//------------------------------// // Disordered Travels // Story: Azeroth's Skies // by TerrabreakerX //------------------------------// It was midday by the time they were finally underway once more, restocked with supplies and laden with better quality camping equipment. The six had stayed the night before in Westbrook Garrison, treated to a hero’s welcome by the platoon of guardsmen who called it home. They had heard of the defeat of Hogger and were happy to help in any way they could. So they left, well-rested and with bellies full, and passed the border into the south-western territory, as the thick trees of the Elwynn Forest gave way to the vast, rolling plains of Westfall. From what Twilight had read it had once been the breadbasket of the kingdom, helping to feed the southern Alliance throughout the first war and its aftermath. She was aware of the recent events that had devastated the area, having read the most recently updated editions and from chatter with Archmage Malin, but that didn’t quite prepare her for the dichotomy between reality and expectation; the abandoned farms, the dust clouds bleaching the environment clean with their suction and the fields littered not with crops but with a multitude of sinister scarecrows that they decided to give a wide berth to. Twilight kept a close eye on Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they travelled. She had read accounts of certain guardsponies – the relative few who had been forced to kill, or worse, who had chosen to kill, and had been forever changed by the experience. Stress from such events could be long-lasting and not immediately obvious – not until months or years after the event. But still… She’d expected some kind of negative reaction from the two. Ponies killing other living things was so uncountenanced that in all their adventures she hadn’t even considered it as a possibility until two of her best friends had spilled gnoll blood. Surely they would feel something about it. And yet they seemed unchanged. If anything, more confident, more sure of themselves than they had been at any point since arriving in Azeroth. And that worried the mage even more. The thrill of combat, the love of violence, bloodlust… Ponies with affinity for such had been thankfully rare in Equestria. Even amongst those who joined the Royal Guard most took the oath to serve and protect, not because it gave them an outlet for physical aggression and more... Or at least not only for such martial appeal. But what if it had nothing to do with their pony selves? What if it were something inherent to Azeroth, something that could stir anger and conflict in the soul? And if it has already begun to affect Rainbow and Applejack, are we all at risk? Too many hypotheses. Too many questions. Not enough answers. She was shaken from her thoughts by the feeling of something landing on her head. Reaching her hand to her hair, she felt the droplet of water as it was joined by another, and another, and another. Looking up at the ominous dark cloud above them, Twilight immediately had the feeling that not only was it was going to rain, it was going to rain hard. The wind was picking up too, which wasn’t a good sign. “We need to set up shelter, now!” she cried over it, though she was worried that their flimsy tents would do little good if the weather turned into a storm. “Look o’er there! There’s a cabin!” Applejack cried from up ahead, pointing over a slight ridge in the terrain. They followed her gaze as soon as they caught up, and sure enough a building came into view. It was rickety-looking, but made of brick and mortar. “We can use it instead!” The rain turned from a slight pitter-patter around them to a sudden torrent, and they doubled it in with cries of alarm to the cover of the hut. Fortunately the door was unbolted, and the six piled into the tiny house. The first room was fairly spacious, and curiously empty, without a piece of furniture to be found – and only a few cracked, albeit not shattered, windows and a sturdier door leading to a side room for features. “I certainly regret not packing that umbrella.” Rarity examined her freshly wet hair remorsefully. “A pity.” “Not like camping out wouldn’ta ruined your hair anyway.” Applejack pointed out dryly. They had been prepared to stop for the night soon anyway, unlikely as it was that they would reach Sentinel Hill from the garrison in one day. A roof over the heads, even in the form of a house as small, dusty and generally unkempt as this, was infinitely preferable to sleeping out under the stars. They took a look around the place before doing anything else and confirmed that it was uninhabited, and that there was nothing dangerous on the premises. They had to be