Arcane Equilibrium
by Prane
Chapter 4

One week earlier

This is not good. Not quite what I have expected.

Moonwarden pointed at Sunseeker talking to some random mare.

‘Are we recruiting rock stars now?’, he asked. ‘The Conclave is falling apart, I tell you.’

‘Relax, he can do his job,’, Trixie replied. ‘I saw him under pressure.’

But can you, Trixie? Can you do your part?

‘I see… I don’t like him anyway.’, Moonwarden said.

It is time.

‘Excuse me. I must check something.’

Nightmare Night celebration in a Royal Castle ballroom was in full swing. Some high society ponies were sitting by the lavishly laid tables and chatting, trying to impress each other with their exquisite eloquence. Others were trotting around the ballroom, trying to find and keep to somepony esteemed and influential enough to raise their social status. But not too important, of course, that could have overshadowed them. Typical Canterlot party.

But not for Moonwarden.

He walked away from the azure mare and headed towards the back of the ballroom. As he was crossing through the crowd, he stopped by a perfectly common earth pony stallion.

‘Are you ready?’, Moonwarden whispered.

‘Ready as I’ll ever be. Celestia is greeting the guests.’, the assassin replied, gently nodding at the white alicorn in the distance. ‘She’ll soon go into the crowd. That’s where I strike.’

‘You contribution towards the balance is invaluable, acolyte.’, Moonwarden stated, then trotted into a corridor, away from a general noise of the ballroom. And although the voices from the outside were silenced, his conscience, if he had any, was still resounding.

How can you live like that, Moonwarden? You’re living in a web of lies.

Those are necessary lies.

The dark grey unicorn went deeper into the Royal Castle. During his time in the Conclave he had learned every possible mean of accessing the structure, and since he… borrowed the original architectural schematics, he knew even more about getting out. Which was supposed to prove useful tonight.

Moonwarden approached a window, opened it and leaned out. Although it was already dark outside and he couldn’t see the ground, he managed to avoid a small metallic item flying towards his head. It was the treble hook with a line attached to it. The stallion grabbed and held the hook with a silvery telekinetic mist, waiting patiently.

‘Good catch.’, a scarred stallion said, putting a bag on the floor and climbing through the window. ‘Things like these are much easier when there’s somepony on the inside.’

He grimaced when he saw his treble hook being held by the telekinesis. He didn’t seem to like magic at all.

‘My pleasure, Zaeer.’, Moonwarden smiled gently. ‘Take you things, we need to act fast.’

‘Relax,’, the earth pony answered. ‘Once the assassin is done, we’re going to have the whole night for it.’

Lies!

The two stallions galloped through the Royal Castle. Their objective was simple: to retrieve a magical emerald which once belonged to Star Swirl the Bearded. Although the unicorn wizard was long dead, his ‘legend’ lived on. Literally. And what was once the vital part of Star Swirl’s Staff, was now the vital part of Feldora’s plan. The only thing between the stallions duo and the emerald were heavy doors of the Royal Vault.

‘Did you bring it?’, Moonwarden asked, looking at Zaeer’s bag.

‘Of course.’, he replied. ‘There are many pegasi in Cloudsdale devoted to the cause.’

They dashed upstairs and entered a long hallway. There were two ponies of the Royal Guard standing at the end of the corridor, guarding the Vault’s doors. Neither Moonwarden nor Zaeer had stopped. They continued running towards their objective.

‘Halt!’, shouted one of the armored ponies. ‘You’re not allowed up here!’

He trotted forward to stop the intruders, but Zaeer was faster. He punched the unicorn in the face, leaving him unconscious. The second guard immediately charged at Moonwarden.

‘Oh.’, the dark grey stallion sighed, as if he was bored, and used his magic. ‘Sleep.’

The guard suddenly tripped and fell just at Moonwarden’s hooves. He passed over the body and joined Zaeer who was already at the doors.

‘How does it work, exactly?’

‘It’s from the weather factory labs.’, the earth pony answered, fixing small packages all over the doors. ‘It’s the energy of a lightning contained in a vial.’

