Trixie Lulamoon and her fellow Elemental Bearers have come to Naqah, the land of camels and jinn, chasing a legend. Stories speak of a bottled army that Corona, the Tyrant Sun, now seeks. Can Trixie and co keep the past buried? A Lunaverse story.
Naqah, the land of camels and their elemental jinn. Among the thousand stories, told and retold in the markets and coffee houses of the land, is one of a bottled army made of smoke and fire forged in ages long past.
But now that civil war wracks the country, a new story is on the lips of Naqah's citizens. A tale of a mad solar alicorn that searches the mountains, plains and deserts of Naqah for the bottled army as part of her bid to overthrow Equestria. Corona, the Tyrant Sun.
Now Trixie Lulamoon, Element of Magic and her fellow Element Bearers must plunge into a nation far from home, in an attempt to deny Corona another tool in her arsenal to unleash against their homeland.
The vast tall grass plains of Cissanthema’s Mild West rippled in the breeze that whipped across its north western reaches. The sea of prairie provided a strong contrast to the drier desert that dominated the central and southern sections of the vast region. For the buffalo tribes, it was the breadbasket of their migrations, and their home in the summer months. It also contained- due to a few agreements between the buffalo tribes and Equestria- one of the longest stretches of railroad on the continent. Beginning in the southern reaches of Equestria, it wound through Caballeria, before cutting northwest and making a straight shot for the camel nation of Naqah. Naqah, the land of sultans, sand, and wish granting jinn, or so the stories went.
All these thoughts and more fought for space in head of Ponyville’s resident school teacher, the grassland whipping past the train’s window at top speed. Cheerilee, by all rights, should have been excited about her destination.
While she and her friends had visited many nations outside of Equestria in recent months, most of them were either Equestria adjacent or part of the larger Hegemony. Naqah was far away, and quite thoroughly independent. It was also rather exotic, compared to Equestria. Camels weren’t seen much in Luna’s realm and she’d be entering a land where she’d be the minority. And some of the legends that she had heard- mostly told by Lyra on the train- of the jinn sounded amazing.
Yet, part of her really wanted to just be back in Ponyville.
It had been an exhausting series of trips and adventures, culminating in a grand tournament of champions. The Elements of Harmony had been pitted in a series of challenges against some of the best fighters and champions from across Cissanthema and beyond. The odds had been long, but against all of them, she and her friends had managed to emerge victorious. Not that they hadn’t come out of it a little battered. Trixie was still nursing a leg wound, that could have turned out much, much worse all things considered. But all of this came back to the fact that the element bearers were drained.
But it seemed that duty was calling again. After the victory party was done with, they had been approached by a Naqhan envoy, who had come asking for help.
“Lyra, have you heard anything about this Army of Smoke and Fire?”
The mint-green unicorn lazily flopped onto her side, letting two of her legs dangle over the side of the low padded bench. Legends and stories were one of Lyra’s many talents, but all she could offer was a shrug.
“Only bits and pieces, really. It’s mentioned exactly once in the Tales of Sehrazat as part of a larger collection of powerful items that belonged to an ancient Naqhan caliph. I don’t remember any that said what it does. Though with a name like that, I have to imagine Corona will want it.”
Trixie gave a noncommittal snort from her own seat. The Element of Magic was slumped over, forelegs crossed, star studded hat pulled low over her eyes. “Of course she wants it. Why wouldn’t she want it? Anything to help overthrow her dear sister!”
“Is that the leg wound talking?”
That question had come from the the grey coated pegasus in the seat next to Trixie. Ditzy Doo reached a hoof out to the limb in question, humming to herself as she inspected it.
“Maybe,” Trixie grumbled. “Maybe I’m just a little worn out from constantly wandering the length and breadth of Cissanthema.”
“Once more into the breach. Then we can take a break.” Raindrops said, yawning and arching her back.
“Assuming Corona lets us. I eagerly await the news that she’s finally invaded Canterlot the minute we get back.” Trixie grumbled.
Carrot Top nervously squirmed in her seat. “But isn’t that why we’re going to Naqah in the first place? To keep her from doing that?”
“Well, denying her a toy to do so, at the very least. Assuming this Army thing is as dangerous as it’s supposed to be.” Cheerilee shrugged.
“Would have been nice if we had been given more information before we left,” Trixie grumbled again, her cranky mood deciding to stick around for the long haul. “I hope the Sultan is preparing a massive feast for us for the trouble of solving his problem.”
Cheerilee rolled her eyes, dipping a hoof into her saddlebags. After a moment or two of rummaging, she pulled a pair of maps from its depths, both acquired at the first train station within the official borders of the Mild West.
“Don’t be too grumpy Trixie,” she commented, quickly scanning both. “According to these, there’s only one more stop in the Mild West before we enter Naqha. And the town where our escort is meeting us isn’t too far past the border.”
Ditzy frowned, ceasing her examinations of her friend’s leg. “That’s going to take a little bit of getting used to. We usually don’t travel with an escort...aside from the trip to Tambelon, I suppose.”
Raindrops straightened up at that, a deep frown marring her features. “That makes me nervous. The fact that they feel the need to provide one just screams trouble.”
“But, Corona is involved,” Carrot Top countered, nervously biting her lip. “Can you blame their government for wanting to be careful?”
Trixie abandoned her slumped posture, sitting up straight and tipping her hat back into a more stable position. “Except, I’d point out that if Corona really wanted to get us, I’m not sure an army would be able to stop her. Besides, something was bugging me about that Usta, character. That speech felt rehearsed to me.”
Frowning, Cheerilee was nevertheless forced to admit that there had been a certain...slickness to the camel’s entire demeanor. At the time, she had mentally written it off as a side effect of his job. Usta Bobbin was a royal courtier. Even without the kind of corruption that the Night Court had recently been purged of, a pony- or camel for that matter- with a silver tongue could still do quite well for themselves in such a role.
“You think he’s lying?” She asked.
Nervously chewing on her lip, Trixie gave a half-shrug as a response. “Maybe? I think he was hiding something. But there had to be some core of truth there or Luna wouldn’t have let us come.”
Raindrops frowned, deep in thought, the idle twitching of her wings giving force to her mental debate. “Maybe some of the nobles don’t want us around?” she proposed. “Thought they could handle it themselves until the sultan pulled rank or something?”
“Whatever the case, Naqah’s obviously worried about somepony,” Lyra commented, still enjoying her lazy position. “Any chance we could find out what before we get there?”
Cheerilee examined her map again, humming in thought for a brief moment. “The stop before we enter Naqah itself is a buffalo trade town from the looks of it.” Quickly shifting focus, to her other map, she hummed again. “Nez Perce tribe it seems. They might know something about what’s going on beyond the border.”
Ignoring Trixie’s snort at what was most likely badly pronounced Prench, Raindrops gave a simple nod. “Good. I’m all for helping and stopping Corona...just the talk of an escort has me nervous.”
“Though, on the other hoof,” Ditzy hummed. “It’s kind of nice to be taken seriously as knights by another government.”
Carefully folding her maps back up and stowing them again, Cheerilee turned to look out the window again. Whatever was waiting for them in the land of the sultans, she was sure they’d find out sooner, rather than later.
- - - -
My little pony, My little pony Ahh ahh ahh ahh…. My little pony- We’re as close as friends can ever be! My little pony- So come on take a trip with me!
A big world tour; new people to meet New sights to see; and new things to eat When you’re seeing the world with our friends The fun you’ll have will never end! You have my little ponies- We’ll be seeing all of you real soon!
- - - -
The Mild West was buffalo, or so the common perception was.
They roamed the varied landscapes of the vast swathe of territory sometimes seemingly without number. In fact, a common tall tale in Equestrian folklore stated that when Luna met with the tribal chieftains to establish Equestria’s southern border, that the collection of chiefs and their retinues were so large that Luna had to conduct the negotiations under the open sky, for no collection of tents could hope to contain them all. Similar stories said that when buffalo tribes traveled or marched, that the very ground trembled from the might, and that they could shake the mountains to their bones.
That perception also, unfortunately, tended to tar the region with one massive brush. A buffalo was a buffalo and they were pretty much the same. This was far from the truth, naturally. There were a hundred different tribes, divided into many different groups, and a buffalo from the high plateaus near Naqah had very little in common with the flat grassland runners of the central plains. Not every tribe was buffalo, either. There were a few pony and donkey tribes in the mix, who had lived amongst their great shaggy neighbors since a time before Equestria, and who had continued on in their ways, largely unchanged by the passage of time. In reality, the tribes of the Mild West were nations unto themselves, each one having as much in common with its neighbors as Equestria did to Cavallia.
Thusly, it was not a village of cloth teepees that the Element Bearers stepped off the train into, but a collection of long, inverted V shaped lodges- their walls covered with reed mats- that sprawled northwest away from collection of sturdy, wooden framed structures built right next to the train tracks. They were obviously intended for travelers, consisting of a saloon, a sturdy looking inn and an equally sturdy looking trading post.
It was mostly buffalo moving through the streets with their slow and steady strides, but they weren’t the only ones about. There were camels moving through the town as well, though most seemed to be clustering about the inn and saloon, exchanging nervous and shifty glances for some reason. Some ponies were also present. A small group of three were talking with a buffalo cow on the wide wooden sidewalk that lined the trading post. Their white ruffled collars and the vivid collection of multicolored tulips crowding the pots at their hooves identified them as hailing from Paardveld; most likely traders.
“Huh,” Cheerilee blinked as her eyes settled on their pots. “I thought that the tulip craze was done with?”
“Stars above, I remember that!” Trixie groaned, rubbing her forehead. “I swear, every dignitary that visited Luna for three years straight brought tulips as gifts. Fields of the things too. And then the Night Court caught onto the trend and there were even more!” She shuddered at the memory, her friends almost swearing that a slight green tinge had crept into her cheeks. “I think that everypony in the castle was sick to death of the taste by the time the trend was done.”
“Did you try putting hot sauce on them? “ Carrot Top giggled.
“Didn’t help. It really didn’t.”
“Doesn’t look like she’s going for it either.” Ditzy Doo nodded.
Indeed, the buffalo cow shook her head and made a curt cutting motion before turning and trundling into the shop. The Paardvish traders looked clearly annoyed and frustrated, but grabbed their pots and hauled them back towards the inn.
“Okay!” Cheerilee said, looking at the large clock set on a pole. Much like the last few frontier train stations, the departure schedule was clearly displayed next to it. “We have an hour before the train pulls out again. Shall we split up and ask around?”
“Raindrops and I will check out the saloon!” Trixie declared, grabbing the aforementioned pegasus and sweeping off with her.
“I suppose that Carrot Top and I will poke around the inn.” Ditzy nodded.
“Maybe we can get something to eat too. We’ve been on that train for a while.”
“Which leaves Lyra and I on the trading post,” Cheerilee smiled. “Souveniers!”
The group split for their destinations, Raindrops and Trixie going left, Carrot Top and Ditzy to the right, and Lyra and Cheerilee straight ahead. The trading post was a single story but a quite large, perhaps three of their inverted houses long and two wide. The battered, but well painted sign of a flowing waterfall proudly declared itself as the “Flowing Waters Outpost” in a variety of languages; Equestrian being near the bottom of the hierarchy. A wave of scents washed over the Lyra and Cheerilee as they entered, a mix of dried leaves and other herbs by their guess.
The cow they had seen negotiating before was behind a low, well sanded wooden counter. A collection of beads- seemingly made from shiny stones and porcupine quills- were woven into her the right side of her short, curly, sand colored mane, forming a loose lattice of jewelry.
Most of what was on the shelves seemed to be aimed towards the travelling crowd, both on the rails and on hoof. There was trail mix and camping equipment next to tribal jewelry and other tchotchkes.
Smiling, the shopkeep dipped her shaggy head in a bow, speaking in Paardveldian. “Gegroet dames, hoe kan ik u van dienst zjin?”
“Err...Equestrian?” Lyra asked.
“Greetings, ladies,” she tried again, switching to a clipped Equestrian. “How can I be of service?”
“Hello!” Cheerilee smiled back. “I was wondering if we could ask you something?”
The shopkeep frowned slightly at the thought of sales slipping out the window, but nodded all the same.
“What’s the word on Naqah?”
“Word?” She blinked.
“News?” Lyra tried. “Stories from the camels in town?”
“Ah.” The cow nodded, now frowning deeply. “Many camels leave. Conflict between tribes. Wendigo packs in mountains.”
The two friends exchanged a look and a frown.
“Great. We barely dealt with one of those things, now there are packs of them? That whole country has to be ice now.” Cheerilee said.
“Ah! No, not cold ones,” the bison shopkeep quickly corrected. Face scrunched up she searched her limited Equestrian vocabulary for the right words. “They are...ghoul?”
Cheerilee just looked over at Lyra, having hit a point where her knowledge ended. The bard’s face was scrunched up like the crumpled page of a book, her mind working back through the stories she had picked up over the years. Legends were Lyra’s other primary area of expertise, but even her in depth knowledge had been tested by some of the far flung creatures she had encountered in recent weeks.
“The name does sound kind of familiar. If I’m remembering things right, they’re a kind of wasteland and desert dwelling nomadic monster. Like if you crossed a diamond dog with a vulture.”
“...What would that even look like?”
Lyra shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one. Just heard stories. Would a minotaur and a vulture make more sense?”
“...Not really, no.”
“It’s the best I got.”
Shrugging, Cheerilee turned her attention towards the shelves, stuffed with a tourist’s ransom in booty. “Well, we still have some time before the train pulls out again. I’m going to do some shopping!”
The smile quickly leapt back to the cow’s face.
- - - -
Across the way, Trixie was considering the sight before her. The bar was rather crowded for a frontier settlement like this. Aside from the few bison that seemingly ran the bar, there were a few locals dominating the corner of the room, talking in their deep and rumbling tongue. A few camels were huddled by the bar, their eyes examining the wooden grain with an almost unmatched intensity. Their misery was clear, which Trixie was hoping to use to get a few more details on the state of the country out of them. There was one obvious problem with that, however.
“How are you planning to get around the language barrier?”
Raindrops’s tone was mostly deadpan, but there was an amused undercurrent there that threatened to make Trixie chuckle herself. Instead she shrugged. “Trying to work that out. Think that pantomime could be effective here?”
“...Not really, no.”
Setting the idea of speaking to them aside for now, Trixie studied the camels again. Their bearing did seem military or at least martial in origin. Even in their dour moods they held themselves with the same coiled and ready posture that she had seen in the Canterlot Castle guard. Yet they carried no weapons and wore nothing that resembled a uniform. And yet, the more she watched them drink, occasionally clinking their glasses together and raising them skyward, the more she was convinced that her original assessment was correct.
“Come on Trixie. Unless you have a translation spell in your hat, leave them to their drinks.”
With a slight sigh, Trixie shrugged. “I’m going to try something and at least get a drink in the process.”
She strode right for the bar, her hooves clattering across the rough wooden slats of the floor. The bison bartender looked up at her approach, waving a hoof towards a collection of empty bottles on the shelf behind him. It took her a moment to understand that said collection was effectively the menu of what he had in stock. No bourbon it seemed, but there was whiskey. After pointing to the appropriate bottle, she was presented with a glass and the alcohol was quickly poured. The bartender then tapped a hoof against the surface three times and pointed towards a chalkboard. Crude sketches of various national currencies were lined up on the board, the buffalo pointing towards the one of the Equestrian bit.
Trixie dutifully dug a trio of bits from her saddlebags before taking her drink and idly sipping it a few times. Casually glancing over at the camels she raised her glass to them. “Here’s to bad days.”
The nearest camel reacted, turning towards and blinking at her, before shakily returning the gesture. There was a look of resignation in his eyes, mixed with a heavy sense of weariness. but then he turned away and back to his own world.
Well, I tried at least, Trixie thought, slugging back her drink in one smooth motion. Joining raindrops back at the door, she shrugged. “Looks like the language barrier beats us today.”
“Let’s wait for the others then. We can ask our escort all the questions we want once we meet him.”
- - - -
With Carrot Top and Ditzy’s trip to the inn coming up just as empty, the little that Cheerilee and Lyra had discovered bounced around Raindrop’s mind for the next few hours as the train began its final approach towards the border.
The tales of ghouls and conflict made Raindrops glad that they had brought the enchanted armor sets Luna had gifted them at the contest. Corona’s minions would be enough trouble, and if they found themselves in another Tambelon situation, stuck between them and some third faction...well, they’d need that extra protection.
The landscape continued to rise as they moved past the border proper now, beginning to wind through the foothills of the mountains that ringed the outer edge of the nation like a great picket fence. Here and there, the entrances to mine shafts rose from the ground, the small mining camps built up around them reinforced with sandbags and other such defensive constructions. Hints of the nation’s trouble, it seemed.
But it was as they approached the town of Derin that the Element Bearers saw the first true results of the whispered conflict sweeping through Naqah. According to the guide book that Cheerilee had bought at the last stop (along with an elaborate set of jade hair beads), Derin was the the center of coal mining operations for the eastern half of the country. As such, it existed much like the center of a wheel, the smaller mines and villages that supplied it radiating away like the spokes. The buildings were common for an industrial town, squat and mostly devoid of ornate decoration and set upon a smallish hill among its larger brothers.
But arranged in a loose crescent in the valley before the town was a collection of tents arranged in ordered rows, and before that large wooden stakes had been driven into the ground, facing outwards like the quills of a giant porcupine. It was easily the largest fortification the Element Bearers had seen yet, ready to repel a true army. The train chugged onwards, turning and now following the line of the valley before passing through the lone gap in the defensive line. Camels- and a few ponies- armed with glittering spears either wandered through the tent city, or stood at attention, watching the valley with hawkish scrutiny.
Ditzy Doo’s good eye observed the soldiers engaging in their duties. “They’re camping an army here.”
“I only count two sets of regimental colors,” Cheerilee commented, nodding towards the bright pendants that stood tall above the tents. Fluttering in the mountain air, their bold colors naturally caught the eye. The first showed two lightning bolts crossed over an angry cloud, upon a dark blue background, while the second was the point of a spear aimed skyward before a snow capped peak. “It’s not a big one….at least not compared to what Pferdreich pulled together. ”
“Still a little concerned that they need one at all.” Carrot Top said, nervously biting her lip.
The train passed fully into the town now, the screech of steel and the roiling billow of steam signaling the beginning of its slow grinding stop. The Element Bearers crowded around the window, watching the buildings slowly pass by and searching for any other armies, hidden or otherwise.
“Looks like somepony’s waiting for us.” Trixie observed, pointing towards the lone figure standing on train platform.
“You sure? There are other creatures on this train.” Ditzy said.
“Pretty sure. There’s like five other creatures. Besides, he’s military.”
True to Trixie’s words, the camel waited with military like discipline. A neatly pressed jacket of dark blue was wrapped around his barrel, adjusted in place with meticulous precision, offsetting the bright red of the fez set at a slight angle on his head. He sported a short beard and mustache, both that appeared to have been trimmed and maintained within an inch of their lives. And just to complete the look, a curved saber was strapped to his side.
Carrot Top blinked. “Well...I guess it would make sense that they’d send someone from the government for us.”
“Probably,” Cheerilee shrugged, “let’s go introduce ourselves.”
Leaving their bags for now, the collection of friends trotted off the train. The waiting camel dipped his head in a quick bow.
“Peace upon you, worthy friends. Welcome to the Sultanate of Naqah, you and Equestria honor us with your presence.”
“The pleasure is ours….” Trixie began.
“Parlak Kilic,” he nodded back, “or Brilliant Sword in Equestrian if you’d prefer.”
“Your Equestrian is quite good,” Cheerilee observed, tilting her head slightly. “Ever been?”
Parlak chuckled for a moment before responding. “Why yes, I have. I learned quite a bit, while I was the military attache to our diplomat in Canterlot. I will be your guide, escort and translator for the duration of our business.”
“I was wondering about that. Uhh...I don’t suppose you could tell us more? Usta was...vague.” Carrot Top frowned.
A thin frown crossed Parlak’s muzzle. “Really now? What exactly did he tell you?”
“He asked for help. Said that Corona was searching for something called The Army of Smoke and Fire.” Raindrops answered.
“And then we heard something about conflict and wendigo,” Lyra chimed in. “And here we are.”
Cursing under his breath in his native tongue, Parlak scratched his head. “My apologies. It appears that Usta left out a great deal in his explanation. The situation is a little more...complicated than that.”
Trixie tugged on the brim of her hat, a familiar tired sensation settling in the pit of her stomach but she launched smoothly into her diplomat mode. “Is there going to be a problem? We came because we believed that Corona was a threat to both our nations. If we’ve been lured here-”
“I assure you,” Parlak frowned, holding up a hoof, “our concerns about the Tyrant Sun are true. However…” He looked around the area for a moment, gaze lingering on each camel that was passing by. Not seeing whatever it was he was searching for, Parlak continued, one hoof now idly tapping at his blade. “I would prefer to discuss the details in a more secure location.”
The Element Bearers now joined Parlak in observing their surroundings, half expecting Corona to be hiding behind the ticket counter or a pack of her salamanders in the bathroom. After a few moments of no Corona or her minions, Trixie looked back at Parlak with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re expecting wandering ears?”
“It has become very common as of late.”
Trixie nodded again. “Very well, lead the way.”
Dipping a hoof into his coat, Parlak produced a plain brass watch.“I ask for your patience just a little longer,” he said, clicking it open. “The train to Al-Asitana should be arriving soon and I’d feel better speaking there.”
“What’s wrong with that train?” Cheerilee asked, waving to the line of cars.
“It’s not...secure enough.”
Raindrops opened her mouth, intending to ask just how secure he wanted things when another train whistle split the air. Derin’s train station was large, with one long platform for passengers and two other sections of track for loading cargo. Backing down the former came some manner of a train. At least, it seemed that was what the construct had started life as.
But what came rumbling the Element Bearer’s way now more resembled some kind of lumbering, metal caterpillar. It was only as it grew closer that they could make out the three individual train cars and locomotive that made up the larger whole. Iron plates had been bolted to the sides of normal train cars, turning them into armored boxes, save for the windows. Sandbags- constrained and held in place by barbed wire- were piled on the roofs to form low walls around a pair of ballista, manned by a pair of grim faced camels. Even the pilot on the locomotive seemed to be reinforced and turned into a giant battering ram. It backed up into the station with the same familiar grind as any other train, except somehow louder, almost a mechanical roar.
“...Is that a train or a fortress?” Trixie exclaimed, dropping all diplomatic pretense.
“A little bit of both, perhaps.” Parlak answered before allowing himself a slight smirk. “This is one of our military transports.”
A few camel porters emerged from the original train, hurriedly dragging the Element Bearer’s bags and cases along with them. Parlak said a few words to them, motioning to the armored behemoth, to which they nodded and quickly began to transfer the luggage.
Carrot Top gave voice to her, and she suspected her friend’s, concerns. “Is all of this really needed? It seems...over the top.”
“Perhaps,” Parlak shrugged, “But I wished to have extra security when moving through the mountains. The ghouls have become quite insistent as of late. Though, if you would all follow me, I will be more than willing to give you all the answers you want.”
With that, he paced for the armored train. Raindrops followed right behind, more than eager to find out what Corona’s plans for this nation were. Trixie hesitated for a moment before following suit, her curiosity equally piqued. The rest of her friends followed, all with their own mixed feelings about the situation, Ditzy bringing up the rear with a few hesitant steps. Unease kept both her eyes flicking towards the baliste. The spears loaded into the warmachines looked almost twice as long as a pony. The thought of what they could need such weapons for sent chills down her spine. Still, she pushed those thoughts aside for now and followed her friends into the train.
Parlak slid the door to the center car open, ushering the Element Bearers inside. The interior was much more normal compared to the bulky monstrosity that was the exterior, though set up a little differently. A large table dominated the center of the room, with a selection of comfortable looking couches arranged around it and a collection of maps and other documents neatly piled on top of it.
“Please, have a seat.” Parlak nodded, giving an idle hoof wave to the couches. Without waiting to see if they did, he reached for one of the maps, unrolling it across the table.
Crowding around the table Trixie and her friends looked over a map of the sultanate, broken down to the province level. A large collection of the provinces and parts of a few more, had been colored red, mostly stretching from the southwestern corner of the nation towards the northeast and the capital. Most of the remaining provinces were colored blue, save for occasional circles of yellow scattered across the eastern mountains.
“Allow me to begin by providing some context. Six months ago,” he tapped the yellow circles, “we began to suffer raids from the ghul tribes of the mountains. Frustrating, but nothing that we haven’t experienced before. So, the armies were deployed.”
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. “Wait...that sounds like it was before everypony freaked out about the dragon migration.”
The smile that Parlak returned was surprisingly cheeky. “It really was a trifle to mobilize our armies. There just wasn’t a need to explain the why.” The camel’s hoof traced across the map to the mass of red. “And yet, as they were deployed, we suffered a betrayal. An emir- roughly equivalent to one of your Equestrian dukes- by the name of Ofkeli Grev rose in rebellion over proposed reforms of Sultan Pirinc.”
“No offense,” Trixie interrupted, holding up a hoof, “but so far, this feels like an internal matter.”
Parlak nodded in agreement. “And so it was. At least, at first. The armies were called back and turned against the rebels.” Another map was quickly flipped into place, showing that the swathe of red had shrunk by half, driven back towards the southwest.
“While our gains were effective at first, they changed their tactics, denying battle, escaping and striking behind our lines. So we stepped up our espionage efforts and that’s where we discovered Corona’s influence. A red pegasus, with hair that crackled like fire and spoke of his ‘true queen’.”
“Kindle!” Raindrops exclaimed.
“Hold on. You’re saying that Corona is involved in the rebellion? Since when did she care about taking control of other nations?” Cheerilee said with a frown.
Frowning, Parlak began to ruffle through the stacks of papers. “Our spy was able to shed some light on that, before we lost contact with him. Now where’s that document….”
“Lost...contact?” Ditzy blinked.
“Grev has been moving around since the rebellion started, moving from supporter to supporter’s lands.” Parlak said with an idle wave of his free hoof. “He was infiltrating one of said supporters, when Grev happened to arrive, along with Kindle. Ah!”
Pulling one of the many pieces of paper loose, Parlak cleared his throat and began to read.
“Grev:,” he began in an official manner, obviously reading from a transcript, “No more wavering. Is your queen ready to commit? I am both willing and prepared to have Naqah’s armies and my personal cadre of bound jinn support Celestia’s attempt on Canterlot.”
“Kindle: I have yet to hear why Celestia needs your support Grev. The true queen’s power is quite beyond any one jinn.”
“Grev: Hmm. And yet, her first attempt was stopped by one pony.”
“Kindle: Don’t you dare-”
“Grev: No insult was intended my good stallion. My point is that even the true Queen of Equestria could use some support. An army to lure Equestria’s away from the capital? Jinn to lock down Luna’s spell casters? The legendary Army of Smoke and Fire to keep the Night Guard...occupied?”
“The notes indicate that Kindle pauses at this point.”
“Grev: If Celestia can help me claim the Army of Smoke and Fire, cast down Sultan Pirinc and his madness? I give you my word, on the name of The Prophet, I will give her all of that and perhaps more.”
“Kindle: My queen might be willing to give you the sultanate. But, she will not overthrow your government on just a promise.”
“Grev now pauses before speaking again.”
“Grev: A gesture of faith then? We work on finding the Army of Smoke and Fire together. It will show that our two factions can work together and I will actually have the Army to assist your Queen. Would this be acceptable?”
“Kindle: ...Yes. It would.”
With that Parlak put the transcript down. “Unfortunately he was found not long after. But that’s the long and short of it. If Grev and Kindle find the Army of Smoke and Fire, it will be a disaster for both our nations.”
A round of nervous glances passed between the Element Bearers. Corona’s list of allies was spotty, at best. Aside from those she had managed to bully into following her, she had a zebra who did it because of a prophecy and a dragon whose motives were focused on revenge. A Corona with allies on an international level was much more frightening to consider.
