XP: 98,000/100,000 Bladesinger 9/Paladin 2.

I’m pretty close to level 12 now, and if my memory is correct I should get a 6th level spell slot. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal because I won’t be able to learn any 6th level wizard spells for another level or two, but I have the Mizzium Apparatus. I can cast any spell from my wizard or paladin spell list as long as I have the components for it and the spell slot available. I hadn’t even considered this when I first picked this item for my reward, but every day it proves to be more and more valuable.

Some people say 7th level spells is when magic based classes start to “ascend” as it were, but in my opinion 6th level spells is really where the power starts to ramp. I get Disintegrate, Globe of Invulnerability, and Sunbeam. More importantly I get access to Tenser’s Transformation and Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, on the surface the spells are very similar but they have completely different use cases. Tenser’s Transformation prevents you from doing any spellcasting while transformed and Tasha’s does not. Tasha’s also gives you flight and increased AC as well as some damage immunities, but Tenser’s is pure damage output. If it wasn’t for Glyph of Warding and my Moonblade I’d probably never use Tenser’s but I have a few ideas to really crank every drop of power from this spell.

Anyways enough min/max powergaming talk, let’s recap the last 2 days. After the encounter with the yeti’s we didn’t run into any other issues, and with the heating spell we had a nice and relaxing stroll through the mountains. That being said they were also uneventful, but it was a nice change of pace to be honest. Just now we crested the peak of the 9th mountain, and through the fog just off in the distance we can finally see it. The Northern Luna Sea.

Perception.

5 + 6 = 11.

“Aren’t we supposed to see the entrance to their colony from here? I’m not spotting anything.” While I’m looking around I start to rearrange all my belongings so I can put on the Mizzium Apparatus.

“It’s not something you’d be able to see with your eyes. Climb down the northern side until you reach the lower cliff.” Jumping down with featherfall I stand on the lower ledge and my confusion only rises. To my north is the open air and eventually the sea and directly behind me is the steep wall I just climbed down. “This cliff wall is an illusion. I’m not sure how they’ve done it but there’s a constant stream of extremely high pitched whistles coming out of this wall. Only those with thestral hearing would be able to tell where the illusion is or that there even exists an illusion.”

I watch with a surprised look as she just flies through the cliff wall 15ft above me. Well isn’t that nifty? She flies back out and after loosening the straps of the Mizzium so it hangs lower down my back she gives me wings again, and I slowly follow her through the illusion. Now that I’m inside I can tell the opening is just barely big enough for Luna to fit through. The inside of this cave is an almost 90 degree vertical drop into pitch black nothingness. Even with my Devil Sight I can’t see what’s at the bottom. The walls going down are all covered with small concave pores, and if I had to guess they’re using these divots to create the sound Luna is hearing. There’s a pretty strong updraft in this vertical tunnel so it makes sense, but I didn’t think ponies were that academically inclined to know acoustic science.

After around 600ft the vertical tunnel starts to level out and turns into a hallway. Eventually the hallway opens up into a massive and wide open cavern. Looking around in amazement I can’t help but to gawk at the castle like tower spires built into the cave walls and ceiling, but why is the actual floor of the cave completely bare? Also, even with all of those spires and windows built into the cave wall this doesn’t seem like it’d hold enough ponies to be considered a colony, more like an outpost. It’s also eerily quiet in here, something isn’t right. In an instant I reach for my Moonblade, but before my hand can reach the hilt…

Acrobatics Check.

4 + 9 = 13.

You are grappled.

Somehow the bastard was completely silent as he divebombs down and connects his hooves with my shoulders pushing me forward. As I’m falling forward something pushes against my back and my hands get tugged behind me, causing me to suffer a pretty uncomfortable landing against my chest and face.

“Stop! That is my knight, he’s with me!” Lifting my face off of the floor of the cavern I see at least 10 ponies have formed a circle around me, turning my head I realize they’re completely blocking my line of sight from Luna.

“Pardon our rudeness, Your Majesty, but I assure you the creature is fine. We just merely needed to take some precautions.” Some feminine voice with a strange but light accent responds to Luna a few feet away from me. Right as she says that I feel the Moonblade and its scabbard get pulled away from my hip. “Remove that artifact from his back as well. Our intelligence has noted that his emotional state is unstable and his temper will flare from minor provocations. Because of this we require the, ahem, “knight” to be disarmed before he is permitted entrance to the main living cavern.”

Acrobatics Check.

18 + 9 = 27.

As soon as I feel two of the four hooves pinning me down leave my body to reach for the Mizzium I roll to the right, causing one of the ponies on my back to lose balance and stagger. In that instant my hands break free and I instantly push myself to my feet. “Okay chuckle fucks you have exactly 5 seconds to give me back my sword, or you’ll find out just how much my temper can really flare.”

