Chapter 8 Stone failures, sharp chains and snakey curses.
Some time had passed, maybe a month or two, since the day the Equestrian envoy had visited Tanah kahijian, resulting a duel, plenty of injuries and some collateral damage to one roof. Oh, and also an cataclysmic level of a warning shot from an summoned gargantuan magical machine. Overall, it had been a very eventful tuesday.
Townsfolk had added some more security on the walls at night, and where more alert during the day. All this was motivated by fear of retaliation by the Church of the Two Sisters, or Equestria as a whole.
Even Naja was on guard, in case the Sun princess would do some manner of attack, knowing that she had painted herself as a target once more. Only this time, miss sunshine knew where she dwelled, and she did not want to leave the town to fend for themselves against the zealous elements of pony kingdom.
Oddly there have been no movement against them from Equestria. No assassin, no missionaries, no military... And said silence was making marilith worried and a bit wary. Wary enough to hide any bonded and un-bonded materia they had, which included the Big guy, named Alexander. It especially could NOT fall into the hooves of Equestrian church. They most likely would use it to conquer other lands, or force others into their faith. At least as long as Zealous Soul held the title of Archbishop...
Even those of the townsfolk, who had bonded with some materia, chose to hide them and chose to wear well made decoys, due to the striking similarities between a shard of condensed wild magic and a lump of fancily colored glass to those not specifically attuned with them. They even made a "shrine" to showcase them. Just in case...
But now at the moment Naja was present at a humble celebration at the town square, for the start of proper construction for the new section for the town, where the duel was fought. At the moment there was only a few foundation's there and plenty of wood, ready to be used for later construction.
"It truly warms my heart to see a small collection of huts and tents to have grown into a full blown town, with more of it coming down the road. And despite of few set back's and a somewhat of a rocky start, we all have prevailed and built a strong community together." Naja spoke while raising a goblet of sorts, about size of a large bucket or two. Others had their own sorts of drink holder, mostly a variety of fruit juice and some more fermented stuff too, which was kept away from the little ones.
"Cheers, for the good times and prosperity for all of you!" And with these word everyone present took a traditional sip from their respective drinks, many even closing their eyes for a second.
And then the joyous occasion was ruined by a sudden explosion of colored gasses, causing plenty of coughing and a sudden loss of feeling in their limbs. Naja could smell the gas, but did not feel anything different. But the sudden gassing made her call her swords.
'Well this day went south oddly fast...'
Naja didn't need to look for the guilty party. One sweeping glance revealed several leather armored ponies on the roofs. All of them had a certain rogue or hunter vibe in them. And few of them where pointing a crude cannon-like contraptions at her. And fired them, sending chains, with various trapping instruments attached to them, flying at her.
She countered many of the shots with plenty of sword slashes, while the presumed hunters kept aiming at her arms. Either they where trying to disarm her or take her alive. And she had few guesses who they might be working for.
'Ramuh's beard they're persistent. If this was any where else I would be giving them some fi-'
Najas line of thought was interrupted by a sharp pain on her upper left arm, making her drop one sword and yell out in pain. The reason for that was a harpoon, with some wicked looking barbs, sticking out between her hand and elbow, ruining both bracer and the arm's muscle tissue. And causing pain a plenty.
This painful and somewhat bloody distraction allowed other hunters land their shot's on mariliths arms, these being mostly shackles and bolas. Result of this move was all six arms tied up and slightly pulled behind her, to make it harder to do anything with either hands or fallen swords. Harpooned arm was seriously hurting from this pulling.
In short, it was safer for Naja stay still in order to avoid any serious damage.
"Be wary of the tail! And has anypony sent the signal yet?"
"Already done!"
"Good. Now let's move civilians to safer spots. And that means every single one of them, not just ponies. We don't want trouble with other nations!"
"But didn't that Archbishop fellow say that-"
"I know what he said, but WE don't want problems with other nations!!"
Hunters argument stopped as a magical portal opened up at the square, but they luckily did not stop moving the locals out of the way, setting them up in various sitting positions, many of the hunters trying to apologize, and the villagers glaring at them quite furiously, still unable to move or speak.
At this point several ponies began to exit from the portal; plenty of gold armored guards, few paladins, and several fancily dressed bishops, the Archbishop Zealous Soul among them, looking more than a bit smug, and few more humble looking friars. And soon both princesses exited from another portal near the town gates, Celestia in her ceremonial looking battle gear, looking proud of something. The Moon princess on the other hoof, was looking little unsure about the situation.
"So... We meet again, you heinous beast. Not so mighty now, are ye? Brought down by noble faithful ponies of Equestria." Zealous Soul began, with an obvious disdain towards marilith, even walking closer to her, with an expression that almost literally oozed superiority complex.
