Celene, Toby's mated partner, was low to the ground. She was laying on her belly, as low as she could be. That was a proper position for approaching a scared and lost cub. "You are safe," she gently repeated. "Safe."
"Mom isn't safe," sniffled the cub. "Help her. Please!"
Celene knew exactly how likely that was, but how to explain to the cub... "She will not come back..."
"Why?!" The cub suddenly jumped for Celene, little paws grabbing Celene's lips and pulling at them in a futile show of her confusion. "Why she leave?! She hurt, need help!"
"She not hurt no more," assured Celene, tolerating the lip tugging. "She go, no hurt."
"She didn't take me," whispered the cub, sinking down off Celene's snout. "Why?"
Celene canted her head. "Only old and hurt go there. You not old or hurt. She wants you stay, be happy." She sat up a bit, rising far over the cub.
"Not happy!" loudly proclaimed the cub, confident in that fact more than any other. "Which way?" She began circling. "Which way she go? Will go."
Celene put a paw down on the cub, keeping her from bouncing away. "Where she go, no follow. Not alone, safe."
The cub began to beat a foot on the ground in a rapid thump-a-thump only a rabbit-like creature could muster. "She not safe! Why not help mom?!"
Celene's expression hardened. Perhaps it was time... "Want help, cannot. No help." She scooped up the thrashing cub and bounced off with her, held firmly in one paw. "Show."
"Show?" Her fighting ebbed a little. "What show?"
"Truth." Celene landed in a dark and moist cave and pointed to a big fat worm that was peacefully slithering along. "See?"
"Grubworm," stated the cub. "Good to eat."
"Good to eat," agreed Celene. She displayed the claws of her free hand. "Alive, happy for worm."
"Alive," agreed the cub, confusion creeping into her voice. What exactly was the larger tsuki driving at.
Celene suddenly stomped, slicing the worm cruelly down the side. Oozing blood and thrashing showed the worm's pain. "Now hurt. Like mom."
The cub's eyes went wide as saucers. "Help! Help help!" She suddenly kicked Celene, propelling herself forward to land beside the worm and frantically she started to try to hold the blood in, a futile effort. "Help!"
The gash Celene had cut was deep and true. The worm's frantic struggles began to slow and the blood refused to slow meaningfully until there was just less of it left to come out. It began to slow despite all of the cub's efforts, then it went still.
"Dead," stated Celene in a single cold syllable. "No fix. No hurt. Dead."
"Dead..." The cub staggered back, her paws covered in worm blood. She bounced right back forward again and shook the worm. She jostled and bit and hopped around it, but the worm refused to respond, for it was beyond such cares. "Dead... Fix?"
"There... no fix. Dead. Dead." Celene flumped to the ground. "Once dead, always dead. No come back. Dead. Mother... dead. You not. You not follow."
Visions of her mother's still body returned to her, so very still. Unmoving, unresponsive.
Dead.
Her wails were loud and her tears seemingly without end, but the impossibility of the situation had been burst. Celene cradled the little cub, waiting for it to end.
Sombra clopped a hoof down with the force needed to splinter the rock beneath him. "Revenge will be ours! Nocreature attacks me and gets away with it."
Quick Stroke nodded with firm approval. "As you say it, m'lord. Lead with kindness, and have the strength to enforce it, as you have said. It is time to make that strength clear to the world entire." The scowling unicorn looked to Toby. "How many soldiers are at the ready?"
Toby pointed off into the caves. "Have halften guards."
Sombra raised a brow. "Five gu--
"--Five," suddenly interjected Toby, remembering what number half-ten actually was. "Five guards."
"Is that all?" Sombra leaned forward, dark energy crackling from his eyes. "That will not suffice." He turned to Quick. "You and Celene achieved some mastery of their strange magic-altering properties, didn't you?"
"Yes, m'lord. Celene's gathering are not members of the guard. The guard are not soldiers, Sir. They barely qualify as a policing force, as much as the tsuki need one of those. Shall I fetch Celene? I imagine she is ready for battle."
The mention of his mate had his attention. "Battle?"
"Battle," grunted Sombra. "To fight. To destroy. What they did to us when they ambushed our traders."
Toby shrank back, thinking on the lost tsuki. They would return the favor? "Is only way? Not like fighting. Not fight you." He pointed at Sombra directly. "Not fight, make friend. Now good friend, good king."
Sombra's nostrils flared in a mighty huff. "Then you will be--"
"--Ponies!" suddenly blurted Toby. "Make friend. Ask for help. They know what do."
Sombra glanced aside at Quick, who was returning the look. Quick lifted his shoulders. "He has a point. We have signed treaties with the ponies. If we make it clear we have been attacked, support should follow."
A wicked grin spread over the stallion's face. "The ponies have soldiers, weak as they may be. Better they suffer than my own people. Yes, we will contact them. In the meantime..." He looked between the other co-rulers of the tsuki, the upper echelon of the command structure that was himself, Toby, and Quick. "Bring me a tsuki that knows how to fight."
