Everyday Life With Guardsmares
Chapter 120
Previous Chapter Next ChapterLily Glamerspear
Specialist Lily Glamerspear was trotting along with her wingmare, Artemis Sparkshower, in the delightfully dark, dank, dangerous passageways under Canterlot Mountain.
‘Ugh.’
At least passing through the Royal Undermountain Constabulary's checkpoint hidden in Her Majesty's Apple Orchard Shed had been straightforward. She’d been down so many times now with Sergeant Ebonshield and the Royal Engineer that the post-officer didn't even blink when just the two of them showed up wanting to head in. It was just 'sign here, initial there, in you go.’ No recited warning about impending death and the complete unavailability of any Royal Guard backup or rescue team.
Maybe they'd heard of the beatdown they’d doled out the last time they were in there. News must sometimes get out of the pit that was the Night Guard Rookery, right?
Victory in that brawl was part of the reason why Lily wasn’t worried about the inevitable inner checkpoint either. What batpony was going to try to lay their bladed hooves or leathery wings on her after she’d personally gunned down half a dozen of their supposedly elite 'Swarming Meteors'? And there had been plenty of witnesses to the aftermath of the carnage -- the musicians, the batpony guards who showed up to clean up the mess, even the white-robed 'lunar' priestess-slash-diplomat.
Plus, this time she was ready for that guard post.
No way were those ornery spearponies getting the drop on Lily and her wingmare, not when she had her horn lantern on MAXIMUM BUCKING INTENSITY.
That's right, Lily Glamerspear was a one-mare anti-aircraft battalion's searchlight crew. She’s a teal fireworks show ready to blow. She was lighting up the normally pitch-black tunnel like it was noon on the summer solstice at the buckin' equator. Not even a cockroach could hide from her sight.
And definitely not the mare in shining armor behind her.
"Uh, not that I'm complaining, but that's awfully bright, don't you think, Lily?"
The unicorn turned her head briefly, unafraid to face the bronzed reflection of her own glory. Mainly because Artemis was wearing her black 'night ops' caparison instead of her usual white one, but also because Lily had her helmet's neutral-grey darkening lenses down over her eyes. ‘That’s right fillies and gentlecolts, I’m literally making it bright enough that sunglasses are not an optional accessory!’
"That's the idea, Artemis. I don't want anypony sneaking up on us. And I want 'em to know we're coming, too."
Sparks had her helmet's armored visor down, the slits in the metal acting like shutter shades.
Lily smirked and turned forward again. "Come on, we're almost at that cave full of pointy bits where they hang out."
The heavily-protected pegasus trudged after her, muttering. "Stalagmites and stalactites. The stalactites are the ones on the ceiling." Then she raised her voice back up. "But don't you think coming in this 'loud' is a bit... unfriendly? We're not here to cause any trouble, after all."
The unicorn scoffed. "Unfriendly? Remember what happened last time we came down here? Ya know, when the sergeant's brother tried to straight-up murder us with the help of a dozen of his goons?"
The soft scratching of bronze on bronze told Lily she was nodding.
"I know. But going in hard and bright like this starts us off on the wrong hoof, I think. And everypony treated that assault like an exception... Sergeant Ebonshield, the Lunar, even the guards who came in afterwards to take them away all seemed appalled that he would do such a thing. And the Reverend Mother apologized to the Royal Engineer in person, too!"
‘Apologized?’
Sure, apologized while attempting to seduce, maybe, according to what Honour told her. That slimy Reverend Mother Superior -- talk about an older mare unafraid to use her assets! Well, Lily wasn’t afraid to use her assets either, and this time she was going to use the particularly potent one attached to her forehead.
"I get you, Sparks, but it's not like I'm not going in with a spear conjured, nocked, and ready to fly. If anything, you could say the bright light is a courtesy to let 'em know we're coming. Like a siren on a ponice carriage, or something."
Artemis continued her grumbling. "I understand. Of course, we do need some light. But I'm wearing my 'night operations' black caparison to try to blend in as an ordinary Star once we get inside, and you're wearing the sergeant's black cloak over your armor for the same reason."
The unicorn heard her inhale sharply. "I'm still your wingmare either way, Lily, but I think you should tone it down to reasonable levels. Without the sergeant or the Royal Engineer, we may still have to negotiate our way into the Rookery, and it'll be easier if we keep things civil. That's all I'll say."
