Epilogue
It was a flurry of activity in Altenprow’s administrative building, griffins and ponies rushing every which way as they engaged in the business of government. It was a scene that Far Odyssey- Confederation messenger- was quite used to, having delivered no small amount of telegrams to government buildings.
Weaving his way through the creatures about him, he paused at the door of the office of Horst Kraller. It was closed. He knocked a hoof against the door and waited, frowning when it didn’t open.
“Can I help you sir?” A passing griffin tiercelet asked.
“I have a telegram for Herr Kraller. It’s marked urgent.”
“Alas, he left two days ago.” The griffin smiled sadly, “Herr Kraller is currently on an airship to the north, chasing after some creatures of interest. I am his assistant, however, so I can take it in his name.”
Far Odyssey shrugged, pulling the envelope from his saddle bags and handing it over and extending a hoof for a tip.
Passing over a few silver claws with a roll of her eyes, Horst’s assistant casually broke the seal with a claw and read. As Odyssey trotted away, her eyes grew wider and wider. Reaching the end of the telegram, she hurriedly ran down the hall, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Send for a squad of guard! Now!”
- - - -
TO HERR KRALLER
IT IS OF VITAL IMPORTANCE THAT YOU DETAIN THE RAM GOING BY THE NAME OF RAGORA.
INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED BY MY ASSOCIATES AND I HAVE REVEALED THAT THE ACTUAL MYSTIC KNOWN AS RAGORA WAS KILLED TWO WEEKS AGO. THE BELL OF TAMBELON YOURS CARRIES MUST BE RECOVERED.
JACOBY FLYNN
- - - -
The house door was smashed to pieces, guards rushing through the halls, into rooms and up the stairs towards the second floor. Brandishing weapons, both melee and ranged in their talons, they ruthlessly swept the house for any sign of the ram who had called himself Ragora.
But the house was already empty.
- - - -
Rarogra smiled as he carefully as he slid out of the carts harness. It was no longer something he required.
Leaving it on the side of the road, he strode deep into the wilderness and away from civilization. Up the sides of mountains, down into gullies, backtracking, taking sudden detours, everything and anything to throw possible pursuers off the trail.
After traveling for what felt like hours, he paused, glancing about for any nearby creatures hiding in the underbrush, or waiting to spring out at him. However, once he was satisfied that no such events were likely to occur, he slid the bell from Tambelon around his neck and began to change.
The patchy white and gray coat darkened into a deep bluish-black, his broken horn repairing itself back to a proper ram curl. The eyes, so full of warmth back in Altenprow, took on an angry, red glow. And, finally, his flat teeth grew into razor sharp fangs.
Chuckling to himself, he reached a hoof up and gave the bell around his neck a casual ring. The spirit of General Hurricane was pulled back to the living world, thrashing against the tendrils of magic that bound her to the bell.
“I must really thank those two.” He chuckled, “It is so rare for one of my targets to be so readily delivered into my hooves.”
The headless ghost hissed, continuing to thrash against the magical bonds.
“Yes. I imagine that you do hate me.” He chuckled again, “But I have such plans for you my, my little pony. Vae victis.”
- - - -
The cold wind whipped and slashed through Gilda’s feathers and fur. The raging superstorm that coiled around the tallest mountain of the Storm Peaks, and had thusly helped name the whole range, rose before her group.
Even at this distance, she could feel the clashing air currents whipping about the edge of the storm front. Many griffin had tried to push their way through the depths of the thunderstorm, and failed.
“Feels...different.” Agid observed, hovering in place and letting the air rush through his outspread wings, to get a feel for the air currents. The griffin had spent some time studying weather patterns in Cloudsdale, many years ago, and while not able to control the weather like a pegasus, had a better feel for how it worked than most of his kind, “Weaker than before. Winds are dissipating.”
Gilda glanced back at the supercell. Weak with that monster was a very relative thing. But it was still a very bad sign.
“Alright losers!” She barked out, channelling her inner military commander, “We’re going to that peak, and we’re going to seal this thing away! Let’s move out!”
Swooping towards the edge of the storm, it was hard to not be intimidated by the massive wall of grey that reached into the stratosphere. It was like assaulting a cloud keep of the storm giants of legend. Then they were through the edge and being battered about by the winds and rain within.
It didn’t take long for Gilda to realize just how right Agid was about his proclamation. The last time she had worked her way through the storm, the wind shears had been powerful enough to knock her askew and the clouds were wracked with lightning.
Back then, it had taken every ounce of skill she had developed from flying with Dash to find a safe path through the clouds. And even then, it had taken her a few attempts, and some broken bones before she had finally pulled it off.
And, while the winds were still strong, they weren’t that strong. And there was no lightning. Just snow being tossed about in flurries. Frowning, she pushed onwards, trying to ignore the sensation of being watched that followed the group through the cyclone and the way certain clouds almost seemed to be alive, coiling into serpentine shapes that towered over them, before collapsing back into the formless mass.
It was a sensation of supreme claustrophobia that descended upon them as they continued onwards, the wind rushing past them almost feeling like breath on the backs of their necks, the rumble of thunder almost sounding like the roars of some kind of primal beast.
Suddenly, they were free, having burst through another gray wall of cloud, the warm sunlight beating down on their backs. Folding their wings back, they dove towards the jagged spire of granite that jutted out at an odd forty-five degree angle from the rest of the peak.
No snow rested upon this part of the mountain. Just the dark rock laid bare. Well, the dark rock, and the glowing griffin runes that had been carved into it. Landing neatly on it’s surface, Gilda nodded to Whitewings.
