Act I: Hunger: Conviction
Twilight Sparkle’s head hit the desk in her room with an exasperated groan. She’d been working at this code for almost a week with no success; and it was a code, she was sure of it. The assortment of eight letters repeated seemed random at first glance, but there was a definite pattern, she just couldn’t figure out what it meant. It didn’t correspond to any form of glyph, writing, shape, anything she could think of or find to cross reference it with. She was starting to wonder if it was some kind of cypher that would only work in whatever writing system the Makuta used.
She’d figured out how to transcribe the Scrying Spell she got off of Krika into Equestrian magic rather easily, which had confirmed her suspicions. The spell had enhanced her sight, and allowed her to see even with her eyes closed. That had been a disconcerting experience to say the least, but it had been a good proof of concept.
Chirox’ had been a different matter entirely. There was no structure to it, it was like someone had taken the first half of the spell, mirrored it, dumped a ton of junk data into the middle, and then flipped the whole thing horizontally. She’d thought just stripping out the mess in the middle would have been enough, but that experiment had left her blind for almost an hour, it had taken multiple castings of the most powerful counterspell she knew to get rid of it.
If she could just figure out what the extraneous data meant she could make a proper solution, she was sure of it.
She might have been more patient with this if she’d been making good progress with the rest of the data she got off of them. The functions of their energy that allowed sight were relatively small, only two pages for Krika and five for Chirox, but everything else spanned dozens of pages, each of which had to be decoded, some of which needed to be put in the correct order, the Makuta had needed her to teach them how to read the data, and they hadn’t taken to that nearly as well as they had basic language.
Evidently where they came from these sorts of things were done with much less mathematical precision, closer to art than science. Twilight could respect that, and could see how shifting from that to the almost rigid structure they were working with now could throw them off balance, but it was still slowing things down considerably. They were quite enthusiastic about the work, though, evidently glad to have something to do.
Chirox was still as standoffish as ever, but it was easier to get him to respond with more than one or two words while he was working on something. Mutran would get over excited whenever he began to recognize something and end up snipping at anyone who attempted to ask what he’d found, though.
She glanced out the window, the sun was setting, soon Luna would bring out the moon. She sighed, she’d spent almost all day on this, again. She’d probably even missed dinner.
She looked down across Chirox’ garbled spell and set her jaw. If this really was some form of cypher, there was only one way she was going to crack it. She gathered it up, deciding to leave Krika’s here, she was still determined not to make them wait for her end result.
She headed back to the lab, either Chirox or Mutran could be found there any time Antroz hadn’t called on them and Krika didn’t need more than one person attending to him. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Krika since he’d woken. She shook the thought from her head, she’d worry about that once she was done with this project.
She entered the lab to a sight that was starting to become familiar, Mutran inspecting one of the pieces of equipment. He jumped slightly as she closed the door behind her.
“Twilight, hello,” he said, stepping away from the machine slightly. He kept doing that when he thought she wasn’t looking, inspecting the machines and sometimes carefully extracting parts; she hadn’t asked him about it yet, but she had told Celestia, she’d said to keep an eye out for whatever he was looking to build. “We missed you today,” she blinked, had she really not even checked in to help them with the data? “But, I think I found the start of something interesting.”
“Sorry, Mutran,” she took a deep breath, now or never. “I was working on this,” she floated the garbled mess of code over to him. “It’s something that caught my eye while Chirox was being scanned, I had hoped I’d be able to fast track it by working on it personally, but I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
His brow creased as he looked it over, but she did notice a faint glimmer of recognition in his eyes. “I was hoping you could help me figure out where to start decoding it.”
“This is…” he started, trailing off and muttering to himself. He ran his claws along two of the lines of text, first right to left, then up to down. “This shouldn’t be in here.” Twilight winced, she’d hope she’d have some kind of plausible deniability about this.
