Elkheim. A land of snow-capped mountains and jagged fjords. A land of boisterous warriors, eldritch runes, and cold so intense it could freeze the very breath from a pony’s lungs. A land that Carrot Top, Lyra Heartstrings, and Bon Bon were even now setting forth to visit as invited guests at the festival of Sommerswerd.
It was relatively rare for an outsider to be invited to one of the cervid festivals, but it seemed that in the wake of the… unexpected… end to the Contest Of Champions, Lyra had acquired a certain reputation among the warrior-poets of the cervid-kin. Carrot Top’s invitation, on the other hand, was anchored in a wholly different form of respect. The official invitation had been accompanied by a personal note from Crown Prince Fredrick, heir to the throne of Sleipnir. A very personal note in places, and one that made it clear that he’d pulled a few strings to get her invited.
Princess Luna had been, to use an oddly appropriate phrase, over the moon about the invitation. Elkheim rarely bothered Equestria, as the cervids shared relatively few borders with the ponies and generally preferred to skirmish with the equally belligerent griffins, but they were still a formidable military power. And with Corona attempting to acquire allies and support in her quest for the Equestrian throne, securing the alliance or at the very least the neutrality of such a potent realm was a definite priority for Luna’s diplomatic efforts.
Of course, the more intelligent cervid leaders had been equally eager to sustain friendly relations with Equestria. Elkheim contained relatively little fertile land and had a shorter growing season than the realms further south. And of course, without the Cornucopia Effect even the land and time the cervids did have produced only a fraction of the yield pony farmers could have gotten under the same circumstances. The cervid diet was traditionally a fair bit more meat-heavy than was normal in Equestria, but even so the cervids could not sustain anything near their current population numbers without Equestrian food imports. And so the cervid leaders were just as anxious to keep those food shipments coming as Princess Luna was to keep the cervids from getting involved in Corona’s coup.
Lyra’s thoughts were interrupted by a clank from outside her door. A quick glance confirmed that it was just one of their guards stretching his legs. For this visit, Lyra and Carrot Top had each been assigned a Night Guard triad (one each of earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn, standard detachment for bodyguard duty). Any other nation might have viewed Princess Luna sending her elite soldiers to guard the Elements on a friendly visit as an insult, but not the cervids. As obsessed with martial prowess and honor as they were, they’d probably have felt insulted if the Princess hadn’t sent guards.
Lyra’s detachment was headed by a unicorn named Spear Fisher. He was apparently some kind of nephew or cousin to Bobbing Fisher, but the Princess had assured Lyra that he had been carefully checked for and declared innocent of any involvement with the ex-Minister Of War’s improprieties. He was backed up by a pegasus Guard by the name of Black Canary, and an earth pony named Brick Wall. Carrot Top’s guards, on the other hand, were lead by a pegasus guard named Quicksilver backed up by a unicorn named Spring Mist and an earth pony named Granite Hammer.
The train lurched and there was an almighty screech. Lyra wound up sprawled across the floor, head wedged between Carrot Top’s back legs and horn driven into the seat cushions.
“Well, this is awkward,” said Carrot Top after a long moment’s pause, shooting a glance sideways at Bon Bon.
“Quite,” said Lyra, surprising herself with how calm her voice was. She sounded as if she were commenting on the quality of the hayfries at the Bale. She pulled her horn free from the cushions and got to her feet, then glanced out the window. Nothing was visible save some motionless trees.
“Now,” she said, still in that absurdly calm voice, “shall we go see what has happened and why the train isn’t moving?”
As if on cue, there was a noise like a thunderclap and a brilliant flash of light from somewhere near the front of the train.
“Let’s go,” said Lyra, grabbing her lyre in her magic as she galloped out the compartment door. The guards, looking slightly aggravated at their charges, followed close behind.
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My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony –
We’re as close as friends can ever be!
My little pony –
So come on take a trip with me!
A big world tour; new people to meet
New sights to see; and new things to eat
When you’re seeing the world with your friends
The fun you’ll have will never end!
