The String of Fate

by Omior Falroc

"Arc2: Tsd" Ch9 A step back for air

“Failuresssss all of them,” the serpent lady bitterly muttered as she looked through a small pool of water. “Lookssss like I’ll need to up my game for this disssspute. hmhmhmmm...” The serpent lady turned and left the barren room, anger and disgust at the recent failure very much obvious on her facial features.

She slithered down the hallway, servants moving to the side to avoid getting in her way as she went. Guards eyed her nervously as she past their posts at cave doors and hallways, one nearly broke into a full sweat as she passed by. Eventually, she reached the end of her journey through the halls of her underground home to a door that was inlaid with gold and iron. The handle was made of pure gold with highlights of emeralds all along its handle. The wood of the door was furnished with iron highlights along its entire edge, the inner edge being gold with iron bolts.

The serpent lady opened the door to reveal a conference room. A large wooden table accompanied by over-fancied chairs with nameplates on them was all that the room held aside from lighting. There was three others in the room. They were sitting in their chairs having a small dispute.

“This new guard contingent in the Saddleworth city has become a thorn in my group’s backside. All I’m asking for is a simple bit of help making them.... ’see the light’ to bring things back on track,” the pony facing away from the door said.

“We’ll have to continue this conversation later. Lady Listarr, what is it you’ve graced us with your presence for?” The gryphon to the right of the pony who spoke up questioned. “It is rare that we see your ladyship at a small meeting such as this.”

Lady Listarr merely slithered up to the table next to the recently arguing three before speaking up. “Mmmmmh yessss, I’ve come to-” She paused and glanced at all three beings in the room, the pony with a mane as black as night and a purple coat. The horn on his head was half the size of a regular horn and the top of it was flat, cut off from insolence in the past. The gryphon had a large claw mark across her face covering over her left eye which was shelterd by an eyepatch. Her brown and white features were so dull and average for lady Listarr. The third one was an entity that simply was known as a faceless being. Covered with black smoke and eyes that screamed ‘the fires of hell.’ “Request...... ssssome assistance with a sslight problem in the lord’s backsside.”

The faceless being spoke up, “and what kind of help would you be requesting?”
“Jussssst ssome higher quality troopss, sssimple low level thugssss cannot do the job right,” she absentmindedly moved her sharp, claw-like right hand across the table, leaving a rather deep mark as she balled it into a fist. “I’ve underessstimated my new prey. I wissshh not to take the chance of doing sso again, Malthaneous.”

The gryphon gulped slightly and the pony directly next to Listarr began to sweat as he did the same. Malthaneous just placed his elbows on the table as he brooded over Listarr’s words carefully.

“I see,” Listarr eyed Malthaneous as he removed his elbows and appeared to be smiling devilishly. “Then allow me to offer my elite faceless warriors to complete this hunt for you.”

Lady Listarr frowned a bit as she spoke, “and what brings on such a generous offer from the general and leader of the Faceless?” She absentmindedly moved to circle the table as Malthaneous spoke up again.

“I merely wish to prove my worth to her ladyship, and what better chance will I get to prove my usefulness than to provide proper soldiers to take down an adversary have understandly... misjudged,” Malthaneous’ eyes flickered slightly as he kept his gaze forward.

“Then I accept your gracioussss offer Malthaneous. You mussst introduce me first to your choice in sssoldiersss. I won’t accept.....” she paused after she made a full circle around the table and glanced at Malthaneous again. “Weaklingssss.”

“Do not worry Abal. You can expect I shall do no such dishonorable act. I’d rather not bring shame to my people by doing such a misdeed.”

Abal Listarr left the conference room after nodding in agreement, just before the doors shut, she made one final comment. “Oh and Malthaneousss, do make sure to bring them to my quarters for introductionssss when they are ready,” she smiled viciously as the doors shut.

_____________________________________________________________

A knock came to Lady Abal’s quarters. she smiled venemously as she spoke up. “You may enter.”

The double door opened to a group of faceless who were clad in armor as black as night. They all seemed to look dreadfully similar to one another, but that concerned the serpent lady little as she spoke. “Ssso you eight are the elite soldiersssss,” Lady Listarr eyed each of the meager looking warriors over. “I asked for.” It was more of a statement than a question, hinting at her displeasure at such non threatening looking bunch.

The one ahead of the rest, a taller and more muscled looking one, kneeled before Abal and spoke up with his head down. “Yes your ladyship, we realize you might look upon us as if we were regular soldiers,“ The faceless being stood back up and motioned to the rest of the group of warriors, “and you’ve good reason to. But looks are always deceiving.”

Abal Listarr slithered around them, eyeing them up and down as she went to thinking. She moved her right claw across the faceless farthest to the right of the group’s back. He shuddered as she smiled with a vengeful glee. She finally slithered back around to the front of the group. “You,” she pointed to the only faceless who spoke, “what is your name?”

“Dal’gas your ladyship.”

“Dal’gas...... prove to me you and your groupssss worth by completing a short seriess of tassssksss. If you sssucceed, then I’ll trussst you and your group to go and kill that thorn in the lord’ssss backssside.”

All eight faceless kneeled down and placed their right fists to the ground as they all responded. “Yes your ladyship. We are your humble tools of destruction, use us as you see fit.”

She smiled viciously and her features grew slightly darker as she spoke up. “Excellent.”

_________________________________________________________________

Celestia sat at her throne as the last pony came to see her with a request, an earth pony from Appleloosa asking for lowered taxes on certain imports. She agreed that the high tax rate was unnecessary and promised she’d do something, if not much.

