her, just nodded and hopefuly he would take that into consideration. And he actually did, when they picked up the speed, Greybeak grabbed her front legs with his claws and holded her, even though the flight itself must´ve become a lot more toilsome, since it ruined his aerodynamics.
Now, when she wasn´t so scared of falling down, Twilight could finally have a look around. Far in the distance she could barely see a mountain side, but there was no way of knowing, if it was the one, where one of the jumps lead them.
Most of the ground below them was covered by forests, but that seemingly didn´t stop ponies, from making villages and small cities. From her position she could see at least three completely surrounded by forest and about six on it´s borders.
They were too high to see the details, but one town was too large to overlook. The same giant city she saw from the mountain, but from different angle.
„What is that city over there?“ asked Twilight the gryphon, raising her voice, so he would hear her over the wind. He moved his head, to see, which one she meant.
„You don´t know? That´s the Cantergrad. Everypony knows that!“ his voice sounded really suprised and she couldn´t blame him. Even from their hight and distance she could see that it had to be really important. Perhaps the capital? In Starswirls´s notes it was only mentioned, but nothing about it.
„I am not exactly from around here.“
This explanation was obviously all he needed, because he didn´t ask further.
„We will be landing soon.“ spoke Greybeak, and Twilight realized, that she managed to fall asleep during the flight. Her magical sleep propably didn´t truly rested her and the movement of the gryphon worked like a swingining crib for fillies.
At first she didn´t see a reason, as there was no place suitable for landing, but the gryphon seemingly had much better eyes, then her, becaue it took few more seconds, for a structure to appear at the horizont. It looked kinda like a small castle, surrounded by wooden palisade, with tents of all sizes all over the place, but when they got closer it turned out to be something much more simple.
A church, or at least something very similar. One tall stone bell tower, up-close surely beatiful windows...it would look serene, if not for the palisade, wooden towers and dozens of ponies perfroming military training inside and outside the base. No, not just ponies. There were gryphons too and Twilight could swear that few of those pitch black figures were changelings.
„Welcome to the Fort Desire. The largest base of rebellion fighting against the Emperor and his Inquisition for the freedom of every nation in the Union. Let´s go to my tent and we can finally talk.“
Finally. Twilight hated being dragged around, without knowing exactly why. Usually she was the one who knew everything and others were the ones having to rely on her knowing what she was doing. Other way around it felt strange.
But now she finally had the option to talk with the ponies she came to find and help to. But the little she heard about the enemy, made her question, how useful could an unicorn like her even be?
Same time, different place.
„So you think that rebels took her away, master?“ asked a pony his companion, who might´ve as well be his brother. Both were wearing almost identical grey uniforms with pitch black shoulder patches with one red sun each and gold stars above it.
But that wasn´t the only thing. Even their fur color was quite similar. The one who asked the question had light grey, almost white with a slight hint of red. The same color was also his mane, but the shade of red was more noticable.
The second unicorn, besides being the only one with a star above his red sun, had fur grey like wet ashes. But the truly interesting thing about him, even more then his his black mane with purple lines, was the fact that each of his eyes was different color. His right one was purple as the streaks in his mane and the other one green.
„Definetely. There is no way, she would wake up on her own. Damn.“ answered him, with flat voice and turned towards him, so his companion could now see black circles under his bloodshot eyes.
„If you just listened to me! You´ve been awake for at least a week straight, reading reports and enlisting additional guards to villages. You have to rest, it´s no suprise that even a rebel was able to bypass your defenses in your current state.“
„You know I can´t. I can´t just go to bed, when Union´s citizens are in danger.“
„That´s why you have me! And the rest of the Inquisition. Damn it Snaky!“ He raised his voice, leaving the earlier formality behind. „We are not children and we are more then capable of handling this. What if the rebels launch an attack? You are our most valuable asset, but unless you plan to eat tone of garlic and then yawn in their direction, you won´t be much of a help to us.“
A smile grew on Snaky´s face in response to the joke.
„Damn you Necri. Why do you have to always be right?“
„Don´t know. Maybe superior genes?“ asked with a grin.
„Idiot.“ answered him with even wider smile and both ponies left the room, where was previously held Twilight. From there they walked to a living room, where they both sat on armchairs.
The room had barely anything to decorate it. Few pictures of ponies, same basic furniture and a fireplace. Snaky always liked, when his home had only what he needed, so that it would be easier to manage everything. There were few more doors, leading to different parts of the house, but they were all closed.
„So, there are few things I have to tell you, and few tasks I want you to complete.“
Necri stayed silent and waited.
„Your priority is that unicorn mare. You know that tall rock about five kilometers west from my house?“
„Yea.“
„That´s where she appeared. I need to you to go there and search the place for anything that might tell us, who is she, or where did she came from.“
„Sure, but why? I mean, why do you care so much for some random unicorn?“
„I am glad you asked. But first a small lesson about magic. Imagine it as a lake.“
„Okay.“
„When nothing out of the order happens, then it´s surface is calm, but if you throw a rock in there it creates waves. The bigger the rock, the larger waves it makes and the more they are noticable from a greater distance.“
„So you are saying, that something out of the ordinary happened, and this mare´s magic fell into the lake of our world?“
„Exactly. She most likely somehow gained an incredible amount of power at one moment, which leads me to why I captured her. Whatever she did it was riddled by dark magic.“
„Do you think that she was possesed?“
„Propably not, as I never seen a possesed pony to run away from the enemy, but I still couldn´t leave out that possibility and put civilians in danger.“
„Got it. And now I understand your concern. If she is as powerful, as you say, then rebels maybe just gained a powerful weapon to use against us.“
„Exactly. Now, that´s a one thing. Next I need you to go to the Citadel and help Crimson. He will explain the details.“ Yawn. „The last thing is, I want you to work on getting your cutiemark. If rebels manage to turn that unicorn to their side, we will need whatever power you have.“
The last task wiped the smile off Necri´s face. Unlike Snaky, who´s purple snake holding an apple with his tail was known across the Union, and most of ponies who got their marks at early age, Necri´s flank remained blank. By sheer training he managed to become quite proficent at magic, but it was still unclear to him, why did Snaky choose him as his apprentice – the second most powerful pony in the Inquisition.
And Snaky would obviously never tell him.
„It will be done. How long do you expect to sleep?“
„I hope that two days straight, but I expect three. So good bye for now and good luck.“
„Seeya.“
Snaky´s horn shined, but he didn´t disappear right away, like Necri expected.
„Remember. I have full trust in you and there is a reason for it.“
Before the other pony could react, his superior teleported away, presumably to his quarters in the Citadel.
He just can´t ever be straightforward.
With his tasks known, Necri teleported back to the room, they came from. To find one item he noticed and which could help him learn about this new threat. A coat that only a mare would wear and which Snaky must´ve taken off of her, when he brought her.
„Heh. Guess not being a pure-blooded unicorn has it´s advantages.“whispered to himself and after picking up the piece of clothing with his magic he put it to his nose and took a deep breath. Snaky wouldn´t smell propably anything unusual, but Necri´s sense of smell was much more sensitive.
Hmm. A bit of sweat, definetely no blood. Seems like our target is not a fighter, but I can´t know for sure.
Now the coat had no more value to him, so he just put it back and in the next second teleported again. This time he was standing in the middle of the meadow, with a huge rock behind him. Unfortunately he wasn´t as magically sensitive as Snaky, so unlike him, he couldn´t just feel whatever spell their target casted.
Let´s assume, that she wasn´t an idiot and had a look from top of that rock.
The next moment he was there. The unknown surface caused him to almost lose his balance, but he was confident in his abilities.
Okay. I think that village over there is the Old Stable. The only sensible thing for her would be head in that direction.
Necri jumped down, protecting himself from any damage by barely visible grey shield. And just after few minutes of walking through the forest, Necri noticed something off place. Branches were broken, roots were loose and out of ground.
This must be where she was running away from Snaky. Now I have to really look for clues.
„Wait. What is that sound?“ Whispered to himself. It was barely noticable, but he could swear, he could hear something, that wasn´t sound of the forest. It sounded like humming, but nothing that an animal could make, so he headed in the direction the sound was comming from.
„Hmm, what do we got here?“
Apples? In the middle of a forest?
Necri could hear the humming louder now, so he just left the fruit alone. Animals would eat them eventually.
The sound is comming from of that saddle bag.
„What the hell? What is a report book doing here?“
Unicorn pulled the book out of the saddle bag and holded it in front of his eyes.
No insignia. This is not ours. First of, let´s find the other end.
When making these items, enchanters always had to use a crystal as a core, holding the magic inside. But because of this, it was also impossible to protect these report books by any kind of spell. It didn´t matter if it would make it more durable, or to hide the other end. Any shield would sever the connection and render it useless.
What? The second book is...not in the Union? Grey aura surrounding the book got stronger as, Necri tried harder to find it´s sibling.
Another world, huh? That explains a lot. That mare didn´t get rapidly stronger. She was like a stone, that fell from the sky into the lake.
„Let´s have a look inside.“
Necri opened it several pages in, but it was empty.
Not used very much.
So he found the first page, just to see a pretty one sided messages.
Twilight, did the mirror work?
Twilight? Are you there?
The mirror stopped working. What happened?
„So now we know the name. The question is. Should I answer?“
Here´s an idea.
With the book in his hooves, Necri teleported back to Snaky´s house.
There has to be a pen somewhere.
After finding it, the unicorn sat to a table in the livingroom, opened the book and whispered to himself, what he was writting in it:
„My name is Necri. But we´ve found a purple female unicorn. Does it sound familiar?“
It seems, that whoever wrote this, cares a lot about this Twilight. If so, then the answer might come soon.
„That´s her. Please, tell me she is safe.“
„I don´t know that. She was alive, when we found her, but was kidnapped by rebel forces.“
„I take that you are servant of your Emperor?“
How does he or she know that?
„Yes.“
The book suddenly shined with light blue magic. It was so unexpected, that Necri almost fell from the chair he was sitting on.
„Somepony from our world visited your world thousand years ago. He left behind him notes and a portal, which is now closed. The notes seem to describe your government as evil. They are not complete, but our leaders decided to send Twilight into your world, to save you from your Emperor and Inquisition.
I don´t know, if we are doing the right thing, but I can feel, that you are not all bad. You have no reason to accept my request, but can you plase find Twilight and send her back? She don´t understand politics and is way too trusting.“
So this is what happened? Some arrogant pricks from another world think that they can decide, what is good and what is bad for us? Deciding on uncomplete notes of somebody from thousand years ago?
Necri´s blood was almost boiling and his pen was shaking.
„Don´t care what you feel about me. If this Twilight is innocent, then I will protect her as any other citizen, but if she hurts our ponies, the only thing I will send back to you will be her head.“
Snaky would propably by more deceisive, and tried to gather as much information as possible, but Necri was furious. He usually stayed calm even in the middle of a fight, but if he truly hated something, it was when somebody judged without knowing any informations.
„I wouldn´t expect anything else. Thank you so much. Just few more things I need to tell you. The pony, who visited you back then was called Starswirl the Bearded. Maybe it will be helpful to you. Now I need to destroy this book, so the others don´t know about this conversation. Good luck.“
The report book shined one again with that strangely gentle blue magic, until Necri heard something break inside. With the crystal core destroyed, the sentences slowly vanished, until there was nothing left but a regular empty book lying on the table.
Strange, but there is nothing I can do at the moment. If we knew, where the rebels are hiding, then it wouldn´t be a problem. Guess she wouldn´t get kidnapped if that was the case. Well, the least I can do is to visit the Imperial Library and see if it has something about this Starswirl. But first I have to find out, what could Crimson – head of interrogation department – possibly need.
