"Twilight! Twilight!" Spike's familiar voice rasped into Twilight Sparkle's subconcious, and her sleeping mind slowly ground into action. "There's some ponies from the Royal Guard here! They say it's important!"
"Of course they do," Twilight mumbled to herself. Then she called down to Spike, "I'll be right down!"
Still half-asleep, Twilight hurried down the stairs as best she could, finding two Lunar Guard ponies waiting in the main room. "What can I do for you, sirs?"
"Miss Twilight Sparkle, we were told to bring you to the headquarters at City Hall," one of the Guardsponies said, "we have a situation that requires your expertise."
Twilight's mind suddenly kicked into high gear, and she began considering possible scenarios in which the Royal Guard might need her help. "Well, all right then. Let's go, Spike."
"Twilight Sparkle, come on in! Stick around, you two, I may need you again in a bit. And, Spike, right? I might need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia, so don't go anywhere."
"Um, sorry, do I know you?" Twilight asked.
"We haven't met, but I've heard a lot about you. Lieutenant Firecracker Burst, at your service." Firecracker said with a taut smile, "I'm on Shining Armor's command staff, he put me in charge here while he shows those Khadoran invaders a little Equestrian hospitality."
"You must be something of a historian, nopony's used 'Equestrian hospitality' to refer to a counter-offensive since the Diamond Dog Wars," Twilight observed. "And that was before the Royal Sisters brought down King Sombra."
"Military history, mostly. And pyrotechnics, as you might imagine." Firecracker replied with a shrug, "Plus what they taught us in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns -you probably didn't know it, but I was just a few years above you there. But I need to get to the reason I had you brought here. We think there's an undead of some kind in Ponyville, and let's face it, you know more about them than everypony in Equestria combined."
"Oh great. Just great." Twilight's expression shifted to a disurbing rictus as her eyes bulged slightly. "All right. Okay. Just, uh, just tell me everything you can, and I'll try to help."
"Well, I don't know much," Firecracker admitted, "one of the Guardsponies saw a human -or so he thought- in a long coat skulking at the southern wall. Then he noticed that the thing's skull was exposed -it had no flesh on its head at all. Right as he realized that, the creature walked straight through the wall like it wasn't even there, then it vanished. The guard reported it to me immediately. I've doubled the patrols and put every Guardspony on alert."
"Definitely undead," Twilight confirmed. "A wraith or spirit of some variety. Either the spirit of a soldier from one of the attacks on Ponyville, or one magically bound to serve a necromancer. If it's a bound spirit, it's likely Cr-" Twilight was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Firecracker Burst sprang into action, commanding Guardsponies to investigate the shot. Twilight, however, interrupted, "I know that sound! That shot was from a wraithlock pistol! There's a pistol wraith on the loose, and we have to find it!"
"But-!"
"No buts! It's either here to spy or assassinate, if not both! You need me for this!"
"All right, all right, let me get my team together. And don't tell your brother!"
Cherry Cola, at his own insistence, took point. As the toughest pony present, he was more likely to survive taking a bullet or two than the others. It wouldn't be the first time. Behind him walked Twilight Sparkle and Firecracker Burst, Firecracker's horn glowing to provide light for the group. Blue October and Airheart floated above the trio. Everypony except Twilight was scanning the area cautiously as they moved through Ponyville. Twilight was instead staring straight ahead, her horn surrounded in a sinister yellow-green aura, muttering to herself in a language nopony else understood. Small runes, glowing the same color as her horn, hovered in lazy circles around Twilight's head.
"If I were to take a guess, that magic you're doing is meant to find undead, right?" Firecracker asked Twilight quietly.
"Necromancers use it to locate disembodied spirits which might be useful to them," Twilight confirmed, "if I can use it to find this wraith -got him!" The runes around Twilight's horn flared. "On our left! It's headed for the wall!"
Cola immediately turned, charging between two houses. The other ponies followed through the alley, emerging near Ponyville's southern wall. The pistol wraith was waiting for them, guns drawn. It fired both pistols, the spectral bullets denting Cola's peytral and champron before dissipating. Cherry Cola stumbled, shuddering, as the pistol wraith's death chill took effect.
