I told you it was quite the tale, didn’t I? Well, it isn’t over yet so let’s get the recap out of the way, shall we? It all started with me in a forest... wait, no, that is too far of a recap. Let me see... Ah, here we are. It all started with me on a train. One that was quite a bit similar to the Hogwarts Express, but I digress. On the ride over to Manehattan, I overheard a particularly interesting bit of information. Someone on that train wanted their lackey to get the job done properly and that clued me in on how this could only mean something criminal. Well, that and the way he threatened him with a blade.
What happened next? Oh, let’s just say I was a bit distracted by some scum trying to rape a woman and succeeding with it. Well, halfway, but they still did it. Suffice to say I put a stop to that before he could, ugh, finish it. The bastards that did that are behind bars and the poor woman got the care she deserved.
My little stunt after that was a little bit less heroic. The whole reason for me being here in Manehattan wasn’t the delicious food served in a German-style restaurant, but the little problem of me not having ‘legal’ documents. To rectify this little oversight Horse God made, I infiltrated the government. Okay, I just broke into a building, beat up some unfortunate guards, and deposited some forged documents where they needed to be.
My methods caused quite a stir, I have to say. The chase that ensued got the attention of not only the police but all of Manehattan the following day. Newspapers fought over every bit of information like the rabid dogs they were and I never had a quiet day after that. People were divided into factions whether I was good or bad (spoilers, the answer to that was neither), and I was prevented from leaving the city by the police searching for my sorry ass.
Until we came to an understanding, that is. Whatever was happening within the city, that being criminals getting supplied with manticore poison and being told to cause a bit of havoc, needed to be stopped. The police had the necessary talent to decode the crumpled up notes the criminals left behind and I had the... gosh, now I’m the one with the brawn, aren’t I? Anyway, due to the incapacitation of Sol, I had the motivation and willingness to do what needed to be done to finally put an end to the one behind all this.
That brings us to the here and now of this little tale. Secure Shackle, my little police liaison, told me to concentrate my efforts on finding the supplier instead of bothering with every little crime I came across. Didn’t stop me from crippling any criminals I just so happened to stumble upon as they were threatening to poison someone.
And so, I actually managed to find myself a shifty guy climbing through a window in the middle of the night. One could tell he did this often with the efficiency he went about breaking and entering into apartments that weren’t exactly always on the ground level.
I observed him doing his little thing of leaving a vial of manticore poison behind and the two notes with the instructions on what to do and what they would get for it in return. The man was just as fast out of the apartment as he broke into it. So, being careful in my movements, I went to shadow him on his rounds. Probably should have gone into the apartment to steal that venom, but then I would let slip this chance of tracking it back to its source.
Man, just what wouldn’t I do for the greater good? It would have stopped a minuscule amount of crimes in comparison to stopping it entirely from happening, had I gone for that venom, instead. I would need to live with myself that I couldn’t prevent every crime.
It took quite some time, way longer than I would have expected for him to keep doing this, but eventually, he ran out of venom vials in his bag. The sun was at maximum an hour away from rising over the horizon and I was way too tired to keep following him would he have continued on throughout the day, too.
Following the man wasn’t an easy task by any means. It goes to show how careful and paranoid the guy was as he went through the city. At one point, I feared he had managed to escape my sight, but then he came back back-tracking through the alley where he temporarily managed to give me the slip. Can’t say I wasn’t thanking my lucky stars for that.
By the time the sun actually came up, we were near the warehouse district and I finally had an idea of where to search further. I couldn’t follow him to the exact warehouse, seeing that my outfit made me stand out like a sore-thumb in daylight.
The following evening saw me standing at the police department. I wasn’t a big fan of getting them involved somewhere where there were probably a ton of willing murderers hiding out planning their dastardly plans... to do whatever. Look, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Of course, I’m majorly reluctant to lead a bunch of people to their deaths, who wouldn’t be?
But I had the hope everything would turn out alright. And when you literally embody the hope this country has (according to Twilight), don’t look at me like that, then everything should play out fine, right?
I’m pretty sure I will eat my own words later for thinking so.
“Hello, my dear,” I said, standing slightly to the side of Secure Shackle as I let down my ‘Notice-Me-Not!’ spell. Said police officer jumped at my sudden appearance. We were currently standing in front of those see-through whiteboards with all the important pictures and casefiles hung up on them. Some strings connected a few of them and quite a few notes were written on the board.