“I thought so, but-”
“No, you don’t understand,” Mutran interrupted, “this really shouldn’t be here. This is genetic code, we don’t have genetics.” Twilight blinked, “are you sure this wasn’t a malfunction?”
“I’m sure,” she nodded, “I ran a full diagnostic on the machine, and looked up every possible glitch it could have, nothing matched that. What do you mean a genetic code?” Twilight flapped her wings to hover level with his face so she could read along with him. “No, better question, you can read genetics?”
“I was the premier geneticist in the Brotherhood,” Mutran’s chest puffed out with pride, “I could make a bird out of a rat if you gave me a week. Of course I can read it.” His expression fell again, “a better question is how did this get into Chirox.” He brought up one of his claws and began to chew at it, unfurling the document so he could look over the entirety of it.
Twilight cocked her head, she actually hadn’t considered that they wouldn’t know how this had happened. Actually, her ears tucked back a bit, she hadn’t even bothered to ask how they’d been blinded, too worried it might have been a touchy subject.
“Uh, Mutran, how did Chirox go blind?” She asked, hoping he wasn’t too engrossed in the code to answer.
“Huh?” His eyes flicked back up to her, “he was too close to the Kanohi Ignika when it went off, but I don’t see how that’s releva-” he froze, his eyes going back down to the paper. “The Ignika, Mask of Life.” He looked back up to Twilight, his brow twisted, Twilight couldn’t help but shrink a little under his piercing gaze. “You’re looking to reverse this.” Twilight could only nod. A conflicted look passed over his face and he puffed up, his wings fluttering behind him as he rolled the paper back up.
Twilight moved away from him a little, his expression kept shifting, like he was arguing with himself before it settled into curiosity. “You didn’t tell us about this, if you’d wanted to hold it over our heads you would have brought this up sooner, but if you didn’t intend to try and make good on that, you wouldn’t be looking for my help now. So why not tell us?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Twilight said, landing and rubbing her forelegs together nervously. “I didn’t want you to feel like I was holding it over your heads while we worked.”
“Well then,” Mutran’s face shifted into an eager grin, “I just cracked your case wide open, be sure to credit me.” He tapped the rolled up paper on his palm. “Bring me the counterpart from Krika’s so I know what it’s supposed to look like, and I’ll have your cure within the hour. I know how this happened.”
“What, how?” Twilight sputtered, he waved her off.
“Once I have something to rub in Chirox’ thieving face, go!” He cackled, rubbing his claws together. Twilight huffed, but obeyed, teleporting back to her room in the castle to retrieve the other sheet.
When she returned, Mutran had already plopped himself down at the desk she’d enlarged for him and was scribbling out notes on a spare piece of paper while he looked over Chirox’ code.
“I’ve got Krika’s,” Twilight called, jolting him out of his focus.
“Ah, thank you,” he snatched up the other printout. “Chirox and Antroz were too close to the Mask of Life when it was used, it sent out an enormous wave of energy. Think concentrated Life Force.” He brought up Krika’s readout to his face to start eagerly reading over it, “we thought the overabundance of energy just damaged their armour so badly none of the components they needed to rebuild their eyes were left. We didn’t have any more handy and our supply of donors was of deeply low quality. But if this thing is correct, the Ignika didn’t overload them, it tried to rewrite them. But we don’t have anything to rewrite so all this code that would have done something just ended up gunking up the… works.” His expression fell as he got to the bottom of Krika’s pages. “More math, bah!”
He smacked them down onto the desk, grumbling to himself, “how am I supposed to turn something this expansive into that?” He started tapping the side of his head, “wonderful, just great.” Twilight pulled up the second stool that she had enlarged for Chirox.
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for,” she said, setting herself down and grabbing a quill. Mutran looked over at her, his expression uncomprehending. “I started working on this because I wanted to help you guys, if you need some help figuring this out, I’m ready to lend a hoof.” He stared at her a moment longer before his smile came back, slightly softer around the edges this time.
