//------------------------------// // Chapter 62: One Nation, Two species pt.1 // Story: Era of Harmony // by Gambling_Sam //------------------------------// *Tarus POV* In a flash of orange flames, I arrived at the little platform in space Faust calls home. Honestly, the mare COULD go for a few decorations around the place, but noooo! they "clash" with her "workspace". Didn't know spying on millions of living ponies was a job. Then again, I harvest souls for a living, so I can't complain. "Faust, what's the plan?" I stated as she looked up at me from her globe. "Go to the old caves under Griffonia. One of the brothers and an element of harmony are there." I raised a brow. "Really? That must've been that magic disturbance in Canterlot then if they're out so far. Do you want me to bring them in ooooor..." She blinked. "Kill them, and ensure their souls suffer. Ronin needs to die, and magic is tainted by her feelings for both of the older brothers." I grinned wickedly. "Sweet! But...could you let me break a rule or two? I have an idea who I want them to fight, and I need you to pull their souls from the farplane." Faust chuckled lightly. "Very well." She narrowed her eyes. "But if your champions fail...I'm taking matters into my own hands, Cromnius." I narrowed my eyes, flinching at the name. "Fine! Just...don't Call that name. You know it pisses me off to no end." With that, I warped away, somehow not noticing the smile on Faust's face. "Oh you forgotten king. Soon enough, I'll be able to wipe the slate clean." She looks back to the globe. "Then, we can start over from scratch. Perhaps this time I'll make Equestrians have no magic, or even fear their fellow ponies!" She chuckled to herself as she resumed her watch over Equestria. ************* Ronin POV ************* I awoke with a groan as I felt something poke my stomach. "Ronin...wake up!" I heard a familiar voice say as I rubbed my eyes and realized three things. 1-It was dark. Like, really dark. The only light was coming from Twilights horn, who had indeed been teleported with me. 2-We were in a cave, surrounded by some sort of darkened rock. Hell if I know what kind of rocks they were. I was a math major back on earth, not science. 3- Said mare from before was looking at me angrily, narrowed eyes and all. "What?" I said, already grouchy due to her mood. This only caused her eyes to narrow further. "Do you have ANY idea how hard it was to wake you up? I've been trying for two hours and twenty minutes!" Of course bookworm would have the time down like that. Though, given the situation that may be a good thing. I sighed. "Aight, I'm up. Do you know where we are?" She took a step back, allowing me to stand up before she answered as she did a three-sixty look around. "From the looks of it, we're in some sort of cave system." She said before returning her gaze to me. "Why did you have this place in mind?" I frowned. "I didn't want to be warped here. It just happened." Twilight face-hoofed. "Ronin, in order to teleport the teleporter has to have the area in mind before the warp happens, or else the subject could end up anywhere!" I threw up my hands. "Well, it wasn't my magic that teleported us. My guess is that one of my changelings had their thoughts on the system under ponyville and we ended up here." I looked around again before sighing again. "Though this looks NOTHING like the caverns back home, so who knows?" Twilight stared at me in shock for a second, my words slowly registering in her mind before she gasped. "Your telling me you and Chrysalis have been digging underneath town since you arrived last month!" She exclaimed as I nodded. "Yeah, but don't worry about the town caving in. Apparently, Chrysalis knows how much support the caverns need to support the town properly. As long as no huge weight suddenly appears in town, we'll be fine." I said as I chuckled. Its not like a castle or something was gonna appear there anyway. Twilight shook her head. "How did she even...nevermind. We need to focus on leaving this cave." I squinted in the darkness of the cave for a minute before face-palming. Duh! use your powers. Of course, that entailed me knowing how to activate them...and without Melfesia around to tell me how, I was stuck on a trial and error method. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, focusing all my mental attention to them. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked me as I grunted, trying to not lose concentration. "Focusing my mind while attempting to use my changeling powers." I said as I felt my eyes suddenly get misty while Twilight gasped. After rubbing whatever liquid was in them out, I opened my eyes and let out a gasp of my own. I could see everything! Every rock, every bug, every hair on Twilights tail! I had total night-vision, and it rocked! "Whoa...your eyes are glowing." She said before she suddenly got a big grin. 