"Did you hear about the prisoner in upper isolation?"
"Who? The foal-fooler?"
"No, not the Southern Hoof of the Syndicate. That sick slimeball will get what's coming to him eventually. I'm talking about the crazy bitch from Steamfall."
"Oh, Long-whatshername? I heard the Defense Minister paid her a visit."
Echo's slitted eyes opened.
He dangled upside down from the top of his cell.
His leafy ears pricked to the sound of two chatty guards shuffling down the dim stairwell and past his jail bars.
"She must have pissed off Chandler super hard. Word is they're reducing her rations super hard."
"That's too bad. Shoulda listened to what he had to offer. I heard the Defense Minister's sending two whole batallions up to Wyvern Point."
"Oh yeah? Are they finally gonna root out those traitorous bastards?"
"They communed with monsters from beyond the Blight. Now they're gonna pay the price."
"Hey! If Verlaxion wills it! Between you and me... I never cared much for those hairy freaks anyway."
"Never showing up to the Council..."
"...not giving a shit for the other Prefectures."
"Figures that they were in league with the Rainbow Rogue."
"I hear there's enough of 'em in those mountain monasteries to fill up a third of the Shelves here."
"Pffft. Goddess forbid. Here's hoping Chandler's soldiers do the smart thing and just slit their damned throats."
"Grnnngh... how I wish I was out there instead of here! I envy the stallions and griffons doing the Queen's good work."
"Yeah. Heheh... you and me both..."
At last, their voices faded, as did their hoofsteps.
Echo was left along, dangling in silence.
He bit his lip, frowning intensely into the dimness.
Seraphimus squatted in a meditative pose. Cold vapors rippled past her beak and headcrest. The griffon kept her eyes closed, breathing in and out as she remained dead still in a penitent pose before the frozen blue shards containing her husband and child.
Every now and the, the down feathers around her face rustled. Her beak muscles tensed... then relaxed once again. She exhaled, murmuring whispery prayers into the cold, sterile air.
Nothing was heard above the continuous dull hum of manabanks cycling the frosted energy in and out of the chamber's crystalline conduits.
Eventually, the slick, wet surfaces of the shards reflected another figure marching up to a stop behind Seraphimus. The Lieutenant took a few seconds to compose himself before clearing his throat.
"Chandler's begun his latest initiative," Keris said. "A security sweep of Wyvern Point." His voice took on a sullen tone. "More like a purge. He's sent two full winged batallions northwest. They've been instructed to scour the monasteries inside and out and burn all material deemed 'indicative of the Blight's wicked taint.'"
Seraphimus took a long, contemplative breath. She spoke without turning her head... or so much as opening her eyes. "He has been granted authority by Verlaxion herself. So long as he has the backing of the Council, I do not see why he should hesitate to exercise righteous vengeance on the Wyverns for their heretical misdeeds."
Keris clenched his beak tight. "Every member of the Wyvern Tribe is to be forcefully located to the Frosted Shelves. Word is... Chandler has given the soldiers full authority to... to execute any citizens of Wyvern Point who resist the Defense Cabinet's mandate for absolute surrender."
"Indeed." Seraphimus remained unmoving. "And if the Wyvern Tribe did not desire to incur the queen's wrath, they would have guarded themselves more properly against outside evils. They have brought this fate upon themselves."
Keris stifled the urge to growl. "Commander, with all due respect—"
"Is that what brought you here, Lieutenant?" Seraphimus' voice grew tense. "Because if it was a matter of respect, I would not be listening to you right now." Her headcrest tilted back sharply. "Not in this place."
"We are the Right Talon of Verlaxion," Keris spoke firmly. "We have sworn our lives to the protection of the Great Unifier's foals. All of her foals." He shook his head. "Can we truly... willfully allow for the wyverns to be... rounded up and treated like livestock?!"
"The Blessing of Unification was forfeited by the Wyverns the very moment they assisted the Rainbow Rogue."
"And what of me, then?" Keris glared. "Am I no longer a Foal of Verlaxion for having aided her in Red Barge?"
"The Messenger did not condemn you with the Voice and Will of Verlaxion," Seraphimus calmly replied. "However, our Queen did admonish the Wyverns for their sins." A dull exhale. "Chandler may be extreme in his methods, but he is not without justification."
"And just how extreme will he have to be for the justification to no longer apply?!" Keris growled.
"Do not dramatize, Lieutenant," Seraphimus said. "It doesn't suit you." Another calm breath. "You knew the fate of the Wyverns the very moment you heard the words of Verlaxion's revelation before the Council."
"I know that Verlaxion is a Goddess of mercy," Keris said. "At least, she's supposed to be! Her written words... the... th-the scrolls and scriptures and historical archives maintain that she's only ever meant to be a loving, kind mother to all her foals!"
Seraphimus nodded. "And now—more than ever—she is maintaining the harmony that she has always promised us—"
"Through violence and purging?!" Keris grimaced. "Hunting terrorists, insurgents, and rogues is one thing! The Right Talon has always sought to patch the holes in our fragile kingdom. But Chandler—he's... he's attempting to lock an entire Tribe in chains! Those that he feels flippant enough to spare, that is! Where's the Harmony in that?!"