Firecracker Burst invoked a magical explosion, throwing the wraith backwards. Before the spirit could recover, three rings of green runes surrounded it, followed by a faint bubble of arcane force.
"Gotcha!" Trilight declared triumphantly, "wow, you've been a wraith a long time, you poor thing. Even your name has faded away."
"Spare me your pity," the pistol wraith growled, its voice a barely-audible rasp.
"If you insist," Twilight said. "Now, who are you bound to?"
The wraith snapped off a shot at Twilight, but the arcane field surrounding the wraith absorbed the phantom bullet. "Clever, aren't you?" the wraith hissed, "I'm not obligated to answer your questions."
"Oh, you don't have to," Twilight replied. The runes surrounding the pistol wraith flared briefly, and a symbol reminiscent of a claw grasping a human skull appeared on the wraith's forehead as it produced a strange, rattling hiss. "Ah, the Mark of Scaverous. I thought I recognized his magic. Scaverous taught me everything I know about necromancy, did you know that?" The wraith hissed again, but said nothing. "Hm, all right then. More important question: Why are you here?"
Another hiss. "Fine, then. We'll do this the hard way. You know what else your master taught me? Wait, don't bother guessing, you're about to find out!" Another set of runes appeared, hovering briefly around the wraith's head before searing into its skull. Twilight's eyes began glowing green. "Ooh, Project Red River. That's the trendy and popular thing to talk about, isn't it? Too bad you didn't make it all the way in. You know you're dealing with tight security when they catch someone who walks through walls."
"I will kill you," The wraith said flatly.
"No. No you won't," Twilight's eyes stopped glowing, revealing that her pupils had shrunk to tiny dots. "You know what else I can do to wraiths like you? Actually, don't bother guessing at that one either!" The wraith hissed once more. "Like I said, you've been haunting Caen a long, long time. Isn't it time you passed on?" The runes surrounding the pistol wraith brightened again as the specter began to fade. It leveled its pistols at Twilight and fired again and again as it vanished.
"So, uh, that's that, huh?" Cherry Cola asked, pulling his champron off his head and examining the dent. He had suffered no lasting effects from the pistol wraith's bullets.
"For now, anyway," Twilight said, "he's finally resting in peace, and no Cryxians are the wiser. Although, they might send more spies. Oh, I know! I should've thought of this earlier! Firecracker Burst, I need to brief the Royal Guard on Cryxian military assets! They'll be a lot easier to deal with if I'm not the only pony in Ponyville who knows how to fight them."
"Sounds like a good idea," Firecracker agreed, "I'll start scheduling the briefings."
"For now, every patrol should have at least one unicorn, most wraiths can only be harmed by magic. Wait, those new Engines Equestria warjacks have magical weapons, right? If Shining Armor left any behind, we should mobilize as many as possible as sentries, ideally controlled by 'jack marshals."
"All right, I'll make that happen."
Princess Luna was angry. Not the loud, shouty kind of anger she used when trying to get frustrating subjects in line -a practice she had largely abandoned- nor the fiery, burning anger her sister tended towards, which made ponies fear that their manes might burst into flames if they strayed too close. No, Luna's was a cold sort of anger, like ice slowly forming, freezing and suffocating everything it touched. It was a kind of anger she had discovered herself capable of during her millennium of captivity, when she directed it against the nightmare entity that had wrested control of her very mind. It was a fury that waited for the opportunity to unleash itself upon those who caused it, just as blizzards waited for the winter in regions where no ponies dwelled to control the weather. She gazed down at the Khadorans below from the deck of her air warship, the Fulmen. The flagship of the Lunar Sky Fleet, the Fulmen was the second-largest vehicle of any kind in Luna's Night Guard, second only to the flagship of her ocean-going navy, the Impetus. She had brought a fleet of sixteen ships, the Fulmen included, to insure that the retreating Khadorans actually retreated as promised. Early on, the Gibbous, the ship on the leftmost edge of Luna's formation, was forced to drop a few bombs when elements of the Khadorans strayed too far south. The humans had remained well within the boundaries Celestia had given them since then.
