In The Kingdom Of Hope [Concluded]

Blade soon got near the front entrance of the school, but it seemed different. The color seemed darker than normal. After, looking over the door a bit more he had realized it was sealed shut which meant things were going wrong. The silence was enough indication of that. It sent chills up Blade's spines as if the image of a the guard that were sent there were dead. Soon, he noticed himself Zephyr, his armor being a dead give away, along with what could be guessed a mare that were near the guard. Who weren't dead, but frozen.

Something seemed to be glistening from mare's hoof which could have been guessed to be a knife. The stallion. while still on his construct, fired one or two rounds at the mare in hopes that she would get knocked away from Zephyr or try to dodge the attack which would separate a knife from the night guard's throat.

Mittere looked to Sugary and nodded. "You have done an admirable job in your duties, Mr Market," she said, pulling her hood down and flicking the ear with the flower behind slightly. Ashen's brother noticed the far from subtle movement and nodded at Mittere, then Sugary. 

"Alright then. You just so happened to stumble into the boring part of the work. End of the hall and-" 

"You're wasting your time talking to him," The griffon interrupted, still not turning around. He seemed to be rather stressed, though made no obvious effort to contain it. "More so if you talk to me. You should know everything you need to know. If you're one of those over inquisitive ponies from one of the social sciences, you're wasting your time. Fishing for information and your chosen field of study."  

"Perhaps."

"No," he shook his head. "definitely."

Mittere's patience was infinite in some matters, but this griffon was already turning out to be grating her. She gave him a glare, very similar to the one she gave the guard at the checkpoint. He was an obstruction, an obnoxious obstruction. They'd gotten the information they had wanted, if Ashen's brother was talking about what she thought he was. The only thing left now was to tie up a loose end or two.  

"Wow," The guard said, rearing up slightly before returning to normal. "Tough crowd. Comedians don't last too long with you, do they?" He asked One. The answer was rather self evident, if he hadn't tuckered himself all out with his little number. The guard did feel more secure with One back in the cell though. "Worth it," he whispered to himself among some other things. 

Zephyr's first instinct upon being cut was to lower his head and bring a hoof to the wound, but his neck was soon twisted as he was brought in for a kiss. This mare was odd, the kind that liked to play with prey. It was kinda hot. She was a lot more fun and interesting. For all his other vices, pain wasn't a problem to him. It was the cheapest sacrifice to endure, and he was more than willing to bleed a little in service to Celestia. "I would hardly call years spent with you, years spent in agony, dear." Zephyr was playing with fire, well, quite the opposite actually. "If you turn yourself in, I'll see to it that I'll be there with you. We can play all the games you like, as long as you keep it away from others." It would a temporary solution, until everything was sorted. In his view it was an offer stacked in her favour, though bar the appearance of Blade, who just so happened to show up. It wasn't all that doubtful of course, hero's were known for amazing luck. 

"The late entry tests begin just before the start of the next school term," The unicorn pulled open a draw and flicked through a dairy to find the page he wanted. Satisfied, he set it down on the desk, facing away from him for the two to read. "These are the provisional dates, if you want to write them down or something. As for accommodation, we're slightly better off than most schools and offer a board service among the best in the world and we don't charge students at all." The pony smiled, though it was a tired one. "Is that all? I wouldn't want to keep you on your first day."

One's ears perked up, and he chuckled. "Was it really guardspony? Enjoy being terrified by other ponies?" He shrugged and started to preen. Spitting some feathers out, he contemplated tearing the guard's throat out, bars or no. "Feeling safe behind that steel? How about if I didn't repair it properly? Better hope your princess shows up soon."

Isabelle blushed a little. "O- Oh my~ that's rather kinky~" She purred and licked his neck, healing his wound. "You're the first one in ages who I've actually been attracted to..." She cuddled him happily. "Tell you what~ You and your guard friends stay here with me for... Twenty minutes, Mkay? Then I come back to the station with you, and we can have some fun."

