Laochra
I told you there was something wrong when we got in the carriage! Hob spat, hissing in Cobblestone’s lap as they pulled away from the station. The cat was riled like Cobblestone had never seen him before, even when Nightshade had visited her cell. His fangs were exposed, his claws were out, and the hair on his back bristled menacingly, as if he were part porcupine. It was all Cobblestone could do to keep him in her lap and away from the aisles, where the Guards were busy setting supplies and getting to their positions.
“Hob,” she grunted, “Shut up and stay still. We’re moving, it’s alright.”
“Does he need a carrier cage?” Serale asked sympathetically as the young unicorn wrestled with her cat.
If she puts me in a cage, I am taking her face and the face of every pony in this train car, Hob said with a snarl. Cobblestone felt him get heavier in her lap, and she began to get nervous.
“Hob, now’s not a great time to make a scene,” she said. “Just stay still and be quiet.” She looked around the car desperately. “Does anypony have a bit of food?” she called. “I need to shut this damn cat up!”
A passing Guardspony unfastened a small package from his belt, tossing it at Cobblestone unceremoniously. She caught it deftly with one hoof, still restraining the struggling cat, and unwrapped a small package of peanut candies. Seizing one, she offered it to Hob. He struggling ceased for a moment as he examined the treat, and though he was by no means calm, he took the confection tamely enough and restrained his movements to simple wriggling.
Cobblestone dumped the candies into the seat next to her own and deposited the cat there, where he sat contentedly munching on them, allowing her a chance to breathe.
“Right,” she said, panting a bit. “What in the world was all of that on the way to the station? It sounded like an army was after us.”
“You’re half right,” a voice said, and Cobblestone looked up to see Vino taking a seat next to Libra, one hoof still on his weapon. “We were ambushed. Somepony had planted explosives along the route in an attempt to kill us or drive us into a trap. Luckily for us, their timing was off and we had a backup plan. If they had set the bomb in the airship to go off two minutes later, we would have lost a lot of good ponies.”
“Are any of the Guards injured?” Libra asked, business-like.
Vino shook his head no. “A few minor injuries, and one of the Pegasi took some moderate burns, but aside from that we were okay. We got very lucky. I just hope nopony makes more tries on us in the city. Very few ponies were privy to the backup plan.”
“Which is?” Cobblestone prompted.
Vino looked at her, seemingly startled that she was sitting there, and Cobblestone realized he hadn’t even noticed her until she’d spoken. “We’re taking a seventeen-hour train ride to Ponyville. We’ll meet an airship there, though whether it’s Equestrian or one belonging to the Kingdom remains to be seen. I guess we’ll take whatever’s there.”
“Seventeen hours?” Cobblestone exclaimed in dismay. “How far away is Ponyville?”
“Approximately sixteen hundred miles,” Serale said automatically. “About the same distance from Starfall to Crescent City.”
“We’re lucky this is a nonstop,” Libra remarked. “Else it’d take us a full day or more to reach Ponyville.”
“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Cobblestone complained. “I’ll be bored out of my skull.”
Vino and Serale looked at her strangely. “You’re taking this awfully well,” Vino said. “Somepony or ponies unknown just tried to kill us all not five minutes ago.”
“What else is new?” Cobblestone asked.
“It does tend to get a bit old,” Libra mused, not bothering to look away from the window, through which could be seen the rapidly diminishing spires of the Regia and the suburbs of Starfall. “Never in the moment, of course, but you learn to cope with it after a while.”
“Well, I for one would like to know who tried to kill us just now,” Serale remarked. “They were doing a pretty damn good job of it from where I sat.”
“Which reminds me,” Vino said. “I need to go ahead and talk with Captain Fidelis. He’ll want to speak to the captains soon, I’m sure.” He stood and bowed to Serale. “Milady,” he said solemnly.
