22. Friends Close...
Kirin fell, unable to maintain his stance or his portal, nearly losing a leg as it snapped suddenly shut. With unseemly haste, he tore at the shard of the Giottus Sphere, trying desperately to remove it before it further sapped his strength. His desperation was only compounded by the dark, quiet laughter he heard not far away. He knew that laugh…
Kirin snarled as he pulled the shard away along with a brief stream of blood. He looked up to the wall where the being in question resided, still chained, bolted, and in some places melded into the metal itself.
Scarcely enough precautions to take against the former owner of the Clades. Glowing blue-white eyes looked down at him from the vaguely equine face, ethereal even in its trapped form, grinning like the rotting skeleton that she was. The air distorted around her, and the room felt colder when he looked upon her. His old master and, to his knowledge, last of the Demondim. Her head tilted, creaking as both bones and chains protested the motion. But she did not speak.
Was he sure he’d heard that laugh? It had been so very-
“It’s been… such a very long time… little thief… traitor… fool.”
What was left of her lips had not moved, no indication came that she’d spoken those words. He shook his head, gathering himself. There was nothing to be gained from talking to a corpse. Further, he needed time to recover. The Giottus Sphere’s destruction was both a blessing and a curse: Discord would be fully recovered soon, but without his shroud Kirin was just as vulnerable to the weapon once it had been taken. A pity to not recover it intact, but-
“Does the self-proclaimed master of war doubt himself… his tactics…? Draconequii… you ever had more pride than talent…”
With a snarl, he spun back to the where the dead godling hung in her sad casket, “And yet I live, and fight on, while you are little more than power to continue being used!”
“The children you took from me rebel… they see your weakness… your arrogance… they see the destiny you denied them… and I thought you said you were done with fits of anger?”
“Stay out of my mind!”
“Then return to me my ears-”
“And they see that I no longer have need of them… except as fodder. Like you. The few who are loyal to my true self will be rewarded as I see fit…”
“The chosen of the Seraphim fared better. But things will improve soon. I will have the death I earned, and my children will burn away the last of this crude flesh in their righteous anger. How galling… to know my enemies treated their pawns better than I… To be stripped of my right to reward my worshipers by a lowly pretender-”
“I AM A GOD!”
“You are a spoiled child. ...There is a correlation there, I admit. But no, the draconequii believed themselves gods… only to prove that mortals can, and will, kill gods as it suits them. Equusian, Earthling, or Oni-koru… you will soon know. Discord knew… master of disharmony… chaos? Ridiculous. In the face of true Chaos… Madness of the Eldest Beings… he is a clown fit for children. But he chose wisely, his Aspect. He could ignore our commands, our compulsions. His madness protected him from our Order. And even Harmony did little more than scold him for his actions. Far better than you will fare...”
Kirin took a deep (unnecessary) breath, to calm himself. “Enough of your games, Tiamat. I am not here for you. The children who failed to protect you will precede you into the hereafter, when I let them. I am done with them as they are… thanks to the last piece of knowledge I needed to reforge them. As to you… you may continue to enjoy your place as the Clades’ main power source. When I have… one of my new slave races rebuild the ship, I’ll be sure to keep you as an integral, everliving piece.” He picked up the Giottus shard and strode into the bowels of the broken vessel, still held together by the staggering energies of the dying Demondim. He walked the empty halls to the Archives, with her whisper chasing quietly after him.
“When they kill you, be patient in Hell. I will find you… and there will be a reckoning.”
------------------------------------------
Garken looked with wide eyes at the massive room before him. All along the walls were fluid filled tubes, containing the bodies of various races. In the center, a giant pillar of a computer screen and console.
The nameless Oni grinned beside him, throwing his hands wide to gesture to the room. “Hashmalum’s work at its finest, but only the beginning of what you must see.”
“These are…” Gareth began, looking around to the walls with a touch of disgust that was mirrored on Sunset’s face.
“Okay, this particular science fiction trope could have stayed science fiction, thanks.”
