//------------------------------// // Soul of the streets // Story: Mages of the Immortals // by TornadoBlitz //------------------------------// A much wiser pony than most once said that everything in Equestria has a soul. This includes the wind that often is said to sing through the streets of all cities except Djeeneigh, where it weeps in sadness at what it sees there. On the day of the expulsion, the wind sings through the many boats in the marina, almost blessing them to have good voyages, then rushed through the gates and into the streets, wanting to see more of the happiness it has seen in all Equestria, but the moment it sees the ragged clothes, thin bodies and angry faces of Djeeneigh’s citizens, it almost becomes appalled and quietens to a whisper. Or at least that what it felt like to Soul Star, as another gust of wind battered him, creating goosebumps on his body as it went. He pulled his cloak around himself and kept walking trying to block out the cold. A sudden movement caught his attention and he sidestepped as an old stallion who staggered out of the alleyway and collapsed in the street. Soul Star offered a hoof to the stallion, but he seemed not to notice Soul Star. He rose to his feet and then rejoined the other hunched figures who made their way slowly down the street. Soul looked around to see what was the cause and discovered an earth pony guard, wearing blue armour and a look of disgust on his face as his eyes quickly looked from pony to pony. ‘Curse those guards,’ Soul Star thought, ‘May they find Zebrica poisonous roots in their armour.’ The names of a few friendly and helpful guards came to his mind, but Soul Star was in no mood for making exceptions. The guards in this city all worked for the noble houses, so they more served their interests rather than helping the majority of the citizens of Djeeneigh. There were good guard ponies, the guard of the Royal Pony Sisters for instance, were incredibly friendly and helpful. Unfortunately their visits were few and far between so often times Soul Star had to deal with the corrupt and black hearted guards of the noble houses. Following the steps of the other figures around him, Soul Star followed them out of the side street into a wider main street. The buildings on this street, all at least three storey houses, rose up either side of them. As often happened on today’s date, the upper windows of the buildings were crowded with faces. One in particular caught Soul’s attention, a well dressed mare was holding a small colt so he could watch the action below. The mare wrinkled her nose with disdain and the colt grimaced as if he had tasted something awful Soul glared at them. ‘You nobles are all the same. I’m more than willing to bet you couldn’t walk a mile in our hooves. I bet you wouldn’t have such looks if a rock was hurled at you.’ He looked around to see if any were there, but sadly there weren’t any. There was also the fact that even he had found one, he knew that he would get in trouble if he threw it, so he moved on. Up ahead, he saw a pair of guards at the entrance of an alley, these ones wearing green armour and looked to be twice as large as the ponies in the city. They carried menacing looking swords because if it was one thing the nobles did, it was made sure that their guards were well equipped to deal with attackers. Soul passed by the two ponies. “...plan is to cut them off before they reach the square,” One of the guards said to another. “There are about thirty ponies, with a Pegasus gang leader, said to have scar on his cheek and-“ Soul Froze, his heart was starting to beat quicker. ‘They aren’t talking about them…. Were they?’ Just ahead, Soul spotted a recessed doorway and quickly hid in it. If the guards were talking about who Soul suspected they were, then some of the only friends he had would be in trouble. He looked from his hiding spot trying to get a better look and found two dark blue eyes staring right back him. A foal gazed at him, eyes wide with surprise. Soul took a step back and the stranger did the same. Soul then smiled and let out a small laugh. ‘Just a reflection,’ he thought. Soul then took a better look at himself through the polished piece of metal. There were words scratched into it, however Soul did not know how to read so he could not make them out. Soul took in his reflection. A white foal with a black mane and tail, a thin-hollowed face and body and no cutie mark. Nestled in his mane however was what he considered his curse. A horn slightly jutted out of his hair. In Djeeneigh, being a unicorn not from a noble house was dangerous. In some instances, being a unicorn, you could get adopted into a noble house and they would teach you to control magic. However, it was clear that it was only to have a trophy to show to the other nobles that they could be good to the people as well as the other nobles, often times with the orphans being treated like dirt to the point where they wonder if they were better off