The three pony tribes have always been at war with each other, but when an old danger from the old homeland arises, they will need to work together to survive.
Every foal knows the story of Hearth's Warming Eve. How the three great pony tribes united and founded the modern Equestria.
But what if things had turned out a little different? If a night of singing and laughter hadn't been enough to overcome the hatred and prejudices that had built for centuries? What if the old enemies, that are now nothing more than a myth, would be more than that? Could ponykind survive in this world? Or would it perish to the cold and hatred that nearly killed it once before. Only time will tell if they are ready, ready to walk into a new age ... of Harmony.
Moonlit mountain was widely regarded as one of, if not the most famous landmark in the land. Towering over all the land for miles, it was located squarely in the center of the land and was regarded just as impressive as it was dangerous. Only very few beings, even those that could fly, approached the mountain, since even for the strongest climber or the best of flyer, reaching its top was a dangerous and difficult undertaking. And so the top of Moonlit mountain was a lonely, desolate place - which made it the perfect meeting spot for the group of ponies that had decided to gather there that evening.
Two figures stood across from each other, both of them wearing hoods, they had drawn deeply into their faces, and long fuzzy dark mantles, partially to protect them from the cold, partially to hide their identities.
They were waiting for something as indicated by their nervous pawing on the ground and constantly glancing around, yet it was unclear what they were waiting for.
The question was answered a moment later, as another pony arrived, carried by powerful flaps of his wings. The moment the pony saw the other two waiting figures, it glided down from the skies and landed softly next to them.
The other two waited patiently for the newcomer to take their place in the circle, then one of the others stepped forward. As they did, they reached for his hood and pulled it down, revealing a horn, jutting out from their forehead, followed by a long well kempt green mane and a beard of the same color.
The stallion as he now clearly was identifiable as, looked between the other two, then asked in a calm voice “No one followed you here?”
The pony who had been standing beside him shook their head, while the newcomer said “No, I’m sure of it. Just to be safe i took a detour. Even if someone was following me at the beginning, they would have lost me by now.” He paused for a moment, as he cocked his head in thought. “But at the moment they are too busy to notice us anyway.”
“So they are” the unicorn said with a nod, before slowly a dark expression slid over his face. “Unfortunately they won’t be for much longer.”
“What do you mean?” the one beside the stallion, who was still wearing their hood asked, causing the unicorn to turn to him.
“I mean, Smart Cookie, that the negotiations are nearly over and it doesn’t look good.”
Smart Cookie hood shook slightly as he took a deep, steadying breath, then he said in a near whisper “You mean…”
“There will be no peace,” the unicorn nodded sadly, causing Smart Cookie to stomp a hoof in frustration.
“These idiots!”
“You need to calm down Cookie” the pegasus member of the group said quickly. “Right now it is important…”
“What is important, Pansy?” Cookie fumed and whirled around to face the pegasus. “Didn’t you listen? It’s over, we lost!”
“No, it isn’t over. Not yet at least,” the unicorn interjected, before Pansy could answer, earning him a confused look from the still enraged Smart Cookie.
“What do you mean, Clover?” he asked as he tilted his head in irritation. “You just said it yourself: The negotiations are over. Soon the war will...”
“It won’t continue.”
Before Cookie could ask what he meant, Clover the clever sat down and used his magic to pull a map from of his bag.
“The windigos are fresh in everybody's mind, Cookie. They fear that they might return when they continue their fighting, so they won’t.”
“But they can’t live along each other either.” Pansy continued “They will need to find a solution, fast, but no matter what it will be, it’s clear that it won’t be in our favor.” He moved closer to Clover. “Personally I think they will try something like this” he said and pointed at the map.
“And so do I” Clover nodded. “And that’s why we decided that it is time” he finished and gave Cookie a meaningful look.
For a moment Smart Cookie seemed to be confused as to what he meant, but then his eyes widened in realization. “You mean…” he began, but paused as the implications sank in. He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “But are they ready for it? Are we?”
“They will have to be,” Pansy answered in a firm yet saddened voice. “And so do we.”
“It’s sooner than we had planned,” Clover said as he stood back up to face Cookie, “but i know we will prevail. We did everything we could to prepare for this. If there’s a time to do it then it is now. All that is missing is your agreement.”
Unsure of what to do, Cookie looked between his two friends. It was true that the plan was not without its dangers, but he knew that together they could overcome everything. After all, they already did so once, and he knew, as he looked into the eyes of his friends, that they would again.
And so, encouraged by the trust he had in his friends, he did the only thing he could - he nodded his approval.
