Episode 194: Beast Realm Bound
Amid the boundless wildernesses and landscapes that comprised the primal territories of the Beast Realm there were two that were spoken of most in uneasy whispers among its denizens. One was the realm of Muspelheim, so far below the crust of the land that it was lower even than Svartalfheim, known as a fuming, choking fit of flame, relentless heat, and lakes of lava where only the most fire-hardened creatures dwelled. The other whispered realm was Muspelheim’s polar opposite, a place of endless cold, bordered by vast, icy oceans, glaciers, and pierced by snow encrusted mountains as much as white, frozen spans of deadened forests. Niflheim. Realm of eternal winter and home to all manner of dour inhabitants from the grim ice giants who carved their dwellings from glacial ice, or the dreaded frost wyrms who tunneled beneath miles of endless snow in hunt of prey.
Within this land of permanent snowfall and continuous, howling winds, one fortress stood above and beyond all other holdings. It was built upon the vast face of a glacier that had merged with a row of menacing, dark mountains upon the eastern shore of the continent. One of the mountain peaks had been hollowed out, carved through to resemble great, coiling scales from the outside, as if some monolithic serpent wrapped itself around the mountain's form as it merged into the glacier. Upon the glacier’s surface dark iron towers and walls had been bolted in like a macabre patchwork, all built around a central gate carved into the glacier’s yawning, central crevasse, wide enough to swallow a city. Within this glacier crevasse countless nests and burrows had been built to house an army of Niflheim’s denizens, alongside no small number of Dragons. All manner of beast owed fealty to Jormungandr, however, and the numerous passages and walkways within the glacier crevasse was marked by the paws and talons of dozens of species ranging from the likes a human might recognize despite their size, such as towering polar bears, to the truly fantastical such as the spindly and spike covered ice trolls with their long limbs and longer ice rending claws.
Regardless of species or size, all deferred to one degree or another to the Dragons in this place, still the most favored among Jormungandr's loyalists, and all paid homage to the High Chieftain himself, in the rare instances he ever appeared openly. The size of the glacier’s opening was no coincidence, it was built for Jormungander himself, to allow him access in and out of his personal fortress, and on rare occasion some of those dwelling here might see his immense shadow and wake passing through the cold waters of the channel. Indeed, the mood within the fortress was restless. Rumor and gossip of a new war brewing, after centuries of nothing more than skirmishes with the Land and Sky Tribes along Vanaheim’s borders across the ocean to the east.
But Jormungandr had made no declarations as of yet, and so the denizens of Niflheim waited patiently for when their High Chieftain would call upon them, in the meantime enjoying their daily lives of fighting, hunting, drinking, and fornicating; not always in that particular order or even done separately. All knew that inevitably Ragnarok would come, and it would be their lord Jormungandr who would herald its coming. All were determined to get in what fun they could in the meantime, ever ready to spill blood until they were called upon.
Deep within the interior of the fortress’ mountain was a space that was less a throne room and more a temple. Incomprehensibly large, the chamber was roughly shaped like a cone on it’s side, with water pouring in from the glacial channel outside that then entered through a tunnel through the cone’s point, and spread out into a pool wider than many lakes. The sides of the walls were covered in vast slabs of stone, seating and places of rest for supplicants or those seeking to gather at their lord’s command. At the end of the conical shaped room, a raised dais of stone stood dozens of meters tall, yet this only made it seem like a small and restful platform compared to the size of the one who occupied it.
Jormungandr’s true form could barely seem contained by even this wider section of the chamber, a place so large it must have filled a good third of the mountain's hollowed out lower portion. His body was long like a snakes, but no one would mistake him for any common serpent. His scales were a dark blue, as much as the ocean before daybreak or nightfall, and each one large as a freight train car and meters thick. His body had a ridged, spiny quality, with the scales themselves showing hooks and ridges that gave his long body an uneven appearance even before one began to account for the four long, folded wings of leathery skin that was a glacial blue/white coloring between thick spines of darker blue, and hooked with curved claws larger than some commercial jetliners. Beneath his coiled body were legs and arms powerful and long enough to pull his immense bulk around, but were now neatly folded in comfortable contemplation, his right leg ending in a wide, four fingered claw that could have speared an elephant like it was a little nugget of meat and popped it neatly into a mouth large enough to consume the bulk of a battleship in one bite. This head, thick, draconic, yet brutish in its wide, thick ridges across a brow bearing six long, straight white horns tipped with ice, was resting on the chin of his hand. Eyes of piercing blue as big as theater screens regarded the ceiling in grim yet bemused interest.
On the ceiling of the chamber was carved an intricate mural, showing a great tree, it’s roots so vast they spread through the circular globes of many depicted realms, each globe showing a different facet of the Beast Realm from the golden peaks of Alfheim’s mountains and smaller Life Trees, cousins to Yggdrasil, to the incredibly dense and sparkling gem caverns of Svartalfheim. Within the tree of Yggdrasil’s boughs the carving depicted it supporting the silvery gem of Asgard, and the bronze globe of Midgard, sister realms, ever held apart, yet intertwined by their mutual bond to the Beast Realm and the World Tree.
Jormungandr had carved this mural himself so many eons ago he barely remembered the number in years, yet the carving itself, the way his claws had delicately pierced stone to sculpt each detail... he remembered it all. For he was ever a romantic, and wanted to be reminded every time he sat in the seat of his power the reason he sought the position of High Chieftain in the first place. Oh, he had not been born as the leader of the Ocean Tribe, that honor had long ago belonged to the temperamental and voracious serpent, Leviathan. Jormungandr had spent his youth following in Leviathan’s footsteps as first a Thane, then a Jarl, then at long last... an Einherjar, one of Leviathan’s strongest warriors.
Even back then he had had a romantic streak concerning the legends of yore, and felt devoted to the notion of supporting the world’s natural cycle until the day Ragnarok would come, and all would do battle in an epic clash of worthy contest at the dying of the world, vanquished and victor alike finding rebirth alongside Yggdrasil upon the end of things.
How Glory, Tirek, and their malignant conflict had corrupted that course beyond all recognition! Jormungandr could never forgive himself for not seeing it sooner. At first that war had felt like any other grand conflict, even when the Beast Realm had been drawn in to it he had felt the joy any warrior felt when allowed to engage in unrestrained battle. But that war had rapidly grown beyond mere contest, honorable or otherwise. It became clear to Jormungandr that Tirek’s obsession with Hollow-kind was turning to madness, and Glory’s desire to take full control over the cycle of death was an even greater insanity. Leviathan couldn’t see it, however, no matter how Jormungandr had tried to get his High Chieftain to understand the danger.
But others had listened. In time Jormungandr built his own loyal following, challenged his mentor and cast down Leviathan, and took control of the Ocean Tribe. By then it was too late to stop Glory and Tirek’s war from reaching it’s ultimate boiling point, including Glory’s hubris in casting down the Soul Queen, empowering herself and her siblings of the “Zero Division” beyond the reach of Jormungandr to confront alone. Then to discover the profane plans for Yggdrasil... that had been Jormungandr’s tipping point. No, even then, he may have found some desire for reason if the other High Chieftains had agreed to aid him in destroying Glory, but their cowardice in enacting the pacts of neutrality... he’d had no choice but to concede to preserve his forces, but that had been the moment he’d made his own decision to tear things down himself.
