//------------------------------// // Prelude to War // Story: CCC-Back Home Again // by Fresnor //------------------------------// We left the Elements of Harmony memorial to find that very little time had passed since we went in there and I had to drag Twilight away from trying to study it. A simple promise to share what information I had on portals later was enough to get her to leave it alone as we made our way back towards my manor. As we are heading back I get a warning through the field around the manor that a dozen being have entered and are heading towards the place at a fast speed. “Twilight? Are you expecting anyone to be looking for you anytime soon at my place?” Twilight looks at me in confusion before she shakes her head. “Unless there is an emergency nopony should be searching for me and they would send up a signal flare first.” I narrow my eyes as the being have landed in front of my home while three of the four inside the manor are moving towards the front door. “Then it appears that we may have a major problem as there are a dozen flyers outside of the manor right now.” I don’t even bother to see how Twilight reacts before I take off running towards the manor using telekinesis to push off the ground for increased speed. I keep along the edge of the Everfree so that they don’t see me coming as I come up on the side of the building. I start to hear loud cracking sounds as I approach which confirms that the intruders are hostile. I put up a shield around me as I come around the side of the manor and see a squad of gryphons firing at the front door of my home. Seeing the gryphons attacking my home and subjects my mind flashes back to the sights that I saw back in New Sionnach. “Never again.” With those words my head whips back to unravel my weapon from my tail as it grows to its normal size and begins to extend. With one last burst of speed I bring my head around in an overhead motion before slamming the length of the whip down on the back of the front two gryphons, shattering the bones of their back and ribs. With another quick flick of my head sideways I send my weapon careening sideways to plow through six more of the gryphons across their heads, crushing beaks and skulls as it passes through them. By this time the other gryphons turn in my direction to see what just took out two thirds of their number in seconds, before changing their direction of fir towards me. I just glare at them as I retract my weapon towards me in a tight spiral as I charge up a spell through it. Catching sight of a blur I see Rose charge out of the building and tackle the nearest gryphon, tearing out its throat as I lunch my weapon forward sending it crashing into the breastplate of the center of the other three before releasing the spell sending multiple balls of flame from the whip into the sides of the remaining two gryphons. Their armor absorbs some of the impacts but is quickly overwhelmed by the barrage as the two burst into flames. After making sure that there are no more hostiles in the area I cleanse my weapon of any blood with my magic before coiling it up around my tails again. I take in a deep breathe, almost choking on the smell from the firearms, before letting it out again as I turn back to look for Twilight. She was approaching quickly and I noticed a red flare rising into the sky behind her as I feel more contacts in my territory. Turning towards town I spot a large group of pegasi flying our direction, more than I would have thought if they were just Twilight’s guards. “Flarenza! What in the world were you thinking charging in like that! You could have been killed! And what was that thing you were swinging around moments ago?!” I roll my eyes as Twilight starts shouting at me as she nears, though she may have a point as blocking those bullets drained me more than I expected. I look around first and note that my guards are fine, having been hiding behind a large shield that Cassidy uses, and Rose was prowling the area looking out for more danger. Seeing that things are safe for now I turn back to Twilight. “I already told you that I was no longer going to hold back if I could help it, and I really needed to let off some steam. Those gryphons may have been good shots, but they were rather lousy at fighting since they didn’t even try to dodge. As for what I was using…” I use my magic this time to levitate my weapon out and place it on the ground in front of me for Twilight to examine. “After the incident with my leg it really drove in how often magic doesn’t help and too often can make things even worse. It may not be the most conventional weapon, but I’ve gotten rather proficient with my rosary whip over the centuries.” Twilight examined it for a moment before she poked at it with a hoof which led to her eyes widening. She attempted to lift it with her magic, and I was a tad impressed that she could manage to lift it considering each of the beads weighed as much as a boulder. “Where did you get this from? I can sense at least a dozen different spells on it, yet it’s impossible how they are meshed together like this. A couple of them should even be canceling each other out, like the two affecting its weight, yet they don’t seem to be in conflict at all.” Twilight starts muttering to herself as she pokes at the whip as the incoming pegasi came in to land. One of the pegasi stallions, wearing armor much different from the others that had it, noticed that Twilight was distracted so turned to me instead of interrupting her. “What in Celestia’s name happened here? We saw the princess’s signal and came as fast as we could, but from the looks