Archmage: Square One

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Chapter 12: End of the Line

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Trottingham. Oh how I’d forgotten my own hometown. Being a city thousands of years old, I couldn’t say things had changed. Things tended to stay the same when they were millennia old, not to mention the former capitol of Equestria. The way I understood it, Trottingham was one of the first towns made when the ponies descended from the frozen northern kingdom, chased here by the wendigos. Back then, the Blood Fields were home to the Buffalo, a peaceful race whom ponies got along with magnificently…

Until the gryphons took issue with another hooved race on the ground. Trottingham was built to withstand griffon attack, and we ponies excelled in defending the castle-bound homes. It was our capitol, and had been besieged several times in the history of those wars long, long ago. As a nation of Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi standing united, we needn’t fear the wrath of the Wendigos, but we did have to ally with the buffalo against the gryphons. That was the start of the multitude of wars between the two races, and the Buffalo homeland lost its old name, adapting the new handle of ‘The Blood Fields.’

Trottingham was the first city to be formed, thanks mostly to its safety. Ponies fled South and then West, finding safety in distancing themselves from the slowly-emerging frontlines of the wars, but Trottingham was a haven for buffalo and ponykind alike. Back then, it sat backed up to a small range of mild mountains that marked the edge of the Blood Fields. But following the siege of the Wyrms and the princess’ intervention, it sat on a rocky cliff high above the waters of Horseshoe Bay.

Now, Trottingham was one of the few clifftop cities that offered a magnificent view of the crashing waves and rocks far, far below its battle-tested walls.It sat just outside of the Timberwolf Territory by a few dozen miles, skirting the very north-eastern border of Equestria proper. For all its reclusiveness, Trottingham remained a bastion of a city, the last grim reminder that Ponies and Griffons were once mortal enemies, well over five thousand years ago. The only way into or out of the city these days was a long hike over the misty fields surrounding the high walls, or the train South to Horseshoe Bay.

As the train passed under the magnificently-high wall, we were plunged into a momentary darkness. The walls were not guarded anymore, but they hadn’t been torn down, either. Instead, we passed underneath the thick monolithic structure, finding ourselves in the very south-western edge of my hometown.

“Good to be back?” Goldy met with me outside on the train platform, where I hastily collapsed onto the floor and kissed the dirty cobblestone.

“Good to be off that train. Ugh.” My stomach was still roiling with the last extended study session, which had focused on the intricacies of a particularly effective Force spell, one that would blast apart a being from the inside. I wasn’t sure if I remembered all of it, considering Basil had droned on in that monotone of his while I was fighting the urge to paint my own diagram on the book.

“Come on, we have to find lodgings.” Goldy was already shivering, and I joined her shortly after. For all its archaic beauty, Trottingham was deathly cold. It was the highest city in Equestria, only fifty-eight short miles from Horseshoe Bay, but all of them uphill. The two-hour train ride could have been cut perhaps half an hour short by a skilled flier, but as it was, only two of us had wings.

Nevertheless, Lotus and Fair Breeze joined us a few moments later, and Basil was on their tail, having had to pack away our study books. He still shot Goldy a mean look, standing on the opposite end of our entourage from her. Considering myself, Lotus, and Fair Breeze separated them, I felt more confident in advancing than I had the past three days.

“Where was it Twilight wanted you to go?” Lotus inquired, taking a moment to pull a scarf from her bag.

“Well,” I pushed my glasses up my nose and mirrored her, though I retrieved a small map instead. The memory of my hometown was spotty at best. “She said the northern library… And we’re in the South-West part of the city, so we’ve got a bit of a hike ahead of us.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” A booming voice nearly made me jump. My head snapped up as I witnessed what could easily have been described as a pony-shaped boulder loom ahead of us on the train platform. I could swear my chest shook with the intensity of his voice. “I received a missive from the Archmage three days ago. Name’s Cobalt,” He offered a massive hoof to me with a grin. “I take it you’re Star Caster, little one?”

