CHAPTER FOUR: SOMETHING ON THE HORIZON

Austenite awoke at seven a.m. on the dot. He rolled himself out of bed, and with a mechanical air, he moved about the tiny room. He took his five-minute shower, ran a comb through his mane a couple of times, brushed his teeth, and grabbed a muffin for breakfast. He was on his way out the door in ten minutes and thirty seconds, the same as every other morning.

Austenite liked having a well-oiled routine; waking up and getting ready was relegated to muscle memory, leaving him free to think about other things, like some problem he and Twilight just couldn’t nail down, or some test he wanted to perform. In fact, he usually had an idea figured out by the time he made it to the library—

The thought of the library brought him up short, almost making him trip down the stairs. He saved himself only by snapping out his wings and gliding the rest of the way down. As he recovered at the foot of the stairs, the events of the week before came back to him, and for the fifth time in as many days, he realized that he didn’t have anywhere to go. They were taking a break from the research, at least until Twilight received word from Princess Celestia. He knew that, but after four months of working, his new routine was proving hard to break. Austenite twitched his wings uncomfortably, trying to figure out what to do with himself. He settled for taking a flight, at least until he could think of something else to do.

He gained some altitude, flying just over the rooftops of the town. Goddesses, for a pegasus, I sure don’t know Ponyville from the air too well, he thought as he glided over a bank of clouds. I suppose it comes from working all day—and up until a week ago, there was no time for flying, anyway. He smiled. But that’s okay. I like it that way.

Maybe that was the problem. He’d been dreading the break in research. He hated not having a constant routine, and the sudden absence of work was throwing a spanner into his carefully planned procedures. And he knew what happened if he didn’t have anything to do. If he couldn’t throw himself into his work...

What happens if the break turns out to be a permanent one? There’s no going back to Wright, or any of the other bureaus in Trottingham. At least, none of the good ones. Canterlot? Canterlot’s never been much more than a hub for scientists, not any big places for engineers. Hoofington? There’s always some building project going on there. Who knows? He grimaced. If I don’t ask for anything more than an entry-level salary, maybe they won’t look a gift horse too closely in the mouth...

He flew a holding pattern over the town, circling and watching the world below. Down in Ponyville, the day was starting in earnest. He could see shopkeepers setting up their stands, trying to edge each other out and grab a prime spot in one of the more heavily trafficked paths. He saw members of the weather team falling in at the town square, led by their colorful captain, receiving the weather details for the day.

He just needed to be doing something. One day very soon, there was a golden age coming, he could feel it. A golden age of science, and electricity, and computing, and engineering, and he couldn’t stand the thought of being left by the wayside. He wanted to be right at the epicenter. He needed to be there, inventing, pulling all-nighters, tinkering, thinking, building, exploring, or he’d wreck himself against his own idle thoughts.

He’d been flying patterns above the town for a while now, and Austenite still couldn’t think of anything to do. Maybe he’d check and see if Twilight had heard anything from the Princesses today. It had been a week, after all.

He circled around again, searching for the giant oak tree that was his partner’s home. There! At least a tree in the middle of town is easy to spot. He coasted to a landing on the grass in front of the library. He saw the ‘open’ sign, and rushed forward to knock on the door.

The door rather suddenly decided to knock on his face instead.

The next thing he knew, grass filled his vision. Then the grass started talking to him, in Twilight’s voice.

“What in Equestria—Austenite? Austenite! Are you okay?”

Austenite mumbled something unintelligible about grass and suddenly gaining sentience.

“What?” Twilight said. “Austenite, what happened?”

“Twilight!” He heard Spike’s voice. “I think you hit him!”

“Oh, ponyfeathers! He’s bleeding! Spike, can you go fetch some ice and the first aid kit?”

“I’m on it!”

Austenite’s vision was suddenly tinged with rose, and he felt himself lifted up and carried away.

* * *

Minutes later, a slightly more cogent Austenite was sitting in the Golden Oaks library, trying to hold a cold compress up to his forehead, thankfully more bemused than hurt as he watched Twilight. She was acting more frantic than usual, jumping between examining his wound and apologising profusely.

