CCC-To Find Her Place

by Fresnor

Sorrow

Dear Twilight Sparkle, Selene, and the other princesses,

Things have not been good for the last couple centuries here and I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to write again. The kingdom of Sionnach has been drawn into a war that I really don’t think we can win as the enemy is not only relentless but doesn’t even seem to have a motive beyond pure destruction. We don’t know what they want, we don’t know why they attacked, and we don’t even know if there is even any intelligence behind them. All we know is that they seem to be made up of pure shadows and that anything they kill becomes one of them. Killing them is extremely difficult as well as physical weapons alone are worthless, and they need to be separated into at least five large pieces to stop them from reforming and even then it only works if they are exposed to enough light. Capturing them has also proven difficult as they are always in large groups making it too dangerous to try and do so and to contain them would require a sealed crate which gives them the darkness it needs to get stronger. Going out to the combat area has its own problems as none of the kitsunes that have gone have had the right set of skills to actually study them, assuming they make it back alive, and I have been deemed too important to be sent out there which something I am not happy with. They even wanted me to just sit there and do nothing like Celestia always did but I managed to convince them to at least let me help out with the healers since I have spells that can save lives but am not allowed to teach to others.

Even with the little I am allowed to do I still feel so useless and unfortunately there isn’t much I can do about it except prepare for the worst. It’s not that I don’t believe that we stand no chance of winning, there is always a chance, but from what I’ve seen there is so much that isn’t allowed to be known by anyone but a select few which I don’t think extends any further than me or the other three royals. Just from what I’ve seen in the wounds of the injured tells me that at the very least we are dealing with some sort of dark magic and it is extremely hard to combat something you don’t understand. I’m not sure how much of it you all keep hidden from your subjects, but at the very least if something does appear that uses the more forbidden types of magic you at least give out enough information to fight it if you don’t go yourself. I’ve had enough experience with that during the times I was asked to assist either Twilight or Luna deal with something.

I’m mostly just ranting now in this as there isn’t much I can do about what is going on. I really miss talking to you all and I wish that I had a way to get these letters to you without forever being disconnected from my kind. I’m not sure what the future holds, but if by some miracle you do manage to get these letters and I’m not around just know that I will always think of you as the best friends I had ever known.

Your Friend,
Flarenza

Chaos was always something attributed to Discord as he was supposedly the embodiment of it, but I found that where he always forced his chaos on others it was the chaos that happened naturally that was harder to understand. Just watching a hospital in an emergency situation was enough to drive anyone not familiar with it crazy. I pause in my cleaning of the various tools and fabrics of the trade as I turn my attention to the noise all around me.

“We need that blood in room twelve, stat!” “Prepare for more incoming wounded! Medical wagons are ten minutes out!” “Were running out of sterile linens in storage, someone send out to the other sites for more!” “Princess! Emergency in Quarantine Room Forty-Two! You’re needed to assist at once!” At the last call my attention focused completely on that and I passed everything I was currently working on to the others helping out as I rushed towards the room in question. To save time I cast a quick spell to clean my body of all contaminants as I don a clean cap, overcoat, and mask on the way to the room.

“What’s the situation Doctor!?” I shout out as I barge into the room and get a good look at the patient. On my personal examination I see that the male kitsune on the table is covered in claw and teeth marks and I’m surprised that he is still alive. I start to use my magic to stabilize him as the doctor begins to catch me up on the situation. “We’ve done what we can to save him but we missed some of that shadow essence somewhere so when we started to heal him it multiplied and spread.” I wince at this as this was a common mistake that cost too many their lives, including the healers much of the time as the patient turned.

“That’s not good, hopefully you caught it soon enough that I can save him then. Be ready to assist me if I call for it as this is going to be difficult.” Drawing in a deep breath I center myself as I extend my senses into the patient’s body carefully as I carefully search for traces of the stuff that is killing him. I start with his head and chest and work my way down to his extremities hoping that I don’t find the source too soon. When I find nothing at first I feel relieved as he isn’t too far gone to save though I know that it’s doubtful that he’ll escape unscathed. Looking up I notice that he a three-tail which may be a good thing as I’ve noticed that the stronger a victim is in magic the faster the succumb from a botched healing.

