//------------------------------// // 97 - Far from the Tree // Story: Age of Kings // by A bag of plums //------------------------------// The palace was still unsafe to stay in, given the damage it had taken during the invasion of Masyaf and the battle to reclaim it, so Sombra led the questors to one of the nearby noble’s houses outside the palace walls, but still rather close to it. The nobleman and his family had been elated to know the king had requested their hospitality and they had indeed proven themselves so. Emerald Edge had never eaten so much since coming through the mirror and Saddle Arabians had vegetables of all shapes and sizes, all cooked in new and creative ways. There was meat also, but Emerald didn’t have any of that, of course. Over their meal, Moon Tide had begun to recount the sights and sounds on her way here and as she went on, Emerald slowly started eating less and less, her appetite disappearing. “Saddle Arabia is but the beginning of dark times,” Moon Tide had said. “Morn did not just follow you all the way here to get you back. He has carved a path across the land on his way to Masyaf, and left troops in each kingdom to conquer them, all for the sake of world order.” “Ain’t no way he can take them kingdoms with his troops so separate, can he?” Honeygold asked through a mouthful of flatbread. “Doesn’t make sense.” Moon Tide shook her head. “With Excalibur, I fear Morn has been taking more and more people into his ranks. And he has done something to the Knights of the Round Table’s weapons. I do not have the exact details, but according to my sources, I have heard Sir Trotivere’s sword, Fragarach, is able to deliver blows that no magic can heal. It can also get someone to answer any question asked.” “But… their swords aren’t from Equestria.” Nightfall Gleam rubbed at her chin. “Our human weapons shouldn’t be able to do things like that, yes?” “The grail…” Emerald whispered. “It may be like the grail out in the temple!” “You found the Holy Grail?” Moon Tide gasped. “I did not think it was real.” Parisa bounced over, the grail in her hands. “It’s right here! I am Parisa, I’m the court dancer! And you are a mage of Canterlot. We’ve never met, but now we have. Pleasure to meet you!” “It’s nice to meet you too, Parisa,” Moon Tide said carefully, looking at the grail in the dancer’s grasp. “So it is actually a real thing. Incredible.” “Tis a mere trinket.” Jewel Pin waved a hand at it disappointedly. “Turns out the Apple, that round artifact from Emerald’s world, was the one giving the water its healing properties. The grail was but a vessel for the Apple’s power.” “Is that so?” Moon Tide said inquisitively. “Still, it is a find of great historical and cultural importance. I’m sure that were Morn still with us, he would have found it to be… legendary.” Moon Tide finished the sentence quietly, but then she perked up. “Still, good work. Now, pray tell me of all that has elapsed since I left you at the mountains.” Their conversation drifted over to Morn’s attack on the palace and his execution of the king, much to Sombra’s grief. After that, they spoke of Posey’s injury, the trials they had gone through to find the Apple to heal her and to take back Saddle Arabia, followed by Morn’s defeat and escape. “Sounds like quite the ordeal. But I am glad you have accomplished what you had set out to do.” Moon Tide smiled. “It seems I did not need to travel all this way after all.” “So what are you going to do now, Prince Sombra?” Posey asked as she grabbed another bowl of something called beyrani, which Emerald avoided because of its meaty contents. “Will things just go back to the ways they were?” “I suppose they will…” Sombra sighed and looked out a window at the palace. “But with my father gone, it falls on me to lead in his stead. I am not sure I can live up to his legacy just yet. I’m not ready.” “Few people are,” Moon Tide said wisely. “In any case, I think the first step to regaining control would be to make sure that none of Morn’s influence remains in Masyaf. Emerald?” The mage turned to the former pegasus, who nodded. It made sense to weed out anyone else who might still be in Morn’s control. That would leave them open to future attacks if left unchecked. Emerald needed to make sure Morn lost his eyes on Masyaf and return free will to any Saddle Arabian still dominated by him. “I will go around the city and see about freeing any remaining Saddle Arabians who might still be under Morn’s control,” Emerald decided.  “That is a good plan,” Sombra agreed. “I will soon return to my family’s palace and see about gathering the nobles and making repairs.” After a little more discussion about Emerald’s route, Prince Sombra left the house to see to his palace, while Emerald gripped the artifact and conjured a pair of wings for herself. A long ponytail and pony-like ears immediately followed; she waved her friends goodbye and took to the skies, intent on finishing the reclamation of Masyaf. The rest of the week went by quickly. To Emerald’s dismay, there seemed to be more people whom Morn had controlled than she had first assumed. Not only guards, but also a seemingly random collection of citizens. It didn’t take much time to break Excalibur’s control, but finding them all and getting them to comply was tiresome. She even had to chase one of them down the streets, but with the power of the Apple, she managed to do it without too much effort. At last, there seemed to be no more people under Morn’s control any longer in Masyaf. Repairs on the palace were still undergoing, and Emerald had not seen Prince Sombra in a while. To her surprise, she almost missed his presence and his honest opinions. The three young ones were often out late with Parisa, leaving the house to the adults; mostly they went to explore the city now that they had the time and weren’t consigned to house arrest. Still staying in the noble’s house, Emerald found herself up late one night, staring at the Apple on the table. It was a wonder how Star Swirl created such powerful artifacts and why he would actually do it only to lock them away in this world. It didn’t quite make sense to her why he wouldn’t just destroy them if he was so afraid of them falling into the wrong hands. At the same time, she was glad he hadn’t. If these artifacts didn’t exist, then the Crystal Empire would have no hope of returning to all its splendor once she could return to defeat Sombra. Sombra. It struck her as inconvenient that the prince here was also called Sombra. Perhaps things wouldn’t have gone so badly if she hadn’t tried to kill him when she first met him; she still owed him an apology for that. At least this Sombra wasn’t completely like the one back in Equestria. She had definitely misjudged him. As Emerald toyed with the Apple while she sat at the table, there was a small sound from above. Saddle Arabian houses were flat-topped, since there was no rain to worry about. Thinking it might be one of her friends stargazing, Emerald went over to the stairs to go up to join them. Instead, as she mounted the last few steps to the rooftop, something slammed into her face, knocking Emerald back down the stairs in a painful roll. Falling onto the ground, Emerald felt something warm dripping from her nose and her vision spun. What just happened? As Emerald sat up, she saw someone come down the stairs. But it wasn’t anyone she knew. This person was dressed in dark colors and had on a hood and mask that hid everything but their eyes. Eyes that shone with golden light. She was about to raise the Apple to dispel Morn’s control, but a foot came from her right and kicked the Apple right out of her hand. It bounced against the wall and the assailant on the stairs grabbed it and immediately ran back upstairs, his footsteps barely heard. “No!” Emerald tried to go after him, but the second assailant, a woman, pushed her back down before running after her companion. Something at the corner of her eye moved and Emerald ducked back. A crossbow bolt embedded itself in the wall where she had just been standing. Coming in through the windows, three more masked people came. On their wrists were the same crossbow contraptions that had almost been the end of Posey. It seemed Morn had outfitted them well. Spinning on the ground, Emerald caught one of the masked attackers in the leg and knocked him over, before leaping up on her feet and dodging a dagger swipe from another attacker. The Apple. She had to get the Apple back, at any cost. They couldn’t stop Morn without it. Emerald faced the three assailants, readying her sword at her side, but one of them suddenly dropped dead, an arrow in his back. Posey ran up the staircase from downstairs, swinging her bow at another attacker, before spinning under one of his strikes and jabbing her hidden blade into his gut. “Go!” She turned to Emerald and yelled. “Get the Apple back!” Emerald wasted no time in rushing up the stairs to the roof, looking for signs of where the first two assailants had gone. She spotted them leaping from rooftop to rooftop, running on towards the edge of the city, the Apple gleaming in the man’s hand. Looking down, Emerald found a lower building