Chapter 4: No Quarter
Chapter 4
No Quarter
“Once a pony has seen society's black underbelly, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend, like you do, that it doesn't exist.”
“Gallant, you have to learn a real spell if you want to pass graduation.” Octavia sighed at her older brother. He had thus far refused to learn any spells other than basic telekinesis that was inherent to any unicorn. As she was an earth mare, she wasn’t exactly qualified to help him.
“Why? I don’t need magic to play guitar! I l don’t need spells for anything!” Holding stubbornly to his argument, Gallant and Octavia walked home from school. She, a freshman and he, a senior they made an odd pair, in personality if not in looks.
Wind swept the tidy streets of Upper Canterlot, nearly overbalancing the earth mare carrying a cello on her back.
“Whoa, you alright ‘Tavi?” Gallant had caught the cello in his magic, keeping his sister from falling over.
“I’m alright, thank you. And I’m serious about this. I got you this book, it details the teleportation spell and its uses and how to perform it. I thought you might get the most out of that spell.” Octavia sheepishly removed a book from the saddlebag at her side. He didn’t like spells, and he certainly wouldn’t want to read about them, despite being an avid reader.
Nonetheless, Gallant was touched by the gesture. He took the book from her, opening it and skimming the front page briefly. As he got to the last line, something caught his eye, one sentence.
Teleportation is essentially wishing you were somewhere else, then putting magic into that wish.
He stared long and hard at the sentence, not realizing he had stopped in the middle of the street. Octavia stared at him, wondering what had frozen the unusually silent unicorn. “Gallant?”
“Hmm, what?” He broke out of his entrancement to grin embarrassedly at his sister, “Sorry, got distracted, thank you for the book. You’re the best!” He shut the book and turned back towards their home, beckoning his sister. His encouragement and Octavia’s bliss at Gallant’s favor of the gift served to remove the awkward moment from her memory.
But the words he had read reverberated in his mind, filling him with hope.
The day after Discord’s defeat by the Elements of Harmony found Gallant Quill to be restless. The events of the previous day turned over and over in his head. The normally closed-off Gallant had spoke in great length about his past and his frustrations. More than that, I kissed Princess Luna, the thought floored him that he would step so far past the boundaries of their relationship, whether in his right mind or not.
He had yet to open his eyes as he was contemplating all of this, thus not realizing that he was still lying outside the door to Luna’s bedchambers.
“Why hello my little pony, it seems my guards were accurate after all.” Gallant’s eyes shot open to behold the regal form of Princess Celestia towering over him. “Did you have a nice nap?”
Many times in the past, Gallant had been surprised in his sleep by one thing or another. While most turned out to be harmless, several times he had been less fortunate. Thus, he had trained himself to react the same way every time. Closing his eyes to feign a return to sleep, Gallant instantly teleported away, decided to forego whatever it was that Celestia wanted.
Gallant sighed in relief, safe in the Lunar Forge that he had grown so accustomed to over the past few weeks. His head was pounding and he knew movement would cause a wave of nausia to overtake him. Unfortunately he had not actually ever been shown to the room that was allotted to members of the guard, having been tirelessly working since his graduation. His reflection on his current hangover was abruptly cut short as he heard a giggle above him.
Gallant’s fears were confirmed when he opened his eyes to find the form of the princess still over him. He had not moved from his original spot.
“How did it fail? It never fails...” Gallant had never before failed to teleport away from danger.
“Do not fret, your exceeding skill at that spell is quite intact. It’s just not enough to get away from us. My sister warned me that you might blink away when startled, much like a squirrel.” Celestia’s eyes twinkled with mirth as she gazed down at the hungover Lunar Guard. “Get up, and follow me. I think you and I have much to discuss.”
She was definitely angling towards something, Gallant surmised, and it was probably not good for him, whatever it was. Finding himself at a disadvantage, he nonetheless obeyed the Sun Princess and stood to follow her. He was immediately dropped to the floor again by nausea, but under the stern gaze of Celestia, fought off the urge to throw up. Quickly following her through the richly adorned but sparsely populated hallways of the royal castle, Gallant was using his magic to feel out the dampening field Celestia held on him.
