//------------------------------// // Further on the Map // Story: Left Behind: Sunny Disposition // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Moon and Calostell were back in the run-down shack the bird called home, along with Bombastic in the kitchen preparing warm drinks that the alicorn was hesitant to try. "So the king started it is what you're saying?" Calostell asked with a smile on her face. Moon nodded, making the bird laugh heartily and slap her legs. "What an idiot!" "It's good to see you back to normal," Bombastic said in relief. He brought a beat-up metal tray with a pot and a few glasses sitting atop it. "You were so...shy when he came. You couldn't look anyone in the eyes anymore nor could you look over us." He clenched the tray, denting it further. "I had to take care of everything, moreso than usual. Even had to go looting for resources." The bird jabbed his leg with an elbow. "Come on. Looting is the best part," she said as he lowered the tray onto the table. Bombastic looked around and shrugged, letting a smirk escape. "I admit that it was entertaining, but dealing with the guards is something else." He grunted. "Not as fun." Calostell waved at him. "Pshaw. That's part of the fun." Moon stomped the ground. "Enough of this! You were all almost subsumed by some entity of pure chaos magic! This isn't the time for jokes." The bird puffed up and crossed her arms. "You're no fun. He's not coming back." Both the alicorn and the minotaur facepalmed at the same time. "What? It's true." She twirled the teacup in her feathers and then chomped down on it. She pulled another cup out of nowhere, shocking her observers. "What?" Calostell asked them. "Are you really using that magic that completely changed your personality just for something that stupid?!" Bombastic asked in exasperation. "Not to mention the city and its population were completely warped." The two looked at Moon in shock. "The populace's faces had been replaced with crudely drawn facsimiles of one, like a foal had made them." The alicorn noticed the two turning pale. "As for you, minotaur, you have no traces of order magic within you, so you needn't worry about somepony coming to 'train' you or anything of the sort." Calostell looked at her wings and flexed them. "Well...if I can focus and use them in moderation, then I think this power would serve to take over this city pretty quickly." She grinned. "And I'll have my own massive city to call my own." "What about those who want to stay down here?" Bombastic asked. The bird leaned her head left and right. "You can take care of it, or I'll have someone else do so." She looked up at the immense bull creature. "This place is a haven for the downtrodden. If they can't live up top, then why should I wipe this place out when I take power? No value in it." She rotated her left shoulder and grimaced in pain. "I would suggest they change the entries, though." She grimaced. "Disgusting goop dripping occasionally from the ceiling." "Regardless, the king and that thing have forced my hooves. I'm moving forward now," Moon said. "Then we should get ready on our end," Bombastic explained. "We have griffins in place to take over the city and overthrow the current governing body." Moon grimaced. "When you give us the all-clear, we'll take it over and send whomever chooses to join you." The bird jumped on the table, shaking the contents upon it. "But most importantly, we'll go on raids and steal supplies!" Calostell said enthusiastically. "That should limit the pony king over here, and then we can join up with your forces and get rid of everything else!" Moon poured some water in one of the glasses and drank the contents, taking seconds to ponder the outcome. She didn't know very well what it was they wanted specifically out of this, but they did want to go home, and their limitations made that impossible. She could very well fund such an expediting to get them out of Equestria and have a brand-new city built already for the ponies. Pegasi would live here at first, but some work would boost it. She looked through the bottom of the glass at the minotaur and the bird. The alicorn believed that the two would take over through more...passive means. Was life here really that unfair? She poured another glass. Even if this was just a coup for power, that would likely breed fear. Fear breeds contempt. Contempt breeds hatred. Hatred breeds anarchy. Moon chuckled to herself. She had all the time in the world to wait for the aftermath and take over if something were to occur to her future vassal city. "Fine. We'll go with that plan," Moon agreed. "When I approach the city, I'll send a message out." She grunted and stood up. "And no accepting any strange ponies or griffins or whatever trying to 'teach' you anything." The bird patted her chest. "I promise on my chest feathers that I will not make that mistake anymore." Bombastic stomped forward. "And I'll make sure she doesn't make the mistake again." He punched his palm and twisted it several times before slowly turning to face Calostell. The bird laughed nervously. "That's a good joke." Her smile slowly started to fade when she realized Bombastic wasn't changing his demeanor nor the intensity of his glare. "Y...You're joking, right, Bombastic?" The minotaur moved to the door to open it for Moon. "Bombastic? Bombastic, you're joking! Say you're joking! Bombastic!" King Gallant and Queen Majesty sat in the war room in front of a long, rectangular table. Only three of their generals were present, each emitting a heavy presence simply by existing in the room. A pink pegasus stallion whose wings were wrapped in enchanted metal stood opposite the royal couple. His coat was black with yellow trims at the sleeves and collar and his cutie mark was a tornado on a brown slab of rock. The stallion's mint green eyes exchanged glances with his unicorn neighbor's daisy-yellow oculars. Her horn had been replaced with a prosthetic that hummed like cables with terawatts of electricity coursing through them. In fact, it wasn't unusual to see a haze and some vaguely visible patches of color forming in said visual effect. She wore armor, unlike her two colleagues, which covered everything but her head. The last was another unicorn wearing another uniform akin to their pegasus colleague. His bright, yellow coat made them and their deep blue eyes, mane, and tail stand out. He was mostly bare of clothing, save for a plain, gray cap resting on his head. But no pony could wrap their head around the metal pony on the side getting annoyed while trying to fiddle with the hurdy gurdy. The pink stallion opened his mouth to ask about it but stopped immediately when Queen Majesty raised a wing to her lips. "Ignore the animated toy there," the king told his generals. This prompted an insulted 'hey' from said 'toy'. "Where are the others?" he asked. The pink pegasus straightened himself. "They've been busy with potential uprisings in response to an