She glanced at Blade. "Oh dear..." She whimpered and cuddled Zephyr a little closer. "I suppose you want to fight then? Or attempt to break past me to get to the gate?" She untangled herself unhappily from Zephyr and faced Blade, waiting for his response.

Blade, while still a few feet in the air, glared down at the mare. She seemed rather nonchalant with things and for some reason liked Zephyr. Which made Blade wonder what the nightguard had said to her. "Probably, but first I want to know a few things. Like why you froze the gate, the guards, and you out a knife to his neck." He nodded his head over at Zephyr who seemed alright at the moment. "But, most importantly if you will undo your spell." He kept onto of his construct and waited for Isabelle's response as she did with him.

"I can't. I'm trying to save the world right now, and I just can't." She spun the knife in her hoof and glared at him. "I can't let you through and I can't undo the spell. I froze the guards cause they were rude and mean. They'll unfreeze eventually, but the gate isn't unfreezing till I want it to." She pouted at Zephyr. "I'm sorry, but I really can't... I- I just can't." She whimpered and kept the knife in a guarding position.

Eye sighed in relief, as Lampshade finished his cursory examination of the immediate area and backed away. She gave a weak smile as she tucked away the picture and slowly backed away. "Um, I guess that's all, but can we just, maybe, stay outside after you leave? We didn't really get any instructions aside from waiting here, and it might get us in trouble if we didn't. We promise if nothing happens at all, we'll go look for them but we can't really r - risk it at the moment."

Lampshade leaned against the doorway, ready to break it open should the need or the urge to do it arise. He smiled nervously as well, uncertainty creeping in from his unwillingness to attack this seemingly genuinely decent pony if it came down to it. He would rather it not come to that, in any case.

It didn't take much effort for him to carefully extricate a different knife from the inside of his frock, one that was laced with something less lethal. His muzzle scrunched up in irritation, as though he was simply scratching a rash inside his clothes.

Sugary began to feel that being in the same room as the Scholars further might be a waste of time. But even more so, the energies coming from outside were of a bigger concern as he assumed Isabelle had engaged in combat, or was warding off something. he moved right next to Summer, and spoke in her ear with a stern whisper. "Madam Mittere, if what we're looking for isn't here, then let's keep moving... Please... There is nothing to be gained with delaying the mission and can only further risk jeopardize it."

"Sadly, your methods are rather flawed or I might have actually cared about that statement." He now glared down at the mare. "Now, I will ask you again. Unfroze the gate and the guards or else." He said knowing that his threat wouldn't be taken seriously and that he would have to fight the mare. His horn began to glow in a bright green light as he waited for her answer.

The things he knew about her was slim, but hopefully enough to win this fight. She was a skilled ice-mage and carried a knife. A lot less than he would be comfortable with but still, he had to get through. With or without the mare's permission.

She narrowed her eyes, growling. "I told you, I cannot let you past me. Now go away!" She yelled the last sentence, slamming her hooves into the ground. Spikes of ice spread forward rapidly, heading straight for Blade. Without waiting, she bounded up and across the spikes enough as they grew, spinning as she brought her knife down towards his throat.

Blade assumptions about the mare were true. The stallion easily moved about on his platform to dodge the tops of the spikes. His eyes caught a glimpse of something moving his direction and as he turned his hand towards the figure he created another construct, a hand. Something griffons had and dragons were even rumored to have this strange objects.

The construct had its backside move to Isbelle and hit her with a large amount of force which Blade meant to cause a few broken bones for a regular pony. The hit would not her out of the air easily since she had nothing to keep herself up. While his body wasn't that strong his constructs were. The hit would easily not the mare out of the air if it hit. Hopefully, she wouldn't be harmed by her own spell. This was a battle to subdue not kill even though it seemed to be heading that direction.

Isabelle exploded, shards of ice spraying outwards in every direction. The remains of the ice construct collapsed to the ground and melted. The spikes thrust upward, aiming for Blade. Suddenly leaping from behind him, Isabelle was completely silent as she struck at him again, knife still aimed for his neck.

