The Unicorn and her Boy

by ChudoJogurt

Chapter III - How They Came From The Island

Over the following months, our forces grew in size and in boldness as we raided the Telmarine convoys and forts. We gathered the weapons and the food for the troops, instruments to fix our bases and defences, materials for the impromptu lab I had organised. Soon the forest burrows were too small for us and we took Aslan’s How as the base of our operations, turning a hilly mound into an impenetrable hidden fortress for an army of rebels. And no life was lost - that was the pact Caspian and I have made.

All of my homesickness and longing for Canterlot and my home I’ve poured in my efforts to help, allowing myself to be subsumed in the busywork of the war, trusting that either Caspian restored to the throne, or perhaps a fulfillment of the strange prophecy or curse that sent me here, would somehow find me a way back home.

My magics and alchemy, from the cover of Arabian dust-storms to the mercy of Zebrican sleeping dust, turned the rag-tag bunch of creatures into a formidable force, and with Reepicheep's mice and griffons we saw every movement the enemy could make, while staying unpredictable and elusive, always several steps ahead of opponents.

We descended on their garrisons and supply lines like timberwolves on the fold, appearing out of the woods in the thick of the night, scaring men and scattering herds and horses, and disappeared like ghosts back into the cover of the forest, burdened with gold, food and arms.

But while it has allowed our small force the means and strength enough to have no need of taking lives, all the magic that I had did nothing to quell their desire to do it. Centuries of hiding and being hunted like animals took their toll on Narnians, and many were all too willing to take it out on the Telmarine invaders.

It was with my insistence and Caspian's boundless charisma, that it became the point of pride among even the most warrior-spirited centaurs and brutish minotaurs to boast not of the foes they vanquished but their cunning and cleverness in dispatching them without so much as drawing blood.

And through it all, Caspian and I acted hand-in-hoof, bonded as two strangers in a strange land. He rode at the front of every battle, his sword sharp and his lance keen, his shining helm in the first line of attack - a living example and inspiration to the Narnian forces. He took command in battle with brilliant tactical instinct and he never forgot to offer mercy and aid to those who surrendered. Meanwhile, I aided our forces with my spellwork and worked out supply and logistics and always, always had his back in battle and out, just as he had mine.

More than once in the deep raids, we’d share the last of our supplies between the two of us and the silly boy would try to give me his share, even though I could subsist on leaves and grass. And more than once we’d share his cape as our only protection from the elements.

We may not have been true friends, but he was my ally, my comrade in arms and сompanion…”

***

“Oh, that is so romantic!” Rarity exclaimed, her eyes shining with utter glee. “A sorceress and a dashing warrior prince!”

“Romantic?” Sunset asked uncomprehendingly. “What? Eww, no, Rarity, how could you even… eww!” She shuddered in revulsion.

“Why, what is the matter, darling? You describe him as brave, chivalrous and most gallant, and he was a prince to boot. I say I would have jumped at the opportunity.”

“Ice and Nightmares, Rarity, I was a pony. A magical talking equine, Discord’s sake, and he was a human. I didn’t even consider that! It would be weird and wrong and not to say weird, and I am sure neither did he!”

“Oh. Well, yes, I suppose that would be strange.” At least Rarity had the decency to blush at the mental image. “Sorry darling, it’s just sometimes hard to imagine you as a pony. We only know you as a human after all.”

“...as I was saying” Sunset returned to the story forcefully. “We were doing pretty well. That is, until that one day when the Pevensies came and crashed our world...”

***

“We were returning from the another attack on the Telmarine supply chain, our soldiers struggling under the burden of the trophies. We were deep within the forest Telmarines have long been taught to dread, so we were more than a little bit careless.

“Come on, you must admit, that bit when you jumped on the soldier’s horse and threw him into a tree was awesome!” Still giddy with the excitement of the fight I was chattering endlessly, trying to pry a smile out of Caspian. “You should’ve said something cool, like ‘heads up!’”

“I prefer to conserve my breath in a fight,” he answered reasonably, but I could see the sparks of laughter welling in his eyes. “But yes, that was quite ‘awesome’, as you say.”

“You should take lessons from Reepicheep. That guy has the best zingers.” I bumped him in the hip with a shoulder and he bumped me back, the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. All was well in the world.

I slowed down, trying to catch the rays of the sun with my muzzle, and stood there for a few seconds, just enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasted. Birds were singing their chirpy accolades and the summer was getting into its right, bringing warmth to the forest.

For a second there the world hung in a perfect balance.

