“So where in do you come from?” Twilight asked the sisters as they disembarked from the train, checking that the staff was alright and discovering that whatever had confronted them in the train car, it had no apparent interest in anypony else.
“The kingdom o’ Auric, born an’ bred,” Elli replied proudly.
“Though I live in Ratnisbon most o’ the time,” Delphine added. “Aboot a thousand miles west of the Lightbringer Pass that marks the border between Auric an’ Ratnisbon.”
“I take it that’s a different world than this one?”
“Aye, Triumvirate,” Elli confirmed. “Helluva thing, gettin’ sent oot ta another war in another place before we could even rebuild from th’ last. But such is the life of a good soldier, not fer ourselves alone but fer th’ innocent an’ good people that depend on us.”
“Elli, don’t burden the dears with our issues,” Delphine chided. “The rebuildin’ will happen and happen well no matter where we are at a moment.” She sighed heavily. “Besides, there’s nuttin’ a coupla soldiers can do to undo the worst of it. I know ye don’t really mourn th’ loss o’…”
“No one mourns it,” Elli interrupted with the barest hint of a growl. “Should give th’ bloody three-headed wank a kiss ta each pair o’ ugly lips. Only wish ol’ Aurelius had lived ta piss on th’ ashes; wish ta Weaver I coulda.”
“Elli!” Delphine gave her a look of real shock and disappointment. “Lives are sacred sister! That’s an unworthy thing ta say, an’ ye ought ta be ashamed.”
Elli snorted. “Says th’ sister who never had ta suffer under th’ foul ideas that came from that nation o’ thieves an’ whores. Good riddance, I say.”
Delphine flinched slightly at that. “I… admit that I never had ta suffer their foolishness, sister, but to heap hatred upon the dead, to disregard the sacredness of each life… tis unworthy of ye, Serafine.”
“Um, question?” Dawn interrupted, raising a hoof in the manner of a filly asking a question of her teacher. “What the buck are you two going on about?”
“It’s… nothin’, darl,” Delphine sighed. “Just old concerns, old scars.”
“They don’t sound old,” Dawn retorted. “C’mon, you can’t just babble on about a war and cleaning up and nations full of thieves and whores without giving the nice ponies something.”
“Dawn, it’s probably none of our business,” Twilight said, giving the two sisters a apologetic look.
“It could be, if ya wanted it ta be,” Elli offered. “Tis not as if it’s some dark secret that’s deeply private or some such rot. Th’ entire array o’ Light an’ Dark an’ Void are in th’ know; entirely fair that ye get some fair warnin’ since long-lived things tend ta take what works one place, an’ use it in another.”
“Well, we do have a really long walk ahead of us.” Twilight looked at them. “We appreciate it but…”
“If we were overly worried about privacy, miss, we wouldn’t be talkin’ ‘bout it in front of ye,” Elli assured her.
“Then git on with the tellin’,” Applejack grinned. “No finer pastime than shootin’ the breeze.”
“I’ll begin then, since I’m the beginnin’ of the story,” Delphine said. “See, it started with an attempt to assassinate my sister, but there’s no way t’ tell us apart without speaking ta one of us in conversation. So the mastermind of the whole thing sends an army to collect the body of a girl who liked ta paint lifelike portraits and sell ‘em to passers-by.”
“That doesn’t sound much like an assassination, darling,” Rarity commented. “Usually, assassination is one assassin stalking and killing her prey after making certain that the one she is going to kill is the one that’s supposed to die.”
Delphine chuckled mirthlessly. “Well, th’ mastermind was very attached to brute force an’ terror. So he sends an army after me because he hears a rumor that I’m my sister but being the genius that he was, he send the army after a heavily-fortified city an’ challenged them ta a straight-up fight if they wouldn’t hand me over.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t jus’ laugh their arses off at ‘is lil minion leadin’ th’ army,” Elli grinned.
“That was more o’ less their reaction, although they thought it’d be a fine plan ta sneak me off ta Ratnisbon for safekeeping,” Delphine smiled. “I admit that I wasn’t particularly aware o’ what was happenin’ so I thought it a fine vacation. Still not sure how they got saavy ta how to get to Tirror and how they knew of Ratnisbon, but it was sheer good fortune that they knew both.”
“So you were living in an entirely different world when this army came for you?” Twilight looked between Elli and Delphine. “So if you two weren’t even in the same world, how is it that you’re sisters?”
“Don’t know,” Elli shrugged. “Never thought ta ask mum how me twin sister ended up an’ entire world away. But there’s no doubt we’re sisters, none at all; mum confirms it an’ we’ve got each other’s eyes an’ patterns an’ appearances.”
“Aye, I’m the only one Elli’s age allowed ta chide her for her loose tongue. She won’t accept it from anyone not family or much older.” Delphine’s eyes twinkled mirthfully as she gave her sister a cheeky grin. “At any rate, they got me ta Ratnisbon and then they took care of the army. Made a gift of the minion’s head ta th’ fool that sent ‘em.”
“But the bugger wouldn’t give up, so he hatched th’ most genius of all plans: take his army an’ every army he could trick, bribe, o’ blackmail inta followin’ ‘im an’ start his bonny little invasion,” Elli said, taking up the tale from her sister. “Fer becomin’ a legend fer bein’ a fool, such that most jus’ call ‘im ‘Folly’ and are done, he managed to net ‘imself quite th’ collection o’ Primes ta help ‘im.”
“Primes?” Twilight asked.
“Aye the nine Primes, masters o’ the nine Helles,” Elli replied. “Th’ nine strongest creatures o’ Dark in all th’ endless worlds. As ye can imagine, bein’ able ta recruit any one o’ ‘em, much less six, is quite near impossible but Folly somehow managed. Didn’t win th’ heart o’ th’ Sixth, though, an’ she’s the one that matters. At any rate, he managed ta do somethin’ foolish an brilliant at th’ same time: he invaded Ratnisbon at first ta get at th’ target his minion failed ta claim. He even started out intelligently, preparin’ the field as it were.”
“Destroying resources, assassinating useful targets, spying out vital interests, poisoning food supplies.” Delphine frowned. “Speakin’ of the last, I recall that he favored a peculiar an’ rare thing of foulness to do his work in that regard.”