Cobalt was, simply put, massive. I’ve seen a few large ponies in my lifetime, but they were all large in the middle. Cobalt was large everywhere. His coat took to his namesake well (or perhaps vice-versa,) in that it kept a dark, nearly midnight-blue tone. His mane, however, was a very striking and deep jade, with a few streaks of darker malachite streaming from his temples. It hung about his face and neck freely, partially obscuring his eyes. But from what I could see between the luxurious locks, they held intelligence, and he was very well-spoken.

“Y-yeah.” I stuttered, taking his hoof warily. He shook it vigorously, which was enough to perhaps upend a produce cart, and enough to drop me on my flank.

“Haha! Sorry, little one. I don’t know my own strength sometimes.” His accent was thick and unmistakably Stalliongradish, but he didn’t clip words out of his sentences as they often did. One thing was for certain: He wasn’t from around here. And if he was, not recently. I’m certain I’d have read in some newspaper about somepony who had about as much destructive force going through a doorway as I did trying to retrieve a kitten from a tree. He was easily twice my size, with another half of Goldy thrown in for good measure.

“What did this letter from the Archmage say?” Basil asked as I got my hooves underneath me once more.

“Only that two of her students would be arriving, and that I’d be showing them their new abode. Sadly, that was three days ago. I’m sorry to hear about the trains having difficulty. I hope you found a place to stay in Horseshoe Bay?”

“We did.” I dusted myself off and smiled at Goldy. “Had a good time, actually. So you’re here to show us to the northern library?”

“I am indeed, little one. Come with me.” He turned to leave and I found myself glancing over the wide expanse of his flanks. There, the five of us stopped. Cobalt might have been twice our size, but it seemed he wasn’t as much of a pony as we’d thought he was. Over those dusky-blue thighs of his, there was no marking. Cobalt, for all his immediate and obvious personality, did not have a cutie mark.

“What’s the matter?” He glanced back at us. “Come, it’s cold, and I do not want the little one to get sick.”

“R-right.” I followed Cobalt, hauling my luggage, trying hard to not look at his flanks.

Losing a cutie mark is a rare occurrence in Equestria. Sometimes, they’re removed by injury. Other times… Well, it’s not entirely undocumented that a pony simply loses their way in life. There were stories of the wars long ago when ponies whose talent was exploration or cartography, or even pegasi whose talent was flight, being captured and held prisoner for years.

When they were released at the end of the war, they returned to Equestria with no marks on their flanks. Being kept from doing what your destiny told you to do usually had some severe consequences. Insanity, dementia, or even paranoid schizophrenia ensued. History says those ponies went mad and either ran from home, turned violent and were imprisoned, or killed themselves.

These days, ponies without cutie marks are extraordinarily rare. I remember one lesson in school when I was but a foal without my own mark, where the teacher told us there were adult ponies who had received their cutie marks, but lost it. Talking about it or staring was considered rude, almost like staring at a pegasus who’d lost a wing. Thus, the five of us were cowed into silence as we followed Cobalt off of the train platform and down a short street.

Before us was a massive cart, comparable in size to a stagecoach that had once taken ponies across the Appaloosian desert. Typically, those were pulled by teams of four to six ponies. Cobalt seemed to manage this one alone.

“I’m sorry for the lack of space back there, but this is all we have. Huddle close, it’s a long way down open streets.” Cobalt shrugged into the harness for the cart, even as the five of us began loading our luggage and huddling close. It was tight, and I’m sure Basil mumbled a death threat to Goldy somewhere along the way, but we settled down. Lotus, Basil and I kept us all warm with a bit of controlled magic, and the lurching cart moved slowly down the street.

Cobalt remained silent during the trip, only giving an occasional grunt as somepony cut him off or he had to reluctantly take us over a bumpy portion of the road. During those dodgy parts of our journey, I felt my stomach churn. Thankfully, having Goldy pressed against my side seemed to help. That, and I could look at the city pass by over the rim of the cart.

My old hometown was an ancient city, but not without its own personality. The homes were tall and slender, sometimes consisting of four or more stories, all packed closely together. When a city with walls like Trottingham was built, ponies didn’t have much of an opportunity to build outwards. Not unless they wanted to expand outside of the walls, that is. Instead, they built upwards.