The Everfree Forest, located right at the foot of Moonlit Mountain, was a strange and dangerous place. Only rarely ponies ventured into it, and if they did, it were usually guards who did yo, scanning for dangers of which there were many. For some unexplained reason, the forest seemed to be a gathering point for everything evil in the land, so it was no wonder that it was crawling with dangerous beast and monster, as well as plants of all sizes and shapes. From the tiny star spangled spiders, who could kill a pony in a single bite, to the giant ethereal star beasts that slumbered deep within the forests hidden caves and alcoves, who could crush entire buildings with ease, the Everfree Forest was not a welcoming place to anyone.
So it was strange to see a lone pony wander through the forest all by himself. Even stranger was that the stallion didn’t seem to be properly equipped for his dangerous travel. He was wearing no clothing or armor, except for an old bracelet on his leg, leaving him with nothing to protect himself from the thorny underbrush, which resulted in many painful cuts across his seafoam colored coat, accompanied by twigs and other dead foliage sticking to his blonde mane. He was also not wearing any weapons to protect himself, or any provisions which would have saved him from starving to death, since even though the forest was filled with plants and fruits for him to eat, most of them were poisonous for his kind.
And yet, despite all odds clearly being stacked against him, the stallion insisted on venturing deeper into the forest, his bespectacled eyes only focused on the path in front of him.
Putting one hoof in front of the other, the stallion moved forward, relentlessly making his way through the forest, only pausing occasionally to avoid a dangerous beast or trap, until hours into his march a sudden loud noise to his left made him pause in his tracks. Fearing an attack, the stallion slowed down and looked around in the hopes of spotting whatever had made the noise, yet no matter how much he strained his eyes, he couldn’t find any clues. Despite that however he didn’t immediately continue his track, but waited for a few more minutes, until he was convinced that whatever had made the noise was gone by now. Only then he continued on his way.
“It should be somewhere around here” he muttered quietly, as he marched forward. “I need to find it quickly.” There was a certain sense of urgency surrounding him, both in his voice and actions. While calm in his movements, now and then his eyes flickered around randomly in frantic search for any signs of his goal, while at the same time his ears constantly twisted around so that he could listen for any signs of danger.
He took another step forward, but froze as he noticed a pair of gleaming green eyes staring at him from the darkness. Silently he watched as a small group of at least seven wolves, who seemed to be made completely out of wood, emerged from the woods around him, each one of them staring right at him.
‘Timberwolves’ he thought as he studied them, his eyes focused on the one of his right, who seemed to be at least a head bigger than the rest. He head heard of this beast, mostly in the stories the guards had told at the bar. According to them the beast were cunning but weak. While not to be taken lightly, they were nothing a trained soldier couldn’t take care off. Unfortunately he wasn’t a soldier and the wolves seemed to know.
Slowly they drew closer to him, while blocking each of his escape routes by walking around him in ever smaller getting circles.
Trying to find a way out of his predicament, the stallion frantically looked around, but to his dismay, he couldn’t find anything that would be of help to him. He realized that the wolves had waited for the perfect moment to ambush him - a revelation that nearly left him speechless.
Meanwhile the wolves drew closer, until they were so close, he could practically feel their teeth on him. With holded breath he watched as one of them crouched down, preparing to jump, yet he didn’t close his eyes. If he was to die, he would do so with honor.
“Forgive me father, I have failed you” he whispered as the wolf lunged - and crashed right into what appeared to be a giant tree trunk that suddenly appeared out of the ground in front of him without warning.
A quick series of angered and confused snarls came from the wolves as they growled threateningly at the stallion, but didn’t attack. The reason for that became clear a moment later, when the tree trunk suddenly bend down and with a loud roar split it’s top to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a set of threshing tentacles connected to them.
At once nearly all of the timberwolves backed away from the beast, except for their leader, who wasn’t ready to give up on his prey quite yet. Angrily he took a few steps forward and bared his teeth at the monster in front of him. For a pony it would have been an intimidating view, but for the living tree, who was actually some kind of giant snake or worm as the stallion noted, it wasn’t threatening at all. While the alpha was still busy trying to impress him, the worm simply bend down, and, with surprising speed for his size, it curled its tentacles around the wolf, before simply smashing him to pieces between his maw and swallowing down the leftovers, causing the rest of the wolves to flee in terror.
With the wolves gone, the beast turned his attention to the stallion. Slowly it bent down with it’s maw flared, but right before it reached him a voice called out of the dark: “That is enough for now, Jim!”
Immediately the worm paused and backed up, while behind him a pony came trotting out of the woods. At first he had trouble seeing anything due to how dark it was, but then it suddenly became a lot brighter, allowing him to better see his surroundings.
The light had come from the other pony’s horn who was a slightly bigger than usual unicorn mare with a purple coat and a mane of gold and yellow. She was wearing a light set of leather armor without any markings and what looked like some kind of chain was wrapped around her right hoof. Red eyes stared down at him as he let himself slide along the tree behind him to the ground, his legs feeling exhausted after the last few events.