Despite her rage, Luna was content to allow the Khadorans safe passage north. She had other plans for the ponies, warjacks, and bombs aboard her formation. She had a very specific target in mind, one which would make it absolutely clear that no one, not even the invincible Khadoran Empire, wanted to make an enemy of Equestria. And so, while the Khadorans stopped at the border outpost they'd recently constructed, desperate for rest and medical attention, only eight of Luna's ships remained behind, under the command of the Lumière. The other eight, led by the Fulmen, continued northwest. The ponies aboard asked no questions, they knew that their Princess intended to demonstrate for Khador's leaders the folly of antagonizing Equestria. That the Empire had literally no anti-air capabilities only compounded the mistake they had made -a detail Luna intended to clarify in detail.
It was sunset when the ponies reached Volningrad, one of Khador's largest cities. Volningrad was also the seat of their Third Army. The training of soldiers and production of armaments were the two main functions of this great city, and it was home to tens of thousands of soldiers. Volningrad was not Princess Luna's target, she merely believed that it was that city which would be most likely to get a messenger to Korsk ahead of her fleet. Luna did not want this to be a surprise attack. Her fleet turned directly northward as they passed over Volningrad, and the Princess allowed herself a rather sinister grin as shouts of confusion and panic rose up from the buildings and streets below. She stood on the bow of the ship, gazing imperiously down at the citizens and soldiers below.
"Do you think they've figured out what we're planning, Princess?" Captain Spring Rain asked. The thestral mare from Hollow Shades was rapidly proving herself to be an excellent adjutant, something Luna had been needing.
The Princess mentally shortlisted Spring Rain for promotion while replying, "even if they don't realize our goal, they'll want Korsk to know we're in the area."
"I suppose you're right. Korsk is their capitol, after all. Oh look, there goes a horseman. You were right, Princess."
"So it would seem. Would it be improper of me to admit that human cavalry... what's the phrase? Weirds me out? Yes, that is the way I mean to put it. Human cavalry weirds me right out."
"You're not the only one." Spring Rain admitted. "Everything about this world just doesn't feel right to me. And the things I've seen aren't have as weird as the things I've heard about."
"Indeed. Now, I must go to the other ships and impress my orders on my warjacks. Find me if any problems arise."
"Of course, Princess."
Black Anchor Baltimare had invented a device for delivering warjacks from Equestrian airships to the ground below. The basic concept was ingenious in its simplicity, being essentially a massive bomb with a warjack in place of the explosives. Dropping this bomb without destroying the warjack, however, was an engineering challenge that had nearly defeated Baltimare's finest minds. In the end, however, they had managed to devise a suite of padding, chains, and timed triggers that would safeguard the 'jack during the impact, then release it onto the battlefield. The other challenge, guiding the warjacks effectively without direct warcaster or 'jack marshal support, was solved -more or less- by Princess Luna herself. She went to each 'jack bomb before they were closed, and impressed upon their cortexes the most complex set of instructions they could handle. Luna commanded her collection of Nomads and Talons to attack uniformed Khadoran soldiers unless they were fleeing or surrendering. She also ordered the 'jacks to attack anyone else who tried to damage them. While she would try to reunite with some of these warjacks when she personally took to the battlefield, most of them would be on their own for the duration of the attack, and they would be abandoned when Luna's forces left. For that reason, she had left all of her preferred 'jacks in Canterlot. These machines were old, expendable warjacks purchased in Equestria's early, desperate rush for armored support, and they had already been replaced by new machines built to the same designs, but with distinctly Equestrian improvements. These 'jacks did not know it, and weren't capable of caring, but this would be their final battle, so Princess Luna wanted to send them out with a proverbial bang.
Her instructions imparted to each warjack, Luna returned to the Fulmen. Caen's three moons light up the night as Luna's airships reached Korsk and spread out over the city. As Khadoran citizens and soldiers looked to the skies and the vessels they could not comprehend, the 'jack bombs began to fall.
