Chapter 38: Shadows on the Cave Wall
Luna sat there, with Erebus, in a dark room that she had vague memories of from aeons ago… It looked different, both from the ravages of time, and the Zebra’s remodeling, but the important things were still here, the balcony, with its gaping hole, the dent in the wall, the hole in the floor, even the scorch marks… The final details of the trade agreement were done, in addition to the agreed-upon payment, the Kaiser would, unofficially, give Equestria samples of Balefire, the Pink-Agent, and their experimental talismans. Finally, Erebus spoke, “Princess Luna, what do you know of Zebra religion…”
“Depends on what part you’re talking about, the rituals, the history, the genealogy…”
“We both know what part I’m talking about, now is not the time for jokes, Princess… I’m sure you realize that…”
“Yes, I do… Regarding the Star-Kin, you have myths that say that the stars are cruel, evil, and malevolent things, that bend the world around them, that give you the tools needed to destroy yourselves. Yes, I know about your Star-Kin, I was going to do a bit of research into them myself… Why do you ask?”
“I have discovered something… The reason why I dragged you down to this particular building…”
“Do you know what happened here?”
“Not all of it, but I know you were here, and I know that the myths about the Old-Masters are true, and I know that Magnus, Blazeswirl, Archon, and the other planets orbiting Celestia’s sun weren’t always around… We used to be in a small pocket-world, didn’t we…”
“Yes… Then, something changed, I remember when it happened, only a few weeks after we earned our titles… Suddenly, the universe was bigger… And the stars were real things, distant, but real…”
“Yes… I want to know what caused that, I want to know how…”
“That is a question I’ve always wondered myself…”
“I have a theory. Are you familiar with passage Celestial 1:10, from the Book of the Stars…”
“Of the four great stars only two remained, the father dead and the traitor imprisoned, below was the world, lone and in ruin, and those baleful stars left the old world in ruin to give birth to the new,” Luna said, whispering.
“Yes… I was never that religious, but I have talked to many theologians, and they believe that we are living in the new world, created by the stars after the old was destroyed, leaving behind these two others, the Father and the Traitor… I never believed any of it, but now I know that there is some truth to that story… The final proof I needed was the discovery of this other world, somewhere else in the universe… I know that the preachers are wrong, we are living in the old world, and those two stars left our world behind to create this other planet…”
Celestia had just finished talking to the empress of the kirin and it went much better than she expected, she had worked out a simple trade deal, and her words seem to have swayed the empress, making her consider the idea of opening her borders and finally becoming a player in the game of global politics… She was looking out of a window, memorizing the Hidden City in the event that she would need to return via teleportation… That was when a message appeared, and for once, it wasn’t from her student… It bore the symbol of the Wonderbolts and was clearly sent by unicorn magic, not dragon magic.
She opened the scroll and dropped it when she saw the first word written on the parchment... Tirek. “You, maid!” She pointed at the Kirin maid who had just walked in and was serving her tea, “Inform the empress there is an emergency in my homeland and that I am needed right away, give her this scroll, it was addressed to me, but I’m sure she will understand…”
“Y-Yes Prin-”
There was a loud pop, and Celestia vanished in a burst of golden light, but not before passing the scroll to Luna.
Tirek loomed over the ponies, the guards had their spears raised, but by this point, his skin was tough enough to bat them away without a paper-cut. Many ran, but he grabbed them in infernal telekinesis, sucking the magical energy from them, dropping them to the ground. “Lord Tirek!” Shouted a voice, loud, angry, commanding, and regal… A voice that seemed to boom across the sky, and echoed from the sun above.
From the sun approached the shape of an alicorn, surrounded by pegasi, an entire company of wonderbolts. The ponies planted their hooves on the ground, Celestia in their center, the pegasi raised strange boxy contraptions that looked like magical spears. “Tirek, I am giving you one-”
“Celestia! To think that I went through so much trouble to find you, only to have you deliver yourself to me.”
“Tirek!” Celestia’s voice bore rage and power behind it, “I am giving you only once chance to surrender, to return the magic you stole and come peacefully… If you do, I vow to give you a comfortable existence… If you don’t-”
“What!? You’ll kill me!” Tirek laughed, “Celestia, even if you could, you wouldn’t, your ponies are too soft, you were once a great warrior, now look at you, reduced to a common monarch, unwilling to get your hooved dirty!”
“I’ve heard enough, Wonderbolts!” The ponies raised their strange spears, sparkling with magic.