"Calling me a beast would imply I would be unable to reason, and I never said anything about being mighty. And you seem to still be a racist diminutive equine, with a ego too big for their earthly frame..."
Zealous Soul was about to argue back, but Naja was faster. "And if you come any closer, you would almost be in range for me to bite your head off..." This comment caused few gasps from the bishops and friars, even making Archbishop stutter for a second, only to be followed by few more words. "...But I won't..."
"A-and why is that? Am I too holy for you?"
"No, way, waaaaay far from it. I just don't want to have stomach ache from your racism and superiority complex."
"Y-you dare?!! Enjoy that tongue of yours while you still have it!!" At this point familiar looking friar stepped toward.
"Aah, Archbishop... Maybe you should hold your tongue. I mean the locals can still hear you and the prin-"
"Silence friar Zealous Spirit! And get the civilians separated from those heretical creatures, so we can get to cleansing their minds from the influence of this unholy monster. And as for the creatures, might as well cleanse them out of this place..." was Archbishops answer, with the last part being said in a way that did not sound that merciful, making both princesses to stop, both looking a bit aghast about archbishops words, younger even more so. And these words actually got some approving nods from bishops... And snapped something within Najas mind...
"Archbishop Zealous Soul, we are not here to commit some barbaric ethnic cleansing of non-ponies, but to free local citizens from the influence of that worm. And I would expect more civil behaviour from a pony of your position." Celestia commented, surprising plenty of ponies, on equestrias side at least.
"But your highness, this is for the memory and glory of thy late father, who knew exactly how to handle the uncivilized heretics beyond our borders and-" *SPLAT!!*
Any word that the Archbishop would have continues to say where silenced when a certain two ton purple-scaled tail slammed on him, making him a Archbishop of pancakes... Although pancakes would find him offensive...
The angle of the tail strike caused some of the blood and assorted giblets flying... Some landing right on the face of few equestrians, Sun princess included, causing plenty of shocked faces and some screams amongst the equestrians. Marilith had surprised even the hunters with this move, which was swinging it's tail over its own head while bowing forward, and managed to do it without disrupting the chains on her arms.
Next thing happening was Naja removing her tail from the bloody mess, that used to be Zealous Soul, while seemingly breathing stream of concentrated fire at it, cleaning the mess from tail and street stones, leaving barely even ashes behind.
"May the Snake King Dalamadur destroy your freaking churches of racism every time you try to force your views on others or commit geno- or xenocide by any other name..." Naja all but rumbled out while her eyes flashed for a moment. Some could even feel varying levels of chill go down their spines.
"Secure the blades..." Celestia ordered, while slowly walking closer to marilith very warily, due to the obvious reasons. The soldier hurried to pick up fallen blades, only to be having some trouble in moving them. Seemed like that in order to move one of the mariliths swords, required around five to eight guards dragging one on the ground. Even unicorn guards had trouble with telekinesis, with four sweating bullets in floating just one, one looking ready collapse.
"I see that you are hiding the scars I left on your neck last time you visited... Guess we both now have some physical scars from each other, eh?" Naja commented while eyeing white alicorns armor, in which the neck area was visibly newer metal.
"And you are soon nothing but a memory..." was Celestias near emotionless comment back, followed by her summoning certain six important looking gems. While this was happening, Luna walked beside her sister. The look on the Moon princesses eyes was somewhat sad looking, like she was trying to say 'sorry' to Naja without being heard. Perhaps the younger sister was more sympathetic towards mariliths current predicament.
"You will regret this..." was all Naja said while Princesses began to cast something powerful with the gems, eyes glowing and some rainbowy light's dancing around them. And very soon a rainbow colored beam of light shot upwards and then curved towards the marilith, who merely glared at it defiantly, soon being bathed on the rainbow-beams light.
This was followed by a cracking sound when stony surface began to creep up the serpentine body, ignoring the chains, harpoon and other entrapments on arms, very soon covering even her face, leaving it on the defiant look...
"It is finally over..." Celestia said, looking at the now-statue of marilith. Luna said nothing, just looking away from the stony sight.
"Now we only have to-" *CRACK*
Sun princesses musing was interrupted by a sound of stone cracking, and one look showed a huge crack on the petrified marilith's torso and face. And soon with one good deep breath marilith's bosom broke free from it's stony layer, followed by head getting free too with one firm shake. The rest of the stone layer crumbled with few stretching moves and a small tail shake.
"Looks like I'm not going to be a lawn ornament for pidgeons to sit on." Naja said, with a humble grin on her face.
"H-how?... N-no, it doesn't matter, I still have a backup plan for this..." was sun alicorns comment for this situation. With those words said, Celestias horn began to glow extra brightly, making the guards, the church folk and even Luna to back away from Celestia.
