A lazy fire gave the interior an orange glow, it gave the inn a cozy feeling. The group felt immediate relief from the cold outside. Snaking their way to the front desk, by navigating around the oddly placed round tables, they reached an older stallion that didn't bother to raise his head over his newspaper.
Octavo was the first to reach the counter. “Room for four?” the champion asked.
“Yeah, yeah.” The inn keeper didn't bother to move.
While Octavo stood there, Spike, Accordance, and Charmer came up behind him.
Octavo waited patiently.
“The griffin before you,” the innkeeper began, drearily, “said something about you guys. Paid for your rooms in advance.” The inn keeper tossed two keys on the counter, never taking his eyes off his paper.
Octavo looked the two items over. “But we need four beds.”
“Well we only got two left. Sleep tight. Both rooms are on the second floor.”
They all looked over the keys, one had the number '8' on it, the other '12.'
Accordance sighed. “It'll have to do.” He fitted both into his sack. As they began going up the stairs, the knight spoke up. “So I'll share a room with Twilight.” Octavo and Spike both gave him a look. “It's my responsibility to look after her. I'm her bodyguard after all. Spike, how about you and Octavo take the other room, the human can sleep on the floor.”
They turned out of the stairway and began walking down a hall. “Wait, hold up,” Spike called out. “I want to sleep with Twilight.”
They all halted. “Wait what?” Octavo turned around. “I dozed off for a moment, what the hay did I miss?”
Spike turned beat red. “That's not what I meant.”
“Nice,” said Charmer in a tone that made Spike only blush harder. Twilight, in the Charmer's arms, snored, and began paddling for some reason.
Octavo turned to Accordance. “I was just silently communicating to Travafe, and I just heard Spike say he wants to sleep with Twilight. Seriously, what in those twenty seconds led to this?”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Spike began waving his claws trying to dismiss what he just said. They all ignored the human walking behind them.
“I was just talking about seating arrangements,” Accordance said, while struggling to suppress his smirk. He knew Spike had just misspoken, but it was too funny to let go.
They all turned to the sound of a whistle, seeing Charmer, holding Twilight, with room twelve opened at the end of the hall, while the slave let the room twelve key dangle from his finger.
The knight checked his sack. “Hey! When did you-?” He looked up, seeing the grin the human was giving him. “I've had just about enough of you!” He charged down the hall, like he had done back at the tournament. Getting ready to take down the human, to retake his key, and his rightful spot by Twilight's side. He was getting closer, the human was whistling this outright creepy tune. Then as Accordance drew near, in a lightning quick move, the slave slammed the door and locked it. The whole inn seemed to rattle when the knight made contact, and he slid down the door.
Octavo and Spike looked on, knowing what this new development meant for their new bedding arrangement. “That's quite unfortunate.” Octavo looked on, hoping that none of them was apt to squirmed in their sleep.
+++++
On the other end of the door, Charmer pocketed the key. He carried the sleeping mare over to the bed. Reverting back to Modern Latin, he began talking to Twilight. “Lightweight, hmm?” Twilight groaned as her slave placed her on the bed, it was big enough for two equine, easily, but the human was no pony. “What they were serving in that temple wasn't even that strong.” The human laughed to himself as he looked over his master's condition.
He brought back the thick linen covers, and placed them over the mare. Before he could retreat away, she grabbed his hand and brought it close and tight into her chest and sighed contently. I'm stuck, Charmer thought, trying to wiggle his hand free.
As he continued his endeavor, Twilight curled up against his appendage, not letting go. Charmer tried to deny himself that it was an adorable sight, that he wasn't moved by the gesture. From what little he could remember, endearing friendships or even love were looked down upon in the empire. The legionnaire was made into a blank slate, anything human was squeezed out of them, only the primordial instincts to fight were designed to remain. “Twilight...”
Growing more uncomfortable hunched over, the human uneasily shuffled his way into bed, to Twilight's side. As he laid there, with the covers over him, he looked out the window and watched the last of the daylight die. 'Deja Vu; I've been here before.' Before he had time to think deeper on that, he was wisped away.