“Who are you?” the mare asked as she stared at him, taking in his disheveled look and lack of weapons, before her eyes settled on the bracelet he wore. “And where did you get this?”
“My name is Lux. And this belonged to my father,” the stallion said as he slowly stood back up. He removed the bracelet from his leg and showed it to the mare who inspected it carefully.
“Your father?”
“Yes,” Lux nodded quickly. “His name is Bright Light. He is working for you.”
“For me?” the mare asked mockingly, causing him to shake his head.
“For you” he repeated and put extra emphasis on the last word. “He is working for Harmony.”
Following his words, the mare kept silent for a while, then she suddenly turned away from him and whistled a short melody. The moment the last note left her mouth the worm, who had patiently waited behind the mare, rose up to his full height, before he dove back underground, leaving a large enough hole for two ponies walking side by side in his wake.
“Follow me,” the mare ordered and walked towards the hole. At the edge she stopped and turned to Lux who hesitated only for a second before he followed her.
**************************
The tunnel the worm creature had dug was surprisingly comfy to walk in. While the ground was still very uneven, the tunnel fell in a pleasant slope that was not too steep to walk on. Apparently the worm had been trained to ease the burden for its masters as much as possible.
Here and there their path crossed other tunnels, that led in other direction, but the mare guiding Lux didn’t seem to have any problems finding the right path in the underground maze.
“What was that thing,” Lux finally asked after they had walked for a while and pointed at the direction they had come from. “I have never seen something like that before.”
“They are called Tatzelwurm” the mare answered after a moment of silence. “We keep them around to bury tunnels for us to help navigate the area. It is far easier to go beneath danger than to go through it.” She paused and turned around to face him. “Don’t bother trying to remember the way though. They constantly change the layout and connections of these things. See?” she said and pointed to a nearby tunnel, where another tatzelwurm was busy destabilizing the tunnel walls in order to collapse it. Instead of answering her, Lux simply nodded.
They continued the rest of their way in silence, until they reached an especially large tunnel at whose end he could see a bright light. As they approached it, the mare began to slow down, allowing Lux to catch up to her.
“Here we are” she said, once they reached the end of the tunnel and paused, allowing Lux to take in the sight in front of him.
The were standing on top of a large cliff that oversaw an enormous valley nestled inside a dome of rocks that surrounded the valley on all sides. A bright blue sky shone down on them from above, while a giant river cut through the valley below, separating it in three unevenly large parts.
One of the parts, which was also the smallest of the three, was covered in lush green grass and different kinds of trees and flowers springing forth from it.
The next one was filled with rows and rows of fields of mais, wheat and other grains, tinting the whole area in a warm golden light.
Finally the last and biggest of the three parts was unlike its brothers not characterized by the bright colors of nature, but was instead covered in the greys and browns of stone and steel, as thousands of buildings of the widest variety covered it in its entirety, as well as stretching far into the mountainsides, where several caves had been repurposed to work as living quarters.
This one also was the liveliest of them by far. While the fields and the grassland were only sparsely populated, the city was brimming with energy. Thousands of creatures in a wide variety of colors and shapes flocked through the streets and marketplaces, filling them with life.
“This is amazing” Lux said, once he had managed to regain his voice. “How is this possible? And where are we?” he asked the mare who only shook her head.
“It’s none of your concern,” she said. Suddenly she looked away, her eyes locked on something behind him. “But they are.”
Following her eyes, Lux turned around and stared in the direction she was looking at. His eyes shrunk in fear, as he saw a small group of four armored ponies approach them on a nearby staircase he hadn’t noticed before, lead by a griffin in a black armor. Red eye markings and scars adorned his aging face, and a part of his beak was missing, giving him a dark appearance.
“Welcome back, Dawn” he said to the mare once he had reached them, and gave her a quick salute. He waited until she had returned the greeting, then his gaze turned towards Lux. “Is that him?”
“Yes.” Dawn nodded. “I found him outside and decided to bring him here.”
The griffon bowed down and eyed Lux carefully. “Can we trust him?” he asked Dawn who shrugged.
“I’m not sure. He fits the description Bright Light gave of him and this,” she said as she pointed at his bracelet “is definitely one of mine. I remember giving it to his father myself. Just to be safe though, I took him through the long route, to make sure all spells that were cast on him were disabled. Should he try to contact someone or if someone should try to locate him, they won’t have any luck.”
“I see” the griffon said, as he scratched his chin in thought.. “I suppose we should take him to the council then. They can decide what happens to him.” He turned to Dawn and nodded at Lux. “Take him to the guard quarters while I’ll inform the council of his arrival. Let’s see what they have to say about this.”
With his orders given, the griffin gave her a last nod, then he took off and flew away. Once he was gone, Dawn approached Lux and gestured for him to follow her.