'Is this one of your powers! What did it do?" I smiled, feeling quite proud of the ability. "I have night-vision now, apparently." She squee'd, yes squee'd, at the information. "That's so amazing! I always wondered why changeling eyes glowed like that at random, but I never connected it to their vision!" She looked extremely excited about what I told her, and it was kinda adorable to watch. Wait...adorable? No. Pinkie pretending to be a sandwich was adorable. As was Chrysalis and Redheart when they pretended to be each other for a day (THAT caused some laughs.) But Twilight-the-mare-who's-crushing-on-my-bro- Sparkle? Hell no. I rolled my eyes at her totally not adorable display of childish behavior. "C'mon, Sprinkles. Let's get out of this cave." I stated as I started walking down a path. Twilight frowned before following beside me. "It's Sparkle, not Sprinkles." She said with a huff as the light she was casting grew slightly larger as we walked. "Whatever you say, bookworm." I said as we entered a larger area of the cave. "Whoa...this place is huge!" The room was about the size of the throne room at Canterlot, yet was in waaaay worse condition. There were these cobwebs everywhere, and the only way out was the way we came and some opening above us. Looking up at the opening, I could see stars...which meant that was a way out! "Look! We can exit through there!" Twilight exclaimed as she pointed at a rope ladder that was dangling from the hole from top to bottom. She went to walk over to it but stopped as I raised a hand. "Hold up. Don't you think it's odd such an old looking place has a rope ladder that looks fairly new." I said as Twilight squinted her eyes at the ladder. "How do you know its new?" She asked as I pointed at the metal edges of it. "That metal isn't rusted, and the rope doesn't look decayed." I said as I looked around, but couldn't see anyone. Just more cobwebs and... ...huh? I walked over to a wall on the left side of the ladder and knelt down to get a better look at what I had saw. "What is that?" Twilight asked as she came over, only to freeze up as her eyes went over the object. "Is...that a body?" I nodded, brushing my hand along the giant bird thing as my hands went over a impalement wound. It looked a lot like Gilda, which meant it was a griffon...but why was it here? "Yup. Though there's something wrong with it." I said as I stood up quickly and looked around, feeling the air in the room go cold. "What?" Twilight asked, looking around frantically. "What's wrong?" I looked to the body again before putting up my fists. "The wound on it is fresh. Whatever killed that thing as still here." As soon as I said that, a orange flame erupted over where the ladder had been, revealing what looked to be a humanoid figure, though he was clothed in what looked to be Roman armour while brandishing a sword that looked like...a horn? "Well done, Ronin. I expected that cunning from your brothers, but not you." He smiled. "It seems I underestimated you." I frowned. "How do you know my name, and why are you here?" He chuckled darkly as he pointed at Twilight. "Well, your little magic friend is pretty much a beacon for us gods. So many potential destinies wrapped around her little horn." He then shrugged. "As for your name, Faust has everything about you and your brothers drilled into my mind." Twilight gasped. "Faust?! But you said gods...who are you?" The man smiled wide, showing off razor sharp canines. "Ever heard of Tartarus? I'm its keeper." He opened his arms wide as flames shot out of his hands and into the walls nearby. "Bask in the power of Tarus!" I growled. "I'm getting real sick of your world's 'Gods', Twilight." Tarus raised an eyebrow and spoke up before Twilight could interject. "Ah ah ah. Don't be so rude. Especially when I brought some friends of yours for a rematch." Twilight frowned. "Rematch?" Tarus chuckled. "But of course! A while ago, during your brothers wedding, Ronin and his brothers took down some rather tough foes. I thought it would only be fair to give them an encore, don't you?" He snapped his fingers, making two circles with runes lining them appear in front of us. The runes glowed and the circles turned red and blue as a pegasus and a rather large changeling slowly rised from them. My eyes widened in shock as I took a step back. "Shit. this isn't good." Twilight looked back and forth from me to the two beings in front of us. "Who are they?!" Tarus smiled and pointed to the female. "The winged changeling was named Tundra, and she attempted to put the boy and his fillyfriends on ice in ponyville. Ronin stopped that from happening though." He then pointed to the big guy. "And that's Tremor, the mountain changeling himself. Raiden was the one