If he could not kill Glory, he’d kill Yggdrasil itself, to spare it the indignity of being used to create such a disgusting world, twisted into what it was not meant to be. He had thought he could defeat the other High Chieftains more easily than ever taking on the Zero Division.
But he’d been mistaken there, too. While Fenrir had fallen, the bloody wolf’s sister had proven as much a leader as her brother, and that smug bitch Quetzalcoatl had shown herself to be too damn cunning by half. Defeat in open war had stung, even if Jormungandr had preserved enough power to make assaulting him in Niflheim as much a bad idea as him attempting another open assault on Yggdrasil. Centuries of waiting, plotting, looking for another path...
And he had found it. Hel. Once in his grasp, stolen by that grinning bastard Ravana, but now rediscovered on Earth. He had been so close to having her once more, his dear half-sister. She was the key to Yggdrasil’s salvation in death. Hel had been well prepared by decades of his careful hand, utilizing rituals of magic taken from Asgard and adapted by his own knowledge to turn Hel into the very instrument of euthanizing the sickened World Tree. It was a task only Hel could accomplish, because of what Glory had done, what she had used Hel for at Hel’s own insistence. An amusing irony, that Glory’s own tool could now be turned against her designs... as long as Jormungandr was able to retrieve his wayward sibling. And the only reason he did not presently have Hel in his grasp was that damned cocky Midgardian wench and her assorted ruffians, including the reborn fragment of blasted Fenrir of all people.
It was amusing, the jokes reality will play on you. Jormungandr could not help but rumble in laughter at it, enough to shake the mountain.
As much as a part of him was furious with Sunset Shimmer’s interference, he had to admit an equal part of him was intrigued by the girl and her allies. How appropriate, that the girl’s power was that of flame, her motif so much like that of a phoenix. After all, it was the very nature of flame, of the phoenix, to burn brightly in radiant life before inevitably succumbing to death and eventual rebirth. In many ways a symbol of Yggdrasil, and the world's own mortality. That being the case, Jormungandr could not fault Sunset Shimmer’s defiance. It was the nature of flame to burn and consume, to grow bright and hot and beautiful in the struggle to thrive. She would fight. She would struggle. She would burn brightly...
Then Jormungandr would help her fulfill fire’s true nature by being the one to extinguish her, the inevitable end of all flames.
“You appear to be in high spirits, lord Jormungandr.”
The voice was a honeyed, masculine drawl, and stemmed from a being who had simply appeared upon one of the many stone stands rising up the sides of the chamber. He, at casual glance, would have looked like a goat with bristled auburn fur, if a goat also had the upper torso of a gaunt man, and the bent lower body of a fur and hooves. One might have mistaken him for a satyr or faun, but in truth this man was neither, as evidenced by the water that circled his body in cold streams, forming into a violin with which the goat man began to play a haunting tune. As he did so, runes appeared in green flame upon his curled, black horns, and his hourglass eyes glinted. The power over water was one Jormungandr shared, but for this entity, a fossegrim, it was as normal as breathing was for others.
“So you’re the first to arrive, Ofridr,” Jormungandr commented, gazing at the first of his Einherjar.
Ofridr continued to play his solemn melody, the dark wood of his violin humming as he smiled, “I’m eager to find out what has my lord in such a mood. You would not have called us all together were it not a special occasion. Violence, bloodshed, screams and battle, I imagine?”
“Let us wait for the others to arrive, as I would prefer to not repeat myself,” Jormungandr said, although his bulky head turned somewhat as he heard voices from the tunnels running alongside the vast river pouring into the chamber, “Although it sounds like they are here. Good.”
A voice like chunks of ice grinding together was arguing with a silky feminine voice as two large figures entered into Jormungandr’s audience hall, walking side by side.
“You have the palette of a delicate child, Amaru! There was nothing wrong with my stew! I skewered the boars for it myself!” growled a twelve foot tall creature whose pale white body clanked with the shirt of chain-mail he wore over dark leathers riveted with studs of bone, where his icy spines did not protrude. The ice troll had a larger, sloped brow compared to his smaller brethren, with a mane of pure blue ice slicked back from his head, which borne a long nose and a jaw of jagged teeth. A huge, bearded axe of rune covered, glinting metal hung from his back harness.
Beside the ice troll his companion snorted and smirked, or at least one of her heads did, one that looked like a white, arctic fox, “I was playing dice with those boars before you skewered them, you big oaf! It cost me an entire trove of gems I was about to win. And all for a smelly, thick stew with all the taste of gravel!”
“Gravel!” chimed in another head, that of a puma with fine black fur and glittering green eyes.
“Oaf!” agreed a third head, that of an aged, wrinkled condor, with a shining black beak.
The rest of the feminine creature’s body was a mixture of the animals of her three heads, with a sinuous puma’s body, but intermixed with the paws of a fox, and sprouting the large dark wings of a condor. Oddly, her tail sported a serpentine nature of dark green scales, scales which, if one looked closely, could be seen hiding under her silky fur.
“G’nash, Amaru,” Jormungandr greeted the two Einherjar as they entered, bickering as was their usual. A mighty ice troll, and a cunning chimera. As at odds as they were largely inseparable. These two, along with Ofridr, were the last survivors of his once proud honor guard, the last three of what had once been thirteen Einherjar he’d fought beside proudly against the other forces of the Beast Realm. Each had survived in their own ways, G’nash through raw, brutal tenacity, Amaru through trickery, and Ofridr through virtue of being in the right place at the right time, as was his unique skill.
“Lord Jormungandr, can you believe this bug-brained fox thinks she’s too good for my stew!?” G’nash said, chortling as he hopped up on one of the platforms, “I spent days making it for her, too.”
Amaru spread her wings and flew higher than G’nash, landing pointedly on a stone tier above him as she laid down and folded her wings, “I did not ask you for anything, so cease your bellyaching. It is unseemly in front of our lord.”
“Unseemly!” cried the condor.
“Much bellyaching,” agreed the puma.
“Hmph, just you wait, when I perfect my skills as Niflheim’s greatest culinarian, you shall be begging to sit at my table, insufferable vixen,” G’nash said, clearly put out but too proud to show it beyond crossing his thick, long arms and regarding Jormungandr with a bow, “So you called upon us, my lord?”
“What, no greeting for little old me?” said Ofridr, to which both G’nash and Amaru immediately replied at the same time.
“No!”
“You still owe me gems, swindler!”
Ofridr sighed, smiled, and resumed playing his violin. Jormungandr’s throated rumbled with a dry chuckle, but he also slammed a great claw down to ensure his three Einherjar had their attention properly upon him. “I enjoy your banter, but there is work to be done. Hel has slipped from my grasp, but not so far as she cannot be found.”
G’nash looked stunned, ice blue eyes blinking, “Did you not take a mighty flight of Dragons with you, my lord? Even limited to a projection of your strength, it is difficult to imagine the drained goddess escaping.”
