X: In Defeat
C h a p t e r 1 0 :
I n D e f e a t
There was a time when better men lurked in the shadows communicating to each other. They told each other secrets, dangerous things, of the impending doom that loomed over the thoughts of every imperial citizen. These few men and women were our safeguard against the Trickster, the vigilant watchmen who protected the Empire during our times of peace, more so than the Legion. But in recent times, their order seems to have died out, with no trace of them ever existing. What happened to these intriguing warriors? For what reason have they disappeared?
-The Unknown Order: Eyes in the Shadows, Reatyn Ndaken, 1505 RY
“More archers?!” Reugas said. “When will we ever see the end of these bastards?!”
He dodged, slamming back-first into a outcropping of hard stone sitting in the middle of the avenue. His relic hummed as he drew his line, firing a pair of bright slivers off into the encroaching fog, a hideous black and putrid in scent. Shortly after, he coughed through his mask as the others moved up from their positions.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, voice echoing from behind her closed helmet. Her armor glowed brightly in the swirling dark, humming with harmonic energies. “The miasma… it’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Not as bad as it could be,” Reugas said, catching his breath. “No harm done… so far. The smell is what’s getting to me. Like rotting corpses and… something worse.”
“There,” Kandro said, pointing to the walls of the Capital Spire. Amidst the haze, fires burned bright, a trailing spiral that wormed its way up towards the sky. Shouts and the sharp clangs of hard steel could be heard even through the din of battle, cries of effort and barked orders from a man whose voice could move mountains. “It’s Captain Ghiraza. He’s still alive!”
“How long is left until we’re at the Spire, anyway?” Twilight asked through her mask, waving an annoyed hoof to prevent her hood from blocking her view. “It feels like it’s been forever already.”
“We’re passing the fifth aqueduct up ahead, the final and last landmark before we reach the stairway gates that will take us up,” Artim said, crouching behind a half-crushed wagon. He perched close to its corner, eyeing the congregation ahead. “More of them…”
“I will take the lead,” Kandro said, hand gripped tightly on the Blade of the First.
“Hold on, Prince Kandro,” Tehin whispered from behind. His form sat huddled off to the side, where the remains of a column that once held a great arch served as his temporary cover. “Lead as you might, we cannot rush headlong into such dangerous conditions. We do not know what else lays in wait for us.”
“I see no way but forward, and the longer we delay, the smaller Ghiraza’s window to escape will be.” Kandro licked his lips nervously and stared ahead. “And I have an idea.”
“What, pray tell, would that be?” Reugas asked. “I certainly hope you mean for me and Artim to soften them up before you all start running in there.”
“I mean for us to do it all at once. You and Artim will lay waste to those at range, while the rest of us will deal with the creatures ahead.” He looked at Applejack, covered from head to hoof in armor. “And the rest of you… you should probably stay here.”
“Hey, we ain’t just along for the ride,” Applejack said. “I’m not so sure ‘bout fightin’ monsters all the time, but we’ve been in a whole slew of pinches before. ‘Sides, it’s not like we’re goin’ to be doin’ all the fightin’ alone. We have you guys to back us up.”
“I’m with her,” Dash said. “We’ve got all of our armor and magic now. We’ll hang back, help you out a little bit, and then we can see where we go from there.”
Kandro looked to the others, who merely gave nods in agreement of Applejack’s proposal. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said. At that, Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed, before she sat down and raised her two armored hooves in front of him.
“See these, sugarcube?” She tapped them together, and the plates clinked. “I’m pretty sure we both know that these ain’t s’posed to be for show. And like I said before, we ain’t goin’ to be tusslin’ with the whole group there. We’ll just hang around behind, maybe give them a couples of bucks or a hard hoof to see if the magic’s in the right place, just to be sure.”
“Sounds good to me,” Reugas said. “I don’t want to babysit them for the entire trip.”
“And I don’t want to be babysat for the whole trip,” Dash said. She looked at her friends, giving them a knowing smile as she nodded. “Come on, I’m right, aren’t I? We totally can’t let them do all the work! Especially since we’re supposed to help them save the world, you know?”
“You aren’t trying to knock them out, you’re trying to kill them,” Artim said. “As much as you may will yourself to, it is doubtlessly a hard facet of war to master. Though I suppose the motivation is justified in this case. I doubt any human in existence thinks twice about killing a demon.”
“Then it’s agreed, then,” Tehin said. “But I will watch the little ones, just to be safe.”
“With Tehin as their defense, I’m not even sure they’ll get their chance,” Sehyia noted.
“Very well,” Kandro said. “Artim, Reugas, ready yourselves. Sehyia, Yhimit, you two will march with me into the fray. The ponies will follow with Tehin close by. Once the dust settles, we shall waste no time and head straight for the Spire.”
“Can I use my party cannon?” Pinkie asked. “You know, just to be sure.”
“Anything you can use to help would be fine, Pinkie,” Tehin said, chuckling. “Just make sure you point it in the right direction. It certainly worked on the winged demons, so perhaps it may well work on the lesser ones, as well.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, putting on a serious expression and saluting him. The cannon appeared from behind her, pulled towards the fore as she wheeled it around to aim downwind. “Ready!”
“Excellent, now let us—” Kandro was interrupted by an ear-splitting roar from above that was accentuated by the puncturing noise of thunder. Lightning crackled across the skies, in greater intensity than it once was as the winds shifted. The black grew deeply darker as a wave of smoke fell from the Spire’s top, washing over the group and spreading into the city.
“It’s not just a miasma…” Artim said, horrified. He looked down to see wisps of the smoke catch onto the stone of the ground, painting the roadway with blotches of corruption that hardened and grew into blighted crystals. “It’s reshaping the environment. I… don’t recall any book I’ve read ever mentioning something like this before.”
“I don’t think the books ever mentioned anything about the ancestors fighting an ancient dragon, either,” Kandro said, kicking away the growth next to his boots. “And it’ll take the whole city if we don’t act fast enough. Are we all ready?” He looked at Applejack, who looked to her friends.
“Well, reckon it’s as ready as we’ll ever be,” she said. “Might as well get this over with.”
He nodded, then looked across the cityscape. He gestured to two locations: left, to the caved-in remnants of a townhouse’s tower, and right to the columned walls of a communal gathering place in the distance. “Reugas, Artim, expect your targets to loiter within those general locations. They offer a good vantage point and have clear sight of the entire road down to the Spire’s base.”
“Short work. I’d have a harder time tilling fields,” Reugas said, chuckling as he leapt over the walkway’s railing for the building along his way to the tower. He nimbly navigated the wall to the roof and gave a final wave before disappearing, dashing across the rooftops, bow in hand. Artim merely shrugged and did a short-distance teleport before making his way to the communal building on foot.
Explosions sounded soon after, and the rising clouds of dust visible through the murk caught the attention of the demons on the bridge. They growled curiously at each other, pointing in the direction of the commotion until the tower exploded and they sprang into action, gutturally speaking with panic.
“They’re distracted. Let’s go,” Kandro said. The Blade hummed as he drew it from its sheath, and he stepped forward only for a bright light behind him to alert the enemy to their position. He turned around and saw a flustered Pinkie standing behind her cannon, the barrel now gilded and inscribed like her armor.