“There are races from all corners of Equestria here… and that’s only half. I don’t even recognize the rest.”
“That one looks human,” Sunset muttered, pointing a hoof to a particular tube, otherwise indistinguishable from the rest.
Garken shook his head, making for the computer. “Don’t touch anything yet. Hashmalum was more unscrupulous than genuinely clever. Whatever he’s done here will likely be unstable, and these… subjects at risk from any outside force on them.”
“Oh, but it’s not Hashmalum’s work you’re seeing here, Garken Caedum,” Nameless said leadingly.
Garken tapped a few keys on the console, but then hissed in surprise and disgust as the screen lit… and showed a screen full of data that seemed designed to be too dense to parse. He focused, trying to make heads or tails of-
Say your lover’s name, Grand Marshal. In your voice, it will respond with what you are to know.”
Garken stiffened, turning back from the screen. “...Should I ask why such a thing would matter?”
“Why ask when you can simply find out? I did not lead you here for a trap, even your allies agreed to that much.”
Grinding his teeth slowly for a moment, he at last said distinctly, “Karasa Luxuria.”
The jumbled screen changed, becoming an Oni woman’s face. Coppery red eyes, nearly glowing, looked down from the screen, accented by dark red lips that split in a grin across gleaming fangs. “Hello, Garken. Administrative access granted. Files are ready for your perusal, per His Majesty’s orders.”
Garken snorted. “Hello, mockery of Karasa. I don’t take orders from ‘His Majesty’ any longer.”
“Yes, your status as a traitor is noted. As is Keia’s prior to her death. You failed our daughter rather miserably, didn’t you?”
Garken’s hands balled into fists as the air in the room became notably heavier. Nameless took a step back from the fuming warrior. “...I did. She was the best of us. She died upholding our honor, and our strength. She died laughing at the unworthy fool who managed to kill her.”
“She died because her father stood by and did nothing.”
Surprisingly, Garken didn’t lash out. If anything, the dense feeling in the room seemed to deflate, as he staggered slightly. “I know…”
‘Karasa’s’ grin became a more genuine, almost sympathetic smile. “Would you like another chance?”
“Oh here we go,” Tempest muttered as Gareth tensed, ready to pounce Nameless or anything else trying to surprise them. Surreptitiously, he loosened his short sword in its sheath.
“What?” Garken replied, no real life in his voice.
Karasa’s smile brightened further. “Illuminating pod twenty-one.”
Said pod brightened, clearly showing off its unconscious inhabitant, an Oni-koru only one in the room truly recognized. And he refused to go anywhere near it, instead turning back to the monitor. “You think I would accept a clone?! They have never been a viable idea even for extra soldiers, much less bringing back the dead!”
“Ahh… but that is simply poor aetheric growth… and of course the difference in the soul lost versus the soul created in the clone.”
“Even if her soul could be somehow taken from wherever it ended up, without matching the previous aetheric balance the body will die. And that matching is-”
“Possible now.”
Garken stopped, his jaw snapping shut as though he’d taken an uppercut mid-speech.
“Tell me, my lover… in your time on Earth… what did you learn of a group calling themselves Veritech?”
Garken staggered again, backing away from the console at last. “No… no that… they didn’t…”
“Of course, no point in being coy. While leading a competing corporation of course you knew. In fact… it was your stored knowledge of them that allowed Kirin to direct Hashmalum in his new line of research. You led us here to Equus, and I’m sure you thought that was betrayal enough. But no… you had so much more to offer.”
Karasa laughed. It was a chilling laugh. Suddenly though, Sunset wasn’t afraid anymore. The deck felt warm beneath her hooves as her anger, and her magic, rose.
“With your research and Veritech’s… we will soon have the perfect soldiers. Resurrected from His Majesty’s most hated among us, bonded with their old souls, and forced by manipulations of aether YOU helped bring before our eyes… to do his bidding.”
Garken shook his head, an icy calm suddenly coming over his expression. “...Absurd.”
