//------------------------------// // XLIV - Strength Above All Else // Story: Mortal Coil // by Reeve //------------------------------// “Welcome to Olympus,” Rainbow Dash announced as we stepped through the slowly opening gates. “Pretty sweet, huh?” Fluttershy and I looked over the entrance plaza, it was a wide square with a raised dais occupying most of the floor space, a giant marble statue of a pegasus dominating the scene in the very centre of the area atop an ornate pedestal. Similar to Arclight, there were a number of steps that led to higher levels of the city; however there weren’t many that remained solid, as the majority of the higher levels were part of the cloud sector of the city. Fluttershy looked in awe at the pearly white structures, but my eyes focused on the ponies that were wandering about the place. I could see dozens of ponies in this one plaza wearing silver Dragoon armour, and almost everypony carried some kind of weapon, whether they were soldiers or dressed like ordinary citizens. Once the gates were closed once more, a pegasus fluttered down from the top of the wall, landing in front of Rainbow Dash. “Nice cape,” she pointed out first. “Finally kicked Garnet’s ass?” “He didn’t even put up a fight,” Rainbow replied, before looking over at the soldiers that were now under her command. “You guys can hit the barracks early; I’ll have to report in anyway.” The other Dragoon soldiers all dispersed, looking quite cheery at being relieved early. “So why today?” the new mare asked. “I thought you were keeping your head down?” “Some travellers,” Rainbow explained, nodding towards us. “Garnet was making a tool of himself…” “As usual,” the mare cut in with a smirk. “As usual,” Rainbow agreed, returning the grin. “But this time he went too far, so I stepped in.” “He must have done something really rotten,” the mare commented. “So is he dead or what?” “Unfortunately not,” Rainbow replied without a hint of remorse. “Just out cold, if he doesn’t come in before nightfall you should probably send somepony out to drag him in.” “I’ll see if I can find somepony who cares enough to do it,” the mare offered. “Because I sure as hay don’t care about him, so what will you do now? You’ve kind of made yourself a target.” “I’m aware,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Hopefully this will go by unnoticed…” The mare let out a bark of laughter. “And if it doesn’t…” Rainbow continued, ignoring the interruption. “Well then things are gonna get messy.” “I look forward to it,” the mare replied with a gleeful smile. “Let me know in advance, I want a front row seat in the Coliseum when it kicks off.” “Will do,” Rainbow replied half-heartedly. “Anyway, I have to go report in about what just happened. If I’m going to paint a target on my back, you can be damn sure I’m getting a pay rise for it.” “Alright, I’ll see you later Dash,” the mare waved, already taking off to return to her post on the wall. “Later Dew Drop,” Rainbow responded over her shoulder as she started walking towards us. “Well I’ve got places to be, but don’t let that stop you from lookin’ about the place. If you need a place to stay, I suggest checking that hotel over there out.” I followed Rainbow’s gaze to see one of the large building that filled out most of the left side of the plaza. “It’s not bad, and they’d probably appreciate the business,” Rainbow explained. “Celestia knows we don’t get enough travellers these days.” “We’ll be sure to stop in and get a room,” I replied appreciatively. “Alright, sweet,” Rainbow stated, glancing up at the sky to check the time. “Anyway, I need to rush here, but some advice for staying in Olympus; if anypony bothers you just kick his ass.” “I’ll be sure to bare that in mind,” I responded with a nervous titter. “Well, I might catch you later,” Rainbow said as she began walking away. “If I do, I know a pretty neat club we can hit.” Without waiting for a response or offering a more substantial goodbye, she spread her wings and took off into the sky, quickly disappearing into the cloud level. “What an odd mare,” Fluttershy murmured softly before turning to look at me. “Shall we go to that hotel now?” “Might as well,” I replied. “We can also ask the owners for directions, two birds.” “Where?