Several months ago...

Luna sat next to her sister in the latter’s personal study. It was a large space, filled with books and scrolls, its high ceiling vaulted. Currently, the room had been arranged such that ponies could better sit around a central pile of folders, charts, and devices that sat on a grand, low coffee table. Stationed on floor cushions around the said dark oak surface were Equestria’s greatest magical minds. Twilight Sparkle, her pupil Starlight Glimmer, and Sunburst, the Crystal Empire’s Crystalier. They were waiting for Stormwalker to return with some reading material for Sunburst while chit-chatting over details It was an open-ended discussion, mostly focused on the magical inconsistencies of certain ponies of interest.

“But how does he change shape? And conjuring fireballs? How did he get that magic?” Sunburst questioned.

“Well, for the first part, we know it’s the same magic Changelings use; how he got it is a totally different story. Though we haven’t ruled out the possibility that he is an amnesic one…” Starlight responded.

“Subject Z is decidedly a Zebra. Changelings cannot fake blood types, nor psychological resonances. Princess Luna confirmed both already, leaving us with the ‘how’ only.” Twilight concluded. The party cast a glance in her direction, Luna nodded cordially, unwilling to interrupt their discussion. While she held a masterful understanding of dreams, the magic of dreams, and psychology she was only a master in those cloistered areas. She was certainly no prodigal spell caster like the two mares at the table nor a certified magical technician like the stallion. They accepted her silence and body language to continue without her verbal input.

“We have theorized on forced inception through rituals and magic siphoning. Can we take that any further?” Starlight Glimmer asked the fateful question.

“Well, we would need to know the timeline of when those events took place, and how long it took him to develop the magical ability. A detail we are lacking in our data.” Sunburst answered turning his gaze to Luna with a sad smile. She grimaced and looked down still unsure if it was proper to tell these ponies the truth about Zeccaran and why she cared to save him. Frankly, for anypony else the zebra would only invoke loathing. After all that he had done and what he had become, Luna felt it best that nopony know all the details. However, she needed to give them some type of answer, some small piece of information.

“Consider…” she paused, biting her lip, “Consider at least a yearly ritual, for...I would say, at least thirty years.” Luna finished. Tension and wide eyes instantly filled the room save for Celestia. Her sister gave her a graceful nod with closed eyes, approving of her answer. That did little to relieve the creeping sensation Luna was getting from the three ponies’ concerned looks.

“That covers the basic concept of the idea. How about his Thaumatic Magic Level, Twilight?” Sunburst broke the silence and his gaze.

“Yeah. You never did tell me what it was either.” Starlight said, switching all of attention to Twilight Sparkle. She made a distinctly poor half-smile of embarrassment she was known for.

“Well...depending on the day...he fell in the five-thousand to six-thousand range…” she replied timidly rubbing her mane.

“Five-thousand!” shouted both Starlight and Sunburst.

“That’s more than me!” the former spat in disbelief.

“It’s nearly the same as the Princesses! How is that possible!?” The latter dismayed.

Celestia cleared her throat causing the uproar to miss several beats. Luna was curious as to why her sister chose to interrupt, perhaps she had gained some insight she had not.

“I believe a potent example would be Sombra as for the how. Instead, I think you should be focusing on the ‘why’ of Zeccaran. Why would a previously ordinary zebra be involved in the Cult of Nightmare Moon, and why would they concentrate all their energy into grafting new magic into him. Is there perhaps something they saw that we do not?” Celestia asked with a calm demeanor. Luna had not considered this train of thought. Even she, who had personally invaded and re-written Zeccaran’s mind, knew very little on the specifics of why he was chosen to receive the “upgrades.”

“Perhaps this has more to do with his body’s storage capacity and type. I believe that is one of the fundamental tenets in your First Law of Magical Energy Dispersion, Twilight: if I am remembering correctly. I haven’t reread that book in a while.” Celestia continued. Twilight pursed her lips her look thoughtful as she considered what her mentor had said.

“You know...I had been thinking of that, but it felt more important to figure out the details. I guess ‘why’ he can in the first place is the best place to start. And with Subject G having an even more extreme capacity...I guess that’s why we are here. Everypony here had something to do with gathering or analyzing data for my book, save you two of course..” Twilight mused looking back and forth between Luna and Celestia.

