...There Will Come Soft Rains.
Time. Few ponies truly understood what a precious commodity time was. Oh, they would preach of spending time well, talk of friends and family and love, but I had come to realize that they didn’t understand the first thing about time. They were as paupers speaking on the value of money, too poor to ever realize the true scope of what time could accomplish. I, however, was beginning to appreciate just what time was truly worth.
The shadow emerged from the clouds above, a glittering crystal ship wreathed in coruscating purple. As it descended, the winds parted around it, the racing forms of the windigos hissing and howling in fury as the ship’s arcane shell turned them aside. As I watched it descend, I knew in my heart that my time had finally come.
I lit my horn, directing the glow upwards into the sky, the soft orange light distorted as it shone through the icicles that had formed upon me. For a moment, I worried the ship hadn’t seen me, but my fears were quelled in seconds as the ship began to bank. It drifted lower on great arcane wings, the sight briefly bringing a jealous tinge to my heart. Were that I had been one of the great arcanists, able to weave such mighty works.
Instead, fate had made me an alchemist, and the world had proceeded from there.
As the ship approached, the purple bubble around it passed over me, and for the first time in memory I felt warm. It wasn’t the flickering warmth of a fireplace, or even the searing heat of the great magma wells, but a gentle, encompassing touch the likes of which I had never experienced. There were tales of a time before the world had frozen, that once the world had been alive and rich with life. Standing there, I could believe such a thing.
A voice called out from aboard the ship, speaking a tongue I could not understand. Though I could tell it was a mare, I could not place the accent. Perhaps one of the barbarian pegasus tribes, those who dwelled beyond reach of the City. My mind drifted to the stories they told of such savages, pirates of even their thieving brethren, looting and even devouring any who thought they could hide above the clouds. Had some unicorn noble built this magnificent endeavor, only to sail above and be set upon by those winged rats?
I felt inside my cloak, loosening the familiar weight of my alchemist’s wand. Though most unicorns snubbed such a mundane weapon, I’d seen enough back alley murders to put faith in saltpeter and lead. For a moment, I merely held the weapon, but when a winged figure leaped over the railing, I cocked the hammer. Doubtless they were formidable privateers to steal such a marvelous ship, but they would find me more than they bargained for.
At least, that was what I thought until I became the one to receive more than he bargained for.
The mare that alighted before me was taller than any pony I’d ever seen, and as elegant in build as the finest courtesans. What struck me most, however, was the horn that projected from her forehead, longer and leaner than any I’d ever seen. I fought down an envious frown as I released my grip on my alchemist’s wand. Grossly oversized horn or not, I felt a measure of relief that, whatever she was, it was certainly not a pegasus savage.
She spoke to me again, but once more I couldn’t understand a single word. What I could see was the way she carried herself, her purple eyes soft with concern, her posture proud and strong. Could she be royalty of some sort? Impossible. What land would tolerate such an abomination to live, much less to hold a position of power? Yet here she stood, just the same, apparently the lone passenger on a ship of wonders.
Perhaps time had betrayed me, stealing away my sanity in those endless years of cold.
“Hello?” She asked, nearly ending her own life as my grasp snapped back to my wand.
“What are you?” I asked, as wary of some terrible magick as my own failing mind. Would I really end my quest shooting phantasms in the snow?
“Please! Don’t be alarmed! It’s just a simple translation spell!” She gestured to her horn, as if the giant spear of raw arcana was supposed to comfort me. “Your speech sounded like a derivative of Old Equestrian, but… well I was always better with magic than language.” She then, in a move I never would have expected, blushed and scratched the back of her neck with a hoof.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said. I still held the wand tightly in my grip, but didn’t dare draw it yet. If she was this convincing at playing innocent, she was either completely harmless, or dangerous beyond reckoning. In both instances attack was a poor decision.
“Oh! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle! Um, princess of friendship I mean.” She quickly swung into a bow. “On behalf of Equestria, allow me to greet you in the name of friendship.”
I stared blankly at what had to be concrete proof I had lost my mind. An abomination that claimed to be a princess yet acted like a bashful schoolfilly. Perhaps she was an escaped experiment, which would explain the delusions and demeanor. Yet she had piloted her craft down to me with skill, and I couldn’t imagine why any pony would teach their creation a translation spell.
Perhaps, even more terrifyingly, she was telling the truth.
“May… I ask your name?” She tilted her head hesitantly, and I realized I’d spent the last few seconds just staring in shock.
“Grayscale.” I answered, finally releasing my grip on the wand. “I have… never seen a pony like you before.”
“A pony like… Oh! You mean an alicorn!” She flared her wings, making me almost grab my wand again on reflex. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, we are rather rare, though I thought knowledge of us was fairly wide spread, what with Celestia and Luna controlling the sun and moon.”
“Sun and moon?” I tensed my grip on my wand once more. I had only heard those names from pegasus lips, some sort of mythical phenomena that brought light and darkness to the world.
“You… don’t know what the sun and moon are?” She stared at me in confusion that finally matched my own. “You mean you’ve never been outside of this storm? It’s never broken?”
I felt my jaw slowly dropping open. The storm breaking? That was akin to the creator returning, and she asked if it had never happened? Where had she come from?
“Oh sweet Celestia,” she whispered. “You’ve never been outside the storm.”
“There is no outside the storm,” I explained slowly. “Ever since the great betrayal, it has never lifted or broken, clawing forever at the walls of the Last City.”
“The Last City?” Her ears perked upright. “What is the Last City?”
I dropped onto my rump. This was madness. Abject madness. I had clearly gone insane alone in the cold.
“Are you real?” I asked softly, making her blink. “Everything you say is madness.”
“I… I don’t know what to say to that.” She frowned softly, and then glanced around the foot of the icy mountain that had been my prison for so long. “Why are you alone here? Are you studying the windigos too?”
“I’m looking for something,” I said, turning to look at the mountain as well. Perhaps I had gone insane, and perhaps it was the world that had gone mad. In either case, I might as well proceed assuming I was sane, since if I was mad then all was already lost. “An artifact that the windigos imprisoned in ice.”