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes darting about overhead. I couldn’t help but laugh at that as I lead the way to the building Rainbow Dash had indicated. As we made our way across to the hotel, I made a quick detour up the steps of the dais to check out the statue up close. It was big enough that I could see it depicted some pegasus in full battle regalia as soon as we entered through the gates, but what I wanted to see was the name plaque on the pedestal. It read ‘Commander Hurricane, founder of Equestria’, I gave a little snort at the fat they accidently left out the words ‘one of the’. Walking up to the hotel, I instantly felt my stomach churning as I thought about how much they would charge us to stay in a place as obviously upper-class as this ‘Stratus Hotel’. As we made our way through the door and across the wide lobby to the desk where a single receptionist sat with her head on the desk, snoring loudly, I became very grateful for the cut Pinkie gave us from her pirate booty. We stepped up to the desk and glanced at each other awkwardly, unsure how to go about waking the mare. “Um, excuse me?” Fluttershy said in a voice that would have been difficult to hear if the mare was awake. “Um, Miss, if it’s not too much trouble…” Fluttershy screamed loudly as I slammed my hoof down on the gold bell, if the bell itself didn’t wake the mare, then Fluttershy’s reaction most certainly did. “Wha… huh…” the mare muttered, drool dripping down from her lips as she snapped her head up. “Y… yeah, can I help you?” “Yes, we were hoping…” I began in a clear voice, only to be interrupted by the mare who suddenly started panicking. “If you’re here to collect the money we owe you, then we just need a few more days!” she insisted, her eyes growing wide. “Give us one week and we can get it together.” “Actually… we were hoping to get a room for a couple of nights,” I corrected her, sharing another awkward glance with Fluttershy. “A room?” the mare repeated, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she just heard. “A room?! Of course! Most certainly! It would be our pleasure, how many nights? Only a thousand bits.” Fluttershy and I backed up slightly, her sudden enthusiasm sending us reeling slightly. “Um, but the sign says there are rooms for twenty bits per night,” Fluttershy informed her, pointing to the price chart behind her. The mare looked back before slumping her shoulders and sighing. “Yeah it does,” she admitted before adding in a low whisper that I just managed to catch. “I knew I should have taken that down.” “Sorry, but we can’t help you with your debt problem,” I told her honestly as we pulled all the money we had out. “It’s fine, I really should be more pleased that anypony showed up today,” the mare replied. “Business is slow I take it?” I said sympathetically. “Slow is an understatement,” the mare stated bitterly. “I’ve seen glaciers that were faster, we’ve only got three rooms occupied in this entire building at the moment. We’ve had to take out massive loans just to keep it open, although I don’t see the point anymore, those damn Dragoons have made this city toxic. Hardly anypony comes to visit anymore, and those that do just aren’t enough to keep us afloat.” “I’m sorry,” Fluttershy told her, looking awfully guilty. “It’s okay… uh, Sister?” the mare replied, looking a little confused before deciding to ignore it. “All we can hope to do now is get enough to pay off our debt so we can get out of Olympus and start anew somewhere else. So how many nights shall I put you down for? You’re sharing a room I presume?” “Yes, we are,” I confirmed. “And we’ll pay for two nights, we’re not sure if we’ll need to stay longer.” “Dare I even offer meals?” the mare asked, sounding slightly hopeful. “I guess we could spare extra for that,” I replied, seeing her brighten up slightly. “I think we’re pretty much out of travel supplies anyway.” “Alright, just give me a moment to get this written up,” the mare said as she tapped the details into the till while simultaneously writing them into a ledger with her magic. “Would you like your key now, or will you be going out?” “We’ll get it when we come back,” I told her. “We were hoping you could give us directions somewhere.” “Of course, I won’t even charge you for it,” she replied with a small laugh. “We need to find Iron Sights,” I informed her, at which point her face paled. “Do you know where in the city he holds office?” “You want to see… you know what, I’m not even going to ask questions,” the mare said firmly. “His office is in the Pantheon, but that’s in the cloud portion of the city, and the toll booths are closed.” “All the cheaper then,” I responded, smirking at Fluttershy. “No, you don’t understand,” the mare cut in quickly. “The toll booths are where non-pegasi buy cloud walker spells.” “I’ll be fine,” I assured her, grabbing my amulet and waving it in her face. “So where exactly is the Pantheon?” “It’s at the very highest point,” the mare explained. “It’s a huge building with a domed roof and lots of pillars at the front, you can’t miss it.” “Alright, once we’re sorted here we’ll go straight over there,” I said to Fluttershy, pulling out our money bag. “Who knows, we might get lucky and this won’t take very long.” With our room paid for, we left the hotel and followed the walkways and signs to the nearest toll booth. It was nothing more than a tiny hut with a door on one side and a pay window on the other, as the mare had said, there was nopony inside. We walked right past it to where the stone floor cut away, replaced instead by a cloud staircase that led to the next level up. Fluttershy walked straight on without any bother, I stayed back and fiddled with my amulet first, turning