After a few more steps, Lily sighed.
Sparks was right, of course.
With some regret, the unicorn reduced the intensity on her glowing orb of light from 'eye-scalding reasonable replacement for the sun' to 'well-fuelled lantern with crystal-clear lenses.' It was a noticeable drop, but once she tapped her helmet's controls to retract the darkening lenses, Lily could still make everything out clearly. But she kept her mind ready to bring the beam all the way back up to power level eleven if there was a hint of treachery ahoof. The spiral passageway ceased its descent, and Lily knew the stala-whatever cavern must be just ahead.
Sure enough, after about fifty meters and a couple of turns -- which were starting to become memorable, given how many times she’d been here -- they arrived at the large open cavern that eventually would take them to the so-called 'Cave of Pillars.'
‘In here must lurk the Night Guard's border control.’
Lily steeled herself to fight her way in, though she was also prepared with a reasonable cover story. Sergeant Ebonshield had advised her not to say that she was there to visit a member of the Eclipse Phase. That would be seen as, well, really weird.
The Eclipse almost never led anypony into the Halls of the Blind, she’d said, except perhaps the grievously-wounded. For Glamerspear and Sparkshower to have been brought in for just a casual chat was a very rare honor indeed. Nopony outside their quaternion was really aware of it, either -- they were assumed to have gone with Ebonshield and her apprentices into the private area of her 'School of the Shining Stellar Dance'. So it would raise a lot of eyebrows to say Lily was going there now, and even more if she said she was going to learn magic from the old Balladeer of Ghosts, Ignacio Blazon.
The sergeant had suggested loading up saddlebags with reasonable gifts and pretending to be delivering some tokens of the Royal Engineer's appreciation to select members of the Rookery. She'd even schooled Artemis on how to present them, should they decide to actually go to the marketplace and drop stuff off for the various batponies who had been of assistance to the Royal Engineer so far. Her wingmare had the list of names and businesses to hit up.
All things considered, it probably would be a good idea to be seen making the rounds before heading off to try to meet Ignacio. Even if they let them through there, and regardless of their disguises, it was doubtless everypony within eyeshot would be watching their every move.
Lily heard a slight fluttering in the air above her, and glanced up to see two batponies, pasted to the ceiling to one of those stacthingies raising their wings to cover their eyes.
‘Hmm, looks like even this modest lantern-light is still too much for them to handle.’
Ahead, she heard some loud whispers and, eventually, a group of batponies shambled out to block the pathway between the rocky spires. Artemis came up close beside Lily and leaned over to speak in her ear, raising her visor to do so.
"I recognize the one in the middle; that's València Fierropezuña. She was on duty the first time we came down, remember?"
‘How the buck can that pegasus tell these dark-cloaked, dark-eyed, and dark-coated batponies apart?’
All Lily could make out was the whites of their eyes and teeth. She wasn’t even sure she could pick the sergeant out of a lineup of her kind.
"Halt, Equestrians!"
The sharp voice was familiar, at least. Except this time it wasn’t furious or mocking -- instead, it sounded almost... curious?
Lily came to a stop, and so did Sparkshower.
"...Hwho are jou, and hwhat are jou doing here at thees hourr?"
Clearing her throat, Lily slightly, subtly, increased the intensity of her light -- the better to put the heat on them. "I'm Specialist Lily Glamerspear, and this is Specialist Artemis Sparkshower. We're here on a mission on behalf of the Royal Engineer of Equestria, an honored guest of the Reverend Mother Superior."
Yellow eyes narrowed and then glanced sideways as the batpony convened with her comrades. After a moment, she pulled back her black hood to reveal a dark blue mane.
"Hwhat ees thees 'meession'?"
Glamerspear exchanged her own glance with Sparkshower.
‘Time to see if the cover story will work.’
"We're delivering gifts to the Royal Engineer's friends in the Rookery."
Lily saw a single dark-blue eyebrow lift up. "Geefts? At thees hhour?" She scoffed. "...Eet ees noon -- for us, eet ees like jour midnight. The amigos of the Ingeniero Real, they are all asleep."
‘That wasn't exactly a 'no'.’
‘Hmm.’
