The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Silver-Voiced Nightingale stylist manages to reach a pitch that shatters his bowl, and sends the soup flying in every direction. He manages to catch every droplet in his mouth before a single one hits the ground. When soup moves, he moves—just like that!

…

It was a rather big revelation to take in for Shimmer that Speaker had a singing staff in his possession. The magical white jade staff, with its carvings making it look like polished but gnarled white wood, and featuring runic bands of orichalcum, resonated beautifully with the rosined bow Speaker played with, its music melting the mountain rock away as if it was water, leaving behind a tunnel just big enough for a pony to walk in with her head down, advancing at an even trot.

The greatest challenge for the lunar was to round up all the ponies who were hiding. Shimmer couldn’t really speak firetongue, and while Speaker had told her the words or sounds she had to repeat in order to say “Come with me, we have a safe way out” – instead she had to improvise, often dragging random ponies who kicked and screamed back to Speaker who could explain things, then escort those ponies back to their peers and hope they could talk the rest into coming along – and fight any demons they ran into.

After a number of courtiers and servants had been found they were able to help talk most of everyone else Shimmer could find into coming along – but many still refused to go, paralyzed with fear, not daring to come out of their hidey holes.

Shimmer chose not to tell Speaker of the ones who had stayed behind – she had more important things to watch out for: There might not have been many demons about, but there were enough to keep her on her toes. Her talons, made into long silvery daggers via her charms, rent demon flesh over and over while trying to the demons away from the ponies escaping – a challenging task, considering how vulnerable her charges were, but as taught by Sage of the Depths, then many of Shimmer’s charms excelled when they were about protecting others.

With Speaker leading the way in the tunnel, they quickly reached the outside of the mountain. Shimmer had apparently managed to block the entrance to the tunnel in the palace, hiding it well enough that the demons at least hadn’t found it until everyone was out – and on the old heat-cracked cliffs going down the mountainside, she spun her essence webbing into ropes so all the ponies could climb down via, on their own. It took a while, but at least they were going down on the east side of the mountain, so they were in the shade of what would otherwise have been a blistering sun.

At the base of the mountain, they were met by other ponies – ponies who had escaped the demons via the usual way one got in and out of the mountain: the snaking tunnels carved from its foothills, leading up into the caldera. Of course, the demons had cut off the main routes pretty quickly, but there were still about a couple hundred ponies who had made it out before the demons had closed the upper gates and started capturing and killing anyone they found in the tunnels.

This left Speaker and Shimmer with nearly seven hundred ponies, no water, no shelter, and a southern nightfall that looked to be almost as mercilessly cold as its daytime heat.

“Lord Bright, is that the elemental who was supposed to take us to that other solar?” Shimmer pointed out, not understanding what any of the locals were saying, and feeling very much like a fish out of water with so much land around her and absolutely no water.

Speaker quickly glanced over to what Shimmer pointed at, seeing the… impromptu shrine some of the escaped ponies had set up to pray for salvation from the newly arrived spirit: “Looks about right”

The fire elemental, appearing to mortal eyes as a living flame that just floated in the air, looked a lot more like a pony wrought of flame to the duo as they were able to perceive spirit’s immaterial body properly. Approaching it, one of the refugees who appeared to had set herself up as an impromptu priestess lording over the ‘shrine’ – if one could call it that – didn’t want to let foreigners get close: “Stay away strangers – this is a sacred shrine!”

The priestess’s extravagant gesturing made for a really easy hold as Speaker picked her up, flipped her over, and sat her down behind him, clearing their path to the elemental.

“Are you the elemental sent to take us to the solar in the east of the dune sea?” Speaker asked in old realm.

The mortal ponies around him and Shimmer looked on in great confusion as Speaker spoke the ancient tongue of scholars, few if any of them understanding the language – but none managed to ask questions, as in the next moment the elemental materialized before them, it’s beautiful and sleek form of flame and its mane of smoke clear for all to see. With eyes of glowing red gems the elemental looked around: “I thought I was only transporting two ponies…”

“I know – shit happened. Will you be able to transport some seven hundred souls to the destination?” Speaker politely asked, smiling warmly.