You have my little ponies –
We’ll be seeing all of you real soon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyra climbed out the door, glanced towards the front of the train, and choked down the urge to vomit.
A cervid corpse lay sprawled in the snow and standing over it with its muzzle buried in the corpse’s guts was a monster like nothing she’d ever seen before. It looked something like an enormous badger, one almost as tall as a pony but of course much broader. Its coat was silvery-gray, and there were hints of a white mask around its eyes and mouth beneath the gore.
A moment later an arrow of dark red magic shot past her and sank into the monster’s side. It roared with anger and turned to look at the ponies. Then its eyes widened and it spoke.
“Ponies!” it bellowed, and it grinned, showing a mouth with more teeth than Lyra had ever seen in a mouth that size. Then it charged towards Lyra. She just stared at it for a moment, vaguely noting that Granite Hammer had just charged past her to meet the creature’s advance, and that Spear Fisher had just put another force dart into its shoulder.
Luna preserve me, that thing can talk. It’s not some wild beast that eats because it’s hungry. It is intelligent. It knew that it was killing and eating an intelligent being, and it did it anyway. What kind of monster does that?
The earth pony Guard and the monster crashed into each other. Granite’s forehoof strike slammed into the creature’s shoulder (he’d been aiming for the head, but it had twisted at the last second), while its claw swipe scraped across the armor, raising sparks but not actually penetrating. The two collided with each other and staggered off to the side. For a moment, the monster’s foreleg dangled limply and Lyra thought Granite had shattered its shoulder. But then the flesh visibly writhed beneath the shaggy coat, and the creature could use that leg again.
Several things happened nearly at once. Spear Fisher fired another force dart into the monster’s side, and one of the pegasus guards followed suit with a crossbow quarrel. A moment later, Spring Mist ignited her horn, and a thick cloud of shimmering green mist materialized around the beast’s head. At more or less the same moment, there was another thunderclap and a flash from the front of the train, and a second monster came round the corner of the locomotive.
Lyra finally managed to snap out of her shock, and began to strum upon her lyre. Yellow magic enveloped the second monster and lifted it off the ground. Granite spun and launched a double buck into the already fading greenish cloud. The monster rolled out the other side and flopped to the ground, or rather, its body did. Its head was little more than a bloody mess.
There were more bellows from the front of the train, coupled by fierce shouts in what Lyra was pretty sure was Cervidic.
“I think there are more of these things up there,” she said, gesturing with her still-glowing horn. “Incidentally, any of you have any ideas what to do wit-WAAAAH!!”
At a wave of the beast’s paw, a chunk of ice condensed out of thin air and shot forward to slam into Lyra’s horn. Lyra collapsed onto her rear, head spinning from the backblast, and the beast fell to the ground and burst into a charge towards the ponies. Two crossbow quarrels and a pair of rapidly-fired force darts struck home to little visible effect before it crashed into Granite Hammer. The monster lunged and grappled, getting its clawed paws hooked into and under the armor, and then driving the claws into flesh. It went for the throat, but couldn’t bite through the gorget. But at the same time, the Guard had been smashing his forehooves into the monster’s barrel. And suddenly, whatever had been causing the creature’s ribs to knit shut as fast as the guard could smash them ran out, and it screamed in agony as the rapid-fire blows slammed into its body.
Soft green and dark red magic surrounded the creature’s forelegs and pulled them out. A final volley of kicks sent the dying monster sprawling away.
“Spring Mist, you look after Granite,” barked Spear Fisher. “Ze rest of us, ve vill go see vat is going up zere. Elements, vould you please stay here?”
Lyra briefly considered protesting, but another glance at the eviscerated cervid corpse changed her mind. She didn’t really want to see what those things were doing at the front of the train.
