//------------------------------// // 49. I'm Back~ // Story: Wolves of Night and Blade: Book I // by One of Nine //------------------------------// An explosion rocked the foundations of Tartarus as the doors of the desert temple were torn from their hinges. “That wasn’t stealthy at all.” “Don’t care.” I stated with an edge in my voice, glancing at my mate as she glared at me. “Haven was kidnapped, I couldn’t care less about stealth.” Luna rolled her eyes, stepping ahead of me as the others followed. “Fine then.” I could tell that she was just as pissed as me, but the Wargess was burying her anger for when we finally found the enemy. Pushing that thought aside, I looked around the crippled room we’d burst into. As a given of any Sun Priest hideout, red banners with golden suns decorated the walls. The once magnificent shrines dedicated to Faust and Celestia were laid to ruin, their shattered remains littering the stone floor. Two unconscious or dead ponies lay beside the room’s spruce door. My fur bristled at the sound of hooves clopping outside the ruined door. Knowing that there was a small army awaiting us, I thrust my arms up, summoning a wall of stone and earth, and shoved it forward. Said platoon found themselves suddenly buried as the wall collapsed. Stepping over the pile of bodies and rock, a battle cry alerted me to an oncoming platoon to the left. The leading pony raised his broadsword, shouting with gusto. “DEATH TO THE HERETICS!!” “Have you looked in the mirror?!” Shouted Damian as he raised two huge guns, coming up to my side along with Danny and Greg. “TWO HEAVY BOLTERS OF THESE HERETICS!!” Finding a small amount of joy from his quote, I brought my own Konda sword to bare. With smiles on our faces, we charged the enemy. “DEUS VULT!!” Meanwhile, the girls peeked around the corner to watch us, shaking their heads. My ears perked at Luna’s words. “Why is it that I fell for a dork like him.” “You have your taste in guys, I have mine, Luna.” Roret giggled. “FOR THE EMPEROR!!” Danny cackled, barreling down the ponies as if they were a stacked card house. “WE ARE THE ANGELS OF DEATH!!!” “RETREAT!!” The remaining ponies scrambled away as I swung my sword, racing back down the hall they’d come. “PAIN IS MEANINGLESS TO ME!!!” I shouted with a cackle, stopping my maniac crusade to watch them retreat. “We need a voice changer for these quotes.” “Heresy!!” Barked Greg as he pointed a rotary gun in my direction. “Bold words for someone in ASSULT CANON RANGE.” My fur hardened and my eyes set aflame, my smile widening. “I will adore a thousand deaths before I yield!” We all doubled over, laughing until our sides hurt. “Are you four done?” Luna asked, walking up to my body as I leaned against the wall, catching my breath. “In case you forgot, we have a little girl waiting for us.” Having calmed down, reality set back into place, and my mood darkened. “Yeah, let’s move.” But I stopped at seeing the weapons the ponies had carried. Realizing that they were made from Arrdoth, the metal once used to bind me, I gathered them up. I then summoned the Eternal Forge and through the weapons in. “Guys, what melee weapons do you want?” I had no idea if this would work, seeing as I couldn’t melt the chains before, but I hoped against hope that the Forge could do it. Greg was the first to step forward. “I’ll take a pole axe.” Nodding, I got to it. Imagining the weapon, my hands delved into the miniature red star, grasping onto the handle and pulling. What I retrieved was an aqua green polearm with a large axe head, a long leather strap wrapped around the hilt. The head bowed down until the blade almost reached the pole, behind the main blade was a curved spike meant for purging skulls. “Danny?” I asked the blonde Warg after handing Greg his requested item of death. “Uh… I… was thinking of maybe a Warhammer or something, but…” “But?” “I think I’ll stick with the classics and have a sword.” “What kind?” “A… Katana?” “Sure, but I’ll add a little something to it.” I turned with a smile, my mind already at work designing the weapon. Molten slag belt and hardened into the general shape of a Katana, but the back of the blade was shaped into a saw. The end of the blade, instead of coming to a sharp point, ended in a wicked hook meant for snagging limbs off the enemy. The hilt was encased in red clothe from a Priest’s cloak. “I’ll take two Assassin’s Creed hatchets.” Damian spoke up, causing me to look his way. “Sure, just a