“So, you want us to find it before them.” Trixie said, with a deep frown.
“We wish for your aid in finding it before them. You have opposed Corona in the past. Aside from Princess Luna, you are the closest thing to experts anypony or camel has.”
“Really? That’s the only reason? This began six months ago,” Trixie pointed out, sweeping a hoof across the map. “You only approached us after we won the Contest of Champions.”
“There may have been some debate amongst the remaining loyalist nobles on whether dealing with Corona was somehow your and Equestria’s responsibility alone.” Parlak admitted, giving a slight shrug. “Truly, an absurd debate, considering that Corona has already stuck her hoof in our affairs.”
“So, what now?” Ditzy asked.
“We should arrive at Al-Asitana by tonight. The sultan wishes that you join him for dinner. Then the next morning, we shall begin the search.”
“You had us at dinner.” Trixie smiled.
- - - -
True to their guide’s word, the sun was beginning to set as the armored train ground its way into the capital of the Sultanate of Naqah. Al-Asitana- translated into Equestrian as “The Center”- was in many ways Canterlot’s opposite. The former was at the top of a soaring mountain peak, close to the night sky that was the domain of its ruler. By contrast, Al-Asitana had been built at the mouth of one of the many wide passes that broke up Naqah’s mountain rangers. Canterlot was a city of soaring spires and white marble accented by delicate silver. Al-Asitana was great round domes, a riot of greens and other earth tones, dyed a slight reddish tone by the dying light.
One thing that the Element Bearers could still easily see, even in the growing darkness, was the tendency for the most important looking buildings to be clustered near the city center. Though it was difficult to tell which one of impressive domed buildings was the sultan’s palace from this distance.
“That one,” Parlak said, seemingly reading their minds and answering the unasked questions, “on the far right. With the four minarets? That is the Aya Sofya, the grand temple of The Prophet and the unofficial heart of the city.”
“Oh! I know this one,” Lyra perked up. “He was the founder of that philosophical path. The Five Pillars of the Dragon! Truth, benevolence, charity, mirth and integrity. Considered by many to be the main guiding cultural force in Naqah.”
“Those sound really similar to the Elements.” Carrot Top said, her face pressed up against the glass.
“You’re not the first to say that. Personally, I prefer to leave that question to the scholars.” Parlak shrugged, before pointing to another domed structure to the left of the temple. “That is the High Chamber, where the nobles meet to carry out the sultan’s desires, and the one on the end,” he moved his hoof slightly to indicate building, “is the palace itself, which is where we will be going.”
The train station was quite empty when the train pulled up, save for a few gruff looking guards and a pair of waiting carriages to carry them the rest of the way. The girls piled in, followed by Parlak, before they were whisked off through the streets.
The palace itself remained (and perhaps grew all the more) impressive as they drew near. A sprawling garden had been planted around the sandstone colored building, lush and full, with a dizzying array of plants and herbs that Carrot Top rushed to try and identify in her head. The carriages rolled to a rattling stop, allowing the Element Bearers to climb off and trot down the stone path and up the marble staircase to the towering front doors.
Said doors were currently open, and flanked by more guards, the reason for which was readily apparent. It was the beard of the older camel that caught their attention first. Long and white, it almost touched the ground, casting him in a rather dignified looking light. Like Parlak, he wore a fez, but one that was much grander looking. A pristine white feather- held in place by an ornate silver starburst- swept up and back towards his tail, almost reflecting the beard. His deep- almost to the point of being black- navy blue jacket was marked with golden embroidery around the collar and cuffs. There was little doubt in the Element Bearers’ mind that this was Sultan Pirinc.
“Selamlar benim onur misafir!” He began. The sultan’s tone was jovial and his voice deep, giving the impression of a kindly grandfather ready to hoof out presents on Hearth’s Warming Eve. “Sen varlığı ile bu eski aptal kalp sıcak. Gel! Eğer yolculuk yorgun olması gerekir. Gıda, içki ve geri kalanı bekliyor.”
“The sultan is happy to see you. Dinner, drink and rest await.” Parlak said, taking up the translator role.
Sweeping her hat off, Trixie dropped to her knees in a bow. “Thank you for your hospitality, Sultan. I hope that we’ll be able to solve our nation’s mutual issue in short order.”
Once Parlak relayed Trixie’s words, Pirinc gave a deep, but still amused chortle. Motioning for the group to follow, he said a few words in response.
“Ah,” Parlak blinked in surprise. “It seems that a lead was discovered while I was away. He wishes to give the details while we eat.”
With a twirl of Pirinc’s hoof, six simply dressed servants stepped from just inside the palace.
“They will show you to you rooms, and bring your bags. Take some time to refresh yourselves and then join us in the great hall for dinner, if you please.”
“Of course,” Trixie beamed, quite wide. “We would be honored.”
- - - -
Lyra flopped backwards, letting the soft mattress of the massive four post bed almost swallow her body. Dreams of cuddling under the downy sheets with Bon Bon, supported by what might as well have been a cloud, twirled through her mind.
There were certain perks to being a Knight of Equestria.
She would have laid there for hours, if not for the rumble of her stomach. Yawning, she rolled back off the mattress, pausing again only to shake the last remains of her bath from her coat. She was halfway to the door when she heard the knock, the door swinging open the next moment as Cheerilee peeked her head in.
“Was that bath amazing, or what?”
“Yes,” Lyra admitted with a wide smile. “Had to be magically heated.”
“Probably. Let’s go see what we got in terms of dinner now.”
Stepping into the hall, Lyra and Cheerilee joined the rest of their friends. One of the many palace servants was waiting as well, and with a friendly smile, began to lead them through the halls. Winding through the palace, Trixie and her friends took in the decor as they passed. Mosaic tiles arranged in intricate patterns seemed to be the order of the day, as they reached a grand dining hall. The walls were lined by candles, that cast their flickering light across the room.
Other servants bustled about, having already filled one of the dark wood tables with dishes of food and icey flagons of drink. Silky pillows arranged around the table made for many comfortable places to sit. Parlak and Pirinc trotted to the head of the table, lowering themselves into a pair particularly plush looking pillows.
Cheerilee trotted slightly ahead of her friends, throwing herself into the air and flopping down a red pillow with a satisfied smile. Lyra- and Sultan Pirinc- chuckled as she sat down on Cheerilee’s right side.
“Satisfied?” She asked, in an almost sing song voice.
“Quite.” Cheerilee answered, voice slightly muffled by the pillow.
Carrot Top observed the spread on the table. Fruit and vegetables were in abundance. Fresh plums, apricots, pomegranates, were mixed with roasted spinach, cabbage, eggplant and red peppers stuffed with cheese. And mixed in with those were stacks of fresh baked bread, and flaky looking pastries.
“Wow!” Ditzy gasped, eagerly licking her lips. “It all looks so good.”
“Tuck in.” Parlak said with a casual gesture.
The ponies didn’t need much convincing as they tore into the feast, enjoying the opportunity to rest and fill their bellies. Sultan Pirinc ate at a more measured pace, speaking animatedly, if not slowly due to the need to translate through Parlak. Most of his questions were of Ponyville and their lives there. He asked about each of their jobs, how they came to meet each other and about their friends and family. Each answered question elicited another nod from the sultan.
It was after a few rounds of questions that a nagging feeling began to gnaw at the back of Trixie’s mind. She and her friends still had a rather incomplete picture about the political situation in Naqah. This Grev camel was supposedly rebelling over political reforms, but after her experiences in Zaldia Trixie wasn’t feeling inclined to just let that statement go without further question.
“Excuse me your highness, but I have some questions about these reforms that have caused this rebellion. What about them was Grev so opposed to?”
After a round of translation through Parlak the sultan broke into an animated and rather involved burst of speaking, motioning animatedly with his hooves and actually angrily slamming the table towards the end.
“The long and the short of it,” Parlak said, apparently paraphrasing his ruler’s long winded speech, “is that it’s a question of both the role of Naqah in the world and how we conduct ourselves internally. Though it was one reform in particular that pushed him over the edge.”
“And what reform was that?” Cheerilee asked, reaching for her own drink.
Parlak’s smile was more sarcastic than anything else. “Education.”
Chilled strawberry juice was sent spraying across the table as Cheerilee half sputtered, half choked. Sultan Pirinc actually jumped to his hooves, brow furrowed in concern. Cheerilee was oblivious to that as she slammed her goblet down on the table.
“How could anypony object to teaching? Does he want to keep his citizens ignorant or something?”
Parlak sighed and said a few words to Pirinc, who sat back down, giving Cheerilee an almost apologetic nod.
“There have been two problematic threads in the tapestry that is Naqahn society,” Parlak began, idly swirling his half full goblet. “The first is the idea that camels are somehow more deserving of rights than the other creatures that live in our lands. Up until the beginning of Pirinc’s rule ponies and buffalo were not allowed to own property, or serve in the armed forces.
“Really?” Lyra asked
“Oh, yes. The janissary corps strongly resisted anything they viewed as a threat to their position. Which is why Pirinc disbanded them and replaced them with a more modern, Equestrian modeled army. Which Grev immediately argued we should use to expand our borders, especially into the non aligned countries to our north and east.”
Trixie frowned. She knew about the small collection of minor pony kingdoms from her studies with Princess Luna. Effectively sandwiched between Naqah’s Crescent Sea on one side and Paardveld and Heststed on the other, their names seemed to change on a semi-regular basis. Always things like The Dutchy of Maretonia, The Southern Wind League and The Principality of Vallachia. Equestria and its allies gave the kingdoms their freedom, but she could see how they might be a tempting target for a nation seeking to build an empire.
“And Sultan Pirinc disagreed with that?”
Parlak relayed the question and the sultan nodded, responding back.
“While Sultan Pirinc would not say no if any one of these nations wished to join us, that is their decision to make and it will not be forced at the point of a sword.” Parlak said, quite firmly. “The second threat, however, is what I would almost define as a pathological fear of change. Let us take the schools as an example.”
Cheerilee was still fuming, but not here attention was fully focused on Parlak.
“Up until now, education has always been handled through the temples and philosophical schools they’ve built. And while those are good for teaching The Five Pillars, they lack in other areas. Math, technology, architecture, medicine. We’ve started to seriously lag behind our neighbors in that regard. Even our railroad system is a blatant copy of your nation’s. But to Grev and his hardliners, we are just spitting in the face of tradition. You’d swear we were closing down the temples.”
Draining the rest of his goblet, Parlak shrugged. “Education might have been the end trigger, but Grev and his faction was being pushed that way for a while.
“And then after you started pushing him back, he went running to Corona for help.” Trixie nodded curtly.
“Not at first, but now that regrettably seems to be what it’s come to.” Parlak nodded. “Speaking of that, perhaps we should get down to business?”
He asked the same question of his sultan and Pirinc nodded, clapping his hooves together. The camels who had been serving them bowed at the signal, filing out of the room to leave their ruler and his guests be. As had become the standard, Parlak translated the sultan’s words.
“It seems that it has been brought to the sultan’s attention that a dealer of rare antiques exists in the markets of Kuleler Sehri. While that is hardly rare, this one has been known to trade in pieces from the old caliphate. That was when the Army of Smoke and Fire was created.”
“Umm, excuse me. But we’ve heard that name thrown around a lot, but we don’t know what it is.” Carrot Top said.
“Ah, yes. My apologies. I keep forgetting that Usta was vague,” Parlak sighed. “You have heard of the jinn, I imagine?”
Lyra nodded. “I have. They’re the elemental spirits native to Naqah, right?”
“Correct. The Army of Smoke and Fire is a bottled army of jinn. Created during the reign of the last caliph, it was intended to be something that a spy could smuggle into a city,” Parlak explained, miming a creature popping the cork from a bottle. “Then you’d pop the top and be able to outflank a defending force with ease. Which, we think, is why both Corona and Grev want it.”
A slight shudder rolled its way through the Element Bearers. Corona had proven that she could sneak minions into Canterlot in the past. Even without an alliance with Naqah, an item like that was quite dangerous in her hooves.
“You think she might know something?” Lyra asked, a hoof half way towards another pastry.
“There is a chance,” Parlak shrugged. “Records from that era are usually rather thorough. But the Army was quite lost in the chaos of the jinn rebellions.”
“Well then,” Cheerilee nodded, “we’ll just have to go and have a talk with this dealer. Who are we looking for?”
Trixie and her friends had slept well that night, having been provided with guest beds in the palace. So, when they set out the next morning, the element bearers were all well rested and ready to begin the search for a legendary bottled army.
Kuleler Sehri translated to the City of Spires in Equestrian and was half a day away from Al-Astianna by train. As such, they were rattling their way south and east in the armored train again. A quick look out the window told Trixie that the tracks were following the flow of a wide river. Not quite as wide as the one that ran through Neigh Orleans, admittedly, but respectable in its own right. The variety in the Naqahn landscape kept throwing Trixie for a loop. She kept expecting to see a vast desert when she looked out the window, or at the landscapes around the cities.
But Derin had been nestled comfortably among hills that, while bare, had hardly been desert and Al-Astianna was surrounded by farmland and greenery that wouldn’t have looked out of place around Ponyville. Turning away from the landscape, she leaned back against the padded seat.
Her friends were scattered about the car, each passing the time in their own way. Lyra and Ditzy had taken over the center table with a chess set from the palace. The pair were more picking at the game than seriously playing, while chatting about the more normal topics. Carrot Top was reading in her seat, while Raindrops just lazed in hers.
Meanwhile, Cheerilee had perched herself in a seat next to Parlak and was hitting the camel with a hundred questions about their destination.
“So, why is it called the City of Spires?”
“All the temples. Kuleler Sehri is one of the legendary cities of The Prophet’s birth.”
Ditzy looked up from her and Lyra’s game. “One of?”
“Ah...yes, well,” Parlak mumbled, rubbing his forehead. “There is some...debate among the camel kingdoms about where he was born, which has caused some...issues in the past. Foolishness, in my opinion.”
Cheerilee tapped a hoof to her chin. “What kind of issues?”
“Let us call it disagreements on matters of philosophy and leave it at that. The point is that Sehri has more temples than any other city in Naqah.”
“And where is this antiques dealer in the city?” Raindrops asked.
“The great souqs. They’re a sprawling collection of market shops, just below the two largest of the city’s temples. Once we arrive, we’ll check in with the local garrison and then go find our dealer.”
Carrot Top looked up from her book with a soft gasp. “The garrison? Why?”
“Grev,” Parlak said, idly rubbing his chin. “If he has tried to enter the city, there’s a chance the local guard might have noticed something and not understood what they were seeing. If we manage to capture him, this could end before it has the chance to go much further.”
Trixie frowned. “Are you sure? I mean, Kindle is still here. He could still try to go for it.”
“I suppose he could try...but without Grev’s forces, he would be at a distinct disadvantage. No knowledge of the country or local language.”
“...Point taken.”
“Just relax for now. It’ll be a few more hours until we arrive.”
Everyone lapsed back into their own diversions as the train rolled on, the landscape rushing past as the miles melted away. The train continued to follow the river for the first few hours, before breaking west and crossing it at a wide iron bridge. Here the train tracks began to snake its way through gentle hills, many marked with date orchards. It was after another hour of this leg of the journey, that Trixie looked out the window again.
“Hey! There it is!”
There was a rush of hooves as her friends squeezed in next to her to get a view of their destination.
Kuleler Sehri was surrounded by walls, thick, slab like and the color of sandstone. But it was the minarets that, even from this distance, that more easily caught the eye. It seemed a veritable forest of stone towers, capped with domes of various shapes and colors, loomed over the other buildings and the walls. But the city seemed to spill beyond the original constraints of the settlement, small collections of stone structures radiating outward from the walls. Little towns built at the edge of a large city.
Camels looked up as they passed through, the armored train interrupting their daily routines, if only for a moment or two. But as quickly as they looked up, they turned their attention back to their tasks or moved away from the tracks. Trixie hazarded a guess that this wasn’t the first troop train they had seen in recent days.
But the small towns were quickly left behind. Passing through a hole in the defensive wall, the train followed a straight shot of track for a few minutes more, before coming to the train station.
Element Bearers and Naqahn alike filed out of the private car, blinking back the bright sunlight as they stepped onto the platform. The first thing that stood out to Trixie and her friends were the extra guards that stood at either end of the platform, spears within easy hoof reach. Before they could finish processing that, they noticed another camel that stood near dead center of the platform. He alternated between chanting and shouting at those who stepped from the train, brandishing charms and other jewelry.
Parlak ignored both, striding straight for the steps that lead down into the train station itself. Trixie and her friends followed, sparing a glance at the old merchant as they passed.
“What was his deal?” Raindrops asked.
“Selling charms of devotion to pilgrims. You’ll find that Sehri has many merchants and shops that cater to those who follow the pillars,” Parlak answered, calmly leading the way through the train station crowds. Occasionally dropping back into Naqahn, he’d call out to those around him. The effect was almost like a ship bursting through waves, the crowd just parting before him. “Yangin’s shop is in the souq that caters to more normal shopping.”
The streets were just as crowded as the train station, so he continued to lead the way, following a path that he was obviously already familiar with. Eventually, after passing many hotels and restaurants, they came to a sturdy looking two story square building.
“If you can give me just a few minutes. I’ll aim to make this quick.”
“Go ahead,” Cheerilee smiled. “We’ll wait right here.”
Nodding, Parlak disappeared into the guard station, leaving the Element Bearers alone on the street. They stepped a little closer to the building, to get more out the press of camels and the occasional pony that passed.
“I wonder what this Yangin is like. Do you think she’s personally interested in this stuff? Or is it just a job?” Lyra mused, glancing up at the minarete dominated skyline.
“Interested, I hope." Carrot Top said. "If it's just about bits, then I’d be afraid about Grev and Corona just bribing her for the information.”
“I’m kind of wondering if she actually has the thing,” Raindrops said, glancing at another camel that strode into the guard station.
“Why?” Trixie asked.
“Just thinking it's a possibility. She’s a dealer in antiques. Maybe she decided to grab it for herself?”
“That’s kind of a jump, don’t you think?” Ditzy asked.
Raindrops shrugged in response. “Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t really know anything about her. I wouldn’t rule it out.”
“Well, we’ll find out as soon-” Trixie began.
An explosion of noise erupted from the building, several creatures shouting at once. Blinking, Trixie looked towards the door, the rest of her friends following suit.
“Should we see what’s wrong?” Ditzy asked.
“I’m not sure, really. It is a guard station. What could be going wrong in there?” Cheerilee asked, biting her lip.
Parlak burst back through the door, a folded up map between his teeth. Five guards were right behind him, followed in turn by the camel Raindrops had seen enter the building a moment ago. Eyes falling on Trixie, Parlak shoved the map into her hooves.
“We got a tip on Grev’s location. The opportunity is now!”
“What about Yangin?”
“I marked the locations of her shop and this guard station on the map. I will have to trust you six to find her and get the information.”
Setting her jaw in determination, Trixie just nodded. Parlak nodded back, before turning, shouting to the guards and tearing off into the crowd. They dutifully followed with the informant taking up the rear.
“Well,” Trixie said, brandishing the map in her aura, “let’s go find ourselves an antiques dealer!”
- - - -
The great market of Kuleler Sehri were a dazzling array of sights, smells and sounds. Shop owners and customers alike barked out offers and counter offers, the familiar pattern of a market familiar in any language. While religious items weren’t the subjects being sold, the market did exist in the shadow of two truly massive temples. The five minarets that framed the domed buildings seemed constantly visible, no matter where the six mares wandered through the market streets. And wander was proving to become quite the accurate term.
“Sun above! Is this a market or a maze?” Trixie exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air.
The press of camels and few native ponies choking the intersection barely paid Trixie any heed, more concerned with their own business at the near constant drone of market noise.
In theory, the market (or souq, in Naqhan) was mostly open air, much like the small farmer’s market back in Ponyville. In reality, it’s collection of tents and stalls had to share the neighborhood with residences and those few permanent shops owned and built by the most successful traders. The end result was- as Trixie had cursed- a true maze of commerce. From their immediate position, they could make out two different grain merchants, a spice trader, a pair of rug merchants, a jeweler and clothing vendor.
Carrot Top took a deep breath, letting the mixed scents of spice and grain fill her nose. “Mmm. Love that smell though. Equestria or Naqah, markets always smell the same.”
“Ponies are ponies. Even when they’re camels, or buffalo,” Cheerilee nodded succinctly.
Ditzy hummed, looking up from the map Parlak had provided, slowly looking at each of the streets and then up at the spires. “That spire on the right...what’s it near?”
Raindrops eyed it for a moment. “From our position...it looks like it's right over that spice market straight ahead.”
“I think her place should be three more blocks ahead and then two right. Or…,” she turned the map to the right, scrunching up her face in annoyance. “It’s immediately to the right and then three more blocks ahead.”
“Shouldn’t your mailmare skills be able to figure it out?” Trixie said, giving a deadpan eyebrow raise.
“Maybe if I could read the street names,” Ditzy frowned, her good eye scanning their surroundings again. “Or if any of these streets were marked.”
“They could be marked and we’re just not seeing them,” Carrot Top pointed out.
“Either way, I’m going by spacial reference and the map alone.”
“Two equally possible directions…,” Trixie frowned.
“And we don’t know how long Parlak will be gone, assuming he has found Grev,” Raindrops added, angrily pawing the ground.
“We split up then. Lyra, Raindrops and I will go that way,” Cheerilee said with a determined nod, pointing straight ahead. “And then Trixie, you, Carrot Top and Ditzy can take the other direction. We’ll meet back at this intersection.”
“Alright,” Trixie frowned after thinking for a minute. “But be careful. Don’t take any undue risks, okay?”
“Promise,” Cheerilee smiled.
Nodding again, Trixie broke off with Ditzy and Carrot Top, quickly vanishing into the crowd. Cheerilee struck off the other way with Lyra and Raindrops.
Lyra eyed one of the minaretes as they moved forward again. “You know, Parlak’s comments last night got me thinking. I do wonder if there’s some kind of connection between the Elements and their philosophy. The traits sound pretty close.”
“Maybe? Not even Luna entirely understands how the Elements actually work. Maybe it’s all expressions of some central force? The Elements and what this Prophet taught may have been inspired by the same source?” Cheerilee said.
“I’d have to look into the legends of The Prophet more first, I suppose,” Lyra shrugged. “It’s just...odd, really.”
Cheerilee gave a contemplative “hrm” before voicing another thought. “I’d say that the precedent is there. Pony magic by tribe acts very much the same. Magic follows rules, as I’m sure Twilight could go on about in length.”
“But those are all things that there are a lot of,” Raindrops countered. “However many hundreds of thousands of pegasi there are on the planet, our magic works the same. As far as we know, there’s only one set of Elements in the world.”
Lyra contemplated aloud, “Didn’t Twilight try to make another set of bearers?”
“Picking new bearers isn’t the same as making new Elements though,” Cheerilee commented. “There’s still only one set...in this universe,” she quickly amended.
Lyra hummed to herself, a few half notes escaping her lips. A possible song start, maybe? Either way, it was something to consider at the very least.
Raindrops grunted, her jaw set. “I hope Parlak’s informant was right. It’d be nice for something to go easy for once.”
“Even if he has found Grev, that doesn’t mean Kindle couldn’t show up though,” Cheerilee pointed out. “I bet he’s not as well known around here. Could probably slip in if he was careful enough. We should keep our eyes open all the same.”
A grunt and nod was Raindrops’ only response as they finally began to approach a large stone building that looked like it might be Yangin’s abode. Tucked at the end of the tunnel like street, it was the collection of furniture and knick knacks that almost seemed to be spilling out of the windows and onto the street that probably gave it away.
On second glance, however they could see that the stone building was actually at the back of the property and what they thought were other shops were actually part of it. Wooden shelves had been arranged to form improvised exterior walls. Other shelves, tables and even rugs were arranged in small clusters or ordered rows, inside that perimeter, stuffed to overflowing with nick-knacks and antiques.
“It looks like you could start a museum!” Lyra gaped.
“We’re going to find out that she’s keeping it in her sock drawer,” Raindrops said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Won’t know till we ask!” Cheerilee smiled, trotting a bit faster through the rows and towards the building.
Cantering to catch up, her friends reached Cheerilee just as she knocked on the closed front door. For a few moments, all was quiet. But then a bell chime rang out as the door swung open. With a frightening speed, they were set upon by a blurr of sandy brown and multi-colored fabric. The store owner was a camel, as was almost expected at this point. Her face, bright and animated at the thought of sales, was framed by a long and dark mane which was in turn wrapped in a series of veils, their various colors forming a near fashion rainbow. Her light brown coat- while neatly brushed- couldn’t have stood out more from the checkerboard of equally vibrant colors that was a second set of shawls draped over her hump.
“Welcome! Welcome, to Yangin’s Desert Palace of Treasures! How can I be your humble servant today?” She said, smiling so wide that it threatened to spill off the edges of her face.
Cheerilee smiled warmly, taking the lead. “Hello! My name is Cheerilee, and this is Raindrops and Lyra.”
“My, truly a caravan of Equestrians has come to my humble store. Tell me what treasures you seek and the humble Yangin shall provide.”
“We were looking for something called the Army-”
“Yes! Of course!”
Before Ditzy could correct, or explain further, Yangin was off like a shot, zipping between them and disappearing into the collection of shelves. Soon the sounds of scraping floated from between them, eliciting some confused glances from the three mares, each one wondering what those sounds could be.
The answer turned out to be armoire. Yangin pushed it ahead of her, seemingly oblivious to the fine layer of dust that had settled upon it, most likely from years of being tucked back in the corner of the shop. Still, despite the layer of gray, some of former glory managed to peek through as it was obviously carved from rare wood.
“This is what you need! The Armoire of Infinite Glories. Once owned by the cursed emir of-”
“Uhh, while it does look nice, that’s not what we were looking for,” Lyra said. “It’s the Army of-”
“Ahh, yes. Of course the fine lady doesn’t want an armoire. How is she supposed to take it back to Equestria? No, no. An army though, I have just the thing.”
Again, she vanished into the shelves, only to reappear from another direction. This time, a collection of small glittering statues- half gold, half silver- and matching checkered board was balanced on her hoof.
“The Glittering Army! This animated chess set-”
An angry stomp of Raindrops’ hoof stopped the sales pitch this time. “We don’t want an animated chess set! If you’d let us finish, we could tell you what we want!”
“Are you sure? It really is animated.” Still smiling, she waved a hoof towards the pieces. ”Go on, show the nice mare what you can do.” One of the pawn figures on the golden side trotted forward a space, slipped into a bow and then straightened again before freezing once more. “See! And I promise you, it won’t break.”
“Well, while it does look nice, it’s not what we’re looking for,” Cheerilee frowned, taking a step forward. “Look, we were told that you might know where the Army of Smoke and Fire is. Have you heard of it, or not?”
The manic and cheerful energy that had infused Yangin since their arrival left her face in an instant. Now, a steely anger that could match Raindrops’ worst moods filled her intense, golden eyes.
“Only fools and tyrants seek that item. Whichever you are, I care not. But,” her hoof pointed back down the street, “you have one minute to vacate my store before I call the city guard on you.”
But Cheerilee stood her ground, taking a step forward to match Yangin’s glare. “We’re trying to find it to stop a tyrant from getting her hooves on it.”
Idly spinning the chessboard, Yangin snorted. “No creature knows where it is.”
“Except you,” Lyra raised an eyebrow. “You did just threaten to throw us out. Seems like an extreme reaction if you didn’t know anything.”
“And if I do?”
“Then you’re in danger! Corona wants the Army and the alliance it can buy! She won’t stop just because you don’t want to talk. Please. She’s taken hostages in the past,” Lyra said.
Yangin regarded Lyra carefully, the frown on her face thinning slightly. The mint green mare blinked at the gaze. It almost seemed like the camel’s eyes had glowed for a moment, but on a second look, it was just her intense glare.