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“They’re called guloids,” explained the cervid runecaster. The remaining two monsters near the train’s front had been defeated, and with the aid of the Guards the pile of tree trunks with which the guloids had blocked the path had been removed. Now the Guards, Elements, and the remainder of the train’s security complement were all eating together, and trying to recover their nerve. Bon Bon held tightly to Lyra, and Carrot Top couldn’t quite stop shivering, despite the train being warm. Three cervids were dead, and one of Luna’s Night Guard had been badly hurt. Granite Hammer’s wounds had been bandaged, and he should heal cleanly, but he’d still been very badly hurt, and only luck and his armor had saved him from death. Under the armor, he turned out to have a dark gray coat with a paler gray mane and a cutie mark of a silvery mountain peak. He also turned out to actually be every bit as big and burly as the armor made all earth pony Guards look.
“They are creatures of Winter, somewhere in the upper middle of the Court’s hierarchy. It’s certainly odd for four rogue guloids to be in this realm, especially when Spring is about to yield to Summer and Winter is thus not adjacent to the mortal lands. It would certainly be within the power of the Lord of Winter to open a path from his portion of the Fae to this world, no matter the time of year, but he would not have gone to such effort unless these beasts were in his service and on a specific mission for him, and they seemed to have no master beyond their own hunger.”
“Vat do you mean ‘rogue guloids’?” interrupted Spear Fisher.
The runecaster shrugged. “Exactly what I said. Not everything of Winter bows the knee to the Lord of Winter. Some guloids are in his service, some are not. These in all probability were of the later category. Those in Lord Winter’s service generally bear his heraldry, and are more often than not armed and armored.”
He continued, “Guloid magic is mostly as you saw, powers of strength and endurance and especially the power to swiftly heal from any wound, coupled with some magic to call ice and snow. And also they can curse their claws so that the wounds they inflict do not heal. Your Granite Hammer was very lucky. The guloid that wounded him was low on magic, and evidently did not wish to use magic it would need for healing. So guloid magic is very potent, but as is often the case with the fae, the power comes at a horrific cost. The guloids can only replenish their magic by feeding on the flesh of thinking beings. Even the flesh of mere animals will do no more than sustain their bodies, and plants and fruits they cannot eat at all.”
Carrot Top had to once again suppress the urge to vomit. “Can we please talk about something else?” she asked plaintively. “For example, could someone explain what a ‘creature of Winter’ is? Fredrick used terms like that a few times in his stories, but he never really explained what they meant.”
The runecaster thought for a moment before speaking again. “The Fae may be divided into four regions, each named for the season to which it corresponds. As the year passes, each region in its turn draws proximate to this mortal world, exerts its influence upon us, and then passes on to be replaced by the next. Indeed, the festival we are attending is the celebration of just such a replacement: Spring passing on and Summer drawing nigh.”
“And though the fae have certain things in common, much of their nature is shaped and defined by the realm in which they live. Each realm has its own separate nature, and its fae will exhibit certain unique traits and appearances.”
“Spring is the season of new growth and new sensations. Springfae, or at least those springfae that take shapes corresponding to the creatures of this world, tend to appear as children, and they affect a terrifyingly child-like ignorance of the true consequences of their actions. They quickly become obsessed with new sensations of all kinds, and theirs are the most intoxicating regions of the Fae.”
“Summer is the season of abundance, in every way. Summerfae appear in the prime of life, bursting with good health and good spirits. But they are spirited in every way, and though they burst with good cheer and friendship, they are frighteningly easy to offend. And even their friendship can be lethal, for they revel in hunts and duels and a hundred other challenges.”
“Autumn is the season of decline, where things wither and die. The fae of autumn appear elderly, on the verge of death. They are the quietest and most philosophical of the fae, accepting that everything dies in its time. Their danger, like their Spring bretheren, comes from their blindness to the nature of mortals. The Autumnfae will kill you, not because they hate you or will benefit from your death in any way, but because they know that all things die, and believe it a kindness to kill you now and get it over with relatively painlessly.”
“Winter is the season of scarcity, and its fae are ruled by the all-consuming drive to survive, at whatever cost. The fae of Winter tend to appear of middle age, past the strength and splendor of youth but not yet crippled by the degradations of old age. There is never enough in Winter, and its fae will pounce on any vulnerability like a pack of starving wolves. On the other hand, though it is very hard to win the friendship of a fae of Winter, if you somehow manage it they will stick with you through anything, for trust has to be absolute when teamwork can mean the difference between life and death.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Dame Toppington?” said one of the Embassy staff. “Prince Fredrick is here to see you.”