“Oh, don’t remind me…” Elli sighed. “‘ated the bloody things and their damned masks. ‘ated more what they did ta land. Entire swaths o’ territory, black an’ dead an’ requirin’ th’ nearest thing ta bloody exorcisms ta get sorted out again.” She looked at them with a grave expression. “Here’s hopin’ that’s not one o’ th’ tools yer tormentor decides ta use this time ‘round.”
“Is there anything that can be done to guard against it?” Twilight asked.
“Stake them down, set them afire, and take careful stock o’ anything that comes from the fields they blacken,” Delphine replied grimly. “For lack o’ a better name, we used to call them ‘black spots’ after th’ symbol common to quarantine flags. We never learned how to prevent them from poisonin’ land.”
“So Folly began pretty smartly, preparin’ th’ way with his ‘black spots’ an’ his assassins and all sorts o’ infiltrators and spies. O’ course, he probably had nothin’ ta do with intelligent use o’ ‘is assets but there ain’t a way ta distinguish.” Elli grinned a little. “But he fucked th’ pooch…”
“Elli, language!” Delphine admonished. “We’re in polite company.”
Elli just gave her a cheeky grin. “…fucked th’ pooch somethin’ fierce by invadin’ Ratnisbon first. An’ then he figures out where sis is livin’ an’ sends somethin’ ta get ‘er, still thinkin’ she’s me, an’ pays no attention ta the fact that the village is hostin’ an Inquisition.”
“Why would it be hosting an inquisition?” Twilight blinked. “Did something go wrong?”
“Oh no, nothing like that,” Delphine assured her. “Hosting an Inquisition simply means that they were having one o’ my order staying with them for some days to rest from the long circuit he was riding.”
“And?” Applejack prompted.
Delphine blinked at her. “And explaining what an Inquisition entails will take a long time and is quite a bit off th’ point, so I answered with the Inquisitor’s primary purpose in visitin’ the village.” She paused and looked curiously at Applejack. “How could you tell?”
“Element of Honesty,” Applejack answered proudly.
“I’d say you have more than an element o’ honesty if ye could pick up on that,” Delphine smiled to her. “More like, an almost supernatural attunement to it.”
“No Ah bear the Element of Honesty,” Applejack told her. “Ya’ll ain’t heard of the Elements of Harmony?”
The sisters looked at one another. “We have not,” Delphine admitted. “Kaiya didn’t share much in the way o’ details when she sent us.”
Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “The strongest single magical force in the world seems like a pretty big thing to omit.”
“Eh, Kaiya’s got as much fluff in her head as she has hangin’ off her arse,” Elli chuckled. “Ta be fair, she was occupied so she had ta rely on a messenger ta give us particulars. All we know ‘bout you darlings are that ye’re important and that we need ta see ye kept safe.”
“We’d be happy to introduce ourselves,” Twilight smiled. “Although you don’t need to interrupt your story if you don’t want to.”
“Tis not a happy story, even with its triumphant end,” Delphine smiled back. “We’d be delighted to be introduced to ye and your companions.”
“Great!” Twilight happily clapped her hooves together. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the Bearer of the… what?”
Both sisters were openly gaping at her. “Yer Twilight Sparkle?” Elli managed after a moment. “Then… who’s she?” She pointed at Rarity.
Rarity looked quite taken-aback before recovering elegantly. “My name is Rarity, darling, and… you thought I was Twilight? Whyever would you think that?”
“The white coat, the markin’ on your flank, your regal bearing, your manner of speech,” Delphine replied. “We mean no unkindness to ye, Twilight, but the one thing we were told of ye was that you were the daughter of a white-coated alicorn who is coregent of Equestria. So we saw a white-coated unicorn with a markin’ that looked sparkle-like and the bearin’ and accent of royalty and we thought…” She looked embarrassed. “I beg your pardon, Lady Sparkle… we meant nothing by it.”
Strangely, Twilight felt more amused by the error than hurt by it, the feeling helped by Rarity’s obvious astonishment that anyone would mistake her for Twilight. She chuckled and patted Delphine on the shoulder. “I guess I take more after my aunt Luna, at least in coloration,” she said kindly. “But I’d have thought that my being an alicorn would have made a difference.”
“When ye’ve met as many offspring of godlike creatures as we have, Lady Sparkle, ye tend not to assume things,” Delphine smiled, laying a talon over the hoof on her shoulder and grasping it lightly. “An’ we aren’t familiar with pony races; for all we know, alicorns are quite common here.”
“I’m afraid not. It’s just me, my mother and her sister, and my old foalsitter, Cadance.” Twilight grinned a bit sheepishly. “Well, not old… more like former. I think she may only be five or so years older then me.”
Delphine chuckled. “Well, tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance, milady.”
“So what’s th’ story with the hornless wingless pink pony that looks like yer twin?” Elli asked, looking Dawn up and down.
“Dawn Sparkle,” Dawn replied immediately. “Her twin sister, complicated story, please don’t ask.”
“See? This is why we assume nothin’ when dealing with the offspring of divinity,” Delphine offered Dawn a talon, which Dawn shook politely. “A pleasure as well, Dawn, though I should like ta hear that story sometime.”
“Well, you won’t,” Dawn replied bluntly.
Delphine smirked. “We’ll see about that, darl.”
“What, are you planning to rummage around in my head for it or something?” Dawn snorted.
“Oh no, darl… if I wanted ye to, you would tell it to me and in very great detail,” Delphine smiled broadly.
“…OK, creepy griffin girl, whatever you say.” Dawn thought a moment then grinned. “If you can make sense of Pinkie over there, I’ll tell you the story.”
“I’m not a prop, Dawn,” Pinkamena sighed. “Pinkamena Diane Pie, please call me ‘Pinkie’, glad to see that Kaiya is stepping up her Game instead of making Spite do it all.”
Elli grinned and took the pink party pony’s proffered hoof, pumping it vigorously. “Well, Pinkie, I think I like ye already. But believe ye me, darl, there’s a devious mind in between those pointy ears and excessive amount o’ fluff.” She suddenly frowned, letting Pinkie’s hoof go. “Although somethin’ is definitely not right. Pullin’ in a Void dragon ta assault ye on the train an’ preparin’ th’ tracks with fortifications are far too insightful for a discipline o’ Quezelzege.”