Shouted orders and the occasional panicked scream rang out across Korsk, at least when they weren't being drowned out by gun and cannon fire. Luna marched through the city, followed by a pair of Nomads and four Talons. She neither knew nor cared where the rest of her warjacks were. Given the continued noise, she assumed that they were killing soldiers and breaking military hardware, and that, frankly, was good enough for her.
The magic coursing through Luna's body channeled through her hooves, cracking the main street's stone slabs with every step. There was absolutely no purpose for this other than that the stones would have to be replaced later, but Luna was in a spiteful mood, so that, too, was good enough for her. With her soldiers aboard the airships and the Khadorans either hiding, dead, or otherwise occupied, Luna found herself the only living thing at the gates of Stasikov Palace. Within her magical aura floated a collection of weapons taken from Khadoran soldiers and warjacks that she and her machines had felled, including the mechanika axes and mauls of Man-O-War Shocktroopers and Demolitions Corpsmen, as well as the odd chainsaw-grenade launcher combinations carried by Man-O-War Bombardiers, warjack ice axes and executioner axes, and a massive spear taken from a wrecked Spriggan. Around and between these great weapons hovered the armaments of lighter infantry, including Assault Kommando shields, Iron Fang blasting pikes, and a slightly silly number of Winter Guard axes. The more interesting weapons Luna intended to present to Engines Equestria for reverse engineering, the rest she had picked up mainly because she thought they might come in useful.
Suddenly, Luna felt a presence. An ancient and sinister power had arrived behind her. Luna turned to face this new entity. Thanks to Applejack, Luna knew that there was but one being in Khador that was so aged and so powerful.
"The shadow of winter, the claw of night, a bloody lament, and a dead king's plight," Luna said, quoting a nursery rhyme from Khador's earliest days. "Or do you prefer 'Zevanna Agha,' as you seem to have been calling yourself this century? I have heard rumors about you."
The entity, who to the ignorant appeared to be an extremely elderly human woman, glared at Luna through her one visible eye, the other covered by a thick cloth. Her small, hunched body was covered from head to foot in a large, ragged cloak, from which emerged smokestacks -evidence of an arcane turbine hidden somewhere in the recesses of the witch's cloak. On each finger, she wore rusty, bloodstained metal talons. Or perhaps they were permanent attachments, Luna realized that she couldn't tell. Given the rumors surrounding the Old Witch, either possibility was likely. On her shoulders were pauldrons that appeared to have been hammered from scrap iron, and in her left hand was a wooden staff adorned with carvings resembling a cluster of screaming faces, reminding Luna of the examples she'd seen of Orgoth decoration. From this staff hung human skulls attached by loose chains. A raven was perched on the Old Witch's staff, and several more circled overhead. Behind the Old Witch stood a long-legged, armless steamjack with several canvas sacks strapped to it, and more ravens on its back. The 'jack appeared to have been cobbled together from salvaged bits and pieces of wrecked Khadoran warjacks, although it prominently featured an arc node -an innovation that Khador had never replicated.
"I have learned of you as well, Princess Luna," the Old Witch said, her voice dry and rasping. "You who controls darkness and night, mistress of your world's moon. You threaten these northern lands with your invasion. I will not tolerate your presence here."
"'Invasion'?" Luna asked mockingly. "With only eight airships? Do not insult the Equestrian Lunar Guard. If I meant to invade, a fleet of no less than thirty ships would have arrived, and we would have begun by bombing Korsk's Third Army garrison -as well as this palace- to rubble." Luna neglected to mention the large quantity of Equestrian warjacks that had been dropped on the Third's Army's barracks. "Then the warjacks would have descended, followed by myself and flights of Royal Guard Skycrackers to secure landing zones. After that, transport ships would land and deploy Stalwarts, Battlemages, and more warjacks. We would sweep through this city, crushing any resistance, and take control of all of the city's military production facilities. Korsk would become my forward operating base, and the three armies of the Khadoran Empire would have to besiege their own capitol city. All of that without the participation of my sister's Solar Guard. This is no invasion. I simply came to deliver a message."
