Upheaval: Reckoning
Chapter 37: The Rift
"Are you sure you should be keeping up this kind of pace, Rainbow Dash?" Scarlet asked. "You still look pretty wobbly to me."
"Yes, I'm sure," Rainbow said through grit teeth. All his worrying was starting to annoy her. First there was that weird incident with the sniper pegasus who shot her flank, now Scarlet Rabbit was fussing over her as if she might drop dead any moment!
To be fair, she did come down with a fever, just like that sniper said. They had to stop early so she could conserve her strength. She attributed her feeling better the following morning mostly to her sheer willpower, but was willing to concede that the disgusting boiled leaf juice that the sniper forced her to drink may have helped too. She still felt a bit weak, and that slowed them considerably, but she wasn't going to lie around and let Scarlet "nurse" her even if she was reduced to a slow hover. She was also relieved that Scarlet had not taken advantage of her complete inability to chase after him to go back to flying after this Hassyth creature he was raving about. It was his excessive concern that was likely holding him in place. Rainbow hated the thought of being some kind of damsel he was watching over, and consoled herself with the notion that she was probably doing more in keeping him alive than the other way around.
"I'm going to fly up and check things out," Scarlet said. Rainbow didn't get a word in before he was already past the trees.
With Scarlet out of sight for a short time, Rainbow's thoughts went to the other pony who was, for some reason, also looking out for her. She read the notes distributed throughout the Legion. She knew who he was: Longstride, pegasus sniper, agent of Black Rose. She had to admit that she was expecting an elite officer of Black Rose to look more ominous: huge muscles, scary black armor with lots of spikes, a skull-shaped helm, a giant barbed sword, and all that. The pegasus who had trained his bow at her yesterday wore nothing but a simple set of mottled, gray leather barding. He had a woodland brown coat and a long, disheveled mane of dark green that looked more like he had a canopy of messy leaves for hair. He was also lean for a stallion, with a face that looked a bit haggard. Up to that part, he just looked like somepony who spent too much time in the woods.
But there were also the strange things about him. His eyes were the weirdest eyes she had ever seen, even weirder than Vanguard Clash's. They didn't even look like eyes. They looked as if somepony had stuck a pair of gold coins where his irises should be. She could have sworn there was even writing on them. And his bow…that thing was huge, about as tall as he was while standing on his hind legs, with a gracefully curving shape that reminded her of a stag's antlers. It looked like fine polished wood, she could see the whorls on it, and it was also covered with weird symbols.
Rainbow didn't know what to make of that sniper. He was the one who shot her, letting her get captured by that snake monster. The dull ache where her cutie mark was reminded her of that each time she felt it. He was the enemy. That he was working for Black Rose should make that clear enough even without the arrow to her flank. Yet, he also saved her from that brutish pony slave back then, and he made her drink what might be medicine. It just didn't make sense. What did he want? What did Black Rose want? That he might be out there, keeping a close watch on her, just left this uncomfortable twinge in her gut. Did he have an arrow aimed at her this very second? Did he watch her sleep last night? That would be disturbing on an equal level as Clover the Clever's hideout. She shook her head. She shouldn't focus on that thought or she'd never be able to sleep again.
Rainbow gave a cry of surprise when Scarlet suddenly burst through the canopy above her, and landed just a foot away. "What was that for, Scarlet?" she asked angrily. "Are you trying to startle me to death?"
"I spotted them!" Scarlet said excitedly. "The Captain and the rest of Third Squad! They're still a bit far but I saw them!"
"Great!" Rainbow exclaimed. She let some of Scarlet's enthusiasm infect her. "Did you call out to them?"
The broad grin on Scarlet's face disappeared. "Uh…no," he said.
The exultation of the moment dissipated. "Why not?" Rainbow asked.
Scarlet's lips twisted in silence for a while. "Dunno…" he finally muttered. "We'll run into them if we keep going in this direction. Let's just wait until then alright?"
