I’m sorry.
Celestia sighed. It was remarkable really, the difference she felt after resettling the yoke. It wasn’t the unbridled (...) freedom she’d reveled in while facing Hashmalum, but it was a far cry from what it had felt like before. Had she really let it weigh her down so much? She rolled her eyes at the voice in her head. Don’t worry about it. We are going to talk about certain things… like Tirek, and leaving all of us vulnerable to abduction by changelings-
I would argue both those situations worked out quite well. I did not tell you how to deal with them precisely because I believe subtle hints would be enough.
Celestia snorted. I never asked to be ‘told how to deal with them’, you outright misled me! Solise, you really intend to claim you foresaw that they wouldn’t be disasters?
...Mayhap ‘foresaw’ is a strong word. I saw how the patterns would most likely-
Most likely?!
...And you’ve never trusted your beloved student, knowing that she would most likely succeed beyond your hopes? Trusted her to make the right decisions and succeed without being led by the nose? Told her to ‘act alone’ knowing that she would disobey you for the benefit of all rather than putting herself first?
Celestia grimaced at the sour taste in her mouth. ...So this is what it feels like.
I am sorry, Celestia.
She shook her head, sighing. We’ll continue this later. But know that, at the least, I’m not angry.
...Thank you, my dear friend.
Celestia nodded, a small smile lighting her face as she continued to drag down the cocoons hanging everywhere. An irreverent part of her noted that she could probably have done it just as quickly as an earth pony, just hopping from support to support and smashing them. But magic was a softer touch that was probably needed in this case. She didn’t need to be a changeling to sense the fear that the captives were radiating. They’d be safe soon enough.
Not far away, the rest of their group proceeded through the dimmed hallways of the Spire. Sunset’s horn lit their way, with Garken in the front while Gareth and Tempest brought up the rear. The griffin was limping slightly, favoring the side that had blocked the attack earlier. Splitting up further wasn’t an option, nor was staying outside where more beams could be fired.
Twice now, a small group of Oni had confronted them. Twice now, Garken had crushed them… by using one as a bludgeoning weapon against the rest. “You seem out of sorts,” Tempest noted from the back of the group. Sunset didn’t know her well, but she already had the sense that dry snark was her go to.
Garken tossed his newest ‘weapon’ into a wall hard enough to crater the metal and crack the bones of said weapon. Sunset winced as he replied, “I cannot understand these tactics and it irks me. Leaving us outside served no purpose in itself. It’s as though they had nothing prepared to face us… which becomes all the more clear by the rabble that rushes to meet us in this corridor. The Warden is dead. I felt his life essence shatter before the gate fell to our assault. That means they weren’t prepared for your princess as well.”
“Maybe that means the Map led us correctly?” Sunset suggested.
“...Perhaps. I find it difficult to believe they would be this disorganized. Hashmalum is no leader, but surely-”
“Garken Caedum,” an Oni-koru from a branching off hallway called out.
The group stopped as Garken did. “Not calling me ‘warslave’? Has Kirin undone his mental manipulations?”
“Many of us simply went along with it, your punishment for abandoning your position before the end of the war on Earth.” The Oni stepped out of the shadows into Sunset’s light, hands spread apart in a show of nonaggression. He was a hoof or so below two meters tall, and powerfully built. More than most, he resembled a minotaur, if said minotaur had human like feet.
Garken chuckled. “The war ended when humanity destroyed the Spires we’d launched, to minimal losses on their end. Continuing beyond that was a simple refusal on Kirin’s part to see sense. Nearly twenty percent of our people paid the price.”
“Had you stayed to lead us, that number may have been smaller.”
“Perhaps. Is there a point to your words? I’ve turned away from Kirin. You clearly haven’t; the very fact that you accept his true name speaks to that. We are enemies now; words won’t avail you.”
“I mean, we could try talking this out before just torching the place, right?” Sunset asked, quirking an eyebrow at their de facto leader in this situation. She wasn’t one to shy away from a fight, but it didn’t have to be the only way.
“Overlord Kirin-”
Garken snorted. “Overlord!? He’s taken to the Demondim’s titles now?”
“-Wished you to witness something, this way.”
Garken tilted his head, as did Sunset. “What?”
The nameless Oni chuckled. “Follow me. I’ve been told is it a parting gift for your decades of service.” He turned to head back down the corridor.
Tempest blinked. “Does… does he think we were born yesterday?”
Sunset shook her head. “I think he’s telling the truth. Whatever it is isn’t a trap.”
“Ah… and your basis for that belief would be…?” Gareth asked.