“Don’t do that,” he berated my, a scowl on his face.
“But however shall I show my favorite police officer I appreciate his work?” I asked back, faking a hurt voice. It was fun messing around with him.
“I seriously doubt you like me all that much, considering we are still debating on imprisoning you for the murder at the bank. What do you want here, anyway?” he asked me. “Our next meeting isn’t for another few hours.”
“Well, my dear, why waste time with all this, when I can tell you the general location of their hide-out?” I told him and did my little spiel of going around the whiteboards and tracing a few things on them. At his raised eyebrow I gave a little smirk.
“And where would that be?”
“At the warehouse district,” I answered back. He sighed and asked for a specific area, so I asked him for a map and promptly circled the place where I tracked the poison dealer to last night.
“Can’t tell you which warehouse exactly, my time was running out to get a read on that, and following the shifty guy in the daylight would only alert them to us being onto their trail. So, when do we raid the place?” I said.
“I will get the task force ready, while you go and find us the exact place. Once you have it, return to this place here,” he began and pointed the meeting point out on the map. “So you can tell us where we need to go. Don’t take too long, a group of heavily armed men and women won’t go by unnoticed.”
“Understood, until then, my dear,” I said and vanished from sight by the use of my trusty spell. I loved that one, it was just so versatile! It was also the perfect tool for this mission.
The way back to the general area where I stopped following the man didn’t take me too long. So I started going around and climbing up to windows and such to search the interior of the buildings. Most of them weren’t that interesting, although there was one warehouse full of shiny new cars, but I didn’t let the sight distract me.
Around half an hour later, I found the one I was looking for. And man, what a sight that was. Cages upon cages with exotic animals and a large circle with candles in the middle of it. Oh yeah, and a fuck ton of cultists praying to whatever deity they worshipped.
It clearly wasn’t my patron, as they offered whatever living being was willing enough to do the sacrifice or was forced into the position. The sick fucks didn’t make the distinction between young or old. Forcing my bile down my throat, I raced back to the meeting place and told the men and women what to expect.
Needless to say, they were just as pissed as I was. And that motivation showed as we burst down the doors and caused the cultists to stop whatever they were doing at the moment. An arrow quickly found its way into the skull of one of them before he could plunge the dagger into the bound, and pretty obviously pregnant, woman.
And then all hell went loose. I wasn’t the only one that mustered up the will to kill a cultist before they could bathe the ground in the blood of their next victim. And by the sight of it, those cultists knew how to fight as I saw some of them take the lives of the men and women I had led here.
It was a blood bath.
“Kill every last one of these heathens!” a voice said, catching my attention. It was the same one I heard answering to this Marrow guy on the train. And oh boy, did he look ugly as sin. Half burned face, a noticeable hunch, looking like he was starving, and sickly eyes roving over the room as he yelled at his comrades to slaughter us. “And with their sacrifice, another seal will be broken!”
Well, whatever that seal was for, I had no interest in letting that happen. I focused on helping out keep the foe away from the people freeing the slaves. Using illusions to my advantage, I made the cultists think they were being attacked from the wrong direction, and from then on the fight was basically already won.
Until the cult leader decided he had to engage me directly in the fight. And once more it got obvious I needed to practice more against magic users. I needed a way to beat them consistently.
It was very much annoying as he started to bring back the fallen to fight for him. I was struggling with keeping the living corpses away from the rest of the fight while dodging their attempts to maim me.
Fucking necromancy, man. Here I hoped I wouldn’t ever have to worry about zombies ruining my day.
A heavy chain stopped one corpse from taking a bite out of me. That cheeky little bugger managed to sneak up on me! Me! The one that was usually doing that to fight against any kind of foe. Secure Shackle gave me a nod as he drew back his chain and decapitated the undead cultist.
“You have already lost, oh mighty warrior of the night! There shan’t be anything stopping this ritual from completion!” the necromancer crowed gleefully. “The seal requires but a few more sacrifices. Come and give your life for the greater good!”
“Thanks, but I will decline that offer,” I shot back. Looking around me, most of the risen zombies were already dealt with and the rest of the cultists were either dead or chained up. Secure Shackle sure knew how to rodeo with iron chains.
