//------------------------------// // Level 31: It Only Hurts Just Once // Story: Equestria Was Merely a Setback! // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to the other sans, InsanityStreak, Freya, Mister E, Ace Azzermeen, Doctorfoxwolf, PrinceUniversa, GamerGoddessDin, _CheckMate_, and Housecarl of Clan Drops for commenting between our last chapter and the meta chapter I made for you all! This is quite possibly my favorite chapter in a long time, as the end of it is something I had planned since the first 10,000 words I wrote...hope you'll enjoy the culmination of many plotlines all in one for the finale to the Scarlet Crusade arc! Dream bits in this chapter are from this chapter of We Remember Everything, though as per usual, you all will get the full picture here anyways: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109565/30/we-remember-everything/will-you-fail-me-now Hope you all enjoy, and I look forward to your thoughts in the comments below! I'm finally almost past midterms, so your support will really help me out in this stressful time! “So Lor’themar’s own soldiers won’t do as he says? He’s as useless as he was when he was subordinate to me.” Sylvanas laughed as she thought back to her time as Ranger-General of the Elven race now known as the Blood Elves…she had died directly prior to their reformation under Kael’thas’s lead, and thus had been spared seeing them struggle to eke out a living with their many enemies all nipping at them to try and finish them off. That boy prince was in over his head then, and if the reports were true, he was again…only now he stood in opposition to his people, and was so careless as to allow a man to run around using his name. In response to Sylvanas’s demeaning remark, her right hand Dreadlord Varimathras spoke up as he loomed over her shoulder and peered down at the map she was going over, “He still is in many ways.” Sylvanas grinned, “Clever. Now, mobilize our forces. The Scarlet Crusade has pulled back to their fortress in a hurry and relieved our frontlines. With what Lor’themar told us, they must be facing quite the crisis…one which we will exploit.” “As you will, my lady.” Once her associate left her alone in her meting chambers, Sylvanas took another look at the map and moved pieces across it from Silvermoon to the Scarlet Monastery. “What kind of fool lets a third of his army just walk out?” It would reflect poorly on both of the Horde factions on the continent if news of this were to break to their Orc, Troll, and Tauren allies…the Tauren already detested the Forsaken and the Blood Elves for their tainted status as vile Undead animated by sick magic and mana addicted and stenched beings, but Sylvanas did not really care what those backwards cows thought of her people. No…she didn’t want Lor’themar’s blunder to reflect on her and make her lose face with Thrall, the only person who she currently bowed to…for now. “The Horde needn’t be worried about this little matter. For both Lor’themar’s sake and my own...” Sick to her stomach after her recent victory, Vanessa had trouble rising to her feet from the kneeling position she had taken to, her hands holding her daggers limply on the ground in front of her. “Why…” A sharp pain in the back of her spine knocked her to the ground and she dropped one of her daggers while the other stabbed into the ground as she fell forward. Behind her, Mograine stomped a boot down on Vanessa’s back and laughed at her exhausted state. She had put every ounce of energy she had into that last fight, and now she was easy prey…as he had intended, “You fought admirably for a brat. It’s pathetic that one of my veteran soldiers died to you. I saw the whole affair and I must say I am disappointed, but then again it only takes one instance of bad luck to end years of training.” Her back cracking as he stepped harder and harder on it, Vanessa felt her body press into the cold ground as she struggled to breathe. “You…you let her…” Mograine stomped down on her back again and then threw a kick with the same foot into her abdomen, sending her skidding and tumbling across the ground, the dirt scraping at her open skin. “Of course I did…why help her when I can wait for her to tire you out and then take the credit myself?” Vanessa’s eyes were gripped in shock as Mograine knelt down and grabbed her by the neck, constricting the red bandana covering her mouth and hiding its disgusted expression. In the Defias, they had all cared for one another when she was younger…they were a group that sweat and bled together… This man was nothing like that. Mograine laughed as he tightened his grip on her throat further, “Don’t look up at me with those shocked blue eyes. They don’t suit you, just like they didn’t suit that weakling you defeated earlier. He wanted to help, but in the end he could not muster the strength to battle once again.” His eyes caught sight of an explosive held on Vanessa’s belt, and it gave him an idea. Taking the dynamite and a lighter from Vanessa, Mograine lit it with one hand with some brief struggle as he continued to choke the teenager, “The weak do not deserve to be honored.” He tossed the dynamite over to where Lila’s body lay. This done, he changed his grip on Vanessa so that he was dragging her by her hair away from the field and into the Monastery’s hallway she had come from. “Let go of me!” Vanessa howled as she was near forced to watch as her own explosive erupted and engulfed the field in a bright light as they reached the inside of the hallway, “You fucking monster!” Mograine smirked, “You’ll be joining her soon enough in Hell, so you should hold your tongue lest you damn yourself to even more suffering.” At the graveyard, post battle, Lavitz had taken their hired associate over to a nearby room in the Monastery to break the news of his brother’s death. The results were to be somewhat expected. Out in the hallway, Trixie tiredly dragged herself out of the way of a table hurling out of the small room Lavitz had brought Karl in to contain him in the expected rage. He began thrashing the room’s remaining furniture, the