Nope Levels Have Reached Critical Mass
“Dreadful business, entirely bad for everyone involved,” Jet Set said as he took another sip of wine. “A siege here in Canterlot? Why, we’ll be lucky if the races happen on time!”
“Yes, indeed, it would be a shame if all commerce stopped as well. We’re the very heart of- Oh, Blueblood! There you are! I was starting to think that you wouldn’t show at all!” Emerald said, looking at someone behind Jet Set.
Jet turned at those words, only to see his favorite customer coming towards him with a sober look on his face. “Blueblood old boy! How have you been?”
“I am fine, my friend. I was hoping to talk to you for a moment in private, though,” Blueblood said, gesturing his head a bit. “It’s about my company, and I’d rather not have prying ears spoil the surprise for next quarter.”
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry, my friends, but duty calls,” the gray unicorn said as he put his glass down. “Please don’t have too much fun without me!”
“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll stall the party until your return!” Jet’s wife said with a giggle.
Blueblood led his friend out of the hall and towards the Canterlot gardens, both of them completely silent until they had reached the old peach tree near the center.
“So, what can I do for you today?” Jet Set asked curiously.
“Do you have the information I requested the other day? The location of the Elements?” Blueblood asked quietly, not turning around to face the other stallion.
Jet Set gave a grimace at that. “We do not. Someone… compromised, our agent in the field who was retrieving it. We don’t know what happened, but word came down minutes ago, letting us know that something was prowling about.”
“You don’t say?” Blueblood asked as he turned around. “This is very unprofessional. I would like to speak to your employer myself. I am… less than pleased, at his quality as of late.”
“You know I can’t do that. I don’t even know what he looks like, much less where he is. I can send word that you would like to speak with him, but I doubt he’d meet with you. He prefers to keep a low profile,” Jet Set said with a shake of his head.
“So, you’re telling me that there is absolutely no way you could arrange a meeting?” Blueblood said with a raise of his eyebrow.
“No, I said that I can send the message, and he would decide, but that he would probably decline,” Jet Set said with a sigh. “After all, he can’t exactly let others see who he is. Who knows what might happen? The Royal Guard might catch wind of it, and you know how bad that would be for business.”
“Interesting… Do you know what’s even worse for business?” Blueblood asked ominously.
Jet Set just shook his head at that. “You can’t intimidate me, Mistress. You can’t do much of anything through this puppet, and I rather doubt you want your information net taken down. All it would take is a single letter to the Princesses, and every single puppet you’ve taken would be revealed to them.”
Blueblood nodded at that, as if carefully considering his next words. “Yes, and I’m sure that would have been quite the card to play… had the hag actually heard that last bit.”
“ Yes, I-wait, what?”
However, before Blueblood could answer his question, several Lunar Sentinels leaped from the tree above them, tackling Jet Set to the ground. “What is the meaning of this!?” he shouted once he had managed to pry his face out of the dirt.
“Oh, nothing, just cleaning house,” Blueblood said as he slowly approached the pony on the ground. “I’m actually surprised that you haven’t heard the news by now.”
“Wh-what news?” Jet Set asked hesitantly.
“The Mistress of Shadow is dead,” Blueblood said, his voice dripping with hatred.
“...”
“Yes, that’s what I thought. We’re done here, take him to the dungeon. Maybe a few rounds in Auntie Luna’s nightmare will loosen his tongue,” Blueblood said dismissively.
A twinge of fear graced Jet Set’s face, but he did not say anything as a restraining ring was placed over his horn, neutralizing his abilities. He was then roughly forced to his feet and herded out of the garden.
“He doesn’t look too happy,” Sergeant Smooth Weather said as he walked up to the prince.
“I certainly wouldn’t be, had all my plans come crashing down around me,” the prince said with a frown.
“Well, that certainly proves that something rotten has been growing under our noses, but how do you expect us to catch it now?” Sergeant Weather asked curiously.
“Do not worry, the demon forced my body to do a great many things, including watching that one as he made his drops,” Blueblood said quietly. “They have several agents, and I actually know of several different places where it happened. We should be able to follow them back to their master.”
“...We can only hope,” the sergeant said with a shake of his head. “I have to get back to the walls. In the meantime, I suggest you head back into that party, to keep up appearances.”
“I’m unsure I can…” Blueblood said wistfully. “After what I went through? I’ve finally been able to see what I am. Who I am. How can I just go back to being the arrogant prick that I once was?”