who killed him off back at the wedding scene." Tundra and Tremor shook a bit before they opened their eyes. Both had a pale white complexion and those zombie eyes from movies. Tundra herself seemed to be completely made of ice now, while Tremor looked like a walking statue. The wannabe hades laughed. "Well, I gotta go tell Faust your dead, so byeeee." He said before disappearing, leaving us with the two zombified changelings. "Twilight." I said, causing her to face me. "What?" She asked shakily, her gaze slowly inching back to the two in front of us. "Take the pegasus. I'll handle the big guy." I said as Tremor rushed us, his right arm turning into a blade as he thrusted forward. I went to block with my sword before remembering something vital. My sword is back in Canterlot. "Oof!" I grunted as The blunt end of the blade connected with my stomach, sending me straight into the wall behind me. "Ronin!" Twilight yelled before putting up a shield around herself to block a beam of ice from hitting her. Tundra had begun to circle her in the air, sending ice beams and icicle spears down on the protected unicorn, making it impossible for her to move. Pulling myself from the wall, I look up to see Tremor throwing a haymaker. I rolled left and swung out a foot at his underside... ..only to howl in pain as my foot connected with whatever rock-hard stone Tremor was made of. "I'm having some trouble here!" I yelled, holding my foot while hopping out of the way of another bladed punch as Twilight was attempting to strike down Tundra, but couldn't get a lock on her due to her sporatic flight patterns. Think it's time for a switch. Jumping out of the way of a running tackle from Tremor, I sprinted straight for Twilight, who was still guarding from the onslaught of the zombie changeling. "Twilight, switch dance partners." I yelled, jumping onto her bubble shield and using it to jump higher into the air. I managed to catch Tundra off guard as I grabbed onto her back legs. "Right!" Twilight said as she lowered her shield and did a one-eighty, sending a beam of magic straight at Tremor. The undead behemoth took the hit straight on, forcing him into the same wall I had just been launched into earlier. "Shiiiit!" I yelled as Tundra had started acting like an aerial alligator, spinning around in an attempt to throw me off. Looking around, I noticed that one of the icicle spears from before were stuck in the floor off to the side, probably deflected off of bookworms shield. If I could just lower her just enough to reach it. I thought as I started swinging back and forth on her legs, causing her to lose balance and slowly come lower to the ground. Just as I was in arms reach of the spear I noticed Twilight teleport out of the way of another charging attack from Tremor. One that was coming straight at Tundra and I. I let go of Tundra and sidestepped Ttemor, who just continued to plow forward straight into his ex partner in crime, sending them both into the wall. I grabbed the icicle off the ground and turned to Twilight, who was standing at the ready for any counter attack from the duo. "Twilight, send this straight into Tremor!" I yelled, throwing her the spear as she caught it with her magic before giving me a shocked look. "What?! I can't kill somepony!" She exclaimed before I groaned. "Twilight, THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD!" I yelled as Tremor started to pull himself from the wall again, allowing us to see the completely flattened remains of Tundra. Tremor turned to us, his soulless gaze made him seem even more terrifying in the caverns low light. He caused both of his arms to become blades as he rushed at me. I went to sidestep again, only to be cut off as one of his arms became a hammer and slammed into my stomach, causing me to double over immediately. "Daaaaamn, that hurts like hell!" I groaned, feeling massive pain even with the white armour on. I looked up and noticed Tremor raising his other hand I to the air as it became the spike end of a mace. Never thought it would be his ugly mug that would kill me. I thought as he brought down the arm with blinding speed. SLHICK! The ice spear Twilight was holding went straight through the head of the zombie and stuck into the barely moving body of Tundra, effectively deanimating them both. Tremors whole body shook violently before becoming dust, while Tundras body melted into a liquid form and evaporated. Twilight looked up at me, breathing deeply from the large amounts of magic used in the fight. "That*pant*sucked" She said weakly as I nodded my head as I felt the foot that I had attempted to use against Tremor only wince in pain as I touched it. "Agh!" I groaned lightly. Perhaps doing a bunch of jumping and running after getting hurt wasn't a good idea. Twilight noticed my pain, and ran over