And with that thought in his head, the unicorn once again disappeared in the grey flash, just to appear in front of a door, at the bottom of a staircase. That place was just tiny part of the Citadel - ancient base of Inquisition. The whole complex of buildings was more of a city of it´s own, but it wasn´t open nearly for everyone.
Some things were better to leave unclear, just like the room Necri was about the enter.
Unicorn opened the door.
Everypony in the Union realized, that Inquisition used turture as one of the ways to get informations and although it wasn´t often, as they could just use mind spells to read suspect´s mind or to make the prisioners tell them everything, sometimes there was no other option then the old way.
Necri didn´t know why, but he sensed Crimson in this room, so he simply assumed that there was some torture going on. It was always better, if they could just use magic and then execute the traitor, but at the end, he wasn´t against using things like red-hot pieces of metal to „untie tongues“.
The room he entered wasn´t for torture. Instead of terrifying equipment made for inflicting as much pain as possible, it had comfortable armchairs, table and some other accessories to make visitors comfortable, as this room worked for Inquisitors and their allies to discuss informations they learned and to rest.
Crimson must be in the other room. What is he doing? I would expect more noise.
The door slightly creaked, when Necri opened them and revealed a room, that looked much more like what one would expect. Tilted floor with drain channel in the middle for disposal of blood, long shelves on the walls, with all kind of equipment. Most of them the apprentice didn´t even know, how they worked. But that wasn´t his job, it was of that unicorns´s standing in front of a pony, who was chained to a huge wooden board.
The prisioner looked terrible. Before, he propably was rather handsome orange stallion, but now his body was covered with burned spots, scars and of course – his own blood. At that moment he seemed be unconscious, which was why the room was so silent.
„What´s up Crimson?“
The adressed inquisitor turned to the newcommer. He was wearing the same unicorm, but unlike Necri´s and Snaky´s who had them in perfect conditions his was just like the room and his victim covered in all kinds of bodily liquids.
„Oh, hello Necri. What brings you here?“ Crimson was about ten years older then him, but that didn´t stop them from becoming friends the day Necri joined the Inquisition.
„Snaky said, that you needed some help. So I am here.“
„Oh yea. But I am not sure if you can help. See this pal right here was captured, when he tried to cross from Badlands to the New Land region, without proper documents. After the usual magical scan, we found out not only that he is a rebel, but also that there is a spell protecting the informations. Unfortunately we can´t break it, without him loosing his mind. Literally. And as you might imagine, he isn´t being very cooperative either.“
„Uhg -k you.“
Both unicorns turned to the chained pony, who seemingly was not only awake, but had enough energy to be impudent.
„This is what I have to deal with. Let´s go to the relax room, so we can talk.“
They left the tormented prisioner in the room and after closing behin them, they sat comfortably on the armchairs.
„So what else have you learned about him? From familly of traitors that we could use, or something similar?“
„Nah, we obviously interrogated the familly, but they had no idea about what he was doing, I am sure of it. I asked few questions and sended them home. You can imagine they were pretty heartbroken. I would be too, if my kid turned out to be a traitor.“
„Yea, I get it. Well, suppose he will break in due time. Just boil his leg off or something. Shame that he isn´t a mare. So much easier to break and we could at least have some fun.“
„Assuming I would let you and didn´t just give her to somepony, who deserves a reward.“
„Pff. Well, guess it wouldn´t be fun anyway, since you now have ball on chain attached to you, so you can forget about having fun with any young meat.“
„I can but you could have fun with him just fine. He is a flowey.“ with the last word, the torturer stuck out his tongue to mock his friend. „Flowey“ was a word used to label a stallion who was attracted to other stallions instead of mares. In the Union behavior like that was strongly judged, employers had right to not let ponies like that work under them and almost always these „floweys“ either suppresed their deviancy, or were send to jail.
„I swear to Emperor...!.“
„Come on guys, don´t tell me, that you would lower yourself to have fun with a defenceless lowlife rebel girl. And joking about this flowey filth is also unfit of ponies of our ranks.“
Both friends looked to the entry door and saw a mare, wearing the same unicorn as them and judging by her smile she heard everything.
„I wouldn´t. I have a wife to be loyal to.“
„I am not talking to you Crimson, but to Necri. He is old enough to finally find a girl to be with, rather then...helping you in your work.“ she walked to the the younger unicorn and gently stroked his mane, as if she was his older sister. In fact they were just friends, just like with Crimson. Her job was the leader of executioners. A sadly needed role in those times.
„Guillotine, you know that I can´t. Too much work to do. Besides. This way it´s much more fun. No consequences and no problems.“
„Although I do understand the enjoynment, I just think you should enjoy life a bit more. Stop eating ration packs for example.“
„Yea, yea. Whatever. Why did you come here, anyway?“ asked Snaky. Thankufly his colleague was willing to let him dodge her suggestions this time.
„What? Can´t a girl sometimes see her best friends? Crimson is too busy with his familly and you spend most of your time closed in your study.“
„I guess. It´s just that I am suprised you have no deep throating to do.“
Hoof stroking his mane suddenly stopped and Necri could see behind her one raised eyebrow a storm comming.
„Get it? Cause Guillotine? It goes deep into the...“ his words were quieter with every letter, until all he was doing was tapping the side of his neck with his hoof.
„I have to go!“
And before the more and more angry mare could react he was gone and she was left int he room with Crimson.
„I wonder how long was he waiting to say this joke.“ Crimson got up from his armchair, expecting their little meeting to end soon. Guillotine was just silently standing, but the unicorn could see a growing smile on her face. Though it seemed sad to him. And he knew why, but couldn´t do anything about it.
„Wanna help me with the interrogation?“
Union – alliance of four states, Changeling Hive, Crystal Ponies´s Republic, Griffon Nests and the largest one: Empire of Equestria. Although all states had some degree of independence, at the end the ultimate ruler was the Emperor, living in Cantergrad, the capital of Equestria.
Suprisingly he rarely did anything. Nopony knew, how he looked like, with the possible exception of grand inquisitor and the supreme commander of pony forces. To most of the Union, it seemed as if the Inquisition was the true leader, but in fact, they were just following set of rules, which was searching for and destroying traitors and occasionaly helping the army with law enforcement.
Together, these two organizations protected the Emperor and the regime.
The regime that, Twilight learned, was close to a nightmare.
Freedom of speech didn´t exist. Anything badmouthing the regime was censored and it´s originators were send to jail. Similar punishment got ponies who were adult, young enough to work, yet didn´t have a job. There were exceptions to this, for axample adventuring was considered a job. It mostly worked as an excuse to send so called „deviants“ into jail. That was another thing. There wasn´t freedom of love, like in her Equestria. While back home she wouldn´t face any consequences for falling in love with another mare, in the Union it was considered deviancy and ponies like that were either cast out of their homes, or imprisioned.
Nopony could even go where they pleased. Besides the fact, that crossing the border into another state was possible only with invitation from the local government, the Equestria itself was divided into seven regions. To enter or to leave one needed to have his own documents and a good reason, if he didn´t want to be closely watched by the army, or worse. It didn´t sound very difficult, but the goverment sometimes changed the documents entirely and while citizens living in the cities and villages weren´t too affected, the rebels who relied on their documents and had no idea about the changes often fell into that trap.
„And it was always like this?“ asked Twilight, when Sunnyside finished briefing her on the functioning of the Union.
„Yes. And always there were ponies, like us, who were against it, but we were always defeated.“
„That´s terrible! How is it even possible? One would expect, that the whole nation would revolt against something like this right at the beginning!“
„And they did. But it´s not as easy as you think. You can´t understand this, because you are not from our world, but we all feel fear of the Emperor in our hearts and as his enemies we sometimes can´t fall asleep, or have nightmares about the punishment he will bestow upon us. Nopony knows, where this fear is coming from, but every citizen of the Union lives with it. That´s why there aren´t many of us. Not everypony is brave enough.“
Just as Sunnyside told Twilight about her homeland, the former alicorn revealed where did she come from and why. The only thing she left to herself were her missing wings. Not only she wasn´t sure who to trust yet, but also she didn´t want to put anypony in danger for nothing, since her magical power was still the same. Not when she wasn´t sure, what happened to her alicornhood.
„All of this is just unbelievable. Can you tell me more about the grand inquisitor? Snaky Acanum I believe you called him? I just don´t understand, why he went after me.“
„Well, there isn´t much known about him. He doesn´t exactly share stories with us. Almost every pony of that bloodline became a grand inquisitor. He is fanaticaly loyal to the Emperor and is the last pure-blooded unicorn in the world. Meaning he is the only one left with the potential to be as powerful as the first ever unicorns.“
„Is he evil?“
„Definetely! I saw with my own yes, how he killed few of our friends, for wanting to be free from the oppression!“
„I mean, is he evil, or is he just following the wrong idea?“
„Ach, nopony is borned evil Twilight, but if you grow up listening that you have to follow orders and can´t have your own will, then it will become part of you. He almost definetely could´ve been a good pony, but not even the First could change him now.“
„That´s another thing. Both you and our book mentioned somepony called „the First“. Who si that?“
„He is, as the nickname suggests, the first ever unicorn. Don´t know, how other races started, but we came from Four First Ponies, as they are called. Unicorn, earth pony, pagasus and alicorn. Nopony knows, where they came from, but their power was absurd. First earth pony could destroy mountains with his kick, the pegasus could create wind capable of drying seas and so on. When we, the revolutionaries talk about the First, we mean the unicorn one, as he was the one who started the rebellion, but it can differ among the citizens.“
„So, how did the ponies came to be? And what happened to the First unicorn?“
„According to the legends The Firsts made a deal, that every single one of them will divide his power into hundreds pieces, to populate Equestria. But they were betrayed.“
„The Emperor?“
„Yes. He was the first and only alicorn. When the others found out about it, it was already too late. His power was just too great. The First unicorn and his allies were the only ones, who opposed him. But against them rose another great power. The Inquisition. Lead by pony named Abyss Arcanum. The rebellion was crushed few days after it began. The First was the only one who survived. I personally believe, that it was because Arcanum wasn´t powerful enough to kill him. Whatever the case was, the First has been sealed into a crystal prison so powerful, that he is there even now, thousands of years later.“
For a while they were both silent, thinking about the new things they both learned. Since they arrived, Twilight didn´t leave Sunnyside´s tent and the mares were sitting there for hours already. Thankfully somepony realized it and brough food to them.
„You said you are not a fighter, eh?“ Asked leader of the rebels.
„I´ve fought before, but I never had to kill anypony. Don´t even know, if I would be able to.“
„Don´t worry about that. There is something else somepony with your knowledge of magic could help us with. Can I count on you?“
„I will be happy to help.“
Another place, another pony.
Smile stayed on Necri´s face even when he appeared out of thin air. He knew, that he will have to go back to Crimson, as there still were important matters to discuss. Mainly that spell, that was protecting the informations they wanted. Since spells affecting minds were usually incredibly risky for the owner of the brain, Necri wanted to know it it wasn´t some kind of new more usable version.
But right then, there was something else he wanted to do.
So what? The rebels are nothing more then bunch of cowards hiding in the woods. We have all the time in the world to take care of them.
Room, where the unicorn teleported to was nothing like the one he just left. Instead of stones darkened by blood, had this one walls made out of perfectly clean marble, instead of torches to iluminate there was magical light coming out of seemingly everything and most importantly – instead of torture equipment, the shelves were filled with thousands upon thousands of books.
The Imperial Library.
It contained knowledge as old as the ponies themself and for that reason, if somepony destroyed even a single page, he was sentenced to death. To prevent that, it was forbidden to take anything from the building with you and the whole library was safekept by the Librarian – a pony, maybe even more mysterious, then the Emperor.
„Good afternoon, current apprentice of grand inquisitor. Would you like me to find you something to help with your project?“ Said emotionless mare voice behind him. The Librarian, as the visitors called her, was pale middle-age mare. At least, that´s how she looked like.