“Let’s go” she said and nodded to the staircase where the rest of the guards were already waiting for them.
For his part, Lux only nodded. The conversation he had just witnessed, had raised many questions inside his head, up front the mares remark - ‘no, Dawn’s remark’ he reminded himself - about meeting his father. It took him a lot of willpower not just to ask all of them, but he had the feeling it would be better if he didn’t for now and so he once again followed Dawn towards another unknown location.
The council building was located right in the center of Harmony’s living district. It was a massive round building that combined the architecture of all three tribes. The sturdiness of earth pony design, the military grace of the pegasi and the arcan engineering of the unicorns, blended together to create a truly impressive sight.
The building had originally been built by the founders of Harmony as a monument to the peace between the three tribes. To prove that, they had engraved the sign of the united tribes, a flying horseshoe with a horn in its center, above the entrance to remind everyone who was entering the building of its importance and meaning.
Inside, the building was split into several different areas. A small archive, containing the most important historical texts, both from before and after Harmony’s separation, another small room filled with important historical artifacts, as well as a large visitor area, complete with a small kitchen, where visitor could relax and share their thoughts were all seated inside the building, together with the political seat of power in Harmony, the councilors chamber.
It was a massive round room, mirroring the buildings shape, that was separated into three different levels. The lowest level was a simple round stone platform, that served as a podium from where suitors could address the council members seated above. The middle level on the other hand was designed to serve as a spectator platform. It was made up out of rows and rows of stone seats that allowed visitors to observe the proceedings, granting a solid view at both the platform below and the council above. Finally, the highest level was were the councilors were seated. It was held very sparse, only consisting of a handful of stone thrones, one for each of the council members, that allowed them to oversee the entire room.
Originally there had only been three seats, one for each of the pony tribes, but over the years other species had joined Harmony and so they too had received their own seats, so that now a strange group consisting of three ponies, a donkey, a griffons and even a diamond dog and a minotaur, all of them draped in the same light brown robes, was making up the council.
And at the moment all of them were staring down at the lowest ring were Dawn and Lux were standing.
For her part Dawn felt rather calm. It wasn’t her first time facing this situation, she had been summoned before the council quite a few times already -usually to give them a report of her last mission-, but she could tell that the stallion was everything but, if his constant fidgeting with his hooves and his darting eyes were any indication.
She was wondering whether or not she should try to comfort him, when suddenly one of the councilors steered, causing her to immediately banish the thought.
“Welcome,” the mare addressed them. She was an slightly aged pegasus mare, with a blue coat and a slightly darker blue mane, dressed in the same robes as everyone else. “My name is Cloudwalker. General Hadwin already informed us of your coming.”
She nodded to the side, where the griffon in question was standing, half hidden by the shadows inside a small passageway that was located right next to the seats of the council members. Out of the corner of her eyes Dawn noticed Lux wince slightly as he noticed the griffon. She could only assume that the obvious lack of guards had made him believe that there weren’t any, an assumption that he now had realized was wrong.
“We are curious as to why you decided to comes to us,” Cloudwalker continued, drawing Dawn’s attention back to her.
Beside her Lux took a step forward. He looked around the line of councilors above him, observing his every action, then he took a deep breath to steel his nerves and he slowly began to talk.
“My name is Lux Shine. I come from a small settlement called Mareshire a bit to the east from here, near the Everfree’s border. I was sent here by my father, Bright Light, to warn you. He told me to tell you that he is an ally of Harmony and he gave me this to prove it to you,” he said and held out his bracelet. A moment of silence followed his words then:
“Is that true?” At the sound of the voice, all eyes turned to the speaker, a burly looking, brown coated minotaur bull with a long black mane and beard, who was staring down at Lux, doubt written clearly on his face. As he noticed that all eyes were on him, he merely shrugged and leaned back in his seat. “All I’m asking is whether or not there is any proof to his claim. That is all.”
Before anyone else could say anything to answer the minotaur’s question, Dawn quickly stepped forward. “There is, Lord Iron Heart” she said and turned to face as many of the council members at once as possible. “Bright Light is one of my contacts. It was I myself who gave this bracelet to him. He is part of one of the observer families and one of our most valuable field agents. Over the years he has provided us with a lot of valuable intel. I trust his judgement completely.”
“I see...” Iron Heart said after a moment of thought. I was clear that he wasn’t fully convinced, but for the moment it seemed enough to keep him quiet. “Continue.”
Down on the podium Lux nodded and flashed Dawn a thankful smile, then he turned back to face the rest of the council. “At the moment I am visiting my father from Canterlot. I am studying the art of healing at the university in Canterlot, but since we have vacations right now, I decided to visit my family back home.
