Legacy of the Past
“SEIGFRIED! GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS!”
“Rainbow Dash...we need to go.” Whitewings whispered, glancing about, “We don't want to be here when the State Security Ministry shows up!”
Dash winced, her wings twitching in agitation. “But, that thing just killed somepony!”
“And I’m sure they’ll make her pay for it.” She hissed, tugging at Dash’s tail, “But we need to go!”
Frowning, Dash reluctantly allowed herself to begin to be dragged away. At least she did, until she heard someone from the crowd shout back up at the ghost.
“Why did you do this? What do you want?”
It was the husband of the fallen mare, his whole body shaking as he pointed a hoof at the ghost. “Tell me why you took my wife!”
Rainbow Dash could feel Whitewings trying to drag her away again. She pushed the griffin away, focusing on the ghost. The Headless Horse turned her stolen head towards the poor stallion, seeming to almost come out a reverie of sorts.
“I am here...to free you from bondage.” She explained, her double voice now speaking in both Equestrian and Griffish at the same time.
Rainbow Dash blinked. The other ponies and griffin in the street mimicked the gesture, looking and muttering at each other. The Headless Horse seemed undaunted however, slowly striding the length of the roof; her eyes only left the ponies below to observe the approaching griffin guard for a barest moment.
“Yes...I, General Hurricane, have come to lead you ponies back home. Back to Equestria.”
One of the ponies in the crowd barked angry Griffish words back up at her. Hurricane tilted her head towards the pony, confusion racking her borrowed features.
“Your home? You call this land full of barbaric carnivores “home”? Is your brain addled?”
Dash shuffled her hooves. The ghost claiming to be General Hurricane had just committed murder but she couldn’t help but partially agree with the apparition. She had never entirely understood why ponies chose to live outside Equestria when they could live there instead.
But the ponies and griffin that made up the crowd were united. Their initial shock and fear melting away, anger and indignation rising in their place. The Confederation character on display as they began to taunt, jeer and threaten the ghost, their confidence being further bolstered as more and more guard arrived on the scene.
Hurricane snorted dismissively, her wings twitching in anger. “Fine. Then I shall make my position clear! This city has until tomorrow night to begin evacuating its pony population to Equestria! If this city still holds one pony in its talons, then I will accept them into my new legions to fight for Harmony!”
A flurry of rifle fire rang out as the guard, incensed by the threat, attacked. It was for naught, however. The bullets passed through her incorporeal form, eliciting no more than a laugh from the ghost and a cacophony of noise from the slate roof.
The form of General Hurricane coiled into a ball of shadow, before shooting off between the buildings, leaving the crowd stunned into silence again.
- - - -
“Think they’ll do it?” Rainbow Dash asked as she followed Whitewings along, “Evacuate, I mean.”
“You met Horst.” She responded, letting that sentence speak for itself.
Dash frowned, her wings twitching again. “I can’t shake the feeling that we should be doing something to help.”
“He’ll arrest you. He doesn’t want you in the city, let alone playing hero.”
“Do you even know who General Hurricane is?” Dash snapped, an angry energy finding its way into her stride, “She’s one of the great-”
“One of the great Equestrian heroes, I know.”
“Do you know why she’s a ghost? Why is she doing this?”
Whitewings paused mid stride, Dash bumping into her. The bookish griffin whirled about, raising an eyebrow incredulously. “You know her as a great hero, but not why she’d hold a grudge against us? Just what do you know?”
“Well, she help founded Equestria.” Rainbow began.
“And?”
“...That’s about it, really.”
The look of disbelief on Whitewing’s face was very familiar to Dash. It was that mix of exasperation at a lack of knowledge, and the desire to begin educating at once, that she had seen play out on Twilight Sparkle more than a few times.
The griffin shook her head, beginning to walk again, launching into a lecture as she hurried along. “Before Celestia and Luna took over ruling Equestria, Princess Platinum had a go. After she named herself Queen, of course.”
“And Hurricane…”
“Was named grand general of all Equestria’s armies. And then Queen Platinum decided that all ponies must be united under the banner of Equestria. Even those who lived under ‘foreign kings and despots’...”