Quick winced, teeth clenched. "There is one I know can fight. She has a warrior's spirit hidden beneath her simple face." He reached his true hoof to tap against his crystal foreleg. "It is she that caused this. A cruel sign of disobedience, but an undeniable display of skill."
With a sudden soft thump, Celene landed, a little sleeping cub cradled in one arm, the other three limbs supporting her landing. "Need go." All three others looked at her with varying levels of confusion. Celene inclined her head towards the cub. "Hurt, need help."
"Ponies help," noted Toby with a big smile. "Bring to ponies, they help. They smart, help." He thought back to the last pony visitor they had, Moondancer, who had helped reshape their shoddy educational system. "Yes, will go." He reached for the cub.
Only for Sombra to get between them. "You and the ponies see eye to eye. You will approach their leaders." He turned to Celene. "You will see to the cub, then return. We have work for you. This attack will not go without reprisal. Quick, draft a letter for Toby to bring."
"Already on the case." A quill danced beside him, held in his magic as it scribbled busily. "Shall I draft another for Celene?"
Celene snorted softly. "Not need letter. Ponies see kit so sad, they will not need words." She turned away from all present and bounded away, clearly determined to get where she wished to be and taking the cub with her.
That left Toby angling his head left and right. Suddenly a little smile appeared. "See Luna?"
"And Celestia," corrected Sombra as he took the letter just as it was finished and passed it, folded, to Toby. "Bring them this, then explain in your own words. They favor you, I am not ashamed to admit. Convince them their help will be... appreciated." He pointed in the same direction Celene had fled. "Speed is an asset we desire. Waste no time."
"No time." He tucked the letter away and thumped his chest, showing his horns to Sombra in proper tsuki salute. "Be back." And off he went, thumping down the hallway in great bounds.
Quick watched in the direction they had both gone before looking to Sombra. "I will see to gathering those I know trained with Celene. We'll get a fighting force started. There is no reason to be idle."
"Good, good..." He raised a hoof to his chin, stroking lightly. "Perhaps it is time for me to ride alongside my soldiers, to teach those that cross us how foalish an idea that is."
Celene sprang high into the air, soaring over the snow-covered lands, her eyes set firmly on her destination. A faint sound caused her to look over her shoulder in time to see a griffon divebombing at her. She spun mid-air, grabbing the chain-armored birdcat from the air with a snarl as they both crashed into the snow. "Last mistake," she hissed, sparing but a momentary glance to see that her precious cargo was safely attached to her back.
The griffon was far from unarmed, jabbing a dagger into Celene's unarmored ribs quite suddenly. Despite the pain and wet feeling, Celene's great digging claws clenched tightly on her assailant and she began to pull, all four paws wrenching the griffon in different directions. "You kill. You get killed," she snarled, each pop and splinter of the griffon's sinew and bones bringing her greater satisfaction.
The dagger embedded in her was abandoned, hanging there as its wielder was drawn and quartered. He screeched in agony, trying to drive his beak into her, but the angle made it an awkward proposition at best.
Other cries echoed, the griffon was not alone. Celene scowled, suddenly flipping around, tossing the griffon roughly into the snow and springing into the air. Pain exploded through her midsection, the movement upsetting the dagger before she wrenched it cleanly free and sent it flying at the next griffon she could see. It nicked their arm, their cry of pain music to her ears, but it didn't stop them. She was being actively chased.
"I got it," called one of the griffons, bringing up a glowing staff in both hands and directing it at Celene. "Die, bunny!" Crackling magic burst free of it, racing for Celene's back.
She was suddenly as metal, her fur aligning to the magic coming towards her. It ran over and through her and gathered in her horns. She hit the snow and threw her head at the staff wielder, throwing his magic back at him before bouncing away, not even taking the time to see if it hit or not.
She had a place to be, and a kit that only she could protect. None would stand in her way, or so she promised herself as the wind howled past her, causing her ears to whip and flop about with all the speed she could muster.
"Where we?" asked a little voice. The kit had woken up. Then she screamed, seeing a griffon closing in on Celene and herself. Celene bent with a sudden twist, the incoming sword missing her screaming rider to bite into her paw instead as she shoved the sword aside. Her other hand grasped firmly onto the griffon as they began to fall. Instead of trying to wrench this one apart, she slammed her head forward, proving that tsuki horns were made of tougher stuff than the front of a griffon's face. They hit the ground roughly, but only one of them scrambled to her paws, surging ahead.
"Let her go," called the griffon that still held the magic staff, though his fur and feathers were singed by the reflected attack. "Not worth it." The other griffons scowled at the idea of giving up on the fight, especially against a rabbit that was clearly losing blood, but they obeyed the command given, allowing Celene to make good her escape into the mountains that separated the frozen north from Equestria-proper.
"Sir." A griffon flew up from below. "The first to make contact is hurt."
"Put a bandaid on it," spat the staff wielder.
"More hurt than that." The griffon shook his head. "Maimed."
"Ugh, send him home. He's fired. What about the other?"
"I'm alright, Sir." Another griffon approached, his face bloodied, a great gash over an eye. "She surprised me, but I'm ready to fight, Sir."
"Good." He clapped the soldier on the shoulder. "There's plenty of fight left to do."