The Lost Mercenary - A TES/FiM Story

by DemonRykuKyuubi

Chapter 9 - The Last Straw

Ra'zaan waited for Nadene to make the first move. The three fighters eyed each other for what felt like forever.

Suddenly, Nadene vanished in a violet flash, and appeared above Ra'zaan with her dagger drawn. Ra'zaan raised his own dagger and deflected the Dark Elf's aerial attack, forcing her down next to Rainbow. Rainbow, with a quick snap of her back legs, bucked Nadene in her ribs, causing her to double over for a few moments. The mage recovered quickly, however, and swiftly got to her feet. She moved a few feet away.

"You two... aren't going to make... this easy... are you? Nadene asked between heavy breaths. She had a wide smile on her face. "That means this will be more fun than I thought! I can finally use my favorite moves!"

Without warning, the Dark Elf ran into the shadow of a nearby building and seemingly disappeared again.

"Damn, where did she go now?" Ra'zaan growled.

Rainbow flew up to get a better look around the area. They were fighting in the middle of an intersection, where two major roads of Canterlot crossed. All the shadows on the street and on the buildings seemed to be alive. In one fluid motion, the stealthy mage materialized out of one building's shadow near Rainbow, and fired a lightning spell like Golam's that grazed the cyan pony's left wing. This caused her to lose control and start plummeting back towards the ground. Nadene quickly vanished again in another shadow.

"Rainbow!" Ra'zaan yelled as he ran to try and catch the falling pony. He dove through the air and caught her just before she would have hit the ground. The Khajiit laid there for a minute, catching his breath. "You alright... Rainbow?"

"Heh, yeah. Thanks for the save!" Rainbow jumped up out of Ra'zaan's arms and shook her wings, making sure no permanent damage had been done. "Now, where is she?!"

"Careful, Rainbow. She's hiding in the darkness, Try to stay away from the shadows. The warrior instructed.

A slow, quiet clapping started as Nadene stepped out of a shadow near the two fighters. "You figured that out really quick, Cat! Now what will you do to stop me?" Nadene laughed.

"I already told you, my name is Ra'zaan." The Khajiit snapped. He was obviously annoyed. "You'll just have to see how I handle you, now, won't we?"

The Dark Elf said nothing, and instead ran into the shadows once again, vanishing within.

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The Princess sat still as a statue, listening to what her faithful student was detailing. They were in Celestia's tower bedroom.

"...And then the group of mages vanished with Ra'zaan and Rainbow... Everyone else went out to search for them while I came up here..."

Celestia sighed. Her guards had been out-smarted, and their one chance at finding out more about the attack on Ponyville was gone.

"...Alright, so Ra'zaan went after the mages?" The Princess asked finally.

"Yes, and Rainbow went with him, though I doubt she knew she was going to be teleported..."

Just then, the Princess's bedroom door flung open and three guards ran in, one carrying a certain gray pegasus.

"Princess! Canterlot has been attacked! This pegasus was one of nine that followed one of those two-legged creatures as he attacked some of the guards!" The guards exclaimed all at once.

"Ditzy!" Twilight ran to Derpy's side. She was one of the few ponies that called the gray mare by her other name. "What happened to her?!"

"A guard was about to stab the creature in the back, but then this pegasus pushed the creature out of the way and took the full force of the attack. That seemed to cause the creature to lose control and he started flinging attacks wildly..." The guard started explaining,

Celestia stopped him. "Were there any casualties?!"

The guards looked at each other, then at the floor. "...Y-yes... eleven guards are dead and twenty-seven are injured... The creature and two others like him ran off, and some of the guards ran after them... Ra'zaan and a cyan pony are currently dealing with the one creature that stayed behind..."

Celestia bowed her head. A few golden tears escaped her eyes. There hadn't been a killing in Equestria in over a thousand years; before Nightmare Moon. "G-get... get the guards together... tomorrow we plan our attack on these creatures..."

"Princess Celestia?! Your not actually thinking about attacking Ponyville, are you?!" Twilight couldn't see an attack of that magnitude ever happening in all of Equestria, let alone her home town.

"Twilight, this is different now. Death has resulted from these creatures' appearance in our world. They must be dealt with before any more killing occurs. Tomorrow, I will personally organize the guards. In the meantime, Take Ditzy to the clinic. She and the... surviving guards... will need immediate attention..." Celestia found that last part extremely hard to put into words. With that, The Princess vanished in a flash of brilliant white light, leaving Twilight to ponder what she had just said.

"I know she's right, but I wish there was some other way..." The purple pony thought as she and the guards carried Derpy towards the clinic.