“Your concern is...appreciated. But you will find nothing here and neither will Cor-”
The sound of fresh hoof falls entered the “floor” of the shop, Yangin and the Element Bearers looking towards them at the same time. A young camel girl- perhaps no older than seven or eight years old- was at the front of the new group of arrivals that wound their way towards them. She looked quite pleased with herself, head held high and grinning wide.
At first, the collection of seven camels behind her looked to be a group of simple clothed traders. But then their cloaks were thrown back, revealing who had actually come to the shop. Kindle flared his wings, golden armor glittering in the morning Naqhan sun, as he stood on the right side of the group. The rest were camels, all dressed in loose fitting white shirts and matching sabers on the sides, save for one.
Like Parlak, he wore a jacket of dark blue. But his was more intricate, with a collection of medals across his breast, and intricate silver embroidery running each sleeve. A thin mustache marked his face, and like his fellows, he had a sword on his side. Unlike them though, he also had a collection of items strapped to that same belt. Two ornate hoof anklets, and two bottles- one made of colored glass, the other plain- all hung from the loop.
The lead camel calmly plucked a platinum coin from a separate pouch, pressing it into the young camel’s hoof. Her eyes grew even wider at her sudden riches, and with a word of presumed thanks, she rushed off into the market again.
“Now,” the camel said, eyeing the Element Bearers and Yangin, “I’m in the market for an army.”
- - - -
Parlak hated Kuleler Sehri’s walls. Like many things in Naqah, they were a remnant from the era of the old caliphs and like many of the other things that line of decedent and decrepit rulers had left behind, Parlak thought they were an eyesore. Thick, ponderous, slabs of sand colored stone that had been summoned from the earth by jinn to protect the holy city.
But the protection that had served it well at the time had become a bane as the city’s population grew. Buildings had become cramped and squeezed, streets narrow and winding as the builders struggled to build more and more within the walls.
If there was one good thing about the walls, they did make it easier to control the flow of traffic into the city, through the five towering gates built into them. Named after the five virtues of the Pillars, they were arranged mostly along the cardinal directions. Charity and Mirth were on the north end, facing the mountain pass. Truth faced south, while Benevolence was to the east, and Integrity to the west.
Parlak was currently racing towards Benevolence, though he knew that he wouldn’t draw near it. Instead, he and his guards turned north, plunging into the collection of warehouses that served the rail line. Even as he galloped along though, a nagging voice in the back of his head questioned the wisdom of letting the Element Bearers seek Yangin themselves. He was taking a chance that this tip was true.
Yet, Grev was a hooves on kind of camel and wouldn’t trust something so delicate as an alliance with the Tyrant Sun to subordinates. He would try to sneak into the city. Parlak had become sure of that the moment he had heard of this antiques dealer, which was something that would need to be investigated more thoroughly later. It was simple logic, really. If Miss Yangin even had a clue where the Army of Smoke and Fire was, she might also known about other ancient jinn.
Filing that whole problem in the back of his mind for now, he turned his attention to the rows of warehouses before him.
“Which one?” he asked his impromptu informant without looking back, switching back to his native tongue.
“Two rows down and to the right,” he answered with a great surety, “That was where I saw Emir Grev and the strange flaming pegasus.”
Grev and Kindle. A chance to deal the rebels and Corona a serious blow at the same time.
“Stay here,” he said to the informant.
His mind set on the task before him, Parlak advanced down the street, glancing at the towering warehouses that pressed in all around his group. Occasionally, workers from those warehouses looked up as they passed, anxiety clear on their features. The tension was thick in the air, a feeling that he was quite familiar with. The deep breath before the chaos of battle.
They approached the particular area now, the crowds of warehouse workers beginning to thin. Moving into a four way intersection, Parlak frowned at the few cloaked camels milling about in the shadows of the buildings….
He paused giving the cloaked figures a second look. Despite said cloaks being made out of the white, breathable cotton that was used so often in Naqahn clothing, it was distinctly out of place in their surroundings. The cloaks also hung strangely on some of their figures, far too long and sinuous to be camels.
With a resigned sigh, Parlak rested a hoof upon the hilt of his saber, the reality of the situation playing through his mind. Grev had most likely been in the city for a little while already, most likely no longer than a day. Just enough time to set up a safe house and make contact with any local supporters at any rate. And in his eagerness to strike, he had walked right into an ambush.
A twinkle of sunlight flashed from the roof of one of the warehouses. That was, apparently, the signal. The cloaks were tossed back, revealing sinuous reptilian forms covered in flame colored scales. The salamanders- four of them- advanced, carrying scimitars and crude shields formed from beaten brass.
But it was the heavy beat of wings that made Parlak take a step back, drawing his blade as he went. The creature that swooped towards him looked like it might have once been a griffin. The leonine hindquarters were unmistakable. It was the front end that stood out as strange, the red and orange feathers making it resemble a pheonix more than an eagle.
That color scheme and the golden armor pointed to it being another minion of Corona’s and the deep, angry screech clearly conveyed hostile intent. One off the talons whistled through the air, the tip of the claws just barely dragging across Parlak’s forehead. Gritting his teeth, Parlak took a wide step to shift his position. The momentum of the dive carried the griffin onwards and he landed with a loud thud in the middle of the guards.
Their spears came in in a flurry of strikes, but the griffin fought like an unleashed sandstorm. Grabbing the half of the first one, he gave a sharp yank and swing, throwing the guard into two of his fellows. The stabs of the last two guards impacted off the golden armor, the bucking, thrashing movements of their attacker making it hard to accurately strike.
Jumping forward, Parlak grit his teeth slamming the full of his weight into the griffin. A rattle from the collision of flesh and bone on enchanted metal sent a bone shaking rattle through his body, from hoof tip to the roots of his teeth. The tackled had been enough though the griffin was ejected from the circle of guards, Parlak charging after. Swinging his sword down at the fallen griffin, he winced again as he crossed his forelegs before him, and the edge impacted into the golden gauntlets he wore. The griffin kicked out with a hind leg, catching Parlak on the underside of the neck. Hacking and coughing, he stumbled away, giving the griffin an opening to get up.
Glaring through watering eyes, Parlak watched the salamanders slither up along either side of the griffin.
“And...who,” he panted, “did Corona decide to send down to Naqah?”
“You may call me Terrorwing! And you will watch your tongue speaking to me!”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Parlak couldn’t resist a smirk. “I see. Did she choose that name from the Equestrian funny pages for you?”
Terrorwing sputtered for a moment, taking a half step back. The salamanders at his side exchanged glances, one of them stifling the urge to chuckle. Terrorwing quickly recovered, clacking his beak in a display of both anger and dominance.
“You will show me respect!”
Parlak rubbed his chin with the back of his free hoof, grinning cheekily as his own guards fell into position next to him. “Terrorwing, Terrorwing. No, that’s far too long. I think I’ll call you…Terry.”
Terrorwing let loose an almighty screech of rage, throwing himself right for Parlak. Bracing himself, he hoped that the Element Bearers were having better luck.
- - - -
“If you will all remain calm, this will be over quickly.”
Cheerilee fixed the lead camel with a cool stare. No one had yet moved from their positions, though it was clearly obvious that the soldiers wished to. Their hooves kept wandering towards their weapons, obviously preparing for a fight. But the lead camel was keeping his cool, radiating an authority of command.
“You must be Emir Grev.”
He gave a curt nod in response, before answering in Equestrian. “Emir Ofkeli Grev. I would...request, that you address me properly, Dame Cheerilee of Equestria. But allow me to welcome you to Naqah.”
“Wow, it was almost like we were having a normal conversation for a moment,” Cheerilee smirked.
“War is an ugly enough business as is. Now,” his eyes swung to Mukemmel, who was still standing defiant in the middle of the isle, “Miss Yangin. I am to understand there is a book in your possession. Perhaps five inches by seven, embossed with an elemental rune upon the cover.”
“What of it, emir?”
“I would like to purchase it.” Pulling a pouch from his belt, Grev gave it a slight shake, letting the coins jingle-jangle in his grip. “One hundred platinum coins. More than a fair amount.”
“And if that is not sufficient in and of itself, Queen Celestia is more than happy to match that amount.” Kindle added with a charming smile.
“With all due respect to the emir’s deep graciousness, and that of Equestria’s ‘queen’,” Yangin said, throwing herself into an over exaggerated bow, “that book is not for sale. Now, would everybody kindly get out of my shop!”
“Are you quite sure about that? I could raise the price another hundred.”
“I am quite sure. Get out!”
“Mmm. My apologies then.”
Acting on some pre-arranged signal, Grev’s soldiers split up, running into the aisles and rows. The sounds of crashes and clangs filled the air as they began to rummage through Yangin’s wares. Kindle gave a slight bow to Raindrops, before turning and running to join them.
Raindrops crouched down, preparing to charge after him. But Cheerilee sprang over her friend’s back, taking up the chase first.
“I got Kindle!” she called back to Raindrops, “How about you show the good emir out?”
Rolling his eyes Grev stepped forward, smoothly drawing his curved saber from it’s scabbard and lowering it at the rest of the bearers.
“As this is not your country, I will offer you one chance to leave. What I do, I do for the best of my nation.”
“So do we!” Lyra fired back.
Nodding, Grev raised his blade in a salute. “Very well.”
With a few steps, he was upon them, blade flashing through the air in a glittering arc. Lyra rolled to the side and Raindrops jumped forward with a cry of her own. Flapping her wings furiously, she unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at Grev’s head. But the emir was like a snake, moving his saber to block each strike with unnerving accuracy.
Lyra kept running to the left, sliding to a stop at the base of one of the exterior wall shelves. She raised her namesake instrument, hooves racing across the strings as she plucked both notes and magic from the lyre. Horn glowing, she sent the magic coiling around Raindrops and her limbs. While the spell began to settle in on her friend, Lyra smirked and shifted her playing, moving to a lighter, faster and more upbeat tune. The speed of the song was transferred to the spell and then to Raindrops.
With the boost to her speed, Raindrops’ strikes began to slip past Grev’s saber, catching him in the jaw a few times before he realized what had happened. Gritting his teeth Grev snapped his head forward in a headbut. Flaring her wings, Raindrops swooped to the right and then forward, shooting past Grev and his follow up swing.
Shooting an angry glare Lyra’s way Grev turned and charged back after Raindrops. She spun around to face the noble, gritting her teeth as the sword came in again. Flicking her wings, she propelled herself back, a hoof reaching- almost instinctively- towards one of the shelves. Snatching something up, she swung it back at Grev.
A loud clang tore through the air, sword striking...a wooden flute? Raindrops blinked, staring at the musical instrument that had just blocked a sword strike. Grev seemed just as confused at its sturdy nature as she was.
“If you break it, you buy it! That’s enchanted ironwood!” Yangin said, striding into the rows of her wares.
Smirking ever so slightly, Raindrops unleashed a second flurry of punches with her free hoof, now charged with uncharacteristic speed. She swung with the flute too, aiming it at the sword, forcing Grev to focus at least part of his attention on holding it. He now realed back, his free hoof clutching at a growing welt on his forehead.
“By the Prophet!” Yangin shouted. She was sticking to the soldiers and having picked up a rug beater from one of her many piles, was setting to beating them out of her store like so many floor coverings. “Leave my goods alone! Be gone you honorless dogs!”
The troopers didn’t do much more than gripe as they continued to search the shelves, apparently unconcerned about the rug based danger.
The rolling scuffle that was Cheerilee and Kindle suddenly broke apart as Cheerilee was caught by a lucky kicked away. The school teacher turned hero crashed into one of the many shelves, before scrambling to her hooves. One of the many effects piled atop the stack wavered back and forth, before toppling off and smashing against the floor.
“No!” Yangin wailed, “That was a priceless antique! The Lantern of the Shah of Maghrib!”
“Maghrib doesn’t have a shah!” Cheerilee grit her teeth, glancing down at the shards. “And I can see the ‘Made in Xiaomaguo’ mark!”
“Well, not everything can be a priceless antique…”
Rolling her eyes, Cheerilee snatched one of the pieces off the floor as Kindle charged. The metal cracked across the pegasus’ face, throwing his charge off just enough for her to side step and deliver a strong buck to his side, throwing him to the ground.
Preparing to press her attack, Raindrops pulled back a hoof for a special strike. Her knowledge and skill in the Iron Hoof martial art had been growing in recent months, fueled by a need to prepare for Corona and her minions. But she was quite sure that her skills would be just as useful against an annoying camel duke.
Grev took advantage of the wind up, however and snapped his head forward again. Cursing to herself for falling for that attack a second time Raindrops flapped her wings, soaring a little higher. It gave Grev all the opening he needed, however. A hoof reached for the ornate glass bottle, and something came flowing out.
It was a few globs of water at first, but the individual globules quickly turned into a small river that twisted and twirled through the air, coming to a stop directly before Raindrops. The water then pulled inwards, forming itself into a vaguely bird like shape.
“Crud,” Raindrops hissed.
“Jinn!” Cheerilee shouted.
“Muzisyen al!” Grev bellowed, pointing at Lyra. The water hawk twisted through the air diving towards the unicorn. Lyra whickered in surprise, running back towards the entrance, the jinn hot on her tail.
To the continued chorus of wares being cast to the ground, Raindrops charged again, hoof aimed for her opponent’s head. A breath away from her target, Grev twisted into a rapid spin, blade lashing out like the heads of a hydra. Cursing, she yanked the flute in the way, another clang ringing through the market.
But a stab of pain erupted in Raindrop’s barrel as Grev punched her right in the gut. Doubling over the flute topped from her hooves, her eyes watering from the pain. But before Grev could follow up on his strike, a burst of sound screamed through the air, catching him in the side. The force of Lyra’s spell sent him stumbling into one of the tables, upending it and sending its contents smashing to the ground.
Grinning at her success, Lyra yelped again, the water jinn pouncing on her. The rushing waves coiled around her her body, taking care to engulf her legs and horn. With a crackling-snap, it turned from water to ice. She struggled against the chilling embrace only to find herself stuck in place.
“You are all backing the wrong side of this war,” Grev said as he pushed himself upright.
Raindrops bristled. “We are? You’re the one who sided with the Tyrant Sun!”
“She is the true quee--” Kindle’s declaration was cut off by a brass serving tray, propelled with great accuracy by Cheerilee from her new perch atop an upended set of shelves.
“Ah, yes. Such insightful political commentary from the weather pony,” Grev said. His voice remained even and measured but Raindrops didn’t miss the twitch that ran through the camel’s right eye. “You still have one chance to surrender. You will be treated fairly as prisoners of war and released as soon as this conflict ends.”
“Which conflict?” Raindrops, sneered. “The one in Naqah or Equestria? Since you’re so eager to throw in with a mad alicorn!”
“Celestia has a better measure of this world and the threats in it than either Luna or that babbling fool Pirinc. Do you even understand the nature of those ‘reforms’ he’s passed? They’ll lead this nation to ruin!”
“And you think Corona is better?” Lyra shouted, continuing to struggle against the ice.
“As I said. She understands the nature of this world better than most. Dragons, monsters, the ghuls that lurk in our mountains. Order, stability, a strong hoof to protect your citizens. That’s what’s needed. Not idealistic reforms that are the equivalent of sticking one's head in the sand.”
Cheerilee snorted. “Oh, please.”
“Of course one of Luna’s knights would disagree,” Grev sighed deeply.
“I disagree, not because I’m a knight.” she growled back. Picking up a wooden box from her toppled perch, Cheerilee idly passed it from hoof to hoof.
“Why then?”
“Because we’ve heard it all before. And it was just as pathetic then as now, you sorry excuse for a military dictator!”
She pitched the box at Grev with all her strength, not stopping to see if it connected, pouncing on Kindle as he got back up. Grev coiled to step aside from the box, only for Raindrops to swoop in with the flute whacking it against the back of his neck. Distracted by the strike, Cheerilee’s improvised weapon cracked off of the side of Grev’s head, popping open at the impact.
A fetlock anklet clattered to the ground at his hooves. Cast from platinum, three small gems were set into its front, one red, one green, and one sky blue.
“ENOUGH!”
Everypony’s head snapped to Yangin. The sheer rage of the shout had been surprising, having rattled many items on the shelves that hadn’t been toppled in the fight, but it was nothing compared to the shock at the change that had overtaken the shopkeep.
Her light brown coat had given way to one the color of polished brass, almost giving her the appearance of some statue come to life. But it was the change to her mane and tail that sent involuntary shudders through Raindrop’s body, a sensation that she was sure her friends shared. They were now flickering, animate fire, so much resembling Corona’s. Eyes lit up with fury, she had one hoof extended towards the fallen anklet.
“She’s a jinn too?” Cheerilee gaped.
Grev’s sword lashed out, blocking Yangin’s hoof.
“Bogucu Yangin.” Grev said, expression steely.
The stone answered Yangin’s call with a flick of her hoof, rising up like a wave and throwing Grev across the open floor. Impacting into one of the shelves near the entrance, he dropped like a stone. Yangin’s glare remained focused on Grev, a chorus of snaps and pops- like wood burning in a campfire- heralded a swirling cone of fire forming around her hind quarters.
“Charcoal.”
Grev bolted.
Yangin chased.
Raindrops, Cheerilee and Lyra hit the ground, Kindle and the rest of the emir’s small squad forgotten. While Grev had galloped through the opening gap in the exterior shelf-wall, Yangin smashed right through it. Splinters of wood, shards of antiques unlucky enough to be in her path and dust (perhaps summoned by Yangin herself) billowed outwards both spilling into the street and sweeping back onto the shop floor.
From her position near the front of the now quite wrecked shop, Lyra could barely pick out the forms of her friends in the dust. The small jinn fell back into water, wheeling away through the air and shooting through the dust cloud. The camels went next, either in an attempt to get away or catch up with their commander. Finally, there was a brilliant flash of gold and red that managed to peek through the dust. Kindle rapidly flew away, and Lyra could almost swear she could make out a book clutched in his hooves.
Wincing at the panicked shouts coming from the streets outside, Lyra scrambled towards her friends. “Is everypony okay?!”
The dust cloud was abating now, but not before it left a fine layer on everypony’s coats.
“I think Kindle got a book,” Cheerilee said, reaching down for platinum anklet. “But we got this!” The gold and jewels of the anklet twinkled in her grip. “This is what sent her off the deep end.”
Frowning, Lyra quickly cast, examining it on an arcane level. “Powerfully magical, that’s for sure….Ah!” she perked up, clapping her hooves together. “It’s like that bottle! It’s her bound item. All the old legends of jinn feature them being bound to items to be controlled.”
Raindrops began to pace through the rubble, angrily flaring her wings. “Grev recognized her. Yangin means fire...but what about the rest of it?”
“Choking.”
A shadow loomed over them. Jumping away from it, the three mares whirled about to stare at the still very angry looking, and still crackling with flame, jinn. Floating forward, her now solid white eyed glare roamed over the group. Stopping at Cheerilee, she snorted and extended her hoof.
“My name is Choking Fire and I would like that back.”
Biting her lip, Cheerilee eyed her wearily. “What was that book they took?”
Yangin huffed, crossing her forelegs in annoyance. “It was a mage’s journal. I imagine that Grev will use it to deduce the location of the Army of Smoke and Fire that you wanted so badly.”
“So you do know something about it!”
“Know something- I watched the thing get made, you little twit!”
“Why didn’t you tell us when we asked about it?” Lyra asked.
“Oh, and tell a bunch of random ponies where to find the powerful, mayhem inducing item. Wonderful idea.”
“But it’s like we said, we’re here to stop somepony worse from getting it!” Raindrops said.
Yangin now faced Raindrops, who glared right back at the jinn.
“I am aware of Celestia or Corona or whatever you Equestrians call her.” Yangin said, waving her hoof towards the empty street. “But I’m rather sure that your Princess Luna will be able to deal with a bunch of subpar bound jinn.” She then turned back towards Cheerilee. “Now, give me back my anklet!”
Cheerilee didn’t.
“You watched it get made...do you know where it is currently?”
“Cheerilee, what are you doing?” Raindrops frowned.
“Yangin,” Cheerilee asked again, ignoring her friend. “Answer me. Do you know where it is right now.”
“Yes,” Yangin growled through clenched teeth.
Cheerilee didn’t take her eyes off of Yangin, a half frown, half wince settling on her muzzle. Raindrops and Lyra frowned, both equally unsure what their friend was thinking. But the answer to that became obvious when Cheerilee calmly, almost with a sense of resignation, snapped the anklet around her fetlock.
“Take us to it.”
Yangin looked about ready to explode. Face locked into a snarl, the flames of her mane and tail erupted with a fresh round of violent energy. But as angry as she looked, her voice was almost worse, having become very quiet.
“You will come to regret this, my little pony. I promise you that.”
“Maybe,” Cheerilee responded, with a shrug. “But I’ve already had a mad alicorn try to kill me. I’ll do what I have to.”
“Cheerilee! This is nuts! You’re basically forcing her into slavery!” Raindrops said.
She had practically shouted that, her body shaking slightly in anger. She couldn’t believe that she had just seen her friend basically foalnap a jinn!
“I’m not going to keep her! Just until we destroy the Army of Smoke and Fire. Then I’ll let her go.”
A raucous burst of laughter escaped Yangin’s lips, the jinn almost doubling over. “By The Prophet!” she gasped between rounds of chortles. “It sounds like you actually mean that!”
“I do!”
Yangin stared at Cheerilee for a moment before breaking out into another round of laughter, this time with a distinctly mocking undertone to it.
“I’m being serious!”
“No. What you’re doing is lying to yourself. You’re saying that you’ll let the power go, because that lets you still feel good about yourself. But then something will happen. Something that’ll give enough justification to your tiny little mind to hang onto me.”
“That’s not going to happen. Once we destroy the Army of Smoke and Fire, I’ll let you go.”
Lyra, who had been quiet for the last few minutes, spoke up. “What about Corona? It would be nice to have a powerful jinn on our side to fight her.”
Yangin motioned towards Raindrops, letting that speak for itself.
“Lyra!” Raindrops gasped.
“What? It’s true!”
“We have the Elements of Harmony! You two can’t seriously be considering this.”
“I just want to keep Corona from getting another tool to attack us with. And since I doubt that I’ll be able to find Grev and the book in a city he knows better than me, Yangin here is our only other option! I intend to keep my word.” Cheerilee said.
Yangin snorted. “Sure you will. You’ll keep me, you’ll keep the army, all in the name of fighting off Corona. Just like what always happens.”
Further argument from Cheerilee was cut off by a raised hoof from Lyra. “We can stay here and argue all day, but I think we should find the others.”
“...Right. Come on.”
- - - -
The Prophet take whoever made the griffin.
Front end of a predatory bird. Hind quarters of a great cat. One of the few races in the world where five of their six ends were pointy. As Parlak circled the possibly self proclaimed Terrorwing, looking for an opening, he did thank The Prophet that their race hadn’t been gifted with a stinging tail to make it six out of six.
He bled from a half dozen small cuts and gashes, each one inflicted by those pointy talons of Terrorwing’s. The griffin had the strength advantage, but Parlak had more training and combat experience. It was that fact that had saved him so far. All around him, the salamanders continued to battle against his guards. Though they looked distinctly less eager about the fight than their griffin commander. They poked and jabbed half heartedly, more focused on keeping themselves from behind harmed.
Terrorwing suddenly charged again, jerking to the left as Parlak swung at him again. Kicking off, he impacted into Parlak’s side, grabbing him by the hump. Using his grip as leverage, Terrorwing pulled himself close. Close enough to whisper in Parlak’s ear.
“You know, Naqah can still walk away from this.”
“...Pardon?”
“Just give us the Element Bearers and the Army. Then we’ll leave you alone.”
Parlak couldn’t quite believe those words had just flowed from Terrorwing’s beak, like he was somehow completely ignorant of reality. He chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
“My, you really are new at the whole covert negotiations thing aren’t you? Your queen teaching you how to be more than a rabid dog?”
Terrorwing growled, digging the tip of his claws just a little deeper into Parlak’s flesh. He grinned through the pain, if only to hide the wince.
“Understand something Terry. We didn’t start this conflict, at least...not with you. But now that your queen has decided to get involved?”
Camels were, as an unfortunate quirk of birth, somewhat large and gangly looking compared to some of the other races on Cissanthema, especially compared to ponies. Being grappled by multiple attackers, or tripped was something that had long been prepared for in Naqahn army training. Training that Parlak now fell back on, sharply rolled towards Terrorwing. Slamming body and bulk against Terrorwing, the griffin was smashed off the ground. Parlak smiled as he felt the claws come loose and as he continued the roll and came back to his hooves, stomped down on the unprotected underside of the griffin’s barrel.
“I fully intend to help the Equestrians run you and your friends to ground!” he finished at Terrorwing’s grunt of pain.
He felt the rush of wind across his coat before he saw the jinn. A small and simple wind jinn, rushing towards the battle. Parlak reached for his sword, preparing for the worse. But the jinn said one word in Equestrian.
“FLEE!”
Terrorwing kicked out with a snarl, Parlak scrambling back from the clawed paw. Flipping over, he threw himself into the air with a flurry of wing beats, shooting between two of the warehouses. The salamanders didn’t need any convincing either. As one they backed away from their attackers, one of their number placing its hands on the ground. The stone parted like water under salamander magic and the serpentine creatures dove below ground. Just as quickly as it had began, the battle was over.
“Sir, shall we pursue?” one of the guards asked.
“Forget them,” Parlak said, smoothly falling back into command mode. “This was an ambush designed to split us up. I want the Element Bearers found and I want them found now! I don’t care if you have to mobilize every guard in the city!”
The guard winced, glancing at his commander's wounds. “Sir, your wounds-”
“Will be irrelevant, if the only mares that can oppose Grev’s new allies are captured or worse! Find! Them!”
The guards scattered like a school of disturbed fish. Parlak sighed, sliding his sword neatly back into its scabbard, before heading back towards where he had told the Element Bearers to meet him at. He just hoped they would be able to meet him there. Of one thing he was sure. He had made a potentially grave mistake here today. He would not make the same mistake again.
- - - -
It was a dour mood that hung over the heads of Cheerilee, Lyra and Raindrops as they approached the guard station, annoyed jinn in tow. Yangin had returned to her normal camel appearance and had served as a local guide, tersely telling them which way to turn and which streets to take. Trixie and the others weren’t waiting at the intersection and, after some debate, it was decided to see if they had returned to the guard station on their own. If they hadn’t, at least they’d be able to get some more help looking for them.
Lyra’s ears were still pulled back as she walked in silence, her frustration at the situation quite evident to all. Cheerilee and Raindrops had stayed quiet during the trip as well, but now as they drew close to the guard station Cheerilee spoke up.
“I’ll explain everything to Parlak.”
Lyra shrugged. “Okay.”
Frowning, Cheerilee pushed on, ignoring the nagging sensation that Yangin was glaring daggers at the back of her head. Taking the steps two at a time, she was already looking around for their camel guide. The few guards that were mulling around inside looked up as she entered, simply pointing to a different room.
Trotting into the room, Yangin broke off for the corner, while Cheerilee, Lyra and Raindrops walked up to the the sturdy looking desk Parlak sat behind. Working at a telegraph, he tapped away with an almost frightening speed, fresh bandages covering some of his body. Finishing off his series of taps with a final slam, he looked up at them.
“Where’s the rest of your friends?
“We got split up,” Cheerilee began.
“Cheerilee!”
Trixie, Ditzy and Carrot Top came rushing into the room now, a pair of guards behind them. Waving a hoof at them, Parlak made a comment in Naqahn and they backed out of the room with a salute.
Trixie stared at him and his bandages. “What happened to you?”
“Ambush. It seems that Corona committed more than just Kindle to her joint venture. I met salamanders and a griffin named Terrorwing.”
“Great. Was really looking forward to seeing him again,” Raindrops sighed.
“Did you have any luck with Yangin?”
“Yeah...about that-” Cheerilee began.