The doctors and nurses nearby look more and more worried the longer I take but I ignore them as I pinpoint the location of the infection. “No wonder the healers missed this, he has a small cut between his paw pads on his right rear leg. Not that hard to miss considering how badly torn up his leg is, but unfortunately the healing pushed the infection up his leg.” I look up from my work and look towards one of the nurses. “Nurse, I need you to send a message to the foresters to prepare for another patient in need of a new limb, I’m afraid it has progressed too far to save his leg. It’s gotten into the bones.”

The nurse winces at this order but moves to follow it as I prepare to amputate the limb so they can proceed to heal the rest of his body. If I had time I would have liked to try and find a way to save his entire leg but without any way to safely study the corruption without risking someone’s life it was out of the question. Channeling my magic into a necromantic spell, I separate the cells on the upper portion of his leg from the rest of his body. At the same time I cut of the flow of blood to the limb and redirect it so that it doesn’t cause any problems later and so that I can connect them to his new limb later.

“Doc! Quarantine Jar now!” As he pulls out the requested object I finish the separation of the limb and quickly toss it inside it. As soon as the limb became disconnected it immediately started to blacken as the infection took over and soon it was just a mass of shadows inside the clear container. I quickly finish up with closing the wound on his leg before I turn my attention to the jar. “If only there was a way to keep this stuff from vanishing without turning it into an entirely new monster.” I say to the doctor as I watch the shadows start to fade away without anything to sustain it.

I sigh as I send a burst of light through the jar making sure that the mass is entirely vaporized as the doctor got back to healing the patient. “Make sure to add him to my schedule when he’s healthy enough to be given the new leg safely.” I say this to my assistant as I pass her by as I head towards the area I was helping with before. I wanted to help more if I could, but all I could do now was put those that were fighting back together again just so they could fight some more.

<><><><><><><>

Later that night I met up with my husband to see what was going on with his end of things. I collapse on the couch in our room as I try to shake of the fatigue of the day. “I really hope you have better news than I do. I was called in for at least thirty patients today though luckily I didn’t lose any today but I was lucky that they were all easier fixes though many are going to need replacement limbs. One lost an eye and until I get a decent supply of good glass I won’t be able to replace it. I haven’t had enough time to figure out how to get the enchantments to work with wood or the more plentiful gems.”

He sighs as he pulls out a bottle of rice wine and takes a big swig before he turns back to me. “Well you’ve accomplished more than we have on our end. We’re still steadily losing ground to the creatures with heavy casualties in most of the units on the line. The only ones that aren’t reporting consistent losses are those led by the General and the Admiral and even those they do lose are from them heading in to rescue the other units from being overrun. The General I’m not surprised with but I didn’t know the Admiral was as capable as he is.”

I chuckle to myself at the fact that he has adopted the name I had given to the as yet nameless captain of the guard. I try to calculate how much longer we had left until we had to evacuate the city if they kept advancing and I didn’t like the answer I came up with. “We need to find a way to push them back soon or else we’re going to have to abandon the city. At this rate they’ll be here in fifty years and that’s only assuming we can keep our numbers up out on the battlefield. If we only could understand what these things are and why they are attacking us we could maybe start fighting back successfully.”

Okami just shakes his head as I bring up an issue we had gone over too many times already. “Yes I know your feelings on the subject and you know why you can’t go out to the front to try and study these things. Just from what has been shown in the hospitals you know that they are attracted to strong magical presences for some reason. It may be needed to kill them but they also feed on that same thing.” I sigh as I had heard these arguments time and again, but I knew there were ways to avoid them still given how successful the General, now a six-tail, and the Admiral had been.

“Besides, you have been very helpful in the hospitals as well as with keeping everyone calm in the city. Also let’s not forget your other little project that has you running all over the city placing those gemstones of yours.” My head jerks up at his last comment and looks towards him. “Wait, how did you know about that?” He just chuckles and was towards his timberwolf which was curled up near Rose in a corner of the room. “Your guardian isn’t the only one that has tricks that are outside of what is normal for them. Whenever it’s needed I can see whatever he sees and as you’ve known he’s been by your side whenever you went out.”

