The Reluctant Protector

In order to ‘blow something up’, I needed my staff. So, it was back to the cabin. Walking back and forth though the Everfree, however small a walk it is, was beginning to be a pain. Especially now that I have a reason to leave the clearing. I made a mental note to create a more permanent solution at a later date. I could hear Lyra behind me, slightly out of breath.

I felt for her, I really did. The poor thing was desperately trying to both keep up with my long stride and avoid the various detritus of the forest floor. Her horn glowed with a soft but dim light. An effort that, with her injured horn, was starting to become too much for her, if her glistening forehead was any indication. Unfortunately, without my staff, it was the only light we had.

Ancient leaf litter that formed an, as of yet, undisturbed blanket covered the magic-rich soil. In doing so,
it also covered hazards that made for navigating even the relatively short distance from Ponyville to the clearing my cabin was in, a serious pain in the rear. Roots as hard as any stone, criss crossed with no warning as to when one would be caught underfoot (or hoof). The small valleys and peaks of the terrain may be laughable and even normal out in an open field, but made for deadly obstacles if you weren’t paying attention to where you put your weight. One wrong move, one stumble on a raised root, you’d fall, hit your head on something and that would be it. Lost in that deep, brown, mouldy, detritivore infested sea of seasons past. Forever becoming a part of the forest’s vast ecosystem.

I stopped so Lyra could catch up with me. Lyra. That mare has made this trip too many times. Without complaint too. Entering the Everfree with backup is dangerous enough. Entering alone… I moved up ‘make a permanent Ponyville-to-clearing solution’ from ‘sometime in the future’ to ‘ASAP’. I owe it to minty mare. She caught up to me, panting, and looked up to meet my eyes. She smiled. Smiled. I smiled back. This mare, I thought. She has absolutely no idea the danger she puts herself in every time she visits me. “Come on”, I said turning to walk again, “not far now.”

“Yeah, I know.” She countered. I smiled again and shook my head. This mare.

Passing over the charred line that was once my home defence system, I looked up to the cabin on the hill. There was a lone figure stood outside my front door. I sighed. Now what? I thought. I squinted my eyes and held up my hand to shield the sun which was beating directly on my retinas. Ugh Celly, just move your pet for a sec. The light glinted off something on the figures body. Armour?

Lyra stumbled out of the tree line, brushing leaves from her mane, and bumped into my back. “Hey!” She said. “I’m walking here!” I glanced at her. She stood pouting with her hands on her hips.

“There’s someone up there.” I said, and turned back to look at the cabin again. She turned to look too.

“You know ‘em?” She asked.

“Can barely see ‘em”

She was silent for bit, and then said. “Well… Let’s go say hello.” Then started towards the wooden building. This mare. Fearless. I followed.

Turns out the glinting was armour. Albeit, very little of the stuff. Upon seeing us, the figure straightened up, then moved to intercept us halfway down the hill, then stopped and snapped into a sharp salute in front of me. The stallion was shorter than Lyra and very slim. He wore a thin bodysuit of light-brown leather with equally thin, shiny pauldrons, kneepads and wrist guards over the top. A narrow, darker brown leather belt crossed over his left shoulder and a small silver pin in the shape of a feather, took position where the belt crossed over his heart.

“Letter for you, Ma’am.” He said. So quick, I nearly had to ask him to repeat himself.

I raised an eyebrow. “I-”

He swung his arm around behind his back then whipped it back out in front of me. Sure enough, he was holding a letter. I took it. Without another word, translucent, cyan wings materialised from the aether and attached themselves to his back. He gave another crisp salute, squatted, then jumped. A gust of air blew both mine and Lyra’s hair back and the stallion was gone.

Lyra whistled and stared into the sky. “That guy could give Rainbow Dash a run for her money.”

I ignored her and stared at the letter. It was sealed with golden wax, the indentation that of an eight-pointed sun. I smiled and broke the seal. In immaculate, flowing script, the letter read:

Dear Artemis,

When I said that I wanted you to come to Canterlot at your earliest convenience, I thought you would take the hint and come right away. Obviously, your ability to deduce what your wife really means, has diminished in your years of isolation. I suppose I cannot fault you for that.

In any case, I really do need to see you in a setting that allows for some strategizing. At least, strategizing where we will not get bitten by mosquitos. I would like to have both yourself and Lyra Heartstrings for dinner today at the palace. I sent my fastest flier to deliver this message to you, so if you don’t show up, I’ll know something has gone wrong! Please do not make me worry, I’ve had quite enough of that these past years.

Take. The. Fastest. Route.

I’ll have someone posted at the exit to escort you the rest of the way.

Your Love, always,

Princess Celestia Everfree.

P.S.

Luna is looking forward to it.

“Cock.” I crumpled the letter, reached into my cloak for my flask and took a sip.

“What? What is it?” Lyra asked, looking at the ball of parchment in my hand.

I sighed “We’ve been invited to dinner at the palace.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Why is that ‘cock’ worthy?”

I furrowed my brow and stuffed my flask away. “Because we’re taking the fastest route.” I walked towards the cabin, Lyra following behind.

“That’s good… Right? We should be there in about five hours providing the trains on time.”

