The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Golden Exhalation stylist rewarms old lukewarm soup with all manner of fire, ensuring a comfortable meal, while keeping all foes well away

…

Turning to the source of the voice, Speaker found nothing in his dreamscape. Annoyed, he called out: “Show yourself!”

“I don’t need to – I only need to bring you a warning: I come straight from Thorns. I have learned two things that worry me greatly. One is that they are dredging their harbors and digging up their beaches, another is that the Mask has announced a council of some sort to be held soon” the disembodied voice of the doctor said.

Speaker considered the severity of this information. Collecting sand? Was the mask trying to revive the famous glass-crafting workshops of Thorns? No… a deathlord wouldn’t be for want of money, especially not after seizing the coffers of Thorns.

“Exactly – now, I have places to be and ponies to save. We will meet again in Thorns, perhaps for the last time, who knows. I have foreseen a lot of death there” the now clear voice of the Doctor said, before disappearing in a way that left Speaker quite certain that he was alone in his dream once again.

The next day Speaker met with Sunrise and Cash at a Sunhill tea-salon in a private booth to discuss what he had learned in his dream. Both of them still found the idea of getting news and intel while dreaming weird – but they were open to the idea. Of course, they also wanted to know what Speaker had come up with for sacrifice.

“I… I haven’t decided on anything yet. I don’t have much outside of the circle and Sunhill, and I don’t want to give either of that up” Speaker said, feeling despair overtake him.

Sunrise put a comforting hoof upon Speaker’s shoulder: “It’s ok… none of us find this easy – and this clearly was never a process anyone was meant to rush into like this”

Nodding, Speaker slumped back into his chair and reached for his cup of tea: “I just… we’ve been so busy running Sunhill and saving Creation. I don’t even have a hobby or anything like that I could offer up for this – and I’ll need an even greater sacrifice for adamant circle sorcery!”

“I can help with that… and I think I have an idea for your third sacrifice too” Cash said, leaning in over the nicely polished wooden table, the look on his face one of serious confidence and ice-cold logic.

Speaker didn’t like how Cash was looking at him – but he was willing to listen, even if he dreaded what he might hear. He felt Sunrise’s hoof on his shoulder tighten its grip.

“I can use my charms to get you hooked into a new hobby or passion easily – I can make you the most passionate jewellery-maker or calligraphy artist ever. You can spend a few days indulging yourself, and then you can give that up for the sapphire circle” Cash explained, smiling just enough to put Speaker at ease.

Finding himself nodding to the idea, Speaker found it quite tempting: “That… that could work – but you said you had an idea for my third sacrifice too?”

“Yes – I’ve read the material you brought back from Yu-Shan on adamant sacrifices. Bridged Gap gave up herself, becoming a new pony. You can do the same: Give up your first age memories – become a pony of this age” Cash said, his smile quickly disappearing and turning into a very serious expression.

That… that was not something Speaker had expected to hear – but by Celestia… it made sense. Giving up his past life memories would be a profound change to himself, though it wouldn’t cripple him either: “That… but I know so much… to lose that…”

“I know – but we’re not fumbling around blindly anymore Speaker. We have friends in heaven and the underworld, and both of those have libraries with endless information on what happened in the past. We can manage, and rediscover the secrets of the first age on own now” Cash elaborated, sounding eerily sensible.

What could one say to that? Speaker had no idea. Cash wasn’t sounding unreasonable, that was for sure: “Do you think I’m living in the past?”

“Neither of us think that – but we both recognize your past life memories as a very valuable resource, but also one we can manage without” Sunrise stated calmly, trying to soothe Speaker.

Shaking his head, Speaker drew a deep breath: “You say that – but that’s not how it works. My first age memories is how I know most of my trade skills, my ability to craft pretty much anything, my occult lore, all the things I know about first age artifice… even medicine. It’s everything we’ve used to build Sunhill. If I give that up, we’ll lose the ability to expand on those areas. No, this simply won’t work”

Cash and Sunrise exchanged quick looks. Sunrise nodded, Cash sighing and saying: “We… were afraid of that, but it was a gamble”

“So… we’re screwed then?” Speaker said, barely even holding on to his tea-cup. It felt so heavy, like the weight of the world was on him.