With lesser servants Jormungandr may have taken offense to such a question, but his Einherjar had far more leeway, and he was not bothered. Instead he laid out the affair in full, from the interference of Sunset Shimmer and the other human girls, the reveal of Fenrir’s reincarnated fragment in the form of a dog piloting a human-built machine of war, and the arrival of the other High Chieftains’ heralds, Asena and Simurgh, not to mention the reborn Gaia Everfree and an annoyingly potent Soul Reaper Kido specialist.
Ofridr whistled, interweaving it with his violin’s mournful dirge, “Such an eclectic collection of unexpected heroes. Surely their desperation alone must have tasted of sweet candy. I can see how they would have proven trouble for the Dragons, with Nidhogg still busy in Asgard, and Zahhak occupied with maintaining the border.”
“I still do not know why we allowed Nidhogg to try and find the traitor Fafnir,” G’nash groused loudly, “Even if he succeeds in dragging Fafnir’s sorry hide back to Niflheim, I’d rather split his belly open than give the traitor another chance to turn upon us.”
“Nidhogg is as close to an Einherjar as one can be without me bestowing the title,” Jormungandr declared simply, “He earned the chance to reason with his wayward brother’s reborn form. That is not our concern for now. Finding Hel is.”
“As you say, lord Jormungandr,” said Amaru, picking at her teeth with a claw, “And with your portal disrupted, they could be anywhere in the Beast Realm. Anywhere at all. I presume merely scrying for Hel’s spirit energy is not so easily done, now that she is here?”
“No,” Jormungandr said plainly, “In Midgard, her energy stood out, so much so that locking on to her location took little time, once she awoke. Here in the Beast Realm, her signature will be obscured by the manner of intermingled magic and spirit energy that permeates the realms. Her energy could still be tracked, but only at comparatively short range. That is why each realm must be searched, to try to pin-point which one she is in.”
He rose higher, his long body towering over his three Einherjar, “That is the task I leave to you three. Ofridr, you shall scour Vanaheim. Make use of your contacts among the remainder of the Vanir. Amaru, I trust you to be of sufficient cunning to sneak among the peaks of Alfheim without being discovered. And G’nash, your connection to the dwarves of Svartalfheim should make it easier to search that realm.”
“That still leaves Jotunheim and Muspelheim unaccounted for,” Amaru’s central fox head said, while her other heads echoed her thoughts.
“Jotunheim, too many giants!”
“Muspelheim, deadliest of all!”
Jormungandr’s massive jaws parted in a smile of teeth as large as trees, “Just so. In Jotunheim, Hel and her protectors will find no sanctuary among the giants. And Muspelheim... oh I imagine Surtur would do worse to them than even I could conjure. Let us hope they are in one of the other realms, for retrieving Hel form either of those two places would be a strain even for you, my loyal Einherjar.”
“And if we do discover the wayward Hel and her entourage of heroes,” said Ofridr, “Are we free to seek to recover her and deal with the others as we please?”
“Only if circumstances allow for an overwhelming advantage,” Jormungandr said, “Do not underestimate them, especially the three Midgardian girls. One possessed power over storm to rival Thor himself, while another wielded a lance with such strength as to fell Dragon after Dragon. As for their leader... I suspect I alone am best suited to dealing with her. Furthermore, I’d not take the remainder of the entourage lightly. We’ve rarely ever faced the Midgardian alchemists known as Quincy, and the two present were not weak, nevermind the power of the Consort their leader grants them. Fenrir’s reincarnation struck me as an overeager pup, but the golem of steel he controlled was not unimpressive, and the longer he remains in the Beast Realm the more he will grow into a form akin to his previous self. Indeed, all of them may tap into the powers of Anima if given enough time...”
“All the more reason to find and crush them quickly, my lord!” G’nash said, unshouldered his axe from its leather harness and slapping the broad bladed weapon in his palms, a frozen air rising around the potent ice troll, “I’ll depart for Svartalfheim at once.”
“Just remember our lord’s words, oaf,” said Amaru, her vulpine nose twitching, “If you do find them, send word rather than charge in blindly. I imagine the three of us Einherjar together should suffice for them, although I am curious who this Midgardian girl is whom you are so impressed by, lord Jormungandr?”
“Envy does not become you, Amaru,” Jormungandr said simply, lowering his vast head to eye level with the chimera, who herself was no small creature, practically the size of a house. “You’ll know her by the flames she wields, the same color as her own hair. She is mine to deal with. The others are of little concern besides Hel herself.”
“Still, a shame there are so few of us left,” said Ofridr, although his tone suggested he wasn’t lamenting that much, “The search would go so much faster if we had some of the old gang still with us.”
Both Amaru and G’nash shuddered slightly, Amaru’s heads all lowering as they glared at him, “You wouldn’t dare think to use your powers upon our comrade’s graves?”
“Why not, I am the Dirge Singer, am I not? The corpses of the departed dance to my tune, even long after the souls have moved on,” Ofridir sang, his violin dragging a sharp note across the chamber, “But I know how it offends some of you. I merely suggest it due to the dire circumstances.”
Jormungandr turned his vast gaze towards the fossegrim, voice a disapproving rumble of thunder, “I have already forbidden you to treat our fallen like your toys, Ofridr. If you need corpses for your dirge, seek the battlefields of our foes. Now, go, my Einherjar. Scour the lands from mountain peak to deep cavern. Find Hel, whatever it takes.”
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“Well...” Discord said, pointedly pouring a cup of clear liquid of nondescript but highly potent alcoholic nature for himself before downing it and leaning back on the cushion he was sitting on in front of the floor table that he, Ditzy, Gaia, and Timber Spruce were occupying. “This is not ideal. At all.”
“Fair understatement, Discy,” Ditzy said, yanking the bottle and pouring herself a drink as well, tossing the bottle over to Gaia, who pointedly set it aside with a curled nose. “I mean damn, who’d have thunk the overgrown snake had it in him to pop up out of the woodwork and yoink half our people like that!? I’m so pissed off right now! I should’ve been there to smash his smug, edge-lord face into the dirt!”
“The situation caught us all off guard,” Gaia said simply, “I barely escaped via a Garganta, after all, and could do nothing to help the others. Jormungandr simply outplayed us. Even if you had been there, Ditzy Doo, it’s unlikely you would have altered the outcome, other than to ensure our newborn Coalition was down another powerful combatant.”
“Pfft, give me more credit than that, GG. If it was just a projection, I could’ve dusted Jormungandr before it got to that point... I think,” Ditzy drank, and sighed heavily, “At least we know they’ll be alive somewhere in the Beast Realm, but no way of tracking where. Damn place is near twice the land mass of Earth. Finding them isn’t going to be easy.”
“Easier than you may think,” Discord said, still looking grumpy, but stroking his white beard with an air of forethought, “Sunset Shimmer has my second Hogyoku with her still, and it sends out a signature distinct enough that I can arrange a device to track it, at least to a degree. We just need an expedition to go there.”
“Should I contact Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie before they get any more engaged in their mission in Las Noches?” asked Gaia, “I’d presume they’d want to go after their friends.”
“I’m not certain it’s wise to distract them right now,” replied Discord, “The situation in the Beast Realm is a longer term problem than just a few days. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy will be done, one way or another, in Las Noches before long. No, we’ll plan for when they return from that mission, preparing our expedition for afterward. It’s a question of who remains here and who goes.”