Mittere's stare began to soften as she heard Sugary's voice in her ear. She had gotten what she wanted, slightly more than that. She turned her head to Sugary and nodded. They would be moving out shortly 

"You are good, Doctor. More than capable of seeing right through me. I suppose me and my husband should get back to our "not real" science department ," she announced with a slight dejection, turning around and walking out of the room. "It is pleasing that you are conscious of the time, we wouldn't want to miss our meeting now would we?" The meeting in question did not exist, unless their reunion with Lamp and Eye counted, she was just playing the role while she was still in earshot

She moved in accordance with the directions from Ashen's brother until she reached a door, presumably the door she wanted. It was taller than the others they'd past, meaning there was likely a bigger room behind it. "Do you wish to enter with the same story in mind, Mr Market? It is unlikely any discretion will be long lived. Since your mind operates with more subtlety and consideration, I am willing to accommodate your  ideas." 

"I'm sure your sweetheart wouldn't be very pleased if she found out you hadn't been very nice to me," The guard said as if the little breakout has never happened. "You and your dear are as close as you say, she's probably on her way now. A dead guard doesn't seem like a very romantic present, nor a great welcome mat. I reckon you'll stay yourself until then at least." 

Zephyr looked at the two ponies facing off. He wasn't going to have to choose was he? He knew what side he would intervene on, but he wanted to postpone any action for as long as he could, so he just watched to two and hoped he was well enough out of the way. 

"I can't think of any reason why you can't. I don't own the halls after all," The unicorn said, rising from his seat. He hardly had any pressing matters to attend to aside from a nice cool drink, this reflected itself in his posture and the pace he walked along to the door of the room. "I hope things go well enough for you, and your sister if you decide to enrol." 

One snorted as he turned very slowly towards the guard. He chuckled a little, walking towards the bars. He stared deep into the guard's eyes as his laughter began to fill the hallway. He continued to laugh, the walls actually starting to vibrate with his laughter. "Yo- You fool. Yo- you think I would not tear you limb from limb if I so wished?" He continued to laugh maniacally as the dark blue feather in his pocket began to hum and pulse gently. He coughed as it pulsed brighter. "O- oh... My..." He coughed again, a change sweeping across his body as he stumbled back. His confidence drained out of him, his pupils dilating in fear. "She's actually coming... Oh Faust she's actually coming..." He started to pant now, sweat running on his forehead. "I- I've been running all this time, but now I'm cornered."

He turned to the guard, panicking. "You have to let me out, now. Luna is coming and by Faust is she pissed. I mean, I thought she was angry when she tried to take over the world, b- but I left her on our wedding day all those years ago... And now she has me."

The hand construct was rather big since it would take a giant object to knock a pony out of the air which acted as a shield for the explosion of ice. The guard quickly drew his platform in the shape of a bubble due to the fact of any attempt to go on the offensive would end up in injure or worse. The sphere grew about three times the stallion's size as it rose from the spikes from below. This sphere was probably the only reason why his neck hadn't been sliced, but instead his bubble ending up with a giant scratch. The damage to the barrier would quickly repair itself and brought Blade's attention.

Isabelle whimpered as she bounced off the shield, her knife clattering away. Clutching her snout, she staggered back, blood dripping between her hooves. As it dripped, the sound of sizzling could be heard as the vampiric blood evaporated in the sun faster than it could fall. Sniffling, she glanced at Zephyr with tear-filled eyes, feeling slightly betrayed.

Prodding her nose gently, she yelped, moaning in pain. "You broke my nobe." She yelled angrily, the sun preventing her from healing it properly.

She staggered forward, unused to this level of pain, her hooves shaking underneath her. Shuddering, she took a deep breath and steadied herself. Brushing her mane out her eyes, she sniffled again, slowing the flow of blood. "I- I- I- I have tried... So hard... M- My own father... Doesn't recognise me... My... Mother-in-law... Need... Get help... S- Sun... So hot... So hot." Isabelle panted, her pupils dilating. Her head very slowly lifted to Blade, her irises glowing deep scarlet. "Y- you defend... The whore... Whose s- sun... Burns my flesh... So much worse than yours..."