It wouldn´t be strange, if she looked at least sometimes different. Since the born of pony race, the Librarian was always described the same, or at least really similar. Nopony knew her real name, where she came from or what was she eating, as the Library wasn´t truly a bulding, but a sytsem of rooms and hallways, somewhere below the Citadel, without any physical entrance and the Librarian was just an earth pony.
Just like other visitors before him, Necri tried to get the answers from her, but she never told him. She never told anypony. The only one, who might´ve known more was the Emperor, but he didn´t tell everything not even to the grand inquisitors.
What does it matter, who she is anyway? She serves the Union and that´s all that matters. I just wish she didn´t know about things nopony should know about.
When Necri first learned, that the Librarian knew about his project it freaked him out. He didn´t tell everything not even to Snaky, but her answer was always the same: „I know what I have to know to serve the Emperor.“
When she told him that, Necri was going to get a clear answer from her by force, but Snaky stopped him, telling him, that that´s how she always was.
„No I don´t.“ Answered finally. „I learned, that about thousand years ago, we were visited by a pony named Starswirl the Bearded, who came here from another world. I want informations about him.“
„As you wish current apprentice, please stay here.“ Her voice didn´t change a bit: no suprise or anything. The Librarian just walked away into one of many library´s halls and left the inquisitor alone.
If that Starswirl met with a grand inquisitor, then there had to be records about it. One of the lesser known duties of Inquisition´s leaders was to write about every major event into „Imperial arcane book“. Magical item, hidden in the Library, used only by the most powerful leaders in the Union.
Considering the organization existed for thousands of years, there was quite a lot of data in it, and so Necri, who wasn´t interested in history never read more then few peges. Last time he did was when he visited the Library for the first time.
„Here you have it, current apprentice.“ Necri turned around startled. It was as if she teleported behind him, but that was impossible for an earth pony like her. To his suprise, what she was giving him wasn´t beatifuly decorated ancient book, how he remembered it.
I wouldn´t even slap somepony´s face with this!
„What is this?“
The style of writting was way too readable to be written by a pegasus, or an earth pony, but also rushed more then if it would be done by royal writters, who usually made records for the Union.
„Personal notes of the grand inquisitor, who met the visitor you are interested in. The Emperor forbid recording this into the Imperial arcane book.“ Said the mare, as if it was completely obvious, which it wasn´t, since it was His order to never forget history.
The notebook was pretty much just notes, without much explaining, as they were intended for the grand inquisitor himself.
I shouldn´t be, but I am somewhat interested, what his Equestria is like. Maybe they don´t have executions, maybe they are not scared of rebels. Not sure, how could it work any other way, as there is always greed in the hearts of ponies and not only in theirs. Damn-
The sentence wasn´t finished. The writter propably realized he was getting off track.
It´s dishonorable to learn from this world in any way, or to use anything it provides, so it shouldn´t suprise me, that the Emperor forbid me to write about this in the arcane book. Just in case so that somepony greedy in the future doesn´t try to find and abuse this other Equestria.
-
rest lof the page was blank and the notes continued on the next one
-
In the name of the First, what kind of hell did he come here from? It´s making me sick, what he calls „absolute freedom“. It´s a damn anarchy! They have no leader, the pony clans are seperate and the pegasi are the only one, who have some sort of army.
He told me a story, where a village was attacked by a dragon and there was nopony to help them! They – civilans without a military training – had to deal with it on their own. No government, pretty much no laws, no prisons and truth be told: no rebels. I am not suprised! Everypony have literally as much as they produce, so no point in wanting the goverment to give you more money, when there is no government. So if somepony is homeless and without food, he is going to die without generosity of other citizens.
But Starswirl kept on waving in front of my face with freedom of love and opinion. What opinion? What opinion could one possibly have, in a land with nopony who cares? And freedom of love! What the hell? Can´t they at least have some decency in them?
But there is hope for them. He has two - according to him - very prominent students, who he plans on becoming ultimate leaders. Well, I wish him good luck, but tomorrow I will ask him to leave. He is friendly, but has tendencies to critize us.
At least here everypony has a job, so they don´t have to starve damnit! It´s discousting. We have army and the Inquisition to protect ponies from danger and he tells me, that it´s wrong for soldiers to stand on guard in every street.
He tells me, that we shouldn´t force ponies into jobs, if they don´t want to, let alone make them pay taxes. Again. While their old ones are fully dependent on their famillies! And what exactly do adult ponies without job live from? Stealing, or parasiting off somepony!
I don´t even care anymore for their Equestria. He will leave tomorrow and hopefuly I will never hear about it again.
The rest of the notebook was covered with questions, things the writter wanted to remember and by describing the visitors travels across the Union. Necri read everything, but it wasn´t even worth remembering.
Is it possible, that our mysterious Twilight is the student he mentioned? No. Snaky described her as „young“, so perhaps servant of the leaders? Thousand years is definetely enough time to establish a goverment. Maybe things changed.
„Hmm.“
If whoever I spoke with via that book was one the leaders, then I really should at least try to send Twilight back alive. No need to antagonize an entire world, no matter what state it is in. But as I said. If she hurts our citizens, then she will be punished according to our laws.
„That´s everything. Thank you for your help,“ said and returned the book to the Librarian, who was patiently wanting next to him.
„I live to serve, current apprentice.“
The unicorn nodded and without saying anything more he teleported back to what Crimson called „relax room“. To his suprise, the head interrogator was sitting there, drinking some transparent liquid from a shot glass.
„Is she gone?“ Asked Necri, when Crimson noticed him.
„She is, but Guillotine WILL pull your ear off the next time she sees you,“ when Necri joined the Inquisition the mare unicorn was his guide for the first few months and everytime he messed something up, or more often, made some stupid joke, she bit his ear and pulled him in whatever direction they were going.
Thankfuly she never did it in public. There was no reason to create misplaced rumours. And of course, they both had to stay respected. She really was more like his older sister, then a friend and he was perfectly happy with that relationship.
On the other hand Crimson, who was the oldest one of the three inquisitor friends, was more like that kind of older brother, who is too cool and serious for their shenanigans.
„I think I can survive it. But let´s talk about our little flowey. Did you discover anything unusual about that spell protecting his memories?“
„Nope. Nothing interesting. It seems to be somewhat skillfuly casted, so chance of going insane was propably around 70% and this guy was just lucky. Which would make us unlucky, as there is no way we can get around it.“
„Would make? What is the good news?“
„Before I get to it, I need to tell you this hilarious story, that happened when they brought him here. But not here. Our prisioner should hear it too.“
Crimson went into the torture room and Necri followed. The head interrogater wasn´t pony for jokes, so if he deemed his story funny it really had to be something amazing. In the other room they were greeted by tired look of the same pony, that was there when Necri left into the Library. Judging by the fact, that he seemed fully awake, there was no further torture, while the apprentice was gone.
„Did you come to torture me some more?“ Asked with weak, but stable voice. It was no suprise that he had sore throat. Crimson wasn´t known for his mercy.
„Actually no. I want to tell my friend about what happened, when you arrived here. You see, this guy was caught at the border by a pagasus and earth pony guards. Suprisingly that fact is quite important. So they arrested him, contacted local inquisitor overseer and he teleported them here. That´s when the funny thing happened. The inquisitor left the three of them here and went to get me.“
Necri´s interest would´ve fade out by that point, but Crimson trying his best to finish his story without laughing kept him on his hooves.
„So I came here and was like: What in the name of Emperor happened here? The two guards looked like they just drank bottle of vodka each. They were pale, there was vomit on the ground and all around I was terrified.
You would not belive, what happened. So, earth ponies and pagasi obviously have better sense of smell, then us unicorns and when they were locked with this flowey in one room, they could smell him. I kid you not. They both smelled the other stallion, who slept with him so much that they freakin fell the heck apart!“
Now Crimson just could not keep his calm and started laughing uncontrollably.
„Wait. You mean, that the smell forced them to imagine what happened?“
„Yes!“
This confirmation made Necri also burst out laughing.
„That´s freakin gold! We have a damn damsel in distress over here!“
The apprentice gave a quick look at their prisioner and noticed that his face was twisted with anger.
At least he has some pride left in him.
„We should get a dragon and then let his knight in shiny armor save him from a tower!“
„That´s the best part: his knight is on his way here! In chains, but guess metal is metal.“
„What did you say?“ Somehow the prisioner managed to find some strenght in him, enough to actually raise his voice. While Crimson continued giggling silently, Necri right away became more interested in what would happen next, although thinking about the story still made him smile.
„Just that your filthy flowey coltfriend has been found and is on his way here,“ the smile, Crimson had, alone in the past scared his prisioners so much, that they confessed to everything on the spot. It was smile of a sadist. One that not many ponies have seen, but one that everypony expected him to have.
But just very few know, that it´all an act. His wife is among them. He only does what it takes to get the informations from the prisioners. Nopony he tortures is innocent and effectively revealing traitors is not only for sake of the Union, but also for the sake of his familly. Heh. Truth be told the pain he would afflict on a pony, who would hurt his little son or his wife would be unimaginable. And the best of all: unless killing him, not even Emperor would stop him.
Necri´s train of though was interrupted by prisioner´s angry voice, demanding answers.
„How did you find him, you pricks?“
„Well, the army has trained dogs with even better sense of smell, then the guards that brought you. All I had to do was take some of your fur and give it to them to track him down. When you think about it, it´s really your fault for not being careful enough,“ explained Crimson patiently. Normally that tone and the insult would be rewarded by pain, but the inquisitor understood psychology pretty well and realized, that it will be beneficial to let the prisioner think about what was going to hapen.
„But...but he is not even a rebel! He doesn´t know anything about them and only helped me! Please sir, he is innocent and if anything I am the one at fault! Please...please don´t hurt him. Have a heart!“
The more he was going on, the more was his voice breaking. Necri considered it simply discousting, but Crimson, who knew excatly what love does to ponies, had nothing left of that laught in his face. The younger unicorn understood, what was going on in his friend´s head.
It was not sympathy, but pitty. He pittied the prisioner for being flowey and that his love got him where he was.
„I will not lay a hoof on him, as far as you tell me everything you know about the rebellion. If not then you shouldn´t forget that you and your coltfriend are nothing but worthless floweys, meaning that nopony is going to save your from me.“
Sucks for him. Spell or not, we know, when somepony lies. That´s why the Inquisition always wins.
Next day. Morning
When his hoof hit the floor it stirred up cloud of dust so heavy, that almost anypony would at least sneeze. But he was used to it and walking too fast. Everything in his house was covered in centimeters of dust, as if it hadn´t been used for decades. The only place in the room, where the filth wasn´t as strong was the narrow path leading from one door to another.
He never went anywhere else. There was no need to.
His magic grabbed the handle and quickly opened the way to the next room. The movement stirred cloud of dust so large, that even he finally caughed and sneezed. It was present even there, because most of the time he just teleported to his destination. But today he wanted to think and thinking was always easier, when walking. Just a harmless habit.
The room was perfectly clean, compared to the rest of the house. In it´s middle stood large table, mostly covered with strange equipment and bottles, holding liquids, which would propably caused some of his collegues raise their eyebrows, questioning, how he got his hooves on those things. And most importantly – why?
And then, there was a corpse lying on it, surrounded by all those tools and ingrediens. It belonged to a young unicorn mare. She must´ve been beatiful when alive, but now her body has been mutilated the by chemicals and by usage of tools on the table.
He walked to her, put his hoof on one of her wounds and just like dozen times before, her body shined weakly with his magic.
At first, nothing happened. Then her foreleg moved, even though she was dead for days. The limb leaned on the table and tried to create a support for the rest of the body.
Not now!
Some of the dust was still left in his nose and chose that exact moment, to make him sneeze. When he opened his eyes he saw, that the leg, used in the attempt to make the body stand, was now unnaturaly twisted, definetely with every single bone broken in multiple places.
