//------------------------------// // The Runaway // Story: The Pointed Woodsmaster // by The Real Darkness //------------------------------// Sure enough, that weekend, he had gone to the Frozen North and made an interesting report that was buried under piles of paperwork, but after two weeks, it had seen the light again. And Arctus had already made another concerning report and a pressure to let him deal with the dragons, during the longer trip to the Southern Bone Dry Desert. The rising desert kingdom he mentioned also posed a threat to Equestria, to him, he was watching enemies come about on all sides. Celestia saw it differently than that. "Arctus, I'm glad you made an official report and followed court proceedings this time!" Sunset stood at her side while she held court today. The guards next to them smiled at the man, he was becoming more popular about, "I wanted to give my appreciation to you and the smiths formally here. They did an excellent job in the sheet metal and I finally finished it into the mail attached to my tunic that you see me wearing now." "It's so dark...and depressing." "He needs to move unseen, my student." "I get that, but he's not in the field now so why bother with it?" "To always be ready to mobilize. I know you accepted this time because of my report about the dark shadow running about the Frozen North." "Yes, that concerns me...King Sombra made the whole Crystal Empire disappear, what did you see?" "Smoke rose from the ice and snow, sporadically, but something black was moving around under. I monitored it that entire weekend and only saw it happen for about an hour or so." "A weekend in the Frozen North? How does he stay warm?" One of the guards whispered. "I'll establish a monitoring post with regular shifts then. You don't have to worry about going there again, friend." "I intend to, whatever it is, I want to be ready for when it emerges." Celestia sighed, "so diligent, but nopony I know is as dedicated as you," she smiled. "I appreciate the compliment. I did make another report, two of them. That nation across the ocean to the South, it's growing surprisingly fast and as of now, it would be a challenge for me to tame." "Leave it alone, Arctus, let the matter fall to us. This is a wisdom I don't think you have yet," she kept the smile. "I..what? Okay, I'll forget about pressing you so much about it, but there is another thing you should know." "He's very...persistent." "He breathes battle, Sunset. If you lived during the tales about him as I did, you would not have dueled him." Arctus took out his hand drawn map in charcoal of Equestria and noted the desert to the South, "there's a fortress here, some kind of weird town sprung up and they're mobilizing for war. I don't know where, I don't know how, but I-." "No, Arctus, don't tell me any more. I'm giving you the assignment to," Celestia paused and even the guards looked at her, waiting to hear the death sentence for everything there she was about to give. "make their rising kingdom fall." Arctus bowed, taking a knee, "I will depart at once." "Princess...is it easy giving that order?" Sunset asked. "No...I care for everything living, but I must protect all my ponies. Arctus is nice enough to lend us his strength." "Arctus, do you...enjoy doing this?" She asked him as he was already turned about. "I do. This is my purpose in life and without Celestia, I would still be living a very mundane and unfulfilling life." Sunset didn't cringe at his answer, "I'm coming with you." And she hopped off the pedestal. "I don't...actually this would be a good lesson for you, Sunset Shimmer," the two guards whipped their heads to the Princess, "you could learn a lot about what we try to avoid in making friendships and allies." They had decided to meet in the town of Appleloosa, Sunset was ready before Arctus, who had stopped at the seamstress to put in an order. The ponies of the town enjoyed him greatly, especially after news got to them that he was the one who defeated Tirek again and restored their magic. So the ponies would freely do business with him and he elected to take a cask of cherry wine as a celebration after his large assignment. He left eating an apple and met the student at the edge of town, a sign warning about the desert that was still far off. "Hey, I packed a sleeping bag for you, too," he saw the saddlebag she wore and heaved the sleeping bag in one hand onto it, hooking it to the buckle, "it'll be a bit heavy, but it should keep you warm at night in the desert." "What do you mean should?" "It's not my craftmanship, I didn't have time to make you a bedroll myself like I did Celestia." "You...you can make bedrolls? Why be a fighter then?" He nudged her on and they began walking as he consumed a second apple, dropping the first core. "I um, make bedding and coats, clothing and tools using animals." "O-oh." "I'm not even considering about using ponies or any sentient creatures. I've only used those star bear monstrosities, deer, elk, and the like. Sometimes wolves, but those are