“Including here.” Dash finished, the implication clicking in her mind, “She’s still fighting that old war…Why’s she the Headless Horse though?”
“Oh, that’s because after the battle, she challenged one of the great heroes of the griffin tribes, Siegfried, to single combat. ” Whitewings elaborated, her speech becoming a little quicker now, “He took her head. I’m more wondering what she’s doing here. No creature goes into the Teutonburg forest. It’s a dark and foreboding place.”
Dash looked away from the griffin, ears drooping as deep sense of guilt washed over her. The mare that was dead on the street back there was dead because of her. She had stirred the grave of General Hurricane.
After walking in quiet for a little while longer, Whitewing’s voice cut through her gloom.
“We’re here.”
Gilda's house was larger than Dash expected, and looked like the remains of a previous era. The exterior marble facade was intricately carved and stained with soot that had had not been scrubbed away yet. A statue of a griffin warrior, wings spread wide, was set above the entrance way.
Pushing the door open, Whitewings lead the way into the main living room where the twins sat, tearing into a roasted chicken; it sat on a low coffee table between two long sitting couches. Scowling at the roasted bird, Dash took a seat across from the pair, while Whitewings climbed upstairs.
“I’ll see if I can pry Gilda out of bed.” She said simply.
Not wanting to watch the brother’s eat, Rainbow turned her attention to the contents of the room. Much like the exterior, it was nicer than Dash had expected. Full of antique furniture, the contents were various states of maintenance; the rug was patchy and threadbare in places, and nicks and gouges stood out on some of the furniture.
A particularly battered looking cabinet stood out against one wall, notable to Dash for the fresh padlock that kept it sealed tight.
“So...what’s in there?” She asked, pointing at it.
Agid and Adeluf, Dash still had a hard time working out which was which, looked to the cabinet then back to Dash.
“That’s classified.” One commented dryly.
“Sworn to secrecy.” The other elaborated.
Dash sighed. She was really beginning to hate this trip. She wanted to do something about that ghost out there, but she had no idea what to do.
Damn it. I wish that Twilight was here. She’d be able to whip together something to deal with General Hurricane. She gazed out one of the living room windows, watching the lights of the industrialized griffin city twinkle in the night. Out there, somewhere, was one of Equestria’s founders. Things were so much simpler months ago.
“Never thought I’d see you looking all mopey Dash.”
Gilda was at the foot of the stairs, her fur and feathers disheveled from a lack of care. She peered at Dash with a bemused expression for a moment, before an annoyed mask settled into place.
“So,” Gilda sighed, “Celestia sent you?”
“She did. Told me that you were acting all depressed and asked if I could help you out.”
“Well, go ahead and march your flank right back to Equestria.” Gilda grumbled, striding across the room and snatching up a piece of chicken, “I’m not interested in working for sunbutt anymore.”
Dash grit her teeth, not rising to the dig at the princess. “She isn’t asking you to go back to work Gilda. She’s just worried about you.”
“That’s what she says at least.”
That, however, Dash didn’t let slide by.
“Alright, enough of this garbage!” She snapped, jumping on the table and marching right up to Gilda, “You’re just trying to make me mad so that I’ll leave!”
Gilda blinked at her a few times, her expression neutral. “That’s what you say, at least.”
“Oh, come on! I’ve known you for years Gilda. Since when do you just roll over and walk away from something you’ve decided to do?”
“When I’m no good for doing it anymore.”
Dash thrashed her tail, grinding her teeth for a moment. She’d need to try a different tact.
“What about that ghost out there?”
“What about it?”
“Aren’t you going to do something?”
“Not really.” She shrugged, “The guard and SSM will handle it.”
“This is your town Gilda. If some ghost rolled into Ponyville and killed some creature, I’d damn well do something about it! Or,” She smirked slightly, going for the attack that had always worked so well in flight school, “Are you chicken?”
Gilda’s body instantly tensed up, her leonine tail twitching angrily as she glared right back into Dash’s eyes.
“Dash...you’re crossing the line.”
“Am I? You’re the one who was so upset over our fight that you decided to hide in your house for a month! And now you’re just gonna sit back and do nothing when a spook killed one of your townsfolk? I thought one of your great ancestors was a king or something.” She narrowed her eyes, going for the knockout blow, “You’ve become a coward, Gilda.”