“Uh… it didn’t look like this before…” she said, before she gasped and covered her eyes.
Kandro looked back to the projectile, seeing that it had reached the apex of its arc and was now falling, and turned again to Pinkie to speak when the scene behind him exploded in light. The force knocked him over, and he stared at the fading explosion as the demons stood dazed. “It didn’t do that before, either…” he muttered.
“So… I guess the magic applies to my party cannon, too, huh?” Pinkie giggled awkwardly. “That’s helpful, right?”
“More than helpful, actually,” Kandro said, getting to his feet. “Fire it again.”
“Huh?” Pinkie’s mouth grew into an uncertain frown. “Are you… sure?”
“It’s the magic, that’s as plain as day. And, look…” The space that the explosion cleared out was visible, untouched by the miasma until the fog slowly began to roll back in. “It clears the air around wherever it hits. The extra visibility will be useful in combat. Aim behind the group we’ll be fighting against. We want to stem the flow from the Spire.”
“Alrighty then.” Pinkie checked the barrel, tapping up and down its length to check for integrity. The runes glowed, and the cannon was knocked back as a metallic thump notified her that the ammunition had been restocked. “Oh, it refills itself! That’s great! Now let’s get this part started!” Stepping back behind the cannon with a devious grin, she slapped the top and let loose another shot.
Kandro dashed forward, shifting into a golden blur as he channeled speed-altering magic to propel him forward, and launching himself at the first hapless demon to plant the Blade directly into its eye. Sehyia followed suit, sliding into battle and slicing cleanly through a demon’s knee before transitioning into a handstand with her sword gripped by the locks on the sides of her boots, slicing the demon’s arm off. Yhimit remained at range, still closing in on foot utilizing only standard magic to modify his sprinting speed.
“Alright, gals, now’s our time! Let’s go!” Applejack shouted. The ponies joined the fray, with only Fluttershy meekly trailing behind the form of their guardian.
“Fluttershy, are you okay?” he asked her.
“I don’t want to do this,” Fluttershy whispered frantically. “I don’t want to do this. I’m sorry, Tehin, but I… this is too scary. I’m not like Dash, I can’t… I can’t convince myself to… fight.” Her voice squeaked as she strayed closer to Tehin, using his form to block the sight of the battle from her eyes.
“Child, you may find yourself in a position where you will have to,” Tehin said, balancing the weight of his quarterstaff on his shoulder. Ahead, Applejack dug her hooves into the side of a demon, casting it aside as Dash intercepted a striking blow from another. A demon lieutenant walked forth, jagged sword raised high to strike an unaware Dash, only to be felled by a flurry of slashes from Yhimit’s swords. Pinkie slowly advanced, firing her cannon in regular intervals behind the battle, stopping any reinforcements coming from the Spire.
Twilight and Rarity stood away from the battle, firing precise beams at any demon that found its way into their line of sight. The two flinched as a demon, a gangly imp wielding a makeshift mace, broke out of the fight and circled his way around to them with blinding speed. The creature met its end when Tehin ran forth and swung his staff, striking the demon full in the face with the staff’s heavy end.
“W-whoa!” Twilight said, catching the top of her hood as she watched the demon sail off the road. Her eartips protruding from the cloth twitched at the rough touch of her hooves. “Thanks, Tehin, that was a little too close…”
“A part of me wonders whether that hood is prudent in a combat situation,” Tehin said. “Certainly nowhere near as effective as a helmet. But, given how it was not your decision to include it as part of your battle dress, I suppose I shouldn’t criticize.”
“Well, at least the Elements know how to cater to our tastes,” Rarity said. Her horn alighted itself and a thin sliver of light struck a demon’s arm, causing it to drop its weapon and leaving it wide open to a chest stab from Sehyia. The pony and the woman met eyes and in the heat of the moment, gave each other a quick nod of appreciation.
Explosions sounded off in unison around them as Artim and Reugas laid waste to the descending hordes of winged demons. Empyrean energies swirled with the miasma, a hissing maelstrom as the energies worked against each other. The air stunk now with the stench of acrid magic burning itself away, and with a massive explosion in Artim’s direction, the scent only intensified. Tehin and the others all coughed, gagging as their noses stung.
Pinkie joined in, having caught up to them. “Pee-yoo! That smells awful,” she said, before firing her cannon. The round went high, striking the base of the stairs in the distance, and she adjusted her cannon’s angle. “Oh, no, there’s more of them… I keep firing my cannon, but they just keep coming!”
“The portal is the primary mainstay of the demons’ transportation here,” Reugas said, landing with a roll next to them. “As if appearing anywhere wasn’t enough, trying to stop that portal will be like trying to stem a flood using a wooden board.”
“You’re back awfully quick,” Twilight said.
“The empyrean magic simplifies the process of elimination.” He looked ahead to see Kandro decapitate the last of the demons, watching as the remainder of the forces fled to the base of the Spire. “They’re falling back,” he said, waving them all forward as they rushed to meet up with the frontliners.
“This is not good,” Kandro said. “They’re retreating up the stairs.”
“Ghiraza is up there. We need to reach him,” Sehyia said.
A burst of golden light appeared next to them, and Artim reappeared, his wrapped hands sizzling with smoke. “The relics… do certainly help. Perhaps a little too much,” he said. “I assume we’re heading up the steps now?”
“Yes.” An explosion at Ghiraza’s position alerted them. “And none too soon. Can you teleport us up there, Artim? Or Twilight?”
The two looked at each other in question, and then shook their heads. Fireballs streaked from the road above, coursing along with purple lightning, and a stray bolt shot astray and smashed into the mountainside with a blast.
“Then I only hope we won’t be too late…”
“Hold fast!” Captain Ghiraza shouted. A soldier screamed, crawling on the floor with his leg torn to a bloody pulp as a demon stepped upon his back and impaled the poor man with its blade. Ghiraza grimaced, uttering a prayer for the man, and met the demon in combat. Blocking with his shield and countering with a strike at the demon’s exposed side, he cursed and fell back, letting his subordinates fill the hole in his gap to strike the demon down.
“Captain, what will we do?” Another soldier, his crimson garb tattered and his armor dented, stepped in front of him. His helmet’s faceplate was stained with blood. “The demons are unceasing, sir. We cannot hold this position for long.”
“Are the arcanists able to move?”
“Slowly. The weight of their books is proving difficult.” Ghiraza shook his head, watching as the arcanists slowly shifted wagons full of books slowly down the road, a process further impeded due to the lack of sandrunners pulling it. “What worth is this knowledge, sir? Surely our lives are worth more than—”
“Knowledge is the lifeblood of the Empire.” Ghiraza’s thunderous voice stopped the soldier’s sentence cold in its tracks. “Without it, we are nothing. Without it, the Trickster wins. While I do understand your concerns in escorting what seems to be pointless information, I must remind you that our lives are expendable. Our archives are not.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldier said with an apologetic bow. “Shall we continue with the defense?”
“As planned. Tell the arcanists to move faster.”
“Of course, sir. And of the dead and wounded?”
Ghiraza glanced at the battle raging around him. Of the two hundred men he had entered the Archives with, only less than seventy remained. The rest were either dead, or dying, and he did not have the time nor the means to bring them all with him. “Leave them,” he said. “Lest we all share in their fate.”
