The Ghost of Coltistrano: Phantom Eulogy

by EthanClark

Chapter 14: "Fine. Lead the way, hero."

Vibrant green foliage gave way to a trio of ponies barreling through the brush. Eyes darted in every direction, labored breathing matching their hurried hooves as they struggled to keep pace with each other, forcing an extra bit of speed from their trembling legs at the slightest sound. One was limping, but the stinging pain he occasionally announced to the woods in small yelps was paltry compared to his most recent memories. The pony at the head barely maintained any semblance of a course while leading her soldiers on a wild zig-zag fueled by fear. She never looked back, the cries of those behind them were warning enough. They were twelve strong when they arrived.

The wounded pony felt a grip on his hind leg. Rope coiled up and around the limb, the only warning of his departure from the earth below a choked yelp as he disappeared into the canopy above. The third pony saw the whole event and screamed.

“We can’t stay here! This place is cursed!”

“Shut it and keep running,” his commander barked, pulling him to her side. “We’ll never make it to the other squad if you keep screaming like that.”

A shadow shot across her vision. With a slap to her subordinate’s shoulder he released a flash of magic from his horn, followed by a focused volley that tore the leaves apart like knives through paper. Brushes of sunlight peeked through the dense canopy above, parting to the shadow’s movements, and everywhere there was light the soldier fired another volley of blasts until the brush was left a smoldering patch of black. The forest stood still.

“W-We got it… right?”

“Quiet,” she hissed, her irritation giving a flash of green, revealing pale eyes beneath her visage. Just steps away from her came the call of a second party, eight ponies led by a towering figure before them.

“Hail,” called the burly pony in gray armor. “We heard the excitement, could smell the smoke all the way at the treeline.”

“T-There’s a monster after us! It got Clypeus. Could it be him? Shadewa-”

“It’s not him,” the commander interjected, slamming a hoof against her subordinate. “Someone ambushed us as we crossed into the Foal Mountains. They’ve been chasing us for hours… and knew we were changelings.”

The burly pony stiffened. With a loud snort he stepped forward, a flash of green revealing worn chitin and a dark violet fringe, standing tall against the invisible terror lurking in the trees. The soldiers followed his lead, their disguises melting away in bursts of green flame, but such a commanding presence had little effect on the phantasmal pursuer as the trees surrounding them merely swayed in the breeze.

“Coward!” The looming changeling bellowed and beat his chest. “I am Sulcus, master of the warrior-cast! Reveal yourself to me, or I will drag you from this cursed forest by your ears and feast on your pride!”

Birds fluttered away from the terrible roar his voice gave, with his followers huddling closer to him as if his threat was a shield. Then, something flew from beyond the trees. Spherical, metallic, and crowned with a flickering fuse the device hurtled towards the space before Sulcus’ hooves. Without a word the company dove for cover, even toppling over each other as the hissing flame trailed down the fuse. After a few tense moments, though, there was nothing.

Sulcus raised his head from the earth. A smirk grew with each step he took towards the device, laying dully on the ground with its fuze burnt out. When he held it in his hoof he gave a laugh. The chorus of hissing and mockery from his company joined his own hysteria as he cast his laughter out across the foliage, as if to embarrass their attacker through sheer contempt. He didn’t even notice the fuze had sprung back to life, not before it was too late.

Brighter than the sun, a blast of light sprang forth from the bomb in his hoof and cast him onto his back. His hoof burned, but all he could perceive was the blaring ringing in his ears. Muted screams and grunts were lost to the overpowering pain coursing through his senses. When he rolled over to shield his eyes from the already blinding sun above Sulcus, dizzy and teary-eyed, was able to make out the hazy image of his soldiers scrambling over themselves, followed closely by something in black, and when he staggered to his knees his vision cleared enough to see what monster pursued them.

The pony had just brought the commander down onto her back with graceful execution. Her panicking comrade tried to run, but the pony pulled a stone from the forest floor, swinging his foreleg hard enough for the rock to sail through the air and collide with the back of the changeling’s knee. Two more tried to flank him with a display of their buzzing wings. When one found forelegs wrapped around their neck, though, he was bent to the will of the pony’s impressive strength as he swung like a flail against his friend before meeting the ground with a thud.

Sulcus endured enough. Even with the singe of pain in his hoof, he rose to his hooves and charged the pony, buzzing wings propelling him forward with force enough to knock the pony back against a tree. The argent mane flew back and Silver was faced with an encroaching wall of solid changeling fury charging for him. A hoof whipped out in front of him, allowing the realization he was less than dressed for the occasion to hit him before Sulcus had his chance. He braced himself and was, once more, thrown against the ground.