“In that case, let’s get started.” He began tracing the code top to bottom, Twilight following along.
______
Luna supposed how comfortable she was becoming with Vamprah’s presence should have been some cause for alarm, but she could not deny he had been on his best behavior after his initial assault upon Steady Hoof. His moods seemed almost to reflect her own in a way, though it was subtle enough that she didn’t think any of the guards or Celestia had begun to notice yet his ire rose and fell in concert with her own, and the more comfortable she was at any given moment the more like an overgrown cat he behaved. He enjoyed his presence acknowledged, but would turn up his nose if it was directly influenced in manner beyond simple words when she was relaxed.
When she hadn’t ordered him to hold somewhere he was rarely out of her periphery, always at enough of a distance not to startle her, but close enough as to not be a distraction. They had almost settled into a routine. Him taking his place at her side once she had partaken of her evening meal and staying there until she took her morning rest. She’d heard rumors of him lurking around various places in the castle while she slept, but so far he had yet to do anything concerning. A spooked guard here or there and rumors of a ghost amongst the cooks and nobles were far from dastardly.
There was something almost reassuring about him, he carried himself with the casual sort of strength that felt no need to posture or prove itself, yet his focus, as keen as all around him could feel it, was primarily used in service of her. He seemed to be able to sense when another was nearby, even if they had yet to reveal themselves in any telling manner. Even Celestia was having some difficulty approaching her unawares now, and whispers were starting to spread of eyes in her mane.
So as worrying as Vamprah having the run of the place should have been, Luna found her concern resting firmly upon the other Makuta. After her first meeting with them they seemed to have made a concerted effort to avoid her, with infuriating success.
Part of her wanted to chastise herself for her indelicate handling of them during their first meeting, but she knew it would likely have been another factor. She glanced over at Vamprah, perhaps it was the very thing that drew him to her that pushed the others away. If Twilight was correct that they had never been treated with camaraderie than feeling drawn to her would no doubt have spooked them. She huffed a little to herself, wondering if there may be some way to silence it.
She turned towards Vamprah, about to ask, to see he had risen, teeth bared and wings twitching. Luna’s eyes narrowed as she turned to the entrance of the throne room. The door burst open, Krika scrambling in and slamming the door behind himself, darkness swirled about his enormous claws and bound the handles of the door together, she could hear her guards pounding at the door on the other side.
Luna rose as he turned to her, her horn glowing, Vamprah falling in line at her side, still snarling silently.
“You would be Makuta Krika, am I correct?” She said steadily, imperious. He looked over to her, his gaze flicking to Vamprah before settling on her. He flinched backwards, his face twisting into an expression of shock and horror. His movements were stiff, faltering, he was still recovering. Luna cocked an eyebrow and let her horn dim, “peace, Makuta, state your intent.” She waved a wing towards Vamprah, bidding him to stand down. His expression twitched for a moment, but he obeyed.
“I-” his breath hitched as he watched Vamprah slink back behind her. “I came to warn you.” He straightened his posture, his expression falling, “but I fear I’m already be too late.”
“Warn me?” Luna asked, studying the way he held himself. “Of what?” His eyes were flat, expressionless, and the rest of him was coiled, ready for something.
“I’ll tell you in a moment,” his eyes flashed bright yellow. Vamprah was moving before anything further could happen, he leaped over her as the air rippled, spreading his wings wide to cover her, the floor around Krika cracked and Luna found herself struck by a deafness. The silence was so pervasive she could hardly feel her own breath.
The moment passed and Vamprah folded his wings, now standing between her and Krika and snapping his teeth. The silence lifted and Luna was struck with the ringing echo of some booming eruption of sound. She glanced around, then back to Krika and the web of cracks in the floor around him.
“What is the meaning of this?” She demanded, taking a step forward to stand alongside Vamprah. “You barge into the throne room my sister and I share, bar the door, speak of warnings, then attempt to assault my person. Your explanation had best be worth it.” Krika shrunk back under her glare.
