Chapter 74: Chariot Down

“Court Twilight Sparkle with my blessing, she says. Treat her every bit as well as she deserves, she says,” James quetched as he folded a forest-green cashmere sweater that Rarity had knitted for him, preparing to pack it into a suitcase that was laid open on his bed.

“Well, I don’t see what the problem is. She gave you what you wanted, didn’t she?” Rarity responded, levitating a pair of knit long underwear she had made for him over to the suitcase as she helped him pack for the long trip to the icebox town of White Pony.

“The problem is that with everything that’s been going on and with all I’ve had to learn and study, I haven’t exactly been able to make time to learn about Equestrian courtship customs,” James griped in response.

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about it, dear. From what I’ve seen, you already know how you should treat her and you’ve been doing everything right. Whether instinctively or because the custom isn’t that much different from your own world.” Rarity frowned now as she looked at the sweater James had just finished packing. “Oh no, no, no, dear this will never do. It doesn’t match any of the pants you have in here. You’ll look like a tree if you wear this,” she said with a shake of her head, starting to levitate the sweater out. James quickly reached out and put his hand on it, pushing it back down into the suitcase, ignoring the tingling, static electricity-like pull of her magic on his hand as he stuck it into the glowing field.

“I like that sweater,” he protested. “And you made it for me. And didn’t you tell me that everything goes well with black pants?”

“Well, yes dear, but you don’t have any black pants packed,” Rarity said, dropping her levitation spell, the sudden loss of resistance like someone had released a winch pulling James’ hand into the air. The sweater, along with his hand, plopped back down into the suitcase with a woosh of out-rushing air.

“So then I’ll pack some black pants,” James said with a hint of exasperation creeping into his voice. Really, how much simpler could the answer be?

“You don’t have any clean ones,” Rarity protested.

“I’ll wash them when I get there.”

“But you can’t possibly pack dirty clothes along with your clean ones!” Rarity exclaimed as if James had just suggested something that might very well cause the end of the Universe and the destruction of everything in it. He was reminded that what he was planning to do on the trip he was packing for might do just that. James huffed, throwing down the sweater he was currently holding, the fabric unfolding and landing in the suitcase in a mangled heep.

“Oh for Luna’s sake, then put the dirty ones in a different bag, Rarity!”

Rarity looked at him with an expression of surprise which quickly turned to one of hurt. Her tail drooped, her ears flattened on her head. She gave no response, merely turned around, levitated the closet open with her magic, and took out another bag which she started placing his dirty pairs of black pants in. Regret immediately flooded James that he had snapped at her. He took a deep breath, let it out with a frown, then picked up the sweater and gently started to refold it.

“I’m sorry, Rarity. I didn’t mean to explode on you. It’s just … knowing what I’m going up to that town to work on. What it might do. Something Star Swirl himself was terrified to go anywhere near. I’ve convinced Luna to let us go ahead with this. I’ve even managed to convince Twilight that Star Swirl’s apocalyptic predictions regarding deep magic are wrong. But what if I’m the one who’s wrong?”

Rarity set the bag down on the bed, then stepped over to him, placing a foreleg gently on his arm.

“Then you’ll have tried. You’ll have tried to save the universe. Done everything you possibly could.”

“But what if there’s a less drastic solution? Something I’m missing? What if there’s a solution that doesn’t risk destroying the entire universe in an attempt to save it?”

“You could spend the next year asking yourself that question, darling. And in the meantime, the Beyond would destroy the universe and you would have done nothing to even try to stop it.”

James nodded slightly. Rarity was right, of course. He was a researcher, used to having all the time he needed to solve a problem. Looking for the right answer had been paramount in his work. If you weren’t sure you had the right one, you hypothesized, theorized, experimented, verified until you were as sure as you reasonably could be that you had the right one. And if it turned out you didn’t, you went back to hypothesizing again, trying the same steps with a different answer. But what did one do when you didn’t have time to find the right answer? What if you only had time to find an answer that might work, but was not ideal? What if that answer would be the only chance you had and would have disastrous consequences if it were the wrong one? Such situations were outside his realm of experience. But they were, no doubt, well within Luna’s realm, weren’t they? Would she have gone along with his plan if she didn’t think it were the best option in the limited time they had? Luna also turned into Nightmare Moon once, a little voice inserted in the back of his mind. And besides, Luna also trusts you to come up with the right answer, the same voice reminded him. But there was nothing for it except to continue with the plan he had unveiled. To backtrack now would not only waste time that they didn’t have to waste, but would call his judgment into question. Would give the impression that he were careless, hasty. Perhaps a bit like Theory Point. Luna might not be so willing to sign off on any future plans he had. No, there was no turning around now.  The only direction was forward.