The first time, València was vehemently against even Ebonshield entering the Rookery alone -- presumably because Carmen was pissed off at her daughter taking the job she wanted to go by default to one of her Lunars. But now València was just sort of... casual. She clearly had orders to let them in under normal circumstances; it's just that these were kinda suspicious circumstances.
Foal, it must suck to be told to violently reject somepony one day and then be ordered to let them pass without nuisance the next. But then, what soldier hasn't had to deal with officers absurdly countermanding their own orders?
In that regard, maybe Lily could appeal to a sense of kinship as a fellow soldier?
She made a show of visibly shrugging, lifting her forehooves as she lied. "I know, but the Royal Engineer insisted that we make the deliveries immediately. I've got orders to just leave them outside doors if the addressees aren't in. There's notes attached written in your language. He wants to make sure his 'uh-meegoes' in the Rookery stay eager to do more business with him."
València didn’t look very convinced, but then Sparkshower took a half-step forwards. "And those friends, by the way, also include the efficient and honorable guards here at the entrance!"
She triggered the backup plan maybe a bit sooner than Lily would have liked, but she did in fact have such a gift.
"It certainly does..." The unicorn pointed a forehoof at a noticeable bulge on her black-cloaked flank. "...May I pull it out of my saddlebag?"
The guardsmare nodded, warily. "Sí -- jes. Slowly, eef jou pleese."
Sparkshower reached over to help Glamerspear lift up the draping outer-garment. With her horn already on lantern duty, she kept things simple and used her forehooves to dig out the packet she’d prepared for just this possibility.
València motioned for Lily to step up, and the unicorn brought the paper-wrapped package with her. Then València nodded, and one of her comrades bent down and opened it up. Inside the package was everything you needed to keep a bored guardspony occupied:
Two cartons of cigarettes, a box of matches, four tins of dipping tobacco, a case of chewing gum, a large bag of mints, another large bag of licorice allsorts, and a hooffull of assorted sports and celebrity-gossip magazines. One of the other guardsponies, a colt, reached down and tapped the picture of a cigarette on one of the cartons, and whispered something unintelligible in the batpony tongue. After a brief discussion back and forth, the squad leader piped up in Equestrian.
"We have seen theees before. Jou burn them and inhale the vapores?"
Lily nodded. "They're cigarettes. Made from dried tobacco leaf rolled up in paper sleeves. The tin is the same stuff but for sort of sucking on between your lips and teeth, instead of smoking." They looked skeptical, so she decided to try the brutal-honesty approach. "Look, I'll tell you straight, it's not exactly healthy for ya, but it's stimulating and it passes the time. As for the others, the chewing gum is the same thing with none of the drawbacks, and the candies are just sweet food. But smokes and dip are pretty common gifts for soldiers, up on the surface."
She nodded towards the pointing colt, and he reached down for the carton, opening it. Without too much effort, considering the labelling was all in Equestrian, he extracted one of the packs, broke the seal, and flipped open the top to reveal the individual cigarettes. Each of the batponies took one and put it in their mouth -- all of them backwards, filter out. Something to correct later, but first she indicated the matches.
"Those can be used to light the cigarette; you strike the tip against the rough outer edge and it catches fire, see the instruction pictures on the side? But since I'm here I can do them for you without the matches, if you want."
The prospect of Lily magically setting something on fire made the batponies' eyes go wide, but València kept a steady gaze. She pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and extended it towards Lily on a forehoof. Her light-globe barely flickered as she focused on a second spell and projected enough of a spark to ignite the white tip, then used a teeny tiny bit of telekinesis to spin the burning cylinder around the right way.
Hesitantly, València brought it back to her mouth and took a small draft, coughing slightly as she breathed out. She turned her head and quickly spat, but then licked her lips and gave the cigarette another taste. After a few puffs, she felt confident enough to leave it in her mouth.
The other batponies pulled their cigarettes out as well, holding them towards Lily, and she lit them all in turn. It very quickly started to get a bit smoky in that particular part of the cavern, and there was the soft sound of coughing as the novice smokers all tried to get over their first drag.
It was a somewhat familiar scene, given that Ebonshield translated similar instructions to the metalworkers when the Royal Engineer brought them some smokes as a gift, that night at the 'horchateria.' He even made a point of having Ebonshield tell them tobacco was considerably more toxic than alcohol, and he apologized, saying that he would try to think of something less hazardous for the next time -- then politely asked if they had any suggestions. Funny way of treating ponies who probably inhaled far worse fumes all day long from working in their forges and foundries.