Angry and discousted he levitated the corpse, while opening a hatch on the floor and dropped it there, finally giving it at least some sort of burial.
„I don´t need your help!“ Not a speck of dust answered his refusal. He was alone.
Elsewhere
„And she will just make me the documents?“ Asked Twilight, when Sunnyside explained her, what was her task. Or as the leader of rebels phrased it: what the purple unicorn has to do in oder to be able to help them.
„Pretty much, yes. Obviously your name will be the only true informations. Our enemies don´t know it anyway and it will prevent you from becoming a suspect just because of the habit.“
Her task was to cross the border seperating New Land region and Emperor´s Garden, to meet with Paper Wings. An ally of the rebellion, who was to make her documents, allowing her travel across the Empire of Equestria.
Twilight had finally the oportunity to look at the map and learned, that it was almost identical to the one of her Equestria. Just cities were called differently and on different places. The region they were in – the New Land – was actually called Hayseed Swamp in her home world and the Emperor´s Garden was Filly Delphia and it´s surroundings. No wonder she belived for a second the Empire to be nothing but woods.
The problem was that borders between regions weren´t just stones set in ground, or rivers. There was an invisible magic barrier created by the Inquisition and only they were able to make a hole in it for somepony to pass through. Well, to be exact, to pass through without the entire order going after them. It wasn´t a wall, but more of a alarm spell which could be set off only by a pony, since it led through woods and rivers and the Inquisition didn´t want to be bothered by every single animal, that crossed the border.
„And I think I know, how to get there, without Inquisition´s knowledge. At least I will find out, if the magic in this world works like in our world,“ said Twilight with her all-knowing smile. It felt good, that she could start repaying her debt to Sunnyside.
„That´s great. Otherwise we would have to send somepony with you, to serve as a bait, while you would get to Paper.“
„You would do that?“ The purple unicorn was actually suprised. Sacrifising a pony for another?
„Time taught us, that there are ponies more important then others. We are all willing to give up our lives, if it helps the citizens of Union to free themselves.“
Twilight couldn´t say, that she liked that answer, but it made sense. She just wished for all of them to live happy lives, not ones they had to be prepared to lose.
„So Hoofville it is,“ Hoofville being a fairly large village in Emperor´s Garden region, where Paper Wings lived.
„Yes, but before you go I want you to take this,“ Sunnyside´s horn shined and when she reached her hoof, a simple crystal necklace appeared on it. „Shatter it and it will teleport you back here. It will alert the Inquisition, but I am confident, they won´t be able to find us. Still, only use it, when there is no other option.“
To the border, Twilight would be accompanied by a militant, since Sunnyside said, that a young mare walking though forests alone might arouse suspicion. His name was Gleam Patrol, a yellow pegasus with blue mane, of roughly same age as Twilight. Gleam maybe wasn´t the most experienced fighter, but he grew up in the New Land and knew his way around the region.
Both received saddlebags with food, water and a map. Even though, Twilight wouldn´t be going alone, there still was a possibility, that Gleam wouldn´t be there to accompany her on the way back.
But there was something, that made Twilight really happy. While they would be gone, Sunnyside promised her to send somepony to the place, where she was captured by the grand inquisitor, to search for her lost belongings. The leader of rebels wasn´t there, when it happened, but Fort Desire worked like some sort of hub for rebels from neighbouring regions, and after describing the place, they were able to locate it. It wasn´t New Land´s forest where she appeared, instead it was in part of what she knew as Everfree Forest, which was in Eastland region, streatching from where Los Pegasus should be, almost to where Dodge City would be.
That was the reason, why Sunnyside couldn´t get to Twilight right away, since she planned on disrupting the barrier on their way back. Funny, but the alarm spell on the borders wasn´t that much of a danger and fast enough pegasi were deep in the region, before the inquisitors on guard even reacted. But if they did it too often, the imperials would now, that there is something going on in that particular region.
That brough a question on Twilight´s mind: did the alarm spell recognise gryphons? Sunnyside said, that it works only on ponies, but that would be strange, considering the fact, that Union was pretty much a single state. Truth be told it was easier to say „ponies“ than to name every single intelligent race.
„So, why did you join the rebellion?“ Asked Twilight, shortly after they left the fort, trying to strike up a friendly conversation. Since it seemed she would be stuck in the Union for some time, she might as well make some friends, which brough her to question, if friendship even existed in that society. It propably did, but she didn´t meet, nor talked to enough ponies to be sure.
„I don´t usually tell this story, but Sunnyside told me, that you are completely unacquainted with how the Union works, so guess you should know, so you can make a better picture of what we are up against. You know about the Inquisition, right?“
„Bits and pieces. They are led by the grand inquisitor Snaky Arcanum and they are basically executioners, who hunt down rebels and sometimes help the army with law enforcement. That´s at least what Sunnyside told me.“
„Heh, that does sound like something she would say. But, just between the two of us, Sunnyside is...lets say way too straightforward. She only sees the bad things Inquisition does and believes, that they are all evil because they serve the Emperor, while they saved many innocent lives, by protecting them from creatures too strong for the army to take care of. But I am getting off track.“
„I don´t mind. If I am to help you, I need to understand the enemy too.“
„I know, I know, but I want to finish the story first.“
It seemed like telling the story really mattered to him, so Twilight just nodded and stayed silent. It sounded serious and maybe he hoped that he would feel better after telling her. He seemed really kind, so it was the least she could do.
„They story is actually really short. I used to date a mare. Her name isn´t important at this point. She was like the most kind pony in the Union. An herbalist, you see? No matter what illness you had, or how ritch you were, she always did all she could to help you. You might see the problem already.“
Gleam gave Twilight short look, but continued walking through the forest.
„She was helping the rebels as well. I don´t know, if she agreed with them, but to her they were just ponies who needed help. But...ech...but the Inquisition has no understanding for this and executed her. You see, there is a small branch of inquisitors, called the interrogators: group of unicorns specialized on mind spells. I would lie, if I said I know how exactly they do it, but they are capable of finding out, if you have anything to do with the rebellion. And they are never wrong.
Fortunately they realized, that I didn´t know about anything, unlike her who knew, that she was curing rebels. And so I ended up here, since how could I continue living in that society?“
„That´s...I don´t know what to say. I am sorry. There is almost no hatred in our world. I met only one pony, who truly felt it and we were forced to destroy him to protect our land. I...I understand you. I would hate the Inquisition as well. I was fortunate to never lose anypony, so I don´t know, what I would do.“
To her suprise, Gleam laughed with honest merriment.
„You don´t have to pity me. I am a stallion who at one point wanted to become professional soldier. I don´t feel pain from losing her for a long time now. I am not flowey, nor a mare to be so sensitive. Heh, it wouldn´t bring her back anyway. But more importantly: you are wrong about the reason, why I joined the rebellion. I have no hatred for the Inquisition. Hell! My grandpa, whom I love very much, used to be an inquisitor and still is a great pony.“
She would say, that he was just trying to impress her, but there was such strong certainty and honesty in his voice, that there was no doubt he was telling her truth. Were minds of these ponies so different from the ones she knew?
„I don´t get it. Why then?“
„Heh. There is a strange enjoynment in complexing somepony so unacquainted. Sorry. You just don´t understand, what the Inquisiton is all about. I do not hate them, because they are doing only what they believe to be the right thing. She was helping their enemies. We are at war. Sunnyside might tell you, how many friends we lost to the Inquisition and the army, but they are no different. Both imperial soldiers and inquisitors lost comrades and family members to our people and my marefriend was knowingly healing those, who did it. Have you though about it?“
He wasn´t mad at her, but Twilight still looked down at the ground in shame. She wanted to say, that she isn´t used to thinking about such things, since she never was at war, but it felt like a pathetic excuse.
„I hate the Emperor. And that´s why I joined.“
„I don´t get it. Why doesn´t Inquisition and the army help you overthrow the Emperor? Sunnyside told me about the everpresent fear, but somepony as powerful as Snaky Arcanum must be strong enough to resist it. And if everything they do is for sake of the Union, then you should have the same goal! To get rid of the tyrant!“
„That would be nice, wouldn´t it? Having Arcanum as an ally would be gift from the heavens. But I can tell you, why they do, what they do. They believe that citizens are living good lives under his rule. And guess what? They are. To an extent. The majority of ponies are living good lives. There is no poverty, the goverment generously takes care of sick ones, old ones and even orphans. But, there is a large but. This doesn´t justify the rest of the things goverment does.
They should not force barely adult colts to attend brutal training in the army, ponies should not be thrown into jails for saying outloud what they don´t like about the system, prisioners shouldn´t be tortured, ponies should not be bullied just because they love the same gender and brothers shouldn´t execute their sisters! Which is what my marefriend´s brother did. He and most of other inquisitors are so influenced by... traditions...“
Gleam said that last word like an insult and for the first time, she heard anger in his voice.
„...that all their love can turn into hatred in an instant! When they told him, that his sister betrayed the Union he volunteered to be her executioner!“
The unicorn took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. This was obviously something he was holding inside him for some time.
„Inquisitors don´t care. None of these are their problems. Pride. What a joke! It´s nothing but bunch of obsolete habits and customs, holding everypony back. I am not a flowey, but tell me, is it right for a family to expel their child, just because it fells in love with the same gender?
That´s why I joined. Because I do care, even if it isn´t my problem. Because the Union can be better! Ponies can live better lives. We can have more.“
With that, Gleam seemed to lose all his energy. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were blank. He probably wasn´t in the forest anymore and instead was re-living some old distant memory.
Twilight decided to not disturb him. Even if he seemed joyful, his life propably wasn´t nearly as happy, as his attitude would led one to believe.
She herself had lot of things to think about. It was clear, why the rebellion existed and there was no doubt in her mind, that she had to do everything to help them defeat the Emperor. But there was something she wanted to do at some point. Something Sunnyside and propably not even Gleam would aprove of.
I have to meet with Snaky Arcanum. I have to convince him to help us. Sunnyside said, that Inquisition is doing everything he orders them to. And if it´s true, that they also protect the citizens, it means that he ultimately means well. I am sure, that they just use wrong means and follow the wrong orders.
Afterall, even without wings, I am princess of friendship and if somepony can bring peace to rebels and the Inquisition, it´ s me.
„We have reached the border.“
Twilight was so lost in her thoughts, mindlessly following a dirt path, that if he didn´t spoke out, she would pass the border stones and triggered the alarm.
„Now let´s hope, that this plan of yours is going to work. Can you explain it to me, so we could try to replicate it, in case it works?“
„Well, in my Equestria all barrier and shield spells are made the same way. Imagine the bubble shield as a very thin waterfall, in which the water comes right back. The magic doesn´t usually follow the laws of gravity, but this kind follows one different law of physics. What happens if you put our hoof into a waterfall?“
Gleam wasn´t sure, if that was a real question, but answered anyway: „The water splatters everywhere.“
„Excactly, the splatters are what the caster notices, the disturbance itself is part of the alarm. But if you put something like a blade of a knife into the waterfall, the flow almost doesn´t change, yet the knife still get´s through.“
„So what you are going to do is change the shape of your shield, into a blade, so that you can cross the border, without any magic splattering?“
„Yes!“
„Welp, I´ll tell Sunnyside about it and maybe she can do it. To me all this magical stuff is completely unfamiliar. Now let´s see, if you can do it.“
The militant gave her confident smile.
It was tough, but Twilight eventually managed to conjure several meters tall sharp blade-like shield around her. It wasn´t practical and was very difficult to maintain. The key to spells like that was focus, any slight disruption could change the shape of the shield and ruin it´s purpouse.
When it seemed to be stable enough, the purple mare walked in the direction, she knew the border was. Her eyes were closed, risking she might trip, but Twilight didn´t want to let her sight distract her.