Cobblestone watched him go with interest. The rest of the car had settled down, but only insofar as the ponies had stopped moving boxes and walking the aisles. The guards sat in pairs by the doors and windows, watching carefully for potential threats. Buzzes of whispered conversation floated through the air, and a sort of nervous energy, almost electric, hung in the air.
“It was pretty well-coordinated,” Serale mused. “They knew the route before we started out, and the explosions were almost perfect. Really, the only one they made a significant error on was the one in the airship.” She shuddered. “Good ponies were crewing that ship and working in that field. I hope it was at least quick for them.”
“The explosions were made to herd us,” Cobblestone decided, replaying the attack in her head. “They wanted us to get to the airship quickly and arrive eager to get on.”
Libra turned her head and nodded, her eyes flashing thoughtfully. “It was a gamble,” she said. “We could have deviated from the route at any time.”
“But it’s standard procedure to keep the route when escorting ponies of power,” Serale noted. “Mother told me about some of the convoys she was in before I was born. So whoever it was knew the standard procedure for ponies of the Guard.”
“Would ex-soldiers or ex-Guard make an attempt on Serale’s life?” Cobblestone asked.
“If they had, they’d have hit us differently,” Libra said. “Guards especially are trained to minimize collateral damage, because it makes accomplishing your objective harder. This was well-executed, but the method was…sloppy.”
“So street ponies,” Cobblestone said. “It makes sense. I peeked out of the window on the bridge and saw old powder weapons. Nopony’s used those in at least fifty years.”
“Maybe it was Nightshade?” Serale suggested. “Would she hire ponies to try and kill me?”
“You’re not thinking clearly, milady,” Libra said gently. “Remember, Nightshade and the Cult of Crows want you alive, not dead.”
“So if it wasn’t Nightshade,” Cobblestone said thoughtfully, “It was somepony else.”
“There are a dozen different groups that dislike the monarchy for one reason or another,” Libra said. “Not many of them could do something this audacious, nor would they attempt it. Protests and destruction of property is one thing, but assassination is another.”
“A new group, then,” Serale said. She looked out of the window as they passed through the outskirts of the city, at last leaving the borders of the city that was supposed to be the safest place in the world for her. “But who? And why do they want me dead?”
“Well, I think we’re beyond their reach for now,” Libra said. “We can discuss this at length later, when we’ve had a bit more time to think and relax. Speaking of, we need to review the homework for today.”
Cobblestone and Serale exchanged a glance. “You’re joking,” Cobblestone said in disbelief. “We just survived an assassination attempt.”
“And if you had been wounded or killed, we would have suspended class,” Libra said, withdrawing a book from the satchel by her side. “But you are both here and perfectly healthy, so we shall continue as normal. You need a good grasp of the fundamentals before we reach Dawndale, and I intend to give them to you. Now, let us review chapter ten and the principles of magical exhaustion.”
“And this one?” Libra asked, holding up a card with a simple glyph printed on it.
“Kyr,” Cobblestone said. “That letter’s kyr. It makes a ‘kuh’ sound.”
“Good,” Libra said. “You’re getting faster at these.” She held up another card, replacing the first in her deck.
“Fal,” Cobblestone said, sounding just as bored as she felt. “It makes a ‘fuh’ sound.”
“I know it’s boring,” Libra said. “But the sooner you learn these, the sooner you’ll be able to read through the books on your own, and Serale won’t have to read them aloud to you. Do you want to try a few simple words?”
“We did those an hour ago,” Cobblestone said. She looked over to the chair where Serale had sat, nose buried in a book, for the past two hours. She was daintily snoring, which Cobblestone hadn’t known was possible.
“This one?” Libra asked, holding up a card on which was emblazoned a smaller symbol that resembled an upside-down triangle.
Cobblestone squinted in thought. “That’s not a letter,” she said. “That’s a…diuretic?”
“Diacritic,” Libra corrected. “It modifies a letter’s sound. How would you pronounce ‘fal’ with this diacritic?”
“Umm… ‘feh’?” Cobblestone guessed.
