Rainbow Dash 4: Willow Manor
Upheaval: Journeys
Rainbow Dash 4: Willow Manor
A single look at the ursans that had emerged from the treeline was enough to impress on Rainbow that these were cut from a far different cloth from the ones that Shatterspine slaughtered yesterday. They were much larger, more grizzled, and walked with a degree of calm and confidence. Three of them walked casually towards the village's southwestern gates, seemingly unaffected by all the lances already pointed their way.
"Pff..." Scarlet muttered. "They're not going to fight. Too few of them coming out."
Of the three, the central one commanded nearly all attention. This had to be the ursan matriarch that Scarlet had mentioned.
She towered over the other ursans with her, and Rainbow suspected that the size difference had a lot of say in why she was the leader. Great plates of smooth, polished metal covered her back, chest, and most of her legs without compromising the great claws at the ends of her paws. What parts of her not covered with armor were still protected by thick, grizzled, dark gray fur. The hair around her broad head and thickly muscled neck was particularly long and thick, so much that she had braided it to hang down both sides of her head.
Rainbow's eyes narrowed when she noticed the the matriarch's choice of hair decorations. Pony skulls, bleached and polished to a gleaming white, and decorated with beadwork, hung from the matriarch's head. They were held in place by having hair pass through the eye sockets as part of the matriach's elaborate braids.
Razor Beard matched that confidence by standing firm despite the great masses of fur, muscle, and metal looming before him. Even when the matriarch stood on her hind legs, allowing her to reach the height of even the watchtowers, and let out a powerful roar, none of the lancers so much as flinched.
"We should go," Longstride whispered when he got to Rainbow's side. "This is no negotiation."
"How'd you know?" Rainbow whispered back.
"The ursans never negotiate," Longstride replied. "They appear, demand that you submit so they can kill you quickly, then leave promising a brutal death."
"Then, why don't they just attack?"
"Setup," Longstride replied. "Perhaps their forces are not in place. Reconnaissance too. Ursans are terrible scouts with their size and bulk, but their matriarch is exploiting the fact that the Legion will honor the parley to, at least, get a cursory look at the enemy forces arrayed against them."
Size, bulk, recon...
Rainbow lit up and flapped her wings. "So we're going too," she whispered excitedly. "Because lancers are bad at scouting and we're Reconnaissance."
Longstride nodded. "Surprisingly quick uptake," he said.
Rainbow tilted her nose up. "Give me some credit here."
The three of the flew away from the meeting, keeping low as they glided into the tree line. Though he was the slowest of them, Longstride led the way. He was the most familiar of this area after all, even if his memories were hundreds of years behind.
"You think we can kill a few of their stragglers?" Scarlet asked as he flew next to Longstride. He was visibly straining as he said this, as if flying slowly took more out of him than flying quickly.
Longstride replied with a withering glance. "You have ways to make a thousand pounds of armored bear disappear, Scarlet?" he asked. "They're not like the wolven sentries you're used to. As soon as they find a dead sentry, the manor will know that the lancers have infiltrators with them."
"Hey, I was just asking," Scarlet said.
"Least, you're not a stupid stallion," Rainbow muttered. Though she relied mostly on Longstride's heightened sight, Rainbow surveyed their surroundings nonetheless.
One didn't need to be some seasoned ranger to figure out where the ursans had been. Trampled shrubs, snapped branches, and small trees broken in two marked where they moved. 'Don't have to worry about ambushes,' Rainbow thought.
What did worry her as they flew deeper into the woods was the sight of an uprooted, large tree. This one had freshly fallen, with no signs of having sunk into the ground. The trunk had not been overrun by vines as well, though a large chunk of its bark appeared to have been scraped off.
There were no paths through these woods. No roads or even well-used trails. Perhaps there used to be a long time ago, when ponies used this manor. Longstride flitted through the trees, his eyes shifting from them to the ground with ease. He must still remember some old paths to the manor. Rainbow held her crossbow close as she followed. Unlike Scarlet, she wasn't as eager to run into some ursans, not when she had all these confusing thoughts about fighting in her head. She wouldn't have the focus and confidence she needed.
It wasn't long when they spotted their first ursan, rather their first group of the monstrous things. They dropped low at once to hide in the underbrush.
"Advance camp," Longstride whispered. "If they can afford to make some, this is a large force."