The man in front of me let loose a bolt of sickly colored magic and I quickly shoved the last of the walking dead in front of it, sending it back to the rest it was denied.
“Why won’t you just die already!?” he shouted, spittle flying from his cracked lips. Eww, disgusting. As I rolled on the ground to dodge another bolt of his magic, I let loose another arrow made from solidified moonlight. It tore through his shoulder and he raged on that he couldn’t get a hit on me.
Well, at least that I had going for me. He was a terrible shot, honestly. I fired another arrow into the arm that already had an arrow stuck in it.
“Fine! If you won’t be the last sacrifice today, then I will be!” he shouted and my eyes widened as I felt the magic around me shudder. His crazed look all but confirmed his intentions. And I was powerless to stop him from doing what I thought he tried to do.
Scratch that, what I knew he was doing.
The ley lines of the world didn’t just give mages access to powerful spells, but if one was determined enough, or foolish enough, to let the full might of them flow through you, they were very likely to rip you apart cell by cell and take anyone too close to your vicinity with you.
And I was within his blast radius.
Shouting for everyone to run, I rushed away with the full power of my abused muscles. I hoped I would make it in time, and right after I thought that, I felt the magical shockwave encroach upon my body. A look over my shoulder showed me the miasma of uncontrolled magic, twisted due to the man that invoked it, as it approached me.
Then I stumbled due to the blood-soaked ground.
Well, it was a nice life, if nothing else. A weird one, but nice. I would still have my male body, but considering half of me would die, I had no hope I wouldn’t feel the repercussion of that and come out unscathed.
What would happen to my other body should one fall? I would assume the backlash would cripple me in some way that it would leave me next to useless.
When people die, it is often said that their life would flash before their eyes. I had none of that. The only thing I felt was a horrible feeling of dread. For once I wished I had stayed in bed instead of getting up.
A bed sounded really nice. I wished something could have gone differently tonight. Had I just killed him instead of trying to cripple him to avoid breaking this seal, I wouldn’t face this situation now.
I was sorry for leading all the people to their deaths today. If I just did this mission on my own, no one of the good and innocent policemen would have had to die this night.
I felt anger at myself, for feeling so useless at the moment. For not doing what needed to be done when it really came down to it. I was such a hypocrite.
In the end, I felt acceptance for the consequences of my actions. For leaving the girls like this. For disappointing Horse God. And for not telling Celestia and Luna I held these weapons.
This was the exact reason why I was so against it in the first place.
But even that was just a hollow excuse by now. An excuse for me to use so that I didn’t have to accept my cowardice.
Whatever it was about these bodies, Sol was the one practically able to ignore this crippling feeling of being scared and Lux could just ignore whatever hopelessness I felt with Sol. That couldn’t be caused by mere hormones, right?
Seems like this is goodbye, I’m sorry.
A second went by, and another. Another second passed... and nothing happened.
Slowly looking up, I was greeted by scorched ground just inches away from my feet. Everything else in front of me? Gone, like it never existed, to begin with. The cages filled with every kind of animal were reduced to molten slag that pooled on the blackened ground.
Would you look at that? Dumb luck saved the day, who would have thought that would happen? Well, obviously not you, as I’m currently talking to you and recounting what happened.
Yes, yes, I will get on with the tale, sheesh.
Secure Shackle came up to me and helped me get back on my feet. I told him I was fine and slowly breathed in and out. I needed to calm my racing heart down after this whole ordeal.
The policemen offered me their thanks in helping them stop this madness, but I knew we failed. We failed spectacularly. An unknown seal of some kind was just broken and we all had no idea what that would entail.
For now, I think the bed that I so desperately wanted was calling my name. Without saying anything to the rest of the task force, or even Secure Shackle, I was gone. They could deal with the clean-up and the rest of the manticore venom.
The next day actually saw the arrival of a group of friends at the hospital Sol was staying in. Even though they administered the anti-venom, they were observing the patients before they were absolutely certain nothing would happen. Dealing with such a poison wasn’t very easy, and the fact that it was a magical poison meant that I couldn’t just leave.
“What was even so important both of you had to come here to Manehattan? There are multiple news reports on what happened the last few days here, we were all worried something happened to you,” Twilight started her rant, pacing back and forth as the others watched her go on without daring to interrupt her. “And imagine our surprise when a letter arrives, saying that you got poisoned! Poisoned, Sol! That just made us more worried!”