No longer Charmer, he was subject IY54-FT4-U027. 'Fields of red snow lay out before me once more.' The scene before subject IY54-FT4-U027 was a mess. 'All legionaries capture or kill at your leisure,' came the voice from the psychic network of the empire. We all sent back our agreements to our Centurion.
I looked down taking in the sight of the griffin's wound, he wasn't even shaking, he was dying, slowly. The griffin looked up to see the strange human, with his weird faceplate armor and odd weapon that had killed so many of his friends. The griffin watched as the human raised his weapon. The bayonet gleamed in the rays of sunlight coming through the clouds above. The blade rammed through his armor into his heart, he died instantly.
After a couple minutes of walking around and helping the dying natives die, an odd noise echoed out, a griffin hen crying out in pain. Subject IY54-FT4-U027 looked around to see that one of his fellow legionnaires found a female griffin. Apparently they allowed such things in their military, at least on a small scale.
The legionnaires watched the thing squirm in pain on the floor. They were laughing at it, the hen was trying to crawl away from them, grunting in pain from every movement. Walking a few steps closer, subject IY54-FT4-U027 began to see the hen's injury: an injured wing. She had probably fallen from a short height and hurt herself, but she seemed okay. Maybe a broken rib or two at worse, but even that was questionable. “Hey,” called one of them, “let's have some fun with her. Why not, huh? I hear these griffins and Equines like to have sex with the imperfect humans sometimes. This should be a treat for her.”
One of them kicked her over, she cried out as she rolled over her injured wing, the musket ball hole in the feathery appendage was easily recognizable now that it began to bleed profusely. Subject IY54-FT4-U027, the commissar called out.
Like the obedient soldier Charmer once was, he replied, 'This is subject IY54-FT4-U027. I am ready to serve.'
The legionnaires were surrounding the hen now. Holding her down.
You have been selected for fire duty, I was informed. You have thirty minutes to comply. Don't take your time either, it's cold out here, and it's getting late
I acknowledged the order then went back to watching the hen resist. I could see at this distance that the one holding her back legs was trying to get his crotch armor off. His other two friends were each holding one of her front legs, she was putting up a valiant effort, kicking, screaming even biting a little. But she would lose, and be raped.
'Hmmm, I could intervene. If I wanted to. I could stop this and still have time to set up our fire for our campfire.'
Before subject IY54-FT4-U027 realized it, he could hear the crunching of his own boots on the snow below as he made his way toward the scene. It was in his nature to stop this travesty, this wasn't right, and he knew that somehow, despite all the indoctrination the legion gave him. Though letting go of the vast majority of the propaganda he had been fed would take a long time, but first steps must start somewhere.
“My brothers,” I called out. They all turned to me, except the hen, who was still trying to free herself. When it dawned on me that I didn't plan this out, I scratched the back of my neck. There was a faceplate on me, changing my voice to a generic human, emotionless tone. All the humans had their face plates on, no identification markers, everybody knew nobody. I stopped about twenty feet away from them. “I need to talk you comrades.” When they waited on me to continue, I waved my hand at the hen. “This isn't right, you should let her go.”
The three of them looked at each other. “We're not letting her go. She's our prize of war.”
After a pause, another said, “You shouldn't care, these things aren't human like us.”
I hated myself for this, but for some reason I couldn't look away, I wouldn't get into much trouble for something like this, but my comrades may begin to look down on me. Shaking my head, I confessed, “I can't let you do that.”
Sensing where this was going, they got up. We all stood there for a moment, neither did anything, then the hen rolled over to her belly and tried to crawl away. When the one in the back saw that their prize was making a move, he reacted. “No you don't you little-” He rose his thick boot high, aiming to crush her wing, when he brought it down, it all began.
Diving past the other two in a powerful bolt, subject IY54-FT4-U027 took down the assailant. The things that were fighting over the hen, were not completely human, they were a modified species that had humanity as it's genetic base, they're fighting reflected this, they were stronger, faster, and reacted to danger quicker. The human that would go by the name Charmer later, landed three blows on the assailant, his armored gloves meeting legionnaire armor.
