The Steadfast Sky : Chapter 10
The Grey Potter
http://cosmicponyfanfiction.blogspot.com/

What we found wasn’t the endless stone prison of Canterbury. It wasn’t a ruin of Equestrian soul. But with the clouds still obscuring the light, and dust across coats and hearts, this town could be considered gloomy. It hurt… Beyond the walls, I had hoped for paradise. A place of freedom and joy. To see the Stallion’s shadows spread here, far from his keep…

We still had to walk through the town. Grass is nice, as well as free, but we needed a bit more to balance our diet. Some oats, maybe a few other vegetables, if we could obtain them. The town square was just as unfriendly as the fields, empty, save two ponies resting on blankets, peddling goods from the forest and decorative charms respectively. Signs squeaked above shop doors, displaying near useless pictograms. I can imagine a small town can manage by simply memorizing which stores are which, but what about the convenience to travellers such as us?

It reinforced within me the idea that this town had no want for us, each building, every face staring as if politely asking us to leave. What did I think I could do? What was I hoping for? To find a town and be welcome? To impress with my regal bearing and unicorn magic? I’m such a foal… still only a filly, cutie mark speaking of pretention, not hope. I shrunk internally as the farmers around us stared. Why didn’t I press more for Discord to hide himself? Why didn’t I simply ask him to stay outside the town? What have I done?

I was just glad to hear my friend’s agreement to leave. We’d find someplace a little more welcoming. Outside Equestria, if we had to.

We silently passed by a large central hall, a civil center by the looks of the banners. Further proof of the stallion’s influence… It made me nervous and I picked up my pace. It was like his eyes were on us, even though we hadn’t seen any sign of him or his forces for days.

The double doors of the center slammed open. A thick-necked red pony was thrown before us, stumbling to keep standing, whirling around to shout at the closed and locked doors.

“Cursed Broncburgh-ers! You think you can just shut me up this easily?!” he shouted.

I hurried past. Don’t get involved, Celestia, just ignore him and keep walking. I swiftly strode away and did not stop until I saw a pictographic sign of an apple and a hammer. If that didn’t mean general goods, then I’m not sure what did. I entered out of step, feeling small and nervous. Just get what we need and leave. My mantra. Just what we need.

The shop I entered was both messy and cleaned out. Shelves were nailed into the wooden segments of wall, but some were propped up with brooms and books. There were a number of different things on the shelves, from spinning tops to large segments of rope. But no matter the item, they were stacked unevenly in mismatched piles, forming into tangled messed. But more often, there were shelves covered in dust and nothing more, as if their purpose was to remain unused. Among the clutter and lack of clutter, a bored looking earth pony rested his forelegs on a scratched counter, wearing a gray apron, and surrounded by a number of barrels and bags. He glanced up at me, and swatted lazily at a fly with his tail.

“Oats…?” I asked from the doorframe. His expression remained unchanged as he dipped his head slightly. Was that a yes? “How much per scoop?” I continued.

“Five bits,” he replied.

I consciously made an effort to pretend not to be surprised.

“E-expensive,” I stammered. Failure.

“There’s a drought ‘round here, miss,” he pointed out, flicking his hoof at a fly, “I hadda buy half these goods all the way from Stringhalt. Now, d’ya want anything or not?”

“I um…” I approached the counter, “Two scoops of oats, please…”

The earth pony heaved himself off the counter, dropping loudly to the ground. He pulled a dusty scoop from a pile of hammers behind him and nudged open a barrel with his nose, ducking his head deep inside. I pulled out ten bits. A third of our money, gone already… how long was it going to last if every town was like this? The earth pony dropped my oats in a little burlap sack and turned to me. He stopped, stared just a moment too long. I floated him the coins. Was that what he was waiting for?

“Don’t see too many unicorn ‘round these parts,” he said, voice softer. He eyed the floating coins, then pushed one with his hoof.

“Um…” I let the bits fall to the counter, stacking them neatly. He continued to stare.

“Be willing to give ya a discount if you can do a job or two,” the shopkeeper said, sorting through the coins. “Heck, if you can cast any water spells… Well, the whole town’d be mighty appreciative.”

“Sorry, my specialty is light magic…” I stopped myself from adding how much I wish I knew water magic. I don’t even know if creating water is possible, but if I studied the theory…

“Shame…” the shopkeeper placed the bag on the counter. “Well, you do any heavy lifting? Any fine work? Y’see…” He leaned on the counter, as if to get closer. With barely a thought, I took a step back. “Celery Seeds is the unicorn around here, but he doesn’t stop by near enough to make himself useful. Lives over in Rearing Town, you see. We’ve been having a little bit of a tiff with them lately, since the river dried up,” he explained with a wave of his hoof.