“I’m sorry, Twilight,” I murmured, not daring to look her into the eyes. She was seriously scary right now. “We had some important business to take care of. The registry office had no idea of our move to Ponyville. It took us a bit longer than we thought. There was quite a commotion, I don’t know if you have read about it, but someone broke into there for whatever reason.”
I’m sorry I had to lie to you, Twilight, but if you knew the truth it would have gotten way too complicated for me to be willing to deal with it. It’s not like it was a complete lie, I just... changed the story up a bit.
“I’m well aware of this vigilante that goes around the city like she owns it. Sol, we’re just glad she was there to save you. I’m sure that we all agree on this when I say this, we wouldn’t be able to entertain the thought of what would have happened had you died in that bank. Promise me... no, promise us... that you will be more careful in the future,” she went on, ending her rant at last.
“I promise I will be more careful from now on. But Twilight, I can’t promise you this type of situation won’t happen again. You all know in what kinds of situations we all end up in, and I have a feeling this wasn’t even the worst of it,” I said. She sighed at that, nodding as she thought on it. It was true, just thinking back on the debacle with the star beast and the dragon. Trouble found us, not the other way around. Not to mention the start of our friendship, the fight against Nightmare Moon.
Earth never saw this kind of thing first hand, but when you had things like the wildlife of Equis and goddesses, magic, and demons, the meaning of danger got a whole lot more... dangerous. A threat on Earth, while serious, was nowhere near what was possible in Equestria alone. One nation was way more dangerous than the whole planet I hail from.
When things like the raid we did last night were just minor things in the eyes of Horse God, I didn’t want to know what other minor things would pop up before my preparation time was up.
Twilight took me up on my offer to go visit the public library here in Manehattan and some of the girls went with us to make sure we didn’t stay in there all day. That left Sol alone with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
“How was she?” Rainbow asked me after a few minutes of us talking about this and that. Apparently, I missed a huge storm and an opportunity for a slumber party with Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. Probably for the best, what with me still feeling awkward around Rarity after too much time in close proximity to her.
“How was who?” I asked confused.
“The Shadow Stalker, dude! I heard she beat up those guys like in no time! She must be a Pegasus-Blessed, right?” she answered me and began totally fangirling out over my secret identity with Lux. Oh, for the love of Horse God, why? I didn’t need her to get all excited about me going around stopping crimes like a cringe-worthy fan.
What did I do to you to have pissed you off, Horse God? Can’t you give me a bit of peace for once?
“Uh, no... Shadow Stalker used magic if I remember right. Why are you so interested in her anyway? She committed murder right in front of my eyes, Dash,” I told her and tried my best to get the notion that I was a hero out of her head. Better to keep the expectation low so that they won’t be disappointed in me should they ever find out.
Who am I kidding? Of course, they will be disappointed.
“Wow, she is a Unicorn-Blessed? She must be even more badass to go around jumping from roof to roof to throw the police of her trail,” she squeed. She fucking squeed at that. “And duh, it’s obvious she would take down the bad guys. I mean, she only did that because she thought you were just murdered in front of her, right?”
Well... That was somewhat close to the truth, I guess. I did have the fear Sol would die from the poison if I didn’t act fast enough. And I was quite a bit too vengeful to care about letting my poisoner live. Better remove the possibility of him trying again entirely than risk me actually dying.
“I guess, but Rainbow, please don’t think she is the honorable hero worthy to be revered. She does fight dirty when given the opportunity,” I explained to her.
“So, like you?” she asked, giving me a cheeky grin. Well, she had me there. All of our friends knew I took any kind of opening, making me a more daring fighter. “I know a lot of people think she is this big infallible hero or the despicable villain. But do you know what I see in her?”
“No... What do you think of her, Rainbow?” I asked back, now a bit curious.
“I see a person struggling to do what is right. I see someone that acts on decisions where others would hesitate or still think about them. I see her actions speaking louder than the words people associate with her. She is a person like you and me, but willing to act when others wouldn’t,” she explained and I sported a smile the entire time it took her to finish her explanation.
Well, at least I had one person seeing me for who I was. Even though she didn’t know she was talking about me. Maybe they won’t all be disappointed with what I did and had to do.
