//------------------------------// // Chapter 53 // Story: A New Dragon in the Crystal Empire // by Vedues //------------------------------// Celestia gasped as the spear in her chest was jostled from Luna’s teleport, then she screamed when her sister’s magic ripped the spear out entirely. Warm blood spilled from the wound, splashing against the crystalline floor below. Celestia dimly noted that they were in the quarters she shared with Luna. “Sister,” Luna almost shouted, “hold on. We shall heal thee immediately!” She put her hooves over the wound and scrunched her face in concentration, but the hooves didn’t light up with healing magic. Celestia pulled in more of the sun’s power to strengthen her faltering body. “Claws,” she gasped through the pain. The dragoness, who was already running to Celestia’s side, shoved Luna’s hooves out of the way. “Let us handle this while you get control of your emotions.” Healing magic immediately began pouring out of her palms into the wound. “Torch, Eyes, I’m going to need all the willpower you can spare. The spear punctured her lung. Twilight, I could use a second healer.” She turned back to Celestia. “You’re lucky it didn’t hit your heart.” It actually would have if Celestia hadn’t seen Providence throw that spear and tried to dodge. Obviously, she hadn’t been fast enough. Celestia could only nod, and even that sent a fresh wave of agony coursing through her. She jerked involuntarily. “Try not to move,” Claws said quickly as Twilight teleported to her side and cast her own healing spell. “Wounds from Guard weapons are hard enough to heal without you aggravating them.” Celestia was starting to feel like she would pass out, but she did her best to remain motionless. She had to take very shallow breaths to keep herself from flinching, and the urge to cough was becoming stronger every second, but that wasn’t her main concern. The entire Alliance army was still inside of the Crystal Empire; as well as Samhane, who hadn’t been with the other members of the Requiem Guard; and Providence, who was somehow still alive after being struck by the Elements. The urge to cough finally became too much. It was a relatively quiet one, but that didn’t stop the pain from blacking out Celestia’s vision. “Hang in there,” Twilight said shakily. “You’ll be fine. Just fine.” Celestia did her best to smile reassuringly, but she knew that it came out as more of a grimace. Her mind kept returning to Providence. How was he still alive? He had been a powerful minotaur in life, and transforming into one of the Requiem Guard had made him even more formidable, but the Elements were on a completely different level. The only answer that Celestia could come up with was that they had deliberately spared Providence for some reason, though she couldn’t imagine what that reason could be. -_-_-_-_-_- Talon didn’t want to believe what she had just seen. Providence had survived a blast from the Element Bearers and then mortally wounded Celestia. “No,” Talon whispered. All hope of peace would be lost if Celestia died, and she didn’t think anything could survive getting hit by a Guard spear like that. She turned just in time to see a blast of wind from Silver Tail send Samhane flying to the ground. The berserk Guard smashed through four houses before coming to a stop, but it got up and flew back at Silver Tail without even a moment’s hesitation. Flew, not jumped. Talon didn’t know how it was even possible, but somewhere in the middle of this battle, Samhane had started legitimately flying, and even the combined strength of the Alliance was barely slowing it down. A crushing weight settled on Talon’s chest as she realized that this could be it, the last stand of the Alliance. “Heart,” she had to force the words out, “what do we do?” “I don’t know,” Heart said. “Are these things really unstoppable?” Samhane reached the cluster of dragons around Silver Tail and quickly disappeared from Talon’s view among the many scaled forms. Rays of magic, bursts of fire, and clouds of smoke filled the area once more, as dead and maimed warriors began to fall to the streets below. Silver Tail’s voice filled the air. “Retreat, everydragon! We’ll hold it off as long as we can!” His voice snapped Talon back to the present. “Tornado, get to that shield. Heart, I need as much of a boost as you can give, then get to the shield and get everydragon out of here. I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk Providence into helping us stop Samhane.” Heart shook her head. “You stay with Tornado. I’m not letting you get yourself killed trying to reason with one of those monsters.” She had already taken a step toward the edge of Tornado’s back when Talon grabbed her with one wing. “Heart, wait.” Talon spat a cloud of gas into her friend’s face. “Sorry,” she said over Heart’s uncontrollable coughing, “we need your vote if we ever want to end this war. Tornado, get moving!” Then she took off toward Providence. She landed hard on the street, near what looked like a severed tower top embedded in the side of a house. Six Guards lay scattered among the debris, silent and unmoving. Kneeling among them, though, facing away from her, was Providence. It seemed to have its head bowed. Talon paused. This creature might be the Alliance’s last hope. What was she supposed to say to it? “Dragonling,” the Guard said without turning around, “six of the most loyal and selfless minotaurs in the history of Minos just died, and I just took my hollow revenge on a good ruler. Do you think I care what you have to say right now?” The sound of its voice made Talon stop short. It was almost like the voice of a normal creature. “Celestia,” Talon swallowed, “i-is she really dead?” “I …” Providence bent down and lifted his war hammer from the debris at his hooves. “I did not know how to feel anything but anger and grief, not after so long.” He hurled the weapon back down. “I killed … mares and foals. Their blood …” His hands began to shake. “Their blood is on my hands!” He pressed both hands to his face, roaring in a voice of utter loss and emptiness. “Why?” He punched the ground, shattering crystalline pavement. “We were meant to be guardians! We were meant to protect, never to attack!” He slammed both fists down. More blows shattered the pavement as he continued to shout, “We were never meant to do this! We were never, never to harm