Era of Grogar

by Pulsar Wave

Chapter Two

Nopony could have accused unicorns of laziness. They had never been lazy folks. The giftedness that nature blessed them with had always urged them to research and seek to understand that enigmatic force. They had been ever eager to explore the powerful secrets, and although they'd never known, their magical capabilities had placed them above the other tribes advancement-wise. While the earth ponies' incredible bodily stamina helped them harvest significantly more effectively, and the Pegasi had the advantage of weather-control on their side, nothing could cope with the massive benefit, that made rapid-growth of plants possible, and could revive withered ones, among other miracles. The yearly amount of garnered crops at the unicorns roughly equaled that of the two tribes combined.

Farming was no easy task, however, even with the marvelous abilities at their disposal. The soils were encompassed by a well-developed water-course that needed constant maintenance, lest it caused a flood. The water in the ditch was redirected from a nearby river. The unicorns no longer took their drinking water from the river, they'd found out the water provided by wells was much cleaner, but water taken from the river was perfect for the plants.

Each of the fields was divided into separate sections, with one section serving as waste ground. There were ponies forming groups with different tasks: there was a team of Tillers, consisting of strong ponies who plowed the fields, and there were the Healers, who used their skills to reinstate dead plants and help rest the dirt of the fallow. There were workers managing water- and windmills, who used magic to rotate the wheels if the waft or the flow wasn't strong enough.

The river overflew time to time, uncovering fertile sludge. They used manure for the soil that high water did not touch. The manure was artificial, of course. Having it otherwise would've been far too barbarian. Most of the poaceae they grew were either oats or barley, with the latter needing milling and soaking for them to be digestible. Managing it all required sedulity principally, but first and foremost: administration. And unicorns were great at administrating things. One of the most trustworthy of those administrators was named Gusty.

Gusty had pale white coat. Her mane and tail were dark green, with bright red stripes decorating them. Her turquoise eyes beamed of compassion and serenity, but that wasn't to say she couldn't be harsh or unrelenting, formerly even reckless. But she'd had to learn that foolhardiness was the style of a solo player, not a leader with responsibilities and obligation to her soldiers.

For she was one of the few superior officers in the Royal Unicorn Legion. Maintaining an army may have seemed like pointless to some, but aside from the dreaded monsters, the threat of conflict was never nonexistent, unfortunately. Separatist dissidents, who'd risen up against the monarchy years before were still out there. Not to mention the alien creatures at the borderlands: the diamond dogs and the minotaurs.

The cutie mark she bore consisted of five maple leaves, representing her unique ability, which her name reflected: she had the winds at her command. To possess control over an element was something unicorns had seldom seen before, though it did come in handy while heading a mission, and things were about to be in jeopardy. Heck, a lot of the ponies she knew owed their lives to her, in one way or another.

When she wasn't being gallant or leading an army, she was most likely overseeing the growth-process and the harvests, making sure everything was done on schedule, though. It was kind of boring, but it had to be done, and she wasn't one to snivel anyway.

"Gusty!" She heard her name called. She looked in the direction the voice came from. It was Astral Vortex, her close friend.

She smiled at him as he approached, "Hey there!" Her smile faded at the sight of Astral's serious expression.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The manticores are back," he said. "They attacked the workers out in the field last night. Damaged the crop too."

"Is everypony all right?"

"N-no. Two dead, several injured."

Gusty looked down in dolor. As a commander, she had witnessed plenty of heart-wrenching scenes, and she'd grieved every one of her heroes, but when the defenseless and the unarmed fell victim to violence, that was different.

"And we thought we'd finally repelled them. But they don't go away for good. They never do. They weren't designed to." She looked into the distance furiously.

"You're right about that," said Astral. "But there's good news too. The garnering was fairly efficient. Our amount this season was -" he looked at his jottings levitated by his azureish gray magic aura, and scribbled something for a moment "- about one hundred and twenty thousand pounds."

"That's... actually pretty reasonable. Well, considering the drought." A pondering look appeared on her face as she muttered, "I wonder if he's causing it."

"Pardon?"

"Oh, nothing! Good job, Astral! Thank you for the report."

She continued her tracks through the many orchards, vegetable gardens and cornfields connected to Hornfort, royal headquarters of King Taxis. Once she was finished, she had to give a report to the ruler of the unicorns.

Hornfort was magnificent; paramount among the unicorn castles. The castle walls were divided into segments by eight compelling bastions. The gates were guarded by two sizable unicorn statues; a mare and a stallion. Inside the walls, the palace had four lesser towers and a bigger one in the center. The banner of the unicorn nation was parading atop.

Entering the planning room, the guards saluted her. Gusty was told she'd find the king there. He rarely resorted to spending time in his throne room; he was too modest for that. He preferred the quiet privacy of his little "study" over the empty vastness, home of depersonalized drivel, hackneyed phrases and trite banalities. It wasn't that he didn't want to lead, he just hated the fuss. He thought he could do more from behind the scenes, than by sitting on a silky throne, smiling and waving.

"Your majesty!" Gusty bowed respectfully. She sincerely esteemed authority, but more importantly, she respected King Taxis as a person.

"Oh, Gusty! Greetings!" The king looked up from his scroll. He had bags under his eyes, and his smile was faint, although warm. Gusty knew that the king, like every other unicorn, was through the hardest time of the year. It was the great harvest before winter. But they were nearing the end of it, and that meant they would soon all be able to breathe again. Unless the manticore threat was to arise again...