When the two charged him from behind, he rolled out of the way, and assumed the open handed fighting stance. Realizing that he couldn't get locked into a one on one fight here, not without getting beat up. The one on the ground struggled to get back up, but he managed, ripping off his dented face armor. Showing a face that somewhat resembled Charmer himself. Must have been a similar model, perhaps a FT4 model human.
They all charged him head on, a huge mistake. Charmer was a U027 model, a line of humans with the added genetic material of the imperfect humans, one of the massive imperfect humans had given their seed over to the scientist of the empire, experimenting with the perfect genetic code of man and the more primal imperfect humans was taboo, but overlooked to create killing machines like Charmer.
The flurry of first ensued, though they were a bit more agile, Charmer was much stronger, denting their armor and just overpowering them with simple brute strength. The last one to fall didn't expect the round house kick that knocked him out, the U027 model was perceived as too simple minded to use martial arts effectively.
Hatred overwhelmed him, but he stopped himself, he wouldn't do something dishonorable. He had won, it was time to stop. They were still his comrades after all. Reverting to his training, he inhaled deeply, assuming the meditation hand sighs, and emptied his anger with an exhale.
The hen was looking over at him, mouth agape, not understanding how a creatures so big could move so quickly. Fear overtook her as the one who had bested her attempted rapist approached. She was shaking, tears ran down her face. Afraid of what was to come.
Charmer took several more steps closer, almost upon her. Taking his helmet off, he cooed, “Shhh, everything's going to be okay.”
When her face lightened up, he realized his tone had gotten through to her. I'll do what I can, but I hope that the POW camps won't be too hard on you. If I can just heal your wounds, you'll have a good chance of surviving us.
It was an extremely weird sensation, but Charmer opened his eyes, and saw the room he and Twilight were in. The sun poked over the horizon, shone through the curtain, and hit Charmer right in the eye with a beam of magic.
'It felt so real,' he thought, with Twilight still curled around his hand. 'Because it was,' his mind told him. 'Charmer,' his brain told him. 'I can feel drool on our hand,' Very groggy, Charmer looked out the window at the sun. 'Me too brain, me too.'
Wondering if Twilight would be hung over, Charmer gently nudged Twilight. “Twilight, it's morning,” the slave said in Modern Latin. The mare felt so warm by his side, in the best way possible.
The slave had fallen asleep with his cloak on, and he was beginning to feel the first traces of sweat linger on his well defined formed. He pulled Twilight a bit closer, not having felt pleasant physical contact in years, to the empire, subject IY54-FT4-U027 was just a tool to use and abuse, something to toss aside the moment it became inconvenient to wield.
He laid there a moment longer, shaking, those flashbacks always had an effect on him. His mind would never, no matter what it went through, forget what those unicorn put him through. After a sigh, Charmer gave Twilight another shake, a harder one, her eyes flickered open.
It was an unfavorable experience for Twilight, waking up in a bed that she didn't remember laying in. Her brain began examining her surrounding, while trying to think of how she got here. ’Okay, last thing I remember was coming to the city of Geneva. We went to the temple to get patched up, then... that drink... IT WAS ALCOHOLIC! I didn't- they didn't- SOMETHING TO TAKE THE EDGE OFF THEY SAID! WELL IT'S NOT OFF ANYMORE!’ Looking around at the cozy surroundings didn't help much. Twilight blinked, then realized a human hand was in her vice grip.
Immediately thinking of her horrible experiences with humans, she kicked it away and drew to the edge of the bed. She didn't scream, but she did gasp. By the time they locked eyes, Twilight almost had a heart attack. They both looked at each other in surprise, Twilight from finding she was holding some human's hand in her sleep, and Charmer from her reaction. She Sighed.
“Oh my. Oh... I thought for a second...”
“Uhhh...” The human appeared worried, with his hands out in front of him. “Sorry, Twilight.”