blonde man transforming from the calm professional to a raging berserker the moment he learned of the news. Lavitz tackled him into a wall and pinned him there, using his heavy armor to keep him pinned their despite Karl’s initial attempt to push back, "Karl, calm down!" Seething but no longer fighting Lavitz, Karl looked the other man in the eye and nearly scared him with the bloodlust visible in his own, "I vant blood." Understanding the pain of losing a sibling, Lavitz loosened his grip slightly and tried to talk sense into the man, "And you may just have it yet, but not if we don't hold together and stick to the plan! If we do that he will be neutralized as a threat, and then you can do whatever you please, but for now we must keep our emotions in line!" Having segued into a serene rage, Karl spoke back in his accented voice, "I don't vant neutral, I vant dead." "I can't promise that, but if it comes down to it..." Lavitz shook his head and sighed, not really wanting to hold his ally back but understanding he needed to in order for the mission to succeed, "Just keep your head cool for one more hour. One more hour and our plan will be finished." "And if he changes the plan?" That question, asked quietly yet piercingly, led Lavitz to let go of him and give him a look that said “have fun”, if that were the case. Everyone else had been watching the encounter in the hallway, glad that they had left it to the tough Lavitz to restrain their partner. Relieved that things had gone relatively “well”, Trixie sighed and looked away only to catch sight of a familiar red bandana as she turned her head. "Oh, Vanessa, you're back—" Her voice halted as she turned instead to gasping and grabbing Kael’s arm, who in turn faced what Trixie was looking at and showed surprise of his own. Mograine, standing with Vanessa hanging from her neck and bandana as a living shield before him, laughed as the group prepared to defend themselves, "Not quite." Even with nearly broken ribs caused by his stomping on her previously, Vanessa did her best to raise her voice as she was hoisted up before him, "Just shoot him!” Despite what she said, both Kael and Trixie held their fire. Dirge took refuge behind them while Karl and Lavitz ran out of the room they had been in in, taking position at the front. Karl’s fury was bridled only by the fact he did not have his crossbow in hand, and he did notice that Mograine had that girl from before hostage. He had been impressed by her, but that wouldn’t keep Karl from holding back vengeance for his brother on her behalf. "I am Scarlet Commander Renault Mograine, and your disgrace of my forces ends here!" Kael pulled up his sword and grit his teeth. Mograine planned on using Vanessa as a shield against them, but Kael would not let Trixie come to harm…but how would he manage to protect her and the others without hurting Vanessa as well? Lavitz reacted quickly to Kael’s move and used an arm to block Kael’s blade, "Be careful. Rumor has it that this bastard killed his own father for power...he'll spare no time in harming her." "Listen to your Warrior friend," Mograine swung Vanessa like a rag doll to strike the nearest wall, her body less responsive afterwards as she hung from his hand, "You see, I have taken the time to study you all, and I have realized you hold yourselves to a higher standard than we do,” he held his multi-edged and bladed mace up to Vanessa’s neck, “Touch me, and I'll cut her throat." Trixie growled as she balled a fist. She had no magical energy to really use against him, and with Vanessa in such a position their fighting capabilities were hamstrung... For Trixie, listening to Vanessa and just attacking him was not an option. "Touch her, and I may just make an exception to my no killing rule." Mograine laughed as he slowly approached them, taking care to keep his living shield in the way even as Vanessa tried to struggle, "Oh come now, I have already killed one of you...what's another?" With a snarl Karl lunged forward weaponless and swung a fist at Mograine’s face. Instead it buried itself in Vanessa’s stomach, at which point Mograine swung her mightily as a weapon at Karl, the impact containing enough of the Commander’s might that it knocked Karl back but not down. As the mercenary soldier ran forward again, Trixie called after him and threw a hand out powerlessly, “Wait!” Behind Karl, Lavitz and Kael both leapt forward…while Dirge used his magic to shield Vanessa after a whispering suggestion from Lavitz. While Vanessa was swung as a second club again to swat Karl aside, Lavitz used his spear as a pole-vault to jump kick Mograine in the chest and knock him off balance. The spear would have glanced off the man’s armor or possibly impaled Vanessa if the shield broke, but this instead let Kael swat down Mograine’s arm with his blade and loosen the fiend’s grip. Caught off guard by the ingenious combination, Mograine wildly threw Vanessa at the nearest of them, Kael, and as he let go of her due to a lack of grip she flew from his hand. Her bandana tore as she crashed into Kael and knocked him nearly off his feet, the Elf managing to stop her harsh fall to the ground and instead have her land on all fours. As the three men met Mograine in melee combat, Vanessa looked down at the floor where the tatters of her red bandana met her eyes. Her soft indigo eyes began to well up with tears as she began to claw at the pieces of the last memento she possessed of her father. “No…no…No!” the torn red fabric in hand, Vanessa let her tired body start collapsing as her tears fell, “It’s all I had left…” Mograine’s strength allowed him to, in a single swipe, bash Kael and Lavitz ten feet back and off their feet. Kael was stunned from the attack, with Trixie helping him get up and Dirge healing his profusely bleeding forehead, while Lavitz slowly climbed to his own feet of his own accord. Still fighting Mograine, Karl ducked under a mace swing and uppercutted his foe with enough strength born of rage that Mograine actually paused a moment in surprise before swinging again and both slashing and bashing Karl’s