Luna nodded. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the barest hint of a grin perk the edge Celestia’s mouth. Her sister would never openly admit it, but as much as Twilight was her student, the small lavender alicorn was also Celestia’s idolized heartache. Since the debacle between she and the galant Stormwalker, Celestia had become significantly more interested in the company of mares. Luna often wondered if that was her sister’s means of self-inflicted penance, or if perhaps she just would never feel the same way about any other stallion again. Regretfully, she had never shown any indication in her dreams of locked away anxiety and Luna had to accept her sister’s behavior at face value; her current stallion had been but a faze to Celestia. She had always liked mares, and her behavior towards her love interests had remained consistent with that fact, regardless of what Luna tried to discern. And, regardless of the shame her sister felt for how she ended that last relationship.

Silence had descended onto the room after Twilight had spoken and it had taken until now for Luna to notice. She felt rather awkward as she shifted her focus between the ponies at the table and then each of their coffee mugs. When she had made her rotation back to Starlight Glimmer the mare heaved a sigh before blowing a raspberry and continuing.

“With all of us here and with most of the information already gathered we could probably put together a reference system for Subject G.” She paused to dramatically look around the room. “Is there some type of calculation Mr. Stormwalker wants us to do?” she directed the question to Luna.

She was about to answer when the door to the chamber opened his a bit of a creak. In walked her stallion a collection of dingy looking books balanced on his back. He looked at Starlight with a cheeky grin on his face, Luna was not surprised, he probably had heard her question, he had the ears of a cat.

“Not at this time Starlight.” he said. “I have already run the projection, and needless to say it’s grim. So for now I would rather focus on solutions to other troubles surrounding Gusty Twilight.” Starlight shrugged in acceptance as Stormwalker slowly moved around the coffee table and set the books he carried in front of Sunburst.

“You know. Not to distract from these lovely ancient books...but I have to be frank Twilight. I really don’t understand the significance of the value difference in those projections. If Subject Z has as much magic as Luna or Celestia why doesn’t he just use it?” the orange stallion asked. Luna had to agree some of the importance was lost on her because she simply lacked the finer understanding Twilight, Starlight, and Stormwalker possessed.

“Simply put most of his reading is based on his potential magic. He cannot access all of his magic in a single go. He’ll experience burnout. Like when a unicorn uses too much of their reserves too quickly.” Twilight answered.

“Oh. Okay. I guess then I should ask how the scaling works for the unit measurement. I’m just trying to establish a baseline for how I am supposed to think about these numbers.” Sunburst continued.

“If I had to give you a rough quantization…” Stormwalker answered first. “It would be about five-times more powerful per one-thousand units. And those units are not necessarily castable magic. Since the projection is based on the absolute minimum a given creature’s total magic capacity is measured at with one of these bad boys.” He picked up one of the antennaed device switching it on with a quick click. It hummed as it booted up

“This is a Thaumatic Magic Meter.” Twilight chimed in taking the device in her magic. “It takes into account all the Active Magic and Potential Magic, like I mentioned a moment ago. That total is the Thaumatic Magic Total. Its this value that we can use to calculate the minimum Thaumatic potential for said subject.”

“Oh. okay. So the larger the projection number the bigger the power difference. That makes sense, but how do you translate the value?” Sunburst asked his voice concerned.

“For example Sir Stormwalker’s reading is sixty-eight thousand units. The meter then started producing errors due to its inability to compensate for his contained magical purity concentration. This has to do with the Second Law of Potentiality; and, how you can calculate the purity of magic in a creature’s body by dividing the measured ratio.” Twilight continued further but that was the length Luna understood. Besides Stormwalker and Starlight, Luna was certain nopony else understood Twilight’s description. Even Celestia looked on with a small grimace as her student rattled off the details. While the scientific community had proved Twilight’s formulas and laws accurate, beyond all shadow of doubt, that did little to reduce the clutter of information that went into understanding magic on a physical level.

“Anyway, as you can see we can solve for his purity level by combining his creature type, per-unit storage containment pressure, and multiplying by the background magic constant. And that answer is greater than his overall total capacity by ten-percent, meaning, based on the previous chart: he has a ninety-eight to one-hundred percent magical purity over at least sixty-eight thousand units! Amazing, right!?” Twilight finished.

The room fell silent as Twilight continued to grin merrily at the board of calculations she had popped into existence midway through her speech. Starlight and Celestia took to staring at one another, and Luna found herself also trying to seek her elder sister’s attention. It was to no avail but Sunburst wasted very little time trying to catch up to what the lavender alicorn had said.

“Uh...uhm. Twilight...that’s great an all but...I don’t even know if that answered my question.” the orange fellow slowly spake. Luna nodded to concur, she understood the base concept quite well but somewhere in the description Twilight had gotten sidetracked

“Oh. Right. Your answer is up here.” She stood up on her hind legs to the beginning of the calculations on her floating chalkboard. Twilight tapped a hoof on a circled number, “Its sixty-eight thousand because he doesn’t lose any potentiality due to the degree of magic purity he stores in his body. That’s what the rest of this calculation is for.” she sheepishly ran her hoof over the rest of the board.