That got a reaction. Tackled about the barrel, she was slammed up against the wall, the cabinet rattling from the strike. Dash grunted from the impact. It was hardly the worst strike Gilda had given her during a wrestling match. She still had the scar on her right foreleg from their last go around.
“I’m not a coward Dash.” She hissed, pressing her beak right next to Rainbow Dash’s left ear, “You know better than to call me that.”
“Yeah. I know. But it got you moving again.” She responded, bopping Gilda on the head, “Come on. You can’t just sit there and hide.”
“And how am I supposed to do anything for Princess Celestia when I drive my oldest friends away? Answer me that, Dash! Friendship is supposed to be magic!”
“Gilda…” Dash sighed, “You made a mistake, assuming that Pinkie Pie would somehow make us not friends anymore...or whatever the hay you thought would happen there. But if Twilight was here, I’m sure she’d have something to say about how everypony makes mistakes.”
“That sounds like empty talk.”
“No, it’s the truth.” She sighed, “‘Cause I made a pretty bad one myself.”
Gilda cocked her head, blinking at the admission. A slight snort escaped her beak, disbelief quite evident on her features. “Seriously, Dash?”
“I’m the reason that ghost is here.”
Silence fell over the room, their beaks dropping open in shock. Dash kept talking, quickly moving to an explanation of exactly what she meant. “I stopped in that forest near the border to adjust my pack. I saw all the bones…” She shuddered slightly, “Celestia warned me not to do it, but it honestly slipped my mind…”
“And she followed you here.” Whitewings whispered.
“Yeah. Which means that mare’s death in on my hooves. And I want to make it right.”
Glida stared at her with a dumbfounded expression for quite a bit, not quite believing what Dash had just admitted to her. Then a slight smirk crossed Gilda’s beak.
“You do know that the State Security Ministry will probably arrest you if we get caught, right?”
“I know.”
“You don’t care, do you?”
“Nope.” Dash grinned back.
Gilda released her hold, dropping Rainbow Dash back to the floor. A deep belly laugh shook her form as she clapped her friend on the back, almost bowling the pony over.
“Alright. I’m not back on for Celestia’s whole deal, but I’m all for kicking a poltergeist out of this town!” Spinning around she pointed to Whitewings, her eyes blazing with energy again, “Whitey! We need a necromancer! ….The banishing kind, not the take over the world kind.”
“Huh?” Wings blinked, shocked at Gilda’s sudden change of mood.
“Come on!” Gilda urged with a wave of a talon, “You pay attention to the magical community of this city. Is there any creature that can help us banish a ghost, or are we going to have to go out of town for this one?”
Whitewings nervously clacked her beak and ruffled her wings. “Well…there are runecaster’s in town, but they aren’t really good for dealing with ghosts. I mean...maybe if you just want to out and destroy it.” She muttered.
Dash winced. “Can’t we just...I dunno…” She waved a hoof idly, searching for the right words, “Send her home? Have her pass along and just not be a ghost anymore?”
“Oh...well.” She frowned, drumming her talons on the armrest of one of the couches, “There might be some creature that could do that. A sheep moved into town last week. Kind of a traveling mystic type. He might be able to help.”
“Well, let’s go then!” Dash shouted, jumping into the air. Without waiting for a response, she flew for the door, “We gotta move before General Hurricane kills again!”
- - - -
It had taken them a few hours to work their way back across Altenprow. They stayed on the lowest level, working through the back alleys and side streets to avoid the patrols of the night watch. Dash and Gilda both shared the desire to not be caught by the powers that be.
It proved to not be that difficult, in the end. The lowest level of the city was also the most densely packed, in terms of housing and factories, which lead to plenty of hidden pathways to sneak through. With Whitewings in the lead, they eventually came to a building that- in Dash’s opinion at least- looked completely identical to all the other buildings in the row.
Save for the two stern looking griffin who were flanking the door, muskets resting on their shoulders, lanterns resting on the ground next to their claws. A light was on in one of the upstairs windows, and they could just barely make out two shadowy shapes moving around within.
“Great.” Gilda sighed, “Looks like someone had the same idea we had.”