And then a shout and a clang of metal on metal broke the silence, right ahead of me — where Caspian disappeared from my sight. Raising a cloud of dust with my hooves, I rushed to his aid.

On a small meadow behind the giant oak, Caspian was engaged in battle with another human, parrying the blows of attacker’s sword with his own still-sheathed saber. His opponent was as young as the Prince himself, yet he was stronger and almost as fast, and Caspian who had no trouble fighting Telmarine soldiers was retreating under the barrage of powerful strikes.

I concentrated on my horn, summoning my magic when out of nowhere an arrow swooshed past my muzzle, headed straight for Caspian’s back, and it was only by the thinnest of miracles that I managed to catch it mere inches before it found its target.

There was no time now to help Caspian with his foe — the archer kept moving, shooting arrow after arrow with impossible speed and precision. Thin needles of death filled the air, searching hungrily to pierce me or Caspian, and it took all my speed and skill to deflect or grab them with my magic.

I was sweating bullets, the deadly game of catch leaving me with barely any time to spare even a glimpse of how Caspian was faring when something made the hairs of my mane stand on their edge. I didn’t so much hear his footsteps — he made no sound as he crept up to me — but rather I felt his approach with an instinct so honed in these past months. I ducked and rolled and a short sword, as sharp as a razor, whizzed past me, slicing a few strands off my coat.

Desperately I threw the arrows I held in my magic at him and his sword twirled into a blur, cutting them into splinters, his step barely slowing down.

Now there were two of them - the archeress and a black-haired boy with a sword, acting with perfect synchronicity, as I dodged, rolled and blocked steel and arrows alike, retreating further and further from Caspian, attempting to find a respite from the stinging death between the wide trunks of trees.

Distance regained with a few well-placed fire-bursts that staggered the swordsman, I used the moment I won to summon the Scourge of Shahab. My magic wove the winds and dust into a thin whip spanning from the tip of my horn dozen of yards of its coiled length - another spell I learned with Nada. It was the desert magic - thin and sharp and well-used for combat.

I rolled my head, spinning the summoned weapon to cut the assailant’s legs, forcing him into a long, lunging roll across the ground. He came out of the roll throwing a handful of leaves and dust into my eyes, trying to blind me. Another crack of the whip made him dodge again, as a side of a far tree burst into splinters and leaned precariously when the Scourge hit it, nearly cutting it in half.

A red figure slipped from behind the falling tree - the archeress looking for a better cover - and as I retreated, half-blindly, I swung the whip around again and released it, turning its length into a swirling tornado of earth and air, hurtling towards the girl. The swordsman, recovering from his last dodge, was already in the air, as he jumped towards me, closing the distance.

“Sunset, allez!” Reepicheep appeared out of the undergrowth onto my back in a practiced maneuver. Propelled by my magic, he jumped towards the assailant, knocking him out of the air into the ground, as the tiny rapier of the mouse Knight of Narnia crossed the attacker's sword. A high-pitched battle cry echoed across the battlefield, joining the clanging of swords and whish of arrows.

That was all the breather I needed to focus upon the archer-girl, who was still regaining her position from the whirlwind I threw at her face.

I couldn’t see her, but even without it, I could almost feel her drawing her bow. Never before have I weaved a spell with such speed and precision, the sigils and energies joining together like perfect mechanism before I hurled it at her.

She dodged it effortlessly, of course, but she was not the true target. The tree I hit shone with the green light of my magic, and the next arrow she let loose veered off course, hitting it instead. Then her bow ripped out of her hands, sticking to the very same tree, as like called to like and life pulled to life. Soon leaves and branches lifted off the ground in a maelstrom centered at the target of my spell. The archeress’ feet finally slipped and she fell towards the tree, thunking against its trunk with enough force to knock her out.

“Yield, and you shall be spared!” Caspian’s voice boomed across the forest and everybody froze at the command of his voice.

The archeress was pinned to the tree, the smaller boy was down on the ground, sword knocked from his hand, ‘Chips rapier at his throat. Caspian had his attacker’s sword, holding him disarmed at a blade’s length. Our other forces had already surrounded us, readying crossbows and axes for our support. The battlefield was ours.

“Yield…” Caspian repeated, all confidence fleeing his voice, giving place to surprise “my King?”

“Pardon me, Your Majesties.” Reep lowered his rapier as well, “If you’ve only declared Your presence...”

“Huhbhuwhat?” it was nice to see that Celestia’s lessons on rhetoric paid off. I was as eloquent in my surprise as ever.

