//------------------------------// // Rules of Nature // Story: Colt of the Damned // by ArtoriasFlagg //------------------------------// The little flame flickered as the sickly unicorn entered; the first in a long line of pale, thin-skinned candle bearers who quickly stationing themselves all around the courtroom. Whether they were living or simply more of the necromancer's risen army was difficult to discern. Their heads were covered with hooded cloaks similar to that of their master, obscuring their faces with shadows. Their fur was mostly gone, with only the thinnest hint of a coat covering what the cloak did not. Not one made a sound but for the flat, even hoofbeats which echoed as they moved to their designated positions among the crowd. Each unicorn had brought a small, yellow candle with them to illuminate the windowless court. The lights hovered eerily in front of their faces, suspended by the same black aura which emanated from the wizard's horn and the risen soldiers' eyes. One came to stand beside the sorcerer, while two more took their place on either side of the judges' dais. "Now then, I suppose its high time we got this trial under way... Would one of you be so kind as to mind me just what it was we were being charged with again?" Ardent looked to the Inquisitor, clearly hoping for the half-blind pony to make the first mistake in their little game. To his surprise it was Clover who spoke up. "You know full well what it was you are charged with, elsewise you never would have bothered to amass an army to defend you here. An army which, if I may be so bold, is currently acting as all the evidence anypony here should need to prove your guilt." She looked disgustedly at the candle bearer to her left, cursing him with her eyes. Star Swirl was the next to address the court. "The charged are high crimes against all the kingdom, nature itself, and very likely the world as a whole... And I must agree with my apprentice, Ardent, this army of yours is doing nothing but making any defense or justification you may have less and less believable. I beg of you, call off this unnecessary show of force before the situation escalates any further than it already has! Let me help you, my friend!" His plea fell upon deaf ears, ears turned stone from decades of accepting lies and schemes as simple facts of life. But no more... No, your words will never again hold that kind of power over me. And soon, with any luck, no one else will ever have to suffer your manipulative tongue agin, either... "High crimes against the kingdom and the world... So you have said. Yet everything I have done I did specifically to help this kingdom. This world! Crimes agains t nature? Was it not nature itself which gave us these powers? Is it not our responsibility to use these natural gifts to make life better for the rest of the world? I submit that that is all I have worked toward." "All you have worked toward I'd your own damnation, monster! You've turned yourself into an abomination and everything you touch becomes an affront to the very nature of life itself!" The Inquisitor was had been leaning across his desk to glare menacingly at the wizard. It was not until the minotaur to his right began growling that he suddenly remembered the full extent of the situation he was in. Ardent let his gaze leave his old mentor for a moment to set his eyes heavily upon the wrinkled old interrogator. "I find it odd that you of all ponies would be the one to accuse me of going against nature, Oren." The old unicorn nearly left onto the desk in front of him. "DON'T YOU CALL ME THAT, MONSTER!" The risen minotaur grabbed him by the scruff of his wrinkled neck before he could continue, dropping him back in his place behind the desk before he did something he would truly regret. "Ah, yes, of course. How foolish of me. I suppose you wouldn't want me using that name, now would you. Tell me, did they let you choose the name 'Harrow' yourself or did it simply come with the horn? Did they even tell you what the word means?" The interrogation master looked as though he would have liked nothing more in the world than to have cut down the necromancer right then and there in front of the entire crowd. Had he any teeth left they would have been clenched so hard that they most likely would have cracked apart all over again. "I wouldn't expect a simple earth pony to have come across such a word in their normal life, but seeing as you've taken to calling yourself a unicorn, its only proper that you adopt our linguistics skills. As it would happen, to harrow means to cause distress, discomfort, or pain; both mental and physical... Oh I see now, yes how clever. They turned you into an interrogator, gave you free reign of the dungeons, and just for laughs decided to give you a name to match that most honorable profession... Your father must be so proud, may he rest i-" "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT YOUR DAMNED MOUTH!!!" The air grew hot as the old "unicorn" leapt onto his desk, his horn aglow