sec.” Just as I was finished molding the Nordic runes into the blades, canon fire could be heard in the distance. “EVERYONE GET DO—” Too late, the explosion of fire and debris sent us flying into the walls. Managing to keep my eye on the Forge, I called forth a ribbon of green chain as it wrapped around my forearm. Yanking the chain toward myself, a large Arrdothian ball with wicked blades poured out of the Forge. And calling upon the Forge once more, I created two maul axes as ribbons of Sun Priest cloak made two loops on my belt. Now with the axes holstered, I landed and rolled onto my feet. Standing, I lightly spun the mace in front of me, its length alight in green flame. “Spell: Extend and Fortify!” I called the Chroma’s power to bear, charging forward as I mentally spoke with Baldur. ‘Hey, we’re going to need 100%.’ ‘For real this time?’ ‘Eh… make it 60%’ ‘Don’t want to bring the place down on our heads?’ ‘Yeah, I don’t think anyone would be happy with that. But, for some reason, I feel like we need to go deeper into the base.’ ‘Done.’ Moments later, I felt reality slip from my grasp as my other mind took control. Red fire burst from our heels, catapulting us toward the tank full of stupid ponies. The chain was then slung over our head, sending the club down on the tank with the force of a thousand tons, crushing it like a tin can. Spinning in a full circle, we brought the chain back around to ram the tank in the side, sending it spinning through the air. “No one will stand in our way.” We seethed in unison, our fur hardening as fire erupted from our maw, our eyes locking onto yet another platoon of ponies as they rushed us. “WHERE IS CHRYSALIS?!?!?!” Now, usually, when a nine-foot-tall monster with horns, a flaming mouth and eyes tells you to do something, you do it. These weren’t the usually sensible type apparently. Without my fear-stricken answer given, but instead an attack, I dispatched the ponies without a second thought. If they didn’t have enough sense to stop and talk to prevent death, then how had they lived this long?! “FANG, STOP!!” Came the studious voice of one purple alicorn. “What are you doing?!” We drew in the chain, letting the fresh blood drip off it and looked over our shoulder. “Looking for our daughter’s kidnapper, what else?” “By killing ponies?” She asked, horrified as her friends caught up to her. Glancing behind them, they’d apparently followed us using the blimp from the intro. Typical. “I know you want to find Haven, but wouldn’t she be devastated by what you had to do to save her?” “And what gives you the right to question us?” Luna asked, dusting herself off as she stepped up next to me. “You may have had a brother kidnapped, but she is our daughter. We promised that she would live a carefree life, and now she…” The Wargess trailed off into welling tears, grinding her teeth in pure frustration. “And besides that, if you’re so horrified by what we’re doing, then just ignore it. Like everything else Tia didn’t approve of, sweep it under the rug and dump it on someone else.” “Hey, that’s not fair!” Shouted Rainbow, flying up to Luna. To which the Princess snapped her jaws in the Pegasus’ face. “The world is never fair. Deal with it, little pony.” “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have work to do.” We spat before swinging the chain up, bringing it down, and smashing the floor, shattering it and increasing the ball’s weight via a spell. The club soon had obliterated several floors, a sudden shriek of multiple voices sounding at the bottom. We could sense hundreds of… Wargs? We could tell from their magic signature. ‘Is this what we sensed? A prison?’ ‘No doubt.’ Twilight and friends’ cries fell on deaf ears as we yanked the chain back up and dove into the hole. We then twisted our body as we descended, flaring the magic through our legs which slowed our fall. Landing with a satisfying thud, we were greeted with shrieks and cries of terror. Turning, our eyes landed on about fifty Wargs, all skin and bones as they huddled away into the farthest corner. White, brown, tan, blonde, and grey; all were Wargs, all imprisoned. Seeing this filled our hearts with boiling rage. Ponies, one of the weakest species on this world… a people of self-righteousness and pride… Our claws slid out from our fingertips, our face twisting into that of wrath, and a roar bubbling in our throat. But before we could explode, we turned to see a door knocked aside by the rubble, and