Dash glanced up at the night sky, flicking her tail as she mulled her options over. The street wasn’t well lit, which would explain why the guards had lanterns. Looking to the roof of the building they were standing next to, she ruffled her wings.
“I’m going to try and get a closer look.”
Propelling herself into the air, she softly landed on the roof. A glance towards the guards revealed that they hadn’t seen or heard her yet. Smiling to herself, she flitted a few more roofs down, before flying across the street and working her way back towards the house that was her target.
Moving into a steady hover, Dash slowly lowered herself down into the alley between the mystic’s house and the one next to it. The room that she had seen the shadows moving in was situated on the corner of the building, and had windows that faced both the alley and main street.
Flitting a little closer to the alley window, she peered inside.
The bedroom that she found herself looking into certainly fit the idea that it belonged to a mystic of some description. Talismans of varied origins were hung from hooks on the walls, while teetering piles of books were shoved into corners and under a battered looking desk. A library via the way of a yard sale, really.
The room was also occupied.
Dash found herself staring at the back of a familiar looking griffin. Horst. The other creature in the room was an elderly looking ram. He was white coated, or at least he was once; now it was more a speckled white and gray. A wispy dark gray beard stood out on his chin, and one of his curved horns was broken in half. His figure was portly, complete with fat cheeks that were puffing with indignation; presumably over something that Horst had said.
Frowning, she very, very carefully slid the window up a few inches. With a proper gap opened, she swiveled her ears towards the window and listened. Thankfully, both seemed to be speaking Equestrian.
“...and I don’t care how many times you threaten me!” The ram sputtered, “What you’re asking me to do is monstrous!”
“I am asking you to deal with a spirit. Isn’t that what you do?”
“You want me to break her into pieces. To destroy her.”
“And you have a problem with this? She killed a mare and took her head!”
The ram resolutely stomped a hoof. “Horst, why do you think that most of the world- including your own government- have declared Necromancy illegal?”
“Creatures don’t want to see their families remains disturbed, of course.”
“It is more than that!” The ram snapped back, “Higher level necromancy disrupts the natural cycle of life and death. It denies creatures the ability to move on, or, even worse, drags them away from their end fate.”
“I do not-”
“The point is,” The ram interrupted, cutting across the griffin, “As horrible as that fate is, at least with undead they can be properly sent on to the afterlife by those who are skilled. But to destroy a spirit? Truly snuff it out like a candle before the wind? You forever deny them that right. And I won’t be a part of it.”
Horst angrily drummed his talons against the wood of the floor. Dash suppressed the urge to snicker at the griffin’s obvious agitation.
“You are showing a callous disregard for every creature in this city, Herr Ragora. I am very much inclined to make you suffer for that.”
Ragora’s lips curled back in the beginning of a sneer, his eyes flashing in anger, the shadows around his body seeming to grow deeper. For a moment, Ragora looked downright intimidating. But then it was gone and the harmless old ram was back.
“I am very old, and have seen no end to the suffering of this world.” He sighed, “There is nothing you can do to force me to do things your way. Besides,” Now he snorted dismissively, but then smiled widely, his voice taking on an almost singsong quality to it, “My way is beeettterrrr! I can send her on to the Elysian Fields.”
“How is your way better?!” Horst shouted, jumping forward and slamming his claws to the floor so hard that he carved gouges into the wood. “You say that you can do this, but how?”
Ragora turned, diving into one of his piles of books and trinkets. A moment later he emerged again, a wooden box hovering in the magical glow from his unbroken horn. Trotting back over to Horst, he slowly, almost cockily cracked the box open.
Dash blinked at what was revealed as the lid swung open. It was a small brass bell, polished to a mirror shine.
“It’s a bell.” Horst frowned.
“I can see that.”
“Are you familiar with the city of Tambelon, Horst?”
The griffin sputtered at the name, his eyes going wide.
Rainbow Dash frowned.
I really need to start paying attention more when Twilight talks about history.
“Yes Horst. This is the last bell from the Grand Shrine of Tambelon.”
Horst seemed more unsure now. “Even if you do have that bell to send her along, the legends have always stated that you have to touch the bell to the target. Is this true?”