Dimming briefly, the elemental didn’t look happy with what appeared to be a lot of extra work: “You have got to be kidding”

“I can ensure that a written commendation for going above and beyond your call of duty, gets delivered to your master, with the seals and signatures of five solars upon it, if you do this” Speaker offered, with not a hint of deception or lies in his voice, but he did flare his caste mark to prove that he was a solar.

To Shimmer’s surprise the elemental didn’t even stick around to accept the offer, before flitting off to blast nearby sands with fire, shaping the molten glass into the form of a… ship. A barge?

Turning to Shimmer, Speaker smiled: “You would not believe the things that lone spirits will do for a written something-something from a solar – the poor things get so little appreciation in their daily lives. Now, we’re going to need to wrangle everyone up on this glass barge, come on”

Between the courtiers from the palace and Speaker trying to talk everyone into getting into orderly lines and marching up on the barge, and Shimmer webbing in what few fools and stragglers who didn’t want to come willingly – her not taking no for an answer this time around – then it didn’t take long to get everyone settled in.

Up on the ship, Speaker was installed as the ‘captain’ at the instructions of the elemental, who parked itself under the ship to melt the sand under the barge, to allow it to flow and to direct the ‘current’ so the barge could move at great speed.

“Alright everyone – the elemental is about to bring this thing up to speed, to get us away from Gem!” Speaker announced, much to the cheering of the crowd of ponies on the deck of the barge.

A flaming light underneath the barge erupted, and the barge lurched away from the mountain with its buzzing cloud of demons and green fire up top. Speaker continued his oration, his caste mark lighting up as he used essence to smooth over his words: “We are going to cross the glittering desert, which we will be doing very quickly. I want everyone to sit down and keep their heads down, because we will going very fast – you can get hurt very badly if you do don’t”

From the crowd the lone voice of a young stallion cried out: “Where are we going? Why not head north to the Lap?”

“We’re going to… I don’t actually know where we are going – but I am supremely convinced that there’ll be water and shelter where we’re going” Speaker replied, not at all reassuring the ponies listening to him.

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd, so much so that Shimmer quickly poked Speaker and told him to fork over his maps: “I’ll track where we’re going via the stars and the moon, so we can at least try to predict where we’re going”

The barge quickly picked up speed, to the point that it became very hazardous to stick one’s limb or head out to the side, lest you desired having it sanded off. Of course, at the supernatural speed they were going, they arrived at their destination so fast that Shimmer barely had time to chart their course: “I think we’re somewhere south or south-east of the Varang city states if your maps are right – and the mountains we’re heading towards, that’s the summer mountains Lord Bright”

“Vague, but it’s better than nothing – I think we’re heading towards that one volcano there” Speaker mused.

Approaching the looming volcano, the steady plume of smoke rising from it clearly marking it among the mountains around it. As they got closer, Shimmer spied something carved into the volcano at its base with her supernaturally keen eyesight.

The barge came to a halt on the outskirts of whatever it was built into the volcano, the elemental melting its way up through the barge to announce that it would approach any closer: “You can walk the rest of it – I can’t bring this any closer, the area is warded”

“Thank you. I’ve already relayed instructions to the rest of my circle. Your commendation is being drafted as we speak. We’ll have it delivered via messenger spirit once I return home” Speaker said.

The elemental was overjoyed, and erupted in a plume of flame as it flew skywards as if living fireworks, before disappearing. The fireworks made sure that the ponies on the barge were seen by the ponies at the volcano, an armed patrol quickly reaching them.

Screams of fear was what first alerted the duo to the patrol – and it turned that the screaming hadn’t been entirely unwarranted, because the ‘patrol’ had consisted of three gnarled ponies in worn and patchy desert garbs, wielding crude spears – and exhibiting very obvious physical deformities and marks of sickness.

“They’re taken us to a jackal hideout! We’re doomed!” sounded the shouts that spread throughout the crowd of ponies.