Well, whatever; she couldn’t fault him for speaking the truth.
València motioned the two of them towards the open pack. "You weel smoke weeth us also?"
Lily wasn't a regular smoker, but if it would make this meeting go smoother, why not? "I'll join you, sure."
Sparkshower shook her head. "Not for me, thank-you."
The batpony indicated her comrade even as Lily plucked a white tube out of the pack for herself. "No? But jou said thees are a geeft frequent?"
Lily interjected. "Not everypony smokes. Like I said, it's not good for you; makes you short of breath." She lit up and took a drag, showing off a bit by blowing smoke out her nose. "It can cost a lot of bits, too, if you really make a habit of it. I used to be a pretty heavy smoker, before I realized it was making everything taste like ash, and causing me to start to slip on my physical tests, to say nothing of how the cravings were really stressing me out."
As the batponies watched in awe at Lily’s smoky demonstration, she continued. "My advice? Stick to at most four a day. Don't go looking for more when this stuff is done. And wash your mouth and have a strong mint afterwards." She indicated the candies. "Or else your partner might complain how your mouth tastes afterwards, ya know?"
‘Wait...’
Lily had just remembered that batponies don't have partners -- they get ordered to breed by the Lunars.
‘Well, even so they must surely kiss each other, no?’
‘Like, the colt can't just be going in on a dry mare…’
Unless the Lunars were more heavily involved? Maybe their 'priests' fluffed up the partners before the encounter? Lily wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the intricate details, and yet it was such an absurdly engrossing idea that she made a note to ask Ebonshield to spill the beans on it later, back upstairs in their quarters.
Across the little huddle from her, València confidently took a longer puff, then pulled the cigarette out of her mouth to look at it. "Ay see. Perhaps eet would be good to pay attention to the other geefts instead, jes?"
Like an experienced smoker, she pointed her cig at the magazines. "Hwhat are theese? Small books?"
This time Lily went full on the telekinesis, and lifted them all up into the air, splaying them out for all to see. "They're magazines. Small books, published every week or every month, covering popular news items."
The batponies looked intrigued, but València shrugged and took another drag from her smoke. "Jou are not aware, perhaps, that we do not easily read jour language? And among the Hatchets, ay am the best speaker of jour tongue."
Lily shook her head. "You don't really have to read to enjoy these..."
Flipping open the volleyball magazine, she showed off the huge, glossy photos of earth ponies mid-jump, dunking or guarding. There were even shots of pegasi players -- their wings tied up against their flanks -- and the occasional unicorn with a lighter, athletic version of the anti-magic shackles Lily had oh-so-recently sported. Have to keep the playing field level, after all -- even if as a result the earth ponies dominated the major league playerbase. Well, the owners were all unicorns and the coaches were mostly pegasi, so what did that say?
Lily scoffed as she riffled through all of the mags. "There's articles, sure, but I bet even you can figure out what they're saying. It's the same with the others."
She levitated the tracts a little closer to the bats. One of them hesitantly reached their forehooves out, cigarette still in mouth, grabbed the copy of 'Canterlot Match,' and started to page through it. But soon his face was scrunched up in confusion, and he said something to his squad leader.
València nodded her head towards him. "Hwhat about thees one? Eet ees not the sports."
Lily chuckled. "That's a gossip rag. You know, society figures, celebrity news, that kind of thing? Money, sex, and scandals?"
They didn’t seem to understand until she hit on that last word, and then all of a sudden there was a chorus of exclamations and nods.
"¡Los escándalos!"
"Ahhh, sí, sí."
One of them tapped the title words on the outside cover. "Los escándalos del ciudad Canterlot."
But then it was back inside for more huddled cries.
"¡Oye, mira esas piernas!"
"¡No importa las piernas, mira esa crin!"
"¡Ay-ay-ay!"
They were all poking forehooves at candid pictures of some Canterlot socialite at a society ball, ogling her plot and manedo. Even the batpony guardsmares were going nuts, waving their forehooves and flapping their wings, appearing to argue with the guardscolts -- probably over their comrades' taste in mares.
‘Heh, guards will be guards.’
Their leader watched the discussion with a dispassionate interest, then with a barked command shooed them all off.