“Well...yes.”
“And my men will get torn to pieces! I have city guard at my disposal! The nearest landsknecht regiments are three days away if I sent an emergency telegram now. And this is a mare who tore through whole regiments and that took Seigfried himself to kill her!”
Having heard more than enough, Dash sighed, fired the window open, and hopped fully into the room. Horst twisted about, a mixture of anger and disbelief on his face at the blue pegasus before him. Dash grinned back at him, waving a hoof.
“Sup?”
“And this day just keeps getting better.” He faceclawed with a very deep sigh, “You were the kind of child who touched the stove, even when your mother told you not too, weren’t you Frau Dash?”
“Yeah, I know.” She huffed back, angrily flapping her wings, “You wanted me to get lost. But that was before I saw the ghost of an old Equestrian hero behead someone.”
“This is a Confederation matter.”
“It’s also an Equestrian matter!” Dash snapped, shooting into the air and getting right in Horst’s face, “Or are you going to tell me that if it was the ghost of your Seigfried rampaging through Canterlot, that you wouldn’t want to get involved?”
Horst was back to drumming his talons on the floor.
“And how can you help? Are you some kind of grand warrior that Celestia’s been training?”
“Hey! I’ll have you know that I am Rainbow “Danger” Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria and the pony who personally put the hurt on that Collector jerk! I can clear a sky of clouds in ten seconds flat and do a Sonic Rainboom! You want somepony fast enough to deliver the bell to the ghost, I’m your pony.”
Horst pinched his beak with a claw, letting out a very slow and exasperated sigh.
“Do you have any idea what kind of diplomatic incident this will cause if you get killed on this insane venture? I should lock you up just to protect you from your own insane bravery, and my country from the wrath of your princess!”
“You do that, and more creatures are going to die and you know it.”
The griffin’s eyes rapidly darted from Dash to Ragora to the bell and back again. Dash could almost see the mental dance happening in his head. She had him.
“Scheisse!” Horst swore, “Alright Frau Dash.”
Grabbing a few pieces of paper off the nearby desk, he quickly scribbled something down and angrily flicked one towards Rainbow Dash and another towards Ragora.
“Be there. In two hours. Then we’ll engage in this farce.”
He swept for the door, to the room, slamming it behind him.
- - - -
Horst was still fuming when he stepped back out into the street. Being essentially blackmailed into accepting Equestrian help….
“Pushy ponies throwing their weight around.” He mentally snarled. “In more ways than one.”
<“Something wrong sir?”> One of his guards asked.
<”No.”> He responded, dropping back into his native tongue. <”Should have brought my jacket.”>
The guard blinked, tilting his head in confusion. <”It’s not that cold, sir.>
<”No, but I left my cigars in the pocket.”> He sighed, drumming his talons on the cobblestone. A nervous habit that he really needed to kick. <”We have work to do. I want you to go and round up the six best fighters you think we have. Send them to my office. Inform them that they will be engaged in ghost hunting.”> He paused for a moment before adding in another order. <”And put a pair of eyes on Gilda’s residence. I refuse to believe that Rainbow Dash just stumbled upon this location.”>
<”Yes sir!”> Both of them barked, snapping off a salute and taking wing.
Horst followed suit, but headed a different direction, towards the highest point of the hill the city was built upon and the building that served as Altenprow’s administrative hub. It was a two story rectangular affair, two marble wings built off of a central box that was topped with a wrought iron and glass dome.
It squatted off of a cobble lined square, a large griffin statue perched in its center. And to Horst it was basically a second home, as his intense dedication to his job kept him working late into the night, most nights.
That was probably why he was still single, in retrospect.
Landing outside the entrance, he stalked right for his office, giving brusk nods to the workers in other departments as he passed. Closing the door behind him, he set to work. He approached the telegraph line first, beginning to tap out a series of messages.
First he sent a message to the Duke of Ahant’s office, informing him of the situation and his concerns. Then he sent a similar message to the Chancellor’s office. The higher ups in the State Security Ministry would probably chew him out for bypassing protocol like that, but at this point he didn’t give a damn. Finally, he tapped out a message to the Confederation’s resident diplomat in Equestria, advising her of the possibilities and warning her to “start coming up with ways to smooth this over, in case this goes straight into the sun”.