I said nothing, not even entering the cabin properly. I just poked my head in, took a cursory glance around - yep, still a shithole - then grabbed my staff from by the door. “We should be there in about five minutes.” I moved past a stone-still Lyra and around the side of the building towards the back of the cabin.

“Wait, wait, wait. What?!”

I smirked. “Just follow me.”

“I know teleportation’s a thing, but I’ve never-”

“We’re not teleporting.” I said slightly angrier than I meant. Lyra flinched back. “Sorry. I just hate teleportation. It’s a complete waste of energy. I understand the usefulness of blinking, but teleportation is just stupid.”

“What’s the difference?” Lyra asked.

“Well,” I started, “Both should only be used in a pinch, as they require energy that, frankly, is way too costly for what you want to happen. They also both require an extremely skilled caster to pull off. When you want to blink, you hone in on where you want to go, usually only a few metres away at most. Then highlight all the particles in the area you’ll end up, and I do mean every single particle. Then just… swap places with them.” I turned to look at my apprentice. She was still following behind and had a look of deep thought on her face.

“I’ve never heard something so complicated yet so simple.”

“Yeah. I hate blinking just as much as teleportation, but it has its uses. In a fight for example.”

Lyra nodded. “So, what’s so bad about teleportation?”

I grumbled “Teleportation, is the most energy expensive, reality ripping, laziest, flashiest way to get from A to B there is. In order to teleport, you visualise where you want to go. This has to be something ingrained in your memory by the way. If the spot your teleporting to is obstructed, the universe will try to compensate and create… well, let’s not get into that. The point is, it has to be somewhere you’re intimately familiar with. I wouldn’t chance it unless I could see where I was going. Anyway, what you do is, you get where you want to go, then drag it towards you.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, no, seriously. You literally drag space towards you, then use raw magic to punch a hole through the fabric of reality, this hole will be about the size of a pore on your skin, then you use even more magic to stuff yourself though to the other side. Then once you’re on the other side, you have to close the hole quick before it grows. All this happens in a fraction of a fraction of a millisecond. I’ve stitched far too many cracks in space-time created by idiots who where too lazy to just walk to the shops.”

Lyra was staring at me wide eyed. Then looked thoughtful. “But if they can do all that… They’re not really idiots, are they?” I ignored her and continued on.

“Because you’re not swapping places with anything, you create an area of nothing. That’s the literal interpretation of that word by the way. No particles. No space. No time. As I’m sure you know, nature abhors a vacuum. So, reality snaps back like a rubber band that’s stretched too far and creates an almighty crack of sound. It can really hurt people if you do it too close to them. Not subtle.”

“So… No teleporting?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No teleporting.”

“So… Five minutes?”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, it will be a bit longer now, wont it? I didn’t expect the impromptu teleportation explanation. Ha! Try saying that five times fast!”

“Teleportation explanation, teleportation explanation, tele-”

I waved my hand. “Alright, alright, that’s enough.”

Lyra giggled. It was a nice sound. It’s been too long since I’ve heard laughter. “But seriously, how are we getting there?” She asked.

“We’ll take a ley-line.”

“Please stop talking like I know what you’re saying.”

I smiled. “You know where we were doing the breathing exercises?” She nodded. “That spot sits above two ley-lines. Super highways of raw magic. Essentially the veins of the earth.”

“I know what a ley-line is!” Lyra yelled. “How are we using them to get to the palace?”

I walked between the three obsidian stones behind the property and stood in the middle. I smiled warmly at my apprentice and held out my hand. “Come here.” Lyra looked at me, then at my hand. She gave a demure smile and slowly reached for my hand. See Celly? I can give a motherly smile with the best of them. When her fingers touched mine. I grabbed her hand. Hard.

“H- Hey.” Lyra grunted and tried to pull away. “Let go!” I held tighter. “Stop!” I pulled her close to me and hugged her tight, her face mushed into my chest, the arm carrying my staff wrapped around her back. She tried with all her might to push away from me. I held on all the tighter. Her muffled grunts coming out in breathless gasps.

“Lyra.” I said, very calmly. “Lyra look at me.” With some effort, she managed to drag her head to look up at mine. Her face was cherry red. “Lyra, this is going to hurt.”

“Wh- What?” She asked, her eyes widening.

“This is going to hurt, Lyra. Travelling by ley-line, hurts. I’m going to tell you exactly what’s going to happen, because you deserve to know. So, stop struggling and listen.” She did, but I could feel the muscles in her body, all of them taut like a rope with too much weight. “Ley-lines shred you, Lyra.” Her pupils turned to pin-pricks. “When I activate this spell. We are going to be shredded in millions of magical pieces and be shunted off towards the mountain.” She was whimpering now. “I’m sorry. It will only be for a second but it will feel like nothing you’ve ever felt before.”

“Wa- Wait. Please, don’t. I’m sure the princess won’t mind if we’re a few hours late! We can just take the train.”

“I’m sorry, Lyra. But you would have had to do this eventually. Part of the learning process and all that.”

She went limp in my arms. “Artemis please! Stop!”

“Ready?”

“No please! Wait!”

“Here we go!” I lifted my staff and brought the haft down hard on the basalt rock below.