The clash of steel resounded amongst an empty field. A field covered in smoke, soot, and the sickening stench of death. The ground was covered with dead bodies lying left and right, a river of blood running along, flooding the once green ground, coloring it a beautifully melancholic crimson.
Two individuals were fighting almost as one would think a dance routine with swordplay. They went back and forth, fighting for survival as the other would undoubtedly die.
A shadow watched this battle, carefully mulling over the results of the conflict. He had a hand on his chin, or at least what would resemble a chin. It was a being unlike many, shrouded in a strange black mist that hid him from eye view. He seemed to mull something over in his head.
“Interesting how these humans can turn the tides so unanimously, and even how stubborn they are is remarkable.” Yes, the battle was already won before it began, or at least that’s what both sides thought. One group had a large quantity of vehicles with deadly capabilities that could easily wipe out hundreds. The warriors were also ready for the ambush they were told of, the one that was coming to an end right now. But skill superseded the idea of technological superiority as the conflict told the veiled being.
“This may be able to work in my favor. Too bad the loser must die.” He laughed silently to himself, “Now where was I?” The crystal the shadow was viewing began glowing brightly as the picture came back.
This time the armored man with the sword had the upperhand. He wore some strange armor of some kind and seemed to be an advanced fighter. The other man was bulked up in a large quantity of plate, holding twin hammers he swung down with mighty force, but due to the immobility of his suit. Could not even touch the evading warrior.
The heavily armored man yelled out, “Curses wretched cretin! Stand still and be cut down with the rest of your foul brethren!” He swung out again, this time in a wide arc in random directions to try and confuse the mightier warrior, but to no avail. The speedy Fighter managed to keep out of range for every swing the tank tossed. Frankly, the bulkier warrior was already becoming fatigued as he was very much slower, ever so diminishing his stamina a great sum with every swing of his hammers.
After a few seconds of allowing the soldier to fatigue himself, the agile warrior had disappeared from his sight, vanishing as though he were never there. The bulkier warrior looked around, scanning his environment, trying to discover where the warrior had gone. He yelled out angrily, “Coward! You rebel scum are all cowards!”
His angry speech was cut short with a sword slicing through his neck, he just stood there, motionless staring out into the field. Then, all at once, he fell over, his head falling right while his body tumbled forward. Blood pooled around the wound as muscle and veins attempted to push its way out of the neck that once held his dearest of heads.
The warrior slowly sheathed his sword as he turned to walk away. He stopped at a small pile of dead bodies that lay strewn about the battlefield. They were covered in arrows, blown to bits, and covered in cuts. He kneeled down and made a few gestures, “fare thee well, my fellow comrades. May we once again see one another in another lifetime.” He continued on his way away from the conjunction of blood and guts known as a battlefield, calmly whistling to himself all the while.
“Well it seems our champion of redemption has made himself known. He passed all of our challenges we had placed and he has even defeated a mighty opponent worthy of taking the title. He shall be the catalyst of renewal and rejuvenation for this pathetic world.” Said the shadowed figure once more, a faint glow appeared above where his head should have been, but the shadows surrounding him did not scurry away. In fact, one might think the darkness surrounding him grew even darker as the glow started upon him and the crystal ball. He laughed inwardly to himself as the ground under the warrior started glowing, with each footstep it started getting brighter.
The warrior walked along the road, oblivious of the imminent danger he was being shown with each step. Behind him faintly glowing were his tracks, plants grew forth from them as they speedily stretched to the heavens above. The warrior stopped in time to hear something different though, a rumbling from below him. Whatever it was it must have been hard to hide it in such a way. He turned behind him first, seeing the large quantities of vegetation that grew like wildfire with oil thrown at it. It was almost exactly where he took each step and he warily looked down to the terraforming earth below him.
“By the heavens...” The warrior muttered as the dirt of the road exploded beneath him, forming into hands and grasping at him all over for leverage. The warrior struggled for his sword, but it was to no avail as the hands held their ground, still connected with the earth surrounding him.
They began pulling harder and harder as the warrior attempted to force his way free from the abominations that had emerged from the ground. They pulled at him as he struggled, and after a long minute of fighting, the warrior’s head was already but mere inches from being enveloped by the ground. As the hands grasped onto his head, he took one final look at his surroundings to see a strange shadow looming just in the underbrush in his peripheral vision. But a mere few seconds later, he was completely swallowed up by the earth, he wanted to scream, but he found his mouth could not open, nor his eyes.
Forced into a silent blind state, he just let himself lie there, lie there and wait.