Carrot Top perked up. “Really? That’s great!”
Upon Carrot Top entering the receiving room, Fredrick’s face broke out in a huge grin.
“It’s good to see you, Carrots,” he said. “I’ve heard your adventures this spring didn’t stop with Rengoku. Did you really discover an ancient lost civilization of Nahquahn jinn?”
Carrot Top laughed. “Not precisely. Come on, I’m sure you know where the best food and drink can be found around here. I’ll tell you what actually happened, and you can fill me in on all your marvelous deeds since we parted ways. I think Lyra and Bon-Bon want some time alone anyway.”
“As you like, milady,” said Fredrick.
As they left the embassy, Fredrick spoke up again. “Just so we’re clear, you’re not courting any pony back in Equestria, are you? You know I wouldn’t make a move on some other buck’s doe.”
“No, nopony really special. Moon’s tears, I’ve barely had time for dating, as many trips as Princess Luna’s been sending me on. And every time I get back from one of those diplomatic errands, I’ve got to spend a week getting everything on the farm back the way I like it. Luna’s substitutes are a lot better than nothing, but they never get everything quite right.”
“Ah,” replied Fredrick sagely. “A cost of being both a farmer and a Knight Of The Realm that I had never considered. For me, the diplomatic errands are simply a part of my duties as a prince, not a separate structure imposed atop my regular work. I have to admit to a bit of surprise that the Princess has left you in your various positions. I would have expected that as Knights of the Realm, you would have been given a sufficient stipend that you would not need to work, and could focus your attention on your Knightly duties.”
Carrot Top considered that for a moment. “Thing is, all of us like our jobs, more or less. I might not like how many hours I have to work, or how hard digging or planting or weeding can be, but I still wouldn’t want to give up farming. Same with all the rest of us. We’re more than just our Elements, and we wouldn’t want to have nothing to do all day but wait for Corona to show up.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyra was a little surprised at how homelike the guest chambers were. Though a few cervidic customs had crept in, such as intricately woven tapestries on the walls and massive fireplaces, the Equestrian Embassy was by and large built in the Equestrian style, rather than following the cues of cervidic architecture.
Of course, this shouldn't really be a surprise. This is the Equestrian Embassy, of course it'll be built Equestrian-style. I saw that all the way back in the Griffin Kingdoms.
Bon Bon shuddered a little bit. "What is that on the floor?"
Lyra poked the rug. "Bearskin rug, looks like. Feel it, it's soft like you wouldn't believe."
Bon Bon cringed a bit, but poked at the bearskin with a hoof. "Wow. That is soft. Bit creepy, though."
"Yeah, I think I see what you mean," admitted Lyra. "Guess we'll have to pass on the 'rolling around on the bearskin rug' angle. Bed's fine, though. No furs there, not in nearly-summer. And look how big it is!" She jumped and landed on the massive bed. "Care to join me?"
"That sounds like a great idea," said Bon Bon, climbing onto the bed after Lyra. "Come on, roll over and I'll get you out of this armor. I'm not hugging you while you're all metally."
Lyra obligingly rolled over, and Bon Bon began to undo the clasps, pausing between each clasp to rub and tickle the newly exposed regions of Lyra's belly. She had just gotten to one of the best parts, when there was a knock on the door.
"What?" asked Lyra.
The door opened to reveal a copper-coated unicorn mare, apparently about Lyra's age. Her mane was the same shade as her coat, while her eyes were a bright green. Lyra couldn’t tell what her mark was, not from this angle. He jaw dropped as she took in the sight she'd walked in on. Lyra on her back, with all four legs waving in the air, and Bon Bon with her head down between Lyra's legs.
“What is it?” asked Lyra.
“I’m Leaf Catcher,” said the mare, blushing. “I’m supposed to be your guide and translator when you’re ready to go explore the festival, since I understand neither of you are fluent in Cervidic.”
