//------------------------------// // Sleipnir 2 - Keeping Order // Story: Lost in a New World // by KingBrony //------------------------------// "Do you see that?" A Sleipnir guard called to Roddel and looked up at the sky. The orange tint of the heavens slowly grew dark. The heat from the sun gave way for the cold of the moon. Roddel remembered before he was sealed away, when the sun and moon moved through the sky, and how they had remained dead when he came back. Is it because of our return that the sun and moon move again? Roddel led a group of soldiers to scout the surrounding land. He was under direct orders from King Falchion to search for the Keys to Order. If they could get back into the possession of the Sleipnir, then their grip on the land would surely be complete. The group searched in forests, in caves, and in the remains of the pony towns, but nothing has been found yet. During the expedition, stray ponies would be found, and the other guards would take turns abusing or eating them. It made Roddel sick to his stomach seeing the poor creatures pulled apart, eaten whole, or stepped on. Roddel was able to save one pony, though. He thought about that one specific incident after the group set out: they had arrived in a town in ruins. There didn't seem to be any sign of life as Roddel looked through each house, searching for anything that could lead him to the keys. In one house, he heard a creaking coming from above. Making his way up, he found himself in front of a closet. After opening the door, he was met with the cries of a filly. She was blue and white, with a horn coming out of her head. Seeing that, Roddel immediately backed away, remembering the evils that came from the addiction to magic. "It's okay," He tried to say, but the pony only whimpered and cried. She didn't understand his words. Instead, Roddel pulled out a pile of hay from his pouch and moved to drop it near the pony. She flinched as he drew near, but upon seeing what it was, she slowly bent down to take some of the hay in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, and Roddel could see the beginnings of a smile form at the corners of her tiny mouth. "Roddel! Where are you?" The Sleipnir immediately closed the closet door, but it was too late. A couple of soldiers barged into the room, swaggering and boasting as they did. "I heard the sound of somepony crying...it wasn't you, was it?" one soldier jokingly spat as the other one laughed. Roddel awkwardly joined in. "Let's get going," Roddel tried to change the subject. "There's nothing in here that we need," A forced grin came to the captain's mouth. The soldiers looked at him suspiciously before turning away to leave the house. "Why would the Keys to Order be in a flimsy house like this anyway?" One snorted. As they all walked out, Roddel turned back to the house. It sat at the end of a row of houses. They were all worn and broken, with roots and moss growing through them. They all looked lonely and sad. The street in front was overturned, bumpy, and also overgrown. As for the filly, he didn't know what would happen to her from then on, but he saved her life at that moment. He didn't know how well his authority could get over the soldiers if they tried to do anything rash. But still...it was only one filly. One life. Roddel couldn't save them all. ********* The sun rose and fell several more times, signalling the passage of time. And every time it fell, Roddel would end another day with no lead. Nothing at all in the desolate wasteland that was the ponies' kingdom. He found it perplexing that there would be no trace of the keys. They were not in the castle where he had last seen them. Maybe they eroded away? Roddel's group reached the northern boundary before long. Due to how the Sleipnirs' powers grew weak in colder environments, a boundary was set up in order to prevent wanderers from getting trapped without a way to fight back. Roddel laughed to himself when he thought about their weakness. The Sleipnir, masters at creation, strongest beings in the land...and they are weak against the cold. All the power in the world, and the temperature is their bane. Amusing, he thought. If I could just bring Falchion here... "What are you doing!?" The Sleipnir captain stopped in his tracks. He had stepped over the boundary unknowingly. The other guards were calling out to him, concerned that he would collapse or lose power from being in the cold. Roddel started to turn back, but instead looked up to the sky. The sun sat high above him, casting its rays down on the earth below him. It felt...warm. "Wait a minute..." One of the guards realized what Roddel did, and stepped past the boundary. Roddel's body felt as warm as it did back at the castle...could it have been that simple? "It was the sun," Another guard explained, looking up quickly at the giant ball of fire in the sky. Back when the Sleipnir ruled the land, the Draconequus were the ones who controlled the movement of the sun and moon through the sky. Knowing that the Draconequus were