Interlude 7: Rain Shadow
Rain Shadow POV:
Even though it had been hours since she had awoken, the pegasus mare felt as though she was still suffering a nightmare, borne from the darkest recesses of her mind.
It had taken hours for her to digest what she had been told and even longer to begin to process her grief and misery.
Not everything was known about what exactly had transpired last night, but the information that had been drip-fed down to her was enough to shake her world.
Their raiding party had been mauled. Dozens of venerable warriors were dead. Her brother was dead. Her Lord was a heartbeat away from death. Her wing was crippled, possibly permanently. And they had left almost empty-hooved, with nothing to show for their losses.
The raid had gone worse than any previous raid in the history of Las Pegasus.
Now, standing in the royal wing of the Las Pegasus Infirmary and staring at the mangled body of Reverberating Infamy, it truly hit home how catastrophically wrong everything had gone.
The Overlord was barely kept alive. His vaunted, golden armour had partially melted and grafted itself onto his flesh. Encasing him in a golden tomb that reminded Rain Shadow of the sarcophaguses that they had looted from Maregypt years ago. Lines and lattices of glowing, magical enchantments hummed as they crisscrossed the warped and malformed plates of armour. The healing and life support enchantments were almost certainly the only things that were keeping him alive, or so one of their enslaved unicorns had theorised.
A rubber tube had been shoved down her Lord's throat and connected to a device in the corner of the room that the mare could only describe as looking similar to a set of blacksmith bellows. A nurse stood next to the machine twirled her wings in a steady rhythm and cast spells with her pegasus magic. Causing the flexible leather bag of the ‘bellows’ to inflate and deflate. Feeding pure oxygen into the lungs of Reverberating Infamy and hopefully alleviating some of the strain on the overburdened enchantments.
At least they had managed to swiftly retrieve their sovereign from the battlefield. Others, like Thunder Hoof and her brother, were not so lucky. Rain’s body almost physically shook with rage and as her imagination ran amok with visions of the filthy mud ponies of Valley Dale tossing her brother's body in a mass grave or on a pyre. No ceremony, no prayers to the Sky Goddess, no dignity.
So consumed was Rain by her internal strife, that she didn't even notice the stallion that had just entered the room and walked up alongside her. He laid a comforting wing across her back, careful to avoid touching the shattered shoulder joint of her wing and the cotton sling that held the limp appendage.
After snapping back to reality, she took notice of the familiar newcomer and addressed the stallion by way of a question.
“What did they say?” Rain asked Swift Cyclone, the elderly warrior who had once occupied her position in the Overlord's cadre and had thereafter been her unofficial mentor since his retirement.
“The Interim Leadership Council has elected Crimson Feather as Regent Overlord until either Infamy recovers, or the young princess reaches her majority.” Swift replied in a tired voice.
Rain shook her head in disbelief at that, almost snarling. “Our moment of greatest weakness and they choose the fucking quartermaster to lead us? He has never lifted a blade in his life.” She barked incredulously.
Swift sighed at her remark. “So much was lost in the raid last night that it will take us months, if not years to recover. The council has decided that we need somepony who is competent at counting costs and coins to guide us through a needed period of financial austerity and recovery. You should know enough about politics to understand that this is the way of things.”
Rain, not appreciating being lectured about politics and economics as though she were a foal, stepped forward and out of Swift's embrace. She was in no mood to suffer being talked down to.
The elder stallion recognised the mare's grief-fueled temper and opted to drop to the topic. He stepped forward as well to stand alongside her but refrained from wing-hugging her again.
Knowing that she would be unappreciative of consoling words or small talk and would prefer to focus on the task ahead of her, Swift remarked at the situation at hoof.
“It's almost impossible to believe that one mare could have inflicted such damage. That armour once belonged to Commander Hurricane. It was supposed to be invincible.”
Rain didn't have an immediate reply to that. Simply staring at her fallen leader, as if lost in thought. “Do we know who she was?” She eventually asked in a quiet, dangerous voice.
Swift Cyclone mulled the question over in his mind for a moment, debating how likely the answer was to further sour his apprentice's mood. Eventually, he decided to tread the path of honesty and merely nodded. “We interrogated one of the very few slaves that we managed to collect from Valley Dale before retreating. Apparently, the unicorn was a powerful Legacy Mage known as Starry Night. She had briefly stopped by the town and was likely still in the area when we struck.” Her mentor explained. “Bad luck, it seems…” he trailed off with a sigh.
“Or the Wind bitch lured the Mage there to fight her battles.” Rain sneered.