“Understood, sir.” The soldier saluted and disappeared through the crowd, running towards the wagons where the arcanists atop the books casted bolts of lightning and balls of fire around them.
He marched forward again, joining the front ranks shoulder-to-shoulder as they endured another uphill push from the demons approaching ahead of them. Whatever had happened, the lower Spire was now teeming with the creatures, threatening to stop their advance and leave them at the mercy of the army behind them, filled with greater demons and creatures of the void. They would either escape Renascence with their charges, or they would die trying.
“Form up!” he shouted. In unison, every soldier grunted and locked their shields together, absorbing the storm of blows, uncoordinated and sloppy, and delivered a counterattack with the points of their blades. Perhaps it was better this way: the demon lieutenants that were coming from above held no such incompetency in their ranks.
“Sir!” a voice called out. “Reinforcements rising from the city streets!”
“Excellent,” Ghiraza said. “Can you tell who it is?”
“I think it’s the Pillars, sir!”
“Even better!” he shouted, reinvigorated by their imminent aid. “Again, push!”
The phalanx shoved its way down, plowing the bodies aside. Soldiers behind the shield line cheered as they watched the divine vengeance wrought upon the demons by the Pillars and their entourage, eagerly greeting their saviors when the two groups joined.
Ghiraza stripped his helmet off, bearing a wide smile as Kandro, also hefting his helmet in hand, approached him. “Prince Kandro! Ancestors be praised, I knew you would return. Tell me: do you bring aid? Can we save this city before the darkness takes it?”
“That’s my plan, yes,” Kandro said. Ghiraza tilted his head to get a good look at the ponies behind Kandro. “I’m afraid the Paragon and Protector are currently preoccupied, but the Elements are no longer within their control. The right to wield them has been passed down to these six now.”
“So long as they can do the job, I’ve no complaints,” Ghiraza said. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder and looked at the Pillars. “There are more of them coming from atop the Spire.”
“So we’ve noticed. We only entered the city scant hours ago and the influx of the creatures has gone from a trickle to a rainstorm, dropping all over the city like vermin. It does not bode well for our mission,” Tehin said.
“Quartermaster,” Ghiraza said, bowing his head. “You might seek to use the Elements to reach the top, but you’d all be better off fleeing elsewhere.” The wagons moved past them, and he walked next to them as Reugas and Artim joined with the rearguard to assist. “There are too many now, and ancestors only know what other horrors are emerging from the portals now. Creatures of nightmares, unlike anything I’ve seen before. To believe our ancestors fought against such an unholy enemy…”
“Hold on a moment.” Ghiraza looked down at the armored pony at Kandro’s side. “You’re tellin’ us that we just came all the way for nothin’?”
“Not unless you’d like to meet an untimely end against unfavorable odds,” Ghiraza said with a surly snort. He gave Kandro a questioning look. “Are any of these acquaintances of yours soldiers?” Kandro shook his head, and Ghiraza looked to him, his expression neutral and judging. “Then it’d be a wise choice to flee the city with us.”
“We’re short on time,” Kandro said, “I must inquire as to the nature of the cargo the arcanists carry with them.”
“Of course, Emperor,” Ghiraza said, noting Kandro closing his eyes for a moment longer than normal within his helmet, as if he resented the title. “We have with us thirty-six volumes of knowledge gathered from various fields. Farming, city layouts, weather reports, drought reports, censuses, and much more.”
“Is any of it important to the war? Of our fight against the Trickster?” Kandro asked, looking aside to Artim. The keeper was busy blasting a lieutenant marching towards him with a beam of light, leaving nothing but the demon’s charred lower half when the beam faded. “I am not keen on losing men over these books.”
“I went in with two hundred men. A hundred from my own company of the Emperor’s guard, and a hundred soldiers from the Legion. More than three-quarters of the regulars and close to half of mine have been killed. We’ve bled enough for these damnable works already, might as well see it through to the end with the much-needed help the twelve of you can provide.”
“But is any of it useful? We already stand disadvantaged, Ghiraza. I need every capable man to flee the city so we can regroup and mount a counterattack, books be damned. The Trickster has his legions everywhere, and we cannot expect to pull off a miracle like the First did.”
Ghiraza shook his head. “We were here on behalf of the arcanists. They claimed that ancient knowledge hidden somewhere within the shelves held information on combating the Trickster, a lead that came straight from Lherren. Most notably, the Grand Scholar himself.”
“The Grand Scholar?” Kandro said. “What does the Grand Scholar believe he will find here?”
“Something, else he would not have sent these arcanists to find it. He claims that there exists a single entry amongst our cargo that is paramount to our fight against the Trickster. And given the monstrosity that sits atop the palace now, I am inclined to believe him rather than stake our odds on weathered blades and inexperienced men.” Soldiers shouted as the darkened clouds were carved black as a form flew within its depths. The dragon roared, not from above… but next to them.
“Ancestors protect us,” Sehyia whispered. “The dragon. It’s…”
“It’s here,” Ghiraza said.
“Then we must fight it,” Kandro said. He looked to Twilight. “We must use the Elements against it. There is no other way.”
“The Elements of Harmony...” Ghiraza’s mention of the legendary relics lifted the spirits of the men around them, and they took to speaking to each other through the din of combat. “Then we put our fates in your hooves, young ponies. Lest we all die here on this forsaken mountainside…”
“We won’t let you down,” Twilight said, on Kandro’s opposite side, and gulped. “I hope,” she added quietly.
“That dragon is about to fall upon us,” Artim said, returning to them. “Shall we attempt a mass teleportation? With our empyrean magic, it may well just work.” The form flew by once again, and he worriedly looked at Kandro. “We didn’t plan for the dragon to come to us. Nor did we plan on involving all of these soldiers in the fight. I have no doubt that they will not live should we halt to stand against it.”
“Less than a hundred people here, and that’s not including the wagons,” Sehyia said. “I’ve no doubt of your and Twilight’s skills, Artim, but I doubt either of you has had much experience having this much mass in your mass teleportation, wagons and all.”
“We might have to. It would take far too long to fight our way up, but we can perhaps clear a way out before the dragon seeks to—” Kandro was cut short as the ground shook, the dragon’s form colliding with the side of the mountain. Its great claws, marred with years of wear and jagged like a serrated knife, gripped the sides of the road, crushing the smaller buildings on the peripheries as they gained their hold.
The dragon lowered his head through the miasma, and stared down at them with burning red eyes. Its maw opened, revealing rows of gigantic teeth, and within its chest, a great whirling of energy began to course through its body.
“The dragon’s using its flames!” Twilight said. “We need to move! Now!”
“Teleport, Twilight!” Artim shouted, clenching his fists as a golden aura began to surround every man and pony around him. “Do it!”
Twilight stared in disbelief, reluctantly mingling the purple glow of her magic with his as she looked around with terrified conviction. Ghiraza barked his orders, a tiny whisper in the growing whirlwind of the dragon’s charging power, urging his men to form a full shield formation towards the dragon itself, for what good it would do them.