“Well you’re staying, obviously,” said Ditzy, to which Discord nodded, “As for me, I’ve got some experience with the Beast Realm, but then again, so do you, GG.”
“Will you cut it out with the ‘GG’?” Gaia said, “It’s bad enough when Pinkie does it... But, yes, I do have some familiarity with the Beast Realm from a very long time ago. Perhaps too long to be as much use today. Even the Beast Realm does not remain static, and my time there was before even Jormungandr became a High Chieftain. Your experiences would be more contemporary, Ditzy.”
Ditzy Doo frowned deeply, “Yeah, true... it’s just... I don’t want to leave my girl Derpy in a lurch. She’s kind of getting used to having me around more often. And not sure what Time Turner would think of me going back to the Beast Realm... unless...”
Discord and Ditzy exchanged a long, serious look with one another. Amid the silence, a very nervous and confused looking Timber Spruce leaned towards his sister and whispered, “I have no idea what’s going on.”
Gaia’s face softened, her mind switching gears to Gloriosa as she patted her brother’s shoulder, “I’ll fill you in on the details later, Timber.”
The staring match between Ditzy Doo and Discord finally ended with Discord heaving out a sigh and throwing up his hands, “Its your call, Ditzy. I’ve never claimed to be your keeper, and your relationship with Time Turner has always been your own business. If you don’t go, I’m sure Gaia and I can work something out-”
“No, I think it’s past time,” Ditzy Doo said, standing up and finishing off her drink, looking at the empty cup with a heavy expression on her gray features, “Time Turner and I have known for awhile something like this might eventually happen. He knows the Beast Realm better than anyone else. If anyone can find our missing people the fastest, it’s him. And I’m not about to let him go there alone, so I’ll be going, too. I just... can’t leave my daughter behind with no explanation. She knows some of the truth already, at least that her mom and dad aren’t normal, and she isn’t either, but it’s time I lay it all out for her. Guess it was my stupid fantasy that I’d get to play the role of a normal mom to a normal kid forever.”
“Rest assured I’ll keep her well looked after in the meantime,” Discord stated, “Although with so much of the Coalition’s firepower heading to the Beast Realm or already there, I’ll have to step up the training of our backup crew. Gaia, may I ask for your help in that regard?”
Gaia nodded simply, “I’ll put the children through their paces, rest assured. It’s no different than running an exciting summer camp, just with more explosions. You’ll be training the adults, I take it?”
“Yes,” Discord nodded, “I’ve been preparing some special training grounds for the young ones and the adults alike.” His expression clouded over with a sigh, “Before all of that, however, I do have a responsibility to fulfill. Ditzy, can I trust you to handle contacting our allies in Soul Society? I’ll send a message to the Quincy. We’ll need to know how both will react before we make too many preparations to send our people to the Beast Realm.”
“Yeah, I can imagine the Quincy aren’t going to be happy to have two of their Sternritter missing,” said Ditzy, shaking her head, “And Soul Society is in a real lurch right now after... Scorpan.”
The air grew only heavier, the knowledge of the Captain Commander’s loss a hefty recent blow, news brought by Clover when she’d arrived, just moments before she had followed Gaia to go assist with the disturbance of spiritual energies everyone had sensed that had turned out to be Jormungandr’s attack. It didn’t surprise Discord in the least that Celestia was the one nominated to inherit the position of Captain Commander, and with the present situation he would be equally unsurprised if he didn’t get a visit soon from her and Luna. He’d invite them anyways, since Asena and Simurgh had been dispatched from the Beast Realm to bring the two half-beast sisters back to Alfheim.
“We’ll have to wait and see how things turn out on Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie’s end, but in the meantime we focus on shoring up defenses here,” Discord said, standing up and leaning on his cane, “Are we sure all the Dragons that came with Jormungandr retreated back through their portals?”
Gaia nodded, “Those oddball witches from Wing Bind showed up only minutes after Jormungandr’s portal went haywire. The Dragons didn’t have as much fight left in them with their leader gone, so they ran for it. Then the Wing Bind folk flew off before any Quincy showed up to start asking questions. I didn’t stick around either, since the last thing I wanted to do was answer to Quincy who’d probably show up extremely testy after two of their own just went missing.”
“Smart, I’d say,” Discord agreed, “Our alliance is still shaky enough that this whole affair could put cracks in it if not handled delicately. Just leave that to me. For now, Gaia, you and your brother should return to Everfree and rest up. I’ll brief our young trainees and send them your way in the morning.”
Gaia smiled, her Gloriosa showing in her warming smile, “I’ll enjoy having a bit of the camp up and running again. Timber, maybe we should ready a cookout?”
He blinked, almost taken aback by the normalcy of the prospect, considering the overwhelming crazy of almost everything else happening, “Y-yeah, I’ll get the grills ready. Uh, Discord, sorry if this sounds like a dumb question, but who are we training, exactly?”
“Ah, you’re still learning names, aren’t you?” Discord chuckled at him with a wink, “I refer to our B-Team of eager youngsters, mostly consisting of Rarity and Applejack’s younger sisters, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, and their best friend Scootaloo. You ought to remember them from their time at your lovely camp. Then there’s Pinkie Pie’s sister, Maud, who’s recently awoken her Fullbring, and is proving a natural adept at using it. Of course its hard to forget the Mod Soul recently used so often by Sunset Shimmer, but now Chappy is quite independent and invested in doing her part. Joining that core team will also be Applejack’s big brother Big Mac, and Fluttershy’s younger brother Zephyr Breeze. While neither have awoken to a Fullbring, yet, the potential is there and I’ve devised some exercises that you and your sister can use to help guide them. I’ve also selected the most promising volunteers among the Canterlot High students to receive additional training. While they may not have spiritual powers, I’ve created a number of weapons and devices that they can be trained on to better enhance their ability to deal with at least low-level threats.”
Discord reached into his robe and tossed Timber Spruce a rather thick booklet that he caught, despite being taken off guard. “What’s this?”
“Just the training regimen and details on classes. The higher level stuff will be for your sister to administrate, but I imagine you can at least guide students through the lower level courses. After all...” Discord’s eyes gleamed, “You’ll be undertaking this training, too.”
Timber Spruce gulped, “I’m not sure how comfortable I am with all of this.”
“It’ll be okay, Timber,” Gloriosa said, looking at him with the same comforting eyes he was so used to seeing all of his life, yet there was something different in it; a weight and force of will that hadn’t always been there. “This will just ensure as many people as possible are able to protect themselves if something else happens. If anything, today proved we can’t relax our guard completely.”
“I get that, it’s just...” Timber didn’t know how to explain it, or rather, he felt like it’d be pointless to try. What right did he have to complain about feeling like he’d lost control of his life to the very people who were stuck in it even deeper than he was. In the end he was little more than a bystander, but that was part of the problem for him. His life had been upended, his sister changed forever, his home altered almost beyond recognition... and there wasn’t anything he could do about it and nothing he could say to convey his distress in a manner that’d really matter to people who were dealing with matters so much bigger than him it was almost impossible to grasp.
He held the training booklet to his chest and nodded at Discord, “I’ll read through it and make sure I know the material, and see to preparing the camp for the trainees.”