cautious in this world, after all. The sun faded and the darkness rolled in as they settled down for the night, the rain a constant drumbeat. Sometimes intensifying, sometimes fading out, but never quite ceasing. Outside, not far from their shelter, something stirred in a pit in the ground. Its bestial intelligence took note of the lack of the light in the sky, that burning, shining light. It took note of the signs that the building, but not of the mundane kind. The smell of human flesh, and the allure of magical energy. It took slow, painstaking steps towards these draws, compelled by a dark instinct it barely understood. No… it didn’t have the capacity to understand. All it really knew was that it was so, so hungry. “I can’t be entirely sure, not until we regain the light, but I think we’re here.” Twilight pointed Fluttershy to a small grey dot on the map, barely big enough for her to pick out with a pencil. “Which means that if we get started early enough tomorrow, we’ll easily make it to Sentinel Hill by the afternoon.” “It’s almost a shame we brought all that camping equipment if we’re not going to get a chance to use it.” Her friend noted, absent-mindedly scratching Wilder behind his ear. “Oh… not that I would want to be out in this storm.” Knock. Knock. Two blasts of percussion rang out across the room, snapping them all to awareness and causing Fluttershy to jump in fright and hide behind Rarity. “Did… anyone else hear that?” She asked hesitantly. “Wh-whuzzgoinon.” Rainbow spluttered, stumbling out of her sleeping bag and looking towards the door. Knock. Knock. The sound repeated, like a booming echo across the empty room – only a room like this was far too small for such acoustics. Unnoticed by all, the usually aggressive and lively wolf at Fluttershy’s side buried his head in his fur, deeply distressed by whoever was outside. “Maybe it was the storm?” Rarity wondered, a tad hopeful. “Perhaps we imagined it?” “We imagined it twice?” Knock. Knock. “Okay, so we definitely didn’t imagine it then.” Twilight shrugged. Oh well. There’s surely no need to worry. We might just have to explain why we’re in here if it’s the owner, and if they’re a traveller like us instead, then it would be rude to keep them out… Knock. Knock. “Someone’s definitely at the door.” Rainbow, the closest, stifled a yawn as she moved forward to remove the bolt. “Let’s let ‘em in so I can go back to sleep.” Another two knocks. Heavy, pounding strikes on the creaky wooden door. Wilder’s reaction was the first thing that hinted to Twilight that something was wrong as she finally noticed him. He was clearly unhappy at the thought of letting whoever was outside in – terrified, even. She moved around to the right-side window and angled herself so that she could look out and see who it was… …and then clapped her hands to her mouth in shock. “Rainbow, stop!” she cried. “Don’t let it in!” Rainbow looked at her strangely, confused, her hand only an inch from the bolt. “What? That storm’s terrible, and there’s no other shelter for miles around. We can’t just leave them outside. It might even be the owner!” she said indignantly, vocalising Twilight’s previous notion. An inhuman wail cut off Twilight’s explanation, soliciting a round of screams from the girls. A gust of wind sailed in through the tiny gap in the window and blew out the candles they had managed to light, plunging the room into gloom. Groping in the dark as their eyes slowly adjusted, Twilight carefully guided Rainbow over to the window. “W-w-what is that?” Rainbow gaped in disbelief, her stomach churning at the figure standing outside. It had been human once, but its skin had desiccated and sloughed away in places, showing bone and greying, putrid organs. Nothing shone in its cold, dead eyes except a consuming hunger. It lurched forward and began assaulting the door, eager to break inside and feast on living flesh. “Oh, Celestia, it’s an undead!” Twilight shouted, struggling to make herself heard over the raging storm as the body of rotting flesh battered itself against the flimsy door and the two desperately trying to hold it in place. “I read a little about them in the Library.” “Maybe we can talk it through? I bet I can make it laugh!” Pinkie offered hopefully, but the mage shook her head. “No, it’s just a mindless husk! There’s no brain to negotiate with! Giggling at the ghosties won’t work this time!” “Did them books say any about how to stop ‘em?” Applejack gritted her teeth as the door rattled again; the ghoul slowly gaining the upper hand in the test of strength against the warrior and the paladin. “No! All the authors were terrified of them. They’re carriers of horrible diseases, and if they infect you, you can end up like