Sunrise cleared her throat and withdrew her hoof from Speaker’s shoulder: “Then its plan B”

Speaker looked at the young mare next to him, her hood obscuring just enough of her face that he couldn’t quite see the look in her eyes – but he heard the serious tone in her voice: “I’m sorry, plan what?”

“My dearest Bright Machine Speaker, you are not the only Solar in Sunhill who has battled self-doubt and inner demons. You were gone for a long time, and during that I trained myself to still my mind so that I could still tend to our flock while also refining my essence… I can initiate into adamant circle sorcery, but while you are willing though unsure what to sacrifice for me, then I’m afraid because I know exactly what to give up…” Sunrise said, drawing back her hood and revealing her beautiful orange mane and bright red eyes.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, Speaker found himself deeply confused: “Wait… you refined your essence?”

“We needed a backup – because you’re absolutely right: All of Sunhill is built on what you know. It’s your training that sees our artisans chip away at wood and stone to create beauty, our alchemists produce medicine and strange products, our doctors tend to weak – but me… we’ve all seen what happens when I try to build something up on my own. I swore I would never do that again” Sunrise said, tears swelling in her eyes, her lips quivering and her voice teetering on crying.

One needed not be a doctor to see that the young mare was absolutely terrified – and Speaker understood her terror: He remembered what had happened in Chung Do, when Sunrise had bound her own mind to be without doubt or hesitation and then bound the rest of the city, rendering them unable to fear and unable to deny her commands. It was a miracle that nobody had died from it.

“I do believe what Sunrise is trying to say is that you Speaker, you are willing to bear the burden of this great power not because you sought power, but because you wanted to help and protect others. Sunrise fears that gaining this great power will see her tempted once more…” Cash explained, adding that in confiding her fears to him, he had come up with a solution.

It was quite simple really: If Sunrise feared that she would abuse her sorcerous powers, then Cash could bind her to a sanctified oath that she had to have the permission of the rest of the circle to learn new spells – that way they would always know what she could, and thus able to hopefully keep her powers in check. She still didn’t like it: “I’ve read the book of three rings… all three volumes. The spells in it… the power in it… the power to twist reality or the minds of fellow ponies are near limitless”

Cash nodded, looking at Speaker: “I’ve often chided you for wielding your power in an almost naïve fashion – but that’s your first age memories. You remember wielding great power so casually that you don’t even think to abuse them, and your heart always guides you to aid those in need... Sunrise grew up surrounded by ponies and gods trying to hoard and abuse their power, trying to resist them, and we’ve already seen her fail once – but that was when she stood alone. Now she has our combined help”

“Your humility and reluctance to wield such power suits you well Sunrise, but what would your sacrifice be? What can you offer that’s profound enough for the adamant circle?” Speaker wondered, respectfully nodding at Sunrise.

“As Bridged Gap offered herself – her self-doubt and all her negative qualities – then I too would sacrifice the parts of me that fear power and hold me back” Sunrise said, pausing for a moment: “…hopefully to emerge as a better pony”

With furrowed brows, Speaker looked to both Sunrise and Cash: “I’m sorry – exactly what part of yourself are you going to sacrifice?”

Pulling down her hood, but not letting go of the hood, Sunrise looked down at the off-white cloth she held in her hooves: “This… this is what I’ll give up. I cover myself, despite being beautiful. I hold back my powers, despite having potential for greatness. I am like Bridge Gap, afraid and unable to realize my full potential… I’ll give that up and become someone who is no longer afraid”

“But… you just said that you’re afraid that you’ll become a tyrant” Speaker noted, unsure of how this idea fit with her fears.

