The Alicorn Warrior

by iAmSiNnEr

Act I - Chapter 14 - Consequences

“You failed?” the stallion bellowed at the griffon, his voice full of rage. “Do you have any idea what will happen now?”

“I’m sorry!” the young griffon cringed. “It wasn’t our fault that Sparkle was that powerful!”

“We sent the Dark Order with you,” the stallion growled. “And they gave you all an enchantment to remove your pain sensors. How could all of you possibly fail?”

“She simply just killed us all!” the griffon cried. “I barely managed to get away-”

“Enough,” a silky voice said from the shadows. “What’s done is done. What we need to do now, is to plan for her return to Equestria.” An elegantly dressed female unicorn emerged from the shadows, a mask over her face, concealing her features. “Lady Shadowcrest’s plan will go ahead, whether or not Sparkle returns.”

“Illa,” the stallion inclined his head. “What a surprise to see Lady Shadowcrest’s personal assassin here.”

“Same to you,” Illa said dryly. “You’re not supposed to be here, Bastion. Wouldn’t Kreig have sufficed to get the information from the griffons?”

“I felt this needed my intervention,” Bastion straightened up, ruffling his wings. “The moment Sparkle reaches Canterlot, we will be exposed. We cannot risk revealing our hooves in the matter yet.”

Illa sighed. “Have you not learned yet? Lady Shadowcrest has plans for everything. We already have the support of the nobles, and our ally has both princesses sealed away. Equestria will be ours eventually, no matter what Sparkle does.”

“What about the doppelgangers in Ponyville?” Bastion asked. “Do we need to ask for them to leave as the Elements return?”

“Lady Shadowcrest has ordered for them to stay,” Illa said. “This way, we can confuse them, slow them down. However, they will not retain their disguise, but instead, they will take on other disguises.”

“Hmph,” Bastion nodded. “I can work with that. I shall send word to the wolves in the Badlands to slow Sparkle down to give us some time.”

“Lady Shadowcrest has also ordered for this base of operations to be destroyed,” Illa said. “She suspects that Sparkle will be able to track us down to here.”

Bastion frowned. “How?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Illa said. “Do as she wants, unless you want to be executed like Larkin. We cannot afford to be hesitant with respect to this matter. Even with all our plans, she has proven time and time again to be able to foil them.”

“Alright,” Bastion nodded. “What about him?” He jerked his head at the cowering griffon at the corner of the room. 

“Kill him,” Illa decided without much hesitation. “Too much of a security risk.”

“W-What?” the griffon stammered.

“Of course,” Bastion nodded, before sending a knife flying into the griffon’s chest and into his heart with pin-point accuracy, killing him instantly. 

“Inkwell has also requested for your presence in Canterlot,” Illa said as Bastion casually retrieved his bloodied knife. “She requires the Duke of Cloudsdale to be there.”

Bastion grunted. “Fine. Tell Inkwell I’ll be there, but make sure I don’t have to interact with her.”

Illa shrugged. “We all dislike her, I know, but do try to be polite, will you? Our ally is the only reason why we have been able to stage this coup and not let Equestria know.”

“Any word of the rebels?” Bastion asked as he wiped the blood off the surface of his sharpened blade.

“Nothing,” Illa replied, seemingly unconcerned. “They have disappeared, and there has been no sign of them. A pity, we could have used the unicorns to our advantage.”

“I still don’t know how they managed to figure us out,” Bastion muttered while he sheathed his blade. “For Sun’s sake, they didn’t even know Celestia that well.”

“They still were powerful unicorns,” Illa reminded him. “Do not underestimate our enemy, Bastion.”

“The Crystal Empire?” Bastion prompted, raising an eyebrow. 

“None of the doppelgangers had been able to replace the Princess of Love,” Illa said. “Rumor’s that she knows what’s happening and that the rebels are taking refuge in her territory.”

“The Lord of Chaos is another problem,” Bastion muttered. “We’ve been able to keep him happy so far with a fake of the Element of Kindness, but it will not last forever. Once the actual one returns, they will find out that someone was in their place.”