anything …” He looked at his arms and let them fall limp, “that had not … sought to harm us first …” His final word came out as a whisper, “What was I?” Talon gathered her courage and stepped closer. “Providence, we need your help. Samhane has gone berserk. Its attacking the Alliance, and we can’t stop it.” Providence’s body tensed. “Samhane.” He turned and looked at Talon, his eyes boring into her. “She’s still alive? Has she been using her ring?” Talon stumbled backwards and did a double take. Yes, Providence had eyes now instead of featureless blue orbs. They were still ethereal and she could see right through them, but they were definitely eyes, eyes that shone with a kind of desperate hope. “Y-yes, she’s using her ring.” Providence looked down at his hands and slowly balled them into fists. “Where is she?” “Over there.” Talon pointed with a wing. He turned to the cluster of dragons in the distance. “Tell Silver Tail to force her in this direction with his wind. I will calm her blood lust or die trying.” Talon relayed the message to Heart through their link—Heart was more than a little pissed about what Talon had done—then she took a few more steps back. Whatever kind of duel was about to happen, it was clearly going to be way out of her league. “You should remain close,” Providence said, gripping his war hammer and rising to his hooves. “Samhane will attack any creature that tries to run from her.” Talon stopped and had to fight down the urge to twitch her wings. There was nothing more she could do except wait. A few seconds later, Talon saw a dark form get blasted toward them, forced by a giant wall of wind lances. She ducked, but not quite fast enough. One of the lances grazed her back, leaving a line of burning pain between her shoulder blades. Providence weathered the barrage without so much as a flinch. Only his arm moved, shooting up to grab Samhane by the throat. That kind of impact should have sent both suits flying, but somehow Providence didn’t budge an inch. Samhane looked even worse than when Talon had last seen her. So many glowing red cracks covered the Guard’s armor that it was hard to tell that it had once been dark silver, and some kind of ethereal liquid dripped from the cracks, evaporating before it could touch the ground. Each of her axes was caked in blood and gore, and her draining aura made Talon’s knees feel weak. Samhane’s eyes were the worst part; orbs of red that flickered wildly like a bonfire in a storm. “I challenge you, Samhane,” Providence said, his voice hard and angry. An unearthly roar escaped Samhane’s helmet, like a thousand needles being dragged along a piece of steel. Both her axes buried themselves deep in Providence’s arm while at the same time she kicked herself off of his chest. Talon only caught a glimpse of Providence’s counterattack, but when Samhane landed she was missing part of her right arm, just below the elbow. More of that red substance poured from the stump. Providence charged, one of Samhane’s axes still embedded in his arm, and brought his hammer crushing down in an overhead strike. Samhane was on her hooves just in time to twist out of the way. She completed the spin and sank her remaining ax into Providence’s helmet, although that seemed to have no effect on the other suit as he reversed his previous swing into a vicious upwards blow that sheared away half of Samhane’s helmet. More ethereal liquid flowed from the wound, obscuring the face inside the helmet, but what Talon did see made her feel nauseous. It was like a ghostly fusion of minotaur, dragon, and pony features, shaking and twisting in ways that wouldn’t have been possible for solid flesh. Samhane’s stump of a right arm, which was already regrowing, came up to block Providence’s own arm from coming back down, while her left ax slashed wildly at Providence’s chest and torso, carving wide gouges with each swing. Without even slowing, Providence let go of his hammer with his left arm and grabbed Samhane by her broken chest armor. He lifted her up and slamming her back down into the ground with a sound like thunder. The crystalline road beneath her shattered from the impact as she was driven almost out of Talon’s sight. Another hellish roar escaped Samhane as her newly regrown right hand latched onto the ax still embedded in Providence’s arm. She wrenched it free, breaking off most of Providence’s arm in the process. Samhane pushed herself up, goring Providence in the chest with her remaining horn. The haft of Providence’s hammer forced her back just long enough for Providence to bring the weapon’s head crashing down. His blow pushed both of Samhane’s axes aside as the hammer smashed a path clear down the front of her armor. Red liquid exploded from the wound, highlighting Providence’s form. Then it stopped, Samhane’s draining aura faded, and Providence knelt down to lift up the other Guard’s unmoving form. Her armor was still badly damaged, but her eyes and the runes across the wreckage of her chest had returned to their bluish glow. The spiderweb of red cracks across her armor had almost entirely disappeared as well. Talon worked her mouth noiselessly for a moment, trying to come to grips with what she had just seen. “Is she going to be okay?” Providence didn’t answer right away. First he put Samhane down, revealing the tattered wreck that was his own chestplate, and picked something off the ground, the hand that he broken off of Samhane at the beginning of their fight. The metal looked brighter now, except for an ornate ring on one of the fingers. Providence pulled the ring free and slipped it into a pouch on his waist. “I do not know what will happen to her, dragonling.” He sighed, looking at the broken form of his companion. “She must have absorbed the life-force of hundreds of creatures to lose herself so completely.” Talon didn’t know what to say to that, so she stayed quiet and looked around. The Alliance had continued its retreat, a wise move. They didn’t have nearly enough forces to occupy a part of the enemy’s stronghold. She ordered Tornado to get over here on the double and pick them all up. “What did the Element Bearers do to you?” she asked at last. “I … don’t know.” Providence knelt next to Samhane and put a hand on her metallic shoulder. “It was like waking from a long nightmare,” he lowered his head, “only to discover that it had been real all along.”