I grumble a bit about this but really can’t fault him for it as I would have done the same thing. There isn’t much that I can do about it anyways though he does deserve and explanation about what I was doing. “There isn’t much with those things really. I’m just planning ahead though I hope they aren’t required in the future. When they are activated they’ll put up a multitude of defensive spells all at once. Hopefully at least one of them will work especially since a few of them are ones that I’m not allowed to teach to anyone.” I level a small glare at him which causes him to roll his eyes at me.

Nothing more is said for a while as he moves over to join me on the couch and I lean into him. We just sit there and enjoy each other’s company while we can as we rarely have time to do so with everything that has been happening. After a while a thought occurs to me and I lift my head off of his shoulder and looks at him. “That spell to look through the eyes of your timberwolf, how does it work exactly?” He turns to me with a raised eyebrow. “It’s just a little something that uses the link I have to him and just enhances it to a point that images flow through along with the basic communication it allows.”

I frown at this as I was hoping for more. “So you mean it can’t be used with the regular timberwolves then?” He shakes his head in response. “Unfortunately no, though it would be invaluable if it did work. There just isn’t enough there to work with for the spell to take hold. Then we could have used them as scouts since they are ignored by the creatures for some reason and they aren’t much use since they can’t even touch them.” I sigh about this though it doesn’t fully stop the idea, just makes it a bit more difficult.

“Yet we have no idea how they’ll react to the more advanced ones so sending them out will probably be prohibited. If only it worked then I could have tried using one to try and examine them without leaving the city. I could rig something up so that we can use them as a scout still, but it would only transfer vision but not the things I’d really need. That and we could only order them ahead of time on where to go so we’d have to be through with what we want it to do.” He raises his eyebrow once again though this time in surprise.

“You just now came up with something just from hearing about the spell? That’s rather impressive.” I just shake my head at him, denying this fact. “Not really, I’ve been using a spell just like it for a while now to help some of the injured guards. But instead of linking the vision spell to the patient I can instead link it to another crystal or gem. Put one end somewhere on a timberwolf so that it has a good view of the area, give it orders to go where we need and then watch everything from the other end.” He looks impressed at this and quickly leaps from the couch. “That is going to be more useful than you think. Tomorrow getting that done will be your top priority.” I sigh as he rushes off to see his parents on this and I head to bed to get what sleep I can until then.

<><><><><><><>

The throne room was in chaos as the timberwolf scout was nearing its destination deep in what is now enemy territory. I still boggled at why these shadow creatures ignored the timberwolves but it was a good thing as it made things easier for this to work. Most of the leadership was currently gathered around waiting for the timberwolf to arrive but few were yet paying attention to it as of yet. We had a couple non-nobles present to provide a magnification spell so that the viewing gem was easily visible to everyone, but other than them it was mostly nobles present right now including some of the top military leaders that could be spared from the front.

As this was the closest they would probably allow me to these things I kept an eye on the view trying to get whatever information I could from it. There wasn’t much I could get from visuals, but seeing the creatures moving around was enough to unnerve me for some reason. There weren’t any kitsune or diamond dog shaped ones in this area, but the forms weren’t familiar at all so I assume they were some of the initial invaders. Oddly enough there was also some wildlife still in the area, ones the size of birds and rodents, but the creatures were completely ignoring them.

It was hard to even call what the creatures were doing movement as they more flowed around instead of actually moving as bits of them seemed to float away. I wasn’t sure if this was just how they were in the light or if it was the same when they were covered in shadows as well. My observations came to a halt though as the timberwolf finally arrived at the portal as it was instructed. Immediately the room went silent as everyone’s attention turned toward the orb and the feeling of horror could be felt at what was shown.

“What in the world is that!?” I wasn’t sure who said it, but the sentiment was close to what I was thinking as I watched as well. What was shown through the projection was a mass of shadows that was slowly pouring out of the portal. Not only that the shadows appeared to be starting to twist the area around it into a mockery of the life it used to be. The shadows pouring out of the portal wasn’t the only problem that I noticed either and anyone that had studied them enough would also be able to see it as well.