They inched closer, first making sure they were downwind of the camp. Not even a small campfire burned where the ursans laid about. Four of them were asleep, apparently for a while now judging from the layer of snow that had already accumulated on them. Three more sat around looking bored. One of them began growling, muttering some kind guttural language. Rainbow looked to Scarlet, who shrugged. "I can barely speak Imperial Common," Scarlet whispered.
Another ursan growled back in the same language.
"The first one is voicing his complaints," Longstride whispered. "They are all clan-bears, but he does not like the direction their matriarch is taking them." His eyes narrowed. "So they are cooperating with Hassyth, but not just for money. The second one agrees. Interesting."
Another one growled loudly. Rainbow may not understand a word, but she knew anger when she saw it.
"The third one is berating them for questioning the matriarch," Longstride whispered.
The snow around the camp flew up as the ursans suddenly came at each other in a flurry of motion. The ursan that got angry lunged at one of the complainers, its claws grinding into its opponents armor and slipping between the plates. The other ursan had done the same, locking them into place. They grunted and heaved, their hind claws gouging large marks on the ground. Finally, the angry ursan managed to hurl the other one to the ground. No follow up though. It growled in its tongue again then sat back down.
"Pity," Longstride muttered. "Since he won, the others will shut up. Let's keep going."
They flew on, deeper into the forest. The trees towered around them now, the thick canopy allowing only bits of snow to cover the ground. Again, Rainbow noted the large gouges across the ground where something massive must have moved around. Several trees had collapsed around here as well. That they formed a path to allow something massive to move through, made it clear what had passed through.
The ground was also starting to dip. They were probably going into a valley at this rate. Rainbow supposed that this Willow Manor was probably close to a river.
"Just how deep into the forest is this manor?' Scarlet groused. "Of course, Hassyth has to hide in some hidden hole."
"The Manor was built to keep prying eyes out," Longstride said. He glanced around briefly. "The increased foliage is new. The centuries have changed a lot."
Rainbow followed his gaze. She could get some height in this wooded area, but it would be next to impossible to get a straight path down without crashing into some branch or another. "The lancers can't charge like this," she said.
"They can fall back on swooping blades," Longstride said. "They'll have to rely on skirmisher support, or get the arrays to clear enough trees."
The sudden, loud crackle of huge branches and the groan of trunks straining sent all three of them flitting for cover.
The ground shook in the rhythm of a four-footed creature's gait. Leaves fluttered to the ground from the vibrations. As if the canopy wasn't blocking the pale winter sun enough, a great shadow passed by, temporarily plunging them into darkness.
For a moment, Rainbow could have sworn she heard a very deep rumble, and the loud whiffs of something huge breathing. She pressed her back against a tree and held her breath until she could hear her heart.
The rumbling eventually passed, and the three of them grouped up again.
"That was the titan, right?" Scarlet asked with an excited grin.
"Yes," Longstride replied. "We should keep going in. The titan appears to be moving closer to Southwind. Their matriarch must have ordered it to hint at its presence as intimidation."
"What if it attacks?" Rainbow asked. "Maybe we should go back to help the others."
"We have little to contribute to a fight against a titan," Longstride replied. "Better to push on and see what we're up against."
"Are you saying we should abandon those lancers to a titan fight?" Rainbow hissed. She flew in front of Longstride and raised herself up so she stared him down.
"Stupid mare, check your ego," Longstride said. "Those lancers have been fighting ursans all their lives. You think they'll drop dead without you? We are more useful to them here than there."
"But--" Rainbow seethed, but followed as Longstride flew ahead. That wasn't what she meant at all. Longstride loved to make her sound like a jerk, but he was worse.
The deeper they flew into the forest, the higher the trees rose, and the thicker the vegetation got. That wouldn't really be such an oddity, but the normally straight firs and pines were also becomming more twisted. The branches stuck out at odd angles. The bark was discolored with odd shades of green. All in all, they radiated an unpleasant aura.
"What's going on with these trees?" Rainbow thought aloud.
"You feel that?" Scarlet asked. His grin had disappeared and the muscles around his neck and shoulders were tense. "Coatl magic right there. Hassyth must have forced these trees to grow to hide his hidey hole better." He frowned and sniffed around. "Tried to make the place feel like home too. Damn flying snake..."
"That's not all Hassyth has altered here," Longstride added. He pointed towards a distant tree.
Rainbow squinted and followed the hoof. "What am I looking at?" she asked.