“Get the blood.”
Whitewings complied, reaching into her bags and pulling out an ornate crystal phial. Full of deep red blood and stoppered with an eyedropper, the liquid was constantly changing shape. Forming into a circle, then a square, then a triangle, then a diamond and back to a circle.
The blood of Discord. The only thing that could keep the monster in the storm contained.
Flipping the bottle upside down, she drew a dropper full of blood before rightening it. Taking a deep breath, she lowered the dropper over the largest of the runes and squeezed. The warm redness tumbled through the air, still twisting and changing shape as it fell. But, it was unable to fight gravity and splattered against the runework.
Nothing happened.
“...Aren’t the runes supposed to be glowing?” Glida blinked.
“Yeah. They’re supposed to be glowing. And if they’re not glowing and the prison is getting weaker-”
“Gilda…” Adelulf interrupted, “You should take a look at this.”
Swinging her head about, Gilda winced at what the brother was pointing at. They hadn’t noticed during their initial approach, but part of the rune work had melted away, the rock there fused into something more like obsidian.
“Damn.” Gilda sighed, “Pretty much exactly what Celestia was afraid of. The wards are damaged.” Pinching her beak with a talon, she took a deep breath, “Alright, if we book it for Equestria, maybe we can pick up some support-”
“Gilda!” Whitewings yelped in surprise.
What now? She thought, twisting back around and following the griffin’s outstretched claw. The bow of an airship was slicing its way through the clouds, bursting into the open air like a giant, angry bird of prey. And as it buzzed fully into view, armed griffin threw themselves from the deck, rapidly surrounding her and her friends.
The last griffin that landed, much to Gilda’s annoyance, was a face she had hoped she had left behind in Altenprow.
“Hello, Horst.” She frowned.
The state security officer just smiled back, nodding his head towards them. The troops moved at once, some keeping their weapons trained on them, while the others proceeded to slap irons on them.
“Hello Gilda.” He continued to smile, eyes roaming over the runes, “I believe you have some explaining to do.”
Gilda could have sworn she heard the storm laughing.
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I loved it, great job too with the characters and everything now I really don't like Horst he was pretty much a jerk so to speak but anyways awesome story I truly enjoyed it
4257650
He's a bit of a complex character, but he does believe that he's doing the right thing for the Confederation. But I fully intend to use him again at a later date.
4258181 awesome I'll be lookin forward to that
Overall, this was a pleasant little read. It will be a great stepping stone to further world-building and stories.
4494161
You are correct on that first bit. The High Confederation of Wings is basically the Equis take on the North German Confederation of 1867 to 1871.
There is another there though!
4494200 I'm going to take a stab and say that the other reference was that of the Battle of Königgrätz of July 3, 1866 during the Austrian-Prussian war of 1866, (the reference being that the cursed battle field Dash landed in was modeled on that battle. Seeing as how the Prussian's inflicted heavy losses on the Austrian's for relatively minimal loss in regard to their own men, since you've stated that the Confederation is modeled on Prussia.)
4497898
Not a bad guess, really. If the battle in question had happened more recently, it would have been almost spot on.
But as it happened way in the past of Equis, the historical battle I was referencing was the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, when Rome's outwards expansion into what would be Germany came to an end, and that would later be used by some of the German nationalist movements of the 19th Century.
It's a similar situation here. The battle would clearly mark where Equestria's reach to the north would end, with the Crystal Empire acting almost as a buffer state, friendly to both powers.
Ya know, before Sombra made it go away.
4498033 Well shoot, I didn't even think to go back that far! (My focus of history tends to be towards the modern era's, late 15th century is as far back as I usually go, but if you ever had any questions regarding WWI or WWII, I'm your guy for that, been studying it for well over twelve years now. Not too shabby with the Victorian era either, now that I think about it.) But anyways, I didn't actually think you'd use an actual Earth location for your story, ah well, at least I got one of them right.
4498134
I have been drawing liberally from history in creating the background of Equis. Taking historical trends, events, and countries and ponyifing/animalifying them has been really fun to play around with.
4498170 Makes sense to me. Well keep up the good work, I'm really enjoying this universe that you got going on here, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter of Boast Bypassed too.
4498178
Thanks Tim!
By the way, if you enjoyed this, then you might enjoy this story by a friend of mine. It actually depicts the last moments of said battle, and the confrontation between Hurricane and Seigfried.
4501937 What's the story?
4502724
The link is actually connected to the "this" in the sentence, and is called "The Hurricane's Roar". Just a one shot story showing the end of the battle in the forest all those years ago.
4502731 Ah, I didn't see the link, thanks.
Is this a papers, please crossover (since that is literally the first chapters name.)
4999772
Unfortunately, it is not.
Though it was stuck in my mind when I wrote it, as I had been playing the game just before I started it.
Grogar and an unknown monster about to wreak havoc upon the world.... joy.
6699549
Doctor Whooves does not appear in this story I'm afraid. So far, I keep kind of hinting at his presence in the background of the universe. Not sure when or if he'll show up in a future fic, but so far I'm having fun with the tease.
I'm glad you did an entire story. It was an excellent ghost story, and the final battle was exciting. I really like your Sketch Universe. What you did for Trixie was brilliant. I like the show's Trixie, especially playing off Starlight, but I really liked what you did i making her a compentent stage magicuan, and if homorable heritage.
I really like to see how Sjetch is doing, even if she's not the protagonist, and unvluding her with Trixie's story was great. I look forward to reading more of your work.