Libra beamed at her. “You got it!”
Cobblestone breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. Does that mean we’re done?”
Libra nodded. “We’re done, and you get a reward.”
Cobblestone’s ears perked up, and she sat a bit straighter. “A gift?” she asked, “What kind of gift?”
“A book!” Libra exclaimed cheerfully. She rummaged through her bag, withdrawing a slender volume with a few brightly colored illustrations on the front cover. It didn’t look to be more than a hundred pages long. She handed it to Cobblestone, who took it with considerably less enthusiasm.
“This book,” she explained, “Is one that is specially written for ponies who didn’t learn to read as children and wish to learn how. It’s not terribly childish, but the language is simple and the words are short. This one is a book of folklore and fables.”
“Well, thank you,” Cobblestone said. “At least this gives me something to do. How long have we been going?”
“About four hours,” Libra said, drawing a pocket watch from the seemingly endless satchel. “We should be making the river crossing shortly. It’s quite a sight, there’s a waterfall near the bridge that’s a popular tourist spot. The train goes right by it, and it hasn’t gotten quite dark enough to block the sight.”
“Have you been there before?” Cobblestone asked, tucking the book into a pocket in her robes, where it nestled comfortably. Idly, she reached out to stroke Hob, who had subsided into a deep sleep shortly after finishing his candies. The cat shifted slightly and began to rumble with a silent purr, and Cobblestone found herself relaxing too.
Libra nodded. “Before I joined the Court, I traveled frequently across the Kingdom, and occasionally into Equestria.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Cobblestone said. “What made you want to do something like that? I had a hard enough time of it in one city.”
“Cities are difficult in their own way,” Libra said, looking out of the window. The sky was darkening, and snow covered the ground outside, what ground could be seen through the trees that pressed in on all sides of the track. Libra had announced about an hour ago that they had entered the old Everfree Forest with a considerable lack of enthusiasm. “I stayed mostly in small towns and out in the wild. Nature is easy enough to endure, if you know what you’re doing.”
Cobblestone looked out of the window uneasily. She wasn’t used to seeing large groups of trees outside of a park, and it had never occurred to her that plants could be so…threatening. Briefly, she caught something bounding away into the darkness, and her heart skipped a beat. There was no way to tell what it might have been, but it was definitely larger than she was.
“Most of my fondest memories before my service to the Court were in small towns,” Libra said conversationally. “Or summer nights, camping beneath the stars in the corner of a field that a farmer wasn’t using.”
“Didn’t you go hungry?” Cobblestone asked. “I mean, you could probably forage, but…”
“Not as often as you’d think,” Libra said. “I was good with magic even then. I didn’t have much need for money, so I traded my services for goods. Warm clothing, traveling food, the occasional roof over my head, and so on. A simple life and a good one.”
Cobblestone tried to imagine the graying academic in front of her, her bun traded in for a ponytail and her spangled robes swapped for a rough cloak on her back, a walking stick in one hoof. She could almost see it if she looked closely. “What made you give it up?”
“A sense of duty,” Libra said, almost dismissively. “Things I thought I was alright at were things I was actually good at, and I’d heard that Lady Everstar was looking for a new Magus. It turned a few heads when I showed up at the tryouts, and raised more than a few eyebrows when I was accepted for the position.”
Cobblestone got the feeling that there was more to the story than that, but Libra didn’t seem amenable to talking about it, so she changed the subject. “Are there many mages out there?” she asked. “I mean just wandering around. No offense, but most mages seem like they’d be more at home in a palace or library than a dirt road or city street.”
Libra thought about it. “Well,” she said, “you need to understand that not just any unicorn good at magic can rightfully be called a mage, and I’m not just talking about an apprenticeship or certification. A mage is a rare talent, maybe four in ten thousand. And of course there aren’t just ‘mages’ at that level. We’re only a facet of magical talent.”
Cobblestone tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?” she said.