"When I first arrived, everything seemed fine. Upon my arrival my father greeted me in his shop and we had a small party to celebrate my return, but already the next morning I started to notice that something was wrong.”
He paused and stared at the ground, his eyes growing distant as he lost himself in his memory.
“My father was acting weird. He tried to hide it, but I noticed it regardless. He was extremely cautious, always nervous, always watching out for something, as if he was followed by something. He was also becoming more and more clumsy, constantly dropping wares or forgetting things, as if he wasn’t paying attention to anything going on around him.
”At first I decided to ignore it, but over time it became worse and worse, so, after a while, I finally decided to ask him what was bothering him. It took me a while but after much probing and prodding he finally opened up.”
At this point Lux looked back up, an unreadable expression on his face.
“He told me that he had seen something. A sign that he had recognized but couldn’t believe was real. He told me that he had only got a glimpse at it, but that that had been enough. He told me that just a few hours later he was visited by a group of ponies. Apparently they had noticed that he had recognized their seal and they were curious to find out where he knew it from.”
“My father tried to come up with a story, but they told him that knew that he was lying. Fortunately they weren’t out to harm him and left without any trouble - or so he thought. Over the next few days he noticed them following him around. They were keeping an eye on him, constantly observing his actions and they didn’t even bother to properly hide themselves.”
Suddenly his expression changed, becoming much easier to read, as anger twisted his face.
“The next day I arrived. For a while after that everything was quiet, but then today my father suddenly woke me from my sleep. He told me that he had made a mistake, that they were coming for him and that i had to flee. He gave me this and told me to find you. I always knew he worked for you, and he tried to recruit me as well, but i refused and that was the end of it. However once he brought it back up, i knew things were serious. MY father led me to a secret passageway and told me to run. Obviously i refused, but in the end he managed to convince me, so i entered the tunnel. And just in time as it turned out as as i closed the trapdoor behind me, i could hear someone kick down our door.”
Again Lux’s expression changed, this time to sorrow.
“I tired to go back, but the door didn’t open. Left with no choice i continued my way, until i reached the exit, a small warehouse at the port. At that point i had time to think about the events i had just witnessed and I knew the only way to save my father was to follow his instructions, and so i did. I left the city with the help of a friend of mine and made my way into the Everfree and you know what happened next.”
A pause followed in which all present thought about what they had heard, then Cloudwalker leaned forward. “And that group that attacked you, did your father tell you their name?”
“He did,” Lux said, anger returning to his voice. “He called them the Verity”.
At the mention of the name, Cloudwalker suddenly recoiled as if she was hit by something, and she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the room, including Dawn and Hadwin were staring at Lux as if he was insane.
“Are you sure?” Cloudwalker finally asked after a long moment of silence and leaned forward in her seat, a deadly serious expression on her face. “Are you absolutely sure?”
Below her Lux looked up her, catching her gaze and holding it for a second, before he nodded. “I am.”
Another moment of silence followed in which the council members shared a few meaningful glances between each other, then Cloudwalker turned to face Hadwin.
“General…”
No sooner had the words left her mouth as the griffon nodded and, using his wings to control his descent, jumped down to join the surprised stallion on the platform below. Instead of paying the stallion any attention however, he turned to face Dawn who immediately stepped forward.
“Take him and gather the rest of your team,” he said and nodded towards the still confused stallion. “Once you’re ready, Lux will lead you to Mareshire. I want you to gather as much information as you can. I’m expecting an immediate report upon your return. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.” Dawn said and saluted. Her expression was just as serious as his.
“Good.” Hadwin nodded grimly. He was about to leave when suddenly Lux voice, coming from behind, made him pause.
“Wait, what’s going on?” the stallion asked confused, his eyes darting between the griffon and Dawn. “Who exactly are these guys? And why do you look as if you saw a ghost?”
Instead of answering the stallion’s question however, Hadwin turned around and walked towards Lux. Then, once he was right in front of him, he bowed down, until he was on eye level with the stallion, and stared him directly into his eyes.
“Kid, you better pray that your father was wrong and those guys weren't Verity, because if he’s right, we are in for the biggest shitstorm you have ever seen in you entire life.”
As the two walked through the heavily crowded streets of Harmony’s living district, Lux couldn’t help to constantly look around. Without a parade of soldiers watching his every move, he felt much more relaxed, and was finally able to take in the city fully. Yet, what he saw confused him greatly. He didn’t really knew what he had expected, but this definitely hadn’t been it. Wherever he looked, he saw ponies of different races and other creatures of different species happily interact with each other, while living their daily lives without a single worry in the world.
He couldn’t help but to scratch his head at that. Everything just seemed so … so peaceful.
