Night’s Rook
By: Ardite
3
Bastion was right when he predicted a terrible night’s rest. Waking to the dismaying fact that last night he found nothing at his home, didn’t help his mood. Not even the evidence of a break-in could be found. The only indication that anything strange had happened that night was the turmoil he created to save his daughter.
Cursing Celestia for raising her sun so early, he sat up in his bed and looked around his dim room. The curtain filtered sunlight allowed him to see everything in his room clearly without blinding him.
He could make out the door in the center of the wall across from his bed, the sitting area in front of the cold fireplace. To his right a desk sat, next to it his wardrobe. To his left were the doors leading to his bathroom and closet. The latter of the two he used as a personal armory. And directly behind him, on either side of his bed, were the covered glass doors leading to his balcony.
Bastion took a few spare seconds to look at the painting above his mantle. It was a perfect rendering of a sunset where both the moon and sun could be seen on a pleasant Summer’s eve.
He couldn't remember the pony’s name that made it for him. But he remembered her face. He remembered the day they met. He remembered walking into an elaborate set with a proud Celestia sitting in the middle of a pile of pillows and a beautiful painter pausing only briefly to see who had interrupted her work.
Groaning as he rolled out of bed, he started towards the bathroom. A hot shower would get him more ready for the day to come. As the thought struck him, Bastion involuntarily went through a list of everything he had to do that day.
Go into the Hub for any updates on the three missing guards. While he was there he might as well thank Abby for her gift. After he checked Lilly’s leads, he’d help with the Lorlein body count. And he couldn’t forget to talk to Celestia before she had any pressing matters to attend to that day.
That would be the first thing he did, right after this shower. As the hot water rolled over his back and the steam filled the air of the small room he resisted the urge to think about either his wife or his daughter, keeping his mind on more pressing matters.
He thought about the Lorlein mostly. The nomadic cult had done a lot of terrible things to gain the power they once had. They would occasionally pop up in small rural towns on the outskirts of Equestria, asking only for food and shelter. Normally they would be willing to pay for these things, but they weren’t always so careful.
A few days after they came into a town some ponies in their ranks would cause havoc, damaging property and even killing innocent ponies in the name of an opposing god to Lorleis. The Lorlein leader, Chilser, would then quickly “convince” the bandits to leave with a display of magic. After all was said and done, the townsponies would be all too quick to thank the cult with any possessions they had, be it money, jewelry, or crops.
Chilser and his ponies would stay just long enough to get a few more recruits, then leave, taking unsuspecting colts and fillies with them. Sometimes they’d sell the children as slaves or worse, other times they’d simply teach them to be criminals without using such blunt terms.
Most of the cult simply didn’t know better than they were told. Others were eager to commit the atrocities their leader told them to. These were the ponies that got promotions.
It was a pathetic example of just how foalish ponies could be, and it had been going on for years before the Guard ever caught word of it. Even after they had, Chilser continued to elude Bastion and his soldiers, until one day the unfeeling charlatan left a small party to slow down the Night’s Guard.
He left them with no weapons other than farm supplies in an open field with one command. Kill any guard you see. The resulting battle was a slaughter, but a just one if there ever were such a thing.
However Chilser used it to spur such outrage among the towns he had already visited that within a month his numbers doubled. The colt got even more power hungry and decided that the Princesses weren’t worthy of ruling Equestria.
The self proclaimed prophet slipped when he took on a fully armed Canterlot. The mad colt had started listening to his own propaganda and lost sight of what he was really facing and the tools at his disposal.
Despite the fact Chilser had nearly double the number of guards in the capital, they were still untrained farmers. Because of that one fact, Bastion was able to put an end to the sinister band of criminals and foals. He personally ran the knife through Chilser’s heart and several of his most loyal zealots.
Now though Bastion wondered what was left of the rugged band of foals. He remembered ordering the Night’s Guard to focus on the ponies leading the attack against Canterlot. He remembered the arrows flying and the blades cutting. Only half the cult should have been alive.
