//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A Common Enemy // Story: League of Equestria // by FreudTastic //------------------------------// Princess Celestia was sat on her flanks at the royal round table as on the opposite side sat the two visitors who had so desperately sought an audience with her, smiling politely over to them even if she was a bit… concerned of what such strange, bipedal beings had to do in her world. One of them was a giant, almost, dressed in bulky, thick armor with blue and yellow designs, a white sash along his waist, and a massive sword with a golden hand guard. The other was more sleek, and feminine with a red cape over a black, skin-tight outfit, wielding all sorts of ammunition, apparatuses and gear on several belts and satchels on her body, with a miniature crossbow strapped onto her right wrist, and with a larger one on her back, while red goggles covered her eyes. They were nothing like the Solar Princess had seen before, but she kept her manners as she cleared her throat a bit. “So, allow me to ask again…” she spoke up, as the both beings snapped their attention up to her. “Exactly what is your business here in our beloved Equestria?” “Well, as you may have understood earlier… Princess…” Garen spoke up, still a bit confounded that this world was ruled by… animals. Ponies, none the less! “We are here on strict business from our home world, as our nemesis nation from said world will probably have invaded this world as we speak. It is of high importance that we get to know as much of this world as you can teach us, and fast, so that we may pin-point the location of their base of operations, and vanquish them! We have about five months to do so, before we have to depart, otherwise our influence here will become too great.” Celestia nodded. This Garen seemed to be a man of reason, as much as he looked like a warrior. “I understand, and I will allow you to stay for as long as it is necessary. I am sure your influence here won’t disturb us.” She spoke softly. “And, what are your names again? And race, none the less. We have never seen beings like you two in Equestria.” “We’re humans. I am Garen Crownguard, head of Demacia’s Dauntless Vanguard.” Garen introduced himself. “My name is Vayne. That’s all you need to know, pony.” The female one, Vayne, spoke in a more harsh tone as she was fidgeting with her wrist-attached device. Celestia seemed to keep a close eye on this one. She seemed suspicious to her eyes, both with her clothing style and her behavior. “Right… so where you two come from, this ‘Demacia’, are there more of your kind?” Celestia then asked. “Oh yes, indeed there is.” Garen nodded. “But I believe that this kind of idle chatter can wait… for now, we need to make sure that Noxian troops have not invaded this world. You see, our kingdoms have had quite a dispute in the later years, but due to a change of events, our kingdoms were not allowed to interact with one another, and thus hindering the wars that goes on between our countries. Naturally, Demacia is happy with the peace we now have, but we are resting uneasily from the idea of Noxus going onto other worlds like yours to spread the same evil and fear they have unto us. So, without delay, we sought up this world and hoped to aid your kind… but I must say, no offense, that I never thought this world would be inhabited by… talking, colorful ponies.” He tried not to sound disrespectful, and keep up a mask of politeness, but Celestia just chuckled and briskly shook her head. “None taken, Sir Crownguard.” She said dismissively, yet dryly, before she got off her seat and walked up towards the one and only window in the hall. “But you can rest assured, the lands of Equestria and beyond are perfectly fine in terms of protection and soldiers. We have more than enough to stand against an army.” She spoke with a firm belief in her tone, knowing that not only her country, but the countries abroad, would be able to stand against invasions and attacks of any kind. It was her duty as a princess to put belief in her fellow ponies and possible allies. Just then, the doors barged open as a white colt, Shining Armor, rushed inside. “Princess Celestia! Apologies for the interruptions…” he eyed the two humans in the room for a bit, not knowing who or what they were, before he turned back to his princess. “But we just received an urgent message from the southern lands of Boardor! They’ve been invaded!” “What?” Demanded the Solar Princess in a shocked, yet firm tone. “Explain yourself, Shining Armor.” “Of course, M’lady.” He nodded, calming down a bit before delivering his report. “Your highness, we received the report just recently. According to Chieftain Pork Chops, Boardor is under heavy assault from strange, bipedal beings, much like those two…” he narrowed his eyes towards Garen and Vayne. The two of them, however, knew what was happening. “Noxus.” They both spoke in unison, before Vayne took over. “I should’ve known those cowardly dogs would strike sometime…” Garen, however, turned to Celestia. “Where is this ‘Boardor’ located, princess?” he’d demand, as her horn suddenly