“What is holding the portal open? It looks like it is trying to close up and from how it’s fluctuating it has been trying to do so for year now.” All heads towards me and I realize that I said that loud enough for everyone else to hear me. I could see a few others looking closer at the portal to verify my words and their widening eyes seemed to confirm it. The chatter seemed to increase even more at that point and I even noticed a hint of panic in it now as well. The Lord and Lady noticed this and quickly spoke up to try and calm everyone. “All commanders and specialists to the war room with us, the rest of you head back to your assigned duties while we come up with a plan of attack.”

As I wasn’t one of those called, and I had no duties to attend to beyond keeping the crystal running I stayed and studied the portal some more. I had looked through the library for information on this portal and the world beyond before yet strangely enough there was nothing there. This led me to conclude that either the information was not there as the portal was a completely new one or the information was erased long ago. Either was a possibility though both had bad connotations going for them that I didn’t want to think too deeply on right now. When all of a sudden the shadows from the portal surged out and surrounded the timberwolf, severing the signal, I started to worry even more.

<><><><><><><>

Things over the years got ever worse from that point as the assault from the creatures got even worse from that point on. Casualties steadily increased and even fewer were able to be brought back to be saved at the hospitals as defensive positions fought off relentless swarms of the shadows. It got even worse as the infected landscape started to spread far enough to reach the areas of combat as we found it was making the creatures even stronger. Even the units led by the General and Admiral were taking heavier losses than normal as they fought desperately to save as many as they could.

While there hadn’t been any order to evacuate the city yet many had been preparing to do so if it was required and I did my part as well. Most of the nobles I left to their own devices as I focused on those that needed help the most, that being the newly orphaned and the library. The former I visited daily and tried to give them hope by telling the stories of my adventures and places we could go to if we were forced to run. As for the latter I helped by assisting in the crafting of dimensional containers to reduce the space and weight taken up by them as they are transported. They were focused mainly on the books of knowledge and history so I was allowed to snag a few of the books that were of low-priority for myself, one I knew would be of interest to an old friend if I saw her.

I was in my room preparing for another long night when things starting taking a turn for the worst. I was seated in my sitting room making some last-minute updates to my schedule with my assistant when we started to hear shouting from outside, and even Rose started growling and glaring at the door. I was about to head call out to one of the guards to find out what was going on when the latest Butch of his line burst into the room. “Princess! We have an emergency! The shadows are in the city and attacking everyone and they have even breached the palace near the throne room! The Prince is leading a counter-assault to drive them off but there are so many that they are still spreading!”

As soon as he finished I heard the outer door break open and I could see Cassidy and the other two guards charging passed the open door. I leap across my desk to get a better view and see two of my guards fall and Cassidy being pushed back. Looking at the shadows that are boiling into the room cause a feeling of unease to flow through my body that feels familiar but I can’t quite place it. I was about to draw my own weapon and assist her when I felt something inside me snap as if I had lost something and I just reacted with reflexes almost long forgotten.

A moment later I unleash a blast of magic of a type I hadn’t used in centuries and watched it burn right through the shadows leaving nothing behind but the empty corridor behind them. My assistant and guards just gape in shock at what happened as even now the creatures slowly creep back into view, albeit at a much slower pace. I barely register this though as a feeling of wrongness and loss flows through me that I can’t quite identify. It takes them shaking my assistant lapping me hard across the muzzle to snap me out of it enough to see the creatures filling the doorway again.

“Princess! Snap out of it! Whatever you did you need to do it again or else we are all dead!” I just nod to Oraiste as I turn my focus within and, instead of blasting the creatures again, I reach out to all the gems I have planted around the city and give them a command to activate with only the spells I now know will work. Suddenly light starts to filter in through the window as the gems begin to glow with a white light that spread throughout the city, pushing back the shadows as it progressed. Even inside the palace this happened, and as it passed through the room it destroyed the creatures it came into contact with. Soon the entire city was covered in a dome of light that held back the shadows and prevented any more from getting in.

