The Cadenza Prophecies

Chapter Twenty Seven - The Thief of Magic

I woke to the smell of coffee. Very good coffee.

I had a single moment of happiness, snuggled up warm in my bunk, before I remembered where I was, and spit out an expletive more appropriate for a pirate ship than a private train car.

Spike awoke with a start and a snarl from where he had been curled up on the floor next to my bunk.

The steward with the carafe of Tanzebran coffee took a short step back, but otherwise didn't seem bothered by our abrupt awakening.

"Forgive me, Your Highness," he said quietly. "Sir Spike asked that you both be awakened an hour out from Empire Station. May I place your coffee on the table?"

"Yes. Sorry. What time is it?"

"Four hours past midnight, Highness."

After a big mug of coffee, I felt half-way equine again. I finished absorbing energy from the crystals (a process that dinner had interrupted) and felt even better.

Spike held up the last little tourmaline that had been a pleasant pink before I'd drained it. "Mind if I eat this? I'm curious about something."

I shrugged. "Go ahead."

He tossed the dull gray gem into his mouth and bit down. After only one tentative crunch, he grimaced and spat the fragments out on the floor. "Eugh! That's—nasty!"

I shrugged. "The spell is technically dark magic, so that's not a surprise. Still an interesting effect, though. Remind me to drain and then recharge one, and have you do another taste-test when we get the chance." I opened the little louvered window over my bunk and floated the mess outside.

I dashed off quick notes to Celestia and my parents. I thanked Her Highness for the "salubrious" accommodations. Yes, I really used that word, and I was hoping she'd read the note while sipping tea and maybe snort some through her nose. I thanked Mom for the wonderful meal and assured both her and Dad that I was having a great time playing pirate, meeting all sorts of interesting new people, and would write more when I got the chance.

The enchanted smoke went out the same window as the gob of chewed tourmaline.

Then I dug the saddle bags from my sea bag and flopped them on the bunk, folding up the covering flaps to reveal the rows of little pockets. "Help me sort the rest of the gems, will you? You take that side. Tuck them in as snuggly as you can. I have no idea what sort of acrobatics I might have to go through, and I don't want any falling out."

"The gem pockets in your coat have little flaps over them," Spike observed.

"Yes, but I'm too big to fit into my coat now, and these bags were made for transport, not combat. We'll have to make do."

"Nonsense, Darling!" Rarity's chirpy voice was entirely too cheerful for the Celestia-forsaken hour, but it was welcome, nevertheless. "I can sew a little strip of fabric across the top of each row of pockets which will do nicely."

"Aren't your needles too big for this job?" It was a somewhat feeble attempt at a joke and, unsurprisingly, it didn't land at all.

Rarity sighed and gave me a side-eye. "In your current state, you can hardly criticize anything for being oversized, dear. Full of borrowed magic, are we?"

Spike grinned at her and prodded me in the chest with a foreclaw. "Crude, but effective."

That got a titter out of Rarity. I have no idea why; my joke was objectively more clever. I think they were just ganging up on me for the fun of it.

The others were stirring too, and the steward bustled back in with more coffee and tea. All of us had a simple, hearty breakfast of pancakes, except for Rarity who ordered Eggs Barraquand. I had no idea what the dish was, but the chef evidently did, and the noises Rarity made while eating were strong evidence that the meal was much more than satisfactory.

"This is the most heavenly Bardigiano sauce I have ever tasted!" Rarity said to the steward. "May I personally give my compliments to the chef?"

The steward's expression fell and he apologetically said, "I am afraid not, Your Majesty."

Rarity stared at him for a moment in shock. "Wh… Whyever not?"

"Orders," the steward said, and levitated a small cream-colored, gold-edged note card out of his apron pocket and placed it before Rarity. The note was sealed with a sun-in-splendor, the mark of Celestia's personal correspondence.

Rarity stared at it. We all leaned in.

"Go on, Rarity! Open it!" Rainbow Dash urged her.

Rarity broke the seal and unfolded the note. There were six beautifully calligraphed words on the card: "He's mine. You can't have him."