“It’s okay, Twilight. I’ve had nasty crashes before. Nothing—Ah!—nothing to worry about—Hey!—unless you keep doing that! Stop it, that smarts!”

Twilight was dabbing alcohol on a small open cut. “Just hold still, mister. You don’t want this to become infected.”

“Infected?” Austenite batted the cloth out of the way. “That cut’s not even a centimeter long!”

Twilight acquiesced and went to replace the giant trauma kit she had pulled out. Austenite noticed her putting bags of plasma into it. “What, did you think I was going to need brain surgery?”

”Well, you can’t be too careful,” she said curtly. She applied a small bandage to the cut and allowed Austen to replace the compress. Already, the spot was developing into a rather sizable bump. “And really? Brain surgery? Don’t be silly. I was only worrying about blood loss.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Twilight, chill out. You’ve been freaking out ever since you got that letter from Princess Celestia.”

”You got a letter from the Princess?” Austenite inquired. “Is this one finally about the spell matrix?” Austenite fiddled nervously with his hooves. “She did say about a week or so...”

“Oh. Right.” Twilight’s magic retrieved a piece of parchment from the small kitchen. “In fact, we were going to come visit you to tell you when you, well... got here first.”

Austenite’s ears twitched as he heard the somber tone in her voice, and he looked up as she passed him the letter. His stomach was sinking before he even heard what she said next.

“There’s been a fire. Nopony was hurt, thank Celestia,” Twilight added in a rush, “but Celestia’s personal archives were destroyed.”

The bottom of his stomach dropped out like a lead weight as Austenite read the Princess’ words. “What about the spell matrix?” He looked at Twilight as the compress fell to the floor, bruise forgotten. “The blueprints? Are they intact?”

“Austenite, the spell matrix started the fire.”

Austenite blinked. “What? What are you talking about?”

Twilight nudged the letter with a forehoof. “It’s all right there, Austen. Celestia said that she saw the tower burst into flames from her bedroom balcony,” she recited dully.

Austenite seized the letter from her magical grip, reading the words for himself, as if Twilight had simply read it wrong. “That’s impossible. The spell matrix couldn’t have started the fire.”

“The spell matrix is the only thing that could have started the fire!” Twilight said. “I’ve been in Celestia’s personal archives. She has powerful wards in place to prevent things like a spilled lantern from causing a fire. Only something of intense power could have breached the wards!”

“And I’m telling you I know what I built!” Austenite grumbled, “What we built,” he amended after a moment. “Ask yourself: how could the spell matrix have started the fire? It’s perfectly safe when it’s not connected to any power source!”

“I don’t know, maybe some residual charge in the gems?”

“But the energy falls off exponentially. It couldn’t do that after sitting for a week in storage.” Austenite looked Twilight in the eyes. “There has to be more to this. It can’t have been a simple fire. It can’t.” He sounded as if he were trying to convince himself of that more than Twilight.

“Austenite,” Twilight said as soothingly as she could, “we made a mistake.” She frowned. “Celestia warned us that the spell matrix could be dangerous. Goodness knows how badly we almost hurt ourselves a couple of times when we were building it. There are so many variables, so many things that we could have missed, could have forgotten. We should be thankful that it only damaged part of the archives, instead of blowing up in somepony’s face.”

She gathered Spike in a protective hug with her wings. “You do realize that if she hadn’t held onto it, the spell matrix would have been in the lab instead? Right underneath us? And I don’t have wards anywhere near as powerful as Celestia,” she said sternly. “I—I could have lost the whole library.”

Austenite remained mute. He took a turn around the room as Twilight replaced the letter on the table. Part of him, the part that was always finding the energy balance, the momentum equations, the heat transfer of the system, was trying to grapple with the problem, even as another part still insisted that what he had heard couldn’t be right. He could sit there calculating the hottest temperature of a gem rupture, and see the results staring him in the face without believing them.

“Do we know anything else?” he finally asked.

“No, but I’m sure Celestia will send me a letter as soon as she knows anything important.” Twilight softened her words. “It’ll be okay, Austen.”

The three of them were silent for a moment. “So what happens now?” Austenite asked nopony in particular. “Do we try to rebuild, or what?”

“I think we should wait and see what Princess Celestia has to say. She probably won’t want us to keep working on the spell matrix, not after this.”