back on the streets. In other cases, the guards would just exile you outright because they did not want to deal with the responsibility of training a unicorn to control magic because of the potential damage they could cause. Either way, the family that he lived with, a Pegasus family, had gone to enormous lengths to hide Soul’s horn, brushing his mane in order to hide it and telling Soul to always wear his cloak if ever he left home. Soul never knew his real parents. He had heard conflicting opinions about what happened: Some say that his parents died at the hands of the guards, others had said he was abandoned and his parents had left him to die. Soul, however did have one memento from his parents. A pendant, that he always wore around his neck. He quickly opened it up to reveal a picture of his parents, two unicorns, looking back at him. His father was white with a red mane while his mother was light blue with a black mane. His father was holding his mother and the roundness of the mare's stomach showed that she was heavily pregnant, almost ready to give birth. Their faces had wide smiles, a couple looking like they were ready to be parents. Soul shed a tear when he saw the picture, even though he never met his parents he did miss them greatly and wanted to meet them. Soul then looked back at his reflection, his father had been a handsome stallion. Maybe when he grew up, Soul could be as handsome as he was. “-bout ten minutes ago,” One of the guards said, jogging Soul’s memory back to the task at hand, remembering why he was hiding there in the first place. “And where are they trapping them?” “I don't know, but I would love to see it.” “Me too. I was there when those punks attacked Sword Striker last year. He still has nightmares about that, he couldn’t open his eyes for a week afterwards and his injuries took a further three. Hey I wonder if you and I could get – Oi! Wrong way boy!” As the guards were talking Soul, had sprinted out into the street, knowing that the guards wouldn’t follow him. If they left their position, ponies could take advantage of it and slip down the alleyway unnoticed. Soul weaved his way through the increasing thickening crowd, hoping to find familiar faces. He had now no doubt who those guards were talking. Stories about what Cloud Runner’s gang, otherwise known as the Wing Brigade, had done during the last expulsion had been entertaining to hear during the long winter months. It was good to hear that his friends were giving the guards a hard time. He used to be a part of the gang and it was fun pulling pranks on guards, but after his foster mother found out what they were doing, she made him promise her that he wouldn’t continue doing his work. Otherwise, his identity as a Unicorn could be found out. Now it seemed that the guards were going to spring a trap on the gang and get their revenge. ‘She’d kill me if she found out what I was doing, but I need to do this! My friends need me. It’s not like I’m gonna join back up with them.’ Soul kept looking around, hoping to find one of the gangs lookouts. He looked around a little more and… there! A lookout, an Earth Pony colt, was quickly looking between two alleyway entrances trying to see if any guards were coming his way. His gaze then found Soul’s. Once it did, Soul quickly did what anyone else on the street would interpret as a crude sign, not knowing its true intentions. The Earth Pony narrowed his eyes suspiciously, however gestured for Soul to come over to him. Confident that he had found a genuine lookout, Soul came over and produced a small cloth he was hiding in one of the cloak pockets. The earth pony stretched out his foot and Soul pretended to scrub it. “Who are you with?” he asked, looking away from Soul. “No one.” Soul replied. “You used an old sign.” “Haven’t been around the Brigade in a while.” The earth pony colt started, eyeing Soul suspiciously. “What is your business with the Brigade?” he asked. “To give a warning,” Soul said, “I overheard the guards. They are planning to ambush the gang.” The lookout looked directly at Soul as if he had just said the most ridiculous thing in the world. “That’s a tall claim you’re making,” he said, “Why should I listen to you?” “Because Cloud Runner is a personal friend of mine. He trusts me.” The Earth Pony started eyeing Soul suspiciously again, which made sense considering it was a tall claim to have Cloud Runner as a personal friend. While Soul was sincere about what he said, the earth pony was right to be unsure. It also didn’t help that Soul was a Unicorn and most of the Wing Brigade were Pegasi, so there was also that to consider. “Well then, let’s see if Cloud Runner remembers you,” the earth pony said, pushing Soul forward and guiding him through the crowd, some of the guards started eyeing the pair. “Hey! You don’t have to take me to him,” Soul said, getting worried that he will get too deep in the crowd, “Just tell him my name. He knows I wouldn’t mess him around.” The colt