“You see, Twilight, my journey had only just begun. The Holy Grail War’s purpose was to choose an immortal ruler for all of Equestria. I had decided that Luna and me would be the rulers of Equestria and, well you probably know how this story ends. But you of all ponies should know that the ending isn’t as important as the journey there. My journey truly began the day after receiving Saber as my servant in the War; that was the day I fought Rider again.”
The sound of a screaming unicorn filly woke me from my sleep the next day. Luna had wrenched herself free from me and was cowering in the corner of the room. Saber was at the entrance of the cave, seemingly unperturbed by the screaming of a scared child just behind him. “What’s going on?” I muttered groggily.
“Your younger sister seems to assume that I’m a dream.” Saber dryly commented.
“Tia!” Luna rushed over to me wrapping me in a bear hug, “Tia, he’s the man from the dream!”
“What are you talking about Luna?”
Rather than calming down, Luna only became more hysterical. “I had a horrible dream where Mommy and Daddy tried to make me immortal and you tried to stop them and then this guy came out of a portal that Mommy and Daddy had put in the middle of the basement and now I’m awake but I can’t be because he’s still here and he should just be a dream shouldn’t he Tia?” I put a hoof to Luna’s mouth to stop the gibbering and try to wake myself up.
“Saber, do you know how to boil vegetables?”
“Not a veggies person myself.”
“Fruit then?”
“Meat usually.”
My face became as white as Luna’s, “You’re a cannibal?”
“All humans eat meat, Celestia, or did that part get left out of the history books?”
Luna spoke up again, “You see, even he thinks he’s real.”
“Luna,Mother and Father were trying to enter you in some tournament called the Holy Grail War, and I stopped them,” Luna hugged herself closer to me, “by becoming a member in your place.” She looked up at me, her eyes begging me to say that I was just joking and that we just went out to play and fell asleep in a cave somewhere. She knew what was coming next. “Then we were attacked by another contestant and they destroyed the house.” Saber’s eyes snapped to me before falling back to the entrance to the cave. “Everyone’s dead Luna, I’m so sorry.”
Luna burst into tears. She wept, and her tears stained my coat as she begged me to say that I was lying. She wept and cried until she tearfully fell back to sleep. Once she was fast asleep, I stepped outside the cave to speak with Saber alone. “You know what I will say, master,” I nodded, “but I will not say it, we have too much on our plates as it is. Worrying about you and your sister’s trust will only exacerbate the problems we already face.”
“Rider.” I uttered.
“Yes, we know only basic details; we know his class is Rider.”
“We know that he has a pumpkin for a head.”
“We know he rides a horse shrouded in darkness.”
“So that’s what your people call a large pony like that.” He nodded, “Well I suppose we also know that he calls death his friend and that death shields him.”
Saber nodded solemnly, “Not too much to go on, I’m afraid.” He grabbed one of the mythology books that I had grabbed from father’s collection. “Your father was preparing for the War from the beginning.” He sifted through all of the books, eventually coming across the book that spoke specifically about the war. “He went so far in his research, yet he chooses a child to be his magus, and to use such a strange summoning circle.”
“What do you mean ‘strange summoning circle’?” Saber pointed at the page he had opened the book to. Upon examination, the circle looked like the one on my basement floor, “Yeah, why is it so strange?”
“This summoning circle is very specific. Rather than calling for a specific servant or class, it forces a connection between the servant and someone else.” He poured over the words of the summoning, “In all the Wars I’ve been in, I’ve never seen this kind of circle. This might be useful only to a society that doesn’t possess natural magic.”
“Well some ponies don’t have magic, only unicorns do.” Saber cocked an eyebrow, “I mean you saw that Rider’s master, Carrot Field, didn’t have a horn like me, right?” He nodded, “Well that’s because she’s an Earth Pony, she has no magic, but stronger levels of endurance and natural strength.”
“I see.”
“Yeah, there are also ponies that can fly, called pegasi, who also don’t possess natural magic.”
“I see, clearly both of us have things to learn.” I nodded.
“Yeah, so why is that so terrible?” I asked, causing Saber to grimace.
“Well, it means that my magical reserves are connected to Luna, not to you.”
Part of me was scared for Luna when he said that, scared that she was still involved in this. But another part of me was confused, confused as to how this mattered at all. “Can we fix that, in fact should we?”
“Well it’s probably safer to your sister if you’re my source of magic. I’ll look into it as much as I can. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks Saber.”
“By the way, I guess I never went into specifics on the various classes of the Holy Grail War yesterday, did I.”
“No.” I said, “And it probably would be a good idea for me to know as much as I can, particularly about you and Rider.” I giggled, remembering last night’s joke, “Do Sabers always wield sabers?”
Saber laughed, “No, A Saber class has a slightly higher magic resistance than most classes. Most Saber’s are knights from history, so we are more physically capable, but often the trade-off is a lack of magical prowess.”
“That’s why Rider was so confused that you could use magic!” I was elated, I got a super-strong servant and he could even break his own rules! “And that must be the reason that it’s so dangerous for Luna to remain the source of your magic, you actually use it.”
“No, that won’t be dangerous until the time when I have to use my Noble Phantasm. Until then, the amount I use should be minimal.” He flipped through the book until he came to a page that featured the strange arrow marks that were on Carrot Field’s eye. “This mark, the command seals, give the master some extra magical reserves and control so that they could survive the servant taking their master's magic combined with their own reserves to use the Noble Phantasm.”