Those were the words Austenite had been dreading to hear. Even months after... ‘graduating’ from Princess Celestia’s tutelage, Twilight was still hesitant to do anything without the permission, or at least the blessing, of her former teacher.

“So we’re going to sit here,” Austenite despaired quietly.

That was what this accident would mean. It would mean the end of the research, the end of four months of steady work and steady pay. It would mean the end of the will to get out of bed each morning. Without his work, he was lost.

“What do you expect to do? You think you can do a better job than the princesses?” Twilight asked.

“It doesn’t even matter,” Austenite responded. “It’s our work, it’s our responsibility. We should go to Canterlot,” he stated, “to see for ourselves what happened.”

“What, like, right now?” Spike asked.

Austenite stood up again. “As soon as we can—the next train out from Ponyville, if at all possible. Twilight, trust me on this.” He put his hooves on her shoulders. “Now, right now, is the critical moment. Now is when you choose to save everything we’ve worked towards, or condemn our work to the dustbin, because if we’re not there to fight, it’s entirely out of our hooves.”

Spike chimed in. “C’mon, don’t worry, Twilight. I can watch the library while you’re gone.” Twilight gave Spike a flat look. “Heh heh,” The dragon laughed nervously. “For real this time, I swear!”

“Alright then.” Twilight said after a moment. She grabbed a purse of bits from a cupboard. “Let’s see if we can’t get tickets. And you, mister.” She rounded on the baby dragon. “I expect this place to be clean when we get back. And I’ll be asking Rarity to come by and make sure you’re staying out of trouble.”

Spike threw her a salute, but inwardly he winced. If Rarity was coming by, he would actually have to clean...

It took a few minutes for the ponies to get ready. Luckily, Twilight’s status made accommodations easier; she always had a room available at Canterlot Castle, and it would be no problem getting a room for her guest. Austenite went down into the lab and collected any papers, drawings, bits of machinery, anything he could find that could possibly help them. And with that, they were out the door.

Spike waved out the door until they receded down the road, then turned back inside. A giant lecher’s grin spread across his face. Rarity wouldn’t check on him for a few hours, he was sure, and that gave him plenty of time to scour the library and find where Twilight hid the gemstones...

* * *

Canterlot Castle did not look near as inviting the second time around. It seemed as if the entire guard had been turned out; there were even more guards trotting about than during her brother’s wedding. And this time, they were in full kit too, with unsheathed pikes as a warning to all. Pegasi circled overhead, watching the skies and swooping low to clear any blind spots between buildings and walls. Twilight was unmistakable, but the guards on duty at the gate still searched through the small wagon Austenite had brought to carry their notes, and they still had to wait while a guard wearing shiny, new lieutenant’s bars checked their papers.

“The baggage is all clear, your highness,” the lieutenant bowed. He was sweating profusely. “My apologies for the delay. The Princess’ direct orders. Welcome back to Canterlot Castle. Princess Celestia is finishing up a session of court, but I can alert her that you are here as soon as she’s finished.”

As they passed through the gate and into the carefully manicured gardens of the castle grounds, Twilight could see the damage done to the archives. The normally snow-white tower had been stained black by smoke. The fire had even gotten hot enough to blister part of the ornate metal spire. She imagined that she could still see thin wisps of smoke rising from the balcony window.

That was all she could take in before a great form winged in and landed in front of them.

“Good day, Princess Sparkle.” Luna greeted them. She looked as serious as ever in her regalia, but Twilight noticed that her mane was perhaps a bit more subdued than usual, as if the stars floating within shined a little less brightly.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed. “It’s so wonderful to see you again!” Luna bent down to give her a brief hug. Even though she was larger than a normal pony, Twilight still stood a head shorter than Luna.

The Night Princess turned to inspect her companion. “Likewise. And of course... Austenite, was it?”

“Y-yes, Your Highness.” Jolted by the mention of his name, Austen quickly remembered to bow to the Princess of the Night.

Luna craned down to look at Austenite more closely. “My subject, what has happened to your eye?” Austenite’s bruise had turned a blotchy purple that easily stood out from his coat.