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Ra'zaan and Rainbow weren't fairing very well. The warrior would try to turn left, and Nadene would attack from the right. He'd look up, and she'd strike from the ground. He'd try to guard his back, and she'd hit him from where he'd been facing. The Khajiit had cuts and lightning burns all over his body. Rainbow wasn't doing much better; the cyan pony was down-right exhausted. Ra'zaan looked at the battered blue pony, then looked out into the darkness with fire in his eyes.

"Coward! Enough of your tricks! Come out and fight us!" The Khajiit roared.

A voice that seemed to come from every direction answered him. "But if I were to do that, I wouldn't be able to toy with you so much!" Nadene followed with a light giggle, as if she was really enjoying herself.

Rainbow nudged Ra'zaan's leg, and he glanced down. "Hey... that bow you've got... how fast are you with it?" The blue pony whispered.

Ra'zaan took the hint and gave the pony an acknowledging wink. Rainbow took off back into the sky. As if on cue, Nadene struck out at the colorful pony through the shadows. This time, however, the warrior was ready. In a blink of an eye, he pulled out his bow, strung an arrow on it, and fired...

For a moment, it looked as if the arrow would miss entirely. Then its true target became clear. The arrow went straight through the Dark Elf's cowl, dragging and pinning her to a nearly building.

"Yeah! Got her! Nice shot, Ra'zaan!" Rainbow yelled. She patted herself on the back because her plan worked. "Not so confident now, are ya?!"

"Aw, and I was having fun, too... Well, aren't you going to hit me, or are you scared, little pony?" Nadene mocked. Rainbow took the bait.

"Here I come!" The cyan pony exclaimed as she built up speed.

Ra'zaan had already put two an two together. The mage's hands hadn't been bound. "Rainbow, no! It's a trap!"

Too late. Nadene raised her now glowing hands and formed a lightning cloak* around herself. Rainbow crashed into it, and took the full effect of the shocking shield. She fell once again from the sky, in the Khajiit's waiting arms.

"This is the second time I've had to catch you now." Ra'zaan smiled. "You rest a little. I'll deal with her from here."

Rainbow gave a weak smile, then closed her eyes. She had a fairly bad burn that covered over half of her body from the collision, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the burns Applejack had received. Ra'zaan set her down gently on a patch of grass, then turned back to the mage.

"That was a dirty trick you pulled, Nadene. You know as well as I do that these ponies are naive to fighting. "Ra'zaan growled.

"So what? If she didn't want to get hurt, she shouldn't have tried to fight in the first place!" Nadene smiled. "Well, I'm outta here!"

Nadene's hands began glowing purple as she got ready to teleport away to safety from the wall she was pinned to. Ra'zaan saw her start and pulled out his bow. He aimed his bow directly between her eyes. He knew he could get the arrow out in time before she vanished. He steadied the arrow and was ready to fire, but suddenly he felt a hoof on his shoulder.

"I'll handle it from here Ra'zaan. You done quite enough." A familiar voice sounded.

In the blink of an eye, Nadene's hands were encased in a white aura, stopping her spell. The aura of magic then ripped the confused mage off the wall, and lowered her to the ground where Ra'zaan stood. The Khajiit glanced over his shoulder to see who had stopped the mage's teleport.

"P-princess Celestia?! What? How? Why are you here?!" Ra'zaan seemed as confused as Nadene at this point.

Celestia's face was grim. "Don't worry about that now. Just take Rainbow Dash to the castle to be taken care of." The warrior stared at her a moment longer, then did as he was commanded and ran off towards the castle with Rainbow on his shoulders.

"Who the hell are you?! Let me go!" Nadene's normally happy disposition was replaced with confusion and anger. "Let me go!!!"

"Your speaking to this land's princess. I've ruled this land peacefully for over a thousand years. Then you creatures show up, and all of that is out the window." Celestia glared at the Dark Elf. "Whatever your plan is, I'm going to stop it before you kill any other ponies."

"I knew when I saw those guards laying dead it would cause a problem. That's why Halius and I just knocked them out!" Nadene said. Her happy side had already returned.

Celestia remained frighteningly cold. "Enough talk. You're coming with me."

With that, the Princess readied herself to teleport. She then saw the other ponies that had left to search for Ra'zaan and Rainbow.

"Princess? Where are Ra'zaan and Rainbow?" Pinkie asked.

"And...what are you d-doing out here...?" Fluttershy added.

"No need to worry, my little ponies. Head back to the castle, and get some sleep. I'll explain everything in the morning." With that, Celestia teleported back to the castle, and the group, still confused as to what exactly just happened, slowly trotted back towards Canterlot Castle. By now, it was just past two in the morning.