chest with the weapon. Sobbing on the ground, Vanessa barely noticed as Karl was knocked past her, and the powerful mace coming down towards her to finish her off was completely missed by her in her grief over losing the last thing she had belonging to her father. She had lost his other bandana before when hunting the Elf who defeated him, so to lose her spare after all her other suffering served as the straw to break the camel’s back. Instead of being slain by Mograine’s furious strike, a particular grunt told her someone had just been struck. Looking up, Vanessa could see Lavitz standing before her and blocking her with both his body and spear. "Lavitz?” Vanessa gasped as she saw blood begin pooling at the ground beneath him. The mace had struck his chest hard enough to dent the heirloom armor and cut into the flesh beneath, though it was far from fatal, “What are you doing?” "One way or another, we're all family now..." sweeping his spear out in front of him, he drove Mograine back, "I won't let an honorless bastard like this get the best of me!" Mograine laughed as he regained his footing and prepared himself to attack again, "You don't have a father either, Lavitz of Stormwind! At least I defeated my own with my own strength, and he was not slain by some fool, protecting worthless Elves!" Lavitz spun his spear in his hands in precise motion to slam into Mograine’s wrist and divert his swing before following it up with a kick to the leg that struck Mograine’s knee and slowed him. Next Lavitz swung his spear for a killing blow at the man’s face and neck, but Mograine tilted his body to block it with his armor and the spear instead just chipped away at it. Having not succeeded in killing the man, Lavitz forced himself forward and slammed into him to knock him away from Vanessa, who was beginning to crawl to her feet and eventually pulled herself up onto her knees in front of Lavitz, who wiped his mouth of blood. As Mograine leapt back at Lavitz, the silver and green armored man grinned, "I owe your forces for something I am not at liberty to say just yet," he stepped past Vanessa and countered Mograine’s attack just barely. The man was far more powerful, and one wrong move would outright kill Lavitz, but he was determined to keep fighting all the same, "But it does not matter. Even weakened, my body is more than enough to fight your ilk!" One hand bearing down on Lavitz and slowly pushing him back, Mograine held his other hand up as light swirled around it, "I am a veteran of a thousand battles! I know the roles each of you fill, and the threats each of you pose!" a hammer of light formed in his palm, which he then hurled past Lavitz and over his shoulder, "Which is why, traitor, you die first!" Trixie turned to the side as the healer helping her help out Kael was struck by the Light formed hammer took him off his feet and knocked him off his feet and onto his back. "Dirge!" Mograine smirked as the man who had been about to heal Lavitz collapsed, then he used his free hand to grab the Warrior’s shoulder and strike him across the face. Lavitz recovered swiftly, but Mograine was already running past him and towards the others, "The lumbering Warrior who can take a hit and deal one, but who can't keep up with a more agile foe!" The recovered Kael shoved Trixie out of the way as Mograine bore down on both of them. The mace smashed into Kael’s gut and his lower body carried backwards, causing him to fall forwards as he was thrown back, "The Mage whose power is immense, but who expends it all quickly due to a lacking mana pool! If you had any energy right now, you may be able to fight!" Turning last to Trixie, Mograine smirked as he stared down the terrified Elf. Thinking that he had won already, Mograine took his time stepping to her and preparing his attack. "And you are the moralist who holds everyone back with your unwillingness to bring true harm to either foe or ally. Your hesitation to act decisively is your fatal flaw!" He lifted his mace up in the air, ready to swing it down and end Trixie’s life, when a purple-black orb smashed into his skull and Mograine lost control of his mace, the weapon dropping down onto his own skull. The Commander collapsed on the ground unconscious, with Trixie gaping at the source of the attack. The former Crusader who had joined them dusted his outfit off as he pulled himself to his feet. He had only been stunned a few moments, and since his primary focus was using Shadow magic and not healing he had decided to do just that, "It's called Mind Blast. Goes straight through the thickest of armor and causes immense damage since it is basically the worst migraine possible in a ball." “…can I have it?” Dirge laughed as he helped both Trixie and Kael up, “I think it’s more of a technique suited for someone such as myself, just as you seem more in tune with arcane power.” As Trixie began listening to how Shadow magic was basically the opposite of the holy Light, she began kicking Mograine half-heartedly in the face to make sure he stayed knocked out. Kael, meanwhile, noticed Vanessa staring at the pieces of her bandana and he got an idea. “Hey…” Vanessa looked up when she heard Kael’s voice and saw that he was kneeling down with a red cloth in his outstretched palm. Her eyes lit up as she recognized Kael’s bandana as the one she had lost at Silvermoon long ago, “This…” The reason she had been so torn up was that, even if she sewed the other one back together, it never would look the same again. It would always be a pieced together, ruined, fabric…but this one was whole, and it brought tears to her eyes to see, though different tears than before. “Someone gave it to me. It looks just like yours…” Kael shrugged as Vanessa gently took it and brought it to her chest, “I don’t know if it—” His voice died as he found his leg being both hugged and cried into by her. “T-thank you…” Seeing the emotionally unstable girl express gratitude brought a small smile to Kael’s face. He didn’t know the specific significance, but he could tell it was important to her, “You’re welcome...I figure it belongs to