Applejack whooped in delight. "Boy howdy, has Celestia got your number, Rares!"

When I say that Rarity was speechless, I don't mean she was silent, and the eloquence of her vocalizations perfectly expressed her outrage.

That bit of foolery raised all of our spirits, and when the train pulled into Empire Station, it seemed that there was a bit of lightness in our steps.

The full platoon of Crystal Guards that met us on the platform sobered our mood a bit.

We were ushered into a line of carriages which set off for the palace at a canter. We passed through a permeable shield at the outskirts of the city.

Cadance met us in the entrance hall, and I shared a brief, tight hug with her.

"Has anyone actually seen Grogar yet?" I asked as I let her go.

Cadance looked a bit surprised. "We don't really know what it is that—"

"Reasonable assumption," I hated to cut her off, but I had no idea how much time we had before we'd be in a desperate fight, and I didn't want to waste a second. "Curling ram's horns, magic-eater, and this—" I floated over one of the copied archive documents that Celestia had forwarded to me. "—is a fragment of a letter from Gusty's son, mentioning the Bewitching Bell being 'sealed in a cavern in the far north.' It all adds up."

Cadance nodded slowly as she read. "I remember reading you the story of Gusty the Great and Grogar when you were a filly. In that version, the bell was shattered, wasn't it?"

"Supposedly, but pre-Discordian history is mostly myth and wishful-thinking. It may turn out to be something else, but the bell being used as some sort of essence-storing taewidha is my working hypothesis right now. I'm thinking that the yetis got hold of it and accidentally released him."

"That seems more likely than that they woke up some other existential threat with ram's horns," Cadance admitted. "Do you have a plan for dealing with him?"

"Well…" I gestured at Spike and the girls.

"You're not just hoping that the Magic of Harmony will manifest at the exact moment you need it, are you?"

"I admit that that's Plan A, but I have a few other ideas, too.[1]"

[1] Twenty-seven, to be precise.

Cadance carefully looked me over. "I'm assuming that sheer brute force is one of the options?"

"Just a side-effect of Tirek's spell. I used power gems, not ponies," I added when she grimaced slightly.

She nodded and pointed a hoof at the ceiling. "Shiny is up there, just below the beacon spire, powering the shield. It's just at maintenance level right now, but he's ready to pour more magic into it at a moment's notice. Is there anything I can do?"

"Just keep Flurry near you when things start happening. If we can't stop Grogar, or whoever it is, you need to keep her safe. Get to Canterlot and tell Celestia what happened."

She looked down for a moment and sighed. "I've stationed Sunburst inside her room with a big preset teleport crystal. He can take her straight to a secure room in Canterlot castle if things go badly."

"But—"

"I can't abandon my ponies."

She was right, of course. Big, glitzy tiaras are more costly than pirate masks. I gave her another big hug.

A Crystal Guardpony stepped into the room and announced," Princess Luna and Sultan Xahjir."

Rarity and her husband embraced as well as they were able to, Xahjir being dressed in full armor.

Luna and I had the same difficulty, but we had done it so many times that I knew just how to fit myself to her steel-clad form. I had to adapt a bit to account for my bigger, bulkier form, but the kiss was just perfect.

Luna backed up a step and looked me over. "Why, little Twilight! The last time I saw you you were only this tall!" She held out an armored hoof about belly-height above the floor.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "And will be again, I suspect."

She gave me an evil grin and said in a low (but not low enough) voice, "Not before I get a chance to be the little spoon, I hope."

Rainbow Dash and Applejack gave each other a less than innocent side-eye. Thankfully, before our behavior became completely inappropriate for a royal reception hall, another guard burst into the room, supporting a panting and wounded pegasus.

"He's coming!" the pegasus gasped out.

"How far?" I asked.

"Five leagues up the vale—maybe closer by now."

"Any other forces?"

The poor pony slumped a bit after shaking his head, and Cadance sent for her physician. "Airships… A few airships near Everhoof, but they're anchored."