“How about you guys go over to Lux and ask her to show you the restaurant both of us love so much? I promise you will like the food there,” I said and Rainbow nodded. She gave me a goodbye and went out the door.
“Hey, Solus? Don’t be afraid we will leave you hanging, ‘kay?” Pinkie spoke up for the first time, actually really out of character for her, and managed to confuse me. Before I could ask her about the weird name, she was gone. What did that even mean? She couldn’t possibly know about Lux being the vigilante, right?
And that name, it sounded Latin. But what reason would Pinkie have to give me a different name for Sol?
Unless... no, there is no way.
In the meantime, a few minutes after I sent Pinkie and Rainbow to my other half saw us heading to the little German-style restaurant. I was gushing about how great I felt the food there was. Twilight actually mentioned she had German food a while ago while an ambassador from Germaneigh was at the castle. She said she liked it too, so that got Applejack interested. So... here we are.
We got led to a table by the waitress and talked a bit more about what was going on around Ponyville lately as we waited for our food. The kids at school were asking where I was and Cheerilee would have a few choice words for me when I return. Rarity bemoaned the fact that I missed a spa date with her and Fluttershy. I wasn’t so sure if that was a good or bad thing.
Our food arrived just as we entered a lull in our conversation. Fluttershy went with a traditional specialty of German ravioli called ‘Maultaschen’. Yeah, weird name, I know. Doesn’t get better with the other names, though. Pinkie and I also went with a noodle dish called ‘Spätzle’ with some dumplings and a nice sauce made out of apples. Applejack and Rainbow went with a hearty meal, both of them got interested in it after I told them there were eating contests in Germaneigh for that dish, called ‘Schnitzel’, which was a breaded meat dish. Twilight and Rarity had something that I could only guess at, but there was one thing I recognized on their plates. It was ‘Sauerkraut’, I think the English name for that is also called that.
So we all enjoyed our food and as we began talking in between bites, I mentioned to Twilight what I had planned for concerning the magi-tech we were still working on.
Of course, she got interested in ‘my’ idea of a motorized bicycle. She asked me how I wanted to go about that and I told her of how I planned to rework an engine like we reworked some of the other magi-tech we worked on, mainly the batteries.
Before I could go into more detail, Rarity told us that we could continue our little brainstorming back in Ponyville. She wanted us to go on a museum trip and go look at some of the fashion stores. That got Rainbow to groan and moan about how it was way better to listen to Twilight and me rant about magi-tech over her idea of fun.
Instead, we all decided on one thing to do for each of us before the girls needed to get back to Ponyville at the end of the day. Pinkie wanted us to find a shop for party supplies, which was easily done. Twilight concurred that both she and I already had a turn with the library and the restaurant, so we didn’t get to decide on anything further. Kinda mean, but also true if you think about it. At least Twilight was happy that we would get to visit a museum and I wasn’t complaining about that, either. Fluttershy wanted to visit the park, no surprise there. Applejack wanted to make a quick visit to her aunt and uncle, and Rainbow got us to go to a Wonderbolts fan shop, which brought with it a good-natured roll of our eyes.
At the end of the day, I said goodbye to the girls and gave my word that we would be back home in a day or two. We all gave each other one last hug before I stood at the platform waving after the girls as the train picked up speed.
So, this night was a shorter one than the last ones. The police were just as able as I was to prevent any further shenanigans from happening. I sort of told Secure Shackle I would be on ‘vacation’ for the foreseeable future and enjoyed a long night of sleep in the arms of my deity.
We talked a bit here and there, mostly me about my day with the girls and my thoughts on the cult I stumbled upon. She frowned hearing about the seal being broken, but she didn’t elaborate upon what kind of seal it was and what it sealed. So I lightened the mood by telling her about my little project of trying to build a Ducati running on magic.
I also got to know she hasn’t an actual name, never having seen the need for it. So I got creative and gave her a nickname, besides Horse God. She smiled a bit at the obviousness of it but found it quite fitting.
Thus, I was the first mortal to give the capital ‘G’ Goddess a name.
Spectrum.
Yeah, imaginative, I know. But what can I say? Her hair faded from one color to the next, her iris sparkled in the multitude of colors of distant galaxies and she literally embodies every aspect of life.