“Empathy. Back on Earth… well, my Earth, through the Mirror… I can experience the thoughts and memories of others through touch. Here, where magic is more plentiful… I can’t quite see his thoughts, but I can feel his belief in them. It’s not a trap, at least not like you’d usually think of one.”
“Doesn’t mean I’ll like what he has to show me.”
Sunset swallowed heavily. “I think… none of us will. All the more reason we need to see it.”
Garken nodded. “Fine. But I reserve the right to crush his skull with his femur if he tries anything stupid.”
With that, they turned down the side corridor to follow the nameless Oni.
------------------------------------------
Twilight Sparkle had a considerable leg up, compared to most ponies, when it came to computers. Granted, the computers in the Spire’s command center were only passingly similar to those of Canterlot High, but it was something. The bits and pieces she’d picked up from Garken while in Duplex Crepusculum and facing Cursus in the first Spire also helped. As her magic led her through various selections (via keys, touch screens and a very aether heavy translation spell) she picked up a great deal about the Spire’s specific purpose.
“These towers really are remarkable. They're adaptable almost down to the molecular level and can be repurposed to almost any need. With admin privileges I could redesign it into the world’s biggest library right here and now!”
“That’s absolutely fascinating, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie is… simply riveted by the idea.” The showmare’s deadpan expression belied her nearly believable delivery, as did the deck of cards she was toying with in her magic. “Aren’t we supposed to be destroying this place or something?”
“No,” Starlight answered. “We came to stop them from using it against us, however they were planning to do that. ...Which is what she’s supposed to be finding out.”
“They were mining for corrupted aetheryte from Hollow Shades, using this Spire as a base of operations and to stockpile. A fair bit of it is there, either because of the influence of the Pony of Shadows or something else lost to history.”
“So how did Sombra get here?”
“I believe he hitched a ride here in some of the aetheryte that came along, implanted in what is likely the now missing commander of this installation.” Luna replied, not taking her eyes from the screens as she tried to follow along with Twilight’s research. Unlike the younger princess, Luna had seen this technology before. If anything, how little it had changed in so long was astonishing… Still, that didn’t mean the Night Princess had ever obtained a firm grasp of how the devices worked.
It didn’t help that she was hearing a consistent cry in the distant recesses of her mind. Someone nearby was suffering, someone who was not of this world and strong enough to keep Luna from finding them, so far. It was maddening.
“Wait, so that’s what you meant when you were grossed out? Some of the aetheryte was pieces of… okay ew,” Trixie said, sticking her tongue out in disgust.
“Yep, pretty grisly. Though really, shoving crystals into themselves for power boosts is already disturbing, even more so when they’re corrupted aetheryte.”
“...Trixie can confirm that. The Alicorn Amulet was… not a pleasant experience.”
“Right. Now imagine it’s not a necklace you can be tricked into removing. And then imagine it contains Sombra’s consciousness… just in case the normal level of corruption wasn’t quite enough.”
Trixie swallowed heavily and shuddered. “...Trixie would rather not, thank you.”
“That’s what he wanted to do here, eventually. Insinuate himself into every Oni that received augmentations… rebuild his slave army with Onis instead of ponies.” Twilight blinked. “That rhymes… and it’s distracting.”
Luna blinked. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“The mental block in place is a guard against Sombra, not me! If I simply…” Luna’s horn lit, and then dimmed as her face screwed up in concentration. “The commander of this installation… I’ve found her!” With that, she vanished in a flash of teleportation.
Evening Calm sighed. She was sitting with a few of the Oni-koru who’d shown them the command center, though they’d refused to go as far as helping with the computer. An Oni girl, a young technician rather than a warrior, and the one who’d been most disturbed by Luna, had been petting the mane of the Night Guard Captain… to the pegasus’ tolerant bemusement. “Princess Twilight?”
“Just Twilight is fine.”
“...Yes, Princess, I shall… attempt to… erm...” Eve’s cheeks reddened slightly, not helped by the Oni patting her encouragingly.
Twilight giggled without looking away from the screen. “If you prefer to be formal I’ve no right to complain about it. You needed something?”
“...Yes, Your Highness. I would like permission to find the stockpiles of aetheryte and destroy them. No matter what else you learn here, those resources are a danger to Equus.”
Twilight blinked. “I mean no offense, Captain, but how do you plan to do that?”