“Right… right,” he groaned, kicking his leg out to dodge the following slam Sulcus gave to the site of his landing.

“A pony? A single pony terrorized my drones?!”

“The stench of evil makes for easy prey.”

Silver’s menace was punctuated by the quick toss of a second sphere, glass and swirling with steam. Sulcus managed to spike the bauble down, but the sudden impact was just what it needed to burst open and spew a cloud of putrid, choking gas around him. He swiped around him, furiously seeking his target with desperate strikes. Silver stepped alongside him and lept from a nearby stone to drive his knee deep into Sulcus’ shoulder blade, right in between the chitin plates, causing Sulcus to yell before blindly spinning and snagging Silver where he landed, now knowing exactly where he was.

His head landed only inches away from a jagged stump, a small mercy before the hulking changeling leapt into the air and fell against Silver once more, this time pinning him beneath his weight. Breath escaped from Silver’s chest, fleeing the onslaught Sulcus delivered unto him. Even in his armored uniform his body shook with each blow. With hooves up and rolling with each strike Silver felt his defenses diminish, but the next strike lingered just one second too long, and Silver drove his gloved hoof across the errant limb, digging into Sulcus’ pale eye which summoned a scream.

But Sulcus’ rage was only stoked, and after a moment he cast Silver from beneath him all the way across the charred battleground. “You resort to tricks and cheap tactics! Honorless, like any pony.”

Soft vibrations thrummed through Silver’s brain and robbed him of his powers of speech. His sight, however, was more than capable enough to see the armored brute charge one last time towards him, but was stopped by a second shadow latching itself to his back. Sulcus thrashed against this new threat, the silhouette maintaining its calm. It landed two quick strikes against his head and cartwheeled off, landing next to Silver and pulling him to his hooves.

“Your idea of an ambush needs work,” Alate droned to Silver.

“So does your idea of timing.”

“Traitor! The last of the filthy, treasonous brood. Your brother brought shame to the hive for his insurrection!” Sulcus’ jaw clenched at the sight of Alate, and was soon joined by the remainder of his squad. “A changeling serving ponies is no better than a pony, itself!”

“Breathe another word of Darrox and it’ll be your last.” Her chilling threat froze the lesser drones in place, but Sulcus merely laughed.

“Little Alate, the runt of her brood. I culled your brother, Labrum, and he was of my kin, a true challenge! You don’t even have your horn.”

Mockery turned to silent gasps as flashes of green light danced across the field. The amputated stump of horn atop Alate’s crown bled, but her wild magic landed cuts against some of the drones before them in a swift display of power. It was enough for her to get in close. Backed up by Silver, Alate danced around the drones, landing blows against their freshly-opened wounds, watching them buckle and fall before she lunged for Sulcus, but his hooves were too fast. A stiff foreleg snagged her from the air and caster her away. Recovering, she grunted as her horn ignited again, shifting her into a snarling timber wolf that lunged forward. A bite drew forth green blood from him, but Sulcus shifted as well, and the hand of a towering minotaur caught Alate’s new tail, spun her like a flail, and slammed her into the floor, shattering her disguise. The minotaur, horns long and tipped in red, aimed to drive them straight into the scrambling Alate.

A smack of Silver’s rear hoof against Sulcus’ head drove him off course, plunging instead into the earth, where Silver wasted no time in landing a flurry of blows against the incapacitated changeling. Two of the soldiers tried to pull Silver away, but they were met by Alate’s quick hooves to their jaws. Silver, too, was cast aside by Sulcus’ speedy transformation back to his true form as he drove his head into Silver’s chest. More and more soldiers began to recover. With available space growing thin, and Silver and Alate pinned against each other, Silver pulled a final vial from his belt and slammed it down. The erupting pillar of smoke concealed them, choking all who dared enter. At the sound of buzzing wings, the pillar slowly dissipated, only to reveal the spot they once stood was now empty. Sulcus huffed, wiping the blood from his wound.

“Find them! Bring them to me alive, so I can kill them myself. Go!”

The changelings fanned out into the woods, scouring every conceivable direction. Buzzing and hissing, the sounds of invading soldiers, slowly disappeared into the treeline, and atop one of the tallest branches a ripple of power fluttered, faster and faster, until it melted away to reveal the dup hiding behind the painful illusion. Alate clutched her horn, pulling a rag from her satchel and dabbing against the fresh sores. Silver wasted no time in administering aid to her.