"There's a Glyph of Warding etched into that tree," Longstride said. "Look at the faintly glowing sigil on the trunk. It's not just there, I've spotted several. He's probably warded his perimeter."
Rainbow squinted harder. Eventually, she did notice a faint glint of something on a tree. It might just be her wanting to see such a thing, but she nodded anyway. "What do they do?" she asked. "And what do we do about them?"
"The wards will sense you if you approach them at a certain distance. If you haven't been marked by their caster, they will strike you with lightning, then alert the caster. If we trip one of them, Hassyth will find us. As for our countermeasures..."
Longstride frowned and stayed silent for a while. "This would not be a problem if we had a skilled abjurer to dispel them," he said. "Barring that, I can spot them, and we can navigate around them, but that would take hours. Or..."
"We can rush them!" Scarlet whispered excitedly. "I've dealt with Hassyth's wards before. If you zip by fast enough, they won't have the time to sense you."
Longstride cleared his throat. "True. A glyph takes a couple of seconds to detect. If you move fast enough, you can outfly them without triggering them."
Rainbow Dash grinned and puffed out her chest. She had to consciously control her voice when she spoke. "A couple of seconds? That's plenty of time."
Longstride nodded curtly. "I'm not fast enough for that rush." He looked up. "I can see Willow Manor from here. It should be easy to set up a sniper position. You two can close in to get better details."
Rainbow Dash froze. "Hold on," she said. "How are we supposed to find this place? We might get lost. You're the one who knows this place."
"I'll guide you," Longstride said. He pulled out what looked like a small pin shaped like a five-petalled black rose. "Attach this to your barding's collar."
Rainbow did as asked. "What's this?" she asked. "Some kind of Thorns membership pin? Am I an honorary Thorn now?"
"In a way," Longstride replied. "Black Rose developed these devices herself for our use. Each Thorn was given one and a spare. That's my spare." He tilted his head slightly, and spoke close to his collar. It was only now that Rainbow noticed that he was wearing the same pin. "Think of a pony then speak into it. If that pony is wearing one of these, your voice will reach them."
True enough, those instructions came out of the pin on Rainbow's collar. "This is pretty awesome," she grudgingly admitted.
"Don't lose it," Longstride said. "That is a valuable, enchanted device, and..." his voice softened. "...one of the few things left connected to the Mistress."
Rainbow looked away. "Okay, I'll take care of it," she muttered. "No pressure, right?"
"Don't I get one?" Scarlet asked.
Longstride answered with a glare before flying up towards the branches of a particularly tall tree. Rainbow grabbed Scarlet by the collar and pulled him away. "Come on!" she groused. "Let's get this over with!"
"This is Longstride. Follow a straight path from there." Longstride's voice came out of the pin softly. "The wards extend for half a mile. Keep up the high speed until my say so."
"Half a mile of wards?" Rainbow muttered. "How scared is this snake?"
"Not a problem, is it?" Scarlet asked with a grin. "You might get tired."
Rainbow flapped her wings vigorously. "Really?" she asked. "More like I have to save your butt again!"
They flew off, reaching high speeds in the space of a second. The cold, musty forest air turned into a chilly draft, blasting past Rainbow's mane and feathers while the snow-covered leaves turned into blurs of white and green.
'Launching speed's pretty good...I'm not feeling any burn either,' Rainbow thought. She wished there was a reliable way to know when the Element of Loyalty kicked in. For now, she wasn't feeling anything different. She concentrated on maintaining as straight a flight path as possible without crashing into any trees. Nearby, Scarlet stayed neck and neck with her, swooping as close to some trees as possible, almkst as if he was taunting the wards that might be there to go off.
Finally, after what felt like a tense hour of trees zipping past her, each time driving in the fear that she might set something off, the dark outline of a huge manor loomed ahead of them.
"Stop."
Rainbow didn't need the prompting to stop. The mere sight of the manor came at her like a wall. Nearby, Scarlet did the same. Both of them dropped low, enough to let the grass to hide them a bit. Again, Rainbow cursed at her coloration. Maybe she should have dyed her mane and tail or something? She had been right. Willow Manor sat atop a small hill, just by the bend of a large river. There were no trees around its area, and the large stumps all around made it clear why.
Around half a mile of forest had been cleared around the manor, all to support what looked like a massive camp. Rainbow had been to the circus a few times before, and those huge tents reminded her of a bunch of big tops clumped together.