“Well, he did have very intelligent help at times, sister,” Delphine pointed out. “Though they were foolish enough ta be tricked, Heccate and Vampvipers were quite cunning, dangerous while they were on the field, smart enough to see th’ failure coming and leaving before it hit.”
“But they wouldn’t return in th’ thrall of a hanger-on,” Elli countered. “No one knows how Folly managed th’ feat, but it wouldn’t be possible ta repeat it, not after the Ninth chastised them.”
“Possibly,” Dephine allowed. “So ye, bearer of the Element of Honesty… may I know yer name?”
“Applejack, ma’am,” Applejack replied, sweeping her Stetson off with a smile and offering a hoof. Delphine took it and shook politely, smiling warmly.
“An immense pleasure to meet ye, Applejack. I feel some kinship to ye, with your attunement to honesty and truth, and that is always a joy,” she said with a warmth to match her smile.
“Aw, shucks sugarcube… Ah was just raised right.” But she smiled back as Delphine dropped her hoof and turned to Rarity.
“An’ you’re Rarity,” she said. “A very appropriate name, I wager.”
“I like to think so, darling,” Rarity replied with a bright smile.
“An’ now that we know th’ names o’ the bright pastel-colored ponies, shall we finish our little tale?” Elli grinned.
“Sister, slow down an’ enjoy the moment. We’re in pleasant company, and we can rarely say that.” Delphine gave them all a smile. “Ah, but it would have been a pleasure if we could o’ met ye at the station and taken the entire journey with ye. I’ve never been on a train, you see, and certainly never with ponies.”
For some reason, this came as a surprise to Twilight. “They don’t have trains where you’re from?”
“No, milady Sparkle. The principle of the locomotive is generally understood, but the ability to manufacture the fine pieces of one is still many years away,” Delphine told her. “Mind, one of the new initiatives being worked out between Auric and Ratnisbon is the construction of the rails for the train, but if we intend to use those rails, there is but one way an’ that way is very… complicated.”
“So how do you get around, other than flying?”
“Well, flying is only an option for dragons and simply not practical for any other being,” Delphine explained. “So we… um….” The giffiness blushed and looked uncomfortable. “…uh…”
“We ride horses,” Elli said bluntly. “Similar to yer kind, Lady Sparkle, but much taller an’ they are dumb beasts. They cannot speak an’ according ta those that can understand their minds, they have naught ta say in th’ first place. As you can imagine, meeting highly intelligent equines that kin speak an’ are magically adept was quite astonishing fer us.”
“Need ye have been so blunt, sister?” Delphine sighed as she surveyed the surprised expressions on the five ponies.
“I’ve little time for niceties, sister,” Elli shrugged. “Besides, they don’t seem too traumatized.”
Delphine heaved a great sigh. “One o’ these days, sister…” She shook her head and directed her attention back to Twilight. “At any rate Lady Sparkle if ye would hear it, we could finish the tale.”
“Thought ye wanted to take it slow, sister,” Elli teased.
“If I wait any longer, ye’ll probably begin telling them about Aqualinusian culinary delicacies and there’s just not enough alcohol in the world ta cure them of that trauma,” Delphine told her with a tiny grimace. “Let us see… ah yes, ye’d gotten to the first major error Folly made.”
“Th’ second,” Elli corrected her. “Th’ first was ta invade through Ratnisbon instead of Auric or Aqualinus. Takin’ ‘is strongest opposition by surprise, possibly takin’ them entirely out o’ th’ game, woulda made success possible.”
“I don’t know ‘bout that, sister,” Delphine smirked. “Tis not as if he had an easy time trying to overcome Ratnisbon before marchin’ on. And ta be frank, he never actually gained victory.”
“Neither did they.” Elli paused. “O’ course, ol’ Erik never really intended ta win, jus’ hound ‘em ‘till they made a mistake they couldn’t recover. Which, really, happened before Erik even got inta th’ game, what with sendin’ an assassin, a smart one that knew what there was ta know, stumbled inta a village with one o’ your Inquisitor friends.”
“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Inquisitors and Inquisition,” Twilight said. “Why is that significant?”
“Imagine th’ most effective an’ cruel interrogator ye’ve ever heard o’ read of, Lady Sparkle,” Elli replied. “Contemplate how they are able ta force th’ truth from anyone with days, weeks, months o’ suffering in every possible manner.”
Twilight’s mind immediately, and involuntarily, leapt to all manner of horrifying examples she’d found through her obsessive devouring of Equestrian history books; needless to say, she’d had a crisis of faith for a few days. And then her unsparing intellect had thrashed her stomach-churning horror into submission and forced her to speak to Celestia about it. Frank honesty from her mother and aunt had helped immeasurably; two quarts of wonderful chocolate-fudge ice cream and the Princesses letting their manes down for a bit, letting her see them just being ponies, had ended any question of there being the slightest trace of the Princesses the history books talked about. Before any of the three knew that Twilight was Celestia’s literal daughter, seeing under the Princess’ masks and talking to them like friends and equals was the most loved and happy Twilight could remember feeling. Aware of Elli’s eyes on her, she nodded to indicate she knew what the griffin was talking about.
“The assassin got itself captured by an interrogator that was even more effective than that,” the helmeted griffiness said. “It told him everything, an’ then he slew it as one never wisely permits an Evil ta live. With full knowledge o’ what Quezelzege intended, th’ Ratnisbonians did what they do best: they left home and went ta live in th’ deserts. Let Folly grab some empty cities fer fun, all th’ while slaughterin’ massive pieces of ‘is armies. Made ‘im madder than anythin’ so ‘e did what a fool does best: turned ‘is back on a foe, writ off half o’ his armies as collateral damage, an’ marched fer Lightbringer Pass.”
“We make it sound like it was an easy time but it wasn’t,” Delphine added soberly. “Quezelzege was a fool an’ he brought some fools with him but the Ninth hand-picked certain o’ the Primes. The First and Second Primes were selected by him and they sold the lives of their minions at a very, very high price. And then there was Phylaxis, the Fifth Prime, the Death-Maker, and the Abomination as well. He was Quezelzege’s trump card, his unliving weapon, a being of pure death and a monstrosity of deepest blackest Evil. Unlike most Evils of his power, he was entirely sane, calculating, and he had no fear of Light o’ Dark.”