“What? Oh, right! The door... Uh, It’s nothing,” he stammered in response to her quizzical look. “I mean, it’s nothing, Your Highness! Just an accident,”

“...Indeed.” She remarked. “I am glad to see you both.” Luna looked up at the wounded tower. “But I wish the meeting was under more auspicious circumstances than these.”

“Yeah. We came to see if we could do anything to help... uh, Your Highness.” Austenite said.

“There is much you can do.” Luna beckoned them forward, and the three of them began to walk through the gardens. “I am glad the two of you are here. Especially you, Twilight. I’m sure you will find that there is much more that a Princess can do from Canterlot than she can from a library in the country.” Luna smiled.

Twilight shook her head. “Thank you, Princess, but I already had this conversation with Princess Celestia. I like living in Ponyville, with my friends.”

Luna simply grunted and continued walking.

The gravel path crunched softly underhoof as they proceeded into the sculpture garden. Twilight remembered the place well; here was the statue where she had hidden behind when she’d been trying to break into the Starswirl the Bearded wing. It was funny—she had the exact same feeling of uneasiness then.

Austenite finally piped up. “Your Majesty,” he coughed. He was past that awkward phase when talking to Twilight, but the towering Royal Sisters still made him nervous. “Has there been any more information about the fire?” He wanted to bring the conversation back on topic.

“I am afraid we have not learned much more. Except for the lesson that, for all of our walls and guards, our enemies are still capable of striking in our home.”

“Enemies?” Twilight questioned. “What enemies?”

“Celestia’s investigators will no doubt confirm it eventually, but this was the work of the Gryphons, I am sure of it.”

“Princess, are you saying that the fire... it wasn’t an accident?” Austenite asked slowly.

Luna looked a little surprised. “Nay, it was not. But we suspected that from the beginning. All that remained was trying to identify the incendiary device used. I, for one, am sure that such an intricate device could only have been made by Gryphon talons.”

“That’s funny,” Twilight muttered. “The letter that Princess Celestia sent me didn’t say anything about the fire not being an accident.”

“She probably sent you the letter right after it happened. See?” Austenite smiled. “That’s what you get when you only read the initial reports. The spell matrix didn’t start the fire, there was a bomb! I told you that the spell matrix was safe!”

“A bomb?” Twilight ignored him and asked with much more concern. “Princess, what bomb? What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid I do not know many details. You will have to ask Celestia if you want to know what really happened.”

They stopped before a final sculpture. Rising up from the center of a fountain was a golden globe, representing the entire planet of Equis. Around it revolved the heavenly bodies, a brilliant golden sun and a bright, pearlescent moon. The entire sculpture was magically animated, with the sun and moon always in the correct position above the planet. It was one of Twilight’s favorite sculptures in the whole of Canterlot. As a student, she had often found it a peaceful place to read or study.

“Marezu’s Coelum.” Luna stated. “Perhaps her greatest work. I had the misfortune of being... elsewhere when it was unveiled.” She bit her lip for a moment, as if to go on.

“Pity,” she finally said, gazing at the sculpture as she spoke to the ponies.

“I really am glad you two came to Canterlot. I would hate to see an idea so full of potential lost. I want to make it clear that if there is anything you need, anything at all, the College would be happy to provide.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna. That’s quite a generous offer.” Twilight said. Austenite even bowed again.

The princess nodded her head in return. “You are quite welcome. But we must discuss the details later. My sister approaches.”

Twilight and Austenite turned towards the castle. Here was the Princess of the Sun, gliding down to them from on high. She was flanked by five pegasi guards, all kitted out in full combat gear.

As she approached, Luna bent down close to Twilight and murmured out of the corner of her mouth. “Above all, Twilight, remember that you are no longer only my sister’s student. You are royalty now. Do not be afraid to use your power to seek that which you desire.”

Celestia swooped low over the sculpture garden, and with a great gust of wind, she flared her powerful wings and landed smoothly and precisely in front of the trio. Two of the Royal Guards made equally precise landings on either side of her. They were joined by a unicorn wearing a captain’s uniform, who ran up and stood alongside her, evidently having followed along on hoof. The other three guards remained in the air, pikes held at the ready, their heads on a swivel as they scanned the gardens and the sky around them.