Then a magically flaming gateway opened behind Naja, holding a stone platform of sorts, with chains attached to surrounding walls, coming to life and and grabbing hold of her tail and arms, magically destroying hunter chains and harpoon, and starting to drag her in. This caused a little bit of instinctual struggling, making chains to pull harder. While this was happening, lightly triumphantly smiling Celestia was beginning to visibly sweat. The spell was clearly very demanding magic-vise, with opening a gateway to another presumed plane of existence and affecting some chains in there at the same time.
"Celestia!!" Naja roared with a sharp, defiant edge in her voice. "You'll never be rid of me!!!"
If Celestia said anything, Naja did not hear it, due to portal closing, leaving her in chains in some manner of truly gargantuan cavern complex, on a platform of sorts. There seemed to be several other platforms in there too.
Now in almost complete silence, reality partially crashed on Naja, causing her to hang her head in fear. Not for herself,but for the safety of the townsfolk, now that the Equestrian royalty and church had found them. Who knows how they would try and coerce them, considering earlier encounter's and the reputation the church and the pony nations apparent reputation in attitude towards non-ponies. It made her worry for a reason...
"Hey... Ol' Squidface? If you can hear me... Spare the townsfolk and their descendants from anything the Equestrians might try against them or the town. I don't care if I have to take a near millenia long power nap for that..."
-
-
-
"...oK, gOt iT..."
"I highly doubt that..." Celestia muttered while watching the conjured gate to Tartarus close, locking up the serpentine horror away for good. Still sad that they lost one pony... In front of his son even.
"Are the townsfolk getting better from the gas?"
"Yes, your highness. More than half are already standing up and moving to either check something in their homes or gathering over there..." came hunter's answer.
With that, the Sun princess turned to face the growing crowd of ponies. And other creatures too. All having a very neutral expressions, in a very unsettling way...
"Dear citizens! There is no more need to fear! You are free of the influence of the serpent, and free to join the land of Eques-" *splat*
Celestia little joyous victory speech was interrupted by an over ripened piece of fruit, a mango to be exact, flying at her cheek, causing the guards to gather around her and shocking the higher-ups of the church folk and the Princess herself. The thrower turned out to be an griffo-, no, a hippogriff youngling, angrily fluffing up it's feathers.
A wave of her hoof stopped any of the guard of church member from doing anything. "Child? Why did yo-"
"You're a mean person..."
For reasons unknown, the hybrid child's words hurted Celestia even more than the battle injuries she received during her last visit here. Even the rest of the equestrians where silent at this. After wiping some of the fruit gunk, Celestia went to try and salvage this.
"Young one, you may be a little confused right now, but-"
"No, he's not. My son, Hermes, is very sane and very honest, almost to a fault." came an interruption from a grey unicorn mare, whom Celestia recognized as Shadow Petal, who looked quite furious now. The comment of the hybrid being her son made few church higher ups look disgusted at this information.
"Lady Naja is our dear friend and ally around these parts. She was already living around here when most of us arrived to find a place to settle together. And she did not do anything that the monsters your late father preached on and on about, whenever making a public speech, would do."
"Please, I'm sure you can understan-"
"No. It is YOU who does not understand. There is a valid reason, or two, why the ponies and plenty of other creatures here left your nation, whether they where born, moved, immigrated or bought in there. And one of those reasons WAS your dear daddy, and one other one is the church, which has changed it's name few times."
Sun princess actually went speechless after that surprisingly calm rant from Shadow. This was followed by few more thrown fruits and vegetables at the princess and other equestrians, along with few shouts and such from the locals.
A moment later, Shadow raised her hoof to stop the throwing for a moment, revealing a hoof-band with a green and blue gem-like orbs in it, fitted in an intricate set of linked holes for them.
"Now, this will be warning shot from all of us. After that you really should leave, before Timid calls Fluffy and his pack here to prove that we don't wan't you here... Now LEAVE!!!!"
With those words, Shadow waved her hoof, making the two orbs glow lightly, causing several dark, black orbs to appear above all equestrians. The orbs then disappeared and then something seemed to cause all those affected to momentarily collapse, like something heavy was suddenly put upon their backs.
After that spell was over, smartest of the equestrians present started to take their leave; mostly friars and few paladins and troops and Luna. The rest received some encouragement by the thrown fruits and vegetables. Celestia seemed to the biggest target, on so many levels...
After a few minutes of fruit bombardment, the equestrians, and hunters, had left the town. Few locals even went to carefully check that they did not have any camps nearby, and luckily they did not have. Magical traces hinted for a portal-spell being used just recently near the beach area.
Now with the threat over for now, time to mourn arrived. Needless to say many, many sad tears where shed among the citizens of Tanah kahijian... Followed by a shared resolve to get marilith's swords back from the princess, and to be extremely wary of anything the equestrian royalty or the church might try to do... And wishing that one day Naja would return to live with them, or with their descendants...