‘Liquid lightning?’, Moonwarden said, examining containers with the gold and white swirling substance. ‘I presume that once ignited, it creates a local lightning hot enough to melt down the doors. But where’s the detonator?’

Zaeer took the last vial out of his bag and grinned.

‘Oh. I see.’

Both ponies took a few steps back.

‘Just don’t look at the flash!’, the scarred stallion screamed and threw the vial at the doors.

KABOOM!

The sudden blast was heard. It was far too loud for Moonwarden’s tastes. He valued whispering over shouting and safety over recklessness.

Then why did you chose it?

It wasn’t the right moment to ponder. Moonwarden waited a while, then jumped inside the Vault over the hot, hardening metal. He looked around. There were so many precious items inside, most of which were diplomatic gifts from countries neighboring Equestria. The stallion regretted that there was no time to look into every ornamented chest, as there was only one thing he came for.

And he found it.

Moonwarden used his telekinesis to grab the small green emerald and jumped back into the hallway. He put the gem inside his cape.

‘We’ve got company.’, Zaeer said, baring his teeth. ‘This time I’ll do it properly.’

The unicorn glanced at the opposite side of the hallway and frowned. Trixie got here faster than he had anticipated. What a mare, she was unpredictable even in her predictability. She stood in confusion for a second, then started galloping towards them.

‘No.’, he said to Zaeer, pushing a concave fragment of the wall and revealing a hidden passage. ‘She is meaningless for now.’

Trixie was getting closer. The earth pony growled, but jumped into the tunnel, reluctantly. Moonwarden followed him, shutting the passage behind. From here the stallions got outside the castle and ran alongside the walls, reaching the courtyard.

Just as expected, there were no guards there.

The cult’s work here was done.

The present day

Moonwarden opened his eyes.

Not for the first time he was returning with his thoughts to things already done. He believed that by understanding the past and everything he had lived through he would be ready for whatever the future held. Of course, there were also some disadvantages of such approach. If you were too fond of your victories you’d end up spoiling yourself, and if you were overanalyzing your failures…

Stealing the gem was not a failure!

It certainly wasn’t a success, either.

Necessary evil.

It’s because she told you so! How can you be so sure she is right?

‘Enough.’, Moonwarden rebuked himself, as somebody knocked on the door. ‘Come in!’

An earth pony entered the room. It was Zaeer. He was wearing a regular cultist outfit, black with silver thorn-shaped markings, which covered his whole body but head. He actually never saw him without these clothes and had no idea what his cutie mark was.

‘Feldora wants to see you.’, the dark red stallion said. ‘It seems that we’re leaving this place.’

His face took on an expression of contempt and disgust. Zaeer didn’t like this place, as he referred to Canterlot. Although Moonwarden didn’t share the anti-unicorn hate that most of the cultists did, he already grew tired of hiding in the city, right under the Conclave collective nose.

‘The big day is coming, huh?’, he replied and put on his black cape. ‘Let us not make her wait.’

Moonwarden and Zaeer went through a corridor to the other side of a house they were staying in. It was located in, lightly speaking, less then wealthy part of the Residential district and it served as a temporal base of operations. Aside from them and Feldora, there were few more acolytes here, some designated to dig through the old books, others focusing on gaining assets for the cult.

The stallions entered Feldora’s room. There was a simple table in the middle, with a wide parchment expanded on it.

‘Bonjour, Moonwarden.’, said the green pegasus mare and gestured them to come closer to the table. ‘Please, come in. There is much to discuss.’

They all gathered around the parchment which turned out to be a very detailed map of Equestria and its neighbors. Equestria itself was marked with a green shade and stretched far to the northeast, with Germaneigh and Prance further to the north.

Moonwarden pondered. Feldora must be from Prance, possibly from its capital city of Pearis, judging by her accent and occasional fancy inserts, but she never talked about her past. When asked, she cleverly evaded that topic, telling that the future is much more important.

‘Rejoice, my friends, as our time is coming.’, she stated solemnly. ‘With the Star Swirl’s emerald at hoof we’re one step closer to forging a brighter future for everypony!’

