Sentinel stared up at Grimglammer in what appeared to be total awe, sitting quietly in the dark while most of his family was sound asleep. They were free to return to being awake in the daytime now, and Sentinel wasn’t sure of his place within the herd any longer, with Lyra and Bon Bon now moving to a more diurnal schedule.
“Did Princess Luna hear my prayers?” Sentinel asked in a low sibilant whisper that he knew Grimglammer could hear. He could hear Moonbow breathing right beside him in the dark.
“I can’t tell you that, colt,” Grimglammer answered.
“I mean, I was out there praying to her moon when you two showed up,” Sentinel stated.
“Should you be talking to us on duty?” Moonbow asked inquisitively.
“I have other directives. Comfort for one, but I have no idea how to fulfill that function. Plus, these are the Isles. I am always to be on the lookout for talent,” Grimglammer answered.
“How does one become a Myrmidon?” Moonbow asked.
“It starts by being deemed worthy. You don’t find the Myrmidons, the Myrmidons find you. First you get put on trial, and when you are finally found guilty, you wear the chains and weights until you figure out how to fly again. Some never learn how to fly. I can’t tell you more than that,” Grimglammer replied. “I might have told you too much already, but I have been told to expect this question.”
“How did you know how to heal my father?” Sentinel replied.
“I am a medical doctor, I specialise in curses, jinxes, and in magical maladies and malaises,” Grimglammer replied.
“You are amazing,” Sentinel breathed in the dark.
“Every Myrmidon is required to be the very best in their field. I am a doctor, Shadowguard is being trained to become a dream healer,” Grimglammer explained.
“Dream healer?” Moonbow asked.
“Go into a pony’s mind and make them face their fear in such a way that it benefits them. Help them repair the broken parts of their equinity. Take each and every hequine and shequine, figure out what makes them strong, and then bring it out. Only Shadowguard is being trained to deal with those who have been targeted, touched by shadow or corruption in some way, influenced by things that want to hold them back or keep them from some form of greatness,” Grimglammer explained in a soft silken whisper.
In the dark, two figures held each other close, and a third smaller figure was pressed tightly between them. The smaller figure was sleeping, as tiny foals tend to do in the night, and its sleep was undisturbed by howls or the terrifying things that had once stalked the night.
“It feels strange not being able to kiss you on the lips,” Yew murmured.
“If I had lips, I would kiss you all over. Especially in your mare places, I long to find out why such a thing is done,” Lugus replied in a soft voice.
“Mmm, that would be nice, but to be fair, my mare places have been thoroughly loved. Repeatedly in fact. The first few times were a bit awkward, but you are three times as big as I am, if not larger,” Yew said in a faint soft musical giggle. She rubbed her face against Lugus’ soft feathers and velvet coat, right on the place where the two intermingled. It made the large griffon shiver in the dark. “You know, you have a very strange organ. It is very… hard.”
“It should be, there is a bone in there,” Lugus said, his feathers fluffing out to cool his suddenly flushed skin. “I used to have spikes and barbs. I had a surgery while I lived in Equestria to remove the barbs and spikes. My kind has evolved our organs for rape and unwilling copulation.”
“That’s awful… but you were so gentle and kind to me,” Yew said in a pained voice.
“We can choose to rise above our bestial natures, but many of my kind do not,” Lugus stated in a sad wistful sounding voice. “Bucky told me that if I took you as my mate and I did so much as scratch you with my talons, he was going to have a new lion skin rug. I offered to skin myself for him, to ease his mind.”
“You talked about me with him?” Yew inquired.
“We talked a bit as we worked in the forge. I asked him what he thought about interspecies breeding. He said it would be a good statement for our tribe,” Lugus answered. He reached out and stroked Yew’s cheek with his folded knuckle, keeping his razor sharp talons away from her face.
“I like his tribe idea,” Yew said. “I am a pony with wings. But I am a pony first and foremost.”
“And I am a winged avian mammal, I chose to guard ponies and defend my chief’s ideals,” Lugus said, pulling Yew a little closer as his beak opened in a yawn.
Grimglammer gently reached out and stroked Bucky with her central knuckle. The stallion was sweating profusely, and the bed around him was soaked with sweat. It had taken a lot of convincing to make the grey pegasus give the unicorn some needed room. A foul smell wafted off of Bucky. Grimglammer lifted a wet cool cloth and gently wiped Bucky’s face with it, cleaning gunk out from around his eye. “You did a marvelous job replacing your eye and your horn,” she said in a low soft whisper that sounded far too gentle to be coming from such a big brutish creature.
She looked down and saw Moonbow standing beside her, still as a statue, unmoving in the darkness. Grimglammer smiled to herself, welcome for the help from a fellow guard. She shifted her weight, causing her armor to clank softly in the dark. She reached out and touched Sentinel, nudging him softly as he slumbered.
“He is to be my mate,” Moonbow whispered.
“Are you worthy of him?” Grimglammer asked.
“What a strange question coming from a female,” Moonbow replied.
“But the question remains valid. I know of your views, I used to hold them as well, I came from these isles,” Grimglammer stated in a smooth voice that seemed to blend with the darkness in the room.
“He is different, I will confess,” Moonbow stated. “He confuses me. He is quite unlike our kind. I have spoken to him, he has read me things he has written. He has dreams and wishes that confuse me and leave me asking questions.”
“Ah, so you are open minded enough to ask questions, that is a start,” Grimglammer whispered to the smaller female at her side.