“My lodestone daggers are not true lodestone in the geological sense, Princess. Rather, they attract and concentrate magic via the runes on the blades. In the case of corrupted aetheryte, combined with… well breaking the shards to disrupt their inherent balance, I can-”
“Absorb the dark magic into those daggers, which are linked to your own essence, risking corruption yourself?” Twilight finished, finally looking away to stare down Evening Calm with a raised eyebrow.
The Guard’s gaze dropped away to look at the floor. “I do not believe so. A manipulation of my gravity magic can keep that from happening, dissipating each shard’s magic into the background aether. Even corrupted aetheryte’s magic was once part of Equus’ whole, was it not? Returning it to Harmony gradually can allow it to fade away without causing further trouble.”
Starlight was nodding along. “It could work, actually. Just to make sure, I can go along. We can rig something up between the two of us to destroy the entire stockpile without risking ourselves.”
Eve smiled shyly at Starlight. “I would welcome the help, thank you.”
Twilight looked between the two of them, and nodded. “Be careful. We don’t know that we can trust every Oni here not to try anything. And take it slow. I know from experience how that magic will try to seep into you even while you’re destroying those things.”
“Trixie knows a bit about that as well. The Amulet… Trixie will go along to keep an eye on both of you!”
Twilight chuckled. “Oh sure, leave me alone with our new friends here. I’m sure none of them will stab me in the back the moment you all leave.” Despite her words her tone betrayed no real fear of that.
Just the same… “...No.” The young Oni who’d been petting Eve got to her feet. She smiled at the pegasus. “Thank you, for comforting me. I’m sorry we invaded here. But… I think maybe I’m not. Because we’re not going to win. And that’s the best thing for us now.”
She turned to Twilight, brandishing a rather large tool that looked to be a combination of a wrench and a welding torch, and yet somehow Twilight knew she was no threat. Bright red eyes shone with determination as she strode over to the monitor. She was wisplike, and no taller than Aiden, one of the smallest Oni Twilight had seen. Sharp, catlike fangs gleamed as she grit her teeth in a determined grin, and a lashing, white reptilian tail betrayed her agitation. A pair of small horns, almost more like antennae, seemed to vibrate on her forehead, giving a sense of her excitement and purpose. “If you’re getting rid of those crystals, I say I’m helping you do it. Princess Sparkly-”
“Sparkle.”
“Sparkle! I’ll help you with the computer, and the defenses for the room in case some other Onis here try something. But they probably won’t. Ever since Sombra showed himself everyone here’s felt pretty unsure about it all.”
“Girl, you’re going too far-” One of the others said.
She spun on the speaker, brandishing her tool as though she meant to charge him with it. “I’m done serving a ‘king’ who sends us out here to become puppets of some dead thing! You want to be a crystal zombie horse’s bitch?! You do that!” The speaker bristled, but didn’t respond as she continued, “If these horses-”
“Ponies.”
“Ponies! Can get rid of those crystals and make sure that monster never comes back, I’m all for it!” She held out a hand to Twilight Sparkle. “Telena Medao! Chief Engineer of the Clades, 8th generation holder of the title!”
Twilight offered a hoof, and they shook. “Your job as engineer is hereditary?”
“Nope! My family is just the best every damn time! I can’t fight eyes in the sky or evil magic stones that the king stabs into you, but if you can, then I can get this place running in any way that helps!”
“I… see.” Twilight grinned as there was a flashing light in the room. Her Cutie Mark was glowing: Friendship quest done. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Telena Medao."
------------------------------------------
Several levels below, Luna kicked down a door that would have stopped an adult dragon and had stopped her teleport by shunting it to the hallway. Polite entreaties for entry had failed, but the quiet nature of the rebuffs had only increased her sense that she needed to be in there.
When the door fell away, she remembered how she sometimes hated being right.
The room, private quarters it seemed, was trashed. The furniture had been crushed and the pieces strewn about. There had once been books upon a shelf; they’d been shredded. The walls, a reinforced metal with which Luna was unfamiliar, bore deep rents that were clearly the product of claws and horns used against them.
But worst of all was the blood. It was gritty with coagulation and something else like sand, and it was everywhere: the rends in the walls, on the broken furniture, and the torn pages. Most of all, it was in puddles in the corner, and on the woman that was still leaking the vital fluid as her one remaining eye looked up at the trespassing princess. She’d been torn apart as surely as anything else there, and it was nearly all self-inflicted.
Nearly.
“He did this to you…” Luna whispered, horrified.
“Who…” the woman rasped, smiling grimly. “The specter you banished… or the king I thought I served?”
“Let me help you.”
“Stay back.” She reached a single, bloodied hand into her own torso, “I can end myself now, stop this miserable mockery. I won’t let you interfere.”