She walked few meters more then she had to, but the unicorn wanted to be sure, that she crossed. Since the barrier itself was invisible there was no telling when was it safe to disable the shield.
„I will hide here and wait for you till the evening, then I will return to the Fort. Good luck and don´t forget: if you see any soldiers or, First protect you, inquisitors, don´t look them in the eyes. Just walk past them and try to look, like you have a clear goal. I believe Sunnyside explained to you, how to find Paper Wings?“
„Yes. Good luck to you too,“ both ponies waved at each other and parted their ways. Twilight was now alone, folowing the map she got, in a potentionaly hostile region. Thankfuly, the village was rather close to the borders, at the south-east side of the region, near a mountain.
What wasn´t great was that Twilight would have to at certain point cross a river, meaning she had to either find a bridge and risking meeting with a patrol there, or teleporting on the other side. She decided to go with the second option, since, from what she saw, the use of magic and teleportation was so common, that nopony should notice.
Later that day
After succesfully crossing the river, Twilight continued traveling through a forest undetected. Ocassionally she was so close to the edge, that she could see the main road and it was strangely empty. The unicorn didn´t have the opportunity to see it very often, but when she did look, there was nopony using it.
There was no reason for ponies to not live in Emperor´s Garden, as far as she knew and she would expect the road to be full of travellers and mainly traders, going in and out of the region to either sell things, or buy new products.
After about two hours of following various dirt roads, made most likely by local lumberjacks, Twilight heard something strange: distant roar coming from the direction where Hoofville was. Whatever it was, it wasn´t a pony and Twilight could swear she heard it before.
And it definetely didn´t sound like something that should be near ponies, so with the edge of the forest in her sight, Twilight started running, with occasional teleportation jump, to get to Hoofville as quickly as possible.
The houses were closing in and mare´s stomach constricted, when she didn´t see anypony there. The village was layed out on top of a hill, at the bottom of the local mountainside. Because of that she could only see very small part of her goal, but the roar, now really close, assured her, that something was terribly wrong. And she still couldn´t remember, when did she hear it before.
Last jump and she appeared between some houses on the edge of the village. The laud roar didn´t repeat, but Twilight now could also hear some distant growling and shouting of ponies. She was too far to understand the words, but it sounded like angry orders and warnings.
All the voices were for a moment silenced by a loud crashing noise, followed by animalistic roar.
„Watch out damnit!“
Her vision was blocked by a body dressed in like ashes grey uniform and just second later a huge piece of wall was crushed after hitting a magical shield the pony casted at the last moment. When the rubble stopped raining, her savior turned to her and Twilight now could see, that she was saved by a stallion, but couldn´t say, if he was younger or older. His face was covered in dust mixed with sweat.
„What is happening here?“ Asked Twilight, before he could pester her, which was something he seemed to be about to do.
„Are you deaf? There is a dragon attacking!“ Now she remembered, where did she hear the roar before.
From one of the streets rushed to them group of ponies. Three of them were wearing dark grey armor, short black cloaks with red sun on them and strange bracelets on their forelegs. The rest of their group were five mares and two children. They must´ve been the local villagers.
„Are you two alright?“ Asked one of the soldiers, whose mane was starting to turn grey with age. He seemed to be the one in charge.
„Obviously. Did you find everypony?“ Responded Twilight´s savior and the older pony just nodded.
„Okay, you!“ he turned his attention back to her. „Go with them, the soldiers will lead you to a safer place. I am going back there.“ The last sentence was for the old soldier, who again nodded and motioned her to follow him.
„Let me help!“ It didn´t matter, that those ponies were imperials and that one of them was even an inquisitor. A dragon was everypony´s problem.
„No way in hell. Just go with them to the safe place and let the Inquisition take care of things,“ he sounded angry, but Twilight could tell that he was just hiding his uncertainty. His eyes betrayed him, when he looked in the direction the noise was coming from.
„I faced a dragon twice before, I can be helpful!“
Her grey uniformed savior looked indecisively at the older soldier. It was obvious that he wasn´t used to making important decisions, but the officer, since it he had to be some higher rank for an inquisitor to ask him for an advice, just shrugged.
„Alright. Stormrage you take the civilians to safety. You, girl, come with me.“
She did as he said and ran behind him deeper into the village. Along the way they saw some destruction, like caved in roofs caused propably by debree falling on them, but no signs of fire, which was strange considering that most of dragons used fire as their primary weapon.
„What color is the dragon?“ Twilight shouted at him, so he could hear her over the screams in the distance.
„Black scales and orange stomach. Does it mean anything?“
„Well that´s both good and bad. Dragons differ by the color and every kind does something diferentely. For example-“
„Briefly!“
„Black dragon can´t use it´s fire breath right away. It takes some time to prepare it, but when it does use it there won´t be much left of the village.“
„So we have to pray that the help comes soon.“
They finally reached the very peak of the hill and Twilight could now see the dragon. It was just as huge, as the red one she and her friends met years ago, when it covered Ponyville in smoke. But it behaved strange. From their position it looked as if it was trying to destroy something in front of it, but was failing. But Twilight didn´t have enough time to think about it, as she kept on following the inquisitor, who introduced himself as Vortex Reach.
Finally they arrived to what propably used to be village´s square, before the dragon ripped it to pieces with it´s claws. Against it was five inquisitors and twice as much regular soldiers. Some of them were hurt and every single one of them looked tired. The unicorns from casting one shield after another to protect the buildings or their comrades and the soldiers from trying to take the beast down.
And judging by several dead bodies and huge blood splatters they were losing. This was the first time Twilight saw a dead body and the sight made her almost throw up, but she kept her composure. There were ponies in danger and she had to help them. Strange thought went through her mind: it was the third time she was facing a dragon, but the first time the goverment was helping her.
Seriously. Almost everytime there was some kind of danger, whether it were dragons, timber wolves or evil magicians, it was up to Twilight and her friends. This time it was her helping the army, enemy army no less.
„Listen, I will try to come up with a plan. You help the others and make sure that the dragon doesn´t kill them. If you find yourself with free time on your hooves, then try to protect the building too, but lives are more important. And don´t worry about the citizens, there is a group of inquisitors protecting them.“
It was interesting to hear, that Vortex was capable of sarcasm in a situation like that, but Twilight figured that it was his way of calming down. She was about to do what she was asked to, but somepony else seemed to already have a plan.
„We need you to protect everypony for few seconds. We´ll just grab the wounded and get them to safety, then come back and support you,“ shouted at her different pony in grey uniform, without even turning his head. He was too focused on blocking dragon´s movement. Sometimes two or more shields appeared on the same place, as there was no coordination, but it didn´t cost almost any energy, if the shield didn´t get hit, so it created something like backup.
„I can do that.“
Determined Twilight teleported just few steps from the dragon and casted her spell. She tried to put as much force into the shield´s creation as posible and as a result, the dragon was thrown off balance and almost fell backwards from the sheer impact of her magic, with it´s body.
„Holy...“ she heard voice of the inquisitor who told her to do that, followed by the sounds of teleportation. The dragon quickly recovered, but for some reason, it didn´t try to punch through the shield anymore. Instead it was taking deep breaths and Twilight could swear, that she heard some strange noises, similar to gushing of wind coming from it´s chest, where the lungs were. It was preparing to breathe fire.
„Turn off the shield! Now!“
Behind her was standing Vortex with two soldiers, propably those who were the least hurt. Now she could see, what the bracelets were for. They were weapons. Magical swords and shields, hidden, most likely in crystals, which the bracelets were holding. Twilight never thought about using stones for something like that and nopony else in her Equestria propably did either, since they were still using metal spears. They must´ve been very similar to the arcane book. Spell and some energy to turn it on and one had instantly weapon more durable and effective then anything ponies could make out of a metal.
She wasn´t sure, what the inquisitor planned, so she did as he said. When the last bit of her purple magic dissolved in the air, the two guards, for a blink of an eye, disappeared and reappeared flying incredibly fast towards the dragon´s neck, suddenly with a strong magic rope inbetween them.
Vortex teleported himself too and it was when he appeared in front of beast´s eyes, holding a unstable looking ball of magic, Twilight realized, what was his plan. He planned on staggering the dragon with his attack and have to rope to make the beast fall and pin it´s head to the ground, forcing it to beathe the fire harmlessly in the air.
But only the most talented and skilled unicorns could pull off such powerful attack and teleport away in time. Vortex wasn´t as powerful, other inquisitors were exhaused and she...she wasted her time by hesitating and now the young pony, who saved her life, was destined to die in the fire.
Or not?
All three ponies disappeared, before they could even touch the dragon. It, seeing an opportunity to attack, threw it´s head and in the next moment breathed column of dark grey fire so strong, that even Twilight, who was standing at it´s feet gasped in pain.
But as quickly as the heat appeared, it was gone and the pain slowly followed. The mare looked up and gasped in shock. The flame stopped in the middle of it´s way toward the group of ponies, bend straight up and went harmlessly into the sky.
In the place of the bend was floating a pony in what looked like upgraded version of Inquisition uniform. But instead of simply covering the chest and forelegs, that version was more of a coat, with four sleeves, high collar and a hood. On top of that the pony was also wearing tall black boots and a mask of the same color. De facto every part of his body was covered, even his tail was hidden. He looked more like some kind of ghost, or maybe even demon rulling over flames.
At least, that´s how others except for Twilight propably saw him. She could feel it: his shield was very high level of defensive magic, but it didn´t seem to fit to him. She couldn´t say, if the newcomer would be able to save them, but she was certain, that if things would be going the way they were, there still would be a marthyr at the end of the day.
This time she wouldn´t let her hesitation endanger the ones who saved her. The next moment she was hovering next to the mysterious pony and put all the magic she had left into the shield. Even with her alicorn leveled magic, she wasn´t her brother and so her addition to the shield only rapidly increased their chance of survival, but didn´t ensure it.
No! What is he doing?
The shield was changing. Their shield could be imagined as two canvases of cloth, on top of each other, but for some reason, the masked pony was pulling „strings“ from the half protecting him and adding them on Twilight´s side. More and more magic was being moved in that way, that Twilight soon wasn´t in any danger and the shield was ensured to redirect the flames till the end.
Stench of burned cloth and fur filled her nose, followed by painful growling. The pony next to her was now in mortal danger. With so many strings missing he still was protected from the flames themselves, but the heat was so high, that his suit started to scortch, along with his fur. He was covering his eyes with his hoof, but it also caused the cloth covering it to catch on fire. Something kept on extinguishing all open flames, but everytime something ignited it caused more and more pain and damage.
„No! Stop holding my magic. You are gonna die!“ shouted at him Twilight, when she realized, that she can´t give the shield´s strings back. His magic was on top of hers and she didn´t have any strenght left to overpower him.
„Come on friends! For the Emperor!“ shouted somepony behind them, on the ground.
Some were weaker, some were stronger, but quickly the part of shield, that was protecting the mysterious inquisitor, got covered and enforced by strings of different colors and powers.
Who´s are they?
Twilight couldn´t fully turn around, or else she would disrupt the shield, so she at least checked on the pony next to her. His suit was full of huge burned in holes and on some places it was about to fall of. The most worrying were red spots on his skin, but he didn´t look seriously hurt.
She was still looking at him, when she realized, that the flame stopped. Twilight looked to the dragon, prepared to face him again, but instead all she could do was to stare in horror.
There was blood-like red, with black core magical tentacle around the beast´s neck slowly squeezing the life out of it. It´s eyes were filled with primal fear as the dragon hopelessly scratched it´s own neck in an attempt to get rid of it´s killer. But not even dragon strenght could save it from the horrible fate. Slowly, but surely dragon´s eyes went blank, movement of limbs slowed down and finally, with few last twitches, the huge creature fell to the ground.