Speaking through gritted teeth, Sunrise shot Speaker a look of the greatest of determination: “I never said I was giving up the many hard-earned lessons I have experienced. I wish to remake myself into someone better able to act on those lessons, instead of covering in the temple and praying for guidance all day – I tire of my fears”

After a big sip of tea, Speaker gave Sunrise a single slow and respectful nod: “I promise you I will be there every step of the way, if you ev-“

That was when the messenger came running into the both, nearly knocking over everything: “There’s an emissary at the hospital!”

The poor thing was exhausted, breathing heavily, frothing a bit at the mouth, and tears in her eyes. Speaker, Cash and Sunrise all quickly got up, Cash nodding to Speaker who used the Sunhill manse hearthstone to remote view what was going on.

It was a strange scene: In front of the Sunhill hospital’s main entrance a tiny shadowland had formed. It was shrinking already, being strangely artificial in its nature – but through it a howling spectre wrought of transparent cloth and rattling chains had come, screaming at the top of its spectral lungs: “I am an emissary of the Mask of Winters, Master of Thorns. Sunhill must cease its planed operations around Thorns, or suffer the consequences…”

It kept repeating the message, as Speaker saw Cash and Sunrise arrive at full gallop to the security cordon that the city guard had set up. Speaker willed a shape of lights into being , using the Sunhill manse’s powers, to produce an illusion of himself near the spectre: “I’ve heard its message – you can destroy it”

Sunrise didn’t even acknowledge Speaker before letting out a fearsome battlecry, the force of her shout blasting the spectre into tiny bits of ghost-matter that quickly evaporated into puffs of acrid purple smoke.

Speaking through the illusion of himself, Speaker recited the message of the ghost to Cash and Sunrise: “…and I guess that the consequences are tied to this demonstration that the Mask’s agents can somehow create artificial shadowlands”

Sunrise frowned: “And yet it’s almost gone already – useless for anything other than sneaking in spies and troublemakers”

“No, it’s a lot more useful than that – there’s another Deathlord I’ve learned of during my visits to Stygia, the First and Forsaken Lion. He’s been building an insanely huge army since the usurpation within his domain in the underworld… if he was to learn this kind of trick, then Creation would be overrun in no time” Cash explained, drawing on his extensive knowledge of underworld politics.

Carefully observing via essence sight as the tiny shadowland receded and finally closed up, Speaker nodded at Cash: “But the Deathlords aren’t exactly good at cooperating, not since we slew the Barbate Arbiter”

“True – but you told us that the Mask is holding a council of some kind – could it be an attempt to resume their cooperative projects?” Cash pointed out.

Speaker sighed: “Damnit… you’re right – that means we’re still on the clock. Sunrise, you do your thing for adamant circle sorcery and find me once you’re done, Cash, if you could come back to me and do what you had described so I can initiate into the sapphire circle… we might as well make sure I haven’t wasted the last week’s preparations”

As the twilight caste’s illusion winked out, Cash nodded to Sunrise who pulled her hood up: “I’ll be the temple – I’ve already made my preparations, in case Speaker refused”

“Fair enough. But could you wait until Speaker shows up – you can share the initiation circles, those things are expensive to set up, even for our budgets” Cash replied, taking a deep breath before heading back to Speaker in the tea house.

As the remains of the spectre evaporated the city guard gradually opened the street back up again, and a sense of normalcy returned to the city surprisingly quickly – a testament to the mental resilience of the ponies of Sunhill.

At the tea house Cash found Speaker waiting for him at the door: “There you are – did you have anything in particular in mind for what kind of hobby you would give me?”

Cash gave Speaker a scrutinizing look: “Calligraphy is still on the table – but you have to keep in mind, what I can do for you is give you a great interest in something… and you’ll have to give that up again – you won’t be happy about it”

“Well, I’m not sacrificing my ability to ever be happy – and calligraphy sounds fine, go nuts” Speaker said, wondering briefly exactly how the process would work.