you more than me anyways.” When Mograine woke up, he found himself in a room belonging to the armory in the Monastery. A quick glance revealed that they had removed all of his armor and clothing except his shirt and shorts, with even his boots now relocated elsewhere (Kael’s feet). He was not tied to anything, and it seemed like he had been dragged here given his position on the floor. Whatever these invaders were doing, they were moving around enough that they couldn’t afford to just tie him down in any one spot, especially since letting him go would be a severe threat. Mograine began to stand up until he found a crossbow pointed at his head by a man in black. Looking slowly up, the quiet yet furious Karl kept his gun poised on the man. He had been hoping he would wake up, even though he had been ordered to make sure he stayed down but alive. Glancing around, Mograine noticed that dynamite had been set up all over the room. Using the armory’s own dynamite, explosives brewed by Vanessa, and what Karl and Tony had brought with them, they were planning on bringing down the entire armory down and preventing its inheritors from using the weapons within. Just because Trixie was obtaining this territory on behalf of Stormwind did not mean she wanted them to be able to launch raids from it on the relatively close Undercity and the Undead there. While Karl looked after their MVP prisoner and finished the explosives, the others were finishing up dragging the former inhabitants of the armory, all weakened and sickened from the poison Vanessa had fed them, and bringing them to the library, which was wholly unmanned after everything that happened. Trixie had protested leaving Karl with the man alone, but Lavitz had insisted that it was for the best. Given Mograine’s utter lack of humanity Trixie decided to just leave it be, hoping Karl would follow orders and keep him alive…though she wouldn’t be heartbroken if he broke that promise. They had promised him they would bring him justice afterwards, but could he wait that long? “You look familiar…” Mograine grinned as he looked up at Karl, “I bet you’re related to that weakling I killed at the gate.” Karl twitched as he held the crossbow steady. “Do you want to hear what he sounded like when he screamed?” The plan could be damned. Karl kicked Mograine in the stomach, causing the other man to laugh through his pain. “I’m sure if he took a hit like that he’d have made much more amusing noises.” Karl yanked Mograine up and tried forcing him to rise on his own, “Stand.” “Karl, who is there? What’s going on?” Trixie asked over their communicator, which Karl promptly removed and dropped to the ground. Pointing his crossbow at Mograine’s head again, he spoke softly, “We’re both professionals…this is personal.” Even dazed from having just woken up, Mograine was able to twist to the side and push the crossbow away from his head. In doing so, he took a swing at Karl and knocked him back. The entire group had barely been able to face Mograine, and it had only been because of Dirge’s surprisingly powerful dark magic that they had succeeded at all. Now, Karl was alone with Mograine, who while not armored was still a trained fighter. Mograine pummeled Karl again and again and again in the gut as he forced him back into a series of ammunition crates for the Crusade’s cannons. Once there, he pinned Karl to the crates and smashed him with harder and harder strikes that could break a normal man’s bones. A knee caught Karl in the chest and a fist smashed him in the face, Mograine’s assault not relenting. Instead of bowing to the pain, Karl fought through the pain and fought for leverage against his opponent, soon twisting his foe’s arm and exposing him to a powerful straight punch to the face that knocked Mograine back and onto the floor. Once there, Karl took his time pacing around the Commander, occasionally sending a strong yet graceful kick into the man’s body each time he tried to get up. Mograine reached for the crossbow Karl had dropped when they began their melee, but instead received a kick to the jaw. Mograine fought to still get up, but a series of Karl’s ballet-like kicks kept him from doing so. Eventually one of Karl’s strikes missed their mark as he moved in on Mograine, and the man used that moment to seize him and slam the infuriated brother down onto the ground. In a pure grapple, Mograine’s greater strength would benefit him while on their feet Karl had access to his Rogue-like mobility. Slamming Karl’s head into the floor and then nearby ammunition crates, Mograine reversed the savage beating by smashing Karl’s head again and again. “You should have heard your brother squeal when I broke his damn neck!” With an elbow to Mograine’s face, Karl managed to roll out of his grip and then reach his dropped crossbow. Mograine looked up just in time to see his enemy grab it, and his attempt to get up and dodge it was a second too late as a bolt buried in his back. Karl panted as he got up and began to prepare his crossbow for another shot, expecting his foe to be near dead from the shot that went through his body…but a flash of light proved him wrong. “Say hello to your brother for me! Your friends will be joining you both soon!” The spell Mograine had selfishly not used earlier, Lay on Hands, restored him to his full health, and so in a burst of unexpected speed he rushed up to Karl before he could finish reloading and assaulted him. The attack carried them both onto a cart used to transport materials, and as Mograine once again returned the punishment he had been given the cart moved back and soon slammed into a wall. This gave Karl the opportunity to kick his opponent off of him, knocking Mograine into a pillar and then move in to strike him again. “Damnit!” Unfortunately, Mograine’s superior health allowed him to avoid Karl’s attack and instead put him in a headlock. He began to drag Karl with him as he used his other arm to punch the man in the face over and over. “You may have taken my armor, but I’m still stronger than you!” Mograine growled, “Now die already you blasted thief!” In a