All this piqued Bastion’s curiosity and made doing a proper body count a priority for the day. One that he would have to do later, but a task that he planned on doing none the less.The next thing on his list to do though, was just to get dressed.
Walking to his closet, he disengaged the three locks on the door, one dead bolt, one pad lock, and one swing latch, all of which only he had the codes for. Not even the princesses knew how to get into his private armory, and with good reason.
It was filled with both personal and professional items, some of which he had made in earlier lives. On either side of Bastion lay knives, swords, spears, axes, poisons, bombs, and other assorted weapons for a multitude of purposes. Recently he had been fond of a reversed dirk that Coal had crafted for him. It was the same one he killed Chilser with, and the same one he kept on his belt since then.
At the end of the closet lay his armor, his seal, and a chest of momentos. He took the plate-mail off the mannequin piece by piece, and stepped into it. Most days the shield was unneeded for his work, others he wished he had it at his disposal. But today was bound to be less eventful, hopefully.
Bastion quickly double checked that his new armor was tight and fitted before heading out the door to Celestia’s room. She normally woke up to raise the sun then did any left over paper work from the night before, giving her subjects time to awake before business started.
“Come in,” her soft voice carried through the door at Bastion’s knock. “Ah! Good morning Bastion.” Celestia greeted.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he replied, still groggy.
“Did you not sleep well?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“Then why take your frustration out on the day?” she retorted with a teasing smile.
“Because that’s when I feel it.”
“That’s fair enough I suppose. Did you just come to have a chat?”
There was a long pause before Bastion finally made his answer. “I went to my house last night.”
Celestia averted her gaze for a short moment, making it clear she regretted hearing the statement. “Did you find anything?”
“Nothing. Not a single shred of evidence.”
“Perhaps, Bastion, it’s best to not allow the hound to guild itself.”
“Tia, be honest with me. Do you really think there’s anypony else who should lead this investigation?”
“On the contrary, I think you’re the only colt who can. But I worry, just as Luna does, about your... personal motives.”
“Then don’t. The two of you have nothing to worry about. It hurts when I think about it, but I’m trying to bring this murderer in for justice and closure, not revenge. I can keep the two separate.”
“Very well,” Celestia said hesitantly. “I look forward to a quick end to all this. Vega deserved as much.”
“She deserved a full life.”
“You of all ponies should know to leave the past as it is, Bastion.”
“I know not to ask myself if I could have done anything to save her, Tia. But that doesn't change the fact that she deserved a full and happy life.”
“Just make sure to know your limits Bastion. You know I hate seeing you like that.”
“Out of all the lovers I’ve had, how many died by natural causes?”
“Sorry?”
“How many wives have I grown old with?”
“Almost all of them.”
“And do you think that maybe the extra time with them, the extra time seeing them happy, made it a little easier when they died and I kept living?”
“I...” For once in a long time Celestia was caught off guard.
“It did. Like I said. They deserved full and happy lives. Seeing them get that makes it easier when their times come.” A long silence was held between the two immortals before Celestia finally broke it.
“I think I understand Bastion. And I appreciate your honesty about how this hurts you. Truly I do.”
“You’re my friend Celestia. If I have to lie to you then it speaks volumes about how much I’ve fallen.” Celestia smiled warmly and walked over to Bastion where she stood for a moment.
“Thank you,” was the only thing she said as she brought him in to a warm hug, conveying more than those two words could.
“I should be getting to the Hub. As much as I’d like to focus on other things, we still have three missing colts to worry about.”
“Good luck Bastion. And have a good day.”
“You too Tia.”
Bastion was almost glad to walk in solitude. He had to keep his mind on something, anything. He’d soon be in the Hub, looking for new leads and preparing to question the owners of the places Lilly wrote for him. When he got back he’d help identify and count the bodies from six days ago. Today would certainly be busy. For that, Bastion was thankful.