them!” “Other room!” Applejack roared, motioning with her shoulder towards the lounge. Rarity pulled Fluttershy through, and she in turn dragged the still-mewling Wilder. Twilight hurried after them as Pinkie skipped with her, supposedly without a care in the world. But Twilight knew the bearer of laughter well enough to spot the wobbling of her toes, the trembles running across her shoulders and the slightest of straightness to her bouncy pink hair to know that she was just as terrified as the rest of them. Applejack and Rainbow followed them through, slamming shut the lounge door and bolting it roughly, but it was lighter than the first, and would last nowhere near as long. A sharp, sudden CRACK, punctuated by the return of the pit-pat, pit-pat of rain to their ears, signalled to them that the beast was inside. A pause. Then the pounding began anew, but this time there was nowhere else to go. Applejack and Rainbow pushed against it again, but they were still being overpowered by the brute outside. Rainbow grunted, exhaling out the pain of the strain on her limbs. “So… now you won’t mind us using our weapons… right?” Twilight chose not to take the barely implicit slight as anything more than Rainbow venting away the pain. “No! But against something like this, I’m not sure it’ll matter!” The inner door gave a final creak and exploded open under the ghoul’s assault, sending both Rainbow and Applejack flying. Applejack went straight into the far wall, landing out-cold in a heap beside the others, while Rainbow managed to right herself and end up in between her friends and the door, awake and alert. Their hunter stalked into the room, giving the rest of the group their first look at its chittering and twitching form. Long-dried blood had congealed into dark clots gathered at the end of desiccated flesh. The sound of its ragged breathing drowned out the storm outside, and the smell of festering decay immediately filled the room at its presence. Rainbow bravely struck out at the creature with a glancing hit. It hardly seemed to feel the impact to its insensate ribcage, and reached out to claw at her with its diseased fingers. Rainbow darted back, barely staying out of reach. Even in a human body and weighed down with armour she was still the quickest of them all. She tried again, striking for the head, but the creature merely hissed and kept coming, a shower of hot spittle spewing from its lips. We’re all going to die here! We’re all going to die! Twilight panicked, her mind in overdrive attempting to work out a solution that didn’t exist. What hope could there be against such an abomination? She tried to come up with some spell to save them, but the words were fumbling in her brain as it raced in panic from outcome to horrifying outcome. “Ain’t none of my friends gonna end up like you!” Rainbow swung again, and this time did more than just irritate the fiend. It staggered backwards, yelping and clawing at the part of its flesh where it had been struck. But her attack was no stronger or more accurate than the first, and yet it had seemed so much more effective… “A whole month now…” Rainbow muttered quietly, and instantly Twilight saw the source of some of her previous strength. Her anger at losing her wings, her loss of purpose, her frustration at their inability to immediately return home. “A month without flying. Do you know how much it meant to me? I soared on my wings since I was a little filly. I loved every second of it. I thought it was what defined me…” A month of kept secrets were spat out into the air in a moment, though no-one was around to hear them. With every word Rainbow seemed to stand a little straighter, her utterances granting her fresh resolve. The ghoul certainly didn’t seem to much care or understand. Having recovered from being stunned, it leapt towards Rainbow once more, saliva dripping from a toxic mouth, claws outstretched to rend and tear… It was unnaturally quick and strong, but Rainbow was suddenly quicker. Faster than she had ever moved as a human before, she smashed the ghoul in the face with her hammer, breaking brittle teeth and sending it sprawling on the floor. “…but I was wrong.” Rainbow continued, turning to glance back at the other girls, who were huddled in the corner staring at her in amazement. “Sure, it was a part of me, but that was all. Just a part. I’m awesome, whether I can fly or not. And I’m that way because, above all, I have you guys. And I’m sorry I’ve been acting like an idiot recently. I’d forgotten what matters.” Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as Rainbow’s eyes started to glow with a light filled with warmth, a light that lit up the room and caused the ghoul to scratch desperately at its ruined sockets, recoiling from a radiance it couldn’t even see. It made no further move to defend itself as Rainbow brought her light-infused weapon to bear and crushed the unlife from its form. “Rainbow Dash.” Rarity huffed testily. “We truly appreciate you defeating that monster and saving us all. But let me be very clear that if you insist on telling us the story even once more I will be forced to render you unconscious until we reach our destination.” “Pfft, you couldn’t carry me!” Rainbow shot back. “We would find a way.” Rarity stared her down, eyes glinting with irritation, and Rainbow decided that it was not worth calling her friends’ bluff. “…Fine. That was the last time.” she said, but as Rarity turned away, satisfied, she added in a whisper, “For now.” They had departed early from the hut, rising at dawn for a strong start towards Sentinel Hill. They’d stayed away from where the ghoul had fallen, sleeping in the other room, but Rainbow’s attack had scoured its darkness from the world entirely, and ashes were all that was left behind. Following the road onward gave them some success and after a few hours later – taking breaks every hour – they had made good progress down south. Then the road had disappeared out from under them – worn away entirely from a lack of maintenance. They encountered no-one else who could give directions either, the plains quiet and peaceful. Eventually they came upon another farmstead, and while they took a breather Twilight pored over the map in an attempt to determine where they had ended up. It looked better maintained than any of the others they had seen, but there were no immediate signs of habitation. “Do you think it’s abandoned like the last one?” Rarity asked no-one in particular. “I don’t think I’d like to find out.” Fluttershy whispered. “Let’s just get back to following the bearing then and we should find the road again.” Twilight reasoned, taking out the compass. “We must have gone too far west, so if we track south-east we should come back onto it again.” “Oi!” Something more akin to a roar than a shout as the door behind them slammed open stopped them all in their tracks. “What d’y’all think you’re doin’ on my land?!” The burly man striding towards them was undoubtedly the owner of the fields they had stumbled across and the farmhouse he had just emerged from. “Uh oh.” “He looks mad…" “Quick, Twi, you handle it!” “I’m very sorry, sir.” Twilight quickly spoke up, hands raised, apologetic, conciliatory. “My friends and I didn’t mean to trespass. We’re heading to Sentinel Hill, and we managed to lose the road.” “It’s right over there.” He directed bluntly, adding almost as an afterthought, "And don't call me 'sir'. Name's Saldean. This is my farm." He then took a proper look at them, taking stock of their unusual appearances where in his indignation he had previously ignored them. His eyes swept from their array of multi-coloured hair to the camping equipment they were carrying. He spat something, either phlegm or tobacco, on the ground to his side, then fixed them with an inquisitive stare. “Pretty unusual like to see city-folk this far down south. You under contract from the king?” “No, sir." she said before she could catch herself, and hurried to continue. "We’re just doing some travelling, and thought Westfall would be the best place to start.” “Hmmph. Dunno why you bothered. Westfall ain’t got nothin’ to offer these days.” He picked up the rake and the spade laying on the ground and stacked them properly against the side of the shed before continuing, “If you were hopin’ for hospitality we can’t help you here. Got barely enough food for me an’ the wife, you understand? “Whad’ya grow in these fields?” Applejack cut in, interested. Saldean raised an eyebrow upon hearing her accent and paused, appraising Applejack again. When he answered it was with a tad less hostility in his voice. “Beans, Potatoes. Okra. All the kinds of stuff that makes a real good Westfall stew. You?” “Apples.” She answered with pride. “Leastways… I did.” “Hmm. Not a bad way to make a living, apples. You quit?” “Kinda. Didn’t have much choice. We had… problems with the weather.” The six shared a knowing glance. Saldean nodded sympathetically. “Can be a killer. We’re pretty lucky for weather in Westfall. Lots of sun. Just enough rain.” “Good harvest prospects this year? Must be about tha’ time.” “Nope.” The farmer looked downcast. “The crops’re gonna come out good… but with these harvest golems-” He pointed out towards the tall, foreboding figures on the horizon. “-destroying ‘em all, nothing we grow makes it to the table.” “Harvest golems?” “Yeah. Big machines, look like giant scarecrows. They appeared outta nowhere then went haywire and