"Do not forget who are the discordant ones here," Seraphimus droned. "The Rainbow Rogue... her allies from Beyond the Blight... the wyverns who have given them sanctuary." She exhaled. "Rounding them up is simply a larger scale exercise of what the Talon has always done."
Keris frowned. "Chandler committed arson, aided terrorists, and exploited innocent citizens in Central Rohbredden and abroad." His magenta hawkeyes narrowed. "If you're worried about 'discordant ones,' you needn't look much further than him."
Seraphimus beak remained shut.
Keris sighed. "Are we really... truly going to write off all the evil he's done and continues to be doing just because of what the frozen messenger said when it broadcasted Verlaxion's voice before the Council?"
"This is the way our kingdom has always operated, Lieutenant."
"I know that, but—"
"Just because you were not present for the last time this occurred does not give you the license to dictate the legitimacy of what's recently transpired."
"I know that tradition and fealty tells me that what the Council is doing with the formation of this Defense Ministry is a righteous thing, but—"
"But what, Lieutenant?"
Keris sighed heavily. He gazed down the chambers and chambers full of frosted blue statis shards. Bodies hung in suspended animation, locked forever in a Goddess' embrace, some of them forgotten completely.
"You and I have been through a lot, Commander," Keris said. "We've experienced far more than any other member of the Talon can even hope to comprehend. Our experience even puts the most stalwart members of the Central Guard to shame."
"Your point...?"
"My point, Commander, is that experience... common sense tells me that there is something horribly amiss here."
"Verlaxion appointed Chandler and Chandler alone," Seraphimus said. "Our Goddess works in mysterious ways. Nevertheless, her wisdom has saved us before, and it shall save us again. Harmony shall be restored unto Rohbredden. Already, I trust, the Ministry has been working wonders."
"Yes, I see that."
"Then I do not see why you are bothering me—"
"—but it is only a temporary solution!" Keris grimaced. "Surely you—in your experience and knowledge—can foresee the problem here! Removing the wyverns from the equation is like... slicing loose a meaty chunk of Rohbredden's bowels! Yes, our citizens and soldiers may be strongly unified now, but the repercussions of what's happening today is going to affect Rohbredden for decades... even centuries to come! What is the worth of a short season of Harmony in exchange for countless ages of chaos?!"
"In eliminating the Rainbow Rogue, we will have proven our loyalty to Verlaxion—"
"Yes, and then what?!" Keris frowned. "The Central Guard is doubling overnight. Tripling! With all of that might and nowhere to point it, the only way to maintain equilibrium is to attack new and newer targets! Don't pretend you do not expect Chandler to do just that! He'll take 'Verlaxion's Wrath' to the Colonialists and beyond!" Keris blanched. "Do you honestly think Rohbredden has the resources for such a full-scale invasion of so many countless islands?! We're talking casualties in the thousands... tens of thousands!"
Seraphimus sighed, her eyelids tensing. "It is out of our claws..."
"Why?!" Keris cocked his feathery head to the side. "Because the Right Talon was never mentioned by Verlaxion's messenger?"
"If the Goddess meant for us to be involved, she would have stated such."
"Commander, this is a matter of omission, not denial," Keris said. "It's Hymnos, Chandler, and the new Defense Cabinet that's been trying to get rid of us."
"And they have the authority from Verlaxion to do so," Seraphimus said. "Unless our Unifier is to change her mind... or give us a sign that we are authorized to intervene... then our place is here... in Frostknife." An exhale. "As firmly stated."
Silence.
"Well, maybe we've just gotten that sign," Keris said. He reached beneath his armor and produced a scroll. "I've gotten my claws on something, Commander. It's a message—secretly encoded and stealthily delivered—that states that the Rainbow Rogue and her party of accomplices shall be heading through the Midfrost Passage to arrive at Starkiss."
"Is that a fact...?"
"Yes."
"And who exactly gave you this message?"
"... ... ...Jordan did, Seraphimus."
At last, the Commander's charcoal eyes opened. The blue light surrounding her family stabbed her deeply, and still she gazed straight forward.
Keris stared at her, holding the scroll out. "He is alive, Seraphimus. Battered... perhaps a bit frayed around the nerves... but still very much not dead."
"We... watched him get obliterated, Keris," Seraphimus exhaled. "His... his arm..."
"Griffons have survived worse," the Lieutenant said, gesturing at his cast. "And magical technology exists that can act as an equalizer. We both know this."
"And we both know that this is a time of great tension and anxiety," Seraphimus said in a breathy tone. "This could very easily have been forged."
"Not so."
"How do you know this?"
"Because the message was initially delivered with the words obscured by means only feasible by a soul possessing the Talon's know-how." Keris took a shuddering breath. "And Jordan finished the letter with a pledge shared between us and us alone." He gulped. "It's him. My brother-in-arms is alive out there..."