The sergeant thought on that for a while, until finally turning his back to the prince and spreading his wings. “...You don’t, my prince. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really have to get going. They’re going to need me on patrol.”
“Yes, of course,” Blueblood said, straightening his jacket a little. “Oh, and sergeant, if you get the chance, tell our new friend thanks for me.”
Sergeant Weather nodded at that, then took off into the night sky, leaving behind a pony that, for once, he was glad that he had misjudged.
* * *
Glimmer Star dutifully pushed the vase outside of Celestia’s throne room an inch to the right.
While she wasn’t entirely certain why she was doing this, she did know that that strange, winged creature had asked her to do it. She didn’t think it nearly worth the debt that she owed it, but she wasn’t about to argue.
After all, the creature had saved her children. Moving a vase was the least she could do.
As soon as she was finished with her task, she picked her duster up again, and continued her task of cleaning the castle.
* * *
There weren’t really all that many hiding places down here, so I opted to jump up and grab hold of the ceiling. Yes, I know that I probably should have trusted that my invisibility power would protect me, but I really couldn’t take that chance. I still didn’t know the first thing about controlling it, plus, I really didn’t know if it even worked on the undead.
I barely managed to scrambled over the lip of the ceiling and back onto the wall of the shaft before the light grew to the level that let me know that whatever was coming had actually entered the room. Once I had made sure that I was a reasonably safe distance from whatever it was, I turned back to get a look at whatever it was that had come to investigate Izolda's scream. Now, let’s see what you… look…”
My mind was froze as soon as I laid eyes on the… thing… that stood at the bottom of the shaft. Without even realizing what I was doing, I desperately climbed up the rock wall, trying my best to put as much distance between myself and… whatever that thing was.
As I climbed, I noticed the light fade behind me, until it disappeared entirely, but I didn’t care. Even as Izolda’s whispered voice tried to snap me out of the terror that I felt, I couldn’t even acknowledge her presence, as I was too busy trying to get my hide somewhere that wasn’t filled with cobbled, nightmare abominations.
What? I thought as I reached the middle point of my climb. Seriously what? she really expects me to fight that?
Calm down… remember your training…
My breathing was heavy as I stopped to rest. I was hyperventilating as the memory of the… thing that had managed to fit its way through the wide passage. Though at this point, wide was subjective. It was wide for me, its ceiling somewhere around ten feet, and its sides at eleven. The shambling monstrosity, however, had to squeeze to get through, since the top of its head was about twelve feet off the ground.
Breath in through the nose, out through the mouth…
Unconsciously, I stopped hyperventilating, and slowly drew in a shuddering, ragged breath through my nose. My mind was still reeling with what I saw, but at least I wasn’t going to make myself pass out. It… it had freaking pony legs… for fingers. And were those tentacle things on its back spines?
focus your spirit…
Slowly, my muscles stopped trembling, but my whole body still felt like it was wound tighter than a watch. I’m gonna die… we’re all gonna die… how are we going to fight against something like that? What about a whole army of those things?
Remember the shadowed path. In the shadows, it matters not how many they have, but how many they won’t have by the end of the day.
Slowly, my body loosened itself, and I felt one of my hands release itself and move down the wall I was clinging to. What am I even doing here? Magic? Undead? Gods? Demons? I’m a kid from Maryland, the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me was when I moved to attend college!
In the shadows, you are one, and they are one. What is there to fear?
I should just hightail it out of here. The ponies can take care of- I started to think, but suddenly, unbidden, I could see a young, scaley face. Its eyes were wide with fear as it looked up at me.
Tell me, what is there is to fear in the dark?
As this face came into my mind, others soon followed. Sure, I didn’t know any of them, but I was all they had. I was the only thing standing between them and the monstrosities that were climbing up through the caverns beneath the city. Slowly, jerkily, my other limbs began to move as well, not taking me up and towards the surface, but further down, towards the horrors below.
...What lurks there?
I reached the bottom of the shaft, my heart calm, and my breathing steady. The whispered voice at my belt seemed to quiet, as it sensed that something about me had changed.
...waits there…
My hands reached to my sides, and the sound of steel suddenly rang out as I drew my sword and dagger.
...Hiding, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike?
“Me,” I answered as I broke into a silent run.