Neither Speaker or Shimmer knew what a jackal was – so Speaker did the only thing he could think of: “Shimmer, get up in front and flash a caste mark quickly. Keep everyone safe. I’ll ask at home what this is”

Shimmer was off in an instant, while Speaker focused on his hearthstone and projected his senses back to Sunhill. It was late night, but being able to see and hear everything within the city, combined with his investigatory charms, made it reasonably easy to track Cash Charmer down. Using the Sunhill manse’s powers, Speaker manifested an illusion of himself next to the bed of Cash Charmer where he snored: “Cash, quickly – we’re in the south, what’s a jackal, it’s some kind of pony, its scaring everyone”

Startled awake, Cash tumbled out of bed in confusion before looking up at the illusion of Speaker: “Who what? You – really, in the middle of the night? Right in front of my salad?”

“Answer the question please, we have a situation here” Speaker implored.

Cash shook his head and brushed his mane back: “Jackals… that’s a southern catch-all for exiles and banished ponies. Think outlaws. It’s how a lot of southern nations deal with their sick, criminals or other undesirables – sending them out in the desert to fend for themselves and die from exposure. I’ve heard some ugly stories of the kind of deals they strike with desert spirits for protection and the means to survive. Anything else?”

“Well, we just escaped Gem, it got overrun by demons – and we’re at some jackal hideout carved into a volcano south of the Varang cities”

Cash pondered for a moment, then a wide and toothy grin spread over his face: “Oh…. Oh. That is amazing… horrible, sure, but also amazing”

“Anything I need to know, or can the briefing wait until we get back?”

“You’re probably at the hideout of one Admiral Sand, pretty sure he’s a solar – make friends, have him talk to me later, keep your mind control defences up – he doesn’t play anywhere nearly as nice as we do. The rest can wait until you two come back, now let me get back to my beauty sleep”

Terminating the connection so Cash could get back to sleep, Speaker pondered what he had been told. So, the panic was because the ponies sighted were potentially diseased? Well, that was a problem he could comfortably work with.

By the time Speaker reached the patrol, he found Shimmer staring down five ponies in ragged desert garbs. The five had crude oil lamps with them, letting Speaker see their angry expressions – expressions that were chiefly aimed at Shimmer, who stood a fair distance from the jackals next to a pile of shattered spears.

“Playing rough with their toys?” Speaker inquired.

Shimmer chuckled: “Sort of – I don’t speak their language Lord Bright, but I think they’re upset I broke their spears after they tried to grab me”

With that information it was with a raised eyebrow that Speaker approached the ragged looking ponies: “Jackals, I seek Admiral Sand”

That got their attention. The five kept their eyes wearily on Shimmer, but approached Speaker. One of them drew their hood, revealing the face of a scarred mare with notably notched ears: “That depends on who is asking. You come here on a ship of fire and glass, mark our location for all to see for miles around us… are you here to kill us?”

The accusatory tone was unmistakable, even Shimmer caught on to it.

Speaker shook his head. If these jackals were followers of a solar, then he was doing it all wrong – how silly of him. Flaring his caste mark, the golden light on his brow that marked him as a chosen of the solar twilight caste, Speaker spoke up: “My name is Bright Machine Speaker, Lord of the city state of Sunhill. I am a peer to your Admiral Sand, for we both belong to the same host. The ponies with me are refugees from Gem, for it has fallen to demons. They will either need safe passage to the nearest city, or the opportunity to join you. They are under my protection, and I will accept no abuse of them”

It was quite amusing for Shimmer to see how the eyes of the jackal ponies, most of them having their faces wrapped up as part of their ragged desert garbs so only their eyes were visible, turn to fear. All but the one talking to Speaker dropped to the ground and pressed their faces into the sand in displays of abject submission, the remaining one bowing deeply: “My humblest apologies your highness. Come with us, we will take you to the lord of sands”

Following the five to the volcano hideout, Shimmer quickly found that Speaker was paying a lot of attention to the architecture – as befit a scholar. The place looked roughly hewn out of the volcano, with open lava flows used for lighting, regardless of the heady fumes it gave off. Indeed, Speaker quickly concluded that the place was a crude but simple manse: “Can you feel the controlled essence flows?”

“I can… I can also see that there are zebras, saddle-arabians and all kinds of other ponies here, Lord Bright” Shimmer pointed out as they were led deeper into the hideout.