I turned to Dash. "Looks like we should try a Rainboost, but I'm kinda heavy right now. You up for it?"

Dash snorted. "Have you met me?"

"Alright then. Girls, get to your positions on the plaza. If we can't stop him before he gets to the shield, we'll fall back and join up with you on the leylines."

Luna cleared her throat.

I turned to her and smiled. "I know how you love charging straight in, but the Bewitching Bell—"

"Please, love," Luna held up a hoof to cut me short. "I know when subtlety is called for, and I intend to support your attack, not supplant it."

"We will be moving very, very fast, trying to stay out of the way of the bell, ourselves."

"Neither will I encumber your efforts, lover." Her smile was sweet and gentle and absolutely inflexible.

I had to be satisfied with that. Well—that, and another little kiss.

= = =

We spotted him a long way off because he was absolutely gigantic. His coat may not have been black, but the miasma of dark magic fumes that exuded from his coarse, hairy pelt made it look that way. His horns were so big that it seemed miraculous that he could lift his head at all. If inertia and the inverse-square law hadn't been negated by his magic, that would have been a big advantage for us.

The bell was—weird. In my magesight, it roiled with magical energy, of course, but it wasn't in the sort of configuration I had expected. I have dealt with uncounted[2] amulets, taewidha, and the like, and even created several, but nothing like the thick ugly bell that hung around the monster's neck.

[2] That is, of course, hyperbole. I have counted them all, and analyzed and recorded all of their notable characteristics.

But the bell was familiar somehow.

We got closer than I thought we would before Grogar noticed us. His head came up and his eyes narrowed. I felt the inceptive pulse of his magic and yelled "Go!" to Dash an instant before a red-hot beam of energy passed through the space where we had been. I was right behind her, using my forward stretched wings to connect to her incredibly powerful thaumic flight field as she streaked away, nearly vertically. I was pulled along in her wake.

I disconnected myself and went ballistic as Dash changed course again, and folded my wings away to damp down my flight field. Grogar kept tracking Dash's chromatic vapor trail, blasting away twice more, and still not leading his target nearly enough.

Rainbow Dash began jinking all over the sky, changing course every few seconds as the gigantic ram began to realize her speed and attempted to correct his aim. The brute was burning through power at a rapid pace, becoming angry and frustrated as he continued to miss his target, which was just what I wanted.

I neared the top of my parabolic arc and triggered my carefully crafted combination spell. It took a huge percentage of the mana I had ingested, but I wasn't going to give Grogar even the hint of a fair chance. I teleported a nice 20-ton tetrahedron of solid granite out of the nearby towering mountain and spun it up until the tips of the shape were only barely subsonic, all within a sound-deadening bubble.

Normal gravity had been dragging it downward for the few seconds it took to really get spinning, and that was just a bonus, but it wasn't falling anywhere near fast enough, so I pumped as much inertia as I could into it, and then tripled the gravity below the giant beast.

Grogar had some magical bypass of the normal laws of physics or he wouldn't have been able to stand up, but the sudden change did stagger and distract him. His attention was recaptured only a moment later as the shrieking stone missile struck him between the shoulder blades.

It passed straight through him, scattering most of his body in a circular spray of blood and small fragments and then struck the earth with enough energy to create a substantial fountain of molten rock and debris.

I sighed and unfolded my wings, falling into a shallow glide away from the impact site. Dash swooped down to my side a moment later. "Not gonna lie, Twi. That was pretty awesome! Up high!" She held up one wing, expecting me to give her a feather slap while flying.

Not wanting to tumble ungracefully from the sky, I told her, "When we're on the ground, showoff!"

"You're calling me a showoff? That's a laugh!" True to her assertion, she laughed her head off, and I joined in, gleefully.

We stopped laughing when a bright blaze of light suddenly showed through the column of dense smoke where Grogar had stood.

"What the heck is that?" Dash asked

Unfortunately, from the feel of the magic pulse, I instantly knew what it was, and why the bell had seemed so familiar. It wasn't an amulet or taewidha at all. It wasn't even metal. The metal was heavily ensorcelled, yes, but it was only a protective casing; the actual artifact within was made of crystal.