"Leave now or I will kill you."
"Zevanna Agha, you are the worst conversationalist on the face of Caen. More to the point, I mean to deliver my message to Ayn Vanar personally, as befits communication of such gravity between two national leaders."
"I will consider those your last words, Princess Luna." the Old Witch said flatly. The Scrapjack charged towards Luna, but was intercepted by a Nomad. The rest of Luna's warjacks rushed Zevanna Agha, and Luna herself vanished.
Leaving her 'jacks behind, Luna strode towards the front doors of Stasikov Palace, the gates of the castle's wall behind her. Her eclectic collection of weaponry floated around her. The Princess had considered simply teleporting into the palace, but she felt that using the front door was only proper and fitting for royalty. Under the circumstances, propriety was the least she could offer.
A murder of crows descended from the sky, cawing and screeching as they joined together to become Zevanna Agha. The Scrapjack appeared at her side immediately after, missing a single talon from its left leg, but otherwise no worse for wear. Or at least no more worse for wear than it'd been when Luna first saw it.
"Nice trick," Luna said sardonically. "I have a cape that can turn into bats, but that was perhaps slightly more impressive." The Scrapjack charged again, this time receiving a blasting pike to its arc node. As the improvised warjack staggered, a pair of ice axes tore its legs off at the hips.
"I seem to have broken your toy." Luna commented idly. "Maybe your Empress will buy you a new one."
"She already has," Agha said, maintaining a similar calm. The ground shook as something extremely heavy took a step nearby. Then another. As whatever it was gained speed, the land shuddered as if a minor earthquake had started. Luna raised an eyebrow as a singularly massive warjack rounded Stasikov Palace, behind which the great machine must have been waiting for Agha's arrival. Luna concluded that the Old Witch had placed it there in anticipation of this confrontation. "Behold the Conquest. It is the pinnacle of Khadoran engineering."
"Massive, slow, and I imagine absurdly brutal, a bulky slab of a machine designed and built by men and women for whom finesse is an alien concept," Luna replied, "yes, it is Khadoran mechanika in a nutshell. Admittedly a very large nutshell. That seems to be approaching me in some approximation of haste." Luna teleported again as the Conquest's left fist slammed into the ground where she had been standing. As the massive warjack removed its hand from the crater its punch had made, a loud clanging sound rang out. Luna, hovering behind the machine, had tried to drive her armored hoof through the warjack's back and into the boiler. However, the thick armor merely showed a slight indentation.
"At least you build them tough," Luna called to the Old Witch, vanishing again as the Conquest tried to swing the back of its elbow around to strike her. This time she reappeared standing on the right side of Conquest's top, next to its main guns. She used her magic to begin battering the machine's hull and cannons with her collection of weapons. The Old Witch released a reddish pulse of arcane power, and Luna's various armaments fell to the ground like a cacophonous metal rain, her magic no longer controlling them. Zevanna Agha dispersed into a murder of crows once more, reforming opposite Luna on the warjack. The Conquest swung its right arm upwards, trying to get at Luna, who it could now see through its master's eyes. However, the machine's limited shoulder rotation prevented it from reaching high enough to even attempt a grab.
"These cannons are the size of a man," Luna pointed out, tapping a hoof on the nearest of the paired main guns. "What are they, naval guns?" The Old Witch suddenly lashed out with her claws. She was faster than Luna had anticipated, but had trouble reaching her over the cannons. Nevertheless, Agha's claws tore deep rents in Luna's peytral. In retaliation, Luna's hoof slammed into Agha's face, knocking her from the Conquest. The towering 'jack caught her in its hand, however.
Zevanna cast a spell, yanking Luna towards her, but the Princess spread her wings and took to the sky, retaliating with a blast of raw darkness, which the Old Witch dodged with stunning agility. Yet more crows appeared from thin air, swarming around Luna and trying to tear at her armor and exposed body with their beaks and talons. Luna ignored the occult birds, however, swooping downward and body-slamming Zevanna Agha off of the Conquest's palm and into the ground.