Discord gave a nod of approval, eyes glinting beneath the shadowed brim of his hat, “Good man. Alright then, that just leaves me calling in my old team and... working a few things out.”
Ditzy Doo looked at him with a somber softening of her usually plucky expression, “It’s a bit surreal, having the old Xcution back, even if Sweet Cider and Firefly aren’t here. You going to talk to Cookie Crumbles about Rarity?”
“I’m going to have to,” Discord replied with equal gravity, “There’s no one left to do it, and the family deserves to know. I just hope it’ll focus Cookie on training rather than distract her. Either way, I need her, Cloudy Quartz, and Soft Spoken as sharpened on their restored Fullbring powers as I can make them. If Cookie wants to take some aggression out on me for not being able to protect her daughter, well... she’ll have plenty of chances.”
----------
Indigo Zap’s face appeared over the fallen Pinkie Pie, soon followed by Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat, the later adjusting her visor as if scanning the twitching pink girl.
“Is she dead?” asked Indigo with faint, almost genuine concern.
“She’s still twitching,” pointed out Sour Sweet.
“Doesn’t mean she’s not dead,” countered Indigo.
Sugarcoat sighed, poking Pinkie with a foot, who let out a giggle, “No, she’s fine, just having some kind of seizure.”
“Seizures aren’t exactly indicators of ‘fine’, are they?” said Indigo, but then Pinkie Pie shot up like a blurring bolt of cotton candy and caused the Quincy girl to jump a good four feet in shock.
“Wowie zowie! That was the humiest humdingers of a Pinkie Sense tremor I’ve felt in... at least fifty or so episodes!” Pinkie Pie said, straightening out her hair as she hopped over to a chair and plopped down on it. Up above on the second story platform where the meeting area was, overlooking the lower floor of the embassy room, Twilight Sparkle poked her head over and stared down.
“Pinkie, are you okay? You kind of started spasming and twirled right off the edge!”
“I know! There’s no railing there! You should fix that! Oh, wait, this is our embassy, so we should fix that! Fluttershy, why isn’t there a railing!?” Pinkie Pie shouted, still rubbing her head.
“I don’t know,” replied Fluttershy as she hopped down from the second floor platform and landed beside the chair Pinkie Pie had collapsed in, “I didn’t design this building. I’ll ask Ditzy about installing railings, if it turns out to be not too much trouble. But, um, I’ll echo Twilight’s question; are you okay? That looked like a very intense bout of Pinkie Sensing.”
“You can say that again!” Pinkie said, and stared at Fluttershy. After a few seconds of silence, Pinkie sighed, “But apparently you aren’t, so I’ll just explain myself. I have no idea what that one was about!”
“Hmm, that’s odd, I thought you usually know exactly what most of those seizures mean,” said Twilight, still standing on the upper platform where Sunny Flare remained seated at the meeting table alongside some other noteworthy guests; Adagio, Gilda, Fenice, and Lament. Roka was also in the embassy, but in a different room recovering from the injuries Pharynx had inflicted upon her. Fluttershy had done all she could to help stabilize Roka’s wounds, and at this point it was just a matter of letting her rest and allow natural Arrancar regenerative fortitude to do the rest. As for Di Roy and Gaw, Adagio had already assigned them a task, with Lament’s consent, and the pair would likely already be on their way to the world of the living.
The group had been undergoing final preparations and plans for the operation to rescue Fleur de Lis from Guto’s tower when Pinkie had her episode, one so severe it had her rolling right off the edge of the meeting platform to the ground floor.
At Twilight’s comment, Pinkie’s eyes shifted color briefly from blue to yellow as her lips curled up in a sarcastic grin, “Our noggin isn’t exactly the most organized, Grape Flavor. There’ve been more of these little bursts of braingasm lately than she’s told you girls.”
“Grape Flavor?” Twilight repeated with a look that said she couldn’t tell if that was an insult or a term of endearment, while Pinkie’s eyes flashed back to blue.
“Mena, you don’t gotta tell them that,” she said, to which Fluttershy tilted her head and held Pinkie’s hand in a soft gesture of calm.
“You mean you’ve had a lot more ‘Pinkie Senses’ lately?”
“Y-yeah...” Pinkie said, heaving out a sigh as she curled up more into the chair, “A lot more. I just haven’t said anything because I can’t suss them out like I used to. Most of them are pretty small ones, anyway, so they’re not too noticeable. Mena helps me keep them in check. This one was just too much of a doozy. I don’t know what most of the ones lately have been about, or at least... not specifically. It's like I keep getting flashes of danger for almost everyone I know, like every day my family, friends, casual acquaintances, and even strangers I haven’t met but are somehow important... are all in danger or under attack, or will be. But this one I just had was more intense, and specific. I don’t know its whole meaning, but it felt like Sunset, Rainbow, and AJ got... cut off from us, somehow.”
“That sounds less than ideal,” said Adagio from where she sat at the table beside Lament, her eyes filled with a growing frustration, “But also not surprising. Sunset Shimmer is a magnet for problems. But ‘cut off’ can mean a lot of things. Can you be any clearer?”
“Nope,” said Pinkie, “I just know they’re alive, but... far away.”
“Pinkie, we’re in Hueco Mundo and they’re in the world of the living,” Twilight pointed out, but Pinkie shook her head vigorously.
“Even further away than that. I don’t know where, but they’re not on Earth anymore.”
“That doesn’t leave a lot of alternatives,” Sugarcoat pointed out, “If they’re not on Earth, but not closer to where we are in Hueco Mundo, that pretty much leaves Equestria, or...”
“The Beast Realm,” Fluttershy said, eyes narrowing in concern. Just then, the door to the room from the embassy’s main entry hall opened and an unlikely pair entered to look at all of them.
“Hmm, the mood here suddenly seems dour,” Cinch said, putting a hand on her hip as her sharp angled face regarded the room with a haughty eye, “And here I thought I might brighten your day by reporting my success. I’ll even be generous and heap a small dollop of praise to these unseemly creature beside me.”
“I do not require praise from you, but shall take it from Lady Fluttershy, if I have earned it. ^_^” Smooze stated, looking Fluttershy’s way with a smiling emoticon appearing on his otherwise dark screened full-faced helmet. The former Tenth Espada and freshly anointed Sternritter W certainly made an odd pairing as they stood side by side. Adagio rose from her seat and joined Twilight as the pair went down the stairs from the second floor platform to meet the pair.
“I take it things went well?” said Twilight.
“I hope all went smoothly with Gaw and the children?” asked Adagio.
Cinch and Smooze looked at each other, and Cinch made a small ‘after you’ gesture at the Arrancar, who then inclined his head towards Adagio.
“Your vassal had little trouble gathering Lament’s children together, and I provided the Garganta to take them to their destination. They arrived safely, as far as I am aware, Sexta Espada.”
“Good,” Adagio said, glancing back up at Lament, who remained up on the second floor with Fenice, “That gets them out of the line of fire. Lament, I’ll leave things in your hands here, then.”
“You’re really going?” asked Hard Nail, his pale features showing a twitch of genuine worry that Adagio almost found touching, “I feel as if you’re underestimating Chrysalis.”