and leapt across to it, landing in a roll. She ran off of it and got onto the streets, running in the direction she saw the perpetrators moving in. It was dark and they were also dressed in black, making it hard to see them, but at least the Apple gave their location away. The thieves were quick, however, and Emerald was chasing someone on the rooftops from ground level. It wasn’t long before she lost them. Curious faces looked out from Saddle Arabian houses as she charged past in her armor, making metallic sounds as she ran. With no alternative, she sprinted for the city gates. If they were planning on getting out, that was where they were headed. Barrelling past a stack of wooden crates, Emerald arrived at the gates just in time to see the thieves stop and hand the Apple to a knight on horseback. The armored warrior saw Emerald coming and barked orders to the people in black. Then he spurred his horse and galloped away from Masyaf at full speed. She just couldn’t believe it. She didn’t make it. No. I’m not giving up just yet. If I can get a horse, I can still make it. Emerald wished she had Foxtrot right now, but any horse would have to do. She was about to run off to find a horse when someone landed on her, knocking her to the ground. Emerald Edge unsheathed a hidden blade and jabbed it behind her, feeling it sink into flesh. The person on her cried out in pain and got off, allowing her to spin around to kick her attacker in the chest. The rest of the thieves raised their left arms, where there were mounted more crossbows. Emerald dived behind a wooden barrel, and felt the shuddering impact as the bolts hit her cover. One of them punctured a hole in the wood and nearly took her left ear off. There was a collection of clicking sounds as they reloaded their weapons. Emerald had always marveled at those weapons and she had never thought she’d be on the receiving end of them. This was bad. She was at a disadvantage at a range, and Emerald usually relied on Posey to take care of ranged threats. But she had to deal with it now, before the knight’s horse carried him and the Apple out of her reach.  Another quarrel skidded off her left pauldron, tearing a hole in her cloak. The onslaught of bolts was rapidly reducing her cover, but if she stepped out there, she would turn into a pincushion. The weapons were slow to reload, but the thieves made up for that by firing in volleys, keeping the pressure on while the others fitted new bolts to the string. There was the sound of another crossbow bolt being released, but the anticipated splinter of wood that followed didn’t arrive. There was a gasp from one of her attackers and the sound of something crackling. After that, the bolts stopped coming and Emerald risked looking out from her cover to see what had happened. One of the assailants’ feet was frozen to the ground now, with the ice still creeping up his knee. The others were looking around the buildings, trying to see where it had come from. Emerald knew such weapons well. Only one mage she knew used such devices. She spotted Moon Tide on top of the building on her right, standing up to fire another bolt at an attacker, this time one of some kind of gas. As soon as the thief breathed in the gas, she fainted on the spot. The others began pointing up to the roof and two of them ran over to the building and began scaling the walls. Not if I have something to say about that. Emerald unsheathed her sword and ran out from her broken cover, another one of the thieves fired at Emerald. The former pegasus raised her scimitar to deflect the bolt, but she ended up slicing it in half down the middle longways and both halves hit her in the chest, winding her.  Emerald lay on her back, trying to get her breath back. There came sounds of clashing and slashing of steel on the rooftops, indicating that the thieves had caught up with Moon Tide. Just as Emerald was pushing herself back up, there was a blue blur overhead and Moon Tide landed on the ground on her back with a heavy thud, a dagger sticking out of her shoulder. “Moon Tide!” “Careless mistake…” The mage coughed and rolled to her side. Her crossbow wasn’t anywhere nearby, meaning it was likely still up on the roof she had been shooting from. “They are too numerous.” The two on the roof hopped off and landed in front of them while more seemed to show up from around them. Emerald counted at least seven and four of them already had their arm crossbows pointed towards the two of them, ready to end it. As the thieves closed in with knives and wristbows raised, Moon Tide let out a surprisingly