“Nice save,” he whispered. “That was my last smoke bomb, though.”

Alate groaned, hissing at the presence of burning alcohol on her horn.“At least we have our lives.”

“That’s the third time we’ve run into that Sulcus guy. Even out here, this deep in the Everfree, there’s no way he could keep finding us.”

“Sulcus is one of Chrysalis’ best drones, he lives and breathes the hive. I’d bet he’s patrolling this region twice as long as any other drone, and with all the noise we’ve been making…”

Silver pulled Alate close to his chest, a hoof on her mouth, as a squadron of buzzing changelings whizzed by beneath them, gone as soon as they came. “We can’t keep doing this, Alate. We’re getting nowhere.”

“I know, and now it seems like they’re hunting us… don’t screw up like that again.”

“Right, “ Silver said, looking at the tender stump of her horn. “For an old changeling, I’m surprised you can still fight, at all.”

“Wasn’t a problem for Darrox, and I remember giving you a hard time when we first met.” Her cold delivery did little to mask her staggered breathing, but Silver chuckled still.

“If only it were enough for Sulcus and his goons. I feel like a moron out there without the cloak.”

“And you look like one, too. If you don’t get used to it, Sulcus and whoever else we meet is going to run you through before we find a clue to Shield’s location. And no matter how rusty you are, I’m not fighting him alone.”

Silver leaned forward on the branch, a hoof to his lips. “We need to make a move, then. The drones we’re fighting either won’t talk or won’t surrender. We need to go to Canterlot.”

“Canterlot? Really?” Alate raised an indignant eyebrow.

“Well, we’re not making any progress out here! We’ve been out in these woods for days, clobbering every guard patrol we come across, and more often than not they clobber back. I’d be surprised if my lungs weren’t shoved into my stomach each time Sulcus tramples me. They must have some help in Canterlot to help cover up their operation, so if we find who’s in charge they’ll lead us to Shield.”

“Fabulous plan, if I could still hold a disguise. We wouldn’t make it past the gates.”

“I’m working on that. I’ll need to get a better view of what the city looks like before I’m sure, but there’s more than one way to get into Canterlot.”

“If you’re right, and there is something in Canterlot, we may run into more changelings. They’ll pick us out in a crowd and kill us on the spot.” Alate gave her horn one final dab, satisfied with the clotted blood it returned. “We’re not exactly what you’d call a dynamic duo.”

“More like a headache waiting to happen,” Silver quipped, chuckling. “But it's worth a shot, and if nothing else it’ll get us away from Sulcus and our next inevitable beating.”

Creases formed at the corners of her mouth, a gesture betraying the stoic indifference Alate tried to embody. She sighed. “Fine. Lead the way, hero.”

—

Personal space was a distant memory lost in the throngs of ponies outside the city’s first of many checkpoints. Shoulder to shoulder, the crowd was ushered by less than cheerful suits of armor, waving their forelegs in tired, long-repeated motions. The plinking of raindrops against their metal helms chirped through the air. Those fortunate enough hid themselves beneath umbrellas, while the rest of the mass of ponies either huddled under blankets or tarps. The rest suffered. Dark clouds emptied, little by little, but each passed checkpoint signaled the rain to fall just a little bit harder.

Silver and Alate were two such unfortunate souls. Worn gray robes covered nearly every inch of Alate, blending in with the ponies around her, while Silver took the full force of the rainfall. He pushed strands of his damp mane from his face. Vision was becoming a burden in the encroaching storm, but he could make out the several guard stations established along the main road, up through the two great gates of Canterlot and into the city proper, the plumes of guard helmets poking out above the ducked heads of ponies desperate to stay dry, huddled together, shivering under the downpour. It made him sick.

“You need identification ready for the second gate!” A pegasus guard yelled, hovering above the crowd. “Belongings will be checked at gate one! Failure to produce identification will result in temporary holding!”

Silver’s eyes followed the horizon of ponies as he and Alate approached the first gate. “They’re not going to let us in.”

“Brilliant deduction,” Alate whispered. “I told you this wouldn’t work.”

“No, no, no, these checkpoints are meant for security, not much else, but once we get to the main gate that’s when we’ll be in trouble. Guard patrols are lighter than normal, though. And with this rain, we might just be able to slip through. We just need something to avoid detection.”