“Oh my gosh, she is so cute!” Something squealed so high, I thought it was one of the Chips guys and little hands grabbed my mane. “With the mane, and the big eyes, and the little sun on her side!” Apparently, the little girl found me huggable, because the next thing I know I was nearly fly-tackled out of nowhere by a hyperactive midget.

I hesitated for a second, trying to figure out the proper etiquette for getting petted by a Princess, but finally decided that my dignity was a tad more important. Grabbing her with my magic, I moved the child away from me, hanging her in the air.

“Hey! Personal space, much.... Your Majesty” I added, just in case. Let no one say that Sunset Shimmer does not have good manners. Even if I don’t always elect to use them.

“Can we keep the beautiful magical unicorn? Please? I will feed her, and walk her, and hug her…” little fair-haired human female twisted in my magic, still trying to pet me.

“There will be no keeping of the unicorn, please,” I said sourly, and released the midget from my grip, dropping her on the grass. Granted, it has been some time since I was called “beautiful”, but being treated like a pet did nothing to improve my disposition.

“She is no common livestock,” Caspian rushed to my defense, “This is Lady Sunset Shimmer of Equestria, Baroness of Winsome Falls, my friend and second in command.” He raised his voice, declaring to everybody else “And these are Kings and Queens of Old, come to our aid!"

As Caspian introduced them both to me and to our soldiers, recounting their names forever fixed in Narnian legend and lore, I took a stock of our invaders, finally having time enough to spare them a good look:

“Peter, the Magnificent, High King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel…”.

Peter, the High King was about the same age as Caspian, but they could not have been more different. Where Caspian was lean and sinewy, Peter was stocky and well-muscled, strong for his age but far from slow. His skin was light, almost white compared to Caspian's tan and his light-brown hair and blue eyes were unlike that of any Telmarine.

His sword, now in Caspian’s hand, fitted him perfectly - a straight and heavy thing that seemed clumsy compared to light Telmarine sabers and scimitars: an inelegant weapon from a bygone age. It had a name of its own, a name even I knew, of the same Narnian legends that were told around our forces’ campfires and recounted on the walls deep in the Aslan’s How alongside those of the Kings and Queens.

It was called Rhindon - Rhindon the Wolfslayer, Rhindon the King’s-sword, Rhindon the Spell-Shatterer and Witch-bane, depending on whom you’d ask. It was a brother to the Horn that summoned me through the incomprehensible abyss that separated worlds, and it doubtlessly had a magic of its own, even if I could not sense it.

“Susan the Gentle, Queen of Narnia, Duchess over Great River and all its Provinces, Lady of the Horn…”

His sister was very much like him - same round face, same brown hair, tied in a simple tight braid, same blue eyes. She was taller than him, even though she was younger, and not as powerfully built as her brother. But judging by the speed and the power with which she shot at us, her flowing figure concealed formidable strength -- probably strength enough to give the High King the run for his money were he a fool enough to challenge his sister to an arm wrestling competition.

“...Edmund the Just, King of Narnia, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March..”

Edmund, the younger brother was the odd one out of the bunch. His features were thin and well defined, dark eyes watching carefully and sharply from underneath unkempt black hair. Instead of reveling in the greeting, as his brother did, he had already sheathed his sword and tended instead to his sister, just coming to.

“..and Lucy the Valiant, Queen of Narnia, Marchesa of Beruna, Baroness of the Dam, Beloved by Aslan.”

To the little girl that tried to hug me I would not have spared another glance, if not for her last title. And once I did, I could not help but notice that something was off about her. Something in her steel-colored eyes that kept looking at me with a childlike wonderment, that I just could not place my hoof on... but then I hardly knew a thing of human foals.

“And my name is Caspian, Crown Prince of Telmar,” he concluded his introductions “I was the leader of the Narnian forces.”

“A Telmarine leading Narnians against Telmar?” The High King mused, relaxing a little now that hostilities were discharged and weapons of our armies gave way to cheers and hushed whispers of awe. “A rather curious arrangement I’d say.”

“A common enemy unites even the strangest of fellows, your Majesty” the badger that once was one of the first to give his loyalty to Caspian, was apparently just as quick to give it to the next big thing that came along.

I turned away, every cheer given by our ranks to the complete strangers making my mood progressively worse. Whoever those guys were, they seemed to completely hijack our operation, taking instant command of something Caspian and I spent months building up. Somehow this hardly seemed fair, and the fact that Caspian just yielded up without even so much as them asking just aggravated me further.

"You'll be quite fine, Su." Edmund's businesslike tone interrupted whatever Peter was about to say. "no concussion and nothing's broken."