“An artifact?” She frowned at that. “What manner of artifact? I was under the impression windigos were only drawn to strife.”
“What?” I tuned back to stare at her, that last statement sticking in my mind like a hot coal. “What do you mean they’re only drawn to strife?”
“They’re drawn to strife, or at least that’s what the Hearths Warming tales say.” She closed her eyes, and took on a manner that reminded me of the lecturers at the Tower of Arcana. “That was why they followed ponykind even after the great exodus, drawn by the infighting of Princess Platinum, Commander--”
I stopped listening as the entire picture snapped into focus. Everypony knew of the Traitor Platinum, of how she’d abandoned her people in the face of the endless storm, leading countless ponies to die in the howling snow on a foal’s promise of paradise. And yet, here was a pony talking about the exodus of Platinum, and even calling her princess. Had Platinum truly found paradise?
Was the world that cruel?
I looked at her, still deep in the throes of educating. So this was a pony from the fabled paradise beyond the storm. Yet, it hadn’t been truly beyond the storm, had it? She’d said the windigos had followed them to the new land, and yet she spoke of the storm as if it were a strange thing, fleeting, transient. They hadn’t simply escaped the storm, they’d stopped it.
“How did they stop them?” I asked, cutting her off.
“I just said.” She frowned at me. “It was when Private Pansy, Smart Cookie, and Clover the Clever put aside their differences, and came together as friends that the windigos were driven away.”
“Friendship?” I almost laughed out loud, but then I considered the ship before me. She had said she was the princess of friendship, had she not? And her ship turned aside the blizzard and windigos as though they were nothing. Was it all that simple?
“You really… don’t know this?” She stared at me intently, and I could see the gears turning behind her eyes. If I had been able to piece things together, then it wasn’t hard to believe she would as well. For a moment, we stood in mental stalemate, before her eyes went wide. “You're from the Old Kingdom? There were survivors?”
What could I tell her? Of course the Last city had stood since the time of Platinum's betrayal, but here was the child of traitors and exiles, asking after those who’d thrown them out. My eyes flitted to her ship, the likes of which I’d never seen. If her ancestors had truly escaped the storm, they could well be a culture like unto the glorious days of antiquity, if not greater. If they still bore the grudges of old, they could well wipe the City away with barely a thought.
It was an answer to my prayers.
“Last I checked.” I adopted an expression of awe that was only half feigned. “You mean Pla-- Princess Platinum truly found the promised land?”
“She did!” She stared at me with a newfound intensity, almost making me take a step back. It was like looking into the eyes of a starving earth pony beggar. “I can’t believe you all survived this long! You’re a living piece of lost history! Which way is the city? I absolutely have to see it for myself!”
“Wait!” Her eagerness unnerved me, both for its intensity and its sincerity. I instantly suspected I’d misjudged the possibility of vengeance. “I cannot return before I’ve retrieved the artifact.”
“But…” She leaned forward eagerly, clearly choking on a protest, before she sighed. “I don’t suppose we can come back for it?”
“Oh certainly,” I said in a voice that was probably sharper than I should have allowed. “My life’s work can just wait a little longer. I’m sure all my dead friends won’t mind.”
“Dead…?” She recoiled from the word in a way that made my heart twist in disgust. “What happened?”
“What do you think happened?” I threw my hooves out towards the storm around us. “You don’t just leave the City for a morning walk! We risked death to make it this far, and… many of them lost. Maybe all of them, now.” It was half true. In fact, most who’d left the city with me had been trying to stop me, but I was technically certain the majority had died. I’d made sure of that.
“I… I’m so sorry.” Her ears folded flat, again such a childish, innocent gesture from supposed royalty. Was this what living in paradise made of ponies? “I’ll help if I can.”
“Thank you.” I let the anger drop somewhat, but not entirely. Best to let her think she still owed me an apology. “Can you do anything about the ice? I have reagents that can melt the ice, or that would be able to if the windigos weren’t perpetually chilling it. As it is, the reagents themselves freeze on contact and become useless.”
“Oh! That’s because of the magical nature of the ice.” I glanced at her, and she again switched into lecture mode. “The freezing effect of the windigos isn’t actually freezing in the strictest sense. That would be a thermodynamic nightmare. Instead, it’s more akin to a… stasis field. They essentially make the water behave as though it’s colder than it is. In fact, windigo ‘ice’ has been observed forming at temperatures as high as 285 degrees universal!”
“That… is actually fascinating.” I tilted my head. “What do they get out of this?”
“Given their psychometabolic diet, many scholars believe that they freeze things specifically to cause winter conditions, which make it difficult for other creatures to survive,” she explained. “Under such duress, creatures turn to infighting and therefor feed the windigos.”
“How does such a creature…” I stopped and shook off my scholarly instincts. “We’re getting distracted. Can you help me breach the ice?”
“Oh! Yes. Quite easily in fact. I simply need to know where to dig.” She inclined her head, and I led her towards the mountain. As we exited the bubble, she lit her horn, and a flickering purple flame in the shape of a small heart began wafting above it. Even though we were back in the cold, that small flame seemed to drive it further away than a roaring hearth. “One of the advantages of windigo’s faux ice formation is that its largely magical. Once the magical resistance is overcome, the ice melts of its own accord!”
“Really?” Sure enough, wherever flakes approached us, they dropped from the sky as water droplets. The snow around us rapidly turned to uncannily warm slush, and as we approached the icy mountain, the surface began to melt away. “I’ll be damned.”
“It’s really quite a fascinating phenomena,” Twilight agreed, continuing to melt her way into the mountain on my direction. “There are a lot of potential applications. A shame that windigos are malevolent by nature, otherwise there’s no telling what strides we could make.”
“I can imagine,” I said, scanning the ice for the first signs of the tower beneath. “I expect it could revolutionize reagent storage. Perhaps even the actual act of alchemy itself. Do the frozen materials continue to react as though they are at their actual temperature, despite being in a solid form?”
“Yes and no. Again, windigos are fascinating creatures,” she said, again grinning brightly. “In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects is how little harm being frozen does to the subject.”