But Yangin cut her off, almost leaping to answer the question.“Your rebel emir got away with the only physical record of where the Army of Smoke and Fire is. And your guests have opted to force me to lead the way.”
Parlak glanced at her, then back at the Element Bearers, his eyes falling on the jeweled anklet clasped around Cheerilee’s legs. Frowning deeply, one of his hooves slowly strayed to his sword’s hilt. “I...see.”
Ditzy looked at her friend frowning. “What’s he talking about?”
“She’s a jinn,” Cheerilee explained holding out her leg. “I’m having her lead us there.”
“Wait,” Trixie said, rubbing her chin. “I don’t remember everything Princess Luna taught me about non-pony magic, but I thought that jinn only existed when actively being supported by a caster. Bound items are for focusing the magic. Without a caster, they just...fall apart into elemental chaos.”
“Generally, yes,” Parlak frowned, shooting a sideways glance at Yangin. “Though, there are...exceptions.”
“Oh, come now, don’t be shy,” the jinn said, chuckling, a bitter empty chuckle. “Go ahead and tell them about all the nice things Naqah did in the past.”
Standing up, Parlak now turned to regard Yangin fully. “Is that supposed to intimidate me? They are from Equestria and I would suspect that they can tell the difference between a corrupt government of the past and one of the present.”
“Umm...can we have some context here?” Carrot Top asked.
Parlak and Yangin glared at each other, but he answered even while maintaining that glare. “Back before we had sultans, we had caliphs. I will spare you the exacting details of how that ties to The Prophet and his successors,” he almost sighed, through a grimace at that. “The important point is that one of those caliphs, the one who was destined to be the last, decided that the way jinn had been used for centuries wasn’t good enough. Jinn needed to be better.”
“Smarter, faster, stronger, independant!” Yangin said, now picking up the story, the mocking tone now in full force. “All because your country needed to be richer and grander!”
“Which worked out really well, when those very jinn they created rebelled, and threw down the caliphate.”
“Which let your sultans take up their more enlightened, secular rule. And here we are today! A big happy family!”
“Uhh...right,” Trixie said, shooting nervous glances between the two. “Maybe we should focus on finding the Army?”
“Good idea!” Yangin said, suddenly very cheerful. “The sooner we find it, the sooner we can all go our separate ways, assuming that frosting mane over there doesn’t decide to keep me!”
Cheerilee ran a hoof through her mane. “Frosting mane?”
“Where do we go, Yangin?” Lyra asked.
Looking at Lyra, her expression calmed a bit. “We should take a train to the town of Van, to the south east. It’s the best starting point for a journey into the mountains.”
“The mountains? Its hidden there?”
“In a manner of speaking. The Army of Smoke and Fire is in Naqah’s old capital. The one that was abandoned after my kin and I overthrew that dithering fool of a caliph.”
Parlak rubbed his forehead. “Fantastic.”
“This is a problem?” Carrot Top asked.
“Well...its like she says. The old capital was abandoned. It could barely be supplied by a small army of jinn back in the day because of how remote it was. And if we’re going into the mountains, that means we might have to deal with the ghuls.”
“If it’s what we have to do, then it’s what we have to do. We can’t let Corona get the Army of Smoke and Fire.” Trixie said.
Yangin’s grin was wide and a perhaps a little unsettling. “Prepare yourselves then. This is going to be a wild trip.”
It was a question that Ditzy Doo found herself chewing over while standing on the platform of yet another Naqahn train station. After everything in Kuleler Sehri they had boarded a train again, racing through the night towards the little town of Van. Now in the morning light they were waiting at the town’s train station for reinforcements, summoned by Parlak’s telegraphs the day before. So they stood. And waited.
Truthfully, Ditzy really wanted to be anywhere but here right now. A sick sensation had settled in her stomach and refused to budge, no matter how hard she tried to shake it loose. The more she thought about it though, directing her ill feelings towards soldiers that hadn’t even shown up yet wasn’t fair. Not really. The real reason for her unease brooded a few feet behind her, occasionally shooting venomous glares at the back of Cheerilee’s head.
Her friend’s actions just wouldn’t stop bothering her. Cheerilee had basically grabbed Yangin and forced her to help. Almost taking her...hostage. A shiver, that could almost have been the morning air ran right to the tip of her tail. One of her best friends had just, effectively, taken a hostage. Like Corona. Except that this was almost worse, as Cheerilee was actively forcing another creature to do labor! Weren’t they supposed to be better than her? They were the Elements of Harmony!
The rest of her friends seemed divided. Raindrops seemed, at least by her body language, to be very unconcerned with the situation. Or she had decided that this was a necessary evil to pushed through as quickly as possible. Ditzy honestly couldn’t tell from her body language and hadn’t scared up the nerve to ask yet. Trixie had seemed to shrug and just accept it, maybe because of her previous knowledge of how jinn worked.
Lyra was upset and had been so since yesterday. So, Ditzy could put good bits on her being just as annoyed with the situation as she was. Carrot Top looked...torn, nervously biting her lip every time she glanced Yangin’s way.
And Parlak….
He didn’t care. Or didn’t seem to at any rate.
Those dark thoughts were driven away by the roar of a train coming to a stop, a sound that she was becoming very familiar with. Another armored monstrosity it did have a lot more cars than the one they had been traveling in. The doors to troop carrier slid open and soldiers began to file out.
To Ditzy’s surprise it was a rather diverse looking bunch. Two groups of about twenty camels each, came first. Long spears were strapped to the sides of their full packs, the tips peacebound with thick cotton and linen covers. They dutifully filed right past Parlak, moving towards the wider town streets where they would have more room to stand.
Then came the ponies.
She knew from what random facts Cheerilee had discovered about Naqah that the country did have a minority pony population. That’s why it was somewhat surprising to see fifteen of them come out of the train. Ten pegasi, all with crossbows strapped to their sides and padded armor and then five sturdy looking earth ponies in chainmail and armored hoof covers.
Finally and from a second train car, with a larger door, three buffalo pushed their way into the platform. They were armed the strangest of the lot. A heavy canvas...well, Ditzy couldn’t call it anything but a sling, was draped over each of their backs. It had two basic holders, one on each side of the body. One held a heavy bronze cannon, while the other held a collection of canisters of small metal balls.
“This seems...a lot,” Lyra said.
“I intend to be prepared,” Parlak shrugged in response. “If we’re going the direction I suspect we’re going, we will be heading into ghul territory. We may have to fight our way through. To say nothing of Grev and Corona’s forces.”
“Well, we’ll trust your judgement on that,” Cheerilee said, smiling slightly.
Ditzy sighed but put a friendly smile on her face as she turned towards Yangin. “So, which direction do we go from here?”
The jinn motioned a hoof towards the peaks that rose beyond the edge of the small town. “First, we’ll just walk through the little town here far to the outskirts of the other side. Then I’ll use a little bit of elemental magic to help move us along.”
“Oh, that’s nice of you.”
“It’s more of a desire to get this over with.” Yangin sighed with a dramatic flair.
Trixie flared her cape, with a confident grin. “Well then, let’s get going!”
Before she could start walking, Parlak held up a hoof. “Hold on. Before we set off, I would like all of you to put armor on. No more taking chances.”
“But...have you seen how warm it is already? Today’s going to be really hot! You want us to walk around in metal armor?” Trixie said, her eyes wide.
“As are my soldiers. And I will be too. So long as you are in my country, your safety is my responsibility. So, armor on. Your enchanted sets are on the train. I had them escorted from the capital.”
Groaning, Trixie turned towards the train. Ditzy followed behind, shaking her head slightly as she went. She hoped this wasn’t a bad sign.
- - - -
Van could have really been Ponyville’s sister city.
Like Ponyville, it was an agricultural town, with rolling farmland and orchards spreading out in a westerly direction from the town center, with a truly sprawling orchard; in this case dates. Where as Ponyville was hemmed in by the depths of the Everfree though, it was the soaring heights of the Abbor-Alz Mountains that was the untamed wilderness that the locals didn’t care to go into.
The locals were also reacting to the presence of a small army and a collection of foreign mares about as well as Raindrops would have expected them too. They mostly hid in their homes and shops, occasionally peeking through windows and from behind curtains decorated with geometric patterns. After marching through the town proper their column began to wind through the foothills, officially the first leg of their journey.
Lazily twisting in the air to look behind her, the army remained an intimidating sight, armor glittering in the sunlight.
“I renew my objection to wearing our armor now!.”
Flipping back aground, Raindrops could see Trixie tugging at her suit of starmetal. She had seen Trixie in many moods since they became friends and right now the unicorn was doing a rather fair impression of herself in her worst moment. Head down and jaw set in a grimace, small beads of sweat were beginning to appear on her forehead.
The sun was already approaching its noon time zenith, the morning having burnt away during the train ride to Van. Clear blue skies dominated the horizon for the most part. Sure, there were a few cumulus clouds lazily scattered through the air but not many. Focusing in on her senses for a moment, Raindrops got a feel for the moisture in the air and the light tingles at the base of her wings. Today was a dry day it seemed and while the armor Luna had gifted them with was lighter than normal, it was still metal.
“Your concern is acknowledged and noted,” Parlak said.
Walking alongside Yangin, the pair lead the way, thought Yangin didn’t look any happier than Trixie did right now.
“It’s a question of passing out. Don’t you control the weather around here?” Trixie grumbled.
“We do, but usually on a more local scale. Jinn are quite useful, but they aren’t quite as skilled at maintaining weather in the long term as pegasi.”
The swell of pride in Raindrop’s chest was something that she didn’t bother to suppress. Her personal skill as a weather pony was something that remained important to her, despite all the Element Bearer related craziness that had since entered her life. So, the fact that creatures literally made out of the natural world weren’t quite as good at making weather- or at least one aspect of it- than her tribe was…. Well, she’d allow herself a little bit of an extra smile at that.
After a walking a bit more, they were now back outside the town’s limits and in the beginning of the mountain foothills. Yangin looked around at this point, nodding to herself.
“Okay, this is a good enough place. Can everyone line up on the ground please? Nice and orderly. Maybe about...oh, lines five wide?”
Somehow she had made herself understood in both languages and with a nod from Parlak, everyone began shuffling around to take up the requested positions. Once everyone was in place, Yangin smirked, giving her hooves three sharp claps together.
A low rumbling sound rose from the ground and Raindrops almost jumped skyward again out of instinct, half expecting the soil under her hooves to sink and drag her with it. Instead, stone began to rise from their surroundings. A solid slab formed under their hooves first but was quickly joined by a stone railing, almost like what she’d remembered from the ship that took them to the isle of Tambelon.
That assumption proved to be the case as Yangin continued to build her construct. Stone continued to be called from the ground, the unmistakable shape of a sailing ship growing under their hooves. Carrot Top groaned as she recognized that shape, throwing her hooves over her eyes.
“Not again!”
“Don’t worry! Your hooves are still technically touching the earth,” Cheerilee said.
Yangin looked down at Carrot Top, with a slightly sympathetic smile. “You’re not the first sea-sick earth pony I’ve met. I actually came up with this idea after a long trip with him.”
Carrot Top slowly peeked from between her hooves. “Really?”
“Really. Believe it or not, even we jinn don’t like to clean sick out of our manes.” Yangin winked.
The carrot farmer pulled her hooves completely away from her eyes now, looking at least a little less nervous.
As the ship of earth finished forming, Raindrops took wing to take in the completed effect. It was an impressive three decked construction, that sunk into the earth like it was somehow water itself. Yet, it had no masts, instead sporting a giant wheel off the back end...the stern? That sounded right to her. A large smoke stack rose from the stern as well, directly before the wheel.
Now Yangin raised both her forelegs skyward. The earth cracked and buckled for a moment, before vomiting forth molten lava. Raindrops hunched down, preparing to grab her friends and take wing, should Yangin decide to attack them.
Instead, she wove it through the air in ribbons, lightly dragging it along the edges of the ship. The lava was looped, flowed and piped along the sides of the earthen hull in almost the exact manner Pinkie Pie would use to decorate a cake. As the decorations began to cool, Yangin deposited the rest of the magma into the smoke stack.
In the end Yangin hadn’t just made the shape of a ship. There were different colors of stone, used to make and highlight different parts of it. Brown for the main body of the ship, with black obsidian for what would be the trim and other ornate details on an actual sailing vessel. Raindrops would almost go so far as to call it a work of art. Yangin obviously cared about what she had made.
Dropping back to the deck, she couldn’t help be impressed at what Yangin had done. Most of the magic she had seen that was close to this scope were things like the Elements of Harmony themselves and the raw power of Corona. She was more convinced than ever that they needed to use her in the battle against Corona somehow. Maybe they could offer her something? Cheerilee did have the anklet so if push came to shove they could force her. Maybe. Even though she didn’t really want to.
Yangin aligned herself on the bow of the ship, facing her audience, beaming with what was obvious pride. “Presenting one full and authentically certified jinn made landship! In the event of an unlikely emergency, exits are all around you and just over the side!”
“Well, how do we make it go?” Trixie asked.
“I make it go. You all just sit back and talk amongst yourselves. We’ll shave days off trip like this.”
With that, she turned to face the mountains, dropping back into her natural jinn form. Standing tall almost like a figurehead the ship surged forward, neatly sliding through dirt and stone without any resistance. On and on it went, rapidly climbing its way into the mountain range. For a few minutes, everyone, pony and camel alike, watched the landscape literally sail by.
“Don’t suppose anypony has a deck of cards?” Cheerilee asked.
- - - -
They “sailed” through the day, Yangin’s magical frigate going right up and over the hills like they were rolling waves. By late afternoon, they had left the foothills behind and were entering the higher mountain peaks. Here it pushed onwards with the same steady determination, going straight up the sides of rocky slopes, weaving between small collections of trees and shooting down winding mountain paths. Nothing seemed to actually slow the arcane construct. Any boulders that might have been able to cave in its side just passed straight through its hull.
Still at her position on the bow, Yangin had taken to humming some kind of tune, steering the ship with what Cheerilee presumed was her mind. She looked...happy. Seeing that made Cheerilee feel better about what she had been forced to do. It was just getting a guide to their destination. She’d give the anklet right back as soon as they got what they needed.
It wasn’t like she had missed the disapproving gaze of Ditzy. She just didn’t want to meet it. At all. Guessing why Ditzy had been staring at her hadn’t been hard. The parallels between what she had done and what Corona….
She let that thought trail off, staring down at the cards in her hooves, up at her friends sitting around her and then up at the fading sun. They were coming close to the end of the day now. Would they continue on through the night? Did Yangin need sleep? Did jinn in general need sleep? Just as she began to consider asking that question there was a loud splash as the ship came to a halt.
Peeking over the side, she could see that they had stopped at a high mountain lake. Long and narrow, it wound past a small group of pistachio trees, before opening back up into a wider, almost circular end. It was that end where they were currently resting, the land ship now acting much like a real ship.
“Shore leave!” Yangin called. “Ship needs to recharge on earth magic overnight.”
Stomping a hoof against the rocky deck Yangin called forth an equally rocky gangplank. Shooting from the side of the ship, it slammed into the lake shore with an almost tooth shaking impact. Parlak eyed it for a moment before shrugging and barking out a collection of orders. His soldiers dutifully took up their packs, and filed off the ship, beginning to set up their tents for the night.
“We will need to set up a watch system. My troops already have a rotation they learned from basic training, but if you would like to join-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Yangin said, casually waving a hoof. “I’ll watch things tonight.”
“You’re...kidding, right?” Trixie frowned.
Yangin fixed Trixie with a very serious look. It wasn’t angry, like many of the expressions she had worn before. Rather it was full of a sturdy confidence and utter surety of her position.
“Parlak is right about one thing. While we aren’t in ghul territory yet, they sometimes wander down from the peaks to hunt and raid.” Pausing only long enough to shoot a glare at Cheerilee, she then continued. “I wouldn’t wish what ghuls do upon my worst enemy.”
“What they do?” Carrot Top asked, eyes suddenly wide.
“They eat. Flesh. Bone. Magic. They consume it all!” She whispered spreading her hooves wide, like she was telling a wild story.
The Element Bearers all looked at Parlak. He gave a simple nod.
“She does speak the truth. At least on the first two bits. Never heard of them eating magic though.”
“Well...I bet they would if they could,” Yangin actually pouted. “But my offer stands all the same. I will watch the camp tonight.”
Ditzy stepped forward with a friendly smile. “Thank you Yangin. We appreciate it.”
Parlak coughed. “That being said, I feel that it would be wise not to rely on just one creature keeping watch. More eyes on our surroundings is better.”
Yangin’s eyes narrowed for a moment but then she shrugged and waved a hoof back. “Go on.”
- - - -
In about an hour a small city of tents was set up on the shore of the lake, cooking fires flickering merrily away and a multitude smells from a few dozen cooking dinners filled the air. Sitting in her tent, Cheerilee stretched and rolled her shoulders to crack and pop the stiffness from sitting all day out of her system.
“Oooof. I needed that.”
Pushing the tent flap aside, she trotted towards the edge of the lake, where her friends were relaxing. Raindrops was floating in the water on her back, legs tucked close to her body and eyes closed in an expression serenity. Trixie and Ditzy were poking at a small fire to keep it active. Carrot Top held a pan over the flames, slowly shaking it back and forth, while Lyra provided a little musical accompaniment.
“What’s in the pan?”
“Some pistachios from the trees over there, spices and just a little bit of salt. Figured we could use a small snack,” Carrot Top said.
“Nuts seem rather plain. Wish we had some cheese...or butter!” Trixie sighed.
Looking at her saddlebags, Carrot Top shrugged. “Well, it already has some red pepper flakes. There’s a lot of spices in the supplies they gave us.”
“Naqah does like their spices. I think they’re the biggest export after coffee,” Cheerilee said, pulling out a random factoid as she squeezed in next to Trixie.
“Beautiful country though. Maybe Bon Bon and I can take a vacation here someday.”
“Going all exotic on us are we?” Raindrops asked without opening her eyes.
Lyra chuckled, shrugging slightly. “Maybe? It has been something, seeing all these distant parts of the world. And we’d never have been able to do it if circumstances were just a little different.”
Leaning back against her saddlebags, Trixie idly twirled her hoof. “Oh, I don’t know. I like to think that as Princess Luna’s apprentice I would have come to wow the world as the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
“Is that before or after you wound up in debt to another noble?” Raindrops said, rolling over to float on her stomach.
“Just because that happened once….”
“Nuts are done!”
Tipping the roasted nuts into a square military tin, Carrot Top began to pass it around. Leaving the lake, Raindrops shook the water from her form and joined her friends, sharing the snacks while watching the sun set. As it continued to slip over the horizon, Ditzy broke the sounds of chewing and the snap of the fire with a question.
“So, are we really just going to ignore what Cheerilee did and not talk about it at all?”
Cheerilee winced. “I’m sorry Ditzy, but we needed a way to find the Army of Smoke and Fire. I didn’t think I could track down Grev and Kindle in a city that he knew. I...I did what I had to.”
“That’s not good enough,” Ditzy said. Her frown was almost a pout of disappointment. “We basically just kidnapped somepony!”
“But this is how jinn work,” Trixie huffed. “Naqah has been using them to make things and find things for centuries!”
“You’re ignoring the fact that most jinn don’t have pony intelligence. Yangin and apparently those ones like her, are basically just likes ponies. Ponies with lots of magic power, but ponies all the same.”
“Which is why I’m only doing this long enough to find the army. Then I let her go,” Cheerilee said.
She was loosely fiddling with the anklet now, perhaps out of nervousness, perhaps out of guilt. She couldn’t entirely be sure. It was like she had grabbed a timber wolf by the ears and now was stuck dealing with the consequences.
Carrot Top was dragging her hoof through the dirt, frowning all the while. “I still hate this Cheerilee. We try to make things better, not worse. Have you seen those looks Yangin gives you? She hates you!”
“Not to mention she promised that you would ‘regret’ your decision. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time its happened to her,” Raindrops frowned.
Ditzy sighed, pushing herself to her hooves. “I’m going to have a conversation with her.”
“Why?” Cheerilee blinked.
“I’m still angry that you did what you did Cheerilee. But I would like Yangin to not try and hurt you when you let her go.”
With that and a flick of her tail, Ditzy set off for the ship. Sinking a bit lower in her seat, Cheerilee reached for another hoof full of pistachios. What did you give a jinn as an apology gift anyway?
- - - -
Ditzy was a little bit nervous as she approached the form of Yangin. The jinn was almost like a lighthouse on her perch at the end of ship, her flaming mane and tail flickering in the slight breezes that worked their way through the mountain pass.
“Was there something you needed?” Yangin asked.
Ditzy paused. She hadn’t turned around and was keeping her gaze firmly fixed on their surroundings. Ditzy wasn’t entirely sure what kind of jinn magic she had used to sense her presence but shrugged it off. Yangin had built the ship she was standing on. Maybe she could sense Ditzy’s hoof falls through the stone? It would fit her elemental powers. Taking a deep breath, she resolutely trotted forward again, taking a seat next to the jinn.
“I wanted to talk to you about my friend.”
“Which one?”
Ditzy gave her a deadpan stare. The best that she could manage at least. “You know which one.”
“What about her?”
What about her. Ditzy could still feel the anger over what he friend had done bubbling away in her. How did she approach Yangin about this.
“Please don’t hurt her!”
That hadn’t been the way she wanted to start this conversation off. But Yangin was now staring down at her. Her expression was frustratingly unreadable, mostly because of the solid white nature of her eyes when she was a jinn.
“So convinced I’m going to do that, are you?”
“I’m not ruling it out. Lyra said that you told her that she’d ‘regret’ doing this.”
Yangin snorted, but shrugged. “I would say that it’s all up to her.”
Ditzy frowned back. “That’s not much of an answer.”
“Because I haven’t made up my mind yet. Contrary to what you might think, I am capable of recognizing nuance when it comes to a pony’s position.”
“Then you have to know her intentions are good.”
“I know they are. I know that she’s thinking about all the ponies in Equestria that could suffer if Corona wins. But that’s exactly why I am very cynical about what Cheerilee will do in the end.”
Ditzy sighed. “She won’t try to keep you.”
Now Yangin gave a very strong shake of her head, settling back on her haunches as she did. “You don’t know that and you can’t. Fear and the threat of what might happen can drive a reasonable creature to do foolish things. I’ve watched it happen time and time again. It’s a little slip here, a compromise there, and the next thing you know you’re building extravagant cities in the middle of remote mountains.”
“I’m not going to argue that what Cheerilee did wasn’t wrong. But even if I did believe that she was going to try and keep you, which I still don’t, I wouldn’t let her.”
“You’d go against one of your fellow Elements of Harmony? One of your friends?”
“We may be friends, but we don’t always see eye to eye on everything. I really disagree with her on this, I’d oppose her if I had too….” She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “And I’d have faith that our friendship is strong enough to recover from that.”
“You know, with talk like that, I’d almost call you an idealist.”
“I guess. I care about my friends, I care about my family, but no pony is perfect. But Cheerilee is a good pony. Really.”
Yangin sighed and slumped slightly. “Ugh. You sound just like your princess.”
“....You...know Luna?”
Ditzy had been completely unable to keep the disbelief out of her voice. The thought of the irreverent jinn and Equestria’s monarch in the same room, let alone having a conversation seemed completely nuts in her mind. But the expression on Yangin’s face said it all. Her sigh had turned into a deep frown and the flickering nature of her mane and tail were now quite muted.
“Know....not really. At least, not beyond her shifting reputation through the years. No, I met her once and only once. She was drunk and looking for a wish.”
“...Oh.” Ditzy gasped, having become aware of Luna’s drunken wanderings post her sister’s banishment a few months ago.
“I’ll drop my usual charming attitude and speak straight here. I hate granting wishes,” Yangin growled. “I’ve been kicking around this dustball of a planet for around fifteen hundred years now, give or take a few. I have seen every variation of short sighted goals, vanity, greed, rage, lust, pride, sloth and gluttony known to creature kind. I’ve had to conjure up fortunes, find creatures ‘true love’ and have been unlucky enough to be used in a few assassination attempts!”
As she had flowed quite naturally into her rant, her flames had roared back to the life, crackling high above her head, roaring and tearing at the air and the whims of fate. Not unlike Corona when she was in a rage, really. But as quickly as it started, it ended and Yangin slumped even lower.
“Those wishes are annoying, but expected. It’s the ones your princess asked for that hurt. The ones that try to fix the world, or repair a broken creature or who just want to desperately give a friend something they need but that I can’t give, because I can’t stretch what they want in under the definition of ‘elemental magic’...those are the wishes that stay with you.”
“She asked you to fix Corona, didn’t she?”
“Yeah. Of course she was drunk and insistent and I was growing increasingly annoyed. So, that ended in a brawl. And the destruction of my shop in Equestria.”
Ditzy found herself nodding at that, but then a question popped into her mind. “I have to ask...did you win?”
“Pffft. Of course not! Princess Luna is an alicorn and can be a mean drunk. She kicked my flank! ...Though I did manage to give her a black eye,” she finished with a grin.
Rolling her eyes, Ditzy got to her hooves again, another question popping into her mind. “If you hate granting wishes, why was your bound item on the shelves?”
Yangin quickly stared at the ship’s deck, idly tracing a hoof along one one of the grooves in the stone. To see a creature made out of brass and fire look distinctly embarrassed was going to be one of those moments in her life that Ditzy was sure she’d probably never forget.
“That...was an accident. I kept that box in my house, along with new acquisitions. There’s this little camel girl who lives in the neighborhood. I’m pretty sure she’s an orphan, so I paid her to help organize the shelves and put things out. She must have gotten it mixed up with something else. I guess that’s what I get for being generous.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Ditzy frowned.
“It’s my lot in life, apparently.”
“No, I don’t think so. You may have had some bad experiences in the past, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.”
“In my experience that’s always how it happens.”
“Will you at least think about what I asked?”
“If she doesn’t do anything stupid, fine. Now, leave me alone. I need to keep an eye open for the ghuls.” Yangin sighed.
Ditzy smiled, feeling better about the situation, if at least a little bit. “Alright. About how long do you think it’ll take from here?”
“Another half a day tops, I’d say.”
- - - -
One Day Later….
“You swear that it’s just over the next ridge?” Ditzy asked.
“Completely.”
“Because...well... that’s what you said two ridges ago.”
Stone ship stood on at the edge of a winding ravine. The jagged cut in the earth sliced directly across the planned route, save for a narrow natural stone bridge, only wide enough for one camel to cross at a time. It was easily a hundred feet wide, enough to make Yangin pause while she mulled over if her ship could handle it or not. The foot hills were far behind them at this point, the dark granite peaks of the Abbor-Alz now hemming the expedition in on most sides.
Yangin frowned, idly running a hoof through her flaming mane. “Are you saying that we’re lost? I assure you, that we’re going the right way.”
“I wasn’t saying that!” Ditzy said.
“I am!” Trixie growled.
“I am insulted! We do have an agreement and I intend to keep to it!”
“You said that it was just over the next ridge four ridges ago!” Trixie exclaimed.
The jinn chuckled slightly before shrugging. “Okay, I may have under-estimated the distance, but we are heading the right direction. It’s just...well...last time I came this way I flew,” she motioned to the other side of the ravine. “But once we cross, we’ll follow the mountain path north, then cut east again towards the capital.”
Said path was just barely visible on the other side of the ravine and seemed to wind its way much higher through the mountains, actively hugging a jagged peak. Parlak, who had been mostly quiet and stoic the past few days, now spoke up.
“Wait, what about that pass over there?”
He pointed to the wider mountain pass that was also visible from their current position. A little to the south of the path Yangin had proposed, it seemed to be on the wider side and thusly more likely to be an easier trip.
“Why take us out of the way?”
“Trust me. You don’t want to go through Blackstone Pass. It may approach the city directly but the ghuls loved to watch it for ambushes back in the day.”
“Back in the day perhaps. But no camel or pony has used that pass in centuries. How closely would they still be watching it?”