Lucy put her hand on the small diamond vial on her belt reflexively. That'd be the last of Royal Treasures of Narnia, the gift of the Valiant Queen, and a magic I was somewhat more accustomed to and could recognize - a healing cordial that could save a pony from the brink of the death and heal any wound or disease. Back home Celestia made this potion but once a year, on the day of the Summer Sun at the peak of her power, weaving distilled rays of sunshine into less than a dram of the precious liquid. To see a little girl with a whole flask of it defied imagination.

"Now, Lucy, go apologize to the nice unicorn lady," Edmund said sternly, to his younger sister "You were being quite rude."

"I'm sorry," The child said, twirling her thumbs, "It's just you're so cute!"

I nodded back, reluctantly - no harm was done after all, save for some of my dignity.

"Have any of you seen Aslan?" she asked, suddenly, her eyes hopeful.

I did not share in her enthusiasm. Quite the opposite - if she wanted to find a topic of conversation to make me even more annoyed, she could not have possibly done any better.

“No.” Caspian said, “and we have been looking for Him.”

Aslan was a sore point for me. A True King of the land, as powerful, as Celestia herself, if one trusted the descriptions Narnians told in hushed tones, a lion, of all the scary creatures of this world… and entirely absent for millennia, abandoning his subjects in their time of need.

“Hay, half our guys would run off to search for Him if there was any hint of Aslan anywhere,” I added grumpily. “Apparently no one has seen Him in ages.”

“Well, maybe that’s because they don’t believe in Him!”, the little girl stomped her foot petulantly. “Maybe you think with your fancy magics and army you don’t need Him— “

“Lu, stop.” Peter said, tired of the clearly familiar argument “I think we’ve all waited for Aslan long enough. We have an army, and we will need every sword.”

“Then you’ll probably need yours,” Caspian noted dryly, returning Rhindon to Peter.

"And the ones we have secured today." Perhaps I was just being contrary and rude, but I think it was a bit forgivable given that I was nearly killed. And also nearly hugged to death by a crazy girl. "Which we really should finish getting back to the base."

***

I bumped Caspian’s hip with my hoof while we walked, and we lagged behind the Pevensies, as I quietly demanded an explanation.

“Why did you let them take charge? That’s our army. We made it, not them!”

Caspian shrugged helplessly. “Sunset, they are the true kings and queens, the rightful rulers of the realm. Everyone knows that.”

“But they’re just a bunch of kids!” I protested in the same hushed whisper.

“Sunset, look at them,” Caspian asked. He crouched by my side and put his hand on my shoulder, guiding my sight. “Really look.”

And then I saw it. Yeah, they were just children, Peter barely my age, Lucy maybe in her eighth year, but if you really looked you could feel an almost tangible air of power and majesty hanging around them like a cloak. The earth itself seemed to sag under the gravity of their presence where they walked, chatting carelessly, artifacts beyond any price or value at their side like common trinkets. They really were Warrior-Kings and Queens of Old, used to combat and command, fit and summoned to rule their land, and even the little brat seemed to shine with a light reflected from outside this world.

“Fine.” I submitted. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Author's Note:

Special thanks to Goldenwing to giving his critique of the combat scene in this chapter.

Comments

[punzil504]

“Can we keep the beautiful magical unicorn? Please? I will feed her, and walk her, and hug her…”

...and call her George.

[Dinode]

Nice to show the Pevensies giving Equestrians a run for their money, it is not often that humans are shown to be as powerful as ponies without technology.

[Layton13]

Over the following months, our forces grew in size and in boldness as we raided the Telmarine convoys and forts.

Ok, wow, time seems to fly by like nothing, not sure what I think of that yet.

All of my homesickness and longing for Canterlot and my home I’ve poured in my efforts to help, allowing myself to be subsumed in the busywork of the war, trusting that either Caspian restored to the throne, or perhaps a fulfillment of the strange prophecy or curse that sent me here, would somehow find me a way back home.

Would have actually liked to see that and not just hear about it, but that can still come.

We may not have been true friends, but he was my ally, my comrade in arms and сompanion…”

All that sounds really interesting would have loved to see that. I'm a bit sad that it was glossed over like this.

Ice and Nightmares, Rarity, I was a pony. A magical talking equine, Discord’s sake, and he was a human. I didn’t even consider that! It would be weird and wrong and not to say weird, and I am sure neither did he!

There are enough love stories that transcend barriers just like these, still somewhat wired

Can we keep the beautiful magical unicorn? Please? I will feed her, and walk her, and hug her…

No Caboose, we can not keep the unicorn

Hmh, while I would have loved to see what has been described in this chapter it is not that bad. I hope we will get enough interesting stuff later on.