“Perhaps,” Swift conceded but with a tone that indicated that he wasn't completely convinced by the conspiracy. “However, the unicorn reportedly started her rampage on the outskirts of the town, and only an hour after we arrived. It's more likely that she was in the nearby countryside and noticed the commotion.”
“Did she suffer as she died?” Rain quietly seethed. Although, she was on the edge of tears. Her mind continually replayed the scene of her brother being cut to pieces by the psychotic unicorn in a swarm of blades and steel. She tried so desperately to reach him, to take him away and save him. Yet, her back suddenly exploded with pain and she knew nothing more.
“She was shot point-blank in the chest with a Quellium Arrow. I don't know how she managed to scrape together enough magic for a final blow against our Lord, but her death would have been an agonising one regardless.” Swift consoled but he wasn't sure how much comfort his protégé would take from his words.
Rain closed her eyes and shook her head. “We should go back and burn that pathetic shit-hole of a town to the ground!” Her tone was wrathful but Swift was familiar enough with loss and grief that he recognised the hurt and sorrow.
“We've already hit Valley Dale twice. Fillydelphia and Everfree cannot ignore this. Even with the Mage dead, the town is probably swarming with guards. The incident might have even caught the eye of the Princesses themselves. We can not go back. Do not allow your grief to cloud your better judgement.” Swift gently chided. He knew better than anypony how sorrow could make one irrational.
“Our mission isn't complete, we still need to retrieve the artefact for our client.” Rain retorted but it was a weak argument and she knew it.
“Fuck the client.” Swift snapped. It was the first time that he had raised his voice throughout the conversation. “I don't care what promises he made. It was a bad deal and we are cutting our losses.” He said with a tone of finality.
Instead of replying with a fiery retort as she normally would, Rain seemed to deflate. With Starry Night dead and no obvious remaining focus for her wrath, the anger and indignation which had propelled her the last few hours, seemingly burnt out.
Bowing her head in defeat, she didn't react as Swift nuzzled the side of her neck in comfort.
“What do we do now?” Rain asked in a quiet, almost lost voice.
“We go south.” The elderly warrior answered simply.
The mare was confused by the answer. “We are already above the Southern Plains. There is nothing to the south except for the vast jungles.”
“Further south. Beyond the jungles.”
“Zebrica?” Rain asked incredulously.
Swift gestured with a wing towards the comatose Overlord. “We've tried to get some of our unicorn slaves to cast healing spells but the enchantments on the armour appear to repel all magic. The only thing that seems to work is healing potions. Perhaps that's an oversight by the armour's creators or perhaps it's intentional but it seems to be the only way to effect any sort of healing on him.”
“If we have already figured out the solution, then why are we going south?” Rain asked, not comprehending the explanation.
“We have a very small supply of healing potions and they aren't particularly strong. If our Lord is to have any chance at survival, then we need access to far more potent elixirs.” Her mentor explained. “And what type of magic are the Zebra Tribes best known for?” He asked leadingly.
“...their alchemy.” Rain finished as realisation dawned on her.
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Les Pegus a flying city?
Well seems that dick survived… For now
11851875
Cloud City like most Pegasi towns.
I am curious to who this "Young Princess" he mentioned is. Someone that pegasi would rally behind against Celestia?
One wonders how an entire flying city of Pegasus raiders holding slaves has so far managed not to attract the sovereigns' attention. What kind of dysfunctional government is Celestia running?
11852068
Until 100 years ago, Equestria was shattered into pieces by Discord. Celestia and Luna only fully reunited the country 70 years ago. Equestria has poor communications networks, poor infrastructure, powerful nobles that barely heed the princesses orders and often withhold information from them, as well as a dividend and dysfunctional royal court. Its almost impossible to accurately track the cloud city under those circumstances.
Consider also that the raiders of Las Pegasus can use magic to disguise the city as a large cloud.
I mentioned in the Battle of Valley Dale chapter that Las Pegasus has been in Luna’s crosshairs for a while. She just couldn't find the city before they move on.
11852077
Reminds me of the Holy Roman Empire, only potentially even less functional. Which is certainly impressive, even if in all the wrong ways.
Aside from the raiders' perspective, is this just a way of writing them out of the story? For the time being at least?
Maybe they will take it as a hint raiding may not be the best way of life?
...Nah, probably not.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
11851875, 11851900
Probably something like this:
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Source.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2020/4/10/2318846.png
Source.
Rain shadow seems like bad news I can't wait until she finds out Luna survived and goes after her for revenge that just seems where this is going to go eventually.
11851994
She is the daughter of Reverberating Infamy and the heir to Las Pegasus. We will be seeing more of her later.