ignored him, continuing to push him forward. Soul tried to get out of his way, however he kept moving his hooves to block off his path. “Please,” Soul pleaded, “My name is Soul Star, Cloud Runner knows me, so does Shadow Eye.” “Well then you shouldn’t mind meeting them again,” the colt said, pushing Soul forward again. Ahead of them, they could see a commotion going on as ponies ran towards them. Soul could see why and sighed. He was never going to get back to his foster parents at this rate. He was supposed to meet up with them, but that was looking as if it wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Instead, he focused on what was ahead. He could see why people were running. There was a line of guards ponies, the line stretching across the street with their shields held high. Ahead of them were ponies Soul recognised as members of the Wing Brigade, pacing on their side of the invisible battle ground, shouting insults and jibes at the guards. Soul watched on as he did, one of the youths threw a small rock shaped object at one of the guards, when it hit his shield it exploded spraying dust over the guards. The guards moved back a few spaces, which elicited a round cheers and more insults from the Wing Brigade. Soul noticed two other ponies a few paces behind the guards. One was taller and had become bulkier since the last time Soul saw him, but it was unmistakably Cloud Runner. It had been two years since Soul had run with the Wing Brigade and Cloud Runner had done a lot of growing since then. Even though Cloud Runner looked more like a teenage colt, he didn’t seem to have changed much in the intervening years, if the way he was acting was anything to go by. In a way, it was kind of nice to see that. Cloud Runner was always a friendly pony, very welcoming of others like him; however, if you disputed his leadership, he would not hesitate to put you in your place with a good hoof straight to the face. Beside Cloud Runner was a colt about half his size and Soul couldn’t help but smile at that. The name of the smaller colt was Shadow Eye and it was clear that he hadn’t changed much in the intervening time either, and Soul knew how much that annoyed him. Despite his stature, Shadow was always thought of highly in the gang because of how much he looked like his father, a master thief who taught Shadow and the others to fight back against the guards. Shadow's father was part of the Cloaked Dagger, a thieves gang with an infamous reputation in the city and beyond. Whether or not Shadow’s father was grooming the Wing Brigade to be the next generation of Cloaked Dagger was anyone’s guess. As the lookout brought Soul closer to the pair, Cloud Runner gave the command and the gang threw more packages of dust at the guards and it was rather satisfying to see the guard ponies cry in pain. The smile that was forming on Soul’s face soon disappeared when he notice a hooded figure walking past the guards. “MAGE!” he shouted. The lookout gasped in surprise. “OI! MAGE!” he shouted, as the guards gave the newcomer a weird berth, whether it was out of respect or fear was unknown and the youths started backing away from him. Suddenly, a blue glow appeared on the robed figure’s forehead and a hot gust of wind blasted at the youths. A foul smell hit Soul like a frying pan to the face as the dust that the youths had been using was now turned against them. The stinging was horrid, but Soul did not cry out. He refused to show weakness in front of nobles and mages.   “RUN!!!” Cloud Runner roared and the youths sprang into action, running as fast as their legs could carry them away from the guards. With a yelp, Soul noticed that the lookout had picked Soul up, placed Soul upon his back, and started running away. They didn’t get very far as Soul saw to his horror that another set of guards was there. He had come to warn about the trap, but now he was right in the middle of it. ‘Why did Fate have to be cruel?’ However it seemed that the brigade had already prepared for this encounter so they ran at full speed at the guards, who held up their shields in preparation. Just before contact was made the youths ran into the nearby alleyway. “Down!” somepony yelled, and the lookout threw himself on the ground, throwing Soul off him and onto the cobblestones. Soul heard screams from behind and looked back. The guards had tried to enter the alleyway behind them, but their armour and shields could not fit without going single file. This in turn allowed the other brigade members to throw a cloud of red dust on them. “Soul Star?” Soul Star looked up at the voice’s source and smiled as he saw Shadow Eye. “He told me that the guards were preparing to ambush us,” the lookout said, coming over to where Soul fell. “We knew,” Shadow said. He looked like he was going to say more, but he saw that the guards were starting to recover themselves. “Come on, guys! Let's get out of here!” Soul stood up and followed Shadow down the alleyway until a flash of light