gentle sigh and unclasped her bag, her cloak, and bandoliers of potions. “I had hoped I would not have to use this, but if needs be…” There was the sudden rush of air being consumed by a fiery green blaze where Moon Tide had been standing, and a wild scream rang out, half bestial screech and half guttural roar. Emerald fell backwards at the sudden heat and light and the thieves faltered, unsure of what to do. As the fire died down, where Moon Tide had been standing was a wholly black-skinned creature with long purple hair that reached down to its feet. Claws five inches long and razor sharp protruded from its fingers and toes, and the eyes were acid green and slit-pupiled. The moon circlet of Moon Tide was still there on the creature’s head. The creature leapt onto the closest thief and opened its mouth to take a bite out of the man’s shoulder and neck. Blood sprayed out onto the ground and the thief fell immediately. Emerald scurried back in disbelief as the Moon Tide creature shredded another thief’s bowels with her claws, sending him down on his knees. She had so many questions going through her mind. What happened to Moon Tide? Was this Moon Tide? Was she not human? What was she? Two of the assailants fired their bolts into the Moon Tide beast’s chest, but she only grunted in pain before appearing before them in a blink of an eye. She jabbed both clawed arms forward, flooring the pair before stomping on their necks with her talon-tipped feet savagely. The remaining three kept a wary distance, with one of them pointing his wristbow at her. Leaving footprints of green fire in her wake, the black creature broke into a run for the last three thieves, raising an arm to stop a bolt from hitting her in the face. The Moon Tide monster was upon them, slashing away with her claws as they tried to get away. She grabbed one of their heads and that thief managed to cut her across her upper chest twice, but with a squeeze, the man no longer moved. In a matter of seconds, all seven thieves lay dead on the streets, some of their entrails strewn on the floor beside them, some of them separated into a few body parts. The Moon Tide creature looked at Emerald and for a second, those glowing green eyes flashed a brilliant color and it reminded her of Morn’s. Her lessons in Equestria about the land’s races scrolled in front of Emerald’s eyes. Black hide. Green, reptilian eyes. Viridian fire. And the ability to change forms. It all pointed to one type of creature. “You’re a… changeling?” Emerald had never seen one in real life, but she’d seen the drawings and heard the reports. They typically plagued the areas away from the Frozen North, and Canterlot was the one to usually deal with them. Now it all made sense. Morn’s heightened senses, his enhanced strength when she, his source of love, was around… “Is that the last of them?” the changeling asked. Her voice was double layered, as if there were two people talking just out of sync. Emerald looked around at the carnage. “I… I think so,” she said carefully. Then she looked around at the buildings. Surely the commotion would’ve been heard, especially after Moon Tide’s monstrous transformation. What happens if they were to look out their windows now? “Moon Tide, we need to get someplace safe. Away from the eyes.” The changeling stared at Emerald for a moment, then jerked her head in a nod. “Agreed. Let me just pick up my things…” She retrieved her bag and bandolier, and draped her cloak around herself. “Tis best we go somewhere less… used.” She took a step towards the spymaster, but suddenly fell to the side. “Moon Tide!” Emerald rushed to her and inspected her. She had wounds across her body and there were three crossbow bolts embedded in her. She wasn’t in good shape. Emerald took the opportunity to study Moon Tide’s face. Now that it was blackened, it looked a lot more streamlined and there were a pair of bloody fangs coming down from her top row of teeth, like two short daggers. Little gouts of green flame flickered in the back of her throat. Now that she was like that, Emerald could really see Morn’s resemblance to her. And she had been thinking about it wrong this whole time. Morn was no mere human. He was the son of a changeling. Perhaps that was why he was able to use Excalibur longer than Dawn Saber. “Let us get you out of here.” Emerald hooked her arm under one of Moon Tide’s and hauled her up over her back. Thankfully, Moon Tide was a rather light being. “I would… prefer it if you could… keep my true nature… a secret from the others,” Moon Tide breathed in Emerald’s ear. Her breath