"And he's trailing the Rainbow Rogue?" Seraphimus squinted at the Lieutenant. "To what end?"
Keris clenched his beak.
"Lieutenant...?"
"He... has taken on the alias of Wildcard, Commander."
Her charcoal eyes narrowed. "The accomplice to the Rainbow Rogue in Rust and Shoggoth?"
Keris solemnly nodded.
"... ... ...he... is in league with her?"
"And with Mortuana and the so-called 'forces from beyond the Blight.'" Keris didn't waste a breath to add: "Seraphimus, I was likewise shocked to read of all this. But—whether or not Jordan has been... misguided in his alliegances is not the point. What matters is that we can now pinpoint the location of the Rainbow Rogue! He understands what's at stake in Rohbredden now as much as we do!"
"But... to expose the location of the Rainbow Rogue..." Seraphimus thought aloud, her cold eyes trailing the lengths of the cavernous platform. "...is that why he's faked his death all these years? To perform one final act of faith for Verlaxion?"
"I believe it is we whom he expects to exercise faith, Seraphimus," Keris said. "In regards to Verlaxion, he believes—" Keris' voice cut off as he stared blankly.
Seraphimus squinted pointedly at him.
Keris swallowed and said, "He very... very ardently believes that the Talon should be involved in this particular juncture. And, to be honest, with the Wyvern Tribe at risk and the rest of Rohbredden on the brink of untold turmoil, I think we should take him up on his invitation and meet him—and Rainbow Rogue—at the Midfrost Passage."
"To do what, exactly?" Seraphimus remarked.
"To talk. To communicate. To be civilized!" Keris' beak clattered. "For Goddess' sake, Commander, to do anything but bathe this continent in more bloodshed! Isn't that what the Great Unifier would desire of us? Harmony?! Chandler and the Council are chomping at the bit to tear this Continent apart in search for the Rogue. Alas, here she is!" He waved the scroll in his grasp, holding it further towards Seraphimus. "Right where Jordan is pointing us! It's an opportunity for a harmonic solution to all of this! A miracle we must not pass up!"
Seraphimus stared at Keris. She looked at the scroll being offered her. Cold vapors rippled past her feathers and limbs.
At last, after a cold shudder, the Commander turned to face the blue shards looming in front her.
"Show it to Chandler."
Keris' headcrest drooped.
"If he should have us intervene... then let me know." Seraphimus closed her eyes once more. "Until then... it is the Defense Ministry's miracle, not ours."
"Commander..." Keris gulped. "Seraphimus, please, we have an opportunity here."
"If you believe in your heart that it is a legitimate opportunity, then you will do the right thing and present it to the righteous authority that Verlaxion has so recently appointed."
"I refuse to give it to Chandler," Keris growled. "I choose to give it to you."
"And why so?"
"Because..." Keris marched over and sat in front of Seraphimus, grasping her shoulders. "You are the Talon!"
Seraphimus forced her eyes open, blinking at Keris' grip of her limbs.
Keris leaned forward. "You are the extension of Verlaxion's righteousness! So be righteous! Be wise! Can't you see?! This is our opportunity to intervene on behalf of the kingdom we've always sworn to protect! We don't have to let it fall into the hooves of a pathetic criminal! Why—for all that is holy—would Verlaxion desire such a horrid thing to occur?! You can prevent that! You can still save Rohbredden and all of the foals of Verlaxion!"
Seraphimus blinked.
"Lead us to the Midfrost Passage!" Keris insisted. "Reunite with Jordan! See what he has to convey! Maybe... just maybe... we all could stand to learn the true reason for why Verlaxion has become weak and vulnerable... or why she always... always refuses to show her true face."
Silence.
Seraphimus raised her claws until they gripped Keris' wrist and cast. She stared back into the other griffon's eyes. "You are right about one thing, Lieutenant."
Keris' eyes darted back and forth.
Seraphimus slowly... forcefully removed Keris' grip of her limbs. "We all could stand to learn something. And that is humility."
Keris opened his beak.
"Go to Chandler," Seraphimus said. "He is the one appointed by Verlaxion, not I." Staring straight ahead, her eyes filled with blue reflection. "To do otherwise... would defile her righteous plan... would dull the claws of her Talon." She slowly shook her head, her expression glazed. "I've failed enough in her eyes. But no more." A deep breath. "I am her humble servant. Nothing more... nothing less."
Keris slowly backed away from her, beak agape. He fumbled for words, then ultimately hung his head.
Dead silence.
Cold vapors drifted past them, condensing against the cold stone of the cavern.
"I do wish I was more humble," Keris said in a dull tone. "Perhaps... I wouldn't have allowed ignorance and complacency to hold so much power in my life. Otherwise..." He looked up with a scowling frown. "...I would have done something to save you from this, Seraphimus."
The Commander sat still, staring into the cold.
"We all swore to protect the foals of Verlaxion." He pointed at the two bodies before her. "That does not include them. They're already blessed. You should know that. If you did, then you wouldn't be compromising your integrity right now."