The resultant crater wasn't as wide or deep as the one left by the Conquest's punch, but it was still rather impressive. Luna spread her wings, but before she could take off, the Old Witch's claws dug into her sides through the gaps between her peytral and croupiere. Luna clenched her teeth, hissed, and brought a hoof slamming into Agha's face again. And again. And again. Even when Zevanna Agha fainted and the Conquest went inert, the witch did not bleed. Zevanna's claws slid from the wounds she had created in Luna's sides, which immediately began to heal.
"Zevanna Agha, I owe you some respect," Luna said to her fallen enemy, "I was taking you seriously and you still managed to harm me. Quite severely, in fact. I don't know whether you're alive or dead right now, but frankly I hope for the latter. If you'll excuse me, however, I have a message to deliver." With that, she gave Agha a hard kick to the chest, trying not to be too satisfied as she finally felt some ribs shatter under her hoof. Then, she seized her collection of stolen weapons and took to the sky, abandoning propriety and resolving to crash through a window and raise as large a ruckus as possible.
It was immediately clear to Princess Luna that Ayn Vanar and her entourage had fled, likely through some secret exit leading to a safe house or bunker known only to a select few. She did, however, locate the throne room, so Luna used powerful lightning magic to blast a simple message into the wall behind the throne:
STAY OUT OF EQUESTRIA
Not quite as eloquent as she would have liked, but lightning was hardly an ideal writing utensil, and brick walls made for a poor medium in any case. After pausing a moment to examine her work and hope Vanar or someone in her inner circle could read Cygnaran, Luna vanished. Moments later, the Equestrian airships all turned to the south and sailed away in the pre-dawn light.
Zevanna Agha stirred. Her one visible eye opened and blinked twice. She pulled herself to her feet, feeling her ribcage reassemble itself. Her cane appeared from nowhere in her hand, and the Scrapjack, the damage it had sustained now completely undone, was suddenly at her side. Agha placed a hand on the Conquest's foot, resetting and reactivating its cortex. It had been a long time since the Old Witch had faced an enemy of such might as Princess Luna. She sniffed at the drying pony blood on her claws. Narrowing her eyes, she wondered just what the source of Luna's power was. It mattered little, she concluded. She would have preferred to slay Luna and bleed her out, fully exploring her nature and magic in the process. Perhaps preserving some of the blood, which clearly carried potent magic. However, the Old Witch had to settle for buying enough time for the Empress to escape.
The Fulmen cruised through the lightening sky, reaching Canterlot just as the sun began to rise. Princess Luna left her quarters, intending to stand on the bow as the Fulmen made her final approach, but was stopped by a brilliant flash of light that resolved itself into Princess Celestia.
"What's this about half your fleet sailing north into Khadoran airspace?" Celestia asked without preamble.
"I thought it was necessary to deliver a message," Luna replied. "So I paid a visit to Korsk."
Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You left the city in flames and rubble, didn't you?"
"That would be an overstatement. I merely demonstrated the power afforded to Equestria by our total air supremacy."
"... Warjack bombs?"
"They work exactly as designed. I was quite pleased."
"That wasn't what I meant. In any event, you do realize that the Khadorans will not tolerate this, don't you?"
"Sister, I made it quite clear that any further hostility from Khador would result in Korsk's palace and garrison being blasted to rubble and the rest of the city becoming my base of operations for the conquest of Khador."
"Ayn Vanar is a prideful and cold-hearted individual, Luna," Celestia said. "I can easily imagine her sacrificing her very capitol to attempt revenge for this."
"Then I will crush her next invasion attempt on my way to Korsk," Luna shot back.
"Do you realize, Luna, how close we are to completing the final phase of the ritual?" Celestia asked. "I only allowed you to follow the Khadorans in their retreat to insure that they left our borders. From now on, no pony is leaving Equestria's borders. No pony, no griffon, no cattle or buffalo or minotaur. Every resident of Equestria is now in Equestria, and they are going to stay here until the ritual is complete. Is that clear?"
"Very well, sister, I see your point," Luna acquiesced.
"Good. Now, we still have much to do."