It was an engine.

Grogar reformed out of his constituent pieces, screaming in rage.

"Go, Dash, go!" I yelled. "Evasive. Back to the—"

She knew the first backup plan as well as I did, and she jinked over in front of me and pulled me along, accelerating at a rate that made me think she might pull my wings out of their sockets.

A blast hit the mountainside behind us and the shock wave shook us like a hyperactive foal's rattle. Dash straightened us out just in time for another blaze of energy to pass right in front of us. Grogar was zeroing in.

Dash rolled and spun, diving down to weave in behind some of the smaller peaks of the Yaket range on the way back to the Empire.

One of those peaks exploded in front of us, depriving us of cover as I popped a spindle shaped shield up around us to protect us from the granite shards. Despite the aerodynamic shape of the shield, it still caused some drag, and Dash's vapor trail could easily be seen in the pre-dawn light.

Two more blasts followed, each of which nearly got us. The ends of our manes and tails curled and smoked from the heat even through my shield. I considered trying to shuck my saddlebags so that we could safely teleport away, but even an instant's hesitation or slowdown…

"We're not gonna make it, Twi!" Dash yelled back to me. "You go on, and I'll distract—"

"No! I'm not going to—"

Grogar screamed.

It wasn't rage. It was agony. I felt the pulse of the bell as it came to life again, and the huge monster spun away from us, rearing and then crashing down to viciously trample the earth.

"What the…?"

I smiled. It was a grim, vicious, and loving smile. "Luna," I said. "She's buying us time. Go, go, go!"

Dash went.

An enraged, painful scream echoed down the valley again, followed by another restorative pulse from the engine.

"He's got a crystal doohickey, right?" Dash asked as she flew flat out and straight as an arrow. "Like mine?"

"Yeah," I gasped.

"Can't you, like, do something?"

I didn't have the breath to shout a detailed answer, and I wasn't going to waste any precious mana on the Royal Voice, so I just said, "Working on it."

That seemed to satisfy Dash.

The third tormented bellow and following wave of mana was faint and light behind us as we streaked in over the outlying roads of the Empire.

I let go of Rainbow Dash as she swooped down to an acrobatic landing next to the anode plinth where the Crystal Heart hovered and spun slowly.

I skidded over the slick crystal slabs of the plaza and floundered to an ungraceful stop.

Spike and the rest of the girls were waiting there, as arranged, along with what seemed to be most of the Crystal Empire's military.

"So—" Spike said, lifting an eye ridge, "—Plan B?"

"No. No, there is no plan for this." I shook my head savagely. "He's got an incredible weapon. But it must have been broken somehow. Gusty did it, and the yetis must have—repaired it somehow? It activated and rebuilt Grogar; that has to be what happened!"

Xahjir stepped forward, a worried frown on his face. "Princess—"

Spike stepped in front of him and held up his hand. "Please, Your Majesty. Let her think."

"Dash!" I yelled. I had an idea. It might only be a stop-gap, but it was something.

"Right here, Twi!"

I popped a little sound deadening spell around us. I wanted Dash to be able to speak freely. "That catapult shot. It stuck in your hip, right?"

Dash jerked back. She hadn't expected the question or the ugly memory it brought up. "Uh… Yeah. The point, anyway. I tried to pull it out, but the shaft snapped off."

"Hurt a lot?"

"Geeze, Twi! What do you think? It wasn't just the pain, either. My doohickey kept trying to fix me, and it couldn't because the point was still in me. I mean, I guess it kept me alive, but it still hurt, like, a lot, and it felt—freakin' wrong!"

"So bad, all you could do was fly to the doctor?"

"Twi… Don't ever repeat this to anypony, okay? But, like, I couldn't even fly, it was so wrong! I crawled down that grate to the doc and barfed twice on the way. It was, like, a million times worse than when that chopper thing cut me in half."