glowed a bright white as a parchment flew up from a nearby basket and unrolled itself, revealing a complete map of the world. “This is a map of Ponyland… the world you are in now.” She explained, pointing with her hoof to the south, where there was a land divided into two parts, one marked out with volcanoes which probably was a burning wasteland, and the other which looked like a tundra landscape. “Here, just at the edge of the Scorched Lands, is Boardor, home of the boars and ursine people. Their peoples have always been at peace with each other.” Garen overlooked the map as he saw some of the strangest geography he’s possibly seen in his life as a captain, and the names of the cities, countries and landscapes did not help his distress. But he overlooked Boardor, and then saw where Equestria was. “Damn it, it is too far away from here! Those scoundrels are either very cowardly, or very smart to place themselves further away from us.” He said with a slight sigh of frustration. “Very well. I assume that we will have to travel a bit then… but we will need men to fight Noxus, and we only brought fifty…” he looked up to Celestia. “Ma’am, with your allowance, I will set up a camp somewhere here in Equestria with my men, as we try and contact our homeland for reinforcements. We’ll need to build a temporary outpost in your lands as well. I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but we are left with no other choice.” Celestia weighed the decision she had to make now. If what Garen said was true about the Noxian people… then they would have a hoof-full in dealing with them. But she knew it had to be done. She nodded. “Permission granted. Consider us allies, Sir Crownguard. You may settle down with your men for as long as-“ “Celestia!” another voice piped up as near the door, a bright flash was seen before Twilight Sparkle stood there, with Spike on her back as she noticed Celestia, the two alien beings, and her brother Shining Armor. She gave her brother a brief ‘hello’ before she rushed up to her teacher. “Celestia, you can’t be serious! What if these two are just as bad as the other ones! They might be tricking us!” just then, she’d feel the chilling touch of metal to her neck as a crossbow bolt was barely nudging her, Vayne aiming her wrist weapon to her neck. “How dare you compare us to the mongrel hides of Noxus, you imbecilic foal.” She demanded with venom in her tone, but Celestia frowned as her horn glowed brightly in warning, and the Night Hunter sneered while she removed her weapon. “I would appreciate that you do not aim your weapon towards my beloved student, Miss Vayne.” The Alicorn demanded, and then turned to nuzzle the violet unicorn. “You can rest assured though, Twilight, that these two are not of the same agenda as those who are invading Boardor. They are our allies… which I am sure we can rely on.” She shot a glare at Vayne, who instantly gave the princess one back, before Garen went between them. “Alright then, that’s enough.” He demanded. “Now we need to contact our home to see if they can bring building materials.” He looked over to the purple unicorn beneath him. “Princess Celestia. You said this is your student, no? Would she be able to assist in linking another portal to our world?” “What?” Twilight stammered a bit. “I am not sure if I could do that, sir… I’m still a student, so-“ “I trust that you can do it, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia said with a soft smile, making Twilight gasp a bit as she looked up at her teacher. “After all, you are my beloved, faithful student, and you are the inheritor of the Element of Magic. I am most certain you will be able to assist Miss Vayne and Sir Crownguard. I have matters to attend to myself right now, so I will have to excuse myself for putting you through it…” “No, it’s fine Celestia…” Twilight smiled shyly as she nodded. “I understand, these will be pressing times… I will do what I can.” Just then, a echoing ‘Incoming!’ was heard as a window crashed, and with a booming crash, Rainbow Dash barged into the room, knocking over the table and a few books from their shelves as she had Fluttershys flying around her head before shaking herself back to her senses. She had a sheepish smile on her face as she looked around at the others. “Ehehe… sorry.” She said meekly, and while Garen and Vayne just mentally groaned at the sight of more ponies, Celestia just chuckled. “Looks like your friends are eager to help too, Twilight…” -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- “You smell like… bacon!” A childish, yet sadistic giggle was heard as suddenly, a huge torrent of flames filled the battlefield of Boardor, the porcine soldiers of their homeland squealing like… well, stung pigs as the flames grilled their stubby hair and roasted them alive, some of them still running around and burning while most of them had dropped dead by now, and amongst the charred remains was a very small, humanoid shape, skipping around while swinging something in her hand. It was revealed to be a purple-haired girl with green eyes, a purple and pink school-girl outfit, and with a stuffed teddy