Dead, but the image of the dragon desperately clinging to life still haunted Twilight´s mind. Dragons were intelligent creatures, as much as ponies, so what made this one attack the Hoofville?
Darkness of her thoughts was pushed away by cheer of ponies behind her. She looked and saw citizens of the village – the ones who combined their strenght to save the burned inquisitor, who was doing his best to stand still. The suit was just hanging on him and the mask protecting his face fell off after having it´s strap burned apart.
He looked about same age as Twilight, maybe a bit older.
Are there no old ponies in the Inquisition?
Besides the cheering crowd there was a group of ponies, who weren´t there, when Twilight arrived and who definetely didn´t look like normal villagers. There was twelve of them, six wearing the same suits as the one, who saved her and the other six wore the same type, but white and red and without the masks.
„Necri! Are you alright?“ one of the grey uniformed ponies left the group and runned to the wounded pony, along the way dropping their mask, revealing a pretty mare underneath. Twilight just politely stepped away and watched her hug him.
The mare inquisitor didn´t say anything, but from the look she gave to Twilight, the purple unicorn knew that she was grateful and smiled back. To give them some privacy she looked, what the rest of the newcomers were doing and to her amusement all of them were doing something, even if it was just looking at the damages. Horns of five red and white inquisitors were shining in different colors, but without any visible effect. The inquisitors seemingly also didn´t want in any way disturb those two.
After few moments, one of the red and white uniformed ponies spoke:
„Citizens of the Union, my name is Crimson Scythe. The head interrogator of the Inquisition. First I want to assure you, that the Empire of Equestria will do everything in it´s power to help you in these difficult times. Homes will be rebuild and the security increased, that I can promise you. But now we have to punish those, who stand behind this discousting betrayal. The attack of the dragon was no coincidence. The beast was driven mad by dark magic and it is our duty as Inquisition, to find and punish the evildoer.“
While the pony was talking, Necri, being supported by the mare inquisitor, hubbled his way to him and something whispered into his ear. Judging by Crimson´s face he wasn´t too happy about what he heard, but didn´t argue.
Gasps and suprised screams sounded from all around Twilight. Tentacles, same as the one that ended dragon´s life, were now holding in the air five ponies, one of them being the old soldier, whom Twilight met after arriving into Hoofville.
„Every single one of these is a traitor. After this trial we ask you to report any crime to me and the Inquisition will take upon itself to find the culprit. Since commander Stormrage was working with the rebels, it´s highly possible that he also covered them.“
Crimson was about to say more, but some angry voice from the crowd jumped in.
„Stormrage you bastard, it´s because of you Duskglider is still missing!“
The accusation was followed by loud approval from the rest of the crowd. Everypony was looking at the prisioners with hatred and every now and then Twilight could hear insults. There was no doubt in their minds, that their former friends were traitors to the Union and even though they couldn´t know what exactly they did, it was enough to turn any fondness into hostility.
„The rest of you. I am giving you opportunity to confess to your crimes, so at least you can die with dignity.“
Nopony said anything, so Crimson raised his foreleg - a sign to prepare for the execution.
I have to do something!
Twilight reached for the little magic she had left, but nothing happened. Her magic was being shielded from her will.
Shielded?
Twilight somehow knew, where to look and her eyes met with the grey ones belonging to Necri. When he noticed she realized it, he just shaked his head.
Her hopes on saving the ponies from execution crumbled to dust, when she heard five necks break, followed by the sound of their bodies hitting the ground and the crowd cheering. Twilight´s eyes floded with tears and her legs just gave up under her.
„Don´t worry about it. Lady Guillotine isn´t one for commendations. I will never forget, how you helped us instead of getting to safety,“ said Vortex´s voice behind her. He seemingly didn´t notice her crying and explained her weakness as simple fatigue and, or minor letdown, from Guillotine´s lack of interest.
She was scared. She knew that Necri wasn´t going to let her go. He knew, that she was a rebel, but events of last minutes were too much for her. Twilight wanted to run away, to be back home. In Equestria where ponies didn´t live knowing that every day might be their last and where crowds didn´t cheer, when their neighbours were executed for following their ideals.
The necklace!
In all that mess, she completely forgot she had it. With her sight fuzzy Twilight grabbed the crystal on her neck. She had to hurry, because Crimson, Necri and Guillotine were coming straight towards her.
With fear kicking her into overdrive she crushed the small crystal with her hooves. The last thing she saw, before the released magic teleported her away, was Necri´s confused face.
That expression stayed in front of her eyes even after she found herself in the Fort Desire.
Literally. Necri was standing right in front of her and after quick look around, he looked anything but happy.
Damn piece of garbage, flowey, bastard, son of a changeling hit me way harder, then he had to.
Necri would continue in the inner insulting of whoever was the one who hit him in the back of the head, few seconds after being teleported from Hoofville, but was interrupted by another wave of pain and dizziness.
Calm down. Take it slowly and don´t stress your head.
The inquisitor closed his eyes, took a deep breath and the pain slowly faded away.
Alright. Now, what happened?
It took few more seconds for his world to stop spinning, until he could have a look around. What he saw was nothing special. Damp old room, which could´ve been a prison just as much as regular basement for storing potatoes.
In the light, pruduced by small crystals embedded in the ceiling, Necri found two things, which were at least somewhat interesting – sturdy looking wooden door and a young dark blue mare lying next to him, with worried look. Worried about him.
„Finally you are awake. They did it to you too, right? They took away your cutiemark, did they?“ the girl´s voice was weak and very sad. She must´ve been in that jail for much longer. But what cought Necri´s attention was the lack of her talent´s symbol.
„I never had one. But what do you mean? What in the name of Emperor did they do to you?“
The young pony, pegasus as Necri noticed, pulled away and stared at the ground.
„They...after capturing me in the forest they brought me into this huge room, I believe it was in this fort. They...they...there was this huge horned skull, propably larger then me. Their leader casted a spell and something raised me in front of it. Then...then the jaws opened and my energy was sucked from me into it,“ the mare burst in tears. „I woke up here. Without a cutiemark and my wings aren´t working!“
The girl covered her eyes with hooves and Necri could just heard muffled sobbing. What should he do? He never was in a situation, when he would have to comfort somepony. So he did the only thing that came to his mind and as gently as he could, the inquisitor stroked her mane.
„What is your name girl?“
„N-Nightglider.“ whimpered.
I heard it before. One of the villagers in Hoofville shouted it at that traitorous commander.
„From Hoofville, right? Then there is hope for you. Your army commander was a traitor, backing the rebels. But he and the rest were executed this...How long was I out?“
„Maybe few hours. I am not sure.“ Listening to Necri gave her back some hope and now carefuly listened, eyes still wet, but not crying anymore.
„Then it can´t be even half of day, since the Inquisition found out. You just have to wait.“
„And what about you?“
„Well, I assume they will do to me the same thing they did to you. But I would be suprised if they let me live.“
Right as he finished talking something clicked and the door into their cell opened with a lound screetch. In them stood clearly flustrated yellow pegasus with dark blue mane. After giving a quick look at the room his eyes stopped at Necri who was giving him a wide guilty grin.
Nearby
„You sure you are alright Twilight? It must´ve been a terrible experience.“ Sunnyside and Twilight were just walking through the fort to get the purple unicorn something for a late lunch, after waking up from three hours nap.
When Twilight arrived, her and Necri appeared in some room just as Sunnyside was discussing something about reinforcements with her subordinates. After one of the soldiers knocked the inquisitor out, and Twilight told them what happened, the leader of the rebelion insisted, that Twilight would go to sleep right away.
„Yes, I am sure. I just am not used to seeing things like that happen.“
„You´ve seen the true nature of Inquisition. The moment you step out of the line it´s the end for you. Anyway, before I forget: I received some unnerving reports from our scout, who went to find your belongings and to find the portal you came here from. Now he is exceptionally sensitive pony in terms of sensing magic of all kinds, but he didn´t find your things, neither did he find any sign of there being any kind of portal in the stones you´ve described.“
The second discovery shocked Twilight. It was no suprise that her things weren´t there anymore, since if Snaky was as competent as she heard, collecting them would be the first thing for him to do after capturing her. But how could a portal made by dark magic simply vanish?
„It must´ve closed and your scout couldn´t feel it, because the source was always on the other side.“
„Or Snaky closed it, to keep you here. Though I am unsure as to why.“
„Hmm. Do you think I could have a talk with Necri? He seems to be of some higher rank, so maybe he knows something.“
„Bah. Inquisitors would rather bite off their tongues then to betray. But you are welcome to try. If Snaky has plans for you and he knows them, he might be more open to you.“
„Thank you Sunnyside. I really appreciate what you guys are doing for me.“
„Don´t worry about it. We couldn´t keep on fighting for thousands of years, if we didn´t take care of our own.“
Not knowing what else to say, Twilight just smiled and teleported on a place in the fort, where she knew was a way to the cellar, that the rebels used as a prison. During the short time the purple unicorn was part of the rebellion, ponies learned about her and so she never ran into any problems, when she would be forbidden to go somewhere.
The unicorn also had a small suspicion that it was Sunnyside´s influence, since why would all those militants just randomly trust her?
Strange. I would expect there to be guards.
There was nopony standing at the door, where she was told Necri was put in and as she got closer, Twilight noticed that they were opened.
Prepared to cast a spell if needed she slowly approached the cell and looked inside. As far as she could say there were three ponies inside. Somepony hidden under a blanket in the corner and Necri talking with Gleam.
„...really doesn´t matter. Oh, our little heroine arrived.“
Gleam turned around and for a fraction of s second, Twilight could see hostility in his eyes, but it for such short time that she wasn´t sure, if it wasn´t just her mind playing tricks on her from hunger.
„You need something?“ Asked with his usual kind voice and made Twilight lean to the second option.
„I want to talk with Necri about my arrival into this world. But why isn´t there anybody guarding the cell?“
„Regular militants are not allowed to be anywhere near an interrogation. Also this champ is not going anywhere.“ Gleam pointed with his hoof at inquisitors´s horn and Twilight saw a simple looking ring with a crystal on it.
„Inquisitors are usually worthless without their magic and with this little thing he can´t even make light for himself.“ Necri pierced him with a look of utmost discoust and flustration, but didn´t say anything.
„Welp, I already got what I wanted from him, so suit yourself. When you are done just close the door, it locks itself on it´s own.“
Without paying his prisioner any further attention Gleam walked past Twilight and soon the sound of his hooves faded in the distance.
With Gleam gone Twilight could for the first time have a good look at the inquisitor and how she was wrong, when she guessed his age to be higher or the same as hers. Necri was barely an adult, maybe as old as she the purple unicorn when she moved to Ponyville.
So young, yet looking into his eyes I feel like the younger one.
„Um...hi. How do you feel?“
„Well enough I suppose. My burns were treated and I am still very much alive. Which isn´t something I can´t say about the last prisioner I saw. But you didn´t come here to ask me how I am doing. What do you want Twilight?“
„I...wait. How do you know my name?“
„I found you report book and short story shorter, somepony told me. And I know it´s you, because, as frisky as it sounds, your smell is rather unique in this world. Smell of books. Rare of itself, but most importantly, ponies our of your power should smell of war. Ups, sorry. Getting off track a bit. At the end, my time here is limited and I shouldn´t waste time of somepony who tried to save me.“
Is he trying to confuse me? Well, he won´t manage that. I just need to stay focused and stay on top of the situation.
„Was it you, who captured me?“ Twilight was almost certain that it wasn´t him, but Snaky Arcanum who chased her, but maybe he would go on a rant again and said more then he intended.
„No. That was my master. The grand inquisitor Snaky Arcanum. I only collected your things.“
„What about the portal? What did you do with it?“
For the first time Necri´s face changed from smugness into confusion.