Their efforts undone, Artim and Twilight both cried out, straining as the glow intensified, covering the core of all their targets as they desperately willed themselves away. But it wasn’t enough, and the glow disappeared in a flash as the two fell to the floor, exhausted.
“It’s not enough!” Artim said, stumbling as he attempted to get on his feet. Ghiraza watched, eyeing Kandro calmly despite the bedlam he now found himself in. The young emperor merely stared, gazing wide into the dragon’s throat, as if he were staring deeply into the abyss that grew in size, dwarfing even the entire side of the Spire that they stood on.
“Artim. Twilight. Cast a shield,” Kandro ordered, his voice steadfast.
“As you wish!” Artim said, sitting upright as Twilight galloped to his side, and the two combined their magic, Artim with an outstretched arm and Twilight with angled horn, crossing the beams of their magic and projecting a great barrier encapsulated the whole area, demons and all. The soldiers fought the stranded demons within, ably purging the area as the barrier shut the remainder out.
“Will… will this even do anything?” Twilight said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know,” Kandro said. “But pray that it does.”
The other arcanists connected their own magic to the shield, offering what little aid they could to the barrier’s reserves drawn from the empyrean energies of Artim and Twilight. The dragon was obscured entirely by the sphere of dark energies that it held in front of its mouth. Light fled from its sight at risk of being swallowed into that growing darkness, and the light was no longer that light, of a sun barely showing through dark fog and gritty dust, but of a night that had no moon and no stars.
“That… that ain’t fire…” Applejack said. Dash and the other hung close, eyes alighted with stark fear as the ponies gravitated closer to each other for comfort.
“Ancestors protect us,” Sehyia whispered.
“And may the First strike this blighted creature down where it stands,” Ghiraza uttered after, defiant with a plain sneer on his face. “Brace yourselves!” he called to his men. They gathered around him, forming a circular bastion with their shields around the wagons.
The dark energies were strong now, enough where even the demons caught outside beating upon the barrier’s surface were taken by its forces. Their deaths were drawn out, as their forms were picked away chunk by hideous chunk, their blows slacking from swift and determined strikes to sluggish taps, staining blood on the exterior with their disintegrating arms as the empyrean energies burnt them away.
Reugas fired arrow after arrow, the slivers of empyrean energy disappearing into the dragon’s gullet. He shouted angrily, sending off a final shot as the pinprick was absorbed by the sphere’s growing mass. “If I don’t die,” he said, “I’m going to scour each and every single ancient text to see how the hell the archers of old fought against the Trickster, because we’re honestly about to receive a faceful of its power.”
“Pinkie!” shouted Tehin, dragging the pony away from her cannon as she recoiled from her cannon’s charged volley. The cannonballs disappeared also disappeared into the depths as if they were nothing more than spheroid treats, and Pinkie, laying flat on her back, looked up at Tehin with a sour face.
“No!” she said. “I’m not going to let it end like this! We can give this stupid dragon the one-two and then do him in!”
“To attack it now would be folly!” Tehin kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We must have faith in your friends now. As optimistic our plan initially sounded…” He stared with her towards the sky now blotted out. “...I don’t think any of us truly comprehended the scale of the beast.”
“That’s because we didn’t,” Reugas said, pointing at the tips of the dragon’s horns. “The damn thing is growing. The thing’s horns were barely wider than the whole block and now the thing’s head is practically as wide as the mountain itself. The ball isn’t growing in power. The dragon is.”
“What?” Kandro said, with great surprise. “But how?”
“If I were to hazard a guess…” Artim said, straining with his arms held high bearing the weight of the shield as the void energies pressed against it. “...I’d assume that the dragon is siphoning the magic away.”
“A dragon that grows in power by taking magic away…?” Dash said.
“I do not know how we are to fight against such an impossible foe.” Kandro stowed his sword, tightening the sheath’s knot on his belt. “But…” He looked at Yhimit. “Does the Brotherhood hold any information on something like this?”
Yhimit nodded, and Kandro sighed in relief.
“Where is it?” Kandro asked. Yhimit strolled around, finding an arcanist and gesturing to borrow his seal before returning to Kandro and holding it before his face. “The arcanist’s seal… It’s at Lherren?” Yhimit nodded. “The First take you, man, why did you not tell us this before?”
“Yes, I’m sure having the notes on this would have been really helpful before we came to stare down a dragon’s throat!” Dash said, gasping when the cacophony outside the shield went silent, still as a dead night. “Wh… what just happened? Why did everything just go quiet?”
“Everyone brace yourselves!” Ghiraza said, standing in the shield wall with his men. “Here it comes!” Without noise, the ball shot forth, tearing through the buildings as if they were sand on the wind, and collided against the shield. A raucous shriek pierced their ears as it met the shield, and all save for Artim and Twilight covered their ears instinctively. The shield pulsated brightly, as great a glow as the sun itself.
“I… can’t… hold… the… shield...!” Artim shouted.
“Try… harder…!” Twilight replied, her hooves grinding against the road as the force that leaked through pushed them back. The winds howled, or they should have. All remained silent, as the void seemed to bleed away the audible itself. She shouted again, then her mouth hung agape and her eyes widened as her voice was nowhere to be found.
The others gathered around the two, holding onto each other and anchoring Artim and Twilight to the ground as the sphere tore through the shield. They watched as their imminent doom fell upon them with naught a word.
All was silent, and the world disappeared around them.
“As it should be, young prince. Once more, awaken, heir to the throne.”
Kandro jolted awake with a sharp pain that struck his entire body at once. His eyes watered and he cried out in pain, sitting upright and clutching his chest tightly. The pain gave way to soreness, painstakingly slowly, and only then was he able to discern his new surroundings, where the familiar voice spoke to him once more.
It was an oasis, located in the middle of a scorching desert whose mirages seemed to surround the patch of life with a wall of glass. He sat on soft, cool sands, and his boots mingled with the soft touch of the clear oasis water. Great and tall trees surrounded him for only a stone’s throw around him, spaced evenly and enough where he could see the desert beyond.
“We… we failed,” Kandro said, shaking his head as he begrudgingly tossed a handful of sand into the pool. “The dragon… we did not know that it thrived on magic. We played into the Trickster’s plans.”
“There is no shame in defeat, Prince Kandro. You now know what you fight against. The Trickster has not waned in his banishment. He is crafty, and in his craftiness, he crafted. Crafted new weapons, new creatures, new doctrines through which he will deliver death and destruction upon your world. But it is needed. You still live, as do your companions.”
“Needed how? Did you know that this would happen?”
“I did not know of the dragon, nor what other newfound horrors he seeks to visit upon the frail lands of the Empire. It is because of his vindictive nature that forged the need to experience his powers. Because without knowing what you are up against, to throw all your forces into the breach against this great evil, you will lose everything.”
Kandro ran his hand through the water, cupping it into his palm and accepting its nourishing force into his body. The sun shined down upon him, but held none of its searing touch that it did in the Empire. “And the books that were with Captain Ghiraza? Was the Grand Scholar correct in assuming that there was something important to be found that we could use against the Trickster?” he asked.
“If such knowledge existed, then it would be far more prudent to keep it under lock and key at Lherren, would you not agree? To that end, no, the cargo that Ghiraza defends does not hold any importance to your mission. But even with that knowledge, there is no doubt that you would have gone into the city for Ghiraza himself.”