Nevertheless, some ponies weren’t meant to be that far off of the ground. Pegasi cloud homes occupied some of the upper reaches of the walls, and even in the thousands of years since its inception, pegasi were scared of taking their homes too far away from the comfortable stone edifice. The result was an almost constant, dreary overcast inside of the walls, thanks mostly in part to the high shadows cast at any given hour of the day by the monolithic walls, but also to the semi-permanent cloud cover inside the upper reaches of the city.

Other pegasi had opted to build their homes attached to the walls, using long stilted legs and plenty of support beams to hold them up. Outside, Trottingham’s walls were smooth and worn down by millennia of wind and storms. Inside, it looked like a bad case of acne.

The other two thirds of the species inhabiting the interior of Trottingham had to make do and squeeze tight. Thus, the homes were taller than most, and much more packed. Still, Trottingham was a trading city, and the streets were wide to facilitate the multitude of markets that played host on its streets. Cobalt led us down these wide avenues, and the places of my youth were beginning to come back to me.

My family lived on the southern edge of the city, not terribly far from the train platform. But I spent a lot of my time attending the school near the central part of Trottingham, and the rest of it in the eastern and northern libraries. Both of them were built into the walls, and had long ago been part of the defenses against Griffon attacks. Since then, they had been re-purposed as educational institutes and museums, an archaic reminder of times when we had to fight the airborne menace that had been the griffons.

The safest and most secure creation of ponykind back then had been the massive, monolithic barrier itself. Thusly, the mayor of Trottingham, the prison, the legislature chambers, and all manner of important governmental ruling bodies were in the walls themselves.

The North wall was, traditionally, one of the fewest-utilized in those days. It was mainly used for storage and auxiliary forces, particularly the training brigades for their militia. The main bulk of the judicial bodies lived in the West wall, far away from the frontlines back then. The East wall was where the standing military resided, and made up the guard quarters for modern-day Trottingham. The South wall was where the majority of the trade took place, and was reserved for visiting merchants, important dignitaries, or other notable visitors.

Some of those remained true to this day. The Mayor’s office and all other important government buildings were in the West side of the city, residing in chambers set inside the very walls themselves. The South was where most of the markets and trading took place, and was traditionally the wealthiest and most densely-populated part of Trottingham. The guard remained in the East, and the North housed the library, archives, and a fair amount of the schools where Trottingham foals earned their education.

Cobalt steered us down a familiar street, and I left the relative comfort and warmth of my friends to peek over the edge. “Oh man,” I breathed, feeling that old twinge of nostalgia in my chest.

“You remember this place?” Lotus asked.

“Yeah, I… My old school is just two streets up. I used to come this way whenever I wanted to visit the northern library… That old stallion, there,” I pointed as Cobalt trundled past another, smaller cart. “He sells treats to ponies. See?” As I watched, a couple of bright-eyed young fillies scampered up to his cart, and he passed them two delicious-looking, steaming sweetrolls for a bit apiece.

“And there,” I continued. “My mother would meet me there, so she could look at that jewelry store before walking me home from the library.” The jewelry store was the same, its windows packed with glimmering and beautiful pieces. “She bought my first jeweled beret from that store… I… I left it here when I left for Canterlot…”

“Home sweet home, huh?” Basil chuckled from behind me. I blushed and sat down, watching the familiar sights glide past. A store that sold coffee, where I’d become partial to sitting for a nice brew on my way for an extended reading session. A few streets down was an old toy store I’d marveled at, since they had all the greatest Daring Do action figures. And after that, closer to the library, a bookstore where I’d gotten the advanced books I needed to complete my homeschooling, and they had a good selection of morally-questionable romance stories too.

After another five minutes or so, the street narrowed and Cobalt pulled up to a stop. “We’re here,” He called back to us. I swear I could feel the vibrations of his voice carry through the cart, into my hooves. “Looks like snow, so let’s get you all inside quickly.”