started tearing the fields up whenever our crops have grown, and killin’ us if we try to harvest ‘em first. “Tell ya what though.” He started trudging back inside the farmhouse but paused, struck with an afterthought. “Y’all look like the tough adventuring type. Some of you, at least. If you wanna earn a meal, see if you can clear up the fields. You’d be doin’ us a big favour too.” “Nothing we can’t handle, right AJ?” Rainbow unhooked her hammer. “I reckon you’re right, parter. Let’s get to workin’!” Applejack nodded. Neither saw Twilight’s grimace at their enthuasiasm. “You be careful.” Saldean cautioned as he disappeared inside. “They got quite some strength to ‘em. And they’re faster than you’d think. Bloody nightmares.” Oh, Celestia, what have we gotten ourselves into this time? “So I guess these are the harvest golems, then.” Twilight noted. What from a distance they had mistaken for scarecrows turned out to be moving, mechanical nightmares. From the look of their sharp metal claws they would prove to be quite deadly, too. “Never was a big fan of them fancy-schmancy machines for farming.” Applejack muttered, no doubt recalling the incident with the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. She drew her sword and charged at one of the golems. “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.” Twilight sighed. “Shouldn’t we just leave this to the militia when they get here?” “C’mon Twi, they’re just machines! The farmer wants us to destroy them and they’ve been attacking people!” Rainbow encouraged her, then turned and ran off to the nearest golem, adding as she went, “Plus he might feed us!” It detected her the moment she came into its threat radius and raised a bladed hand to slice her to ribbons, but only met the head of her hammer. With a brief burst of holy light flashing through her body, the paladin suddenly had the strength to overpower it, gaining the opening she needed to cave in its chest with a heavy blow and crush its power source. The mage frowned, still uneasy. “I don’t know… we could still get hurt!” “Don’t you worry about that Twilight! I’ve got us all covered!” Pinkie grinned, and with a twirl and a snap of her fingers she had summoned another shield to protect Applejack from her golem’s last-ditch effort to bring her down with it as it fell. Since the encounter with the ghoul, Rainbow had been able to call upon the power of the light entirely at will, bringing the total of magic users in the group to three. Well, all six of us had had magic before, but the earth ponies and pegasi had a different, innate kind – a connection to the earth for Applejack and Pinkie, and flight for Fluttershy and Rainbow. Now, it seemed that Rarity had lost the ability to use her magic actively – but if Pinkie and Rainbow could suddenly cast their own kind of spells using this light, whatever it was, who could yet say what kind of untapped potential the others might have? And how much more could her own powers grow if she put them to use? She wondered for a moment about studying and quantifying the light with Pinkie and Rainbow, but promptly decided against it. She had her own magic to focus on first, to relearn, and the warm, kind light was probably as mystical as the bearer of laughter’s sixth sense and would likely defy categorisation. Which probably explains why Pinkie’s using it so naturally, she thought wryly. There it was again. The temptation to employ the force of Azerothian magic had nagged at her since the moment she’d discovered she had similar powers to what she’d had back in Equestria. She’d thought hard about it, spurred on by the encounter with the ghoul, and had concluded that had she not been panicking, had she kept her cool and had the will to do so, she could have ended the fight in seconds with a touch of frost and an arcane volley, which would have kept Rainbow out of harm’s way entirely. Had she, or any of the others been infected, when Twilight had the potential power that could have saved them… What made Twilight feel worse was that she couldn’t even come up with a good, rational reason not to develop her talents in this world. It was her gut feeling that cautioned her against it – something she was not accustomed to listening to. “It’s okay if you don’t want to get involved Twilight.” Fluttershy gave her a small smile as she grimaced at the enthusiasm the others were displaying in their fights. She was grooming Wilder, holding onto his collar tightly to prevent him from rushing into the fray. “Quite right, dear.” Rarity opined. “I for one certainly won’t be engaging in any of this barbarous behaviour. Why, just think of the damage these things could do to one’s hair! The further away we are from them the better.” “Heads