11852104
More than potions lie down south.
11852222
And there are presumably more pegasi around than just the ones in Cloudsdale, so if the city never makes it back it won’t be missed too badly. I mean, I have some difficulty seeing these goons trying to trade for the potions they need, and if in their current weakened state they try to stir shit up the way they’re apparently used to in a faraway land they seem to have barely heard of, that approach could easily backfire on them.
Going off on a bit of a tangent for a moment, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about alchemy being the big zebra cultural thing here once again. I get that having alchemists and possibly shamans is a popular and well-established fanfic trope for them, and I may consider the comics something of a pick-and-choose matter as far as canonicity goes, but in this case said trope is quite obviously based on specifically Zecora and the speculative notion of “well, where there’s one mystical zebra, there must of course be others”...and it just so happens that when the Season 10 comics dig into her personal backstory, they flat-out contradict the latter by presenting Zecora as a very much unique self-taught maverick prodigy from a culture in which even the possibility of “zebra magic” being a thing isn’t ever seriously considered. I personally like that take on her because it neatly subverts a few slightly tired expectations and adds a new dimension to her entire character in one swell foop; it just also means that I now personally flinch a little once in a while upon coming across “stereotypical fan zebras”. (And yes, I want to be clear on that being entirely my hangup. Still felt like venting just a tiny little bit, is all.
)
Raise your hand if you think Rain Shadows a bitch and can’t wait to see her die.
11852220
Hopefully she may have a better head on her then her father..
In any case thank you so much for these little lore and additions. Really fleshes out the world and makes it more interesting.
So many ripples, so many alterations... SOO MUCH FUN *evil laughter*
11852411
Equestria (and lands beyond) are highly magical with highly creatures and magic playing a central role in the lives of all of its citizens. I don't really think that it's too stereotypical to assume that alchemy and Zebra Magic play a large role in the lives of many Zebra.
11852688
I mean, going by just the show alone where Zecora is the only zebra we ever see, that may seem reasonable on the surface but is still a kind of huge extrapolative leap from a sample size of exactly one. Compare and contrast the pony tribes, where most of us would probably feel a bit silly arguing that of course Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie each represented the “typical” pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony respectively...and yet the only real difference is that in their cases we happen to actually get more examples showing the actual variety right on screen, whereas Zecora is just plain out of luck in that respect.
And then the only kinda-sorta-quasi-if-you-squint-just-right-canon source on zebra culture that I’m even aware of decided to present one in which “zebra magic” simply isn’t a thing at all (there absolutely are friendly “magical natives” in Farasi, the zebras themselves just aren’t among them) and Zecora is just special for having learned alchemy entirely on her own (incidentally by finding out about the legend of Mage Meadowbrook and deciding to be stubborn about following in her hoofsteps). So...yeah, that take on zebras on the one hand and the semi-classical “shamans and potion makers” fanfic tradition about them on the other are just a touch awkward to reconcile.
(For an extra bit of spice, zebras in the comics don’t even traditionally rhyme -- that, too, is explained as just a personal quirk of Zecora herself. Heresy, I know.
)
Oh motherfucker just you wait ‘till you hear the best news you’ll ever get to experience! She’s not dead, and she’s probably still very angry!
Of course it’s the government officials who are doing this… meddling in business matters they should have left unmeddled. He’s going to pay, isn’t he? God I hope he does.
If I hadn’t made this clear, I want to see Las Pegasus burn.
11853033
What government officials are you talking about here. Who exactly do you think the client is?
11853055
I don’t care who he is but I want him dead. My thoughts were with that dude from a previous chapter who sent in the guard to get Starry on his side.
11853058
It's definitely not Lord Pale Scepter.
11853061
I was about to say that I haven’t reread anything so it’s really just a guess in the dark.
"Psychotic Unicorn"? Really bitch, you're gonna call "Starry Night" psychotic while you and yours are living the pirate's life? Heh, it's funny how someone's biases can blind them about stuff like this.
Oooo
Un capítulo impecable, me estremecí en momentos.
Sigue así pibe, lo estás haciendo bien
You do do a good job of making me sympathize with the "bad guys". Of course she's pissed she lost her brother. If you think of these ponies as Vikings or American Indians, or the Germanic tribes around Rome, raiding other tribes, maybe you'd think of them differently...or not.
I'm not happy Luna is incapacitated. So I have to worry about her being taken prisoner or enslaved by the political villain.
Just commenting on this chapter because I enjoy this story and want you to know I do.
Oh, it's gonna be so funny when they find out.