Karasa looked surprised. “Oh? He has long planned his revenge against the humans as well as here. The whispers of the Old Masters counseled him to patience. He even withdrew from the frontlines to focus on this, even more than you know, more than I need say. The pieces all fall into place. The perfect army for the perfect god of war. You cannot stop him… but you can still have a place at his side.” She chuckled. “Whether you want it or not. But first… Keia, as you see. Embrace your fate, Garken. The two of you will be together again. His slaves, forever.”
“A pity he lacks of her the same he lacks of you,” Garken replied, fully in control again. “Without her soul, he can only make a puppet to look like her. He can give it memories, create a poor victim to torment that will think and feel as she did. And for that alone I could kill him a thousand times… every day. But-”
“-But her soul is here, and so he will obtain it. He went to do so as we speak. It is only a matter of time.”
And like that, control was stripped from him. “...Here?!” he whispered harshly. “She is… my daughter is…” He shook his head, eyes wide and manic. “Of course… of course and why wouldn’t she… heh.. Hahahaha oh Gods!” His fist hit the screen, but he clearly held himself back as it only cracked. “Of course… it was his power that killed her… he, a demigod of Equus… of course a conduit, a possibility for this… It never occurred to me…”
Karasa smiled through the crack in the screen. “Your legacy of ending worlds will exceed three, after all, my love. Be proud of-”
The screen shattered and exploded as a blast of phoenix fire erupted through it. Sunset’s horn, glowing white-hot, directed the lava-like jet of flames as she continued burning down every inch of the computer pillar. Meanwhile, Tempest leapt, throwing a spinning kick at Nameless’ head, intercepting his charge towards Garken in an attempt to take advantage of his distraction.
“Does that still count as a trap? It feels like it should,” Tempest muttered.
“I never said I was perfect,” Sunset replied as smoke rose from her horn. “Sorry, I’d heard all I could take from that smug bit-”
“No apologies needed, my new friend. Far be it from me to tell anyone else they’re being excessive.” Garken said, smiling despite reeling inside. “That was not Karasa. It wasn’t even the sort of macabre facsimile Kirin seems intent on creating. My lover died twenty five years ago, along with her father, Zeran. I find myself now wondering at the truth of their deaths. One more question for Kirin… before I kill him. This cheap attempt to manipulate me changes nothing. It simply seems he intends to kill far more than just the inhabitants of Equus during this war. Our goals... have not changed.”
He stepped over to the downed Oni who’d led them there. He placed a foot on the Oni’s head. “I never did learn your name…” With a casual effort, he stomped down, crushing the lesser soldier’s skull into the deck. “And I never will.”
Sunset grimaced and looked away. “Now what?”
Garken was looking grimly at the Oni-koru he’d killed. A misguided fool, but at least he’d died almost cleanly… and if lucky wouldn’t come back to be a prisoner in false flesh. Veritech… and Keia is somehow here, at risk of... Garken shuddered in revulsion. “Now? I destroy these sins against magic, nature, respect, dignity, and whatever else I feel like considering them sins against. They aren’t alive, not yet, and they aren’t going to be. All of you need to leave. I don’t intend to hold back. I will bring this whole Spire down if needed, so meet up with your Princess Celestia and evacuate everyone. When I sense you are far enough away… look back to watch the spectacle.”
Sunset smiled wanly. “Cool ponies enjoy explosions.”
------------------------------------------
“So what’s with the whole ‘My Princess’ thing back there?” Trixie asked Evening Calm as Starlight set up an array to help direct the dissipating magic from the corrupted aether they’d be destroying.
“I did not say ‘My Princess’,” Eve huffed in response, focused more on channeling power into her blades.
“I dunno, you might as well have. I mean, Sparkle’s a complete dork, obviously, but I bet even she picked up on it. You’ve got a cru-ush!”
Eve snorted, blushing slightly but rolling her eyes. “It isn’t that, sorry to tell you. She is lovely and quite endearing, but even if you’re right I’m undeserving of such a pony.”
