//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: On a mission // Story: World of Warcraft Equestria: A Death Knights journey // by Nosoni //------------------------------// As dawn rose on Ponyville, Vandline was currently getting some exercise inside the Everfree forest. Most of the creatures that Vandline was fighting were the Timberwolves, as it would seem that the more hostile creatures are just staying away from her, almost like the forest can sense her hostility. Screaming at the top of her lungs, Vandline charges forth towards another pack of Timberwolves. She was impressed with these creatures since they don't seem to give up even when faced with a significant challenger, though at this point, she was getting sick of facing these wooden beasts. Having had her fill with combat, she sliced the last standing Timberwolf. "There! that should be enough to sate the hunger for now. Guess I should return to Ponyville and report to Twilight." Vandline said with a huff of her chest. Putting her swords away on her back, she dug into her bag when she first set out on her journey from Acherus all those years ago. She pulls out a journal and begins to look through her entries about her expeditions. After finishing the latest to be written in the journal, Vandline puts the journal back into her bag and makes her way to Ponyville. Reaching the outskirts of Ponyville, Vandline notices a carriage being pulled by the Royal Guards. Curious, Vandline quickly makes her way to the library, where she spotted Celestia talking to Twilight. Upon entering the vicinity of the two ponies, Celestia is the first to speak to Vandline. "Ah, Vandline, you're just in time," Celestia said "In time for what exactly," Vandline asked "I need you to do me a favor. I have recently been receiving reports of strange activity near a small town called Appleloosa, and the descriptions do not bode well." "So you want me to investigate for you?" "Indeed, here are the papers describing the creatures you may be facing" Celestia then levitated a scroll to Vandline describing the creatures she will be facing. "I'll have a look inside once I reach the town," said Vandline "Twilight is there someplace private where nobody can see us? what I'm about to do is only for you and Celestias' eyes." "Hiding something?" Celestia asked "We should be able to hide close to the Everfree," Twilight said. Vandline, Celestia, and Twilight walked to the edge of the Everfree away from prying eyes. Celestia and Twilight were confused about why Vandline asked to hide when they felt energy coming from her hands. Celestia recognizes it as necromantic energy, so she went to the defensive while Twilight was curious. A few seconds later, they hear an echoing neighing sound, and a horse as tall as Celestia came forth from somewhere nearby. "I honestly didn't think that would work," said Vandline. "Meet my trusty mount when I was traveling around my world." Celestia and Twilight were somewhat horrified when the creature appeared. The horse was covered in armor almost similar to Vandline with some differences, like odd skulls that both of them never saw before. The horse's legs were gone but had what appeared to be ethereal energy forming the legs for it. "What is that?" Asked Celestia, a little concerned "We called them Deathchargers, but I do have a name for him," Said Vandline. "I knew your reactions would be horrified, which is why I asked to be secretive about this. Now, are there any roads that I can take to make it to town?" "There should be some roads that don't see a lot of traffic by my little ponies," Celestia Said "The one thing you should be worried about is the train tracks which delivers supplies to Appleloosa." "Ok, the less I'm seen, the fewer headaches you'll have to deal with" Vandline then looks to Twilight, and with a smug, she says, "Don't cause too much trouble while I'm gone" Twilight fakes a little laugh while Celestia did chuckle a little. Vandline then gets on her mount. "Right, I'll have the situation dealt with soon" Vandline then heads off towards Appleloosa, avoiding the eyes of Ponyville residents. She gave Ponyville one final look before she ventured into the unknown towards Appleloosa. A week passed, and she reached the outskirts of a desert when she was intercepted by an unknown assailant and taking a direct blow to the chest. She lands on her back with a hard thud. Quickly getting up, she dismisses her Deathcharger and quickly draws her twin runeblades looking around for her unknown assailant. Hearing footsteps behind her, she quickly turns around and blocks an attack from a Felguard demon. Having faced these foes many times, Vandline pushes her attackers' sword and delivers a twin diagonal slash at the demons' chest. "What do you think you're doing here demon" Vandline said with venom when she said demon "Come to exploit this world?" Instead of a reply, the demon charged at Vandline with a roar and raised its sword to strike her down. Having anticipated this move, Vandline ran towards the demon. With precise movement, she sidestepped the downward swing of the demon's sword while delivering multiple slashes on its arms. Vandline was enjoying toying with the demon, but she had a mission to complete, so with one more charge at the dazed enemy, she plunged her runeblades into the back of the demon and swiftly ended its life. "Damn, I wasn't expecting the Legion to be here on this peaceful world." Vandline said she swiftly brought out the scroll that Celestia gave her and read the contents. Vandline. By now you might have faced the assailant that my little ponies have spotted and I suspect that you know who you are facing Vandline gave a few seconds thinking why she wasn't told back in Ponyville but dismissed that thought thinking she didn't want to worry Twilight So far they seem to be avoiding my citizens, but because they are relatively close to Appleloosa, I fear they may be spotted soon, which is why you are on this mission for me. Inside this scroll, you'll have a location to go to where I suspect they may be. Please bring a swift end to these monsters before they harm my ponies With her objective clearly understood, Vandline summons her Deathcharger again and proceeds to head to the designated location. It takes a few hours but seen she begins to see signs of Legion activity. Thinking she is getting close, she dismounts her mount and dismisses it. Vandline moves at quickly and quietly as she can to avoid alerting any possible sentries. Hiding behind a rock, she hears demonic voices commanding lesser demons. Peaking