A silver collar appeared around her neck, and she growled. Undoing the collar, she let it drop to the ground with a loud thunk. Her pupils dilated further, before vanishing entirely. "Die!" She screamed as she launched herself at Blade, her body moving with a savage beauty, fangs outstretched.

Blade didn't mean to injure the mare with bubble and hadn't even noticed her until she hit it. He felt somewhat sorry about what he had done, but he wasn't going to give up the fight. His regret started to increase as the mare talked about her family. For some reason she glanced over at Zephyr as if he mattered to her. A question for later. Right now he needed to defend himself at what he guessed was another Vampony from the effect Isbelle said the Sun had on her.

"No." He said simply. The mare crashed into his barrier and instead of it staying firm it instead budged similar to as if the mare had jumped into a wad of gum. Isabelle's speed pushed her further into the bubble as it shrunk to wrap around the mare's body. Any moment she gave the construct would give to allow the mare full range of moment, but couldn't move anywhere. This action gave the stallion a moment a brief moment to slowly lower himself out the his protection with a circular platform construct. He moved himself next to Zephyr as he sighed.

"I could crush her horn so that she can't use magic until it grew back. It wouldn't take too much effort to get past the gate after we dethaw the others. But, I'd rather have another opinion on this matter." He said as he glanced over at the nightguard. Blade knew the pain of the mare's horn being crushed would be like breaking a few bones at the least and might even cause a magical backlash though she would most likely survive the incident. Hopefully, she would recover if they got her into some shade though that would only happen if Zephyr wanted her to live.

Summer, nor any of the others, would be able to immediately tell that he was smiling under the helmet very easily; Partially because they were now moving further in accordance with the mission, and partially because he had to hold back from chuckling at being called 'husband' by her in pretend rather than just call him her coltfriend.

He closely followed her towards their next destination, and hopefully their last, within the establishment. Once again he hoped they'd all meet up on time and escape with success, but knew that things didn't always turned out well. Looking more at the door than at Summer herself, he began to speak as if still in constant thought. "... We could keep up the charade... But unless we can gain what we need from what we're looking for without taking it, we're gonna have to take it..." He then looked back at the others and then at Summer directly. "... We might have to fight our way out very soon, but hopefully I'm wrong... Shall we?" He pressed his hoof against the door, and began to open it to make way for them all to enter the next room...

Eye bowed her head down low. "Thank you, sir," she said as she moved out of the room and waited by the door. Lampshade stepped out as well, though not before propping the door slightly open. When the unicorn left, he stepped right back in side and began to rummage around while Eye guarded the door.

"Hmm, hey, do you think these pencils are valuable? They look more valuable than anything I have. Seriously, look at these things." Lampshade held up one of them to the light, inspecting its seemingly expensive wood, before putting it back in place and proceeding to the desk. Each section of it he pulled open and checked, finding an assortment of things. He however could not recognize whether any of those things were important to his mission.

"Now that I think of it, we have no idea what the hell what we're looking for looks like... think we can just wing it later when we have to, Eye?"

"It's a magical piece of sun - based metal according to you - I'm obviously not a magician but don't things like those have that strange sensation when touched or held?" Eye responded through the door.

"Eh. We'll see - hey, seriously these pencils look expensive -"

"-not interested!"

"Okay fiiine, I'll stick to looking around."

Mittere nodded. "You were the one who seemed most eager to progress. There should not be that fierce of a resistance if it comes to that." It certainly wasn't going to be her finest hour if it came to beating up a few intellectuals to get what she needed, not like that mattered. She only had pride when she had pride. 

As Sugary pushed the door open, he would be given strange looks by those immediately near him, but would remain largely ignored. Groups of ponies moved around the room, some sharing more enthusiasm than others. The object of Mittere's desire had been formed into an extruded bar and was hidden behind a clear and likely reinforced case. The ponies were so limited in their ability to probe and experiment for fear of overstressing the material. Outside of controlled experiments, they hadn't even been able to use magic in the same room as the metal.  Mittere knew what she was doing though as she walked past Sugary, the side of her mouth almost twitching into a fraction of a smile. "I do not see us being able to do this unnoticed," she whispered. "Unless the Market family charm is effective, we are going to have to apply force. I can incapacitate them if you are ready." 