But that couldn’t be true now, could it? Something like this should be impossible. Years of studying had taught him that should the three races ever try to live together in the same place, like they did here, it would end in certain disaster. And yet, no matter where he looked, he couldn’t see a hint of the supposed animosities between the tribes. Just happy faces and smiling ponies. It was very bizarre to say the least.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Lux turned to look at Dawn, who had a knowing smile on her face.
“Yeah, it is…”
“This is how things should be” Dawn sighed, as she waved at group of foals, each one of a different tribe, who were playing in the streets. Immediately three little hooves shot into the air to return the greeting, then, just as fast, the three turned back to their game. “It’s a shame the others can’t see it that way.”
“Yeah…”
They continued the rest of their way in silence, until they reached a small, somewhat rundown looking coffee house at the far end of the living district. It was a small dimly lit, yet comfy looking room. They were standing right on top of staircase that led down to the actual shop, that consisted of an old bar on the far away side of the shop and a few tables and comfy chairs that were strewn across the room. Candles on top of the tables and along the walls created lights, the rest of the bar was empty.
There were only a few customers in the shop, most of them gather in a tight circle around the bar. The only other customer was a dark blue stallion, sitting in the corner across from them. He fit so well into his surroundings, that Lux only noticed him after Dawn pointed him out.
As they approached him, Lux studied the stallion. At first he hadn’t even been sure that he even was a stallion. He looked incredible feminine, to the point that if he had chosen to wear a dress, most probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Upon hearing their hoofsteps approach him, he looked up from the book he was reading, and, after noticing Dawn, he acknowledged them both with a nod.
“Hey, Snow,” Dawn said, as they sat down beside him. "Good to see you."
Up close Lux could even make out more details about the stallion. As he had noticed before his coat was a dark blue, what he hadn’t realized however, was that he was a pegasus, which was made obvious by the pair of wings that peeked out from behind his back. He also had grey eyes and a tidy white mane, that was cut rather short.
“Hello, Dawn,” the stallion greeted her, then he turned to Lux, his head slightly tilting to one side. “And hello, ...?”
“Lux,” Lux said and extend a hoof towards the stallion.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lux," Snow said. "My name is Snow Storm, but you can simply call me Snow.” He hinted at a small bow, which Lux returned with an embarrassed smile.
Meanwhile Dawn was looking around, before turning to Snow. ”Where’s Blaze?” she asked, drawing a somewhat annoyed grunt from Snow. He nodded to the bar, and the others followed his gaze, just in time to see the circle of bar patrons break open, as a very drunk looking stallion dropped unto the ground between them. At the same time a loud laugh sounded, belonging to a red coated mare, who was standing above the fallen stallion, a huge glass of some liquid of some kind in her hooves.
Lux eyes widened as he saw her and he quickly turned to the side, just to make sure that Snow was still sitting besides him, which he actually did. Turning back to the mare a bar, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The mare in front of him was, except for her colors, a perfect mirror image of Snow. The only real difference between the two was her red coat and her long black mane, which she had bound together into a ponytail. Except for that however they were indistinguishable from each other.
He watched, as the mare stood up and took a bow to the cheers of everyone around her, then her eyes fell on their table. Immediately a wide grin crept on her face. With a big gulp she downed the rest of her drink, then she said something to the crowd around her, before walking over to join them.
“Yo, what’s up” she smirked, once she had reached them. Then her eyes fell on Lux. ”And who’s the cutie.”
A bit of red crept onto Lux’s face at the statement. He tried to say something in return, but was distracted when he noticed something. Before he had thought that the two siblings looked completely identical, but now side by side he noticed that that wasn’t the case. There were a few differences between them, as minimal as they were. For example Snow’s slightly more squared muzzle, or the slightly rounder curves of Star’s body and their slight difference in height were all things that made them stand out from each other, although it would have been hard to tell under any other circumstance.
“Hey, Blaze,” Dawn greeted the mare. “This is Lux. He will be our guide on our next mission.”
“So it’s time for a new party” Blaze asked. If possible her grin grew even wider. “And they are sending all three of us? Must be pretty serious.”
“It is,” Dawn nodded. “According to the intel provided by Lux and his father, the Verity are on the move once again.”
Silence fell over their table at the mention of the Verity.
“Are you sure it is them?” Snow asked.
“That’s what we are going to find out.”
“Does that mean we are really going up against this creeps?” Blaze asked. Her smile returned as Dawn nodded.
"Most likely."
“Sweet, Jackpot.”
“Who are the Verity?” All eyes turned to Lux, who flinched a little at the sudden burst of attention, but he stood his ground.
“You sure you want to know?” Blaze asked seriously. However her grin didn’t falter and she leaned forwards, until she was face to face with Lux. When Lux nodded, her grin grew once again. “The Verity are…”
“The Verity were a group of zealots,” Snow interrupted, earning him an angry look from Blaze. “Sorry, sis, but we don’t have time for your theatricals at the moment." He turned back to Lux, giving him a serious look. “As I was saying, the Verity were a group of zealots; hunters to be more precise. It was the only time the three tribes ever willingly cooperated with each other.”