Austenite sure is getting a workout, Twilight thought wryly as the pegasus bowed once again.

“Hello, Twilight.” The princess responded. “I’m glad to see you, but I’m surprised all the same.” She smiled her royal smile. “I was going to send for the both of you tomorrow, but it seems that’s no longer necessary.”

Twilight pawed at the gravel. “I hope you don’t mind. We just wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help.” She shrugged. “After all, it’s our invention that caused all of this,” she added lamely.

Celestia laid a wing over her former student. “It’s alright, Twilight. I told you in the letter; none of my little ponies were hurt, and that’s all that matters to me. I can always rebuild my archives.” She cleared her throat. “But I digress. And it’s good that you’re here too, sister. I just finished meeting with the Gryphon ambassador. Or, should I say, he just got finished talking to me.”

“That fool Emmerich?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “What has he done this time?”

Celestia flared her nostrils. “He informed me that the Gryphon Hegemon is no longer willing to negotiate over the Crystal Mountains. He said that the Hegemon’s position is final; we can either acknowledge his right to the lands, or he claims that he will occupy them by force.”

“By force?” Twilight asked incredulously. “What do you mean, ‘by force’? Are the Gryphons actually planning on fighting you for the land?”

Celestia nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid we have no choice but to treat the threat as a real one. I don’t want to have this come to bloodshed, but I am going to send a detachment of Royal Guards to be stationed in the Crystal Empire, under Shining Armor, just as a precaution.”

Twilight looked puzzled. “But won’t that make them think that we want to fight them?” She thought back on her friendship lessons. “What if you gave them some of the land they want? Surely the Gryphons would recognize a good compromise.”

Celestia let out a sigh. “Twilight, do you remember writing to me that ‘if you try to please everypony, you oftentimes end up pleasing nopony’? It was in one of your friendship reports. If I give the Gryphons part of the land now, half a year later they’ll forget that, and wonder why they don’t own all of the Crystal Mountains. They’ll make more demands. Should I bow to those, too?” She stomped her hoof, and Twilight and Austenite cringed. “No. The Hegemon needs to learn now that even though we would like nothing more than to remain at peace, we are always ready to defend Equestria, should the need arise.”

Twilight had read about wars in some of her books. There were some accounts of battles that had taken place when Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon. She had read about the Gryphon civil wars of eons past, but there had never been much on the subject. Sometimes they would give figures on casualties, but nothing more in-depth than that. She could hardly imagine a war. Sure, she had been in the Changeling attack, but even that had been resolved without any serious injuries. She couldn’t imagine it. She wondered if her brother would be okay.

“This makes it seem even more likely that it was Gryphon sabotage that caused the fire.” Luna added. “They know that we will cut off trade with them if they go through with this. Unless they want to lame themselves, this makes no sense... unless...” She turned to Austenite. “We must have you look at the remains. I would bet half my feathers that something’s missing.”

“The blueprints,” Celestia whispered, her nostrils flaring. “Of course. How could I have not seen it?”

Luna elaborated. “If the spy could penetrate your archives and plant the charge, what is to say that she did not remove something, as well?”

Celestia looked to the unicorn guard beside her. “Bastion, please have the guards leave us.”

Bastion dropped his role of unobtrusive guardian. “Your Highness! Is that wise? My teams haven’t reported back yet, and we still don’t know how the enemy was able to infiltrate the castle. There could still be—”

“That’s an order!” Celestia cut him off firmly. Her voice rolled across the gardens, startling some nearby birds into flight. Bastion physically recoiled from the ruler of Equestria. “You think that there’s any threat in Equestria that three alicorns can’t handle?”

“Of course not, Your Highness!”

“Then go!”

Bastion came to attention. He jerked his head at the pegasi as he ran off, and they fell in behind him as he turned tail and galloped back to the castle. Celestia simply stood there for a moment, schooling her face into a stoic expression.

“Are you saying that the Gryphons have our blueprints?” Austenite asked Celestia, all decorum forgotten. “The complete blueprints to the spell matrix?”

“We must assume this is the case.” Luna said. “The Gryphons will have the spell matrix. It is only a matter of time.”