“Th-thank you princess! This is great news!” The pony said as he left the throne room, nearly in a full gallop from excitement.

As the guards shut the door to the throne room, Alcove stepped away from Celestia’s right, garnering her attention. “Princess do you think it wise? I do believe the taxes have been very fair and light these past few hundred years. This will be the first time you shall have the rates changed in such a horribly long time.”

“Yes, I do believe it has been a tad high from the beginning. It was necessary once, but it has not been required to be that high for a long time,” Celestia nodded with a slight smile. A letter materialized above her horn and it bounced off of her head as it landed and rolled slightly on the ground. “A letter? It must be from Twilight.” Celestia opened the parchment and read it over in her mind. She blinked in surprise as she read it over again.

Carefully, she rolled the letter back up and re-tied it before getting up from where she was sitting. “Excuse me Alcove, but there is some business I must attend to.”

Alcove followed closely behind Celestia. “But princess! What could be so busy that you must excuse yourself?”

Celestia stopped and sighed, she knew full well Alcove would find out one way or another, she just hoofed over the letter from Twilight and continued walking.

Alcove followed close behind as he read over the letter.

‘Dear Princess Celestia,

It seems that Pinkie brought the town into another panic. After a word with her she talked about a creature that i’ve not heard of before, could you enlighten me on what this creature is? It was rather tall, standing on two legs and had a flat face. It was wearing some kind of armor like the royal guard has. That’s all I could understand from what Pinkie had seen so with what little information I hope you can reply with an explanation.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle’

“P-princess wait a minute!” Alcove rushed ahead of Celestia before stopping in her path. “I don’t think this is a wise idea to go venturing out, or even sending guards to venture out when you’ve no knowledge of where he’s located!”

Celestia went around her advisor as he said this, she stopped before turning a corner and sighing. “If he’s going through towns then we can spare a few guards to find him and make his journey a little bit easier, can we not?”

“Princess I do believe this is not a wise idea, you’re letting emotions guide your judgement.”

Celestia nodded in understanding, “I wish only to send a pair of guards to Hoofenburg, I believe I know where he’ll go.”

“If you wish Princess.” Alcove nodded and turned to walk away as Celestia continued her journey to the royal guard barracks.

________________________________________________________________________

Some fifteen minutes later

Lady Listarr slammed her fist against the rock in front of her. “Cursssessss,” she turned to the nearby wall to her left and punched it with her right hand. A huge hole was now present in the wall, a small bout of steam coming from the inside of it as she pulled her fist out.

Just as she was about to continue her destructive path, her group of Faceless came to her. “Your ladyship, we’ve accomplished the task you gave to us,” Dal’gas held a sword out once he and the others went into a bowing position. She went up to him and picked the sword up before studying it closely.

She turned and rose the blade high and stuck down at a rock near her. The rock was cut in half. She was about to get angry again and call them out about getting the wrong sword when the rock began to sizzle and bubble, turning into a molten mess of lava. She smiled as she eyed the sword and the handiwork of it in satisfaction.

“It sseeemsss you have passed the challenge I gave you. Unfortunately, you musst act quickly to ssstop the ssamurai,” Abal handed the sword back to Dal’gas before continuing. “Yesss thiss doess mean that you passss my tesstss. I’ve received word that my prey isss going to be getting help esscaping my grassp in the form of a group of guardsss heading for Hoofenburg. Make sssure they never meet each other. I entrusst you and your comradess to kill him.”

“Yes your ladyship, we shall depart immediately.”

“Excellent.”

________________________________________________________________________

Three hours later, near the town of Hoofenburg

The two royal guards Fleet and Post were flying towards the city with an empty carriage secured to their backs. Princess Celestia had ordered that a few pegasi go to try to find a creature she had been looking for and bring it to her.

The town was coming in close as they descended to the ground below. The two pegasi landed in front of a tavern that looked to be bustling with energy. Unhooking themselves, they went inside.

The inside of the tavern had all kinds of individuals who were either drinking, drunk, or doing something stupid. That is, aside from the innkeeper who stood at the bar. The two guards went up to the barkeep and asked for a room.

“Well sure, it’s on the house, after all, not everyday we get business from royal guards.” The pony leaned in closer and, in a loud whisper asked, “so what’s this mission you got yourselves on now?”

Fleet spoke up in response. “We are meeting somepony who’s coming to town. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Ah! So like one a them arrests! What’d this fella do?”

“He has done nothing wrong. The princess just wishes for a word with him.”

The innkeeper pulled a key from under the table, after he handed it over he told them, “Last door on your right. Have a good one.”

The guards went immediately to their rooms, if only the check how their arrangements appeared. Once they entered the door shut quietly, leaving them in the fairly small, two bedded room. Just as they were about to really interact with the room, the group of Faceless came from every direction, engulfing the two guards before they could react.

This resulted in the quick deaths of both ponies. Both their bodies fizzled and steamed as they slowly turned into gas. Dal’gas spoke up quickly. “Take their faces now! This is our only chance!”

Two of the Faceless stood over the slowly dissipating ponies, the shadows that obscured them engulfed the ponies as both of the Faceless morphed into the equine counterparts. After a few seconds they were an exact lookalike to the dead guards. They spoke up with voices matching the dead guards. “Fleet Wing and Post Control ready sir!” They both said.

Dal’gas smiled as his features darkened. “The mistress will be pleased.”

Author's Note:

And after so long here is another chappy!