"What?" I practically screamed. "You got—"

"Yeah, yeah," She waved a dismissive hoof at me. "I didn't see it coming, and whizz-chop-ouch, and It was over and I was fine. No big deal. But, that point…" She shuddered.

"Sorry," I said, putting a comforting wing over her shoulders. "Believe it or not, I had a good reason to ask, and your answer is actually good news. You up for one more insane mission?"

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "No problem."

"Good! After the big rock and whatever Luna did to him, Grogar will probably put up a strong shield. But if he's going to directly batter down the city shield like what Cady saw in her vision, he can't have a shield of his own up because of the cushioning effect, so he'll have to drop it right before he strikes. When he does—"

I dropped the little privacy spell and walked over to a pair of Crystal Guardponies. "Pardon me guards, but I need the use of your swords."

= = =

We worked our way out to the edge of the city, keeping behind the cover of buildings as much as we could, until we were just inside of my brother's now fully-powered shield.

The earth shook as Grogar came. He looked a lot bigger from ground level.

"Standing start to full speed: how long?" I whispered to Dash as she got a firm grip on the swords with her forelegs.

"Don't blink," she answered.

Good enough.

Grogar glared down at one of the most powerful shields ever created and sneered. He reared up, his own shield flickered and died, and Dash hit him directly in his right eye.

I teleported Dash out of the socket and we both flew at a sprint for the palace. Behind us, Grogar screamed in time to the futile pulses of his cursed bell.

"You did it, Dash!" I yelled gleefully to her.

"Yep!" She paused to spit out some vitreous humor and then continued. "I felt those swords hit bone after the blades went through. They aren't going anywhere! Maybe if he asks us nicely, Doc Woundwort will pull 'em out for him."

I smiled. "Not even if he says 'please,' Dash."

The group under the palace was staring, horrified, at the gigantic monster thrashing and screaming just beyond the shield.

"Is… Is he dying?" Asked one of the guards who had given me her sword.

"Unfortunately, no," I told her. "But that'll delay him for a bit, and give me more time to think. Has anyone seen Luna?"

"Over here!" called a familiar voice from behind the soldiers. Spike and a medic were kneeling down next to Luna, applying healing crystals and salve to her exposed barrel.

I rushed to her side. "Luna, are you alright?"

She gave me a brilliant smile. "A few broken ribs, naught else! The old goat is a bit faster than one would credit and the dawn light touched my shadow veil at an inconvenient moment."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I'd hug you, but…"

"A kiss then?"

"You are incorrigible," I said as I leaned down.

"Mmmmmmm, a suitable reward! My distraction sufficed, then?"

"It saved our lives, Luna," I told her flatly. "What did you do?"

Her smile turned sly and evil. She reached out and lovingly touched the shaft of a huge black halberd that was lying beside her. "I made a wether of him—thrice."

Several of the Crystal Guard chuckled, and some of the stallions winced. Applejack actually burst out laughing. "Once is usually enough!" she said.

"Perhaps I performed the operation incorrectly?" Luna asked in a completely phony innocent tone. "I am no student of the veterinary arts."

I frowned in puzzlement. I didn't get the joke. And… AJ knew a word I didn't?

I was about to ask when Rarity called out to me. "Darling?[3]We may have a problem here!"

[3] Yes, she didn't use my name, but all of the Nebulas knew exactly who she was talking to.

I rushed to her side. "Yes?"

"Look at the bell."

It was swinging wildly from Grogar's studded collar, pulsing each time it tried to repair his eye around the embedded swords. But there was something else happening. A thread of power was being pulled up from the ground beneath, growing stronger by the second.

"What is that?"

"Undifferentiated mana," I said, which was a completely accurate answer without being in any way helpful. I thought desperately. "Where is it coming from? Maybe the… The bell's portable—can't store as much mana, so has to replenish through absorption. But what source… Oh, no! Oh this is bad, this is really bad."

"Darling?"

I waved my hoof at the Crystal Heart, slowly spinning above its pedestal. "This whole city is a crystal engine! It's planted right on top of the World Wheel's major peripheral flow and two huge intersecting epicycles; a major leyline nexus. If that bell can draw from this power source… I don't think he's even aware it's happening. Maybe… If…"

"Then, there's no way to stop him?"

