My Little Warcraft - Return of the Queen

by Shin Guyviroth

Chapter 1 - Diplomacy

The day bore deceiving clear skies and a gentle breeze that was accompanied by a gentle fall of snow upon the white fields of Equestria. The chilling yet comforting breeze weaved through the air, brushing through the frosted grass that poked out from the settled snow. One wouldn't expect to see such a thing until the winter time, but the Frozen North was known for such common occurrences.

"Not nearly as bad as Dun Morogh," a ragged, male voice muttered from under his breath, letting out a mist as he spoke. The man drudged through a sudden thickness of snow with his foot, lifting it and planting it upon a small mound as he pushed himself towards the incline, trying to get a decent footing. His gauntleted hand brushed through his blonde hair, sweeping it back before running his finger and thumb through his short, full-face beard, sweeping away any snow that got stuck to the hairs. His other hand wielded a large claymore, nearly as big as himself, that gripped the handle tight. He planted the blade into the snow with a whispered shink. "How do you fair in this weather?" he called behind him as he peered over his large blue and golden pauldrons.

A gentle pat whisked through the air as the length of a mithril and gold staff pierced through the snow. An old man past his seventies gripped hold of the top of the long handle with both hands, using it as though it were a hiking pole, dragging himself forward as the snow tugged down on the bottom of his pearl white, blue and gold robe.

"Panagia mou," the man exclaimed with a thick accent. With a heavy breath he stopped, gently leaning against his staff and running a free hand down his long, greyed beard, trying to brush away the snow and dew from it. "Is bloody freezing, Christoph. Too much snow here." His voice was soft and exhausted.

"Come now, Stavros," responded Christoph with a smirk, "you were with us in Northrend, and I didn't hear you complaining then."

"Nai, this because I was too busy smiting Scourge." Stavros shifted his feet through the snow, turning to look behind him. "I still wonder how she can walk around with very little clothes…"

"I heard that, old man," a strong female voice called out. "I'm blind, not deaf!"

A tall woman she was, nearly as tall as Christoph's six-foot three. Her features were like that of a human, with differences being that of her long, pointed ears that swept backwards, and the dark, pale, grey-blue colour of her skin. Her eyes were not one to be compared, having been covered by a length of black cloth for a blindfold. Her body was completely bare besides the brown leather bra around her chest and bright, emerald-green tattoos that ran down her midriff, along her chest, and around her shoulders. Her lower half donned an ankle-length kilt of overlapping cloths of black and dark indigo, with lengths of sharp and jagged runes etched down them.

"You not cold? Eh—not even a little?" asked Stavros, his words feigning concern.

"When you are too busy hunting demons, you do not tend to worry about the petty things like the weather," the woman replied as she passed Stavros before jabbing the rear of one of her double-bladed glaives into the mound, pulling herself up as she gripped the grass through the snow with her toes. "The cold never bothered me anyway."

Through all of the escapade Christoph never took his gaze from the night elf's visage. Despite her eyes being hidden behind the cloth, he did as much as he could to make some semblance of eye contact, but she constantly faced forward, never giving him a notion of attention.

"Christoph," whispered Stavros as he leaned forward into the knight's ear, "are you sure we can trust her—this kynigos daimonon?" This 'demon hunter'.

He knew what she was. They both did. They both understood about her kind and what they sought after. But every demon hunter, as good as they made out to be, always had some sort of hidden agenda. Christoph wanted to put some ounce of faith in her, even if only a small amount… but demon hunters were not mistrusted without good reason.

"I don't know," replied Christoph, "but we've no choice but to stick together until we can work something out—or at least figure out where we are." Lifting the claymore from the ground, Christoph followed the night elf down the other side with careful footing. The decline was greater than what he first thought at first sight. "Careful, Stavros. This is quite a hill."

