//------------------------------// // Spring Over the Ground, Like a Hunting Hound // Story: As The Sun Sets // by Noobblue //------------------------------// They'd been walking in silence for a mile or two; Silver had asked Cadance to stay silent while she tracked where the Kirin mare's had run off to. So Cadance just tried to enjoy the scenery through the mud and wet heat. It wasn't going too well. Much aside from the high overlooks she was used to in The Empire; in this jungle you'd be lucky to look out more than a couple of pony lengths, and that was only if there wasn't shrubbery with leaves the size of a smaller pony up to your chest. So Cadance instead tried to figure out what Silver was tracking, or rather, how. There wasn't anything Cadance could see, so... It must have been something else Magic? Smell? Can I just not see the tracks? "Ooo" Silver broke the silence "What?" Silver reached forwards for the leaves of a short tree in front of them as she turned to Cadance, "We're here." Silver pulled the greenery aside to show a wall. One made out of upright wooden tree trunks, about half a pony's length away from the tree. "Oh." Silver monotoned, "That's not the grand view I was hoping for" Cadance stepped up next to Silver, "It's a wall?" "Maybe" Silver frowned and said seriously and quietly, "Stay here." She walked up to the wall carefully, stepping intentionally and awkwardly; like she was stepping around spots on the ground. Crouched down, she pressed up just a hoof away from the wall and tapped it once. Twice. She stood there silently, ears perked, and Cadance saw her wings begin to unfurl just before Silver perked up, returning to a normal stance. "Yup. It's a wall." Despite the sarcasm, Cadance smiled. I don't know why it bothered me to begin with "So..." Cadance led, "So what?" Silver gestured up to the wall, "Wall?" "I can't... respond to 'wall' with an inflection." "I think you should make the plan." Silver said, answering Cadance's question Cadance lifted a brow, "You want me to make the plan?" "Well sure... I mean." Silver brushed a hoof against the trunk and looked up at it oddly. "I've done this before, let's- that is, I mean I- mean that you should, because- uh." Hmm? "Sorry, that thought got away from me." Silver looked away from the wall, "What I tried to say is that doing this my way would be boring, chess wouldn't be fun if it was always one turn long, so you have a crack at it, and I'll follow your lead." "So..." Cadance thought for a second, "I can do whatever? And you'll just make it work?" "Ya" Silver said with an odd accent and false saluted Cadance tapped a hoof against her chin, having gotten used to being smeared with mud, so the addition of fresh wet mud from her hoof onto her face was noted, but ignored. We could knock the wall over... No, that's not... Silver wants me to do this... That means she wants... She glanced at Silver, who was still fake saluting while looking at her with interest. She wants me to do this my way, my thing. How would I conduct a raid on a dangerous group of Kirin's with an even more dangerous dark magic artefact? Cadance looked at the wall in thought. "You know what's odd?" Silver said "What?" Silver gestured at the space around them, "No patrols. A wall like this must have taken some effort to construct, pony power, yet no guards." "Are you..." Silver lifted a hoof under her chin and posed, "Hmm?" Cadance slowly lifted a hoof and pointed it at Silver, "You're trying to help me decide under the veil of discovering 'new' information. You knew there weren't any guards when you approached the wall. That's why you did it so... sillily." "Got it in one Little Princess... Like I said, I've done this before." "Thank you for helping." Silver went silent for a second, "So what's the plan, your highness?" "We walk in like we own the place." Cadance smirked and narrowed her eyes "I'll clean us up then." Cadance dropped her theatrical look, "Ah" Silver had returned Cadance's peytral, shoes, and crown after removing the grime from the two of them, similarly conjuring a series of what she called 'wayfarer' equipment that made her look... kind of like a royal guard, if the royal guard in question was covered in flexible greenish brown plating from top to bottom. They navigated around to the edge of the wall, until they found an entrance, which Silver blew open without asking any questions. This was what Silver was looking for. Around what looked like a massive sinkhole, and surrounded by grass and shrubbery, was a thrown up grouping of tents and lean-to's. The planked double door entrance went flying inside and crushed a tent, and several Kirin scattered and ran about. Plenty