“Parlak, I thought you didn’t want to be caught by ghuls? My direction will at least let us sneak past them.”
“Idealy? Yes. But taking that direction locks us in on a far too narrow path. If we do get attacked, your ship will take up most of the space. We’ll have no room to maneuver. At least in the pass, we could get off the ship and have lines of fire and room for magic. Plus, we do still have Grev to worry about.”
“You’ll have me to deal with the ghuls if they do show up and I can fly. Trust me. It’ll be better if we can avoid them entirely.”
“But we should prepare just in case!”
A bunch of murmurs began to roll through the soldier as they began to pick up on the nature of the Equestrian conversation.
“Hold on,” Cheerilee interrupted. “Let’s not fall apart into a shouting match here. Yangin...I do understand your concern, but wouldn’t taking the most direct route get us off the mountain paths sooner and expose us to less danger?”
Yangin gave Cheerilee a cool look, but did sigh. “I...suppose. But you’re taking a gamble on the idea that the ghuls aren’t watching that pass.”
“Not to be the downer here, but aren’t you assuming just as much about your route?” Trixie asked. “You’ve been running a shop hundreds of miles from here for how long? How much do you know about the ghul tribes?”
Yangin crossed her forelegs. “Probably more than the bucket head over here.”
Parlak chuckled, a smug smirk crossing his muzzle. “And how many campaigns against ghuls have you fought in? How many field reports from scouts have you read?”
Now Yangin put her back to the military camel with a huff. “I’ve fought them! Ghul attacks were beginning to become a real problem before the rebellions! It was one of the reasons the Caliph kept asking for more and more powerful jinn. He needed us to keep the supply lines open for this stupid project of his!”
“The point still stands,” Trixie said. “Can you really say that your way will be clear from the ghuls?”
“You know what?” Clapping her hooves together, the ship vanished back into the earth from whence it came, dumping everypony to the ground in a jumble. “If you’re so damn sure you know more about what’s going on here than me, then you can just walk the rest of the way!”
While everyone scrambled back to their hooves Yangin continued her passive aggressive streak. Falling apart into crackling flames, she flowed into the depths of the anklet with another snort of derision.
“Wait! You still need to lead us the rest of the way! Cheerilee, didn’t you make a wish or something?” Lyra shouted.
“Don’t shout at her! This was a bad idea in the first place!” Raindrops said.
“Technically, she has fulfilled the literal requirements of the wish. We just head east from here. It’s just the debate about which east path.” Cheerilee muttered.
“What are everypony’s thoughts? Put it to a vote?” Trixie asked.
Ditzy peered across the ravine. “Well, it basically comes down to whether or not we think that Yangin is right about the pass.”
“Which she could be,” Carrot Top said.
“She did used to live up here. If anyone was going to know, I’d expect her to,” Lyra said.
Flaring her wings in agitation, Raindrops glared at Yangin’s anklet. “But it's been how long since she was here? Forget her lying because she’s angry at Cheerilee-”
“Hey!”
“Things really could have changed. I mean, for all we know, they’re watching both directions.”
“That is how I’d do it, if I had the camel power,” Parlak nodded.
“Then I say if we’re going to have to worry about being jumped no matter which direction we go, then charge down the most direct route and crash straight through anyone that gets in the way!” Raindrops snapped, stomping her hooves hard against the ground.
“Ha!” Parlak laughed, clapping a hoof on Raindrop’s back. “I like that attitude! Let’s get moving!”
Parlak stepped onto the thin span of stone first. Like his soldiers, he was wearing military saddlebags, stuffed with tent, sleeping bag and the rest of the full military kit. It added not an insignificant amount of weight to the bulk of an adult camel. The worst case scenario was firmly stuck in the minds of everyone present as he slowly set off, testing the sturdiness of the stone with his hoof as he went.
Raindrops flew ahead as well, staying close to Parlak, just in case. If he fell, her strength was probably the only chance he had to not be dashed against the rocks below. Still, she couldn’t help but glance back at the three cannon wielding buffalo. They were even bulkier and carried more weight.
It was at the halfway point of the bridge when Parlak was finally satisfied with the bridge’s strength. Looking up at Raindrops, he nodded once.
“Quite sturdy stone. We’d be able to cross as is....”
“But?”
“Well, with our jinn we should be able to expand the bridge. Make the crossing faster.”
Raindrops glanced at one side of the ravine, then the other. “It’s pretty big...are you sure you can do it?”
“I have about fifteen camels with bound jinn in that army. It’ll go quickly. If it’s not too much trouble, could you join the quarrellers in keeping an eye out while we work?”
Nodding back, Raindrops wheeled back towards the other side of the ravine, Parlak following behind. Under the steady gaze and command of Parlak, earth jinn were sent forth, while Raindrops rose into the air to give herself a commanding view of the ravine and its surroundings. The crossbow wielding pegasi did the same, weapons unslung and in hoof.
Slowly and steadily, two new stone bridges grew from the edge of the ravine, the jinn swirling about the growing constructs. The new bridges inched alongside the natural one a few of the jinn then moving to fuse all three together.
Raindrops thought the whole process was painfully slow. Despite her bravado, all the talk of ghuls now had her really nervous. Sure, there hadn’t been any sign of them in the two days they had been traveling so far and she didn't entirely know what she was looking for but she was going to be ready all the same.
Her ears twitched at a clacking sound on the breeze and Raindrops twirled towards it, eyes narrowed. The dark rock of the mountains dominated her vision, a loose collection of rocks sliding down one of the many slopes, the most likely source of the noise.
The individual hairs of her coat began to stand on end, the nervous sensations growing as the starkness of their surroundings took on a new and dark significance. The city they were going to had needed jinn to be supplied. Had made super jinn to stay supplied. It was only logical to assume that the high, rocky soil was completely unsuited to growing crops.
And, according to Yangin, ghuls didn’t even eat crops. They ate meat. And now they were the largest source of meat within these mountains. Glancing towards the stone bridge below she gulped. An attack on the middle of a narrow bridge would be a massacre. It was like Parlak was afraid of. No room to move for those who didn’t have wings.
She was on the verge of flying down to Cheerilee and telling her to wish Yangin back out of that anklet right now, when the army began to move across the completed bridge. Raindrops could feel her nervousness dip down a little bit. But it didn’t go away, not entirely, until every last camel and pony had their hooves safely on the ground of the far side. Landing beside her friends, she spared one last glare at their ghul free surroundings.
Here, the path through the mountains went two different directions. To the north, it stayed narrow, winding higher through the mountains towards the Barrier Peak. But breaking away from that, the group moved to the south and east, before entering into a wider mountain pass.
- - - -
As the line of ponies and camels disappeared into the distance they missed a strange sight. One of the many boulders lining the mountain slopes began to unfold. Mottled greyness of stone was revealed to be coloration on the feathers of large, vulture like wings. Stretching wide, they uncovered a bipedal figure, perhaps a foot or so taller than a pony if it stood straight, rather than hunch over. The vulture like appearance was carried over into its head, with hooked beak and sharp yellow eyes, currently wide with greed. With the wings growing from its back, it had hands, tipped with sharp ripping claws as were its strong grasping talon feet. Its adornment was simple but grim; a simple green loincloth, the waistband of which was decorated with a collection of small animal bones in a macabre imitation of jewelry.
The ghul watched the remains of the marching army vanish from sight with twisted glee, a wicked grin on his hooked beak.
“Mmmmm! Meat!” He said, in a screechy voice.
Giggling to himself, the ghul took to the air with a few flaps of his wings swooping through the mountains at an angle from the traveling army. Tell the agah he would! Plunder and food had entered the kingdom of the ghuls and they would gorge themselves on both soon enough.
Powerful wings were able to easily catch the various thermals that rose from the Naqahn landscape. Taking hidden paths and passages through the mountains, only known to the ghul tribes, the scout quickly paced ahead of the lumbering army. His destination was a smaller canyon that branched off from Blackstone Pass and that, like the namesake of its parent, was carved from stone marred with black, soot like patterns upon the rock.
To those who traveled through the pass, or an outsider that might stumble across this canyon, it might have looked like an intense fire had roared through the area. Intense enough to permanently mark something as unmovable and unyielding as stone. Not that these ghuls- or any tribe of ghuls for that matter- would permit outsiders near their home. Nor did this tribe care to consider the nature of their home. For the Bonepicker tribe, the midnight hued stones had been their home from the earliest memories. An obsidian fortress from which they raided the soft low landers.
The canyon walls were a chaotic maze of caverns, decorated with what crude tapestries and scarecrow fetishes the ghuls could pull together. Death was the overwhelming theme of ghul art and culture, a morbid fascination so pervasive that the stories of their kind had had an impact much further than their race’s historical stomping grounds. In fact the Equestrian word “ghoulish” and its meaning- being morbidly interested in death and disaster- came directly from stories of the bird like creatures, though few in Equestria knew of that origin.
As such, the scout swooped through a forest of leering skull and loose bone iconography before twisting into a sharp dive, flaring his wings to come in for a landing at the lip of largest cave. Still giggling to himself, he half walked, half skipped deeper into the cave, to the home of the agah.
“Master! Master! I have great-great news!”
Agha Screech Scythe Claw’s chamber was the shape of an egg and the largest of the tribe’s, though it evened out to the same amount of space that the other members had when all was said and done.
This was mostly because of the rough hewn altar that took up the back of the room. Carved from the largest stones the tribe could find, a fist sized statue of a four legged centaur like creature stood on its surface. Scythe Claw kneeled before them, clawed hands folded towards the ground while he chanted. The death theme of the scout’s dress was carried over and magnified on Scythe. White paint traced the shape of bones on his feathers, to match the small creature bone jewelry.
“T’arek, great-powerful father of darkness-”
“Master!”
Prayers interrupted, Scythe let loose a startled squack. Spinning around, he cuffed the overeager scout on the side of his beaked head.
“Fool-fool! I am not to be bothered-disturbed when praying!”
“Forgive me exalted one! But an army of camels and ponies has entered the pass. They march-march towards the forbidden city.”
Scythe straightened up, clacking his beak excitedly. “Mmmmm! Really now? Yessss. Quick-quick! Gather the tribe! We will wait-ambush at the Talon Spire. Break-crush the camels! Bash-smash the ponies!”
Cackling again, the scout turned and rushed from the cave. Scythe looked up at the statues, his wings quivering with glee. They would bring glory to the dark father and misery upon their enemies!
- - - -
Trixie was getting thoroughly sick of marching. As the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon on the evening of their second day of travel since leaving Van, her limbs felt like they were about to fall off. Especially the one that had been previously injured. It doubly felt like it was about to fall off. In fact, she was sure that once her limbs did fall to the ground, that one would just lay there while the others flopped around, having completely given up.
Pausing, she extended and flexed the offending leg a few times. It, admittedly, felt worse than it actually was, more sore than anything else. Still, it wasn’t doing anything to help her mood, already in a low spot due to...where they were.
It was obvious to her that they were now on the right track. The signs of civilization peeked through the rough bits of nature here and there. The scattered remains of a road here, the crumbled shell of a watch post there. But the twisted scorch marks on the canyon walls made her nervous and the crude statues scattered along the pass really made her coat want to crawl right off her body.
“Uhh...do those statues look familiar to anypony else?” Lyra asked.
“Some of them do,” Carrot Top said, nervously wincing. “Those four legged ones look awfully like-”
“Tirek,” Cheerilee finished.
“Ghul’s worship many twisted powers,” Parlak said. “Though, I am surprised that you recognize the dark one.”
“We met him,” Ditzy said. “In a way, I guess.”
Parlak actually stumbled for a moment, swinging his shaggy head around to regard them for a moment. “You met him?”
“During that mess in Tambelon. It was pretty horrible,” Trixie frowned.
Shaking his head, Parlak continued his march again. “Equestria. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re one of the largest countries on the continent, ruled by one of the world’s most powerful beings with an army to match. Yet to many outside Equestria, your country is viewed as something of a paper tiger, full of dilettante nobles, who have no spine.”
“I know one or two nobles who are like that,” Lyra said.
Parlak smirked. “Yet, you’ve stood down the likes of Tirek. So, in my opinion Equestria has proven its mettle.”
Trixie puffed out her chest, which elicited a slight roll of the eyes from her friends. “Really now? Well, that’s good to know.”
Parlak chuckled for a moment, but then he suddenly stopped dead before slowly scanning the pass around them. Ahead, on a slight hill in the pass, a thin spire rose. Leaning at a precarious angle, it almost looked cobbled together from the remains of other buildings and loose stone.
“Err...Parlak? What’s wrong?”
“I saw one of the boulders off to our left move on its own. They’re trying to surround us.”
Before Trixie could ask who they were, a series of caw like shrieks rose from the surrounding slopes. Camouflage was dropped, boulders unfolding again and again to reveal ghuls that had been lying in wait. Trixie stared at the growing swarm of ghuls with wide eyes as even more came flowing out of caves and gaps in the mountains the shrieking beginning to take on a rhythmic cadence to it, almost like...singing.
Parlak was already shouting out orders, the regiments moving in response. Camel spearmen moved in lockstep, quickly forming into a square around ponies and buffalo, leveling their spears in all directions.
Trixie gaped at the waves of ghuls that closed in from all sides, some running with loping, almost hopping strides, others soaring through the air on their vulture wings. Their weapons were a motley collection of stone and wood lashed together into crude clubs and other bashing weapons.
The buffalo pushed past her and her friends now, unslinging their cannons and sliding canisters of little cannon balls into the barrels, while the pegasi crossbow wielders took steady aim at the mob approaching from the front. They were still yards off at this point, the flying flock a bit further ahead of the various swarms that closed in from every side. The skirmishing units pawed the ground, preparing to slip forward with counter charges. The discipline of the Naqahn army was on full display.
Trixie felt the tingle of magic before she saw the effect. A wave of blackness rose from somewhere in the ghul mass. The sheet of night rolled and roiled across the ground, like a demented fog.
Parlak roared out another command and across the camel lines the sparks of magic began to flow. The earth jin were unleashed again and they shot forward towards the ghuls. Throwing themselves into the various mobs, bursts of stone began to tear from the ground, in long, jagged lines. The lines tripped and tore at their clawed talons, spilling many of the ghuls to the ground.
But the original spell they cast rolled onwards. The majority of it rising up around the hocks and cannons of their defensive square. Magic creeping up her body, a dread chill settled into the roots of Trixie’s coat, a growing sense of doom building in the pit of her stomach.
The charging ghuls seemed to grow larger, taller, more twisted and exaggerated in their appearance. Grasping claws the size of tree limbs reached forward, threatening to scoop up whole groups of camels and ponies at once, while beaks as sharp as razors clacked and bit at the air. And finally, the disjointed sing song became horrifyingly clear, echoing in their native tongue, Equestrian and Naqahn all at once.
Ghulies chew and ghulies bite Ghulies cut and ghulies fight, Stab the pony, cut the horse, Ghulies eat and take by force!
Ghulies race and ghulies jump, Ghulies slash and ghulies bump, Burn the coat and bash the head, Ghulies here and you be dead!
Chase the foal, catch the pup, Bonk the head to shut it up! Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed, We the ghuls-
Scythe Claw cackled with glee from his position near the back of the ghul horde. Following tactics that had served his kind well for centuries, he had divided the tribe into five groups, each one approaching from a different direction. All four sides and from above. The ponies and camels were now thoroughly trapped, the horde closing in on them like ants upon a spilled crumb of food. Still, this was not the time to be overly cocky. He loathed to admit it, but the low lander troops worked well in groups and had their nasty, nasty tricks. His eyes were particularly locked on those buffalo and their cannons. Those horrible things and their equally horrible balls of death had killed so many of his kind in previous clashes. They would have to be dealt with. Clacking his beak together in a challenge, he raised the gnarled staff that was his badge of office skyward, the black gem set in the tip almost eating the light around it.
Blessed with some of his dark lord’s power, Scythe unleashed another wave of clawing darkness, aiming for the buffalo and their death spitters. Death upon the interlopers! For the glory of Lord T’arek!
- - - -
It was all Carrot Top could do to keep herself from turning and running. The screaming and disjointed singing of the ghuls rose to an almost out of control cacophony, made all the worse by whatever magic had just been invoked on them.
She wasn’t sure if it was possible for her to feel more in over her head. Even the professional soldiers looked like they were wavering, only Parlak’s commanding presence keeping them steady. The camel commander walked along the lines, giving what she assumed were slow and even orders.
“Carrot Top! We need some sticky bombs!” Trixie yelled, her voice barely audible over the din.
Said sticky bombs were the latest result of her alchemical tinkering, something she had finally began to work the kinks out of during the Contest of Champions. Their one downside was the combination of relatively rare herbs needed to make them. But they had some help on their side this time.
The sultan had provided them with supplies before leaving Al-Asitana, so Carrot Top’s bags had been quite full when they first set off and the multiple days of travel time so far had given her plenty of time to whip some up. Fumbling for her saddlebags, she had just undone the clasp when another wave of dark magic slammed home.
A deep wail of terror rose from the buffalo, the hulking troopers now looking around with wild eyes. Carrot Top realized what was coming the moment before it happened, as did Cheerilee.
“Look out!” she shouted.
The buffalo whirled about, breaking into a full run to get away from the source of the magic. Carrot Top and her friends scattered throwing themselves to either side to avoid the impromptu stampede. The motion was repeated through the lines, ponies and camels alike scrambling to avoid being crushed. And then they were free, and running straight towards the line of ghuls approaching from the rear of the square.
But Carrot Top didn't have time to see what was going to happen to them. The ghuls were almost upon them. Returning to her saddlebags, her shaky hooves closed around one of her sticky bombs.
“Where?” she asked.
Cheerilee wordlessly pointed at the mob straight ahead of them, which was the still the largest, despite a peppering from the crossbow ponies, and the effort of the jinn. Supernatural fear crippled their accuracy and sapped their will to fight, the bolts raining down in a haphazard scatter.
With a deep breath, Carrot Top pulled back and then pitched the bomb as far as her earth pony strength could manage. The vial tumbled awkwardly through the air before breaking against one of the lead ghuls. With the tell tale shattering of glass, the mix of herbs reacted violently with the air, thick yellowish glue exploding outwards in a wave. The sticky strands bound limbs and wings to bodies and bodies to each other, the front line coming to a tangled, stumbling halt.
The charges to their right and left continued unabated though, crashing into the ranks in the next breath. It almost seemed like a shudder rippled through the camel defensive line but the armored spear wielders simply grit their teeth and stabbed back. Parlak plunged into combat at their side, setting about the grim work of battle with a stony face.
Carrot Top looked up again gasping at the sight of the buffalo. The mob that had been approaching from behind had fallen upon them with a vengeance. Clubs rose and fell with an almost frantic fury, bashing them to the ground, even as nets were tossed over their bodies. The bound jinn continued to do their best, lashing out with shards of stone, tongues of flame and other elements as they were now all turned loose. But the ghuls ignored them, heedless of the cuts and burns. Instead they focused on the camels that controlled them. And as each of those camels fell, the jinn vanished back into their bound items.
A shadow fell over her body with a high pitched cackle. Yelping, she scrambled to get away from the ghul a thick net in its claws. She bumped into Lyra, who spun around as the net was tossed over their bodies.
Gritting her teeth, Lyra grabbed the net in her aura and tried to lift it off them. She strained against the surprising weight of the thing, noticing the heavy stones that had been tied along the bottom edge. Carrot Top joined in with her hooves, the heavy mass of rough spun fiber beginning to slowly lift off of them.
More ghuls swooped in now, even more nets in their claws. Again and again they were tossed, raining down on the defensive square. With limbs and bodies tangled, the Naqahns found their efforts being dragged down just as quickly, weapons unable to be brought to bear. The lines of ghuls pushed forward now, their clubs lashing out indiscriminately as they dragged soldier after soldier to the ground.
“Cheerilee! Get that anklet out of here! If they get control of Yangin, we’re all doomed!” Trixie shouted.
Cheerilee’s eyes lit up. “Yangin! She can help-”
The ghul came swooping in low, club swinging through the air in a wild arc. Raindrops, still free from the nets, dove to intercept, spinning into a literal flying kick. But the ghul proved to be faster on the wing, the club striking home just at the edge of the starmetal hood of Cheerilee’s armor. Raindrops’ kick crunched into the side of the ghul the next moment, sending it wheeling away. But Cheerilee collapsed to the ground in a heap.
In the next moment another pair of nets were thrown over Raindrops, the ghuls focusing their efforts on the new threat. Trixie backed towards Cheerilee’s fallen form with Ditzy, the blonde pegasus rushing to check her fallen friend.
“S-she’s okay!”
“Ditzy, you need to get her out of here! Now! If there’s any chance for us to get out of this, we need her free to be able to summon Yangin. Find a place to hide, get them up and find us!”
“Trixie, they want to eat us!”
“And they’re capturing us! They’re going to haul us...somewhere.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s our best option! Just go!”
Ditzy’s one good eye swept around the rapidly dwindling remains of the Naqahn lines. “How?”
“I’ll give you the opening!” Rearing up on her hind legs, Trixie threw her forelegs wide. “Alright you overgrown chickens! Its time for you to learn what the Great and Powerful Trixie can do!”
Horn lightning up she screwed up her face in concentration, reaching as deep into her reservoir of magic power as she could. The spell radiated outwards, coiling around and past the soldiers, before hitting the ghuls.
A fresh round of shrieks rose from the bird like creatures but with a very different tone compared to before. Now they were the ones shrieking with fear, Trixie overwhelming their senses with her newest spell; pandemonium. A mixture of illusion and a little bit of transmutation, she had created it to fight against Corona. The idea was simple. Overwhelm every sense of the target with false information. Sight, sound...even taste and smell. Trixie’s spell attacked them all with a one two punch.
The ghuls fell back, screaming and swiping at invisible threats. Ditzy grabbed Cheerilee around the barrel and took wing flying for the nearby peaks as fast as she possibly could, focusing with all her might to keep both eyes fixed on her target for as long as possible. She was very glad for the lightness of the starmetal armor, for she doubted that she would have been able to lift her friend.
Swooping between two mountains she dropped into an ungainly dive at the sound of the ghul shrieks taking on a triumphant air again. Yelping, she almost hit the ground with a rolling thud but she barely managed to come into a controlled stop with a wild flap of her wings. Looking around for someplace to hide, her good eye caught a rocky overhang a few yards away from where she was. Throwing Cheerilee over her back she galloped for the ledge, sliding underneath it. Holding Cheerilee close, she jammed her eyes shut and hoped that the screeching would pass.
- - - -
Scythe Claw watched the grey coated pony and her magenta cargo disappear into the mountains with a dispassionate gaze. No point in giving chase. Why run after scraps when the fest was at talon?
“Haul-haul them up! They need to be...tenderized!”
With a roar of victory, his tribe began to lift their haul into the air by the nets. Wheeling through the air, and back towards their home, another disjointed song rose from their beaks.
Crush, smack! Whip, crack! Smash, grab! Pinch, nab! You go, my lad! Ho ho! My lad!
Down down to ghul-town! Down down to ghul-town! Down down to ghul-town! You go, my lad! Ho ho! My lad!
Ghuls quaff and ghuls beat! Ghuls laugh and ghuls bleat! Batter, jabber, whip and hammer, hoooo!
You go, my lad! Ho ho! My lad!
From her position at the bottom of one of nets, Trixie really wished that these overgrown birds would learn how to carry a tune.
“Carrot Top, are you still conscious?”
“Yes. Kind of- urk- wishing I wasn’t though.”
The response came from above her and to the right...or was it the left? She couldn’t tell with the few unconscious camels in between her and Carrot Top.
“We need something to help mark the trail. Any ideas?”
“Well...ugh...the glue from my bombs is yellowish…. Would that work?”
“Yeah! Pass one down.”
For a few minutes, the sound of rummaging and the occasional groans from Carrot Top’s air sickness fought to be heard over the raucous singing of the ghuls. But eventually, a yellowish hoof popped into view above Trixie’s head with a bottle. Reaching out with her magic, Trixie carefully took it. Observing the top, she could see that the cork was strong and wax seal tight.
“It turns to glue when exposed to-hurk- air. Maybe if you can set it up to drip?”
Trixie wracked her brain for a moment. “Knife...I need a knife. Carrot Top, can you reach that soldier's bag?”
“I...I think so. Hang on.”
The sound of rummaging returned and after a moment or two, Carrot Top’s hoof reappeared with a pocket knife. Carefully taking this as well, Trixie ever so slowly twisted the tip of the blade against the cork, digging out a small channel.
“Uuugghhhh,” Carrot Top groaned, “Why are we still conscious?”
“They weren’t exactly being careful at the end there. They probably just scooped us all up to be done with it. Ah!”
A light trickle of glue flowed from a hole in the cork. Beaming with at her success, Trixie slide the neck of the bottle through one of the holes in the net. Watching the glue drop its way towards the ground, all she could do was hope.
- - - -
“Come on Cheerilee! Wake up!”
A soft groan of pain floated from Cheerilee’s lips, hooves clutching at her forehead as she flopped over. Ditzy didn’t take her hooves off her friend’s side. The wound on Cheerilee’s forehead was beginning to look nasty, a massive black and blue bruise blossoming through her coat, surrounding her left eye. The ghul had gotten completely lucky, hitting her in one of the few places that the starmetal armor wasn’t. The sick sensation in her stomach just wouldn’t go away because she had no idea how badly hurt her friend really was.
Biting her lip, Ditzy looked down at the platinum anklet in which Yangin presumably continued to sulk. She needed help and there was only one option right now. Placing her hooves against the anklet, she could feel a slight warmth in the metal.
“Yangin? It’s Ditzy Doo. Can you please come out? I need your help!”
“Go away.”
Her voice had seemed to come directly from the anklet’s red ruby.
“Yangin-”
“Go. Away. You don’t have my anklet, I don’t have to listen to you.”
Another groan from Cheerilee nearly sent Ditzy’s temper to the boiling point. Her friend was hurt! Did Yangin even know? Or did she even care, for that matter? And now she was pouting in her item just because they hadn’t taken her route through the mountains! Of course, the moment she thought that, an idea struck Ditzy just as hard. Perhaps stroking the ego of the jinn would make her more cooperative.
“You were right you know. About the pass.”
A pause for a moment and then. “Really?”
“Yes, really! The ghuls ambushed the whole group and hauled almost everypony and camel away! I need your help to get them back.”
Somehow, Ditzy was expecting more of an argument from Yangin. She might have watched over them at night but she had also basically abandoned them when moving through the pass, when she knew the ghuls might be watching.
But there was a rush of warm air, followed by a burst of crackling flame that shot through the air with a dizzying burst of speed. Hitting the ground it roared high, reforming into Yangin. Her expression was grim, jaw set and brow furrowed in concentration.
“We need to get moving. Your friends will be dragged right back to their lair and then things start to get really grim.”
She began to lift into the air only for Ditzy to dive forward and grab her hind leg. She latched on for all her might, Yangin twisting her neck around to peer at Ditzy and her bravado.
“Hold on! Cheerilee needs help! She’s wounded!”
Yangin’s eyes flicked very quickly from Ditzy to Cheerilee, the jinn’s own confidence seeming to drain away. She floated back, licking her lips as if her mouth was suddenly full of cotton.
“I’m not a healer.”
“You don’t have anything that can help?”
“Healing falls under the category of water elemental magic. What about the name ‘Choking Fire’ is so hard to understand?”
“I’ve seen you manipulating other elements than fire!” Ditzy practically snarled, stomping a hoof.
“And water is the element of calm, even flow. Water wears down mountains with its slow inevitability, not with the wild fury that is fire! You want a healing jinn? Fly your rump all the way out the eastern seas and talk to my sister!”
Ditzy felt her wings droop. “Please try? I know you don’t like her. But she’s one of my best friends.”
“I can’t! I’ve never been able to pull off healing water magic! I don’t have the head for it! Do I look like the calm and flowing type to you!?”