* * *
Orcas shrugged to himself as he set his minions back on the path they were on. They had reported that they had heard… something, come from this direction, but owing to the fact that they collectively had the intelligence of a small dog, they couldn’t exactly tell him what they had heard.
Must have been a rock slide, he thought to himself. Continue on this path until they reach the railway. They are to alert me the moment that happens, or they hear something else out of place, he ordered. After all, it might not have been anything this time, but Orcas had enough experience to know that the same might not hold true next time.
Now, back to digging… he thought, as he let his consciousness slide back to the dragon boneyard his minions had found. He watched excitedly as the rotting corpses that made up his workforce slowly unearthed another dragon skull, hoping that he’d find the rest of the bones in a similar condition.
Now, all I need are some dragon eggs, and I can begin- he thought to himself, but suddenly stopped when one of his minions at Canterlot went dark.
Normally, he wouldn’t have given such a thing a second thought. After all, the ponies were constantly harassing his forces with their flyers, trying to slow down the diversion he had set to clearing out the tunnels. He had lost over three hundred of those, and hadn’t batted an eye.
What made this one different, however, was when the cord was cut, he suddenly felt a tiny, gnawing pain crawl up the severed string and into his being.
Up until this point, he hadn’t so much as felt a twinge when he had lost a drone. Sure, he had been aware of each one, but only in the same way that he was aware of the sun, or the moon. The loss of a minion shouldn’t do any- he started to think to himself, but winced when he felt another loss, immediately followed by another pain crawling up the severed cord to add to the first.
In an instant, he was there, at Canterlot. He first decided to check his minions at the train tunnels, only to find that they hadn’t lost a single corpse since the last time he had been here.
If not here, then where…? he thought to himself, only to be answered as another minion was lost inside the gem caves under Canterlot, sending a third pain up the cord to join the other two.
At this point, Orcas became worried. True, the pain wasn’t that great, barely even a papercut, but he wasn’t a fool. If whatever was causing this killed enough of his minions, he’d be in real trouble.
The length of a heartbeat was all the time it took to enter his pawns inside the cave. He looked through the eyes of all of his minions, and immediately noticed that two of his torch bearers, as well as one of his Flesh Renders had been cut down. He felt a cracking, fleshy sensation, and suddenly he was in the body of one of the torch bearers that was closest to the downed Flesh Render. A cursory glance was all he needed to determine the cause of its destruction. “Hmm… Cut the head clean off. But that couldn’t possibly be the reason for the pain,” Orcas said as he gently massaged his chest.
Without another word, Orcas pulled out of the body, then quickly forced his minions to close ranks. I don’t want anything to stand where it cannot be seen by at least two others, he ordered. I want to see what this thing is, and how it kills.
The undead under his command moved to obey. As soon as they were in position, Orcas split his consciousness, allowing him to see through all of his pawns at once.
…
…
“Come, where is it hiding?” his pawns asked in unison.
Then, just out of the corner of the eye of one of his Flesh Renders, he saw the hint of movement, followed by the head of one of his torch bearers being separated from its body. Instantly, the split consciousness that once resided inside the bearer was returned, contaminated with a new pain to add to the others.
However, the loss was not wasted. In the fraction of a second that it took for the head to leave the torch bearer’s body, Orcas caused all of his Flesh Renders to attack the area of the falling corpse. Spines lashed out, huge, meaty arms holding a variety of weapons scythed at the empty air, and rocks of various sizes and shapes were hurled at what seemed to be nothing.
“Freaking heck!” something said as a rock bounced off its back, causing it to tumble a few yards before disappearing again. Orcas hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but whatever it was was reptilian in nature.
“It cannot hide forever. I will find it, and when I do, I will ensure that it suffers greatly for interfering,” Orcas said as he caused his minions to shamble forward.
“You forgot to throw in ‘precious’ at the end there, you freak,” a sibilant voice called out from the darkness.
Orcas ignored the taunt, however, choosing to instead concentrate on moving his minions forward. Find it. It may turn invisible, but it cannot escape in these narrow passageways, he ordered his minions. As they pressed forward, he had his Flesh Renders scythe the air in front of them, ensuring that there was no possible way for the slippery eel to get passed his undead.
“Seriously, though, you get out of here, and I won’t do something that I’m going to regret,” the interloper said, giving Orcas confirmation that he was somewhere ahead of him.