Taking a seat at his desk Bastion could see nearly everything in the Hub, the blueprints on his desk, most of his guards, everything except the eccentric mare creeping up behind him.
“You should really stop trying that Abby,” Bastion said dryly.
“How do you always know?”
“I told you, I’ll never reveal my secrets.” He allowed himself a smirk as he turned to greet his bazaar friend. Her white coat starkly contrasted her smooth black mane and make up.
“No fair. I tell you all sorts of secrets.”
“Only because it’s your job to.”
“That’s besides the point Bastion. You owe me. And not just for the secrets either, how do you like the hummingbird?” she said hastily. “Did you look at it under the moonlight yet?”
“It’s beautiful. And no... I actually gave it to my daughter last night.”
“You went to go see her? Aww but that’s adorable because her name is Crystal.” Abby said beaming.
“Not exactly. I dropped it off with Mrs. Fiedley and a cryptic message.”
“Oh. Well that’s slightly less interesting. But you still should have held it up to the moon.”
“Why?”
“Because the crystals were infused with magic,” she said indicating her horn, “and respond differently depending on the light.”
“How did you--”
“It was a really long process that would bore you. Simply put it, they look extra sparkly in day light, extra colorful at night, and extra bright in artificial light.”
“Enough said. In any case, thank you. And have you had any caffeine today?”
“No, I’m trying to go clean.”
“That would explain the extra--”
“Jitters? Ya I know... I just did it again. Sorry, but I have some work to do in the lab. See ya!” Abby left with just as much haste as she said the last two words with.
“Bye...” Bastion said, rolling his eyes and turning back to the floor plans.
He didn’t know exactly why he was memorizing the floor plans of the buildings, he just had a feeling that it was a good idea. The Opera House wasn’t hard given Bastion had been there several times since it’s creation. Pony Joe’s was just a small diner and posed even less trouble than the theatre.
The Klondike Bar, was another story all together. In the past forty years it had been expanded, partially deconstructed, partially burned down, and re-expanded. Because of all this it was a maze even on paper.He might need the floor plans just to find the owner of the bar and ask him about Windburn.
* * *
Hours later Bastion was beginning to get frustrated. He had already visited the Canterlot Theatre and Pony Joe’s. Pony Joe had recognized the picture of Windburn but couldn't do much else. The owner of the Opera House didn’t even get that far.
As he walked into the Klondike Bar he realized where it got it’s name. The entire building was a fridge. The sign over the door was even blatant enough to say, “Because you should never worry about your beer getting warm.” Thankfully Bastion never minded the cold. Ironic given his affiliation with death. He hated irony.
Walking up to the bar in nothing but his birth coat, he didn’t even shiver. He noticed his breath frost in the air over the counter.
He noticed a lot of things in the arctic stylized tavern. Most ponies were listening to the band on a small stage off to the corner. Any others were in seats either at the bar or in the lounge. Everypony was in a jacket as well.
“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked.
“My friend said he was coming here the other day,” Bastion lied, “ but he hasn’t been seen since. I was wondering if you could help me find him. His boss is going to kill him if he misses another day of work.” When Bastion held up the photo of the bronze pegasus for the drink vendor to inspect, a look of recognition came across his face.
“Ya, he started coming in here recently. He normally has a scotch on the rocks. Don’t know much about him though.”
“Did he say anything about where he was headed?”
“No, he normally just had a drink or two then left. Didn’t talk much.” Just out of the corner of Bastion’s eye, something caught his attention. He was careful not to turn his head.
Just moving his eyes he noticed a unicorn mare walk into the room with a determined look on her face and a straight bearing for the door across from the entrance. She was hunched over like she was freezing, but not shivering. As she passed behind Bastion, he decided to follow her. She wasn’t here for a drink, he could just tell.
