Elements of Battle

by Gouka Suzaku

Reasons

I groaned loudly, consciousness slowly returning to me. And with it, a headache worse than any I’d had since my brother hit me over the head with his training sword when we were practicing. My brother… I shot straight up as the memories of the events leading up to my nap came back to me without so much as opening my eyes.

And, of course, my head met something hard. For a second, I thought I had hit another wall, but as I opened my eyes, a voice cried “OW!” and before me stood one of the ponies… Rainbow Dash, as if I could forget that name. “What the hay!?”

Needless to say, my headache was only made worse; this did not make me happy. “I don’t know. Why don’t you try asking the pegasus,” I said the word as if it were a curse, “Who put her head too close to mine!?” I wrapped my hands around my temples, as if squeezing would alleviate the pain. It took me a moment to realize I was now sitting on a rather plush bed.

“Everypony, leave Felix and I alone.” The voice of the Princess, whose name I still didn’t know, interrupted our fight before it could begin. I heard a door open, and the sound of hooves walking away for a few seconds, and then the door clicked shut once again.

Already I guessed what this was about. “You want me to tell you why.” It wasn’t a question. “I saw that look in your eyes; you know what it is to lose a sibling.”

“Not quite,” came her surprisingly gentle reply. “We know that if you feel pain, thou had a reason for thy actions. That is what we wish to know.”

“First, since I detest using formal titles, may I have your name?” I was stalling, and I knew it. I’m sure she knew too, but nonetheless she obliged me.

“We are Luna, Princess of the moon and sovereign ruler of the night,” she declared. “And thou art Felix of the Moon clan, bearer of the Element of Luck.”

“If Alaric told you that, why’d he not tell you what you wish to know?”

“Alaric said it was not his place to speak for you in this matter, and I respected his decision.” That certainly sounded like Al. Alright, no more delaying the inevitable.

“I assume you’ve been told why we’re here by now?” I received a quick shake of the head, and sighed. “Then I’ll start at the beginning.”

“The land from which I hail has been plagued by unpredictable weather for the last century. Our mages and scholars have been trying to figure out the cause of this for the last half, and finally they traced it back to this land… or rather, to the weather in this land.” I paused, waiting to see if she understood where this was going before continuing. “Almost as soon as they heard, the vast majority of my people began to cry for war, saying that manipulating the weather here was a deliberate ploy to weaken our people.”

“I see… and your brother believed otherwise?”

“No…” I could almost feel my gaze darken. “My brother, the previous bearer of the Element of Luck, wanted to immediately attack you with the full might of our military. I tried to persuade him that diplomacy should at least be attempted, but…” I hesitated.

“If you wish to stop, we believe we understand enough.”

I sighed. “No, it needs to be said. Long story short, we came to an impasse, and I made an ultimatum. Neither of us would leave the room until we came to an understanding, or until the other was dead.”

“So he attacked you?”

I hesitated, not wanting to recall the event itself. “I think he believed that his power as the Element of Luck would prevent him from having to kill me. In a way, he was right. He charged me, and it was over in a single stroke when he tripped…”

“But thou said he was the previous Element of Luck. How did he lose?”

“It seems my luck was greater. Luck has always been the most fickle of the Elements. It changes bearers as it sees fit. It’s part of the Curse.”

“You speak as if these weapons have consciousness.” She sounded more confused than anything else.

“They do… it’s one of the few things our scholars agree on when it comes to them. They use us at least as much as we do them. I think they use us more.” I paused, waiting for that to sink in. “One day; perhaps tomorrow, perhaps fifty years from now; but one day my life will be ended by the next one the Element chooses, once I’m no longer useful.”

“But back to why we’re here,” I began again. “We’re here to inform your people of the war you’re about to be forced into, and to offer our assistance.” Again, I paused before continuing, this time with some hesitation. “But if you want my honest opinion, I suspect our Elements are pulling the strings, changing the world. They want to be here, or perhaps they want us to be here.”