"Go to Chandler, Lieutenant," Seraphimus icily growled, shaking slightly. "Or else it would be a shame to arrive at his office in pieces."
"That is the answer you're going to give me, Seraphimus? A threat?"
"I did not hear a question, Keris."
Silence.
"I wonder why I was ever shocked to begin with," Keris said, tucking the scroll away and marching off. "Jordan didn't die all those years ago. You did." And he left her alone with the frost.
Seraphimus waited until the claw-scrapes of his limbs diminished in the distance. At last, she unleashed her breath in a burst. Hanging her head, she clenched her eyes to lock the tears in... but ultimately sealed them with a frown that slowly melted into mindless meditation.
Starstorm brushed a claw over her headcrest. She stared off into the corner of the armory, eyes moist and contemplative. "Is... is she really that far-gone...?"
"She's abiding by the orders given her," Windburst reasoned out loud. "The same orders given to all of us." He sighed, too antsy to bother examining his crossbow any longer, so he tossed the thing limply onto the tabletop before them. "Dammit... if I had just agreed to follow her south out of Braum... even if it meant ditching Longaze with Sarda and the rest of the snow-huffers..." He growled. "Maybe she wouldn't have gone off the deep-end. I... I just don't know..."
"It's not your fault, Sergeant," Keris muttered, leaning against a slitted window-frame. The cold of Frostknife wafted through the space, chilling his feathery flesh. The Lieutenant remained unwavering. "This is something that's been in the making for a long time."
"You suppose Jordan's... uhm... 'passing' had something to do with it?" Raptr suggested.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. I... don't really know." Keris' eyes fell to the stone floor. "If anything, I blame myself. I thought that I had moved beyond Jordan's departure. I thought I had gotten stronger." He slowly shook his head. "No. If I was truly courageous, I would have been more than a subordinate officer to the Commander. I would have been a friend." He turned about with a sigh. "Friends help other friends exercise the fine art of letting go. For years, leading the Talon has been the Commander's responsibility... but I see now that it's also been her crutch."
"That's pathetic," Starstorm grumbled. "Surely, you don't believe that."
"I only wish I had believed it sooner, Sergeant," Keris remarked. "Right now, when we matter the most, the Talon has grown weak in more ways than one. It's almost as if it was all pur—" He froze in place, blinking at his own words.
The other guardians stared at him.
Keris cleared his throat. "I... I do not believe that we will be getting the Commander's permission to embark upon the Midfrost Passage."
The Sergeants looked at one another.
"So... uhm..." Raptr shifted nervously. "...what do we do?"
Keris closed his eyes, exhaled, and said, "We standby."
"You standby?!" a voice cackled from the far corner.
All four griffons swiveled to look.
Theanim Mane gawked from where he was standing the whole time. With muzzle agape, he limped towards the group. "In the spirit of my good friend Echo, I must inquire: are you anointing my forehead with extreme amounts of bovine fecal matter?!"
"Professor, please," Keris droned, waving his good talon. "I wish I could do something about this, but my talons are tied—"
"To hell with your talons!" Theanim barked. "What of your hearts! Your minds?! Your good wits?!"
"You heard the Lieutenant," Starstorm stammered. "The Commander will not authorize us to do anything but provide this information to Chandler—"
"Yes, and did the Commander's inexplicable absence stop you and your Lieutenant from assisting me in a bold excursion to Sunset Prefecture?!" Theanim pointed. "The end result of which determined beyond the shadow of a doubt that our so-called Defense Minister is a scoundrel and a cheat!"
"Professor—"
Theanim spun towards Keris, teeth showing. "You yourself openly admitted that your ill-tempered Commander has reduced this entire operation to a crutch. Tell me, Lieutenant. Just what else are you willing to regret tomorrow?!"
"What are you even suggesting, Professor?" Windburst blurted.
"What else?!" Theanim waved a forelimb. "We go to Midfrost Passage! We meet with Rainbow Dash! We ascertain the truth—once and for all!"
"This will end in only one course of action," Keris grumbled. "If Rainbow Dash has her way, she will take us straight to Verlaxion's Throne to confront the Goddess herself."
"And what of it?!" Theanim boomed.
The griffons all shook, and Keris most of all.
"Professor..." Keris tried to talk straight. "I... I cannot pretend to support a campaign that... that could threaten the very livelihood of—"
"Of what?! An ancient Goddess so aloof, so unfeeling that she would willfully balance the entire hulking weight of this precious continent on such porous, fragile icicles?!"
"Mind your tone—"
Theanim hollered: "You cannot blaspheme a deity that has no foundation!" He frowned, fumed. "I, too, once refused to seek the answers to seemingly preposterous questions! Had I remained complacent in my blindness, I would never have born witness to the phenomenon under Nealand... or helped expose the evil workings of the Syndicate or the Consortium! The truth is—Lieutenant—there is a lot... and I do mean a lot of things rotten here in the continent of Rohbredden! And they do not center exclusively on Chandler—although he is certainly a leprotic component—but instead they all congregrate around the abysmally absurd mystery that is the Great Unifier! Now Rainbow Dash is on a mission of her own, indeed, but her path—aside from a few unfortunately frantic bumps—is nevertheless a harmonic one, and by surfing the wake that she is making we may finally... finally unearth the questions that this kingdom has been dying to ascertain with such fervor that it has nearly come to the blows of all-out civil war!"