With a casual shrug, Cash stomped a single hoof upon the stone-covered street as his caste mark flared up – forming two concentric golden circles on his brow: “Already done – enjoy it while you have it. Sunrise is waiting for you at the temple for the initiation ceremony”

Speaker frowned and shook his head. He didn’t feel any different – had Cash been pulling his leg? The eclipse caste pony didn’t appear to want to wait around for any objections though, having disappeared himself in Speaker’s brief moment of confusion…

…and then he started seeing it. How artistic the signs outside the shops around him were, how elegant the writing was, the subtlety of the curves on the letters, the lacquered colorful inks shining in the sun so that it gave the writing texture in the wood grain.

It was strange – Speaker knew he had seen it all before. Hell, he had taught Sunhill’s alchemists how to produce those ink dyes and paints, and he had taught their construction crews how to build the sawmills, and the blacksmiths how to forge the finest steel so that sawblades could be made… but now he felt himself in tears at the beauty he was seeing… but his tears were also there in sorrow for the crime that was the blank and unused canvas that the stone streets were!

Hundreds of ponies found their heads turning as they heard the tune Speaker play on his singing staff, rearranging specs of impurities and various patches of different coloured stone in the stone-covered streets, making them form into the most beautiful calligraphy without disrupting the city’s geomancy.

A distant raincloud that hung over a nearby forest instantly stopped raining – the elemental dragon revealed itself as it appeared before Speaker in the form of a half-dragon half-pony spirit being, congratulating Speaker on the artistic quality of the massive calligraphy spelled out on the roads of Sunhill.

Speaker didn’t even pay attention to the dragon’s name, holding his head bowed and his eyes full of tears: “I know – and by nightfall I will never be able to again”

“Never again? The heavens will weep if this beauty cannot grace more stone across creation! Entire mountain ranges would beg to be your canvas! Why would you abandon this gift?” The dragon pleaded, thoroughly ignoring its entourage of water and air elementals that were impatiently waiting for it back on the rain cloud.

It wasn’t difficult to explain – but in doing so Speaker understood the gravity of Cash’s warning. This passion for calligraphy and its artistic expression, this was not just a thing that he casually enjoyed – no, it felt nearly as important to him as his greater dream of healing and educating Creation. No wonder he couldn’t stop crying… this was Cash Charmer’s cruel power, instilling a passion that burned as brightly as the most intense of love.

The roads of Sunhill leading from a certain tea house to the city’s main temple were rendered replete in beautiful calligraphy, the writings spelling out praise to the gods for making a beautiful world – and each crack in the stone was filled with Speaker’s tears by the time he got to the temple.

Putting his singing staff away elsewhere, Speaker wiped his nose and approached Sunrise who saw in a large set of runic circles on the floor. All the pews had been moved away, and on the floor a series of rings of magical runes and old realm glyphs had been drawn, using… no, not chalk, but a white paint. It struck Speaker that it would be a lot of work to remove all that later.

“There you are – you… you’ve been crying” Sunrise said, looking up from where she sat.

Looking at Sunrise, her hood down and her mane out, Speaker gave her the kind of look that only an old stallion could give, one that spoke of pity, sadness but also hope: “You don’t look too good either”

The young mare quickly swept her face, as if she had been unaware of her own tears: “I… I thought I had it under control”

“You voiced your fears quite clearly earlier, and now you have to do exactly the thing that made you afraid… it makes perfect sense” Speaker said as he sat down opposite to Sunrise, assuming a meditative pose.

No more words were exchanged. They both knew what they were about to do would not be terribly comfortable. There were a few aids and temple servants milling about, keeping a very safe distance.

For Speaker the process was relatively quick – though painless would be a wrong word to describe it. He had never been an art lover of any kind, so while he had only enjoyed his new-found hobby for a few hours, then it had made him completely rethink his approach to city planning and geomancy… and now he had to give it up. Truly, Cash had opened his eyes to a whole new realm of pleasing aesthetics… but it was not meant to be. As his tears flowed, so did his essence, as wisps of passion and potential slipped out of his mind, coalescing into a beautiful light before him that violently burst, sprinkling him with a sudden and profound epiphany on the nature of essence… for such was a proper initiation rite.