“A-an-and the Princesses are in the eight-thousand to ten-thousand range.” Sunburst stammered casting a fearful look at Stormwalker. Twilight nodded. “What even are you?” he said to the larger stallion with a deep rasp of shock to his voice. Surprisingly a small chuckle began emanating from Celestia, Luna turned to see her sister’s face pinched with amusement.

“No need to worry Sunburst he is quite benign.” she nearly sing-songed as she calmed herself. Luna appreciated such high praise from Celestia, few understood the lengths Stormwalker would go to ensure the safety of the world and those he loved; Luna was pleased her sister did. “In fact the whole reason we are gathered here is so he can help somepony who rather unreasonably hates him.” Celestia finished. Again, Luna had to agree. Gusty Twilight was far from a kind soul and Stormwalker’s reasons for helping her were beyond something even Luna understood even though she and the stallion were dating.

Meanwhile Stormwalker had motioned for Sunburst to come and examine the books. The orange fellow’s horn hummed with his equally orange magic only to have the levitation fizzle out. “That was weird.” he said rather rhetorically.

“Yeah. Fair warning these are extremely magical...even volatile in nature. You won’t really be able to use magic around them or on them.” Stormwalker answered the unspoken question, as the other stallion grabbed the volume the old-fashioned way and opened it to a random page.

“Where did you...wha-what language is this?!” Sunburst proclaimed just shy of a screech. Luna rolled her eyes, too used to his own baleful heritage, her stallion had neglected to give the technician the translation book. Sunburst stood gawking at the pages his eyes pouring over the runes wide with growing horror.

Grabbing the translation book with her magic, Luna slipped it up against the back of the book Sunburst was staring at and slammed it shut, knocking it from his hooves. Tapping him on the head rather forcefully until his look of shock dissipated, Luna waved the translator in front of him.

“You will need this, Sunburst.” Luna told him firmly. “And here is the list of spells I recommend casting on yourself before reading again.” She pulled out the scroll that had been stored beneath her cushion and passed it to him. The technician nodded blankly in acceptance.

“Will that...will that make the voices stop?” he asked so quietly Luna barely even heard him over Twilight and Starlight in the background.

“Yes. The spells will. Luna, give him the first four. He looks kinda...distressed, still.” Stormwalker said sheepishly. She obliged him immediately wasting no time casting the anxiety relievers and mind shields, there was no need to have Sunburst suffer. As soon as her magic hit the orange stallion he visibly relaxed. He released a long sigh and whispered a very quiet “thank you.”

“Do you think you can manage to review the historical information in these?” inquired the larger stallion. “I would like you to review any information having to do with the Cirra-Draca Wars and the Great Hunt.”

“A-are these e-events, I sh-should be familiar w-with?” Sunburst stuttered still recovering. He rubbed his front hooves on his own haunches with a shudder. Luna understood the sensation the young technician was experiencing. The icy embrace of those foul texts were not something one was soon to forget.

“Hardly. They have been kept secret by family for several millennia. These are the only copies in existence, trust me, I’ve looked. But I could be wrong, I don't have an ancient histories degree like you do.” Guardian Angel answered. Sunburst stated a small agreement before a spark twinkled in his eyes.

"Why would your family keep historical texts of the Cirran Empire hidden?" the historian asked eagerly awaiting the answer.

"Well...when your family is directly descended from history's greatest demons you tend to want to keep it a secret..." the other stallion answered.

"You mean there are more creatures like you?" Sunburst balked. Luna snickered, the poor fellow was already making assumptions. It was refreshing though to see him rebound so quickly from his previous moments of torture.

"No no no no no. There isn't anyone like me anymore. The last member of my family that was like I am died back when Celestia and Luna were foals." Guardian Angel responded gingerly. He had always been touchy about his heritage, regardless if that lineage allowed him to do all the good he could these days.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do then.” the historian nodded confidently, “Guess all that reading is finally gonna pay off!” he chirped, scooping up the books in his hooves and pushing up his glasses. The meeting progressed smoothly afterwards the group visiting various topics and hypotheticals of Gusty Twilight and her tenuous mental state. It had always been interesting to Luna how other ponies qualified psychological states with words. She personally still liked Starlight’s “frazzled and unhinged” description the best, it made her smile with its frank depiction. Otherwise, the meeting of minds slowly drew to a close with each of them standing instead of sitting. Her mind suddenly wandered to a previous topic.