But that wasn’t the only thing on his mind. It wasn’t even the most immediate thing. It was distant, like a mountain that he’d have to climb eventually. But there were more immediate obstacles to overcome first. Obstacles that if he failed to overcome, would render his fears about the Genesis Spell irrelevant since there would be no one to cast it. He looked at the sweater he’d been holding onto for several minutes now without realizing that his hands had stopped moving, finished folding it, then set it in the suitcase as gently as if he were handling a newborn foal. He lifted his eyes to Rarity again.

“I’m supposed to protect Twilight,” he said. He knew that was part of what was expected of him if he were to court her. But more so than that, it was the essence of Luna’s prophecy about him. He was the protector. She was the one who would need to cast the Genesis Spell.

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, dear. Twilight is more than capable of protecting herself,” Rarity said with a slight dismissive note in her tone. She finished folding the dirty pair of pants and placed it into the new bag she’d gotten from the closet. Even dirty laundry had to be folded in Rarity’s world. It must be nice when your worries were so trivial that all you had to concern yourself with was proper folding of dirty laundry. He shook his head, reminding himself that Rarity was one of the Elements of Harmony. She’d saved Equestria several times in the past and definitely had a lot more to worry about than dirty laundry.

“Normally, yes. But … don’t you dare tell Twilight I said this … but I’m not convinced even she is capable of drawing forth the kind of power that will be needed to make the Genesis Spell work. If she’s not, then all we are going to do is produce one hell of a nuclear blast and that’s gonna be it. It won’t be nearly enough to destroy the Beyond or save the universe. In the grand scheme of things, it will be like a firecracker. And even if she is capable of calling up enough power to do it, it’s going to take her a long time. Several minutes probably. She’ll be vulnerable that entire time. She won’t be able to focus on anything else. I have to protect her.”

“You’ll find a way, James. I have faith in you, Twilight has faith in you, the Council has faith in you, Luna has faith in you. And Celestia has faith in you too, even though she’s not here. She wouldn’t have put you on the Council if she didn’t. The only thing that’s missing is faith in yourself.”

James said nothing in response, only giving her a small smile that he hoped showed his appreciation. Inside, he hoped she were right as the two of them finished packing the suitcases in silence, then zipped them closed. He strapped on his sword belt now, checking that the sword was securely in its scabbard. Over the past weeks, it had become a part of him. Like some kind of critical fashion accessory that he couldn’t leave without putting on. When the sword belt was secure, the two of them made their way outside to the waiting chariot.

The cold air bit through his Council robe like thousands of stinging insects as they stepped out of the castle. Even though Luna had been able to raise the sun every day since her rescue, they’d decided a gradual warming was best in order to avoid a rapid snow melt and the consequent flooding that would follow. The magic lighting that lit the castle walkways glared brilliantly off the few remaining piles of snow in the courtyard. The smell of wood smoke and the heat distortion rising from the chariot’s chimney told him that the small heater inside was already lit and that it would be warm inside. The two of them stopped at the chariot and James turned, pulling Rarity into a hug.

“Thank you Rarity. Given that I can’t exactly buy clothes off the shelf in Equestria, I don’t know where I’d be without you to make a wardrobe for me, other than running around naked.” He tried to chuckle at his own joke, but found humor difficult to bring up given the gravity of what he was doing.

“Oh, you’re very welcome, dear. I’m elated that I was able to help,” she said, returning his embrace.

The two of them released each other after a few seconds and James opened the door to the chariot, the warm air from inside flooding out and feeling good against his exposed skin. Twilight was already inside. She smiled, but said nothing as he climbed in. He gave one last wave at Rarity, then pulled the door shut to avoid letting all the heat out. The warmness of the small stove felt good against his skin, but not nearly as good as Twilight’s fur felt when she moved towards him, snuggling up next to him.

“You’re late,” she quipped.

“Packing with Rarity is a journey in itself,” James responded with a slight chuckle, wrapping an arm around Twilight as the chariot bumped across the ground for a few seconds before pitching up and climbing into the sky, clearing the walls of Canterlot Castle before turning north.

The two of them leaned back against the wall, arm in foreleg. A slight whiff of wood smoke from the stove reached James’ nostrils, reminding him of camping as a child – a time long before lectures, labs, and research projects. When was the last time he’d actually been camping? He couldn’t remember.  The feel of Twilight’s soft fur leaning on his chest brought him out of those thoughts. He leaned his head against hers, like two lovers leaning against each other in front of a tree trunk. The trip to White Pony was long and arduous. He frowned as it reminded him of Theory Point. What was she doing right now? Despite what she had done, he found he still considered her a friend and he hoped she was safe. If he ran across her again, would he turn her in? Call the Royal Guards on her? He honestly wasn’t sure. After all, she could have killed him when they’d encountered each other in the armory, but she didn’t. She had said it was because she still had hope that he would see things her way and come over to it. But he didn’t believe it. He thought she still considered him a friend. That she simply didn’t have it in her to kill him. He imagined her alone, hungry, her career ruined, a fugitive on the run from justice. Damn it, why had she thrown everything away like that? She’d had everything. A prestigious job at the most respected educational institution in Equestria. She’d held the world in her hooves, her future full of limitless potential. But now, all of it was gone. She was the one who told him he had to take risks. That it was the only way to move forward. Ha … if only she could see him now, about to take the mother of all risks. A single tear tickled his eyelid, rolling down his cheek. Twilight shifted, looking up at his face, frowning.