There was a bustle of activity as we all hopped down off of the cart and began unloading, Cobalt assisting with some of Goldy’s heavier luggage by propping it across his massive shoulders and balancing it in. Basil, Lotus and I managed the rest, our horns blazing as we carried the hefty load towards a wide staircase and the inviting sight of two familiar, wide oaken doors.

The interior of the library’s foyer wrapped around me like the embrace of an old, long-lost lover. I actually had to close my eyes for a few seconds while the double doors groaned closed behind us. Cobalt hefted the luggage towards the receptionist’s desk, though the friendly middle-aged mare I remembered was absent. Instead, Cobalt gingerly fished around behind the desk, moving with a surprising amount of care for a stallion his size. He emerged with a ring of keys, jingling merrily.

“Here,” I took them from him with a glimmer of magic. “No sense drooling all over our room keys.”

“We have spares waiting for you in your rooms.” Cobalt chuckled, indicating one of the side halls with a nod of his head. “There are, unfortunately, only four rooms available.”

“That’s fine.” Goldy piped up. “Star and I can share one, and I’m sure Lotus and Breeze will be upset if they didn’t get to share a room.” I glanced at Goldy for a moment, a smile playing across my lips before I nodded to Cobalt.

“Looks like we’ll have one extra. Basil, I presume you don’t mind having a room to yourself?”

“As long as it’s far from you-know-who.” Basil sniffed, though his eyes glazed over into a different look as he turned to Cobalt. “And as close as it can get to you.” A change seemed to come over our behemoth escort, and he looked down at Basil with a serious expression.

“Little pony want to be close to me?” His Stalliongrad accent came out in full force, his speech growing much thicker and deep. I watched as Cobalt leaned down, his face close to Basil’s. “I vould hurt little pony.”

“Oh darlin’.” Basil fanned himself with a hoof, his cheeks darkening. “It’d take a lot to hurt me…”

“Eerm, excuse me…” I piped up between the two of them, my voice feeling remarkably quiet next to Cobalt’s chest-rattling reverberations. “Our rooms…?”

“Da I vill show you rooms.” Cobalt grumbled, giving Basil another look before shuffling off down the hall. Gone was his well-spoken mannerisms and surprising amount of grace. Instead, he shouldered through the door frame, splintering the edges with his shoulders. I brushed dust out of my mane and off my glasses in his wake, casting a quick glare Basil’s way that said ‘keep it in your pants or else he’s going to bring the wall down on our heads.’ It was clear Cobalt had a switch inside of him, and Basil had just flipped it expertly. I really didn’t want Goldy and I’s room anywhere near Basil and whatever doorway-splintering guests he may or may not have in the near future.

Thankfully, we didn’t have far to go. The North Library’s main floor and archives were through a set of double doors on either side of the receptionist’s desk, while the hallway Colbalt led us down had previously been off-limits to visitors such as myself when I was younger. I came to discover these were private quarters, probably belonging to officers of the standing militia that had defended Trottingham from the griffons long, long ago.

Cobalt led us a good portion of the way down a long, straight hallway with several smaller ones branching off here and there. I caught sight of a few signs reading ‘Private Quarters – No Library Patrons Without Escort!’

“This is the first and closest room,” Cobalt pulled up at one of the intersecting hallways. “Star Caster, you and the golden one-“

“Gold Nugget. Most call me Goldy.”

“Right. You should stay here, so you’re closest to the library.”

“Fair enough.” I mused, trying hard not to stare at Cobalt’s blank sides as he unlocked our quarters. “Where can I find the others?”

“These two can stay one hall over, in room two. Our bookbinder keeps quarters there, and it’s relatively quiet.” He seemed to be back to usual now, though I was scared to see a twinkle in his eyes, disguised behind the jade locks of his mane as he rested his gaze on Basil. “But you can stay near me, six halls down. The servant’s quarters. Room four.” He licked his lips, making my stomach churn. I pushed the door open and ushered Goldy inside, thankful I remembered to grab her trunk off of Cobalt’s massive back before we closed the door behind us.

“Home sweet home.” Goldy sighed, smiling at the warm interior. Outside, we could hear Cobalt’s hoof falls as he led the rest of our group to their own rooms. We waited until he was out of earshot before releasing a sigh of relief. “He was… Interesting. What do you think his deal was?”