“I, I’m not sure I want to take away someone else’s job…”

“We’ll pay ya! We don’t got much right now, but a unicorn’s always helpful to have around.” The earth pony leaned on the counter, hoof curled over my bits. He looked desperate. Everyone did around this town…

A unicorn’s always helpful… Maybe there was something I could do here. Maybe there was a way I could help, just by being myself. This town was unfriendly, but if I could find a way to help them… I gave him a smile, if only to make him sit down again.

“I… I’ll think about it,” I said.

“Thank ya kindly, miss!” the pony dropped back behind the counter, “That’ll be seven bits.”

I quietly paid, taking back the few bits of discount and tucking them in my bag, beside the oats. I thanked the stallion and backed away, out the door.

“Okay you two! I’ve got an idea! Let’s go and find—“I turned around to a square just as empty as I left it. No Luna. No Discord.

“You know,” I said to myself, “I should have noticed this.”

I barely had to run around the entire square. I found the two right where I last saw them: outside the town hall, talking to the angry red pony.

“What are you two doing?” I demanded, falling into place between Luna and Discord. They both exchanged secret smiles. It was the least assuring thing I had ever seen.

“Ah, is this the last member of your adventuring trio?” the stranger asked, much calmer than I had last seen him.

“Adventuring…?” I began.

“Barely Buck here!” Discord loudly interrupted, “thinks the people of this town are cheating on water rationing! He wants us to check some things out for him, and will pay us if we find anything.” Discord raised his eyebrows, as if it was only the thought of money that would tempt me. I ignored him, stepping forward to shake hooves with the earth pony.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, Mr. Buck,” I told him firmly. He nodded and took my hoof, shaking it only twice before retreating.

“Thanks! You can find me over in Rearing Town.” He turned and pointed to the river, “Lemme give you some directions. You head upstream to when it first forks…”

“We’ll manage. We’re a specialized team, you know!” He accepted the explanation and galloped off without another word. Discord and Luna turned to me, grinning ear to ear.

“Celestia, does that mean that you—“

“What do you two think you’re doing?!” I hissed, snapping my head between the two of them just so I could glare at them more effectively. “An Adventure Trio?! We were only joking about that!”

“Dang.” Discord sat down in a defeated huff. “I really thought you were behind this for a second. Sure fooled me.”

“I’m sorry sis…” Luna hung her head, sighing. “I couldn’t come up with a better name, even though I had all morning!” Discord barked a single laugh, grinning as I shot him a special glare.

“That’s not the problem here. Guys…” I shook my head. “Are you both crazy? We can’t do something like this! Investigate the water problem… What do you think we can do that no one else has already done?”

Discord shrugged. “I dunno, but he’s not paying us until we’ve done whatever, so what’s the harm in trying?”

“The harm?” Again, I turned to look at my Draconequus friend especially. I suspected him to be the main perpetrator of this… Luna knew her limitations more than this, didn’t she? Knew what was acceptable and what was just, just crazy. “What does it matter the harm,” I said to him. “You’re only doing this because you want an adventure.”

“I am not!” he snorted, shaking his head, “I want to help these ponies.”

“Do you now?”

“Celestia.” Now it was his turn to glare at me, standing up and getting his face in mine. “You went on and on about how you wanted to be some sort of sun priestess, and help ponies see the sky or something like that. And yet you’re not going to help these poor farmers with their water crisis because you can’t think of a way how.” He backed away. “We have a means to help them now. And you’re saying you don’t want to, just because of its association with one tiny little word?”

“If it helps…” my sister stepped forward, head still low, “I didn’t really see this as something adventure-y. We both just want to help. Don’t you?”

I looked between the two of them. It’s not that I didn’t want to help… But wasn’t there something easier to be done? I sighed.

“Okay. Put away those puppy eyes you two. Please? Thanks… NOW!” I stand regally before my two friends, trying to add a bit more weight to my little smile. “This one time. ONE. TIME. Got me?”

We headed out of town, walking alongside the riverbank. If it could even be called a river at this point. The width of the banks expanded and shrunk, passing through fields both used and left fallow, yet the running water never grew to be more than a trickle.

“So, the story goes like this,” Discord began, marching with an excited step at the head of our group, “Broncburgh and Rearing Town share this river. Ages ago they carved some canals and constructed a gate to divide the water evenly, and so on. With the drought going on, things have gotten tense. Barley Buck thinks Broncburgh is cheating on water rations, but the mayor of Broncburgh accused Rearing Town of cheating, and it’s all becoming quite messy. There’ve been fights already. Nothing big, but tensions are high.”

“And he told you all of this without ever once wondering what exactly he was talking to?”

“Oh, he said a few things… Like how many weird creatures are wandering around lately…” Discord spun around and crouched low, as if to pounce. His smile switched to a smirk, getting even wider in the change. “Also, I told him I was a specialized unicorn experiment to make the most perfect super warrior!”

