Legio IX (26) (Patreon)

The shock of Lyra’s words weighed heavily on the assembled ponies, until someone finally cleared their throat to speak. Starlight Glimmer, her voice quiet and fearful. “I don’t know what kind of pony you are–but inventing spells is extremely dangerous. Especially when it concerns a pony’s magic. You could’ve both died.”

Lyra hadn’t died, though. Instead, the reverse had happened–one little spark was now a bonfire. Magic raged in her as it hadn’t in years. Her magic was the indignation of a nation destroyed, it was the name of every pony killed in the conquest, buried in shallow graves by the fields in Appleloosa, or starved in a changeling prison.

It was the memory of Sweetie Drops, crying out for vengeance from the dust.

“The gods are not so capricious as that,” Stalwart said. “My father taught me much of their ways. Though I am no priest, I had occasion to visit many temples. Even the Oracle, though I was too small to remember it clearly.” He settled onto his haunches. “Is swearing an oath so strange, when given occasion? Her lover is dead. Blood must be spilled to repay.”

The ponies shuffled nervously, each one increasing their distance from Stalwart. Except for Thorax, who only seemed to grow more confident. It was his opinion that Lyra wanted most, anyway. “Will you hate me, when I do this?” Lyra asked.” The queen is your mother, right? That’s how bugs work.”

He nodded once. “That isn’t true anymore. There are other queens now, under her. But I was born before that, when there was only one. When I still thought she loved us, when she hunted for food and kept us safe. Long time ago now.”

Thorax lowered his head to her. “She starves them–ponies, in that prison. Like Stalwart. I can’t imagine how she could be so cruel. We know the pain of hunger better than ponies ever could. A creature who could inflict such terrible suffering on others is… vile.

“But I knew she was. Before we won this victory, she threw our lives away without regard, sacrificing anyone she thought would bring her closer to her conquest. Hundreds of my brothers and sisters. Thousands now, sacrificed still, though the war is over. She does not deserve to be queen.”

Lyra nodded. She could not read his emotions, but if she had, she imagined she would’ve found honesty there.

“It probably won’t be you,” Starlight Glimmer said. She still watched Stalwart, with an expression of unreadable concern. She was still nervous about the apparent spell he had used. But if Stalwart could give her back her magic, nothing else mattered.

Lyra was alive again. She could feel more than pain and emptiness after all. She would show Chrysalis the same suffering that she had inflicted on all Equestria.

“It won’t be any of us, while Princess Luna is still captive. While the queen has Alicorn magic to sustain her, she’s invincible. Before anypony can stop her, we have to cut off her supply.”

That drew Stalwart’s attention, as any conversation of war always did. He straightened in his seat, eyes now locked unblinking on Starlight. “Forgive the questions of a stranger. Yet I know nothing of ‘Alicorns.’ Are they gods? And if so, how could they have fallen to mortal treachery? Such schemes always spin themselves apart.”

“Some ponies thought they were divine,” said Octavia. Her voice was scratchy and worn, weary with the pain of everything she’d suffered. “But we know that isn’t true anymore. Goddesses would’ve protected us. Equestria fell.”

“Stalwart Hope is…” Lyra began. “Wait, do you know? Did Thorax tell you about him?”

“Told us about a pony who fought like Tartarus itself galloped behind him,” Starlight said. “And who came from a great number of others like him, intruders from the south.”

“Though if they’re in Tirek’s spoils, they’re doomed,” Octavia said. “The changelings harvest, but minotaurs don’t care enough for next year. They take, and they take, and they take, until there is nothing left and all wither. Your friends will be enslaved already, Stalwart. The minotaurs cannot be beaten.”

Lyra cleared her throat, tapping one hoof on the table. “They were like… ancient Equestria, when everypony knew the ways of war, and fought together against monsters. They made the minotaurs run.”

Stalwart nodded. “If you’ve heard I was a warrior, then Thorax flattered me. I am a Tribune–officer, scholar. I know the essence of fighting wars, not the individual discipline of death. I have memorized the Battle of Alesia, read every word that Marcus Aurelius ever wrote, and pondered the battle reports of Caesar. Marcus wore the broad stripe–he would know war better than I. But since he is not here, I will do.”

He tapped the table before them, expectant. “Do not take this as an insult, equines. But if you were going to end this occupation, you already would have. I believe you need an outside perspective.”

Starlight looked between him and Lyra, expression hardening. “Lyra? What do you think of him? And try to be honest–obviously he just gave you your magic back, and that’s going to tilt your judgement. But try to be honest.”

She met Starlight’s eyes without hesitation. “When Equestria fell, I tucked away a little piece of magic where no one could find it. I’ve been hiding it for years, waiting for a way to use it to make a difference. When I saw Stalwart Hope, I knew I had found my chance.

“I don’t know exactly what he is or how he came here. Culturally, I believe it must be a very primitive society, with little technology and strange customs. But for that, Stalwart has been selfless, honorable, and courageous. Just look at him–a changeling harvesting farm could not break him, and so he just didn’t eat. You need him, much more than you need me.”

