58 - Theory Point

In all her life, Theory Point had never been so frightened as she was now. As soon as she teleported out of the armory, she began to gallop away from it as if she were competing in the Running of the Leaves, her heart thudding like the hooves of a stampeding elk. Quickly, she checked herself, slowing to a walk. Galloping would certainly arouse suspicion in any pony that saw her. Her forelocks were damp with a cold sweat, causing her to shiver. But that wasn’t the only reason she shivered. Her eyes darted to-and-fro, watching for any Royal Guards that might be pursuing her.

Despite what she had told James about how he would look just as guilty as she did, she had no confidence that he wouldn’t turn her in. He was a Royal Councilor now, and his only loyalty was to The Crown. It wouldn’t be long before Twilight Sparkle knew what had happened in the armory. She was sure to believe him. If and when either Princess returned, they would believe him too. The bond of mutual trust between Royal Councilors and the Princesses was almost unbreakable. Like the strongest steel forged in the hottest fire. No, the little speech she’d given to James wouldn’t stop him from turning her in. Even while she had been giving it, she hadn’t had any illusions that it would. All she had hoped for then, and still hoped for, was that it would buy her some time. Make him think about it for awhile before going to Twilight. She hoped the time would be measured in hours, but she suspected it was more likely to be measured in minutes. And when that time ran out, she had no doubt that he would go to Twilight. After that, it would only be a matter of an hour or two before word was circulated to every Royal Guard in Canterlot. They would all be on the lookout for her, and she’d be arrested on sight. Her thoughts raced and dwelled on fears of dungeon cells and treason charges. Of court trials in front of a Royal Guard military tribunal instead of a civilian court. After all, she had aided and abetted the enemy. She had actively participated in kidnapping one of the Princesses. Not only had she committed high treason, but she had committed it multiple times. She struggled to get control of her racing thoughts, roping them all in. First things first, she told herself. She had to get out of Canterlot as soon as possible. But she also had to do it without arousing suspicion. After all, no one in their right mind, other than Royal Guard units getting ready for deployment, would be in any hurry to leave the city. What with the freezing cold, constant snow squalls, biting winds, and darkness like a vat of black ink beyond the lights of the city limits.

Continuing to walk at a slow, determined pace, as if she had a particular task and destination in mind, she forced herself to look forward. It took all of her willpower to resist the urge to constantly turn her head and look for Royal Guards that might be after her. She tried to reason that if they were pursuing her, she’d know without seeing. It’s not like they’d be trying to sneak up on her in the open. They’d be galloping and probably ordering her to halt. The courtyard walls were close now, but it seemed to take an agonizing amount of time to cover the final yards to them. As if they were mountains that appeared very close, but no matter how long she walked, they never seemed to get any closer.

From the corner of her eye, she saw two patrolling guards marching along the wall. Her breathing quickened and her legs felt like they were set in concrete. Every instinct of survival told her to stop. To bolt and gallop in the other direction. It took all of her willpower reserves to continue moving one hoof in front of the other. One of the guards looked at her and her heart skipped a beat. Calm yourself. There’s no way they could know yet, she told herself.

“Is everything alright, Ma’am?” the gray Earth Pony Guard asked, stopping his patrol and turning to face her.

“Yes, sir,” she responded, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible while her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. “I’m just finishing up a weather analysis.”

Immediately, she kicked herself. True, she was wearing her Academy uniform, so the claim of gathering or analyzing data would be believable. Except, the unit patch on her left shoulder clearly indicated she was from the Department of Physics. She tried to keep her breathing normal as the two Royal Guards looked her over. They were both earth ponies. If she struck first, she could probably have restraining and gag spells on them before they could overpower her and slap a magic suppression ring on her horn. But the amount of magic she’d need to use to restrain two Royal Guards at the same time was high enough that there’d be no way she’d be able to hide the glow of her horn in the darkness. And even if the two guards she was casting at didn’t have time to warn other guards in the area, any guards patrolling the walls would almost certainly see her. The guards had approached from the other side. That meant they probably hadn’t seen her unit patch. Then again, perhaps she was just being paranoid at this point? Even if they had seen it, would it occur to them that it seemed a bit out of her area of expertise to be doing a meteorological analysis?

“Weather analysis seems a bit out of your field,” one of the guards commented, sending a jolt through her. Her heart racing even faster. The damn guards didn’t miss anything.