I stumbled over a laugh. Ridiculous! An obvious lie, no matter how strange a Draconequus looked.

“And he believed you?” I asked.

“He believed me!” Discord repeated, ecstatic. “All this time, I thought I was a bad liar!” He laughed. “I guess all I had to find was a pony dumb enough to believe me!”

“Discord!” I snapped, “That’s horrible thing to say!”

“I mean, uh, well… Hmm…” He fell back on his feet and started walking alongside us again, staring at the ground.

“Me and Discord,” Luna began, “We both thought the whole drought thing was weird. Pegasus control the weather, so why would they let things get all dry and stuff?”

“These two towns would be primary food sources for Canterbury,” Discord pointed out, “Letting them wither away is a bit like a shot in the foot, if you ask me.”

“And the forest isn’t drying up, so it’s clear that other places are getting water,” Luna said, shaking her head. “But Barely Buck wouldn’t stop talking about the rain upriver, and the snow melting off mountains… They think this is normal.”

“Rare, but normal. Most importantly!” Discord’s little grin was back, “The two towns are so busy bickering with each other, that they’ve overlooked a very key question!”

“Why is it only this river that’s drying up?”

The two of them walked in front of me, grinning silently in unison. It was a few moments of this forced hush before I realized they were done.

“That’s it?”

“Yep!” Luna shouted.

“But how could two towns overlook something so simple?” I asked. It can’t be nearly that simple… the farmers aren’t foals, they must have noticed what was going on with other streams and rivers. They must have.

“Is it that hard to believe?” Discord responded, “Things get overlooked all the time, especially when everyone thinks they have the right answer.”

“More like… I don’t want to believe it’s that simple.”

Our conversation got quiet, just for a moment. I stared at the bottom of the riverbed as Luna looked up at me, a question in her eyes. Oblivious, Discord scurried forward.

“Anyway,” He said, “Over there is the dam, gate, canal… Thing they built.” I looked where he pointed. Lean-to’s had been built, hastily constructed out of sticks and string, cloth or planks flung over the top to serve as a makeshift roof. Farmer ponies patrolled either side of the river, glaring at each other across the empty embankments. Between them, stuck right across the riverbed, stood a modest log contraption. It looked like a heavy bridge, with only two ways for the water to flow out the bottom, evenly dividing the riverbed and the tiny stream in half. As we passed it, the other side had a makeshift wedge nailed to the back, curved at strange angles to try and stop the unruly stream from simply flowing to one side or another. Several ponies stood around this wedge, silently glaring at one another as they nudged the contraption’s hinges back and forth.

“Seems like they’ve got all of this covered,” I commented.

“Yep!” Luna replied, galloping forward. “Nothing more to see here!”

We heading upriver, following the stream as our surroundings got wilder and wilder. Trees replaced fields, and the terrain grew hilly and steep. More often than not, we walked the edges of slopes, sometimes walking in the sandy riverbed itself to avoid the irritation of trying to stay upright on a loose hill. Night gradually fell as we walked. It was still hard to tell when exactly night began, but I had another way to measure it: crickets. Loud, roaring crickets that never, ever quiet down the entire night. I’d say they drown out conversation, but they drown out a lot of things. Like thoughts.

“How far upriver are we going, anyway?” I asked, struggling to sound dignified as I was forced to shout over the crickets.

“I have no idea!” Discord proudly declared.

“Should we stop and rest, keep trying tomorrow? I don’t want to be walking all night…”

“C’mon, it just got dark,” Luna complained. “We’ve gotta keep looking, even if it’s just for a little bit longer!”

“How can we keep looking if there’s nothing to see? Why don’t I—”

“Ooh, I can fix that!” The shadow of Luna bounced in front of me, face floating from the darkness as her horn began to glow. She reached up to my face and rubbed a hoof over my eyes, pressing uncomfortably. I yanked my head back and politely pushed her away. I blinked my eyes open. Once, twice. The world had become nearly as clear as in daylight, silhouetted in shades of black and gray.

“I-I guess that’s better,” I admitted, “I was just going to cast a little flare spell.”

“But this way we fight the night on its own terms! Through darkness!” I laughed softly as Luna hopped forward to Discord. “You want to see in the dark, Discord?”

“Don’t worry, I can already do that naturally.”

“Cool.”

Two bends of the river later.

“I think we’ve found it.”

I almost couldn’t tell what I was seeing at first. With the spell cast over my eyes, it looked like the river simply stopped, running directly into a gigantic black mass. But as we approached, I noticed its edges. It was a wall, a massive one, filling the entire riverbank. It rose high enough to bridge hillcrest to hillcrest, and dwarfed all the trees around it. I was immediately struck by the size, reminded of the Stallion’s walls in Canterbury. But this wall seemed much more crudely built. It was a crammed together mess, haphazardly constructed with stones and logs, muddy straw serving as its caulk. Water spurted from various cracks and holes, enough to create a small, but steady stream that dribbled into the riverbed.