“Hmph,” Illa rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she considered the statement. “Perhaps… I will make the arrangements and see if we can be rid of Sparkle. If she cannot pass the border in the first place, we can simply keep her out and sow doubt within the group. If she thinks she was lied to by her friends, we can surely exploit that to our...advantage.”

“Alright,” Bastion nodded. “I will take my leave now, and pass my regards to Lady Shadowcrest. Tell her the base will be destroyed within the day.”

Illa inclined her head. “Of course. See you in Canterlot, Bastion.” She vanished, teleporting away.

Bastion sighed, crossing the room and ignoring the dead griffon to open the door and exit. As he stepped out, he cast his gaze around the underground base. They had used it for so long, only for its destruction to be ordered because of Sparkle. He almost felt a pang of sentimentality for this place, but he had to shrug it off. Sacrifices must be made.

“Lord Bastion,” an earth pony came up to him. “I heard the base was to be destroyed. Orders from Lady Shadowcrest, apparently.”

“Yes,” Bastion said dryly. “Clear out all the artifacts and ship ‘em to the Canterlot base. Make sure the creatures are well sedated so that they won’t escape.”

The earth pony nodded. “Yes, Lord Bastion.” 

“You will not know what is coming for you, Sparkle,” Bastion murmured to himself. “You may have taken control of your life, but you will not ruin four years of our planning.” 

Illa appeared into a darkened hallway, stumbling slightly as the teleport threw her off balance. Regaining her balance, she straightened up and hurried down the elegantly decorated hallway, lighting her horn as she did so to give herself some light.

As her hoofsteps echoed down the hallway, she became aware of a presence watching her every move. Watcher, she thought dryly. Been years since Lady Shadowcrest created him, but he still gives me the eebie jeebies…

The lights began to turn on one by one, lighting the hallway up as the presence of Watcher withdrew, having ascertained that it was Illa that had teleported into the house. Eventually, she arrived at an ornate marble archway opening up to a large garden. Before her, there was the mare she had come to find.

“Lyia,” Illa called out, pulling off her mask as she did so. “I’m back.”

The unicorn mare turned around, her startingly blue eyes immediately obvious as she did so. “Took you long enough,” she muttered. “Lady Shadowcrest was getting impatient. Does Watcher know you have arrived yet?”

“Sister,” Illa chided. “I haven’t seen you in months, and that’s the only greeting I get?”

Lyia sighed. “I’m here because Lady Shadowcrest wishes to move into Phase Three now, and this requires my research.”

“You’ve found the way to defeat Sparkle?” Illa asked interestedly. Even as skilled as she was, she knew she could not measure up to an alicorn at full strength, much less one that had been strategizing in an arena for the last four years.

“No,” Lyia replied flatly. “But I have discovered something from my...interrogation of her parents, known associates and ponies she interacted with before. She has one fatal flaw, and that is her friends. Threaten her with them, and she will cave in. It has been done before, in her past battle against Tirek.”

“And?” Illa prompted. 

“She gave in,” Lyia responded. “Gave Tirek all the magic he wanted. And it was in exchange for her friends. If we use that against her, her alicorn powers will be useless.”

“I’d like to have something more concrete than that,” Illa said doubtfully, frowning slightly. “We’ve been preparing for so long, and yet we still don’t have an actual, foolproof way to deal with her in the event she discovers our plan of deceit.”

“We do, actually,” a regal voice came from behind them.

Both Lyia and Illa sank down onto the carpet in a kneeling position, lowering their heads. “Lady Shadowcrest,” Illa murmured. “We did not see you coming.”

“Of course,” the voice said. “Watcher informed me where you were, so I made my way over. Arise.” At this, Illa and Lyia got up, giving Shadowcrest their utmost attention. 

A beautiful-looking pure white unicorn mare stood there, looking at them with stern eyes. “Report,” she ordered. “What is happening on Bastion’s end?”

Illa nodded. “They failed to take out Sparkle and her friends. Our spies report that she has plans to return to Equestria within the week. This is a journey she will almost definitely make; she has done it several times before alone. Bastion is sending a detachment of wolves to slow her down.”