her head out from behind the rock she sees a few demons on patrol. She spots some Imps, Wyrmtongues, and more Felguards raiding what looks to be a caravan. She takes a look around before seeing a small group of ponies being herded into a cage on wheels, most likely to be taken back to the main camp. She heads to the captured ponies quickly, shushing the ponies to avoid being seen, and then climbs under the wagon. A few seconds later the wagon begins to moves. She hasn't spotted the imps though she does hear the ponies being teased so she assumes the Imps are riding on the cage, making sure the ponies were tormented. After about thirty minutes underneath the wagon, it suddenly stops, so Vandline, quickly acting on her instincts, gets out underneath the wagon, pulls out her runeblades, and swiftly ends the lives of the Imps and a few Wyrmtongues. she doesn't see the Felguards. Hence, she suspects that they must have left the wagon to these lesser demons. Quickly capitalizing on this opportunity, she interrogates the surviving Wyrmtongues. "Start talking you weaklings! Why are you on this planet?!" Vandline says to the wyrmtongues. "W-W-We don't know! The inquisitor is the only one who knows!" one of the demons said. "We only take these creatures so we can eat!" another demon says. This quickly puts a hold onto Vandlines' original plans as now she needs to ensure the captured ponies are rescued and any other captives. "Fine, I'll pay a visit to your leader, but first, you ARE going to give me the key to this cage before I slice off your pathetic heads!" Vandline said threateningly, which did produce a key as well as other trinkets "And if you value your lives more, you will tell NO ONE!" the two Wyrmtongue demons did as Vandline said and proceeded to return to their original duties. Quickly turning to the cage, Vandline tells the ponies she was sent by Celestia to exterminate these monsters while also telling them her side objective of rescuing any possible captives. After unlocking the cage, Vandline tells the ponies to hide somewhere and wait for literally every demon running towards one location. Taking a few moments to make sure the ponies hide, Vandline starts booking it around the fel camp and quickly spots the Inquisitor demon talking to a projection she recognized as an Eredar. As she gets closer she starts hearing the Inquisitor demon speak to the projection. "Our scouts on this world detect nothing of significance. I would advise we leave before we draw unwanted attention from the mortals" "No, continue the search on this planet I know there is something we can use here for Lord Kil'jaedan" the Eredar demon said "Very well Mistress." the Inquisitor demon said before turning off the projection. When the demon started to turn around was when he was attacked by Vandline slicing across its chest. "Cursed mortal! You will pay for that!" the Inquisitor demon said "Keep talking demon! I want to know what you're doing here!" Vandline said shouting at the demon which caused more demons to approach her location The Inquisitor demon chuckles a little "You think you can intimidate me? No I think I shall present your corpse to my Mistress and your soul will be mine to interrogate! I know where you hail from, so I can't wait to extract the info on how you are here!" "We shall see about that" Vandline whispered to herself knowing she is surrounded. About fifteen demons have appeared to support the Inquisitor, including more Imps and Wyrmtongues, a few Felguards, and one Doomguard. The first to initiate combat was five Imps and five Wyrmtongues to overwhelm Vandline, although they are considered lesser demons they can still be threatening in numbers. Vandline slices in half three of the Imps and impales two of the Wyrmtongues before going on the defensive when the remaining Imps decided to throw some fireballs. Vandline surrounds herself with an anti-magic shell to negate some of the damage and slices off a few arms on two of the Wyrmtongues. The last Wyrmtongue felt a little brave and surprised Vandline by jumping on her back but soon realizes his mistake when she gave the biggest death glare she can give to the Wyrmtongue who proceeds to jump off her back and runs away before being killed by the Doomguard demon. Deciding that it's now time to finish off the intruder, three of the felguards decide to try and impale their spears into Vandline but she dodges the spears, which caused two of the felguards to kill the remaining Imps while the third one hits the ground. Quickly going on the offensive Vandline slices at the head of the nearest felguard it doesn't do a whole lot of damage but it did irritate the demon into a rage. Using the enraged demon to her advantage, she taunts the demon to charge at her while facing the other two felguards in a melee. Timing the attack the demon just barely missed Vandline but accidentally stabbed one of the felguards in the heart, killing it instantly. Deciding to now finish off her attackers, Vandline stabs one of the demons with her runeblades and slices open the gut of the demon and then slices off the hands off the other demon effectively disarming the demon. "What are you doing you fools! KILL HER!" the Inquisitor demon shouts at the remaining demons who proceed to advance on Vandline. Deciding that now would be a good time to retreat, she finishes off the demon who had its guts spilling out and heads to the Inquisitor demon. In one motion of an attack, she slices off the head of the Inquisitor demon before running off into the camp and looking for more captured ponies or more demons to kill. After a thorough search of the camp, only finding more demons, which Vandline quickly killed, she was about to leave the camp when the Doomguard from earlier arrived in front of her. Getting into a combat-ready stance, Vandline parries an attack from the demon before she was kicked in the gut by the demon. Quickly getting up, she blocks another attack by the demon, only this time, she sliced off one hand on the demon and proceeded to unleash a multi-slash combo before finishing off the Doomguard by impaling its head with her runeblades. Satisfied that she cleared the camp she gives it one more search for any clues on why the Burning Legion was here on Equestria. Finding small bits of intel and freeing a few ponies who were captured Vandline proceeds to leave the camp. After giving a thorough look at the intel Vandline decides to hunt down any Legion patrols and destroy more camps. She realized that this mission was going to take a few weeks or a month to finish.