rare in my forest." "You must have an ego, calling it your forest." "That's because it is my forest. I walk in there and everything gets quiet." "I'd very much like to see that." He breathed out, "we'll see, that place has become more dangerous lately...mainly because I've spent so much time away, we'll reach that fortress around dusk, camp, and then you can rest at the camp while I got about my business." "No fair!" "I don't need somepony in harm's way." "Well, I've practiced a lot since our last duel!" "Is that so?" "I'll be invisible the whole time!" "I might allow you to go about me like that then, but it depends on how much we're talking about. It could be an easy three hour or longer, I haven't done the real reconnaissance, the moment I saw them mobilizing, I fled because my chances of being discovered were very high." "How do you plan to go an entire day not being discovered?" "You'll see," he smiled, "we Scouts are the most innovative people you'll meet." They arrived, the shadow of the fortress was cast large and Arctus could see the shapes of numerous sentries patrolling their even battlements. It was a conglomeration of different shapes, an inclusive army meant a variety of challenges instead of just one way of fighting, he could meet slew of different combatants. The shadow was hiding them, they weren't in plain sight, but they could still be noticed. "Sunset Shimmer, you listen good," he handed her a bag made of furs, "start filling it with sand, we're creating a small dune to camouflage," he pointed to a spot in the sands, "that will provide us the seamless ability to blend in with natural occuring shapes and the quickest time to complete it, even if it is close to this rarely used road." "I...you what?!" He glared at her, "no screaming. This is life and death now so abandon your pride," Arctus got started with a bag himself, shoving loads of sand out of the way and creating a pocket in a dune as he went down in it, "get your ass over here and help me. It was only a handful of quick movement before the two of them finished, having to crouch, but they remained out of sight. Arctus put up the fibers as protection, the same ones he always used before he laid out bedrolls, "crawl in, it'll get incredibly cold so don't be surprised if we're huddled for warmth." And pulled another fur from his bag and a glass of glistening liquid. "And that is?" "Tree sap," he poured it over the fur, coating it well before snapping and flinging excess off. "That's your idea to not get seen? You're crazy." He shoved the fur into the sands, letting the sap mix with the sand and dragging it about violently for many minutes before holding up his work, "Kanna taught me this one, fellow Aeternian. It makes it easy to move around desert sands without getting spotted so long as you are far enough away." "It looks incredibly like the sands themselves." "It's most effective in smaller windstorms, then you can't notice the difference at all," he laid it aside, "regardless, I need a little rest before I begin researching the best way to go about erasing them," he crawled into his own sleeping bag, "so now we sleep." "With only a couple miles between us and them?" Sunset whispered in an outrage. "Yes. This is the job of a Scout, take notes and publish if you want." And Arctus settled down, ready to get his hair full of sand, "I'm trusting you to not go running off on your own into trouble." "Of course, this is your show." And they slept. Arctus was first to rise in the morning sun and he checked over his equipment, pulling a piece of old parchment out from within his tunic and looking at the symbols on it, attempting to memorize them. He was stoic and quiet for a long while, awaiting the mid day sun to give him just the right kind of shadows to begin learning about their fortress. "Are those your spells? I've never seen symbols this intricate. Why do all all of them have a base shape?" Sunset awoke so quietly without his knowledge. "Easy, student. These are the symbols of my spells, each one has a verbal component." "But what do the giant triangle, circle, square, and others mean?" "That denotes the house of magic each belongs to; utilitarian, offensive, defensive, and lastly godhoods." "What's that last one?" Sunset asked, pointed to the last symbol on the parchment. "That's to help me remember how to draw a godhood base, the star with a circle within has some special little symbols in the points of each star that have to be exact when you cast." "With a name like that, they must be important. What do they do?" "Every Scout is required to learn two godhoods. The first is the Speed of Yetrema, so a Scout can rush home at the telepathic signal to stand for Aeternia. The second is Gær's Lungs which lets us fight without the need for breath, eliminating most exhaustion." "You say that like you know another one." "I do, I've never even used it yet, I was taught it from one of our general's, a Stormer." "You have the most interesting ranks, a Scout is the highest authority, but a general