“What, with the way he switched accents talking to Basil like that?” I pulled my glasses off and rubbed my eyes. It had been a trying day, thanks largely in part to the withering cold and another packed train ride. “I honestly don’t know…”

“And his cutie mark!”

“Shh,” I urged, waving at Goldy with a slight frown. “It’s not polite.”

“I know, but still… Ya gotta wonder…” Goldy sighed and hung her head, grasping the heavy trunk in her teeth to drag at least part of the way away from the door. I followed suit, hovering the rest of our luggage into the room.

I was surprised to find our quarters were actually rather well-appointed. We had four rooms in total. A bathroom, a living room, a joined kitchen and dining room, and a rather large bedroom complete with two desks and two dressers. It seemed Goldy and I would actually have all the space we needed. I claimed the larger of the two desks, which Goldy sniffed at me for but let me off with a teasing nip. We began the preliminary unpacking, mostly just cold-weather clothes and perishables. The kitchen was fully-stocked, though the fruit on the counter looked a little ripe.

“Because we’re three days late.” I surmised, sniffing tentatively at one of the bananas. It had a relatively large brown spot, so I tossed it. But the cupboards were stuffed and I heard tell of a larger kitchen with more supplies elsewhere in the long series of hallways off of the library’s main thoroughfare. The living room sported three comfortable-looking couches and a fireplace with an already-lit blaze roaring healthily. I banked a few more logs from the wall-borne stack and poked my head into the bathroom.

“Oh wow, they have a shower here.”

“Is that rare?” Goldy brushed past, carrying a box of toiletries with her wings.

“In Trottingham, yeah. It’s usually baths. I guess they modernized these not too long ago. We should count our blessings.”

“Aah. Blessings. Sure.” Goldy rolled her eyes, and I pouted at her.

“What, you not happy about having to share a room with me?”

“No, it’s not that…” She sighed and shoved her toiletries onto the counter with the sink. “It’s Basil.”

“Aah.” I leaned against the doorway with a faint smile. Goldy shot me a quick glare before starting on what felt like it’d be a well-rehearsed speech.

“You two are going to be working together a lot while you’re here, and I know he’d just as soon blast my head off than have to look at me. I just want you to know that the two of us living together like this for… however long we’re here is going to be difficult with him around.”

“How about this, then:” I walked forward and laid my chin across the back of her neck, a gesture I’d discovered she rather liked. “I’ll only go study in his quarters. He’ll never set foot in here without your express permission.”

“That sounds like a fair compromise…” Goldy sighed, nuzzling into my neck affectionately. “Still, I get the feeling things are only going to get more tense between the two of us…”

“As long as he doesn’t actually blow your head off, that’d only result in you two settling whatever dispute he has with you, won’t it?”

“Sure.” Goldy shrugged, chewing the inside of her cheek. “If he doesn’t blow my head off…”

“Speaking of head…” I muttered, nibbling on her ear gently. She gave a full-body shudder and moaned just the way I liked.

“Shower then bed?” She offered weakly.

“Shower then bed.”

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The next day dawned overcast and bleary with a dusting of snow on the ground, though I didn’t know that until I took a short walk outside. Our quarters, cozy as they were, didn’t have any windows and I wasn’t about to crawl up the chimney to get a look at the weather. Thankfully enough, I spotted Cobalt half a street down, backing his cart up towards a large set of doors.

“Cobalt!” I called out to him with a wave, my horn glimmering to pull my scarf more tightly around my neck.

“Star Caster, little one.” He smiled at me as he shrugged out of the harness. “Good to see you awake, I was afraid you’d sleep through the day. How is your new home?”

“Fantastic, thank you.” I beamed up at the massive stallion as he moved towards the double doors and the back of his wagon. “I had a few questions about my research, though. When can I go see the barrier?”

“Any time you’d like, little one.” Cobalt grunted. “I am a caretaker here, not your escort. I’ll gladly bring you supplies, but what you do with them is your own. I’m not even entirely sure why you came to Trottingham, only that the Archmage wants our full cooperation.”