“Did you ever hear of the magical cross?” Libra asked. “Or the four Disciplines?”
Cobblestone shook her head, and Libra sighed. “You’ve got talent in spades and a good head on your shoulders, but you’re more ignorant than I realized, Cobblestone. Hold on a moment.”
She pulled another book out of her satchel, which Cobblestone was beginning to suspect was magical, and opened it to a curious illustration in green ink, heavily decorated yet easy enough to discern, though Cobblestone didn’t want to try and read the words. A broad circle was divided into quarters, the lines extending past the lines like the spokes of a wheel. At the top point of the vertical line was a sun, drawn in yellow, and at the bottom was a blue crescent moon. To the left side was a six-pointed star in red that was instantly familiar to Cobblestone, and to the right was a heart in a lighter shade of blue, seemingly chiseled from a precious stone.
“This is the Cross,” Libra explained. “All of magic, in every form, can be found inside this circle. It is divided along two lines. The vertical line goes from Binding magic at the top to Breaking magic at the bottom. Past the moon it descends into strange magic that we unicorns cannot do, so for now it is not relevant.”
Cobblestone looked at the bottom of the circle, at the space where the line would continue past the moon. What Libra was describing reminded her uneasily of Dis, and she debated bringing him up, but Libra continued speaking.
“To the left you have more logical disciplines, and to the right you have more empathic ones,” Libra said. “Each pinnacle is represented by an Avatar. Lady Everstar, represented by her mark, is known for her power over Logic. Her counterpart is Cadance, who rules over Emotion.”
Cobblestone nodded. It was beginning to make sense. “So some magic belongs to Breaking, some to Binding, some to Logic, and some to Emotion?” she asked. “What about the things between?”
Libra smiled at her pupil, pleased at the question. “That’s where we come in,” she said. She indicated the bottom left quadrant, in which were depicted robed ponies wearing familiar conical hats, surrounded by billowing smoke and sparks. “Mages usually learn disciplines that involve applying logic to Breaking magic. We use force of will to violate the laws of nature temporarily, and mage spells are more…chaotic than the ones using Binding magic.”
“So what about the opposite?” Cobblestone asked, indicating the ponies in the top right, wearing long robes and beatific expressions. Several appeared to be surrounded by rabbits. “Emotion and…Binding?”
“Clerics,” Libra clarified. “They let magic use them, but in prespecified ways. Healing, mostly. It’s more intuitive than our schools of magic.”
“And these?” Cobblestone asked, pointing at the section above the mages, in which were several fierce looking ponies, wielding large weapons and broad shields while magic flared around their horns. They reminded her more of Vino than Libra.
“Paladins,” Libra said. “They force magic to Bind things, which often means shields and magical restrictions. Most harmful creatures can be bound with paladin magic.”
Which left one quadrant open, this one full of hooded figures, cloaked in mist and looking decidedly menacing. “Breaking and emotional magic,” Cobblestone said. “That sounds dangerous.”
“Ah,” Libra said gravely. “Those are…”
There was a deafening thud from the rear of the train, and a jolt. Cobblestone and Libra sprung to their hooves, as did all of the Guards in the car and Serale. Hob, peacefully napping, didn’t awaken so much as skip from being curled up directly to spitting and yowling in fear. Cobblestone, closest to the window, glanced to the rear of the train and her heart sank.
“There’s smoke and fire coming from the back,” she said, just as another thud sounded from the front, much closer this time. The jolt knocked her off of her hooves, and sent her tumbling to the floor along with several other guardsponies. Immediately, the effects of the explosion could be felt as the train car began to slow, though it remained on the rails.
“The explosions in Starfall,” Serale gasped, her eyes widening. “They weren’t just herding us towards the airship.”
“They were herding us onto the train,” Libra finished. “The real ambush wasn’t back at the bridge or near the field, it’s here!” She turned to the Guards. “Prepare to repel boarders!” she cried over the din of screeching wheels and panicked orders. “We’re about to be attacked!”