A huge forge lit up the center of all the tents, so big that it would be easy to toss several ponies into the massive fire burning in it. A single, dark gray ursan worked before the thing, pounding away at a piece of armor plating big enough to cover a small boat. It towered over its fellows and bellowed what sounded like orders. Patches of fur were missing from its face, and three parallel scars ran deep down its left eye. Nearby, smaller, brown-furred ursans rushed about doing chores, whether it was collecting ingots, tossing coal into the fire, or working the bellows.
The rest of the camp was a mixture of ursans sparring and wrestling, lazing about, or gorging themselves on....something. It was clearly a carcass, but there was no way it was a pony from the size.
"That's a lot of bears," Rainbow whispered. She looked past the camp, and towards the manor itself.
Willow Manor loomed over the ursan camp from its hill perch like a hungry vulture. Closer to the foot of the hill were smaller, box like buildings of wood and stone, already partly crumbling and uninhabited by the looks of it. These would have remained hidden if there were still trees around them.
The main building, the manor itself, looked like it had some restorations done to it already. The pointed, black, iron bars of the massive gates blocking the path looked newly-forged. Past those gates, the great double doors into the manor itself also looked new. The gray, moss-covered walls did not look so fortunate. They were crumbling in some parts, with lines of cracks spreading out like spider webs. The gabled, tiled roof had collapsed in some areas while the most of the many large windows had long since shattered and boarded over. The manor resembled one of those fancy unicorn houses that Rarity used to fawn over in her lifestyle magazines in the past; all tall things with pointy little towers and big windows. It didn't seem at all like a place for experiments. Crumbling statues of pegasi holding drawn bows decorated the still whole parts of the roof. Between the iron gates and the main front doors was the suggestion of some sort of garden from the way the slope had been landscaped and decorated with now-broken stone walls.
"Now what?" Rainbow asked through the pin. "Even you can see how big the ursan group is from there." As she spoke, Scarlet leaned in at an uncomfortable distance to listen.
"I can," Longstride replied. "This is a true Ursan clan. More than mercenaries after all. The Matriarch is out there negotiating while that Patriarch is building up gear. The numbers are quite standard and will require a unified Legion strike. But, we must confirm a few more things."
"What's that?" Rainbow asked.
"An entrance into the Manor we can use when the Legion besieges it," Longstride said. "The goal is to assassinate Hassyth. If the Legion pushes hard, he will flee. He must be attacked as the distraction grows but not until the situation looks dire."
"You lived here," Rainbow said. "You should know one."
"Circle towards the sheer face side of the cliff," Longstride said. "Close to the base and near the water."
"Heh..." Scarlet said with a sly grin. "What's that? Your secret tunnel where you snuck in booze and tail? I didn't figure you were the type, Longstride."
"It should be very old by now," Longstride went on. "But it was reinforced. It should lead to Twenty Four's quarters. Ascertain its condition, but don't pursue Hassyth."
Rainbow frowned as she took the lead in circling the hill. Sentries patrolled along the perimeter of the camp in twos. These were the smallest of the ursans from the looks of it, and the least armored. They growled and muttered to each other as they walked by. Rainbow may not understand their tongue, but she recognized grumbling when she heard it. "You said Twenty Four like it's a name," she said softly, once she made sure there were no nearby patrols. "What kind of name's that?"
"A good enough name," Longstride replied. "This is not the time for that. Have you found the entrance? It used to be hidden in thick shrubbery. The entrance has a camouflaged door to cover it."
Rainbow hovered close to the water, scanning for spots where the sheer face of the hill came close to the river and had plenty of shrubbery around it. Now, she wished she had an eye for detail. These bushes all looked the same, and all these rocks looked the same. Frustrated, she dove into what looked like a good spot, and started pawing for fake stone covers, or possibly buried tunnels. Nearby, Scarlet took inspiration, and found his own spot.
"That is not an efficient way to look for it," Longstride said.
"Well, maybe you should manage to fly here, slowpoke," Rainbow groused. "You're the one who knows this--"
Rainbow gasped when her hoof struck a large rock. The strange thud from that bump quickly set her into a flurry of movement. Scarlet swiftly noticed and was next to her digging away in an instant. In a minute, they had dug around the thing, revealing a large flat rock. Rainbow knocked on it a few more times. There was definitely a space behind it.