“He is a good man,” Kandro said, crossing his legs and brushing off the sand crusted on the sides of his boots. “I would not leave him to die, especially not to such a futile cause. Like Tehin, he is a man that has taught me much as I grew up, and is as much a figure in my life as my father and mother are. He taught me the history of our Legions, the warfare of our people. An important part of our history, one as relevant in this day and age as ever.”
“As complete a vision you will ever have of that history, and unfortunately one that bears little help against the threats you now face.”
“I must ask, stranger: what is your allegiance? You have not told me much of yourself, nor do I have any details of who you truly are. I question this voice that speaks to me from the still air and only in a dream state that, as you claim, exists between our realm and that of the empyrean and the void.”
“You have misgivings that you may be interacting with the Trickster still,” the voice said, outing the question Kandro held within his mind. “Perfectly understandable. Rest assured, sire, that I do not bear you any harm, nor do I mean any harm to your world. I am an ancient spirit, one beholden to the Brotherhood of Free Men and the First himself.”
“And what of this Brotherhood? Is Yhimit truly the last? Certainly not, given how you still speak to me.” His hands brushed against the sand, rubbing it away and revealing worn stone underneath. “What is this?” he wondered aloud, turning and brushing away more to reveal inscriptions upon the surface.
The stone grinded, raising itself from the ground and revealing a great wall that curved around half the oasis’ pool. Upon it sat names and depictions of acts of bravery against styllized monsters, chiseled into the stone’s muddied colors. In the center held the symbol of the sun, and within it the moon, the same as the one that sat on the Obsidian Spire.
“The Brotherhood,” the voice said. “When it was founded, there were many, and its task clear. They were the secret watchmen, the invisible hand that guided the Empire and protected its interests from the chaos that was always present in its lands. Though I am affiliated with them, I was never a part of their official order, truly making Yhimit the last of their ranks. In addition, every ruler of the Empire has always been a member of the Brotherhood… that is, until your father.”
“He wasn’t part of it… why? Did the Brotherhood see no reason to include him? Did he not meet their standards?”
“Emperor Nazhrus was not included for the simple fact that his lifetime fell within the period that the Brotherhood’s arcanists believed that the Trickster would return. He lived a good life, a full life, and guided the Empire admirably during his reign. But it was known that he would die, and so we decided upon not further burdening him with the knowledge of his last days.”
“And you couldn’t save him?” Kandro asked impassively, though his heart churned at the words. “Despite his inevitable death, he is our ruler, a loved leader of our people. His presence would have given us a great morale boost… and they would not be left with an untried prince who left his home only to see it burning when he returned.”
“We could not save him,” the voice said. The stone on the wall melded back into a flattened slate, reshaping itself into a visage of the Trickster, a grimacing skull with wide wings and burning eyes, reaching with a great claw to encompass their small world in his palm. “We could not risk letting the Trickster know of our plan. Your father was to fall ill, as was prophesied, an act that the Trickster had no hand in, but was paramount to the moment of his return.
“It was an act that was set in stone. And to an extent, in your father’s great wisdom, he, too, realized his impending death. It was why he sent you off to find the Paragon and the Protector, and ask them for aid. Much of the city’s preparations in the recent months were on his order, done in the dead of night and only by men he trusted. It is why the civilians were quickly evacuated, why Fort Renot still stands due to triple-focused wards against the demons, and why the Trickster himself could only return to this world through Renascence itself: to use the crown jewel of the Empire as bait.”
“My father used Renascence as bait? For the Trickster?”
“He did. Though the demons had always held the ability to spontaneously appear anywhere in the Empire, actually being able to force their way through to our world was something that could only be achieved with a particular focus. Those that appeared in the period leading to the Trickster’s return were merely scouts, testing our defenses, and searching for the greatest weak point, where our magic was gathered, to wrest away for their own purposes. One that they found all too easily.”
“The city itself.” Kandro shook his head and frowned, closing his eyes as he steadied his breathing. Like all problems, and all solutions, it stemmed from magic. The Empire’s search for it, the need to gather, control, contain as much of it as possible had only led to their downfall. “Bled and slaughtered like cattle. I would have never assumed that our magic would be our undoing.”
“But your father did. And he planned, planned into the dim light of the night, behind closed doors at the festivals, in short conversations with his council while walking through the halls of the palace. This is a game that you will learn to play in time, Prince Kandro, but that is a task when you ascend to the throne. For now, our conversation is finished.”
Kandro looked up at the sky and said, “No wise words before you part with me?”
“There are none. You have seen the enemy, and you know you will not win, more than anything I could ever tell you with words. My advice still stands: seek the wall. I should mention that I’ve no love for obtuse riddles. You will find this puzzle easy to decipher. However, your immediate concern should be your escape to Renascence.”
“Your aid is appreciated. And will I ever meet you in person, strange spirit?” Kandro asked.
“There will be no need for introduction, Prince Kandro, for we have already met.”
Kandro stood, glancing around the oasis as the sky faded to an empty gray. The trees grew, towering above him, and the shrubbery that once was restrained to the circle of foliage around him began to grow alarmingly quickly. Vines danced their way through and above the water, grass touched the shins of his boots, and that falling sensation again took hold of him.
“If we’ve met, then I do not recall ever introducing myself to you,” Kandro said, calmly awaiting his fate as his consciousness began to wane. “And your peculiar speech would not have gone unheeded by my ears…”
“My name echoes throughout eternity, Prince Kandro. Rest assured that our second introduction will bear no surprise on either of our parts.”
Kandro opened his mouth to reply, but felt no voice traveling through the great emptiness he stood in now. He closed his eyes and rested again, and his mind drifted. The pressure of fallen stone grew heavier on his limbs, and the sounds of battle pulled his mind through the immaterial realm, hastening him back to reality.
“Over here!” Twilight shouted. “I found him!” She gently pulled Kandro up by the shoulders, lightly dragging his body over so he could rest against a boulder that was once part of the road that they stood on. She undid the buckle on Kandro’s chinstrap and pulled his helmet off, hastily looking him over for injuries.
“Ugh…” Kandro said as Twilight tapped her hoof against his cheek. His head wobbling, he opened his eyes to see Twilight sigh in relief. “The others…” he croakily said. “Where are they?”
“They’re on their way,” Twilight said. Her magic touched his armor, patting him down as she spread the field out to his extremities. “Nothing serious, thank goodness. Looks like we all got out unharmed.”
“We fell from the Spire,” Kandro said. He sat the Blade’s sheath on his lap, tapping the leather as a self-confirmation that the weapon was still with him. Rubble surrounded them, and he heard the dragon roaring as its form glided by and pulled higher into the sky as it returned to its perch at the palace. “You say we all made it out unharmed? That fall would have been fatal to anyone.”
“Well, I used the magic as a cushion,” Twilight said, her pleased tone tempered by her sheepishness. “The shield broke, but we managed to slap another one together just in time, right before it hit us. The shield kept us all alive, but the ground wasn’t so lucky. It gave way, and we all would have plummeted to our deaths when I decided to use the shield as a net to catch us all.”