Speaker nodded: “They’re united by the one thing that they have in common: They’re all out-castes and exiles from their people. Think of them like… a tribe of pirates living on the edge of other civilizations. Also, I’m surprised that you know what a zebra pony or saddle-arabian looks like”

“Oh, so they’re like… wait, Lord Bright… how did I know that?”

With a calming gesture, Speaker smiled: “Your exaltation remembers. You’ve been around creation many times in your past lives – that kind of memories will come to you every now and then as your essence matures”

Pondering what other things she might end up remembering, Shimmer took note of the increasing number of armed guards in the part of the hideout they were in. At a great stone door a team of six jackals pushed and pulled with all their might to open it up, with Shimmer seeing that Speaker clearly wanted to step in and help, but struggling to control himself and stay put. She could only smile, recalling Sage of the Deep’s countless tales of selfish solars and how they only knew how to exploit and command others.

Beyond the door, the walls were still roughly hewn, but there weren’t any open lava pits and channels to provide lighting – oil lamps provided the lighting here, along with the odd glowing crystal or gem.

In a grand chamber, the duo was introduced to the vaunted Admiral Sand.

At a large table cut from volcanic rock, upon which laid many a map – both maps of the south, and maps of various cities – stood the tall, dark-coated and handsome admiral. In a silk turban richly decorated with gems and bits of jade, wearing a heavy garb – some kind of very decorative armor –with a thin silk garb along with it, the admiral stood resplendent. He nodded to the jackals that had escorted the duo to him, them quickly running off – ostensibly back to their posts – before addressing the two new arrivals: “Greetings. I am Admiral Sand, to whom do I have the pleasure?”

“I am Bright Machine Speaker, chosen of Celestia, of the Twilight caste, Lord of Sunhill. With me is my lunar mate, Last Shimmer, of the no moon caste, a fellow lord of Lord Sunhill” Speaker stated officiously, flaring his caste mark.

Shimmer followed suite, flaring her caste mark, and paying careful attention to who among Sand’s cohorts dropped to the ground to prostrate themselves before them and who didn’t.

With his dark brown coat, piercing green eyes and quite charming smile, the good admiral bowed subtly to the two and approached: “Well met friend solar and lunar. I am Admiral Sand, leader of this fellowship of wretches. To what do we the owe the honor of your visit?”

Shimmer didn’t need to understand Sand’s firetongue to see how a lot of curious eyes had turned on them. Speaker too spent a second reading the room, then stated: “Gem has fallen to demons. I came here with the help of a fire elemental with a little under seven hundred refugees, as we were just passing through the city when the invasion began”

The predictable kind of murmurs one would expect from hearing that one of the great powers of the south had fallen to demons. Sand’s expression certainly became a lot more serious than simply cordial: “That is terrible indeed – but it is also beyond my powers to undo. I have my people to worry about – I do not have the forces needed to undo such an invasion”

Sighing deeply, Speaker returned the sentiment: “I know that feeling. I and my circle are lords of our own domain in the scavenger lands – and it’s never fun having to prioritize who gets aid and who is left to die, but that is the burden of leadership”

Nodding, Admiral Sand called for tea and snacks – but Speaker politely refused the offer: “We have no plan of staying here – and I would much rather see water and food be brought to the refugees. A lot of them don’t want to stay here, but they’ll need help finding a new place to live”

“That… will not be easy. The nearest territories are the Varang city states, and their policy of that kind of foreign immigration can be summarized as a polite but firm ‘No’, and few other places have the kind of spare food, space and resources to suddenly house this many ponies. This is why I lead so many jackals: It is the way of the south to simply abandon, shun and exile ponies who have no place to live” Sand explained, giving Speaker a very sympathetic look.

If nothing else, Shimmer could sense Speaker’s unhappiness – she might not have understood Sand, but she got that what he had said wasn’t good news.

“The Varang have their pre-ordained plans, foretold by the stars. Their pandit priesthood divines your cutie-mark and your special talent shortly after your birth, and they generally dislike anyone who hasn’t gotten the same treatment – which includes all foreigners. If we were closer to Chiaroscuro, they might have had a shot there, even Harborhead, but we’re thousands of miles from the coast here at my hideout” Sand elaborated.