was almost scorchingly hot. “Humans do not take kindly… to non-humans.” “Then we better get you off the streets. I think I know just the place.” And with that Emerald started off towards the palace. The Apple had been lost today and that filled her stomach with regret as she hit herself for not being careful enough. But for now, that had to wait. Even if she had lost the Apple for now, she was sure that with her friends’ help, she could get it back. Feeling the weight of Moon Tide on her back, she sighed. How many more secrets could this world hold? Morn Dread stood upon the parapets of the fort walls as he spotted a knight returning from his run to Masyaf, a glowing orb in his hands. His smile only grew wider and wider as the rider approached. He had taken this place, Alamule, easy enough with the power of Excalibur, and it was a good thing he had done so. Then at least he had somewhere to fall back to since his ousting by Emerald. The fort was already decorated with flags that Morn had his men hang up. These flags were of black and white, along with a red sword on its center, with an enlarged crossguard. This image was to symbolize his conquest for world order, with each end of the sword, along with its guard, pointing to the four corners of the world. All would soon fall under his leadership and they would destroy the world no more. When he had left Masyaf, he had kept his legions of Saddle Arabian citizens within the city, hoping to use them to make his next move. He hadn’t expected Emerald to hunt them down and break his hold over them, but in the end, she couldn’t get them all. With Excalibur in his hands and now the artifact Emerald had come all the way here to get, Masyaf would be defenseless. His troops could now retake the city from the weak prince and do what they had set out to do. Peace and order within the known world. With every kingdom under his control, Morn knew he could usher in an age of peace no human had ever accomplished since the birth of the world. There would be no more conflict, no more disagreement, no more violence, no more heartbrokenness. Morn thought back to what his father had done to him and he snarled, baring his fangs to the cold desert night. Dawn Saber had gotten off lightly. There was so much more he had wanted to do to the man that was supposed to be his father, but the past was the past. Dawn Saber had opened his eyes and perhaps he should even be thanking him. If not for his cruelness, Morn would never realize what the world needed and what it didn’t need. “This world doesn’t need any more kings,” he said to himself and turned to face his troops in the square beneath him. Sir Gallophad and Sir Lionheart stood at the forefront of his army, still as statues, their gleaming swords in hand. Lionheart also held on to the shield from Emerald’s world, its surface emitting a brilliant golden hue across the blue sand. As Knights of the Round Table, their swords had been granted power by Excalibur, making them more worthy of the hands that wielded them. Arondight, the Light of the Lake was held in Sir Gallophad’s hand. The sword of one of his closest friends, Sir Prancelot, shone with vibrant heliodors embedded in the crossguard. The blade was long and fluted, shining in the moonlight like a thousand silver pieces. Gallophad had taken to the sword quickly, and his swordsmanship would only be enhanced by the powers Morn had vested into the weapon. And then there was Lionheart’s blade, Durendal, the Sword of Stone. It was a wide, heavy sword, whose hilt was long enough for a two handed grip. However, Lionheart was strong enough to wield it one handed. The blade had a marbled appearance, almost like actual stone and it had sapphires fitted into the base of its blade and in its pommel. Behind Morn stood his soldiers, both of Canterlot and Saddle Arabian soldiers, and behind them were the siege weapons the mages had so kindly constructed for them. Without the artifact in Emerald’s possession, there was no chance of her fighting off his army. And first thing tomorrow, he would be off to Canterlot. With all the artifacts in his possession, Emerald could not stop his conquest. He would have the world at his feet and she would be back by his side in no time. Morn raised Excalibur to the air and grinned madly. “Tomorrow, we shall retake Masyaf and with it, all of Saddle Arabia will belong to me! The age of kings is over! All will serve me. Long live the king of all things!” If Emerald would not see, then he would show her. He would take the world and then she would see for herself, his world of order.