Chapter 3 - Mogu Attack
The study, with its array of souvenirs, diplomatic gifts and random knick-knacks accumulated over centuries, was blissfully noisy. Even as she kept her attention on Spike, Princess Celestia smiled, ears cocked towards the most noisy pony her study had ever hosted.
"Then Twilight left, and you told us to tell you everything!" Confetti exploded around Pinkie as she concluded her tale. She dropped to the floor, a smile stretching across her face. "And that's how the Grump stole Hearthwarming. My, what a Grump he was, until he tasted some sweet Pink Pie."
"I— pardon?" Celestia looked up from Spike with her brow furrowed.
“Pink pie! It’s made with cotton candy!” Pinkie rummaged in her saddlebag until out came a paper plate with a slice of very pink pie. “Want some?”
Celestia stared at Pinkie, but the party pony just sat there, a smile on her lips.
“...”
Behind Pinkie, Applejack gave the Princess a helpless shrug.
"...I see. Perhaps later," said Celestia, suppressing a sigh when the delicious pie vanished from sight. ‘It does sound good...now now, focus.’
The Princess returned her attention to Spike, a frown marring her expression. Her aura spread across his scales, sunlit magic seeping around his spines, delving into him. In the grip of her magic, Spike was bright in her senses, draconic magic flooding his veins with each beat of his heart. Almost indistinguishable was the violet energy that threaded through him. This she left alone in her search, slipping her probe past it.
"Uh, excuse me, but, if it's okay with you...." Fluttershy's voice drew her eyes from the dragon. Her gaze landed on Fluttershy and the mare flinched. “Would you mind if I go? I need to, uh…”
“She has to go go,” Rainbow Dash threw in, foreleg thrown over her friend’s shoulders. She snickered at the red blazing on yellow cheeks.
A smile carefully concealed, Celestia nodded. “Of course. It’s just down the hall.”
“Thank you, Princess.” Fluttershy shrugged off Rainbow’s leg and rose. She got a whole two steps before she was stopped by a call.
“Since you’re up, wanna get something for us to eat?” Dash asked, attention already diverted to a shiny axe. She moved on to the next of the endless selection of keepsakes lining the shelves. “I’m starved.”
Fluttershy’s ears drooped, her friends adding their requests before she could get a word out. The meek mare gave them all a flat look for a moment before sighing.
“Alright, if you want,” she agreed. Fluttershy slipped from the room before anypony could think to ask her to get dessert too.
Celestia watched it all with a smile, though her eyes had fallen back to Spike. Her awareness traced the flow of natural magic through him, finding nothing. Her smile became a frown, and she looked closer.
‘His sleep isn’t natural, but...where is the force causing it?’ Her frown deepened.
“Be careful,” she said absently.
Rainbow Dash paused, hoof hovering above a spiked ball of bronze and gold. Celestia didn’t say anything else, not even looking up, and Dash slowly stepped back with flushed cheeks.
Eyes narrow, Celestia sharpened her focus and drove in a pulse of hunting magic. She let possible spells slip through her mind, blind cures to risk if nothing was found, but she discarded each one after the other.
It would be a lie, to say she lost track of time. In the back of her mind the fierce energies of the Sun burned, a furious cacophony dulled by millennia of familiarity. Each minute that slipped by with Spike still asleep she recognised. The Princess sighed, her horn glowing once more.
‘Hopefully this spell will—’
A scream, a shriek, brought Celestia to her hooves before a moment had passed. The cry hung in the air, punctuated by the stamp of metal-shod hooves pounding across plush carpet. Her magic wrenched the door open before she had reached it, and the guard stumbled out of her way.
At the edge of her hearing, Celestia heard Rarity’s own cry.
“That was Fluttershy!”
*
A quiet hum filled the bathroom. Fluttershy smiled, ears raised to catch the sound as it bounced through the grandly built chamber. She let her reflected smile reassure her, and her humming grew, sounding further into the opulent reaches of the room.
The air grew humid, and without warning the sound like glass breaking shot through the room. The hum died, a strangled note squeaking from her throat as a crack rang out. Instead of a hum, she yelped, and dropped into a huddle. Quivering, Fluttershy let the darkness behind her eyelids comfort her.
‘Somepony else is in here? Oh goodness...’ Her cheeks felt like they were on fire, blazing merrily. The red crept along under the yellow, unrelenting even as she forced one eye to slowly open. “H-hello?”
One ear swiveled, twisting atop her head as it sought the sound, while the other pressed against her mane. The other eye began to open, and her head rose as the silence stretched on. Fluttershy eyed a jug, pottery cracked from mouth to bottom, that sat in ruin. Her gaze tracked from it to her hooves, and she frowned.
‘It must have fallen over,’ she decided. She sighed with shoulders sagging, and stood completely. ‘How silly of me, acting like that. Why can’t I be more like Rainbow Dash?’
Even the opulence of royalty, Fluttershy found, gave way to certain necessities. The little drawer, hidden almost too well for her to find, under the sink yielded a dustpan and brush to her searching and she took it to the mess. Humming began to fill the room again, easy work giving way to familiar habits.
Light washed over her back, turning the wall purple. Blasts of displaced air rushed over Fluttershy’s back, and she spun with an eep. The floor welcomed her as she stumbled, muscles locking up in an instant.
Stony muscles rippled, and a sound to match, a snarl that boiled from an earthen throat, slammed into her. The urge to shrink, to become so small none would ever see her, exploded through Fluttershy’s mind, and for a moment she wondered if she had shrunk.
As it turned out, Fluttershy found the fist cracking into the floor next to her was just very big. Her gaze rose, from fist to wrist, to arm to face, until she stared into the eyes of death.
It snarled, hot, stinking air blowing her mane around her
Fluttershy gave the room sound once more. A lot more sound. Such sound that it pierced stone walls, bouncing down halls until it reached celestial ears. Her mouth snapped shut, some primal instinct screaming at her to duck. She hit the floor with a yelp, the crack of plaster behind her as dust rained down on her. The shaft of its spear, taller than she was long, ripped a line across the wall above her.
Pain radiated through her skull, yanked upwards by her mane. Whimpers escaped her as she was held up, eyes closed against the sneering expression on the stony face. She smelled every breath, hot and heavy with the faintest scent of granite.
“P-please...d-don’t hurt me…” She squeaked, trembles running through her so thoroughly its grip slipped slightly. Fluttershy tried to make her wings move, trying to make them open and relieve her mane of load-bearing duties. The muscles groaned in protest, and her trembling grew every moment her body fought itself.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. It’s face was….well, anypony else would have instantly labeled it a face only a mother could love. Despite herself, Fluttershy found herself wondering what its mother would look like. It was a strange thought, hardly appropriate to a monster in the bathroom, yet it wormed its way past the frozen fear in her mind.