“He wants to be a knight, he has this image of what a knight should be in his head. He wants to go off and battle giants, trolls, manticores, and things that eat ponies. He wants to be just like his father, and that really confuses me because males are supposed to be the hunters and the gatherers while we go out and do the fighting,” Moonbow said to the much larger female hulking over her. “It doesn’t make sense. He is smaller and lighter, faster on the wing, and more suited for hunting, stalking prey, and getting food. We are larger, stronger, and more suited for fighting. But he wants to fight. When I pounce him, he bounces away ready to scrap. He doesn’t just fall down submissively and let me dominate him.”
“One day, mark my words, you will pounce him and he will swat you aside, I don’t care how big you grow,” Grimglammer said in a thoughtful whisper.
“The idea of that excites me,” Moonbow purred.
Grimglammer heaved a sigh that made her armor clink softly. “Deviant,” she muttered.
The sky of dawn was a faint soft pink, a smear of pastel blue, and a hint of royal purple as the night retreated from the light. Many ponies had slept outside in the meadow, around fires, out under the open stars. Pegasi and earth pony guards moved among the sleepers, still cautious, still careful, but optimistic that the nightmare was now over. The dew covered everything, and several early risers had taken to rolling in the wet grass, kicking and snorting to welcome the day.
Rising Star stood on the deck of The Scorned Mare watching Lugus prepare for a hunt. The griffon had a long wooden bow, the string made from a fine braid of donated pony hairs. It glistened in the early morning sun, the wood polished to a mirror finish, and Rising Star recognised the arrowheads on the arrows as his own. His sharp eye had spotted the three tiny stars he had left impressed into his work as his signature. Lugus’s arrows were terrifying, longer than a pony’s leg, and the bow had to be at least six feet in length. The grip of the bow was as large around as Rising Star’s fetlock.
Shadowguard came strolling out onto the deck and watched the griffon. She was wearing her armor and she moved slowly around, each hooffall thudding on the deck.
Rising Star was terrified by the lunar pegasi mare that dwarfed him, and suddenly understood what it felt like to be Bucky in a world full of much taller stallions.
“He is going to awaken soon. His eye shows sign of movement and I do believe my Mistress has been successful in securing his body and his soul. He is kicking and twitching, showing signs of life. Bring back a deer or a boar or something, full of blood, and bring Grimglammer the heart. The rich heartblood will be good for him, he needs the iron and the nutrients. His body is a burned out husk,” Shadowguard commanded.
“I will do as you bid,” Lugus said in reply.
“You are his griffon at arms?” Shadowguard inquired.
“Yes ma’am, that I am,” Lugus answered.
“I am making you his royal hunter. He needs rich red bloody meat,” Shadowguard stated.
Rising Star gulped and felt a little sick. He swallowed and hoped his queasiness would pass. “So Bucky… he’s a prince now?” he asked in a squeaky nervous voice.
The big mare turned her gaze upon Rising Star and stared at him, studying the unicorn colt with a blank expression. “Yes, he is my prince,” she answered.
“You know, he is going to be really angry if he hears you calling him that,” Rising Star said nervously, daring to correct the big mare. Shadowguard blinked a few times, and Rising Star felt a deep sense of inner satisfaction in watching her squirm uncomfortably. “He hates titles, but if you call him anything, it should be Knight Captain because he feels that he has earned that,” he explained. As he watched, the big lunar mare turned her head back towards the door, stared for a moment, and then swiveled her head around to stare once again at Rising Star.
“But he has earned the title “prince.” He is Sombra’s heir. He has earned the right to claim his ancient birthright, and has proven himself as a champion of my Mistress Luna,” Shadowguard said in a slow drawn out voice.
Rising Star took a moment, but he caught the careful wording of the giant mare. “So… Princess Celestia doesn’t feel this way?” he asked.
“I cannot speak for Princess Celestia. She is currently grief stricken and rife with emotional turmoil. She needs time to… reflect upon her sensibilities,” Shadowguard carefully responded. “I owe no fealty to Princess Celestia. She is not my princess. I have sworn fealty to my Mistress Luna, and when he awakens, I will swear my oath to Prince Buckminster, once he is of sound mind.”
“Bucky is not a sound minded pony,” Rising Star said in a low voice.
Lugus’ feather crest rose and his eyes darted from pony to pony as he watched the big mare bristle from the colt’s words.
“No offense intended ma’am, but Bucky kinda had to let go of his sanity, it was holding him back. Somepony had to face the darkness on its own terms, and Bucky willingly let go of some of his equinity, his fear, his sanity. He did what needed to be done. Have you seen his eye yet? It’s stuck that way, that horrible purple fog starts to creep out the moment you open his eyelid and you can see the slimy green colour of his eye… this has hurt him in ways I can scarcely comprehend. The sounds of foals playing now makes him cringe and jump. Sudden noises startle him. Unexpected laughter makes his horn ignite and the look on his face sometimes when this happens would probably even make your pucker clench. And this was before he went down under the mountain and fought whatever it was he faced down there. I can’t imagine him being better any time soon,” Rising Star said, angrily and bitterly. “Meanwhile, you lot in Equestria let this evil fester here, growing worse and worse, and it took something from me that I hold very dear. I had to watch as this fight consumed him, devoured his body, and broke him.”
Shadowguard stared at Rising Star, but the big mare made no reply.
“I am off to hunt,” Lugus said nervously, gathering up his bow and his arrows.