He thanked the bartender for his help and waited for her to exit the room. As soon as the door clicked he got up and moved towards it, making sure not to seem in too much of a rush.
When he passed through it he could see her in more detail. She hadn’t noticed him. But he could now define her pale tan coat and olive green hair. She still walked with a bent posture, one that said she was nervous, or hiding something in her cloths. She hadn’t even glanced at the other patrons though, she just kept that solid stare on where she was going. Definitely hiding something.
She turned left and Bastion kept pursuing her. By the time he made it around the same corner a door to his left was closing. Recalling the layout of the bar from the floor plans he studied earlier, he remembered it lead to a stairway. But the only other exit from that stairway was the roof.
He picked up the pace a little, just in time to hear the door above him open quickly and the mare go galloping out.
She noticed him. How didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was that Bastion not loose her. He sprinted to match her speed and the chase began. Leaving through the same door she had, he caught a glimpse of her, jumping off the roof.
He ran to the ledge, seeing her safe but still running on another roof top. Taking a few steps back to build momentum, Bastion leaped after the fleeing unicorn and turned left to follow her. Seeing her turn right around a wall, he did the same, only to be tripped by a random vine that had somehow grown on the gravel coated roof.
Bastion got up as quickly as he could, but there was no sign of the mare. She had the advantage now. She could be lying around any corner, just waiting to spring a-- there was a sharp clang of metal on metal-- No, she was still running, and on his left again.
He followed the sound only to see her leap, yet again, onto another rooftop. In mid air Bastion saw something odd. The entire roof of the building he was flying towards was covered in green.
The mare had taken another set of corners breaking his vision for mere moments. In times like this though, moments could build to the effect of hours. Rounding both corners he stopped dead.
A mist now filled the air along with a pungent odor that burned his nostrils. In front of him stood a crazed looking mare. Now that he was even closer to her he noticed the small bags under her eyes, the highlight of darker green in her hair, and the lighter in her hoof.
“One step and we both incinerate.” She between breaths. Clearly she wasn’t used to running. She was a fine looking mare, but by no means athletic.
Bastion’s mind soaked up all the information it could. Her cutie-mark was a rose with a bloody thorn, inside her jacket there was a belt of vials with strange liquids, her stance was wide, that smell was gasoline, she really was ready to die to stop him from... doing what?
“Easy there,” he said. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Then why follow me over rooftops?”
“You didn’t hear me calling? I though you were my sister. I haven’t seen--”
“Don’t lie to me!” she screamed shaking the silver devise furiously. “Who are you?” Bastion had to act quickly. She was getting hysterical. He could see it in her eyes.
“Alright. Alright. I’m--” He quickly lashed out with his magic, knocking the metal match to the ground. Using another burst of his magic he pounced at her, knocking her to the ground. As violently and sporadically as she flailed, she couldn’t get out of Bastion’s strangle hold. Seconds went by, excruciating seconds, when she finally showed signs of slowing down.
The occasional twists had progressively less power in them. Just before she fell unconscious he released her. Only to put a sleeping spell on her, while she still couldn’t retaliate. Had he done it when she still held the lighter, she would have noticed and flicked it with just enough force to ignite the fumes.
Looking at her limp body, he decided it was safe enough to look around. Everything was soaked in gas. If he even tried to teleport, the resulting heat would have set the place ablaze.
All he could do was take her limp body down from the greenhouse. Getting down a fire escape with a limp mare however was harder than it sounded.
By the time he had finally reached street level, there was already a small audience around him.
“Can somepony get an ambulance? Please! My fillyfriend just blacked out on our apartment roof.”
“I’ll see if the payphone is working,” said a colt.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Bastion did his best to sound slightly hysterical. “Don’t worry honey, you’ll be fine.” That sold it. Everypony in the crowd wore a sympathetic look on their face.