Portable. Limited storage. "Maybe one," I said. "Get the girls to their places and everypony else under cover."

She did as I asked without hesitation or question.

"Spike! And you! Yes, you lieutenant!"

"Right here, Twi!" Spike said. The Guard lieutenant trotted over a moment later.

"Spike, when I give you the signal, fly up the other side of the palace to the spire and tell Shiny to drop the shield. Tell him I said so, and don't take no for an answer."

He didn't say anything to me, but looked over my withers at Luna, who had put her armor back on and walked over to stand beside me. "You take care of her, okay?"

"You know I will, Spike," she said.

"Lieutenant…?"

"Calcite, Your Highness."

"Lieutenant Calcite, please go find Princess Cadenza and tell her I need her to spin up the Crystal Heart as soon as the shield goes down. Open the flow channel to the leylines as fast and as wide as possible. I don't have time to explain, but this is critical!"

"Yes, Highness!" He saluted and then galloped off.

The guards didn't want to hide behind the legs of the palace because they were guards, but when I told them it was their duty to protect the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony who were posted near each one, they were convinced. Only the squad that surrounded Fluttershy, who was behind me on the opposite side of the Crystal Heart, were somewhat exposed. I heard Flutters softly telling them not to be afraid, and reassuring them that everything would be alright.

Grogar continued to scream and pound his face against the shield. Not his horns, his face. He was deliberately trying to damage his skull so much that the swords would be dislodged, and it looked like he would manage it soon enough.

Everything was in place, and the glittering shards that were thrown free of Grogar's re-mangled eye socket a moment later were the signal.

"Go now, Spike!"

Grogar took a moment to compose himself, and then focused on the city's shield again. This time when he reared up, he didn't drop his own shield until a fraction of a second before his horns crashed down. The shield rippled and the ground shook.

I spread my legs wide to straddle the leyline and prepared myself. I still had twice the usual amount of mana stuffed into me, and all the backup gems as well. Enough for a good showy first strike.

Grogar slammed the shield again and it went out.

He may have realized that it hadn't broken because of his hammering, but it seemed he didn't really care. The dark mana vapors rose from his back in rippling sheets and his face was twisted up into a snarl of insane rage.

Behind me, I heard the Crystal Heart hum as it sped up. I flared my horn to make sure Grogar saw me and called out, "Hey, big guy! How's the eye?"

That got his attention. When I was sure I was the sole focus of his murderous anger, I unleashed a starfire blast right at his face that could have burned through a fair-sized mountain.

He blocked it easily.

"I can keep this up all day, Crowbar! You wouldn't believe the amount of magic I have!"

Grogar was just the way I like my villains: big, greedy, and stupid. He took the bait, raised one enormous hoof, and struck the Bewitching Bell.

It didn't ring, it shrieked. It twisted the beautiful flow of natural mana into something ugly and dark that wrenched at my essence just as I opened a conduit to the Wheel of the World.

The flow tore through me like a river through a straw. All the powerful mana and stored magic I had left went into keeping the conduit open, feeding more and more power into the bell. I felt my friends join with me, and even the touch of Luna's divine magic. All their strength, all that mysterious and unknowable energy kept the way open for the flood of irresistible power that was the magical essence of our entire planet.

Grogar's eyes went wide when he finally realized his fatal mistake. The Bewitching Bell had been designed to drain a magical power source completely; it had a gigantic, but ultimately limited capacity, and no off switch.

Eat it, you vile, unimaginative thug! You wanted magic? Here it is! Choke on it!

I was barely conscious when the bell and its protective casing overloaded. It exploded into a massive spray of superheated plasma that burned Grogar to a cinder before it screamed upward through the atmosphere on its way to the stars. The aurora crystialis danced in its wake, blazing and shimmering in multi-colored glory even in the brightening morning sky.

That's really pretty, I thought before I passed out.

= = =

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