She had more raw magical power than any pony he’d ever met before, as well as millennia of experience with it. He knew immediately that overpowering the field would be impossible, he possessed neither the raw magical aptitude for it, nor the skill to know how to do so. Gallant had read before, however, that a dampening field required a small amount of concentration in order to keep it strong and stable.
Gathering his courage and offering a silent prayer, Gallant smacked Celestia on her rump. She jumped and yelped loudly. Gallant felt the field around him vanish as the magic coalesced around his throat in anger. Swearing to himself, Gallant seized the opportunity to blink to safety before the Princess’ wrath could be brought to bear on him.
He found himself in the Lunar Forge, his original destination before he realized Celestia’s hold on him. Luna had told him that this place was safe from unwanted entrance from everyone except herself. She had placed spells around it that allowed the occupants to keep themselves hidden from magic probing and to keep the entrance from being revealed. Though Celestia would almost certainly know where he was, she would not be able to enter; Luna had wanted a place to keep away from her sister, in case things got a little hot-headed between them.
Gallant laid down on the small cot, attempting to get some sleep before Luna inevitably came to question him about the morning’s event.
“Thou art incredibly foolish. To treat our sister in such a disgraceful way, did thou think that we would not hear of it? What sayeth thou?” Luna had arrived, exactly as Gallant had predicted.
The Lunar Princess had not heard of the morning events until she awoke from her slumber around noon. While Celestia had wanted to tell Luna about her unscrupulous protege, the daily court had come first. Thus, Luna had quite a nice conversation with her sister over lunch. In the meantime, Gallant had been sleeping off his hangover, and was more prepared to deal with the inevitable arrival of Luna.
Despite this, and indeed having prepared a response to this very question, Gallant decided to be blunt, “I knew you’d hear about it, but I was thinking of myself only. I didn’t want to talk to Celestia, she was dampening my magic, so I broke her concentration. I believe the phrase is, ‘worth it’.”
Luna stared hard into the eyes of the unicorn before her, before breaking into a small smile, “Oho it seems we have chosen wisely in finding thou! We were amused by our sister’s tale, it is not often that somepony gets the better of Celestia, to have it be our own apprentice makes it doubly amusing.”
“Wait what? You’re not mad?” Gallant was dumbfounded for a moment.
“Neigh, thou escaped from harm, and thou hast brightened our day already. Thou should be wary of Celestia, but her anger will subside. Eventually.” Luna dragged him with her magic off the cot and onto his hooves. “It is time for thou to begin learning the magic of the Lunar Guards, as well as some of the history. Thou must learn to focus on multiple events at the same time, this magic must become second nature. Thou hast already mastered this with teleportation, now thou must master invisibility as well. Let us begin.”
Gallant and Luna spent the remainder of the day working on the invisibility spell. Luna added small pieces of history and background about the spell where she could. The invisibility spell used by the Lunar Guards, was really more like a light bending spell. It was developed by Luna after she observed the workings of a collapsing star. She had not realized when she created them, what would happen if a star died. In observing the black hole created by the death of a star, she found that she could not directly see them, noting their presence only by the light bending around them. The same principle was applied with magic instead of gravitational force, and the signature ability of the Lunar Guard was born.
While the majority of the intricacies behind the spell went over Gallant’s head, he had no idea what a black hole was for example, he understood the basic principle. Bend light around you, and you can’t be seen. It was easier said than done however. The average pony has a rather large surface area, and in order for the spell to be effective, each and every inch had to have the light bent away from it, shaped around Gallant, and then replaced in the exact location it should be as if he weren’t there. He could only imagine how difficult the spell was the create in the first place, as the effort required to sustain even a partial bending of the light for a small amount of time, exhausted his entire reserve of energy. After six hours of first getting the steps to cast the spell down and memorized, Gallant was only able to actually use a weakened form of the spell for fifteen minutes.
Collapsing in exhaustion as the spell ran out, returning him from a semi-visible state to fully visible, Gallant moaned, “Holy...buck...how...is...that...useful?”
“In time, thy stamina will be greater. Thou wilt surely last longer. For now, we think thou should rest. For at one in the morning, thou wilt begin thy blade training with Sir Spectre.” Luna turned on her heel and began leaving the forge.
“Wait, what?!” Gallant had caught his breath and looked at Luna’s retreating backside in horror. “I don’t even know where my room is yet!”