The equine princess looked as if she was thinking it over, to my surprise. I expected disbelief or the like, but no, she looked pensive. After a moment, she said, “It seems we must get you to Canterlot as quickly as possible…” I wanted to slap my face. I’d been saying that. She turned to the door, which was flanked by two guards I hadn’t even noticed. “Go, gather the others of his kind and bring them to the bridge.”

“But, your Majesty…,” began one.

“HE ALREADY DEFEATED THEE IN COMBAT QUITE EASILY, AND THOU THINKS THAT THY CAN PROTECT US?” The guards, who I realized were in fact the ones I’d knocked out earlier, flinched quite heavily. “I will escort him myself.” Without a glance back, the two of them dashed out of the room.

When I made to get out of the bed, I noticed for the first time that I could feel the blanket rubbing against my bare skin, and I turned bright red. “uhh…”

Thankfully, the Princess turned her back to me. “Ms. Rarity left a new set of clothing for you. Your previous set was… well it was covered in blood from your nose.”

“How long was I out?!”

“About twelve hours,” said the equine simply. That unicorn worked fast, I knew. But nobody could make a full set of clothes that fast, no matter the quality. Yet what I found waiting for me at the foot of the bed was impossible. The pants, black as night, fit like a dream. Following those were the boots, just as black, but with white laces to fit them to my feet. The shirt, its long sleeves comfortably wide, with the symbol of my clan, a crescent moon with a staff and a sword crossed behind it, was emblazoned on the left breast with amazing detail.

“Woah,” was the most intelligent response I could come up with. These clothes were perfect… but why was there something on the floor yet? Picking up the square of white cloth, it unfolded as I lifted it, revealing a dazzlingly bright cloak, with only a single, crisp mark of black on it… the symbol of my clan, but along with the staff and sword, a pair of daggers were thrust into the sides, and an uncomfortably familiar sword was sheathed, point down, in the crescent. “Wait… She already made me a cloak…”

“The enchantments didn’t repel blood,” said Alaric, stomping into the room. It took me a moment to believe my eyes. His clothes had changed completely… and he was now wearing what appeared to be the reverse of my own, with a black cloak and white clothes. But the insignia on his cloak lacked the daggers and second sword mine had, retaining only the basic shape. Apparently he noticed my disbelieving stare. “What?”

“Your clothes… how… when… what…”

“That unicorn has some crazy focus,” was all I could get out of him. I assumed he meant Rarity. As for what that meant… I had no clue. Though if he had new clothes…

“Did we all get new stuff?” I asked, disbelievingly. To my shock, my answer came in the form of Nero bumbling into the room. Rather than the ratty, travel-worn garments he’d been wearing, he was now in a set of cerulean clothes, with his clan crest, a stylized ocean-going ship impaled on a spear, emblazoned in emerald. His outfit was looser than that of Alaric and I's, and he wore no cloak.

“We did,” said Nero gruffly. “’At pony is even more crazy wit the magic ‘an you two.” He didn’t appear completely at ease with his new outfit, despite it looking more comfortable than ours.

“Though it took us a while to convince her that Shun and Satomi wouldn’t want dresses…” Alaric added. That was actually surprising. Not that they wouldn’t want dresses; that was obvious. What surprised me was that anyone would even think they’d ever wear them. Knowing those two, they’d walk around naked first. Especially Shun… actually, Shun would probably get a kick out of that.

As if to prevent me from saying the thought aloud, the two she-demons themselves appeared, wearing clothing just as impressive as the rest of what I’d seen from Rarity, if a bit more feminine with a couple well-placed gems glinting on their outfits.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were going to some fancy royal wedding or something,” I muttered.

“No, that was last month,” said Twilight, prancing into the room. “My brother married Princess Cadence.” Wow, ponies have sharp hearing. Apparently my lack of comprehension was written on my face. “What, didn’t you know that?” I decided not to answer.

“About time you woke up, Lucky.”