with a bright yellow aura. Clover moved as if to stop him but her old mentor merely put his hoof upon her shoulder and kept her in place. A split second later a massive spear of flames shot out across the courtroom, garnering screams and cries of terror from the captive audience. It sped toward the old wizard with the force of hurricane, incinerating one of his risen unicorn guardians as they gathered to defend their creator. It caught Ardent square in face, causing him to reel back from the impact. Yet as the flames carried onward toward the door, their course seemed to shift. Suddenly the entirety of the firestorm was pulled back, sucking into a spiral like water being pulled down a drain. The necromancer regained his footing and allowed his head to ease back into the position he had just been in; looking grudgingly at the dais as the fire swirled around his head. The fire began to shrink as it was siphoned off; pulled into the darkness which coated the wizard's horn. The flames were sucked away, leaving the courtroom far darker than it had been. Harrows bid for vengeance had extinguished every other flame in the room, stealing away the illumination of the torches and candles. All that remained was a the dark glow from the fiery eyes of the Ardent's risen. In the darkness they seemed to glow with a tone more blue than black, casting just enough light to brighten the area immediately in front of each soldier. It left an eerie, unsettling effect upon the entire room. A few seconds later a scream broke out from the judges' stand while light suddenly returned to candles. While Ardent went about sending a small tongue of fire to each of the little wicks, the minotaurs had converged upon Magnus Harrow. They grappled with the old pony, easily wrestling him off the desk and onto the floor. "A pathetic imitation of true magic... Pyromancy may prove useful when you interrogate your helpless, restrained prisoners; but against anyone who has learned to properly wield true magic, your little parlor trick is no more threatening than you are yourself." The minotaurs pulled Harrow into the air. Gripping all four of his legs and his horn, they carried him over to stand in front of Ardent. "Now, is there anything else that you wish to say to the court before you are relieved?" "Relieved? Relieved?! Star Swirl are you just going to sit there and let him make me look like a fool?!" The bearded unicorn looked to Clover, then gazed darkly back at his colleague. "I warned you before. 'One more outburst.' That's all it would take to have you ejected from your position as judge... I'm afraid Ardent has every right to demand your immediate removal." He looked at his former steward. "Though for the sake of whatever case he still hopes to make for himself, I would hope that he has the sense to allow the guards to escort you out, rather than have his own soldiers do it." "You seem to be misunderstanding my meaning. I already made it perfectly clear than no pony was leaving this room until our case is settled, and that included him." He pointed to the old stallion being held aloft by the undead minotaurs. "His guars can do what they like with him in just a moment, provided they remain in the room. First though, he needs to be 'relieved,' as I said..." Clover spoke up as the minotaurs placed Harrow down upon his stomach, his limbs still outstretched between them. "Master Star Swirl has already stated quite clearly that we no longer recognize the Inquisitor as a judge. He's officially been fully relieved of his position." "And the kingdom will be a better place because of it, but that is not what I was getting at, my dear." He nodded to the closest minotaur. "Incidentally... you may wish to look away, your honor. And you'll certainly want to cover your ears." The great hulking brute bent down and gripped Harrow's horn tightly in his muscular hand, holding the pony's head down with the other. The interrogator's screams were muffled; muted by the stone tiles of the floor pushing against his muzzle. The fear and desperation those cries conveyed were not. Now it was Star Swirls turn to stand up in protest, his front legs planted firmly on the desk before him for balance. "Ardent stop this madness at once! I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt and a chance to explain yourself, but you have taken this too far! I will not sit by and allow you to continue acting in such a manner. Call off your monsters this instant or I will be forced to put an end to this charade here and now!" "I am merely setting things back to the way nature intended. That is what you wanted, was it not? Your argument against my actions was that they went against nature. Well then please, allow me to begin righting such offenses by returning one of your own abominations to the way he was. Then we can speak more on my own creations once that hypocrisy has been cleared up." He nodded to the minotaur once more. The Inquisitor's screams grew ever louder as the creature bore down on top of him, pinning him to the