the stone so the amulet heated up in my hoof. Taking a breath and praying that Maverick hadn’t botched the spell, I took my first step out on to the cloud platform. My hoof didn’t immediately sink through which was a positive sign; I tested the one hoof for a few more seconds before risking the rest of my body. Naturally I had never stepped on a cloud before, but I was surprised to find that felt rather spongy, like trying to walk over a soft mattress or a sturdy cake. The feeling was a little disorienting and it took me a while to stop stumbling over my hooves. Fluttershy just looked back at me while I imitated a baby deer, trying to hide her obvious amusement. I tried to remain stoic and not let it get to me however, which wasn’t easy when my legs constantly felt like they were made of marshmallow. It was getting late into the afternoon, but there were still plenty of ponies out and about, up in the cloud sector it was pretty much the same story as when we first entered the city. Almost everypony was carrying some sort of weapon on them, and plenty wore full Dragoon armour. I imagined for the first time I didn’t stand out with a sword and three knives strapped to my belt, but still, something about the whole sight bothered me for all the wrong reasons. “Fluttershy,” I began tentatively as we made our way further up the city. “Is it just me or… or is Olympus way more peaceful than everypony made it out to be?” “I was thinking the same thing,” Fluttershy replied with a nod. “Maverick said that everypony was constantly fighting for power and oppressing the weak, even that stallion in Breakwater said it was madness here, yet I haven’t seen anything of the sort.” I just frowned as I looked around at the ponies going about their daily business; they all either carried themselves with what appeared to be sense of superiority, or looked constantly suspicious of every other pony around them. “Maybe things have settled,” I proposed. “Maybe the strongest have already proven themselves and the rest have accepted it.” “That doesn’t sound like a very nice way to live,” Fluttershy commented with a sad look. We reached the Pantheon without any trouble, the mare had been right when she said we couldn’t have missed it, it really was the peak of the towering city. We strode confidently up to the entrance, which was guarded by a dozen Dragoon soldiers, who each stood with their backs to one of the pillars that comprised the face of the building. I led the way to the space between the centre two pillars, I figured the guards wouldn’t cause a problem what with how many ponies I could see bustling about inside the building itself, but I was brought to a very sudden halt when two halberds were crossed before me, blocking my path. “Business?” one of the guards asked in a bored tone. “Um, we need to speak with Iron Sights,” I informed him, glancing back at Fluttershy who gave me a wary look. “That’s Marshal Iron Sights,” the guard corrected, his eyes narrowing at me. “Really?” I began before I could stop myself. “I heard he got demoted.” I could almost hear Fluttershy cringing behind me, but I didn’t look around to see if she was or not, as I was too busy trying to keep the half dozen guards who’d heard my comment and were now staring at me with undisguised fury in my sights. “What is your business with the Marshal?!” the guard snapped at me. “We need to talk with him,” I repeated calmly. “About what?!” the guard demanded. “And if you don’t answer we will have you arrested!” “I am here representing Maverick,” I stated simply. “The leader of the Rebellion.” That got a reaction out of them, the guard who had questioned me simply gawked in disbelief while the others glanced at each other, unsure what to do. “I am here to negotiate,” I elaborated. “Would that be possible?” “Not tonight,” the guard answered in a much more civil voice. “The Marshal is at the Coliseum, when he returns he will not be attending any meetings. We will tell him of your visit and you can return tomorrow, now if you have no further business, leave.” I nodded and turned to walk away, the guards muttering among themselves as I did. “At least I got their attention,” I whispered to Fluttershy as we made our exit. “I’m not sure you’ll be happy that you did,” she replied in a worried tone. “Now we have to find this Coliseum,” I continued. “What? Why?” Fluttershy asked, looking confused. “They already said he wouldn’t be meeting with us tonight.” “I’m not looking to meet with him,” I explained. “I just want to see him, see what kind of pony we’re dealing with.” It wasn’t difficult to find the Coliseum either, if the Pantheon was the peak of the city, then the Coliseum was the heart, situated at the very centre on both the lowest level of the cloud sector, and the highest level of the solid sector. It was a monumental, cylindrical structure where the outer walls were comprised mainly of several stories of arcades, under many of which were statues of various famous warriors. I