It grinned, lips stretching from cheek to cheek, and began to shake. It took her a moment to realise what the sound rolling from it was; laughter. It was a hard sound; deep and dark, each note rumbling out. Fluttershy didn’t need to speak its language to understand a ‘no’ when it was laughed in her face.
“Oh.”
She cried out as its arm pumped, bouncing her by her mane. Fire ran across her head as her mane threatened to pull from her skull. Fluttershy screamed again.
In answer, the door wrenched open. Armour clattered as guards flooded into the room, spears aimed at the creature. Fluttershy looked at them, and tried to say something other than pained screaming.
'They'll get hurt! Please get the Princess!' The thoughts bounced about, but none found their way to her mouth, given it was far too busy with emoting pain.
"What the— put her down and surrender, in the name of the Princesses!" Demanded a guard. He gestured with his spear, advancing a step. "How did you get in here?"
"What is it?" Another muttered. He sidled across as he came in, slowly working to flank the beast. "How did it get—look out!"
For a moment Fluttershy saw nothing, her mane pulling tighter. She felt movement through the blinding pain, and crack of splintering wood. Laughter, the monster's, filled her ears again. Trying to curl into a ball wasn't much help, she found, nor was it doing much good for the guard she saw hit the wall. He went down, remnants of his spear bouncing from his armour.
"You monster!" Screamed the other guard, lunging forward with spear lashing out and up.
Her captor's spear slashed, and this time she got to watch as it met the guard's. Finely made, if rarely used, met simple and thick. The creature grinned, and she closed her eyes as its blade tore down the haft of the pony weapon, splinters flinging into the air. A metallic clang rang from the creature's chest, bent spearhead bouncing away.
She tried to close her eyes before the spear hit him. Between the sealing veil of eyelids, Fluttershy watched the alien spear jerk and twist, a narrow slice of red running across pure white coat before the wide blade spun to present its flat. The guard staggered, ringing in his ears.
The monster grunted and swung again, one-handed blow crashing against the guard's helmet for a second time.
"S-surrender...." groaned the guard.
"Yes," agreed a voice that opened Fluttershy's eyes. "Surrender. Now."
Sunlight spilled forth, bathing the room in the glory of the summer sun. The blaze in Celestia’s eyes outstripped the glow of her magic. She filled the door, wings half-open.
“Release her.”
In a way, it did. Fluttershy felt air rushing past her, the root of her mane like daggers of pain in her head as it swung her. The pressure vanished, and her vision filled with Celestia’s startled expression.
“Gotcha!”
Her sight became a rush of blue and the sense of momentum in another direction entirely. Fluttershy pressed against Rainbow Dash, holding on even as they stopped.
“You can open your eyes now, ‘Shy.”
Rainbow Dash was quickly proven wrong. Her eyes opened, but Fluttershy jammed them shut against blinding light. A roar exploded from the creature, rattling fixtures and her nerves.
Princess Celestia didn’t shy away from the roar. Her magic swirled, a golden wind that shifted into a blast. It shot across the room and changed again. Links of immaterial metal formed and joined, only for the invader to swing his spear down. He let go, hand clearing the snapping manacles that tipped the chains by a fraction of an inch. They spun and wrapped around the spear, anchored in place.
A moment was all he’d earned. Celestia met his eyes, nailing his gaze in place for a heartbeat. Muscles tightened in a moment, and he threw himself forward with a wordless roar. Powerful muscles propelled him all of an inch before his feet flew out from under him. She watched his eyes widen, and he crashed to the ground. A second pair of manacles bound his wrists, and his struggles didn’t so much as budge them an inch from the wall.
“Cease your struggling, intruder,” she commanded. Celestia glanced at her little ponies, and waved a hoof at them. “Please, girls, stand aside for the guards. Is this one of the creatures you encountered?”
“Eh? Oh, sorry,” Applejack chuckled, stepping out of the door. She looked back at the invader, wincing as it snarled. “It sure is! Did they follow us?”
“Oh, oh, my ear was feeling itchy and my left back hoof was twitchy! Maybe that means the creepy rocky monsters are around,” suggested Pinkie. She popped up over Celestia’s shoulder, giving the creature a glare. “Or maybe it means they’re being mean and scaring poor Fluttershy! Come here Fluttershy, let Auntie Pinkie hug you to happiness!”
“Uh...I’m fine, thank you.” Slipping out of Dash’s hold, Fluttershy’s side pressed against the wall, each step taking her closer to the door. She closed her eyes, another roar rattling her skull.
Foreign words, thick with emotion, exploded from the intruder’s mouth. The chains creaked, magical material straining with each thrash. The links bounced when he relaxed, then snapped taut as he tried to wrench himself free.
“Those chains are magic, I'm afraid you cannot break them,” explained Celestia. She stepped closer, keeping her eyes on the creature and well out of reach. “I ask you, explain yourself. Please. I have no wish to hurt you—”
“Die!” Spittle rained on the floor, flecks of saliva erupting from thick toothed maw. The chains rattled and groaned, thick muscles jerking in constant strain despite his utter lack of progress. "Die!"
Celestia sighed, the unseen wind in her mane dying for a moment. Her gaze left him, and the colours swirled like an ephemeral curtain between them. "I see."
The voices of her little ponies filled her ears, and she let it wash over her as only a thousand years of practice would allow. She held up a hoof, horn glowing.
“Girls, please take Fluttershy to my study. Wait.” Sunlit magic swept across the floor, and shrapnel gathered. Limp forms rose, and the noise pollution faded, as the guards were carried across the room. “Doctor Care should be two floors down. Go down to her, and tell her to prepare for more patients.”
“More?” asked Applejack, jerking her glare from the monster. Light reflected from her eyes, air rushing in as the guards faded in an instant of light. “Oh, uh, right. Ya sure you don’t want us to help out? These things musta followed us back!”
Shaking her head, the Princess fought to keep from looking at their captive again. His lips still moved, screaming the same word without a sound leaving them, and she refused to look in his eyes again.
‘Such hate…’
“You are helping, because once you have done that, I’m sure Twilight will have found you,” said the Princess with a smile. She added, a hint of amusement in her voice, “the alarm will wake her.”
“Alarms? Like, a super quiet dog whistle alarm?” Pinkie cocked her head to the side, rubbing a hoof in her. “I can’t hear-”
“WHAT FOAL DARES ASSAULT OUR PALACE STAFF? FACE ROYAL JUSTICE!”
*
Zhiyuan grunted, pain shooting through his shoulder. He stayed there only a moment, raising one hand to the wall. Heavy eyelids blinked rapidly until the throbbing lights faded, and the world was right side up again. He let a smile splay his thick lips wide, a chuckle held at bay only by his willpower as he watched the brutes slowly clamber from the ground.