“Thank you,” said Lyra. “I’ll be sure to let you know when we are ready to head out.”
"Ok," replied Leaf Catcher, quickly shutting the door again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prince Fredrick had tried to explain the World Tree to Carrot Top, but even so she still hadn’t grasped it. Not until now, not until she was standing upon it. The central trunk was easily the same size as the Canterhorn, and the primary branches were at least as big as city roads. In fact, many of those branches had houses built upon them and cervids walking to and fro as calmly as ponies on the streets of Equestria’s cities. The secondary branches were as big as normal pine trees themselves, branching off into normal-sized branches and needles in the usual fashion. The entire thing was a work of magic on the sort of scale that normally existed only in legends. She could just vaguely feel the magic flowing through the tree beneath her hooves, a slow pulse like a vast heartbeat.
Before her Elkheim stretched out like a carpet, forests and open heaths and farms jumbled together, cut here and there with the bright gleam of rivers. If she leaned out over the railing, she could see the capital below her, layered circles of houses and businesses separated by walls.
“Magnificent, isn’t it?” said Fredrick.
“Oh yes,” replied Carrot Top. “You were right, there’s no words to describe the view. You just have to see it yourself.”
There was a brief pause, then Carrot Top resumed speaking.
“You ever been down to Canterlot?”
“Not really, why?”
“There’s a place like this, at the very end of the shelf. Marvelous view of everything. Thought you might like to see it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Now why can’t all your Knightly missions take you to places like this?” asked Bon Bon plaintively, indicating the surrounding festivities with a wave of one arm. Deer were bustling here, there, and everywhere, drink was flowing freely, and the streets were lined with tiny booths selling foodstuffs and trinkets. Despite the vastly different architecture and culture, if Bon Bon let her mind go out of focus it almost seemed like she was back in Ponyville.
“They’re supposed to!” protested Lyra. “At least some of them are…” she admitted, and then retreated to “…Well, Zaldia was supposed to just be a concert and a couple of days of sightseeing. It’s not like Luna planned for us to get framed and imprisoned and all that mess.”
Bon Bon simply raised her eyebrows. Of course the Princess hadn’t planned for that to happen, it wasn’t like she was Corona! But it still had happened, just like all the other terrifying things that had happened to threaten the life of the mare she loved.
“Look,” said Lyra, “If things were all moonlight and rainbows, we wouldn’t need the Elements. But as long as Corona and Tirek and all the other monsters keep coming, I’m going to be there to protect you from them.” She tapped the glittering gem of her Element with one hoof. “That’s what this necklace means.”
“I know,” admitted Bon Bon. “I just wish… no, I can’t wish that you weren’t so willing to dive into peril to protect others, because that would mean wishing that you weren’t the mare I love. I guess I just wish that there wasn’t so much evil in the world, so many things that you have to risk life and limb to protect me from.”
“I wish so too,” Lyra said quietly.
The moment was interrupted by a bellow of pain from nearby, accompanied by a great deal of shouting in Cervidic.
Leaf Catcher’s eyes went wide. “What in Luna’s mane… they’re saying a pony just attacked someone!”
Lyra glanced around. There was Spear Fisher, there was Brick Wall…
“Where’s Black Canary got to?”
“Oh, moon’s tears,” murmured Leaf Catcher, facehoofing.
After a few minutes of casting around and shoving, they finally managed to make their way to the heart of the ruckus. At the center of a ring of assorted cervids, Black Canary was standing over the prone form a bull moose, one whose foreleg was bending at an angle that forelegs were most definitely not supposed to bend at. A rather pretty-looking doe was standing just off to one side, looking equal parts worried and relieved.
“Black Canary!” shouted Spear Fisher over the ruckus. “Vat in Corona’s golden hooves do you zink you’re doing?”