more grabbed up knives or spears and began to surround the Princess and her cohort. Cadance strode forwards into the light destruction with a serene smile, Silver taking up just behind her. She eventually reached the 'defensive' line the Kirin's had... Wait... Why are there only mares? One of them stabbed at Cadance with a spear as she approached, and the spear tip cracked against the magical barrier Silver was working around Cadance, the wood just beneath it splintered from the force, and the mare pulled back the now limp spear tip in confusion and worry. Cadance took the opportunity to walk past her as the Kirins changed their encirclement in response to Cadance walking through it. They were far from a trained fighting force, scrambling about and shouting in some native language to each other. They were shortly surrounded again in a shuffling circle. A couple more Kirin's took a stab at Cadance, her large and imposing stride taking up their focus, rather than Silver, who was casually focusing on making herself look the opposite while maintaining the protective spell. Cadance was focusing on not flinching and keeping up her stance and smile. Being safe was one thing, knowing she was safe was another, and the several attempts at stabbing her between the ribs were grating on her 'princessly' focus on staying serene. She walked right up to the sinkhole, inside it was the top half of what looked like a temple. Huh... I wonder how Silver guessed that The tanned stone structure had several Kirin's in robes, nothing fancy, standing atop it. Having heard the shouting, the Kirin's had prepared a spell to launch at a would-be intruder, and as Cadance began walking down into the sink hole they launched a fireball bigger than her at her head. The sudden relentless outpouring of light was a lot. The heat? Not so much. This shield spell is Great After a second of the explosion, Cadance flapped her wings, hard. The resulting air wave launched the remaining flame into the air, where it dissipated harmlessly, the rest on the ground was snuffed out by the pressure. The Kirin mages- Still only mares, odd Were rightfully surprised and worried. Cadance continued her strut up to the edge of the temple  where the mares were standing, the encirclement of spears and knives having backed away after the ball of flame and its subsequent dismissal. Cadance kept her wings spread, and actually curled them around her head, something she'd seen Celestia do at the summer sun celebration. "So!" Cadance looked up to the still awestruck mages, and she heard Silver call out in their native tongue, translating for her like they'd discussed. "I see you all have issue with my presence." Cadance lifted a hoof like she was holding a teacup, and gestured around herself, "I do not care." The Kirin mages looked exchanged glances as Silver translated "I'm here for the artefact your people covet, it is not for hooves like yours. Relinquish it, and I will simply be on my way." Silver slowly translated the last bit, and Cadance could practically hear the eyebrow raise What? What did I do wrong The Kirin mares conversed, and then a nicer cloak made its way into the grouping, which silenced the chatter and 'split the sea'. Cadance could feel the magical pressure from the... Oh Silver whispered glibly from her side, "Oh, here we go, that's a big bad." The creature tossed its cloak back, a Nirik, it's flames burning white hot and simmering around its form rather than spreading around it in flame. On its head, was a thorned crown made of black crystal glass, the thing did the equivalent of glowing in reverse, malevolently sucking in the light from around itself. Uh oh The mare fired a white lance of fire at the Alicorn, it whistled through the air and slammed into Cadance hard enough for her to feel it through the shield. In the current smoke screen, Silver called out at a normal volume, "I can't block that again." Cadance nodded and flapped her wings again, this time taking flight. She felt Silver's magic slide away from her, unlike a spell just ending and winking out or failing slowly, Silver's always had this sense of... 'life' to it. Focus Cadance Cadance watched the flaming Kirin blast into the air in chase. Her eyes widened as the mare flew past her much faster than her own top speed. Luckily not nearly as maneuverable, or Cadance probably would have become airborne pony paste. Cadance fired a tentative beam of arcane might at the mare, which missed. The screaming black and white ball of fire retaliated by filling the sky with fire. Originating from herself in a white hot flame, which spread around her like a bomb, eventually reaching Cadance and her hastily thrown up shield. The fire rippled around her, and just after, the pressure wave threw her and her bubble down to the ground.  