“Oh?” I asked, my curiosity again peaked. “What do you mean?”
“Well, in many cases, subjects frozen by a windigo can actually be thawed out without, well, dying.” She continued blithely along, completely failing to notice how I’d stopped in my tracks. “Again, scholars theorize that it’s a food gathering strategy of sorts, as dead ponies can’t hate. But frozen ponies can continue to do so to some degree. It’s unclear how conscious they are while frozen, but it would go a long way to explaining how they avoid exhausting their food supply. Some have compared it to the way a spider keeps its prey paralyzed and bound, but alive for later consumption.”
“So, a pony that had been frozen, might still be alive?” My heart felt tight in my chest. Suddenly, all the old scars were torn open again. Ponies I’d thought lost to me loomed large in my mind. Was it possible I might not yet be alone?
“Theoretically, but I…” She turned to look at me, and her expression became utter mortification as she saw my face. “Oh sweet Celestia! Your… I didn’t… It’s possible! It’s absolutely possible! How long, I mean, we don’t…”
“Stop.” I threw up my hoof, my voice a tight croak. I closed my eyes, and took a breath. “Just… the artifact. The artifact for now. If… if we stop all this, then they might…”
“Yes, they might all thaw and be fine.” She nodded resolutely, and turned back to the ice with a gaze of fire. “Come on, we’ve got ponies to save.”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak as she burned through the ice at a breakneck clip. Already my mind reeled with possibilities. In those final hours, the City Guard had managed to breach the tower, and though many had fallen in the fighting, I had no doubt some had lived to be frozen along with my allies. I had to be extremely careful who the princess was allowed to unfreeze. Still, if she was right and those close to me could still be saved, then I owed her a debt I could never repay.
“Aha!” Twilight cheered as the ice dribbled away from a pair of mighty doors, cast iron styled to look like wood bound in steel. “Oh wow, look at the worksmareship on these. That woodgrain looks almost lifelike.”
“It was lifelike.” I explained, already digging through my cloak for the appropriate caustics. “This tower’s master was a great alchemist, as much an oxymoron as that sounds. Likely transmuted them to metal as he fell under siege.” That had, in fact, been exactly what I’d done.
“Oxymoron?” She raised a brow. “Why would 'great alchemist' be an oxymoron?”
“What?” I stopped dead, and looked up at her slowly. The sheer confusion on her face was mind boggling. What kind of unicorn, or even alicorn-mutant, or magic-user in general didn’t spit on the mundane art of alchemy? That one fact had so utterly defined my life, that to see it defied was unimaginable. Yet again, here the impossible sat before me. “You don’t… think less of alchemists?”
“Why would I?” She tilted her head almost sideways. “They’re the cornerstone of modern chemistry and pharmacology. Our culture wouldn’t be nearly as developed without their work.”
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. It was a bizarre feeling, being acknowledged for what could well be the first time in my life. Acknowledged by a fellow horn-bearer at any rate. I’d been acknowledged by earth ponies but they’d throw praise at a candle.
“A-are you crying?” She asked, making me wipe the tears from my eyes hastily.
“Cultural differences.” I choked through the oncoming sniffles. “Just… just help me open these doors.”
“Okay.” I’d already started to dig through my cloak again for the reagents, when she simply lit her horn and pushed the doors open. I then belatedly noticed the scarring and dents in the door from when they’d battered it in. I guess my allies must have closed it again in the fighting, but not barred it properly.
Stepping inside was like stepping into a nightmare. All at once, I was awash in a twisted sense of nostalgia. I remembered these halls, these floors, but my memories were clean and unbroken. In this surreal place, the walls had collapsed under the strain of growing ice, and where they still stood they were spattered with blood.
“Celestia preserve us,” Twilight whispered, nearly backing out the door again. “What happened here?”
“The last fight for ponykind.” All along the floor lay dead guards, the ice preserving their still fresh wounds, some even caught with blood still spurting, as though time itself had simply stopped. Among them were great beasts, clawed and toothed and just as bloodied, as close to ponies as a crocodile was to an iguana. Some still clutched guards in their claws and teeth, fighting on until only the ice could stop them.
“What are these things?” She hesitantly walked up to one, a mass of fur and fangs that was at once too close and too far from a pony for most ponies' comfort.
“The alchemist's creations,” I admitted quietly, resisting the urge to pay my final respects. It hurt so much to see them like this, fighting on against impossible odds. I had made them to be winners, better than the ponykind that had failed me. And as stood there, seeing them in their final proud moments, I knew their hearts had been of flawless make.
“How horrible,” she shuddered.
In that moment her life very nearly came to an end, my magical grip clenching my alchemist's wand in a blind rage. She knew nothing of my creations, the shallow, petty nag! They had fought and died in the name of something better, and here she judged them like any other arrogant pony! I squeezed the wand's grip harder as she approached my creation, my temper a hair's breadth from breaking.
“So much needless suffering.” With one hoof, she gently stroked a frozen gash along its leg, her eyes moist with unshed tears.
I felt like I’d been plunged into ice water. I barely felt my cloak shift as the wand dropped numbly back into its holster. She cared about them? She saw them as living things too? I tried to ask something, anything, but my mouth only gaped noiselessly.
“Nothing deserves this,” she whispered. “What kind of world did Platinum leave behind?”
“A horrible one,” I croaked, again wiping my eyes as she turned to look at me. “Perhaps it’s best if some things remain frozen.”
“There’s always hope,” she said softly, and I flinched as I felt a hoof on my back. I felt her going for a hug, and stepped away.
“We… we need to get moving.” Before I break down completely, I didn’t say. “You… you take the upper floors, I’ll take the lower.”
“Do you think we should…” I cut her off with a hoof before she could question me.
“I don’t want to spend any longer here than I have to. Splitting up is faster.” Mercifully, she only nodded.
“Here,” she flashed her horn, and a new little heart shaped flame appeared, drifting over to me. “In case you encounter more ice.”
“Thank you.” I stumbled away from her, letting the flickering flame light my way.