Of course, she told me that I couldn’t share the name with say, Celestia, due to the effect she has on me, what with her literally creating my bodies on Equis. That kinda-ish made her my mother, but for now, I think I will need to think of her place in my life. It was hard imagining a literal Goddess being your mother, but it worked out in those Percy Jackson novels, so why couldn’t it for me.
The fact that she didn’t go around sleeping with mortals eased my mind somewhat. The image of it made me gag in reflex, though. No one liked to imagine their parental figure in such a position, I’m sure. The fact I couldn’t remember my birth mother made it all the more tempting to place her in the position of the mother figure.
I had the weirdest origin story a ‘hero’ could ever have, hadn’t I? Please don’t tell me I was a genetically engineered child on Earth, I couldn’t take this much bullshit. What’s next, a dinosaur riding a shark with laser cannons being my uncle?
The dream with Horse God aside, I decided to hit up the museum again that we visited the last day. There wasn’t enough time to go over every exhibit there and I totally needed the history lesson.
I know I went over a bit of the history already, but that wasn’t nearly as detailed as what I found here. And boy, did they get some things wrong. Instead of Horse God giving away the Blessings, the earliest account of history I knew of from the castle, three siblings did so.
Those were people with actual resemblance to the ponies Equestria (and Equis for that matter) made their basis for puns. The first had actual wings, the second a unicorn horn, and the third had the muscle and legs of a satyr.
Well, no wonder the people had given these abilities the names they have now. The one with the horn was called Unicornia, after which the first Unicorn-Blessed country was named, the second got given the name Pegasus, very original there, and the last one Terra. An obvious trend could be observed here, but I digress.
According to the little sign next to a painting of them, they lived about two thousand and four hundred years ago and all of them had differing ideas on how to lead their people. The period was generally known as the Pre-Unification Era. Before the whole Hearth’s Warming thing happened, we have quite a few things to go over.
Around two thousand years ago, a mage dabbling in the foundation of magic discovered a new kind of magic, that was at the time completely unknown. And it’s very random nature promptly ripped apart the solar system. It was speculated that there were other planets within it at some point, as it would seem weird to see other solar systems having ones and this one not. Not that it wasn’t possible, but scientists still debate whether this mage poofed them away or whatnot.
Thus, the Council of Sun and Moon was born. The mages responsible for upkeeping the solar cycle all had a very short life-span due to them burning themselves out with the potent god-level magic they had a daily struggle with for five hundred years.
There was some muddled up history over those years, most of it lost to time and only recently found, thus explaining why my history book in the library didn’t have it in there. The war before the Hearth’s Warming story lasted for over fifty years and the details were scarce.
There was a mention of a necromancer, though, which made me very suspicious. There was actually an artifact of that time here on display, some kind of disfigured bell. Whatever it was used for, I had no idea. Pretty sure it wasn’t to ring for supper.
Hearth’s Warming wasn’t actually the happy go lucky tale I expected at first. Most history books apparently didn’t go into the, ahem, gory details. After an eternal winter, the three tribes decided they needed a new land. What did they do as they found each other claiming the same land? If you guessed they hugged it out and split it up, you’re wrong.
Of course, they painted it red with each other’s blood. As the three leaders of the different kingdoms all fell to the hatred that gripped their hearts, and you know, each other’s blades, their aides brought a stop to the senseless fighting and the threat of another eternal winter caused by the icy spirits known as Wendigos.
Thus, Christmas for Equestria came into being.
Not long after that, another chaos mage dabbled into something that wasn’t meant to be played with. The unpredictableness caused him to disfigure himself into an amalgam of different animals. Maddened by the magic coursing through him, he made the world his plaything.
Time wasn’t easy to tell during the time of his reign, but according to these texts he ruled for about twenty years, and the world never fully recovered for it. It was Celestia and Luna that put a stop to his Wonderland parody. But it wasn’t the first appearance they had in history.
The fact they never answered what happened before that time only made it harder for historians to create a recount of the past. Everything they had about Celestia and Luna came from some texts mentioning them with Starswirl the Bearded, Grogar, and two of his risen lieutenants. According to the passage, they were former heroes of this land.
Must suck to be brought back to life only for you to fight against everything you stood for and being forced to watch yourself commit these acts. It was eerily similar to the tragic past of Arthas Menethil from World of Warcraft.
One thousand three hundred years ago got us to a familiar scene. I remember the mural quite vividly from the Everfree Castle, as I was plagued with nightmares right after it.