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The next morning, everyone woke up a bit later than normal. Ra'zaan got up slowly and walked out into the massive dining room. He looked at a clock nearby; it was nearly half past ten. The Princess had asked her private chef to make them a surprise breakfast, and sure enough, the table was covered from end to end with different foods. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy sat in a row at the table, chatting together. Applejack, Big Mac', Rainbow and Derpy all sat together an the opposite side of the table, having their own conversation. Even the Captain was up and about, speaking with Celestia.

"Princess, do you really want to go through with a full scale assault to bring these mages down?" Iron asked worriedly.

She looked down at him, tiredness in her eyes. "I don't see any other way. If there was, believe me when I say I'd give it a shot."

"Sorry to interrupt, but did you say you wanted to send an attack force? You'll need someone skilled with dealing with mage's magic if you want them to succeed." Ra'zaan said, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"I'll be sending anypony and everypony willing to go. I'm even going to use my magic to heal Iron, Rainbow, Ditzy, and Applejack. It won't completely heal them, but it will get them back to full strength. After breakfast, I'm going to go and brief all the guards that will be going on what their job will be. I don't want the brain-washed ponies hurt... at least not severely if we can help it... but I want the mages dealt with. I don't care anymore whether they are taken alive or not."

"Alright, Princess. I will be ready when the guards and everyone - I mean everypony - are. Until then!"

Breakfast was finished up quickly and the group all got together to discuss the Princess's plan.

"So, what does 'everypony' think of the Princess's plan?" Ra'zaan asked casually. He was starting to get used to speaking this way with the ponies.

"To be honest, I completely agree with the Princess. Although her tactics are a bit... BARBARIC, those ruffians have done nothing to permit mercy." Rarity said. She looked around and caught several sets of eyes staring at her. "...What? He asked."

"Anyway... Ah think those varmints have this comin' to 'em. They've already hurt too many good ponyfolk as it is." Applejack continued.

"Um, Girls? Don't you think we might be moving too quickly? Maybe they could still change..." Fluttershy didn't want to see any living creature hurt, no matter what they'd done.

"Ra'zaan looked at the canary colored pegasus and sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, people from my world are not as quick to change. At the rate these mages are moving, if something isn't done soon, your world may never be the same. They need to be stopped. I'm sorry, 'Shy."

Fluttershy's ear's and head drooped, and she sat silently. The whole group was quiet for few moments before a voice sounded from the other side of the dining room.

"Now Ra'zaan! People aren't as bad as that! Sure, the other rogues and I are here to take over, but we aren't inherently evil. We just want to rule some land of our own!" Nadene said.

She was magically chained to the wall of the dining room, and her hands were still bound by Celestia's magic. She's been served food just like everyone else, and had been eating quietly. She turned to the Princess sheepishly.

"Oh, and th-thanks for the meal, P-princess." The Dark Elf stuttered carefully.

The Princess nodded slowly. She pondered what the Dark Elf had just said. "You say you just wanted to rule land of your own, but then why attack our land when you hadn't even attempted to speak with me?" The Celestia asked finally.

"Well, that doesn't usually go over well based on experience. In our world, asking a ruler if you can 'have some land to rule' is like asking the thieves guild not to steal. If you don't know how hard that is, then here's another example. It's like asking Ra'zaan over there to stop looking like a cat. After several attempts at things like that, Golam, our leader, decided we weren't going to try that again."

"Equestria has many uninhabited lands still. If your group had come to me in the first place, I may have given you some of that land for yourselves. After all that has happened, however, you ---" The Princess was cut off.

" --will be lucky to get out of this without any of us dying? Yeah, I've heard that more than once." Nadene said coldly.

Celestia smiled a little. "I was going to say you'll be lucky if I don't banish you away from here, but that works too."

Iron Pride ran into the room just then, and addressed the group with the most authority they'd seen.

"Everypony, the guards have been assembled. Please come out into the courtyard and brief them on the coming battle, Princess." Iron's leg had been healed to the best of Celestia's ability, and he had put his armor back on.

"Yes, of course! Come on out my little ponies." Celestia said as she undid the magic ties binding Nadene to the wall. She left the hand binds on. "You too, Miss."

The now large group of ponies walked out into the courtyard, and most were taken aback by what they saw. Over three hundred guards stood at the ready, waiting for their Princess the explain their mission.