"I think we found it," Rainbow said through the pin. "Now..."
She paused. A prickly sensation ran down her neck, and the ominous feeling of being watched seized her chest. What was going on? Longstride was watching for them, true, but this sensation...
"Rainbow, flee!"
The sudden loudness and urgency in Longstride's voice nearly made Rainbow jump. "What are you yelling for?" she whispered harshly.
When no response came, Rainbow went with her gut and simply made a dash for the nearest tree line.
"Hey!" Scarlet whispered harshly as he flew next to her. "What's with the flying?"
As if to answer the question, an arrow flew at them from the side, whizzing so close that Rainbow flicked her ear at the buzzing passage. Wait...that came from Longstride's direction. "Longstride, why are you shooting at us?" she practically yelled into the pin.
An arrow from the opposite direction answered that question.
This one flew closer, actually grazing Rainbow's mail. She finally decided to look back, but there didn't seem to be anything chasing them. Besides, they were flying at high speeds now, it was unlikely that anything could catch up. Another arrow from Longstride's direction flew above them, followed by a far too close shot from the other direction. This time, it would have torn through Rainbow's wing if it had been an inch closer.
"You're being pursued by an archer pegasus," Longstride said. "We need to escape."
"Just one?" Rainbow snapped. "We'll take him!"
"No!" Longstride shot back. Another exchange of arrows flew past them. "Those shots would have all hit you if I wasn't throwing him off at the last moment. Hassyth will be chasing soon, if not every ursan in the area."
Rainbow swallowed hard. So much for a stealthy approach. They had flown away from the ursan camp and had reentered the warded section of the forest.
"What's going on?" Scarlet called out. "We fighting something?"
"Keep flying!" Rainbow replied. "We've been spotted!"
How could that be, though? Sure, they were messing around by the river, but they had dodged the ursans, and there was nopony around the manor itself. How could they have been seen? Unless...
The Willow Manor's purpose flooded back to her mind, and the nature of their enemy. Trembling, she flew faster and spoke to the pin. "Longstride, who's chasing us?" she asked.
"It's Twenty Four. I can see his eyes. The markings all over him are foreign. Hassyth must have found a spell--"
"Why Twenty Four?" Rainbow asked. "Is that really his name?"
"Candidate Twenty Four for the Longstride Project," Longstride said harshly. He didn't sound like he was even answering her. Rather, he sounded like he was talking to their pursuer. "Total successful arcane grafts: four, the best of the current three candidates. Primary concern: discipline problem."
Another shot from Longstride. The arrow from Twenty Four, however, gashed the metal links protecting Rainbow's flank enough to draw blood.
"Status: Deceased," Longstride went on. "Cause: Fatal exsanguination from multiple stab wounds sustained in a bar fight." His tone grew harsher still, outright resentful in fact. "The best of us!"
"We have to have outflown him by now!" Scarlet yelled.
"No," Longstride said. "Twenty Four possessed arcane wing grafts to greatly increase his already naturally high speed. I can see he has no artifact bow, but his leg grafts greatly increase his maximum pull strength. Keep flying."
"Can't you hit him?" Rainbow asked. "You're supposed to be a super sniper!"
"He can see me from where I am," Longstride replied. "We were all trained to dodge counter shooting."
"Right when we need--!"
A roar, a deafening blast of sound so great that Rainbow's whole body reverberated, swept across them. It started out from a distance at first, a rising wave of rustling and snapping, almost like a great wind about to blow. It swiftly moved nearer, along with the loud thumps of someting massive walking and the rapidly increasing snaps and creaks of trees being pushed away.
Despite the danger she still faced just avoiding the enemy archer, Rainbow looked towards the sound. A dark shape approached them swiftly, bounding across the forest floor with frightful ease. Large trees bent and broke around its run as if they were twigs. Another powerful roar ripped through the forest, leaving Rainbow's head ringing and throbbing. The thing was coming at her from the side and quickly catching up. She had to switch directions or--
Too late. The creature, a bear so big that it could probably swallow a village of ponies with a bite, tore through the foliage. Rainbow flapped her wings to right herself as the draft from its passage fouled the air currents around her. A massive paw swung around, cleaving trees as if they were matchsticks. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Scarlet just barely winging past the creature. She wasn't as lucky. The claw didn't hit, but the draft from the swing sent her flying back.