I had to sit down once it was all completed since I had to pour energy into the stones to get them to activate as fast as they did as well as to make sure only the spells I wanted to work did. I could see my assistant shivering nearby now that we were safe, while Butch and Cassidy were still on guard and watching out for any more enemies. “How are the other two guards?” Seeing the guards glance in the direction of the two and shake their heads before looking away again. I had to see for myself though so I move over towards where they looked for a better view though I almost wish I hadn’t.

The marks caused by the shadows were easily visible but what caught my attention were the vast sections of their bodies that were just gone. Limbs just ended and even a large portion of their chest cavities were gone revealing everything underneath. I realize that this was the result of the shadow infection being removed from their body, yet the infected parts were a lost cause. Suddenly my mind turned to more important matters. “We need to get to the throne room now and find out what happened and what we need to do now. I don’t know how long the gems will be able to protect us but I know they won’t last forever.”

I try for a couple moments to get Oraiste to get up so we can leave, but when she fails to react I order Cassidy to carry her as we rush through the palace. We found many incidents of the same incidents as what happened in my room though we spot the occasional survivor. I see few signs of resistance so I hope that there weren’t many in this wing at the time instead of the possibility of there being a complete slaughter. As we got closer to the throne room we saw more and more guards showing that there were as least a decent number of survivors left.

When we arrive at the throne room we are greeted by the bulk of the surviving guards, many of them still injured. We don’t get far into the room when I spot the Lord and Lady, both still in good condition, but it as the mound of black fur at their feet that causes me to stop in shock. “No…” I pause only for a moment before I rush across the room to find my fears confirmed when I find Okami at their feet. I don’t want to admit what I’m seeing as I nuzzle at his body, even with all the blood covering him. I lose track of everything around me as I stand there with tears streaming down my face staring at my husband.

I’m not sure how long I was standing there, but when I felt someone grab me in a hug I spotted some sunlight streaming in a window. “It’s all right to mourn dear, but you need to wait until you have time to do so. You need to be strong for everyone until everyone is safe.” I turn to see Lady Ogitsu was the one holding me right now and I just set me head down on her shoulder as I am at a loss for words. “But… I…” She just shushes me as she holds me, though I can feel wetness on my own shoulder where her head is. “I know it hurts, but you are the only one who can lead them out to a new home. It’s too late for me or Inari to do so.”

I don’t register what she said at first but when it does I pull back from her. “Wait, what?! Huh?” She shakes her head and looks at me sadly. “It’s true, we no longer can lead them away from here because of what I’ve always said was our biggest mistake. I was so happy to hear that what happened with Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi was never really their fault, but at the same time saddened because we never could see them again. When we ran away from them after the incident we tried to find somewhere safe for our subjects.”

She sighs as she looks down for a moment before continuing. “We knew that we could never hide from them as long as we were on the same world so we created this place for them to hide so they would be safe. Unfortunately we made it too safe as we tied our own magic as well as our lives into maintaining this realm. Everything that is here is a part of us which is why we did much of what we did. Everything that happens in this world we feel so we had to stop the practice of the darker arts. That is why all the winter kitsune are gone; they wouldn’t allow themselves to be controlled through those dumb books.”

I can hear the pain in her voice as she admits this and I wonder just how much my presence had helped her with that. “Today I realize how much of a mistake that was as the magic you used feels nothing like what we thought it would. We felt when you cast the spell we told you not to but it didn’t have the same effect as it always did, even those gems of yours feel nothing like the dark magic we took it for. We failed as leaders to our subjects and all we can do now is make sure that they have someone that will do a better job than we did in charge. Maybe you can finally fix everything that we messed up over the long years of our reign.”

I was silent through her entire story and it’s only then that I notice that we had been alone this entire time. I notice that I had started crying again sometime during it all and it’s hard to come up with a response. “But, do I really have to lose not only my husband, but also the second being that I had come to think of as a mother?” They weren’t the words I meant to say, but after saying them I found that I had truly meant it. She had always been there for me when I arrived, and was always supportive of me with everything, even when I was disagreeing with some of their decisions.