“Vamprah has done something to you,” he stammered out quickly, “I was trying to reverse it.”
“Oh, and what would he have done?” She asked, her brow going up incredulously.
“The Shadow Leeches, he’s used them to suck the Light out of you.” He said, taking another step forwards and glaring at Vamprah.
“The what?” Luna asked, flaring out her wings, but it seemed Krika was beyond intimidation now. “I’ve been drained of nothing, but trust if I had, you would not be the only to notice.” She flapped her wings, pushing herself forwards to stand before him and meet his gaze. “Tread carefully, Krika, your brother seems to hold no love for you. You would do well to ensure you not draw the ire of the only other person in this room as well.”
He backed away from her, wincing and shaking his head slightly, “explain yourself.”
“You,” he paused, looking her over, his gaze resting on the billowing stars of her mane for a long moment. “The other Makuta have tricked you.” His expression hardened to something almost disgusted. “If you had been told the truth, you would never have taken us in.”
“What we know hardly paints you or your siblings in a favourable light.” Luna said, watching Krika’s face twitch in surprise. “Generals, soldiers,” she nodded her head back towards Vamprah, “assassins; war with the cause of supplanting a silent God is still war, with all the bloodshed that implies.”
Krika opened his mouth a couple times, but did not speak, so Luna continued. “In a thousand years, especially with those your brother Antroz has referred to as ‘far from paragons of ethics,’ I find it doubtful we could call the six of you murderers without certainty.” He stared at her, dumbfounded, the shadows around the door fell away, letting her guards push it open and come to stand on either side of Krika, surrounding him.
“Then… why?” Krika murmured, slumping slightly, “how can you justify allowing us to stay here?” He shook his head, “we’re- we’re evil.” Luna let her gaze soften, reaching out a hoof to rest on one of the small flat spaces on his blades.
“Because once I was no different,” his gaze came back to her, his eyes narrowed. “As my subjects, my sister, and her student have saved me, I wish to help you.” He pulled away from her.
“You can’t save us,” he spat, Luna blinked and stepped back. “Not when they haven’t saved you, not from what you are.” Luna cocked her head.
“Have you none who would care for you?” He stared at her, uncomprehending, “none who you would care for?” He shook his head slowly, still not seeming to understand. “Then you cannot speak on whether my friends, my sister, have proven my salvation.”
“For Karzahni’s sake!” Gorast’s voice rang out, Luna’s ear twitched towards the door, Krika’s entire body shifting to face it. She wasn’t in sight yet, but Luna could hear her grumbling to herself as she approached.
“This has been an… enlightening meeting, Krika,” Luna said, her mind racing. Antroz had done quite a bit to control the narrative they had received, to have one of their number attempt to sabotage it would not sit well with him. She glanced over to Krika, his mask sputtered uselessly on his face and there was the spark of terror in his eye.
She nodded to herself. “There is no need for your siblings to hear just how much so,” Krika’s gaze snapped back to her. “I would be a foul host if I were to allow a guest to fall under retribution simply for speaking the truth as he saw it.” She glanced back to Vamprah, “if that is agreeable to all present?”
Vamprah puffed up in irritation for a moment but relented, shaking his head dismissively and bowing. Krika gaped, but was able to compose himself before Gorast rounded the corner.
“There you are,” she growled, glancing between him and Luna, a dangerous smile spread across her face. “I don’t care how lax of a Rahisitter Chirox is, you know the rules.” She turned her gaze to Luna and her smile lost a bit of its edge for a moment before she clenched her fists and it returned. “I hope he hasn’t given you too much trouble?” She glanced down at the spiderweb of cracks on the ground.
“Nay, he found himself drawn to me,” Luna replied casually, “much in the same manner Vamprah was.” Her gaze flicked to Gorast, much the same way she had, the message was silent, but from the slight step back she took Luna could tell it had gone through. “He hadn’t expected to see Vamprah, however, and momentarily lost control of himself. He is still recovering from allowing your entrance to our world, after all.”