outside were more cells. With bars forged of Arrdoth, each and every Warg was locked away. But the actual walls and floors were made of stone. Why hadn’t they broken out yet? After another look at the prisoners next to us, we saw why. Electric shock collars. With our jaw clenched and brows furrowed, we raced out of the cell and leapt off the railing, coming to land in the center of a courtyard. The area itself was in the shape of a rectangle, adorned by four floors of numerous cells. Twisting in a circle, I watched as hundreds of captured Wargs stared at me in awe, confusion, or terror. The sight of them all, trapped with nowhere to go and on the verge of death, made my anger boil even hotter. Finally, I’d had enough. Trusting my hand out, my runes breathed to life, their bright embers slithering down my right arm and up my face. “Eternal Fo--!” I suddenly felt and saw a change in my runes. I watched in awe as the tail of the snake slipped over my back and left shoulder, coiling around my left arm, until it finally rested the tail’s tip wrapped around my palm. I felt an increasing heat in my chest that spread throughout my limbs, an ancient saying whispering into my ears. ‘The strength of the Alpha is the strength of the pack, and the strength of the pack is the strength of the Alpha.’ With this new power in hand, I sucked in a breath and shouted with vigor. “ETERNAL FORGE; DARK OBLIVIAN!” The Forge appeared in all its glory, three pillars and all. But after a moment, a reversed thunderclap sounded, and the miniature sun overturned. What was once a bright and brilliant star, was now a black abyss, a sphere of pure void. A black hole. The Forge then started to pull. I could feel its strength building as it sucked in rocks and dust, creating a small ring around it. It begged me to point its pull in a direction, as if the Forge itself was afraid of destroying everything. With a shaky nod, I answered its call, directing it to pull at the bars of all the cells. And it did so with a low hum. Deciding it was better to get out of the way, I hovered above the black orb with jets of red fire at my feet. Watching as the gates of aqua steel were ripped from their foundations, I decided to add a little dramatic flare to the scene. Letting my arms cross over my chest, my fur hardened, and my eyes came alight along with my jaws. And so I hovered over the diminutive black hole, my flaming eyes watching as the last of the metal was torn from the walls and floors, vanishing into the Forge. With its task complete, the Forge lessened its power to almost nonexistence, only the ring of dust evidence of its gravitational pull. I then stepped off the orb of death, looking around at all the Wargs, still trembling in their prisons. Why weren’t they… oh right, the collars. But I couldn’t disable them all at once, could I? I would need a huge boost in power to do that, even if I was at 100%... I think. ‘The Dome?’ At Baldur’s suggestion, I looked up, raised my right arm, and blasted the roof until the sun’s light streamed through. Far above, I could feel the dome’s power, like a massive vail over the land. Well, we needed it gone anyways… With the other-worldly gauntlet strapped to my wrist, I suddenly felt it pulling at the dome. Down came a torrent of lightening, the magic of the dome yeeting itself into the gauntlet. Strands of magical electricity danced around me, their power heating the gauntlet in a way that bypassed my natural defense against high temperatures. Through the blinding white lightening, I squinted as I watched the armlet change. The gold trimming all but consumed the gauntlet as the green gem shined, its metal surface melting until it reached from my wrist to my elbow. My screams echoing throughout the chamber as the lightening’s reach spread, its power bulking. Forcing my cries back down my throat, I poured every ounce of willpower into the lightening’s collection, Baldur helping to funnel that power towards each collar. I kept the power flowing and Balder directed it. Bolts of white voltage sored through the air, striking every collar, too fast for anyone to track. By the time anyone let out a shriek, the collars fell to the floor. Many Wargs present stared at me, some wept in joy, and some felt around their necks, hardly believing what was happening. But there was still the dome’s energy to deal with. While I had freed the Wargs, there was still a fair amount of power streaming into me. Finally, the flow inward