“Whaat? Undeserving of Sparkle?! Please, she’s so-”
“-Trix, not now, okay?” Starlight muttered just loud enough to interrupt, her horn gently glowing blue-green as she inscribed runes into the array.
The room where they’d gathered the aetheryte together was literally just that: an empty room with nothing whatsoever interesting about it. There’d been several crates of the gem flecks and pieces already here, and they’d brought the rest they’d found in. If anything, Starlight was now convinced that, at least with this Spire, it was smaller on the inside. Then again, maybe Twilight’s castle had given her unreasonable expectations on such matters.
More surprising was the lack of Oni presence. Finding and moving the aetheryte hadn’t turned up a single one, and Starlight wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a trap waiting to spring. The place’s aetheric shielding was a joke in this area though, so at worst she could teleport them all in a hurry.
As if in answer to her question a voice came from speakers she couldn’t see. “Attention, this is General Ferrana Frangesse. ...Former General. Any Oni-koru wishing to maintain loyalty to Kirin and his lies should evacuate immediately. I will not punish you for maintaining your oaths to the Crown… even if I believe an imposter to be wearing it. Make your own decision. Know that if you stay to oppose my own in this, MY installation, I will consider you an enemy and treat you as such. If you wish to join me and our new allies in supporting Equus, as a path to finding a new way for our people, report to the Command Center. If not… don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
Starlight chuckled, putting the finishing touches on the array. “Guess Luna made a strong case.”
“Naturally,” Eve said with a serene smile. “The Princess of the Night is most eloquent… when she’s not adorably confused and flustered by some modern convenience, of course.” Eve blinked, and blushed a darker shade than before. “You will, err… not mention I said that, please.”
“Aha!" Trixie exclaimed, pointing a hoof in triumph. "It’s not Sparkle after all! YOU’VE got a Princess fetish!”
Eve sputtered. “F!.. F… FETISH?!”
Trixie grinned, confident of her victory over… whatever that was.
Starlight sighed. “Thank Faust you’re cute, Lulamoon…” she muttered quietly. “Right! Ready to go here when you are, Captain!”
“Ah! Yes, very good, thank you, erm… Starlight.” The flushed pegasus replied, turning her gaze from Trixie to the array at almost blurring speed. After looking briefly, she picked up the two daggers she’d imbued, focusing her gravity manipulation through the special metal of each one. She stabbed them into the appropriate points in the array, which lit with the power on display. Said light was a greener glow than they’d expected.
“Huh… not sure I care for that…” Starlight said distractedly, examining the odd resonance she was feeling.
“It’s fine,” Trixie said, levitating the crates over. “Let’s get this done and go home!” With that, and over Starlight’s protest, she dropped the crates into the center of the array.
The resulting quake was felt several miles away as the Spire began to shake itself apart.
------------------------------------------
The giant door, reinforced physically and aetherically to withstand everything Maegren might have to do in his fight outside, bounced loudly along the metal hallway after being crushed inward. The unmistakable dent to the material seemed to indicate a single blow had accomplished the deed, but General Vos knew it to be a lie. Sundering Resonance had been employed to great effect, considering the one who’d done so was not an Oni, or even the Esper. Though the dent was his work, the final blow struck in perfect concert.
Vos prepared himself. Maegren had fallen, but the enemies that now approached were tired, weakened, and vulnerable. The Grand Marshal’s defeat had shown the cracks in their mental defenses that even he could now-
A portal opened behind him, whisper quiet before a heavy aetheric presence was… simply there. ...And it was furious, as was the quiet, seemingly calm voice suddenly coming from behind him.
“Hello. I’m Aiden Windborne, and I’m having a bad day. I’m one of the last of the First Generation Espers, and these days I’m probably the strongest. I never cared to be either of those things. In my youth… I was called the Thousand Blade Butcher. ...I kind of did want to be that, at one point. Bad times, those. Do you know how I got that name?”