The stallion watched her, expression very hard to read. The warrior often looked like that, keeping his true feelings hidden. But some things were harder to conceal than others–the way he watched her, the subtle flick of his tail back and forth like that. She was more than a sorceress to him now.

You could’ve done what the changelings wanted, and not suffered. Why did you refuse?

Starlight sighed, then levitated something off a shelf and onto the table in front of them. “Alright, Stalwart Hope. I don’t know who those military ponies are, but maybe you’re right about a new perspective. It would be fairly difficult to make our situation any worse.”

She spread the scroll over the table in front of them, centered on the space between Stalwart and Lyra.

“Like all Alicorns, Princess Luna has been imprisoned, her Alicorn magic to sustain one third of the triumvirate. She must be kept alive, and with some of her magic, or she can’t make more. That makes each Alicorn dangerous, even in their reduced capacity. The changelings have solved this in a uniquely changeling way.”

Stalwart looked down at the scroll, his eyes moving rapidly over it. These were the obvious markings of a building, with thick walls and many underground sections. “If we recover this Alicorn, what changes?”

Starlight’s mouth fell open. “I mean–this looks far less hopeless. Chrysalis loses her infinite supply of magic. Somepony could kill her. If they don’t, she’ll die eventually. Maybe the other two monsters will sense her weakness and attack her to take her land for themselves. Or maybe your marefriend will cave with your peer pressure and she’ll get to kill her. While Princess Luna is captured, Chrysalis is immortal.”

“I see. The demigod is bled for her strength by this otherwise mortal thing… Chrysalis, mother of the many insects that infest your land. And some few with honor, as my brother here. There is no other way?”

The ponies didn’t seem to know how to react to that. Accepting Thorax was even more difficult for them than accepting Stalwart. But somehow the changeling had got them this far–someone in this rebellion must be willing to trust a bug.

“We’ve tried all the others,” Octavia muttered, solemn. “That’s why it seems so helpless. There’s no way to get enough ponies in there to break her out. No smaller group ever came back either, and we’re pretty sure one made it into the vault there.”

Lyra squinted down over the map, trying to see in the strategic notes something like what Stalwart could. She was no scholar of war, but that didn’t mean she was dumb. If there was some key here, she could find it too.

What she saw were several layers all funneling down towards a large round chamber, apparently called the “Mirror Vault” in the notes.

“What keeps this Alicorn imprisoned?” Stalwart asked, tapping his hoof against that sealed section. “She is a demigod, apparently. Powerful enough that Lyra told me she was the reason to come into these lands in the first place. Perhaps your last spies could not break the chains.”

“They couldn’t,” Starlight agreed. “But that’s because they aren’t chains. Queen Chrysalis has done something there, trapped the princess in a… reflection. She binds herself by her own magic. It’s possible she has even transformed into her own jailer, forced by the illusion to see any intruder as the invaders now holding her captive.”

Stalwart squinted down at the map for a moment more, scratching under his chin for a few seconds. “But if she could see the truth, she would choose to escape and fight for her country? She would be a… queen again?”

“Princess,” Octavia corrected. “We have not had a queen in a very long time. No pony wants to do that.”

“She would,” Lyra said. “Princess Luna always fought the hardest. She was a general in the old days. She led armies against overwhelming odds and won. Her magic isn’t as strong as her older sister’s, but magic alone wasn’t going to win this. Equestria already tried that, and we lost.”

“Free a demigod from her captivity–I believe Lyra and I can do this.” He gestured at the map again. “If we can reach it, escape again, and find somewhere to shelter the divine when we flee the place, that will require the labor of others. Can you arrange that much?”

“Arrange for…” Starlight’s eyes narrowed. She looked between them again, then back to the map. “Maybe I could. If we mobilize all the survivors of this rebellion, if we risk our lives on the hope that Princess Luna will emerge and save us all when it’s over, maybe. But you haven’t said how you plan to free her. If we go and you die, then the rest of us will die with you.

“I don’t know how to break through an illusion spell cast by a being as powerful as Queen Chrysalis,” Starlight said. “Without seeing the spell for myself, I wouldn’t know how to start.”

“Then you will come with us,” Stalwart declared. “I thought more of this… magic… might be required. I pray Lyra will not see my invitation as doubting her abilities. She has never failed me.”

Lyra flushed, and her ears folded backward. Most of her still overflowed with other emotions–fury, rage, and loss. But maybe there was enough room for something else in there too.

“Starlight Glimmer is much more experienced than I am. She was Princess Twilight’s personal student. I was just an archaeologist. Studied… ancient cultures. And played a little music. I probably won’t be very useful in your plan.”

“My plan…” He looked between them. “Is less complex than you might think. We travel as witnesses of the horrors your land has suffered. We pierce the veil, and open the eyes of this goddess so that she might see. If we knew the prayers and offerings to make along the way, we would do that also.”

He lifted the map up into the air, turning it towards Starlight. “I see a number of weaknesses in the barbarian queen’s fortress. I have some suggestions about our means of ingress, if you will lend me a stylus.”