“What’s wrong, James?”

“I was just thinking of Theory Point. The last time I came up here was with her. I can’t figure out why she did what she did,” he said, running his hand absently through Twilight’s mane.

“Do … do you care about her?” Twilight asked, raising an eyelid. James shook his head back and forth once.

“As a friend, yes. But not the way I care about you.” He leaned his face into her mane, inhaling her scent, his sorrow over Theory Point forgotten, as if simply being near Twilight were a magic cure for all of his ailments.

“She betrayed the Princesses. She betrayed all of Equestria,” Twilight said. James nodded into her mane.

“I know. But she also helped me a lot. She was the first friend I had in Canterlot. The one who helped me come out of my shell. All of the friends I have in Canterlot, I met through her. I mean I knew she was a bit of a maverick. But this … this was out of left field. Maybe I should have –”

Twilight put a forehoof to his lips, pressing gently and stopping him. “We already talked about this. You can’t blame yourself for not noticing.”

James looked into the deep pools of her eyes, then leaned against her again, running his hand through her mane once more. It helped having her tell him that it wasn’t his fault. After all, no one else had noticed either. Not Celestia, not Luna, not the commander at the academy. And it was Celestia herself who had assigned her to work on this project, with no input from him. Still, of all involved, he was the one who had spent the most time with Theory. The one who should have noticed something out of the ordinary. That small thought continued to bite at him like a pesky insect. He tried to focus his thoughts on the Genesis Project instead, but there was little he could do until they had data flowing in. Until they had the lab set up in White Pony and were able to start conducting experiments. Assuming those experiments don’t kill you and everypony near you, the dark part of his mind reminded him. James leaned back a little further, closed his eyes, and allowed himself to drift off into thoughts of simpler times.

o.O.o

A blinding light pierced through his closed eyelids. At the same time, an explosive crack split the chariot, as if a stick of dynamite had exploded underneath them. The chariot shook as if it had been thrown into the middle of a violent storm. For a moment, James thought they had been hit by lightning, but as the chariot dropped out from under him and his head smacked the ceiling with a thud, he knew something far worse had happened. The chariot rolled, he and Twilight tumbling into each other before slamming onto the far wall, the window forming a spiderweb of cracks from their impact. They tumbled around like they were inside of a washing machine as the chariot entered a violent spin, pitching down roughly and slamming them both against the back wall. An icy chill ripped through his robe as the walls of the chariot peeled away like the walls of a barn inside a tornado. And then, the chariot was gone, leaving him and Twilight falling through the air as if they’d been tossed out of an aircraft. James’ heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline surged through him like a gazelle running from a pack of hungry lions. His fingers felt frozen as cold air assaulted him like thousands of glass shards piercing his skin The ground rushed up to meet them, spinning in circles like some kind of insane carnival ride that had come off its mountings and was now careening out of control towards disaster.

And then, it was quiet. A transparent violent ball surrounded them and their descent slowed. The spinning slowed and came to a stop like an airplane leveling out of an uncontrolled spin. James turned his head, looking for Twilight, spotted her. Her eyes were screwed shut, her horn glowing with a near-blinding light as she struggled to get control of their free fall. Her muscles shook with tension, sweat poured from her fur. The ground rushed at them, making James feel like a skydiver with no parachute. They hit with a jarring thud, the air rushing from his lungs, pain searing through him as he felt a sharp snapping in one of his ribs. The lavender bubble around them burst like a balloon that had been poked with a pin. But they were alive. Or at least he was. He rolled quickly to his side, down a slight hill. His ribs flared with pain, as if someone had stuck a sword between them and twisted it. He winced, resisted the urge to cry out, pushing the pain out of his mind as all his thoughts focused on Twilight. He spotted her, lying on her side, wincing and breathing heavily. But she was alive.

A ripping, roaring sound broke out in front of them, as if someone had opened the cabin door of an airliner at thirty thousands feet and it had depressurized. A tear appeared, like an opening zipper, like someone ripping a hole in the fabric of reality itself. Looking beyond the rip was like looking into nothing if nothing were somehow given form. A black hole that consumed everything near it … except for the one thing that was emerging from it. Two glowing embers, red like blood, appeared in the tear in the fabric of reality. A black hood materialized around it, as if a figure were approaching through dark smoke, or as if some macabre and demonic artist were drawing it from the head down. Slowly, the rest of the figure formed, the black robe, the holes where the hands and feet should be so that looking at the holes was like looking into non-existence. The aisling floated out of the rip, its bloody yet bloodless eyes turning to James, then to Twilight, then back to James again. A feeling of doom overcame James, as if death itself were staring him in the face.