“Yeah, I saw that on Carrot Field’s eye. Is that where mine is?” Saber chuckled and pointed to my flank, where my cutie mark would normally be. “No, It can’t be.” I turned around and, sure enough, in the place where my non-existent cutie mark would appear were the command seals. “Great. Well anyway do Riders and Sabers normally have some sort of grudge, cause that Rider seemed desperate to make you dead even when you started chucking dark blasts at him.”
“No, in most societies that utilize the Holy Grail War, the Saber is considered to be the best of the classes since they have the second highest physical strength and combined with a strong mage…”
“Right, cover all the bases. But if that’s the case, then why isn’t the Berserker class, which I assume is the strongest physically, even more wanted?” Saber smiled a little.
“Well the Berserker may have greater strength, but they sacrifice their mind. They can’t think, only fight.” he sighed, “They lose every shred of their humanity in favor of more brute strength.”
“All right, then what about Rider?” I asked.
“Well Riders tend to be pretty balanced, but they usually have a mount of some kind that they can summon, like the horse that Rider used yesterday.”
“So what about the Archer, Caster, Assassin, and Lancer classes?”
Saber laughed, “Well are you sure that you want to continue along this when we have Rider to find?”
I sat back and thought about what we knew about Rider. “What do you think he meant by ‘death is my friend and my shield’?”
“Maybe he's a ghost?”
I gasped, “That must be it!” I mentally kicked myself for not coming to the conclusion sooner. “Death is my friend and shield. If death shields him, then he’s dead already, well I mean deader than you already are. That would explain why he wasn’t hurt by you repeatedly slashing him in the side.”
“So we’re looking for a ghost rider. That certainly narrows it down some.” He pulled out what looked like a dead rabbit that had been burned some and began chewing it. “There has to be something in these books of your father’s that explains about something that odd.”
I grimaced as he continued to eat the dead creature. “Yeah, so what’s the plan for finding Rider again anyway?” As Saber continued eating, I grabbed some of the vegetables from my pack and started snacking on them. They didn’t taste very good raw, but it was better than starving. “Do we just march up to the front door of his master’s house and demand a rematch?”
Saber inhaled the rest of the dead animal. “We’re probably better off going into town and waiting for him to show up.” he said licking his lips, “We’ll also have the chance of running into other masters and possibly getting a look at their servants.”
“It sounds more dangerous, but the payoff for success is higher.” I looked over to the sleeping form of Luna nearby. She was still Saber’s magic source, something we had to fix and fast. “Maybe we can trade information on Rider to another master in exchange for figuring out how to make me your source of magic.”
Saber smiled one of those smiles that meant he was impressed. It was a smile that said that he hadn’t thought of that and was thankful for getting me as his master. “Interesting strategy, I’ve never heard of a master trying to do that before. I guess we could most certainly try it. So where’s the nearest town?”
“Near the edge of the forest.” I responded. Mother told me that Father used his wealth to have entire fields of trees and land plowed away so that he could have his castle far enough away from the town where he wouldn’t be connected to them completely, but close enough where the townsfolk could always see and admire the symbol of the Eclipse family. “The town probably saw the fire yesterday and probably recognized it as unicorn magic.” Saber gave me a troubled look, “But they won’t connect it to me. No one but Floral and Luna knew that I specialized in fire magic, or magic at all, for that matter.”
“That’ll be a good surprise if any other masters know who you are. If everyone assumes that you don’t use magic and was just given me on accident, then they’ll be more likely to underestimate you.”
I silently thanked my father, others underestimating me was the closest thing to an advantage I could have. It would at least even things out, considering that others probably still had a home to go back to or guards to throw at me. “Alright, let’s head to town then.”
Saber nodded and threw hood over his face. “Should we wake your sister up?
Every time I looked at Luna’s sleeping form, my heart ached. I had torn her from the home where she was given anything she could ever want, whenever she wanted it. I didn’t need to kill our parents, I could have left Luna with them and gone off with Saber myself. Her eyes were puffy and red from all the crying and she stirred only slightly at the noise of me and Saber conversing. I walked over to her and stroked her mane softly, “Luna, me and Saber are going to go into town for a little bit ok. Don’t you worry, we’ll be back but we need some supplies.” Luna nodded and curled herself into a ball in the corner of the cave. I threw a blanket over her and tucked her in before leaving with Saber.
The walk through the forest with Saber was quiet. My thoughts drifted to Luna sleeping soundly in the cave, unaware of the true reason for me and Saber’s leaving. Finally we reached the small town, Outskirt, at the end of the forest. The town was small, only a couple hundred people in total. The dwellings were crafted from hardened mud with thatch roofs reinforced by magic to keep out the snow. The snow from last night’s storm lay strewn in the town square. This didn’t surprise me, as the townsfolk mostly kept themselves indoors during the winter, as there were no crops to farm in the winter. For the most part they would stock up on materials for living through the winter long beforehand.
I shivered in my cloak. All I could find in the house that was fitted for me was my simple work cloak for the winter. It was simply a layer of mild fabric which barely provided any warmth. I didn’t complain largely because my companion was also just dressed in a simple cloak that covered him and nothing more. It didn’t seem to be very warm or provide much armor; something you wouldn't normally expect a knight to wear.
As we walked through the snow into the town, we noticed that there were fresh hoof tracks leading into the center of Outskirt. Following them, I noticed that in the middle of town was a large memorial, dedicated to my family and all who worked for them. Upon noticing the symbol of the Eclipse family on the banner, I motioned for Saber to hide with me behind a nearby house a few feet away from the memorial service. “How could they have already figured out that all of them were dead?” I was panicking now. I hadn’t expected to be marked dead already. They shouldn’t have known about the deaths of all who worked there unless…
“Someone saw the fight.” Saber spoke what the both of us were thinking. If someone did see the fight yesterday, then it had to be one of our opponents based on the lack of panic about a pumpkin-headed monster fighting a human. And it was safe to assume that whoever saw the battle stuck around for the encore where I torched my home and my servant killed everyone who worked there. “We should probably head back. Grab Luna and head further out, somewhere that wouldn’t have heard the news yet.”