was pleased to learn from a considerably more helpful guard, that most public buildings like the Pantheon and the Coliseum were enchanted to not require cloud walking spells, despite still being in the cloud sector itself. This allowed me to turn my amulet off once we were inside, to save some of its power. The inside of the Coliseum was dominated mainly by the arena floor, where several armoured combatants were already in the midst of fighting, with staggered seating ascending all around it. The stands were rather packed, but we managed to find some spare seats near a familiar pegasus. “Oh, hey there,” Dew Drop greeted, shifting her helmet so I could sit down. “Oh, hey, you’re Rainbow Dash’s friend, aren’t you?” I asked, vaguely remembering her. “It’s… Morning Dew?” “Dew drop,” Fluttershy corrected. “Yeah, that’s me,” she confirmed. “I see you decided to get a little entertainment in.” “It wasn’t exactly why we came down here,” I replied in a stony voice as I looked down on the fighters who were really going hard at it. “I know it’s weird to outsiders,” Dew Drop admitted. “But you get used to it.” “So is this where all the fighting takes place?” Fluttershy asked, gesturing around at the stadium. “We heard it all happened in the streets.” “It used to, back when the Dragoons were first establishing themselves,” Dew Drop explained. “It’s kind of a recent thing, if anypony issues a challenge, it should be met here in the Coliseum, that way nopony can cry about it being unfair.” “How so?” Fluttershy questioned. “Everypony gets standardised armour and weapons,” Dew Drop continued, gesturing to the black portcullis gates that were situated at intervals around the arena floor, just beneath the stands. “Those lead to the changing rooms and armouries, both challengers have to possess the same class of equipment. Keeps everything more ordered if the fights take place here under those conditions, makes it so there’s no doubt in anypony’s mind that victory is down to superior strength.” “If all challenges are met here,” I began. “Then why does everypony carry weapons around the city and look on edge all the time.” “Well…” Dew Drop said slowly, scratching her head in guilty fashion. “Just because matches are supposed to take place here, doesn’t mean they always do. There are way fewer fights in the streets than there used to be, but there’s still the occasional few… or dozen.” Dew Drop suddenly cut away as a cheer erupted from the crowd, she stared down at two fighters in particular where one had his forelegs raised in victory while the other lay unmoving. “Yes!” Dew Drop exclaimed, punching the air with her hoof. “That’s my rent sorted for the next week.” “You bet on this?!” I uttered in shock. “Oh yeah,” Dew Drop admitted, clearly not picking up on my disdain. “It’s pretty much encouraged.” I rolled my eyes in mild disgust, but didn’t say anything, just watched as the loser's body was dragged unceremoniously to one of the gateways. There were still a few other ponies fighting, but as time went on, the arena slowly began to empty until there was only two fighters left. “We heard Iron Sights was supposed to be here,” I informed Dew Drop over the crowds cheering. “Is he fighting?” “Oh yeah, why do you think so many ponies are here today?” Dew Drop asked. “Every few days, some fool issues a challenge to the stallion himself, and every time it draws a huge crowd. We’re still waiting for the day when somepony beats him, but until then, it’s always guaranteed to be good entertainment. He’s probably coming on after these idiots finish up, which is why they aren’t sending out any more fighters, they always keep the arena clear for major fights.” I watched the last fight closely, it was very one sided, one of the fighters spent most of the time trying desperately to dodge the attacks of his much bigger opponent. When he was finally struck down and his helmet rolled off, both Fluttershy and I gasped to see it was an elderly stallion. “What was he doing out there?!” I exclaimed. “What reason could that young stallion have for challenging somepony as feeble as him?” “Not a clue,” Dew Drop admitted with a disinterested shrug. “But if he didn’t want to fight, he should have just refused the challenge.” “And given into whatever demands were being made of him?” I finished, giving the stallion who was currently flexing his muscles to the crowd a withering look. “Look lady,” Dew Drop began, suddenly sounding quite irritated with me. “It may not be pretty, but this is our system, and it works just fine. The strong rule over the weak, if the weak have a problem with that, then they can either get stronger, leave or quit complaining. This system encourages ponies to become stronger, how is that a bad thing?” “The fact that you even asked that question suggests you don’t get issued many challenges,” I replied in a condescending tone. “You talk like strength is synonymous with being a good leader,” Fluttershy pointed out before Dew Drop could retort. “Sister, I