Vino burst into the cabin, grateful it was still there. He’d been aft with Afi and some of the baggage when the explosion went off, and after they’d picked themselves off of the floor, his first thought had been to the Lady. He slammed the visor shut on his helmet just in time to hear the Magus call the Guards to arms, and he realized what had happened almost immediately. They’d been herded right into a trap.
He looked out of the window into the rapidly darkening trees, and his heart sank. The thick foliage pressed right up to the edge of the track, and he was sure it rose up on one side, giving attackers from there the advantage of the high ground. The other side didn’t look much better, either, with brush and trees just as thick, almost a wall or picket.
“Rack your rounds!” he cried as ponies from Afi’s guards rushed past him into the car. Given the choice between protecting the Lady and protecting the baggage, Serale was the more important option. He forced his way through the aisles as ponies began to overturn benches and stack bags to make cover for themselves near the windows, the train car still moving, but slower, much slower. He got to the front of the car and saw the next car half a mile off and getting still further. Slamming the door, he managed to push a bench in front of it, wedging it tightly. “Afi!” he called. “The tie was blown right here! The other three squads are far ahead!”
“And nothing behind us either,” Afi replied. “They cut us out like a tumor. I don’t like our odds in these woods, even with twenty, lad.”
“Damn,” Vino said to himself. His mind whirled, settled on orders. “4th Rifles, to the port wall! Ambush comes from both sides, but the high ground gives them an advantage.”
“2nd Rifles, split yourselves!” Afi called, unlimbering his axe, his braided red beard swinging wildly and bloodlust glinting in the green of his eye. “Five sharp eyes to starboard and hooves on triggers!”
“Captain,” Libra said, approaching him. “Lend me your spellcasters. We’ll work on a protective shield when we stop. I’ve already told our Lady and my apprentice to get down and stay down.”
“Ceres!” Vino called. “Cheval! To the Magus!” He strode towards the back, noting that the train car had slowed to a crawl. He put a hoof wrong in a spilled deck of cards and stumbled, which is what saved his life.
A massive black arrow, feathered with the feathers of a brown hawk, thrummed through the air, embedding itself three inches deep in the side of the wall where his head had just been. It was only after it had done so that the first of the glass in the window it had broken hit the floor. Vino, hearing rather than seeing it and knowing almost instinctively what it was, hit the deck. “Cover!” he screamed. “Cover!”
As if a storm had broken, arrow after arrow began to punch through the glass of the train car, seeking targets. Shouted orders turned into shouts of surprise and fear as ponies got as low as they could. Most made it to the ground unscathed, though one young earth pony in Afi’s squad cried out in pain as an arrow punched through his hoof, nailing it to the stock of his rifle. A few others managed to fire back, though whether they could hit anything in the shadowy trees of the Everfree was another matter entirely.
“Captain Afi!” one of the five posted at the other side called. “No arrows inbound in this direction, sir!”
There was a crack as Libra and the two spellcasters began to work in tandem, horns flaring yellow and purple and blue, and Vino had to shield his eyes as a bright white bubble appeared around the two stationary cars. The air began to smell faintly of bile, but for the moment, the arrows had stopped.
“Captain!” Libra said, her voice strained. “There are at least four dozen beings outside of this train, all on the north side of the tracks. I believe they are Fae. The ties are iron, which is why none of them are on the other side of the tracks. I can also sense about a dozen other beings which used to be ponies before the Fae arrived. I suspect they were the original ambush party. I suggest you come up with a plan of action,” she said with a gasp. “We cannot maintain this for very much longer.”
Vino opened his mouth to give orders, but was interrupted by a cry.
“Everypony follow me!” Cobblestone shouted. “I’ve got a way out!”
Without waiting for a sign one way or the other, she picked up her cat, flung open a window, and threw herself bodily through it, rucksack slung over her back. With a startled yelp, Serale scrambled after her friend, and Vino felt his heart sink as he realized that Cobblestone was probably going to get them all killed.