"And what if the Rainbow Rogue serves only to maintain the banal infamy she started in the Quade, Professor?!" Keris hollered back. "What then?!"
"You don't truly believe that." Theanim shook his head. "If you did, you wouldn't have let her travel a single inch of oceanwater without her head. You were in the right place and the right time to capture the Rainbow Rogue. Broken talon be damned—you had her, Lieutenant. So why did you let her go, huh? Was it pity? Laziness? Or—perhaps—something awesome? Something noble? Something that your Commanding Officer has long admonished, because in her sorrow and her pessimism she has foolishly confused an openness of mind for weakness?!"
Keris shook. He avoided the Professor's gaze.
"Look around you, Lieutenant," Theanim said. "Look directly around you. Frostknife boils with anger... with bloodthirst. The Rainbow Rogue is phantom... a word... and it's slowly, painfully becoming an excuse for genocide. It is wrong, Lieutenant."
"The... Court and the Defense Ministry are empowered—"
"It is wrong." Theanim took bold steps towards the griffon, staring him down. "It is wrong." He looked at him, breathing steadily, calmly. "And you are a soul who knows wrong from right. If you weren't... you would never have flown to Red Barge to begin with... and thousands... thousands of families—Lieutenant—would be lost to the muck and filth of monsters. And what would the High and Mighty Seraphimus have done to preserve such fragile souls beyond this Continent's reach? And what will she do to save the wyverns or the Colonialists abroad?"
Keris sighed. He slowly raised his head, staring back with soft magenta eyes.
Theanim gulped. "This is all wrong, and—once again—you have an opportunity to stop it. You, Lieutenant." He pointed. "Jordan extended this invitation to you... because he knows his sworn 'brother' has the strength and fortitude to make a difference when it is needed. You did it once for the Seven Seas... now do it for Rohbredden. Because the day is not going to be saved by Seraphimus... and it sure as blazes won't be saved by Chandler."
Starstorm, Windburst, and Raptr kept their anxious eyes locked on the Lieutenant.
"So... now that you know where the cards are stacked..." Theanim exhaled. "...what is your decision, Talon?"
Keris blinked. He leaned back, staring at Theanim thoughtfully. Eventually, his gaze fell upon the other guardians.
The air hung tense... silent...
"Okay..." Rainbow Dash giggled. "...I must admit." She smiled down at her hooves as she shuffled up the steep incline of snow and stone. "The metal plugs did make it slightly tough to cuddle with her." She giggled again, ears twitching above a rosy smile. "Especially when she slid into the hammock second. I'd already be settled in, halfway asleep, and—pow!—it's like a living iceberg just rolled into bed with me."
"My goodness!" Rarity gasped, fidgeting slightly in mid-hover. "Just... how many of these... errr... pl-plugs did she possess along the surface of her flesh?"
"Enough..." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Believe me. Felt like nuzzling up to a roll of aluminum foil. Celestia on a bike..."
"Rainbowwwww..." Twilight chided.
"Get over it, egghead." Rainbow cleared her throat, following the hoofprints left uphill by Mortuana, Flynn, and Logan. Wildcard, Bard, and Ariel glided overhead, checking the horizons. "Anyways, we'd often drag an extra blanket into the observation room of the Noble Jury and... sorta wrap it around her."
"No kidding?" Twilight smirked aside. "Like a cocoon?"
"Even better!" Rarity grinned. "A 'Roarke Burrito!'"
Twilight glared aside at her.
"What?" Rarity shrugged. "Was simply attempting to be in the spirit of things."
"Heh... Roarke Burrito..." Rainbow Dash smirked. "I kinda like that."
"I'm honestly surprised Pinkie didn't think of it first," Twilight remarked.
"Pinkie?" Rarity looked over her shoulder.
"Hmmmmmm..." Pinkie glanced north and south, blinking slowly.
"You with us, darling?" Rarity chuckled. "I thought it was Fluttershy's nap-time, not yours."
"Yeah. Yeah." Pinkie waved a hoof, continuing to glance all around. "'Roarke Sushi.' Funny stuff. Ha ha ha." She squinted. "Something's... fuzzy in the air..."
"Wasn't Roarke hot?" Twilight asked.
"Oh jeez..." Rainbow rolled her eyes again. "You have nooooo idea."
"Erm... I-I mean with that blanket wrapped up all around her."
"Oh. Eheh..."
"I mean, it's really sweet of her to not want to chill you to the bone with her... erm... metal parts." Twilight cleared her throat. "But I hate to think of her sweating her coat off."
