//------------------------------// // Odyssey's Adventure, Original Copy // Story: Honeymoon Phase // by UnknownError //------------------------------// “I will not be known as the Flank that Launched a Thousand Ships,” Queen Helia snorted. She slammed her spear into the ground with a wing, shaking the remaining green ichor off the spearhead. The iron point was well-used, and well-dented. “King Prance was a foal.” “The shapeshifter was clever,” Odyssey said beside his Queen. The earth pony’s armor was naught but plain brown leather for mobility, but his azure eyes betrayed a deep cunning. “Had her scheme worked, her brood would have had enough strength to challenge Equestria.” “I swore to never marry,” Helia grumbled. “And his son just happens to capture my heart and take me home?” Odyssey rolled his eyes. “The flank certainly helped.” From anypony other than him, the jest would have been suicide, but Helia merely snapped her tail at him. He laughed. “My flank isn’t even that big,” Helia spat. Her glob of spittle landed on one of the dead bug-like shapeshifters littering the field beyond the walls of Trot. The city itself burned, green ichor and fallen black spires blazing away under a starry sky. Queen Helia stared at her carnage. She smiled under her helmet, split lip bleeding down her fur. "A pathetic excuse for a swarm. My chariot is painted green with the blood of her endless brood." “The Brood-Queen escaped,” Odyssey rebuked his Queen. “She leaves with more holes than she came with,” Helia dismissed. “Her strength is broken. It will take her untold centuries to recover her swarm, if she even lives. I aimed for that distant volcano.” The alicorn grabbed the spear with her right wing and held it against her barrel. She gave a few jabs in the air. “Can you believe she didn’t armor her hock?” “I cannot believe you fell for that,” Odyssey retorted. His hoof pointed back to the beach. Helia knew what her best general and occasional lover pointed at, and yet still turned to glare with an unqueenly wince. The large Wooden Pony lay smoldering in the evening’s tide, next to the boats from her army. It was carved in her likeness, but the flank was still too big. Helia glanced at her own flank, exposed by her barded iron armor. Her bloody suns laid atop corded, lean muscle: a warrior’s body. “I will not fall for that trick again,” Helia boasted and recovered her bravado. “The Brood-Queen is clever, as you said, but her strength is spent.” “At the expense of Trot,” Odyssey pointed out. “And I hear rumors from beyond the ocean. Selene schemes in her night—” “My sister is an able regent!” Helia barked down at the earth pony with sudden venom. “The so-called nobles chafe under laws, not an iron hoof! You know better than to repeat those lies!” Odyssey dipped his head with flat ears. “Equestria awaits the return of its Queen.” Helia turned to the group emerging from the shattered gates of the greatest trade city from across the ocean. “We will return with more than we set out with,” she said softly. “Aneighus! Come, battle-born friend!” The unicorn at the head of the herd bowed before Queen Helia. His followers mirrored his submission. “The Brood-Queen has defiled the city and the land for too long," he said in a raspy voice. His own gaudy gold armor was stained green with the blood of a hundred shapeshifters. "We cannot remain.” “The royal line is gone,” Helia said. “I accept your offer. Roam no longer. You have a home in Equestria, far from these slavers.” Her voice deepened into a proper growl for the last word. It sounded ridiculous for a pony to growl, but the tall winged and horned pony exuded command and menace. “I ask a last boon,” Aneighus pleaded. “We have salted the earth, but the city is still tainted. I will not allow our home to stand as a testament to the so-called Queen Chrysalis.” Helia grinned with bloody teeth. Her eyes lit up. “Trot will be no more,” she swore. “Gather your ponies to the boats.” The alicorn’s horn glowed, flickering with a deep golden glow. Her spellwork was awful, all force with little direction, but force was all she often needed. The remnants of Trot and Helia’s army returned to the beach, leaving their Warrior Queen standing amongst the dead and siegeworks of a years-long struggle. The ponies of Trot were free from their cocoons and their slavery, but the scar would remain forevermore. The land itself had been twisted by the insectoid swarm with some sickly, foul magic. Odyssey left last, pausing to nuzzle the alicorn’s side. She nodded back, eyes blazing with fire. The point of her spear reflected the flames from her horn as she arced her horn to her sister’s stars and unleashed the spell. Night became day for a brief moment, then a deluge of fire descended upon Trot. The city was erased in the blink of an eye, land scorched clean of the ooze and slime that defiled it. Nothing remained as the alicorn’s horn dimmed. Helia surveyed a blasted, salted land. Even the bodies were blasted into ash, and what remained belonged to the scavengers. The thing that called itself Chrysalis may have escaped, but it escaped wounded and alone. Helia’s mane and tail still swayed in the non-existent wind. She extracted her helmet from her horn and grimaced backwards at her floating tail. The pink braid was discolored with green and other bright colors. The hairs struggle to escape her weave. “Stop that,” Helia growled. Her tail did not obey. Her mane wriggled as well, now free from her helmet. “Bah!” the mare scoffed. “The Flank that Launched a Thousand Ships…” She marched back to the beachhead. Most of the army and refugees had already packed, merely waiting for the tide to set out. Even after almost a century, Helia still preferred to walk rather than fly. It let her know her ponies and walk among them. The army, tired and exhausted and eager to see home, still bowed and dipped their heads. Odyssey waited on the prow of his ship. The sail picked up no wind. His sentries still waited with weapons ready, though all bowed to their Queen and her bloody iron armor. “I’ll raise the sun early,” Helia declared. “As soon as everypony is prepared.” “Won’t Selene be upset?” Odyssey raised a brow. “I’ll be home sooner,” Helia shrugged a wing. Her spear was slung across her back. “We’ll see if there’s any truth to the stories. I suspect she's pulling her wavy mane out dealing with the hornheads.” "You are a hornhead," Odyssey said dryly. "Not by choice," Helia snorted. "Damn tree." Her companion hummed and stared at the seaward sky. “What?” Helia asked. “A pink sky means storms,” Odyssey lifted a hoof and gestured to the horizon. “Bad weather across the ocean.” “We have pegasi,” Helia retorted. “How long could it possibly take?” "...Yes," Celestia said after a moment. "She was."