still exists?" "Correct, feel free to gather your things or even look through what I brought, we have some water, but come mid-day...when the sun is just barely past the midpoint in the sky, I'll begin investigating further and come back with more water from them. My real battle is tonight." "So much preparation, are you sure you don't want my help to make this quick?" "I need no help, this is my life, my duty. It is my glory to have." And Sunset went silent, awaiting as she drank some water and did look at some of his belongings, eyeing the giant arrows he had. And come that time, he packed everything he need up, wearing his full battle gear, he held up his camouflage. "Laiptelis oro skraidyti," the same yellow platform appear in front of him and he stood on it, stepping out and up over the dune, ensuring he stayed close to the ground so his shadow was not visible and neither was the screen that hid him, in a matter of seconds, he made it to the walls and climbed over, quickly dropping a sentry with hid hunting knife lodging into this dog person's throat, catching blood and air on the metal before tossing him over the wall before blood could even drop to the stone. The knife was wiped on his tunic and he pressed on, taking down a couple more near the gate before leaping from the wall and onto a roof of a building in the town. He noticed the airship leaving the town and knew he had the preferred time to not have to contend with it. He was slaughtering as he went, making sure to hide the bodies of whoever wherever he could. This was not something he could let sit like the minotaurs, they were mobilized and ready to depart, revenge would be a quick strike on Equestria. With disease and sabotage off the table, only subterfuge and murder were left to him. Countless guards, soldiers, and more were dying. Arctus was running on adrenaline and thrill as he went, hours and hours on end, taking canteens of water along the way, eating and drinking them and any food left out. If he did have to use a godhood, they demanded a lot of mana but a lot of physical energy and horging himself was the key to being able to use one. He was killing the whole way until dusk, near the end he let it get noisy and sure enough, an alarm was thrown and loud horns were sounded across the sprawling city. The Master Scout took to flee back to the front gate, throwing canteens just past the dune so Sunset Shimmer could gather them and drink. Nobody was on him, he fled as quick as he could and at the other side of the front gate, he traced a similar symbol, one he pulled on Celestia and Luna. The gate blasted open as he ran, stone and metal shrapnel flying high with sand clouds covering him. He stood at the road running past Sunset who saw him clear as day. A finger went to his lips, telling her to remain quiet as he ran past. A large force, presumably most of the military that was left, gave chase, emerging past the sand cover and locking eyes with him. Arctus stood and waited for them as they charged, they knew some combat, enough to not have fear and block some simple attacks, but left themselves open to being parried and slaughtered on the spot. Dozens of different species were present, some even wearing armor, not that it stood a chance against the growing legend's spear. He was slaying away, a wide smile on his face as he went, "tell the fourteen Lords of Hell that it was Arctus!" He lifted a giant bear like creature up on his spear, "Arctus sent you all to them!" The warrior flung it back at them nd noticed no more were leaving the city, rather they were all dead or gone. Arctus used the icy fire to surge toward the group of opponents left, dealing with them swiftly and their shrieks rang out for a little bit. He began to approach the city again to make a cleaner sweep of it. And a greatsword was caught on his spear's metal shaft, the Scout quickly drew his hatchet and hooked it onto an incoming small sword, bouncing away in the same motion. He caught a clearer glimpse and saw the nine volcanoes of Aeternia with the Destiny Stars above them emblazoned on a shiny chestplate. It was human. And the rank of Captain adorned the knee plates of the armor suit. "Oh? A Scout," it seemed to peer from within her helmet, "a Master Scout at that...you've grown Arctus," only fellow Aeternians could tell from weapons alone who a scout was and wasn't. Nobody had the kind of weapons they did made in the forges with lava dipping. "K...Kanna?!" At his words, she lifted her visor, revealing a pale blonde haired woman, scarred and face matted with sand. "Yep, it's me. Kanna the Litzrer, Captain. I didn't expect to meet anyone from Aeternia, let alone you." "Why are you mobilizing these forces?" "What forces? You killed all of them, the only ones left are civilians." He breathed in deeply, "who were you planning to attack?" "We were going to conquer and then conscript the horses North of here." "I was dispatched by them after I made a report of the forces here." "A Scout is a Scout even in a different world." "Kanna, what