filled his vision. “What is that?” “The Mage!” Shadow growled “RUN!” Cloud shouted. Half blind, Soul stumbled forward letting Shadow, who recovered his vision first, guide Soul towards the road. Soul then recovered his vision and, with the other youths, burst out of the alleyway and ran down the street. They then slowed down, pulled up their hoods, and slowly walked down the street in silence. When they were a safe distance away, the tall figure of Cloud Runner came beside Shadow Eye to look at Soul. “Hey! Looky who we got here,” Cloud Runner said, eyes wide in surprise. “Soul Star!! What in Equestria are you doing here?” Soul smiled back. “Getting in trouble, no thanks to you.” “He said that he was coming here to tell us that the guards were coming to ambush us,” Shadow Eye said. Cloud Runner waved his hoof dismissively “We figured that the guards were looking for some payback after what happened last year, so we took steps to make sure that we would get the last laugh,” Cloud Runner answered, almost absurdly pleased with himself. Thinking back on the members of the Brigade stationed on top of those buildings, it all made sense to Soul. “I should’ve guessed you knew about this trap already, it figures that I’m always the slowest to get the news.” “So where have you been? It’s been…. Years?” “Two years,” Soul said, “I’ve been living in the North Quarter. Storm Light got us a room in a stay house.” “I heard the rent stinks, just because you’re the walls of the city.” “It does, but we manage.” “How?” “Mending odd things, like clothes, and Storm Light and Breeze Dancer also clear out the clouds around the noble homes for more money.” “Doesn’t sound fun,” Shadow noted. As Soul looked at his friend, he could see that while he hadn’t grown much in two years, Shadow seemed more confident and more daring since the last time he saw him. He also wore a new cloak, which was almost definitely filled with more pockets made for storing knives, lock-picks, and those sweets that he loved so much. Even if Shadow’s father’s motives for teaching us tricks and moves was not to make the next generation of the Cloaked Dagger gang, Shadow Eye was pretty much set on joining them. “If that is the case, then why are you here?” Cloud asked, Soul’s demeanour changed to one of sadness. “A lot of ponies in our stay house are being thrown out, order of the king. Says that it's not clean. The guards came and threw them out this morning. My family was lucky that the nobles stepped in, saying that my parents were useful to them for the services they do.” Cloud Runner then muttered a foul curse and Shadow rubbed tears from his eyes. Soul was grateful for their sentiment, but it didn’t change the facts. The ponies that lived in that stay house were good ponies, many of them were his friends, and now with one word, everything that they had done was gone in an instant. They barely had enough time to get their things before they were thrown out. “So where are they now?” Cloud asked. “I was wandering around, looking for the old place I stayed in, see if there is any rooms there.” “If there isn’t, send them to me,” Shadow said. “My dad and I can help them out.” Soul nodded, “Will do.” As they followed the crowd, it finally spilled into a plaza. This was the North Quarter, where the markets were held each week, whether they be small local ones or the larger kind, bearing food and treasures from other parts of Equestria. Soul, Shadow, and Cloud stopped at the centre of the Plaza, where a pool of water stood with the statue of one of the rulers of Djeeneigh. Djeeneigh was once a city state, proud of its heritage before becoming part of Equestria. While the royal pony sisters were the true rulers here now, Djeeneigh still kept hold of their monarchy, albeit one with less power. The king that the statue represented was King Silver Sword, one of the more favourably looked monarchs in Djeeneigh history, but was routed by bandits when his body started to show the signs of his age and his many battles. There had once been another statue standing here of a different king, however the level of hatred and disgust that king had garnered from the citizens that were not nobility had led to brave ponies taking hooks and tearing down the statue. That king had been King Silver Axe. Over the years, many statues had been erected of this king, but only one has survived until today and even that one is said to have been defaced. The reason being is that it was King Silver Axe that started the yearly expulsions. Soul’s foster father, Storm Light, had told him the story before. Djeeneigh had only recently become a part of Equestria and a lot had changed, not all of it for the better. When Djeeneigh applied for Equestrian membership, the city was looking it's very best, Soul wasn't born at the time but Storm Light had told him about beautiful the city was. Even the outer circle was shining and at the time it seemed that all of the ponies, Nobility and commoner, were united. Once