His companions’ health faded from his mind as he looked around. Everything was small. Too small. Zhiyuan spat, and pushed away from the wall.
‘
‘Even the stone is soft,’ he thought, a sneer marking his observations as his steps took him from the courtyard they had been dropped in.’Soft as the livestock.’
The sound of laughter behind him drew his attention back to them. A splash of bright green was the first sign of the livestock they had found, and its scream of surprise and pain entertained him briefly. One of the warriors laughed again, pulling his prey up and turning to the other with a look of challenge.
“Cease your games,” Zhiyuan snarled. A simple effort of will lit his staff, shifting shades of purple-black burning between the blades, and he pointed it at one. “You. Go west. You. Go East. If you must, at least play with the livestock somewhere else.”
The soulbinder turned and strode into the building before they could reply. They couldn’t see the smile on his face, or the fear in his eyes, as he left them with orders. Zhiyuan refused to let them see his own tentative grasp on his power.
‘That’s right, I’m his favourite,’ thought the mogu. ‘I’m in charge, and you both know it!’
“Leave it,” he heard one grumble to the other. “I want to kill some of the livestock. Hand it over.”
“We wish, we—” began the other. His wishes were lost to time as another sound overwhelmed his voice.
“WHAT FOAL DARES ASSAULT OUR PALACE STAFF?”
Zhiyuan felt the stone against his back before he was conscious of moving. He stared at the wall, finding his mouth suddenly dry as the Voice screamed incomprehensible words. The grind of each syllable rang in his ears like mortars had been rammed in them.
“What,” he hissed, unsure why he was being quiet, “Was that?”
“FACE ROYAL JUSTICE!”
Bravery was the domain of warriors, but Zhiyuan found enough to ease off the wall. He peered from under the arch, and found a perplexing sight. Stony wrinkles formed, and his jaw went limp.
It was livestock, like the others. Yet, it was different. It stood head and shoulders above the others of its kind, and its horn burned with midnight blue energy.
‘Magic.’
It could be little else, lest he concede the livestock had some other weapon capable of seizing a full grown mogu warrior and ramming them against the wall with enough force to leave an impression. The midnight aura pressed against mogu muscle, and it was winning.
‘The stone is just...soft.’ It sounded weak, even to him.
“En garde!” That blue aura vanished, sunlight returning as darkness fled for all of a moment. The clash of steel on steel rang through the courtyard, and Zhiyuan shook himself back to his sense. The dark livestock was grinning, as if dueling with adrenaline and rage as surely as it dueled the other warrior with the first stolen spear had been all it was expecting and more.
Feeling returned in time for his jaw to clench, and he held his staff tight as if it might be stolen too. The soulbinder trembled.
'Livestock, using mogu weaponcraft...' Zhiyuan spat, then opened his maw in a sneer. 'It will fail-'
"Ha! Your swings are slow and clumsy, strange, fat intruder!" The livestock's words were so much gibberish, but Zhiyuan heard the confidence in it as easily as the warrior. He watched the brute grind his teeth. A warning on his lips, Zhiyuan hesitated,
The moment he had passed. With a snarl the warrior leapt, arm extending with spear in hand. His voice rose in triumph, blade scraping against stolen spear haft.
The livestock, however, lacked a very simple limitation. Zhiyuan saw it, and a curse rose to the tip of his tongue. Magic gripping its spear, it fell back. What the spear did not do was follow it, grasped in whatever appendage such a creature might use. It’s wielder retreated, skidding across grass, and the spear advanced. Metal struck stone. Above the shriek of clashing forces and the mogu warrior roared in pain.
Stepping back, Zhiyuan spent a moment considering the future, the livestock, and how one was unlikely to continue should the other intercede. The hall, small and cramped as it was, looked all the more inviting by the second.
'He can deal with the livestock,' Zhiyuan decided. The hall needed investigation. Clearly. ‘I’ll let him distract them. It’s his job, he should be able to do it.’
The mogu fled, the sounds of battle following him.
*
“Luna has such a delicate, gentle touch in the Dream,” said Celestia, smiling at her little ponies. “She likes to be a bit more blunt when dealing with physical issues. I’m sure she can deal with any of these creatures in the palace gardens. For now, I’m concerned with any of the others who are inside the palace itself.”
She let them share mixed looks before they disappeared, popping away in a room clearing burst of light. The luminance leveled out, only to darken, normal light fading as the Princess frowned. She said nothing, simply looking the room over. The intruder’s soundless threats ran on, spittle dripping from his maw the closer she stepped.
“I wonder what you are,” she murmured. The flow of her mane, dancing in an endless wind felt only by her, died slowly until she felt it resting on her neck. “And I pray I am wrong.”
*
The crunch of crisp, lively green grass beneath his treads rang like alarm bells in Zhiyuan's mind. The door closed behind him, another in the endless halls within the palace. He hadn’t even trashed it. The mogu shook his head, a faint sigh on his lips as the sounds of panic faded away. The palace still rang with livestock shouting and, if he strained, one or two bellows of his kin. He spat.
‘Let them do their job. I can find something of use.’ Zhiyuan stepped further into the garden, glancing back at the door as if it might burst open at any second. ‘I’m no mere distraction.’
He cast his gaze across the gardens, tightening his already taunt knuckles. No foe leapt out. The dark pony didn't reveal herself. He swatted a bush, staff ripping through hedges. Each moment he kept searching, hunting with every step he took for the lone animal that would announce his presence. Tension built, and his grip on his staff grew tighter. Yet, the deeper he went, the more apparent it became.
He was safe.
A sculpture dias’ provided somewhere to sit, the mogu growling and snapping off the stone pony’s horn that poked his back. All around him was the stench of lovingly cared for plant life, dotted with statues and decorations. The mogu turned his head from one to the other, leaning back until his weight pressed against the statue again. Something snapped.
Pinpricks of purple light lit upon his fingertips. They danced and flickered, echoes left in their wake that joined into a chaotic mess of energies. Crude lines joined the points as the soulbinder whispered. One hand rose to his face, each whisper shaping the magic as much as the gentle gestures he carved before his eyes. First one, and the world became a place of mists that seeped from every direction. Life and magic, forces arcane and natural, slithered around him. The second, and mists became auras, Countless shades filled his vision, and he clutched at his face for a moment.
“Grah.” Zhiyuan shook his head. ‘Focus.’
Rising, the mogu let the colours flood in. His eyes ached for every moment the spell spun its way through them. His staff stabbed the earth, digging in as he took his tentative steps towards another statue, No, not just a statue. A horrible mishmash of creatures.