“He,” said Black Canary, jabbing the downed bull right where his foreleg no longer properly met his body and causing another bellow of pain, “was trying to force himself on her,” she indicated the doe with a wave of one wing. “So I knocked him down and put him in a subdual hold. I figured even a drunk stallion would have enough sense not to try and break the hold and I could just pass him off to whatever they call the Guard hereabouts. He must have been drunker than I’d guessed, though. He tried to break the hold and dislocated his own foreleg.”
There was a prolonged conversation in Cervidic between Leaf Catcher, the unnamed doe, and a pair of what must have been Elkenhiem lawkeepers. After it finished, Leaf Catcher addressed Spear Fisher.
“It would appear that Black Canary was right. According to the doe, the bull’s advances were indeed unwanted. And she’s willing to confirm that the bull dislocated his own leg trying to get out of a subdual hold. So Black Canary’s in the clear.”
“Neverzeless,” said Spear Fisher, “ven ve get back to ze Embassy, ve are going to haf a long talk about zuch zings as proper use of force and making sure zat you know vat is going on. If you had guessed wrong, ve vould haf a serious diplomatic crisis on our hooves.”
“Sorry,” replied Black Canary, looking a bit embarrassed. “I just don’t like seeing mares suffer at the hooves of stallions.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“… Fifty paces long, I swear!” exclaimed Fredrick, gesturing expansively with a foreleg. “And with great glowing eyes and scales like plate steel!” He paused for a moment to take another sip of mead.
“My dear Prince,” said Carrot Top, focusing carefully to keep from mixing up her words. “I am not some credulous filly. I know perfectly well that a stallion will always exaggerate the size of his serpent.”
There was a moment’s pause, and then they both burst into gales of laughter. Fredrick banged his mug against the table a couple of times, and one of the serving does trotted by to refill it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Ooh, that looks cute!” said Lyra cheerfully, gesturing with her horn towards the stall she had just noticed. It was a seller of charms, mostly wood and bone carved with runes.
“Basic rune-charms,” piped up Leaf Catcher. “Charms for health, fortune, love, that sort of thing. Not a lot of real magic behind these, not when they’re being sold on the street. But there is some magic there.”
“Love charms?” asked Bon Bon suspiciously.
“Those over there,” said Leif, indicating one specific bunch of charms, all marked with the same rune extending right up to the edge of the small bone square. “To make them, you take a double-size charm, carve the rune, then split it down the middle and make two charms out of it. They’re always sold in those pairs, one for each lover. The idea is that since the two runes are actually two halves of one rune, they pull their wearers towards being united.”
“Aww!!” squealed Lyra. “I’ve gotta get a pair for me and Bon Bon!”
With a little translative help from Leaf Catcher, Lyra handed over some of the marks she’d changed bits for at the embassy earlier, and in return got a charm pair for her and Bon Bon. She cheerfully fastened the charms around hers and Bon Bon’s necks. Bon Bon didn’t look quite so enthused, but she seemed to appreciate the sentiment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"…So there we were, stuck in the pit, with about fifty ghuls surrounding us. They were beating us over the head with mind magic, trying to push us into snapping and attacking each other. Wanted some entertainment, I suppose. Anyway, luckily for us Trixie knew a counterspell for that kind of dark magic. We’d run into another splinter of the same thing that was giving the ghouls their magic a few months earlier, out in an isolated corner of Equestria. Trixie’d learnt a spell to counter the thing’s influence the first time we fought it, and Lyra was able to help with her spellsong, so they were able to stave off the worst of the effects. Of course, that just made the ghuls decide to stop playing around with magic and just fly down and kill us all themselves.”
“Sounds terrifying,” replied Fredrick, listening eagerly. “How did you manage to triumph over so many ghuls?”
“Yangin,” explained Cheerilee. “Just dropped in and starting burning ghuls left and right. One of the most awesome and terrifying things I’ve ever seen. I mean, I know the Princess is about a hundred times more powerful than Yangin, but I’ve never seen her just cut loose against a mob of enemies like that. Most of the time when the Princess is fighting, it’s something else on her own level, something that can take the hits. It’s one thing to see the Princess, or even Corona, blasting a lich or something with fireballs. It’s another to see Yangin killing ghuls in bunches with her fireballs.