“...Then I’ll help talk you through it.”
“...You’re joking. You don’t know a thing about elemental magic!”
“No...I don’t,” Ditzy admitted with a shrug. “But I have a foal that I had to raise myself. I understand keeping your cool.”
Yangin rubbed her forehead. “Stars above! Prophet, you better be taking notes wherever you are!”
The crack and snap of flame returned as she swooped over to the unconscious form of Cheerilee. Settling back on her haunches, her rubbed her hooves together, staring at the wound for a moment.
“Okay...water...cool, flowing…wet. Very wet.”
Slowly pulling her hooves apart, small droplets of water began to float up from the ground. They sputtered and jittered as they rose, a few of them threatening to burst from the chaotic pulses of motion.
“Created to be one of the most powerful jinn on the planet and I’m struggling to control one stupid spell.”
Ditzy walked over to her side, keeping her best friendly smile on her muzzle. “It’s okay. Just take a deep breath.”
“Beathe? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“No, it’s a starting point. It was a starting point for my friend Raindrops too.”
“The angry looking one?”
Ignoring that crack Ditzy looked at the sphere of water that was forming between the jinn’s hooves. It seemed to be barely holding together but even she could see the sparkling of the magic in its depths.
“So, how does elemental magic work anyway? I’m curious.”
In truth, she was asking because it gave Yangin something else to focus on besides her own anger.
“I can’t really give you the academics of it. It just...comes natural to us. Usually,” she grunted. “But I do know that you can fit a lot of magic effects in under them, depending on how good you are at...stretching definitions.”
The ball of water churned violently, threatening to burst all at once.
“Damn! Stupid water magic and it’s stupid slipperiness!”
“Just breathe. Don’t let the distractions derail your focus. In and out. In and out.”
Inhaling deeply, Yangin squeezed her eyes closed and began to mutter to herself in Naqahn. Slowly, the sphere regained its even texture. She took a second deep breath, lightly running her hooves over the surface of the sphere, a shimmering sheen appearing where they traced. Whatever she had just done, it seemed to be the limit. With a cry, Yangin dropped the sphere of water onto Cheerilee, where it burst into a crashing wave of magic and water.
Cheerilee sat bolt upright, sputtering and shaking the water out of her face. Ditzy almost pounced on her, pulling her friend into a tight hug.
“Ugh...what a headache,” Cheerilee groaned. “I had this dream we were attacked by ghuls….”
“That’s because we were.”
The dazed expression dropped away from Cheerilee as she suddenly realized where she was and who was around her.
“Wait...where is everypony?”
“Kidnapped by the ghuls,” Yangin answered. She floated into the air with a fresh smile on her face. “And we are going to get them back.”
- - - -
The pit yawned like a gaping maw below Trixie’s hooves, its jagged edges and random sharp rocks that stuck out from that edge resembling so many stony fangs. The nets dropped lower and lower, the ghuls showing a surprising amount of care, rather than just dumping them in en-masse. Inching closer to the blackness, it almost began to feel like her head was being squeezed in a vice. Sensations and feelings almost wafted up from the bleak blackness and she could feel the gamut of emotions twisting through her body like a poison.
All of it felt familiar and Trixie twisted in the net, dreading what she might see once they passed the lip of the pit. Ghuls from the tribe that hadn’t been involved in the battle were beginning to crowd around the edge of the abyss. Crowded shoulder to shoulder, Trixie could feel their eyes almost drilling into her as they stared.
As they dipped past the edge of the pit, she heard Lyra gasp, the net swaying a bit more violently. Trixie tried to twist her head to get a look at what Lyra had just seen, but her view was thoroughly blocked.
“Lyra, what is it?”
“It’s a statue...its Tirek and its huge!”
They were dumped onto the floor of the pit with little ceremony at this point, bodies spilling across the dusty grey flagstones. Ghuls that had been carrying nets wasted no time, plucking the crossbows, and cannons from among their still unconscious wielders and soaring back to the lip above. There was a surprised yelp from Carrot Top as her saddle bags were likewise pulled away. Scrambling to her hooves, Trixie took in their surroundings, the chamber bringing a whole new flood of memories for her.
In the little town of Oaton she, Raindrops and Cheerilee had been unlucky enough to discover a small round chamber hidden in the forest. The dark spirit that had resided there had ensnared a childhood friend of Cheerilee’s and driven her to the brink of rage induced madness.
It was only later they learned it had been a shrine dedicated to Tirek. This place, however, was more like a cathedral, yet clearly of a similar design that Trixie would recognize it regardless. Like the shrine, it was almost perfectly circular in nature, large enough for a few hundred ponies or camels to fit within. The walls were covered by strange, spidery like script. She couldn’t read it but she had a feeling it was most likely the Naqahn version of the dark writing in the Equestrian shrine. A dozen pillars supported what ceiling remained, sixty feet above their heads. The pillars were pockmarked with carved holes in which horrors had been placed with a near reverence. Animal skulls covered in runes that almost hurt the eye to look at. Bone fetishes fashioned into the shapes of camels and ponies. Wax sealed jars of unidentified liquids.
But the worst of it was the statue that dominated the west end of the room. True to Lyra’s word, it was Tirek. Carved from a red marble it was a massive construct. Luna, Corona and Cadenza could have stood on each other’s backs and just reached the statue’s chin. Its arms were raised skyward and head thrown back in a cry of victory. This was not Tirek, weak and drained of power. Rather, this was Tirek flush with victory and surging with strength.
“Why is this here?” Lyra asked. Her eyes flicked furtively around the room, lingering on each of the horrific looking things for just a moment. “All the legends say that Tirek ruled over ponies, not camels.”
“Did those legends include his emissaries?”
Parlak came limping over to them, Raindrops at his side.
Lyra shook her head. “I can’t say that they did specifically. They mentioned that he had followers, but most of the tales I found talked about what he did with ponies.”
Parlak looked up at the statue of Triek with a frown. “Before the time of The Prophet, our own legends say that dark emissaries came to the camel lands from the east. They spread his dark word and built shrines and temples all across the lands. When The Prophet rose, the first thing he did was lead a great series of what you would call crusades against the followers of Tirek. The temples were torn down and many of their followers driven off.”
He looked around the room again. “It appears that they missed one.”
Carrot Top ignored the chamber and its contents, instead looking at the unconscious soldiers that were beginning to stir. “They only took the ranged weapons. Why?”
The answer to that question came as a sensation of magic rippled through the room. In the wake of that, they could feel a sense of anger beginning to spike. Raindrops visibly shuddered, her wings flaring almost out of instinct. She jammed her eyes shut, muttering under her breath.
“No, no, no.”
Trixie couldn’t blame her. The feeling of anger was like a vice on the sides of her head, whispering and urging her onwards to do horrible things. Plunge her horn into Carrot Top’s throat. Bash Raindrops on the head till she stopped moving. Break Parlak’s legs for dragging them into a foreign war in the first place.
Her friends weren’t looking much better. Carrot Top was practically shaking, pawing at the flagstones with a frantic energy. Lyra was holding the sides of her head, rapidly humming some kind of upbeat tune in what Trixie could only assume was an attempt to drown the urges out. And Raindrops just stood stock still keeping with her muttering chant. And Parlak had gone for his sword again and was now locked in a battle with himself whether to actually draw it or not.
In desperation Trixie thought back to a spell she had seen cast during the Oaton venture and something she had practiced a few times since, just in case. Horn flowing with magic, she quickly chained the spell out, hitting herself, her friends and Parlak as quickly as possible. As the abjuration magic settled into place the whispering voices lessened, fading into the background.
With the pressure on her mind fading a bit, Trixie could think a little bit better. The ghul’s plan was now a bit more evident. The negative emotion amplifying effect here was quite strong, and could quite possibly drive creatures to violence. Quite simply, the ghuls were planning to let them kill themselves.
Groaning, Trixie reached into her magic again, casting the abjuration spell and pushing it as far as she possibly could. Her horn almost screamed in agony as she threw the spell out again and again, wrapping it around the soldiers. She didn’t stop until she was sure that she had hit them all. As the last casting went off, she collapsed to her knees an icey strain of exhaustion settling into her. With the Pandemonium spell from before, she was pretty sure that she had pushed herself right to the brink of over channeling.
Lyra’s horn sprang to life now. The ghuls hadn’t taken her lyre, probably because they didn’t recognize it as a weapon worth taking, so now she played it with a vengeance. Her tune was steady and calming, aimed to support and bolster Trixie’s original spell. The ghuls let loose a chorus of angry shrikes at that, the mob seething around the lip of the pit.
“Well, you might have forced them to come down here and do their dirty work themselves,” Parlak said.
“What about looking for a way out?” Carrot Top asked. Everyone looked at her and she shrugged back. “If this is a temple, you need a way in, right? I don’t see stairs anywhere. Or ruins of stairs.”
Trixie blinked and looked around. “A tunnel maybe?”
“Let’s find out. Everypony spread out and search the walls.” Parlak said.
“Wait,” Trixie frowned, holding up a hoof, “they’re just watching us now, right?”
Parlak rolled his eyes towards the flock. “Barely.”
“Ditzy got away with Cheerilee and Yangin. If we just stay here and hold out, they’ll find us. If we try to escape, we might just force them to attack us directly again.”
“How would your friends even find us?”
“I left a trail.”
Frowning, Parlak shook his head. “It’s far too much of a risk. They could attack us any minute, once they work out that the pit isn’t doing what they want. And if we do find a tunnel, we could use it as a natural choke point if we are forced to fight.”
“And force them to attack us if you’re wrong?!” Trixie snapped.
She regretted saying that almost immediately. Red hot anger surged forth again, threatening to overwhelm the counterspell.
Parlak practically snarled his response. “How many battles have you been in little pony? This is what I was trained to do, I know how to fight a war and we aren’t going to just sit here and wait for them to attack!”
“Like your plans have been working so well so far!” Raindrops said, her voice a low growl.
A fresh round of cackling and cawing came from the ghuls, the flock adjusting their position as a section of the ring parted. A ghul with gnarled staff tipped with black crystal gazed down at them almost brimming with glee. Raising the staff high, those in the pit realized that this was ghul that had rained the fear based spells on them before.
“Oh, this can’t be good,” Trixie muttered.
With another screeching laugh, the ghul jabbed his staff towards them, a familiar looking wave of blackness leaping forward. Falling on their heads like a thick blanket, everyone felt a chill run across their bodies, from the tips of their ears, to the end of their tails. Just on the hooves of that sensation, a disjointed melody, much like the other two ghulish ones, sprang to life. The leader began to almost hop around the the pit's edge, waving the gnarled limb of wood like a conductor’s baton, darkness staining the high noon sky.
In the depths of the night, they were running and crying The nightmare they had was as bad as could be It shook them out of their wits! Rattled their bones to bits! Then they opened their eyes and the nightmare was here!
As the disjointed melody echoed off the walls, the effects of Tirek statue returned, stronger than before and now with an undercurrent of fear from the added enchantment.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Lyra shouted, horn glowing a little bit brighter. In contrast to the ghul melody, Lyra’s original tune actually slowed slightly, taking on an almost restful quality to it. Taking a deep breath, she fixed a glare on the leader and began to sing back at him.
Now is the time to seize the day Stare down the odds and seize the day Minute by minute, that’s how you win it We will find a way.
Her magic radiated outwards quenching the dark light that hung around their hocks. The dark conductor jerked back with a surprised caw before glaring and redoubling his efforts.
We’re hungriest beasts in all Naqah! When you came here you made a mistake! We’ll make each of your pay! Not one will get away! Little pony, beware, T’arek’s awake!
The rest of the ghuls joined in now forming, in a perverse mockery of Lyra’s chosen profession, a backup chorus.
In the depths of the night, we’ll find you! In the depths of the night, just before dawn! Your meat will be sweet When the curse is complete! In the depths of the night, you’ll be gone!
Lyra shuddered at the lyrics, but played on, letting both magic and music flood the air around her, drawing the dark magic in. At the moment she was effectively acting both as anchor for her own enchantment and bulwark against the ghul’s attack. She just hopped that her magic wouldn’t give out on her.
But let us seize the day Courage cannot erase our fear Courage is when we face our fear!
Letting her magic take over the playing for a moment, she jabbed a hoof towards the statue of Tirek.
Tell those with power, safe in their tower We will not obey!
Admittedly, Tartarus was about as far from a tower as one could be, but that was besides the point right now. She motioned to her friends and the army around her with both her forelegs, still glaring up at the ghul leader.
Behold the brave battalion that stands side by side Too few in number and too proud to hide I say to all others I will not stutter and we will not fall to you!
The leader now began to grow incensed at Lyra’s continued resistance and began to direct his lyrics directly at her.
I can feel that my powers are slowly growing A slash of my claws and you won’t be well! As the pieces fall into place I’ll see you crawl into place! Your power’s a disgrace, now farewell!
Dark lightning flew from the tip of the staff’s black crystal, striking the statue of Tirek directly between the eyes. Their glow grew more intense, and more dark magic flooded into the chamber to another cheerful verse from the ghuls.
In the depths of the night, terror will strike you! In the depths of the night, evil will brew! Soon you will feel, that your nightmares are real In the depths of the night You’ll be through!
The blackness closed in on Lyra specifically now, engulfing her field of vision for a moment. When it cleared, it seemed that day had turned to night. Sparing a quick glance around her, she yelped and almost lost control of her spell at what lay all around her. Her friends, not moving and not breathing either. Squeezing her eyes closed, she focused on her playing. That ghul was just trying to break her concentration. Well, two could play at that game.
Opening her eyes, she now focused both magic and eyes on the flock’s head trouble marker and played faster.
Now is the time to seize the day Stare down the odds and seize the day Once we’ve begun If we stand as one Someday becomes somehow And a hope becomes a vow!
And this ends right now!
Swiping a hoof across her strings, she sent a burst of magic racing towards the statue of Tirek. It hit with a loud twanging sound, the enchantment the ghul had placed upon it falling apart and the nightmare with it a moment later. The ghuls recoiled and shrieked for a moment, but a quick snap of the leader’s beak brought forth another chorus.
In the depths of the night evil will find you! In the depths of the night terror comes through!
Then the leader took up a verse.
My dear, here’s the sign! It’s the end of the line!
The chorus continued their near chant like chorus, beginning to hop and jump around the edge of the pit, their excitement reaching a fever pitch.
In the depths of the night…. In the depths of the night….
The leader thrust his staff skyward and the flock took the sky, swirling and wheeling above her head. Wings and bodies blacked out the remains of the noon sun, triumphant cackles filling the air now.
Fly my minions Rise for our master! Let your talons gleam! Take them now, yes, fly ever faster!
The flock wheeled at once and dove for them, their song still on their beaks.
In the depths of the night! In the depths of the night! In the depths of the night!
Lyra shuddered, taking a few shaky steps back as the leader took wing as well with a triumphant lyric.
THEY’LL BE OURS!
With the whole flock barreling down on them, Lyra dropped her buffing enchantment, trusting Trixie’s abjuration spell to carry its weight. Instead, she slashed a hoof hard across the strings, unleashing a raw wall of sound in a desperate brust. She could hear Parlak shouting commands behind her and the sound of armor rattling as spears were leveled to receive the charge. The leading edge of her sonic blast battered into the lead ghuls, sending a few cartwheeling away beak over claws, but the ones behind plunged on unheeding their brethren. Her friends stepped forward now to back her up, ready to fight-
She heard the whoosh of flame before she saw anything, the ghul flock was so thick. But then red, orange and yellow burst through the crowd, the resulting explosion sending multiple ghuls flying every direction, their feathers smoking from the intense heat of the magic. The sphere of flames plowed onwards, striking the floor with all the force of a thunderclap. As those flames faded away, the form of Yangin rose to her full height, mocking smirk in full force.
“Did anyone wish for a rescue?”
Without waiting for an answer, she threw her forelegs out to the sides, sending fresh torrents of flame screaming through the temple. Ghuls ducked, wheeled through the air and dove for cover behind the pillars in a desperate attempt to get away from the jinn that had appeared in their midst. In the chaos, Ditzy dropped through the hole in the ceiling landing with a bit of an ungainly stumble next to her friends.
“Ditzy? Where’s Cheerilee?” Trixie blinked.
Almost as if on cue, part of the temple wall burst outward, a collection of loose stone and soil scattering itself across the flagstones. Cheerilee stood in the entrance to a long and seemingly worked tunnel, grinning about as wide as any of her friends had seen her grin.
“Guess what I got enchanted with!”
“Cheerilee! You’re okay!” Carrot Top beamed.
Cheerilee beamed right back, motioning for everyone to follow. “Yup! And I found the other end of this tunnel! It lets out about half-way back down the canyon. Let’s get going!”
“What about Yangin?” Lyra asked.
“Go ahead!” She called, throwing a fireball over her back. The detonation flushed a half dozen ghuls out of their hiding spot from behind one of the legs of Tirek’s statue. “This was what I was made for. I’ll catch up with all of you on the other side.”
Parlak nodded once, already giving commands, the army beginning to advance towards the tunnel with weapons raised. A few of the ghuls that weren’t focused on Yangin noticed this and came charging their way.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Lyra shouted, giving her strings a sharp twang again.
She put a slight flick in her wrist on this one, letting the sound coil around their claws and yank them back to the ground. Raindrops charged forward as they hit the ground, her hooves lashing out in a flurry of strikes, sending them slumping to the ground.
“Come on!” Cheerilee shouted.
Her friends took the lead, galloping down the ancient hallway with a hammer of hooves. Then cames Parlak and the army bringing up the rear. Yangin watched them go with a satisfied nod, before turning to throw herself back into the battle. This was going to be fun!
- - - -
Agha Scythe Claw watched his tribe’s feast stampede away from under his talons, free and unopposed. An explosion, followed by a bunch of pained screeches, echoed from the temple summoning a fresh round of rage from Scythe Claw. That cry was the reason all of this was falling apart! That jinn with power the likes of which he had never seen before.
Angrily clacking his beak, so hard that it threatened to crack, he swooped for his chamber. Tucking his wings close, he shot straight down the corridor, not bothering to land and walk the rest of the way. He flared his wings just before the altar to his lord, grabbing the small statue that he had always prayed to in a taloned hand. With his other, he bent a claw inwards, slicing open a small cut on the palm.
The blood was dripped onto the statue, disappearing as it was drunk by the stone. The little rubies for its eyes blazed to life, the magical connection to the dark below formed in an instant.
“My lord! A powerful jinn attack-strikes my tribe! I need much-much more power to kill-kill it!”
The dark voice that responded did so with the deep rumbling tones that he had come to expect.
“The price of power is never simple, Scythe Claw. You know this.”
“Camels and ponies dare to strike-strike my home! An example must-must be made!”
A deep laugh filled the room. “Then will you give me what I want?”
Scythe Claw nervously clacked his beak. T’arek asked for much. But if his tribe was to ever be powerful enough to collect food and plunder from the low landers, the jinn needed to die and the army needed to be destroyed.
“Yes-yes.”
“Then take the power you seek.”
A wave of blackness surged forward, enveloping Scythe Claw in a smothering blanket. Spasms wracked his body as the dark magic flooded in, warping flesh and twisting bone in its wake. And while the power flowed in, a flickering spark floated out, sputtering through the air before it was swallowed by the darkness of the statue. The magic sputtered out once the spark was swallowed, leaving Scythe Claw standing dazed.
As he pulled his mind back together he realized that his chamber looked smaller than it was before. Had he been able to look at himself, he would have realized that his eyes now glowed with a baleful red light.
“Now go. Use the statue in the temple.” T’arek growled.
Screeching with joy, Scythe Claw rushed back down the tunnel.
- - - -
It had been a long time since Yangin had fought like this. Not since she and Luna had their punch up now that she thought about it. And Luna had put up a better fight. Not that the ghuls weren’t trying their damndest. She’d almost feel bad for them if they weren’t a bunch of deranged, cannibalistic worshipers of a Tartarian monster.
A gesture ripped one of the pillars from the floor, a second flipped it horizontally, and a third pitched it across the room. It truly didn’t matter where. She had so many targets that it was ridiculous.The massive slab of stone cartwheeled through the air smashing many ghuls to the ground with its bulk. Their cries of pain elicited a dark chuckle from the jinn, as much as part of her didn’t want to.
Right now, she really was doing what she had been created to do. Fire was an element of war and destruction and fifteen hundred some odd years since her creation, despite many attempts otherwise, here she was burning ghuls. As angry as that made her though Yangin wasn’t in the mood to stop. They worshipped a Tartaurian monster. So they made good punching bags.
“And where is your god now?” She challenged with a mocking tone, forelegs spread wide.
The heavy flapping of wings filled her ears, a new larger ghul diving through the hole in the roof. It immediately dove for the massive statue of Tirek, perching between its horns. It was a hideous, malformed thing, with bulging muscles and glowing red eyes. Grabbing the horns in its malformed talons, magic cascaded across the statue’s surface to the glee of its rider.
The question of what the spell did was quickly answered. The statue ground to life, an equally twisted bright light appearing in the carved sockets that were its eyes. A mighty cawing cheer tore from the throats of the ghuls she hadn’t already dispatched, the tribe taking heart at the effigy joining the battle.
“Ahh...so there it is,” Yangin blinked. Not that she was worried. The clumsy nature of the statue would be easy to-
The ghul on the statue opened its beak. It was such a simple gesture, done with a bored energy. But as he did it Yangin felt a horrible chill, as cold as the deepest blast from a windego’s breath, tear through her insides. Magic streamed from her body and into the gaping beak of the ghul. She dropped like a stone, limbs flapping, tumbling head over tail. Snarling, she barely arresting her descent with a jet of flame fired directly beneath her. Gritting her teeth, Yangin threw a fireball right at the ghul to break the connection. With an angry shriek, it rolled backwards, hiding behind the statue’s head.
Galloping forward like an out of control train, the idol of Tirek brought both forehooves down on Yangin in a vicious stomp. She felt the flagstones crack and break under her body, doing their best impression of her ribs...if she had any. The idol reared up stomping again and again in a near frenzy of destruction. It kept grinding her past the flagstones, deeper and deeper into the ground with its bulk. Under the grinding, punishing assault, Yangin did something that she hadn’t done in centuries.
She screamed in pain.
- - - -
Cheerilee whipped her head around, the scream she heard still echoing off the walls. Her friends had looked as well and Ditzy was looking quite concerned as well.
“Was that….”
“Yeah...I think it was Yangin.”
Trixie nervously licked her lips. “What, exactly, could make her scream like that?”
“Not sure. But I’m going to find out.” Cheerilee said, beginning to push her way past the soldiers, Ditzy right behind her.
“Are you seriously going back?” Parlak asked.
Cheerilee took a deep breath. “It’s my fault she’s here. I forced her to lead us here. Not to mention she helped me and just saved your hides. I’m not going to leave her to get crushed by whatever that is!”
“Her rescue will mean nothing if you go back there and fall!” Parlak snapped. “And if you fall, then Equestria and Naqah may fall with you! Are you truly going to say that one jinn is worth the fate of two nations?”
“....I still dragged her up here.”
Pushing onwards through the soldiers, she smiled as the rest of her friends fell in behind her. Despite their occasional disagreements, they could count on each other to have their backs. At an order, the crowd split to give them room to pass and Cheerilee began to gallop for the pit. But when the sound of dozens of hoof falls filled the tunnel behind her, she spared a quick glance.
“Changed your mind?” she asked Parlak.
“I was assigned to be your guide and guard. If you are going to do something foolish, then it will be done with proper backup.”
Mentally chuckling, Cheerilee lowered her head and ran as fast as she could. She had made a promise to Yangin, and she was going to keep it!
- - - -
Thick limbs of of obsidian raised to continue the assault, the cackling of the ghuls an unending cachoughny of mockery. If it hadn’t been for the magical nature of her body, Yangin was pretty sure that she’d be dead from that punishment.
Snarling, she tapped into her earth magic, sinking straight into the ground. At that moment, Cheerilee’s transgression against her was all but forgotten. This Tirek worshiping vermin had just tried to eat her magic. Her magic! She was a jinn, she was basically nothing but magic!
Now he would pay.
Reaching into both her own magic and the elemental power infused into the very stones around her. To that she added some of her own nature. The bubbling rage and power of fire. Even in the depths of the earth, she could feel the heavy hoof falls of the statue above her head. Taking her laced elemental magic, she gave it a twisting flick. Elemental power twisted up and with another push, exploded outwards. She smiled wide as it punched forward. Earth plus fire equalled magma!
She followed behind the spell, pulling the flame back out of the magma as it engulfed the idol. Without the fire to make it lava, it solidified back to stone and rock. Leaping into the air, she landed on the statue’s back, ready to show that ghul the error of its ways.
Except that it wasn’t here.
A condensed ball of shadow crashed into her from behind, unfolding into the ghul. The icy chill of the magic drain returned as it dug into her hump. Yangin groaned, her legs beginning to buckle as the very essence of her being was being drained away. She grasped at the fraying threads of spell power, seizing upon her inner flame magic. She engulfed the whole of her body in a roar of magic and fire. The ghul sprang off of her, landing neatly in front of her.
“Nasty little-small plaything. Camel made wind-up-toy-toy.”
“Silence you little rat!”
“Rat-rat? No-no. Ruler. Leader. Powerful,” it said, tapping a claw to its chest. Then it turned that same claw to Yangin with a twisted smile. “Weapon. No more.”
Yangin’s anger roared back to life. “I am more than a weapon!”
Kicking off from the statue she soared into the air, with an ungainly motion. Every inch of her body hurt, the threads of magic that kept her intact as a living, thinking being threatening to unravel. But she had barely risen a few feet above the shadow when the agony of the magic drain returned. Dropping from the air like a stone, she smacked snout first into the floor.
So...this is it…. Eaten by ghuls. Have to say, that I didn’t see this coming.
She idly wondered what she’d face when it was all over. Would she go on to whatever fate awaited normal creatures? Or as a being of pure magic, would she just stop existing, with no creature to mourn her passing? Whatever it was, she was going to find the answer soon.
The battle cry came roaring out of the once choked passage and was quickly followed by a squawk mixed with surprise and pain.
Yangin barely was able to force herself upright again, stumbling to turn back towards her attacker. Raindrops was standing resolutely between the ghul leader and herself, wings flared and twitching with nervous energy. She was crouched down coiled and ready to strike, her muscles almost rippling under her coat.
The rest of her friends, buckethead and his troops had come storming back into the chamber and right into the ghuls. Lyra played away, attacking the emotional enchantment on the room, while the charge tore through the flock, scattering the tribe like leaves before the wind.
“Look out!” Yangin shouted to Raindrops.
The ghul had opened his mouth again and Raindrops, preparing herself for a physical attack, yelped as her magic was struck at instead. Beating her wings like mad, she tried to pull away, only for them to go limp. Her cutie-mark was fading away, right before Yangin’s eyes. She struggled to raise a hoof, and send a jet of flame into that ghul’s stupid beaked face. But her magic wasn’t listening to her anymore.
But Cheerilee and Parlak came rushing in, pony from behind and camel from the side. Much to Yangin’s surprise, the camel commander moved to step between Raindrops and the ghul. The flow of magic drain ended immediately, Parlak twisting pivoting into a sweeping strike with his saber. The ghul leader jumped back from the razor sharp weapon edge and right into Cheerilee.
Yangin blinked as the pony that had bound her to this trip, sprang up, grabbed the ghul by his long neck and pulled back as hard as she could. Her weight bent it back, leaving the leader staring at one of the far walls. Angrily screeching, he reached and clawed at the pony that was now latched onto the small of his back.
Shaking her head to clear it, Raindrops slalomed past Parlak, spun around and delivered a powerful buck right to the ghul’s stomach. He was unwilling to fall however and let loose another angry shriek.
Black magic burst from his body, coiling around and engulfing Cheerilee in it’s dark grip. So ensnared, a few more tendrils lashed out from the mass, grabbing the ground and pulling Cheerilee away. She hit the ground, shuddering, eyes wide in what Yangin could only assume was fear. A moment later, the magic drain struck her as the ghul turned his attention on his latest attacker.