“Follow the Lady!” Afi bellowed. “We’ve a duty to her, lads!” He tossed his axe through a window, got a running start, and jumped through, hooves up in front of his face to protect him from the jagged shards of glass. It was not long before the rest of his Guards, and Vino’s to boot, had followed his example. Vino did likewise only after he was sure the last Guard had gone, and flung himself into the night.
“You’d better be right,” Cobblestone muttered as she chased Hob down the track. “If I die full of arrows I won’t forgive you.”
Here! he called to her as they reached a large tree, twined with another in such a way as to make a crude arch. I need your hoof for a moment.
Cobblestone did as he said, holding out a tentative hoof. A line of pain burned across her foreleg, and she flinched back with a cry as a few drops of blood from the freely bleeding cut on her leg splattered the tree.
Repeat after me, Hob said quickly as the rest of the Guards and Serale began to catch up, armor rattling in the brush. Payment made and passage bartered, deliver us to journey’s end.
“Payment made and passage bartered!” Cobblestone called out, her voice high and tight with fear, quavering a little. “Deliver us to journey’s end!”
There was a murmur behind her, and Cobblestone would have felt foolish if she hadn’t been so afraid. Was anything happening? Maybe she needed to say it again?
But before she could open her mouth, there was a rustle, and a gust of soft, warm wind. Out of the trees stepped a mare, though where she had come from Cobblestone could not see. Her coat was the white of bone and her mane the green of new grass, and her features were fine and pointed, her ears rising to tapers and her eyes shining with an opal brilliance that, like the rest of her, was entirely beautiful and utterly alien. She smiled, exposing pointed teeth.
Tell them to follow you through and not to stop, no matter what they see, Hob said urgently. And above all, take nothing and leave nothing behind.
“Follow me!” Cobblestone cried as Hob climbed onto her back, claws digging deep into the fabric of her robe. “Don’t stop, don’t take anything or leave it behind!”
Run.
Cobblestone did, passing through the arch and stumbling in shock at what she saw beyond it. A massive tree, burdened with the most beautiful silver apples she had ever seen, swayed gently in a breeze she could not feel, and around its base danced figures just as pale and strangely beautiful as the one she had seen. She heard a few notes of music being played upon the wind, and for a moment, she had forgotten why she came, or for that matter, why she was running. She could see another arch ahead of her, but her course changed ever so slightly, towards the tree, and she slowed to take in more of the wondrous music she heard.
Behind her she could hear hoofbeats and hurried shouts, and something that might have been her name, but it was all curiously muffled, like a memory of thunder. The breeze shifted, caressing her face, and Cobblestone smelled the fruit of the tree, and her stomach rumbled. She could take one, she knew. All she would need to do after was dance for just a little while. It would be rude to eat of a host’s food and not take part in the celebration, after all.
Dimly, she was aware of needles being driven into her back, but she shuddered at the intensity instead of flinching. Her hooves seemed not to move, or maybe to move on their own, carrying her closer to the tree. Such sensation could be hers too, she heard in the distant melody being sung along with the music. She only needed stay a little while…
Hob bit down viciously on her ear, yanking to one side, and Cobblestone regained herself with a gasp. She looked back at the tree to see the ponies at its base looking at her with needle-sharp grins, grins that looked less friendly and more hungry with each passing moment, and she realized that the hoofbeats of the Guards behind her had ceased. They had all passed through.
Stumbling, her hooves feeling like lead, she made her way back to the gate. Each step seemed to cost her an eternity, every inch closer was a mile, and it weighed on her not just physically, but in her heart. She became aware that she was crying as she walked.
She was ten paces from the gate. Then five, then three, then two, and suddenly she was though, into the cool air of a night, on a hill near the outskirts of a town, and below her were the Guards. There was a shout from the base of the hill, and a few ponies detached from the herd to meet her. Sighing, she sagged to the ground in relief, turning behind her with the expectation of seeing forest once more.