Peering through the curtain of rainfall was difficult, but just to the right was one of the checkpoints, stationed by four ponies around a large tent. One stood out front, directing the crowd through the first gate, while two pegasi hovered, but a unicorn stepped deeper into the tent, prompting Silver to pull Alate through the crowd. Their pace was slow so long as the eyes of the guards above kept watch, but soon they trotted along the edge of the path.

“I trust you have a plan,”Alate declared, under her breath.

Silver was silent, instead crouching under the crowd and breaking off along the small patch of field leading up towards the checkpoint. Together, they tucked themselves against the tent, out of sight. Silver peeked inside. Alone sat a unicorn, doffed of his helmet and writing in a small journal. Silver merely gave Alate a nod, and the two slid into the tent and were upon the unicorn in an instant, faster than his screams could leave him.

“Alright, I’ll get this on,” Silver said, peeling his wet uniform from his body. “Guh, he’s a little small but… dammit, he’s a unicorn. This isn’t an earth pony helmet.”

“So?” Alate’s question was half-hearted, her attention on the journal of the now sleeping guard.

“It’ll stand out, but I’ll make it work. With a mane this long I think I can tuck some through for the fringe. Find anything useful?”

“Unless you count scribbles in a ledger as useful, no.” Alate crossed the tent and lifted a large saddlebag to Silver. “For your uniform.”

As soon as the precious vestments had been stowed the two were off through the tent, back into the now rapid downpour. Thunder roared in the distance. Ponies in the crowd became restless as they pushed and hurried themselves through line to enter the city, if not in search of someplace dry to stand, and the rising tension served as the perfect cover for Silver and Alate. Here and there, a guard would peer over to Silver, but a firm glare back from him was enough to dissuade any onlookers. Alate, however, stuck close. Her gray robes were drenched, but the armor plated profile of her companion worked well enough to hide her from the ponies around them as they trotted up the road, past checkpoints and to the second gate, the mouth of Canterlot. Here, they saw the full extent of Equestria’s panic.

Canterlot’s portcullis hovered before the lines leading in, half raised, resting like black fangs overtop soldiers standing firm and ready, their eyes like a collective lens over the wet, desperate ponies passing across the bridge leading to the entrance. Unicorns stood to the side with their horns alight, focused on citizens. Atop the walls stood a solid row of pegasi with eyes sharp as steel and wings twitching at their sides. Many soldiers held no frings atop their helmets, but Silver recognized the colors of commanding officers amongst them. These sergeants marched through the area in a form familiar to him, one he tried imitating on his approach, and as the front of the crowd came into view Silver broke through the edge.

“If you screw this up, we’re dead,” she hissed, a quiver in her tone.

“I know, I know! Are you sure you can’t hold a disguise?”

“Not unless you want me bleeding everywhere.”

A sharp sigh cut through the rain falling before his face, followed by a puff of hot breath. Silver rocked in place, eyes darting over every element of the imposing city gate, from the squads of guards scrutinizing each new admittance to the soldiers checking identification. The walls of Canterlot were towering, slick with rain. A hoof traced along the saddlebag, nervously, cataloging the many bombs and implements within, but Silver pulled away.

“Can you tell who here is a changeling?”

Alate cocked an eyebrow at the question. “Yes? I can smell them… why?”

“Find me the one in charge. Can you do that?”

The rain did very little to hinder Alate’s keen senses. Pale eyes dulled for a moment, followed by a gentle green glow from beneath her hood. For a second flashes of the Ragged Mare returned to Silver’s mind as Alate searched the crowd with small, yet jerking movements, hissing beneath her robes. Her mind was flooded with the signature of changeling magics. They lit up in her mind like beacons revealing their true selves, and up towards the portcullis stood the brightest light of them all. Tall, with a slender horn and glittering wings protruding from its carapace.

“Found him.” Alate carefully pointed to a Pegasus lieutenant chewing out the earth pony guards at the gate. “His scent is the strongest. You trying to expose him?”

“Just play along.”

A firm hoof yanked Alate forward, and Silver made his way up to the guards ahead with a grim authority. Alate thrashed against his hold, but in time the two found themselves before the lieutenant, who turned to them with a prickly expression, allowing the soldier he had been berating to escape.

“What is this? Soldier, state your purpose and regiment! And who is this sad creature?”

Silver, with cold eyes and unflinching movement, leaned into the lieutenant's ear. “I’m under orders from the vice general. The ‘sad creature’ is for his… entertainment.”

The lieutenant scowled, but as he leaned past Silver and placed a hoof under the lip of Alate’s hood, slowly pulling it up, his eye snapped open and back to Silver, who held his frigid gaze.