“But isn’t Light and Dark magic…?”
“Aye, darl, but there is a difference ‘tween respecting what Light and Dark can do and fearing it,” Delphine replied. “Almost all Evils fear it and those that don’t are either too insane ta know fear or are so powerful and cold that they acknowledge the danger without feeling fear of it. Phylaxis was the second type an’ it made him far and away the most dangerous of Folly’s lackeys.”
“All th’ same, Folly showed astonishin’ restraint when he reached Liminata, the heavy fortifications that bar Lightbringer Pass an’ make it all but impossible ta go from Ratnisbon ta Auric without leave of the garrison in th’ fortress atop the Pass-spannin’ wall,” Elli continued. “He besieged th’ fortifications for nearly two months before he lost his patience an’ sent Phylaxis ta storm th’ walls an slaughter th’ garrison. An’ this, my darlin’ ponies, is where I come inta this story.”
“Ye see, dears, I was a tad unlike Delphine here in that I hadn’t determined my course in life ‘till I was about 18. Oh, I’d determined that I’d be a warrior o’ some sort, but nothin’ more specific. An’ then I heard a bit more ‘bout th’ Teutonic Order an’ determined ta go an’ be a member. Th’ Praetor, the unofficial leader o’ the Twelve Templar that led th’ Order, gave ‘is approval an’ off I went.”
The griffin paused and beneath her helmet, Twilight got the impression of golden eyes becoming melancholy and it was reflected in her voice when she resumed. “I was actually in th’ Cathedral, headquarters of my Order, when a messenger came stumblin’ through th’ doors with tidings. It was th’ first time in hundreds o’ years that the Sentry Bells of the Cathedral had been rung ta warn that Auric or its allies had been invaded an’ that war was upon us. War changes everythin’: even in a nation that’s prepared, some hear an’ know that they will die, mothers hold their children close an’ wives cry in th’ arms o’ their husbands that will soon be called ta service. Even in victory, war is th’ most evil o’ beasts and it’s much, much worse when th’ war is against an Evil an’ their rotten kind. I can’t an’ won’t describe what Evils do ta those mortals they kill, but there is no words for it; Evils are literally named, for they indulge in every evil impulse ‘pon the bodies o’ those brave enough ta oppose them. ‘Tis why Orders like mine an’ Delphine’s exist; ‘tis why, I suspect, there are Elements o’ Harmony in your world an’ two goddesses rulin’ in th’ mortal realms: ta defend yerselves from what lays out there in the blackness ‘tween worlds, waitin’ hungrily ta pounce ‘pon their prey.”
“Ye’re becoming melancholy, sister,” Delphine said softly, stretching a cloak-covered wing out and laying it gently over her sister. “Have cheer, for I know that ye takes great relish in speaking of your confrontation with Phylaxis and what came of it.”
“Aye,” Elli acknowledged, leaning into her sister’s side slightly. “Th’ experience made a very deep impression on me an’ it seemed th’ right time ta bring it up.” She took a steadying breath. “Auric took th’ time that Ratnisbon gave us ta fulfill our part of an ancient oath between their Emperor an’ our King: Ratnisbon would bleed th’ enemy, woundin’ and distactin’ while Auric gathered herself fer one mighty blow that would destroy th’ enemy. They bought us nearly a year an’ when th’ call came from Liminata that a fell an’ terrible creature had taken th’ field ta slaughter all the garrison, my Order sent its thirteenth Templar, its newly-minted Hand, ta slay the abomination while ‘e was foolishly exposed. I was… I am uniquely able in that regard an’…”
“…and you slew the Slayer, the first mortal in a thousand generations to kill a phlaxi.” The precise and clipped masculine voice was familiar, one that Twilight had heard but an hour ago and this knowledge made her construct her shield even as she turned to look at the looming dragon that seemed to be made of the shadows themselves. He bared his teeth in a hungry grin as he loomed over the ponies and the griffin sisters, his paw now easily as big as Twilight herself.
“Oh, yer back,” Elli sighed, reaching back and sliding her sword out of its scabbard. “Barely an hour ta restore yerself and reform a shell… impressive for a Void dragon that ain’t Spite.”
The dragon’s eyes narrowed briefly and for a moment, Twilight felt sure that he’d react with the same animal rage as last time. But he snorted twin puffs of shadow and restrained himself. “Let us just say, Templar, that wounded pride recovers faster than a soul set afire.” His eyes fell on Twilight. “We did not complete our conversation, Twilight Sparkle, and we really must.”
“I’ll say the same thing as before,” Twilight replied. “Leave us alone.”
“That is not possible,” he smirked, bringing his head down so Twilight could see smoldering amber eyes shining from the mass of shadows that seemed to form the physical shape of the Void dragon. “Now outside the protection of your lovely train, this can happen one of two ways Twilight Sparkle: we can converse in a civil manner and you can civilly trot along to your destination, where you and your companions will be prisoners. Or, and I much prefer this ‘or’, we can thrash you until you’re faint with pain and the loss of blood… and force-march you to your destination, where you and your companions will be prisoners.”
“Why even make them choose, beast?” Delphine asked with a touch of curiousity.
“Because I am subject to another, and it is that other’s will that Twilight Sparkle and all her companions be brought willingly and unharmed to their imprisonment.” He shrugged, or at least his shape shifted in a way that strongly suggested a shrug. “I much prefer to teach this arrogant mortal morsel her place in the universe and show that I fear no bastard progeny of a petty half-goddess.”
“Heh,” Elli snickered. “Yer kind has always been far more self-assured than yer success justifies. You, so easily dissipated an’ wounded by a little mortal, presumes ta teach Lady Sparkle her place? Ye are pathetic an’ I have no doubt that the master holdin’ your leash will thank us for riddin’ ‘im of such a burdensome pet. So c’mon, boyo… let’s see ye teach ‘er.”
He laughed amusedly and with a chilling level of confidence. “And place myself within your striking distance? I am arrogant, not stupid. Besides, why soil my claws on this when I, like the delightsome little ponies, have friends?”