Twilight stirred, rose to her feet, shaking as if the ground were heaving underneath her. Her horn lit with a dim glow as she tried to conjure up her magic. The aisling lifted a handless arm, pointed it at her. Lightning flashed from emptiness, striking Twilight in the shoulder. She cried out, the electricity arcing around her as her horn went out and she collapsed to her side again, smoke rising from the singed spot on her fur, the smell of burning hair sickening to James’ nostrils.

“Twilight!” James cried out with a blood-curdling yell, feeling as if he’d been kicked in the stomach by an earth pony. He looked at the downed unicorn for a moment, then turned his attention to the aisling. His eyes narrowed, anger boiled inside of him, a volcanic caldera on the verge of exploding and tearing up everything near it. He rose to his feet, stepping between Twilight and the aisling, drawing the Sword of Equestria from its scabbard. The pain he had felt earlier was gone. There was no room for any emotion except anger and rage. The world disappeared around him as if he had stepped into the Beyond itself. There was no existence except for himself, Twilight, and the aisling. He raised the sword, holding it in front of him, the point reaching towards the sky.

“Step aside, human. I will finish her,” the aisling growled. It’s voice came from everywhere at once, like an explosion echoing off a mountain range.

“You will not touch her,” James responded in a low voice, his tone devoid of emotion. There was no room for fear. Only for all consuming rage. The aisling laughed, like thunder rolling through a landscape.

“And who are you to stop me?” it growled, a sick sort of amusement in its booming voice.

“I am the Protector of the Chosen. I am the Servant of the Sacred Flame of the Sun and Moon,” James responded like he were speaking a mantra. A spiritual truth that were indisputable.

“You are nothing. And I will destroy her after I destroy you.” The aisling turned its burning eyes onto James now and began to raise its armless sleeve, lightning cracking around the dead opening, ozone filling the air.

“You will not touch her!” James shouted, his voice erupting in rage as he raised his sword higher, seeing nothing but the aisling now.

The sky exploded in blinding light, the Sun flaring an angry white as if it were about to explode in a supernova. A rumbling reached across the heavens, stretching from horizon to horizon, drowning out the thunder-like voice of the aisling. The ground shook as from an earthquake, the trees quaked, the mountains vibrated. A roar seared across the sky, coming from behind James and nearly splitting his eardrums. Flaming orbs of fire, like comets crashing to the earth arced over his head, trailing long tails of fire and plumes of black smoke. Heat slammed into James, nearly searing his hair from his head as he felt as if he might burst into flames itself. The aisling’s eyes widened, brightening with terror and turning their attention towards Twilight again. But James still saw nothing except for the aisling.

“It cannot be!” the aisling shouted, barely audible over the ear shattering roar and shaking of the ground. The flaming orbs rocketed over James head, splitting and rending the air with sonic booms as they slammed into the base of the aisling’s robe, exploding into piercing, blinding light as if they were exploding stars.

“It cannot be!” the aisling shouted … no, screamed this time, as its robe burst into flame, black smoke rising from it as from a burning pit of tar. Nothingness became flesh. Burning, stinking, charred flesh, like meat that had been left on a grill for way too long. The aisling howled in agony as the robe burned away, its entire being consumed in flame as if it had been soaked in gasoline. It collapsed, rolling down the hill like a flaming log, its screams dying away as it was consumed into nothing. And then, there was nothing except a charred black path where the aisling had rolled, the after-stink of burning flesh, and the echo of the fireballs continuing to reverberate off the trees. The sky glowed red, the Sun flaring with an angry orange color before slowly returning to something the resembled normal. But for several seconds, angry fingers of fire continued to reach out from it; giant solar flares snaking away like striking, hissing, spitting cobras millions of miles long. But James’ thoughts were only for Twilight now. He rushed over to her, sinking to his knees and taking her head in his arms. She coughed, moaned slightly, but her eyes were open and she was breathing. The tip of her horn looked charred, as if someone had dipped it in the flame of a dirty candle.

“Twilight!” James said, concern flooding him, his heart beating only for her.

“I’m okay, James … Or at least I will be after I’ve had a few minutes to recover.” Only now, did James notice the look of wonder in Twilight’s eyes.

“Twilight, I thought you were … how did you –” he stopped as Twilight shook her head.

“I didn’t do that, James … You did …”

Author’s Note: Well, there it is. I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter. Also, as promised, here are the first two chapters of my new story, Truth and Judgment.