"Nah. She could manage. That was the great thing about Roarke. She was tough. And yet..." Rainbow sighed happily, her right wingtips fluttering. "...so soft on the inside."
"Yes, well, I'll take your word for it," Rarity muttered. "I still can't get over that tall tale you told of that dreadful 'Searo's Hold' place." She shivered, but then tapped her chin in a ponderous expression. "Although... come to think of it... must be delightful having several servile stallions at your beck and call... only a chain-rattle away."
Twilight groaned. "Rarity..."
Rarity stuck her tongue out. "Oh lighten up, darling. It was meant in jest." She nevertheless fanned herself. "Mostly... eheh..."
"You know, the blanket thing was Roarke's idea, not mine," Rainbow said. "She did so many things to try and make me comfortable. Like... without asking. It all snowballed, y'know? Like, I found myself having to tell her to chill... not literally, of course. But... but she could be such a friggin' softy. So concerned about offending me n'stuff. Strange to think that—once upon a time—the only thing we could ever think of doing to one another was violent suplexes."
"Sounds like love at first concussion," Twilight said with a smile. "Are you certain you only had a crush on her after she tried to crush you?"
"Basically, Twilight, it's friggin' amazing how quickly you could learn to love someone when you're constantly on the run for your life." Rainbow coughed. "Or in my case, on the wing."
"Well..." Twilight curled her ghostly forelimbs and smiled while floating sideways. "I'm just glad that you found love, Rainbow Dash," she said. "After everything you've been through..." A deep sigh. "After the void we must have left when we... you know."
"Let's not play the blame game," Rainbow muttered, shaking her head. "Nopony wins it. Ever."
"Agreed." Rarity nodded. "Even Fluttershy would concur—if she wasn't busy dreaming of bunny rabbits or some such right now."
"Seriously... seriously fuzzy," Pinkie Pie muttered, scrunching her muzzle at the sky.
"Is something wrong, Pinkie?" Twilight droned.
"I... I dunno." Pinkie rubbed her nose and frowned. "The air feels... itchy."
"Itchy?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie shivered. "Almost as if the entire sky's a lint brush that's rubbing my ghost tummy the wrong way."
"As always, Pinkie, your analogies leave me wanting."
"For what?" Pinkie stuck her tongue out. "Maverick lint brushes?"
Rarity waved a hoof "I rest my case."
"So, Rainbow... uhm..." Twilight glanced at her anchor. "Is all you and Roarke ever did was cuddle together in a hammock, staring at the stars?"
"Heh! I make it sound like that, huh?" Rainbow smirked, trodding up the snowy incline. "I'll have you know that we spent plenty of hours kicking goblin butt, exploring mountains, and saving civilizations from changeling dooOoooOooOoom. Ahem... that's extra doomy-doom, for those keeping count."
"Oh Rainbow Dash..." Rarity giggled. "I take back any unnecessary reservations I may have woefully telegraphed. You're positively radiant every moment that you speak of this auspicious mare. It fills me with such joy..."
"Heehee..." Twilight smiled cheekily. "I was just wondering if the two of you... you know..."
"Twilight..." Rainbow sighed through a smirk. "Roarke and I were big girls. And we had a hammock on cold nights. Of course we... y'know... did more 'panky' than 'hanky.'" She looked ahead. "I just didn't want to go into any details because... friggin' why, y'know?"
"That's not what I meant," Twilight said, shaking her head. "I was curious why neither of you married."
"...?!" Rainbow spun to blink at Twilight.
Twilight blinked back. "I mean... did... did you not love this 'Roarke' like no other?"
Rainbow bit her lip. "I... the Austraeoh had places to go and..." A heavy gulp. "The chaos, Twilight. How... how could I expect for Roarke to... to live with—?" She nevertheless paled, staring down at the cold snow with trembling limbs. "...sweet Celestia, why did I never bother to pop the que—"
All of the sudden, Ariel's voice shouted from up high. "Structures! I see structures!"
Remna's voice grunted: "Structures?"
"Yes! Due east!" Ariel streaked by in a black blur. "Filling the flat plain!"
Flynn tilted his muzzle up. "Precisely how many of them?"
A pause. Eventually, Ariel blurted: "I dunno. Hundred? Two hundred?"
"'More like a thousand,' Dubya says!" Bard's voice echoed.
Flynn looked back past rainbow. "Kepler? What do you think?"
The wyvern already had a map partially unrolled. "Yes, frriends! This should rroughly be the spot!"
"The spot?" Rainbow blinked past her ghostly friends. "I don't get it. The spot for what?"
"Both the most badass and saddest sight you'll ever lay eyes on, toots," Logan grunted through a grizzled smirk. "But I think I will leave the revelation to poetic immortals. Ahem... Mountain Matron?"
"Behold..." Mortuana waved a gangly forelimb at the east horizon just as Rainbow rounded a crest. "...the Frost-Forsaken Tribal Battlefield."
Rainbow Dash and her companions rounded the hill, squinting. Pinkie and Rarity's muzzles dropped. Twilight audibly gasped.