As if the last word was a signal, a cacophony of brush rustling and breaking under hundreds of hooves erupted from every direction and bluish points of light filled the shadows on either side of them. The Void dragon chuckled with the self-assured rumble of someone who knows that they’ve won and are simply waiting to see their victory come to fruition as he started to dissipate into the shadows of the forest. “Don’t kill them,” he said, apparently to his allies. “And do try to avoid damaging them too much… I’ve had enough holes torn in me by a petulant brat for one day.”
And just like that, the forest exploded into onrushing forms. Twilight got a brief impression of some nightmarish amalgamation of pony, dog, and insect before a flash of light and heat staggered her and the creature rushing directly at her simply… went away. “Don’t jus’ stand there, lass!” Elli yelled. “Keep mobile an’ start wit’ th’ magic tricks!”
Twilight lit her horn, extending her shield into a half-sphere covering her and Dawn, trying to buy a moment to logically assess the situation and formulate a response. In the amethyst glow of her magical construct, she saw doglike creatures with eyes glowing a menacing blue-white and gleaming scything talons protruding from limb and paws alike rushing her friends and the griffin sisters alike with lupine howls and barks. She noticed it, noted it, and calmly put the observation aside to turn her focus on the developing melee.
Twilight Sparkle had always been different from other unicorns her age, and it really had nothing to do with the fact that she had a magical font akin to a small inland sea. As a filly, it’d just made her different; when she grew up a little and had spent some years in Princess Celestia’s personal care, she realized that her growing-up oddity was an instinct for order. It manifested in her occasional blind panic when her personal order was disrupted but it also added a third leg to the traditional fight-or-flight response: analyze. Combined with her intense concentration, in which she could entirely shut out the world and just absorb knowledge from the books she loved so much, it meant that a howling mass of alien bodies became, in her mind’s eye, about two hundred individual bodies.
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“Men of Ratnisbon, women of Ratnisbon, my brothers and my sisters in this, the cause of all Tirror! Behold the Great Silent Plain before Auricus, the great city of Auric in which its king rules and gives law to all under the star and dragon banner! Behold our enemy, numerous as the sands, bestial and without mercy, driven onwards by monsters that would feast upon our children, despoil our lands, and have murdered His High Majesty Richard Aurelius!
“Men of Ratnisbon, women of Ratnisbon, my brothers and my sisters in this, the cause of all Tirror! Behold the proud banners of Auric that stretch from one end of the sky to the next, defiant against these monsters, bloody meat for their mindless hunger, a lure to their folly, the hammer! Behold the proud banners of Ratnisbon that stretch from one end of the sky to the next, hands bathed in the blood of these monsters, the door to their cage, incidental to their folly, the anvil!
“Men of Ratnisbon, women of Ratnisbon, my brothers and my sisters in this, the cause of all Tirror! Behold the sky full of the vengeful fire of dragonkind, friends to the Sword Crown and the Steel Throne, clutch of the revered Matriarch of the Hundred Isles, glorious beyond all creatures and mighty even as the gods beyond the Void, terror of these monsters and all that drive them to the slaughter! Behold the hammer already to strike, and the anvil already to stand, and the terror already to fall!
“Fear naught, for even as these demons drive slavering to their supposed prey, they are as cattle to the slaughterhouse, in our hands to be broken that they might never rise again! Forever we shall name this place the Blood Plain, for the grasses shall drink demon blood for a thousand times a thousand years and our revenge upon these shall be so mighty that all worlds shall speak of it! Your steel is strong, your wills are invulnerable, your lives are yours, your courage unshakable!”
The towering Templar with his moustache falling almost to his collarbone, a decoration that would be immensely silly on any other man and in any other place, smiled with the fierce pride of a true patriot surveying the greatest of his countrymen. Sister-Inquisitor Delphine Miriam Drake smiled as she turned her gaze to the vast plain, seething with the monstrous forms of the beasts the remaining Primes of Quezelzege’s army had brought with them to this place to destroy the heart of Auric, and imagined that she could see the minarets of the Teutonic Cathedral rising above the city walls. The sea of howling, blood-maddened hellspawn surging towards the shallow line behind which she stood were almost a separate phenomenon, strangely unreal and irrelevant, for every man and woman knew that they would not break. They were the anvil for the hammer to drive against, the unshakable rock in the midst of the river, and as the Templar raised his sword and took his place in the line, his vast shield before him, Delphine raised the inscribed lantern that was the symbol of her order and let its Light bathe the Ratnisbonian soldiers, a physical sign of the Weaver that they gave homage to and the Archangel that had commissioned them for this cause alone.
“Soldiers of Ratnisbon!” The Templar roared as the enraged and bloodthirsty animals reached the line and gathered themselves to leap upon their supposedly helpless prey. “STAND FAST!”
The memory of the battle just five years prior brought a nostalgic smile to Delphine’s face as she glanced over at her sister, seeing the same wistful smile. “I think I’ve been here before, sister,” She laughed at the wave of talon-covered creatures came in sight.
“Aye,” Serafine agreed cheerfully. “Th’ wanker that warned against history repeatin’ itself was stark ravin’ mad.” She slipped her sword out of its sheath and swept it in a gentle circle in front of her as the first creatures gathered themselves to leap. “I sorta like gettin’ ta do th’ best parts over.”
><><
A majority of these flowed at the griffin sisters whom the Void dragon seemed to regard as the biggest threat. Unlike her, they didn’t brace against the tide but let it envelope them—and then a cacophony of light, sound, and sharp shining metal seemed to explode out of the roiling mass, a magical dome construct pushing out from Delphine with an almost explosive intensity as Elli’s sword swept out and took a scythe-like claw off the shoulder of the nearest beast, causing it to tighten in sudden pain.
“Uh, sis? You’re not going out in that melee, are you?” Dawn inquired tentatively. “Because I’m not really good with these hooves and…”
And suddenly, the pink earth pony was quiet, enclosed in a soundproof bubble and then she was invisible inside an illusion that made her appear to be not there at all; already in an intense state of concentration, siphoning her vast font off into the pair of spells was as easy as wishing it. With that, Twilight contracted the shield bubble around her and walked calmly towards the mass that had swallowed Pinkie Pie, searching for her cheery friend in the attacking creatures.