She tried desperately to calm herself. The guard hadn’t sounded like he was accusing her of anything. Merely making an observation. As if trying to engage her in friendly conversation. But Royal Guards were trained to do that when questioning someone suspicious. To make you feel safe where you were not. To make you feel comfortable so you’d slip up and reveal something damning. Still, she could talk her way out of this one. She was a highly trained scientist. The guards would just take her for her word at anything she said, not having the slightest clue whether it made any sense or not. At least, she hoped that’s what would happen. So with all the confidence she could force into her voice, all of the assertiveness, and all indication she could give that she knew exactly what she were doing and why, she responded.

“I’m analyzing thermal-transfer potentials of molecules in the troposphere, sir. We’ll combine that with IR flux data from the stratosphere that we’ve already gathered over the last few days and use the combination to determine likely acceleration rates of the cooling trend. At least, that’s what we are trying to do. It’s all highly experimental, given no situation like this has ever been observed before, or even theoretically accounted for.” It was complete scientific nonsense. But the two guards wouldn’t know that … Would they?

The guards said nothing in response, eyeing her for a bit longer. Was that suspicion in their eyes? Her heart continued to thunder away, as she exercised all of her self-control to keep her breathing calm. Impatience gnawed at her with the same fury as the icy wind. Even if her story did fool the guards, she was wasting valuable time. Every second she wasted here was another second closer to Twilight knowing what happened. It would take time for word of her to reach the guards in the outskirts of the city, so the faster she could get away from the armory and the castle—and the further—the safer she’d be. Moments seemed to stretch into hours. The whole time, she made sure to keep eye contact with both guards. It was always important to maintain steady eye contact. It showed assertiveness, confidence, and allowed one to maintain control of a situation. Avoiding eye contact, or shifting her eyes, would suggest she had something to hide and cause her to lose control of the encounter. She prepared a restraining and gag spell as the time ticked away, but didn’t charge her horn. For now, the guards would have no idea she was holding a powerful spell on the verge of casting.

“Don’t stay out too long, ma’am. It’s dangerously cold,” one of the guards finally responded.

“I won’t, sir. And you try to keep warm as well,” she said, a wave of relief flooding over her as the guards resumed their patrol.

She continued walking in the direction she’d been going before the encounter, releasing the spell she’d been prepared to cast, her fear gradually coming down, though it wouldn’t be gone completely until she was far outside of Canterlot. She stopped every once in awhile, and acted as if she were looking at something, or taking a sample. The reality is she was just trying to buy a bit more time for the guards to be far enough away where they were unlikely to be able to see her.

Now, she had another immediate problem to deal with. The gate into and out of the castle courtyard was closed and locked. It had been ever since they’d discovered the potential threat against the Princesses. A few days before she’d teleported in and gone into the armory, she’d observed the gate for awhile. She’d quickly learned that the gate sentries weren’t allowing anyone in unless they had a magically sealed pass from Twilight Sparkle, or they were injured, or otherwise in desperate need of some kind of attention. Worse, the sentries were letting no one out of the gates without the magical pass, no matter what excuse they had for wanting to leave. Theory Point was very competent with magic, but she knew she was no match for Twilight. There was no way she’d be able to forge a magical pass, especially given she hadn’t even seen one to know what the spell print looked like. That meant the only way for her to get out was to teleport herself outside of the wall. That was how she’d gotten in, but it had been a great risk. Fortunately, none of the guards had spotted her. However, with teleportation spells, the origin of the magic always glowed brighter and longer than the target. That meant a unicorn was far more likely to be spotted at the place they were teleporting from than at the destination they were teleporting to—something that was definitely not conducive to trying to leave an area without being noticed.

Furthermore, despite the fact that she was a relatively powerful magic user, teleportation was something she’d never been particularly good at. A unicorn like Twilight Sparkle probably would have been able to teleport directly from the armory to somewhere outside of the castle walls. But Theory Point knew she couldn’t teleport nearly that far. She also doubted her own ability to teleport through more than one solid object at a time without killing or seriously injuring herself. That had ruled out trying to go through the armory wall and the courtyard wall with one jump. And so, there was nothing she could do except get fairly close to the wall, and then teleport to the other side, and hope none of the guards saw her do it.