of things we weren’t needed at all.” I’m a bit surprised that he came to me, but I’m pretty sure some word has gotten around Twilight’s guard after the incidents yesterday. Looking around quickly I verified that none of the ponies that arrived were changelings before speaking. “Twilight and I were just returning from a short walk when I noticed the gryphons approaching my home. Since Twilight wasn’t expecting any company, and since nobody outside of Ponyville knows I’m back, I made a guess that they weren’t friendly. I went on ahead while Twilight followed and, upon seeing the gryphons attacking my guards, I began to neutralize the threat. The fight was over in seconds, though if any of them survive I highly doubt they are going to be any more trouble without some strong healers assisting them.” He looks over at one of the nearby gryphons and shudders a bit as it weakly whimpers as its burns are being treated. “I’m glad you’re on our side then. I’d hate to see what it takes to actually give you a challenge if you beat them that fast. I hope you left at least one of them alive enough to tell us what they were after.” I am curious about that as well, but since my arrival is still so recent, and Twilight’s visit wasn’t broadcast then there could only be one thing left. “I doubt they were able to find out that I’m here or of Twilight’s visit as they would have sent a more capable group. That means the only thing they could be here for is Aurora Dreams which is made more likely considering her recent accomplishments. She one of the few ways you have left to safely communicate with the warfront.” The stallion thinks for a moment then nods as he agrees with me. “That makes sense, it’s a good thing you were here to uncover that spy. Checks for changelings were supposed to be done regularly but for some reason they were stopped years ago with much of the information on them buried.” I wasn’t too surprised by this as it would have been required if changelings were to ever infiltrate the guard again. I looked around and saw that the corpses had already been cleared away while the couple surviving gryphons were getting airlifted back towards Ponyville. I was about to say something to the guard when a cry of surprise from Twilight interrupted me. Looking over at her I notice that she had backed away from my weapon a good distance and had a hoof pointing at it. “Flarenza! Why is this thing giving off an aura of having blood magic used on it?” I sigh as I remember what she said earlier about that kind of magic and how it was forbidden. “I should have known you would be able to identify much of what I used, but unless you’ve locked up all of your nurses and doctors then it obviously isn’t as bad as you’re thinking. In fact most branches of magic have good points to them if they are properly used.” Twilight isn’t quite ready to back down just yet as she starts pacing. “Good points! How can there be good points for murdering others for a bit of power? I also have never seen a doctor do something like that in all my life! How can you call any kind of healing magic such a horrid thing like blood magic?” I roll my eyes at Twilight, though from her reaction she must have seen the worst side of this magic before. “You do know that blood magic isn’t just about that right? Doctors use it often enough for controlling blood flows and identifying problems in relation to it. What you are sensing on my weapon is my own blood which I used to link it all together so that I could get the enchantments to mesh like they do. In fact if I didn’t use my own blood then I wouldn’t have been able to make my new leg because otherwise it wouldn’t be able to draw in what it needs to stay alive and would instead just be a fancy stick.” Twilight is looking a bit confused now as she tries to come up with a counter-argument. “If that’s true then why do doctors never have the taint of blood magic on them? Your leg doesn’t seem to have any on it either from what I can tell.” I just chuckle at her causing her to look offended. “Twilight, how would you even be able to tell if a doctor was using blood magic on a patient with all the blood around? As for my leg it’s the same problem as my blood is flowing through it will, so cut deep enough and it would bleed. The only reason blood magic has that taint is because of either the presence of blood or the corruption caused by stealing the life-force of another. Really, you should know by now that I’m very picky about what magic I use so I don’t cause a major catastrophe; like flooding an entire city or causing a town to chase after a doll.” Twilight actually blushes at my teasing, though I can tell she isn’t as angry as before, and tries to turn things around. “Well at least I’ve managed not to blow up my entire lab with myself in it.” I wince as the barb hits since I’ve done that a few too many times though we both start laughing at the silliness as Twilight continues. “Though I guess you are right about how some of the magic we use may be considered of a forbidden branch. At least they are still tight controls on who uses those spells and not many can actually do it anyways. Are there any other surprises I should know about ahead of time that might cause problems?” I wind my weapon back around my tails again as I think for a moment. “Well that depends on what you count as problems. Do you mean something other than bringing back a race of beings that Celestia has a grudge against or being the leader in control of a fleet of infamous pirates?” I smile as Twilight opens her mouth to respond when she realizes exactly what I just said and raises a