“Clever thinking. A utilitarian function, but a safety net to stop our fall? How boxed in by our own limitations with magic that such a thought might have never occurred to me, or even Artim, as trained as he is.” He looked at her with a thankful smile. “We are indebted to you, Twilight. Myself and every man that fell with us.”
“You can thank me later,” she said. “And I’m not so sure that it’s all good news…”
“What?” Twilight sighed as he blinked in confusion. “What’s happened?”
“Captain Ghiraza is hurt,” she said, shaking her head. “The demons were all over the place when we fell. Ghiraza was the first one back on his feet, and he went to gather all the survivors. He ended up getting wounded in the process.”
“How badly?” Kandro asked.
“He took a couple of injuries to his sword arm from one of the demon lieutenants, the ones with the greatswords. We patched him up, but he’s in no condition to be fighting.” Twilight’s head perked up as her ears folded towards the rubble in front of them. Her horn fired a small bolt, causing the head of the curious imp to explode. “I don’t even know how we’re going to get out of the city now, Prince Kandro. We’re just lucky that the dragon didn’t come down here to finish us off.”
“Plan’s in the crapper, and we’re all headless grass hens.” Reugas landed next to them, kneeling down to look Kandro over. “You seem to be fine, m’lord. Can you walk?”
“I’ll be fine,” Kandro said. “What of the others?”
“Gone already, to the gates that took us here from Fort Renot.” He pointed at the outer walls, where the towers burned and the winged demons congregated on the parapets. “Artim says if the gates aren’t an option, we’ll have to make a leap over the walls and into the Roaring River. Flows northerly, he says, dropping us maybe a couple of days’ time away from Lherren on foot.”
“And of Fort Renot? Have they already evacuated?”
“No idea, m’lord. If they already have, there’s honestly no way we can tell from where we are.” He fidgeted, tapping his fingers against his bow as they listened to a roar come from the Spire. The sound held an unnatural tone, not primordial and strong like the dragon’s or any of the demons’, like a horn being blown, an droning sound that echoed through the space. “Things just keep getting better, don’t they?”
“Creatures of the void,” Kandro said, standing with helmet in one hand and rubbing away the soreness in his arms with the other. Twilight and Reugas followed, exiting the ruins with him as they entered what remained of the city block. From where he stood, Kandro could see the battlements of the outer walls, putting them far closer than he had assumed. “How did we get so far away from the Spire? The walls are so close.”
“The net worked really well,” Twilight said. “For us, that is. I used Artim’s own empyrean magic as an amplifier for mine, and that was how I managed to create a weightlessness spell which I combined with a hastily-modified cloudwalking spell, dampening our speed just enough before we landed. The wagons, though… um, we’ll have to write those off.”
Reugas chuckled. “Before we landed, she says. A second longer and we’d all have been dots of berry jam smeared all over the ground. I imagine you’ll have a thing or two to teach the arcanists at Lherren, those codgers.”
“More than a fair few,” Kandro said. “Assuming that we reach it. Can you attempt a teleport here, Twilight? Take us to the gate, maybe?”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, her voice cracking with hints of fatigue. “I wish I could, but the spell took a lot out of me. The most I can do is cast some basic manipulation spells, and protect myself. Artim told me that the shield’s energy was expended trying to protect us from the dragon’s attack and never returned to us, so it’ll take time for it to recharge.”
The city was devoid of human activity, rife with the pillaging and destruction of the Trickster’s forces as they continued to push outward. Explosions of smoke, gray on black through the miasma, broadcasted the increasing presence of the creatures as the portal above the Spire, once merely a swirling font of energy that sat atop the imperial palace, now encompassed all of the city’s sky. The city gates remained half-sealed at a distance.
“They’re not there yet,” Kandro said as they took a shortcut that led them back to the main thoroughfare. “Are all the others with them?” he asked Reugas. “The other Pillars and Elements, Ghiraza, and all of his men?”
“That was the plan,” Reugas replied. “A group like theirs is sure to attract attention. Maybe they’ve been bogged down. Should we try to find them?”
“With the other pillars and ponies with them, they should be fine.” Kandro brought them to the side of the highway, where a rising road led back to the main street they had walked down earlier. They ascended, only to stop when a demon’s body was sent flying off of the roadway above and landed with a crunch on the street below them. “I’d say they’re doing well enough.”
They reached the top of the stairs when Twilight’s horn flared and Reugas had his bow drawn as soon as Kandro felt the sharp edge of a sword against his throat. “Ancestors take you, I thought we’d lost you,” Sehyia said with a deep sigh, lowering her sword as she looked him over. “You look like a mess.”
“To be expected with the fall we’ve taken. I’ve heard that Ghiraza is injured. Where is he?”
“I… what?” Sehyia looked between the three of them as the remainder of the soldiers behind them formed a shield wall around Artim, leaving the other ponies and the Pillars to fend off the demons in the open. “Wasn’t he with you? He left a while ago to go looking for you!”
“We thought he was with you! That’s why we came here!” Twilight said.
“Curse this misfortune,” Kandro muttered. “Reugas, can you find him?”
“M’lord, I honestly don’t think this is the time to—”
“Can you do it, Reugas?”
Reugas silently regarded Kandro for a moment, taken aback by his terse interruption. “I believe I can, m’lord… but we’re at risk of being cut off from Fort Renot. I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Kandro said. “I won’t leave the city without him. I won’t leave him here.” He bit his lip and groaned angrily, pacing restlessly around. “He was a fool to go search for me. He can’t use magic, surely such an important fact wouldn’t have slipped his mind! I can fend for myself against these demons, he can’t!”
“Please, sire,” Sehyia said, in as most neutral a tone she could manage. “I must urge that we prioritize our escape. We cannot risk our entire group here for the life of one man.”
“I know, Sehyia,” Kandro said through gritted teeth. He stared wistfully at the Capital Spire, seeing his home fallen to their eternal enemy. “I’m sorry, Ghiraza.” He sighed and nodded, composing himself. “You’re right, Sehyia. Damn it, that old man… I hope he can catch up to us.”
“Incoming!” a soldier shouted.
“Is it the dragon again?” Tehin shouted, barreling around the rear of the shield formation and sweeping wide with his staff, knocking an entire line of imps into the air.
“No, it’s—!”
A black form darted out from the darkness inhumanly quick, slamming into the shield formation and knocking them all aside as if they were mere cups on a table. As the others skittered away from the beast and attempted to regroup, the demon—a massive creature with barbed tail and leathered wings—rose to its full height, towering a clear several stories tall. A stubborn soldier that it grasped in its gargantuan hands was crushed before it smirked and dropped the corpse to the dusty road.
“Just our luck,” Reugas said. He fired a bow that pierced through the miasma, and for a moment, the beast’s complete form was revealed. At its base, the beast looked similar to the lieutenant that had attacked Tandreat, but this one was bulkier, with spines growing out of its arms and legs, and wielded a sword with a hooked end as big as itself. Reugas’ arrow pitifully embedded itself into the beast’s chest with no reaction. “Oh, shit.”
“A proper reaction in a time like this,” Kandro said. “Move it, soldiers!” He drew the Blade as he frantically waved the soldiers towards him, and the unorganized mass fled in panic, abandoning all pretense of defense and organization. “We’ll draw its attention. Just get out of here!”