Luna’s eyes widened in realization. The specks of sand in the blood… they were shattered crystals… “Sombra did not do this… nor did Kirin. You… you dug away all the remaining aetheryte within yourself?!”
“I am… a General of the Oni-koru, Ferrana Frangesse. I fought with honor on six worlds, five conquests before… Earth. I served King Adamastor before King Briareus…” She sniffed, a short sigh of disgust. “Both the same imposter, as fate would have it…”
“If you know that much, then do not let-”
“THIS WAS MY PUNISHMENT! PUNISHMENT FOR ALL OF US! OUR FAILURE!” She coughed a gout of blood before lowering her voice again. “...On Earth… we weren’t strong enough. It matters not who we served! We allowed the humans too much time to adapt, too much time to learn and become stronger. We failed our King! Of course… of course he would not allow us to fail again. The crystals… the power they offered… Power we had to accept! We were too weak without-”
“Enough.” Luna said simply. Ferrana stopped, looking with a wide eye at the Princess of the Night. “I know not how he garnered such loyalty from you, but-”
Ferrana shook her head. “Loyalty? No… what I see in him is truth, as my sister did. I was born an Oni-koru; I have no place in the universe save in service to my king. My sister knew this as well… she died at Canterlot serving him. She was always the stronger of us. But I…” she sighed, shuddering. “I am a failure. I could not carry the strength which he required of me. In my horror, my unworthiness, I-”
“Enough.” Luna repeated. Once again, Ferrana silenced herself.
The dark alicorn sighed, and settled herself down to sit eye level with the maimed General, indifferent to the blood that stained her coat. “You will not wish to hear this, not believe it, but I understand your plight. I long ago gathered into myself all the magic I could, attempting to gain the ‘strength’,” she snorted the word derisively, “the very presence, to push aside my own sister. ...Would that I’d had the wherewithal to then expel the darkness I’d so foolishly gathered in my vainglorious attempt to meet an impossible standard.” Luna stared directly into Ferrana’s remaining eye. “You are not weak. What has been done to you is monstrous… and that you kept any sense of yourself, enough sense to recognize the corruption taking root within you, is a sign of your strength!”
“But, on Earth-”
“You lost! And so shall your army lose here! I will not lie to you about that, nor will I lie when I tell you this does NOT mean you are weak. For fifteen hundred years your people have lived as warriors, under a false king who clearly cares NOTHING for you! And yet you have thrived! Against all odds you have survived… long enough to make amends for all the crimes you’ve been forced to commit. ...It isn’t fair, I know, but-”
“I don’t care about fairness-” Ferrana muttered, looking away.
“Exactly!” Luna exclaimed, latching onto that. “Because you are strong! Strong enough to stand up again, and lead your people as they should be led!”
“It… it can’t be that simple…”
“It is. You can throw aside his repulsive ideals, the shackles he’s forced upon you that make you think you’re weak. Join us. When this war is over, your people will live on. I doubt very much the same can be said of your king. They will need leaders. Those who understand sacrifice and loss, not because of weakness or failure, but as reasons to be stronger. True strength, not crude violence and condemning hatred! You have that strength… you took it upon yourself… alone, away from any you might hurt, to fight off that hatred. You have the strength to stand now!”
Ferrana’s eye was wide… and she swallowed as a tear ran down her cheek. Followed by a small laugh. “I… don’t, actually. My legs are broken. ...Help me?”
Luna laughed softly as well, embracing a friend she’d just made as a new light filled the room behind her. “That too… is a form of strength.”
------------------------------------------
Aiden grinned sheepishly as he looked down at a very perturbed Rarity. They didn’t have much time before he needed to get back outside his ‘verse, since Rainbow, unfortunately, hadn’t finished Maegren with one attack. Still, he had one thing to settle first. “So uh… on a scale of one to-”
“Three.”
He blinked. “I’d actually expected some kind of sarcastic answer.”
Rarity sighed, and shook her head as she ignited the letter he’d written. “I understand why you wanted to do what you did. I think you were hasty about it… especially given that Maegren doesn’t seem that strong-”
“Not to brag, but that’s because he was against me rather than trying to reach around in Pinkie’s mind. Maegren’s a cruel bastard, and a coward, but he likes to feel superior. Pinkie’s a genius, even knowing her a short time I can see that-”
“Am not,” Pinkie said, looking away and slightly pinker than usual, somehow.