She continued walking towards the wall, looking for a place that offered at least some features that would hide her, or at least obscure the glow when she initiated the spell. Two areas looked promising. The first, was the shadow of a garden tool building near one part of the wall. That would completely hide her and prevent the guards from seeing her at all. However, the fact that the area was in shadow would amplify the light from the teleportation spell, like a flashbulb going off in a dark room. Furthermore, the act of ducking into the shadow of the building might draw unwanted attention from the guards.

The second option, was a very bright light lamp illuminating the ground near one part of the wall. She could teleport from directly underneath it, and the flash from the spell would likely be indistinguishable from the powerful lamp. Of course, that also had the risk that one of the guards would happen to be looking directly at her when she teleported and would see her disappear from under the lamp. Both locations had their risks. At least she didn’t have to worry about teleporting herself into any objects on the other side of the wall, no matter which option she chose. For defensive reasons, all trees had been cleared and the grass was kept very short outside the wall, leaving over a thousand strides of open space on all sides. That way, any army that tried to attack the castle would be visible long before they got there. An attacking army would also be forced to take very heavy casualties as they crossed the field, completely exposed to the volleys of arrows and magical attacks that would rain down on them from the walls and defense towers.

Again, every second she spent deciding which option to choose was a second she couldn’t really afford, so she quickly decided on teleporting from under the lamp post. That would be less likely to attract attention, she thought. If she teleported from shadow, the strong flash would be noticed even from the corner of the eye, whereas if she teleported from the lamp and the flash wasn’t visible, one of the guards would likely have to be looking directly at her to see the spell. Furthermore, the guards would be looking directly into the glare from the lamp itself, which would make her harder to see.

She changed her direction slightly, making her way towards the lamp post now, being careful to resist the urge to look around. As she walked, she prepared the teleportation spell, holding it just on the edge of casting. Then, just as she reached the light post, she cast.

The world spun for a moment—she didn’t use teleportation very often, which was probably part of the reason she wasn’t very good at it—and she found herself just outside of the castle walls. Getting her bearings, she stood stock still as close to the wall as possible, ensuring that any guards up on the walls would have to look directly down to see her. And even then, they might not be able to. Her ears swiveled up and forward, listening for any conversations inside the walls. Any signs that they had seen a unicorn teleport, or even that they had seen anything unusual. To her relief, she heard nothing other than the steady sound of hoofsteps as the guards continued to patrol the wall above her.

She allowed herself a slight sigh of relief, but the most dangerous part of getting away was still ahead of her. She couldn’t simply gallop across the thousand-plus strides of open field in front of her. After all, the field would reveal someone running away from the castle just as easily as it would reveal an army approaching it.

She cast a weak levitation spell on herself, allowing her to walk just above the ground and avoid making any noise, as well as avoid leaving a trail of hoofprints. Either one would likely arouse suspicion. Then, she carefully worked her way along the perimeter, hugging the wall as closely as possible. The levitation spell was weak enough that it didn’t produce any detectable glow. Not that it would have mattered even if it had. The perimeter around the outside of the fence was well lit. If a guard leaned far enough over the wall, he’d see her, glow or no glow. Worry over the amount of time this was all taking gnawed at her like a timberwolf gnawing on a fresh kill.. But she had to get to the main gate before she dared leave the safety of the wall. There, she’d be able to join the crowd of ponies seeking the latest news from the gate sentries, or asking for additional assistance with food, heating, and so on.

The silent walk around the perimeter seemed to take ages. Worse, she was rapidly draining her magic reserves. Maintaining the levitation spell required a constant flow of magic. She could draw on her physical energy reserves to maintain the spell once her magical reserves had run out. Most advanced unicorns knew how to do that, and thanks to the Academy’s fitness requirements, she was in very good physical shape. But it was much less efficient to use physical energy to drive spells than to use magical reserves. Physical energy had to be converted to magical energy before it could be used for spell purposes, in much the same way that fat had to be converted to glucose before a cell could use it for energy. And just like that conversion, the process of converting physical energy to magical energy required energy itself, which meant physical energy was used up quickly once a unicorn started drawing on it for magic. That physical energy was something she’d desperately need once she was away from the castle and fleeing the city.

She rounded another corner and saw the lights of the gate. Ponies were gathered around it, bombarding the sentries with questions, frustrations, and occasional shouts. Two earth pony sentries and one unicorn sentry stood at the gate, the earth ponies trying to keep the citizens calm, and the unicorn checking magical passes. Theory Point dropped her levitation spell, allowing her hooves to sink into the snow now. She felt she still had some magic reserves left. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need them anytime soon.