desperate move, Karl flipped himself around and tried to use his leverage in a different way. He managed to undo the headlock in this unexpected twist, and he then forced Mograine’s head back at an unnatural angle in an attempt to break it with the same use of applied force as he had been using the entire battle he should have lost since the first moment. Mograine gasped as he felt his neck grow closer and closer to snapping, though something he noticed beside him inspired him to do yet another reversal. A series of chains were hanging nearby, ready to be used to secure crates and objects, but they would serve another purpose soon. The Commander grabbed them and dragged them around Karl’s neck before yanking them in a way that dragged Karl off of him. This released the pressure off Mograine’s neck and allowed him to then grab more of the chains as he grappled with Karl. Already winded, Karl was unable to fight Mograine off as the man wrapped a few such chains around his neck and then twisted them into an awful knot, which Mograine followed up with draping over a torch’s metal perch on a pillar to hang Karl. His foe left hanging and choking to death, Mograine smirked as he prepared to take his revenge for the humiliation he had just suffered. “Now…the others.” Trixie bit her lip as she and the others gathered at the end of the library. The unconscious Crusaders had been easy enough to lock away in a large spiraling room that had some unfortunate man at the center in a wretched state, probably having collapsed there from Vanessa’s poison long ago to no-one’s notice. Still, the noises she was hearing over Karl’s communicator were not comforting, especially since it sounded like a fight. “That didn’t sound good…Karl, what’s the situation there?” No response still. They had set the dynamite to go off at a certain time, so if Karl was not out of there soon he would be killed along with it… “Karl? What’s happening?” Still no response. Lavitz moved to leave and go check, but Kael stopped him as his long ears caught a faraway sound…a sound that was quite like that of boots stomping in a cacophony grating on one’s ear. “That noise…” The end of the library was a long hallway, at one end having a small circular room that was currently unoccupied but that they were standing in front of, and at the other an entrance on the right and the larger circular room on the left. From the entrance the half-armored body of Mograine emerged, his face full of fury as he stomped forward with a new mace in hand and while rows and rows of Crusaders filled in behind him, “I don’t care what you do, kill them all!” The diversion group had done their job…but it seemed that the base’s Crusaders had come back just a few minutes early. Trixie sighed as she realized her plan had come so close to working despite a slew of setbacks she couldn’t have planned for, “It seems they’ve come back…” Kael forced Trixie back into the room behind them, surprising her with his sudden forcefulness, “Trixie, you’re still recovering. Stand back.” “But—” Kael glanced back as Lavitz stood beside him and the two formed a wall to the room’s open passageway, “If we stand our ground, we can hold them in this hallway. Now no arguing, move back!” Dirge retreated into the room with Trixie, while the enervated Vanessa looked up from where she had been laying against a wall to see the approaching small army. With a groan, she pulled herself to her feet and sighed, drawing the sole dagger she still had and preparing for the coming horde of enemies who were just beginning to charge. Trixie questioned Vanessa’s choice to stand with the two men in front, given her condition, “Vanessa?” Vanessa’s red bandana hid her blush as she became embarrassed by Trixie’s concern, “I have to do my part…if I don’t we’ll all die.” “But you’re—” Trixie’s complaints were rebuffed by the determined girl, “Now I’m the one protecting you. Stay back.” The Crusaders began to charge once they reached the halfway point of the hallway, which prompted Vanessa to pull out a match. “Oh, and one more thing…” She tossed it forward, and it struck a flame on a line of explosive chemicals she had brewed. This path in turn led to a series of hidden dynamite hidden in holes on the floor Vanessa had crawled past earlier, and suddenly the three quarters of the hallway away from them exploded violently in an upward fashion. “While you all were taking care of the armory, I had some free time.” The explosions were relatively weak, and the divine shields protecting the various Crusaders kept them from being slain outright by them, but it did take out the legs of many of those advancing, which was the goal. The Crusaders in front ignored the pain and finished their approach, Kael blocking Mograine himself as Vanessa and Lavitz began to block others from getting into the room where the recovering Trixie and their healer stood. “You can live without your legs, but you can’t without your head, so you better get out of my way!” Standing back from the battle, Trixie felt something click in her head as she watched Vanessa fighting tooth and nail in front of her…a flood of memories that came without context or explanation, but that felt related. “Princess Luna, I am sorry, but this is something I have to do. Not just for you.” The beast howled as it awoke in pain, its sleep being interrupted by the stinging in its ankle. The Ursa flailed briefly as it tried to rise to its full height in the cramped cave. Trixie, meanwhile, powered up another strike to fire at the monster. Trixie cringed as she saw Kael take a hit from Mograine intended for Lavitz, and then cringed again as Lavitz howled in pain as a sword cut into his armor that had already been opened up. It slowly regenerated itself she had learned, but it was not fixed fully enough to keep him from such a blow. Beside them, Vanessa was knocked into a wall as she desperately fended off two Crusaders, a light forming over her and the other two as Dirge tried to heal them all as best he could. “I seem to have gotten your attention. Your cub and I are already quite familiar.” Trixie