"Oh..." Twilight cupped a pair of fetlocks over her muzzle. "Oh my gosh..."
Eyes narrow, Rainbow marched ahead. She trotted past Mortuana, catching up to Flynn, Logan, and Remna. Before the entire group, stretching north and south across the snow-covered plateau as far as the natural eye could see, was a forest... a forest made of bodies. But these weren't any normal corpses. Almost all of them stood upright, frozen in mid-gallop, locked in leg-rearing gestures.
Rainbow spotted ponies—stallions and mares alike. Unicorns and earth ponies stood at sharp angles, their muzzles hung open in frozen screams. Occasionally, she spotted pegasus bodies—most of whom were lying on their sides with wings spread wide.
There were griffons and wyverns as well, although in far fewer numbers. Some of the frozen combatants faced one another. Others were skewered by swords, axes, and spears.
The majority of the corpses—however—were facing west, as if giving the Herald a ghostly greeting. Rainbow judged from the angle of their limbs that they were frozen in motion.
"They... they were running from something," Twilight said. She pointed a lavender hoof. "Look. Over half of them are facing the direction we've trotted from."
"Holy moley!" Pinkie Pie blinked hard. "What were they running from?"
"Does... d-does it matter?" Rarity sniffed, hugging herself as she glanced at more and more bodies emerging from the snow. "What a h-horrid display..."
"Rainbow, look!" Twilight exclaimed hoarsely as she gestured.
Rainbow peeked past the first line of bodies.
The deeper the group traversed into the Tribal Battlefield, the more the stationary bodies were... coated in icicles. They weren't just any ordinary icicles formed by the lingering passage of time, but rather they all uniformly pointed west. Thick, translucent shards of white frost protruded from the limbs, craniums, and gaping jaws of the ill-fated deceased. If Rainbow squinted, she felt as if she was staring straight up at a snow-white ceiling of stalactites pointing straight down at her.
"Watch it," Flynn said in a dull tone. "They're sharp. Like steel—I assure you."
As if to test her companion's statement, Ariel swiftly flew down and tapped a hoof against an icicle's points. She winced with a jolt, instantly regretting the move. "Goddess damn..."
"H-how long have these poor wretches been here?" Rarity remarked.
Rainbow cleared her throat. "How... uh..." Her voice cracked. "How old are these dudes?"
"Older than old itself," Logan said.
"Ugh..." Flynn shook his head. "If you don't have an answer, Big Show, then don't bother."
"Figured I wouldn't let you have all the fun."
Flynn cleared his throat and orated: "These bodies have been here since the Dawn of Unification."
"You mean Pre-Verlax?" Rainbow asked incredulously.
"That's right." Flynn nodded, his mechanical eye examining frozen bodies locked in icicled horror as he strolled along. "The Tribes fought extensively with one another for centuries before the Queen of Frost allegedly came to unite the warring races."
"And... all this time..." Rainbow pointed aside. "For thousands and thousands of years, these bodies have been—like—chilling out here? Not decaying an inch?"
"Precisely." Flynn said. "Not much precipitation reaches this part of the plateau. The cold does all the rest."
"This damned place has been preserved perfectly," Logan grumbled. "A picture perfect snapshot of a battle fought eons ago."
Bard touched down beside Rainbow Dash. "So long as 'Verlaxion' has her way, nopony wanders these parts west of Starkiss. Hell... we may be the first souls to see this in... lifetimes."
Remna's violet brow furrowed. She studied closely as she passed a catapult, frozen in time with icicle barbs shooting westward.
Wildcard's goggles reflected axes and glaves—half sunken in the compressed snow below.
"But... but..." Rainbow Dash glanced around. "...most of these dudes aren't even facing one another."
"Your point?" Logan muttered.
"She's right!" Ariel called from overhead, flying loopty-loops around the battlegrounds. "Seems like they were all fleeing west."
"Right..." Bard nodded. "In the same direction as a great... wintry blast."
"So, what?" Rainbow blinked. "A blizzard?"
"This wasn't a blizzard, Rainbow Dash," Twilight murmured. She gulped. "I've read the testimonies of Clover the Clever before. This had to have been done by—"
"It is the work of windigoes," Mortuana firmly spoke. "But not just any wintry beast." Her regal eyes narrowed. "Verlax's herd. The Divine's very own summoning."
"Verlax did all of this?" Pinkie squeaked, shivering slightly. "That's... like... Level Fourteen Meanie Head!"
"But... but..." Rainbow exhaled, passing the corpses of two fallen griffons, twisted in frozen agony. "...why would she do this?"
"To prove a point, I reckon," Bard said. "Her foals had to need her somehow."
Remna exhaled fumingly and continued marching ahead of the group.
"You..." Rainbow Dash grimaced. "You mean she—"
"Through conspiratorial means, no doubt, she mechanized the Six Tribes to meet at this one location and engage in a bloody battle," Mortuana said. "And it would have been a decisive one... had she not annihilated all six armies with a wave of windigoes."