Gorast’s face relaxed, but Luna could see the slight disappointment in her eyes.
“Nothing else?” She asked, Luna shook her head. “Good,” she growled, gesturing towards Krika, “you’re still coming with me. Now come on, before I have to carry you.” She looked to Luna, an unreadable expression crossing her face.
“If you wish to visit me yourself, you are welcome anytime,” Luna said pleasantly, a gentle smile slipping onto her face. Krika threw an incredulous glance her way, but Gorast didn’t seem to notice, her focus entirely on Luna. She grunted noncommittally and turned to go. Krika hesitated for a moment, but Luna gestured with a wing and he obeyed, following after her.
Once they were gone and the guards stepped back outside the door Luna allowed herself a long, relieved breath as she lit her horn and repaired the floor where Krika had broken it. She wasn’t quite sure why, but a certainty had settled into her chest that Gorast would take her up on her offer this time.
______
Vamprah listened closely to Luna, she had practically been starting to sing out irritation and it had made it tough to keep his armour laying smooth. Yet now, with an encounter that should have ratcheted up her stress, she pulsed with a self assured calm. He almost felt envious of how freely she could feel, even if she had to remain relatively composed on the surface he could hear the storms of it raging through her.
He just felt tired most of the time.
His siblings were hardly worth all this investment if anyone had bothered to ask him. They could avoid the Kraahkan all they liked, just meant he got more time with her without their distractions tugging at him. There were other distractions, sure, but they were easy to hide from, usually tolerable, and when they weren’t Luna would send them away before they got too much on her nerves. He could only remember one other time he’d been so grateful to have someone with a shorter temper than his around.
He shook his head, wouldn’t do to dwell on that.
Luna sounded emboldened, almost restless as he set himself down next to her throne. He wondered what she was going to do with it. He hoped she wasn’t about to start dreamhopping so early in the night. She became such a jumbled confusion of sounds and feelings when she did that, it got overwhelming for him to be around quickly. She should go flying, he thought, it had been a bit since he’d last done that, it was always good.
“Vamprah,” she said, standing in front of him rather than sitting back on her throne. Vamprah turned his head to her, people had an easier time believing he was listening when he did that. “I have a question to ask of you.” He nodded, she and the Avokhii always had questions, “you need not answer if you do not wish.” He waved a wing for her to get on with it.
She took a breath and he could hear her steeling herself, strange, she’d sounded so confident a moment ago. He found himself envying her range of emotion again. “Your back ist padded in a manner that none of the others are, sister and Twilight have helped me check.” He felt himself go very still, he didn’t want to think about this.
Just ask why, he silently hoped at her, he needed her to ask why and leave it at that, he wouldn’t be able to answer that, he could handle not answering. “And your wings are aligned to allow another to grip your sides whilst sitting astride you.” He felt something in him beginning to yawn open, an empty space he resolutely ignored.
Luna stopped for a moment, he heard her feel the room going colder. He had to control himself, reel it in, he was impassive, he was silent. Luna pressed on regardless, “who was your rider?” He felt himself twitch, that empty space threatening to swallow him whole. He wanted to howl, to scream at her to stop pushing. “Were they a Sibling to you?”
His voice didn’t come to him, it so rarely did, but the cold clawing on his insides boomed out nonetheless. Luna gasped, he needed to reel himself in, he closed his mind. He was silence, he felt only what was necessary, he did his job and no one would know until it was done.
He needed to get away, he did not think on this, he needed to escape before he ended. He rose from his spot; but where to go? He could go to his siblings, but he already knew they would regard his reappearance, especially like this, as a sign that something had gone wrong, they needed these people to get home, he knew they did, he couldn’t risk forming a rift. He couldn’t just go somewhere alone, he could not be alone when he got like this, he needed other thoughts, other minds to fill the gaps it left behind.