Aiden chuckled. “Lies. So against me he tried to outfight me, thinking raw specs would be enough to get the job done. They nearly were, but he’s too sloppy, and frankly he underestimated how much better I’ve gotten.” He smiled at Rarity. “Positive influences and all that.”
“Hmph. You’re not charming your way out of this, mister.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll trust you to come up with a suitable punishment. ...But, jokes aside… this is the oath I took, and the oath you took. I won’t throw my life away casually, but I will put it on the line without hesitation.”
“Perhaps just a little hesitation, to talk it over with the rest of us first?”
“Yeah! Look how quick we came up with a way better plan!”
Aiden chuckled, nodding at Pinkie. “Fair enough. For now though, time to get back out there. I can feel Maegren gathering strength to try and counterattack.”
Rarity nodded. “His shields are draining away into something more offensive; I can feel it even through here. Those shields you made to close off the area are the reason for that, aren’t they?”
Aiden nodded. “They were a bigger advantage for us than he realized; I’d never perfected them to this level on Earth, but they make the enclosure flow similarly to in here… except for my opponent rather than me.”
“Ooh, so he gets the wind-chimes but we can hear them when he moves?”
Rarity and Aiden blinked in unison. “...I’m not questioning that.”
“Nor I, darling.” Rarity muttered as her horn lit and they appeared above a horizontal portal, effectively floating in the air above said portal, which on Aiden’s verse’s side, held the patch of ground where they’d stood.
“Huh, neat trick.”
“Thank you, darling. Not unlike cutting a slip of cloth to cover a specific bit of a design.”
Not far off, Rainbow hovered above the dust that had billowed up from the impact of her smashing Maegren into the ground. “Hey guys! Be careful, I thought I got him but he’s still awake down there. It feels like the wind blowing off a corpse or something.”
“Apt comparison for the- MOVE!”
As Aiden shouted his warning Rainbow side-slipped, just as aware of the sudden attack. A blast of energy shot past her, narrowly missing before impacting one of the floating shield segments atop the dome of force. The beam dissipated but the solid aether of the segment wavered and thin cracks ran along it. Aiden grunted, wavering as the backlash reverberated through him. Rarity steadied him with a telekinetic aura as he placed a hand on her withers. “Thanks.”
“Of course.”
Meanwhile, Rainbow dived into the dust cloud, her signature contrail lighting the sky behind her and her impact shattering that cloud into an unnatural clarity. Maegren’s shield had reformed in time to stop himself from being crushed again, but he couldn’t counter as Rainbow bounced off the shield to return to the air.
Or so it had seemed. Rainbow’s altitude gain slowed as she spun a bit, wobbling in the air as Maegren’s left hand focused another energy blast.
His right held several bright blue feathers, covered in blood.
The beam fired, and Rainbow couldn’t correct her trajectory. But she wasn’t alone, and the beam instead smashed into Maegren after being redirected through defensive portals.
He snarled but shook it off to try and regain his feet as Aiden landed next to him. He failed at the attempt to stand as another car hit him.
He flung it at Aiden, only to have it hit him in the back via more portals. Aiden rolled his eyes. “You’ve lost too much aether to fight me at range, and you couldn’t fight me close in before. Rarity cost you your chance to end me, Rainbow’s attack wore you down even more than I did, and I won’t let you attack my friends again. This is over.”
Maegren spit blood, and chuckled. “Hardly.” His eyes went distant and Aiden, ready this time, put up mental blocks against the telepathic assault.
It never came. Or rather, he wasn’t the target. Above, on the platform, Pinkie shrieked before Aiden threw her through a portal, severing the connection. Another opened within the crater as Rarity stepped out, Joyeuse lit as she thrust it at his chest.
This was no crippling strike, no attempt to end the fight by wounding him. She was aiming for his heart, and the aether singing through Joyeuse was, even to Aiden’s ears, a threnody. The Oni caught the blade with a conjured sword of his own, but it shattered like cheap glass. His eyes widened as Joyeuse sunk into his chest, accompanied by Rarity’s scream of rage.
A blade in Maegren’s other hand came down, and Aiden watched in seeming slow motion as it fell towards her head. He wasn’t conscious of moving, but in the time it took for that blade to touch her ear before cleaving through her skull he was standing beside her, holding it in an immovable grip. A single drop of blood, a paper cut from the tip of Rarity’s ear, was Maegren’s only reward. He looked at the pair of them, stunned at both the wound he’d suffered and the impossible failure of his counter-strike.
And then Rainbow landed next to them, grabbing both in her hooves and taking off. Aiden’s grip crushed Maegren’s sword as they were lifted away to safety almost before Aiden knew why they needed to be. Joyeuse followed them in Rarity’s magic, but its song was drowned out by the massive flood of aether above them.