A mare about her age, with frizzy red hair and a coat of white, grinned at her mischievously. Hauling her to her hooves with more strength than it looked like the red-maned filly should possess, Cobblestone was shocked to find herself being hauled in for a kiss, one that burned like ice and stung like broken glass, leaving her lips chapped and raw and the breath stolen from her body.
“For passage,” she said. “My name is Leanan mac Baobhan mac Niamh du Feinan, late of the Silver Grove. I will see you again soon, Cobblestone. Keep the cat well.”
Tears of pain welled in Cobblestone’s eyes, and when they cleared, the mare was gone. Cobblestone stumbled away from the forest, down the hill, but she nearly tripped over something else, far larger than either the mare or the Guards. Grumbling, she lit her horn with plain white light, to see what she had found.
The pony was monstrously large, easily as big as a strong earth pony male, and probably larger. It was hard to tell under the slabs of golden metal that she realized was armor. His coat was a light gold, and his mane purest white. Two massive wings, with feathers as long as her foreleg and angled for speed, lay furled against his side, and he cradled a massive hammer of the same golden metal as his armor. As Cobblestone watched, he opened his eyes, revealing two orbs of pure gold, devoid of iris. Cobblestone knew instinctively that he was no more blind than she, and in fact, probably saw much better.
“Cobblestone!” Libra called, and within moments, was by her side. “We were worried! Are you alright? What’s…this?” Her eyes widened in recognition, and she raised her voice, shrill with alarm. “Back! Everypony back!”
Cobblestone took a step back on reflex. “Libra,” she asked shakily, “What is...he?”
“I’d thought they were all dead, long ago,” Libra said. “One of Celestia’s greatest weapons in the Evening Rebellion. This is a Sunborn.”
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It seems very, VERY sloppy that nopony would think that the entire herding towards the ship, was in fact a herding towards the train as well...
I wonder what the Fae are doing getting involved in this, is this because the Shadow's new host was psudo-fae herself? Not sure what her real relationship with them was...
Ooo, the Fae, although I'm still worried about Radiant. Kinda curious what the sunborn are gonna do as well, they keep getting teased but we haven't seen much of them yet.
how fucked up would it be if it turned out to be somepony we knew? i was originally going to say it was Applebloom, but then i read that the pony had wings.
No. No. Nonono this is bad. Someone kill it.
Perhaps the fae are divided hmm? Some couldn't care less, others hate all this shit, and a few are willing to help... And probably for a price.
5872119 5872154
I am more curious to what he/she/it is doing here. They are still in Twilight's lands right? So what is one of Celestia's most loyal, powerful, and 'royal guard like' secret soldiers doing out in the middle of the woods of the 'enemies' lands?
I find this video very fitting considering the title, your naming themes, and the Fae dancers. Would have posted this yesterday if those hackers hadn't tried to mess with us.
And man, can they not even catch a break? That Shadow, or somepony, is expending an extreme amount of effort into this. Starting to wonder if they actually dislike her or has one of those weird, freaky stalker crushes.
Time to see if this Sunborn is a mindless brute or if there is some intelligence behind those golden orbs. Eagerly awaiting the next chapter to find out.
It's Twist!
Aww...
5877034
Y'know, as much as I admire Michael Flatley, I've always preferred Riverdance to Lords. Not sure why. Still like the dancing, though!
Great chapter! Got a bit lost on the environment descriptions, especially after they came out of whatever it was they went in through.
I love your stories. I despise your cliffhangers with a fiery passion akin to the sun. -_-
5872154 Apple Bloom died a long time ago.
The Sunborn... Celestia pet thralls/supersoldiers. Not an ounce of free will left. That wretch.
Hm. Perfect ambush site detected, Captain.
Wait for it...
Wow, premature ambuscation! Poor execution, minus twenty points from Rebeldore.