When the paramedics closed the hatch in the ambulance with Bastion and the mare inside, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Under order of Princess Luna, I hereby commandeer this ambulance. If you don’t like it, send a message to the Princess herself and tell her Bastion is with you. If you don’t feel like wasting time, just drop us off at the castle.
There were several looks of surprise among the medics. But the driver’s face was one of exasperation and impatience.
* * *
Bastion sat on the other end of a two way mirror, staring at the unicorn he captured earlier. She wasn’t fully awake from the sleeping spell yet. He’d give it some more time, then go in to question her.
He heard the door open as Abby walked in. “I took a look at those vials she had, and...” she hesitated.
“Go ahead and tell him Abby.” Celestia’s voice trailed through the door before both she and her sister did.
“The bacteria that was in it, was the same as the fungus that killed you and your wife...” It took a moment for Bastion to take in the statement.
“You’re saying I’m looking at my own murderer?” He had to double check he heard that correctly. The odds of him just running into the pony that killed him and his wife were smaller than slim to none.
“Yes.” Celestia answered.
“What are the odds of that?” Bastion queried, stealing a confounded look at his killer.
“That’s something we need you to figure out Bastion,” Celestia snapped him back to reality. “We need you to stay focused on this one. Don’t let your personal involvement get in the way.”
“Are you sure you want me to do this then?”
“I’m sure you can get answers out of her faster than any of our other guards.”
“Fine. I’ll give her a few more moments to collect herself.”
“Are you sure giving her time is a good idea?” Luna finally spoke.
“A tired interrogatee is a confused one. She’ll be asking more questions than answering them.” Luna conceded to the point and looked at the sad heap of bones and tissue chained to the floor in the next room. There was a long silence before Bastion decided to walk into the next room.
When he opened the door, he did it slowly, deliberately. Every measured step was one filled with infinite patience, and infinite disgust. Once he was in front of the mare he shared the room with, he glared down at her.
For all his hate, for all his questions, Bastion was in control. He knew what he needed to do. “Who are you?”
“I could ask the same,” she groggily replied.
“I’m not the one chained to the floor of a dungeon.”
“You’re one of Celestia’s guards aren’t you? I’m not telling that mock goddess anything.” Despite her lack of awareness, the mare could spill acid into those words. Acid or not though, dots connected in Bastion’s head.
“What were you doing on that roof?”
“I was gardening!”
“Are you in the habit of growing poisonous plants?”
“Nothing I grow can even give you a rash.”
There was silence before Bastion changed direction. He didn’t want to lay all his cards on the table at once. “What’s your name?”
“I’m not telling you my name.”
“Well I won’t sit here calling you ‘Marey.’ So at least give me something to call you.”
“... Corolla Sumac.”
“Well Sumac, ordinarily you’d be right about your plants being harmless. But if some of them grow too quickly they’d be dangerous, wouldn’t they?”
“Good thing that’s not possible.”
“Well, a lot of things are possible when you use magic. Theoretically, you could teleport into a house, spread some bacteria, sprinkle it with some magic fertilizer, and kill the entire house... Theoretically.” Bastion noted the minute change in her body language, the small twitch of an eye, a determination to not look at him. There was no doubt in his mind this was Vega’s murderer. Even with all his control, he couldn’t suppress the urge to clench his jaw in hate.
Quickly regaining control, Bastion continued. “But one house wouldn’t have needed all those plants.”
“I told you, they’re harmless.”
“I’m long done with believing that Sumac. Why did you have all those fungi samples? Planning on killing a few more enemies of Lorleis?” Corolla tried to lunge at Bastion. That clearly hit a nerve. But he had done this enough times to know where to stand, unflinching. Corolla Sumac now stood pulling hard against her restraints. Concentration was visible on her face.
“You’ll find magic doesn’t work down here. It’s a property of the stone.” This, of course, was a lie. Bastion could use all the magic he wanted here. And that was exactly why he silenced Sumac while the sleeping spell was still in effect.