“Could Rider have done this?” I asked.
“That's unlikely. He seems more of a frontal assault type of Noble Spirit, not the kind to engage in sneaky tactics like this. This is more of an Assassin or a particularly nasty Archer thing to do.”
“There is still the possibility that they don’t know it was us.”
“More likely they don’t know it was you, I’m probably a prime suspect.”
I grunted in anguish. The one possible element that I had to level the playing field, the lack of knowledge of my or my servant’s talents, crumbled before me. “Now we’re engaged with two servants, fantastic.”
“Like I said, Sabers are largely considered to be better servants, so everyone aims for them if at all possible.” Saber stated rather matter-of-factly. “If we want to move around I suggest that I use the servant’s shroud: an ability that will make me invisible to any non-masters.”
“How much magic will that consume?” I asked causing him to frown.
“A bit more than my simple dark blast attacks yesterday.” He responded
“Then no deal, either hide on the roofs and in the alleys or head back to the cave while I scout around.” He gave a glare, “I’m not letting you take any more magic from my sister than at all necessary, and I can handle myself to a certain extent.”
He scoffed, “Yes, when we’ve already encountered one servant whose identity still remains unknown, and we’re clearly being targeted by another servant, you want to go off on your own.” I gave him a stern look, which he returned with that smirk of his. “Alright then, I’ll hide myself as best as possible, but the second things look bad, I’m jumping in.” With that, Saber climbed his way up to the roof of the building we were next to and out of sight.
With Saber hiding somewhere, I walked out to the memorial. Many ponies there were placing roses or prayers for those who died. Below the imposing dark blue banner were pictures. The pictures were of fathers and their sons or daughters; pictures of the people that Saber and I killed. A lump formed in my throat at the sight, until I saw the picture in the middle. The picture in the middle of a memorial regarding a noble family would normally be of the head of that family or who would’ve succeeded him. But instead, in the center, surrounded by roses and a green wreath, was Floral. I broke down into tears in front of his picture, sobbing uncontrollably as ponies around me questioned if I was an Eclipse.
Just then a group of six guard ponies came into view, wearing the insignia of the Earth clan. The Earth clan was, like my family, a noble family recognized by Equestria. They were a group of powerful earth ponies and, at least in the main family branch, only earth ponies. The clan was well known for abandoning or murdering a child born unto them that wasn’t an earth pony. Any assistance that they required from a pegasus or unicorn was done by hiring commoners from the nearby town and working them to the bone with the promise of food and wealth. The guards walked up to the memorial service, thankfully without noticing me.
“What is the meaning of this, who is in charge of this service?” One screamed.
A calm older pegasus stallion walked over to the group of guards, “I am.” His voice was soft but deliberate and commanding. He wore armor from the wars of the noble families. The insignia of the storm on his plating was worn and faded, implying many years of service. On his back was a crossbow and a small dagger adorned his hoof. Many in the crowd seemed intimidated by the middle-aged pegasus, but not the guards in front of him.
“You have arranged a service for those lost in the fire of the Eclipse household yesterday, yet you appear to have the wrong picture in the center.” One of the other guards analyzed calmly.
The old stallion answered, “No, I’m fairly certain that the picture is correct.”
The guard directly in front of the stallion looked about ready to stab him to death right there, but the other, calmer guard spoke first. “Well, old one, the picture in the middle isn’t of the head of the Eclipse family, it seems to be of a common worker.” I bit my tongue, not wanting to incite trouble. I wanted to stand defiantly with the old stallion, and give Floral his due for protecting my sister to the very end of his life.
The old stallion replied, “Well that is true, the one in the middle is an old friend of mine named Floral. He and I were in the wars together and I felt that he was the one who deserved honor.”
“You little insignificant…” The angry guard began but was again silenced by his calmer friend. This time however the angry one fought back, “This senile imbecile is trying to argue that some common worker deserves a better spot on the memorial tablet than the leader of the family he worked for!”
“Yes, he was truly an honorable stallion.” The old man replied.
The calmer guard began to lose patience with the old man and stood beside his friend with his hoof dagger ready. “Whatever you may think, there are certain rules when honoring the noble dead. The head of the Eclipse family is the true hero here…”
“No he wasn’t.” I screamed. Off in the distance I could almost hear Saber wince as I got myself involved in the coming fight. “My father wasn’t a ‘hero,’ nor is he even close to as deserving of the honor of being placed in the centerpiece as Floral.” I stood beside the old stallion causing the crowd to step forward and stand near us. “This isn’t an official burial right, the old man put this together. He should be able to honor whoever he wants with the centerpiece.”
The guards surrounded the two of us, murderous intent radiating from their eyes. “Well then I suppose we’ll have to make it official, won’t we, take down the picture now or else.” The calm guard said. The angry guard gave a glare at the two of us and smiled.
“I’m with you, old man.” I said.