Vos swallowed with difficulty, holding perfectly still as he could feel a blade of pure magic pressing against his torso.
“I was the Esper Corps’ trashman. I wasn’t able to fully control my power back then; strong fighters could hold control over the aether around us to the point where my portals wouldn’t even work. Pretty embarrassing… but it just meant I had to focus on taking out lots of weak targets instead, and leave the big boys for people like Paladin Williams. Optimally, anyway... though it did force me to learn to fight better than most Espers ever bothered to, which has served me well since.
But you know… now that I’m stronger… more focused… it seems like damn near everyone’s a weak target. Do you know what that means?”
“Don’t think you can intimidate-”
“It means I didn’t walk in here as a soldier. I walked in as a butcher. ...Are you sure you aren’t intimidated?” The portal, eating into the muscles of his back, widened, tearing through his armor and magic defense like they weren’t there.
He grit his teeth. “We won’t surrender, no matter what you-”
The speech, whatever it was going to be, ended abruptly as another portal opened near his head, ejecting a lamppost which smashed into his temple, taking him to the floor.
“Promised the girls no more blood today. Lucky you.” Aiden blinked, looking at the trickle running across the floor from the lamp’s impact. “...Well dammit. Seriously, today is awful.” He sighed dramatically. “Right! So, who’s next?”
The rest of the group that had been gathered to oppose the siege (such as it was) had just looked on in shock. None of them were high ranking, or particularly strong. Certainly not enough to face even a ‘tired’ Aiden without their General.
Still Oni-koru could show astounding bravery at times. As one did, stepping forward. “And you think we’re afraid? Why not fight? You just admitted you won’t kill us, but we might get lucky.”
“Yeah… you might. On the other hand… probably not. If you make me fight you, I will knock you all right the buck out. And that’s not the worst part. No, when you wake up in a dungeon… you’ll have company. This… is my dear friend Pinkamena.”
A portal opened, but instead of simply stepping out of it, Pinkie seemed to form into place like metal pouring into a mold. If said metal were pink. Her mane was still straight, and the bloodstained tracks in her fur from her eyes and ears reminded Aiden that, if his math was right (and it usually was) Halloween was approaching back home.
Pinkie grinned at the Oni-koru contingent, her head slowly tilting to the side. Aiden chuckled quietly.
“Yes,” she said softly. “I’ll be there with you in the cell. We can sing… and dance… for days and days and days… we can make Cupcakes… it’ll be such fun. Fun… fun… fun…” Her grin widened with each 'Fun', her teeth taking on an unnatural edge as it did so.
The Oni in front stared at her a moment longer than Aiden would have considered necessary as a test of courage. “Alright… nope. We give up.”
Pinkie’s head snapped back to normal and, despite the mess of her mane and her face, she smiled a more genuine, sweet smile. “Thank you.” In a blur, she was next to the Oni who’d surrendered on behalf of his (slightly more spooked) comrades. She held up a chocolate frosted cupcake to him. “No hard feelings?”
The Oni looked down at her, wide-eyed and clearly dazed, before sniffing as the scent of the cake reached his nostrils. It was as warm as just out of the oven. He reached out and took it. “...Haven’t had chocolate in almost six years...”
Pinkie gasped. “Aiden, we have to end this war, and soon!”
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Heh. Pinkie is recovering. She looks like she has a ways to go still, but cake and a world wide party will go a long way.
And yes, the desire to write is a monstrous thing. I've been growling at a Sundress fic that just won't come together for... *checks* close to half a year now.
I learned that I DO not want to be in the same room with an insane-angry, party-deprived Pinkie.
Tiamat? That's a weighty name, what does it say that even the Demondim seemed to care more for the wellbeing of their subjects than Kirin does?
It's great to see a new chapter of this story! Great chapter by the way! I'll be waiting for more!
Borderlands 3 and Link's awakening kept me away.