Of course, I knew exactly where I was going. Though my steps were unsteady, as soon as I heard her steps fade, I pushed myself to a gallop. There was still a chance she’d find some guard unwounded, healthy enough to revive, and when she did there was no telling how things would play out. I didn’t want to fight her, not after seeing the kind of pony she was, not after the things she’d done for me already. Funny, after all the things I’d done and justified, to think that my will might break here, over a mutant princess that was more schoolteacher than royalty.
Life was strange.
Still, I pressed on, through the depths of the tower and into the experimental labs. Here, the slaughter was even worse, my misbegotten prototypes forced to fight as best they could against trained and armed warriors. Again my heart twisted harder around pride and horror, seeing how many they had held against before being cut to ribbons. They had never been built for this, this shouldn’t have been their end.
I’d only wanted to make things better.
But perhaps now I finally could.
Steeling myself with that faint glimmer of hope, I skidded to a halt at the deepest chamber. Around the great titanium doors, one of my greatest feats of alchemy to that day, guards clustered about portable cannons, those ironic derivatives of my own work turned against me. But now they stood frozen, their dead torches just inches from lighting the wicks. I began to walk past them, before my eyes caught a familiar face.
“Lieutenant Right Wing,” I growled, a lifetime of indignities and brutality leaping to the front of my mind. The windigos had fittingly frozen the cripple of a pegasus in his final moments of triumph, his grizzled face the perfect example for some butcher’s memorial in the hall of heroes. Truly, just looking at him, one could believe he was the only pegasus to ever earn command of a unicorn unit. Just the right blend of savagery and stature. “How nice to see you again.”
I trotted around to his front, to where his pale blue eyes sat forward and unblinking, icy sapphires now literally ice. How I’d hated those eyes. I’d hated them as they roved over my work, moments before his hooves had smashed it aside in his ‘inspection.’ I’d hated them as they leered down at me from the on high, proclaiming my ‘crimes’ to the jeering peasantry. I hated them even now, as I drew my alchemist’s wand and placed its barrel straight to the center of the left one.
“I hope to whatever god will have me that you’re alive enough to see this,” I said.
And then I pulled the trigger. With a hiss and a thunderclap, Lieutenant Right Wing lost his left eye and the back of his skull. I pulled the barrel away, and carefully tucked it back into my robe, staring through the hole where some of his head had once been. Taking aim, I spat into it once, and turned away.
Even if all else came to naught, at least one small improvement had been made.
I walked up to the door, and pulled out the appropriate reagents, levitating the small vials up to the door’s hinges. Keeping the flame I’d been gifted close, I stepped aside as I drizzled the reagent on, the hinges fizzing and quickly bursting apart as they reacted. A few more doses, and the door fell free, toppling towards the rest of the guards and smashing their bodies to broken pieces. I winced slightly, but if princess Twilight came down, it would be easier to explain the smashed soldiers as a tragic accident, instead of how one in particular had ‘accidentally’ been executed.
Trotting through the doorway, I was hit by a wave of nostalgia that almost swept me off my hooves. Here, everything was just as I’d left it. The walls had held, solid and clean as the day they’d been laid. Though ice crept over every surface, the notes and vials beneath it were exactly where I’d set them, whole and unbroken. Most important, however, were my masterpieces.
All three of them sat as perfect as statues in the middle of the room. In the center, the great black slab that had been my life’s work, its surface untouched by time or flaw, as intended. To either side, its two guards stood ready, still waiting in preparation for the moment they would be asked to mount the final defense. Mirror images, one orange maned and white, the other blue and black.
Tick and Tock, my first experiments with manticore blood, and the only living things I’d ever done truly right.
I walked up to them slowly, every beat of my heart like trying to bend steel. They looked so proud, their feline eyes clear and bright even under the ice, the spears in their paws held high. Even frozen, their quills and tails gleamed with health, looking almost polished. I could tell they’d even combed their manes.
They’d planned to go down at their best. The realization made me begin to cry.
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say. Twilight’s words flashed through my mind, and I realized that I had to know first. I had to know if they were still alive.
I brought the dim flame closer to them, my breath catching as its light glittered off their eternal prisons. I held it closer but the ice refused to budge. I felt a growl welling up in my throat. How could it not be enough?
Friendship.
I glanced up at the flame above me, and tied my magic to it. I’d barely ever rated as a unicorn, only ever able to lift a few instruments at a time, and maybe put on a lightshow if I tried, but at this moment I mustered every ounce of it I had. I poured it into the flame, desperately trying to think how one made magic out of friendship. I thought about the times we’d all spent together, teaching them to read, to write, to treat in fairness and knowledge where ponies judged in ignorance. I thought of my last two friends in the world.
There was a flash of pain and I stumbled onto my rump, my cheek stinging in a long streak. There stood the duo, their eyes alive and fixed on me. Tick held her paw up, crimson gleaming on the tips of her claws. Slowly, she drew it to her mouth and licked.
“Pbbbbbpppt!” Her eyes went wide as she doubled over, frantically spitting out my blood onto the floor. “I’m gonna be sick!”
“It’s him?” Tick asked, watching the scene with quiet amusement.
“Yeah, it’s-- mmmph!” She didn’t get to finish as I yanked both of them into a fierce hug. Tick squirmed in my grip for a moment. “Hey! What’s the big--”
I felt Tock shift, giving Tick a jab in the side. She went still, and after a moment, they both returned my hug gently. When we finally pulled apart, both their eyes tried to stay on me, but each one kept looking over my shoulders at the darkened ruin beyond.
“I take it something happened?” Tick asked hesitantly, eyeing the bits of shattered guard strewn about outside.
I could only nod mutely, again pulling them both into a quick hug, before taking a deep breath. I scanned the room once more, quickly picking out what elements I’d need for my master plan. I let go of the two, and started thawing the various formulas I’d been working on, the two reflexively falling into step and gathering up the supplies I indicated.
“So what’s the plan?” Tick asked as she cracked the frost off a pair of saddlebags.
“Worst case,” I said. “Absolute worst case.”