“Perhaps I am,” Adagio said with a shrug, “But we’re out of time for caution. I need to find out what Thorax knows, and the only way to get to him is through Chrysalis’ lair. If she’s there, me and her will have a woman to woman chat. If she isn’t, none of her horde have the strength to stop me from overturning every stone until I find Thorax.”
“At least let me come along,” said Fenice, joining her father and crossing her arms as she looked Adagio’s way, “This new sword keeps yammering at me about wanting more to do, so I might as well follow you and back you up if it comes to a fight. I’m not about to sit around sidelined anymore, and I’m not needed for what these Quincy are planning.”
“Daughter, I don’t want you walking into a lion’s den, worse than any lion’s den in the whole of creation,” Hard Nail stated, but Fenice met his imploring look with her own heated gaze.
“Sorry father, but that’s all the more reason for me to support Adagio, in case things go sideways. You’re putting yourself on the line too, offering to help the Quincy in your condition, so don’t go acting like you’re the only one with the right to take risks.”
Hard Nail had no response to that, and the more observant in the room, mostly Adagio, noticed Twilight’s face grow a heavy shadow of roughly concealed emotions. The other Quincy were silent and still, but the air was thick with tension around Twilight for a moment before the girl took control of herself and said, “She’s right. You’re helping us, despite your weakened state. With Fenice’s recent... metamorphosis, she may have more than enough strength to provide Adagio with backup. Assuming Adagio, that you’re okay with this?”
Adagio eyed Fenice, then offered a smoothly pleased smile, “It’d be foolish to say no to the assistance. Preferably I’d like to avoid an actual fight with the Secunda Espada, but if it does come to that, having you and your rather odd new blade at my side may prove useful. Is it really jabbering at you about wanting to get into fights?”
Fenice’s face colored as she scratched the back of her head, thumping a fist onto the viking broadsword’s hilt, the blade now sheathed at her side through a sash she’d added to her robes, “I think we’re up to the twentieth or so time he’s brought it up. Shame the rest of you can’t hear him. Makes me feel like I’ve gone screwy in the head, hearing voices.”
Twilight adjusted her glasses, giving Fenice’s blade a clearly intrigued look, “Under less time-constraining circumstances I’d absolutely love to examine this Phantom Blade of yours in detail, but hopefully we’ll have time later once this operation is complete. I’m worried about this situation Pinkie’s senses have alerted us to, but there’s no time to contact the Coalition for an update. We’ll just have to leave it until later. Cinch, after Smooze gated Gaw and the children, I presume the rest of your work went smoothly? You weren’t spotted?”
Cinch snorted, “Please, I may not be the foremost expert in stealth among the Quincy, but I have many years of experience of over anyone else here. Smooze, despite his less than pleasant physical qualities, does have a sharp mind, I’ll admit. He provided all the details I needed of the Warrens’ layout and Las Nosche’s surface layout. As soon as you’re all ready, I can show you all my wonderful, expert power as Sternritter W!”
“Have fun with that,” Adagio said, “Fenice, let’s go.”
“Be careful, both of you,” Hard Nail said, and Adagio and Fenice both gave him acknowledging nods before leaving the room.
“Anyone else think that poking the literal second most powerful Hollow in existence when we’re about to launch a delicate rescue operation is a bad idea?” asked Sour Sweet as they all went back up to their respective chairs at the meeting table, “No? Just me?”
“Actually if you think about it, Adagio and that Fullbringer girl doing that should provide a handy distraction for us,” Sunny Flare pointed out, “If a fight breaks out, it’d draw eyes away from Guto’s tower and give us some cover.”
“I would prefer my daughter and close ally not be seen as little more than a distraction,” Hard Nail stated, to which Sunny Flare paled a bit, less than enthused about having one of the most terrifying of the Espada so close by. None of the Quincy present were unaware of the fact that, during their attack on Las Noches, this man was directly responsible for the deaths of two Sternritter, including Twilight’s own mother.
Even diminished as he was, Hard Nail retained a strong presence, and most of the Quincy still saw him as ‘the Lament’, Quatra Espada.
Twilight, sitting across from her mother’s killer, maintained a face still as stone and professionally forced to neutrality, “We can only trust that they’ll be able to handle themselves. Distraction or not, we won’t plan our actions around what happens with their confrontation with Chrysalis, if one even happens at all. For the moment, let’s focus on what we shall be doing. Cinch, if you would?”
“Of course,” Cinch said with a self-pleased smile. Raising her left hand, she generated a series of small reishi strands that then became silver darts that hovered over her upraised fingertips, “As Sternritter W, the Window, I’ll be providing key support to you all. Appreciate it. Now, observe, my first technique; Sichtfenster!” (Viewing Port)
The five silver darts shot up and outward, spiraling to impact with the wall behind the meeting table at various spots. Another set of silver darts formed at Cinch’s fingertips and fired again, and again, and again... until the wall was pockmarked by the darts. Then, each dart flattened out and grew like a silver pool, then flashed white. At each point, the pools became clear, like windows, and showed through each one a different scene. Some showed elements of the large Arrancar encampment outside Guto’s tower, with bored warriors milling around, gaming with dice, play fighting, or eating slain lesser Hollows. Other ‘Viewing Ports’ showed areas of the Warrens, specifically what looked like a series of tunnels and chambers linked to guarded doors that led to larger areas directly underneath Guto’s tower. Other parts of Las Noches could be seen through other ports, including areas observing Lament’s tower, Adagio’s walled territory, and the embassy itself.
“You were pretty thorough I see,” Twilight said, and Cinch laughed.
“Obviously. I wanted to ensure no corner was left unmarked so that we can have a clear view of our target area. Once you take more of my darts with you, your team can set them up to create more ports through which my Window will allow us to view.”
“Nobody can see us through these, right?” asked Indigo, to which Cinch looked mildly disgusted.
“Of course not, foolish girl. These ports are for one way viewing, unless I specifically allow for two way access.”
“Interesting,” said Fluttershy, while Pinkie Pie leaned over to poke at one of the ports, which shuddered a bit, like actual glass.
“Hey! Are these real windows!?” Pinkie said, to which Cinch grunted and gave the girl a hard glare.
“Don’t poke that so hard you imbecile. The Window is highly adaptable, and I’ve tempered the Viewing Ports to be difficult to break, but you could still accidentally give us away like that. And yes, my Schrift creates what you could consider to be ‘real windows’ on surfaces or even on open air if I so choose. I control the properties of my Windows, from which end they can be seen through to who can even move through them and when. All of the conditions of my Windows are mind to control.”
“Obviously Cinch needs to be able to place a dart to form both ends of a ‘Window’,” said Twilight, already fully briefed on the nature of Cinch’s Schrift, “So in terms of being able to infiltrate, we can utilize any of these ports to come at Guto’s tower how we like. However we’ll have to set up more darts once we’re inside. Hopefully, if all goes well, once we locate Fleur de Lis, we can use a Window to rapidly escape back here to the embassy without anyone inside the tower realizing where we’ve gone.”
Sugarcoat nodded, “And this, combined with my X-Ray, should make finding and snatching Fleur easy. Which almost certainly means something is going to go wrong.”
“You’re a real ray of sunshine today, ain’t ya?” said Lemon Zest, casually blowing a bubble with some bubblegum she’d been chewing, “This sounds like it’ll be a cakewalk as long as we do things fast.”