Stavros groaned as he tried to steady himself with the staff while slowly making his way down, one careful footfall after another. "I could do with a hot bath," he muttered. "Oh, my aching piso…"

---

A light yawn filled the crystalline bedroom as the princess stretched her forelegs out from under the bed sheets. With half closed sleepy eyes she gazed out of the diamond-like window and into the city below her. A smile sprawled across her muzzle as she watched the other ponies work their days with smiles of their own across the facets of their jewel-like cheeks.

"Another good day," she said to herself. Her eyes shifted to the wooden night stand beside her. The shimmering glow of baby pink enveloped the lengthy horn on her head, spreading to the handle of a sapphire-crafted hair brush. With slow and gentle strokes, the princess ran the fine bristles through her brightly multicoloured mane. "Now, first order of business: to write—"

The double doors of her quarters swung open, slamming into the walls with a loud crash. "P-Princess Cadance!" a stallion cried out as he bolted into the room, his metal-clad steps ringing upon the floor.

Cadance let out a cry from the sudden interruption, startled from the guard's piercing voice in the calm silence. The brush sharply dragged through her mane hard enough the tear out a small clump of it. With a wince she stared at the long locks that stuck to the bristles before turning her gaze to the guard, who was now smiling awkwardly. "I assume you have something important?" she asked with slight frustration upon her words.

"I-I'm really sorry, Princess," the guard replied as he bowed, "but our lookouts have located strange creatures near the outskirts of the empire to the west! I thought it would be best to warn you first."

"What? Strange creatures?" Quickly Cadance swivelled her hind legs around to the side of the bed, jumping out and making her way towards the window. Her gaze set upon the outside of the empire's walls, scanning through the fields of snow the best her eyes could see. "How many did they see?"

"Three, Your Majesty. All of them were… ape-like, standing straight on two legs — with clothes on, too."

"Apes… with clothes? In this region? That sounds very… weird." Cadance turned from the window, quickly making past the guard and into the hallway. The guard followed her close by her side. "What about Shining Armor? Does he know about all of this?"

"He wasn't at his post, Your Majesty; this is why I came to let you know first."

"What!?" Cadance stopped dead in her tracks. "W-where did he go?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty. The captain said something about "the darkness" and teleported away. We've no idea of his whereabouts."

"The darkness?" Silence fell between the two, coupled only by thick tension. Cadence thought for a moment, and then spoke, "Guard, I need you to check in with the Unicorn guards and get whatever information you can about this."

"Right away, Your Majesty!" Giving a quick salute, the guard galloped down the hall as quickly as he could.

A sigh escaped the princess' lips as she turned to the large, stained glass murals that lined the walls between columns. Her eyes looked up and gazed upon the middle of the three; a mural depicting a large, insect-like creature with large wings and flowing, sickly green hair.

"I did not think it would be so soon…"

---

Snow kicked up and around Stavros as he tumbled sideward down the snowy slope, cursing and yelling with each roll. He collapsed forwards at the bottom, laying sprawled out on his front with his face buried in the snow. With slow movements he pushed himself off of his chest before trying to regain his footing, using his staff for support. "I'm getting too old for this," he exclaimed with bated, exhausted breaths.

Christoph slipped his arm under Stavros', pulling him to his feet. "You'll never get used to the snow, will you?" the knight feigned lack of understanding in jest; he already knew his companion's answer. He continued to walk on.

"Oi, never," Stavros responded, trying to keep up with Christoph while still minding his steps with caution. "This is why I stay in Stormwind."

"That explains why you never ended up visiting the young Prince Anduin in Ironforge. I thought your "I hurt my leg" excuse was a bit lacking. You could have just healed it yourself."

"Ehhh—I did hurt my leg." That much was true. A sly smirk curled at the corner of Stavros' mouth. "I could still walk on it, though." He looked on past the increasing fall of snow, noticing that their third companion stood in the powered field motionless. "Look, Christoph. Teleia; she has stopped."

"I noticed." Swinging the claymore over his shoulder, Christoph approached the stationary night elf. "Something wrong, Teleia?" he asked.