Pinkamena was… actually, it was difficult to figure out exactly what she was doing but it seemed to be making it impossible for the creatures’ claws to connect. A creature would leap at her and crash into a fellow because Pinkie was now standing on top of their two stunned forms. Claws swung at her horizontally dug into the ground because they had somehow ended up tilted to one side and found themselves laying there trying to tug the grounded talons free of the earth. Creatures that tried to grab her got a hug from behind before Pinkie butted them in the back of the head, laying them out unconscious. When many of them tried to coordinate, they ended up in a pile with Pinkie standing beside them giggling as the confused creatures tried to figure out what had just happened. Despite Pinkamena’s glum assurance that she’d be useless in a fight, she seemed to be doing quite well.
Twilight skirted the edge of the melee, batting a couple creatures aside that had caught a glimpse of her and begun to turn, and looked for Rarity, who her logical mind informed her would be the least well-equipped for this battle: even as Jade, the elegant alabaster unicorn relied on an array of tools to turn her intense training of mind and body into a one-pony storm of death.
Her logical mind, it appeared, was wrong. At that point, a body struck her shield, making it flicker as the dying animal ricocheted off and lay there unmoving, its blood pooling under it from what looked like a stab wound that went through its entire body. What was even more surprising was the pony that put it there: somehow, and Twilight had no idea how, Rarity had her hoof blades and all the light, deadly equipment she wielded in her Jade persona strapped to her body. She’d even taken a moment to tie back her mane and turn it a deep, forest green, lacking only the outfit she normally wore in her assassin guise to conceal who she really was.
“Am I imagining things?” Twilight asked herself as she stopped, staring as a head popped off a pair of shoulders seemingly of its own accord. “But she buried the…” She paused and grimaced as her mind took the step. “…she lied to us,” she concluded with a pang of hurt; even working on being objective, she still felt a tiny stab in her gut realizing that Rarity had blatantly lied—and the stab went deeper as she realized that Applejack would have easily picked up on the lie, and she chose to keep it to herself. Granted, Rarity’s life as Jade was her affair, her business, and even a dear friend had no right to demand that she tell all. Still… the lie hurt a bit. Twilight shook her head. “Notice it, note it, put it aside,” she told herself, taking a breath and obeying her own advice. Rarity didn’t need her, at least not at the moment, and some part of Twilight didn’t want to see the Element of Generosity killing with cold, easy efficiency. ‘Jade’ always felt wrong and unnatural to Twilight, the antithesis of a beautiful, selfless mare that spent most of her time immersed in her limitless creativity—and was swiftly becoming famous for her combination of flawless high-society mannerisms and gorgeous dressmaking.
She was distracted enough by the disturbing sight of Rarity flowing between attackers, bathing in their blood by simple proximity, that she was almost knocked over when a quartet of creatures bounded from the forest and went straight for her. Now, one of the first things she’d taught Trixie while schooling her in combat magic was a spell that allowed a mare with limited reserves to throw lots of power in a very short time, forming dozens of small spheres of force and then throwing them with a tiny effort of magic. Trixie, however, didn’t have the font to use the spell to its limit; Twilight did. Turning towards the woods, where she knew nearly a hundred more creatures were skulking, waiting to rush in and reinforce the efforts of companions, the air crackled as thousands of tiny spheres, each no bigger than a ping-pong ball, sparkled into existence. Five each hit all four of the creatures rushing at her, sending them flying into the underbush—and the forest began exploding.
Bushes were ripped up and sent flying, coming apart in midair and turning into tiny wooden missiles as the spheres outpaced them. Entire trees were obliterated as hundreds of spheres blasted straight through them like bullets. Plants were shredded into scorched green paste and impacts with the earth threw up so much mud, dust, and rocky debris that it was hard to tell that Twilight was bombarding the forest with telekinestic magic: it looked all the world like she was lifting up a tidal wave of ground and sending it sweeping into the woods in front of her. She kept it going for precisely two minutes (somehow, her own mental voice had begun calmly counting “one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand…”) before cutting off the flow as neatly as Rarity might snip a thread and turned to find Applejack in the fight.
Applejack wasn’t hard to find at all; she was the only one that wasn’t really moving around as she fought back. Any of the creatures that got close enough got a patented Apple family double-hoof buck to the head and in the flickering light of her shield, Twilight’s stomach rumbled threateningly as she realized that the greenish fluid on the earth pony’s hooves was the blood of the creatures. Apparently, Applejack realized it too: Twilight got a brief glimpse of a pony doing her very best not to think about the fact that she was collapsing skulls, not bucking apples out of trees. After the first rush, the creatures were circling her warily, one rushing and then another, testing her reactions as they stayed clear of the fatal blows Applejack seemed to be distributing without effort. Twilight knew, though, that it was only a matter of time, and the creatures seemed to be in no hurry, steadily wearing the earth pony down by inches.
Having rested on the train and let herself relax in the presence of close friends and the knowledge of a small library a mere car away, her font was full and seeing her friend bloody and bloodies, exhausted and being worn down, Twilight felt no compunction about spending it lavishly. The first creatures she laid eyes on found themselves lifted into the air and their heads cracked together. A knot of them had tendrils of lavender magic wrapped around their middles and flung heedlessly into the thick forests in the other direction, away from the twenty foot deep blast zone Twilight’s rolling bombardment had carved into the woods where the four attacker had originated, rushing, Twilight now realized, to reinforce their comrades trying to wear down Applejack. Blasts of force flung the other creatures by ones and by groups away from the stubborn farmpony and the moment they were gone, Twilight dashed over to her friend, taking advantage of what she was certain would be a temporary lull to check over the other mare.
She was bruised with small cuts from incidental strikes and was breathing heavily, but Applejack seemed otherwise fine. “T… thanks Twi,” she managed between panting breaths.
“What’re friends for?” Twilight smiled before lighting her horn again. She was no healer but the horrifying event of the Guardian had convinced her to make an intense study of the subject of healing magic; being Twilight, she’d also dabbled in (as in, read “only” fifteen comprehensive books) anatomy and physiology. As such, she could do a simple cantrip and simply pour lots of magic into it. The orange earth pony shuddered with relief and her breathing stabilized as the warm rush of rejuvenating magic swept over her.