She walked casually now, intentionally putting a slight expression of worry on her muzzle. That would help her blend in with the crowd more as most of the ponies were worried and concerned. As she entered the fray, she turned away from the castle and proceeded away from the gate, joining the side of the road with the other ponies that were leaving. The crowd gradually thinned out as she got further away from the gates. She chanced a glance over her shoulder. None of the guards were looking in her direction and none were coming after her, she realized with a sigh of relief.

Every instinct told her to make her way as quickly as possible to the city border and leave. But her intended destination was two days away. That meant she’d have to obtain supplies first. The safest way to do that would be to buy them from a shop on the outskirts of the city. But she suspected all of the shops had sold out of everything long ago. The ones that had even stayed open through the crisis, that is. All of them were probably closed by now. If she got to the edge of the city and didn’t find any open shops, or any that had the supplies she needed, she’d have to turn around and come back in. That was likely to be more risky than returning to the Academy and gathering her own supplies. Besides, she also needed to get rid of her Academy uniform as soon as possible.

She turned towards the Academy, starting towards one of the staff housing buildings at a fast trot. Trotting wouldn’t look suspicious. After all, nopony wanted to be out in this cold any longer than necessary. All of the shops she passed were closed, most of them boarded up to protect against looters. But the streets were mostly deserted, and the shops looked no worse for wear. Boarding them up had likely been an unnecessary precaution.

Opening the staff housing door, she stepped inside and quickly went to the stairs, climbing them to the floor her own room was on. Like the streets, the building was deserted. All of the staff members who had families would no doubt be at home with them. The other staff would all be busy with various other duties around the city, having been drafted into service as Royal Guard Reserve.

She reached the door to her own apartment, unlocking it and stepping in, shivering again. The building’s heat was turned down to conserve energy and valuable fuel resources. Her breath misted in front of her muzzle as she walked over to her wardrobe locker, using a small amount of magic to open it.

Quickly, she shed her academy uniform and took out the warmest clothes she had. The saddle blanket was a dull brown, as was the hood, both made of stout brown wool lined with linen. She had almost thrown these clothes away when she’d joined the Academy, thinking she’d never wear them again. After all, no Academy officer would be caught wearing such peasant like clothing. The only reason she hadn’t gotten rid of them was that they’d been a gift from her parents. She was glad she’d kept them, now. Dressing like a common peasant would be the best way to avoid attracting attention as she left the city.

She felt a twinge of pain in her heart as she thought of her parents. Like the dull twisting of a knife. How were they doing, she wondered?

She shook her head. No time to think of things like that now. There’d be plenty of time for that once she was safely out of the city, she thought as she put the warm saddle blanket on, tightening the straps and then pulling the hood over her head. She scanned through the rest of the wardrobe. There was nothing else that seemed worth taking.

Leaving the room and heading down the stairs again, she made her way to the kitchen, opening the pantries and looking for any non-perishable food she could take with her. All of them were completely empty. She frowned slightly, but had half expected she wouldn’t find anything. Since nopony was staying in the building, the food had likely been appropriated by the Royal Guard and distributed where it would be needed. Well, it was only two days she had to travel. She could go without food for that long.

She stepped outside again, the warm wool keeping the icy wind from biting into her, and turned down the road, making her way towards the northern edge of the city. Even though the Academy campus was located in the heart of Canterlot, the streets were almost deserted. Nopony would be out unless they had to be in this kind of weather. Occasionally, she’d pass Royal Guards on patrol. Probably looking for looters or anypony who needed help. Every time she crossed paths with one, her heart raced a little faster, and a slight chill went through her. But as long as she stayed calm, as long as she looked like she had a destination in mind, they should have no reason to suspect her. She kept reminding herself of that, and the Royal Guards paid her no mind for the most part, other than the occasional nod, or the occasional greeting, to which she responded politely and in as calm a voice as possible.

She moved at a fast trot, again thinking it wouldn’t look suspicious. Anypony would want to get their business outside done as fast as possible so they could be back inside among a nice, warm fire. Soon, the densely packed multi-story buildings of downtown Canterlot begin to thin out into smaller buildings, spaced further apart. As the space between buildings grew further apart, so did the space between street lamps, leaving some areas of the street in shadow now. She felt some of her anxiety begin to lift. The sparser street lamps would reduce the chance that any guards would recognize her, and every step she took reduced the chance that word of her would have reached the guards in the area yet.