“Now I’ll ask you one more time, Corolla.” The room seemed to grow darker as he leaned into the now sitting mare. “What were you doing on that roof?” The room was definitely darker now. The door was getting hard to see. The light seemed to just, fade away.
Inside the observation room, even Celestia and Luna couldn’t see through the black cloud.
“Should we go in and--”
“No, he’s done this sort of thing before,” Abby said hastily, cutting Luna off. “It scares the hell out of me. And I’m on his side.” She shivered and rubbed her forelegs together in a fear filled gesture.
All Corolla Sumac could see were the chains binding her legs, and this colt in front of her. Dread filled her eyes. She attempted to use her horn to light the room but as Bastion said, it was useless.
“Look at me Corolla,” he said. “Look at me!” The second repetition wasn’t a voice. It was a hiss. A terrible sound filled with loathing. She could swear she heard it echo, not in her ears, but in her head. As those last words began to fade she felt compelled to look at her captor.
Other words began to fill her mind as she stared at the colt in front of her.
Hate. Disgusting. Filthy.
He began to change, no longer a clot at all.
Pathetic. Sickness. Disease. Mongrel. They were there one moment then gone. Just under the level of hearing, if it could be called that. As much as she wanted to ignore the words, she couldn’t.
Bastion began to meld with the shadows around him, his shape less defined, his coat becoming harder to see. But his eyes. Those pitiless, cold, blue eyes began to burn with plasmic fire.
Shame. Waste.
The harsh hissing sound began again, unintelligible, overlapping the whispers. It almost sounded like this, thing, in front of Corolla was sniffing her, gauging her.
“Wha- What are you?” she managed to shakily ask.
The creature just gave her a puzzled glare, as if it had never seen a mare talk before, blue fire still spilling from its eyes. Screaming, she suddenly flew back against the wall, iron chains broken. Before her eyes were even open again, there sat the beast, centimeters from her face.
Weak. Disgrace. Victim.
A burning pain began to rise from her lungs, like she was sitting just over a fire. “Please, please. Just stop!” The pain exploded out from her lungs through her entire body. Shouting in pain, she was yet again thrown against a wall.
“I’ll tell you what ever you want!” Corolla managed to say through her agony. Tears began to fill her eyes as everything stopped. The shadows, the voices, it all seemed to recede into Bastion.
As he stood there, he took in a long breath, controlling himself, the way he had been the entire time. When his eyes opened the fire was still there, icy blue, last to recede.
“Who are you planning to kill, Corolla?” His voice still sounded like an icy wind on top of a mountain, but as it drew on, the malice in the voice faded, until the last word was spoken with pure intentions.
“Castle, the entire castle,” she mumbled, refusing to look at anything but the shattered iron around her hoofs.
“How did you plan on just popping into the castle and planting enough samples to kill the entire palace?”
“Distraction, raid. Brothers and Sisters attack. Tomorrow.”
“The Lorlein are going to try and attack the castle again?”
“Not castle. City. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“When?”
“Dusk. When the storm hits. They ride in on top of it, in it. Then strike from the clouds. Lorleis’ justice.” It was clear she was going into shock. Bastion knew the storm was massing to the South. The Lorlein wouldn't be foalish enough to sit on the verge of the storm to be spotted. They would sit farther back, waiting for the clouds to cover them.
He rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him. Abby, Celestia, and Luna all came into the corridor at the same time he did.
“What happened in there?” Celestia asked, astonished. All three wore expressions of fear and concern on their faces.
“Don’t worry. I was in control the entire time. But we need to get ready for an attack tomorrow,” Bastion said hurriedly.
“We heard,” said Luna.
“Good. Get every guard to assemble in the main presentation room. I’ll brief them all there. Abby go get a doctor for Corolla, she’s going into shock.”
* * *
The next evening, Bastion and his men stood ready and armored. Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi alike, all ready to fly or be flown to the clouds where a spell would ensure they didn’t fall through them. He even requested some of Celestia’s guards to ensure numbers.