“No need child, I don’t fight alone.” He snapped his neck to the side, flipping his hair back. In doing so, he revealed the command seals that adorned his neck. He motioned towards one of the guards, and then something whizzed through the air. With that, two of the guards dropped dead, arrows sticking out of their necks. As the calmer guard looked around to try and identify the position that the arrows came from, the old man sprang up and dug his hoof-mounted dagger into his throat. The blood that spilled from the injured guard sprayed into the eyes of his angry friend, causing him to stagger backwards. A blast of dark energy sailed through the air, blasting another guard backwards into the one next to him, knocking them both to the ground. The angered guard rushed forward at the old man, but I turned to the side and bucked him as hard as I could, knocking him back far enough for me to use my magic to set him ablaze. As he burned like a light and the old man withdrew his blade from the calmer guard’s neck, the two remaining guards scrambled to their hooves. Two more arrows whizzed through the air, striking the two guards in the center of their heads, killing them.
It had only taken a few seconds for the old man and his servant to kill six Earth Clan guards. Even if Saber and I didn’t help, they probably would’ve been fine. I stood at the ready, waiting with horn charged, in case the old man’s servant decided to take a shot at me. The old man simply wiped the blood off of his dagger and turned to face me. “You fight well child, Floral must’ve taught you that spell.”
I retained my combat stance. The old man seemed as though he didn’t want to attack me, but the rules of the Holy Grail War would force a confrontation eventually. “Yes, he was the one who taught me magic, I consider him far more of a father than my birth father.”
He smiled at me, a warm smile. The kind of smile one would not expect on the face of a pony that had just killed several guards. “Yes, I thought I recognized it. No need to be so nervous child I do not wish a confrontation with you and your servant yet.”
I slowly relaxed myself. Saber was still watching from afar, and, knowing him, was probably trying to pinpoint the location of the old man’s servant. Based on the arrows, I could logically assume its class. “Your Archer seems pretty capable of killing me at a moment’s notice, I’d hardly call that a confrontation.”
The old man laughed. “Yes, well I suppose that your mysterious servant is hiding to protect you just as mine is me.” He reached out his hoof to shake, “My name is Storm Cloud, I worked with Floral in the wars.”
I hesitantly shook his hoof back. “Celestia Eclipse, me and my sister are the only two survivors of the Eclipse clan.”
“Yes, Archer and I saw.” Storm Cloud said softly. Panic gripped me for a brief moment before he continued, “Relax child, if I wished to make that little fact common knowledge, I would have done so.”
I relaxed again as Storm Cloud didn’t seem the type to lie. “Well I just want you to know that I wasn’t the one who killed Floral, my father did when I interrupted the ritual; my servant was meant for my sister.”
Storm Cloud seemed to tense up at my words. “A tragedy to be sure, but I thank you for standing up to the Earth Clan's thugs, possibly making you a target, albeit more than you already would be.”
My interest was piqued at the way he said that last bit. “What do you mean, I’m a target?”
Storm Cloud’s smile changed from that of a kindly old man to that of a serious business pony. “Perhaps an exchange of information is in order, you tell me a little bit about yourself and your servant and I’ll give you knowledge.”
I inwardly cursed myself for asking. If Saber were next to me he’d probably say that I was stupid for even considering. But if Storm Cloud knew who the other masters were then that would give us an edge. We’d know who to avoid and possibly even be able to deduce an attack plan. “Well I can’t honestly be expected to just outright believe you about knowing information about the other masters, can I?”
Storm Cloud whistled. “Well that is true, so as a show of trust, I’ll tell you one you should already know, Carrot Field, master of Rider.”
‘Damn he’s good.’ “Well then does the information have to be about me, or can I trade information about the others as well?”
Storm Cloud motioned to follow him as we trekked away from the memorial service. All around us, broken down houses lamely sheltered the families inside from the biting cold. Storm spoke in a low whisper, “What kind of information about the other masters are we talking about here?”
I gave one of Saber’s smirks, I had the upper hand. “Well me and my servant just so happen to have fought Rider yesterday and may have discovered a clue to his identity.” Storm gave an interested look. “I’ll say it first since you were so kind as to showcase your knowledge earlier, he said that ‘death is my friend and my shield’. We believe this to mean that he’s a ghost.”
Storm seemed to mull over the information carefully. I quietly reveled in my victory, albeit making sure to never take my eyes off of Storm. Eventually, he seemed to come to a quiet consensus and entered into a local bar. I followed in behind him, and my senses were immediately assaulted.
The bar smelled of sleaze and sadness. Many at the front of the bar sat in sullen silence, nursing each beer as though it were a dear child. Many in the seats near the entrance spoke in hushed tones and traded various pieces of contraband back and forth. “Surprised, child?” Storm Cloud asked me.
“I may have lived a life in a mansion, but I know about the dealings of the outside.” I retorted. It really pained me to think about what had befallen the ponies in this bar, why they seemed so broken. “So I gave you information, now you give some to me.” Storm Cloud sat down in the seat in front of the bartender, motioning for me to sit next to him. Once I was sitting, I made sure to adjust my cloak so that it covered the command seals on my flank. Storm Cloud brushed his hair to side to do the same for his command seals.
“Well child, considering that you had fought with him yesterday, I’ll tell you what I think that you’re dealing with.” He made a motion to the barkeep who rushed over with two fresh beers, setting them in front of us. “The Rider you fought yesterday was human, right?” I nodded, “Well humans don’t have as much magic as we do in their world; some magic, but not much.” He took a swig of his beer, drinking half of it in one gulp. “So if you’re dealing with a ghost, which it sounds like you are, then he ain’t some historical figure. He’s got to be fictional.”
Mentally I jotted that information down for later. “Alright, thank you, but what about the Earth Clan? Why would they be after me?”
“I gave you as much information as you gave me. You got to up the stakes if you want some more.” He said as he finished his beer, ordering another from the bartender. “Come on, drink up. The first few are on me.”