Rainbow didn't argue. She wanted to fly up to see for herself, but that would take even more of her flagging strength. She concentrated on just moving forward. Vanguard, Twilight, and Applejack had come after her. They must have been chasing after her the moment she had flown off to chase Scarlet. Knowing that she was so close gave her just a bit more strength. It was just a short trip now, then she could collapse and rest. They'd be back in Canterlot soon after, and she could start trying to put this whole experience behind her. She noticed that, as the knowledge that her friends renewed her strength, it seemed to sap Scarlet's.
"Hey listen," Rainbow said. She tried to sound annoyed that he was fretting over nothing. "Vanguard's not going to kill you."
The pegasus stallion didn't reply. He flew next to Rainbow, matching her slow drifting flight. Earlier, he had a great deal of trouble doing so, flying ahead and up from time to time just to get the restlessness out of his wings. Now, it seemed that her speed suited him just fine.
"You're his friend!" Rainbow insisted. "And you're the last of his old squad."
"The Captain's a stickler for rules," Scarlet said. "He had no problem getting himself hanged. Why would he have a problem with me?"
"If he was such a stickler we'd have never met," Rainbow snapped. "Vanguard's going to do the right thing, and the right thing is not killing your friends!"
A small smile eventually forced itself on Scarlet. "I hope you're right," he said. "I kind of like being alive."
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. To her dismay, however, silence continued to fill the rest of their trip. Hours, or at least they felt like hours, began to pass as Rainbow looked for something to break the monotony. She studied their surroundings. She'd flown a long way south before, whenever Winter Wrap-Up came around, but she'd never actually taken time to look around at ground level. The green all around them was still undisturbed by winter and unbroken by any large landmark. Everywhere she looked there was something growing, something crawling, or flying, or climbing. Silence was a relative term. She and Scarlet may not be saying anything, but everything else was making a sound. Fluttershy would have been able to pick out every call or buzz coming from their surroundings, but, to Rainbow, it was all one continuous drone.
And then there was a sound that Rainbow did pick out.
"This way! The resonance is getting stronger!"
That triumphant cry was unmistakably Twilight's. For a moment, Rainbow forgot that she was tired and weak. She burst through the thick foliage, dodging trees and swatting away vines, as she rushed towards that sound. Scarlet Rabbit was right behind her. "Twilight!" she shouted. "Applejack! Vanguard!"
"Good work, Twilight," Vanguard Clash said.
"Rainbow!" Applejack called out. Rainbow could hear the earth pony choke a bit. "You crazy filly! You're in for a lot of trouble! I oughta-!"
There was no time to say anything else. Rainbow crashed right into Applejack. The two of them fell into a tangled ball of laughter and relief. For a while, Rainbow forgot everything else save for knowing that she was with friends once more.
"How'd you know I was close?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight lifted several strands of brightly colored hair with her magic. "Tracking spell," she said. "I'm still trying to improve its range, but it did the job for now."
Rainbow didn't notice how much time was passing by while they were like that, but reality eventually had to seep back in, and it did so using the growling tone of Vanguard Clash.
"Scarlet," Vanguard said grimly.
"Yeah, Captain?"
Rainbow broke free of her friends to see what was going on. The way Vanguard stood in front of Scarlet didn't say anything of two friends being reunited. The red pegasus looked as if he was awaiting judgment.
"What were the two of you doing out in some isolated spot where you could get captured without anypony noticing?"
"We uh…" Scarlet's gaze shifted for a bit, and then his tone fell into that of a defeated pony's. "We were looking for a spot to race," he said.
"You tried to race her against my orders," Vanguard continued. He thrust one end of his weapon into the damp forest floor. "I made it perfectly clear, didn't I? If you race Rainbow Dash and she gets hurt…"
"I know, Captain," Scarlet said.
Vanguard removed the sheaths from his two-bladed sword. "You are about to be executed," he said. "If you have anything to say, do so now."
"Yeah…sorry for the trouble, Captain."
Vanguard bit into the handle, and raised his weapon.
"Wait!" In a heartbeat, Rainbow was standing between Vanguard and Scarlet with her forelegs raised to block the killing strike. "What are you doing?" she asked Vanguard angrily.