His eyes snapped to it, and he recoiled. Madness in sculpture. The moment he laid eyes on it, something rose within Zhiyuan. A curse exploded from his mouth, hand trembling with suppressed emotion. The mogu marched towards it as his stomach revolted, but he pressed on. Grass crunched, and the distant noise of violence and alarm filtered through the wind rushing through countless leaves, vines and flowers. All these things filled his senses, yet none dominated them the way the statue did. None screamed in his mind like this.
He tasted the air, gasping in a chuckle at the scent the statue carried.
Power.
That’s what it was. Power skinned in stone. He felt it twisting below the surface, primal energies he barely understood. What need had he to understand more than that, though, when the power was so obvious? Zhiyuan was a mogu, and any true mogu knew that unclaimed power demanded only one reaction; claim it.
‘All that power. I should take some of it. All I need is part of it.’
Zhiyuan nodded, stepping up. ‘All that power,’ he thought, ‘I should take it. I only need a piece for now.’
The horn, ridged and curved, felt like simple stone beneath his hand. His fingers curled around it, nestling between irregular bumps as they squeezed into a fist. The mogu jerked; a grunt of surprise left his lips when the horn failed to snap off. Brow furrowed, Zhiyuan tried again. His staff hit the ground, and he seized the horn in both hands. Muscles bunched and tensed, then burned, yet the horn remained as it was.
“I will not,” spat the soulbinder, dark light blossoming in his eyes, “lose to a statue.”
‘Go on, pull harder,’ wheedled a voice.
‘Go on, pull harder,’ Zhiyuan thought, and suited actions to words. He groaned, but the pain in his arms faded away. The power was so close, within reach, yet still simple stonework defied. Stone denied him with each tug.
‘Keep going,’ came the whisper. ‘Nearly there.’
“Nearly...there…” he huffed. He could feel it; he was close. Something awaited him, a reward to dwarf a warlord’s randsome. “Rrgh. Break! Break!”
‘One more! Just one itty bitty more tug and— yes!’
Zhiyuan fell back, a brief cry of shock silenced as he fought not to trip onto his backside, stumbling until he hit another statue. Gravel crunched under foot, and a stone wing snapped off. It was ignored; what care had he for the livestock’s ornaments? The horn was cradled in his hand, a smooth break across the base. His face split in an grin, holding it up to admire.
For a moment, he was sure he heard someone laughing.
Lumbering to his feet, Zhiyuan cast a glare around the garden. The horn went into a pouch, and he took a moment to tie the mouth shut tight. Kneeling, he reclaimed his staff from the ground. For a moment, the mogu looked down at it. He glanced at the statue, expression shifting, until at last the soulbinder shook his head.
‘Oops. Just your imagination, big guy.’
Surely, he decided, it had just been his imagination.
*
Normal services were, to put it lightly, disrupted when the invaders appeared. They appeared across the palace. Green-purple flames burnt the air, cutting a wound in reality for all of a moment before the void was filled with stone-skinned monsters. Wide, ugly faces carved by a sculptor obsessed with symmetry gave broad snarls and narrow sneers. High noted shrieks bounced through labyrinthine corridors, not quite covering the words roared in some alien tongue.
In the kitchens, cooks scrambled away as fruit went flying. Kitchens were rarely a place of violence, save perhaps during exceptionally stressful services, so it was hard for them to prepare for a violent invasion. Shoulders that were too broad slammed into cabinets. Legs too tall crashed pots and pans in a cacophony from benches. A barrel shattered, spilling wine in an alcoholic tide that sloshed over the creature’s feet. It’s heavy blade fell with reckless abandon and mocking glee across everything in its sight. Cloves of garlic and spice racks fell to into the mess, rattling down as it chased the chefs from their domain.
The menagerie became… well, a menagerie, but a significantly less organised one. Cage doors buckled under mighty blows. A roar, unlike any heard within the royal collection set avian lungs to their own chorus, and howls to match from a dozen other species. The scamper of tiny feet was lost beneath the bellow of rage and screams of fear, the clip-clop of fleeing ponies galloping from a creature none had been trained to deal with.
The heart of the Royal Guard gave out, falling back, blockading the exits.
All across the palace, the invaders thundered into reality and lay waste to their surroundings. The alarm went up, and chaos descended upon the once placid castle.
The study was quiet. Nothing moving. Nothing disturbed the peace left in the Princess’s personal domain, until a flicker of green danced above the desk. One flicker became two; they danced, all in an instant joining to a form a larger third that curled and grew in less than the time it took to blink. It wasn’t meant to blink, anyway.
The Eye of Kilrogg was not made to blink. It could only see. See it did; its slit flittered across the flickering emerald sphere. It bounced as if on a wind that touched nothing else, a gentle caress from the unseen carrying it from end to end.
In the shine of polished bronze, the Eye snapped into focus.
“Yes,” cooed the voice in Illidan’s ear. It twitched, and he scowled with each word murmured to him. “That’s it. Take me there.”
“That’s what you need?” demanded Illidan. His expression grew feral, and Twilight’s face became an alien mask upon him as her stolen hoof pressed to her throat.
“Take me there,” Quanti repeated.
Heavy weight pressed upon the demon hunter. Her spine screamed at him, and her neck buckled against his demands. Thought and resolve lost to gravity and simple mass. He held back a grunt, rough stone fingers sending sparks of pain through his scalp.
“Now.”
‘I’m going to kill you,’ Illidan promised. The floor beneath him softened, stone replaced by carpet. He pulled his head away with a jerk and a snarl, and promised himself again: ‘And you’ll never see it coming.’
He glared through Twilight’s eyes, muzzle scrunched and eyes alight, until a whisper of her memories drew his gaze from the mogu lord. Celestia’s study was colder, somehow, than Twilight’s last visit here. Empty, as if it had become a place lost without the mare in charge dwelling within its hallowed confines. It took an effort of will not to smirk, and it was an effort Illidan decided not to bother with. He looked across the shelves and swept the tat and litter away.
“Perfect.” Quanti held up his prize, a bronze cog dwarfed by his hand. “I have what I came for. Take us from here.”
Illidan dropped a book into Twilight’s saddlebag without looking. “In a minute.”
The mogu’s brow drew together. “I’m sorry,” he began, and he almost sounded sincere. “What did you say to me, livestock?”
“I told you,” answered Illidan, just as sincere, “wait a minute. It’s not that hard. You just count to thirty twice.”
He didn’t need to be looking to feel the reaction. It was not altogether unexpected; Illidan simply found himself not caring. It was hard to fake the politeness in place of respect, even in the face of animal frenzy.
“What did you just say to me?” Quanti crossed the room in two strides. The shadow of his fist fell across the pony. “You forget yourself, beast.”