"I sense..." Her head turned to the left, then scanned slowly towards the right, and back again. "I sense a large, strong, magical presence. Almost like Dalaran. It is not too far from here."

"… Demonic?"

Teleia grunted before spitting on the snow to the side, melting a small dip into it. "Thankfully, no. But it is not arcane either. It is… different. Colourful. Peaceful. Soothing." She shivered at the words. "It makes me cringe."

"Not one for flowers and rainbows, eh?" teased Christoph with a light chuckle. But Teleia kept a straight face, not even giving a displeasing reaction. His joke brushed aside, the man cleared his throat. "How far do you think it is?"

"Three-hundred and fifty-eight paces away. Or for Stavros, around nine-hundred."

"Eh, keep it to yourself, alitis sou," chided Stavros as best he could as he hobbled to them, standing beside Christoph with his hands clutched tightly to his staff. "Eh, but you wouldn't be wrong in saying it."

"Well we've no better options, unless there happens to be a cottage nearby," intervened Christoph, "which I highly doubt." He motioned to Teleia with a nod of his head—not that she could see it, though. "Lead the way, Teleia—"

"Not yet," she spoke out suddenly. Her gaze jutted forwards into the distance. Her nose scrunched a little, and her brow furrowed. "I sense someone nearby."

"Filos?" Friend, asked Stavros.

"I'll be sure to ask them when I've run them through."

"Hold off your slicing until after we've discerned their intention," ordered Christoph, placing his hand on the front of her shoulder and pulling her back ever slightly in gesture. The man looked on, his eyes narrowing as a silhouette of a figure began to form in the thinned fog. The figure became darker, then clearer, then finally revealed in its entirety. "Well, won't you look at that. It's a unicorn."

The stallion stood tall with a discerning face, gazing at the trio through the eyeholes on his rose and gold centurion helmet. His ice blue eyes panned from left to right, watching and judging them. "I thought I sensed something foul," he spoke aloud.

"Hah! And it talks, too," mused Christoph with a smile.

"Seems you are famous, Teleia," joked Stavros.

The elf huffed, letting out a cloud of mist from her mouth. "Cute. But I don't do autographs unless it is written in blood—their blood." Her lips curled into a sickening grin. "But I'll be more than happy to sign your body with the tip of my blade."

"That is quite enough," exclaimed Christoph as he turned to her. His attention quickly returned to the equine before him. "I apologize for Teleia. She can be quite… violent."

But no apology could soothe the otherwise discontent expression of the pony knight. "Who are you?" he asked straightforwardly. "What are you doing here?"

"We are members of the Alliance, and we—"

"I was not asking you. I was asking her"

A low giggle rumbled from the night elf's throat. Her grin grew larger, showing an elongated fang. "I am just a poor soul walking on life's long and dangerous road. Oh, and I occasionally have to gut bears for their intestines every once in a while. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it."

The thought of her brutality made the stallion uneasy. His muzzle scrunched up and his lips quivered. He could feel his stomach churn endlessly. "You have dark humour, and even darker magics," he cried out. "You are not welcome here!"

"Oh. I see. And what if I don't leave, hmm?"

"Teleia, that's enough!" commanded Christoph. "We are not here to cause trouble!"

But the stallion lowered his head, pointing the length of his horn forwards. A veil of cobalt-blue sparkled and swirled around it like a maelstrom. "Then I will remove you by force if I have to!"

The elf raised her glaives, crossing them in front of her with crossed arms. "Good answer. Here I come."

---

The china cup jittered in the air as Princess Cadance brought the rim of it to her lips, taking quick sips of her tea as she sat upon her crystal throne. "Where could Shining Armor have gone to?" she uttered to herself, trying to think of any place that he frequently visited: the sports stadium, the guard barracks, and that little restaurant down on Ruby Avenue, but no one has seen hair nor fur of him since the day before. "I hope the unicorn guards have some shred of information…" With a sigh she took another, longer sip of her beverage.