few in numbers, if not extinct, Roddel guessed that the ponies had inherited this duty. ..And they had given the Sleipnir the chance to invade. Roddel hesitated where he stood. "We need to report this!" A guard spoke up. He licked his lips as if receiving news that he had been invited to a free buffet. The other guards murmured in agreement. Roddel felt like a tree among wolves - they grouped together to search for their next prey, weaving through the silent, standing trees. The captain silently nodded, and crossed back over the "border". ********* "We must act at once!" King Falchion's eyes gleamed as he spoke, addressing the Sleipnir taking refuge in the ruins of Canterlot Castle. "Whoever is in charge of the ponies to the north must know where the Keys to Order are being held - they may even be hiding them themselves!" The king grew in size as he spoke, his voice booming and echoing into the sky. "With the sun shining to the north, we will be able to overcome the cold and take what is ours. We should have never left this world," he looked right at Roddel as he spoke, sending a shiver down the captain's spine. "But now that we are back, we must show these ponies that they are nothing more than our creations - and snacks." The Sleipnir all cheered as Roddel could feel the morale rise like an inflated balloon. Roddel left the vicinity of the crowd and found a place to sit and relax. His mind was spinning, and everything was moving so fast it became a blur to him. Roddel really wanted to just sit and look around. What he saw was the ruins of a civilization that he had helped birth. A birthing that came from treason. The prophecy that King Falchion had conjured before his sealing had come true - and here they are, standing in the aftermath. Some of the debris had been cleared; The Sleipnir began to rebuild from the remains of pony civilization swiftly. No longer would the young and feeble have to sleep outside under the burning sun. However, Roddel could never think of this as his home anymore. They were beings of the past, and although they have returned, the world had changed so much without their presence that Roddel felt as if he were in a foreign land. Even though he stood where he began his journey as a knight, those times were nothing more than a whisper in the wind. The trees that surrounded the land knew nothing of the time before. Even worse was the fact that a sword hung over Roddel's head. If Falchion were to grow suspicious of Roddel's true loyalties, the Sleipnir would be executed without any question. The captain knew that without him, nopony would be able to act as a voice of reason against the bloodthirsty Sleipnir...he thought this, but he immediately remembered the filly he had been forced to eat. The magic coursed through his veins, giving him energy and power. It was an addiction, and his skin crawled the longer he went without it. Many of the Sleipnir are acting on fear or impulse. If there were only a way to get them to see what they really were... "Mind if I take a seat?" Rana's voice snapped Roddel back. The visions gave way for ruins, and Rana's lovely face appeared right in front of him. "Go right ahead," Roddel smiled, giving room for his foalhood friend to sit down. "The rebuilding is going along smoothly," She started, pointing out to a distant area of the castle. "Using the ruins of the towns the ponies lived in, we are slowly returning to the way things were. The way things were. "Are we?" Roddel asked in such a tone that it surprised the mare as she gave him a look of concern. He had always seen Rana as a nice mare. She never yelled or became too angry, but she stood firm in her beliefs. Roddel wondered if Rana had eaten any of the ponies since they came back to the world. "Well..." Rana hesitated, looking around. Nopony except the two of them were there. "...It scares me. Are you really going to invade the ponies in the north? Why can't we just live as we are now?" "Falchion does not believe that his creations should have any autonomy," Roddel replied. "He created them, so he should decide what to do with them and what they should be doing...as he says." Rana gave a long look, as if wondering if what she were about to say was right. Finally, she whispered. "Is there something we can do? To stop it, I mean?" The words gave Roddel a jump, More treason? "You cannot talk about the king in this-" "Roddel, you remember what you did, right?" His heart sank. "You followed the orders of our true king, the one everypony still adores and loves. Falchion murdered him, but you helped the ponies survive and live without the evils of..." Rana looked at her flank. "The prophecies of order are absolute. How about we create our own?" The High King. Murdered by Kings Falchion and Thuun. Roddel was about to respond when he heard a guard shouting from behind them. "It is time!" He called out to his captain. Rana's face dropped down as Roddel excused himself. The invasion was about to begin, and the captain of the Sleipnir had to be the one leading the charge.