Now that I can get a good look at them they seem like pegasus but with bat-like wings and fluffier ears. The look on their face is the exact same look I’ve seen several pegasus make though, fear. Glancing at Luna I can see she’s also quickly becoming frustrated at this awkward situation. “I discussed this with your Chancellor several times and was assured we’d receive a warm welcome. I suggest you all listen to the elf.”

The bat mare standing next to Luna with a slightly fancier set of armor looks a bit apprehensive. Almost like she’s trying to decide if it’s worth dying on this hill. “With all due respect Your Majesty, this creature is not part of our pact of service. We will still allow him to accompany you while you’re here, but until we can formally renew the pact it was quite difficult to convince my ponies that he be allowed to remain armed. We were going to verbally negotiate this, but once he reached for the blade it forced our hoof.”

“Your 5 seconds ended 4 seconds ago, by the way.” My jaw clenches a bit tighter.

“Hang on Ignis, let me understand their reasoning first. Chancellor, you mentioned specifically that he’s vulnerable to provocations, but why are you operating on the assumption that he will be provoked? Is there something else you failed to inform me of before our arrival?”

The thestrals surrounding me seem to have gotten over their initial fear and have stiffened up their stances. “There are some…” She rolls her hoof in the air as if she’s carefully choosing her next words. “Concerns that he will not be receptive to some of the terms laid out in our pact. I’d rather not discuss them here and now, but there was some worry that he would become violent during the negotiations. We also assumed he would be opposed to us meeting in private before the negotiations to discuss some of our other concerns.”

My patience has just about run out, but something in the back of mind is telling me that exploding here is exactly what they want. It would validate all of their worries and prove them correct about their assumptions. “How about this? One of yours can carry the sword, but it doesn’t leave my sight. That blade is more than just a weapon for me, it’s an heirloom and one of the few things I have left from my family and my home.”

A few of the bats glance back at the mare seemingly in charge as she hums in contemplation. Finally she glances at Luna and with an annoyed tone she replies, “That is acceptable. We still require that you wait in one of our holding rooms while our council has a meeting with Her Majesty.” She turns towards Luna, “They’re already ready for you, our scouts reported you’d be arriving soon.”

Luna looks at me with a questioning gaze, as if she’s leaving the decision up to me. I reach into my pocket and squeeze my sending stone. “It’s fine. Take Callisid with you and request that I specifically be allowed to wait outside the room for the meeting.” Next I cause Callisid to silently poof into existence in Luna’s mane. He’s not completely concealed but she can just say that’s her personal pet and demand it stay with her. Finally I need to lower their guards, so I’ll let them think Luna will listen to their demands over my own opinions. Outloud this time I speak to Luna, “I don’t like it, Your Grace. Surely you can just order them to allow my accompaniment?”

Deception (Advantage)

20 + 1 = 21.

Luna looks a bit confused for half a second until I think she grasped what my intention here is. “Apologies, Ignis, but you’ll need to cooperate with them for the duration of our stay here.” Looking back down at the mare she continues, “I don’t know where you intended to have him wait, but I would at least request that he be no further than 1 room away. As a sign of good faith?”

The mare nods and all of the thestrals surrounding me seem to finally relax, and back away from me. We all take to the air and they lead us into one of the larger spire’s through a window. We walk down to the base of the spire and go through a hallway that must be directly inside the walls, and after a few minutes we emerge into another spacious and massive cavern. There’s two metal gates and several more guards, but looking through the gates as we approach I can tell that beyond this gate is an actual city with conventional buildings and structures.

As we pass through the gate I squeeze my Sending stone once more. “At least these guys have some backbone, they were afraid of me just like a lot of the Royal Guards but they still held their ground. If all of this works out and they aren’t complete assholes I can definitely work with this.”

“It’s to be expected, from what I can tell, all they’ve done for the last 1,000 years is train and hunt. I’m not sure if you noticed or not but we have yet to see a single garden or source of vegetables and fruits. They might actually make good sparring partners for you if my assumptions are correct.”

“Yeah maybe without magic or my dice rolls. Not to toot my own horn, but comparing where I’m at now to where I was a month ago it’s a fairly unbelievable pace of improvement. Give me another month and I could probably give you or your sister a run for your money.”

“Perhaps, but I think you’re approaching the point where your improvements will slow down considerably. Your training is going to run into the problem of, I believe it’s called, diminishing returns. Don’t be too discouraged if you do stagnate in the near future.”

Should I tell her that I’d only need to solo kill 4 Ancient Red Dragons and I’ll basically be level 20? The fact that we’re likely going to be in conflict with the dragons in the near future will basically force me to level up fast. Could I kill an Ancient on my own? It’s feasible at the very least, I have the damage output to take one down it’d just be a matter of if I can kill it before it kills me.