“Don’t be simple,” said Sunny Flare, “Even with the advantage of these Schrifts, we’ve got some hurdles to deal with. We have to break in, even if we’ve got the Window to make getting to an entry point easy. Then we have to find Fleur, and she won’t be alone.”
“No, she won’t,” Gilda said, finally speaking up and eyeing all of the Quincy in turn, “And hate to break it to you, but this isn’t going down without a fight. You’d better hope Adagio and Fenice do cause a scene with Chrysalis, because you’re going to need every distraction you can get to keep that tower from getting overrun with Guto and Hydia’s warriors the second any kind of alarm is raised.”
“That’s why we’ve got you, right?” said Indigo, “You know where the weak spots in security would be.”
“Hmph, it’s because of what I know that I’m telling you there aren’t any weak spots. Guto... he keeps a damn hold of the things he wants,” Gilda said with a heavy tone, eyes downcast, “Stealth will last up until the second you try to snatch anything he values, then he’ll be on your asses before you can blink. We need to be ready for a fight, and don’t fool yourselves into thinking this will go down any other way.”
Twilight and Lament looked at one another, the air cold between them, but his eyes were understanding, his voice even, “I will be drawing Guto and Hydia’s attention, with the assistance of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. With any luck, we can make enough of a scene out front that you’ll be able to get inside with minimal issue.”
Gilda hands clenched on the table, her nervousness seeming to grow my the second now that the time to actually do this had finally come. Fluttershy drew her attention with a small leaning forward and warmth filled smile that drew a line against the unease in Gilda’s heart. For a moment Gilda suspected the girl might have been using her Fullbring’s power, but she didn’t see any of the signs like the extra arms, glowing third eye, or halo... so perhaps Fluttershy was just being that calming naturally.
“That’ll be easy to do, since Guto will be happy to take any chance to stick it to you, Lament,” Gilda said, “So be careful. He’ll take you out, if he thinks he can get away with it. Still, once we’re in, big warning; nobody touch anything of Guto’s. He’s got a lot of ritzy crap in there, and his power coats all of it. He’s got an instinctual power to sense when his possessions are being tampered with. That may well include your Quincy friend, once we find her, we got to split fast.”
“We can use that against him,” Twilight said, “Since we don’t know for sure if Guto will keep Fleuruer near him at all times, if he does have her at his side when... Lament’s distraction kicks off, we can raid his valuables to draw him right back into the tower, and he’ll bring Fluer right to us.”
“Risky, but as long as I you can use one of my darts to set up a Window, I can provide an exit point no matter where you are in that tower,” Cinch said, “And I’ve already set up additional Windows to lead us outside of Las Noches once we have Fleur de Lis. Even if you have to fight every Arrancar in the tower, Guto and Hydia included, you just have to survive long enough to get through my Window.”
“And ultimately we’re out of time to plan,” Twilight stated simply, eyeing each of her team in turn, “Between Adagio confronting Chrysalis, and Pinkie’s odd warnings of events back in the living world, I intend to get this done as soon as possible. So this is it; in half an hour, Lament, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie will begin their distraction. At the same time, I shall lead all Quincy present besides Cinch, along with Gilda, and infiltrate Guto’s tower via the power of the Window. We’ll expend every effort to locate Fluer and extract her, and engage any Arrancar necessary in the process. Any questions?”
Silence followed her query, each member of the group looking ready in their own way. Twilight nodded, rising from her seat, “Very well. In half an hour the operation commences, and we get Fleur de Lis out of Hueco Mundo.”
----------
While he had a million and one things on his mind, Discord knew when he just had to get an unpleasant bit of conversation over and done with. Time and again responsibility was a thing that hung heavy on his head, his hat almost feeling at times more like a blade pressing inward. He was accepting of the fact that he couldn’t act as a shield for the girls, had known as much for almost the duration of the time he’d been assisting them, but that didn’t change that it remained a stinging wound on his heart that they faced the consequences of a conflict they never should have had to get involved in.
And while he felt for each and every single one of them, and especially had a growing sensation of both pride and care for Sunset Shimmer in particular as a girl he was happy to see grow, and terrified to see fall, he was all too aware that out of the group Rarity had already paid the heaviest of prices. He was taking special care in the preparation of Rarity’s gigai, for the day she would one day be able to make use of it, but until then... duty compelled him to this moment.
“I don’t understand,” Cookie Crumbles said, eyes staring at Discord with equal elements of confusion and denial, “What do you mean my daughter is in...”
She couldn’t finish the sentence fully and just shook her head and paced about. She, along with her husband Magnum, were in one of the smaller private rooms that Discord had set aside for guests. Sweetie Belle was there as well, sitting on a couch next to her father, and looking no more able to comprehend the situation than Cookie Crumbles was.
Exercising as much presence as he was able, Magnum’s face was pale, his mustache twitching a bit as he spoke, “Can you run this by us again. I still don’t rightly get everything going on around here, but I know you’re the fella in charge and now you’re saying our Rarity is in even more trouble than she already was after some powerful bad folk showed up?”
Discord kept his composure, with some effort, considering his words very carefully.
“Our enemies created and control the place you might think of as ‘Hell’, a prison they abuse for their own ends. During their attack on this place, one of them was able to entrap Rarity in that prison. As of now we don’t have a means of getting her out, but we’re working on it.”
“OH! You’re [i[working on it!?” Cookie Crumbles snapped, hot tears in her eyes, throwing up a hand, “Well color me all relieved then! Discord, it’s my daughter! She’s in Hell! Dead and in Hell! Now that I have my memories and powers back, I’ve half a mind to shove my Fullbring straight up your-”
“H-honey, I don’t think Mister Discord is the problem here,” Magnum said, to which Cookie Crumbles rounded on him with nostrils flaring.
“Dear, our baby girl wouldn’t have ever gotten hurt if Discord had kept out of things. For Christ’s sake, me and my friends had our own lives upended by this man’s plots and schemes. I think I have every right to say he’s at fault for our daughter being... being...”
Magnum bit his lip and went quiet, and Discord took a deep breath before speaking again.
“You’re not wrong, Cookie Crumbles. There is a lot that can be laid at my feet. I was there, and still failed to ensure neither Rarity nor her friends came to harm. All I can tell you is that I am expending every available option to get Rarity back to you.”
“How’re you gonna do that?” asked Sweetie Belle before anyone else could, the young girl’s eyes red from unshed tears she was trying to hold in, and a hopeful look residing in her quivering lips.
“Yes,” added Cookie Crumbles, “Let’s hear it, Discord. You want us, my friends, my other daughter, her friends, you want us all fighting in your ‘Coalition’? You’d better have something to give us other than empty promises.”
Discord reached into the folds of his dark green robes and pulled out a book, “I don’t require that anyone fight who does not wish to. Our enemies don’t discriminate based on association. As far as they’re concerned, everyone is a valid target, and hence it’s in the best interest of anyone who can do so to train their abilities to face what’s to come. However you are quite correct that I should provide material, concrete benefits rather than empty words. So take this book...”
Handing it to Cookie Crumbles, the woman wiped at her tear stained eyes with one hand while looking at the book with vague confusion, “What is this? A journal?”