alicorn of old coming up. They deemed tending to these issues more important than meeting you," he explained. Gallant leaned forward. The king and queen nodded in approval. "I should send them messages about our discussions here today, then." Gallant snorted. "Should have brought a scribe but..." He sighed. "So tired nowadays." "You should go to bed earlier, then," the automaton mused. The unicorn mare stifled a laugh. "S-sorry. It's just everything was so awkwardly silent," she apologized. "This is not the time to joke around," the queen 'said' with her wings. "Even with that abomination my husband has brought here." Said machine stopped fiddling with their instrument and looked up with wide eyes. "I feel like she just insulted me," it muttered. "Don't worry about it," the king reassured. "Now, as for why I summoned you all, the alicorn is causing issues with the stability of Equestria." The pegasus leaned back and raised a brow. "I suppose you mentioning that rumor means it's real." The king nodded and the pegasus' body clenched. "I can't believe it." "I was fooled too," King Gallant said. "I thought she was just a disguise spell or somesuch other thing concocted by the mayor of Snowfege the alicorn appeared in. It turns out she was real, and can summon dimensional portals filled with all manner of...of things." The unicorn with a prosthetic horn slammed her hooves onto the table. "Then we just need to cut off her magic at its source!" she bellowed. "We can't break her horn, Plurry," the King corrected. "That would be far too difficult." Plurry grit her teeth and scraped the table on her way back to her seat. "Rumors said she was linked to the moon?" she asked. Gallant nodded. "Then we need to find a way to break her connection to the moon." "That won't be so easy," the automaton interjected. It pressed on the keys on the side of the hurdy-gurdy and seemed to marvel at them clacking successfully. "She's linked to many more moons we can't see anymore." It tilted its head. "Are you going to spend significant resources cutting off every single moon? Not to mention each moon is a different size and has different magic bound to it." Plurry leaned back, a brow raised at the machine. "I'm best at direct tactics, not circumventing with big brain stuff." She gestured to the stallion. "Leave that with Pink Prose. He's the one best at gathering information." The pegasus' wings twitched and he swallowed audibly. "Well, I believe that we should start a misinformation campaign against this alicorn. Fund performances to show ponies disguised as an alicorn and make it obvious that it takes several ponies to do what it is she's doing. Then no pony would have any confidence in her when she finally arrives or sends proclamations of allegiance." "And there are nobles that despise the thestrals and the nobles that claim to be descendants of her's," the yellow unicorn said. "We could capitalize on that as well. They could impede the enemy nobles' efforts to support the alicorn," he added. Gallant smiled. "Fantastic ideas! With the indirect backing of the crown, we won't have to worry about ponies getting suspicious and they would just see this as another spat before the rich foals." Queen Majesty looked at the automaton, pulling its attention. "What do you think, thing?" she asked it through her husband. "The ideas are amusing. The one you just came up with reminds me of a plan we used for the final few alicorns, especially that last one," it mused. The automaton's face twisted unnaturally, and a protrusion of metal resembling a fake tongue grew. "After all, is a god a god when no pony believes in it or praises it?" The others shivered suddenly at its response and face. "Ignoring the creep factor of that...thing," the yellow unicorn resumed. "I've received reports from our colleagues of something happening in the southwest of Equestria." He was about to compound but restrained himself, pulling his lips back into a crumpled shape. "Continue, General Pudding," King Gallant said. The stallion heaved a heavy sigh. "Well, a whole village was burned in a blazing inferno, and it hasn't stopped since. There's been no news about the villagers there, but firefighters and local policing forces reported getting attacked by ponies made of ash and fire." The automaton ceased fiddling with its instrument and slowly looked up at Pudding, unnerving him. The head was no longer twisted into the vague shapes of facial features. "That is about all we know for the time being, but some unicorns there started frothing at the mouth. When they were extracted, they mentioned an overwhelming amount of magic power there." Gallant grit his teeth and furrowed his brows. Queen Majesty looked at him with concern, fearing for his health when she noticed his labored breathing. "Was it the griffins? Have they initiated another war?" Plurry asked. "If it was them then we would have heard directly from their ruler," Pink Prose explained. Disgust crept on his face, and leaned over the table. "You know how full of themselves they are." "So it's a war on two fronts now?" Gallant strained to say through gritted teeth. "It cannot be...even a fragment could not...we sealed her away. All the pieces scattered," the automaton mumbled. "We'll need to start using more and more antimagic equipment," it continued. The automaton wouldn't stop mumbling to itself under the gaze of the other ponies present. King Gallant didn't like an entity that acted so aloof and apathetic to the misery around it to change personality on a bit. Nightmare Moon panted from exhaustion. She had been training her magic in the same, pockmarked stretch of mountain land she used since claiming the castle as her domicile. Everything had seemed so new, and not much had changed despite being in Equestria for nearly a year. Where there was just her, now she had to contend with the possibility of chaos and order returning. At least the chaos was accounted for, but the order? Two sides of the same coin forcing their way of existing onto others while thinking they're doing the right thing, or simply through sheer arrogance and amusement. Nightmare Moon took in a deep breath and relaxed her muscles. She was learning to repair the damages she caused and thinking about visiting the twins at the same time. Ever since they took over the position of the mayor, they hadn't once directly spoken to the alicorn, but they never seemed to oppose any demands. "Quite unlike them," Moon thought aloud quietly. She looked up to the night sky, admiring her beautiful moon and stars, and felt the coming of her unofficial successors. Nightmare Moon was immediately ripped out of her relaxation trance by a sudden yanking sensation and the impression that the souls of those princesses had been pulled away against their will. "You. Failed predecessor. Give me your body. I command it!" a haughty and demanding voice yelled. Moon's eyes glowed. Who was this foal that had the audacity to command her?