bear in her hand. She was giggling and cackling with a sadistic tone as a handful of flames were lit in her unoccupied hand as she glared over at the soldier boars that were still alive. “Tibbers say you need to burn… Tibbers want you to go to he-“ “Now now Annie, don’t use such foul language…” a hissing tone was heard as from behind her, a naga creature slithered up, its scales as green and shimmering as Annie’s eyes as she had the appearance of a cobra, her eyes pure white and her fingertips ending in sharp claws, her tail rattling as she hissed. “Thissssssss calls for some more… rational methods.” Rearing her head backwards, she suddenly lashed it back forward, regurgitating and spitting out a foul mass of liquid venom, the purple liquid coating the ground like an acid pool as it slowly spread; any boar inside of it slowly being drenched and utterly melting inside its grasp. The naga woman let out a hissing laugh of amusement as she watched the pigs squeal and beg for their lives while their hides and flesh were searing asunder in her poison. “Aaw, Cassie! I wanted to play with them! Meanie…” Annie frowned as she crossed her arms, but the naga, Cassiopeia, merely pat her head a bit as she slithered ahead of her. “Oh now, don’t put a pout on that face girl.” She said with a sweet, almost motherly tone as she and Annie moved ahead. In front of them was a large set of tents and carts, most likely telling that the Boardor people were nomads by nature, and all of them were razed and lit ablaze as squeals and screams of panic were heard. “There’s more havoc to break…” she snickered with a slight hiss, and Annie just giggled as she seemed to be excited to burn more things, before she went on with Cassiopeia. -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- “D-Damn you… you won’t get away with this… monsters!” one of the greater boars, the only one standing in the camp by now, was coughing and grunting in pain as he had numerous wounds on his big, bulky body, but he stood firm on all his four feet. He was wearing iron mail armor with over-lapping metal pieces, and a horned helmet on his head as it indicated his role as chieftain of his tribe, and in his mouth he held a battle-axe weakly, his eyes fixated upon the two men standing in front of him; One of them was a towering giant, at least 7 feet tall with bulking, thick plate armor, a red cape flowing behind him, and a massive battle axe, even bigger than his own, held in one hand as it was on the ground, stained in blood. The other seemed a bit wilder and care-free, with wild brown hair and a long mustache which framed his grinning mouth, a simple fur vest and shorts, with matching boots, and in each hand he wielded peculiar axes; Each of them had a circular hand guard with a handle in the middle of it, and both of them had two blades, one which had popped out on command almost, and both of them were spinning wildly around the handle as he made small hand movements while holding the strange weapons. “Heh, I never knew that pigs could squeal AND talk, heh…” the one with the spinning axes grinned as he tossed one of them up into the air, catching it, and resumed spinning it. “This is one heck of a crazy world we ended up in…” “Quite so, brother. But it is still much more fun to dispose of these creatures than our prisoners…” the other, taller one smirked as he’d lift his axe up on his shoulders. “Y-You monsters!” The boar grunted again as he tried standing up firmer, but was finding he was too weak to do so. “You act as if killing my people is… s-sports! You are… barbaric! Too cruel to be real!” the one with the spinning blades just cackled a bit. “Wow, this guy for real? I mean seriously…” he stopped his blades from spinning, the secondary blades on each axe folding in with a loud *CLICK*. “No matter, wherever there’s carnage, there’s Draven!” he temporarily holstered one axe to a belt on his waist as he neatly folded his hair backwards, before taking it back into his hand. “And Draven does it all… with style!” “Quit your antics already, brother. Now is not the time for being childish.” The other demanded as he locked his eyes upon the chieftain. “You were a poor chieftain in life… perhaps you will do better with your people… in the afterlife.” He raised his giant axe, and just as the boar below him issued a mighty battle cry, trying to ignore every single ounce of pain in his body to rise and strike the man, his guillotine fell upon him in the form of the human’s battle-axe, a loud chop being heard into the crimson skies as the chieftain’s life ended. Meanwhile, the human named Draven smirked at seeing his older brother execute the poor creature. “Hehe… looks like the boys will have some pork tonight.” -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- Author's Notes: I promised the preview of the Blood Brothers, and here you go! A short one, I know... but it will be better as it progresses, I promise. If any of you have problem thinking of where the locations are, please use the Map I linked in the description as a means of guidance. Sorry if the chapter was short, also, I will try and improve on that.