Eventually we reach a much more grandiose looking building, and I assume this is the place for the “council” they talked about. Going through a series of double doors we reach an area that has several floor mats and chairs for lounging, and at the other end of the room is a more ornate set of double doors. I sit down feeling pretty annoyed and Luna walks through the ornate doors with the mare in charge and a couple of guards. The other 8 guards are all sitting in here with me. Alright Callisid lend me your eyes and ears. “I’m pretty exhausted from our journey so I’ll just rest here until they’re done. Please don’t disturb me.” They don’t even acknowledge that I said something, so it’ll probably be fine.

Meeting Hall of the Council - 3rd Person POV

“I’m glad to see you arrived safely, Your Majesty.” There’s a tall wooden structure on one end of the room that has 5 seats for 5 thestrals. The pony in the middle is the one greeting Luna.

“We finally meet, Chancellor Umbra. First things first would you mind explaining why my knight was assaulted upon our arrival?”

“I’m sure the Major has already gone over our reasoning. The real question is, why have you given up and become subservient to the Sun? We’ve been preparing and training for generations upon generations of thestrals for the Night of Return. All wasted once we learned of your fall.” All 5 ponies look down at the Princess.

“Excuse me? Nightmare Moon was cleansed from my being and sealed away, and to begin with the plan of an everlasting night would’ve doomed all life on this planet. Secondly, I am not subservient to my sister. I am her-” Luna completely stops suppressing her presence. “-equal.”

All of the ponies present freeze in fear as their pupils shrink to pinpoints and something weighs down on them. The Major and the other 2 guards stumble backwards into the wall behind them on instinct. “S-S…So you say, Y-Your Majesty, but you’re s-still not involved in th-the major decisions or the laws of the kingd-dom.” To her credit, the Chancellor is continuing to hold her ground despite all of her instincts screaming at her.

Luna goes back to suppressing her presence and all of the council members sigh in relief. “I’ve been back for 7 weeks, roughly, and nearly half of that was spent traveling or participating in the Global Summit. The entire legal process for Equestria has to be updated to start passing documentation and proposals through both the day court and night court. If I’m going to spend this entire meeting defending and proving myself then we can just end this now.”

“Your Majesty, we're just trying to put things in perspective before we start. You’ve come to us to enlist us once more into your service, but none of the ponies in this mountain were alive 1,000 years ago. With all of that in consideration it’s a bit difficult for our citizens to get behind the idea of leaving all of this behind for a Princess we’ve never even met before. It’s even more difficult once word got around that you had no military and no power, so here is a list of terms for our side of the pact.”

A new guard flies down from the ceiling and hands over a scroll to the lunar princess. Some of the demands are as benign as, We require meat to be served for at least 1 meal per night, but some are completely absurd. “Surely you jest, Chancellor? “The Night Watch will only take orders from the Generals or the Chancellor.” Why would I want a guard that I have no control over?” She continues to scan the document with growing annoyance.

“You need us, Your Majesty. We don’t need you. If you were our true Goddess instead of this weaker form you’d perhaps be able to demand our service. This isn’t all of our terms, by the way. We have another set of terms that is much shorter but is specifically in regards to your “knight.” It was decided that it’d be best for him to be present when going over those terms, however so it’s in a separate document.”

Luna feels the raven hiding in her mane start to shiver and tremble, but she’s unsure what it could mean. Glancing up from the scroll she glares at the Chancellor. “Don’t act like you’re all thriving in this cave without me. My ears are just as strong as all of yours so you should know throughout my entire walk through your city I heard a cacophony of stomachs growling for food. Your environment isn’t suitable to grow plants, even outside of the cave, and you’re unable to change the weather like pegasi. I’m sure you’re all adept hunters and the gigantification of all the creatures in this region probably helps, but you can’t possibly hunt enough to sufficiently feed hundreds of ponies. I’d wager you’re all mostly making due with mushrooms.”

The alicorn flaps her wings and hovers in the air, sick of looking up at the council and continues her tirade. “This is a matter of tradition and honor. The thestrals have been the backbone of the Night Guard since the unification of the tribes, and to try and make demands of me is outrageous. You all should be honored that Equestria is willing to welcome an entire tribe of traitors with a smile on their faces.”

The Chancellor snaps at the end of the rant and stands up from her podium and points a forehoof at the princess. “Then call it reparations! As a race we lost everything because of you. My ancestors supported you throughout all of the turmoil and they lost their home, their friends, some of them even lost their lives. All because you LOST! Yes, we’re currently suffering through a particularly rough patch of a food crisis, but you can’t sit here and act like it’s no fault of your own! All we ask is that you at least consider it. You were told there would be a negotiation, so you can convince us to remove any of the demands at that time.”

