//------------------------------// // Chapter Ten: Emperor Urcuchillay // Story: Llamas: A Drama // by SkelePone //------------------------------// LLAMAS a drama CHAPTER TEN: EMPEROR URCUCHILLAY WARNING: SOME DARK ELEMENTS by SkelePone Dear Abuelo Urcu, I am pleased to say that the herd is settling wonderfully. The ponies have given us a home and have even extended their hooves in friendship! There is a Princess in the town we have settled in, a lovely place called ‘Ponyville’. The ponies here aren’t as aggressive or as ludicrous as we had feared. I have made friendly with the pony Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is delightful, but I fear that Vicuña has developed some sort of crush on the pony. Imagine a pony and a llama together. I know you’d laugh if you were here. Rico had joined a pony club called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. I know not whether he seeks treatment for his birth defect. I will have to remind him of this. Bonita has found work at a fashion store. I encouraged Cha Cha and Macarena to do so as well, but they have found better work as dancers. I believe they are moving to Canterlot soon. Churro has found an occupation as a baker. No surprise there. Bronco is also finding work. I don’t know what as, however. Pepe has made a friend. Don’t ask. I don’t know how. I am beginning to realize I don’t know a lot about the goings on of my little herd. Mama has been taken ill. She is staying at the Ponyville Community Hospital, but I assume that she will be right as rain before the day is done. She seems to be enjoying herself there. Made a few friends with the local elderlies. I hope all is going well with the herd back home. Maybe things will be going more smoothly now that the population is a bit smaller. Anyways, be sure to write back! I’d love to know about anything else we can help you with, Abuelo. Sincerely, Poncho Abuelo Urcu smiled down at the familiar chicken-scratch hoofwriting of the musician he had sent away into Equestria almost two moons ago. But he was not smiling upon knowing that those ten llamas were safe, however. He was smiling at the fact that the ponies were… friendly. And seemingly ill-defended. He looked up at the quavering pegasus messenger who had delivered the note. He gave the grey stallion a half-smile of reassurance. The pegasus was quaking with either fear or the cold. Possibly the latter, but Urcu felt more empowered as he was assuming it was the former. “Thank you kindly for the message. I will have to pay you.” Urcu stated aloud as he turned his back to the messenger. The dark-woollen leader chuckled as he heard the guards wearing warrior headdresses shuffled closer to the mindless pony fool. Urcu wished the messenger would panic already. He was getting bored with the calm. Urcu found an obsidian dagger, and held it tightly in his fighting teeth. It had been a long time since he had last carried the blade. “Oh, no payment necessary, sir. S’all been paid fer.” “Praise be thee, Mictlantecuhtli.” Urcu muttered, gripping the obsidian dagger tighter as he faced the messenger. Ponies. They made Urcu sick. Urcu gestured to the guards. They knew what to do. “Uh… what wuz tha’, mister? And what’s tha’ thing in yer m-” The stallion was cut off suddenly when two guards went and grabbed him brutally. A third clamped a cloven hoof over the pony’s mouth. The pony struggled and Urcu couldn’t but laugh at the trickles of sweat pouring down the pony’s brow. A fourth guard carrying a macuahuitl in his own teeth stepped forward. The wooden sword with it’s shards of obsidian had already been stained with red. Urcu nodded. The stallion’s screams could not be hushed as the macuahuitl-bearer whacked off his left wing. Blood spilled onto the ground, the crimson fluid mixing with the bone-dry soil to make a thick mud. Urcu and the guards took a moment to pray to the spirits. This sacrifice would charge their remaining amulets. Urcu smiled wickedly as the stallion screamed again. What a pity. He had missed wing number two. Urcu took the pleasure of kicking away the feathered hunks of meat. They were of no use to them, the meat. But the feathers could be used for headdresses. The stallion was crying. “Shut up.” Urcu snapped. The pony was too stupid to listen. “Please… why are you doing this?!” “I said SHUT UP.” Urcu snarled. The stallion whimpered, but continued to struggle in the grip of the guards. How annoying. It looked like Urcu was going to have to do something about that. Urcu jammed the dagger into the exposed flesh on the stallion’s back it let out a scream of pain. Damn it, Urcu thought, I’ve missed the lung. My aim is getting lousy. Urcu waltzed over to the front of the stallion. The real business would be here. “Wait no!” It was too late for the stallion to protest. Urcu jammed the blade at the top of the pony’s belly, right near the ribcage. He dropped the dagger quickly after making the first cut and thrust his hoof into the pony’s body. The stallion let out one last gasp of breath as Urcu tore out the heart. It beat pitifully in his hoof a few times before Urcu pulled it from the corpse. The amulets dangling from every llama’s neck began to glow as the spirits charged them. Amulets of protection. Amulets of immunity. Amulets of strength. In short, amulets of war. “Throw the body with the others.” Urcu barked. They had already taken every pony at Fort Fresh Hooves and killed them. Now was a matter of a few griffons. And then the invasion could begin. Starting with this… ‘Ponyville’ place. The Llamayan Empire shall rise again, no longer would llamas live under pony rule. No longer would llamas be subject to the demands of the other species of Equestria! And he was no longer Abuelo Urcu. Now, he was Emperor Urcuchillay.