It was odd, mused Illidan, how this body worked. The odd-twitch of an ear moving so far, twisting towards the mogu, was like nothing of his own body. He watched books pass him by, leaning in to scan the titles.
“You’re blocking my light,” he said.
The shadow hovered there, unmoving. A smirk grew upon his muzzle.
Quanti’s rancid breath hissed out, and he growled, “I have what I want.”
Illidan pulled the flaps of the saddlebags shut, turning his head to glance across a row of souvenirs. “I could cast myself from this place. I could leave you behind to face the masters of this palace.”
“Hmph.” Quanti snorted. “This serves us nothing. Our alliance remains as it is.”
Green light flashed, a fountain of sawdust spewing as the desk of fine oak collapsed in on itself. The fel light in Illidan’s eyes shone like a torch, it’s beam focused on the mogu lord. Nothing moved, and for a moment he watched the emotions in the mogu’s eyes change.
‘I missed this.’
“Then be silent.”
Illidan turned, a grunt slipping from his lips as he felt the weight of the saddlebags settle. His glare turned to them, and he scowled.
“Let’s go. The less time I spend in this beast of burden, the better.” His horn burned with fel-green and sparks of magenta. The elf-in-pony smirked again as the mogu restrained a flinch. “The fruits of my plan are—”
A creak whined through the room. Their eyes snapped to the door in time to see the plume of a helm poke in.
“I’m telling you, I heard some...thing…” The guard blinked, expression going slack.
Shan Quanti was, in Illidan’s mind, many things. He was not, however, slow to react. Half a desk was airborne even as the guard began to shout, a snarl on the invader’s lips as he released it in a hail of papers and stationery.
Momentum and weight fought a wave of orange magic. Magic won. Quanti had all of an instant to watch the desk hover before it retraced its path. Thick oak, worn away only by two centuries of royal paperwork, crashed against the noble mogu. Plane Cut’s masterpiece, presented on the eve of the Summer Sun Presentation, exploded across the room, stone-bound muscle propelling fragments away.
‘Why,’ wondered Illidan, oak shrapnel bouncing from the fel glow that swathed him, ‘Do I know who made that?’
The glow focused, a idle effort of will gathering it around his horn.
“Lady Sparkle, get away from it!” yelled the guard. The door pushed open around him as he advanced, spear drawing alongside him. “We’ll protect you.”
Illidan snorted. “I highly doubt that,” he sneered with a glower. “Fool.”
Guard, door and the hallway behind him vanished in an wave of toxic green. The study smouldered quietly, the thieves gone.
*
Applejack cocked an ear, and looked at the pleasantly warm coloured ceiling. It was rather soothing, though she was somewhat suspicious of the deliberate nature of it. She pushed her hoof down, a squeak rising in response.
“Anypony else hear that?” she asked, glancing around.
“Which sound do you mean, darling? The alarms, the sound of guards running hither and thither, or Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked. She glanced down one hall, frowning. “I saw some guards run in that direction. Perhaps we should avoid that direction, yes?”
“That way!” Rainbow Dash pointed, and squirmed, tugging at her tail. It went tight, but her colourful strands didn’t budge from the hoof pressing down on them. “Let go already!”
“So you can fly off on your own? No chance, sugarcube,” said Applejack. She shook her head. “We work out which way to get, then we go together. Got it?”
“Please, Rainbow Dash, we need to stay together. What if you ran into one of them?” Fluttershy shuddered, voice shaking. “You could get hurt.”
Dash snorted. “The only one hurt would be them,” she spat.
“But what about us?” Pink hooves found their way to Rainbow’s shoulders, and the pegasus was suddenly pulled and pushed in frantic shakes. “What’ll we do without you, Dashie?”
“Pinkie!” Dash brought her hoof up and pushed, sending Pinkie sliding back. She turned her mane into even more of a mess with a few shakes of her head. “You’ll be fine. Twilight probably needs help.”
“You mean Twilight and her magic that made them run away from her? That Twilight?” Pinkie pointed out.
Dash’s jaw worked silently for a moment. “...okay, point, but….oh, alright! I’ll stay and protect you, since you guys need me more than Twilight.”
“How gracious of ya,” drawled Applejack, sharing an eye roll with Rarity. She pointed down the hall. “Now come on, we gotta check out what’s going on, together.”
“Aww yeah! Ready or not, you big rocky freaks, here come the Elements of Harmony!”
“Landsake, Dash, slow down!”
*
“Ah, Zhiyuan, just in time.”
It was never safe when Quanti wore such a smile, the soulbinder had long since learned. He dropped to his knees, fighting the breath that threatened to remain beyond his labouring lungs’ grasp.
“My...lord…” He gasped.
“I do hope you found something of value, soulbinder. Our ally may have achieved his aim, but I want something to show for this.” Quanti held out his hand, and his smile fell away. A cold lump of fear found its way into Zhiyuan’s throat. “Well? Take it.”
A heartbeat passed, and Zhiyuan’s eyes found the stick of stone nestled within his master’s hands. ‘I’m safe. I still have time.’ He bit back a sigh, and reached for it. “Shall I activate it now, master?”
“No,” answered a voice, and both mogu found themselves glaring at the livestock next to them. Illidan’s expression existed in a near-perpetual scowl, Zhiyuan had noted, and whatever success he had found hadn’t changed that.
“Are you ordering one of my minions, Illidan?” Rage filled his master’s eyes, and Zhiyuan wished he had mastered some art that would take him from this place.
‘Be quiet. Don’t provoke him,’ he thought, willing the sentiments to carry to their erstwhile ally.
Perhaps he had succeeded in some way. Illidan snorted and looked away. “I meant,” he snapped, “That if you do it now, we’ll be that much more noticeable. As it is, we shall be found soon as it is without your soldiers leaving them be.”
“There, sister!”
The cry drew Zhiyuan’s gaze up. Every word was alien, but the voice… he knew he had heard that voice. His grip on his staff tightened, and he took step back as he beheld the dark one in the skies above.
“We’ve been discovered,” hissed Illidan. Fel-light gathered upon his horn. “We need to go.”
Shan Quanti narrowed his eyes, but the look he gave the soulbinder lacked the venom Illidan earned. He nodded. “Do it.”
Zhiyua closed his fingers around the stone. His lips tingled as they formed words. Within the confines of his fingers, a violet rune came to life. Another followed, and then a third. The fourth word brought a wave of nausea across him. Pain raced through him as the runes became a sickly green. It was a pleasure to tighten his hold. The stone cracked under the pressure, but the sound was lost. Fire leapt past them. Zhiyuan raised his hand to cover his head, a snarl on his lips.