He had stopped paying attention to his surroundings at some point, too engrossed in fighting back the growing hole in his core. Something soft wrapped around him. He froze, unsure what to do, if he should do anything. Luna made a sound, not a word, almost musical, and he felt that gaping in himself still, not fought back, but calmed for the moment.
He let his mind reopen, wondering why she had done this. “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have pried.” She sang out a desire, to comfort, to help. He found himself frozen.
He couldn’t speak, his voice still refused to answer his call. She was so close, he could tear her throat out if he wished, he could do as Krika had feared and unleash his Shadow Leeches on her. It would be easy to destroy her here, so easy, too easy, his Sister wouldn’t have approved. The thought made him cringe and the emptiness pulse at him, but he obeyed. He took a risk, pushing a feeling out to her.
My Sister, he thought at her, she nodded and he hesitated, a feeling pushing up through that emptiness inside of him, begging to be released, she’s gone. He felt strange, confronting this with someone else. He’d confronted it alone in Karda Nui, silent among people who didn’t know, who would have only been confused if they did. That silence in him began to go still, retreat back into the corner where he could ignore it.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, she didn’t jump at his thoughts, she didn’t sound startled to have heard him, had she known?
Better this way, he whispered, feeling another piece of himself still, the storm, the others wouldn’t have saved her. He knew this, Krika hadn’t saved them out of the goodness of his heartstone. He needed them to keep the Crast active, to survive the storm himself. She could hardly use her Noble Kanohi, a Great Kanohi like the Crast would have been far beyond her, not worth the other’s time.
“She lives?” He nodded, he hoped, he hoped dearly that she lived. That she hadn’t done something stupid like he would have and gotten herself killed. “Then we will see you reunited.” Vamprah felt himself puff up, why would she promise him something like that? He knew the others had a plan, he could hear them, even from here if he tried, but she didn’t know about that. There’s no way she could have known that.
He stilled his mind, fully under his control again, and she drew away from him. “I spoke true to your brother, in any way I can, I will help you.” He cocked his head, they were her problem for now, but she had no true reason to be so invested in them. “You are of the Night, not mine, but you are drawn to me and I to you nonetheless. If the one responsible for your creation will not take responsibility for your well being, I shall.”
Vamprah huffed and set himself back down, he wasn’t worth all of this trouble. Yet, he heard from her that there was nothing he could do to dissuade her from putting in the effort. He felt something deep inside the hollow stir.
______
Mutran hummed to himself as he sauntered back towards the room the Makuta were sharing. He felt quite good about himself, sure he had needed some help from Twilight, but ultimately she’d come to him for help, not the other way around. He counted this as a win for himself primarily. Not to even mention the fact that he was relatively certain he had the Princess’ trust now.
He glanced up at the sky, it was starting to pale with dawn, perhaps he should wait to tell the others until Twilight had gotten some rest, organics had their circadian rhythms to worry about, after all. He almost dismissed the thought as nonsense, but remembered he had to maintain Twilight’s trust if he wanted to keep it, and concerning himself with her health was a good way to do that. He growled under his breath. Things were so much easier working from a position where he could just replace things if they stopped cooperating.
He shook his head, he could still rub half of his accomplishment in their faces. He’d figure out how he could eliminate the inconvenience of Twilight’s need for trivial mortal things like sleep later.
Stepping into the barracks he ignored the cautious glances of the pony guards they’d been forced to share quarters with. Apparently their rooms in the castle proper were still being prepared, their size in particular proving a challenge in finding proper accommodations. He rubbed his claws together and kicked open the door to his sibling’s room.
“Guess who ju-” he was forced quiet by a quite effective pounce from Gorast, pinning him to the floor with one set of claws wrapped around his neck and the other pulled back, ready to deck him in the mask. Oh right, Gorast’s first response to everything was violence. He glared up at her with a grin, “rude.”