Without a word, we scampered up the steep hill to get a better look, sliding off the loose soil in our haste. The slopes that we stood on were damp and waterlogged, and each step sunk into the ground, leaving behind thick, muddy puddles among the fallen leaves. Finally, we stood atop the hill, able to look over the massive wall, on the shores of something unbelievable.

Extending from crest to crest, curving back around hills into unknown territory was a massive expanse of black water. The wind rippled the surface, making tiny waves wash up against our hooves, slapping against the makeshift rock dam. Trees became slowly submerged as they moved down the slopes, peppering both shores. Only the center of the watery mass was completely empty and still.

It was as if the river had been plugged up. It never stopped flowing. There was a word for this, I was certain.

“It’s… A lake?” I guessed, unable to take my eyes away. “What’s a lake doing here?”

“I think we can see why!” Discord waved towards the rock wall.

“I suppose so,” I replied softly, “Question now is ‘Who? And how.”

“’How’ can also be answered with the dam…?”

“That’s not what I mean.” I shook my head, trying to stop myself from staring. “I don’t know if this is earth pony work… and it’s definitely not the Shadow Stallion’s. So who would go through all this trouble? And for what purpose?”

“Hm…” Discord snapped his eyes up to me with a revelation, “What if whoever built this was trying to cut off Stallion food sources?”

“So… A resistance group? Hm…” I looked down at my friend, “A plausible explaination…”

There was a squeal. I whipped around to see Luna charge past me, leap into the air, and land in the lake with a heavy splash, splattering water across my legs.

“Eee! It’s cold!” She giggled, spinning and splashing in place.

“Luna, what are you doing?!” I cried out, hovering on the shore. “You don’t know how to swim!”

Luna took a deep breath of air and pouted. She bobbed gently in the waves for a moment before gasping and dunking briefly under the water.

“Did you see that?!” she sputtered joyfully, “I just floated!”

“Luna, you get back here right now! I’m warning you! Don’t make me come in myself!”

I made my disapproval very clear, but Luna continued to splash around in the water, giggling. I looked down at Discord, biting my lip. He simply stared back at me, face blank. At least he had the common sense to not jump in after her, but did he really have nothing more to say? I sighed and turned around. Carefully, I hung my saddlebags from a tree branch, picking up Luna’s from where she dropped them. I didn’t want them resting on the damp ground. Necessary task complete, I walked to the water’s edge and gently tapped my hoof against the water. Goodness, that was cold.

Suddenly, I lost my hooves. I smacked into the lake. My head went under, water jammed itself up my nose, my side stung from the water’s blow. I didn’t dare breathe, and I doubt I could if I tried, organs tightened by the frigid temperature. I kicked myself against the ground, finding the surface immediately. I gasped and spat water and Discord loudly laughed and splashed beside me.

“I was waiting forever for you to take that thing off!” He laughed again, falling back into the water with a wet slap.

“I could have drowned!” I spun and bucked water at him, body burning, face certainly red. Yet he continued to laugh and laugh…

“Hey, calm down!” Discord chuckled, “It’s not like I can swim any better than you two. I wouldn’t do anything too terribly stupid.”

I bobbed slightly as a wave picked me up off the lakebed. I immediately hurried to shallower waters, still glaring at the little hodgepodge of a pony.

“Why in Equestria are we playing in the water if none of us can swim?!” I sputtered. “We’re supposed to be focused on the dam here!”

“It’s celebratory,” Discord replied, hopping as a wave swelled under him. “We found the problem, now we just dismantle the thing, right?”

“Why can’t either of you just take one thing seriously?!” I shouted, “How can you just laugh off death?!”

Discord snorted, “Why do you always think everything’s going to kill us, you—“

“Guys!” Luna shouted, splashing loudly, “Let’s not figh-burble-” A wave washed over Luna’s head, cutting off her sentence.

“Luna!” I shot forward, diving into the water, trying to find her hooves.

And then I saw it.

A beast, a monster, a cross between a serpent and a pony, as big, maybe bigger than the dam. It rose from the center of the lake, displacing waves, rain falling from its massive body, slick and slimy, like an eel’s. A seaweed mane hung wet from its mammoth crest, falling over the scales and gills that folded across its face, down its thick neck. The creature reared up, kicking its cart-sized hooves as it roared, a raucous sound smashing off the hills, splitting my ears. With a whip of its enormous tail, gallons and gallons of water barreled towards the shore, towards us.

I curled my legs around Luna’s body just as her spell cut off, plunging everything around me into a heavy waterfall of darkness.