up!” Rainbow cried perhaps a little too late, as her final blow to another golem struck an oil intake valve, spurting the thick black liquid up into the air… …where it, improbably, coated only the blue-haired seamstress from her neck to her hips. It took Rarity all of two seconds to react to this turn of events by screaming bloody murder, drawing a pair of glinting daggers from her belt and leaping forward to help Applejack dismantle her current golem. “…so much for staying out of it.” Twilight shook her head, though couldn’t help but be drawn to watch her friend do battle. Rarity hadn’t taken part in the fights in Elwynn Forest, other than helping out by clubbing one of Hogger’s minions from the shadows as they had tried to intervene. Here, she was slashing and stabbing with careful precision at the delicate machinery running the golems, putting her keen eye for detail to good use. At times, she missed a strike or only delivered a glancing blow to her target, clearly not very used to what she was doing and still somewhat unsure of herself, but… She’s fighting fairly well. Twilight realised. Too well. She knows what she’s doing, like she’s had some training. When did that happen? I need to know more about what my friends got up to in Stormwind. I guess I should be happy at least that she’s not doing it to a living foe… She pursed her lips and looked out across the field. There were plenty of golems still to dismantle, and while her companions were making a good dent in the problem, it would still take them a while at the rate they were going. You can help them out. The voice whispered again. ... How will we get home if I don’t work to improve my understanding of this magic? All right, Twilight decided. Let’s see what I can do. She picked out the closest unengaged golem and focused hard, drawing on strands of aether, on the natural magic that permeated the world, much as it had in Equestria. The power came to her easily, and it brought an invigorating thrill to her mind, a feeling that matched or even surpassed the way she had felt casting back home. Bringing her hands up and together, mimicking a stance she had seen Archmage Malin practice, she pulled magic out of the air for a few seconds longer before throwing her arms out, seeking to expel the energy coursing within. The effect was immediate and spectacular. A bolt of arcane force leapt from her fingers and flew towards the golem, colliding with it in a cloud of purple and black smoke as it exploded into pieces, utterly ruined. Her friends, though a bit shocked at the suddenness of her attacks, cheered as a stray strand of energy - borne out of her similar surprise at her success, burst above her head in a flare of violet. She shook her head and concentrated harder, cross with herself. She couldn’t afford a rookie mistake like power incontinence now, not when dealing with such destructive magicks. The damage she had done in a single volley was amazing. Before she even really knew what she was doing, she was laying into the second golem with the same fervour as the first. Then a third. And a fourth. It took them half an hour to clear the field of golems with their combined efforts. She stood and stared dumbly at the result of her attacks, the sparking, broken metal corpses a testament to her power. The rush was incredible, capturing every ounce of her awareness into a feeling of pure completeness, replaced as it faded by a hunger for more. “Go Twilight!” Rainbow slapping her on the back hard brought her out of her reverie, and nearly knocked her off her feet, too. Applejack grinned approvingly. “Now tha’s what I call impressive.” “Simply stunning, darling!” “You could’ve done that before with the undead though. Would’ve been nice not to have had to get so close to that monster. Even if it gave me the opportunity to save us all.” Covered in sweat, oil and muck, Rarity raised a fist threateningly behind her friend’s back, but suppressed her frustration with what looked like a supreme effort. “I’ve def’nitely worked up an appetite, but we’ll need a break. Even Pinkie’s lookin’ pretty beat.” “I’m fine!” There was a slight weakness to her smile that the others didn’t fail to pick up on. “Okay… maybe just a little dehydrated. Who knew making bubbles could be as much work as popping them?” There was little that could compare to listening to Pinkie to make one smile, and Twilight found herself nodding along with the rest of them. “All right, let’s go inform the Saldeans now.” The six began to traipse back towards the farmhouse on the other side of the field, but Twilight, stopped, turned and looked back at the devastation. Despite herself, and despite the warm temperature, she couldn’t help but shiver. Such power…