Leaves and twigs snagged against her armor and left cuts along her exposed hide as she crashed through the foliage. Then a crack against the back of her head from a trunk before blackness...
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Ok... so your two of the hottest, fastest, and rather bright colored pegasi on the face of Equestria. You’ve been spotted while infiltrating a fortified position occupied by almost entirely ground-locked ursan. Even if they are getting shot at by a... in theory dead sniper pegasus, they have their own to compete and probably more than enough mobility to be untouchable. WHY would they stay at ground level? Climb hard and fast and pour on the speed, sure no cover from the sniper, but at the same time, the Ursan’s can’t do anything, and they’ve already been made so just go for broke.
Well, s
t
Great, a most un-bear-able cliffhanger. Get it? Un-bear-able! (laughing obnoxiously)
Not to mention that these Ursans aren’t anything like your average bear.
Yogi: You’re tell me, HC. I just know on that I’m smarter than the average bear.
You’re getting the belt of you make us wait that long for another chapter BOI.
So good keep it up fam.
8213637
I don’t think just one pic-a-nic basket is going to be enough for that bear Mr. Ranger, Sir.
8214383
I don't think that these Ursans even eat pic-a-nic baskets in their diet. Even if they did there's no ranger that can stop them anyway.
The ground
Somehow the grammar seems off.
The first time he used her name if I’m not mistaken. I do like the shipping.
So someone stabbed to death over 300 years ago, (not to mention who had multiple incurable STDs) is alive and presumably working for Hassyth? Very unexpected. Going to check ‘Growing Thorns’ to see if 24 might have been the Longstride Black Rose was referring to.
"four-footed creature's gate.' That here be Gait
"reliable way to now" Should be Know
8216512
Consider that they were not in any immediate danger from ursans at the time. It was more beneficial to use the trees as cover. The titan showing up is a very quick and unexpected event. Despite description, the time it took for the titan to be noticed and the time it attacked is very short. Think that forest scene with the female titan from AoT only faster. Titans are fast and move almost unhindered despite heavy foliage.
Also consider panic from suddenly being attacked by a pony sniper of all things. It's easy to think strategery in a comfy chair.
Well damn. Things went to shit fast.
Fun fact, Longstride can actually win the sniper battle with Twenty Four by advancing the internal clock of the PS2 by a week.
Lame joke aside, this has been an very exciting foray into the Western Barrier Lands. Learning more about Ursan culture and how they operate has been very fun. I'm somewhat curious though. How big is the Titan compared to the Coldsteel Construct? I must know for science reasons.
8222533
Think Armor Titan for the ursan versus Colossal Titan for the Cold Steel Construct.
Huh, I wonder why nopony in the Legion has ever invented these things. I can think of a few times they might have been useful.
8233601
I wonder why Richard the Lionheart didn't invent guns. I can think of a few situations during the Third Crusade where guns would have been useful.
8233755
Not sure what you mean. I am just saying I am little surprised Black Rose has this type of technology and the Legion doesn't. When did she invent theses magical walkie talkies anyway? The quote seems to imply the Thorns have had these things for a long time. I guess for some reason she never shared this technology with her beloved despite being really useful and beneficial to the Legion?
8233803
How many times should I have to hint about what it takes to create highly advanced and permanent magical devices?
Well shit.
8233755
I love all the smartasserey you've displayed in the comments over the chapters 😄
I'll give it to you, your version of the Ursan Titans as just being really damn big bears makes far more sense than Vex having them be Ursa Majors (which doesn't work for reasons that should be very obvious).
Well the Ophidites were the ones who had the most issue with Ash Frost, recreating whom (her skill anyway) was the entire point of the Longstride project so it makes sense that the Ophidites found out about it for Hassyth to exploit it now. I hope he didn't also revive Twenty Five, that would just be a dick move forcing Longstride to put down his only friend from those times.
So how the hell is it that the Legion don't have at least their own version of those communicators? Even if the range wasn't as good or they had a limited energy supply, there is no way in hell you're going to convince me the Legion wouldn't be able to make something like this before or since Black Rose's time. Even inferior versions would still be incredibly useful but we have to make Black Rose seem even more impressive I guess.
Hell the Legion already having something like this and Black Rose improving on it would be much more believable than her just making them out of the blue.
8233803
Dead ponies. Lots of them. Trust me, you don't want to mass produce any of Black Rose's innovations.