to me. "Are you ok?" I waved her off, standing up and turning towards the hole in the roof of the cave. "I'm fine, but we need to get up there." Twilight narrowed her eyes in thought before turning to me. "Ronin, I could teleport myself up there, and then find something to help you climb up. That old ladder isn't gonna help anymore." She stated, pointing to the burned and beaten ladder that was now fully on the ground. I nodded. "Go for it. But don't take too long." With a flash of light, she was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts as I looked at the dust on the ground. So, that guy is able to bring dead people back to fight for him, huh. That could be bad. I thought as I shuddered at the thought of fighting Dadiolus again. That wouldn't happen, right? Before I could think further, a rope came down from the hole in the roof. I gave it a solid tug before looking up. "Aight, I'm coming up!" I said before grabbing the rope and slowly climbing up to the top. As I reached the top I noticed Twilight had this band around her horn, causing me to frown. "Uh, what's with the band, bookworm?" I asked as she pointed behind me, fear laced in her face. I turned around and made eye contact with a white feathered griffon with blue eyes, and a big old bird at that. "Uh...hi?" I said before hearing Twilight yell out my name before a powerful blow hit me on the back of my head, causing everything to go dark. I really need to stop doing that. **************** Twilight POV **************** When I had teleported out of the cave, I didn't know what to expect. Like Ronin had pointed out, there was a newer ladder leading down into the cave, so there HAD to be some sort of mining corporation or at least somepony that owned the mine. I didn't expect, though I probably should have, for the owners to be unfriendly to outsiders. Especially a pony outsider. Before I knew it, I had teleported right in the middle of three griffons, who had probably been attracted to the hole by all the noise made from the fight earlier. In seconds, they put some sort of band on my horn that kept me from casting magic, though they then threw a new rope down into the hole. Sure enough, Ronin came up from the cave, before proceeding to get knocked out by one of the white griffons lackeys, a smaller griffon with a green feather hue. "Ronin!" I called out as he fell to the ground in a heap. The white Griffon snapped his talons, and the other griffon (Blue feathered with more mass than the green one but waaaay less than white) picked Ronin up and slung him over his shoulders. The white one pointed at me. "Pony, you and your...friend are coming with us. I think the boss would LOVE to to have a word with a pony trespasser." I shook my head. "You don't understand! We didn't mean to trespass, we were just..." I stopped short as the green one placed his talons around my throat. "Twasnt an question, unicorn." The white one replied before he started walking towards a lone building that stood outside a bunch of old walls. The place looked rather...Equestrian for a Griffonian building, it even had some flowers in a pot indigenous only to the Everfree forest. But why is it here? I thought as the green griffon guided me into the house along with the blue griffon and the still slump Ronin, who was laid down on a rather mint condition couch. In fact, the whole house looked like something a Canterlot elite would live in. Fancy lighting, exotic rugs, and even framed bits were on the wall. FRAMED BITS!!! The white griffon walked over to a desk that had one of those turning chairs behind it, stroking the head of whoever was sitting there quite affectionately. "Boss, I found a unicorn and some monkey thing with armour in your mines." He said as whoever was in the seat spun around and looked me dead in the eyes. It was a older looking mare, about fourty years or so, with pink hair and yellow eyes. Her coat was a reddish hue with a scarlet horn spreading her mane out across her face where a scar alongside her cheek laid bare. "Hmph! They don't look like thieves...and I think I've seen you in the newspapers." The mare said in an oddly familiar sounding voice as she turned to the hulking griffon. "Stop standing there like a chicken laying an egg, and get me a newspaper!" The griffons tough demeanor crumbled immediately as he rushed around and grabbed a newspaper from the floor. "Here you go, dear." He said quickly, causing my eyes to widen. Dear? I thought as The mare scowled, noticing my reaction. "What's with the look?! Can't a mare and a griffon be together, or is that too out of place for the 'modern' age?" She exclaimed as I shook my head quickly. "Nononono! Not at all, Mrs...uh..." I trailed off as the mare frowned even more. "My name is Redheart, purple. And you and your friend are in big trouble."