“You know...I just realized you mentioned the difference in total magic power before.” Luna wondered aloud. Her words brought the goodbyes to a stillness as everypony looked at her.

“It’s just that if every thousand units a creature is five times more powerful...how does that factor into her ability to cast magic on you?” she asked Stormwalker. Her words caused Twilight to start a thoughtful pout as she put a hoof up to her face.

“Well, Subject G would need to overcome his total capacity. And that’s not even in normal pony values of twenty-five percent of the total number, Sir Stormwalker is in purity units, she would have to generate a phenomenally large amount of magic, just by my calculation in my head that’s impossible, even with her clear ability to subvert the laws of magic conservation.” Twilight answered in an astute tone.

“Twilight. Don’t call me sir.” Stormwalker scolded lightly. Luna giggled at that being the only thing her stallion had heard. His earlier grimaces during the meeting must have been oh-so-very-serious. Still smiling, Luna winked at him and his almost virulent modesty. He rolled his eyes.

“Oh. Sure, sorry.” Twilight smiled. “So, same time next month?” she asked. Everypony nodded in agreement and started to file out of Celestia’s study.

“Yes. So long as I can find another reason to distract Gusty for the majority of day.” Celestia tutted with a grin. The group laughed, Luna found herself laughing perhaps the longest. Stormwalker motioned for her to follow him and the meeting dispersed.

Present...

Stretching a hoof around the back of his neck Zeccaran let out a long sigh. A long week passed before him as if it had been only moments. A different Jarl a different day, that was the new established routine. It would seem the legend of Dame Gertrude’s magic fleece forcing folks around it to tell no lies proved true. He was still hung up on a younger Jarl that had been accosted by the Golden Dame. She had forced him to reveal several rather scandalous family secrets simply for answering her questions with questions instead of flat responses. If not by blood but by attitude did Gertrude the Golden prove herself Gusty’s daughter. Zeccaran had finally come to terms with the improbability simply by observing the two’s behaviors.

Given Gusty’s amnesia, and her evident age, Zeccaran was finding himself more surprised that other denizens of the world were not actively visiting Equestria. Perhaps they were and that was why he and Gusty had been whisked away by the currents of fate. Regardless, that did little to calm the queasiness in his stomach as Dame Gertrude slumped in her throne. She huffed, her face pinched and angry as she looked to a far away location.

“Troublesome be da ways o’ mine agitators.” she grumbled. “They doth not use the Jarls, and they doth hide in the shadows like rats in a cellar.” Zeccaran watched her carefully wondering how far the intrigue went. At this point he just could not help but say something about it.

“Dear Dame, don’t you think it would be strange for an internal conspirator to use outside forces to try to disrupt your government? I just don’t understand what pirates would gain from helping another party.” he said tentatively. Beside him Gusty huffed a sigh before giving him an agitated look. She had been remaining mostly quiet during these meetings and it was that silence that had prompted Zeccaran to question what was occuring.

“Be that as it may lad,” Dame Gertrude sat up in her seat, “Not one outsider ever have a purpose for the homeland. Too rocky to farm. Too stubborn to mine. Too rough to live. ‘Tis why we Ovi hath claimed it long ago. Ye be a fool thinkin’ a griffin would want to live in these cloudy lands. There nothin’ to keep up their sport!” she concluded.

The small area of the throne fell silent again as Gertrude rubbed her chin. “There be one last kinsfolk I be needin’ to speak to an’ I fear her reaction the most.” she grumbled softly, just narrowly on the edge of hearing. A loud set of clunking hooves accompanied by the echoing bang of the Long Hall’s door made Zeccaran look down towards the main entrance. A ram dressed in in what Zeccaran had come to recognize as typical army gear for the Baylands rushed to the wooden throne.

“Dearest, Golden Madam!” he cried, bowing deeply when he reached them. “We hath lost contact with anotha’ tradin’ galleon!” the soldier looked up with deep concern shining his his eyes contrasting his stoic face.

“Curse those conniving coat bags! Fuck them an’ their harlot fuckin’ mothers!” Gertrude cursed violently. She stomped down from her seat and kicked over one of the partitions that made the area somewhat close away from the rest of the Long Hall. Still fuming she turned her face and neck strained with barely retained anger.

“What the hell happened, lad?” she asked pointedly to the soldier.

“As she sailed past Point Arklet da’ heavy fog that had been layin’ out on the sea push inland coverin’ our vessel. All were silent as we watch ta’ fog pass an’ when it did pass, the galleon was gone. Vanished, as if by magic.” he spake stiffly to his leader. Zeccaran’s mind immediately went into overdrive trying to conceive what type of spell could even do such a thing to a full sailing vessel.