“One of Glint’s agents, then? The lackey of a lackey. Couldn’t even get the helmet right.” He spat at Silver’s hooves, glowering, allowing two long fangs to show. “You are lucky the puppet has such privileges, or I would drain you for even showing me her cursed face.”

“Too bad this puppet has orders, and if you want me to omit you keeping me from delivering Shield Wall’s prisoner to him from my report then let me pass.”

“I don’t fear the unicorn, or you!”

“How about Sulcus? It’s his order.”

Every ounce of hostility once resting in the lieutenant's expression evaporated at the name. Choked breaths trickled from his mouth as he stammered, but Silver merely cocked an eyebrow, giving a dismissive gesture to urge the changeling to hurry.

“Fine!” Specs of saliva splashed against Silver’s helmet from the forceful word. “Deliver your prize to the puppet, but don’t get comfortable. You know what happens next…”

Silver wasted no time in yanking Alate forward through the gate, ignoring the weight of the changelings stare against his back. A few moments more and they were finally in the city center, witnesses to the marching squads of guards and all manner of military presence, joined by a pair of large, violet airships in the distance scanning the outer walls. Few citizens were out on the street, and the few who were had military escorts leading them through predetermined pathways and checkpoints. Silver led them across the street towards an alleyway, empty and shaded from the overhead patrols. Canterlot was completely locked down.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Alate declared.

“Neither can I!” Silver gave a loud, ragged sigh, clutching his gut. “I only gave Sulcus’ name because I was scraping for ideas. We already knew there were changelings in the military, but I never thought Canterlot itself was compromised.”

Alate gave a wry smirk. “It’s what we do. Now, come on, you know Canterlot better than I do. Where do we find Shield’s support in all this?”

“We could try the palace, but this looks like martial law. Complete lockdown. Even if we got close, they’d have records of everyone going in and out, which is bad news for a deadpony and a changeling. Truth be told, I’m not sure where to even begin.”

“We’re not wasting this opportunity, Silver. With luck, Shield could even be here in the city, and if there really is someone helping him like you suggested then they have to be here, somewhere.”

Silver removed the stolen helmet, placing it gently onto the stone road below. “What do you make of that lieutenant? He was acting pretty… superior to us. I thought he would’ve been working for Shield.”

“He called Shield a puppet, but I don’t know why. Do you think…” Alate pursed her lips, meditating on her next words. “Shield has killed dozens of Changelings and is no friend to the hive, but… do you think he’s working for them?”

“Shield? Work for someone?” Silver’s indignant face made his answer clear, but Alate persisted.

“Silver, changelings don’t just infiltrate for fun. It’s possible some blackmailed noble could get a few into the city and impersonate a few guards, that lieutenant, the one barking orders to ponies, is a changeling, and I’d bet the goons Shield used to burn Coltistrano were, too, and there’s only one person in Equestria who can command this many changelings at once.”

“Alate,” Silver began, slowly. “You’re suggesting that Shield Wall, the racist, murderous, treacherous sack of filth who has ruined the lives of not just you and me but hundreds of ponies all across Equestria, who would sooner run a grieving earth pony couple, my parents, out of their home here in Canterlot than just ignore them because he saw them as lesser, would willingly work for someone, something, other than his own crazed ambitions?”

“What happened at the top of the Crystal Palace? When Abby betrayed you?”

Her words put a pause in Silver’s, who slowly dipped his head away from Alate’s gaze as he spoke. “Shield said he would kill the Ghost. That he wanted a world without me.”

“And he got it. Cadence told me he twisted Abby against you, but do you really think a desperate psychopath and one distraught countess could do all of this? Shield got what he wanted: a world without the Ghost, but there’s no way he did it alone. He made a deal, Silver. He’s working for her.”

Silver’s face fell, but her words struck a chord within him, and all he could do was nod in solemn agreement. “I know someone in town. Fancy Pants. Shield used him to lure me and the rest into a trap, but he’s no servant to him. If anyone in Canterlot knows where Shield might be, it’s him.”

“You trust someone who ignorantly led you into a trap? The trap that nearly killed you?”

“I’ve trusted worse,” Silver quipped, giving her a sly smile.

Comments

[Tattered Rags]

I don't know, they seem pretty dynamic to me!

It's really refreshing to see him like this, now. One might even say he had some new life breathed into him!

Loved the guerilla esque combat they were going through, and the new state of the city.