It was the largest portal Aiden had ever seen, and he hadn’t opened it. As Rainbow grunted with the exertion of carrying the two of them with a damaged wing, Aiden watched in complete astonishment.
As a massive warship came through the portal at a speed as though it’d fallen from space.
At least fifty thousand tons, some tactical part of Aiden’s mind judged. The same part of his mind that joined with Rarity’s in forming a shield around them from the impact's blast wave that, to Aiden’s mind, should have been even larger. Somewhere in the midst of his shock, he felt Maegren’s life energy completely vanish. The shield segments disappeared as Aiden strengthened their personal shields against the hail of rocks and dust that flew up from the impact. He had no idea how Rarity found and portaled Pinkie Pie to them, but when Rainbow roughly landed the three of them she appeared almost simultaneously.
Her mane was straight, and bloodstained, tear-soaked rivulets marred her cheeks. Her aura was cracked and brittle; blood ran from the corners of her mouth and down from her ears. “B. For battleship…” she muttered, though nothing in her tone implied a joke.
Without a word, Rarity limped over to embrace her, and the two clung tightly to one another and stared at the impossible wreckage, nearly one third buried into the crater that was now a tenth of a mile away. Rainbow hesitated, the blood from her damaged wing dripping away from her friends. And then Rarity’s magic grabbed her and pulled her into the hug as well. Aiden felt it pull at him as well, but shrugged it away in his confusion.
“Pinkie… how did you do this?”
“I had to… I’m sorry. I had to…”
“No, I’m not asking that; I’m not judging you at all. But Pinkie... it’s impossible. That ship… where…?”
“It was in the bay… past where you left your letter for us, when you thought you were going to die. We couldn’t let that happen, so it was there.”
“No.. Pinkie there’s no way. The bay isn’t deep enough, we would have seen-”
“IT WAS THERE!” she screamed, looking at him through tear-filled, bloodshot eyes. “The things he said… in my mind… the things he showed me… wanted me… I NEEDED IT; IT WAS THERE!” she shrieked before sobbing into Rarity’s shoulder.
Aiden bit his lip, stumbling over to sit with them, unsure of his welcome until Pinkie pulled him in with a hoof and hugged him tightly. He cradled her head, pressing his cheek against her mane. “I’m sorry… you’re right. It was there… and now it’s over. I’m so sorry, Pinkie.” The three of them held her tight. “I’m so sorry.”
------------------------------------------
The more Applejack looked at the Map, the more it felt off to her. Magic was never going to be her forte, even if she’d put her mastery of earth magic up against anyone’s. That was practical application, not the sort of theory and formal background one might need to explain why the Map of Harmony would feel… wrong.
She didn’t mind being left behind. That was how the Map worked. And somepony had to mind the homestead. Not that she didn’t trust the guard types and such that were lingering around and pitching in, quite the contrary. Still this wasn’t their hometown, or their castle, or their Map. Applejack wasn’t quite fully on board with it being hers, either, least those last two, but as an Element Bearer she knew she had a place here as sure as the Map itself. Even if, right now, with all those marks still glowing above it (minus a couple that had stopped and AJ hoped that was good news), it still felt wrong somehow.
Though not nearly so much as the being walking up behind her.
“Give me your… Honest assessment, little pony,” a deep, darkly humored voice rumbled out. “What do you think of my plans so far?”
“Hmph. Should introduce yourself before just startin’ a conversation, don’t ya think?” she asked, turning to face the being that could only be Kirin. “Ah’m Applejack… and you are? Well… other than a trespasser lookin’ to cause trouble?”
“Hah. You know me, little pony. I am Kirin, king of the Oni-koru and Overlord of this world. Strongest of the draconequii, conqueror of-”
“No wonder you don’t introduce yourself, what with how long it takes.”
“...Droll. But my past fits of anger are no longer necessary. I asked a question of you. You, who stand here alone in this room which contains one of the most valuable of Equus’ treasures. Unguarded save by a farmer despite being at war…”
Applejack chuckled, finally turning away from the Map to look at the massive intruder. “Look who’s talkin’. Leader of the other faction in that war, all by his lonesome. Be pretty embarrassing you walkin’ in here all confident, but then we catch ya with your cart unhitched. No guards yourself, after all.”
“You believe you’re capable of that?”
“That’d be tellin’, wouldn’t it? But if ah’m bein’ honest, as is mah preference… your plans are ridiculous. Seems like nothin’ you’ve tried since you got here has worked too well at all.”