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Celestia sat and kept her eyes towards the wall, pretending to keep her focus towards the pony who wished conference. An austere noble trying to tell her to lower taxes for him and his kind and raise it for the less fortunate. If not for the fact of the predictability of the wants of each of the ponies that walked in was very dull, she might have laughed at how easy it was.
If it wasn’t for her advisor knowing when to shoo away the most annoying of the ponies, she might have gone crazy. Or worse. Alcove may be all business and very dull, but he knew how to handle the nobles when they were being overzealous in their impossible intentions of paying less and making the suffering masses only suffer more.
She sighed inwardly as Alcove managed to silence the noble and signal for Celestia to speak. “Yes well, your suggestions are very interesting and I’ll mull it over and decide at a later date. Either way i’m sure you will know my decision sooner or later.” The pompous noble just smiled an even bigger grin of victory before bowing and leaving quickly.
Celestia muttered to herself, “Whatever it is, it involves tax lowering or raising then it is utterly declined.” She sighed as she turned to her advisor, “If only something interesting wo-” Princess Celestia’s words were cut off as the sound of cracking stone in the throne room started. There were no obvious damage to the walls, ceiling, or floor, but it was coming from somewhere.
She looked around curiously, as did Alcove. After a minute of the horrid cracking sound, it stopped. For a second Celestia thought it was over, a mere fluke in the architecture that would soon be fixed. To her chagrin, this was rather inaccurate. The ground erupted in front of the throne and the guards adjacent to the throne readied their weapons as they looked onwards of the exploding ground.
The portal pulsed a few times as the warrior flew out of it, painfully hitting the wall to the right of the throne. The warrior exhaled on impact and took a few seconds trying to greedily gulp in as much air as he could. He coughed and sputtered a bit as he leaned on his right arm, staring at the ground as he got his bearings.
“By the seven kingdoms,” the warrior coughed one final time, clearing his throat, “what happened?” He looked around and his eyes immediately locked onto the princess’s. He was completely still, silent as if he weren’t even there as his mind clicked away, breaking down just what he was seeing.
Silence dominated the hall as Celestia as well tried to make sense of what she was seeing. It was obviously a sentient being if what it said was any indication. The guards were eyeing the warrior warily the entire time it took for him to get to his feet.
Celestia’s advisor mumbled something to himself as the warrior tried to stand, using the wall as a support.
Celestia decided now was a good time to speak. “Greetings. What is your name, and more specifically: what are you?” The warrior grumbled something to himself inaudibly, he was about to retort something of an improper response when he took notice of the crown on her head. Whoever this oversized horse was, she definitely royalty, assuming the decorative armor and crown were any indication.
Opting not to screw up, the warrior went down to one knee and bowed his head and said, “I am Omior Falroc of the warrior clan Phalox. We train in a mix of ways of the samurai and the medieval knight. I... am human.”
Surprised by the formality of the human, Celestia spoke. “Omior, you may rise. I am princess Celestia, ruler of the land which you have entered into, I wish to know of why you have come here, and how you have come here as well. Only unicorns of the highest class can create a portal like that; even if it reaches but a few feet, is extremely difficult.” Celestia was curious, she would’ve like to, no, she was urged to continue by her ever bottomless curiosity.
Omior rose to his feet and nodded, “Princess, I apologize but I do not know of the means of which I have travelled here, nor do I know how it was possible.” Omior’s mind raced as he tried to sort through it as fast as possible, it had been proven to him in the past to stay calm and collected during times of great stress like this. He was trained to be prepared, maybe not for something quite like this, but its still just as useful, if not more so.
Celestia’s face fell a small amount, “Oh my, are you sure of this? Please tell me everything.”
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Omior had chosen his words carefully. He made sure he kept to being as honest and yet as inoffensive as he possibly could. It was royalty he was meeting afterall, and they tended not to enjoy him after being around him long enough.
Alcove had long since left the room to reschedule the week’s events for Celestia, whatever it was.
“....I see. If anything, you have the support of Equestria in your endeavours to return home, Omior Falroc.”
Omior noticed a faint ticking sound coming from the walls, he didn’t think much of it. “So then what is it I will do now? I’ve no idea how to get home.”
“My sister and I will attempt t-.” The room began to rumble and Omior fell to his knees. Using his hands to keep himself steady, he looked around for the source of the quake.
Celestia too was looking around, shocked at such a surprise. She mustn’t of heard the ticking. The ticking that had stopped.
The wall to their left -one covered in numerous and heavily decorated windows- exploded in a fiery display. A rope shot out and caught Omior by the belt, he was about to rip it off of his person when it pulled, dragging him out towards the smoke and rubble.
“Whaaaaaaaaa-.”