„There was no portal. I maybe didn´t notice your arrival, but we would know, if something like that existed on that place. Also Snaky doesn´t even know, that you are from another world yet. He propably suspects it, but I didn´t have the opportunity to tell him what I know about you.“
„I would tell you, if you asked. You shouldn´t be suprised I escaped, after your master kidnapped and imprisioned me. Why did he do it?“
„Heh, you make me interested in your world. It must be rather strange place...“ the inqusitor grinned and looked her straight in the eyes.
„...if you consider being put in a warm bed in a guest room belonging to the second most powerful pony in the world as imprisionment. Following that logic I should just bash my head into to wall to escape my suffering.“ Necri laught at his own joke.
„But let me ask you a question. Imagine yourself to be protector of ponies, who are not powerful enough to defend themselves. Got it? Then let´s continue. Now imagine that something incredibly powerful appears. Now. Let´s say that that something is tainted with dark magic and is getting near a village inhabited by pretty much just farmers. My question is: What would you do?“
The realization hit her like a hammer. The portal tainted her, at least for a time. She should´ve expeced something like that, but in her Equestria everypony just assumed she had a good reason for everything. Cadence must´ve felt, that Twilight used dark magic, when they were fighting in the Crystal Empire. but in the Union nopony knew her. To them, she was just a powerful unicorn, who might be on her way to be corrupted by evil. And it was true, that she headed straight to the village, though for different reasons, then Snaky thought. But he couldn´t know that.
„So...that´s why? I didn´t even thought of that. Snaky was worried, that I would attack the citizens.“
„You are starting to understand how things work here. And let me also tell you, that he had full right to kill you on the spot, because using dark magic is strictly forbidden for non-inquisitors.“
„So...Snaky personally went to stop me. Vortex jumped in front of dragon´s flame to protect the villagers and his comrades. Then you risked your life to save me – an outlander. You inquisitors really do serve and protect the innocent, don´t you?“
„What are you hinting at?“
„You are prepared to lay down your lives, if it means protecting those, who are too weak. Even though you don´t know them personaly.“
Necri stayed silent, but his smugness was all gone and was replaced by attention.
„You do all that, but then you also execute ponies for sympathizing with the rebellion, who want nothing but live their lives as they see fit. This is not as much of a question, but rather a request. Inquisition should become part of the rebellion. And together you all could overthrow the Emperor. You don´t have to follow his orders, I am sure that you or Snaky are strong enough to fight the fear of him. Everypony could then be happy. Live their lives happily, with strong and respected army and Inquisition there to protect them from dragons and other beasts. What do you say to this?“
Twilight expected him to start laughing. to become angry or just plain refuse her, but instead Necri for the first time dodged her eyes, tension disappeared from his body and his face showed nothing but sadness.
„Can...can I tell you a story? It´s quite a long one, so you might want to sit down,“ the purple unicorn did as he told her, and sat in front of him. If not for the fact they were in a jail cell, it would feel like comforting a friend back home.
„My name is just Necri. Quite a strange name, wouldn´t you say? It´s not the one my parents gave me and I don´t even know the name of my familly. This is a name I was given when I was found as few weeks old newborn inside a rented house, covered in blood of my mother, who´s corpse I was embracing. Maybe I was cold, I don´t know. Along with us there were other bodies. Soldiers from organization that betrayed the Union and joined the rebellion. From what I gathered, when I grew older, they murdered my mother, because my father was an inquisitor.
I grew up in an orphanage, but it wasn´t a bad childhood. I always had somepony to play with and we were being raised by loving elderly couple, so I definetely can´t complain about my childhood. When I was old enough I joined the army. Every stallion has to eventually, but I did it, before it was my obligation. Now, you´ve seen soldiers in Hoofville. In larger villages like that some of them can be actual professionals, but most of the time guarding the streets is a job for rookies like myself and like Shadeleaf. He was my childhood friend, I still remember playing hoofball with him. He was a cool but strange guy. He was scared of dogs and didn´t like cats, or cattle but he loved reptiles and was his dream to become a breeder.
Welp, one day, as the hot headed youngligs we were, we pleaded our officer to allow us guard the road. Your friends might´ve told you about that. Asking ponies to show their documents. It´s the most life threatening job rookie soldiers can get. Well, one day we met a mare, who looked a bit suspicious, so we asked her to show us documents. There was nothing wrong with them, just her mane color was different, propably colored. We would let her go, Shadeleaf just had to ask her if that´s really her. It was, like, what we were told to do.
But out of nowhere she pulled out a knife, stabbed him in the chest and tried to make a run for it. Of course the knife quickly found itself in her back, but the damage has been done and Shadeleaf died few minutes later. Leaving behind him a younger sister, who then abandoned her dreams and joined the Inquisition, so she could one day have her revenge on the rebellion.“
„Revenge is not going to bring anypony back.“ noted Twilight and immediately regretted it.
„THEN FUCKING TELL HER! Tell her that her big brother is never coming back! That no matter what she does there is nothing she can do! Tell her, that life in not always fair and she has to deal with it! Go ask HER, if she want´s to join you in overthrowing the Emperor! It´s been a year and still I hear from her roomates from the hostel, that some night she cries herself to sleep. Or ask that girl over there!“
Necri pointed at the pony who was covering herself with the blanket and Twilight could now see her strangely pale blue coat and scared look.
„Your friends stole her cutiemark with some messed up magic. She used to be one of the best fliers in Emperor´s Garden region and now she will be happy, if she will ever be able to fly again. All for you selfish goals. That´s all your rebellion is. Ponies who want more then they deserve, things at the expense of their follow citizens and think of nothing but satisfy their greed.“
„I am sorry, I didn´t...“
„Leave. Leave or I swear to the Emperor I will bite through your neck.“
There was nothing Twilight could say to fix what she caused and she didn´t know any remedy that could close the wound she opened by her own ignorance and so the unicorn just closed the door and went to find Sunnyside, on her way thinking about the things she learned.
I was so stupid to think, that things could work like they do at home. It doesn´t matter, that the rebellion wishes well, both sides caused so much pain to the other through out the millennia and those wounds might never heal up, even if there was to be no more war.
„This is my warning: attack, what those ponies hold dear and you will beg even King Sombra, to save you from them.“ Twilight whispered, as she remembered the last sentence written in Starswirl´s warning. Twilight could feel her eyes getting wet.
I was foolish to think, that friendship might not exist here. These ponies, both rebels and imperials, have loved ones just like we do. Would we be like them, if there was a war? Now I think of Queen Chrysalis as more of hassle, but what would I think of her, if she or her changelings killed Shining? Would I be able to forgive them? Of course I wouldn´t.
Later
„Sunnyside?“ asked Twilight, when she finished chewing on piece of „leccho“, a firm bar made of compressed fruit and vegetable. It was quite tasteless, but she was told, that it´s commonly used food in the army, as it doesn´t take up much space and a pony could live on it for months without any digestive problems.
„Hm?“
„I...I don´t want it to look like I don´t trust you, but I have to keep thinking about that girl, that was in the cell with Necri. Why did we need her pegasus magic?“
„You sound like that kind of magic is not unknown to you.“
„It´s not. Our enemy back home had that kind of power, but we had power of four alicorns to fight him, unlike here and that´s why I am worried.“
„I see. Well, you don´t have to worry about that. We are using a relic to take inborn magic from ponies. But I understand you having doubts about the correctness of something like that. You remember what I told about the First?“
„Of course.“
„Well, to be really straightforward he is the only one, besides Snaky Arcanum, who could defeat the Emperor. Those two are the only living pureblooded unicorns in the Union and we plan on realising the First from his prison.“
„But even if they are pureblooded, how they be a match to the Emperor? Wasn´t he the only one who didn´t divide his power when the pony races were created?“
„He was, but it isn´t only about the magical power. It´s about experience and knowledge. According to legends the First knew the Emperor for centuries and also fought in the First War against the newly created Inquisition. If there is somebody who might know Emperor´s weakness it´s him.“
„Hmm, you said that the First has been sealed into a crystal, yes? Then it should absolutely be possible to free him. It strongly depends on the kind of spell, but I am confident that a hit containing more magic than the crystal iself should shatter it. But that´s only theory I know from a book.“
„Yes. It should be possible to destroy it. But as you said, we need a power exceeding that of Abyss Arcanum. And that´s what we are gathering. Unfortunately we don´t have the following the Inquisition has and if we took the magic from our own, soon there would be nopony left to actually free the First. It´s evil and I hate that we had to take the cutiemark of that girl and of some other, but tell me, if it works, won´t it all be worthed?“
„I guess. I assume you are going to take Necri´s magic too, right?“
„Yes. Everything is prepared and we will start right when we finish eating.“
„Is it going to work? I noticed that for some reason he doesn´t have a cutiemark.“
„Yes, that suprised me too, but there is no need to worry. The magic is inside of him, it just didn´t manifest itself in the form of a cutiemark, is all.“
Both mares continued eating in silence and Twilight kinda wished it could take forever. Necri was an enemy and she had to agree with Sunnyside, that taking his magic would be for greater good, but she still felt like she was betraying him.
„Let´s go. The sooner we are done, the better. The necklace wasn´t supposed to bring Necri with you, I am still not quite sure why it happened, and so we weren´t prepared for the ritual. The longer we hesitate the higher the chance is that the Inquisition could find us here.“
Both mares left the table in fort´s courtyard and Twilight followed the light blue mare into a large, empty room. The light was getting inside through windows near the ceiling which was so high, that a fully grown dragon could almost stand under it.
But it wasn´t as empty, as it seemed on the first look. On the wall, opposite to the entrance was a tall black altar, shaped like nothing Twilight seen before. And on top of it was a very familiar looking huge skull with horns tall like several ponies protruding from it´s forehead.
Even without flesh and skin Twilight could recognise the previous owner. Lord Tirek.
So that´s how they they are capable of extracting magic.
And in front of the altar stood Necri with four other ponies guarding him. The inquisitor gave the newcomers short discousted look, but otherwise seemed to be in peace with his destiny.
Sunnyside´s horn shortly shined, a small bolt of blue magic hit the skull and made it weakly shine for few moments.
„Take off his ring.“
As she said so was done and the second the jewel left the inquisitor´s horn some power grabbed and raised him in the air in front of the skull. What happened next just multiplied Twilight´s remorse. It was just like when it happened to her. Necri gasped and his grey magic left the body in form of stream leading right into the skull´s open mouth.
Was it open when we came here?
Even though Necri was doing his best to keep silent and not show any pain, Twilight could see his body twitching and it just added to her misery.
I should save him. This is not right.
But she remained rational and instead looked at Sunnyside to see, if she felt the same way. To her suprise the leader of rebels was paying no attention to the ritual and instead it looked like she was checking something with her magic. Something that was going terribly wrong.
„What´s happening?“
„I don´t know! Something is ripping apart all magical defenses around the fort!“
Now she could feel it too. Not because she would be attuned to the defenses like Sunnyside, who propably had a large part in creating them. What she felt was the disturbance. Not a sound, not a physical feeling, but something else, that could be described only as a sixth sense. Ability to feel sudden destruction of a magical creation.
And the destroyer was...next to her?
„Greetings ladies. My name is grand inquisitor Snaky Arcanum and I came here for my apprentice.“
Both mares startled jumped away from the voice, but that was the maximum Twilight was able to do, because she was frozen in place by fear, after looking at the newcomer.
He looked so tall, yet he wasn´t larger then for example Shining, but that wasn´t the source of the fear. Not even the grey uniform decorated with red suns, as she knew it was nothing more then fiber. What scared her was his face and the aura surrounding him. Fur grey like wet ashes, one green eye, one purple, both particaly hidden behind black mane with dark purple streams.