"What I said I would do," Vanguard replied after setting the weapon down again. "Out of the way, Rainbow Dash. This is between me and Scarlet."
"Hold on now, Vanguard," Applejack said. "I don't see why you have to kill Scarlet. I know he's trouble but-!"
"What happened with Overcast was his last chance," Vanguard said. "I was the first one to speak up for him. I took the chance because I thought that he was still a good pony despite his issues. This is the last straw."
"That blade better be sharp," Rainbow said. She swallowed nervously, but her eyes were hard. "Cause it's going through me first."
"Or I could knock you out and out of the way," Vanguard said.
Rainbow pressed her lips together in frustration. He was right. She was tired and weak, likely unable to fly out of the way from an attack. She looked to Twilight. The purple unicorn had always been the one who could talk to Vanguard. "Twilight, say something here!" she said.
Rainbow could not help but shudder when she saw the grim look on Twilight's face as the unicorn looked away. "He did put you in danger," Twilight said. "Vanguard told me everything along the way. You're the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Equestria needs the Elements of Harmony complete. If that ophidite had succeeded-!"
"But she didn't!" Rainbow protested.
"And if he does something like this again?" Twilight asked harshly. "He's already shown that he'll even go against Vanguard." Her voice lowered. "Protect Equestria. No matter the cost."
"No, he won't," Rainbow said. She couldn't believe she was hearing this from Twilight Sparkle. She glanced at Applejack, and nearly quailed at the sight. The earth pony was glaring at Twilight. Rainbow ignored them for now and focused on the situation. Her voice softened as she went on. "I'm done racing him. I don't need to know if I can really beat him or not. I swear this won't happen again."
Applejack took her eyes off Twilight. "Vanguard, don't do this," she said. She walked closer and placed a hoof over the other earth pony's shoulder, looking at him imploringly. "You'll hurt yourself a heck of a lot more than this'll help anypony."
Vanguard took another step forward. Rainbow shut her eyes on instinct, fearing a blow from one of his tramplers. "Let's head back," he finally said. Rainbow opened his eyes in shock. She heard the words, but it was only when Vanguard started to walk away did she really believe that he said them. She looked to her other friends. Twilight merely had a look of resignation on her face as she moved on. Applejack shared in Rainbow's relief. "Vanguard-"! Rainbow started.
"The two of you will be disciplined for this," Vanguard said. "But I'll trust you, Rainbow Dash. Maybe you can keep him out of trouble better than I can after this."
"I will," Rainbow said. She looked at Scarlet, glad that the ordeal was over. The red pegasus was still slack-jawed with surprise.
"I said let's go," Vanguard called after them.
Rainbow was about to follow suit when her gaze fixed on Twilight and Applejack.
All her life, Rainbow Dash had never considered herself emphatic. She spoke her mind when she wanted to and however she wanted to. It was harsh sometimes, but she expected everypony to do the same. Still, she saw the way her two friends walked next to each other, and understood something without anypony saying anything. Something was standing between these two; something big and imposing. She didn't feel the least bit scared when she rammed that wall of blackness that Nightmare Moon conjured up. This thing, on the other hoof, frightened her.
Luna made her way to the Chamber of Elements, hope and apprehension putting a great deal of hurry in her steps. The morning after that incident with Pinkie Pie, Terrato had called for a meeting with his sisters. She had hoped for several things with that gesture of his. First, that he would explain where had been for the past several days. Second, this would signal an increased willingness on his part to share information. Of course, those hopes came with worries. This was likely troubling news. Even before the division, Terrato wasn't the sort to call his sisters over because he found an unusual flower, or because he wanted to share a cake he just baked.
When she entered the chamber, her older siblings were already there. The Chamber of Harmony also still housed Clover the Clever's angry mixture of a spellbook and a journal. Her siblings had refused to let her read any more of it for fear of once again coming into contact with Oceanus. She would have protested against this sort of coddling, but all she had to remember was that moment when she was drowning in the firstborn's presence to find it easy to agree with the decision.