"¡Es suficiente! Lea ahora, discuta más tarde."
The discussion died down as the squad of batponies broke up into smaller groups, each taking a magazine or two as well as some of the other offerings.
València turned her attention back to Glamerspear and Sparkshower. "Thees are generous gifts. Ay thank jou. But ay habe my orders, and ay must obey them..."
‘Damn, looks like it didn't work.’
But to her surprise, the batpony stepped aside to clear the path. "...By command of the Reverend Mother, jou are allowed eento the Rookery."
Even Sparkshower couldn’t resist a shocked exclamation. "Oh!"
With a glance back at her comrade, Lily snapped into a salute. "Thank you."
Batponies didn’t seem to salute, so she didn't expect one in return, but València at least returned the gesture with a polite nod. When Lily ended the exchange and started to take a few steps forward, however, the batpony thrust a forehoof out in front of Glamerspear and caught the peytral of her armor.
"One moment, eef jou please. A question..."
Lily stopped and turned to look at the grey-coated, blue-maned, smoking batpony mare.
"...Jou are a soldier. Jou have keelled before?"
Lily looked her in the eye. "Sure. Wasted plenty of changelings." Nodding her head at Sparkshower behind her, she continued. "She has, too."
València glanced at Artemis, then looked Lily in the eyes. "So. Marcos and hees Meteoros. Why deed jou leave them alibe?"
The unicorn narrowed her eyes.
‘Weird question to ask.’
"What, you'd prefer if we'd killed them?"
València lifted an eyebrow. "They threatened jou with death. Returning force weeth force ees reasonable."
Lily considered things carefully.
‘Why is she asking this question?’
She remembered the disdain batpony soldiers had previously shown for her and her Equestrian comrades. València, Marcos, even the other 'eights.' They all projected an air of superiority.
Despite their failure to beat the Royal Guard of the Watchtower, batpony Stars really must still think themselves better than Royal Guardsponies, at least on a pony-for-pony basis. Was that it? Did València wonder if Lily had left Marcos and his goons alive because she was unable to kill them?
Well, that sure wasn't the reason.
Lily scoffed. "I had orders to switch to non-lethal rounds. The Royal Engineer, my VIP and my commander, saw an opening to win with minimal bloodshed, so he took it."
Leaning in slightly, the unicorn reminded València of why she’d ever even come down here in the first bucking place. "He's an alien even in Equestria, you know. But Princess Luna thinks that means he could, ya know, maybe catalyze normal relations between your people and mine. Since he's a stranger to both of us?"
That didn’t seem to be enough for the batpony. "So eet was hees deceeseeon for jou not to keel?"
Lily opened into a bit of a grin. "Yeah. I follow his orders. Part of why he comes down here is to be a diplomat, and usually it's a bit harder to be diplomatic with people when you've killed a bunch of 'em, dontcha think?"
València nodded. "Jes..."
The batpony guardsmare lowered her forehoof, but Lily didn’t head out quite yet. València obviously had more to say.
"...Jou should know, then, that some of them may be keelled anyways. For breaking the Edict of Blood, and for betraying the Reverend Mother. Regardless of jour efforts, and the intentions of jour commander."
Lily looked the batpony border-guard in the eyes. "If that's your justice, then that's your justice. In Equestria, we try to fix criminals if they're our own. Or imprison them if they can't be fixed. That's how Princess Celestia prefers it, anyways."
With another courteous nod, Specialist Glamerspear started to move past her. "Enjoy the gifts, compliments of Anonymous, By Appointment to Their Majesties Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Royal Engineer of Equestria."
Lily ended with his full title, maybe just to remind her new friend there that her boss reports to her Goddess. Even if Marcos called Princess Luna an 'impostor,' surely Princess Luna had to have some sway down here?
Or was that actually the problem?
Since she’d already left the guard-post behind, it was impossible to tell if her words had any effect.
Well, the Reverend Mother wanted them to be able to come in, so they were in.
As Lily stepped out onto the strange, regular hexagonal-columned floor of the 'Cave of Pillars,' she let out a sigh. She heard a similar exhalation behind her.
"Whew. That was a bit tense."
Lily nodded. "Yeah, they sure didn't make it easy."