Feldora pointed at a small casket standing on a shelf. The stolen gemstone was inside.

‘Still, there is one more thing before we begin.’, she continued. ‘As we all know, Equestria was founded after the three pony tribes’ exodus.’

‘I know the story,’, Moonwarden said. ‘Legendary figures of Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum were forced to leave their cold homelands and flee to the south.’

‘Exactly.’, Feldora confirmed and pointed north from Equestria, to a cyan shaded land full of mountains. ‘They had to leave most of their possessions behind to come here. Similarly, although Star Swirl himself has returned, his Staff is still in the place we now know as the Griffin Kingdoms.’

More lies!

Moonwarden knew better. Heart touching story about the return of the greatest equine wizard might have been enough for Feldora to unite the ponies, but Moonwarden was no easily fooled. Dead stay dead, no matter what.

Yet he saw the unicorn twice. Both times were when Feldora gave her speech on the ‘official’ cult gathering in a village of Hollow Shades. The place itself has become a safe haven for the cult, as there were hardly any unicorns there and the Princesses’ influence was withering. Moreover, living in a forest situated between two mountains was stressing enough, so cult’s promises could easily fuel the poor ponies’ dreams.

Moonwarden was standing in a crowd back then, with his horn concealed by a simple hat. He saw Star Swirl the Bearded, the founder of the Conclave itself, telling everypony he feels ashamed that the unicorns took so much for themselves, leaving so little for earth ponies and pegasi. He stated that he returned to help Feldora bring a better tomorrow. It didn’t make much sense for Moonwarden, so the logical answer is that there was somepony posing as Star Swirl.

The only problem being… there wasn’t another unicorn in the cult. Not to his knowledge, at least.

‘I should come with you, mistress,’, Zaeer said, pulling Moonwarden from his reverie. ‘Griffin Kingdoms aren’t exactly known for their hospitality.’

‘Your concern est louable,’, Feldora replied. ‘But I need Moonwarden on this one. He will ensure my safety.’

‘I’ll do my best, mistress.’, the dark grey unicorn gave a single nod.

Good one.

‘Besides,’, the mare said to Zaeer. ‘You are needed elsewhere.’

‘Mistress?’

‘You will return to our place in Hollow Shades.’, she pointed at the map. ‘Most of the recruiters are already there, and vast numbers of our followers are coming each day. I need you to oversee the preparations for the ritual with Star Swirl the Bearded.’

Zaeer was shocked with this new responsibility.

‘I’ll see to it personally.’, he assured.

‘In the meantime,’, Feldora turned her attention back to Moonwarden, nodding at the gemstone casket. ‘We’ll take the carriage drawn by my pegasi acolytes and do what needs to be done in the Kingdoms.’

Moonwarden used his magic to take the casket from the shelf, to which Zaeer frowned.

‘When we’ll return with Star Swirl’s Staff, there will be no stopping the balance to come.’

Ah, the balance. Cult’s favorite catchphrase.

What did it mean, exactly? Probably only Feldora knew and was not sharing that knowledge even with her closest associates.

Moonwarden, naturally, had a theory. It was well known that the cult’s ultimate goal is to make everypony equal, possibly by reducing the role of unicorns in the society by weakening or even taking away their ability to use magic. And, from what he had learned about Star Swirl the Bearded, they could achieve that by using his famed Staff. He wasn’t sure, however, how it would affect the Royal Sisters. Would it take away their power to raise the Sun and, worse, the Moon?

There was one more thing. Feldora didn’t seem to understand that cutting down the amount of magic in the society will cripple the possibility of development. While temporarily improving the present, from a certain point of view, there would be no good future lying ahead. All in all, magic proved useful over the years. Many structures and projects, not only in Canterlot, were completed thanks to the collective effort of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. We’re not plucking out feathers from wings of the pegasi, why would somepony considered taking away the very thing that defined the unicorns?

Still, Moonwarden didn’t feel fear of losing his abilities. He felt… serenity.

After all, he was just following her plan.