The Alicorn's Pride

by JuyUnseen

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Greathoof’s plan.

“Are you certain you want to give us all of this?” Sothe asked, incredulously eyeing the pile of supplies laid out before him.

“Of course. You have a big journey ahead, this is the least I can do.” Greywings replied. He had spent the morning readying as much food and various other supplies as he thought the group of four could carry.

“Look, it’s very generous of you to offer, but please just let us pay for it.” Luna wasn’t sure she felt right taking this much from the innkeeper.

“No. You are on a mission that may stop a war from escalating. That’s payment enough for me.” He said simply. Luna looked like she wanted to protest some more but her older sister cut her off.

“Thank you Greywings, I’m certain these will be very helpful. Although I think,” She pushed part of the pile back towards the grey innkeeper, “That much probably won’t fit in our bags, so please keep it.” She smiled at him. He stared at the declined gift for a moment before smiling back.

“As you wish.” He replied, and took the food back into the inn’s kitchen. The group got to work on packing their provisions away. Cliff was quite happy to find some jerky among the various forms of vegetarian food present.

“Score!” He cried happily as he packed it away. Luna laughed at his enthusiasm, she was ready to get out of this town. Of everyone here it seemed that only Greywings was enjoyable to be around. After a few minutes of hasty packing all of the supplies were squared away. Cliff now sported a loop of rope attacked to his belt, and had also laid claim to a file which he was using to sharpen his somewhat dull claws. Luna had taken only one thing outside of food, and that was a book. The volume was at least a good five-hundred pages thick and was a history of the north range. She planned on reading some once they ran out of things to talk about on the trail. Sothe had elected to take another knife alongside a map of the mountains. Celestia had taken a whistle that Greywings claimed could scare off dogs that she now wore around her neck at all times. Once everyone had their new supplies settled they bid farewell to Greywings before leaving to continue their journey down the mountain road.

---

The four soldiers landed outside of Greathoof’s house just as the sun was setting. The first of the soldiers took a deep breath and idly ran over the plan in his head once more.

Blood wolves, he thought, we were attacked by blood wolves and during the fight our fifth member was killed. They had agreed earlier that there was no need to let Greathoof know that the dragon had escaped too. The soldier sighed once more and knocked on the wooden door to Greathoof’s home.

A deep voice emanated from the house, commanding, “Enter.” The four soldiers did as they were told. The room they entered looked like it had once been a rather elegant one, but there was now so much clutter that the signs of that time long past were few and far between. The desks were piled high with papers, books covered the floor, maps adorned the walls, and a red alicorn occupied the center of the mess.

“Good, you made it in time… where’s the fifth?” he asked accusingly. The soldier at the front of the group gulped and began the story they had weaved during their flight.

“… and by that time we decided we must leave him, for we had to arrive here be tonight.” He finished. He had done his best to play up their loyalty in the story, hoping to gain favor, or at least suck up to, the fearsome leader. Greathoof looked them over and sighed.

“Four will have to do. You have a lot of work ahead of you tonight.” He said simply, “Now allow me to explain the… situation I’m in. I am in a position where I’m forced to tip my hoof. I plan on revealing what exactly we’ve been up to.” The soldiers were surprised, they knew that the war was a secret, but didn’t expect for it to be one even to the other council members.
“Then why do you need us?” One inquired curiously.
“Because,” the council stallion responded, “I need insurance that the other will… how to put this? See things my way. I plan on using you four as insurance.” He smirked as he began to give them their orders. Tonight would be a long night, but if events played out like they should he would be even further along in his conquest and on the fast track to the final parts of his plan.
This mistake may just turn in my favor. He thought happily as the soldiers set out to fulfill their assigned duties.

---

River woke up to cold autumn sunlight cast across her face. She blinked herself awake and looked around. She had fallen asleep at her desk, reading about the adventures of the party to the north. She sat still for a moment, letting her thoughts return to her. She had not managed to come up with any sort of plan to counter whatever Greathoof had planned for today, the only thing she could be thankful of was that Sothe’s group still remained unknown to the red stallion. She sighed heavily and slowly got to her hooves,
“By the sun, it’s going to be a hard day,” she cursed lightly to herself before readying her things and magicing a muffin from the kitchen to eat on her way. She stopped halfway out the door as she realized that Philomena still stood on her makeshift perch.
“I almost forgot about you,” She murmured as she pulled out a scrap of paper and scribbled a note for the adventurers, “There you go.” Philomena took the small scroll and cooed before swooping out the open door in a flash of bright fire. River sighed as she watched the bird fly out of sight.