Slumping down onto the stone floor, Speaker simply despaired. Shimmer could clearly see his drooping ears and miserable look. Sand wasn’t slow on the uptake either, but he appeared to take hearth: “I know. That is actually why we are here. Most of the ponies here are exiles and out-castes from Varang, me included. The pandits aren’t perfect, and their divinations don’t always work – and they simply automatically exile anyone where their divinations fail, rather than admit failure. That’s why I’m working on a plan to conquer Varang now that the realm is thoroughly distracted with their own little dance of the dragons”

It was at least nice to see someone working on a solution, but Speaker was quick point out that Sand’s plans didn’t include the refugees: “What about them?”

“I will extend a hoof to them, that they might join us – but they will have to work and contribute to earn their tea and bread here. Supplies are still short, and I have yet to secure the magical weapons I’ll need to take on Varang, but once I do their regime of prophecy and pomp will end in an instant” Admiral Sand stated firmly, to the cheers of his loyal jackals.

Thus, the ponies from Gem were brought to the volcano base and explained the harsh truth of the situation. A number of them seemed to at least know of Varang and their treatment of foreign immigrants, so they understood why that wasn’t an option – and being so far south, so deep in the dune sea, meant that getting anywhere fast wasn’t much of an option. Many were upset that the glass-ship hadn’t gone to the Lap.

Shimmer watched with some trepidation as Sand greeted the newcomers from Gem, effortlessly weaving essence into his words to thoroughly sell them on the idea that if they joined him then in a short while he could offer them all comfortable jobs in a desert made green again. Oh, it was such a seductive sales pitch… and she had to consciously fight it not to succumb to desire herself, which tired her greatly – meanwhile Speaker’s mental defence charm kept him safe from Sand’s subtle mind control.

“Excellent – I’ll have sleeping halls made ready. It will soon dawn, and nobody wants to be outside for that. In the meantime, Lord Speaker, I would like to verify something with you” Sand proclaimed, inquiring into some stories he’d clearly heard about what Speaker and the circle had done in Nexus.

After confirming that Speaker was indeed an exceptionally good healer – not that it was difficult to get him to start talking about that – Sand quickly roped Speaker into tending to his jackals during the day.

“Perfect – in the meantime your lunar, can she see at night? She could track down the last group of jackals who left me for the last sands” Sand wondered.

Speaker didn’t quite understand what leaving for the last sands meant, but noted that if Sand wanted Shimmer to do something he’d have to overcome their language barrier. It took a few tries, but Sand quickly figured out that Shimmer spoke old realm. This let him instruct her quickly: “It is our ways, that at every dawn those among us too sick, injured, old or otherwise unable to pull their weight anymore goes out into the deep desert to find peace. With the healing your solar mate has offered, then we might be able to save the last ones who left us. They were seven when they left”

Oh, the things Speaker wanted to say about such a barbaric practice – but… curse his wisdom – he understood why they did it. Shimmer quickly flew off in her warform, all of her tracking charms blazing bright moonlight, while Speaker was led to what passed for an infirmary in the hideout.

With no real medical supplies, and barely enough water to go around to stay alive – Speaker found the state of the infirmary beyond appalling. The smell, the pitiful wretches trying to hide festering wounds so that they wouldn’t be made to seek last sands, oh this would not stand.

With a barely simmering rage, Speaker demanded to be allowed to attune to the manse they were in, so that he could use more essence, then he quickly made a round at the infirmary to ensure that no pony would die within the next hour.

Admiral Sand could only shrug: “I would if you could – but the manse isn’t complete yet. The spirits I have working on it aren’t done”

“Yes, it is – the essence flows here are too orderly to be natural” Speaker quickly pointed out.

It turned out that while Admiral Sand had many skills and abilities, then essence sight wasn’t one of them. He had a charm to see and interact with spirits, but not full-on essence sight: “They… they lied to me?”

Now it was Sand’s turn to be furious, him storming deeper into the hideout – into the heart of the manse – while howling the true names of the spirits who were supposedly working on the manse, commanding them to show themselves.