Parlak charged forward again, once more placing himself between ghul and pony. It took Yangin a moment to realize why. Camels, unlike ponies and herself, did not have an internal well of magic to take.
“Clever,” she muttered.
Gritting her teeth, Yangin extended her senses outwards reaching deep into the ground around her. Made from the bones of the natural world as she was, Yangin ripped the earth magic forth and poured it into her own form to shore up what had been taken. Magic and legs stabilizing, she threw herself into the air, shooting out of the pit.
She climbed into the sky, the natural flow of the wind, bolstered her further. While wind magic may have been beyond her purview to control directly, that didn’t mean she didn’t get any benefit from its existence.
It was a bit of irony that fire needed air to exist but too much would make flame sputter and die, a relationship that had been carried along into her existence. And now the warm sunlight and billowing mountain winds were making her feel almost normal.
Glaring angrily down at the pit, she extended her magical senses into the air around her, pumping both water and fire into it. Clouds gathered with a frightening speed, twisting and churning through the air. Forming dark and heavy, they billowed, grew and grew again beginning to resemble a massive thunderhead. But the darkness within them didn’t signal the presence of rain. Oh no. On and on she swirled and churned the clouds, whipping it into a near frenzy of a stormfront.
Eighty feet below, Raindrops looked up at her work. Yangin couldn’t make out what she said from this distance but after a some wild gestures, ponies and camels stampeded back to the cover of the tunnel.
A moment later, the deformed ghul leader came screaming out of the pit, those of his tribe that hadn’t run right behind him. Yangin reached into the stormcloud now seeding it with fire magic as well and then waited. Once the ghul leader drew within twenty feet of her, Yangin threw her forelegs forward and unleashed her prepared malestrom.
Fireballs and choking ash alike rained down in a furious torrent. Ghuls were blasted from the sky, wheeling away with seared feathers and other burns. Explosions of heat and power detonated across the floor of the canyon, adding to the black char patterns on the stone. Ghuls shrieked, dove for cover, ran and flew in every direction. Anything to escape the wrath of the jinn. But the vast majority of her spell was aimed right at the leader who had dared to try and eat her magic.
It opened its beak wide, drawing in the magic of the spell as it approached. At first. But the ongoing flurry of elemental power pushed on, bursting and slipping past his efforts en masse. Flame twitched and wracked its body, almost juggling the cursed creature in mid air.
The anger that surged through Yangin felt good to her. Every creature wanted to use her power. Every creature treated her like a thing to be used. “A weapon am I? A wind up toy!?” she bellowed now urging even more lightning to develop in the depths of the cloud. “Such grand words coming from a puppet of being locked away in pit in the ground! And just because your average jinn is as smart as a houseplant doesn’t mean that I deserve to be treated like a damned tool!”
The built up fire strained at her magic grip, beginning to reach the limits of her control. So, with a snort, she pointed at the ghul leader and let it loose.
“Now...burn!”
- - - -
Raindrops practically jumped at the latest explosion that rumbled high above her head. It was nearly as if Corona herself had just been unleashed on Naqah and the only thing that was protecting them from that wrath was a few tons of stone between them and the fireballs.
She felt sick and it wasn’t just because of the ash that she and her friends could see raining into the pit. Twisting her head about, she peered at her cutie-mark, still faded to the point of almost being gone. Cheerilee’s hoof rested on her back, the magenta colored mare’s expression anxious. Her own mark was also faded, but no where nearly as bad as Raindrop’s was.
“Raindrops...are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine..”
“Are you sure? I did insist we go back to help her.”
Sighing, Raindrops leaned against her friend. “It was the right call. You promised to let her go once we got the army. And she did save us.”
Another massive explosion shook the stones above their head, Carrot Top wincing at the rumble.
“She’s so angry.”
“Well, those ghuls did try to eat us and drain her magic,” Trixie said, “so, I for one don’t really blame her.”
“I’m just worried about what we’ve unleashed now,” Raindrops muttered.
Parlak shrugged. “The greater jinn were created with great destructive power. Like many things with such power, it depends on where they are aimed.”
“Hey, I think the explosions stopped.” Ditzy said.
Straining their ears, the group could indeed hear- or rather, not hear- the sounds of explosions anymore. The rain of ash was slowing too, a magical tingle beginning to fill the air. Creeping forward to the edge of the tunnel to look for the source, Raindrops immediately jumped back as Yangin hit the temple floor with a distinctively loud thwack.
Panting, the jinn pointed a hoof skyward. “The ghuls...won’t bother you anymore... or anyone else probably, for a good long while… I think I put the fear of The Prophet into them.”
“Are you okay?” Ditzy asked, running to her side.
“I will be...I just need to rest...let my magic come back. Yours should come back too now that the big guy is….gone.”
With that, she fell apart into a rush of flame, flowing into the depths of her anklet.
Trixie, looking quite drained herself, leaned against Ditzy for support, sighed. “Sometimes, I wonder if she takes anything seriously.”
“Being controlled," replied Ditzy, "she takes that really seriously.”
“...Point taken.”
A bottle of ether appeared in Carrot Top’s hoof and Trixie sighed again, holding her nose with one hoof before drinking the potion down as quickly as possible. She still hated how the mixture tasted..
“At this point," announced Parlak, "we might as well push through the rest of Blackstone Pass on our own. While I have no doubt that Yangin shook them up, we shouldn’t linger. The ghuls will regroup if we tarry to long,”
“Agreed!" replied Lyra as she wiped her lips after drinking her a bottle of ether herself. "Let’s recover all our equipment and get out of here. The sooner we leave behind this forsaken pit the better.”
With their decision made, the expedition set off once more, determined to face whatever might be waiting in the depths of the ruined capital.
Without the aid of a magically constructed boat it took the rest of the day to leave the palace of the ghuls behind and reach the outskirts of their destination. Dagin Mucevher, or Jewel of the Mountain in Equestrian, seeming to be built in varying tiers and levels, rose at the end off the pass like a collection of crooked teeth. Behind the skyline was the largest mountain in the range they had been travelling through, a true spike of dark granite that almost seemed to scrape the sky, tipped with a small cap of white snow.
The city either had no walls or they had long since been torn down, so they advanced into the outskirts finding a collection of buildings at the end of a circular street to camp at for the night. With the close call that was the ghul attack, Parlak doubled up on the watches. Two spear camels and a crossbow pegasus in each group with four groups set up with overlapping fields of vision.
Trixie and her friends were given the second floor of one of the homes to themselves, so that they wouldn’t have to sleep with the troops. The wall between two of the bedrooms had been broken away, giving them a nice wide open area to lay their bedrolls down. Out the window, the sun was beginning to set for the day, signaling the fourth day of their time in Naqah.
At the moment they were sitting in the loose circle they had set their bedrolls in, Carrot Top fussing with Cheerilee’s forehead.
“That was a real hit you took there.”
“He got lucky. The armor basically covers everywhere else.” She nodded towards Ditzy, smiling softly. “I’m still amazed that you managed to talk Yangin through that spell.”
“No, I talked her through being calm. She did the magic.”
“I still say it was impressive.”
Raindrops glowered, resting her chin on her hooves. “I’m just eager to get this done at this point. I’ve had more than enough with the close calls here.”
“I get the feeling they won’t be done, even once we finish here. We’ll still have to deal with Corona once we’re done here.” Trixie said.
Silence settled over them, the truth of that statement something they were unable to avoid. After a few moments of awkward silence, Ditzy looked out the window and sighed.
“Girls...do you ever spend time wondering how this thing with Corona is going to end?”
“What do you mean?” Trixie asked.
“I mean...is the goal still to banish her? On Tambelon, she seemed…,” she frowned, considering her words before giving a shrug. “I guess less crazy would be the word. But she’s still planning to seizing power.”
Carrot Top fidgeted in place, nervously rubbing her hooves together. “I really don’t know. I know that Princess Luna would like to have her sister back. But...the Elements haven’t been able to do that.”
“But she has had a change of heart. We all saw it, as slight as it might have been. Maybe next time it’ll be different?” Lyra shrugged.
Cheerilee sighed. “And maybe she’ll snap out of it herself. Who really knows at this point. We’ll just have to do what we have to do.”
“Do what we have to do?” Ditzy frowned.
“Well, we are the Elements of Harmony and knights now. It’s like we said on Tambelon. Everything’s different now.”
“Does all of that include foalnapping someone?”
The outburst had come suddenly and quite strongly. So strongly that Ditzy found herself blinking at her own anger. Nervously ruffling her wings, she sank back into her seat and fixed her friend with a steady glare.
“I’m not happy about it! But it’s what I had to do! How else were we going to get the information we needed?”
“What you did still isn’t right! Cheerilee, she saved you and our friends. Just let her go!”
Wincing, Cheerilee fiddled with the anklet. Her internal conflict was writ clearly on her face. But before she could make a decision, Raindrops slammed a hoof down to grab everypony’s attention again.
“Don’t do it. I don’t want to let her go without Princess Luna right at our side.”
Lyra frowned. “Because of what happened with the ghuls?”
Raindrops squeezed her eyes shut, thinking back to what she had seen leaving that canyon. “She made a thunderstorm of fire and she has a temper. I know that this probably sounds bad coming from me, but I really don’t want to let her go without an alicorn backing us up if the worst case happens.”
“I don’t like this,” Ditzy glowered. “She did save us. We’re just going to assume that she’ll turn on us? Cheerilee didn’t even have to force her to come. She did that on her own!”
Raindrops gave her deadpan stare. “And you’re not concerned about that explosion back there?”
“I’m not.”
That comment had come from Trixie and now everypony turned to stare at her. Forelegs resolutely crossed she shrugged. “You heard it straight from her. She fought these things back when this was still an actual city. She was, in effect, doing what she was created to do. And those ghuls did try to eat us and worshiped Tirek. I’m not saying that I’m jumping for joy over what she did, but I’m not going to pretend the world isn’t better off without them.”
Ditzy’s tail was thrashing angrily now. “I can’t believe this! We argued for Grogar being imprisoned over being locked away in shadow forever and now we’re okay with living creatures being killed?”
“Hey, I didn’t shed any tears when we were forced to use the Elements on him. And I’m not saying that we don’t let her go. I just want to have an alicorn there in case she gets difficult.” Raindrops growled.
Now it was Carrot Top’s turn to be angry. “But Grogar was already a lich by then! It’s not the same thing! It’s not the same thing as holding an intelligent creature hostage! It’s not the same thing as not caring about what might have happened there!”
Sinking completely to the floor now, Ditzy covered her eyes. “I’ve had enough of this. I just want to go home. I want to be with my daughter again and deliver the mail and just take a break from running around the world as a hero! Look at what this is doing to us!”
Cheerilee held her head as high as she could. “It will pass. I have faith that if we stick together and try our best, that things will work out. After all...we’ve done the impossible already, haven’t we?”
“Yeah...I suppose we have.” Ditzy said. Though she didn’t sound entirely convinced.
Trixie rolled onto her side. “Come on. Let’s get some rest. I’m completely exhausted and who knows what we’ll run into tomorrow.”
With those thoughts playing through their heads, they turned in for the night. They would find out what secrets the city held in the morning.
- - - -
The dour mood of the night before was somewhat alleviated in the morning when Raindrops and Cheerilee awoke to find their cutie-marks restored. Thusly it was after a hearty breakfast that they began to move through the city again. Thick dust lay over almost everything, the detritus of ages having built up in the centuries since it was used by living creatures.
“Should we ask Yangin to come out?” Raindrops asked. “She was going to be our guide.”
“I don’t know. She did fight a whole ghul tribe. She might need the rest.” Cheerilee said.
Trixie stared at her friend with a rather deadpan expression. “But the Army could be anywhere in the city! Are we supposed to search every one?”
Parlak rubbed his chin, humming to himself in thought. “The legends have always been clear that the caliph’s palace was built right into the mountain. Considering the stories about his paranoia it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume he’d keep it near him. At the very least we might be able to find some clues, if the army isn’t there.”
Trixie considered that for a moment before shrugging. “Sounds like a starting point at least.”
They walked for what felt like quite a while, winding through the empty streets and- sometimes- through empty buildings. In fact it was so empty that the sheer starkness of the former city was beginning to grow unnerving. Trixie and her friends found themselves jumping at little sounds and occasional shadows alike. Yet, no matter what they imagined hiding around the corner, their scared glances revealed nothing but more deserted streets.
Progress was slow going, however. Even with minor earth jinn to help clear the way, there were many instances of wrecked buildings choking the streets, the remains of a long past battle laid bare for all to see. But despite all the destruction there were no remains of interior furnishings or anything that would hint at the camels and ponies that had once lived here.
Every so often, Raindrops and one of the crossbow ponies would fly up to get the group’s bearings. They were quickly finding out that the city was massive, easily equal to Canterlot, but laid out in a long sprawl, compared to Canterlot’s tight, concentric rings. But after about an hour of this process, Raindrops came dropping back down with a bit of odd news.
“The streets are opening up a bit up ahead. It looks like they’ve been cleared or something. There’s an old market place up ahead too and...we...I thought I saw movement in it.”
Parlak immediately perked up at that. “Movement? Was it Grev? More ghuls?”
“I...don’t know. Couldn’t make out all the details. But whatever it was looked a smaller than a camel or a ghul.”
Parlak frowned, the unknown nature of what might be ahead clearly bothering him. “I have no idea what else could be up here. Unless some ponies didn’t evacuate after the fall?”
“How likely is that though? I can tell just from walking around that this ground isn’t good for farming. What would they have survived on without jinn?” Carrot Top said, stomping a hoof for a little bit of emphasis.
“Well...they could have jinn I suppose. Either way, I suggest we proceed with caution.”
Advancing, now with a slow and cautious manner, they followed the now increasingly clear streets towards the palace. With the supposed marketplace directly in their path, they could begin to hear noise. The flow, pace and rising and falling nature of the tones made it clear that it was speech of some manner, though nothing they could understand. Parlak had cocked his head as they walked, face screwed up in concentration.
“It is...Naqhan,” he said, now looking quite confused. “But it’s strange. The dialect is very, very archaic...but the sentences sound...broken too.”
Setting her jaw, Trixie prepared to unleash her illusion spells on a moment’s notice. “Let’s see exactly what we’re dealing with then.”
She ran forward, sprinting the rest of the way down the wide avenue towards the city square. Bursting into it with a jump, she reared back to declare her presence and apply a little shock and awe for a change.
“Nopony move! For I, the Great...and Powerful….Trixie…?”
Her friends galloped into the square behind her, quickly joining their friend in her state of shock and confusion. The marketplace was full of jinn. And not bound jinn either. Free ones, walking around like anypony would be on any given market day in Ponyville. For a moment, it had seemed that they had stumbled upon a whole community of Yangin’s.
Yet, even for six mares that weren’t used to the idea of seeing jinn everywhere, these ones looked distinctly...off. Each one seemed a mishmash of elements, thrown together without care or reason. Earth would abruptly give way to fire, only to switch over to water and then back to earth again.
Then there was the way they moved. They all walked, rather than fly or glide or even slide through the ground. But they walked with limps and jerky movements. It was almost like a bunch of puppets being dangled along by somepony that only had a passing knowledge of what they were doing. The daily routine of a marketplace was clearly being imitated as well. Some of the jinn stood behind half formed stalls with collections of rocks for their wares. Others walked a circuit of those stalls exchanging their own rocks for other rocks, only to move onto the next stall and do it all again.
It was Raindrops that ended up speaking for the group.
“What in Luna’s name is going on here?!”
“Really bad pantomime?” Cheerilee asked.
“It’s like somepony is pretending to have a weekend market,” Carrot Top said, just staring at everything around her.
Parlak and his soldiers began to file into the square now, all of them looking just as unnerved as Trixie and her friends were. Parlak was looking particularly grim as he stared at the jinn.
“Something is very, very wrong here. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that someone was trying to do what the Caliphate did.”
Lyra blinked, the realization hitting home a moment later. “They’re all elemental mixtures. They’re all attempts to make more Yangin’s!”
“We need to get to the palace. Now,” Raindrops almost snarled. “I’d put good bits on the Army being there with whoever is doing this!”
“This means more running doesn’t it?” Trixie sighed.
“Yes.” Parlak said.
Now haste was the order of the day and they took off with a full gallop. With the streets wide and open now, they made good time, passing scores of these patchwork jinn. Every one of them seemed to be locked in these repetitive loops, imitating the nature of an actual functional city and growing thicker the closer they came to the palace.
The royal palace had been built directly into the side of the Barrier Peak, the dome like roof looking quite odd, half cut off by the mountain. Carved by jinn, camel or pony, no one really knew- save for perhaps Yangin- but as they approached that was the furthest thing from their minds.
They slowed as they entered the wide courtyard before the building. The former beauty of the courtyard was still evident through the dust and grime. Square tiles of marble made up the floor, arranged in twisting, flowing patterns that seemed to hint at the different elements jinn came from. Old planters were scattered around, mostly tucked between cracked and chipped sitting benches, choked with soil long dead and fallow. Whatever glories this place once contained, they were long gone, like the rest of the city.
Yet, one could almost be forgiven to forget that as they entered. More patchwork jinn worked at crude attempts at maintenance. Some snipped at the air with hedge clippers while others stood around chatting animatedly with each other in their broken language. Their regular paths across the courtyard had left clear trails through the dirt and dust.
“This is beyond strange,” Lyra said, watching one of the jinn as it walked past, ignoring them entirely.
“An imitation of an actual city. Who in their right mind would take the time to make something like this?” Trixie asked.
Carrot Top shrugged. “Somepony not in their right mind?”
Ditzy placed a hoof on Cheerilee’s back. “Maybe you should wake Yangin up now? I think we need her knowledge.”
Nodding, Cheerilee reached for the anklet. “Yangin? Can you come out please. There’s something here you need to see.”
Just as abruptly as she had entered the anklet, Yangin came flowing back out. Yawning, she made a great show of stretching, her expression quite bored.
“What?”
Cheerilee just motioned to the jinn around them. Yangin looked, only to do a double take at what greeted her eyes.
“I don’t suppose you have any idea who could have made these?”
“I really have no idea! No one lives in this city! We elder jinn made sure that everyone left.”
“Could it be more ghuls?” Carrot Top asked.
Parlak frowned. “Unlikely. I’ve never heard of ghuls being able to turn their claw towards jinn summoning.”
“For once, I agree with bucket head over there. I’m not even sure that ghuls have magic of their own. It’s all bartering with Tartarus for power with them.”
“What about the Army of Smoke and Fire? Think it’s in there?” Trixie asked.
Yangin glanced back at the towering face of the palace. “There’s a good chance. The entrance to the secret vaults is hidden in the main ballroom.”
“....Why put it there?”
“Seriously? Have you paid any attention to this city? Nothing here makes sense, even to me and I helped build some of it!”
“In that case, I suggest we get moving,” Parlak said, shaking his head. Glancing past the patchwork jinn, towards the great entrance doors made from gold, he frowned. “We have seen no sign of Grev. It would be wise to assume that they are already inside .”
“Agreed,” Cheerilee nodded.
Yangin stayed quiet as they swept towards the doors, looking unsure as everyone else. Parlak motioned the buffalo forward with one hoof, while pointing to Raindrops with the other. “Dame Raindrops, if you would do the honors?”
Taking to the air, Raindrops flew close to the top of the towering doors, giving herself plenty of clearance from those canons. Placing her hooves against the metal, she flapped her wings a little harder for extra power and pushed.
The doors practically glided open, rather than grinding against the floor, or on long rusty hinges like she expected.
To summarize the entrance hall in one word, massive would have been a good choice. Two large, twisting staircases on either end of the back wall ran up to the next floor, while nothing less than six different doors and archways lead out of the room. And, like most of the ancient city, it was decorated in age battered finery. More illusions wandered around in the guise of castle servants. Everything seemed calm, albeit somewhat creepy looking.
“This way,” Yangin said, motioning with a hoof.
Striding through a doorway to their right, she wove her way through the old hallways. Every so often, she’d pause to stare at a patch of wall, or rub her chin.
“Something wrong?” Trixie asked.
“Mmm...just old memories. Time has really done a number on this place. Anyway, it should be in here.”
She stepped through a wide archway and into what was obviously once a massive ballroom. It was a huge rectangle, easily wide and long enough for dozens of camels to dance in. It was also in a better shape that most of what else they had seen in the city so far. In fact it approached being pristine. The wood was polished. The chandelier devoid of dust and cobwebs. The dance floor clean and well maintained. Yangin walked right for a small stage at the back of the room, where musicians might have played when the room was still used. She placed her hoof against its front and then pushed, tripping a hidden switch. The back wall ground open, revealing very large and dark hallway beyond.
“Don’t get dizzy when you head through,” Yangin warned. “The dear old caliph spent a lot of money to bring some unicorn wizards here to set up a teleportation field.”
“Really? Those aren’t easy to set up.” Trixie, said, trotting forward to examine the edge of the hallway.
“Well, it doesn’t go far or anything. My sisters and I carved out a massive chamber into the mountain for the vault. The teleportation circle takes you the thirty feet or so into that room.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Is it safe? I mean...it’s been here for how many centuries?”
Yangin blinked and stared down at the line on the floor. “Hmm. That’s...a good point.”
Frowning, she reached out with a hoof and tapped the spot where the ballroom ended and the hallway began. There was a bright flash of light as she vanished, leaving everyone rubbing their eyes for a moment. They waited for a few moments, expecting the jinn to pop back in short order. But when she didn’t, nervous glances began to be exchanged.
“What now?” Raindrops frowned.
“If it’s a malfunctioning circle, then she could have wound up anywhere.” Trixie sighed.
“....Not anywhere,” Parlak said, amusement clear in his tone.
Trixie and her friends looked at Parlak, who was looking up at the ceiling with a smile. Following his gaze, it was all that some of them could do to not burst into laughter.
Yangin was hanging from the ceiling, her hind quarters either in the stone, or the room above. It was hard to tell which. Her expression was one of supreme disgruntlement as she crossed her forelegs.
“Anyone laughs and I set them on fire.”
“Really, Yangin?” Cheerilee smiled. “I think we can be friends. I just think that there’s almost something...holding you back.”
Ditzy snorted, biting back a burst of laughter. Lyra, in contrast, groaned.
“Really? That joke is so below the Element of Laughter!”
“So, are you saying that I need to make my jokes a little more….highbrow?”
Cheerilee punctuated that pun with a giggle and a nudge in her friend’s side. That proved to be too much for Ditzy, who burst into laughter, falling back onto her haunches. Lyra did her best to maintain a stoic expression but another nudge in the ribs from Cheerilee sent her over the edge too. The laughter rippled through the group and the army as well. Even Yangin rolled her eyes and gave an over-exaggerated sigh.
“So, you’re all going to stand there and laugh at me?”
“Come on Yangin,” Cheerilee smirked. “We all know you can move through stone and rock and stuff. Why are you hanging around up there?”
“...If you must know, I was annoyed that I didn’t see that coming.” The ceiling let go of her with a clap of her hooves and she floated back to the ground. “Right. Forget the teleportation circle. We’ll do this the brute force way.”
Storming past Trixie and company, the placed her hooves against the wall, next to the original hallway. Taking a deep breath, she channeled power through her hooves and began to push. Slowly, a new passage was carved from the stone, Element Bearers and army following along behind Yangin. After a minute or two of walking, they burst through another wall and stepped into a room that almost glittered like the sun.
The amount of gold that they had walked into was nothing short of obscene. The coins, mixed with gems and other glittering treasures, were stacked so thick and so high as to actually form walls and those walls effectively formed a maze.
Trixie gaped at the piles of gold. “Just how decadent was this caliph? There’s so much gold here that even Corona would think this was a bit much!”
Yangin frowned. “Okay, there was not this much stuff in here back in the day. This is like...I don’t know...if you had a jinn just sitting around, making treasure for centuries.”
Ditzy asked the obvious question. “....Would a jinn have been sitting around, making treasure for centuries? There were those patchwork jinn out front. Somepony had to make them.”
“If there’s a jinn behind this, I am going to be very cross.” Yangin growled. “No one touch any of this stuff. It could be trapped for all we know.”
“Well, we won’t find out standing around here. Remember, Grev is still out there, somewhere.” Cheerilee said, beginning to enter the maze.
“Agreed.” Parlak said, following suit.
Yangin floated a little higher for a moment, before dropping back down. “There’s still a big open section towards the middle from what I can tell.”
The maze of treasure proved to be annoying to move though. The walls all looked the same, just unending slabs of gold with occasional gaps that would lead off another direction. Thankfully, they had two pegasi and a jinn on their side, who could occasionally pop up above the walls to make sure they were still heading the correct direction. So, onward they pressed.
After what seemed like quite a while, they reached the center of the maze. It was a wide and circular chamber carved from the middle of the gilded forest, easily the size of a large town square . A small circle shaped platform of stone stood on the far side of the “room”, built in the ornate, geometric style of Naqhan architecture. A throne was at its side, as old and moth eaten as anything. In it an old and dusty camel skeleton slumped, the tattered remains of long fine clothing hanging on its frame.
“There it is,” Cheerilee said.
“....Umm….anypony else think this is way too easy?” Trixie asked.
“If what we went through to get here was easy, I don’t want to see hard.” Raindrops frowned.
Motioning to the nearest entrances to the chamber, Parlak passed out orders, his troops moving to guard the approaches.
“Cover me,” Trixie said.
She crept forward horn already glowing in preparation to snatch the the bottle off its resting place.
“Ah-ah-ah,” a feminine voice echoed through the area. “No touching.”
Trixie’s hooves were locked in place by a sudden surge of stone. Something began to move beneath the ground, bulging and rippling the solid rock like the surface of a pond. The swell circled the group, almost like a shark.
“Hmm. Ponies and camels. And some of you are armed. My, my.”
Yangin was standing stock still now, eyes wide. The lump stopped in front of Trixie, beginning to grow and swell, a creature rising from the depths of the ground. She was obviously a jinn, much like Yangin. Both had taken the forms of camels for their base, but where Yangin’s mane and tail were flickering flames, this one’s was the churning dust of disturbed earth and where Yangin’s coat was polished brass, hers was green of freshly cut grass.
“The vault is not open to visitors however. Please leave.”
“Dunya?”
Yangin had stepped forward and was staring at the new jinn with a very odd expression.
Dunya gave a slight nod back. “Yangin.”
“You know each other?” Ditzy asked.
“She’s one of my sisters! We were all...well..made during the same batch, I guess.”
A marked changed had overcome Yangin. The previous surlyness was gone and it’s place was a much more excited mood. It was precisely the manner that one might act upon seeing an old friend that they hadn’t seen in a very long time. Dunya, however, looked much less excited.
“Yes, we are siblings of a sort.”
“What are doing down here? Why haven’t you tried to contact us?” Yangin asked.
“I’ve been guarding the Army of Smoke and Fire,” Dunya responded with a raised eyebrow. “The dear caliph’s wish was quite specific.”
“We thought you were dead!”
Dunya smiled sweetly. “Well, I’m glad that it only took you fifteen hundred years to check one of the most likely places he would have hid his valuables.”
Yangin sputtered a bit, recoiling from her sibling, who went onto smile at the rest of the group. “As I said. The vault is not open to the likes of you. Leave.”
“We can’t,” Cheerilee said, frowning at the new jinn. “There’s somepony else coming for that army too and we can’t let them have it.”
“I do not intend to let anyone take it. My...effective orders, are clear. The Army of Smoke and Fire will not leave this room.”
“Really? I might have something to say about that.”
Everyone turned towards the new arrival, but familiar voice. Grev and his own army, noticeably mostly camels, now stood at one of the many entrances to the chamber. It seemed that his path through the winding tunnels had brought his force in on their left side and Parlak now scrambled to re-orient his forces. Soon the two sides were facing each other on a diagonal line, Parlak’s army between Grev and the bottle.