“Indeed so. I knew I could trust the opinion of the Bearer of Honesty. Excuse me a moment…” Faster than she could react, he reached past her to the bottom of the map table, and withdrew a small piece of metal, perhaps the size of a saucer.
“What the hay is-?” Applejack’s question was answered as the map reconfigured itself, slightly. Different marks in different places, but overall not much changed. On the upside, the feeling of wrongness was gone.
“I could not, even with all the knowledge and power at my disposal, corrupt this device completely. A testament to its value, certainly. I could, however… confuse it slightly. You see, Hraebto did manage to accomplish his first objective while harrying the dragon child who dwells here.”
“...You used Spike as a distraction to sabotage the Map?!”
Kirin chuckled. “Indeed I did. Playing to an enemy’s expectations is a useful tactic, wouldn’t you agree?”
“But… but it’s barely changed at all! You can’t tell me-”
“I can tell you, in fact, that had this configuration gone out, there may well have been no deaths, on either side.” Kirin grinned. “Save for Maegren’s Spire. I could not account for a human’s magic syncing up with this world’s. A pity, he seems to have saved Laughter and Generosity from a fate I would have enjoyed seeing. But as to the rest… it was as planned. You misunderstand who my enemies are…”
Applejack’s eyes widened. “No…”
“Yes…” His fist flew out in a backhand, catching her across the cheek and sending her spinning across the room and into the wall, literally. He nodded at her unconscious form. “I’ll enjoy killing you later… a lesser being would have died from that strike alone, which makes you worth savoring. Killing you in front of your family will be far more enjoyable. No point being a king if you rush through life’s pleasures…”
He stepped past her, and down towards the castle’s guarded infirmary. Said guards posed no problems. Inside, a single nurse fell unconscious before he could awaken Hraebto. She might have been dead; it didn’t matter either way as his General regained consciousness under the force of injected aetheryte.
“My King!” he cried out in pain at the sudden cancellation of the painkillers and lifesaving measures his enemies had been employing.
“My General. How nice to see you alive.” He leaned down to inches from Hraebto’s face. “One last time…”
His massive blade, still dripping with the blood of the guards at the door, ended Hraebto’s life in the blink of an eye. His General’s last look was one of shock and betrayal. Delicious. The repayment for his failure.
He turned to leave, blurring through the space, using a portal method he’d recently learned, and rejoining reality in the castle’s ‘dungeon’.
“My King!?” Teluma cried in surprise from her cell, before her eyes narrowed. “My king… the blood on your sword…”
Across the room, a dark laugh broke the tension. “Well now… smells like you killed Hraebto from here. And given how it’s souring my pipe AND my drink… that bastard was just as filthy as I thought. Still… bit much, don’t ya think?”
Kirin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at what was cleared his former General, given the fact that Inpes was outside a cell. “A quick, clean death to save him further shame. More than you’ll receive… even if you will be equally useful.”
Inpes Ustrina walked up to him, deliberately blowing pipe smoke into Kirin’s face. “Sorry… wasn’t listening. Too busy lamenting how you ruined my drink.” A fire shrouded fist smashed into the side of Kirin’s face, in perfect sync with the blade Kirin sent to impale and then bisect the traitorous drunk.
To his surprise, his blade had been redirected, smashing through several of the bars of Teluma’s cell. He’d nicked Inpes but it was insignificant. And in the process…
Teluma leapt past the destroyed bars and disrupted magical shielding, summoning her own blade before daring to strike at her king. “You dare betray us?!”
Kirin laughed, knocking away the lesser soldier with no apparent effort, though she caught herself from being crushed against the crystalline wall. “Impossible! An owner cannot betray his possessions! You are mine to do with as I please! Those who accept that will survive… IF I choose to permit it.” He spun, his blade carving through Inpes’ hastily raised defense and one of his arms before he could dodge away, swearing.
Teluma charged forward, and was shoved aside by Inpes as a blade flew through where she’d been, burying itself in the wall. “Run, girl!” he shouted. “You aren’t ready for this fight!”
“She has nowhere to go but Hell! Because I will it!” Kirin struck again at Inpes, carving into a flame covered leg and nearly cleaving it. He tossed aside the melted blade before crushing Inpes’ torso with a single punch. The former General coughed a gout of blood before crumbling to the floor. Kirin followed up, bringing a new sword down to end him.
They were both surprised when said sword drove itself into the floor, deflected by the sudden presence of a parrying wing.
Kirin raised an eyebrow. “Impressive speed, and strength, little pony.”