“Cowards! How dare you! We sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to you! Eyes! Newborn! You dare lie to me, to exploit me and my people!?” Sand roared; his fury as bright as his flaming anima.

The spirits seemed content hiding immaterially in the walls and in the mountain, and Sand was in tears by the time he realized that he couldn’t force the spirits to present themselves to answer for their charges.

“Let me have a crack at this” Speaker said, not at all happy about what he had heard Sand shouting about having sacrificed – but even more unhappy about the idea of spirits having tricked him into doing more of that.

Using a simple but absolutely brutal essence pattern, Speaker traced the spirit-repelling diagram and empowered it, forcing all spirits near him to either flee his presence or materialize – a quick bit of running around to coral the spirits resulted in them having nowhere to go, pushing them into the material world… into Sand’s furious grasp.

It was honestly rather admirable to see Sand ignore as his hooves were scorched to cinders, as he soundly thrashed elemental after elemental, beating apologies out of each every single one of them – making them beg for forgiveness or death… or both.

“Tell me sand, how many lives have been lost from them stalling on declaring the manse finished?”

“Hundreds – we were told we couldn’t move into the manse proper until it was done, that it would be dangerous. It’s supposed to make water and cool living quarters for all of us… and that’s not counting all the things we sacrificed to them… all the poor souls… newborn infants included” Sand said, his tears still flowing.

With a deep breath, Speaker stepped forward and reached into elsewhere, retrieving homage, his essence-bladed gyroscopic chakram: “That… that is beyond cruel. Luckily there is a solution to that”

Looking up at Speaker, Sand’s lips were curled into a furious grimace: “What possible solution… these filthy creatures have souls blacker than night”

“Yes, and they must be made to atone… through the hardest of labors” Speaker said softly, his outrage having already pushed him far beyond simple things like shouting.

With a flick of the hoof he activated the essence-edge on Homage and grasped the nearest elemental, his charms protecting himself from the fire: “I shall mine them for star-metal, cut them into their core components, and put them to good use. A thousand years of works as components in whatever I build them into should suffice as their penance…”

“You easterners have a fun way of meeting out justice” Sand said as he wrestled down an elemental that didn’t want to just lie still as it watched its fourth peer get dissected alive.

Speaker could only shrug as he focused on extracting the useful bits of the screaming elemental he was working on/dissecting alive: “We have a lot of gods and spirits in the east. Some a little more unruly than others – they have learned not to defy Sunhill, but I have never heard or seen of something this grim. Ideally, I’d want to keep at least one of these alive so a sidereal could interrogate it, do you know any local ones?”

“A side-what?”

Well so much for that idea.

By the time Speaker had finished carving up the elementals as they died screaming, he was covered in strange spiritual ichors, but felt immensely satisfied. It was when he turned and saw that Shimmer had returned and was looking at him and Sand with absolute horror in her eyes, that his feelings of joy somewhat waned.

“You’re back? Great – did you find any of them ponies?” Sand asked in old realm, ignoring Shimmer’s shocked expression.

Nodding somewhat absentmindedly, Shimmer asked with the utmost of horror in her voice: “They were down to six... what were you here doing Lord Bright?”

Feeling supremely justified in his own actions, but self-aware enough that he didn’t have the same gift of gab that Sand seemed to have, Speaker excused himself as he went to the infirmary: “Sand, explain this to her – make sure to mention how many lives their lies cost!”

At the infirmary Speaker shuddered briefly – not from the smell, or the sight of the six newly arrived half-dead ponies, all of which appeared aggressively well cooked and with naught but a cup of water in their bodies between the lot of them – no, he felt really bad because Shimmer had seen him like that. He didn’t even really know what she had seen, or heard, but he knew full well that the last couple of elementals – the ones who had managed to wake up after Sand’s initial pummelling – had been rather vocal about not wanting to carved up, not that it had changed his mind in the slightest.

It coloured the whole experience in a woefully bittersweet light.

That was when one of the ponies in charge of the infirmary started shouting that one of the six new arrivals were dying. Speaker instantly switched into doctor-mode, flinging healing essence around as if it was going out of fashion, the pony was quickly restored to full vigor, needing only to sleep to recover completely. The ponies around him looked on with absolute wonderment in their eyes.