"Greetings, my faithful warriors." Celestia began. "I have asked you here for some very important business. I'm afraid that this is very grave news indeed. Ponyville, a small town near the Everfree Forest, has been taken over by a group of creatures known as mages. They look like this woman right here." The Princess motioned towards Nadene. These creatures will be your only 'dead or alive' targets. The ponies of the town are not to be killed. They are under the control of these mages and are innocent. If at all possible, avoid fighting these ponies. If, however, you are forced to fight them, do your best and try not to hurt them too badly. Ra'zaan, you wished to speak?" The sun goddess asked the Khajiit.

"Thank you, your Highness." Ra'zaan bowed to the Princess, then faced the guards. "These mages are extremely dangerous and are not to be taken lightly. The spell they have over the Ponyville residents is strong, but there is one way to break it. Knocking these brain-washed ponies out seems to remove the spell, and the only side effect is usually a migraine when they wake up. Back to you, Princess."

"This 'Khajiit', as Ra'zaan is called, will lead one group of guards.In fact, I am officially giving Ra'zaan, the six bearers of the elements of harmony, the stallion named Big Macintosh, the pegasus named Derpy Hooves, and Captain Pride leadership roles in this mission. Each leader will lead a group of thirty guards. Does everypony understand what is expected of them?" Celestia addressed the guards with a fine assertion that must have taken over a century to perfect.

"Wait!" A shrill voice screamed behind the Princess.

Startled a bit by this sudden noise, Celestia turned around to see a Dark Elf breathing heavily in her binds.

"I know you have no reason to trust me, but may I please join the battle? I wish to help you!" She said with seriousness overshadowing her normally happy voice.

"Why would you want to help us? You are one of the mages these guards are going after!" Ra'zaan said, his voice slightly raised in suspicion.

"I know you probably won't believe me, but I've seen how kind you are, and how wrong we mage's have been. This whole time I've been with you, you've all pretty much treated me like I was just another one of the group, even after all I did. You even let me sit at the table for breakfast. In my world, prisoners are just thrown into jail and given meager meals. This world or yours... we really did disturb it with our presence, didn't we? I want to help you, if you'll permit me to..." Nadene finished with a bow in front of a very surprised Celestia.

The Princess wasn't sure what to say. She glanced over at Ra'zaan. "What do you think, Ra'zaan?"

The Khajiit hated to admit it, but Nadene seemed genuinely honest when she spoke. Ra'zaan looked over at the Princess and spoke. "It's your call, your Highness. She seems truthful enough to me, but who knows if she will keep her word?"

"Very well, then. I'll allow you to go along with the attack. Do know, however, that if you double-cross us, I will not be so kind next time." The Princess's voice was cold, but truthful.

"Thank you, your Highness! You won't regret it!" Nadene said with her normal, playful attitude.

Celestia turned back to the guards. "Well, then. This mage will be accompanying you as well. Ready yourselves. You depart with your leaders at four in the afternoon. You are dismissed."

The guards slowly disbanded to go and get prepared, and the leaders all exchanged looks of worry and excitement. Whatever happened, they knew they'd have each other's backs.This was going to be one hell of a battle.

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Golam looked at his army of more than a thousand brain-washed ponies. He had a feeling the events that occurred in Canterlot would instigate an attack, so he was readying his forces just in case. Kynan, Halius and Ysura stood at his side.

"Are you sure we're ready for this, Golam?" Halius asked.

"We have to be, Halius. Otherwise, this will be our last hurrah."

TO BE CONTINUED

Lightning Cloak* - Spell that encases the caster's body in the element they choose. (fire, ice, or lightning) Any enemy that gets within melee range is repelled and hurt by the 'cloak'.

Comments

[Azzazel]

-.-? Let's see woman + dark elf+former assassin trained by the brotherhood itself+ plus mage = Are you utterly insane? Sigh Maybe im not giving her enough credit the Dark Brotherhood has high standards after all. Good chapter can't wait for next one *broohoof* !

[Gylden Glor]

ARGH! THIS IS IN HUMAN IN EQUESTRIA!
KAHJITS ARE CATS, DANGIT!
AND I'M SPEAKING IN THE ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE! I AM NOT ANGRY!
See?

[DemonRykuKyuubi]

181857 ...There are humans in the story too... Also, Khajiit should count, 'cause they're pretty close to humans. How was the story though?

[Gylden Glor]

181875 I like it, and I like how you made it seem like more of a routine search and kill for the Khajit, and more or less a jarring event for the Mane 6 and whatnot. I've read the first two chapters, but I kind of read them wrong and posted a...rather incorrect comment.

[SomeBrony]

Awesome, i just want too see one thing: a Dremora. You know you want one :3

[DemonRykuKyuubi]

183958 I plan on putting one or two in soon. Thanks for reading!