“I’ll escort them to the gates,” Sehyia said, walking past him. “Will you hold it off?”
“Only for as long as we need to,” Kandro said, watching as Yhimit pulled Artim to his feet. “Twilight, take your friends and go with Sehyia.”
“But—” Twilight began to protest.
“That’s an order, Twilight. This… thing is clearly beyond our ability, and yours, too. If things turn out badly, you do not want to be here. Just go.”
Twilight’s mouth hung open as she attempted to come up with a response, but found none, ending up only nodding somberly at him. “As you wish, Prince Kandro.” She galloped for her friends, shouting to them as Yhimit dodged around the beast’s legs, slashing at its thickened hide all the while. With a nod of her head, Twilight and the others disengaged and left, giving worried looks over their shoulders at Kandro and the remainder of the Pillars.
“I expect that thing’s going to kill us before we can kill it,” Reugas said dryly.
“We’re due a windfall soon,” Kandro said. He readied his Blade, raising the weapon to eye level and directing the point of its tip in front of him as he focused. His vision swam with golden tint, and he launched himself forward, appearing at Yhimit’s side. The disciple gave a short glance to him before the beast’s tail flicked at him and he was launched into the air. “Yhimit!”
Yhimit tumbled and bounced down the road, flailing about with swords gripped in hand, rolling to a stop in front of Reugas and picked himself up as if nothing had happened. Artim’s magical blasts seemed to do nothing against the beast, faring as well as Yhimit, and now Kandro, did with swords. As the beast brought his blade down, Tehin stepped aside and attempted to deflect the blow, just narrowly, even with the force of his empyrean weapon.
“It’s not enough!” Artim shouted. “We have to get out of here!”
“Staggered fallback, then!” Tehin said.
Kandro dived backwards, seguing into a handstand before pushing himself off the ground and distancing himself from the beast. Tehin was next, proving himself fleetfooted despite his bulk, leaving only Artim left. The arcanist caught the beast’s attention, firing his spells from atop a small hill of rocks.
“Artim! Hurry!” Kandro shouted. He looked at Tehin. “Tehin, Yhimit, you’re done here! Get to the gate and keep those soldiers safe!” The two nodded and ran for the gates, leaving Kandro and Reugas to wait on Artim. “Artim! We have to go now!”
Artim nodded without even looking at him, hastily leaping down the hill as the beast’s sword cleaved the mound in two. Though beyond the reach of the strike, Artim was not out of range of its shockwave, and was knocked into the air and landed a stone’s throw away from Kandro. He gasped for breath as he got up. Kandro ran to him as Reugas’ arrows continued to work uselessly on the beast.
“Get up!” Kandro said.
“I know, I know!” Artim coughed heavily as Kandro used himself as support. The two hobbled back to Reugas’ position at a jogging pace, painfully slowly as the beast flared its wings and gave a roar of challenge before he took pursuit. “Ancestors protect, that shockwave… I can’t see straight.”
Reugas charged a shot, and finally delivered a shot to the beast that gave it pause, having the arrow—less of an arrow and more of a lance—collide with the beast’s knee and causing it to trip over itself. The ranger let out a shout of triumph before adjusting his tactic to match. The arrows glided over Kandro’s and Artim’s heads as they passed him for the gates.
“Finally got something to work, huh, Reugas?” Artim said, chuckling weakly.
“I don’t expect this to work for long. This bastard can absorb my shots like a needle on steel,” Reugas said. “I don’t even think the arrows are penetrating, only that the shots have enough force to keep him at bay.”
“Artim, can you run?” Kandro asked.
“One foot in front of the other, shouldn’t be too hard,” Artim said, stumbling as he stepped onto a rock and misgauged his next step. “Damn it all!” He shook his head, pulling Kandro along as he broke into a clumsy run. “The one thing… that the empyrean magic… does not do… is provide you… with a resistance to force,” he wheezed.
They approached the gates as flapping wings and snarling maws grew steadily louder, closing in on their prey waiting there. Tehin was standing with Sehyia, the only ones on the city’s side of the gate. The others waited behind it, their forms seen darting about as Yhimit’s swords carved crescent flashes through the air.
“There! We’ve almost made it!” Kandro said.
“Son of a—watch yourselves, the thing’s taking to the air!” Reugas shouted.
Daring to look behind Kandro saw the beast rise high into the sky, blotting out the forms of the winged demons as if a man to an ant, and dive towards them. Ahead, the gates were close, easily close, but Tehin and Sehyia pointed to the skies to warn them of what they already knew was descending upon them.
“Reugas, Kandro, brace yourselves!” Artim said, a ribbon of golden energy slithering around his free arm. “I can do it… just one more shield…”
“You’re in no condition to be doing anything,” Kandro said.
“With all due respect, sire, we’re not all Tehin. I’m not willing to chance our survival on you trying to deflect his blade or any of us to dodge.” He raised his arm, flattening his hand with a finger pointed at the gate. “Hold on.”
Like the one he had invoked earlier, this shield was similar in form, but only large enough to cover the three of them. The beast floated high, pulling its arm back for its imminent attack. Then it dove, again, but like a hawk diving to catch its prey, far too speedy for a massive thing like itself. A purple glow was left in its wake, a flash of color that Kandro only glimpsed before he looked away and tensed himself, eyes tightly shut.
He lost track of his senses, and felt as if he were floating. The world spun around him, glowing yellow as Artim’s shield had done its part to prevent their total obliteration. The reprieve of calm was broken as he violently slammed into the ground, tumbling along the road as the world continued to spin, and he grew dizzy. Bringing his right hand close to avoid cutting himself with the Blade, his left hand was empty, and there was no Artim beside him.
Kandro at last took in a sharp breath as he came to a stop on his back. His ears rung, and the miasma’s stench only seemed to have intensified the last he’d taken to noticing it. Muffles popped in and out of his hearing, faint shouts that grew to call his name as his mind became clear.
“Kandro!” Artim’s voice was distant. “Get up! Get up now, sire!”
Taking heed of Artim’s words, Kandro began to rise when he found his head refamiliarizing itself with the ground again at a breakneck speed. His sturdy helmet, however, absorbed the blow and he found a giant hand pinning him to the ground. He struggled, but found no purchase, and he was left at the mercy of the beast as he stared into its eyes, filled with malicious glee.
All the while, Artim and Reugas continued to pour bolt after bolt, arrow after arrow to no avail. The beast slowly brought the hook of his sword above Kandro, holding the weapon in clear view and showing what it meant to do, before it began to lower the weapon to his neck. Kandro knocked himself about, but with all of his body below his neck completely immobilized, his movements did nothing to faze the beast’s grasp.
“Prince Kandro! No!” Sehyia’s voice was mixed in with Artim’s, and he heard the scurrying taps of her boots. He looked up, viewing the world upside down to see her approaching, her slender sword in hand and her coat picking up dust behind her.
Kandro frowned. “Sehyia! Stop!” he said, straining as his breath was continually squeezed out of his body by the beast’s grip. “Don’t come any closer!”
“What?” Sehyia did as asked, coming to a walking stop, but looked at Kandro with surprise. “But you—”
“Take the others!” he interrupted, wriggling around when he gasped as the beast flattened its hand and he felt the stone underneath his back crack with the impact. His body screamed out in pain. “Just get out of here!”