Dunya watched the new arrivals with an impassive expression on her face. “And now there’s going to be a fight in the middle of my vault.”
“Oh, and now its your vault?” Yangin glared.
“What, is it supposed to be the skeleton’s?”
Grev rolled his eyes. “I have come for the Army of Smoke and Fire, jinn. Step aside or deal with the consequences.”
“I do not care how many of you arrive. The bottle does not leave.”
Trixie was amazed at how calm the jinn was staying. The prospect of a massive battle erupting around Dunya was being treated with the same bored energy that she might apply to doing paperwork.
“Al senin olsun!” Grev barked.
His army surged forward with a bellowing roar. Spear camels charged down the center while crossbow camels on the wings took aim. Kindle and Terrorwing took to the air, and the salamanders vanished into the ground as they burrowed.
In response Parlak’s spear wielders lowered their weapons, crossbow and cannon look aim, and the pony line breakers prepared to counter charge once the first round of fire was exchanged. Trixie cursed, glancing toward her friends. Carrot Top was already digging out her potions and bombs, Lyra raised her instrument and the rest of them prepared for the chaos of combat.
Dunya tisked. “Very well. Time for everyone to leave.”
The gesture she made was subtle, almost undetectable but the smoke began to billow from the now unstoppered bottle. It flowed forth in great choking clouds, slipping through Parlak’s soldiers and forming into neat, orderly rows between the two armies. Grev’s charge came to a shuddering stop, the units milling about in confusion. Then, within the smoke rows, forms began to solidify. At first, it seemed like they were more ghuls, being bipedal creatures with long necks that jutted forward from the body. But that was where the similarities ended.
A single, unblinking red eye tipped their heads made of smoke, peering out from slitted helmets of brass. Long arms-also made of smoke- hung from sturdy brass shoulder pads, with hands that looked twice as large as they should have been, tipped with sharp claws and gripping oversized blades. Their bodies- made of swirling ashes of embers within smoke- looked almost comically thin, with hunched backs that gave them an almost stooped appearance. They had no legs, instead possessing more of a singular trunk of smoke
“Kill them. Until they get the point and leave.”
Raising their weapons at once, the bound jinn unleashed a cry that was half hiss, half roar, before charging towards both armies with a strange flowing motion. Orders were barked out, Grev and Parlak bracing their lines for the attack of the mad jinn.
Crossbow bolts and canon fire were brought to bear against the new targets, lancing through the air, tearing into the massed ranks of the jinn. Trixie felt her heart lighten for a moment, as the grape shot tore multiple jinn apart, their smoky bodies collapsing in on themselves. But then, to her horror, they flowed back into the bottle, only to come spilling back out again.
As the replenished jinn rushed past her and her friends, crashing into the back of Parlak’s line, order and discipline began to collapse. Units broke apart into disorganized mobs of individuals locked in combat. Grev, noticing the weakness, pushed his units forward as they cut the jinn in front of them down. His units began to encircle as they advanced aiming to be the hammer to the jinn’s anvil.
It seemed that Dunya had been waiting for this, however, for with another gesture of her hoof, the walls of gold began to move. Coins rained down from the walls in showers, with a sound not unlike a heavy rainstorm on a tin roof. Rattling together the treasure formed into large, glittering, serpents. Gemmed eyes roamed over the battle for the briefest of moments before the serpents struck, biting at Grev’s forces and grinding them to the floor.
Now things descended into complete chaos. All semblance of an ordered battle plan was washed away in the sudden rising tide of jinn summoned creations. Trixie found herself in the middle of a swirling maelstrom, surrounded by her friends, who were in turn now surrounded by the smokey jinn that made up the Army of Smoke and Fire. Without any other options, she grit her teeth and and began to cast.
Blasts of light burst from her horn, the dazzling arcs cutting across the cyclopic eyes of their attackers. They snaked back from the flashes, leaving a gap that now Raindrops and Cheerilee exploited. Raindrops’ strikes remained as strong and well aimed as ever, bashing jinn back into flowing smoke, while Cheerilee tumbled and twisted around swings bucking others over. But it was Carrot Top who was having the most luck. Those jinn caught in her sticky bombs stayed put and didn’t return to their bottle only to rejoin the battle.
But now a few more of the treasure serpents uncoiled from the walls and mobbed them again. When the ground opened near the pedestal and the salamanders pulled themselves free, however, Cheerilee did the first thing that sprang to her mind.
“Yangin! Stop them!”
Bound as she was, Yangin had no chance but to obey. She dove towards the salamanders, making a sweeping motion with her hooves. The section of rock under their bodies exploded catapulting them away from the bottle.
“Ha! Take that!” Cheerilee shouted.
Her elation was short lived. One of the glittering snakes struck out, jaw clamping around one of Cheerilee’s forelegs. The world became a blur to her, the snake thrashing its head about like it was a dog that had just grabbed a bone. Then, in the next moment, she was sailing through the air, getting a rather full view of the battle.
Something crunched when she hit the ground, but there wasn’t time to think of that, as she was in danger of being trampled by the swirling flow of clashing camels and jinn all around her. Throwing herself into a roll, she shot between two pairs of legs, and sprang back to her hooves with a wince. Her side was throbbing. Something was bruised there at least. Wincing again, she glared back towards the pillar and the source of their current woes.
Ignoring the pain, Cheerilee galloped back across the floor and right towards her target. More jinn came flowing out of the bottle and rushed towards her. The swords came whooshing through the air, sounding all the worse with the cracks and pops of the fire that composed them. Cheerilee dove forward, sliding between their strikes to more punches of pain to the ribs. Hissing, the jinn twisted completely around to attack again. But a pair of sonic blasts slammed into their bodies from the side, bursting them back to smoke.
Lyra grinned, then took to running herself, the bite of a golden snake hitting the ground where she had been a moment before. Cheerilee took off again, but had only made a few more strides towards the bottle when a shriek and a shadow descended on her from above. She threw herself flat, Terrorwings’ strike barely missing her. The griffin twisted about in the air and landed solidly in front of her.
“Oh, come on!” Cheerilee exclaimed.
Terrorwing unleashed a flurry of swipes at her, with all the grace and skill of a charging rhino. Cheerilee backpedaled juking and twisting to avoid the onslaught. But before he could unleash another flurry, Raindrops slammed into his side. The charge had been quite unexpected and Terrorwing was sent tumbling end over end with a noticeable dent in his armor.
“I got beaky here! Go!” Raindrops said.
Cheerilee took off again, now drawing within a few feet of the pillar and the bottle.
“I think not!”
Grev had broken from the battle lines, sword clutched in his mouth as he rushed straight for Cheerilee. She spun to the left, saber tip lightly scraping against her side. Spinning back, she cracked him across the snout with a hoof and ran for the bottle again. Grev stayed right on her tail though, and the two found themselves fighting at the base of the platform.
Grev took a wild swing at Cheerilee while reaching for the bottle. Cheerilee pulled back, rolling behind the ornate pillar, coming out the other side and lashing out with a kick at the camel’s spindly legs. Pitching forward, Grev’s chin cracked off the edge of pillar, sword and bottle clattering to the ground. And as the latter rolled away, both dove for it.
Each of their hooves closed around its and they found themselves in a tug of war. The smoke that still flooded from the open top swirled and flowed across their coats, staining them grey as they grappled with each other. But Grev proved to be the stronger and he steadily pulled the bottle towards him.
“You...are...done!” Grev snarled.
Gritting her teeth, Cheerilee saw only one option. Taking one hoof off the bottle, she slammed it down on Grev’s fetlock to hold it in place. With bottle pinned against the ground, she threw her head forward as hard as she could, aiming for the round and bulbous bottom. Stars exploded in her eyes to the shattering of glass, a few shards digging into her forehead.
The next moment an explosion of magic blasted her off her hooves, followed by another and another. The jinn of the army were detonating, one at a time, in raw fonts of arcane power that flooded the room. Cheerilee’s head was swimming, as she stumbled back to her hooves, desperately looking around to see where everypony was.
The battle had ended as the jinn detonated and now the combatants were pulling themselves up again. Yangin and Dunya were floating in the air, the latter banishing the creatures summoned from the treasure piles with another subtle gesture.
“And just like that, we’re done here,” she said.
“Done here?” Cheerilee blinked through her still partially dazed state.
“The Army of Smoke and Fire is destroyed. I am no longer required to protect it.”
“Did...you do all of this on purpose?!” Trixie shouted.
“Well...no. I was bound to protect the item,” Dunya shrugged. “But I was hoping that I’d find a way out of this.”
Yangin’s grin was about as wide as it could be. “Ha! This is perfect! I fulfill my bargain and find my missing sibling!” She jabbed her hoof at Cheerilee. “Fulfill your promise Equestrian and give me back my anklet!”
Nodding to herself, Cheerilee reached for the loop of platinum on her fetlock. But her hoof touched against soft and warm fur, not cold and hard metal.
It wasn’t there.
Rapidly looking around, she wracked her mind for when she might have lost it. When the snake threw her across the room? When the jinn detonated? Did she have it on when she was wrestling with Grev?
The click of the anklet echoed across the room like a cannon shot.
Cheerilee and Yangin’s heads whipped about about so fast that they threatened to detach from their necks. Kindle stood tall with a shiny new platinum addition to his golden armor.
“You little VERMIN!” Yangin roared. A javelin of stone appeared in her hoof. Kindle jumped back, raising the anklet in response.
“STOP! I have your item, you must obey me!”
“RAGGGHHH!” Yangin snarled in blind, berserk fury, her limbs locking in place.
“...Let her go Kindle,” Cheerilee said, taking a stumbling step towards him.
“I am afraid I can not Dame Cheerilee. With the Army of Smoke and Fire gone I must bring Celestia something.”
“Let her go! This isn’t her fight!”
Kindle tilted his head slightly. “...She became part of this the moment you brought her along.”
Cheerilee was rushing him before she even realized she was doing it but she hadn’t even gotten halfway there when stone swallowed her limbs. Everypony, save for Kindle, Terrorwing and the salamanders in their golden armor was locked in place. Cheerilee swore and cursed as she tried to break free, twisting her neck to look back at Yangin and Dunya.
Dunya was calm, with one hoof raised. Yangin’s expression was ashen, a mixture of fear and hurt feelings.
“Dunya...what are you doing?”
“Sister, I spent the last fifteen hundred years stuck down here because of you. Serving this one mortal’s need, whatever they might be, is scarcely even a down payment on what you and my other siblings owe me.”
Her voice was icy, the anger very clearly coming through.
“We thought you were dead!”
Dunya swooped down on her sister, the calm demeanor now completely gone. “Did you bother to check?! We all built this stupid vault, it should have been at the top of your minds! But no, you ran off over fifteen centuries, leaving me with NOTHING!” She jabbed her hoof into Yangin’s chest, sending the fire jinn floating towards Kindle. “Take her with my compliments and get out of my sight!”
“You TRAITOR!” Yangin screamed, trying to throw herself back at Dunya.
“Stop!” Kindle commanded. “We don’t have time for this. Get us out of here.”
Forced to do what Kindle commanded Yangin began to summon her magic shooting a death glare towards Dunya. “I am never going to forget this. You and I are going to have words someday.”
With that, a hole was opened in the ceiling and Yangin pulled Kindle and his fellows skyward. Dunya watched them go, smiling to herself as the hole was sealed. She looked down at those she had trapped in her stone vices, giving a curt nod.
“Those will wear off in a few hours. Long enough for me to get far away from the lot of you. No desire to wind up like my sister.”
“I can’t believe you did that! You just handed your sister over to a complete mad mare!” Raindrops shouted. Corona’s going to use her to tear down Equestria!”
Dunya shrugged. “Seasons change and nations die, their glory spent in times gone by. If Equestria falls, it won’t be the first or last.”
Floating over to the caliph’s ancient remains, she pulled a platinum anklet similar to Yangin’s off the bony fetlock. Sliding it onto, she gave a slight bow to the group. “For what it’s worth, you do have my thanks for freeing me from the binds of the caliph’s wish. You may help yourself to any of the lucre that’s here.”
Floating high into the air, she passed through the roof and out of sight, leaving two armies and the Element Bearers alone with their thoughts. No one talked in the intervening time, giving Cheerilee plenty of time to stew over the situation. Almost two hours exactly to Dunya’s statement, the stone cuffs around their hooves crumbled away, leaving everyone free to move again.
The sound of a sword being picked up caught Cheerilee’s ears and she turned towards Grev, who was looking ready to start the fight all over again.
“Really?” she asked, giving the emir a very angry glare. “You don’t have Corona anymore! You’re done! Just give up!”
Grev’s expression was almost manic as he flourished his saber. “I do not need the alicorn! I will save Naqah or die in the attempt! Naqahn’nin ogullari! Koll-”
Whatever the command was, the crack of two vials shattering against the back of his head, and the flood of glue that engulfed him cut it off. Carrot Top gave a self satisfied nod, rather uncharacteristic of her, as she flipped her saddlebags closed again.
“Thank you Dame Carrot Top. I’ve had quite enough of him for now.” Parlak said.
Facing the soldiers that were now nervously eyeing their stuck commander, Parlak spoke a single sentence. In the next moment, weapons clattered to the ground en masse, hooves raising into the air in a gesture of surrender. The leader of the rebels was captured, the civil war most likely now over, or at least in its final gasp.
And yet, Cheerilee didn’t feel happy about it at all.
- - - -
It took almost about four days for them to march their way back out of the mountains without Yangin’s magical aid and the extra bodies they now had to deal with. With the destruction of the Army of Smoke and Fire, the fight seemed to go out of Grev and his camels.
The now ex-rebellious emir had been promptly locked in shackles once he had been removed from the the glue, and was carried along by a small collection of summoned jinn. He said nothing during the journey, having only asked Parlak to go easy on his soldiers. Their weapons had been confiscated and when they marched they did so surrounded by loyalist troops.
Things became a blur of activity once they returned to back in Al-Astianna. There was a victory feast, presided over by Sultan Pirinc, followed by the presentation of medals. The Order of Naqah, Third Degree. It was the highest honor that a foreigner could receive for their role in ending the civil war.
But soon that all came to an end and Trixie and her friends found themselves on a train bound back to Equestria, in a first class car.
“Well, that was quite the adventure,” Lyra said, idly plucking away at her lyre.
Ditzy nodded. “Yeah, it was. But now we can finally go back home.”
Cheerilee shrugged in her seat. “Yeah...I guess.”
Sliding off the bench, Trixie trotted over to Cheerilee’s side, hugging her close. “Hey...we’re not done yet. One jinn that Luna whooped the flank of before isn’t as bad as an unending army.”
“Maybe not…,” she grunted, rubbing at the bandages wrapped around her forehead, “but it’s my fault she got grabbed by Kindle. I forced her to come with us. Ditzy was right. What I did was horrible.”
Trotting over to Cheerilee, Ditzy gently took her friend’s hooves in hers.”Cheerilee...yes, you made a mistake. But mistakes are fixable.”
“I don’t see how this one is. She’s probably halfway back to being in the hooves of Corona by now!”
“And, when Corona pops up with Yangin, we’ll free her. And we’ll find a way. Because that’s what we’ve been doing since we found the Elements of Harmony.”
Cheerilee didn’t look convinced. “Really that easy huh?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But we always back each other up. Look...I know I was hard on you...but you did mean well. And we’ll get past this.” Ditzy said.
She was suddenly embraced in a hug, Cheerilee pulling her tight.
“Thanks Ditzy.”
The rest of their friends joined in, pulling together in a big group hug. Holding it for a few minutes, when they broke apart again Cheerilee was looking a little more upbeat.
“So! Should we start making plans?”
“Oh, we will,” Trixie said, trotting back to her seat. “But for now, let’s just enjoy the trip back home. We’ve earned it, I think.”
And as the train raced across the landscape the group of friends let their mind wander towards what might come their way next.
There had been a rearranging of the pecking order among the ghul tribes of the Abbor-Alz. Scythe Claw was dead. Dead by jinn hooves and jinn magic. The fire had been so powerful, that it had kept on going, shattering their grand statue of T’arek as well.
Blackwing picked through Scythe Claw’s old chamber. Formerly the leader of the tribe’s hunting parties, now he was the new agha. Ruler of the tribe. The one stuck with picking up the pieces.
Reaching the altar where Scythe Claw always conducted his rights and prayers, Blackwing picked up the small statue of T’arek that always rested on its surface. He stared at it, considering just what glory the dark lord had brought them. All the power he had given Scythe Claw had come for naught in the end. Snorting, he tossed the statue over one shoulder.
“Weak-weak.”
A cold wind rushed through the chamber, sending a chill straight through his bones. Blackwing gave a startled caw, hopping back from the altar, where the breeze seemed to have come from. But then he creeped forward again, poking around the stone slab. It turned out that there was a small alcove carved into the rock, where another statue had been stowed. It was covered in dust, apparently having been there for years.
The creature it depicted was hunched over it’s leather like wings, almost like a bat, were hunched forward partially shielding its head. Brushing the dust away with a talon, he took in the glittering red eyes made from small rubies that peered past a long, thin beak. Blackwing snorted. Another worthless trinket.
He was about to toss it aside when a soft murmuring sound rippled through the room. Blackwing blinked, twisting back towards the cave entrance, half expecting to see the braying naysayers that had doubted his rise standing there.
Nothing.
...show you greatness…
Blackwing turned his head back towards the statue, the whispering growing more intense.
And he listened.
- - - -
Every emir was crammed into the High Chamber today. Sultan Pirinc knew each of them by name and reputation, especially the sea of new faces among the old. The rebellious nobles were finally dealt with and banished from his lands, while their leader would remain locked up, and his hoof picked replacements were settling into their roles nicely. Now with the internal threats dealt with, Naqah could focus its attention on external matters.
“My friends,” he called, bringing the room to order, “I am pleased that our civil strife is now at an end. I would now like to call the chamber’s attention to the other matters on the docket. Starting with Tripalania.”
At the mention of their south-western neighbor, emir Isildayan Elmas immediately jumped to her hooves. The elegant camel was invested heavily in Naqah’s shipping concerns, so Pirinc wasn’t the least bit surprised at what she said.
“While we remain glad that Ofkeli Grev has been dealt with, there is one position he took that remained sound! We have dealt with the depredations of their raiders and pirates for long enough! Let Naqahn shot and Naqahn steel drive them from their coves and annex their little strip of land!”
The rest of the chamber erupted in cheer and the hammering of hooves on their tables. Again, Pirinc wasn’t surprised. Pirates were about as popular as Corona herself as far as the world was concerned. It was even an old bit of Equestrian legislation that declared pirates hostis creaturae generis. Literally, enemies of all creature kind. Removing the corsairs would make the seas safer for all.
“So be it.”
His eyes roamed down the page to the next, more tricky, item. To the north of Naqah, across the small crescent shaped sea of the same name, a collection of small pony kingdoms sat. Not part of the Equestrian hegemony, even their names seemed to change every few years, as governments changed and rearranged. And as Naqah’s nearest neighbors it sometimes felt like they were always mooching off their comparative wealth. The suggestion to annex them had come from emir Buyuk Dag.
The mountain of a camel didn’t wait for prompting, standing to his full height. “Honored sultan. In light of Corona’s actions against our nation, I believe that Naqah must advance and expand. These countries and the vast swathe of unclaimed land beyond them are our future.”
“I renew my objection to this absolute madness!”
The chamber looked at once towards the one non-emir in the room. Imam Kutsal Senaryo, head of the grand temple of the prophet, was fuming. The elder camel swept his gaze around the room, his whole body practically trembling with fury.
“The Pillars of the Dragon are very clear! Charity, benevolence, integrity! How is going out and building an empire- because that’s what you’re doing- follow any of that!”
“What about the charity for our citizens? Those are pony lands. We have already seen that pony and camel magic working in concert can achieve great things. It would help our nation truly thrive!”
The chamber exploded into fury of arguments as every emir began to shout over each other to make themselves heard. Sighing, Pirinc shook his head for a moment, before slamming his hoof against his table.
“ENOUGH!”
The babble ceased as quickly as it had began, everyone now focused on him.
“I will need time to consider this. We will revisit this decision next week. But, for now, I want the diplomatic corps to feel them out. See how willing they might be to join Naqah voluntarily. Now, leave me.”
He closed his eyes as the emir filed out of the chamber, focused on his own internal debate. Had he been paying closer attention, Pirinc might have noticed the shifty glances that passed between some of his newly raised nobles. He only opened his eyes again when a single set of hoof beats approached him again.
“Still unsure about Buyuk’s proposal?”
Sighing, Pirinc got to his hooves glancing towards his friend Parlak. “I hate it how he is both right and wrong at the same time. Here we sit, alone, the only camel land on the continent. Is it really wrong to want our country to be on a more even keel with Equestria? Should we make ourselves more powerful, in case Luna fails?
“The former...well, that is a question that every ruler struggles with at times. And the latter? That does assume Corona attacks. Assuming Luna fails.”
“What do you think the chance of that is?”
Parlak shrugged. “The Element Bearers are not soldiers. But they are clever and resourceful. I would say it comes down to how many forces Corona can bring to bear.”
Pirinc closed his eyes in thought again. “Send a message to Princess Luna. Naqah will officially back Equestria in any current or future conflicts with the Tyrant Sun.”
“...Are you sure that you wish to tie us so closely to Equestrian matters?”
“Corona was already willing to conduct an assassination to gain an advantage! I would argue that we’ve already become tied to Equestrian matters. And if we’re going to have the Tyrant Sun backing a rebellion in our back yard, then I would rather be damned for the full measure, rather than the half act.
“As you wish sultan.” Parlak bowed.
As Parlak strode off to see his will done, Pirinc offered a mental prayer to the prophet. May this world see nothing worse than the likes of Corona.
- - - -
A few thousand miles to the north, in the jagged mountains that formed the border between Equestria and the Griffin Kingdoms, Celestia’s volcano home was hidden. The solar alicorn sat upon her gilded throne, eyes closed in deep thought.
The offer from the Naqahn rebels had been sitting in the back of her mind since returning from the Contest of Champions. In a way, being approached to conduct an assassination was almost...delightfully quaint. As if she, Celestia, the dawn itself, was some common blade for hire! Had the rebel ambassador not mentioned the Army of Smoke and Fire, she might have thrown him into the lava then and there. As it stood, he remained her “guest”, in the volcano palace, so that its location wouldn’t be leaked. The Army of Smoke and Fire, and a Naqhan army to lure her sister’s forces away from Canterlot would be quite the prize. Still, actually conducting an assassination….
She opened her eyes to the sound of creatures entering her domain. Kindle, her voice and herald, was in the lead already bowing low in a sign of respect. Terrorwing and a few of the salamander tribe followed behind. While Terrorwings’ fowler than usual mood was something she’d have to ask about later, that wasn’t what truly caught Celestia’s eye. A jinn floated at Kindle’s side, slumped over and head hung. Celestia raised a flickering eyebrow.The elemental spirit’s melancholy was uncharacteristic. Usually, they were strictly as smart or emotional as the camel that controlled them. Unless….
“My queen, I have returned from Naqah with news.”
“What news of the Army of Smoke and Fire my faithful servant?”
“It has been...destroyed, by the Element Bearers.”
Celestia glowered but wasn’t surprised, if she was honest with herself. Those ponies had consistently proven themselves to be more capable than first guessed.
“Who is that jinn with you?”
“Bogucu Yangin. Choking Fire.”
It seemed that her guess was correct. This was one of the greater jinn that had risen in rebellion not long before her banishment. She could sense the power radiating off the jinn. The Army of Smoke and Fire may have been gone, but another opportunity might have just presented itself.
“Give me her anklet, then leave us.”
Crawling forward, Kindle popped off the platinum anklet and offered it to Celestia. The alicorn took it in her magic aura, loosely turning it over to examine its magic and construction, while Kindle backed out of the room. Slowly stepping down from her throne, she began to circle the jinn.
“There isn’t much that I need from you Yangin. I aim to take Canterlot and I will need your magic to help me do it. What say you?”
A flaming loogie struck her in the face, making her stumble back in shock. The flames might have been unable to hurt her, but Celestia wasn’t any less angry.
“Thou DAREST?!”
A deep laugh echoed through the throne room. Celestia shot a furious glare at the golden eye that peered in through the window. Solrathicharon, the ancient red dragon and her ally laughed again.
“My, is that a jinn I sense?”
“Yes. A very obstinate one!” Celestia said, practically spitting.
“Powerful though,” Sorlath said, tilting his head to peer at the anklet. “And a powerful trinket. Perhaps if she doesn’t wish to cooperate, o queen, she could join my hoard.”
Celestia was about to admonish the dragon for wasting her time, when Yangin raised a hoof into the air. She brought it down in a sharp stabbing motion, stomping it against the throne room floor. For a moment, Celestia wondered what the jinn had meant to accomplish with that gesture. But then there was a loud crack sound of stone tearing way from the volcano’s wall and a roar of shock and pain- more the former than the latter- followed by a splash of a large draconic body hitting the magma below.
Yangin now stood defiant glaring right at Celestia. “I may have just been given into bondage by my sister and one of the few beings I’ve trusted in my existence, but I have not fallen so low that I will tolerate rotting away in the hoard of a blind lizard! Do your worst o Tyrant Sun! If I am to die, I will die on my hooves!”
Celestia fumed, considering giving Yangin exactly what she wanted. But then a second thought stirred in the back of her mind. If she was depressed enough to not fear destruction, then a lighter, different touch would be required. Besides, the jinn’s statement about her sister...intrigued her.
Sorlath came soaring back out of the magma roaring with unrestrained fury. “Come out little jinn! I will show you exactly why that was a mistake.”
“Hold Sorlath.”
He growled at the truncated name as expected, before pulling away to fume somewhere else. Celestia regarded Yangin carefully for a moment before speaking.
“You have my sympathies. It’s not easy to feel the sting of betrayal from family.”
Yangin snorted back. “You’re a mad mare. You don’t know anything about how I feel.”
Celestia ignored the insult, beginning to slowly circle her. “I know that you’re asking yourself ‘Why?’. That you’re asking yourself what you missed, if it was something you did, or if there was something you could have done.”
Now some of the bravado seemed to leave Yangin, the fire of her mane falling lower. Putting on the nicest smile she could, Celestia placed a wing on her back. “Trust somepony that knows. You most likely did nothing. Sometimes...siblings just turn to darkness.”
Before she could react, Celestia found herself in the vice like grip of the jinn who was now sobbing. Celestia was frozen in place, eyes wide. For one of the few times in quite a long while, she didn’t know how to react. Yangin was neither afraid of her, nor interested in showing her the respect of her station.
“I should have looked harder! I...I thought she died during the rebellions! This is my fault!”
Bringing her wings around in a loose hug, Celestia picked up her train of thought again. Again, the light touch was needed here. “No. It is not. It is no more your fault than what happened between my sister and I. But the tragedy need not be the end of things.”
Vanishing out of her grip in a gust of wind, Yangin re-appeared across the room glaring at Celestia, anger and bitterness having replaced the sorrow.
“And this is where I learn to serve the solar throne? To kiss your golden shoes as some disposable minion?”
Celestia approached Yangin again, kept her face even. She wouldn’t rise to the jinn’s taunts and mood. “Actually, I had something else in mind. You and I, oddly enough, have a few things in common. We both have the the wisdom of age at our disposal. We both have traitorous siblings.”
“What are you saying?”
“When I take back Equestria from my own back stabbing sister, I will still need competent creatures to help run things as the government is reformed. What I offer you is a chance to be a part of that. You’d never have to worry about being bound, controlled, and made to grant wishes again.”
She could see Yangin beginning to waver, the jinn chewing on her lip. “Seriously? It was your pony who took me!”
“An eager servant, trying to make something out of a failed venture. It would never happen again. You would have a place in a new, shining Equestria. No pony would ever control you again.”
Drawing even with Yangin again, she placed the platinum anklet between the two of them.