"Terrato, what has happened to Rainbow Dash?" Celestia was asking when Luna had stepped in.
"Special Operations First Squad has already turned in a report," Terrato replied. "Rainbow Dash had been captured by an ophidite slaver, but she has been rescued. Unfortunately, she decided to fly off somewhere with Third Squad in pursuit. He winced at the sight of Celestia's growing concern. "So she's not as much in danger as before, but she's probably still in danger until she gets back here."
"What about the ophidite, big brother?" Luna asked.
"The vipren is in the dungeons. We can talk about her later. There are more pressing matters."
"We're listening then," Celestia said. Luna nodded as well.
"We have to prepare for Gravitas's imminent arrival." Terrato said.
"Imminent?" Celestia asked indignantly. "Even without Lexarius or me to oppose him, he doesn't have that kind of influence over the Council of Elders!"
"Certainly not enough to convince the majority to destroy all mortals," Terrato replied. "But enough to convince them to let him secure things like restoring your power and making sure that the Foul Weapon is untouched? I think he does."
"Big brother, how would he know that the Foul Weapon is involved?" Luna asked.
"Magnus," Terrato said. "Oh, don't bother being shocked," he added when both sisters' eyes widened. "He's not obligated to hide any information he picks up. Gravitas could have just trotted over to the Great Library and asked if anything interesting had happened. Magnus would have said everything."
"Perhaps, but how can you be so sure of Gravitas's movements?" Celestia asked. Luna could see the lines around her sister's jaw. Even during her time in the Herd, she had never met Gravitas before. She didn't know what kind of pony could elicit this sort of reaction from her sister. More than ever, she didn't want to change that even as it was becoming more and more clear that it was inevitable.
"That leads me to some other things the two of you must know," Terrato replied.
Luna felt herself tense. There were a lot of things that she wanted to know that her brother wasn't exactly forthcoming with. The royal nephews and nieces, save for Blueblood, were busy just trying to keep her and her sister abreast of all the changes happening all throughout Equestria. Despite his word, Luna was hard-pressed to rely on her brother's legionnaires, especially his Special Operations ponies.
"Gravitas has been more involved with Equestria than we had believed," Terrato said. He stopped at that point, and Celestia's eyes narrowed at his silence.
Luna looked to her brother worriedly. If he closed himself off now, they were in danger, in deep danger. She didn't think it too much of an exaggeration to say that Equestria could very well fall if he shut down now. As the seconds passed, she could practically feel the sweat form on her brow despite the cool air in the chamber. Much to her relief, it seemed as if Terrato was merely bracing himself. When he spoke, she could feel a sense of elation well up inside.
"There's something I have to tell the both of you about Black Rose's plans."
Terrato's words seemed to cast a deep shroud of solemnity around the Chamber of Elements. Luna listened intently, and she saw her sister do the same while their brother began explaining what he had been doing the past few days...
It was Celestia who was the first to react by the time their brother was finished. She stomped a hoof against the floor, her face contorted by anger. "Fiend!" she exclaimed. "He would assassinate me and use it to justify destroying everything I've tried to protect? How can he go so far?"
It didn't surprise Luna at this point that her sister couldn't stop focusing on Gravitas. The extent of Black Rose's plans and how much of it was willingly revealed to Terrato left her confused. Black Rose made it seem as if she only wanted to help Equestria, but how much of what she said could they trust? And her methods...Luna couldn't accept them. She refused to accept them, and she was glad that Terrato was on the same page when it came to this. "Can't we just let the rest of the Eternal Herd know about what Gravitas has been doing?" she asked.
"We could certainly try," Terrato said. "Except that it's well known that we oppose Gravitas to begin with so a story that discredits him would be a little suspicious. Besides, we have nothing to offer as proof save the words of a mortal who stole Celestia's power."
"Mother would believe us," Celestia said.
"Any idea on how to contact her?" Terrato asked. "Applejack's met some success, maybe we can ask her to deliver a message."
Celestia glared at Terrato for the unneeded joke. "I don't know. Even if we had a way, if mother had any intentions of halting Gravitas, she should have acted by now. It falls to us to protect Equestria from him."