“Release my student!” A sun burned before them, and all he could see within it was the face of a war-god glaring at them.
*
One Princess above, another below. Celestia swept through the gardens. Already she’s left half a dozen invaders in her wake, bound by magic. “Where—”
Branches and twigs scythed across her face, wall of hedge disintegrating into a leafy spray. The warcry of the invaders assaulted her ears in the brief span of seconds before her hoof reached its face. A heavy tremor ran through her leg, and the ground shook beneath her.
“How many of you are there?” She muttered, frowning as she conjured manacles. “How did you get into the castle?”
It snarled at her, throwing up dirt and grass with each thrash. It’s expression vanished beneath the clinking armour of her guards as they swarmed it, very real chains in their hooves.
“Take it to the others, and be careful,” she instructed. Already she was walking away. “I must find—”
“There, sister!” Luna pointed. Her eyes widened. “They have Twilight Sparkle!”
Celestia felt something in her chest snap. It took a moment for her to realise she was moving, and another to see the looming of ornamental bushes and hedges that barred her path. To go over, and lose a scant second going from galloping to flying, was the first thought she had.
Instead, she let the fire that burned within her show itself.
Prized gardens and tenderly cared for shrubbery dissolved in a torrent of fire. Green growth hissed and smoked for all of an instant before ash took its place, and a further instant removed even the ash.
Celestia emerged, framed by charred hedges. Grass crumbled beneath her, ash spraying from each step and dirt cracking as sudden heat flash-fried it into glass.
“Release my student!” snarled the Princess. She wasn’t sure when, but her wings were spread wide, and her power fought her control. Twilight was too close. She had to remember that. There was too much risk of hurting Twilight in the rush to save her. “I will not allow her to be foalnapped by you, invaders!”
The furious light of her might had turned the garden bright, burning more fiercely than the sun above as she stalked forward. Her eyes trained upon the pair of invaders, tracing their forms, and in her mind she saw instead a pair of blackened, charred silhouettes.
Twilight cocked her head to the side, her frown melting slowly.“‘Foalnap?’” she echoed. “No one is being kidnapped.”
“What? Twilight, what’s wrong with you? Please, get away from them,” Celestia ordered. Her power strained at her will, a glow in her eyes that bespoke the racing of her heart and the faint whisper that told her something was wrong here, more than she knew.
“There’s nothing wrong with me. It was just so much effort, inviting my mogu friends into the palace.” A smile graced Twilight’s face, and she took a step away from her captors.
“Twilight, I don’t understand…” Celestia cast about for something to explain this. The solar glow dimmed as she raised a hoof. “Please, come over here, quickly!”
A sneer twisted Twilight’s features. “My friends here have invited me to visit their world. I’m afraid I’ll be taking my leave of you…” She chuckled softly. “Looks like you’ve lost another student.”
Something had snapped, when Celestia heard the invaders had Twilight. This time, something broke.
Twilight let out a triumphant cry. “Fool!” she howled in a voice barely her own. Fel-green swamped her, strings of magic that danced around the unicorn. They touched upon the mogu, curling over them.
The door burst open, spilling ponies into the courtyard. “Twilight!” cried five voices at once.
Luna’s cry fell from above, a bolt of shimmering midnight drawn from the heavens. “Halt!”
Twilight Sparkle, protege and friend, met Celestia’s eyes, and then she was gone. Flames of blue filled Celestia’s vision, freezing fire searing through the grass. Her stare took in the emptiness, until it caught something within the flames.
“Damnation!” Luna hit the ground with a thud and a snort. From within the dark fire, a single column of magic returned to her, cold flames fading from the haft of an invader’s spear. “I was too late! What happened?”
Celestia drew in a breath. It was inexplicably difficult. She wondered why. “Twilight...Twilight teleported them.”
“Indeed, I saw. ‘Tis a great shame!” Luna glanced to the side, eyes flicking away. “A shame which is mine. Had I been but a moment swifter, she may not have been forced to act.”
‘Forced?’ “Forced?” Celestia forced the word out. A weight she hadn’t noticed fell from her shoulders. ‘Yes. Forced. They must be doing something to control her.’
It was a reasonable thought.
It was also a comforting lie.
Luna nodded, a hoof pressed to her chin as she gazed upon the group. “Surely those foul creatures have some hold over your student. I had hoped my warning would allow her to delay, that I might strike them, but I was wrong. I am sorry, sister.”
“Sorry?” Shaking her head, Celestia trained her sight on the cold blue blaze. “There is nothing to apologise for. You did the best you could. We...we all did.”
“We were the ones who were too slow!” spat Rainbow Dash. She scowled, forelegs folded over her chest. “Argh, if we’d come this way sooner, we could have helped! All we did was stand there and those monsters foalnapped Twilight!”
Celestia looked back in time to see her sister nod at the pegasus, yet...Luna’s eyes met hers, and they narrowed. The Princess of the Moon’s face was but a mask, and not a hint of her emotions presented themselves to Celestia. Of her own expression, she was not sure she could say the same.
“I know,” said Celestia, breaking away to smile at Twilight’s friends. She knew their names. She knew their histories. The only thing that mattered right now, however, was that they were Twilight’s friends. “I know you did all you could. None of you have any reason to reprimand yourself.”
“Indeed,” weighed in Luna. Her gaze hadn’t budged an inch. “Nopony here should feel guilt. We must move forward, and find Twilight Sparkle.”
Move forward. She grasped the words, and the sentiment behind them. ‘Luna could be right. She must be right, and the only way to find out is to follow Twilight!’ Celestia’s long stride carried her easily to the flames. “I will find her,” she promised. “Luna, if you would please—”
Cheeks puffing up, Luna blew on the flames and they dwindled in an instant.
“Thank you. Please, everypony, gather around me.” Her horn glowed, the shimmer of her magic. The world opened before her, a creeping awareness of the gentle tides of Equestria’s magic. There was no challenge in finding the touch of Twilight’s magic. How could she not? It was as familiar as her own. More familiar, in many ways, than her sister’s. She breathed in, and the taste of Twilight’s magic filled her senses.
“Pinkie, stop pushing,” said Rainbow Dash, pushing Pinkie back. Or attempting to. The actual result was that Dash found herself wedged between Celestia and Pinkie as her friend strove to pull them all in close to the Princess.
“She said to get around her, Dashie! When Pinkie Pie gets around somepony, she does it with a hug!”
“I’ve got….” Celestia’s voice trailed away. She frowned. ‘What? This...no…’ “Something is wrong. Twilight’s magic is wrong.”.
Bile rose in her throat. It wasn’t just incorrect. It was wrong in every sense of the word. Something perverse that made her cringe laced the aura.
“Your Highness?” Rarity asked, frowning. “How can Twilight’s magic be ‘wrong’? I don’t understand.”