I took her a few minutes to travel to the council building. The stone corridors seemed awfully empty today, they lacked their usual bustle of alicorns running to and fro with papers, letters, and memos destined for the offices of various ponies. As it stood she only saw three or four ponies in the whole building on her way to the main chamber.
This feels almost… ominous. She thought as she pushed open the stone council door.
“River! Welcome!” boomed the voice of Greathoof from atop an unfamiliar armchair that now sat in the center of the room. With a swoop of magic the door slammed shut behind her and was locked. “Now, take a seat. I’m certain you won’t want to miss this.” Said in the smuggest voice River had ever heard.

The other council members were already seated and looked uncomfortable. In the center of the room, four heavily armored soldiers stood in a circle around Greathoof, each with a sword levitating next to them at the ready. River slowly walked to her seat, taking care to give the drawn blades a wide berth.

“All of you are no doubt curious about today’s arrangements, are you not?” the red stallion asked one they all were settled. A quiet murmur ran through the questioned councilors, “There have been some… events put into motion. Big events. World changing events that will no doubt be remembered for centuries to come. Events that not only will-” he was cut off as another voice spoke out.

“If you’re referring to the slaughter to the west, which I am almost certain you are, then I’ll have you know that I’ve know about it for some time.” River said, doing her best to keep her voice level, “In fact, you hid the army rather sloppily if I do say so myself.”

“Well well, somepony found me out. Whatever shall I do?” he asked this with sarcasm as all the soldiers turned to face the light blue mare. The sarcasm left his voice as he spoke again, “Hold your tongue or you may find my… assistants to be less than friendly. Now that that matter is settled, let me enlighten those of you who,” He threw a sidelong glance at River, “Didn’t feel the need to snoop around in affairs that don’t concern you.” He began to weave a tale about his plans to destroy the griffins. Every word he spoke, dripped with self-praise as he told of his sacrafices and heroic deeds that it took to bring this plan to fruition. The story took hours and hours to tell in its entirety, but the presence of the soldiers managed to keep the bored audience in line.

---

Freedom was sweet for Treeflame. The wind had never felt so clean, nor the grass so soft. Everything seemed heightened as she was experiencing things for herself, alone for the first time in years. She’d flown at least twelve miles or so before landing. She was certain that the soldiers hadn’t followed her. The land was different here. There was far more grass and much less dirt visible, and the dirt she did come across was not cracked and dry like that of the wastes, rather it was cool and damp. She figured she must be across the border, or at least very close to the alicorn lands.

Where do I go? she thought suddenly, I’m free now… but what do I do with myself? She puzzled over the newfound question. She had never thought about this before. Her dreams of freedom had always been happy ones of rescue and daring escape, and they had always ended with her finding the perfect mate and settling down in a lovely cave, or reuniting with her people and being welcomed back as a long lose sibling. As it stood, she was somewhere between alicorn and griffin lands, two peoples that would likely be in the midst of a bloody war soon.

She sat down and considered her options. Returning home was at the very least a feasible plan.

“I’d have to go north,” she said aloud, “the caves were somewhere to the north.” Saying it aloud helped to strengthen her resolve. She stood and stretched her wings. Her wings, and no one elses. The dragon’s face turned skyward as she saw her freedom laid out in front of her.

“North.” She said again, “…Which way is that?” she sat back down, “If we were traveling west… yes,” she turned northwards, “yes, that should be north.” She stood again and stretched her wings once more, ready once again to face her free life head-on. With that thought she pumped her large, leathery wings and was airborn.

I’m going home. She thought happily.

Author note: I'm sorry for the time it took to write this. I got stuck about halfway through and just couldnt decide where to go. I also want to apologize for how little happen her, this is my shortest chapter yet. I promose though, Chapter 10 will not be considered 'finished' until i'm past 2,300 words. In fact i'll aim for 3,000 words, 10 is a big number and should be celebrated with another big number.

Comments

[JuyUnseen]

18639
Wow, another comment. Finally.
Yeah, Greathoof is fun to write so i'm glad to hear that he's turning out okay. Thanks for reading!

[Maera Fey]

YAY, Treeflame!

This chapter was a little bit hard to read because of centered text, however, I love it anyway!