Just as the flame petered out, Cadance dismissed her bubble and caught air again, twisting around a needle thick beam of white flame that she only saw because of the air it ignited around itself. "Whoah!" She yipped as she did half a roll into a dive to make up her speed and be a more difficult target. Her dive was cut short as she was slammed into by a screaming projectile. Only her quick thinking and rapid flapping kept her from imminent immolation, but the spots on her fur the Nirik had her hooves were sizzling and Cadance could feel the burning in her stomach and side even through her Alicorn resilience. They slammed into the ground near one of the lean-to's, which was turned into a crater. Cadance felt the rock and dust dig into her coat, but the more pressing concern was the screaming ball of hatred and fire trying to strangle her. So Cadance lit her horn and dug into her reserves and her Alicorn nature and mentally conjured the equivalent magical blast of yelling 'eat food nerd' as a battle cry.  The resulting blast/bubble of pink that expanded from the origin on Cadance's horn launched the Nirik into the air, where it subsequently slammed into the ground and burned a crevice into the ground where it slid to a stop right in front of Quick Silver. Who had just finished calculating exactly where the Nirik would land. The Nirik, having been blasted with pure magical love screamed in rage in order to re-stabilize its negative state, Silver calmly placed her front right hoof over the things neck and pressed down, causing the Nirik to spasm in frustration and grab the offending limb. The fire and plasma just around the scales of the Nirik sizzled against Silver's limb, the elastic metal plate having liquified and dripped onto the ground. Cadance sat up and watched along with the rest of the Kirin at the display of the Nirik screaming incoherently at the silver mare. Her heart was pounding, and her breathing calmed down from her short scuffle in the air, but the adrenaline and the excitement from her short fight simmered in her chest. Silver leaned in, and caught a hoof to the face for it, her other leg snapped out and grabbed the leg.  Silver leaned in closer, and said something, Cadance couldn't make it out from the ringing in her ears, but Silver leaned in closer and deposited a little kiss on the mare's snout; just like that, she went out. The Nirik dropped limp back into her red Kirin form, and the crystal crown tumbled off of her head and into the still smoldering dust. Silver scooped the thing up and tossed it onto her wingtip, twirling it around as she approached Cadance. "You okay?" Cadance rubbed at her right ear with her wing as she got up, and cast a little triage spell for the burns, "Yeah, I'm fine." Cadance looked around at the retreating Kirins. "Are you?" "Yeah, not the first time I've been liquified, if you could believe it." Silver tossed the crown back into her hoof. Cadance gave it an appraising look. It didn't look nearly as menacing when not in use. "So this is the thing?" "Yup. Capable of channeling all of those negative emotions into one user. Astronomically useful." Silver tossed the thing onto her head before Cadance could react. She stood there in surprise for a moment before nothing happened. "Heh, just kidding." Silver gave her a sideways smile, "It doesn't work for me." She tipped the thing off her head, and back into her hoof. "It doesn't?" Cadance questioned "Why would it?" Silver asked back "Don't you have-" "Do I?" Does she? Silver walked past her. "Hey, wait, what about that mare?" Silver glanced over her shoulder, "What about her?" "Will she survive?" Silver nodded, "Yeah, of course, her Nirik form absorbed all of the more potent side effects of ripping your soul open for power." She bobbed her head, "She might be more irritable for a while, but she should be fine." Cadance glanced back to the mare, the back to Silver. "So we just leave now right?" "Yup" "But-" "Princess are responsible Cadance." Silver said slowly, "Princesses clean up the messes they make, regardless of the necessity of the mess." Cadance pursed her lips. "You gonna get all 'princessy' on me again? Making me ask kinda ruins the mood anyway." Cadance shook her head and smiled, "No. I think I learned my lesson there. Girls night out, no responsibilities!" She cheered, walking up to Silver's side. "Glad to hear it." "Wasn't really as climactic as you were hoping though right?" Silver shrugged, "Eh, you see one massive theatrically timed explosion, you've seen them all." The conversation