"She seemed so...sure of herself," Zephyr said, looking over the mare. The way she had looked to him tugged a little heart at little. It was stupid to feel guilt over doing his job. He was helping ponies, meaning less troubles for Celestia to deal with and more attention paid to resolving the crisis. "I don't think she's going to be much trouble from here," he said, moving to retrieve the knife. He felt an odd feeling in his throat as he thought about the wound he had gotten, it a little odd to see his own blood on a blade. "We should probably move her somewhere out the heat, ha, wherever that is. Shade will do for now. Do you have anything to deal with  the ice?" He asked. "If they're in there, we need in there too, fast as possible." 

The guard smiled. He had to admit it was rather amusing to see One pull a turn like this, losing all of his previously demonstrated ferocity. "Not my problem. There is such a thing as digging your own hole to lie in. It's in my best interest to keep you scared, it makes you a little less annoying," he said casually. He began to relax himself a little more now his attitude had gone away. He thought it was well earned. A series of hoofsteps could be heard getting closer, but the guard paid them no mind. This pony seemed really paranoid that Luna was actually out for him, it was amusing, and not too unbelievable that he managed to piss off the wrong pony. 

"I assume this is a matter of importance," a voice said plainly, though there were many things mixed into it. The guard raised his posture slightly at the voice, but not too much. "I have much to do, and my being here helps nopony. So I you recommend you say what I am here to listen to quickly." The princess had walked in to join the two ponies, stepping in front of the guard, not really caring about whatever meaningless protection he could provide. The guard was fine with that, though it took conscious effort to look away from her rear and keep focused on her back.  

As attractive to the eye and as likely painful to the wallet the pencils were, that was not what the two of them were there for. As the pencil was placed back down it rolled along the table until it fell off. Among the things that had been pulled from drawers, one of them had to have some interesting information. The diary from before was out, some reading glasses, a pocket watch, and a letter that had a broken wax seal on it. On a shelf in the corner of the room there was a clock on the shelf. Oddly, in the time they were in the room it should have gone off by now. Leaning against the clock was a key painted to be gold.

"Weeeelllllll..." One began. "That's not entirely true Princess." He smiled at her, fangs on display. "I kinda missed seeing your face." He rubbed his hoof on the stone. "And you know, it's been a thousand years or so..." He sighed. "I suppose I was sort of in the wrong... And umm... Please don't kill me." He took a step back. "Oh, and one last thing, I'd rather you didn't look inside my head."

Isabelle snarled and snapped, trapped in the prison-esk construct. After a few minutes, she calmed down, her pupils returning to their normal size. "You won't break the ice. Nothing, save my own will." She smiled savagely. "Are you content Zephyr? Would you like me to lower the barrier and doom the world? Is that what you want?"

"Eye, keep a closer guard on the door, I'm going to start copying stuff, okay? Also, keep on the lookout for anything I can use for colors."

"Sure, sure. Don't take the pencils."

Lampshade gritted his teeth and got to work, pulling the key off its perch beside the clock. He pulled out a mass of blank paper and laid everything with text on the floor. He hurriedly copied everything word for word starting with the letter, and noted the design of the wax seal it had. This seal he replicated using gel from one of his bottles, and he silently cursed himself for beginning to run out of utility concoctions.

His focus on his multitasking kept him from reading what he was copying; instead he just worked with visuals as he traced the diary's contents. Half his attention he kept on the copies he began producing; the other half, he spent creating a mold of the key with another variant of gel that hardened faster. Once the mold had set he created a duplicate and waited for it to set.

"Got anything..?" he asked Eye.

"No, nothing out here, how much longer are you going to take?"

"I'm halfway done with this diary, give me a bit of time."