I grumbled as I swigged my beer. He was right, he gave me more information, and it was probably more immediately relevant than what I wanted. But still, here I was having a few cold ones with one of my enemies, and all the info I could squeeze out was cutting the list of possible suspects to Rider’s identity in half. I finished the beer in one gulp, not wanting to be outdone by some old pegasus. “Alright, name your price.”
“Your servant’s class.” He said as he chugged the second beer.
I sighed. I should have known that I wouldn’t be able to keep that secret. Mentally, I weighed the risk against the reward. If I told him my servant’s class, then he would have a foundation for guesswork on who he is. But I would know something about the Earth Clan and why they were after me. The gears finally clicked in my head, “A member of the Earth Clan has a servant!”
Storm Cloud chuckled as he started his third beer, “Took you long enough kid, but yes and I happen to know who and his servant’s class.”
Finally, some sense returned to me and I started to ask some more intelligent questions. “How do you know that, and why did you need to tell me this in a seedy bar instead of outside where we were on an even field?”
“What are you talking about. A pony can’t want to get out of the cold?”
I finished my second beer and pronounced my discovery. “Out there, we both had our servants watching from a distance, protecting both of us from attack. The second one of us made a false move against the other, our servant would be able to easily rescue us.”
Storm’s expression began to sour. “Now that ain’t the whole truth, in here we don’t have any servants watching our backs, you really so afraid without your servant?”
He was baiting me, trying to get me to slip up now that I figured it out, but I wasn’t falling for it. “Of course, you have the advantage: you’re a decorated war hero, I‘m a sheltered little teenager. It isn’t difficult to guess the winner in a one on one fight.”
Storm recovered quickly. “What, you think that I’m gonna start a fight here? Besides, your servant would come in rushing to your aid. You ain’t got nuthin to worry about.”
His accent was showing through now, I realized that I had him pinned. “Except that, according to Floral, you were trained in CQC and, more importantly, assassination techniques.” His expression soured greatly, “Both of our servants are out there ready to interfere in case one of us makes a move. But then again, all you need is one move; in fact, you’re probably using this as an excuse to try and see my servant up close and personal, you probably don’t know what he looks like and are using this as an excuse to find out since you don’t want to get in a fight yet!”
Storm slammed his drink back onto the bar, silencing the room. He let out a low growl as he stared at me. His expression was no longer that of a kindly old man, there was hatred and a killing instinct in those eyes. “Well, little one, as much as you think you know, you still don’t know who the Earth Clan guy that’s after you is.” My face fell slightly causing Storm Cloud to laugh. “Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that before did I. He’s specifically after the Eclipse master cause' you and your family are the only other noble family in the war.”
“Well now I guess I do know something.”
Storm Cloud blanched. His face went red with embarrassment, which quickly turned to anger. He stood up from his stool, causing me to do the same. He started to breathe quicker as he backed me into a corner. “Well if’n you wanted a blind fight then you should have just said so.” The dagger on his hoof gleamed in the soft light of the bar’s lanterns. He looked just about ready to jump me when the door to the bar slammed open.
A pony in a small brown cloak walked proudly into the room, following close behind her was a human man. The human wore a long white coat of pure white with splatters of red along the front. The shirt and pants beneath his coat were black with matching boots. His jet-black hair was messy and unkempt, and he wore a smug grin upon his lips. But what was stranger was that I knew the pony he followed.
“Clover?”
“Hello Celestia, of all the ponies in your father’s house, you are the one I least expected to bear command seals.” Clover spoke in a smug tone. Clover the Clever, the apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded, was not the average pony. She had a coat of lilac with a mane of sky blue. She often dressed like a commoner in small robes like the ones she was wearing; causing many to think that she was a noble with the heart of a commoner. Instead, it was because she could use her magic to keep herself at whatever temperature she wanted. I suppose I should have guessed that a great mage like her would be a master in the War.
“Shit, what do you want?” Storm was backing into the bar, even he would be afraid of facing off with Clover, servant or no servant.
“I’m not here for either of you, although if you want to start a fight with her, I’ll gladly join in.” She smiled triumphantly at him; “You may think that you could take one master in a fight with no information, but how about two?”
Storm looked to me with fire in his eyes. “This ain’t over little girl, no one makes a fool o’ me.”
Clover’s smile grew wider, “True, your down-south accent does it for them.” Storm ran out of the bar, tail between his legs. Clover walked to the front of the room, her servant trailing behind, and turned to face the majority of the patrons. “Now listen to me, you hicks.” Clover never was a good public speaker. “As you probably are unaware seven of us, the pegasus who just left, this unicorn, and myself are engaged in something called the Holy Grail War.” Murmurs washed over the crowd until her servant slammed his fist to the bar, silencing them.
“Madam Clover is speaking.” His voice was very aristocratic in nature. He sounded like Father or Mother, someone very learned and well read.
“Thank you, Caster.” she said nonchalantly, despite the fact that she just gave away her servant’s class to an opponent. “Now this War is to decide the fate of Equestria, but I do not believe in allowing such a trivial thing to, ‘rule’ one’s life.” She chuckled to herself, probably over the non-joke that the crowd wouldn’t get since she left out the part about becoming an immortal ruler. “So Caster and I are going to be running some medical experiments that will possibly revolutionize life in Equestria, and we are looking for volunteers.” The crowd seemed like it wanted to back away after she said that. “Don’t panic, we shall not force anyone, however we are offering one thousand gold pieces to anyone who agrees.”
“One thousand!” A voice said.