“Knew it,” Tock said, likewise loading herself up. Neither one hesitated a moment at my declaration.
“Grab the stone as well.” I pointed to the great slab. “We’re not coming back.”
“Uhhhhh…” This time Tick stopped, glancing at Tock, then at me. “We’re not carrying that thing all the way, right?”
“No, we’re not.” I rapidly did the calculations in my head, briefly opening their saddlebags to double check. Sure enough, I’d grabbed all the best candidate formulas. “I’m going to need you to take the service passages out to the front gate. Don’t bother with any of the escape routes, they’re all blocked with ice. Outside you’ll find a ship. Load the slab then circle back to me.” I pointed at them with my hoof for emphasis. “Do not attack unless I explicitly signal you to. And... try not to hurt the purple mutant too badly if it comes to it. She is a good pony, and we owe her more than you know.”
The two saluted sharply, then proceeded to tip over the stone for hauling. For a moment, I winced as it crashed to the floor, but to be honest I knew nothing they could do would hurt it. I still made sure to glare at them though as they hefted it. Tock took it in stride, but Tick stuck out her tongue. It also happened to be Tick’s side of the stone that ‘accidentally’ scraped the wall on their way out.
I never realized how much I’d really missed them.
With them on their way, I trotted back the way I’d come. If I was lucky, Twilight would still be searching the upper floors by the time I reached the main entrance. If she was already coming for me, at least I could lead her away from it and leave Tick and Tock with a clear path around us. Worst case, she’d be waiting at the entrance, then things might get sticky.
Fortunately, I found the entrance unguarded. Rather than head for the ship, however, I instead proceeded up to the upper floors. Best case, I could reach her before she revived any guards, and I could have her ferry me willingly to the Last City. Worst case, I could tie her up with detaining me and leave the path clear for Tick and Tock.
This was actually happening. Time was on my side.
“Grayscale!” I found myself yanked off the floor by a bright violet glow, swiftly answering just how things had fallen out. I found myself pivoting in the air to face Princess Twilight, her expression decidedly scolding. Beside her floated one of the white armored unicorn guard, likewise encased in a magical aura.
“Hello Princess,” I said, dropping all pretense of innocence. “I take it you’ve heard some interesting things.”
“Interesting doesn’t begin to cover it.” Her eyes were narrowed, but more disappointed than murderous. “I trusted you.”
“As much as I’d love to play the ‘but I was honest’ game with you, let’s be really honest with each other.” I shot a glance at the unicorn drifting beside her, still struggling in her grip. “Tell me, how quickly did he try to run you through when he saw you?”
“He mistook me for one of your creations. Creations made to kill.” She squeezed me a little harder than I’d expect from such an otherwise soft mare. Perhaps there was some steel in her after all. “How could you do that to living things?”
“I created them to defend themelves.” I shot a withering glare at the guard. “If you want to know about breeding killers, I suggest you ask his mother.”
“Don’t get glib with me.” She squeezed me hard enough to make me squeak. “You’re a murderer.”
“Did he tell you that?” I tipped my head at the unicorn guard. “Before or after the insults?”
“That's irrelevant.” She took a step closer, looming over me. “Did you, or did you not, start this slaughter?”
“I did not,” I said, glaring back.
“So those guards just up and attacked you first?” She asked, skeptical.
“They tend to do what they're told,” I glared again at the unicorn guard she held captive. “They're like rabid dogs that-- mmph.”
“Don't slander.” She deftly undid the magical zipper across my lips. “You say they were ordered to kill you?”
“The council of mages took… offense to some of my supposed research.” I snorted. “Claimed I was 'violating the equine form' and sent their lackeys to collect me for questioning. Which is a polite prelude to execution.”
“That...” She paused, contemplating me, her eyes wandering to my creations frozen around her. “If you knew it was illegal, why did you do it?”
“Because something had to be done.” I shook my head. “If you'd grown up in the City, you would see how broken ponykind is. For thousands of years we have suffered in this frozen nightmare, which I now know is one of our own making! There needs to be a change, one ponies are incapable of.” I glanced at my creations, the onetime hope of the world. "We needed something better."
“And if you'd grown up in Equestria, you'd know that ponies, that anyone, can change. And that change can be achieved without bloodshed.” She shook her head sadly, looking at me now not with anger, but with pity. “In fact, I will show you it can be done.”
“What?” I blinked. “What do you mean?”
She started to drag the two of us along behind her, carrying us through the air like a foal's toys.
“I am going to go to your city, and I am going to put it right,” she said simply. “It may take time, but I will do it, and I will do it without killing.”
“No,” I said, starting to shake my head. “No, you don't understand, they aren't going to listen to you! You're not even a proper unicorn, and even if you were, what would you say? 'By the way, maybe you should stop stabbing ponies to keep them in line, and just sort of let the status quo fall apart?'”
“Something like that.” She said, leading us out into the icy tunnel she'd dug. “I'll start there anyway.”
I could only stare in mute horror at the sight before me. She was insane. She was completely and utterly insane. She would walk into the court of magi and come out looking like a pin cushion, if she could even drag her body around with that many spears in it.
“You cannot do this. You cannot do this.” I reached inside my cloak, thinking to threaten her, only to remember my alchemist's wand was now empty and useless. Undone by my own spite. “They will kill you.”
“You'll find I'm remarkably tough to kill,” she said simply.
In desperation, I grabbed a thin walled vial from my cloak, the inside sloshing with a powerful numbing agent. I wasn't going to let her walk to her death like this. With a flick of my magic I pitched it at her, my move betrayed by the unicorn guard's sudden panicked mumbling. She glanced back just as I threw, her own magic easily overpowering mine. She carefully tossed it down the hall, where it shattered.
“As I said.” With that, she turned back down the hall, leaving me hanging limply behind her.
The rest of trip back out to the ship proceeded without incident. As we walked outside, and boarded the ship, I saw a small cat’s eye carved into the railing. So Tick and Tock were shadowing me. There was still hope.