Twilight waved it off with her hoof. “No, no, you didn't do anything wrong Charmer.” A sense of pride took her when she realized that her human must have been looking after her when she was incapacitated. She leaned in closer and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You've been a good human, Charmer.” The mare hopped off the bed. “Time to get ready, Charmer. Rise and shine. We need to find out what's on the agenda today.”
After Twilight had fixed up her bed mane to the best of her ability without a comb, something which had been left behind when the carriage was destroyed. She walked down the hall with her slave by her side and went down the steps.
On the far side, in a corner surrounding a table, three griffins huddled around a set of empty glasses. 'Drinking already? Seriously?' Twilight approached them with caution, they didn't seem to be doing much talking, just staring at their own cups. Viggo was either sleeping or passed out, or both. Olaf wasn't present.
Felix and Garth looked up as Twilight approached. “Hey... guys. What happens to on the agenda for the day?”
The two conscious griffins looked at each other, then one answered, “Just lounging around is all, Princess Sparkle, waiting for the cavalry.” Garth chuckled at his own pun, being a little drunk.
Twilight tilted her head. “Say again?”
Garth cleared his throat, Felix seemed too disinterested to speak to the Equine and wouldn't even look at her. “Alf went last evening to the Griffin Kingdom, it's close by, so he’ll likely of reached it quickly. When he tells them what happened, they'll send a small hoard to retrieve our surviving forces.” Garth gave Twilight a level stare. “Meaning us.” Twilight nodded. “The reinforcements are taking a bit long, we'd thought they would be here by now, so we've just been killing time.”
“I see.” Twilight looked around. “So where is everybody else?”
Garth scratched his beak. “Let me see uh... Octavo was the first up, he set out to do some ritual or something, saw him doing something like that in the street. I think Accordance and Spike are still asleep. Olaf went off... somewhere.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
Garth chuckled. “Yeah, big fight.” The griffin pointed to his warlord and the door. “Olaf stormed off somewhere.”
“O-Oh... Okay. Well thank you.” Twilight turned to the door.
“Miss Sparkle, I just wanted to say,” when he paused he looked up to the human behind her, “that human of yours saved my ass out there. If there is ever a way I can repay him, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.”
Twilight beamed her crooked smile. “I didn't realize he did that... thanks.” She began walking to the door. “I'll let you know if I think of something, sir.”
Garth took a big gulp of his drink, and Twilight went out the door.
It was cold, very cold. Just when Twilight began to wonder what happened to her cloak, her slave brought it out and covered her with it. “Oh! Thank you so much Charmer. I can always count on you.” They both smiled at one another in understanding.
The snow level was kept relatively low due to the city workers, Twilight looked around in the quiet town. Most had their heads down, it felt quite but not eerie, like a library almost. It was something that Twilight could relate to, though she still preferred the atmosphere in Equestria.
It wasn't desolate, but just being here made Twilight feel, almost lonely, yet it didn't feel bad. More like she felt like she was waiting for something, like in a waiting room in a hospital. Everypony kept to themselves.
Trotting down the street, something caught her eye, on a platform that was raised from the street level was a wide building. It was a spacious piece of architecture that had highly decorative entrances with no doors. 'Didn't think I'd see something like that with this cold being the norm,' Twilight thought, though she did note the iron pits with burning flame arranged around the temple.
Walking up the steps she looked around, and sure enough he was there, on his haunches, eyes closed, his hooves together, and lips moving silently. Taking her time,Twilight took slow and small steps on her way over to him.
Before Twilight got to the distance where she decided she would stop and respect his traditions by giving him some time to finish his morning ritual, he smiled and opened one eye. “Princess Twilight, good to see that one among you can get up at a reasonable hour.”
Though a bit unsure of how to interact with him in these circumstances, she took a few steps forward. “Yeah, Spike has always loved to sleep in.”
Smiling again, Octavo motioned to the spot in front of himself.
Twilight walked over across from him. “So,” he began, “was there something you wanted to speak to me about?”