continued as the two made their way out of the destroyed compound, and back out into the jungle. "What are you going to use the crown for?" Silver inspected the thing, "I'll have to see if I can strip the intent from it, then I'll probably use it as a conduit for emotional spell charging." She tossed the thing to Cadance, who caught it in her magical aura "Or you can keep it, emotion casting isn't really my thing; it'd make me too unstable to do my work." "I think I might, actually." Cadance said, looking at the crystal thorned crown. "Taking an interest in the dark arts?" Silver quipped "Yes." Cadance returned seriously. Silver raised an eyebrow and laughed a little, "Really?" "You've proven time and time again that it's possible without corruption and insanity." Cadance said, and tilted her head in thought, "And everypony knows about its effectiveness, same as its dangers. I guess I can't think of a good reason not to." "Huh." "Got any first-timer advice?" "I'm more of a blood magician and a rune smith than an Emotion Caster, but I do dabble, mostly for power augmentations for my spells." Cadance considered her question for a second before asking, "What's blood magic like?" "I'll tell you this.” Silver said seriously, “Stay away from blood magic. As far as my research shows, its corruptive effects are exponentially more dangerous to Alicorns." Silver switched to a more conversational tone, "To answer your question: Gross. Blood magic is gross, it preys about the physical, that is, the body without mind or soul. Think about all the nasty business flesh would get up to if you filled it with magic and took away any higher will." Cadance thought about it. Yeah... maybe not "Emotion casting, on the other hand, may be right up your alley. I dunno what unique effects your Alicorn nature yields on the interior of your soul, but to put it simply, imagine your soul like a big ball of tubes that carry magic around." "Okay." Cadance said tentatively "Now rip open one of the tubes of magic, the say, 'hate' tube. Filling the soul with unrefined energy means that it's pretty easy to do whatever you want, and the more emotion you rip into your soul, the more magic you can manipulate, meaning you can get even more emotion, and so on." Silver pushed aside a bush as she continued her lecture, "The hate tube will 'heal' per say, but not without scars, the more you rip it open, the easier it is to hate, the easier it is to pour more unrefined energy into your soul, eventually the tube can't heal anymore and gets stuck open, pouring magic into your soul. That's what happened to Sombra." Cadance nodded along, "So that's how the corruption affect works." "Yeah, it's shockingly manageable if you don't mind a bit of emotional instability. Especially if you only use your emotions constructively, rather than reflexively." "I knew... some of that, I didn't realize that's how it worked in its entirety. What's the difference between unrefined and refined magic?" Silver looked at Cadance like she was dumb for a second, "Oh, right of course, you know how you have magic inside you? Some of that is your soul, some of it is just 'you', your own magical influence." Silver gestured around herself, "Thing is, everything in the world has that, unique to themselves, or itself." She said, pushing a leaf, "Channeling magic not in yourself is Chaos magic, and is particularly hard to do; since normally things don't like having their internal magic wrenched from them without permission." "So... Raw emotion has its own magical qualities?" "Yeah. Like elemental fire, versus regular arcane fire" "Is that why ponies can still be driven to cast magic by emotion, but it's not technically emotion- uh, casting?" "Yup, you catch on quick." Silver poked her in the side with her wing "I did have a decent education." She poked Silver back. "Nonetheless. Shall we return?" Silver slowly held out a hoof to Cadance. Oh Wait, oh? What do you mean 'oh?'? Cadance didn't want to leave yet. She stared at Silver's outstretched hoof as she suddenly got lost in thought. This whole exercise was crazy, just like before. It was fun, I had fun, I... I loved it. Silver wiggled her hoof, "Something on your mind Little Princess?" "No, no, I'm just..." Cadance dipped back into thought for a second, but just for a second. "Thanks." Silver looked on in confusion "For the night out. Again." Silver shook her hoof again, "More like a day out, and you can thank yourself, you're the one twisting my wing into doing this every week." "I'm not the one making them so much fun." Smirked and shook her hoof again. Cadance took it, and they both fell backwards into a portal that spread open at their hooves.