"And then, once the infamy of the wintry beasts had spread," Flynn continued, "She made her appearance... promising peace... harmony... unification..."
"And most of all," Ariel muttered, flying with drooping wings. "Freedom from windigoes... through her protection alone."
"First you kill your 'foals' with their own worst enemy." Rainbow's nostrils flared. "Then you step in as their savior." An iron frown. "How pathetic."
"And yet her messianic presence is ingrained in the collective consciousness of all Rohbreddenites forever," Mortuana said. The bandages around her battered horn flapped in a cold breeze. "The worst tragedy is the kind that gives birth to itself over and over again, each generation."
"Y'know... there's a song written about this, if I do recall," Flynn said, tapping his chin in thought. "Bard? Do you know it?"
"Erm..." Bard fidgeted, trotting past mangled griffon bodies and wagons. "...reckon I'm a bit rusty in rememberin' the classics at this point—"
"'Thrrough the white wall of death, she came,'" Kepler quoted unmelodically. "'With the melting firres of grrace in herr mane.'" The wyvern's voice echoed off the frosted faces of the dead surrounding the Herald as they trotted through the bodies. "'In everry glance, salvation. In everry hoofstep, a song. She descended frrom the starrs so that she may take herr childrren wherre they belong.'"
Twilight gulped hard. She found part of her body phasing through a dead wyvern's wing, and she flinched.
Rarity's moist eyes reflected figures half-submerged in snow, their limbs reaching outward—only to be pierced by icicles.
"'Saved forreverr by a chilly conflagrration, and made Rrohbrredden by herr loving unification.'" Kepler took a deep breath, dropping a scroll back into the wagon he was dragging. "'Prraise the Queen of Frrost, for life is herr gift.'"
"There's that fuzzy feeling again," Pinkie murmured.
"I... I feel it too, darling." Rarity gulped, lowering her head. "I believe I'm going to be sick."
"No. I mean it!" Pinkie squinted. "It's like it's getting stronger..."
Rainbow blinked at her friend. She tilted her gaze upward.
While Ariel kept flying in circles, Wildcard had frozen in mid-air. The griffon gazed north and south, his goggles glinting. The Desperado's beak tightened as his claws tickled with the hilt of a nightstick.
"Mmmmmm..." Rainbow's ears twitched. "...Bard?"
The stallion beside her glanced over. "What is it, darlin'?"
Up ahead, Remna shuffled past body after body. She passed another catapult, and slowed her trot. A griffon corpse sat hunched over, covered in powdery white snow. The bounty hunter narrowed her emerald eyes on the figure.
"I... I dunno..." Rainbow cleared her throat. "This place is super freaky, and the girls are getting antsy."
"Define ansty."
"Well—"
Just as Rainbow was saying this, a swath of lavender light flickered behind her. Fluttershy emerged, yawning. The dainty pegasus blinked with heavy eyelids... then suddenly gasped wide. "Oh! Oh my goodness!"
"I know, Fluttershy." Rarity sniffled. "It's... it's quite awful. Just don't look—"
"Why aren't we running?!" Fluttershy yelped.
"Huh?" Twilight looked towards her. "What do you mean?"
"Doesn't anypony know we're surrounded?!" Fluttershy squeaked.
"They're dead, Fluttershy," Twilight said. "They've been dead for thousands of years. Don't worry. They can't hurt us."
Fluttershy panted. She looked at Twilight with wide eyes. "I'm not talking about the dead!" Hyperventilating, she flashed Rainbow a pale look. "They're all around us!"
"Huh?!" Rainbow spun about. "Who's all around us, Fluttershy?"
Curious, Remna turned and looked back at the group.
"...!" The hunched griffon body beside her jumped up. "Rrrrrrrgh!" He swung an axe straight into Remna's body. THUNK!
"Aaaaugh!" Remna collapsed.
"Whoah!" Flynn hollered.
"Holy shit!" Schiiing! Logan pulled out his own axe. "Where did he come fr—?" Thwiiiift! A crossbolt landed in his chest. "Grkk!" He rolled back, an arrow protruding from his body.
"Big Show!" Ariel shrieked, then gasped as more projectiles flew at her.
A pegasus stood up from the snow, aiming a crossbow. Four other "corpses" shook off their camouflage, unsheathing blades and weapons. "Everypony, engage!"
"Engage the enemy!"
"Now! Now!"
Bodies charged in from all sides of the battlefield, weaving in and out of the frozen corpses.
"Gaaaaaaie!" Pinkie Pie fell backwards.
"Pinkie!" Twilight yelped. "What—?" A shadow crossed over them. She and Rainbow looked up.
A veritable cloud of arrows descended on the Herald, sharp and glinting.
"My little ponies!" Mortuana shouted, teeth gritting as she spread her bony wings. "To me—"
It was too late. The projectiles landed, covering everything from Kepler's wagon to Remna's fallen figure.
All the while, the agents of the Central Guard converged... while dozens upon dozens of armored griffons and pegasi swarmed about in formation... then collectively dove down from a high angle.