“What were they hunting?” Lux asked, with a cold feeling growing in his stomach.
“Us,” Dawn said grimly and Snow nodded. “The Verity believed that the separation of the tribes is the natural order of the world. They believed that those like us, who are trying to coexist with each other, are abominations, that must be purged from this world.”
“Over the years the killed hundreds, no thousand of us” Blaze continued. Her grin had depleted slightly and a hint of anger tinged her voice. “Luckily, they disappeared sometime after the founding of Harmony. I guess they just couldn’t find anyone to kill anymore.” Suddenly her expression changed and a grin returned to her face. “That’s why I’m aching for some payback.”
“If we are unlucky, you’ll get your chance,” Dawn said with a scowl and stood up. The other followed her a moment later. “Alright guys, listen up. Gear up and meet me at the gates in exactly two hours. Understood?”
She waited until the twins nodded and prepared to leave, then she turned to face Lux.
“And you,” she said pulling Lux out of his thoughts “You come with me.”
Their next destination was a small shop slash home hybrid only a stone’s throw away. A large blacksmith sign hung over the entrance. Without even looking, Dawn entered the building, leaving Lux to awkwardly follow her. Inside the were greeted by a small counter with walls on either side, blocking the view deeper into the building. The only sound audible, was the ringing from steel on steel, coming from a staircase somewhere in the back of the shop. Lux waited as Dawn approached the counter and walked right past it.
“I’m back,” she called, causing the ringing to pause. Hoofsteps sounded from downstairs and a moment later a mare stuck her head out from the hallways and smiled at Dawn. She was a white unicorn with a short blond mane that was held back by a black and golden hairband. A red ribbon adorned her neck and on her flank she had the image of a large, black and red shield.
“Welcome back,” the mare greeted, but instead of answering her, Dawn simply ignored the mare and pushed past her to get downstairs.
Lux watched the event play out in front of him, unsure of what to do. Luckily for him, the white mare noticed him and after a moment of thought gestured for him to follow, as she went after Dawn down the stairs.
“Hello, my name is Aegis. Aegis Shield,” she said and smiled at Lux once he had caught up with her. “I'd assume you're a friend of my sister, Dawning?”
“Dawning?” Lux asked surprised, causing the mare to frown. However just a moment later, realization hushed over face.
“Ah, yes. She usually only goes by Dawn, doesn’t she?” She shook her head and sighed. “No, her full name is Dawning Steel. We are running this shop together.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that” Lux said and rubbed his chin, then he shook his head. “Anyway it’s nice to meet you.”
Before anyone could say anything else, they reached the bottom of the staircase and immediately a hot wave of air collided with Lux, nearly causing him to gasp in surprise. The air down here was incredible hot, just being there made him sweat bullets. The reason as to why that was the case, was revealed to him, as he noticed a giant forge, cut straight from the rock surrounding it, across from him. It dominated the room, dwarfing everything else by its sheer size. To either side of the enormous forge, an anvil was placed, right in front of row and rows of shelves and containers that contained a large variety of ores, woods and other smithing tools, as well as all kinds of weapons and armor, that reached as far as the eye could reach. And it was in front of one of those shelves that Dawn was standing, quietly mumbling something he couldn’t understand. Not that he was trying to anyway.
No, as impressive as the room was, something else had drawn his attention, something he couldn’t believe was true. Right above the forge, created with the finest blacksmithing he had ever seen, someone had placed a seal, a seal he recognized, a seal that every unicorn would have recognized in a heartbeat.
“By Tartarus, you're a Steelhoof.” He spun around to face Dawn, who, at the mention of the name, had paused in whatever it was she was doing.
“No,” Dawn said in an oddly low tone, and shook her head without turning around, so that her face wasn’t visible from Lux position. “She is.” She pointed at Aegis, still without turning around. “I’m not.”
“What do you mean” Lux asked confused, but Dawn kept silent. He tried again, but still the mare didn’t say anything. Finally, after trying for a third time, Lux turned to Aegis who let out a deep sigh.
“I take it you know about our family?” she said. It was more of an statement than a question, but Lux still felt like answering.
“Yes,” he nodded, while glancing at Dawn. “Ever unicorn does, at least as far as i’m aware. The Steelhooves line is a family with unparalleled talent in blacksmithing. It is said that they could control any type of metal and manipulate it like it was clay. Over the centuries they created many incredible constructs due to their skills and even lend their talents in wars to turn the tide in battles, since against them any type of weapon or armor was useless. Some even go so far to say that the unicorn kingdom might have never become as powerful as it is today if it hadn’t been for the Steelhooves. Unfortunately the last one of them fell in battle a few centuries ago, crippling the kingdom significantly. Although,” he added and glanced at the seal above him “I have the feeling this might not be entirely correct.”