“I will absolutely not!” Sehyia disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing bounding through the air with her legs straightened and flat. She impacted the blade, knocking it back and pushing it into the beast’s chest. She hastily pulled Kandro out from underneath the hand, dragging him away as fast as she could manage before the beast recuperated. It growled in displeasure, and flicked its hand at her.
Sehyia yelped as she was thrown back. “Sehyia!” Kandro said, rolling to his knees. Pain shot through his chest, and he found himself short of breath. He gritted his teeth and limped forward, and he saw Artim preparing another spell: again a shield, but for Kandro himself. Kandro’s lips thinned into a tense line as he felt every muscle in his body strain to keep him upright.
Ahead, he saw Sehyia’s body, splayed out in the middle of the road, with Tehin crouching down to pick her up. Her body did not move as he slung her over his shoulder, returning to the gate where he left her in the care of Fluttershy. Kandro felt pained: at himself, for letting her put herself at risk, and at her for refusing to heed his command. He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a deep groaning, as if the earth itself was moving, and saw that the beast’s sword was set to collide with his shield.
His predicament repeated: he was thrown astray and landed with a dose of nausea, and he found himself underneath the beast’s palm again. He found himself too weak to resist, finding that even the call of empyrean magic was too fleeting, too weak to be used. With the beast’s glow of magic now surrounding its horns, it must have held the same leeching ability as the dragon. He swallowed hard and awaited his fate.
“Not today, demon!” Kandro’s eyes widened at the sound of that booming voice. The beast looked around, languidly turning his head as its jagged jaw curved into a frown, like one that a person would give a fly that continued to buzz around the ears. But the casual pass of the threat the voice held worked against it this time, as its wings exploded in holy fire.
The beast howled, recoiling and dropping its greatsword, rearing up onto its hind legs and freeing Kandro from its grasp. Its muscles twitched and spasmed as golden lightning struck at its body, originating from the tip of the staff that Captain Ghiraza held in his bloodied hands. It was a ornate antique, a craft of wood and gold, with a gem with a color of the whitest snow at the tip of its crown.
Ghiraza pushed the beast back as he circled around to join with Kandro. “You… you’re still alive!” Kandro said, accepting Ghiraza’s hand as they backed away from the entrapped creature. “I thought you were dead!”
“Many times I thought the same thing,” Ghiraza said, drips of blood coming out of his mouth. He coughed heavily, barely managing to hold his staff steady to direct the arcs that originated from it. “Come now, Kandro, let us be rid of this city.”
“You’re hurt,” Kandro whispered. “You are in no shape to fight. Let the others take you to safety, I will manage the staff myself.” He reached over only to have Ghiraza immediately slap his hand away.
“No,” Ghiraza said. “This staff will not answer to you. This giant beast will be held at bay so long as I wield it. Let us get to the gates, quickly now.”
Artim and Reugas rendezvoused with them, repelled the onslaught of demons that trickled in, at first frightened away by the beast’s appearance but now emboldened by it. “Ghiraza!” Artim said, walking with them. “You’re alive! And what an entrance you’ve made. Just where did you get that staff? Weren’t you going to find Kandro?”
“I knew our prince would be well, so I didn’t leave to find him,” Ghiraza said. “I left to find this weapon. A thing of the past, now our only hope in escaping here alive. You asked whether there was anything in the wagons we could use in the war, Prince Kandro. Here it stands before you.”
“This staff…” Kandro found himself looking at the ground. “The voice lied…” he whispered to himself.
“Hurry, hurry now!” Tehin shouted as they drew closer. “Tyermos stopped by a while ago. The rest of the troops have fled with him. Fort Renot is being evacuated as we speak. The demons are already spawning within its walls, and Tiraen and Empress Aleyia are fleeing north with what remains of the Crown Legion to Lherren.”
“Wait, then we really are going to jump into the river?” Rainbow asked. She looked over the railing and gulped nervously at the whitewater. “At least ‘Shy and I can fly…”
“The Roaring River will take you far from here, and close enough to Lherren,” Ghiraza said, pouring his staff’s lightning through the small opening that the gates left, incinerating any demon attempting to forge through. The beast beyond, flightless, picked up its sword, glaring at him before returning to the Spire. “Go now, all of you. I will stop them from following you for as long as I can.”
“You’re hurt,” Kandro repeated. “You’re in no condition to fight.”
Ghiraza chuckled bitterly, as Fluttershy came to inspect his wounds. The pegasus peeled away his armor and cloth, recoiling in horror when she stared at his chest—or rather, what was left of it. “You see now… I was never a user of magic. The staff demands payment for its power, and when magic cannot be provided… one’s life can be substituted.”
“It’s killing you!” Twilight said. “I can apply some healing magic, at least help you get on the road to regenerating it. We can sanitize it, wrap it up, and you’ll be fine!”
“That’s not the payment I was talking about, young pony. I was already a dead man before I found this staff. It’s the only thing keeping me alive at this moment. The winged demons found me before I could get to the wagon, and they pecked and clawed away at me.” He shook his head, speaking strongly and without pain. “But I found the staff in time. A relic of the old age, Prince Kandro, gifted to an old brotherhood of vigilant men and women by the Founders of Lherren.”
Yhimit took notice, joining in on the conversation with folded arms.
“You know of the Brotherhood?” Artim asked him.
“Indeed,” Ghiraza spoke sadly. “I am the last living member of the Brotherhood.”
“But Yhimit here… he is part of the Brotherhood. He even confirmed it himself,” Rarity said. “Surely you cannot mean that the organization has long since died out? There must be more of you, right?” She looked back and forth between the two. “...Right?”
“We had no new recruits, not for the past century. Our task had been done, and we saw no need to add more to our ranks.” He smiled at Yhimit. “Though it seems that someone else had other ideas.”
“And you’re sure of this… how?” Kandro asked.
“I was the grandmaster of the Brotherhood for that last generation, Prince Kandro. I would know if we inducted anyone into our ranks, since it must be done with the grandmaster’s approval.” He waved them away. “Now, away with you all. You deny an honorable man a good death, and I’d rather not have you all join me on my journey to the afterlife.”
“Ghiraza… thank you,” Kandro said.
“I need no words from you, my prince. I’ve done all that I can. The dreams told me of what would happen here today, and the dreams tell me that you will succeed. I have faith in them, in all of you, and the Paragon and Protector’s charges.”
“Dreams?! Then—”
“I’ve said too much.” He waved his hand, and levitated them all off the bridge and over the Roaring River. “Ancestors protect you all… and may the First bless you with his wisdom.” He closed his hand, and they fell far to the waters beneath.
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I've been waiting for this chapter.
I did, before it was revealed not to have told Kandro the truth about the library's secrets. Now, though... I don't know.
Hmmm... Maybe a distant ancestor of Prince Kandro and his father--or the Trickster masquerading as such...?
Awaiting more...!
3868456 Thanks! You're the first to actually have responded to my author's notes questions. Makes me wonder if people bother reading them.
3868462
Well, you did ask... I thought it was only polite. 
In any case, I do wonder how they're all going to pull a win out of this, now that their only plan for a quick solution is cut off... 