“What, you think those little weapons can harm me! My skin is harder than dragon-hide! My flesh is resistant to all magic!”
“Fire!”
There was a sudden tzut-tzut-tzut-tzut-tzut noise as magical blasts of light struck Tirek, he was boasting, but only a little, as the beams simply burned his outer skin, not melting through him as they should have. The monster growled and rushed forward, the pegasi backed up, keeping up their fire, Tirek blocked his face from the burning light, not wanting his more vulnerable eyes or mouth hurt.
Celestia built an orb of magic on her horn and launched it at Tirek, who batted the offending sphere away, it was deflected, struck the ground, and melted the earth to orange magma. The monster rushed forward, but not being able to see his attackers clearly, couldn’t get them in a telekinetic grasp… He waved a curtain of force through the air, all the pegasi dodged, and Celestia teleported out of its arc, but one pony was caught, the telekinesis wrapping around him, dragging the pegasus stallion to Tirek, who consumed his energy, then he was flung into the air, but caught by another wonderbolt before he could fall to the earth and get injured or killed from the impact.
Celestia launched another arcane blast at Tirek, one hit home and badly burned his shoulder, he shouted “Celestia!” In anger, and reached out in the direction the blast came from, but Celestia had already gotten out of the way. There came another pop up above, and the unmistakable feeling of her sister’s teleportation…
“Luna!” She said.
“Care for some assistance?” She said. She was flying, wearing the dress she wore for diplomatic missions, and in a telekinetic field, she carried a strange orb… It was no larger than a pony’s hoof, but it glowed a bright green and seemed to contain some kind of liquid, bubbling, and swirling in mesmerizing patterns with different shades of greens, yellows, and purples.
“This monster is magical resistant! Some help would be nice…”
She suddenly shouted in the royal Canterlot voice, “All ponies, retreat, flee from the immediate vicinity of this beast, I will handle this mysef..” She turned to Celestia, voice back to normal, “You should go too,”
“What do you have planned?”
“Just a gift from our Zebra allies…” She smirked.
Celestia nodded and teleported a safe distance away, Luna used the application of a spell she hadn’t used in aeons to propel herself fast away from the monster, Tirek, bending gravity around her. Celestia frowned at seeing the spell in use. Tirek yelled as he saw everyone flying away from him, he growled at Luna, who simply launched the orb at him with terrifying speed.
Tirek raised his hand to catch the orb, but his telekinesis couldn’t slow it down, and the moment it rammed into his palm, there was a great blast of green fire, accompanied by a rapid implosion and explosion, the screeching noise hurt everypony’s ears, and they were nearly blinded by the fierce green light.
The dust cleared, at first, all that could be heard was a bone-chilling and gurgling scream of agony, and green light from deep within the dust cloud. As the dust was blown away, Tirek still stood, but he was missing an arm and leg, most of his torso was missing, his body looked like it had gone through a meat-grinder, and he was wreathed in green flame, clawing at his eyes and trying to put the flames out, eventually though, his screaming died out, and he fell to the ground… The immediate area around his body was still burning.
Celestia looked shocked, and stared at Luna, concern on her face, “W-What was that thing?” As the twitching body of Tirek finally ceased, there was a burst of magical energy, and orbs of power shot out of his wounds, flying off, no doubt to the ponies who had their magic stolen.
Luna turned to Celestia, “We need to talk…”
The camp was moved to somewhere a little warmer once everyone got used to moving around in their bodies, it was… Odd… Trying to walk on all fours, but Raven quickly got used to it. The trek down the mountain was harrowing, the creatures with wings wanted to try flying, but Raven wouldn’t let them, flying was difficult, as she learned her first day after receiving Ozpin’s “blessing”...
Soon, they passed from the frigid mountaintop and found themselves on some rocky highlands, with a light padding of snow… In the distance, to what Raven guessed was the south, was a beautiful and strange landscape. It was grassy fields and boreal forests as far as the eye could see, if one looked to the horizon, they could see the faint shape of a city on what looked like the shore, near an ocean… “W-What exactly happened?” One of the bandits asked
“I-I don’t know, something, or someone, sent us here… It’s clearly not Remnant,” Raven said, she had calmed down, and her fur was no longer on fire. “Something magical…”
Vernal looked a little concerned but nodded, and they continued marching down the mountainside until they found a place they could set up their tents. It was a little outcropping near a cave, perfect shelter, and they saw what they thought was a road not too far off, into the woods.