closed her eyes as she realized she was experiencing one of those memories she previously could only see while asleep…was her power finally manifesting itself completely? “The reports have said you two have slain fourteen of my kind,” Trixie let loose another barrage of sparkling fire to strike the Ursa as her voice slowly morphed into a yell, “As Princess Luna’s apprentice, I will make sure you harm nopony else!” She was fighting an Ursa Major and Minor…the mere idea of facing a bear the size of a cave and its offspring sent shivers down her spine, and she began to wonder how she possibly got out of it. Trixie sneered, ignoring the rising feelings of exhaustion as she continued to use her most powerful magic, “Does that hurt? I’ve grown stronger since your cub humiliated me!” That cub she was fighting in the memory was the same one that had ruined her career back in Ponyville…the one which two fools had brought for her to defeat, only for her skills to be too meager. The fools had been tempted to do this because a group of ponies had heckled her… Twilight Sparkle…that was the name of one of the ponies, but who was that? Trixie had to wonder, as the name sounded important. Despite its size the Ursa moved with great speed, its paw striking Trixie just as she blasted into its leg again. The impact sent Trixie flying back into the cave wall, though mid-crash Trixie used her magic to teleport away so that she could avoid the Ursa’s follow up strike that right then smashed the wall. The memories were flowing too fast for Trixie to easily grasp in the tense moment, but she tried her best to focus. She was experiencing this for a reason, and since she had used up her mana she couldn’t help fight yet, so she may as well see if this would somehow come to help. Trixie stumbled after she appeared in the center of the cave, now behind the Ursa. The hit she took left her completely winded, not that she was running at full energy before it. This did not stop her from using her telekinesis to open her bag by the cavern’s entrance, nor did it stop her from sending a small vial hurtling at the Ursa’s face as it turned around again. Trixie coughed up some blood as she sped up the projectile, “Even if you do hit me, I’m not going to back down. I’m through being pushed around!” “I lost everything!” Before her, the Crusade began to press into them as reinforcements came in to replace those who had been wounded. The tide of Crusaders seemed endless, and it was everything the three standing in front could do to just not die even as they were rapidly healed by the powerful Priest they had acquired. “My house!” Vanessa cried in pain as a shield slammed into her and pinned her to the wall, only managing to escape death by stabbing into the man’s sword wielding wrist. “My job!” Lavitz grunted as he blocked three other Crusaders with his spear, its metal beginning to show that it was not going to be able to take much more abuse. “My life!” Kael was knocked back a few steps by Mograine, who was trying his best to get at the priest behind him to no success. Recovering from the push, Kael forced himself back towards the battle to keep from allowing Mograine through. “Princess Luna gave me all of that back and more, so I will do anything to deserve her kindness!” Just as Luna arrived though the Ursa, with a very wounded leg that was beginning to show inner flesh, connected its paw with Trixie’s side. “Trixie!” Her student crashed and rolled across the rough ground before coming to a stop a few dozen feet away from where she had been standing. The Ursa moved in for the kill, bearing its claws down on her— Only for the claws to embed themselves in the ground, Trixie’s illusion fading away. Trixie braced herself as the memories began to tumble in one after another at an ever faster pace. This Princess Luna…Trixie felt a pang akin to heartbreak when thinking of her, but why? She also felt warmth like she did with Kael and the others she cared for, but why was that pain there? Trixie hacking up blood gave away her new position to the Ursa. One side of her had a gash going down from shoulder to hip, and blood was flowing freely from the wound. Other scrapes and cuts marred her blue body, but Trixie ignored them all to continue on fighting against the Ursa. As Trixie shot at the Ursa’s wounded leg again Luna, out of fear, snapped at her, “What do you think you are doing?!” Trixie created four illusions around the room to throw off the Ursa, who was beginning to slow down due to its crippling leg wound around its ankle. With this moment of safety, Trixie shouted to her teacher with indignation, “I don’t need your help! Stay back!” The Ursa Major began to rise again, largely ignoring the lightning that continued to strike it as a mere nuisance. Trixie, meanwhile, spoke back to her princess, “I am sick and tired of being looked down on! I’d rather die than lose everything again!” Hearing it roar got Trixie to pull herself up, her voice raising to a very loud level as she turned from the Ursa Major to the Minor, “You better stay outta this!” The Ursa finished turning to her just in time to receive an explosion of fireworks to its face, Trixie simultaneously yelling at the top of her lungs, “I AM PRINCESS LUNA’S APPRENTICE! I AM GOING TO BE THE STRONGEST MAGE EQUESTRIA HAS EVER SEEN! DON’T UNDERESTIMATE ME!” “I have not come this far to be stopped! I will not let my future be jeopardized by some mongrel!” The younger bear had partially recovered from its previous defeat, now able to stand on four legs. Seeing its parent slain drove it to madness too, its eyes focused on the blue mare who had done the deed. It was seeing red, both literally with its own blood dripping down its forehead as well as figuratively with how rage swelled within it. It prepared to charge and spring forward as Luna prepared to do the very same, “Trixie, watch out! Behind you!” Despite the warning, Trixie had hit her limit. There was not an ounce of energy left in the apprentice as the cavern began to collapse around them all. Teleporting with its great strain was beyond her power, not to