As we boarded, however, I felt Twilight’s magic shift, and with a solid yank, she tore my cloak away and tossed it overboard. I could only watch as it fluttered to the ground. A part of me wanted to be angry, but I had to respect the foresight. Without my reagents I was a pretty piss-poor unicorn.
“Huh,” her eyes lingered for a second on my cutie mark, an illustration of squaring the circle. “That’s a very powerful cutie mark.”
“Too bad it’s for such a weak field,” I muttered, making her narrow her eyes.
“If you’re trying to make me underestimate you, it won’t work.” She settled behind the helm, the ship beginning to lift off as she simultaneously worked the controls and held her two captives. She really was a force to be reckoned with.
“Call it petty sulking then,” I said, letting myself hang limp.
“Do alchemists have it hard, in the Last City?” she asked, steering us up into the clouds. I nodded in response. “Why?”
“Anypony can be an alchemist,” I said. “Even a pegasus barbarian can be an alchemist if you give them two beakers to knock together. Not like transmutation.” I snorted. “A unicorn spent on alchemy might as well just be an earth pony.”
“Nothing wrong with being an earth pony,” Twilight said, nearly making me laugh.
“Really? Are you the only one with a horn where you come from?” I shook my head. “Only good thing about being an earth pony is you’re not a pegasus.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, an indignant rise to her voice.
“What does it sound like? At least earth ponies can work,” I said. “Pegasi steal, breed, and play with clouds. And the City doesn’t need any more clouds.”
“How can you say something so monstrous?” She glared at me accusingly, the helm almost forgotten in her anger.
“I'm stating the facts! The facts any pony of the City knows!” I spat on the deck. “If you truly think it is so monstrous, then help me destroy it! It's the only way the cruelty will stop!”
“You can’t just destroy them!” She was shouting now, her voice competing with the howls of the windigos as they were drawn to the fight. “You can’t stop monsters with monstrosity! You just become the next monster!”
“Then what do you stop them with, Princess? Do you think you can walk in there and hug away the greed, the hatred?” I threw a hoof at her wings. “You think they’ll treat you any better than our guest did? No! You’ll be lucky if they decide you’re too profane to vivisect and just burn you!”
“What?” She asked, taken aback.
“You haven’t caught on yet?” I pointed at her other captive. “Why do you think he didn’t stop struggling and cursing even after you proved you weren’t one of mine? You’re still a monster! In a world where you’re Unicorn Elite, Earth Pony Labor, or Pegasus Scum, you cross every single line with unholy grace.”
“I…” Her expression hardened. “I’ll still find a way. There is good in everypony, and I will find it. I will fix your City.”
“Sure you will.” I snorted.
There was silence for a few minutes, the windigos continuing to swirl about the ship. A part of me wanted to ask if she knew where she was going, but she didn’t seem the type to take off half-cocked and just wing it. I took a slow glance around the ship, noting that there was still no sign of Tick and Tock. Good.
Then Twilight’s magic squeezed me like a vice.
“Where is it?” She asked levelly. Before I could respond, she squeezed harder and tilted her head towards the windigos. “They’re still following us. Where’s the artifact?”
Shit.
I lit my horn, and her magic squeezed tighter, crushing the breath out of me. It was hard to focus without being able to breath, but I didn’t need to cast much. I simply flashed one orange blink, and shone a blue light off the captive guard. Then Twilight’s grip tightened on my horn especially, and my magic fell to pieces.
Tick leaped over the railing in complete silence, jaws grit as she hurled her spear butt first for Twilight’s diaphragm. Without even looking, Twilight flashed a shield bubble into existence, the spear bouncing off it harmlessly. A second later and Tick was peeled off the side of the ship and dangling in Twilight’s magic as well.
“I wasn’t born--” Twilight’s comeback was cut short as a spear exploded through the side of the unicorn guard, splattering the inside of her shield with blood. With a startled shriek she jumped back, her shield and telekinetic grip failing simultaneously. Quick as lightning, Tick hit the ground and bounded for her, claws extended, only to be grabbed a foot shy of her pounce. Her tail lashed out over her shoulder, lancing for Twilight’s face, only for it to be grabbed as well, held just inches away from its target.
And then venom squirted from its tip.
“AAANNNGGGHHH!” Twilight stumbled back, her magic failing completely as she scrubbed at her burning face. Tick wasted no time, a second swing of her tail clubbing Twilight over the head and knocking her to the deck. As Tick pounced upon her, Tock bounded out of hiding and over to me.
“Here.” She offered her saddlebags, and I quickly pulled out the reagents I needed.
“Take the helm.” I ordered, quickly beginning to mix the reagents, using my feeble magic to the fullest as I created mixing flasks and tubing out of force fields. As I worked, the many chemicals blended together into a black ichor that I quickly stoppered, lest it kill us all.
A startled cry was the only warning I got before everything went sideways.
Literally.
I had the briefest glimpse of the helm wreathed in purple magic before the ship did a complete corkscrew through the air. In an instant I was sliding towards the railing, the deadly flask grasped desperately in my magic. I scrambled for a hoofhold, but there was none to be found as the ship’s deck tilted further and further to vertical.
There was a black blur, and the splintering of wood as Tock dove for me. Her claws dug deep into the deck, just out of paw’s reach as I slid away. Her tail, however, closed the distance. With a thunk and a flash of pain that nearly made me drop the flask, she pinned my left leg clean to the deck, the point twisting painfully as I practically swung from it.
Suddenly, the pain alleviated from my leg as I found myself no longer trying to fall. Instead, I was floating in a field of purple magic. As I was lifted, I could see Tick and Tock drifting up with me as well. And there was Twilight Sparkle back at the helm.
“You’re very resourceful, I’ll give you that.” She said, her left eye twitching unsteadily. Both her eyes and much of her face was red and swollen, but nothing like what manticore venom should have done. “If I hadn’t known how to cast Poultice’s Poison Purification reflexively, you might have succeeded.”
“Poultice’s Poi…” I groaned as I realized what had happened. “Damn transmutation.”
“Yes, damn transmutation.” With a flick of her magic, she yanked the flask from me. “And considering the options available to an alchemist of your caliber, I can only imagine it might take care of this as well.”