“She’s kidding right?” Another voice called.
“Just for doing some tests?”
“I could move out of this hole.” Voices continued rising from the crowd as all of them walked up to Caster and Clover.
“Um… Clover?” Clover turned to face me. “Not to try and pick a fight, but is it really ok for me to know your servant’s class?”
She laughed, “Of course, it’s not like you are a serious threat.” I glowered at her. “But I suppose that you certainly could make things easier for me, how about a deal?” I kept staring, hoping that I could put a dent in her ego just through sight alone. “It should be simple enough even for the unwanted bastard-child of a noble family.” Needless to say it didn’t work. “If you kill Rider and his master, then I will allow you to stay at my villa near Starswirl’s grave until the time when we must face each other in combat.”
I raised an eyebrow at her proposal. “You’re offering lodging…”
“And food and such as well, I’m no trickster Celestia.”
“You’re offering food and lodging for me to defeat someone that, by your logic of me being lesser than you, you could just as easily defeat?”
“Just because I could doesn’t mean it would be very easy, you’ve already faced Rider in battle from what I’ve heard, and therefore you know far more than I when it comes to his identity. Besides I have tests to run.” Of course I assumed that the last bit was her real reason. Clover wasn’t just some braggart; she could back up every condescending insult with sheer magical talent.
“Well even though I have fought him, I still don’t know his true identity, just that he’s a ghost and probably comes from fiction.”
Clover pondered for a second before responding. “Well then I’d check some children’s literature, perhaps ask your sister if she ever had to read anything of that sort in her education. Just know that if you do defeat him for me you just need to bring me his master’s command seals and I’ll offer you a safe place to stay, and plenty of warning before our showdown.”
“Yeah. I’ll consider it, I guess.” With that, I left the bar behind. As soon as I stepped outside I could see more ponies gathering around the entrance, ready to pledge themselves to Clover for a thousand gold. I started walking a ways out of town when Saber jumped out from the shadows. “AHHH! By the herd you scared me.”
Saber didn’t seem to care. “You told me to stay out of sight, I assumed that meant that you would stay in sight so that I could protect you. But no, you walk into a bar where I can’t see you, with another master.” He laughed to himself, “Were you trying to get yourself killed, Celestia?”
“For your information I was trying to figure something out, Storm Cloud said that someone from the Earth Clan was planning on attacking me. I wanted to know who and why.”
“So someone is planning an attempt against you and the first thing you do is attack some guards, would it really have been so difficult to lay low? What if his servant had seen me or had shot you in the confusion?” Saber was screaming by this point. I knew that he had good reason to chew me out. It was his purpose to protect me, and while I thought I was fine with Storm Cloud, he clearly didn’t show his true colors outside.
“I get it ok, I wasn’t being safe, but I did find some stuff out.” Saber halted his verbal assault. “First of all, Storm Cloud’s servant is Archer.”
“Not difficult to assert based on his precision with arrows.” Saber smugly added.
“Also, the one who went in there after him was named Clover the Clever, she’s the master of Caster and she offered us a safe place to stay if we beat Rider for her and bring her the command seals of his master.”
“Oh good, let’s blindly trust another master.” His sarcasm was starting to grate by now.
“Clover is an honest pony, she’s one of the most famous ponies around. Besides she helped me to decode some of the information that I got from Storm.” Saber looked at me with an annoyed expression. “He said that human’s don’t have much magic in their world, your world, so that means that the Rider has to be fictional, and Clover suggested that he’s probably from some children’s story, so we should ask my sister.”
Saber sighed before answering, “All right, I said I would listen to your judgment, master.”
We walked back to the cave in silence. Partly I was angry at Storm Cloud for trying to trick me into revealing Saber’s class. He was a war hero, same as Floral. The fact that he would resort to such underhanded tactics angered me. Once we got back, Luna was awake, and she seemed less scared of Saber as well. All around her were the empty and scattered food bags; all of our supplies were gone.
“Luna, are you ok?” I rushed over to my little sister and embraced her, Saber looked around the cave.
“They came…” Luna muttered, “The Horseman…. He came for you both and destroyed the food.” Saber walked over to her and me and patted my sister’s head. At first she tensed up, but as he kept patting her head, she became less frightened.
“You were very brave to stay here despite all that, Luna.”
She sniffled and cuddled up to the two of us. “The horseman said that he would be waiting at the carrot fields near the brook.”
I finally realized that my sister hadn’t been calling him Rider, “Why are you calling him that?”
“Because he’s the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow.” Luna said, “That’s his name.” Saber and I exchanged looks and smiles, “What?”
I kissed Luna on the head, “Thank you. Listen we’re, going to go after them, then when we come back, we're going to stay at Clover's for a while ok.” Saber gave me that icy look. “You trust Clover, right Luna?” She nodded, “All right then, we’ll come back later tonight, ok?” Luna nodded again. I grabbed the book that she mentioned, Sleepy Hollow.
Saber and I trudged through the snow, heading to the carrot fields. I read through the book, looking for anything that might give us an edge against the Horseman. “I don’t see anything here!” I snapped the book shut with my magic and shoved it into my saddlebag. “Why can’t these books just flat-out tell us how to beat him?”
“Well we know some things, for example that ghost imperviousness is probably his Noble Phantasm.” I looked at him quizzically, causing him to laugh. “Not all Noble Phantasm’s are big flashy attacks, some of them change the user or create whole new worlds. There aren't many things that the Noble Phantasm’s can't do.”