mention just plain walking. Trixie knew she could not get out of the way of either the Ursa or the many falling pieces of the cavern ceiling, so she made no attempt to. With this moment she instead turned to her teacher with a sad smile. “I’m sorry for letting you down…princess.” Trixie snapped out of the dream and found that she was hyperventilating. Taking a moment to look at her hand, Trixie paused and realized that she was shaking. Clenching her fists, Trixie raised her voice as she felt a power within her well up and begin pouring into her fatigued body all over. “Enough!” The Crusaders in the hallway were stunned as a shockwave of power emitted from Trixie, the excess energy she held bursting out violently given that she could not control it. It struck Kael and Lavitz as well, both of them getting out of its way the best they could since they more experience with Trixie’s latent power, while Vanessa had it go over her head since she had been knocked to the ground by the larger enemies whose strength bested her dexterity in these cramped quarters. Feeling the power within her fade away, Trixie looked down again at a hand, “I…” She wanted to say that she remembered everything…but that would be false. Even beyond the scene that had played out in her head, it felt as though a mental barrier keeping her memories away had been broken down. “I remember…” Trixie felt herself beginning to cry as she realized that, despite all her bold proclamations about being great…she was a failure where she came from. “I’m just some washup magician who lost everything.” Gripping her fists, Trixie’s breathing gradually grew deeper as she began to cry. Everyone else was beginning to recover, and none of the Crusaders were positioned to take advantage of this lapse in defense. “I lost my home…I lost my reputation and job…I had nothing!” Trixie paused before shaking her head, tears dripping fully now, “My own mother cast me out as a child because I wasn’t good enough! I lived on scraps and whatever I could to live, to build myself up one step at a time, until I one day could stand on my own! But even then, I lost everything I had because of my own weakness! Because some moral crusaders came by and were so offended by mere boasting that it was worth my livelihood!” “I suffered for so long. I tried taking revenge, and I only fell further...” Trixie brought a hand over her heart as the warmth from before returned, “But someone took pity on me and gave me a second chance…Because of her, I had the chance to live a life free of the pain I had always felt until then! Because of her, I learned and became a better person…” Trixie glanced to where she could see Vanessa, then she looked down to the floor, unable to face anyone. “So when I let her down, when I thought I lost her respect, I did something rash…” she grinned sadly as she remembered why she went to fight some of the land named Equestria’s most dangerous creatures, “I went out of my way to try and impress her with a supposedly impossible feat…I took on a threat far beyond my capabilities…” “I nearly bled to death…I nearly had my body torn apart with each hit I could not dodge…” she gently felt the parts of her body that would translate to where her equine body had been so horribly wounded, “But in the end…” Trixie looked up and saw Mograine recovering and beginning to push past Kael, his intent still being on slaying the traitorous Priest first to cut off the enemy’s stream of healing. “In the end, she protected me! She fought to save my life even when I no longer wanted to keep living!” Trixie adopted a defensive stance in front of her newest ally, “After everything, even powerless at the time, she stood up and protected me…so I’ll do the same!” Mograine lunged in a madness fueled tackle, which Trixie met with throwing her whole body forward with all its weight. While he may be far more powerful than her comrades physically, she still held the advantage of being a beast of a far greater strength than any average Human being. Colliding with him and catching his fists as he tried to flail them forward, Trixie stared him right in the eye, “I know what it’s like to only think of yourself like you, Mograine!” she bashed her forehead forward and knocked him back to where Kael lay, who in turn tripped him by slamming the man’s shins with the butt of his weapon, “But where we’re different is that I care about the people around me! Perhaps I’m selfish for wanting them to be there for me, but I won’t let you harm them even if I can’t truly match up to your strength!” Vanessa tried to keep Mograine down, but he kicked her aside and then Kael as well while his men finally managed to finish pulling themselves to their own feet after being knocked down. Vanessa’s explosives earlier had made standing back up quite difficult, as many of them could barely stand at all. As Mograine clamored forward, Trixie twisted her body in the air and kicked him across the face with a strike that knocked him back again, “I lost everything, but now that I finally have a family again I won’t let you take it from me!” Realizing that the straightforward approach would not work, Mograine tossed a hammer of Light at Trixie that caught her in the gut and slammed her into the far wall of the room. Using this opening, he rushed her and pinned her there. He then began to unleash a beating as savage as the one he had used on Karl, but all the while he slammed fist after fist into her she kept laughing despite all the pain. “You stubborn bitch, die!” He grabbed her by the head and slammed her into a bookshelf, her forehead bleeding as he used his other hand to grab Dirge, who had been trying to heal up the others during all of this. “You think this hurts?” Trixie taunted, her mind still remembering the pain she had just been made privy of in her past. This physical beating was far better than the Ursas…and it sure beat years of emotional torment and suffering. Kael reached a hand out towards Trixie as the recovered Crusaders pushed past him and the others, having forgotten them in favor of the woman who managed to actually push