I wasn’t sure what to do after all this, but I just couldn’t focus like I used to after everything that has happened tonight. “I don’t know if I can do what you want, but for the memory of my husband I can only try. It just hurts so much.” She catches me up in a hug again as my tears flow and we just hold each other for a while. It’s not until we are interrupted by my assistant Oraiste that we finally break apart, though I feel nowhere near ready for anything. “Lady Ogitsu, Princess Flarenza? All of the evacuation orders have been sent out and everyone is on their way towards the closest portals they can reach. Most of the nobles have already evacuated as soon as the shield went up, though before the order were given.”

We slowly get up and I try to focus once again on what I need to but I still find myself struggling. Feeling for the nearest gem to me I try and figure out how long we have before they run out, but can’t come up with an answer other than we have until the end of the following day. “Which nobles are left that will be able to help keep everyone together after the evacuation?” She pulls out a scroll she had taken notes on. “There are a couple dozen five-tails that are still in the area, most of them doctors, teachers, and the head librarian. Of the six-tails only two are left other than you, the Admiral and the General who are already organizing the surviving guard to help out where they can. The orphanage is already being escorted back to the portal leading to the home world.”

I brighten up a little at hearing that those two are still alive and taking care of those that I should have been helping. It makes me feel ashamed of myself for freezing up for as long as I have, especially since my husband would have at least done his duty first. “What about the attack, do you know how many we lost from that before the shields went up? And what is the situation on the outside?” She looks down about it all as I ask this but rolls through her notes. “I’m not sure how many we lost, but there aren’t too many left around the city at our last count. We aren’t sure if they are dead or evacuated already. As for the shadow creatures they look to have surrounded the city and are occasionally throwing themselves at the shield looking for a weak spot.”

I try not to think about how many we lost right now but the news of the shadow creatures is troubling. “Make sure to clear out the outer sections of the city first, the shield will start shrinking if they keep on attacking like that so the faster it empties the better. Prioritize food then the books from the library once you get the civilians across before anything else. The former will keep them alive and we can use the latter so we don’t lose everything we learned.” She nods and heads out to pass along my orders to those organizing things and I start shivering as the stress starts coming back again until Lady Ogitsu grabs me again until I calm down.

“What do I tell them all about what happened to you and Lord Inari? They’ll want to know where you two are when we arrive and the portal closes.” She is silent for a moment before she answers. “Just say that we went elsewhere and nothing else. They’ll know in their hearts what happened but having you will have to be enough. You’ll need to destroy the arch keeping the portal stable once everything is through so that these things can never follow you through to that world.” I nod as I give her one last hug before leaving the throne room to her and Lord Inari who had slipped in sometime without my notice. The last view I have of them before the door closes is them embracing each other with tears visible on the Lady’s face.

The evacuation of the city needed more time than we had to get everything, but we did manage to get the important things through before we had to shut down the portal between the city and the exit point. With careful rationing we had enough food to last a year, as well as enough other supplies to keep everyone healthy for that long as well. There were many questions about where the Lord and Lady were, as well as where we were going to go, but I kept my answers short and evasive as I really didn’t know. Once everything was through I stepped through the portal myself with my guards and Rose before turning around for my final duty.

Gathering my energy I started casting a spell I developed a long time ago but had never utilized until now. Creating a directional barrier about the size of an orange; I set it so that air could travel inwards through the barrier but not escape and pressed it through the portal. Once through I started using larger shields of the same type to start constantly contracting in on it to draw in a large volume of air into the smaller area. I did this constantly until I started to feel the strain from holding the smaller barrier and could even feel it giving off a good amount of heat. Once I deemed it ready I put up one final shield across the barrier before releasing the first one creating an explosion of heat and air which destroyed the bindings on the other end of the portal, forever sealing us away from where our kind had called home for millennia.

Author's Note:

I'm not sure what else I could really have added but I've kind of run out of ideas so here's the last chapter before the epilogue. I probably could have split it into two but I just couldn't stop writing. Not sure how long it'll be but it'll be enough to set up for the final Book I had planned. So please let me know of any typos comments and complaints so I can try to fix things before then, of and I might need some name ideas for then as well.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

[Crescent Glaive]

You know, i've wondered why i have seen you write the Ladys name as both Ogetsu and Ogitsu.
I think it's meant to be Ogetsu and Ogitsu is a writing error of some kind