9867593
For better or worse, Pinkie has always struck me as both the quickest to fall apart and the quickest to recover of the Mane 6, emotionally speaking (though the running with Twilight is a close one). Now... whether she's really recovering or just good at covering her pain so as to spread joy as is her wont... well that's up to each fan's interpretation across every iteration of her character.
9867731
It is at that, and it felt appropriate to me on several levels (meta and otherwise). As to Kirin... well as she pointed out, he's a Draconequus. As we've seen from canon with Discord, they aren't all they're cracked up to be, and are prone to tilting the board when the game doesn't go their way. Now, how long and why he's been such I obviously can't reveal yet, so I won't tease anything along those lines here. See you in the next chapter!
Of course Pinkenema would cause a NOPE.
Nah, I don't remember him making a covenant with any weird psionic beings from another dimension.
Huh. Makes sense, I guess.
Wait. I haven't read this in so long that I forget all the context here. Help from anyone who remembers?
While I may vehemently oppose your views on Twilight, Trixie, that's a good one!
Loved the Pinkie antics!
9872176
Despite (or really because of) all they've been through together, Trixie and Twilight may never hold each other in the highest regard. And... well let's face it, even 'reformed' Trixie's a bit of a brat. She's fun to write and I believe the sort to do the right thing in a pinch... but until that pinch? She's a brat.
As to your question... while Garken was masquerading as Cade, Co-CEO of Adstrum Technologies on Earth, said company kept an eye on the competition, such as Veritech. Veritech, pertinent to this case, was working on two things: Revivifying dead Oni-koru (as we saw with Pravus in the first story) and creating a third generation of Espers by altering the way Aether flows in 'normal' humans. Garken knew about that thanks to the usual corporate espionage antics one expects between rival companies, and what he knew was recorded into the Aetheryte in his head (which Kirin recovered at the end of the first story). At the time, the important information that had been revealed was that it let Kirin find Equus. But that wasn't all Garken knew, of course. Combining the two ideas paves way for the possibility of creating stable, magically powerful... well basically zombies that Kirin can fully control, which would suit him better than the willful, often borderline childish Oni-koru.
9872233
Thanks for the reply!
So, humans already had contact with ponies at the time? (It was after the war, right?)
Yeah, I forgot quite a lot.
Again, thanks.
9872327
They did 1500 years ago when the Seraphim Solise and Sidera brought humans to Equus to counter the Demondim's use of the Oni-koru in a war there. But other than Rarity, not on Earth, no. The Veritech stuff was after the war, you're correct; Aiden and Rarity went there to try and steal an Oni ship Veritech had, to use it to get Rarity home (that did not work out, as you might recall). But General Grumman and company were able to deal with Rarity because Grumman's family had a journal from that time 1500 years ago that they'd kept, detailing information about Equus and their allies there. Veritech's work was on human volunteers and Oni-koru taken during the war, and continued until Aiden, Rarity, and company destroyed their base (not entirely on purpose... more like because the Oni ship they wanted self destructed). They did have Rarity as a hostage/lab specimen for a short time, but Grumman's people helped her escape before they could learn much about her.
If that doesn't answer your question, let me know and we'll see if we can narrow down what you're after
9872382
Once again, thanks for the detailed reply!
The it question I have left is this, I think:
So, Garken found out about Rarity on Earth, and Kirin somehow located Equestria through that?
9873508
Garken was Cade; he and Johnathan helped Aiden, Rarity, and company to find the way to Equus. When Kirin removed the aetheryte from Garken's skull he obtained the location, since his experiences had been recorded into the crystal.
9873550
Oh, totally escaped my mind that he accompanied them.
That's all.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to answer all my questions! It helped a lot.
That... that's just a travesty.
War really is hell
Is there a delay to the story?
10044377
Sorta... during November and December the holidays and my job killed enough of my free time that I didn't feel like writing, because I'm lazy. Now that that's done chapters will continue. The next will be before February starts... probably publish on the 27th/28th.
10044512
Thanks for the info!