“Applejack sent us down. She’d have come herself but she’s got a bit of a concussion. Rude of you; I wouldn’t care to hoofwrestle her, but she’s not a soldier.”
“Unlike you?”
“Heh. Sword Breaker. Colonel of Cloudsdale Special Forces. Retired.”
“Ah, one of this world’s elite, then. But do you think you can stand against me?”
“No way in Tartarus I could.”
“Then you’ve only come here to-”
A spear through his throat cut off what he was about to say.
“Mostly, to play wingpony for my wife, Edelweiss. Best lancer on the planet.”
“Retired,” the mare added, pulling back the broad bladed spear before Kirin could grab it away from her. The flourish as she did so flung his own blood into his eyes, and he snarled angrily while trying to spin towards her. He couldn’t, not with Inpes grabbing one leg.
Kirin stomped down violently with his other foot, but it gave the stallion time to carve through his triceps with a short sword he’d had concealed beneath his other wing. His foot still came down on Inpes’ head, crushing his skull into the floor enough to end the traitor’s grip. As he moved to grab the stallion (and tear his cursed wings off) the mare hamstrung him. He channeled magic to ignore the wound, and was astounded when the attempt was muddled. He turned his head, and saw something he never thought he’d see again.
A third pegasus, though that wasn’t the surprise. He’d seen her before… When she’d stolen the Giottus Sphere she now held aloft.
“You!”
“Discord told us, after he found me again…” Lieutenant Falling Leaf said, her eyes boring into his own. “This weapon was made to be used against draconequii, not unlike the way the Elements can. You should never have brought it.. Without your Oni-koru shroud you aren’t immune to it. Blade Dance was my lover… and my best friend. And he didn’t die for nothing!”
Responding to her will, the Giottus Sphere flared, exacerbating Kirin’s wounds, halting his regeneration as surely as his Oni disguise once had. He charged at her, intending to smash the Sphere through her skull and into the wall, destroying it before slaughtering everyone in the room.
Edelweiss’ spear, seemingly with a life of its own, had its own ideas. The mare leapt, bounding off the ceiling as the spear went ahead of her, surrounded by a tunnel of wind and lightning. It pierced him like a stick through water, pinning his thigh to the floor before she followed behind it, her forehooves hitting his face with almost the same force, splitting flesh and crushing bone before she bounced away, spear in the crook of a foreleg, to a guard position in front of Falling Leaf.
Kirin could feel his flesh stiffening as the Giottus Sphere’s magic stagnated his own, but he had one last card to play. With the last of his effective magic, he grabbed Teluma’s discarded sword and flung it at Edelweiss. She was impossibly fast for a mortal, and even had time to quirk an eyebrow as her spear spun into a cyclone of defense, knocking the sword right back at him.
But she was a mortal, imperfect. She, like every other mortal in the room, missed the second blade. The one he’d flung at Teluma earlier, as it removed itself from the wall and buried itself in Falling Leaf’s shoulders. She gasped, and fell, dropping The Giottus Sphere as she did so. Bereft of her willpower, it had no defense as Kirin redirected the blade, making sure to carve through her vitals as he did so, and smashed the Sphere as it hit the floor. He laughed darkly, feeling his power returning to him.
Edelweiss and Sword Breaker struck simultaneously, a perfectly concentrated attack that, had it been delivered seconds prior, would have ended the fight. But now… he pulled Edelweiss’ spear toward Sword Breaker after it had pierced through him, indifferent to the damage after the turnabout. He was genuinely surprised when the two adjusted, preventing them both from dying as pulled her down towards crushing her skull against his after he’d impaled the stallion on his wife’s spear.
But they did adjust, her weather magic shoving them all apart and his short sword somehow cleaving through Kirin’s ankle as the stallion was flung away. Kirin stumbled, his foot hanging by a spare bit of muscle and flesh. He turned as Teluma struck at his heart, her blade once again in her possession. He grinned at her even as her thrust struck home.
“Pity I don’t have a heart, little puppet.” Her eyes went wide before closing forever, as he crushed her throat in his hand, pulling effortlessly at her paltry essence as it tried to correct the damage. Inpes shouted in fury, but still couldn’t rise from the floor. Two down.
He spun to finish off his former General... And screamed in agony as, impossibly, Falling Leaf shoved the largest shard of the Giottus Sphere through the side of his skull. His scream became a shriek as weakness overtook him, and his last act before opening a shaky portal to escape was to knock away the dying mare. My… victory… he thought before blackness took him, the portal closing before any could pursue.