Yesterday he went back into the interrogation room with Sumac. At the time he needed more information. Now he knew roughly how many pegasi were in this attack. He knew the exact time they would assemble. And he knew the mountain they would do it over.
He made sure each of his guards were well fed and rested for this. All but him of course. He was still unable to get decent sleep last night.
As the sun began to fade from view, each pony was whisked away by either blimp, or fellow guard. Once on top of the massive storm cloud, Bastion looked at his soldiers. Each one looked ready, poised, resolute. Today wasn’t a day for speeches, it was a day for action.
With that thought in mind, he temporarily deactivated the spell under his hoofs. Only to reactivate it once he had fallen completely under the cloud cover. The rest of the company did the same shortly after. An army concealed above the clouds, and a guard concealed in them.
Minutes went by. Each one seemed to drag on at the pace of an hour. Until eventually, Bastion could hear ponies above him, barley audible through the wind. The noises of soft hoof steps on clouds, breathing, small whispers of conversation reached his ears.
He waited, sitting beneath the topmost layer of vapor, until the group above his head nearly past. He selected his target.
Without warning, his hoof broke through the sky-scape and grabbed the pegasus over him, dragging him back down through the surface. The colt managed to slam his head against the cloud, dazing him for precious seconds as Bastion wrapped his forelegs around his head, and twisted. There were similar sounds to the crunch Bastion heard all around him now.
Leaping through the cloud ground he could see pegasi with broken wings being thrown off or through the clouds. There was going to be a mess in the field tomorrow. But all that mattered now was that his guards stay alive.
Drawing his knife he heard a Lorlein running straight towards him screaming. Bastion lashed out with a kick to his jaw, as he hit the floor Bastion rammed his blade through the colts throat.
Seconds later he would bleed out. Life and magic gone from his body, he would fall through the clouds. Thunder could be heard in the distance.The cultists didn’t have nearly the odds they did during their first attack. But they still outnumbered the guards, even after the ambush.
Another two colts attempted to kill Bastion with cheap swords. The first swung at him wildly and almost hit the second when Bastion ducked and countered, the colt’s left foreleg couldn't support him with the tendon cut, and he fell to the ground.
When Bastion stood again the second was jumping over his wounded comrade and swinging his sword in an equally wild arc, straight down where Bastion stood. He side stepped and embedded his dirk into the pegasus's skull.
The first colt stood now, only on three legs. Bastion kicked his only good foreleg out from him and while he was lying on the ground, slit his throat.
Bastion looked up to notice there were multiple battles taking place in the sky above him as well. This would be over soon. It would have to be.
Three more pegasi charged him, this time one from the air. He used his magic to tighten the flying colt’s muscles. His wings clutched into his body, he crashed through the surface of the clouds, eventually he would crash into the ground as well.
Focusing his attention on the two colts still assaulting him, Bastion levitated his dagger. The first colt attacked with great speed on his right, blow for blow Bastion blocked the colt. The second pegasus attempted to bat away Bastion dirk with his sword, only to find it impaled through his hoof. Screaming in pain, he clasped his bleeding appendage. The last thing the cultist saw was the dagger sliding itself out of his hoof, and into his eye.
Meanwhile Bastion struggled not to kill the Lorlein he was still fighting. He needed answers. As the trained cultist jabbed right, Bastion saw an opportunity. He hit the artery under the joint of the Lorlein’s foreleg, halting blood flow for a mere second, but that was enough to make the colt black out. While he was still semi-conscious Bastion put the same sleeping spell on him as he did Corolla.
The battle was winding down now. Most of the guards were finishing up fights or joining others to hurry the battle along.
“Jump Start,” Bastion called out, retrieving his blade.
“Kinda busy here,” Jump Start cried as he flew over Bastion’s head.