If nothing else Speaker was able to sigh happily, able to feel good about himself again.

Checking the other new arrivals, making sure that none of them were going to suffer similar episodes in the near future, Speaker returned to Sand and Shimmer.

“They wanted weekly sacrifices like that?” Shimmer said in old realm as Speaker came into the manse.

Sand nodded, replying in kind: “And we gave them all they asked – I had used all of my powers to negotiate the best possible terms, but even then… so for almost a year we sacrificed our own in vain”

“Grammy told me of cruel spirits, of what to watch out for, but… I never thought…” Shimmer said, her voice trailing off as she sensed Speaker approaching.

It was with a sigh of relief that Speaker saw Shimmer look at him not with horror or shock, but with a kind of righteous indignation. She understood.

Now that the manse had been opened up Speaker was allowed to attune, though Sand went first as the manse was his. After that Speaker and Shimmer went to the infirmary to work their magic, while Sand began organizing his people to properly exploit the magical water sources inside the manse.

With the infirmary so close to the manse, Speaker felt a massive influx of essence. This topped him off very quickly, and let him start using his charms all over the place. Shimmer quickly found herself actually challenged to keep up with Speaker, struggling to give him fresh bandages or other medical kit fast enough as he went cot to cot, using healing charms to fix everyone. Even in the form of an eight-armed octopus Shimmer didn’t have enough limbs to give him supplies fast enough.

It didn’t take long before almost every single jackal in the hideout, even the outer patrols, were lining up to get their turn in the infirmary – because true to what Cash Charmer had said, then pretty much everyone there had something wrong with them, which had been the cause of their exile, or their exile had seen them gain new injuries and diseases from exposure or infection from their new peers. A few had mutations, some had been disfigured via accidents or attacks, there were birth defects, many were marred by diseased… it was a cavalcade of misery, which slowly became one of song and joy.

What did surprise Speaker was that it turned out to be Sand who was leading the communal song and dance act – and he was very good at it.

By the evening every pony who wanted aid had received it, and Sand had proclaimed before his people that he owed Speaker a great debt: “We now have water, and we have good health – with this we can weather any storm. When you are in need, you may call upon us”

“Thank you, Sand, – but I have no interest in collecting favors right now. Instead, I would prefer you moderate your planned offense against Varang you told me of. I remember The Drop That Contained an Ocean that you seek. I recall it from the first age and it wasn’t something used to irrigate deserts with back then. It was a terrible weapon used to wash away entire cities in catastrophic tidal waves. Carefully consider whether you’re looking to be remembered as a liberator or a bringer of death – I don’t want to hear about new shadowlands here in the south” Speaker replied, hoping that the trust he had built with sand would be enough to make the would-be warlord reconsider his plan.

Sand nodded, albeit slowly: “Had anyone else told me that I would have questioned their motives – but I’m not sensing any deeper deception in you. A pony who cares for the living without regard to tribe or creed… such a pony is a rarity here in the south – I respect that”

It was ultimately difficult for Speaker to extract any concrete promises from Sand on what he would do with the drop once he got it, but if nothing else Speaker did feel that he managed to impress upon the fellow solar that he should think a little harder on what his plans were to take over Varang, to ensure that even after winning such a war that he could maintain the peace, without having to deal with constant rebellions and invasions from the realm.

Speaker, aware that he didn’t have the same wordsmithing skills as Cash or Sunrise had back home, but he hoping dearly that Sand would take his warnings to heart, said: “We have a lot of warlords back east who claims their people love them – and they will say that they love them if asked, because the punishment for saying otherwise is death. Don’t go down that route… I beg of you. I understand that you hate Varang for having exiled you as a foal, and I can’t possibly imagine the suffering you’ve gone through to survive to this day, but trust me when I say that killing them will not make you feel any better”

“I understand. I do… and I can also see that you speak from bitterly learned experience on that topic. Do keep in mind that my plans were chiefly based on me operating alone with my people. Perhaps with the aid of Sunhill, a bloodless solution can be found? But I can only do this, if you help me with something…” Sand said, as he gestured for Speaker and Shimmer to come with him to his private quarters where talks might continue.