don’t know what that word means,” Dew Drop bit back, before calming down slightly. “Look, it doesn’t matter, the fight's about to start.” I looked down to see two of the gates on opposite sides of the arena open slowly upwards as an armoured pony stepped out from each. Between the one who walked low to the ground, his axe shaking in his grip, and the one who marched out confidently, standing tall with his Warhammer still strapped to his back, it was obvious which one was Iron Sights. I locked my gaze on Iron Sights as he strode up to the very centre of the arena, reached back and pulled out his weapon before slamming it hard into the ground. “Yield?” he asked in loud, bellowing voice that somehow managed to come off as perfectly calm. There was a chorus of laughter throughout the crowd; the other pony shook even more as they began trying to circle around Iron Sights. He didn’t even attempt to rotate and follow her; he simply held his position, lazily holding his hammer with just one hoof. Once the other pony was directly behind him in his blind spot, they began weighing their double bladed axe, clearly trying to decide the best opportunity to strike, but still Iron Sight remained as still as a statue. Finally the pony dashed forward, keeping low to the ground as they swung their axe back, looking as if they were preparing to cleave Iron Sights in two. They didn’t even get close, as Iron Sights turned and sprinted to meet them, covering the remaining distance in a few seconds. But he didn’t strike with his hammer, instead he simply reached out and smacked the other pony in the side of the head. His blow carried so much power behind it, that the other pony was flung the full radius of the arena and smashed into the wall between two of the gateways. The wall shattered as they hit it, it was a miracle they weren’t killed outright. I gaped in horror at Iron Sights who was already walking slowly over to where the pony was desperately trying to get back onto their hooves. “Yield?” Iron Sights asked again in the same loud, calm voice. It didn’t get any laughter this time; the crowd was too focused on watching what would happen next. The pony managed to stand up, but only by using their axe as a crutch since it looked like both their right legs were broken from the impact with the wall. They shook uncontrollably where they stood; they didn’t even have a way to fight back any more even if they did want to. “Yield?” Iron Sights asked once more, stopping a single metre from the injured opponent. “I… I will n… never… surrender to you!” the pony cried out in a shuddering voice, revealing themselves to be a mare underneath all that armour. Iron Sights nodded once, before swinging his Warhammer up through the air, catching the pony in the underside of her barrel and launching her into the sky. I tried to follow her, but she was tossed into the air with such force that she simply smashed through the floors of the buildings floating overhead and quickly disappeared from view. “Well, she’s dead,” Dew Drop commented in a neutral tone. “Pity, she seemed pretty gutsy. Most ponies surrender after the first hit.” “She… she…” Fluttershy stammered, looking horror at the spot where the mare had just been. “He just killed her…” I breathed, mimicking Fluttershy. “He gave her a chance to surrender,” Dew Drop reminded us, like that made it all okay. “Well, I need to go collect my winnings. Sorry about getting snappy with you, I know you’re new to this, I should have realised you’d have some reservations.” Without waiting for a response, Dew Drop stood up, spread her wings and flew away, leaving me and Fluttershy sitting in the slowly emptying stadium. After a few minutes, the mare finally came plummeting back down, only to smash through the cloud floor of the arena and disappear a second time. Iron Sights had waited until this point, although after that happened he turned and made his way back to the gate he had entered from. I followed him as he did, and saw another pony come out of the open gateway to meet him, she wore Dragoon armour, but no helmet. Her coat was an artic blue, while her snow white mane was swept back in a peculiar style; her eyes however were completely obscured by a pair of purple sunglasses. She wore a sly smile as Iron Sights walked up to her; she briefly said something to him before he walked passed her into the darkened tunnel. The other pegasus stopped briefly to look up over the crowds, for a split second I was sure her gaze lingered on Fluttershy and I, although it was impossible to tell due to her glasses. If she had been looking at us, then she didn’t do so for very long as she swiftly turned and followed Iron Sights beyond the gate which closed behind her. I turned to Fluttershy who looked like she wanted to vomit; when she met my eye, she opened her mouth to say something but swiftly shut it again. “I really hope he’s open to negotiations,” I said in a shaky voice. “Because I really don’t want to fight that guy.”