Just like some ponies had the aura of kindness like Cadence, or of loyalty like Shining, Snaky´s was one of power, dominance and arrogance. Unlike Celestia, who has risen to power through wisdom and love of her subjects Snaky did so because he destroyed everypony who stood in his way, proving to anypony who might doubt his right to lead, that there are only two options. Follow or suffer the concequences of defiance.
He scared her, because of the lack of doubt. He was alone, facing her and Sunnyside. He couldn´t not feel Twilight´s power, yet he was smiling. Even King Sombra showed more emotions and uncertainty then him. If that was how the grand inquisitor was, how could they hope to defeat the Emperor?
I was mistaken to think, that he would join us. We are rebels and so our lives mean nothing to him.
„No response? Shame. I imagined to have a dramatic argument with the fabled leader of rebels, but I can live without it. First let me explain why are you two still breathing. I want a deal.“
„A deal?“ got out of herself Sunnyside, who seemed to be just a bit less paralyzed then Twilight.
„Yes. It is quite simply really. I want you to free my apprentice and take my magic instead. Right now.“
The last sentence he said while looking at Necri, who was still suspended in the air, having his magic taken from him. He might´ve tried to sound calm, but after hearing that, Twilight noticed, that his body was tense and his eyes kept on looking in the other inquisitor´s direction.
So he is worried. But not about himself.
„You want...why?“
„I don´t expect you, an honorless rebel to understand it, but let´s say I made a promise to somepony. In either way he is not pureblooded, while I am and since you must be using a crystal to store that magic, there isn´t a way for me to stop the ritual, only replace the pony. So?“
„I agree! I give you my word, that Necri will be free to leave, once the ritual restarts!“ shouted Sunnyside, worried, that he might change his mind.
„Wonderful.“
Snaky teleported to the altar and waited for Sunnyside to do the changes. Her horn shorly shined again, Necri was dropped on the floor and his place was replaced by Snaky. As that happened, Twilight noticed something strange about the younger inquisitor. While his fur was still just as grey as before since the skull didn´t get enough time to steal the core of his magic – the core that made every unicorn´s magic replenish ever time, the red stains were now barely visible.
„One more thing. I wasn´t completely honest.“ when Snaky said that, about twenty masked unicorns appeared in the room, wearing grey uniforms.
Next moment
So they finally arrived.
Gleam was leaning back on fort´s wall, when he heard sound of alarm and screams of his fellow ponies, warning their friends about the arrival of Imperial army.
But something new caught his attention. A young purple mare, who just appeared few meter from him, seemingly looking for somepony. When she noticed the militant, Twilight ran towards him.
„Gleam! Sunnyside said we need to find...“
The unicorn suddenly fell to the ground, slid few more centimeters and stayed laying on the ground, her eyes closed, only chest moving with every breath.
„So you are here too, huh? Long time no see.“ said Gleam calmly to a pony with dusty looking white fur and pitch black mane dressed in grey standing above Twilight.
„Yea. The last time was at the execution. Then you got this fine job opportunity and became too busy to hang out with an old friend.“
„You...I know you...Vortex Reach?“ whispered Twilight from the ground and got the attention of both ponies.
„Wow, you are still awake? Most impressing. This magic infused drug should knock out anypony.“
„Whatever, she is in no state to stop us anyway. But back to what you were saying. Since you idiots had to blow my cover, we can go for a drink someday.“
„Gleam? What are you...saying?“
„He is a spy. Not just anypony is allowed to be in this main base of yours and so, when I executed my sister, Gleam here got a perfect story that allowed him to be our only spy here.“ answered her Vortex with a huge grin. Twilight looked at her friend and saw he had the same experission.
„It is true. Vortex´s sister was nothing but a traitor and deserved her fate. But it would be a crime to not grasp such opportunity.“
„Talking about executions, I want this girl to live. She helped us in Hoofville and I feel like I owe her.“
„Sure, I don´t care. It seems that there will be somepony else to kill anyway.“ Gleam pointed behind the inquisitor, where two very similar ponies were walking towards them. A black earth pony stallion with light blue mane and light blue pegasus mare with black mane.
„You hear big bro? Two traitors! Or maybe, one traitor and one villain? Which one is worse? What do you think? I think that they are both same! Shame. Such cute young guys and now they have to die.“ exclaimed the mare whose way of talking reminded Twilight Pinkie Pie. If it wasn´t for the last sentence.
„A bit arrogant, don´t you think? Arrogance brings ponies to graves, when they don´t have the power to back it up.“ noted Gleam and conjured a blade from bracelet he had on his foreleg.
„If you think you can meassure to the fasted pony in the Union, then come at me. But I should tell you boys, that you should attack together. One on one wouldn´t be really fair. And don´t worry about my big bro. He wouldn´t hurt a fly.“
„Cha! I can handle you on my own!“ Gleam´s wings shot him forward, his weapon ready to strike. In the next moment he flew in the other direction, hitting the wall of the fort he was previously leaning back on. Vortex didn´t truly see the mare move, only turn into a blue flash, that in less then a second moved to his friend and send him flying with one hit.
„You Imperials are all the same. All talk. Maybe you can be a challenge, cute inquisitor colt.“
„Challenge you say?“ Vortex stared at her through tiny cracks, as the anger twisted his face. Sounds of fighting all around him gave him adrenaline rush and his body shaked trying to not attack her head on.
Guess I can´t run away from my destiny.
Inquisitor´s horn shined and fired bolt of magic in the air. Two things were weird about what he did. The magic seemed to have no color and the bolt stopped in mid air.
„That´s not where I am silly! I am right he-“ the rebel gasped for air and her body collapsed on the ground being crushed by some unknown force. When she looked at the spot where Vortex´s magic stopped, she noticed that the magic was gone and instead there was a hole in reality showing color, that made her head hurt, as it looked like nothing she saw before.
„Challenge, huh? You, a filthy rebel think you can meassure to me? I am Vortex Reach! I control the laws of reality itself! Now for your insolence, be suffocated by the very air you were meant to breathe and be crushed by the weight of you own bones!“
The rip in reallity seemed to be getting larger and drops of sweat were shining on inquisitor´s fur, but he kept on pushing and ground under the blue pegasus slowly, but surely got tainted by blood, as the force was so large, that even tiny stones pierced mare´s skin.
All was ruined when the earth pony, who until then didn´t move, incredibly quickly moved to Nexus and punched him in the stomach.
Few bones cracked, the young unicorn flew and hit the same wall Gleam did.
„No! Idiot...“ got out of himself, when he looked again at his creation. The hole in reality was growing larger at a terryfying rate and was already large enough to swallow a gryphon.
Vortex reached his hoof in an attempt to assume the control again, but his skin on itself tore across the entire foreleg and send him screaming in pain back to the ground.
Without control the mysterious power of annomaly was free and it showed it on it´s surroundings. The ground was changing, from stone to dirt, from dirt to sand and so on without any order. The effect were soon so noticable that the fighting between the army and rebels started to die down, as everpony side by side watched in horrow what Vortex´s spell was doing.
Sometimes somepony shouted something like „Somepony stop it!“
But he never got an answer, as nobody knew, what to do. It was when strange creatures created from dirt and grass stared crawling, flying or in other way moving towards the ponies, when all as one prepared their weapons to fight them.
Back in the fort
I don´t know what is he doing, but I must stop him. If I just could get pass them.
Necri was gone. The ritual knocked him out, but when the other inquisitiors appeared, one of them teleported him away by crushing a crystal necklace and something was telling her, that similar thing happened in fort´s prison.
The most worrying was what Snaky was doing to the skull and to the crystal that was connected to it. Instead of fighting, he was giving it all his magic in an absurd rate. A small stable stream like it was with Necri changed into current like from a hole in a dam.
The inqusitiors also weren´t force to udnerestimate. Alone they wouldn´t be hard to defeat, but as a group they were easily a match for Sunnyside, guards and few other rebels, who came to help her.
„I will admit,“ spoke Snaky again. „this crystal is truly strong. My magic is almost gone and yet it still isn´t full.“
A smile appeared on Sunnyside´s face, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared, when the grand inquisitor turned his head and the rebels could see his green eye cry blood.
„But I have more then one way to get what I want.“ in the next second a red and black fog appeared around the eye and his whole body started to radiate darkness itself. The stream of purple magic abruptly ended and was replaced by one of black, red and green color.
More and more magic was being poured through the skull, until it finally gave up and shattered. Without the skull to control the flow of magic the crystal became unstable and flew in the air following the stream of Snaky´s magic. Soon enough it also started to crack, creating pulses that made everypony in the room bleed from their noses, two ponies even fell on the ground dead.
The walls shaked under the power of the crystal, and it kept getting stronger as Snaky continued in feeding it with his magic.
Then he just stopped. The grand inquisitor was gone and so were his subordinates. Only rebels and cracking crystal remained. A crystal soon to explode and take everypony with him.
Outside
„Watch out!“ shouted a soldier, who´s armor was too destroyed and filthy for his allegiance to be recognisable, as he jumped to protect another pony from a horror-like monster created from bodies of the fallen, holding together with dirt and blood.
The soldier raised his magical shield and waited for the creature to hit. But it never did. The monstrum fell apart, like it never existed. But the abomonations weren´t the only things, that were gone. There were no Imperial soldiers anywhere. And mainly no anomaly.
But Twilight knew, that they are not safe yet. With the spell fading from her body she teleported herself to the ritual room, where she felt some dark an unstable magic.
„Twilight! Thank the First you are alright!“ the purple unicorn looked around until she saw Sunnyside, lying on the ground badly burned.
„Oh Celestia, what happened to you?“
„It´s the crystal. Agh, Snaky wanted to kill us all by overflowing it and leveling the fort by the explosion. I tried to stop it, but the power is too strong. Too evil.“
„What should I do?“
„Anything! Just please, save my people!“
Twilight looked at the source of destruction. The crystal was shining with different colors and with every heart-like beat it sended another wave of destructive magic.
I´ve bested dark magic once before. This time it´s even more important. Now I can truly help these ponies for the first time.
With that thought Twilight plunged her mind and soul into the center of the crystal. Immidiately she was attacked. Not by the magic itself, but by parts of it´s previous owners. She could feel one dark blue filled with kidness and ambition, most likely belonging to the mare she shortly met, then deathly gray and dark purple, both very similar, yet different in their own ways. Both pained her with hatred, sadness. It was as if she could see in the hearts of the magic´s owners. She could feel their lost, their hope, anger and love.
Her mind and soul were constantly being burned, stabbed and hit, while at the same time being healed, kissed and hugged.
I have to form it into something less chaotic.
Twilight put all of her power into respoding, but her response was one of order. Separation. The new form had to represent the magic it was created from. Sharp, filled with hatred and pain, yet protective, kind and nice.
She could feel her magic fondle her feathers, tail and mane.
Finally everything stopped. The pulsing magic was now stable, not creating any more destruction. Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see her creation. A dark blade, blue heart as the guard and purple handle.
A sword. The only item capable of truly expressing the emotions that forged it. One that will surely make the Emperor fall.
„You did it! You saved us and most importantly, gave us hope at feeing the First!“ gasped Sunnyside, supported by two other rebels. Twilight looked around and saw that the room was filled with ponies.
„Did you see it? For a second she had wings!“ whispered somepony in the crowd.
„With her we can defeat the Emperor! We can win this!“ shouted somepony else.
„Yeah! You know what? I bet it won´t even be that hard with Twilight on our side! The coward never bothered to fight us and always let his Inquisition to do the dirty work! I bet he´s not even that powerful!“
„Wait. You don´t feel the fear of Emperor?“ asked Sunnyside slowly the pony who shouted, some light green midle age stallion.
„Well I...I...oh dear. I don´t! What about you friends?“
„I don´t.“
„Me neither.“
As they though about it, they realized nopony was under the influence of Emperor´s curse anymore.
Something happened, but Twilight had no intention of dwelling about it. Now was a time to celebrate.