That caught Luna’s attention, and she turned around to stare at him quizzically, “Thou dost not know where thy own room is? Come, we shall show thou where thine accommodations are located.” Luna again turned towards the exit.
Sighing inaudibly, Gallant dutifully followed.
On their way towards the place where Gallant would be staying, he couldn’t rightfully call it a room as he had no idea what they actually gave to Lunar Guards, he and Luna passed by the dining hall, where Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, and Princess Cadance were taking their evening meal. Smelling the food, Gallant’s mouth began to water against his will. He prayed Luna wouldn’t notice his hunger, lest she decide to have them eat with her sister, an act he would have very much liked to avoid. Sadly, his stomach betrayed him, letting out a rumble which could not have been missed by Luna.
Sure enough, “Gallant? When was the last time thou ate?”
Truthfully, Gallant had not eaten the entire day, having made his escape from Celestia, he had never taken the time to eat before he began learning the invisibility spell with Luna. He appeared to ponder the question for a moment, hoping to delay the inevitable. Alas, it was for naught, as Luna prodded him with a midnight blue wing when he appeared to space out. “Um, ahem, when did we eat yesterday?”
“We had dinner at seven in the evening... Then was the last time thou ate? It’s near eight now.” She sighed to herself, praying to her mother that her pupil would not be so absent-minded as her sister’s. “Well we surmise now is as good a time as any. We see our sister is dining with our dear niece and her fiance, we shall join them.” Gallant worked to hide the fear written across his face. “Oho, now we see why thou didst attempt to dodge our question, thou art afraid of Celestia.”
As tough and stoic as he attempted to appear, Gallant actually was mortally afraid of offending a goddess, namely because he feared for his own mortality.
“You can see why I may not want to eat with Princess Celestia and the Captain of the Guard, I’m not particularly fond of court marshals, or dying.”
“Hmm, thy fear may be warranted... but we shall ask thou, would thou ask for quarter?”
“No.” His answer was swift and immediate, “I will never ask for mercy. Mercy is for the weak, the only mercy given to my enemies is a coup de grâce."
Luna studied Gallant for the moment, carefully considering his words. They stayed like this, master studying student, judging him, student looking defiantly, daring anyone to challenge him, for several moments. At last Luna broke into a smile, an act that was becoming more frequent since she had met Gallant. “We have indeed chosen well, thy words are well said and heartfelt. We agree that mercy is for the weak, but never forget that the weak are often the ones we are sworn to protect. Never forget that thou art sworn to serve the people of Equestria. Do not worry, we shall protect thou from our sister’s wrath so that we may eat in peace.”
With that, she turned away and led the tired unicorn stallion, who was feeling very confused and very much like he had just passed a test of some sort, into the dining hall.
Elsewhere
A griffon ran through the brush of the woods as quickly as possible. He felt his wings and bemoaned that he could not fly. Whatever they had done to him, it had changed him. He was stronger, faster, bigger, but he could not fly. No. No it had not been that, but the other thing they did... He remembered suddenly, They clipped them, so that I could not get away. So that this could not happen.
But he did get away. They had allowed him some time out in the common area, where he could stretch his wings and flap them a bit. He was not expected to last long. They thought he had been starving himself, that the depression of his condition was slowly killing him. He would not have been the first.
He had been eating though. He had been sneaking food when the doctors weren’t looking. Exercising late at night when all others were asleep. They had underestimated him. It had cost them dearly. He was gone in seconds flat, barreling out in the main lobby and smashing his hefty frame through the steel and plate glass entrance as if it were paper. The cuts covering his body reminded him that it was not paper.
Returning his focus to his current situation, he knew had to find a place to hide. Spying a ranch house in the distance, he bounded to it as fast as possible, they would catch up with him within minutes. Knocking frantically on the front door, he was greeted by the sight of an old earth pony mare with white eyes. She’s blind! he thought with a small amount of shock. In the griffon kingdoms, very few griffons with a weakness lived long, though those that did were often very powerful leaders. It always surprised the griffon how much different pony society was.
“Hello? Who’s there? Speak up I can’t hear you!” The mare spoke with the kind voice of one well seasoned in years, but who also wanted the colts and fillies away from her flowerbed.
“Hello ma’am, there isn’t much time to explain but some very bad people are after me and I need a place to hide.”