“Of course, then the ghul chieftain has to pull a bunch of dark powers out of his plothole. All of a sudden he can bring statues to life and suck the magic out of anypony that gets in his way. Seriously unfair.”
“Not surprising,” said Fredrick with a snort. “Ghuls are honorless scavengers who wouldn’t know a fair fight if it started pulling out their tailfeathers.”
“Oh, do you have those in Elkheim as well?” asked Carrot Top.
“Unfortunately so. We kill the ones we can find, but they’re good at running and hiding, if not at fighting or anything actually productive. Plus they breed like the vermin they are.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyra contemplated the set of bone tiles in front of her. After a moment’s thought, she levitated a tile with seven dots on each end and placed it perpendicular to an open seven-spotted end.
“That’s an Antler, right?” she said.
“Exactly,” said Leaf. “So now none of us are allowed to play on anything except the new Antler until we’ve got all three branches.” Suiting action to word, she placed a tile off one corner of the double-seven.
“This is a really interesting game,” commented Lyra. “I may have to buy a set of these to take back home and teach the rest of the girls.” She took a sip of her mead. The cervidic beverage had proved surprisingly tasty, though she’d have to watch how much of it she drank.
“Speaking of the rest,” replied Bon Bon after drawing a tile, “Oughtn’t we to go looking for Carrot Top sometime soon? It’s getting close on dinner time, and she’s been off swapping tales with Fredrick for hours.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You know,” slurred Prince Fredrick. “It’s kinda, wassaword, ironisk, that you’re here for this festival. Wanna know why?”
“Why?” asked Carrot Top, swaying slightly from side to side as the room rippled.
“Okay, so the kloge hjorte say that each of the Fae Courts is connected to one of the Elements. And can you guess which Element’s supposed to be associated with Summer?”
“Uh…” Carrot Top racked her brains, which was somewhat difficult when those brains felt like they were floating in mead within her skull.
“Purple… Perseveran… Wait, that’s not an Element… Oh, I got it! Is it Laughter?”
“No you silly!” laughed Prince Fredrick. “Generosity!”
“Oh,” said Carrot Top. “Of course. Generosity. Shoulda thought of that.”
“Carrot Top?!” Carrot Top stared confusedly at Prince Fredrick. That hadn’t sounded like a stallion’s voice…
“Carrot Top!” There it was again!
Oh.
Carrot Top turned her head slowly to stare back at the mead hall’s door. She overshot a tad, corrected, and finally managed to get the small herd of Lyras and Bon Bons (Or would that be Bons Bon?) into her field of vision.
“Hi, Lyra!” she said. “Fredrick and I were just cashing up. And looks like he decided to show me some of his runes.”
“Wait, what?” asked Fredrick. “I’m not doing any runework.”
“Oh,” said Carrot Top. “So then why is the room going all squoogly?” As if in response to her question, the room keeled over sideways and the floor slammed into Carrot Top.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lances of heat and light, forged in the depths of Corona’s fiery hatred, leapt forth from her Sun to stab Carrot Top in the eyeballs. She threw a leg over her face, desperately trying to screen out the Tyrant Sun’s fury.
“Good morning Carrots!” said Lyra cheerfully.
“Urgwa,” replied Carrot Top.
“That’s good to hear,” said Lyra. “Here, this’ll make you feel better.”
Carrot Top stared blearily at the glass hovering before her in Lyra’s aura. There was something familiar about its contents…
Oh.
Hangover cure.
Good.
Carrot Top grabbed the glass out of Lyra’s magic and gulped down the contents. Sure enough, the tiny ponies hammering on the inside of her skull one by one gave up and trotted off to whatever corner of Tartarus they resided in when not tormenting poor innocent earth ponies.
“Lyra,” said Carrot Top, “You are a true and loyal friend.”
“Why thank you,” said Lyra with a smile. “I’m afraid I had a bit of an ulterior motive, though. There appears to be an emissary from the Fae waiting in the receiving room, and he wants to see us. Somehow it didn’t seem a good idea to keep him waiting.”