Seeing Speaker reeling from his experience, Sunrise stubbornly fought herself to remain stoic and firm as she carefully meditated and indexed the aspects of herself that she was sacrificing. She felt the magical fire within her soul burning away each part of her as she named them in her mind, the pain maddening to lesser minds. Speaker saw how she began to glow, then erupt in golden flames, as her soul was scorched and forever altered…

Ultimately Sunrise couldn’t hold it back – she didn’t have the energy. Screaming in pain, golden fire erupted from her mouth, burning cold with soul-fire. She collapsed moments later, fire still licking at her.

Speaker wasn’t sure if he should move to help her, as he saw the fire burn away her cloak. Seeing her process with essence sight was fascinating, but also deeply worrying, as he saw how her soul was truly burning, while it also seemed to periodically expel elements of itself, which near-instantly burned away with a strange thrumming hiss that was not heard, only felt on the skin and down the spin as an ice-cold chill.

Finally, the fire died down, leaving Sunrise to struggle to get up. With this Speaker stood ready to help: “How do you feel?”

Drawing a deep breath and coughing out ash, Sunrise looked up at Speaker: “I… I need a stiff drink and whatever Sully is cooking up tonight…”

Looking Sunrise in the eyes, Speaker tried to gauge if there were any outside differences to her, but he found none: “I think we both need something like that. I could try to book us time in the baths of venus?”

“Do that after Thorns – and tomorrow you can teach me the spell I need to know” Sunrise said, standing weakly on her legs. Her mane looked unscathed from the fire, but there was unmistakably something different about how she stood… or at least how she was trying to stand. Speaker could see it clearly: She was holding her head higher, and did not in any way look uncomfortable standing without clothes on, her beauty now clear for all to see, and her spirit unafraid to show it.

Following Sunrise out of the temple, Speaker saw how she shook off her post-spell jitters and stood proud in the sunlight outside. Her coat was still white, her mane still orange, her eyes still red, but each part of her… it was as if they shined a bit more, or were somehow more vibrant and just breathtakingly beautiful. Had Sunrise been using charms to make others not fully notice just how good she looked? Or was that the cloak she had always been wearing?

Either way, as the two walked to a nearby tavern, ‘The Last Prayer’, Speaker couldn’t help but notice how a lot of ponies – both stallions and mares – were looking at Sunrise in a new light, one that seemed to include sexual arousal as if they had never considered her attractive before.

In the tavern Sunrise ordered stiffest drink they had, along with a large tankard of ale. She seemed to use the ale to rinse out her mouth from the last bits of her soul-ash, all the while the two barkeeps carefully measured and poured up one of their ‘unmaker’ drinks.

“I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen you order booze on your own – you’ve previously been a staunch teetotaller, except the few times I’ve seen you drink in heaven” Speaker commented, nursing his own ale.

Observing the ominously named drink she had finally been served, Sunrise gave it a brief sniff and scrunched her nose in response to the sharp smell of alcohol: “I’m pretty sure that’s part of my… change. I can see the error in my previous ways: Holding myself back too harshly, fearing how I might behave if drink or how drugs would lessen my inhibitions. I now see that I have grown plenty powerful to resist temptation on my own, and with my essence I cannot become drunk unless I chose it. I am responsible for my own actions, and I have the wisdom to choose well – so I should fear it no longer”

“That is a very adult epiphany” Speaker said with a smile, taking a swig from his ale.

Sunrise closed her eyes and bowed her head: “And that was my flaw. In my youthful naivety I believed I could remain pure forever. That I would be able to never do wrong if I chained my mind with charms and iron discipline – but I failed to see that even a steel blade will snap if stressed too hard. I shouldn’t run in fear from making mistakes, I should seek to learn from them and better myself instead”

It was clear for Speaker to see why the old Sunrise had feared this transformation. Hearing her speak of embracing personal change was certainly a very new direction compared to how reserved and restrained she had previously been.

Speaker liked this new Sunrise – she smiled a lot more, and wasn’t hiding her face anymore.

The next day Speaker used his educational charms to quickly teach both her and himself new spells, and thus the lords of Sunhill started to prepare for their planned operations in Thorns.