The road narrowed now, and the smaller stone structures gave way to single-story wood and plaster dwellings. The snow was up to her cannons now, and getting deeper the further she walked. This far in the outskirts of the city, there was very little traffic to tamp it down, and no maintenance crews clearing it away. Unfortunately, that meant she’d leave hoofprints as she left the city. There was nothing to be done about that, though. Levitating herself at this point would only make it obvious she was trying not to leave hoofprints, and that would look extremely suspicious to any guards who saw her. Besides, she wanted to conserve her magic in case she ran into any guards who were looking for her.

The snow was up to her knees now, and she thought she’d probably reached the end of the paved road and was on dirt. There was no way to tell, of course. Not with the snow as deep as it was. The plaster and wood dwellings gave way to open fields and farmland. Darkness loomed ahead of her as she neared the last set of street lamps, broken occasionally far to her left or right by lights in the windows of farm houses that were well off of the road. There were far fewer lights than their normally would have been. Most of the farm families had likely abandoned their homes for the relative safety of the city. The merchants and store owners they did business with would likely have taken them in and sheltered them. Those merchants and store owners would expect nothing in return. Most ponies were like that. Always willing to help others in need without expecting anything in return. A brief sickly feeling came over her as she realized how badly she had failed to live up to that, and how she was part of the reason why those ponies were in this situation right now. It will be worth it in the end, she told herself.

She stopped and turned around briefly, looking at the brightly lit city behind her. On top of the castle spires, the banners of Celestia and Luna—the golden sun and silver moon—flapped in the wind. A beacon for ponies to unite behind. A beacon that proclaimed that ponies were down, but not out. Their banners still flew, and they would overcome … A beacon she had betrayed. They were no longer her banners. No longer a part of her. There was no going back. Whether she regretted that or not, even she wasn’t sure. One thing was certain, though. She could never return to Canterlot again. At least not of her own free will. If she ever found herself back in Canterlot, it would be in chains. She nodded briefly to the city, as if in farewell, then turned around and walked passed the last set of street lamps, casting a light spell to illuminate the road in front of her. She made sure all of the light concentrated in front of her, not allowing any of it to shine out to the sides, behind, or above. Not only would that attract unwanted attention, but it was also a waste of magical energy.

She increased her speed to a gallop now, quickly putting distance between herself and the city, losing track of time as the farmland yielded to forest. She continued on the road for a bit longer as the woods thickened, then slowed to a walk, turning off the path and entering the forest.

A few hours later, she allowed herself to stop, confident she was far enough away from the city and far enough into the woods that she wouldn’t be found. Fear gave way to exhaustion now as the adrenaline-fueled flight from the city began to take its toll on her. She looked back towards Canterlot again. Even the glow of the city lights was no longer visible against the night sky.

She scouted the area, finding a small opening that was surrounded on all sides by trees. It would do nicely for getting some sleep, protecting her from the wind. Next, she gathered some wood, making it into a small pile near one side of the clearing. She channeled magic to her horn, and the wood burst into flame. Before long, she had a warm fire going. She laid down next to it, allowing herself to get lost in her thoughts again. The fire warmed her outsides, but did nothing to take the chill off her spirit. She thought of her parents again. How proud they’d been of her when she’d passed the Academy testing and been accepted. Guilt stabbed at her core again as she looked around, barely able to make out the trees surrounding the clearing their bare branches, casting accusing shadows on the ground in the flickering orange glow of the campfire. Beyond the light of the fire, there was nothing. Darkness on all sides of her. Darkness ahead of her, darkness behind her. It seemed to be an accurate painting of her past and her future now. Nothing. Only darkness. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had found food in the pantry at the Academy. She had no appetite to eat it anyway.

o.O.o

James, you fool, James chastised himself as he picked himself up off the floor of the armory, wiping the tears from his face with the sleeve of his robe. He’d made two mistakes now, he thought with dismay. The first had been trusting Theory Point to begin with. He should have noticed something was wrong. Something in her behavior or attitude. There had to have been something that should have made him suspicious.

The second mistake, had been lying here on the floor feeling sorry for himself. How long had he been doing that? No doubt, his delay had allowed Theory Point plenty of time to escape from the Castle courtyard. She was probably near the edge of the city by now.

And so he made his way outside of the armory, his heart weighing him down like an anchor. He felt numb, not even noticing the cold wind as it ripped into him and he made his way towards the Castle, in search of Twilight.