Perhaps a teleport spell? No. Too many small things to teleport on the ship. He thought to himself. Besides they would need a very powerful unicorn to do that, and there are not loads of them just lying around wanting to become pirates. He moved on to another idea. Perhaps something simpler was the answer; the easiest solution was generally the right one. Zeccaran was merely having trouble deciding what was the best option for such a heist.

If they used the fog for cover...then how did they change the ships direction… He pondered more. However, nothing came to mind. The most reasonable thing he could think of otherwise was using an very large airship to lift the vessel out of the sea and move it with the fog. That seemed extreme even for the most well equipped group, that was something difficult even for the Royal Engineers of Equestria. Any further thoughts of Zeccaran’s were promptly stopped by a loud bit of snorting from Gusty.

“Then why doesn’t anyone go looking for the ships?!” she cried her confusion evident. Zeccaran wanted to face hoof at such a statement. His grand teal companion consistently forgot that not everyone could move so freely as herself, It was with great misfortune that the wayward messenger-soldier decided to correct Gusty.

“Mistress, ye doth kennt that not every creature can fly such as yourself.” he stated plainly, his tone condescendly informative. Zeccaran just barely noticed Dame Gertrude cover her face in frustration just as he did.

“What do you take me for, soldier boy!?” Gusty shrieked her hooves clopping angrily as she strutted up to the poor fool. “An idiot!? Huh!?” she growled. Zeccaran shook his head, almost nothing could save the ram now, not when Gusty had gone ‘righteous-fury’ mode. The soldier mumbled several incoherent statements as the alicorn loomed over him menacingly. Zeccaran decided he needed to do something before she unreasonably pummeled the ram into the floor.

“Hey, Gusty.” he said cautiously as he approached from his spot. “I think what he is saying is that they have looked before...and lacking the ability to fly, they haven’t been successful in finding the hijacked ships until it was too late.” Zeccaran finished. Gusty turned her accusatory gaze to him, her face drawn in a harsh sneer.

“Well spake, zebra.” Dame Gertrude rattled off instantly as Gusty had opened her mouth to retort. The golden ewe bounded down from her throne making a long leap once she hit the bottom level of the dais.Gertrude landed squarely on Gusty’s back.

“Thanks to ya, lass! For volunteering to look!” the old ewe bounced enthusiastically on her perch. Zeccaran breathed a deep sigh of relief. Meanwhile Gusty pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in an unspoken conflict. A dastardly grin overtook the alicorn’s face after but a second of her concentration. Zeccaran found himself drawing in another haggard breath in a feeble attempt to prepare himself for whatever crazy scheme that had just bloomed in his companion’s head.

Returning to strutting around the throne Gusty made a few authoritative huffs before speaking, “Yes. That is exactly what I was doing.” she paused to cast her nose dramatically in the air. “Bunker, Zeccaran. We have a supply ship to find!” Gusty declared. Gertrude merely applauded from Gusty’s flanks while Zeccaran turned to give Bunker a look of general displeasure. The other stallion had a neutral look on his face to which he added a bit of a snort and a shrug. Zeccaran should have expected this, but he was hoping that maybe somepony else would at least talk to him about the over-the-top prima donna behavior of Gusty.

“Well. make haste then, oh mother o’ mine! Find me that ship!” Gertrude proclaimed before jumping off of Gusty. The old ewe knew exactly how to play this game with Gusty. Zeccaran approved, but would rather she not boost the teal alicorn’s ego. The mother comment only made that worse.

“You guys let’s go.” Gusty ordered plainly starting a quick trot towards the exit of the Long Hall. Bunker did not move and neither did Zeccaran. Gusty made it to the exit before turning and waving confusedly.

“Hello!? Was I talking to myself!? Come on!” she shouted from down the hall. Bunker moved first leaving Zeccaran to direct an unhappy glance at Dame Gertrude. The golden ewe just started laughing. She bounced her way back onto her throne and cackled the whole way. Zeccaran was forced to start walking to catch up with Gusty and Bunker.

“Maybe we will find something...I guess…” he grumbled to himself. He doubted it in his heart. This whole day was already leaving a bad taste in his mouth. The grinding sense of idle waiting had been chewing on his mind for the last week but somehow this little adventure they were about to go on felt worse yet. Giving one last sigh he finally found himself next to Gusty, who beamed with eager joy. Her smile made him smile back, maybe it would be an alright time; at the very least it was better than doing nothing.

Next Chapter: Act 2: Chapter 6 - Of Our Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 18 Minutes