hoof to her forehead. “Please tell me that was just a joke about the pirates. Every time I think I have an idea about what you’ve been up to all this time you keep throwing something else at me. Are you trying to drive me crazy?” I just can’t help but laugh as Twilight throws her hooves up in the air in frustration. “I think that may be the last surprise for a while, but no I’m not joking about the pirate thing. While they were so far away that they never really dealt with ponies often, they did manage to create a bit of a stranglehold on the shipping lanes in a wide area. While each ship had a kitsune captain, the most that many saw was the crew of all diamond dogs. For many centuries they were able to put fear into the area, yet they rarely, if ever, had to kill because many ships would surrender on sight. Even if they didn’t surrender there were few deaths since they were just that good at what they were doing.” Twilight was about to say something but pegasus guard, who I forgot was there, spoke up just then. “Wait, you don’t mean the Sea Dog Pirates do you? The rulers of the seas on the other side of the world? The ones that even Princess Celestia hasn’t been able to get much information on?” Twilight and I both stare at the stallion in shock before Twilight recovers. “Just how do you know about these pirates, Captain? If they are so far away why would stories about them be in Equestria?” The captain, which I should have expected given the odd armor he wore, kept staring at me with a look between fear and awe which was a bit uncomfortable. “I grew up in a fishing village. Colts and fillies were always threatened with stories of the Sea Dogs coming to take them away if they were bad. It was only after I joined the guard that I found out that they were real, but to actually see one of the rumored leaders of them was something I never thought would happen.” Turning to Twilight I just shrug as she shakes her head with a hoof at her temple. “Captain, go make sure the prisoners, what’s left of them, are secure. I’ll be back at the palace once I finish talking to my friend here.” The captain looks as if he is about to complain but after receiving a stern glare from Twilight he soon takes off back towards town. Once he is gone the purple princess turns towards me with a sigh. “When do you think that you’ll be heading to Canterlot to meet with Celestia? It’s been a while since I’ve talked with her face-to-face so I might as well join you.” I think for a moment and decide to rearrange my plans a bit considering how much the situation has changed since I made them. “I was planning on waiting a week, but with this attack I’d better go tomorrow. That’ll give me enough time to whip up something to help protect Aurora in case something like this happens again. It won’t be much but it’ll be better than nothing.” Twilight just smiles and shakes her head. “Knowing you it’ll be more than enough. I wish I could give her less dangerous deliveries but she’s really the only hope we have now of getting anything through to the front safely. Once you are ready just show up at my palace and I’ll have a carriage team fly us to Canterlot.” I nod as she begins her walk back towards Ponyville while I turn towards my guards. “Come on you three, we have a lot of work to do before tomorrow. Cassidy, you’re going to be with me when we go to meet with Princess Celestia in Canterlot. Butch, I’m going to need to send you as a messenger to a nearby group of diamond dogs so we can start gathering an army for war. Rose, you’re going to start some forays into the Everfree to round up any timberwolves you can find. Once the fleet arrives I’ll have a specific location to send you to for what I believe are four other alphas that have been around since before the split.” They each nod and head off to make whatever preparations they need for the next day while I head up to the attic. Once there I go through the small supply of gems that I still had looking for just the right one. Taking inspiration from what I had once done for the Cutie Mark Crusaders I decide to combine multiple gems into one new creation. Looking at the lightning bolt shaped gem I smile as I start to craft it into a silver bracer for Aurora. With a little extra effort I make the area around the gem look like the rest of her cutie mark. After I finish enchanting the gem with as many protection spells as possible I leave it on the bedside table in her room as I make a few other preparations. I write up a written proclamation to the diamond dog tribes, and seal it with the royal seal of Sionnach that I had found after the evacuation. I also enchanted a gem to hold a visual message as well as further proof that a kitsune royal was the one sending the message. With the important things completed I turned to the chores of lesser importance, that of preparing for the visit to Canterlot. Looking through what had already been unpacked by my guards I sigh as I realize that I’ll have to make things look good as this is going to be a royal visit from a new country to most of the population. While I would like to just go with my regalia for now, for proprieties sake I am forced to choose one of the royal robes I despise. With nothing else coming to mind that I need to do I make my final preparations for sleep as I ponder what the next day will bring. “I just hope that Celestia doesn’t just dismiss me out of hand. If I play my cards right then maybe I can keep her off balance long enough for her to listen.” Curling up in my bed I try to get comfortable, but sleep is a long time coming as I stare at the empty space next to me.