Orcas pushed his minions forward, their swinging blades ensuring that anything that got close would be turned into mincemeat. Suddenly, Orcas hit a dead end, causing all six hundred abominations to smile in anticipation. “It has nowhere left to run. I’ll finally be able to see what it looks like…” Orcas said, bringing all his available blades down on the seemingly empty corner.
Only for them to glance off or break against nothing but the unyielding stone of the caves.
Where did it- Orcas thought, only to feel a blade enter the back of the head of one of his minions near the back, cutting another cord.
However, as laudible as the annoying reptile’s tactics were, it still cost him greatly. On reflex, Orcas had the closest pawn to the back lash out with his machete, and for a brief moment, Orcas thought he could feel the familiar, glorious tearing sensation of blade against flesh. He was even more excited, though, when he heard the sound of a voice cursing to itself, as well as the tell-tale splash of blood on the ground.
“Ah, yes. All too quickly, our game comes to a close,” Orcas said sardonically. “However, we will soon come to a new one, one that I haven’t truly partaken of in an age. Is it ready? Ready to feel us as we open it up, to gaze upon its beautiful, red interior?”
The only answer he got, however, was the echoes of his own voice off of the walls of the cave.
“Well, it is of no concern. It cannot hide, now that I have its blood. I will hunt it to the ends of the earth if I have to. I will not be denied my prey.”
With those ominous words, Orcas had the Flesh Render who had grazed the annoying reptile slowly lick its blade, the scent of the reptile’s blood now screaming through Orcas’s mind.
The Bloody Surgeon had returned to the hunt.
* * *
“And I believe that is match set,” the Defiler said, his grin radiating smugness as he gazed across the table at the Lady. “You put up a great fight, but you’re sadly outclassed. Soon, your precious thief’s guts will be strewn all about the cave floor.”
The Lady looked absolutely unperturbed, however, choosing to instead give the player across from her a slight smile. “So it would seem. However, it is neither of our turns at the moment.”
“Of course! You’re right!” The Defiler said as he banged a claw against his forehead. “How could I be so forgetful! Storm of Storms, I believe you have the initiative?”
“Actually, I don’t,” the Storm of Storms said, his smile mischievous as he glanced at the white robed figure next to the Lady. “It is actually the Herald’s turn, and if I’m not mistaken, he’s got quite the move planned.”
“The Herald? His only piece is a head! Literally!” Defiler said in exasperation. “What possible move could he make?”
The Herald did not answer immediately, choosing instead to pick up the dice that had been passed to him. “Well, if you give me a second, you can observe the one, pitiful move that I am still allowed,” he said, his voice somewhat mocking.
Defiler just threw up his claws at that, a vile toxic vapor pouring from his nostrils as he huffed in annoyance. “Fine, then, do your pathetic move. It will be an honor to rip both your champions to shreds.”
“Well, then, if you’re this eager, I better not keep you waiting, now should I?” The Herald said as he threw the dice.
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Hey it seems you have been featured my good sir *clap clap* Good show ,good show have a stash on me
Edit: Also seems im first yay
Another enjoyable chapter. Well done.
Nice chapter! I love your villains! they're so creepy!
I'll bet one of Izolda's abilities is to inspire allies. that's where the voice in Ammon's head came from.
more please!
It's not that cold, barely below zero!
C'mon son!
Loved Ammon's "NopenopenopenopeNOPE!" response to the giant undead.
Once again, the interactions between the players make me laugh every time. They're just having this godly game night and their conversations really reinforce that.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Write on,
Legion
Who's turn it is seems to be confused often between the players, I wonder what that's about.
6656224 Nope.
6656708 That's actually an important plot point, so good job noticing!
6656927 why must you taunt me?
6656938 Because I'm evil.
6656944 so stop being evil and write the next chapter already!
6655907 Thanks, man! always enjoy a good stash!
6656929 Lady Luck made her move unnoticed or because they thought it was her move by... inspiring her piece xD
The voice is supposed to make him do what she set as his move, right?
Orcas and the Defiler have not reminded themselves that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
6658484 Nope.
6660142 ...okay, all I can guess now is that its either the voice of his character, or from an inspire-enchantment of his owlicious brother or a "special" ability of his character to let him face something he fears. Perhaps his character was always played as a brave one, and that created the voice.
Argh, why am I still guessing?
These are my last guesses, I don't promise
6661342 Your first guess about it being his character was the closest, but still not correct. Please wait for further information.
awesome story so far, can't wait to read more!