He was being chased by another cultist. Levitating the dagger Bastion just retrieved, he thrust it straight to where the colt would be flying. He didn’t have enough time to swerve away before practically disemboweling himself.
“Now that you’re not, go tell the guard down at the castle we’re through here. And hurry!”
“Got it!” Start said bolting off through the storm clouds.
As if on cue a silence filled the air. The fighting stopped. Royal Guards and Night’s Guards surrounded him. The only Lorlein still on the cloud-scape was the one at Bastion’s feet.
Once they returned to the castle he would get a similar treatment to Corolla’s, similar but not exactly the same.
* * *
“What were the casualties?” Bastion asked Celestia on their way to the dungeon late that night.
“Only a few injuries, and nothing anypony won’t recover from. From what my guards say working with you was... Astounding.”
“I was just doing my job, Tia.”
“Always so modest,” Celestia said, gently smiling. “None the less, if you hadn’t gotten those answers out of Corolla Sumac, the result would have been disastrous.”
“You do realize that was shear luck, right?”
“I do. But I won’t question such good luck. And neither should you.”
“I can’t help it when the fate of an entire country rests on chance.”
“Understandable.” Celestia finished as she walked into another observation room.
Luna was standing alone in it, watching the pegasus colt Bastion captured during the fight.
“He hasn’t said anything,” she informed them. “According to Abby he’s one of the lieutenants on our watch list.”
“Levy Bolt.” Celestia recognized the face.
“Luck again,” All this good fortune was beginning to make Bastion uneasy. With good luck, equally bad luck usually followed.
“How many of them can there be?” Luna asked, interrupting Bastion’s thoughts. “We must have killed at least a thousand in the first attack. Now this?”
“Statistically? A lot,” Bastion stated flatly. “What we just faced was only pegasi. And that can’t be all of the Lorlein pegasi.
“So figure there were around two-hundred, two-hundred-fifty pegasi in that raid. Add on another two-hundred for the ones that weren’t. We’re looking at around eight-hundred or even a thousand once you take earth ponies and unicorns into account, bare minimum. I think it’s safer to assume closer to fifteen-hundred or two thousand are left though.”
“But less now, right?”
“Just a dent.”
“Why would they waste over two-hundred lives?” Luna said curious, trying to find the angle.
“They weren’t planning to. The idea was to raid Canterlot. Hurting and killing as many ponies as possible in a surprise attack to get our attention. Then use hit and run tactics to avoid a high death count while providing a distraction for Corolla to plant the toxic fungus in the castle.
“If we hadn’t gotten those answers out of her, we’d be looking at a massacre in their favor,” Bastion finished.
“Discomforting that we were so close to dying.” Luna voiced Bastion’s thoughts exactly. Although not so much for himself. “So will you go interrogate Levy now?”
“Not quite yet. I want him to meet somepony first.” A few moments later a Night’s Guard opened the door to the cell the immortals were watching. In walked a shackled Corolla Sumac.
“Corolla?” They heard Bolt say, shocked at who was in front of him.
“Bolt.” Sumac look suddenly despairing.
“They captured you too?”
“Before the attack.” She couldn’t make eye contact with her superior.
“So... You, you were the one who told them about the attack?” His face was getting flushed, his voice strained.
“I... They... It wasn’t a pony... No way it could have been a pony.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They... They have somepony, something. It... It’s so dark, so cold. Evil, pure evil!”
“Snap out of it Corolla!” The shouting seemed to get her attention a little more. “Now tell me what the hell is going on.”
“You’ll find out. It will find you here. Lorleis give you strength.”
“Alright that’s enough,” the guard said, and Corolla timidly went back to him, a broken dog listening to it’s master.
(Author's note: Feel free to comment on any errors you noticed or even just a suggestion you have. All I ask is that you not upload or recommend this to any other sites.
Here's the link to the original Google.doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TxPSrpCBQ6XjlawKUVPCVdmVufJW94XnYfwWX_4Oock/edit?hl=en_US )