A week later the circle reconvened, Sunrise showing up in the war room wearing a newly tailored priest robe that didn’t feature a hood, thus letting her beautiful mane hang freely. She also surprised the circle by stating that she was now confident that she didn’t need a magical oath to keep her from abusing her powerful sorcerous abilities.

“I’m glad that you finally trust your own use of your abilities – we’ll hold off on the mandatory calibration feasts for the time being” Cash joked, referring to the first age tradition of solar sorcerers gathering each calibration for a grand party, to keep each other in check so that none would have time to summon one of the impossibly powerful third circle demons, which could only be done during calibration.

Speaker chuckled at the joke – nobody else got the reference.

Sullen Hoof reported that he, based on Cash’s urgings, had cooked up a truly impressive amount of emergency rations and other easily transportable foodstuffs. Shimmer had stored most of it elsewhere, while Cash had arranged for several barges loaded with sacks of rice and grain to be loaded and sent to Thorns. Sully added that he had briefly journeyed to the outskirts of the farmlands surrounding Thorns, and confirmed a grim truth: “The farmers say that the shadowland that covers Thorns is spreading – it’s not spreading quickly, but I was told that it spreads by about a fields length every season, slowly inching out the lands of Thorns’ ability to feed its own population. By their own estimates, the city should be in a famine at this point since a few months ago”

A yeddim was strapped with heavy jade-infused leather straps, and as Cash made the creature fly into the air, heavy steel chains linked via straps to a massive steel-banded wooden cannisters loaded with the finest of powdery salt. The newly enlightened Sunhill army was left behind with orders to keep the city safe, Speaker once again promising to check up on the place via the remote viewing hearthstone of the city manse.

The circle flew off ready to fight, but hoping that they could sneak into the city quietly. They quickly crossed out of Sunhill airspace, zipping past countless minor princedoms and dukedoms.

“So… did we bring any malfean porcelain for the spell?” Sunrise inquired as they flew west.

Shimmer withdrew a sack from elsewhere and jingled it about. The sack sounded as if full of broken porcelain shards: “Should be plenty of material in here”

“Good – now we just have to figure out how to make Juggernaut move away from the city” Sunrise said, her voice clearly putting her worries on display.

The rest of the circle nodded, or at least gestured or expressed agreement. They all knew that this wasn’t ‘simply’ a question of destroying a necrotic manse, and none of them wanted to have to sacrifice a whole city to get rid of Juggernaut.

A few hours later Lookshy came into view, rising on its promontory like the fortress city that it was, with the Deheleshen lighthouse and the Aviary towering from the tip of the promontory. Cash pulled the reigns of the yeddim and had it change course, making it fly south over the neighboring Marukan territories.

The plan was to get close to Thorns, then approach on hoof to avoid detection. The massive cargo of salt that the yeddim was hauling also had to be stashed, along with the yeddim, somewhere, so that the two could be used to make a giant salt-line to keep away any war ghosts or spectres when the juggernaut banishment spellcasting took place.

To make this happen the circle had planned on either spotting a good barn to hide the yeddim in, or for Speaker to use his singing staff to make a big hole in the ground to hide the thing in – and ideally put the thing to sleep, to make sure it wouldn’t make any noise that could be detected too easily.

Now, the hole in the ground option had the problem that Thorns had been a realm satrapy for a very long time, so pretty much all of its territories had been developed in some way: Meadows for gracing livestock, farm plots, or dense bits of forest to ensure that local wildlife had a few places to live. This left very little space where one could dig a yeddim pit where it wasn’t painfully obvious that the ground had been disturbed.

Of course, the other solution, hiding the yeddim and salt cargo in a barn, had a whole array of different problems to it: Could the local farmers be convinced to stay quiet? Would some nosy local sheriff or gaggle of roaming ghosts show up one day and inspect everything?

Despite the risks, the circle opted to try the farm solution. Speaker simply couldn’t see any terrain features that looked suitable to hide a yeddim sized hole – the whole region was simply too densely developed. Someone would notice that the ground was disturbed and suddenly covered in sticks and leaves.