He covered his face with his hooves. Twilight looked at her teacher. Celestia stood rigid and unmoving, gazing into the fountain. “Princess Celestia,” she asked, “are you alright?”

“Yes, Twilight. This just... complicates things. We had one last bargaining chip; the threat of sanctions against the Western States. I had been counting on the fact that we could always withhold magical goods from the Gryphons. If they have access to the spell matrix, though...”

“With the spell matrix, and enough time, the Gryphons will be able to mine the Crystal Mountains, to create any magic that they could ever need. They could finally be our equals.” Luna finished.

The air seemed to get chillier and the sky a bit grayer to Twilight. Two days ago, if somepony had asked me if I thought that there would be an international incident brewing over our invention, I’d have called it a—a load of horsefeathers. Now? Canterlot Castle attacked, Gryphon spies on the loose, the Royal Guard on alert... I’ve never seen Celestia so worried.

Austenite broke the silence. “So what happens now? Where do we fit into all of this?”

“I believe the answer is obvious,” Luna said, planting her hoof for emphasis. “We cannot allow the Gryphons to be the singular masters of your device. I think that we should allow Princess Twilight and Austenite to continue work on the spell matrix.”

All eyes were on the eldest alicorn. Even with Twilight and Luna’s support, it would still come down to Princess Celestia. She was still the one in charge, and she could still say no. “This will have to bear careful consideration,” Celestia finally said, “but I don’t think that this is a good idea.” The princess nickered. “The spell matrix has brought nothing but trouble to Equestria.”

Twilight wilted at the dismissal.

“Please, Princess Celestia,” she implored, “you know how much this would mean to all of us. Discovering new magic,” she looked at Austenite, “going to the moon, improving the lives of all the ponies in Equestria!” Twilight was off the ground now, hovering at eye-level with Celestia, using all of her hooves for emphasis. “The spell matrix could make a difference in so many lives. And,” she frowned at her former mentor, settling back on the ground, “after all of this hard work, you can’t just expect Austenite and I to go back home.”

Celestia looked shocked. Perhaps she had never seen Twilight so obstinate, never mind having that ire directed at her. Twilight couldn’t remember a time since she had been a filly when she had challenged the wishes of her Princess.

But she was right. Austenite was right. And this time, Celestia was wrong. Twilight stood resolute alongside Luna and her partner.

“First the Gryphons and now this.” Celestia’s wings drooped, and her voice lost some of its unshakable calm. “I have to balance the fate of two nations, and potentially the lives of countless ponies, and you’re pestering me about your pet project.” She sighed, sounding more bitter than angry. “My dear student, do you have any idea what could happen if I allow you to keep working? The Gryphons will surely find out about it, and—and if they can get to my castle…“ She closed her eyes. Twilight could even see the tips of her wings, almost imperceptibly, begin to shake.

“I just can’t stand the thought of you coming to any harm, Twilight.”

Twilight took a half-step back. “We’ll be careful, Princess. And this won’t be the first time I’ve had to face danger, remember?” She glanced at Luna. “You trusted me to take care of Nightmare Moon. You trusted me to protect the Crystal Empire.” She brought a wing forward and inspected it as she flexed her feathers. “By your hoof I am Ascended. You said I was ready. I am ready. I know it could be dangerous,” she tried to smile reassuringly at Celestia, “but if what you say is even partly true, then it’s a risk we need to take.”

Celestia reached the tipping point. “And I suppose I don’t have any choice, do I? I can’t risk the Gryphons’ move being a bluff, and if they really do have the spell matrix, Equestria cannot afford to be unprepared.” Her eyes finally met Twilight’s. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I shouldn’t have gotten upset. I know it’s no excuse, but it’s been a long day.” She smiled humorlessly. “And it doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting better anytime soon.”

“It’s okay, princess. Everything is going to be fine.”

“I’ll direct Bastion to give back anything we have left of the prototype. I need you to perfect the spell matrix, Twilight.”

“Of course, Princess Celestia.” Twilight said, barely able to contain her joy. “We won’t let you down!”

“Good,” Celestia replied.

“Equestria is counting on you once again, Twilight Sparkle. Good luck, and sunspeed.”

Author's Note

There is nothing so hard as trying to figure out how to upload a chapter when completely hammered...