"Gravitas doesn't have a lot of free rein even if he gets the authority to come here," Terrato said. "But we can anticipate two points. The first is the Blasphemous Rift." He looked over to Celestia. "If Chrysalis and her changelings make so much as a peep of a protest, he'll be happy to wipe them out."
"I've made a great deal of progress with them," Celestia said. "I will make sure that they survive this."
"The other point will be Regia Carnifex, am I correct?" Luna asked.
Terrato nodded. "He'll demand custody over such a high-ranking member of Oceanus's rebellion. He'll probably want to just destroy Regia Carnifex as well."
"I don't see why we can't give him over," Luna said. "If Black Rose needs him to open the seals to the Rift, she'll find it difficult to get to him with Gravitas in the way. If he is destroyed, she'll have to find another way to get to the Foul Weapon."
"I do not like the idea of letting Gravitas have anything," Celestia said. "Even some small compliance on our part may be enough to grant him a foothold in Equestria. As for just slaying Regia Carnifex, that would be too risky. If he is slain, his power might radiate from him. The Foul Weapon could very well resonate, breaking its seals anyway. There is also one more thing that I've been considering about Regia Carnifex. For that reason, I don't want him to be simply destroyed."
"Big sister, we can't just oppose Gravitas for the sake of opposing him," Luna said. "If he does come here, it will be with some authority from the Council of Elders. Antagonizing them may not be so wise."
"True," Terrato said. "We can't afford having them not help us even more." He raised a hoof to interrupt Luna. "No, little sister, I see your point. That being said, I don't plan on just handing Regia Carnifex over." He looked over to Celestia. "You must have noticed it as well."
"What do you the two of you mean?" Luna asked. "What are we going to do with him?"
"Think about why Regia Carnifex didn't end up where Oceanus and the rest of his rebels went," Terrato said. "Or why Nightmare Moon never tried to free him."
"It is also true that we've never encountered Starswirl the Bearded even though Clover the Clever's hold on him should have expired while we were still in the Eternal Herd," Celestia added. "A pony of such power would have been known easily. That he would recognize the alicorn that his apprentice found is something to consider as well."
Realization dawned on Luna. "Starswirl the Bearded was against the spread of Oceanus's power. Now you're saying that he's actually-!"
"We can't be sure yet," Celestia went on. "But we have to wake him to find out." She looked to Terrato. "That was what you were going to propose, wasn't it?"
"I know that there is some risk involved," Terrato said. "But-!"
"I will agree to this," Celestia said.
"Big sister!" Luna exclaimed. "Perhaps you're being a bit rash!"
Celestia shook her head. "Certainly, a great deal of preparations must be made," she said. "The two of you will have much to do. We must only weaken his bonds as to make sure he does not break loose in case we're wrong. If we wake him before his proper time, he will not be at his full strength, and he can be resealed with the proper spells."
"Having the Elements of Harmony on standby would be helpful," Terrato said. "I also don't think Gravitas will like finding out that we've been tinkering with Carnifex's seal." His smiled widened a bit at that.
"A pity," Celestia said dryly.
"And what do we stand to gain from all this?" Luna asked.
"We get to find out just what the Foul Weapon is," Terrato said. "If necessary, how we can retrieve it for ourselves and how to counter it should it fall into the wrong hooves. We might even get ourselves an ally."
"Using it is out of the question," Celestia said. "But we stand to gain a lot otherwise. There is still the matter of Black Rose."
"Black Rose's time is limited," Terrato said. "If we stay vigilant and keep her from acquiring the Foul Weapon, Celestia's power will consume her, and make its way back." His tone darkened. "Of course, she's going to make her move before then. We just have to be ready."
"Well, it looks like we have a plan," Luna said. She wasn't quite sure about the strategy for Black Rose. She had the feeling there were still a few details that Terrato didn't share. Nevertheless, she watched her two siblings with some admiration. This looked like progress. She dearly wanted to believe that this was progress.
"Let's go then," Celestia said. "There is much to do."