She snarled and snapped her teeth, visibly disappointed she wasn’t going to be able to gut him.
“Gorast, get back here,” Antroz barked, Mutran looked around Gorast’s suitably oversized head to see him rubbing between his eyes again. There was a part of Mutran that took pride in the fact that they all irritated their “leader” so thoroughly, it’s what he deserved for assuming he had any real authority over them. Gorast threw Mutran an ugly look before releasing him, hardly an accomplishment with her mask, but he got the point.
Mutran dusted himself off as he rose.
“Now that that’s taken care of,” he stepped into the room and kicked the door closed behind himself. “Guess who just solidified his position with the youngest Princess,” he drawled out, examining his claws lazily and leaning back against the door. There was a good few seconds of silence that Mutran chose to believe was stunned before one of them took the hint and guessed.
“You,” Antroz finally said, sounding a mixture of deeply unimpressed and admiring. Antroz never did have the taste for proper dramatics, despite all his interpersonal posturing, he still knew how to recognize when someone came into possession of an important asset, though.
Mutran clicked his fangs in affirmation and glanced over to Chirox, who looked as rightly irritated as he’d hoped he would. He caught a flash of white out of the corner of his eye and turned to regard Krika, who was staring at him looking properly horrified. Mutran chuckled, that was always how he knew if he’d done a good job, if Krika didn’t approve.
“How?” Chirox spat, standing and scratching at his knuckles. Mutran crooked an eyebrow, he hadn’t expected it to bother Chirox that much.
“I helped her with a little surprise,” he chuckled as Chirox’s face twisted in fury. “No, I can’t tell you what it is.” He turned to Antroz, “praising her student helps butter up Celestia, right?” Antroz nodded, “then I’ve got some ammunition for you come this afternoon. She really is brilliant, I never would have considered her plan. You should count yourselves lucky, my solution was going to be considerably more messy.”
Mutran’s grin stretched a bit sharper as he noticed the minute flinch in Antroz’ movement at that.
______
The town was abandoned. Tempest Shadow squinted as she looked across the buildings around her, her ears twitching as she tried to pick up even the slightest sound beyond the quiet rustle of the wind and her partner’s footsteps in the snow beside her. It didn’t look like its inhabitants left peacefully, either. Some of the buildings had their fronts bashed in, there were the telltale scorch marks of panicked magical blasts on almost every standing wall, and the nearest Guard station...
Well, if she’d been a different mare she would have shuddered thinking of what she’d seen there.
“Uh, Tempest,” Grubber murmured, his spines standing on end. Tempest twitched her eyes to him and nodded, pushing down the instinct to snap at him to be quiet. “Look over there, I think I see something.” He was pointing between a pair of the buildings, towards the center of town, Tempest squinted towards the spot. The air seemed to change there, a heavy fog hanging just over the fence between the two.
“Good eye,” she murmured, trying not to sound begrudging. She turned to head towards it, keeping her head low. She didn’t know what she was walking into, best not to draw too much attention.
“Wai-hold on, we’re heading towards the ominous mist?” Grubber hissed, tiptoeing after her nonetheless. Tempest nodded again, not taking her eyes off the gap in the fence she was making for.
Peering through the gap she could see very little, the outlines of several more buildings, but nothing to indicate who had sacked this town and made off with the inhabitants. She didn’t hear any movement either, so she waved for Grubber to keep following her and hopped over the fence.
Grubber let out a quiet sigh but followed, “like we don’t get enough trouble from people who remember you.” Tempest was tempted to zap him for that, but she took a deep breath, she was working on turning over a new leaf, her temper needed managing.
The fog was thick enough that she could barely keep track of Grubber behind her, little more than a hazy outline at her back. It muffled sounds, too, where his footsteps had been cautious but detectable in the snow before, now she could hardly hear them at all. It made her grit her teeth, anything could be in here, and she wouldn’t hear it until it was right on top of her. She swore under her breath, they needed to get above this mist. It might compromise her stealth, but it would be a better position to see anyone else trying to slink around down at street level.