“Of course they failed,” Shadowcrest said, somewhat indifferent. “No mortal in history has ever managed to successfully kill an alicorn by brute force. We will need other methods, which is where you—” she turned to Lyia. “—come in.”

“Her one fatal weakness is her friends,” Lyia said. “From what I have found out, she will give even her life to protect them. As for any physical weaknesses, alicorns have almost no weaknesses, and the only one that I have found is that their wings can be broken relatively easily as long as you exert a sufficient amount of force.”

“Lady Shadowcrest, if I may,” Illa said respectfully.

“Yes, Illa?” Shadowcrest turned to her. “Speak your mind.”

“I think we can use Sparkle,” Illa said. “With all due respect, getting rid of her is what we need, yes, but what if we could stage it such that her death will be public?”

“What do you mean?” Shadowcrest said curiously.

“We have had to rely on our ally to keep Equestria in the dark about our coup,” Illa said. “But if we can show that Celestia is incompetent, we can replace her with a new ruler, preferably one that we know won’t betray us.”

“Hmph,” Shadowcrest gazed at the flowers around them. “A fair point, although we will need to flesh it out.”

“Of course, Lady Shadowcrest,” Illa nodded. 

“There are several ways we can expose Celestia to be an incompetent ruler,” Shadowcrest mused. “After all, she made many mistakes. I shall think about it. Inform Inkwell that she will need to mantain the status quo for now, just in case Sparkle arrives earlier than expected.”

“One more thing,” Illa remembered. “Inkwell is calling together the Dukes and Duchesses of Equestria to Canterlot for the annual meeting. There, she has decided to issue our ultimatum; support us or lose their authority and titles.”

Shadowcrest nodded approvingly. “She’s certainly doing well in the position we gave her,” she said. “Very soon, Equestria will belong only to the nobles and aristocrats, as it was always meant to be. For too long have the alicorns lorded themselves over us. And, speaking of alicorns...do you have any news from the Crystal Empire?”

“Still on lockdown,” Lyia remarked. “The Princess of Love has cut off all contact from Equestria. For now, rumors say that she locked it off because the rebels managed to get to her and inform her of our deeds.”

“Then why has she not taken action?” Shadowcrest mused. “I have met her before, and she was certainly not one to wait and bide her time. If she knew that her aunt was no longer in power, she would most definitely come to her rescue.”

“We do not yet know,” Illa noted. “A barrier is up around the clock, preventing access from anypony on the outside. Owing to this, we have little information coming from within.”

“Hmph,” Shadowcrest sighed. “Fine. For now, inform the rest to leave the Crystal Empire alone. We will deal with them when the time comes… or perhaps even use Sparkle as bait.”

“Will you be coming to the meeting, Lady Shadowcrest?” Illa asked. 

“No,” Shadowcrest said. “That would not be wise. Sparkle is expected to arrive soon, and if she figures out I was behind all of her suffering...she would not let me off easily, if at all. She might not remember my name; I did keep a low profile in Celestia’s court. But I will not take any chances. I will remain at home instead.”

“What about Blueblood?” Lyia asked.

At the mention of his name, Shadowcrest’s face darkened. “Whenever we hinted at the possibility of him switching sides, he has still refused. Unfortunately, we could not get rid of him. Since he is the Duke of Canterlot, many things would collapse without him. However, we cannot keep going like this. If he still refuses after issuing our ultimatum, then we will have to get rid of him...surgically.”

“I am still amazed he hasn’t found out that there’s a fake in Celestia’s place,” Illa said. “Every time he reports to her of treason, our ally just simply distracts him. How he has not put two and two together shows how blinded he is by his loyalty to Celestia.”

“He is not incompetent,” Shadowcrest noted absentmindedly. “As conceited as he is, he has managed to ensure that he is irreplaceable, which is why we have this problem in the first place.”

Illa nodded slowly. “What are your orders now for me in Canterlot?”

“Keep a low profile,” Shadowcrest decided. “Do not engage unless absolutely necessary, is that understood?”

“Yes, Lady Shadowcrest.”

“Go, then,” Shadowcrest ordered. “And remember my orders.” Illa nodded, before putting on her mask again and teleporting away. “As for you,” she looked at Lyia. “I have something I need you to do…”