Djeeneigh became part of Equestria, the whole city rejoiced, but that joy was not to last. Like all empires, Equestria kept records on how each region was doing, such as employment numbers, average income and other stuff like that. Needless to say, with the amount of slum dwellers there were, it didn't paint Djeeneigh in the best light. Fearful of their reputation, The King, whose title was now Magistrate of Djeeneigh and nobles, who were mostly Unicorns, ordered the guard to drive out all beggars, vagrants, and suspected criminals out of the city, most of which were Earth Ponies and Pegasi. Those of the expelled who could fought back against the guard. Facing the continuous street riots, Silver Axe turned to the Mage’s Guild for help. No matter how strong the weapons the rebels had were, no weapon could defend them from magic. The riots didn’t last long and after its success, the king ordered yearly expulsions, saying that the city would be purged. In the eyes of the inspectors, the plan worked, Djeeneigh started climbing the ladder to become of the best cities in Equestria. This expulsion seemed exceptionally important though. According to some ponies he had heard from, the princesses were coming to Djeeneigh. This had sent the nobles into a frenzy, telling the mages they had to be thorough with this expulsion in order for the city to look its best. Looking at the nearby clock tower, Soul felt a pit form in his stomach. “I have to go,” Soul said, but Shadow stopped him. “You can’t go yet,” Shadow said, “I’ve been looking for you for two years!” Soul shook his head. “I’ve been gone too long. I need to get home otherwise Storm and Breeze will scold me.” “Still afraid of their scolding, are you?” Soul gave Shadow a look that said, “Of course I’m still scared.” Shadow sighed and handed Soul a packet. “This is the stuff we used against the guards. If you’re ever in trouble, throw this at the guards. It will blind them and give you your chance to run.” “Not useful against mages,” Soul said, remembering what happened to them when the mage showed up with the guards. “Got one once, when he wasn’t expecting me,” Shadow said, with more than a hint of pride, “Anyway, the mages make a barrier, so it’s not useful now.” “So then you throw stones?” Soul asked, “Why bother?” “Feels good to do it,” Shadow responded, “We can’t not do it. It would seem that we’ve given up trying to oppose the expulsions, and you know as well as I that it will never happen.” Soul looked at the other youths, all brimming with anticipation with the plan. Storm Light had always forbidden him from doing this and even when he was running with the gang, he didn’t throw stones at the mages. He never saw the point. Just then, Cloud and the rest of the brigade started getting into position to start throwing stones. “Come on, it’ll be fun,” Shadow said. Soul shook his head in reply, causing Shadow to say, “Come on, you can watch from the side.” “But…” Soul said, gesturing up to his hair. “Oh right, the horn,” Shadow said, pulling his scarf off and wrapping it around Soul’s head. He then put his the cloak hood back on Souls head. “There, now no pony can tell!” Shadow said, “Now come on, I am not losing you again.” “Alright, fine,” Soul said, realizing that his friend was not going to let him leave until he saw this. The crowd had grown in the plaza, however as the gang made their way through the crowd, they were not met with retaliation, but encouragement. Some ponies handed Soul rocks and rotten fruit to use against the mages. A hum of excitement ran through the crowd, as the ponies that didn’t want to get involved, including Soul’s foster parents had already either exited through the north gate or were in their houses. The ponies who were left were simply a show of defiance, no matter how pointless it was. As they moved forward and came to the edge of the crowd, Soul felt whatever confidence he had in this movement drain away because, not twenty paces away from where they were standing, stood a row of mages. Instead of panicking, Soul took a deep breath and calmed down. He knew that the mages wouldn’t move until they were ready to drive the crowd out of the city, no reason to be afraid. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t help but feel a shiver go down his spine. He had never dared to be this close to a mage before and this was the only chance he ever had to look at them up close. It was a combination of both Mares and Stallions and they all wore long robes. There were about 10 of them, either on their own or in pairs. What struck Soul most though was their ages, some of them looked very young while others looked ancient. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cloud pull back his front leg and throw a stone against the magicians. Despite the fact he knew what was going to happen, Soul held his breath. The stone bounced off the shield the mages had and tumbled harmlessly to the ground. Some of the mages turned to see the missiles fly before they turned back to their conversations. Soul stared at the place where the magicians’ barrier hung. He could see nothing. Moving forward, he took out one of the lumps in his pockets, drew his front leg back and hurled it with all his strength. It disintegrated as it hit the invisible wall, and for a moment, a cloud of dust hung in the air, flat on one side. He heard a low chuckle and turned to see an older mare smiling at him. “Not a bad throw, little foal,” she said, giving Soul another stone to throw. Soul smiled back at her and then turned back to the mages, taking a few steps closer. He could see the annoyance on their faces. It was clear that they hated being defied, but it was clear that something was stopping them from confronting the interlopers. One of them, a particularly well groomed red stallion turned to his companion, a slightly older looking mare. “Pathetic vermin,” Soul heard him say, “When can we get rid of them already?” That comment hit Soul right in the gut. He took the stone the mare had given him, a heavy one and then focused on the mages, letting all his hatred and anger for them combine to become a tangible force. He hurled the stone as hard as he could at the speaker. He traced the path that the stone was flying and as it reached the barrier, he willed it to pass through, using all of his inner strength to wish for it. As he did so, the scarf from around his head fell and his horn lit up with a yellow aura. There was a flash of yellow light and the rock slammed into the mages temple with a thud. The stallion stood unconscious for a second before his knees gave way and he fell only to be caught by his colleagues. Soul stood there, frozen in place with his mouth wide open, shocked by what he had done. The jeers of the Wing Brigade stopped and then turned into cheers and the mages started exclaiming about what happened. ‘I did it,’ Soul thought, ‘I broke through their barrier, but that’s not possible unless…’ Then he look up and saw the scarf had fallen and his horn was showing. ‘I did magic’ A shiver rushed through Soul. He had never used magic before because no one was ever around to teach him. He remembered that he focus all of his hatred and anger, he had followed its path and willed it to break the barrier. Something in him started to stir, as if willing him to keep going and do it again. Looking up, he saw several mages gathered around their fallen friend, with most of them turning out into the crowd to find who was responsible. ‘They’re looking for me,’ Soul thought, terrified by that prospect. Luckily they hadn’t seen him and were looking elsewhere. ‘They didn’t know it was me,’ Soul thought, relief flooding through him Then he saw that the others were backing up under the mages punishing glares, Soul decided to follow suit. Then the older mare from earlier got up, unlike the other mages, her eyes looked directly with Soul’s, and with one look from her showing that she saw the white spec that was his horn under his dark hair. She pointed her hoof directly at him and the other mages then locked their eyes onto Soul’s. As they began to light up their horns, Soul felt a true surge of terror and quickly turned and bolted. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other youths running as well. As he was running, he saw several flashes before him before his vision was engulfed in flames and the heat caught up with him and he fell to the ground, gasping for breath. For some reason, Soul wasn’t in pain. He looked down to see to his relief that his body was still intact. When he looked up, ponies were still running away, despite the loud, amplified order. A burning smell caught Soul’s attention and he turned around to see to his horror that there was a corpse of the one of the wing brigade, face down in the pavement just a few feet away. Soul felt his stomach twist to the point of nausea. "STOP!!" A voice rang out, powerful and feminine. The voice was coming from above and as everypony who was still in the square looked up and froze at what they saw. Soul looked up to see a sky carriage, being led by ponies in golden armor. The Royal Guard! Soul thought But that means... In a flash of movement, three mares flew out of the carriage, The Princesses. Unlike all other pony races, the princess were alicorns, immortals and sharing the best qualities of every pony race. Soul had never seen them this close, but he immediately understood why all ponies were in tremendous awe of them. Their expressions stern, they turned to see the dead colt and then turned their gaze to Soul. Soul quickly took a few paces backwards before whatever courage he had left evaporated and he sprinted away. "STOP! WE WON'T HARM YOU!" Soul did not listen and kept running. He caught up with the crowd running through the north gate, darting around ponies legs and trying to get as far away as possible. However, several hooves grabbed him and pulled him into an alley, all to see the eyes of Cloud Runner.