“No!” All three of us screamed at once, thankfully making her pause.
“Do you really think,” I said, nervously glancing at the flask. “That I’d try to poison a city full of unicorns with a compound that could be purified by magic?”
“Hm.” She glanced at the flask. “Then perhaps we’ll let gravity decide this.” She lifted the flask high and my heart skipped a beat.
“Little late for that.” Tick said.
Sure enough, the clouds around us had become suffused with a reddish glow. Twilight lowered the flask slightly, staring around in confusion. I however, realized what was happening. A moment later, we broke out of the clouds.
And into the Last City.
“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight whispered.
The heat hit us like an open oven the instant we passed inside the city’s magical shield. Below us, the city glowed with the infernal light of the open magma pits, their rippling breath keeping the city a furnace too hot to freeze. Along the walls of the pits ran the great communal farms, their greenery turned a sickly brown in the reddish glow of the magma, the only light fit to sustain them. Along their surfaces, earth ponies crawled like ants, the occasional hopefully dead body tumbling into the inferno below.
From the pits rose the great circulation towers, their crude iron bases rising to gilded heights, the palaces of the royal families clinging to their tops like some sort of gold and ivory fungus. Here, the gardens were emerald and bright, lit by the magelights their residents could afford and maintain. As we flew nearer, we could see the aristocracy rushing to the railings, startled by the otherworldly sight that had invaded their world. It suddenly occurred to me how glad I was that they’d never deigned to employ pegasus guards. Then again, the winged thieves they’d hung from further down the tower probably made recruitment a little difficult.
I glanced at Twilight, her gaze still entranced by the physical iniquity of the world around her. For the first time in her life, she could see the darkness of the pony heart made physical. I could see her wrestling with it, overwhelmed by a thing she’d thought impossible. In this, I could sympathize with her.
I also knew how distracting it was.
My gaze flicked to the flask held forgotten in her grip. If we didn’t change course, which I suspected we wouldn’t, we would fly right past the circulator tower’s intake. All I had to do was get the flask in there, and the mighty fans would do the rest. In minutes, the lower levels would be dead, and then the upper levels shortly thereafter. I needed the unicorns to die last. If the shield failed before the gas had circulated fully, some might escape to the ‘safety’ of a windigo’s ice.
Seeds of a new nightmare, waiting to be saved by misguided fools.
I racked my brain, thinking of some way to beat her magic before the tower passed us by. I glanced at the spears forgotten on deck, but they were too distant for any of us to reach them. I knew at least Tock’s had been tipped with compound 57, which gave it the magic immunity it needed to pierce Twilight's shield and the guard within. Too bad Tock's remaining supply had been used to magic proof the poison.
Tick, however, might still have a backup.
“57!” I hissed under my breath, Tick and Tock’s ears swiveling towards me. In a blur, Tick grabbed a vial from her saddlebags and flung it at me, the spare vial of compound 57 spinning towards me, the stopper coming undone as it flew. Twilight’s eyes snapped around in an instant, and her magic grabbed the tube in midair. The thick green compound, however, ignored her magic and kept going.
To splat completely across my body.
I dropped like a rock to the deck, Twilight's magic sloughing off me instantly. Stumbling towards Twilight, I made a lunge for the vial, only for my pierced leg to suddenly fail beneath me. I’d forgotten about that. Instead of taking the vial, I slammed into her, the two of us tumbling to the deck, the jar of poison following us.
It bounced off the ground with a horrifying tink, but held as it proceeded to clatter around the deck.
I scrambled after it, only for a grip like iron to wrap around my waist. I turned to see Twilight all but snarling at me, her hooves clutching me tight. I replied to this by jamming a hoof into her eye. With a shriek she let go, leaving me to scramble after the jar.
I grabbed it in the glow of my magic, only to feel a competing grip quickly overwhelm mine. Before she could pull it away, I flopped onto it, my magically resistant body cutting off her levitation. I stumbled up to the railing of the boat, turning to see Twilight stalking towards me, her left eye twitching again, her right one starting to turn black.
“You can’t win.” She said simply. I felt her magic nearly yank the jar from my grasp, even with the slime across my body interfering with her magic. “You throw it and I grab it. I’ve got your accomplices bound, and you’re not surprising me anymore. It’s over.”
As we passed close to the inlet, I could feel the intake’s draw sucking across the deck.
In that moment, I realized something pivotal.
She could still grab the jar.
But she couldn’t grab me.
“Girls.” Tick and Tock glanced at me. “Get out of here, whatever it takes.”
I jumped. I only heard Twilight’s scream of shock dimly, her voice swept away by the howling of the massive vent before me. I felt her magic grasp and tear at my exposed coat, but she couldn’t stop me or the jar clutched to my chest as we sped into the vent. Funny, if they’d done something as simple as install a safety grate, my entire plan would have failed. But safety grates would have protected pegasi, and who wanted more of them?
As the wind picked me up, I wondered what dying would be like. Probably painful, but there were rumors that the vent fans spun so quickly, they smashed your skull before you could even feel it. As I fell towards that whirling sea of steel, the blades so fast they blurred together, my last thought was of Tick and Tock and Twilight above.
They deserved better than this world.
I then discovered that the rumors were full of shit.
I probably should have felt worse, all things considered. I’d played a lot of dirty tricks in my life, but this was easily the worst. Instead, however, I felt absolutely nothing. That made sense, given I no longer had nerves or a body with which to feel, but it was still strange.
I tried to reach forward. To touch. To feel. To be.
I felt my hoof first, as though I was rising out of the frozen discharge pools outside the city. Perhaps a fitting metaphor, all things considered. Slowly, I felt more and more. My legs, my shoulders, my nose. As my head breached the “surface” I tried to breath. This proved impossible as I still didn’t have any lungs. For a few more minutes, I gasped helplessly before I could finally act on my instincts, heaving a deep breath of relief.
An age later, and I sat atop the black slab, whole and complete. I slowly stood on shaky hooves, testing my joints to make sure they all worked. In theory, the slab held every detail of my body from the moment of its creation, but I had never actually had a chance to test its veracity before now. As I looked over myself, whole and complete, I breathed a sigh of relief.