stopped as my eyes lit with not fire, but lightening. Several arcs of the white energy leapt from my body, the power flowing around me like a storm. Lowering my aching arm, I amplified my voice with the immense power I now held, noticing the gang dropping through the hole I’d previously made. “FOR SO LONG YOU HAVE BEEN KEPT PRISONERS HERE, NOW WE’VE COME AND FREED YOU. BUT OUR WORK ISN’T DONE. THOSE WHO WANT TO HELP MAY STAY AND BRING THEIR CAPTURES PAIN, BUT THOSE WHO AREN’T UP TO IT CAN LEAVE THROUGH THE PORTAL.” At the mention of her specialty, Roret opened a portal in each cell. Taking the invite, many left, but a few stayed. They clearly wanted some payback. “Alright, let’s—” The doors of the far wall slammed open as ten Wargs stepped through, each dressed in leather and metal spikes. They were clearly a former street gang back on earth. “Hey, lightening butt, you ain’t going nowhere!” The big guy in front bellowed, cracking his knuckles as he swept his long heir back. “That so?” I dashed forward like the Flash, “speedforce” lightening screaming behind me as I headbutted the leader. With the former leader fell to the ground, I roared with my fur hardening, thousands of volts arcing and swirling around me as the ground about my feet melted. “Do you truly wish to meet your ends by me?” The gang members had all but scrambled away, shrieking in terror. “I’ll take that as a no.” Another sprint forward rewarded me with more screams, stopping as I bashed the head of a Priest. I turned back to see everyone watching me, those who’d left were without assistance. “Roret, go back and help the newcomers. Get them treated and fed.” “Sorry to break it to you, Micah, but you’re not my Alpha. But seeing as you’re my brother-in-law, I’ll do as you ask.” With that, the red Wargess slipped through a portal with a grin. “Ouch…” My oncoming quip was stalled by a portal opening next to my head, closing as a second Priest tossed another grenade my way. I looked to see Luna giving me a dirty glare, the Wargess portaling the offending miniature bomb away. “Pay attention, love.” “Yes dear.” I mocked, summoning the Forge again as it reverted back to its flaming self and tossing it like a bowling ball. The group of Priests were incinerated in seconds. “Out of curiosity, where did you sent that?” -=Meanwhile=- Chrysalis gulped down the sixth pony that evening, smiling as her gut was filled yet again, their magic flooding her senses. But as a portal opened above her, she shrieked and dove to the side, hiding behind the cocooned pup as the grenade exploded. -=Back=- Luna shrugged in response. “I haven’t the foggiest.” “Well regardless, we still need to find where Chrysalis is. I hate knowing that Haven is right there with her.” Another spike of magic flared from below, the pulse much stronger and more unnatural than what’d been felt from the Wargs. It was a similar vide to what I’d felt from the Warg army we’d met in the North. “We need to get below.” More Priests rushed us but were stopped by our former enemies. A Wargess with dark grey and white fur, clothed in a black leather jacket and torn pants snapped her jaws over a pony’s head. She turned her own head, her red and purple eyes holding a sense of regret as she nodded to me. I nodded back, accepting her help as Luna spoke up, slicing a pony down the middle with her spear. “That surge? Yes, we need to check it out.” “You guys think you can handle this?” I called to our small army of fifty. Receiving nods and ‘yes sir’s, I turned back to Luna as our army circled us, shielding us from the oncoming ponies. With a smile, I clenched my fists and roared, crushing the ground below our feet. The floor shattered, our decent furthered as I bashed each approaching floor. Finally, after one last swing, we plummeted through stale air into a large chamber. Upon landing, I noticed that the room was decked in red carpets and banners, a wide dais, and a golden alter. On said alter was a long dead corpse, four lanterns burning with shrieking green flames, the body steadily sucking the fire away from the lanterns. The corpse itself was a tall alicorn with crimson heir. As we neared, followed by the others as they trickled down through the hole, we watched as the lanterns finally gave out. The air grew thick with staleness and rot, our ears perking as Latin chanting came from the balconies above. “Rogamus te, filia Furi. Reddite nobis dilectam Matrem et Deam nostram! Inter vitae mortisque regna