Having reasoned out the possibility of the key being enchanted, Lampshade took out another tiny bottle and felt the rather empty sides of his clothing. "This better work," he muttered as he used it to melt down a few golden bits to coat his fake key with. The real key he stowed in his pockets and the copy he left in the real one's original position.

"Keep alert in there, Shade, there might be some magic traps in there... so far, nothing, it seems, but it doesn't hurt to be safe."

After much writing, Lampshade finished his verbatim copy of the documents he'd found so far, and got to tidying up everything. Special care and attention went to ensuring that everything returned to its proper place, save for one pencil that had been almost used up in the copying process. Figuring no one would miss it, Lampshade tucked it inside his things together with the duplicated papers.

"Still no idea where to go, but I did find papers. Here," he said as he stepped out of the room, and he and Eye began to read through everything.

As Isabella thrashed about in his barrier he went over to the frozen guards. Blade felt it to be wrong if they simply left them. The gate could also be a lost cause due to the fact Isabella said they would thaw unlike the gate. Once, he reached the nearest guard he held his hoof on the surface of the ice. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to visualize what he wanted to do and when he released it so did his construct.

It flowed from his hoof and expanded until it quickly reached the last guard. He soon let his construct split into small circles in the areas that the guards' armor would protect while the rest stayed as simple covering. He loosen his control over his construct a bit so they could produce a good amount of heat as he made the circles produce razor sharp spikes around their bottom edges. They began to spin to life in an attempt to cut through the ice.

The main idea was too soften the ice with the heat while he cut into it. He also did not want to hurt the guards so the only place he could do now was the armor. After, he would finish with that Blade would spread the circles across the ice and start to warm it from inside to later expand it and break that layer.

But, if the ice was as normal as he thought it his construct would have already reached the armor and start expanding outward while noticeable drips as the ice melted around the guards as Isabelle calmed down. Whatever the mare said would be ignored by him since he was focused solely on the guards and his construct.

Sugary, still holding the shield and lance with his magic, not particularly worried of interfering with the relic at the moment, or rather, not thinking it would affect it, took great consideration as to what Summer had told him before he spoke in a near whisper to her only. "... There is no way we'll be able to wait out for the crowd to just leave. I honestly wasn't expecting this many here... Madam Mittere, I am ready to aid you in trying to incapacitate as many as possible if need be. We need to keep from outright intimidating them and make them panic though, and focus on getting that relic -ripping out the case along with it if we have to if it means saving time- and head out... I might be able to cast a Silence spell in this entire room; Keep any noise from spreading out. Tap me on the back of my helmet 3 times without saying anything, and I will use my magic to the fullest to make that happen once we go in, unless you have another idea... But the offer will stand regardless."

The ice was indeed normal ice, though a little re-enforced to resist the sun's heat. Isabelle gave up thrashing, having decided it was a lost cause and instead watched Blade. She chuckled. "An interesting way of doing things. I'm afraid that won't work on the gate though. That's one of my best spells. I wouldn't recommend touching it either... Things could get chilly."

Blade sighed for a moment due to the fact Isabella had not managed to refreeze the guards who were now mostly thawed out or were a dripping wet because of having been melted out. His knew that it would take some time for them to fully recover from what had happened to them and decided to keep his construct around those still warming up. "Ma'am, do you realize you are hovering a few feet in the air without the use of wings?" He said as he kept his attention on the guards still. "I am using that spell effortlessly and with a simple thought I can do..." The construct quickly moved itself upwards and above the gate before slowly moving back down. "So, even if your barrier is as strong as you say. We can simply have to go over it, but thank you for the warning." He was tempted to give a smug grin, but decided against since it seemed like karma the smug. The two vamponies being perfect examples of that.

Once, the guards were fully warmed up they would go over the gate and search the school like originally planned. He glanced over at Zephyr's direction and wondered why he left so pained about her or why she had gave him that look. "Zephyr, you go on ahead and take the mare into the shade." The construct will move once you touch it. "I would suggest once you do move away from her. If we have to confront into a battle with the other suspects I doubt I can keep the barrier up." He said guessing that the others were only going to get stronger at this point. "And I'm not sure if you will be safe if she gets out."