ground with one knee as he adjusted his hold on the old pony's horn. Just as he seemed to find a grip that satisfied him, Star Swirl's horn lit up with a pale violet light. "Release him, aberration!" A bolt of pure energy exploded forth on a collision course with the minotaur. It ripped through the air, seeming to cause the very fabric of reality to ripple around it as it moved. "That is not your call to make!" The necromancer's eyes and horn lit up with the ghostly blue flames that inhabited his risen soldiers. Star Swirl's attack was immediately drawn toward Ardent who, in the same manner as before, absorbed the magic into his horn. Seconds later he let out a scream as that same spell escaped, hurtling back toward the bearded wizard. "Master!" Clover was up in a flash, her horn glowing pale green as a a barrier formed in front of Star Swirl. The bolt impacted upon it, sending a shockwave through the room as the air reverberated with the energy of the explosion that her quick thinking had just prevented. The barrier of emerald magic stood for another few seconds before cracking and collapsing into a flurry of bright green sparks. "Ardent, you've gone too far! I'm putting a stop to this before your madness harms anyone else! Say goodbye to your minions and prepare yourself for true judgement!" The old wizard was now standing upon his desk, his horn lowered directly at Ardent as it began to glow once more. "Killing them once wasn't enough for you, then? Fine! Let us end this, Star Swirl!" The necromancer mirrored his old master's movements, his eyes and horn once more alight with red and black flames. In the blink of an eye both wizards cast their spell, and in the blink of an eye both wizards watched helplessly as their incantations canceled each other out. Star Swirl released a wave of energy over the entire room, meant to destroy any of Ardent's risen servants, just as Ardent bathed the room in protective energy, shielding his soldiers from harm. The auras intersected, mixing together in a dazzling whirlpool of color. Both wizards clenched their teeth and concentrated on the other as they focused their spell on a new target. Yet with neither willing to give way to the other, the spells continued to negate each other. At last, through gritted teeth, Star Swirl the Bearded spoke up once more. "You can't win, Ardent... We can keep each othe-grrrr... in check all day, but sooner... sooner or later... reinforcements WILL arrive." Seeing that his opponent did not have the strength to speak and cast at once, the old wizard let out a strained laugh. "You didn't... didn't really think your little insurrection would go... unnoticed did you? No. I'd wager even now the guards are working their way up here as we... as I speak." The crowd was in terror but Ardent's soldiers kept them from moving from their benches. Screams and shouts were erupting all around as the power of the two sorcerers began to shake the very foundations of the castle itself. The air began to lose its color as the ocean of magic began to focus into two narrow, concentrated beams of energy between them. Finally, unable to keep up with the old unicorn's constantly increasing power, Ardent felt his legs buckle beneath him. He fell to his knees, still maintaining the spell but quickly losing all feeling in his outer extremities as he poured everything he had into the curse. His gaze shifted for a moment and, still unable to speak under the great strain of the duel, he managed to nod once more to the minotaur. The oaf had stopped moving when his master's attention had been forced onto Star Swirl, but now that he could feel some portion of the necromancer's will upon him again, he continued forward with his duty. "Wha-aaarrgghh... What are you playing at over there, Ardent? Keep reminding me like that and I'll destroy... destroy every last one of those beasts of yours!" The old unicorn gave a mighty cry and a tendril of energy separated from the beams surging between the two wizards. It had nearly reached the minotaur when a similar tendril of black and red energy intersected it and brought it back into the arc. And that was all it took. Star Swirl could not risk any more energy protecting the third judge. He had brought him along solely for the purpose of having someone else present whom he knew would want to see Ardent torn down from his spot of power. But seeing as the wizard had already revealed himself as a necromancer on his own, the former earth pony was of little further use. Either way, he did not dwell on it. Leaving Harrow to his fate, Star Swirl returned his attention to the task at hand; redoubling his efforts to crush Ardent's will. The minotaur readjusted his grip one last time, with one hand wrapped around the Inquisitor's head and the other firmly grasping his horn. His muscles bulged as he tightened his fist around the ivory spike proudly protruding from the screaming pony's skull. Then, with a mighty cry of his own, the bull-monster followed through with what he had been ordered to do.