Then he walked to his desk, opening the central drawer and checked his pistol. It was rune marked, as befitting his office, enchanted to deliver extra impact and damage. Sighing, he carefully loaded a bullet into each chamber before slapping the cylinder shut. Placing the gun on the top of his desk, he sat back on his haunches and waited.
“I hope that pegasus knows what she’s doing.”
- - - -
“You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing!”
Gilda and Rainbow Dash sat across from each other in Ragora’s room locked in the passionate throes of an argument in the way that only two good friends could be. Dash had brought Gilda and her friends up to speed on what the plan was, and Gilda had reacted...poorly.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“He wants to arrest you! He doesn’t like you!”
“He needs me!”
“And when you’re done he’ll arrest you!”
Ragora and Gilda’s friends sat on the other side of the room, watching the back and forth between griffin and pony.
“Are they always like this?” Ragora asked.
“They haven’t been talking in quite a while.” Agid observed, “So I would actually qualify this as an improvement.”
“Better to see passion than coldness, I say.” Adeluf nodded in agreement, “They’ll work it out one way or another.”
Gilda angrily clacked her beak. “Dash…”
“You’re not talking me out of this Gilda. It’s my fault that she’s even here in the first place. I am going to fix this.” She shrugged, “Simple as that.”
“She’s got fight in her, I’ll give her that.” Ragora nodded.
“That ghost is going to kill you!” Gilda shouted, jabbing towards the window with a claw, “General Hurricane was one of the greatest fighters of her era!”
Dash shrugged. “She’s not faster than me. All I have to do is touch her with the bell.” She looked at Ragora, “Right?”
“That’s all you have to do, yes.”
Nodding, Dash got to her hooves. “Look, Gilda…I forgive you okay. But I’m still going to fix my mistake.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“No. You’re not. I’m not supposed to be seen with you, remember?”
Gilda began to pace, her tail thrashing. “You just want me to sit back and do nothing while you risk your life?”
“You want to do something? Stop being devastated over the past, do what Princess Celestia asked you to and then come and visit me in Ponyville once this is over with.” She waved a hoof towards the ram spiritualist with a hurried motion, “Come on Ragora. Let’s go meet up with Horst.”
Gilda watched helplessly as Dash lead the way out of the room, Ragora following along with his box. Once they were gone, Whitewings shot a nervous glance at Gilda.
“What do we do now?”
“I say we go after her.” Adeluf said.
“I say we handle Celestia’s orders.” Agid argued back, “If there’s a time we can sneak out of town, this is it. They’ll be distracted with General Hurricane.”
“And abandon her friend?”
“That friend told her to go.”
“Just, everycreature shut up for a minute, I need to think.” Gilda growled, rubbing the side of her head.
She had told herself that she wasn’t going to do secret actions in the Confederation anymore. That she had somehow screwed up badly enough that she was useless for what Celestia wanted.
And then Dash had to go and show her how to really bounce back from a mistake.
“Lets get back to the house. I want to be packed up and ready to go within the next few hours. We’re heading for the peak.”
“But Rainbow-” Adeluf began, only to be cut off by a raised talon from Gilda.
“I didn’t trust her before, and it cost me. Not making that mistake again. She says she can take General Hurricane, and she can do it. Besides,” She sighed, “If what’s sealed away in the peaks gets loose, it won’t really matter.”
The room was quiet, as no one had a good counter to that fact.
“That’s what I thought. Now, let’s get moving.”
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Lol horst is definitely an enjoyable character, well done planning his character, (or creating his character as a spur of the moment seeing as some characters *cough* all*cough* in my story happen to be as they are now can't say I'm not happen with them tho heh) anyways awesome, awesome, awesome!!! Can't wait to read more of it and I really really really hope you update soon!!!
4194779
Horst is fun to write in his grumbly way.
He's another one of these side characters I've created that I think I'll pull back in at some point.
Took a whiiile for me to get around to reading the next update, but it was a good one! I don't really recognize the fic it's based on, but thankfully, you don't need to know anything to enjoy this story on its own terms.
Great job with Gilda so far. In fact, all of the characters are quite good.