“Hang on,” she said, Grubber jumping slightly as she turned and grabbed him by the scruff of his vest. She leapt, tossing him onto the roof of a nearby building. He landed with a louder thud than she’d hoped for, but she didn’t hear anything reacting just yet. She waited down on the ground for a couple more seconds, but once she was sure nothing was zeroing in on them she took a running start and jumped up to join him on the roof.
The air was much clearer, even just this high up. Tempest squinted, there weren’t many forces she knew of who could keep clouds this low. Possibly a rogue lieutenant of the Storm King, then? That didn’t add up, though; she’d practically taught all of the Storm King’s forces their tactics, if it had been one of them there would be patrols, they didn’t give up territories once they captured them.
She spotted movement and light towards the edge of the fog off towards the east. “Come on,” she murmured to Grubber, starting after the light across the tops of the buildings. She heard him grumble something about hating parkour, but her focus was on whatever that light was.
She had to be careful, there were enough shattered shingles up here to give her away or make her fall at a moment’s notice, but she was able to thread her way over to the light. She found a building behind it and ducked down, hoping the curve of it would be enough to hide her from the enormous bipedal shapes moving through the mist.
A creature stepped out of the fog like nothing she had ever seen. It was almost twice as tall as she was, armoured from head to toe, with strange hydraulic components hissing slightly as it moved. A dark, ragged cape billowed around its shoulders, pinned in place by a long, curved spear, only letting her catch glimpses of the silvery chestplate and pauldrons beneath. Its feet were enormous, three black and silver claws to each, they almost looked like they’d be more at home on a bird than whatever this was. Its hands with wicked black claws held a lantern in one hand to light its way, in the other it was tossing the helmet from a Pony Guard’s suit of armour up and down almost casually.
What had Tempest gaping, however, was its head. Its face was golden, almost insectoid, with enormous mandibles framing its mouth, but it transitioned into a silver further up, leaving a bizarre, grinning, ape-like face with oversized, flat teeth staring straight up. She would have thought it a decorative piece of its armour if it weren’t for the fact that the second face’s mouth would open every few seconds, the sound of heavy breathing coming from it.
“What a pathetic town,” the creature drawled out of its frontward turned face, catching the helmet out of the air and crushing it in its grip like so much tin foil. “What a pitiful world.”
“What’d I miss?” Grubber hissed, landing with a thud next to Tempest, making her jump slightly. Red eyes she hadn’t noticed on the second face opened and flicked over to her. The second face’s jaw opened wide, a thoroughly unhinged cackle springing forth from it. The creature turned around and smacked its second face to make it go quiet, glaring up at Tempest and Grubber.
It dropped the destroyed helm, raised its hand, and snapped its fingers. A dozen even larger shapes in the mist below sprang up towards her, and Tempest ran.
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Oh storms. Piraka? Of all possible things it just had to be piraka.
9132333
A very specific Piraka, with a very specific person's mask fused to the back of their head.
I actually forgot about gavla's rare situation among shadow matoran, while i;m unsure if anything like this is official, it makes sense with his unusually bestial shape and her atypically strong loyalty, love to see more of this and hopefully she gets to come over since she hardly has a place she belongs at this point.
9132808
I will remember it until the day I die. They will have to pry those two being good for each other from my cold, dead hands.
9132391
Oh yes the one that has more than a few screws loose and enjoys killing a little too much.
9132819
and even then good luck! For I will have glued it to my cold dead hands!
9132391
" who's my favorite engine of destruction you are yes you are!"
For some reason I have this image of Vamprah having shapeshifted into a cat. I’m not the only one with this image in their head am I?
Now just how did Vezon get into this universe?
9157252
He got an Olmak fused to the back of his head by an incident involving Energized Protodermis. A very specific Olmak belonging to someone who was building an army.