"Princess Cadance!" the same guard from earlier cried as he entered the chamber, slamming the doors wide open with a loud bang as they hit the walls. Cadance jumped in her seat, flicking the cup and chucking its warm contents all over her face with an audible splash. "Y-Your Majesty! I'm so sorry!"

A low growl emanated from the increasingly temperamental Alicorn. Her eyes flicked open, seething. Tea dripped down her face and the ends of her mane. Her eyes pierced through her matted hair and through the guard. "… Please stop barging into the room every time you bring news to me."

"Y-yes! Sorry! But, Your Majesty, I bring news of the captain's location!"

"You do!" she exclaimed, wiping her face dry with a nearby napkin. "Where is he?"

"He was spotted outside of the city to the west, apparently heading towards the creatures. He plans to engage them!"

"By himself?" Grasping at the banner that hung behind her, the princess wiped what remained dripping down her mane before galloping down the steps of the throne and through the hall. "I've got to get there quick!"

---

"Teleia, I told you to stop!"

But Christoph's words fell on deaf ears as the night elf leapt from the snow towards her equine foe with her arms outstretched to the side, gripping tightly at her glaives. With a loud thud she kicked up flakes of snow as she landed. She broke out into a sprint, striding towards the unicorn with great strides. A single glaive thrust forward as she got within range, aimed straight for the its neck.

A flash-filled burst of blue aether erupted just a few inches from the vital point, parrying and redirecting the glaive's tip as though blocked by a wall. The stallion stepped back as the blow made impact, but found little purchase on the frozen ground beneath him as he kept his invisible defence up.

Teleia gave the guard no quarter. She twirled and spun a dance of death that showered upon her opponent nothing but swipes and slashes from her flurrying glaives, all the while showing no sign of fatigue or relent. "Come on, pony," she mocked her opponent despite his stalwart defense. But perhaps some goading can force him to slip up. "I thought you were going to force me to leave?"

Beads of sweat dripped down the unicorn's brow from under his helmet. He tried to keep focus, to keep control over the only line of defence he had. His eyes shook as he tried to keep a constant vigil over his attacker, scanning for any gap, any exploit in her movements.

But there were none. Every movement she made with her arms, every step she made, and every twirl of her body was designed to obscure such things. Her movements were quick and fluid, and every strike was made to parry, to deflect, and attack all at once. It was nothing that he had ever seen before. Perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew.

"Can't you do anything, Christoph?" pleaded Stavros while he began to wave his hand in circles over the top of his staff.

"It's too dangerous to get close to her when she's like this," admitted Christoph. A low groan escaped his lips. He stood powerless to intervene between her storm of blades. "Stavros, you need to pull her back."

"Sigi, Christoph! I need time!"

But Teleia did not relent on her assault of the straining unicorn. Her glaives constantly bashed against the incorporeal barrier that surrounded him, all the while keeping that gnarly grin. Beads of sweat continued to trickle down the pony's face, gathering under his chin and dropping to the snow. "Growing tired, are you?" she goaded further. Both glaives clashed against the front plate of his armor, bashing the stallion backward as his hooves skidded through the snow, leaving two trails as he did. "I can sense that your magic is next to nothing." Her arms came to rest to her sides, lax and hanging, with her fingers gripping loosely upon the glaives' handles.

Then the glaives dropped down, swinging vertically as they did before sinking into the snow with an audible shinking sound.

"Take your best shot at me," she taunted, flinging her arms outwards, presenting her bare body to him like a living target dummy. "Watching you do nothing but move back and put up defences has earned you my pity. I want to see how strong you are."

Gritting his teeth, the stallion bore his eyes into the smug night elf's chest. The glow around his horn began to widen and brighten. Crackling sparks and bright flashes began to twirl and twist along the length, building up into a small sphere that grew larger and larger the more magic it was fed until becoming the size of a basket ball. "This will put you down for good!"