them all back, “Trixie…Stop it! You’ll die!” Still grinning, Trixie kept it even as a punch struck across her face, “I’ve hit that brink before…If it means giving you all more time, I’ll go there again.” “Quit talking!” Mograine growled as he wildly beat Trixie again and again, but despite his efforts she just kept laughing to his endless frustration. Then the Crusaders who had just lined up at the edge of the room gasped, some crying in terror. Mograine twisted around in confusion, letting go of Trixie and letting her fall to the floor, “What the hell?” Having donned the clothing of the Scarlet Crusaders to make his way past them, a bloodied Karl who had survived the explosion of the armory had pushed past all the others with his crossbow in hand. He lifted it up to fire, but a Crusader in the hallway shot him first. Fighting through the pain, Karl looked at Mograine with crazed eyes and took aim again. “Kill him!” Mograine demanded, pushed to panic by the fact that the man he left to certain death had come back to kill him. Three more bolts found their way in Karl’s back, but he continued to try and shoot Mograine…and with a quick flashing heal from Dirge, he managed to obtain the strength to do just that. Mograine howled as his lightly armored body was penetrated by a crossbow bolt just below the throat. As Mograine howled in pain and Karl collapsed on the ground, Trixie began rising to her feet, “Something Vanessa said gave me an idea…” Mograine twisted around as Trixie’s arms began to glow. She grabbed his arms and then used her remaining arcane energy to begin searing them, “You don’t need your arms to live, now do you?” smirking as she began to remember even more, Trixie jumped up and planted her feet on his chest, “I saw this in an anime once!” The other Crusaders rushed back out into the hallway as their Commander was kicked back into them, one of his arms severed by magical energy and the other horribly wounded. He crashed into them, but they did not go too far back because the wall of Crusaders had recovered fully by healing one another and they were standing firm. Those in front, assuming they had won now, took the time to start healing Mograine instead of pushing forward while Dirge similarly finished healing his own allies. Vanessa, Lavitz, and Kael stood up and resumed their defensive positions, though Kael found himself distracted by a small creature about one to two feet long flying over the crowd and then hovering around his head. “Na!” Recognizing it as the rarely colored Mana Wyrm they had taken in before, Kael smirked, “Nana?” Trixie’s eyes lit up, “Then that means…” Despite a million things going wrong due to unforeseen circumstances, they had won. Using the rapid speed he had used to introduce himself properly to Kael, Bronn rushed past the Crusaders and joined his comrades at the front, sword by Mograine’s throat. “Aye, milady. Want me to finish the stupid cunt?” Dirge did not understand what they were talking about or who this seeming mercenary was, so he continued to heal them as those in front fended off the Crusade. He’d ask them to explain it later he supposed, since it appeared that they were now confident. “Bronn, help the others! Did you bring what I asked for?” “Aye, milady. I am a bit faster than any group, so give them a second.” A Crusader woman with white hair and a revealing outfit forced their way past the others and joined the Commander on the ground, hugging herself closely to him as her hands glowed with healing magic. Other Crusaders protected who Dirge recognized as Grand Inquisitor Whitemane, one of the Crusader’s most sadistic members, tending to the man she loved’s wounds, “Mograine!” Her magic was far more powerful than that of the other healers present, and so Mograine sprung back to his feet quickly. Still missing an arm, his pale face was red with both blood and anger as he yelled at his subordinates, “Stay back! I’ll kill them all myself! I will not allow them to best me like this!” This distracted his subordinates momentarily, and that moment proved useful, as the voice of a Paladin not belonging to the Scarlet Crusade then called out in the hallway. “For his majesty, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider!” The Crusaders soon found themselves fighting enemies on two fronts as red and golden armored soldiers spilled forth into the hallway’s entrance. Leading those at the very front was an Elf with golden hair to match his golden heart, while right behind him a dark haired man led a small army of rangers in fine formation. “Not as many soldiers as I would like, but what other option do I have at my disposal?” Reuenthal smirked to himself as his soldiers took their place in the long hallway, with Mitter’meyers Paladins and Warriors beginning to beat down any Crusaders in their path, having received orders not to kill any in the letter sent with Nana and Bronn to Silvermoon. Once they were ready, Reuenthal threw a hand dramatically before him and shouted over all other noise in the hallway, “Force your way to the end of the corridor and occupy its length! Force them to fight from their cramped quarters, and seal the doors if possible! They may attack from either side, but they will do so without cohesion and order!” Mitter’meyer bashed aside a half dozen Crusaders faster than any of them could act, and even his own soldiers had trouble keeping pace with him as he began to carve a path through their enemies. “Do not give them reprieve! Charge forward and crush them before they can muster their forces!” Trixie’s laughter returned as she walked over to Kael and gave him a tight hug from behind, followed by a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for letting me use your authority, Prince. I told you my plan would work, didn’t I?” she laughed as she let go and watched as the Crusaders turned all their attention on stopping the Blood Elves swiftly forcing their way through their ranks, “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie…I may have had quite the setback in Equestria, but I think I’m off to a good start here in Azeroth!”