“Correct,” Discord confirmed, “But not just any journal. This particular one was enchanted by Twilight Sparkle and is linked to your daughter. If you write in the journal, the words will reach Rarity.”
The family all looked briefly stunned, Sweetie Belle leaping off the couch to approach her mother and the journal Cookie Crumbles now held. “It’ll really do that? We can talk to Rarity?”
“Yes, in fact Sunset Shimmer and the other girls already contacted her earlier to ensure it works,” Discord explained, his eyes kind, but filled with the weight of the circumstances, “Understand, please, that Rarity is still fighting. She is refusing to allow Hell to break her, and intends to seek a means of escape. She’s acquired allies there already. Your daughter is not a person easily cowed by anything. As she works to seek clues to a means of escaping Hell, I shall be working on a means to aid her in that endeavor. I give you this journal not only so you can speak to her, and let her know her family is waiting for her, but also so you can convey any clues she discovers to me. Together, we’ll get her out. And once she’s home safely, I’ll have finished a new body for her, I swear.”
Cookie Crumbles held the journal in trembling hands, breathing heavily, “I still don’t like you, Discord, and I’m not thrilled by any of this... but thank you for this at least. You’d better get her out of there.”
“I will, one way or another,” Discord assured her, and slowly turned towards the door, “I’ll leave you all to send your words to Rarity, now, in privacy. As I said, I don’t require anyone who doesn’t want it to train, but if you are willing, Cookie Crumbles, then Cloudy Quartz and Soft Spoken will be joining us down in the training area in a few hours.”
Cookie nodded silently, sitting down at the short coffee table by the couch with her husband and youngest daughter to lay down the journal, Discord almost all but forgotten as they got ready to send Rarity a message. He left them, feeling no less weight on his shoulders, but at least glad that Rarity would get to hear from her family.
Now he just had a million more problems to turn his attention towards, instead of a million and one.
And at least half of those problems all pointed directly towards the Beast Realm.
----------
She knew it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, but Celestia swore the fabric of the Captain Commander’s uniform itched. It was simply nerves, and the uncomfortable feeling that she didn’t belong in them, didn’t deserve the honor of wearing the white haori with the simple kanji for the First Division inked on its back. She was no replacement for the power, wisdom, and ages of experience that Captain Commander Scorpan had represented for the Gotei 13 and Soul Society as a whole. More than that, he’d been the unbreakable, unshakable, eternal centerpiece and bedrock of Soul Society since its inception.
How was she, a half-breed girl with a fraction of his experience supposed to fill shoes the size of a titan’s?
There wasn’t even time for doubt. She didn’t have the luxury of taking the time to face her uncertainties, her fears of inadequacies, like she wanted to. Celestia had to pick up the pieces of the unsteady Gotei 13 and hold them together, because if the news Ditzy had just brought was any indication... things were about to get far and away worse before they got better, and if things went really wrong, it could well mean the end of everything.
Above all, it was still the Gotei 13’s duty to prevent that from happening, to preserve balance and peace between the world of the living and the realm of spirits. Built on lies, perhaps, but by Scorpan’s will and her own, Celestia intended to forge that duty into truth, even if she didn’t know if she was truly up to the task.
The Captain Commander’s office was spacious, almost uncomfortably so as she sat behind her new desk and eyed not only Ditzy Doo, but her sister, whom she’d summoned upon hearing the full report Ditzy had brought.
“So before Asena and Simurgh disappeared along with Sunset Shimmer and the others, they specifically mentioned they had come to escort me and Luna to a ‘Convocation of Clans’?” she confirmed, to which Ditzy held up her hands in a tired, shrugging gesture.
“Pretty sure they babbled something along those lines. Went on about the Fates saying you two needed to be there, and would be accompanied by ‘warriors of harmony’. Kinda assumed that meant the girls, but with the scattered literally between Hell and back, not sure how that’s supposed to go down.”
“Father told us some of the Fates,” Luna said with an unimpressed, if still grave look, *Their predictions are hardly prophetic, and possess all manner of bends and inaccuracies.”
“It is more that they can be interpreted in various ways and rarely come about in a direct manner,” Ditzy said, moving over to the large balcony area to the right of the office, leaning on the railing and looking out over the Seireitei beyond, “Time Turner tried to explain to me plenty of times how time isn’t something you predict in a straight line, even when you’ve got powers that let you take a peek ahead. I wouldn’t worry about the details. I just figure you two might want to decide whether or not you want to be packing your bags or not.”
“Tch,” Luna crossed her arms, “We cannot afford to leave Soul Society right now! Celesita just became Captain Commander. We had Scorpan’s funeral this very morning! There’s so much instability among the Divisions, and among the populace. They need a solid symbol of security, which will hardly be helped by the new Captain Commander and myself galivanting off to the Beast Realm right now!”
There was a current of severe strain undercutting Luna’s words, and Celestia knew well her sister wasn’t speaking idly. However...
“Respectfully, sister, I believe we should go.”
“Are you serious, Tia?” Luna said, cocking her head to the side to look at her sister sidelong, “We’re in no position to deprive Soul Society of even the small measure of peace the presence of at least a Captain Commander brings. If we go, that leaves too few Captains to maintain order, or protect the Soul Society in case of attack.”
“That is why Amore has departed with her Lieutenant and a diplomatic entourage from Blueblood’s Division to cement our newfound ceasefire with the Quincy,” Celestia replied with far more cooled calm than she really felt, “And while the Coalition’s own forces are scattered somewhat by these recent events, we can still rely on them for support in case of an emergency. Right now Tirek and Las Noches remain the largest potential threat, and even now members of the Coalition are present there, so if any serious moves are made we’ll likely be informed of it before it gets too far. More importantly, Lulu, we’re needed in the Beast Realm. All points towards it as the new battleground.”
“And what of Zero Division...?” Luna asked, to which Ditzy cut in.
“Not to cut too deep on this one, but if Zero Division decides to make any move in force, it’s not like anyone would be in a good position to stop them even if you and Celestia stick around here. I’d say it’s better to deal with this Beast Realm business, and maybe snag some fresh allies out of the deal. Besides, you think those girls aren’t going to be tearing up and down that place, then rolling right along to Equestria afterward? At least if you two hit up this Convocation of Clans, it might lead to breaking the Beast Realm out of its neutrality. And... Time Turner and I will be going with you.”
Luna’s resistance visibly lessened the more both Ditzy and Celestia had spoken, laying out the logic if it all, and she sighed, nodding finally. There was even a small, phantom smile on her lips now, “Fine. I never could dissuade you lot from doing something foolish, even when we were children. If Discord was coming, we’d have the old gang back together.”
Ditzy smiled with a small chuckle, “Sadly Discy has his plate full up in Canterlot City, but he sends his regards. So, we good here? You two ready to pack your bags?”
“We tend to travel light,” Celestia said, rising from behind her desk, “But I do need to arrange matters here to ensure the other Captains know what's happening. Then... me and Luna have to pay someone a visit.”
Luna made a small, grunting noise very much of the kind only family members make when they know there’s a family get together that can’t be avoided, “Right, I suppose if we’re going to be meeting our mother’s face to face, we first have to speak with our father.”