The raven covers its eyes with its wings and starts to cower. Luna actually deflates a bit and loses most of her anger at the stinging words from the Chancellor. She slowly flies back down to her previous position and continues to read the scroll. Towards the bottom of the document she see’s what is by far their most outrageous demand. “The Princess must take one thestral as her Prince Consort?! Have you all lost your minds?”

Callisid flies up into the ceiling with a loud squawk of fear. A few of the guards stare at it in confusion, but Luna quietly whispers to herself. “What is wrong with his familiar?”

The raven actually preemptively answered her question when it squawked and flew away, but Luna was unable to understand the familiar.

I’ve never seen the young master this angry before. His killing intent was leaking through our mental connection and it was even causing me to shiver.

Before the Chancellor can respond to the alicorn's outrage every set of ears swivels towards the door as several crashes and thuds ring out in quick succession. All the dust on the doors is shaken off when the door suddenly flexes and vibrates.

“Stop! You can’t go in there?!”
“Restrain him!”
“Private, go request backup!”

The Major and several guards unlatch themselves from the ceiling and start flying towards the doors in a panic, but before they can reach the doors the ornate wooden rectangles are sent flying into the room with loud cracks as they tear off of the hinges. A bipedal creature that seems to be on fire walks through the empty doorway and silently steps towards the council.

“YOUR ANCESTORS DESERVED EVERYTHING THEY GOT!” Several thestrals in the room look enraged at the provocation, but the elf continues. “They didn’t even have the resolve to continue the fight once Nightmare was banished! They should’ve fought to the bitter end and died with honor, but they didn’t do that! They ran. They should’ve at least stayed in Equestria and received their punishments, but they didn’t do that either. They ran. THEY HID LIKE THE COWARDS THEY WERE. Sure they would’ve face discrimination and ridicule, but they could’ve kept the image of Luna alive. Her Grace came back to a kingdom that didn’t even know her name, she was slowly forgotten to time. None of them even know what a thestral is! If your ancestors were worth a damn then Luna wouldn’t have come back to an empty section of a castle, with no guards, with an entire country that doesn’t even know she existed!”

Luna tries to call out to the elf, but he can’t hear her as he continues to tear into the council. “The fact that you even have the gall to try and tear her down and make demands from her is insane. She was sealed in the moon for 1,000 years against her will with no way out. That should be an understandable reason for her lack of action during that time period, so WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?!”

A mass of ponies in armor start to pour into the meeting hall through holes in the ceiling and what used to be the doorway, so Ignis decides to wrap up his rant. “I guess I should be thankful though. If any of you were worth a damn I wouldn’t have become her paladin. It’s only thanks to your ancestors' cowardice and your continued insistence to hide from the world that I even had this opportunity. So, I should thank you. Here let me show you a customary sign of gratitude and goodwill from the culture of my homeland!” The elf holds up his left hand with only the middle finger raised.

He knows that no one on this planet will appreciate what he just did, but he did it for his own amusement. Luna, shield your ears. The elf calls out through the Sending stone as the mob of guards starts to close in on where he’s standing. Luna quickly ignites her horn and blocks her inner ear as she watches the bladesinger in confusion.

The Mizzium starts to hum loudly and vibrate as the guards get closer and closer. Luna can barely make out his figure when she sees him slam his palms together as hard as he can. Her hearing is protected so she doesn’t hear his incantation, but a shockwave of purple energy explodes out from the elf as most of the guards that were close to him are sent flying away. The rest of the guards that didn’t get sent flying are writhing on the ground while covering their ears with their front hooves.

Thunderwave against extremely sensitive hearing proved to be as effective as Ignis thought it would be. Luna feels the air vibrate as the thunder continues to ring out and echo in the enclosed room and once she feels the air settle she undoes her hearing protection spell. Feeling satisfied after venting his anger the elf calms down and sighs before addressing the thestrals gathered around him. “So how about we call things even now, let bygones be bygones and start over fresh?”

One of the guards still writhing on the ground next to Ignis responds, “WHAT?”

Author's Note

Decent chance this chapter and the next one have a few more mistake than normal. I was in the zone and just slammed out paragraph after paragraph instead of the more recent chapters where I write a few sentences then re-read them as I continue to write. This chapter was originally just going to be one longer-ish chapter consisting for 6-7k words, but I think it's way funnier to end the chapter on that bit with the bats not being able to hear Ignis cause their ears are still ringing.

That being said I don't wanna leave you guys hanging so tonight is a double release. This chapter and the next one should be published within a few minutes of each other.

Thanks for reading!