“Uhhh, no. Just wanted to have a little chat with you is all.” Charmer sat next to his master, cross legged again. “Is that a problem? If you're busy, I can-”
Octavo held out a hoof. “No, it's always a pleasure to talk to you Princess Twilight. Just reaffirming my commitment to Travafe is all.”
Twilight tilted her head. “Meaning?”
Octavo chuckled a bit. “I made a few vows to become accepted as Travafe's champion. Such as a vow of poverty, a vow of peace resolution, a vow of worship, a vow of commitment, a vow of secrecy of certain knowledge, a vow to always travel, just to name a few.” Octavo shrugged.
“Wow.” Twilight was watching him intensely. “I'm really surprised about that Octavo, especially the peace one.”
Although Twilight was just being sarcastic and didn't mean for it to be a real joke, he busted out laughing. “You really won't let that one go will you? Oh, strangle one guard and they label you, that's not fair. I've done some really amazing things for others in my travels.” Octavo was smirking at this point. “I barely even hurt him.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “If you say so.” Looking over at her human, she saw that he was clearly meditating.
Octavo had been keeping an eye on him ever since they came into view. “There's more to him than meets the eye isn't there?” Twilight and Octavo's eyes met. “Even I can see that much.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “At any rate, I was hoping you could help me with something.”
“Tell me.”
Twilight struggled to start. “Ever since Canterlot, and what happened there, I've been reading up on self defense books, I've been in several bad scrapes in my life, but only a few of them actually ended up in an actual fight. I'm a great duelist, but fighting for your life is so different.” Octavo nodded. “And, back there you were so amazing, and I thought... that may be...”
Octavo looked down and sighed. “I'm not interested in teaching just anypony how to fight.”
“Oh.” Twilight looked away. “I understand, no problem really.” Being shot down like this was hard, especially for Twilight, who looked forward to being a student again and learning.
Before she could get up though, Octavo smiled and looked up to Twilight. “However, you have a good moral character Princess Twilight, and you seem like you could make an excellent student. I'd be more than happy to teach you what I know.”
Twilight was smiling almost ear to ear at the prospect of learning all the knowledge this traveling stallion possessed. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll be your best student ever.”
“Well you are my first,” the champion mumbled in a thick accent. Twilight was too excited to notice. He cleared his throat, and got Twilight attention. “A few things though, I need to teach you some things relating to Travafe. I won't make you pledge your life or loyalty to him or anything like that. I won't try to make you abandon all your worldly possessions either, but there are a few ideological things I need you to accept, and understand. Just small things though.” He was waving a hoof, trying to physically dispel any idea he would make Twilight do weird priest-like things. “It'll make you better with dealing with fear, and more violent arcane arts...”
Twilight was nodding hard. “Alright, awesome, you got it.”
Thu human was looking over them, up at the sky.
“What can you teach me first?” Twilight asked. “I'm a fast learner! Could you show me how to do those fire spells?”
Octavo held his hoof up. “First lesson is...”
During the pause, the human got up, Twilight leaned forward trying to anticipate what the first spell Octavo would teach her would be.
“...breathing lessons,” Octavo finished. He leaned back, taking a deep breathe. “Now find your center.”
Twilight only looked crestfallen for a second, being the good student she was, she leaned back and did her best.
“Now find your center, that's above the belly, where your center weight is. Now envision it in your head.”
The human was walking around now, looking straight up. “I think I've found it,” Twilight answered. If Octavo opened his eyes he could have seen she was trying too hard, straining herself in what was supposed to be a relaxing meditation.
“Imagine there is an orb right where your center is, and-”
“Griffin here,” Charmer announced.
Both the equine looked at him, wondering why he said that. He pointed up, they continued looking at him. He pointed more violently, they wondered why he was doing that. The human sighed and walked away. “Never mind.”
'Where is he going?' Twilight asked herself. He was going down the steps now. “Hey Charmer don't go off on your o-” Now something in the sky caught her eye. “Hey the griffin are here.”
“Right on time,” said Octavo, getting up. “We'll start our lessons some other time, Princess Twilight.”