“Hmph, you know you wouldn’t be the first to say something like that. People think because I’m blind, I can’t see them. I can see you, young griffon, you heart is worried and you are scared. Hmph, and you’re bleeding on my good welcome mat.” The griffon hung his head in shame, she would not let him in. “Well what are you waiting for, come in, come in. Turn over that mat before you do, I’m sure whoever is after you would notice the blood.”
The griffon quickly did as he was told and slipped into the house. He noticed a still steaming cup of tea on a small table in front of a small sofa. The walls were painted pink with white stripes, and pictures of a couple of elderly ponies adorned the walls. A large fireplace dominated the front room and the mantle was covered in models of old naval vessels and airships. Small dark mahogany dining table sat in the far back of the room, with four white lace placemats and four matching high-back chairs. The elderly mare gestured to a small doorway near the dining table. “Go through there, take the first door on the right, and head down the stairs. Do not come out or make a noise until I give the all-clear.”
The griffon wasted no time in doing as he was bid and soon found himself in a small, bare cellar. He could hear the elderly mare moving around above him. Not two minutes later, a knock came at the door. He stood as still as possible in the darkness, silently praying to any god that he would not be found.
“Excuse me ma’am, I’m with the guard and there’ve been reports of a dangerous creature rampaging through these parts. You haven’t seen anything like that have you?”
The griffon could hear the old mare snort, “Sonny, I aint see much of nothin no more.” When did she get an accent?
The stallion, as the voice sounded to him to be, was clearly embarrassed at his gaffe, “Err, right sorry. Um, is it alright if I take a look around? The creature may have taken refuge in here without your knowledge.”
Her voiced changed, becoming the voice he had heard earlier, “No, I don’t think so. It wouldn’t get past me.”
“Ma’am I’m just doing my-” The sound of metal scraping against wood cut the guard off.
“I assure you, it would not get past me.”
“Right you are, sorry to bother you.” Whatever she had done had convinced the pony thoroughly that he was not there. “Who’s like us?” The stallion added as an afterthought.
“Not you.” And the mare shut the door. He heard hoofsteps retreat off the porch and into the night. After a few moments the door to the cellar was opened. “Well, come on out, he’s gone.”
The griffon walked slowly upstairs, wary of whatever the mare had done to scare off the guard. At the kind look on her face, however, the griffon's fears subsided. He had to trust somepony after all.
“First things first, what’s your name? My name is Sky Shadow.”
“My name is Valor de Bastion, I am pleased to meet you, Sky Shadow”
“Then let us talk Valor. We have much to discuss. Start with how you came to Equestria.”
“It’s a long story... But alright.”
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Time to consult my sources on whether or not I shall read this...
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/072/e/3/madame_pinkie_reveals_all_by_thedracojayproduct-d4sp3v0.jpg
Crystal ball says yes!
I'll get back to you with my thoughts.
So I read the prologue, and I like your story so far.
"She looked towards to find him, to find him staring at her."
That's the only bit that bugged me. Personally I would ditch the comma and just say 'simply starting at her'.
Like I said, other than that, looking good so far and I'm gonna keep reading this. Want me to keep pointing weirdness or errors out for you as I go?
2201238
Yes please, I suck at grammar and I often write these chapters at like 4 in the morning. Thanks for reading though!
Reading through the first chapter.
"However, because there were very few Lunar Guard recruits, Gallant was going to be doing his initial training with the Royal Guard, before moving to being trained by actual Lunar Guards in what protecting the night meant."
Had to read that sentence over a few times to understand it completely. End it after Royal Guard, and change the rest to something like " From there he would move on to training with the Lunar Guard and learn what protecting the night entailed." You also missed the s on recruits in the paragraph after.
"It seemed that Gallant’s reputation as a smuggler and someone who could get things, was known even here."
Would more sense after Thunder introduces himself and comments on Gallant's past talents. Its too preemptive as is.
"The burning anger that had lit Gallant’s eyes during the initial attack."
Sounds like you missed the word faded at the end of that.
That's all that really stood out to me. Gonna dig into the next chapter sometime tonight.
2209662
Hey thanks! That's pretty much what I was going for! Discord's greatest strength, I think, was that he knew how to bend someone with only a few words. Also Celestia does this, though the consequences are much less apparent.