calcamus. Sta coram liberis tuis, o Faust! (We beseach thee, O daughter of the Trickster. Rend to us our beloved Mother and Goddess! Between the realms of life and death, we tread. Stand before your children, O Faust!)” “COME FORTH AT ONCE!!” Shouted a mare, dressed is (surprise, surprise) a red cloak, her pale horn peeking from under the hood. At once, a green fire surrounded the alicorn corpse, a long gasp of breath filling her lungs for the first time in centuries. Clothed in white drapes, Faust sat up and smiled, her eyes landing on me. “I thank you, my children, for giving me these presents. I can finish my work, starting with these weak foals. But… those two…” She pointed to Luna and me, eyeing us skeptically. “Those two might be a problem.” A demonic grin split my face, a small cackle bubbling in my throat. “Right you are…” Faust’s smile vanished as her pupils shrank, immediately slinking back and off the alter, reaching up to where her horn would’ve been. It was now only a crippled stump. “Y-y-you… y-your voice…” “Hello Faust,” I sneered back, my eyes and jaws lighting with red fire as I cracked my knuckles. “Nice to see you again, I wonder how the rest of you tastes… the horn didn’t satisfy.” The revived alicorn dared to pull her gaze from me, hastily looking Luna up and down, doing her best to ignore me. “You look…” “Familiar? I should.” Luna snarked, flaring her wings and twirling her spear. “Or should I assume you’ve forgotten what I really was, O mother of mine?” “L-luna?” She surged forward in a blaze of blue fire, looming over the winged unicorn by a foot. “What?” “Y-you’ve t-turned out w-well…” “No thanks to you.” Faust stood tall, suddenly becoming a little braver… or stupider. It’s always hard to tell with ponies. “Is that anyway to talk to your mother?” Stupider… definitely stupider. “I see no mother, only a hindrance from finding my daughter.” With that, Luna summoned a literal sermon of swords, the alicorn surrounded by thousands of flaming blades. “Once upon a time, I would’ve loved to drag this out and kill you slowly. But time is against us, so I’m going to make this quick. Where is Chrysalis hiding?” In response to the question, Faust dove backwards and began gathering her magic, a massive ball of purple energy above her head. “Down in Tartarus where you’ve always belonged!” Before I could react, Luna stopped me with a look as I stayed away. She had this covered. Turning back to the cackling alicorn, Luna lifted her free hand as her claws were engulfed by green flame. “Gylden Pistol. (Golden Gun)” As said, a flaming gun formed in her grip, sounding with an ear-obliterating bang and Faust’s little magic bubble was gone. The alicorn screamed in rage, and Luna just smirked. -=Earlier=- For the hundredth time that evening, Celestia emptied her barren guts into a bucket, the former Princess sprawled out on two beds pressed together. She was barely aware of a brown furred mare stepping up beside her, the nurse’s amber eyes gazing on the alicorn in pity. “I’m so sorry this happened, but I need to ask again for the records; where did you get those pills? And how long have you been taking them?” “A-about…” Celestia shook her drenched head with a sniffle, sweat soaking the sheets. “Six… maybe seven hundred years… I don’t know. B-but my advisers had them put with my breakfast every morning. Th-they were supposed to help with my sugar intake.” She would’ve normally left that last part out, but with the drug's effects leaving her, Celestia’s mind was somewhat cleared. That, however, wasn’t taking into account the nausea, runny nose, constant sweating, and vomiting. Needless to say, Celestia had felt better in her long life. At least, that’s what she told herself until a sparking portal opened in the corner of the hospital room. The nurse gave a shriek and dove over her patient, the alicorn pinned by the mare and the bed as a loud flash and a bang went off. Now, on top of all the pain she was in, Celestia now delt with ringing ears and temporary blindness. “B-buck my life…” She moaned, blowing her nose when offered a tissue, pulling the sheets over her head. “Ssssshhhhh… sleep now, it was just a flash bang. Nothing serious.” Cooed the nurse as her horn dimmed, the protective dome disappearing over them. “Poor dear… been through so much for one her age.” Another flash of her horn, and the unicorn vanished, a russet Wargess standing over the slumbering alicorn. “I’ll need to let the Alpha know…”