The Lord of the Demons, Tirek, leading his armies against Equestria on one side, and the King of the Dead, Grogar, brought back to life by a power-crazy necromancer. In the middle of it fought Celestia with the halberd and Luna with the warglaives.
That war was actually the most life demanding one of all time. At the end of it, only a tenth, a friggin’ tenth, of the population on the whole of Equis remained. Luckily, no intelligent species saw the end of their day, but that didn’t apply to wildlife.
One could imagine what it meant to live in that time. Celestia and Luna remained tight-lipped about the years that followed, but suffice to say, a hundred years later someone tried to fix what was wrong with the world and only made it worse.
This time, around one thousand two hundred years ago, it wasn’t a chaos mage that made the screw-up. No, he thought he could return the world to the perfect balance with order magic. The thing about that, the magic that uses the empowerment of order, is that it didn’t like to be told what to do and takes the first thing it gets as a template to base everything else off of.
Needles to say, the attempt to make everything right with the world backfired in a majestically stupid way. Thus, cloudless skies became the norm for every area the magic touched and animals were too stupid to hunt each other. With that came the need for weather control and animal caretakers.
Then we have next to no mention of the fifty years that followed, just an off-handed comment about the polar lights disappearing. No one was concerned about that little tidbit of information, but I knew it had something to do with that mural in the Everfree, the one with the living shadow.
And now, we came to the most recent addition to the historical records. The banishment of Nightmare Moon and her recent return and cleansing. So yeah, that caused quite a stir in the historical community. How dare Celestia erase history, blah blah blah.
Give her a break, man. I already punched her for the shit, don’t get all uppity about her keeping painful memories away from you guys.
Two years after Luna was banished the Canterlot Castle was finished. Celestia sure abandoned ship fast, but I couldn’t fault her on wanting to live somewhere where she wasn’t constantly reminded of the absence of her other half.
With all the new information I had access to now, the apology from Spectrum to Celestia and Luna made a lot more sense. She couldn’t stop every big bad thing from happening and they must feel like they got abandoned by their patron deity in their greatest time of need.
Thus, no mention of Horse God besides the mural in the Everfree.
I felt angry at that. How dare they abandon her in return? There must be a reason why Horse God couldn’t intervene directly, which made a lot of sense now that I think about all the times she helped me.
She couldn’t touch the physical plane anymore. She needed a champion to do her bidding now, and whatever caused this had a play in every bad thing that must have happened since then. And I bet these seals were a part of this, too.
Horse God had the power to render entire universes lifeless and create entirely new ones, but with the restrictions placed on her, there was nothing she could do.
Except find the courage in her heart to hope that everything turns out alright. I was her champion in two forms. I was the courage that blazed bright as the sun. I was the hope that lit the road ahead in dark times. Her way to influence this world once more.
And I vowed at that moment to not disappoint her. Spectrum, Horse God, Mother, whatever I will end up calling her in the end. She was the reason that I existed here and made these wonderful friends, got to experience the thrill of living on the edge and coming out on top, constantly improving upon myself.
For her, I would do everything. If I had to slaughter half of the world (which I’m pretty sure she won’t make me do), I would not even ask when to start.
I would go as far as she told me. I would commit any act necessary as she told me. I would... go and stop the friggin’ robbery happening right now.
For someone quite as attentive as I, sometimes I had the tendency to get stuck within my mind at the worst of times. Ducking into a bathroom quickly, I touched my bracelet to don my nifty armor and get my bow out. By the panicked screaming coming from the hall where I read through all the history they had on display, there was something very bad awaiting me.
Considering the bone-like appearance of the man standing in the middle of the room with corpses littering the ground, I guess I found the man behind everything going on in the first place.
The leader of the cult, Marrow. And judging by the naming trend in this world, I was reasonably sure his full name was Bone Marrow. Or Bonemarrow, depending on how one writes that name out.
“Marrow, I presume?” I asked as he studied me in return. He didn’t even give a reply as he once more tried forcing open the case with the disfigured bell in it.
So, I shot an arrow at him. And this time, I fully intended to remove him from the picture early on.
The problem was, whatever he did to himself, the arrow seemed to have little to no effect on him besides annoying him slightly. He waved his hand from one side to another and I was sent into the wall at the very end of the hall that I had come from.