As they set up their camp, Raven heard a noise coming from within the cave, and saw a faint light deep within, “Stay here, I’ll investigate,” She said, trying to use her hooves and mouth to mount Omen on her side, finally, Vernal had to come over and use her claws to help… Raven didn’t have any idea how she was going to use the sword in her new body, or where they were going to find dust rounds for their weapons, but that would be a question for later.
She walked into the mountain, weary of the shadows on the walls, when she turned a corner and saw a giant reptilian creature sleeping on a mound of gold and gemstones, fire was smoking from its nose, and large bat-like wings clung to its side, it almost reminded her of some of her tribe members. It wasn’t Grimm, at the very least, but she wasn’t about to let this thing live… She tried to draw her sword with her mouth, but it was a futile effort particularly with how large it was in comparison to her new form…
Omen’s handle clattered to the ground, and that noise caused the beast to twitch… She froze, as one of the wings of the creature batted out, and it raised its head, opening its eyes, “P-Pony, why are you here, in my cave…” It grumbled, its eyes saw the sword on the ground, and it muttered, in a grim and angry voice, “Trying to take my gold… Are you?”
Raven backed away as the lizard pointed its massive mouth at her, she saw a bright, hot, orange glow coming from within the beast, and, not knowing what else to do, she drew upon her magical powers, eyes erupting with red flames… She raised a hoof toward the beast and shot a blast of cold into it… It reeled back and coughed, moving its claws to its throat and screeching in pain, Raven ran as best she could, back out, “Need some help!” She shouted to her camp, who were already gathering up their weapons in what appendages they could once they heard the screech.
The lizard creature came out of the cave a moment later and towered over the different animals, suddenly, bullets filled the air, punching through its scales and ripping into its flesh, it howled in pain. Her eyes still glowing with the power of the maiden, Raven floated into the air and shot blasts of lightning at the beast, finally it collapsed, dead… But one bandit made sure to stab it in the head with her spear, just to make sure, though this thing’s scales proved harder than expected.
“Well… Looks like meat’s back on the menu boys…” Raven said, then smirked, “And, we hit the jackpot,” She finished, remembering the pile of gold inside the beast’s cave.
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Wow, the Zebra religion sounds pretty Lovecraftian since star kin seems to refer to Cthulu and his kind. Anyway, Tirek got hit by the Equestrian version fo Greek fire it seems and Raven well Raven is screwed since I doubt that Celestia will let her do the whole banditry thing.
10068418
The Zebra Religion, and the thing that Luna hit Tirek with, are both things from Fallout Equestria... I recommend it, since it's a great, if long, fic.
10068418
Greek fire? Nope that was an Equestrian mini-nuke. Like the author said it comes from Fallout: Equestria, a Fallout/MLP crossover. And one of the most famous MLP fanfics. I also second the recommendation since it really earned its fame.
Not sure how I feel about Raven eating the dragon. The whole, don't eat something if it can beg for it's life thing. Also the whole it's not a grim but I'm still going to kill it.
Welp, Fallout Equestria reference there, so if Discord didn't send Ponies to the other world, a war would have been fought XD.
10068607
Actually, if you read back a few chapters, back when Celestia and all the leaders of Equus were talking about Remnant, you'll find out that, the previous leader of the Zebra, Kaiser Hades, was assassinated a few years ago, and that he was the one responsible for FO:E, and that the current leader of the Zebra is basically on the opposite political axis, and has been trying to lower anti-Equestrian sentiment in his nation since.
I also recommend reading a fic called "Days of Wasp and Spider", since it's referenced earlier as the reason why the Zebras have the technology they do, they were simply taking over ancient Diamond Dog experiments from millennia ago.
10068630
Yeah i realized that, but the war coudl have still happend later on, the death of the leader is not neccesary the end of a sentiment, otehrs could ahve started it.
Huh, the future leading to Fallout Equestria has been averted.
In regards to these Star Gods, I'm guessing that Discord is the imprisoned traitor, and the Brothers Grimm are the two survivors...I wonder who the Father is.
10069148
In regards to the "Father" question, my I direct you to this wonderful fic: Days of Wasp and Spider... I recommend reading it while playing the Portal 2 and Half Life 1 OSTs.
So..many ....referènces ....XD
10068630
Technically, ability to create dragon fire would explain why Zebra Homelands were able to create large number of missiles, but without megaspell chamber tech balefire "eggs" were just overpowered grenades. So alot of other things was prevented to avoid that war.
Note: ruling Keizer of FOE continuity supposedly assasinated his predecessor and M6 were involved in failed negotiations.