Eventually, we reached the fields where Rider, the Headless Horseman, was waiting. Behind him was Carrot Field, shivering and scared. The Horseman was atop his shadowy mount and held his blade in his hand. “So you have arrived, Devil of the sands.” Those words made Saber tense, “I assume that you know who I am, you don’t seem like the kind to run into danger without knowing who you face.”
I stood up head high, facing Rider. “Yes Headless Horseman.” Carrot Field seemed shocked that we knew, “So this time is to the death, only one master and only one servant leaves here alive.” I prepped a spell in my horn, a weapon-enchanting spell aimed at Saber’s blades. Saber unsheathed his swords and I let loose the spell. His blades were surrounded by a blazing fire, “And you’re right, we did come prepared.”
Saber charged at Rider, jumping up and slashing at him in midair. Rider managed to block the initial strike, he backed away and started riding at Saber. I charged a fire spell and lobbed it at Rider, causing him to change course. Saber slashed at his horse and cut its legs off with the flaming blades causing Rider to tumble to the ground. He lifted off the ground and charged once again at Saber, parrying Saber’s blades and slashing at his chest.
Saber managed to back away to avoid being cut in half, but the blade still pierced his chest. The cut wasn’t too deep, only about a half-inch by the looks of it. Saber bounced back, leaping forward he slashed at Rider, managing to hit him. Blackened, smoking blood leaked slowly from Rider’s wound. “Rider!” Carrot Field called out.
“So you were prepared, I didn’t think that you had it in you.” Saber stood at the ready while I charged another spell. “Well then, I suppose that this means that the fight’s in your favor.” Saber nodded in response his stance unchanging. “Well devil of the sand, let’s see what you can do against my real power.” The area around Rider was swallowed by darkness, creating a hole in ground.
“That wasn’t his Noble Phantasm?” I screamed. Tendrils shot out of the darkness and grabbed Saber and me dragging us inside.
As my sight returned, I noticed that we were no longer in the frozen fields. All around us, a thick fog covered the area. Saber and I were standing on what seemed to be a bridge, albeit one in considerable disrepair. Aside from that, I couldn’t make any other landmarks out in the fog. “Where are we?”
Saber lifted himself off of the ground and muttered. “A Reality Marble, very interesting for a Rider.”
“What in the herd is a ‘Reality Marble’?”
“Good, you’re ok, Celestia. A Reality Marble is a type of Noble Phantasm where the legendary soul creates a representation of a world or place in time that was important to them or allows them to utilize their magic more powerfully.” He tried to walk through the fog, but couldn’t pierce it. “He’s trapped us in here.”
“This is Sleepy Hollow.” Saber gripped his blades tighter; “This is the bridge from the story, right before he disappeared…” Saber and I came to the realization at once, but it was too late. Rider burst from the fog, slashing downwards at Saber. He barely managed to avoid losing his head, but he was still hit. Rider’s blade dug deeply into Saber’s shoulder, coming away with blood spilling along the ground. Almost as quickly as he retracted the blade, he rode through the other edge of the fog and disappeared. “SABER!”
“Don’t… wor…worry I’m.” Saber choked out. “I’m ok.” I tried to think of any healing spell that would be powerful enough to seal his wound. But I had never used healing magic before, that was more of Luna’s thing. Whenever I was hurt, Luna would heal me since Floral didn’t know any healing spells and my parents certainly wouldn’t heal me.
“This is going to hurt, Saber.” I said
“Celestia, I’ve been through worse.”
“Ok, just clench your teeth.” I lit my horn aflame and pressed it to the hurt skin. The flesh seared and crackled as it burned together. Those few moments felt like hours as I tried to get the skin to stay sealed, all the while watching as Saber’s face contorted in pain. Eventually, I had sealed the wound. Saber got up and raised his blades. Just then, the ghostly Rider sprang through the fog once again and slashed at Saber’s head. This time he managed to get a proper block in, but was still knocked to the ground.
“He’s stronger now too.” Saber muttered.
“There has to be someway of beating him.” I looked all around us. The fog was seemingly all that existed in the universe beyond the bridge we stood on. ‘We can’t run, and fighting is a bad idea.’ I stood in the middle of the bridge and grabbed one of Saber’s blades with my magic. “You probably shouldn’t use the bad arm.” He nodded keeping his hurt arm close to his chest.
“Celestia, watch out!” I heard him just early enough to raise the blade in defense behind me. Rider had jumped out not from the bridge, but from the part of the fog that intersected the bridge. I blocked the attack, but the force from it sent the dull side of the blade into my neck, bruising me and flinging me towards Saber. I crashed to the ground in a heap, the sword clanging to the ground next to me. Rider once again disappeared into the fog. “He’ll wear us out soon enough, we have to come up with a plan.”
“I noticed.” I said with a wheeze. The blow had seriously injured me and gave me a real taste of how much stronger Rider was in this dimension, given that he had just knocked a sword, held aloft by unicorn magic, around like it was nothing. Unicorn magic could hold a falling tree in place while another tree fell on top of it if the caster was strong enough, and I was not a pushover. ‘He can strike from anywhere, he can disappear just as quick, and he’s strong enough where he’ll wear us out soon enough from just blocking him, not to mention he’s too fast to get a bead on for a spell or a counterattack.’ The more that was revealed about Rider, the more it looked like we were doomed. A thought rose to my head, a thought that would either let us win or kill us faster. “Alright Saber, do you trust me enough to put your life in my hooves?”
“Like I’ve said before, Celestia, I’m all yours.” Saber replied.