But before either one of them could act any further, bright flashes of colours erupted from behind the two. The stallion, with his sphere of magic still set upon the tip of his horn, became surrounded in a bubble of bright pink energy that pulled him off the ground ever slightly and tugged him backwards with great force. In shock he flung his head upwards, releasing the orb into the sky above them. Teleia, with a sudden yelp, was pulled backwards as a bright, golden rope of light coiled around her midsection, pulling her back towards Stavros.

"Arketa, Teleia!" chided Stavros as the elf was pulled back into the priest's arm. "That is enough! We should not be making enemies here."

The stallion quickly came to rest upon the ground several meters away from the trio, his hooves finally finding purchase on the snow as the veil of pink dimmed and dissipated into nothingness. "What just—" The stallion turned, giving a soft gasp as his eyes met with another's. "C-Cadance! W-what are you doing here?"

"Making sure my husband doesn't get his flank handed to him, that's what!" snapped Cadance as her narrow eyes gazed through his, but her expression quickly softened. "But I'm glad you're okay, Shining. What are you doing out here?"

"Can you not feel it, Cadance? The dark energies that linger in this place close by?" Shining Armor fixated upon the three that stood only strides before him. "It's coming from that pointy-eared one over there."

"Mocking my ears now, are we?" uttered Teleia. Her sightless gaze shifted from Shining Armor to the glaives that lay dug into the snow. "Oh, I'll be needing those." Quickly she thrust her hands out, palms open and facing forwards. The glaives began to quiver in the snow they sat upon before quickly unsheathing themselves from the ground, making their way back into the elf's gripping fingers.

Cadance glared at the night elf; she too could begin to feel something dwelling within her. Her breaths became slow as malignant thoughts began to plague and play through her mind. She had felt the magic with familiarity, but at the same time vastly different.

"Who are you all?" she asked as she stepped forward a few paces. "What is it that brings you here?"

As soon as Teleia was about to speak, Christoph placed his hand upon her arm and gently pulled her backwards. "I think this matter needs to be handled with diplomacy now," he uttered to the elf, much to her chagrin. The knight stepped forward and planted his blade within the ground as a sign of peace. "Please forgive my companion," he pleaded. "She is more versed with talking with blades than she is with her own mouth. We are members of the Alliance, having been thrown here by sources unknown. We do not even know where 'here' is."

"… So you're not here to bring darkness to the Crystal Empire with your evil magics?" questioned Cadance with a raise eyebrow.

"Uh… No."

"Oh. Okay!" Her expression of suspicion quickly changed to a welcoming smile. "You're all welcome here then."

"Cadance!" interjected Shining Armor. "That was a little too quick to decide upon, you know."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Shining. I can sense their motives to be benevolent. Just trust me on this, okay?"

Shining Armor never relented on his passing judgment on the trio. Though his opinion of them was sour at best, he was at a loss of disapproval of his wife's acceptance. "Okay," he sighed. "But only on one condition."

"What would that be?"

"She is to be questioned first."

"Fine. We'll do that when we get back to the castle."

"W-what! Wait, you mean you're allowing them into our home?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to do the questioning in the middle of the snow. It's way too cold." Cadance smiled as best she could as she turned to her newly invited guests. "You're all welcome in our city. Please, follow us."

With a shake of his head, Shining Armor followed his long time lover as she made her way on towards the Crystal Empire.

Christoph gripped around the handle of his sword once more as he drew it from the ground. "See, Teleia," he said as he began to follow the ponies, "that is what should happen when you encounter new people."

"I still prefer my approach," she responded bluntly, following Christoph. "It's more enjoyable."

Stavros merely shook his head. Lifting the staff from the snow, he began to drudge through once more. "Nine-hundred. Eight-hundred and ninety-nine…"

Comments

[Dracosaurian]

Wooooohooo the sequel is finally here!!!

[Taltharius]

Typo discovered:

"Christoph," whispered Stavros as he leaned forward into the knight's ear, "are you sure we can trust her—this kynigos daimonon?" This 'demon huner'.

That should be spelled as demon hunter.

[Eric]

This is good work , I'll follow this! I have to ask though, what with the Greek character mate?