“Shut up, Dexter, or I’ll shut you up myself.” I think it was pretty obvious the man walking into the room wasn’t my friend. I’d trust my life to the man, but I wouldn’t be eating next to him any time soon, and I suspect the feeling was mutual.

“Hey, I’m not the one who’s holding us all up because he can’t look where he’s going.” Ouch.

“Did I ask you to wait for me?” I demanded rhetorically. “No. But since you did, we may as well get going now.”

Dexter glared at me, looking as though he was about to say something when he was interrupted by the princess. “Well, if thou art ready to go, we shall take you.”

“Lead the way, your Majesty,” came Al’s elegant response.

Following her out, I found myself admiring the high, arched ceiling that looked as if I could see the night sky through it despite the sunlight filtering through the windows. It was amazing that a place could be so beautiful with so little decoration, but that was the only word I could use to describe the shadowy halls and corridors we were led through. Finally, we stopped in a large hall, empty save for a wide arch in the center.

For a moment, the arch appeared to be nothing special… until I noticed the faded golden runes that lined it. What the hell are magiki grafi doing there?! I wasn’t the only one to notice. Al and Shun both walked up to it with me, examining it as I did. Yes, those were in fact magiki grafi, and they were beyond intricate. Al could do something similar, writing runes with lines of runes, but I lacked the skill to do so. This was on a whole other level, though. Runes within runes within runes and so forth. We came to a conclusion almost at the same time. “This was crafted by Merlin.”

The princess looked askance at us, as did everyone else in the room. “This was made by one of the most powerful human mages in history.” Al clarified.

“Judging by the similarities in the architecture, this whole place was built by him,” Shun continued.

“And guessing by the enchanted ceiling, that gate links to another castle, based around the daytime sky.” I finished.

Luna looked astonished. “This castle was here when our kind came to this land several millennia ago, as was the portal.”

“That sounds likely. Merlin vanished from our records after creating the five clans, four thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries,” Alaric lectured. No doubt he’d have continued, had I not interrupted him.

“Hey, Al, come look at this… the enchantment is getting ragged at the ends…”

Alarmed, the scholar darted over to me. “Nonononononono! This is the first artifact of his we’ve discovered in five hundred years! We have to save it!”

“Calm down Al,” I said, “it looks like all it needs is a recharge.” The words were not my own. I could feel them being shown to me by something… something powerful beyond belief. Yet a part of me, something in the deepest part of my mind, told me to keep quiet about that. I sensed that this voice could be trusted, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s to follow my instincts. “See here? It’s only just starting to fade, not vanish.”

The relief on my cousin’s face was palpable as it was in his following sigh. “Thank the Five… I doubt there’s anyone alive with the skill to even patch it if the spell were to break.” He put a hand to the stone, his fingertips beginning to glow. Soon, the golden light encompassed his arm up to the elbow, and sweat began to break out on his brow. “Shit, Felix, I could use some help with this…” even after only a few moments, the strain in his voice was incredible. Rushing over to the other side, I put my own hand to the arch, a silver aura tinged with black flecks encompassing my own arm as I called on my power. Within seconds, the runes on either side of the arch began to glow starting from our fingers and flowing up the structure, until they met in the middle.

The instant the two halves met, a power like nothing I’d ever felt before flooded my body. Within moments, it overflowed, and the resulting burst of raw energy sent me flying through the air, until my back collided with the wall that had been at least five meters away. Darkness was eating at the edges of my sight, but I refused to give in to unconsciousness. With a pained grunt I got to my feet after sliding down the wall to the floor. A look to the left showed me Alaric slumped against the wall, out cold.

Despite my best efforts at staying conscious, the darkness kept encroaching. Realizing how little time I had, I said, “Shun, if the runes are fixed, get that gate open and drag us to Canterlot if you have to.” I staggered, coughing. When I felt something sticky on my lip, I wiped it away, and my hand came away bloody. Well shit… was all I had time to think, before I pitched forward, falling into warm blackness before even my knees hit the floor.

aaaaaaaaand another one down. wait.... is this a cliffhanger!? *ominous music*