“Good, cause this is going to look stupid at first.” I charged my horn with a fire spell and let loose at the other end of the bridge. The flames began to greedily consume the wood away from us. We both raised a sword to protect us from a surprise entrance from Rider and waited. Rider burst in from behind us and swung at our heads. We managed to block the blow but the blade in my magic again didn’t hold this time. The blade slammed into my face as a result. Rider started to charge away only for the fire to scare his mount stopping him in the middle. Saber grabbed my blade with his other hand and jumped for Rider, piercing him through the back.
The illusion dissipated, leaving me on the ground nursing the bruise on my face. In front of me, Saber stood; his blades jammed through Rider’s chest. The shadowy horse upon which Rider rode disappeared as he clattered to the ground.
“NOOOO!” Carrot Field cried out rushing to her servant’s side. Saber pulled his blades from Rider’s chest and raised them again for the killing blow, but Carrot Field stepped in front of them. “You can’t kill him, he’s the only reason that Mommy and Daddy still love me!”
“Kid, get away from him. If we don’t have to kill you, we won’t.” I replied.
“NO.” She stood her ground, lying on top of Rider’s barely moving body. “I’ll die with him, then Mommy and Daddy won’t be mad.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked
“Mommy and Daddy always hated me, called me a bastard, called me half-formed, called me a monster.” Carrot Field’s voice started to crack as the words left her lips. “But then I summoned Rider, and Mommy and Daddy loved me. They said that they would love me forever if I won the War, so I have to win and I can’t without Rider.” She started to cry into Rider’s jacket.
With a gasp Rider spoke, “Foolish master, we cannot win.” Carrot Field looked at him, confusion and sadness in her eyes. “They defeated my Noble Phantasm without even unleashing their own, they are far and above our level. The best we can do is die with honor.” He laughed as he draped one hand over his master’s body. “Yes, the honorable death that I never received in life.” He looked over to Saber who still stood above him with swords drawn. “We aren’t so different devil of the sand, the one thing that separates us… is the way we died.”
Saber looked away, and for just the briefest moment, I saw sadness in his eyes. “That isn’t true, history would beg to differ about the honor of my death.”
Rider laughed, a heartbroken laugh. “That is only because it is the winners who write the history books, any who would read the whole story would know you as an honorable man, a true Saber.”
Saber shook his head. “I don’t deserve that classification. I’m not a knight, I didn’t die to service the royal family of some land.”
“No.” Rider responded, “Your death was much more than that. You died killing those same knights that history holds in such high regard, you died slaying knights of God. If a man like that doesn’t deserve some recognition, then I don’t know…” Rider grunted as he clutched at his still burning injury. “Kill us, give us the same death that you’ve bestowed so many times before… Devil of the Sand.”
“As you wish.” Saber replied, “You will be given the death that haunted the dreams of so many others.” With those words, he plunged his blades into both Rider and Carrot Field. “Perhaps we shall meet again in another War.”
With his last breath, Rider laughed, “For the sake of my future master’s I certainly hope not.” Rider shattered like glass; dissipating into black smoke. Carrot Field slid off of Saber’s blades and landed on the ground.
“I’ll cut off the command seals.” Saber said, leaning down and tearing the malformed skin off of Carrot Fields eye. He pocketed it in his cloak and walked over to me. I barely comprehended what I had seen. Carrot Field was the same as me, hated by the people who should have loved and cared for her. But she didn’t rebel; she stood by and took it, loving them back despite all they did.
“We should get back, we'll need some rest, we've got to go through the farming town of Ponyville tomorrow so we'll reach Clover's Villa in a few days.” To my surprise, Saber wrapped his arms around my neck, hugging me close to him.
“The first kill is always the hardest.” He uttered, “You did great, Celestia.” I sniffled as I tried to hold back the tears. A little filly, we had just killed a little filly. “If you want to… talk or something… I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say.”
“It’s alright…. I’ll be ok.”
“I was trained since I was a child to be a killer, Celestia. Just because I had no problem with this doesn’t mean that you should feel weaker for having an issue with taking a life.” Saber’s words reassured me, and his warmth comforted me.
“I have killed though: even though I never gave the order, I wanted you to kill my father and my mother.” I was crying now, the hatred and the fear gripped me.
Saber hugged me closer as he said, “I would have done it regardless, you were in danger and so was your sister. It's my job as a servant to protect you… and the only way I know how is with killing.”
I kept crying as I asked him, “Is that why he called you that… Devil of the Sand?” Saber’s face fell at my question. He wore a pained look upon his face as he tugged me closer to him, wrapping his head around the back of mine, possibly to hide his own tears.
“It’s my legend… that name is the reason that I became a legendary soul… I’m not a knight that people Worshipped, Celestia. I’m the demon that they feared.” I could feel his tears against my coat now. The two of us just stood there for a while, our tears chilling each other when coupled with the cold air.
Eventually, we went back to the cave to retire for the night. Luna was in a tizzy for a while over my injuries, but I simply told her to go to sleep. The pain from my bruises had long since faded, now only the scar left by Carrot Field’s corpse was left. Once again, Saber stood by the entrance, looking just as vigilant as ever despite his injuries. This time however, I walked up and took my place by his side.
“Master, you should be sleeping.” He said.
“Call me Celestia, and I can sleep just as well from up here.” We stood watch together for a time. Neither said a word, we simply sat in silence, awaiting an enemy that wouldn’t come. Eventually sleep found Saber. He slept with his hands over his blade's sheaths, ready for a battle to begin the second he awoke. I laid my head upon his shoulder as I drifted off to sleep myself. I was one step closer to winning the War. One step closer to becoming immortal, and to ruling Equestria in the peace and harmony it deserved. Just me, Luna, and our protector Saber.