Shaking her head, Celestia dismissed it. “We will deal with it when we find Twilight,” she said, taking a breath. “That comes first. Are you ready? I’m not sure where this will take us, so everypony, be careful.”
The flap of wings announced Luna’s flight, the dark alicorn hovering before her. “You must take care yourself as well. While you find your student I shall organise the palace, and prepare against another attack.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at her sister, another burden falling from her shoulders. Celestia looked down at the smaller ponies. “Are you ready?”
“We’re ready, Princess. We won’t let them hurt Twilight,” said Fluttershy. She pushed herself up, standing, for once, straight and firm.
“Princess Luna, please do remember to check on Spike. We left him with the doctor, and he still hasn’t woken up. We can hardly return with Twilight only to find something has happened to Spike, can we?” Rarity asked, and beamed when Luna nodded to her. “Oh, thank you so very much.”
Rainbow Dash gave Pinkie another push, and puffed out her chest. “I was born ready! Let’s go kick some evil monsters in the face!”
“That’s a yes, yer highness” added Applejack.
“Then prepare yourself. I don’t know what awaits us...but we will get Twilight back.” Her eyes darkened, and the gentle wind that flowed through her mane began to grow. Flickering ethereal strands snapped in invisible hurricane winds. The light within became without. She grasped the wrongness within Twilight’s magic, and followed.
*
Magic was a subtle art, and in hooves as old as hers, Celestia had done works in her time that few mortals could match in skill or finesse. She had woven mystical energies into castings delicate and fine, able to slip past wards of impossible complexity and density. At times, she had surprised herself with, quite simply, how easily a gentle spell could do so much when lesser mages simply brute forced their way to success.
This was not one of those times.
Solar light marked their arrival. Rough stone greeted her, and sparks rained down upon the party of ponies around her. Pure white feathers reflected her light, shining avian limbs spreading wide. The cries of her ponies reached her ears as sparks rained down, crude runes guttering and spitting around them.
“Break the runes!” She ordered, horn already lit. A lance of magic rushed out to bisect one, and then another, a red-hot wound carving across the wall.
“Hi...ya!” The crack of a striking hoof brought another rune down. A rainbow curved from one to the next, bouncing from each with vicious cracks.
“Applejack, behind you!” Pinkie flung her hoof out, a disc spinning through the air. It skimmed across the farmer’s hat, a grunt escaping Applejack as she hit the ground. Behind her, a creamy explosion scattered delicious pie filling as the rune beneath it smoked and spluttered weakly.
One by one, the runes fell silent and still, until only Celestia’s magic lit the cave. She drew her wings in, and strode forward.
“Princess, where are we? Those things coulda fried us all!” Applejack said. She patted down her hat and settled it back on her head. “Never seen anything like it in my life.”
Celestia nodded, and said, “Runes, though rather crude. Makeshift, almost….as for our location, I believe underground.”
“Yes, darling, the fact we’re in a cave rather gave it away, don’t you think?” volunteered Rarity. Her aura delicately adjusted Applejack’s hat. Applejack’s hoof forcefully put it back the way it had been.
“Pfft, yeah, well no stupid ‘runes’ are gonna stop me. Where’s Twilight at?” Rainbow Dash flitted beneath the rents in the walls.Her hoof brushed across jagged stone, tracing the cave’s uneven walls.
“Some of these look big enough to go somewhere.” Bouncing to one, Pinkie stuck her head into it. “I wonder where they go!”
“Just a moment, and I shall know. They will not hide Twilight from me.” It was the work of a moment for Celestia to peer into the ether once more. It was, she knew, less a real plane of reality and more simply her senses attuning to the ever-present tides of magic.
The violet haze hung before her, filling her vision the moment she arrived. It stank of unknown corruption, setting the contents of her stomach churning.
“Twilight is nearby!” Celestia hurried the moment she felt the ground beneath her hooves. Stale air brushed her wings, unfurling to loom at her side. Dirt beneath her hoof crunched and hissed, in the instant she touched it, and cracked. A print of glassified, flash hardened minerals, was left in her wake, and then another, and another, one for every step she took.
"Princess!" A voice cried out, but each step carried her further and faster ahead. Her hooves trod across stone, uneven rock flattening beneath her. Light bloomed before her, seeping past jagged edges and broken stone. A rent in a wall, a tremendous wound ripped into the buried chamber.
'The Makers...' Her breath rushed from her. Gears and pistons of bronze metal, banded in copper and iron, glistened in torch light. 'An Engine of the Makers!'
The voices that struggled to reach her, the hint of wings flapping and hooves racing, faded as she picked up speed. There was no time to wait. Celestia advanced. The clip of her stride changed, new noise bouncing from walls cut from the earth. A crack told her, as her hoof came down, of the tiles replacing unhewn rock.
“Twilight!” Her voice carried down corridors of ancient stone. Crude torches lit the passages, flickering in the wind of her passing, flames dancing against makeshift bowls of clay. She passed from the light of one, and her horn glimmered. The Princess raced through each pool of light, and the light followed her. Fire died, a glow suffusing her.
A corner yielded roars of triumph. Celestia saw the invaders, their eyes alight with glee, before the flames of their torches was stolen. The glimmers of their light caught on descending steel. Generous as she was, Celestia spent but an instant returning them their light, and more. She stepped aside, agile as a cat, and their strikes sunk past her, a pair of brilliant scarlet scars in the darkness. A cry rose from one, and his blade clattered to the floor as it hissed and popped. The other found less luck in his fate; molten metal dripping between fingers and hands.
Celestia simply slammed them aside, arcane glow throwing them against the walls and pressed on. The light of her magic surrounded her, growing to push back the darkness until it struck the gate they had been guarding.
‘Twilight…’
Her horn blazed.
‘I’m coming!’
A hot lance struck out, a single point of impact where the doors met. For but a moment, there was nothing. For but a moment, the door seemed to hold. Only a hint of red, the glow of blocked light, gave away her work. Celestia took a step forward.
The door gave way. From within, solar heat ate away at Titanic craftsmanship, becoming a shell of stone sloughing in molten rivers past her as her magic brushed it away. Cooling flakes rained upon the room within, and Celestia stepped through.
There was so much she should have cared about. So much she would have. The heart of an ancient engine, awake with eldritch energies. A chamber lined with engravings, images of worlds wrought by hands of fire and metal.
All Celestia cared about was the shimmering haze within an alcove, and the pony stepping into it.
Blurs ate at Twilight, a fuzzy shape in the glow. The edge between pony and portal fuzzed and shifted, a violet shadow in the light.