I grunted through the pain, cursing the apparent casualness of how easily he swatted me away with his corrupt magic. I spit out some blood and frowned. That couldn’t be good.
The material of this armor could withstand quite the force, it seemed. Without me getting squished to a pancake within, that is. I was suddenly glad I decided to go and activate the bracelet before confronting Marrow.
“You asked for it, old man,” I growled and stalked back to where he first punted me away from. It seems by now he was trying to brute force the case open. Wasn’t doing him any good, either. The power he flung around so casually made me hesitate, to be honest.
“Here again?” he whispered, but his voice carried strongly despite the way he spoke. “Not that you could defeat me, anyway.”
“Every criminal thought so, too. Look where they are now,” I shot back and nocked another arrow. The bastard didn’t even look worried as it flew directly for his head.
And the sight of it sticking out of his skull worried me greatly. He wasn’t fazed by the only thing that worked against friggin’ undead. Well, that and fire. Panicking I fired two more into his ugly noggin, but nothing different happened.
“Are you done?” he asked. And just for the heck of it, I shot another arrow into his mouth. Probably a bad idea to annoy the unholy abomination in front of me, but what can I say? A panicky Lux is a panicky Lux.
That I couldn’t come over with Sol was putting a strain on my little psyche, too. Fucking nurses telling me to get back to bed. I was having a crisis here, couldn’t they see that?!
“Enough of that,” Morrow said, ripping the arrow out of his mouth. He watched on in curiosity as it seemed like his hand was blistering from the contact with it. Now that I saw it being pointed out like that, the other arrows did the same thing on his head.
“Curious, indeed,” he observed. “Maybe?”
He pulled out the other two arrows, while I tried to stop him with more, ignoring the fatigue that set in from creating so many with my magic bow. Whatever he was thinking of doing, I had to stop him.
He couldn’t leave with that artifact, under no circumstance.
Marrow actually staggered back as the continued assault drove him away from the case. If I had any hope of making it out alive, I had to put my best effort into this. So with that in mind, I created my mirror images as I drew more mana from the ley lines with a little starting difficulty. All three of them mimicked my actions of shooting the bony old fuck over and over again.
It got to the point where he looked like a glowy pincushion, trying to move any part of his body. But my assault couldn’t continue on. One clone after another disappeared before even I couldn’t continue drawing power from the ley lines and pulling the string of my bow back.
At one point I heard the police evacuating the building, so I at least didn’t have to worry about any civilian casualties.
Then, Marrow made his move once the assault stopped. Every arrow seemed to shoot out of his body at once and I had to run back as fast as I could to avoid the flying projectiles.
One managed to get stuck in my side, though. I crumpled down to the ground, gasping for breath in the midst of the pain.
“Foolish as that attempt may have been, I must congratulate you in opening the case for me,” Marrow stated and I looked at what he meant. For several seconds I forgot how to breathe as I stared at the sight my eyes refused to believe.
There stood the splintered half of the case, the viewing glass was gone from it entirely and only the frame remained. The bell looked like it did before the start of this little fight, though. Just as decrepit and now ripe for the taking.
I couldn’t believe it. Once more played by my foe. Once more at fault for something I couldn’t guess at the implications of. Everything felt as if it was working against me, more and more. This couldn’t be the end, right?
Marrow stashed the relic away in a conjured bag and casually strolled past my writhing self. “For your own good, stay far away from me and my goals, child.”
I spat after his retreating form, struggling to get myself to sit against the wall. A few minutes passed before I heard the footsteps of approaching men and women. Taking a look at the group of police officers, I saw Secure Shackle run over to me.
“What happened?” he asked me urgently. I explained to the best of my ability, trying to grip the arrow sticking out of my injured side, but he forced my hand away before I could do something monumentally stupid.
“Where is that Marrow, now?” he wanted to know next.
“Gone, can’t you see that, dear?” I chuckled weakly. He called for the other officers to get an ambulance ready for me and they left us alone. I was breathing heavily and he continued trying to keep me conscious. That arrow must have hit something important, then.
“Make sure... that I get placed in the same room as Sol, alright?” I asked him deliriously. Was the room supposed to spin like that? The ground looked funny in that color. It looked like it was flowing, hehe.
“As long as you don’t die on me, you hear me?” his voice echoes weirdly in the distance. I think I will take a nap now.