“Heh,” Applejack grinned.
“What?”
“Wish ya’ll could see yourself, Twi… ya never looked more like your mother’s daughter than right now, standin’ there all cool and calm with a sweet smile and healin’ a friend with an effortless touch of yer horn,” Applejack smiled, her face showing with the frank honesty that was as much a part of her as her apple cutie mark.
Twilight felt her cheeks get warm. “Thanks AJ,” she smiled more broadly, briefly, before the smile evaporated. “By the way, I saw Rarity a few minutes ago and she reminded me of somepony…”
Applejack’s smile evaporated as well and she suddenly looked deeply uncomfortable. Before she could reply, though, she heard a sharp cry from where she’d left Dawn and whirled around. The creatures were circling a certain earth pony who was doing her best to turn along with them, nervously eyeing them. How the sound and invisibility bubble had vanished and how the creatures could possibly have seen through it were questions that fell by the wayside. Suddenly, nothing mattered except her sister being stalked by several bestial-looking creatures with glowing eyes and like moments of intense concentration, using her magic was as easy as wishing and six very large spheres of the magical force she’d bombarded the forest with snapped into existence.
Several moments passed between Twilight forming the spheres and her standing by her sister, laying a consoling wing over her as she trembled but she was unconscious of just what passed in those moments; all she knew was that the creatures had just gone away and her sister was safe again and really, what else mattered?
“Sis…” Dawn said in a trembling voice.
“Yeah?”
“Next time you just shut me up and do the invisible thing on me without adding a bucking shield, can I kick you flank? Like, really really hard?”
Twilight gave a short, weak chuckle. “Glad you’re OK, Dawn.”
“Well how about you, miss badflank goddess-child?” Dawn grinned. “Mum didn’t even do half that many awesome things, even when she’d gone all evil and scary.”
Twilight blinked at her sister and blushed hard. “Um… thanks, I guess…”
“So, how about we, like, stick together until all the weird things go away?” She frowned. “And what the hay happened to our self-appointed bodyguards? Why’re we all fighting instead of them kicking plot for us?”
Twilight frowned in a mirror of her sister’s as she expanded and reinforced her shield. “Good question…” She turned in the last direction she’d seen the sisters and forced her mind to still and focus on the far end of the battle, the end that seemed to have the largest and most chaotic maelstrom of creatures attacking. Only a moment of observation made it clear why Kaiya Aon would send these two to keep watch over them.
Elli wielded her blade with an easy, fluid motion that made clear that she was fully as talented as her story had implied, easily comparable to Rarity in the effortless fluidity of her movements. The griffin seemed to never stop moving, catching descending talons, slashing across faces, bringing an outstretched armored wing around to club a foe into unconsciousness. Scythe-like claws were swept off paws and joints and unmoving bodies seemed to follow her but her blade was almost entirely clean of blood. Delphine was almost the opposite, the consummate rock in the midst of the river, serene and almost unmoving as she wove magic like ethereal clay around herself. Spheres of force and fire flowed with dismissive ease from Delphine’s talons but the fire crashed to earth, causing the creatures to jump back and the force grazed, causing pain and ripping off pieces of carapace but not cracking them in half or caving in skulls. With the grim, almost enthusiastic, way that they’d discussed war, Twilight wouldn’t have ever expected to see the pair making such an obvious effort to be nonlethal.
She was prevented from focusing further on the mystery by a sudden impact against her shield from behind, hard enough to cause her to stumble slightly, and she turned to see one of the creature rearing up for another solid buck that Twilight had a funny feeling was easily comparable to Applejack’s best work. Well, that wouldn’t do at all so she waited until the beast… wait, buck? The sudden question in her head scrambled her attempt to trip up the creature and this time, she stumbled and fell off her feet. Another solid kick and her attacker turned to begin raking at the shield with its wicked claws. Twilight huffed a breath of slight annoyance, not even remotely threatened by the attack, and crafted a band of magic around the creature’s front legs, causing it to fall on its face, then following it up by restraining its rear legs.
The creature laid there for a moment, its sides heaving, before turning its head and looking up at her with what was very clearly an annoyed expression. The clear demonstration of a mind much more complex than the bestial appearance suggested made Twilight realize that the Void dragon wasn’t talking to some unseen controller of their attackers but to these creatures specifically… it was clear that they understood Equiish quite well if he could give them the instructions he had and expect them to understand. For a moment, she shuffled the noise and chaos of the battle into the back of her mind and looked down at the creature she’d just confined.
“You can understand me, can’t you?”
Intensely blue featureless eyes stared into hers for several moments and then the creature gave a curt nod.
“Why do you obey that… creature that was ordering you to capture me and my friends?”
She got a dumbfounded stare in return before the corners of the creature’s face twitched slightly in what Twilight supposed was a tiny smirk before her captive laid their head back down and visibly relaxed, seemingly unconcerned about their bonds and not the least bit uncomfortable laying there helpless while the fight continued outside the bubble of protective magic.
“Sis, did you honestly expect a random… um, whatever that is to answer that?” Dawn snorted. “I mean, assuming it even can with that mouth. It doesn’t look well-configured for Equiish speech or any other language you know.”
“It can’t hurt to try,” Twilight shrugged as she turned back to observing the battle. She had to admit that the creatures was amazingly well-coordinated; she’d just barely left Applejack’s side, even blasting the forest back to dissuade further attacks from that direction, but they were already swarming the earth pony a second time and in even greater numbers… and, Twilight realized as she watched, with vastly more cunning coordination. Creatures would get into range of a buck but be just out of it or below the blow when it came; meanwhile, others would dart in and score a small hit. A small one, but it was already undoing all the healing work she’d done and then some. From where she was standing, she knew that it was impossible to reliably take out the attackers without accidentally hurting AJ.
It was approximately at this point that her head finally brought up something that had been tickling the back of her mind ever since the first rush: only two of the creatures had made any attempt to attack her and it wasn’t until she was far away that they attempted to hurt Dawn; all the attacks seemed focused on disabling the other ponies and entirely ignoring the alicorn.