“Twilight! Please, come back!” Hooves pounding, Celestia crossed the room at breakneck. A crack was all the warning she got before a stroke of lightning coursed through the air, arcing before her and through her. “Ah!”
It was a mere buzz, a moment of distraction to blast the trap rune to dust. She swung back towards the portal, and froze.
The violet blur of a pony had turned. Green flames burned within the silhouette, twin lights where Twilight’s eyes should be. In perfect Equestrian, a voice growled from the portal.
“Twilight Sparkle is no more.”
Wind blasted from the portal, a buffet of arcane tides scattering dirt and dust as blinding as the growing light.
“There is only Illidan!”
The portal flared.
“No!” screamed Celestia. Her mane whipped about her in the wind, and she thrust her horn forward. “Twilight!”
The crescendo rose, and fell, an instant of gut-wrenching nausea in the hands of Titanic engines. Darkness came, the glow of Celestia’s horn a feeble torch in the gloom. Dead machines and cracked gears sat in silence. Where life had rushed through their steel veins in crackling magic, the machine was empty and quiet as it came to rest, stillness in the empty metal engine. Celestia was alone.
And Twilight was gone.
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Illidan was insane at the end of his Life. but befor that he was more missunderstod than evil and i feel that you portray Illidan as evil. am i wrong or Wright and if i am Wright is their more to this than meets the Eye?
6469749 Define "evil". Illidan has always been willing to work with unsavory types if he felt the goal was worth it. (Like working for Kil'Jayden to kill the Lich King).
6469866 he didnt really work with Kil'jaeden, more like kil'jaeden gave him information about something that would destroy the World and he Went to stop it.
and by the looks of it he worked with the mogu so he could get to Azaroth, but i just feel that he is powerful enough to not need help to get their.
6469749 It just `right` no w.
BUT beyond that he does have a point that for a while Illidan was just sort of a gray area, neutral for a while as he did do good acts but also things that were quite bad too. Of course I don't play WoW so I have no idea what they did to him plot wise after the Warcraft III game and its expansion. Still guessing yours is evil to better fit the AU or they made him Evil somewhere down the line. Correct me if I am wrong though.
As for the chapter...eh it still early in the story so I'm not to invested in it yet. So chapter doesn't suck, but it isn't one I would talk to my friends about. Still keep churning them out, sometimes it takes a few chapters for a story to pick up more speed.
6469907 ho i'm not saying it's wrong how the author is portraying Illidan. at the end of his Life Illidan had lost most of his marbles so how hes portrayed is not wrong. its just that i feel that having twiligts spirit inside him would melow him out or at least make him more sane.
6469893 Honestly, I would advise you to watch the WC III cutscenes again. It makes it pretty clear that was just falt-out working for KJ. That whole trip to Outland? Illidan flat out states that's to hide from KJ after having failed him, at the end of the blood elf campaign in TFT.
And sure, he no longer needs to use Mogu to get to Azeroth, but who says his plans end there? He might need them for other stuff too. And remember that even before his lost his duel with Arthas, he was still never entirely there. ("Isolation can do that to the mind", as he told Maiev). He wasn't as much a hero as someone who really wanted to be a hero, but always ended up acting in villainous ways, due to a mixture of pride, greed, envy and inability to communicate.
6469907 6469749 Thing is, you're assuming Illidan can get back to Azeroth on his own. His actions, working with the mogu, indicate he can't. They are a means to an end, just like the barb he used to distract Celestia was. It wasn't done out of maliciousness, it was done because he needed to break her focus. Everything he's done in this story has had a purpose behind it. Illidan wants to be a hero, he always has, but he's willing to take any action that would help him succeed. Like 6470038 said, he's more someone who wants to be a hero, but his emotions keep him from doing so. That, and an unfortunate habit of assuming if he gets more power, that'll make him heroic. It doesn't work out. Unless you're Tyrande, you're probably expendable to him if he thinks his goal is important enough.
Just wait, is all I can advise you. Illidan's motives and goals will reveal themselves.
The next time Celestia and Illidan meet, Illidan better hope he's still possessing Twilight, because otherwise, he'll be lucky to be ash.
Did Zhiyuan just set Discord free? That cant be good, Azeroth doesn't need even more madness.
6470278 Personally, I thought it was hilarious how discord was basically treating the guy like a puppet/pet... he's gonna have so much fun trolling all the "Oh So Serious" types on Azeroth.
6470058
Illidan is and has always been the picture of an Anti-Hero, his goals where always to save the world or at least those he cares about but the big problem always was that he never cared about how he went to accomplish those goals, it started during the war of the ancients where he made the pact with Sargeras in order to get more power and the opportunity to get his hands onto the dragon soul, all with the end goal of stopping the legion even if it meant aiding them for some time. Also he created the second well because he was convinced that his people would need it if the Legion ever found way back without thinking about the consequences.
After his release it started again with the consuming of the skull followed by summoning the Naga and the pact with Kil'jaedan to destroy the Frozen Throne and by extension the Lich King. After that failed he went to carve out his own domain in Outland so he could hide and defend himself from Kil'jaedens punishment.
For the purpose of this post we will ignore what happened to him in Burning Crusade because that was absolute bullshit for the most part.
6472603
I'm getting the feeling Discord is on Celestia's side this time. These guys? No subtlety. No cleverness. Just brute force. That's BORING! Why not add a little chaos to the mix?
6474857 This is really just going over what was discussed after previous chapters. I don't think Illidan is a straight out bad guy or a super heroic guy either. He wants to be a hero but he has a habit of thinking power is the best method for that, and as noble as his intentions might be, he's not a nice or friendly person. Having good intentions isn't the same as being a nice person. There's also the fact he's dealing with having died (or so it felt) and that he has no one. He died alone under an alien sky, driven mad by the whispers of a warlock's skull and fel magic (or at least that's how I justify Blizzard doing a Blizzard and going 'lol he's evil now'), without his brother or the woman he loved seeming to care that he was still alive. Illidan has the makings of a hero, but he has a LOT of issues to deal with first.
Fortunately, he's living in the body of a potential princess of friendship. Who knows what's gonna happen.
EDIT: I do. I know.
EDIT the Second: Not shipping, though. No shipping.
6477446
Shipping Illidan with ponies would be something i would never forgive you for! Because as far as i know he never let go of his love for Tyrande even in his blizzard induced madness.
And since he seems to have bleeding over memories from Twilight who knows what else could make it across? (i know you probably do so don't answer)
Did Illidan burn Twilights eyes like Sargeras did to his own eyes to give him his magic sight?
6477446
Traitor
I do love a good bit of Celestial Fury. None can commit to Wrath so beautifully as those whose primary virtue is Compassion.
It's quite confusing when you describe Twilight and Illidan talking together. Also I don't consider Pattern selling out.