A splash of water beneath her hooves and the reasonable lighting in here reminded her to kill her light globe and flip on one of the hoof-full of utility charms she knew -- this one, supernaturally grippy telekinetic horseshoes.
"Oh. Honour was going to remind you about that -- you need to remember to apply that to the whole quaternion. Well, except me, I guess. And Purity. You know -- because we've got wings."
Lily raised an eyebrow and turned her head.
‘Didn't they--oh, right.’
With a chuckle she shook her head. "Sorry. When you've been serving exclusively with unicorns like I've been doing, it's easy to forget not everypony else has got a horn and the standard kit of spells. Remind me again next time if I forget again."
As Lily passed behind the waterfall, she felt the chilly spray from the glacial meltwater. It was so stinging she was half-tempted to put up her barrier shield. But she’d grinned and borne the cold on previous trips, and she’d do the same now. Buck, the Royal Engineer hadn't complained when he came down wearing nothing but his armor and a cape -- and he didn't even have a coat of hair covering his skin!
Not much of one, anyways.
Emerging from behind the frigid curtain, Lily could see down towards the metal bridge which crossed the great cave's river. It seemed that despite it being midnight, batpony-time, there was somepony down there nonetheless. Hopefully their black cloak 'disguises' worked and they would just bow in respect until they were gone, missing the fact that neither of them were actually batponies.
Lily heard the agitated flapping of armored wings behind her.
"Hey! That's Ignacio, there, by the river! And he's got some water-jugs with him!"
‘No way!’
‘That crutch-using cripple -- well, crippled here in Equestrian gravity, instead of the bouncy Moon -- came all the way here to collect water?’
"You're sure, Sparks?"
She squinted, lifting a forehoof to her brow. "Positive, Glam. I can even make out his mask."
Lily snorted. "Well, I guess we're probably not delivering the gifts first, then. Funny coincidence. Or maybe..."
Trailing off, Lily kept her final thought to herself. ‘Maybe Ignacio's presence is no coincidence.’
She tapped the lens control on the side of her helmet to lower the magnifiers, letting her confirm what her eagle-eyed pegasus comrade already said. Retracting the lenses, Lily shook her head in confusion. It took another minute to descend the outer ledge-way and finally cross the bridge, but the batpony balladeer just sat there, hunched over his stick, next to a pair of clay jugs joined by a corded yoke for shoulder-carrying.
As soon as Lily’s hooves touched the hexagonal stones on his side, he grunted. "Ah! Good, jou are here at last. I have been waiting some time."
‘The buck?!’
That the blind batpony should recognize her was no surprise -- not with his explanation of how his ability to 'hear' magic worked. And she did have an active spell on her hooves. But still, the colt moved at a snail's pace -- no way did he 'hear' her coming all the way down the tunnel, especially not if he was in his friggin' underground lair on the bucking Moon.
As Sparkshower took up a position on her left, Lily scrunched up her muzzle something fierce. "You knew we were coming? How?"
With a grin, he shrugged. "The shadows told me."
‘That doesn't answer anything!’
‘Worse, it raises another question!’
"Which shadows -- the actual shadow-phase batponies, or the magical 'accursed' shadows?"
Chuckling, he raised a forehoof and waved it dismissively. "Jou misunderstand me. In our tongue, to say that the shadows did something, is to blame hazard -- fortune. This is because the shadows -- the shadow-phase ponies, those at the very lowest of society - are believed to be responsible for many acts of mischief. Therefore all things not intentional are blamed upon them."
‘So, what?’
‘He's saying he's here by random chance?’
‘Not likely!’
"Come on, don't tell me you just happened to be here fetching water and you 'heard' me coming with my magic spell of illumination."
He pointed a forehoof at her horn. "I very easily could have! Jou were making so much noise with that enormous expenditure of magic a little while ago, jou could have woken up every Eclipse on the Moon, if the passageway between here did not mute such things."
Sparkshower piped up. "So you didn't hear her coming from your home."
Ignacio grunted. "No, I was already here. Because the shadows told me that jou would come."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "The accursed shadows told you, you mean. You used magic to spy on us up on the surface?"
He shook his head. "No. I have a role in the Rookery, as a balladeer, and this position, and my old age, leaves me no time to be always listening to jou, or anypony else, besides."
‘But he doesn't deny being able to do it!’
Scrying on somepony might not be impressive in terms of magical power but it required a fair bit of skill. Something to bring up later if that really was something he could do.