“You see it too, huh?” Dawn grinned a little mockingly. “Too ya long enough, genius. Awful strange that the dragon that bosses these things around talked directly to you, threatening bodily harm, and then his minions make no attempt to hurt you”
“It is,” Twilight agreed, thinking. “I’m going to try an experiment.”
“Let me guess: you’re going to lose the shield to see what happens.”
“Essentially.”
“Sis, if this gets us beaten up, remember that I hate you very much.”
Twilight grinned at her and doused her horn. Without the eerie lavender-tinted light of her shield around her, the area immediately dimmed and Twilight belatedly lit her horn again so she could continue to see. It was just as she expected: the creatures were ignoring her entirely despite the Void dragon’s threat and they were also paying Dawn no attention since Twilight had rejoined her. Lighting her horn, however, revealed two pieces of less welcome news: in the very brief moment of darkness, when Twilight’s lavender beacon of a horn engaged in serious spellcraft had been doused, Applejack and Rarity were down, a creature literally sitting on each of their four legs. Applejack looked quite a bit worse for wear, although it was hard to tell from a distance how badly-off she was; she certainly looked exhausted but Twilight noted with relief that she wasn’t wincing or showing signs of being in real pain.
Rarity, on the other hand, looked blood-soaked but it being Rarity, being covered in green-tinged blood became some sort of macabre fashion statement. Notable, though, was the fact that the creatures had not merely disarmed her but had somehow broken every piece of assassin equipment Rarity had been carrying. Knives had their handles snapped off, her leg blades had been broken in half and the straps for securing them had been ripped off and shredded, noxious powders had been dumped haphazardly on the ground and the delicate glass containers that made them into weapons shattered with apparent vigor, and the pony herself was being restrained not only by creatures holding her legs but a scything claw pressed against her neck tightly, the razor-sharp inside cutting circle tinged with Rarity’s blood from a tiny cut its owner had inadvertently inflicted.
Pinkie was easily dodging still but Twilight caught her eye and realized that she was doing it for pettiness now; she’d apparently noticed that their friends were down and under threat and her eyes asked for Twilight’s permission to stop. Twilight, her eyes fixing on Applejack and Rarity, suddenly unsure of her ability to free them before the creatures could harm them, gave her a small nod. Almost comically, the creatures that had been trying to seize her immediately piled on her as if they were afraid that she was about to get loose again and continue her escapades; notably, though, they didn’t bother to restrain her.
Twilight turned to the griffin sisters to tell them that the fight appeared to be over but, to her surprise, the two were placidly lounged on the ground and talking between them in low tones, totally heedless of the confused-looking creatures surrounding them and looking warily between the two. Twilight took a step towards them, gauging the reaction of the creatures; at their non-response, she turned and trotted over to the pair.
“…burn like hellhouds, though,” Elli was saying as she got close enough to hear. “I admit, sister, that I am out of me depth here.”
“Aye, we are indeed,” Delphine responded. “If we weren’t so sure that it was impossible, I’d think them Elites.”
“What’re you two talking about?” Twilight furrowed her brow. “Hellhounds?”
“Jus’ speculatin’ on what our friends here are,” Elli replied. “They look like spittin’ images o’ a critter called a hellhound but they got th’ glowin’ eyes o’ what’re called Ninth Hellhounds o’ Elites. That, an’ they’re fully ascended.”
“It means that they’re thinkin’ and reasonin’ creatures,” Delphine supplied before Twilight could ask. “They can clearly understand yer language and think abstractly, as they recognized yer assassin friend’s tools as what they are and systematically destroyed ‘em. And yet, they’re restraining your friends like soldiers takin’ other soldiers prisoner. Be mighty fine if we could converse with ‘em, but I doubt they’re capable o’ forming the words of our language.”
“I noticed you trying to avoid killing them.”
“Well, we don’t think they’re Elites but unless we had it confirmed by one o’ ‘em directly… well, it’s very, very unwise ta trifle with any servant o’ the Ninth Prime.” Elli grimaced. “Not a bad sort, actually quite honorable an’ pleasant, but he takes th’ well-bein’ of ‘is servants very seriously.”
“And they weren’t trying to kill us or do us serious harm,” Delphine replied. “We could tell immediately, all sorts of very subtle signs that they were makin’ a supreme effort ta subdue without harm.”
Twilight felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to see the creature she’d bound with magic (although she wasn’t sure how she knew this since all of them looked identical) looking steadily at her before gesturing towards her subdued friends with a toss of its head.
“I have no intention of trying to fight you, if that’s what you’re asking me,” Twilight informed it. “Three of my friends pinned and threatened sort of makes sure of that.”
The creature gave her a look of mild embarrassment before nodding and using a paw to make a gesture to the rest. As one, the creatures lets her friends up and began to quickly and efficiently go from fallen to fallen, checking each for signs of life and leaving the ones that were dead. A few of them strode over to where the griffin sisters had left their pile of disabled but not seriously hurt attackers and looked genuinely surprised when they realized that the griffins hadn’t killed anyone. One of them (which looked slightly smaller than the others) turned and suddenly threw its legs around a startled Delphine’s neck, making a series of growls, whistles, and clicks that seemed to be the language the creatures spoke. Delphine tentatively patted the creatures back, smiling nervously, before she was released and the creatures began to care for their wounded.
“So you can speak, just not our language,” Twilight said to the apparent leader.
She was surprised when the leader shook its head and gave her what was quite obviously a tiny, enigmatic smile before turning and starting to call out instructions to its subordinates in the odd language, striding away with a liquid grace, a reptilian tail Twilight hadn’t noticed before flowing back and forth as it went.
“OK, that confirms that they’re not any sort o’ hellhound,” Delphine mentioned. “Hellhounds, even ascended ones, can’t make sounds o’ any sophistication, certainly nothing so complex as that language.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Something damn familiar about their language, though. It sounds sort of like…”
“…low Draconic,” Elli finished. “Could they be a dragonspawned race?”
“It’d match. Intelligence, manifest emotion, pack mentality, clear hierarchy, military-like obedience ta someone higher in the hierarchy…”
“Well gals whatever they call themselves, there’s definitely one thing we know they are,” Dawn piped up.
“An’ what’s that, darl?”
“Our captors.”