Gusty sat on the chair at the desk, facing the king. "I'm here to report the items regarding the course of the harvest. May I begin?"

"Yes, please. Let's have the administrative off our hooves." The king winked.

"As you well know, the drought has raised grievous difficulties concern-"

"Your majesty!" The door burst open and Astral rushed inside, with a guard closely following behind. Gusty and the king both gasped.

"What's wrong, Astral?" asked Gusty.

"It's the manticores again! Dashed creatures are attacking, right now!" Astral was wheezing and was covered in sweat. Gusty could tell he'd run there from the site. "The peach trees... three minutes from here..."

Gusty looked at the king. He frowned with shut eyelids. When he opened them, his look was old. It was the same look Gusty saw every time a rookie came back from their first engagement, and looked into her eyes. The king wasn't older than Gusty, but the weight of responsibility aged ponies rapidly, and the mental age did not match the biological age of the ones carrying great burden on their backs.

"Gusty, Astral!" called the king. "See to it that they don't return."

"Right away!" said Astral.

Gusty turned to the guard. "Corporal, bring you squad! We'll meet you there!"

The corporal nodded. The two of them ran out of the room. Normally, they wouldn't have considered permanent solutions to get rid of animals, but the manticores, like a few other creatures were made of pure darkness, and they were evil. They didn't attack on instinct, they attacked for the sake of spilling blood. It's just what Grogar's children were, they'd come to know them long before.

The pair of unicorns left the gate, and continued to sprint toward the orchard in question.

"So, how many?" asked Gusty her companion.

"Only four," responded Astral.

"Then let's hope we'll deal with them without casualties."

Once they neared the location, and could hear the fierce confrontation, they were able to safely teleport themselves to the site; teleportation spells were forbidden to the under-qualified. The unicorns professing that spell had to know the exact place they were going to - or wanted to - show up accurately, or else they had to put extra focus on the intended location, and that would have been distracting to the detriment of the spell itself. Not paying full attention to doing a considerably dangerous spell right was a luxury erudite unicorns weren't encouraged to afford, and rightly so.

But Gusty and Astral had a conception of the site, like the proximity and the angle they needed to take into consideration; and that allowed them to appear in the middle of the fight scene, with their insides still intact.

They didn't hesitate to take the field; the four beasts were being held off by a group of unicorns. They were shooting magical beams at them, but the monsters did not back down. The beings mostly resembled lions, but they had scaly-filmy wings on their backs, their tails were red and each possessed a venomous stinger, like the ones scorpions had.

Gusty engaged one of the manticores by directing a ray from her horn at its head. She could have summoned the wind, but it would have depleted her reserve-energy and exhausted her; beginning a fight with it was pointless, she'd learned it from experience. Her distraction worked and the beast charged at her, after abandoning interest in the others. She used the teleportation spell again to get behind the rear-end of the creature, but before she had a chance to move, it used its venomous scorpion-like tail to strike at her. She caught the heavy appendage with her magic in the air and wrung it, in order to make it inefficient for use against them. The monster roared, and it seemed to rock the earth. It unchained its aggression and used everything it could - claws, teeth, horns, stinger - to ground its challenger, eventually tossing her aside and dashing her against a tree; the slam made the fruits fall to the ground. The predator was about rush at its picked prey, but the unicorns pulled Gusty out of the way, and the manticore hit the trunk headfirst, bringing it down and passing out in the process.

As Gusty's senses came back to her and she looked around, she saw the squad of soldiers just arriving at the scene and holding down one of the beasts by its limbs, resulting in valiant resistance on the creature's part. Another one of the manticores was lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious. The last one was being taken on by Astral and a few others. It did not take long: Astral held the head of the predator with his magic and broke its neck with a twist and a loud crack. One of the soldiers got suddenly impaled by the oppressed monster's sting. It didn't even need venom to kill. But that act sealed its fate, and took away every chance at its survival, as the fallen one's comrades blasted it with shots from their horns in retaliation, and left a charred corpse in the vivid animal's place. It wasn't over yet, because the two lying animals were just recovering.

Gusty turned to the farmers who'd bravely held out, even though their numbers dwindled radically in the fighting. "You've done very well. Now go! Take care of the wounded!"

The farmers did as they were asked. Gusty, Astral and the remaining soldiers stood united and awaited the final attack.

Which didn't happen.

The two remaining manticores were just standing next to one another, and kept staring.

"Finally understood it's not worth picking up a quarrel with the unicorns, maybe?" spoke up Astral.

"If that were the case, why aren't they retreating?" wondered Gusty. "They seem to be waiting for something."

"For us to turn our backs on them!" said one of the soldiers.

"I don't think so. Somehow they look... serene. Calm. Not like they are about to turn on us."

"They aren't." A deep voice growled.

The unicorns all turned their heads, for it sounded like the voice came from just next to them.

"They realize when it is their time to retire," the voice continued. "They realize their father is near when they sense him."

With that, a shadow with golden glow appeared between them and the creatures, and manifested itself physically.

"Heavens help us..." was all Gusty could mumble, before she covered her shaking mouth with her hoof.

None of those present had seen him, who stood before them, but they all recognized him from their nightmares.

"I have been looking forward this." The dark royalty revealed his teeth as his face turned into a grin.

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[Dianabel]

Uh oh. They´re in trouble.