will you do now?" She took an offensive stance to his words "Fight you. Those forces were gonna help me settle a personal grudge after I conscripted those horses and you just set back that plan. Can't have those horses running you over here and destroying my work every time I get close." "I won't let you just harm the ponies," Arctus put his hatchet away and put one hand in front of him, tracing a lengthy symbol as quick as he could. The star with a circle inside, she sprinted at him, greatsword reared back and smallsword in her right hand, ready to swipe or defend, "I'm not letting a Scout use a godhood magic." "Relentless Gær! I invoke your name. Give to me," he leapt over her head, continuing the symbol that flew with him, "your breath, blown into my nostrils so I may not." A great green light shown over Arctus and he stopped breathing, closing back on Kanna as she finished some words he barely picked up. Long waves of vortex energy came at him, this was a magic he could not simply disperse wit his spear, it would leave him trapped where she would want him. The Litzrer slashed away, forming more vortex slashes coming his way at a slow pace. "Zaibas surasti sykiu!" And as he was almost at her, she began to slash with her small sword, Arctus held his spear in front, blocking the lightning bolts that came his way, the magic falling away painlessly and without effort. He finished closing and took a swipe just as he ducked under another wave of vortex energy and his spear cut across her chestplate effortlessly, blood flying into the air. The Master Scout followed with a thrust forward as she leapt back, earning a swipe to his face and her greatsword crashed into his side. He felt the crack before he heard it, but he did not falter, no he pressed. "I became a Master Scout here, I'll show you the new glory I've added," he flipped his spear around and drove the head into the sands with both his hands. The frigid burn spread over the sands, creating a towering dome that encased them within such a small arena that Kanna could only run towards him. She stood in her armor set, sweating away, her metal armor melted away at a cold temperature, her shell being taken by force. He sprinted again, "kerai sunaikinti!" His other hand flew forward and all the magic she sent his way simply disappeared, stuck in position, she posed to defend. Arctus thrust his spear forward, watching her muscles tense and the moment he saw them move to fling them aside he twisted, bringing the shaft close to his body and spinning about to let loose his weapon in an upward thrust. Thumbs facing each other in his grip, he forced her onto the deadly weapon, lifting her high into the air, the cold fires died around them, "may Aeternia await with open gates." "She will, brother, fight with your new glory." He stoked the fires and she quickly died, whether her cells undergoing pyrolysis or her body freezing and ceasing to function, Arctus didn't know, but he pulled the spear out and her body hit the sand with a loud thud. He walked back to the campsite, in pain, but not in agony that would compromise him, a will stronger than any iron. He noticed Sunset was missing and she did leave a note. Arctus, I've planned this for a while, I hope you've won your battle with Kanna, but I took the opportunity to teleport back across Equestria and jump to a different world. I have goals as grand as you are. I look forward to the day you stand against me. An ominous note and one Celestia might understand, but he pocketed it quickly and packed most of his gear, resources he could make again were left behind. He was living on borrowed time. He drew out another godhood symbol after taking the ten minutes to disassemble what he kept that was his, "Yetrema, lend me your legs so that I may run an errand just as great as your warning to the Council of Stars," he spoke aloud, a red glow coming to his feet, with a couple steps he was already miles away, red bolts of lightning chasing his feet as he went. He made no hesitance at stopping in to the hospital in Canterlot where surgeons quickly got busy with him and IV fluids were injected at an incredible rate, for his pain management as they did not want to risk anesthesia, so they kept him awake while they worked and given an incredible amount of vitamins and elements to help his body in creating more blood. His tunic, chain, and scale were all magically lifted off. Arctus was reliving the battle in his head, paying no heed to the physicians running about him, speculating best treatment while they were treating him. He did underestimate Kanna, having believed she was still far weaker than himself, but she had done some proper growing since he last met her. But that gave the possibility that more Aeternians were here. Unable to sustain himself further, Arctus drifted away from the land of living, his hearing was already gone and next he fainted. The doctors and nurses did not stop working on him. "I finally figured it out! A pig! Get the veterinarian further down the street!"