“Oh.” If I sounded crestfallen, it’s because I was. I had been hoping for a little more direction, and Basil wasn’t answering his door when I went to pound on it earlier that morning. A thought struck me then, and I peered up at Cobalt as he began maneuvering a series of crates from the wagon and into what I guessed was the library’s storage. “How did the others settle into their rooms?”

That gave him pause. Cobalt looked down at me with two crates mid-transfer, his glimmering eyes boring into me even from behind the strands of his mane. After a long pause, he finished the journey and shrugged. “Lotus and Fair Breeze are fine. Basil, though… He’s…”

“Gay.” I finished for him, lifting a shoulder. “I’d apologize for him, but-“

“No, don’t apologize. He’s fine.” Cobalt, this massive boulder of a pony, blushed at me. Blushed! “I, just, aah… Well, you see…” He cleared his throat and leaned in a little, speaking lower. The effect was a low, gravelly rumble that made my ears twitch. “Not many ponies can appreciate me for me, considering my… Disposition. It’s been some time that somepony – anypony – has looked at me like Basil did. I guess you could say I, aah…” He cleared his throat again. “Lost control a little.”

“I suddenly understand why Basil wasn’t answering his door this morning.”

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Cobalt and I chatted a little while he finished unloading, though he assured me he had other tasks to tend to that day. In the end, it was really up to me to get started on the research. Rather than dive right in, I decided to familiarize myself with the city again. First stop was the wall, where I could look out around the surrounding lands, and down at the city if the pegasi homes were being cooperative. Down the other hallway opposite our quarters was a lift that hoisted me up to the wall with a small bit of magic.

Back when I was younger, I’d have to have the receptionist let me up. But now, with my magic fixed and well in-hoof, I could get up to the top without sending the whole lift careening two hundred feet down the shaft. Arriving in one of the multitude of guard towers atop the wall, I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck and stepped out into the blustery air.

It was just like my first time.

Trottingham’s city walls were traditionally terrifying. Standing atop the massive edifice was an experience the first time around. The walls rose three hundred and fifty feet above the city proper, towering well above even the tallest building inside its protective hold. The width was where they excelled, though. These walls had withstood griffon spears, arrows, primal enchantments, and even rogue pony spells during the long encounter thousands of years ago. The magic imbued in the stone kept it strong, and no storm or wind had chipped away at that armor.

Seventy feet wide at its widest, thirty at the narrowest, the walls could hold a column of ponies standing shoulder-to-shoulder with enough room to spare on the sides for the archers to continue unimpeded. I lost track of the world below me as I moved from one side to the other, and if I lay on my back as I had in the summer months, I would see nothing but the sky. Looking down was a dizzying experience, but one I still enjoyed.

On one side was pegasi homes and the stilt-houses fixed to the inside edge of the city. And far, far below them was the spider web of streets leading up to the wall itself. On the other side was a smattering of houses huddled up against the walls, and then nothing but wilderness. A few farms dotted the landscape here and there, but what homes I saw had boarded windows and doors. They had been evacuated after the first Timberwolf attack.

And then there was the barrier.

Heavens help me, I hadn’t been prepared for that. Looking over the wall and down at the city was comforting. Looking over the wall and at the Timberwolf territories reminded me just how far out of my league I was.

A gigantic glittering wall of purple magic soared up into the heavens, lost among the clouds that hung high overhead. It looked as if someone had capped off the world, and beyond that glittering purple wall was nothing but the infinite beyond. I couldn’t see through it, and there was no shifting or variance in its surface. Even from this distance, I could see that the wall extended out into the sea, breaching the shore right where the pine trees of the Timberwolf territory started, and extended out of sight to the North. Somewhere along the way, this wall would have intersected the crystal kingdom as well, splitting it from the age-old enemies we ponies had found in the Timberwolves.

Something struck me in that moment, looking at this monument to Twilight’s magical prowess. Standing on the wall, my rump hit the floor, and I felt the tears begin.

“I can’t do this…”

Author's Notes:

The exposition is real.