As for the question at hoof, Lily was positive that Ebonshield didn't send any message down ahead of them, which left one uncomfortable option.
"Then, what -- you... you divined our coming?"
The old blind batpony sorcerer tilted his muzzle back and took a deep breath through his nose. "Jes. As I said, the shadows told me."
Lily was stunned to silence. Prophecy, divination -- these were very, very tricky things to master with any reliability. Even some of the most revered sages of Equestria often got fortune-telling wrong, and that was about major, world-altering events. Yet here was this crippled, blind, old batpony who casually prophesied that she’d be coming to the Rookery to pay him a visit, which she'd only decided to do, like, two hours ago.
While Glamerspear was still awestruck, Sparkshower gasped as realization struck. "Aha! You were making a joke, earlier! It's a double-meaning! 'The shadows told me' is what any other batpony would have said to a chance encounter -- except that the shadows really did tell you to come here!"
Ignacio turned to her and nodded, smiling. "Jes. I am glad jou understand. It is good to make progress in relations between our peoples. Now, please, help me to fill these jugs and bring back some water to my home, and then we can have jou dressed properly for our excursion."
Lily recoiled her head in confusion. "Excursion? What excursion?"
Ignacio paid her query no heed as he slowly un-looped the cord from the neck of both of the jugs, freeing them to be filled individually. "It is good that only the two of jou have come. The vision was, I admit, not entirely clear as to jour numbers. Aldonza was able to make only three of the amulets for disguising in time. If the five of jou had all come, this would have been a problem."
As the pegasus took one of the jugs from him, Sparkshower lifted the edges of her cloak with her wings. "But Mr. Blazon, we already have disguises! Black cloaks, like the Star-phase soldiers! Glamerspear's even borrowed Ebonshield's own."
He smiled, while all Lily could do in the confusion was grasp the second jug in her telekinesis, barely paying attention as she levitated it over to and into the river.
"Of course, of course. But these will not stand up to the scrutiny close. And jou are permitted to be here, even without the disguises. I wish to take jou to the Moon, where jou are not permitted, in order for jou to see the crater."
Without even looking, Lily lifted the full jug back out of the raging current and placed it back on the ground. "'The' crater? Doesn't the Moon have, like, hundreds of them?"
Fluttering back from the river with her own sloshing jug, Sparkshower piped up. "Thousands, I think. Tens of thousands, even."
With a sincere nod, Ignacio put stoppers in each of the jugs and then lashed them to the yoke once more. "Hundreds of thousands. Millions, perhaps -- I am not sure if they have all been counted."
He tapped the top of the yoke, and gestured the two Equestrians towards it.
‘Looks like he doesn't plan on carrying the full load back himself.’
With Lily still half-dazed at how casually he spoke of divination, Sparkshower stepped up to shoulder the load, and he hunched over to adjust the cords to fit her snugly.
Having done so, he amusedly tapped one of the jugs with his crutch. "Good! Now jou are a Star-phase who carries water like she is Dust. And a Dust who is obviously wearing the armor made of bronze. Ah, well, this will be less disruptive than if jour comrade had instead levitated them all the way back, and in any case there are few ponies about at this hour."
With a half-toothless grin underneath his blindfold, he led them away from the river and towards the entrance to the Rookery proper, hobbling slowly along with his crutch.
‘There's no way he carried the jugs down here himself -- he must have had help from somepony serving as a porter.’
That would be a Dust-phase, then, since that's what he was calling Sparkshower.
Lily suddenly realized he never actually answered her last question.
"So, which of these millions of Moon-craters are you taking us to?"
Ahead of the unicorn, Ignacio stopped abruptly. Sparkshower, carrying the water-jugs, clattered to a halt beside her. Behind them, Lily could still hear the soft roar of running water from the river and waterfall.
After a muted pause, the old batpony looked over his shoulder, his black blindfold with its red fringe appearing ominous in the shadow of the tunnel they were presently in.
All other sounds died to a whisper when he spoke.
"There are millions of craters on the Moon, jes. But for the Children of the League of Stars, the creations of the Great Mother whom jou know as the Nightmare Moon... there is only one which matters."
Suggested interlude music: Toto - 'Trip to Arrakis', from 'Dune' [1984]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D18N1NQIZ7Q