It had done it’s job, my greatest masterwork.
My philosopher’s stone.
I leaned down to give the slab a soft pat, before stretching and looking around. Boxes sat stacked in darkness, the stone tucked behind a pile obviously designed to hide it. Carefully, I climbed over it, comforted by the steady rush of air beyond the ship. I very much doubted it would still be airborne if there weren’t any survivors.
Then again, ghost ships were a thing.
Did my presence make it a ghost ship by default?
I pushed open the door, and whatever tension I’d held melted away, Tick and Tock turning and waving to me. At their feet was Twilight Sparkle, trussed with rope, and her horn smeared in a thick layer of 57. Apparently my ‘death’ had been startling enough for Tick and Tock to get the upper hand.
I walked over to her, taking a bit of pride at the shock in her eyes.
“H-how?” She whispered. “I didn’t feel any magic!”
“Mages, always the same.” I sat down before her, and looked down at her solemnly. “Not everything has to be done by arcana.”
She was silent a moment, then despite all that had happened, her eyes widened in wonder as they crossed my cutie mark. “You didn’t…?”
“Yes, I did.” I nodded. “I created the philosopher’s stone, the pinnacle of alchemical achievement. Eternal life, and limitless transmutation. Control, to an extent, over reality itself.” I pointed to my cutie mark, the squared circle, the symbol of the vaunted achievement. “Funny that I was destined to be the best at an art that all disdained. That with it, I would achieve what my supposed betters could only dream of.”
“The ones you killed?’ All wonder was gone from her voice, replaced with a deep snarl. “You’ll never get away with this.”
“I never intended to.” I shrugged, making her blink. “Go ahead and punish me. Even kill me if you like, not that you really can, but still.” I stood up, and walked to the railing. “At this point, it doesn’t matter. I’ve done what I needed to.”
She was silent, and so was I. Slowly, Tock steered us through the clouds, Tick keeping a close eye on Twilight. The hours dragged on and on, and several times I saw Twilight almost voice a question, but she never did.
A drop of rain fell on the deck.
“Tock, bring us back around.” The ship shifted beneath my hooves as it began to turn, another few droplets hitting the deck.
“What’s happening?” Twilight asked, glancing around as we turned, rain beginning to fall in earnest.
“They’re leaving.” I glanced at the clouds around us, the snow turning to rain as we flew. “There’s nothing left for the windigos here.”
Our ship swept a little lower, and emerged into the open air. All around us was the Last City, rain pouring down for the first time in a hundred generations. Here and there, sunlight broke through the dissipating clouds, glowing in the endless rain as it played across still and silent streets. Already, the magma pits had dimmed, their eternal fires growing cold under the gentle torrent.
The Last City was no more.
For a while, we simply sailed in silence. As I watched, landmark after landmark glided by. I could see the earth pony slums stained red with blood, the denizens having spent their dying moments denying their unicorn taskmasters a peaceful death. Beyond that, I could see the great charnal channels of the Crimson Factory, the bloody rivers run dry without any more ponies to recycle. In the distance, the Tower of Arcana lay toppled and broken what had surely been a glorious fit of dying madness.
"Cut her loose." I said, not even bothering to look as I heard the snap of breaking rope. I waved a hoof, motioning for Twilight to join me at the railing. As she did so, I swept a hoof across the twisted world beneath. "Horrible, isn't it?"
"Yes." Her voice was hard, cold, angry.
"Would you beleive it was even worse when it was alive?" I asked. "This is the most peaceful I've ever seen it. To me, this is beautiful. Serene, even."
"You had no right." Suddenly I was grabbed up in her magic, dangling over the edge. "They were living ponies! They could have been saved!"
"No they couldn't!" I shouted back, heedless of my imminent death by gravity. Not that death was really a concern. "They would have dragged you down like they dragged down each other! Like they dragged down every pony who tried!" I narrowed my eyes, pointing a hoof at the pegasai corpses still dangling from the towers. "If there really is good in the heart of every pony, then realize this city beat them all! This was the only way it could ever end!"
"I can't believe that!" she screamed, tears streaming from her eyes. "I can't! Don't you understand? I've seen the good in everypony too many times. I know they could have been saved, and you just... snuffed them out!"
"And I've seen the bad in ponies too many times," I sighed softly. "In a way, I'm glad you think I'm wrong. The very fact that you can't conceive of something so evil it cannot be helped or saved tells me I did the right thing. You will never have to look upon the City as it was, and know such evil."
For the longest time, she stared at me in silence, tears still streaming from her eyes.
"Going to drop me?" I asked, and she shook her head slowly.
"What good would it do?" She set me gently back on the deck. "What good would anything do?"
I merely sat quietly beside her as she looked down over the city.
"I have no idea what to do," she muttered softly. "I want to call you a murderer, to say that you crossed every line imaginable and deserve to be locked away forever. But what good would that do? I would just be lashing out at my own frustration." She sighed. "You didn't do this out of pride to be humbled, or callousness to be educated. All you were guilty of was losing faith in ponykind."
I continued to sit and wait. Gradually, the sun began to set, briefly throwing me into a panic as I finally beheld just what was transpiring beyond the clouds. Twilight, however, didn't move. She merely sat still as a statue, watching the silenced horrors of the city as they slipped past. It wasn't until the third day that she moved.
"I'm taking you to Ponyville." She said softly, standing shakily to her hooves.
"Ponyville?" I asked, tilting my head.
"It's a small town, the friendliest place in Equestria." She trotted over to the helm, Tock yeilding the helm to her. "I realized I was indulging in the sunk cost fallacy. There's nothing to be done about the City anymore. However horrible your act, it is done and gone. All we have now is the future." She looked at me, her eyes tired and sad. "If I am to truly believe everypony can be helped, then that includes you, and I'm not going to help you by judging or vindicating my anger. All I can do is show you that you're wrong. Show you that there's hope for ponykind."
Slowly, Twilight Sparkle turned us for the horizon.
One final exodus to paradise.