“You are correct in your assumption,” Aegis nodded. “Not about everything of course, - it seems that the legacy of our family has become a little overblown over time - but for the most part you are correct.”
She turned around and grabbed a small piece of ore from one the shelves. “The Steelhooves family has always been, exceptionally skilled when it comes to working with metal. It’s a skill our magic simply lends itself too.” To prove her point, she began to twist and turn the lump of ore in her magic, until it looked like a small crude statue of Aegis herself.
“Incredible,” Lux said and studied the statue carefully. It looked indeed like a copy of aegis except for her accessories which were missing.
“Hardly. At least compared to what our ancestors could do,” Aegis said and placed the ore back into the shelf. “Now, to answer your question,” she gave a small glance towards Dawn who was still refusing to look at them, “my sister is a bit … lacking, when it comes to our family's gift. She is unable to do most of the things I can do naturally, and those she can do, she isn’t particularly good at.”
“Then why don’t you just teach her” Lux asked, causing Aegis to let out another sigh.
”Because I can’t.”
“But you just said….”
“I said that I can do these things naturally,” Aegis interrupted him and shook her head. “Luckily for me, I have a high affinity for our gift, so I can do most of these things without any real training, but I don’t know how to teach it to others.”
“Then how about someone else?” Lux asked, still unable to understand the problem. “How about your parents for example?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had made a mistake. Suddenly, despite the searing hot forge behind him, the air seem to grow colder and just like her sister, Aegis became strangely silent.
“They are dead,” Dawn finally said after a moment, breaking the silence. “You are right, maybe they could have taught me, but we will never know. They took all the family’s secrets and tricks with them when they died. Uncle Hadwin is the only parent we have left and as good as he is, he can’t teach us a lot about magic.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Can it,” Dawn said and finally turned to face him. “I have everything I need.”
Before Lux could say anything else, Dawn grabbed something from the shelves and threw it in front of him. It was a set of light leather armor, that, as far as he could tell, fit his size perfectly. Using his magic to pick it up from the ground, he lifted it up and stared at it, his eyes widening in disbelief.
“Put that on,” Dawn said and already turned back. “Once you're done we’ll join the others, so hurry up.”
It took Lux a while to follow her order, not only because he wasn’t very familiar with armor, so he didn’t know how to put it on, but also because it was a piece of armor created by the Steelhooves family. Every single person back home, from the poorest worker, to the richest kings, would kill to get his hooves on one. And here he was calling one of them his own. He barely could believe it.
Fifteen minutes later and he finally had managed to put it on. Testing it, he twisted to one side, then to the another and finally he jumped a few times into the air. He was surprised to notice that the armor wasn’t hindering him in any way. Each move he did was as easy and precise as it was without it, and for the most part, he didn’t even notice that he was wearing it at all.
A smile crept on his face and he stood as tall as he could. With this armor protecting him, he finally he felt confident and secure, as if he could do anything.
As they approached the city’s gate, they could see that the twins were already waiting for them, together with a third … creature. That was the best description Lux could came up with. It was vaguely pony shaped, yet was covered from head to hoof in a black, chitinous carapace. Even more interestingly however, was that it possessed both a horn and wings. To top it all off, his legs were riddled with holes, giving it an unnatural look.
Pale blue eyes gleamed in their sockets, as the creature tracked the path of the two newcomers, as they drew nearer to the waiting group. It remained silent, until they were only a couple steps away, then it let out a deep buzzing noise, causing the other two to look up from where they were fussing with their equipment. They interrupted their conversation and Blaze waved them over.
“Hey, there you are,” she greeted. Her eyes wandered over to Lux and a mischievous smile crossed her lips as she studied his new appearance. “Nice outfit,” she added, causing him to blush.
“Is everything ready?” Dawn asked, ignoring the banter between the two. Storm simple nodded, shortly followed by a thumps up from Blaze and a determined look from Lux. Satisfied with their response, Dawn smiled and turned to the creature waiting beside them . “You can start.”
The creature made a vague buzzing noise, then it walked in front of the twins, and after taking a good look at each of them, lit up its horn. As it did so, Lux noticed that the twins were grimacing, yet before he could ask why, a blinding bright light appeared, as the creature cast its spell. It was so bright, Lux had to avert his eyes for a moment. Once the light was gone and he could see clearly again, he turned to the twins and gasped in surprise. Right in front of him stood the twins, yet they didn’t. Where just a second ago stood a pegasus and an earth pony, there were now two unicorns standing in front of him.
“Impressed?” Dawn smirked, as she watched Lux approach the two, his eyes wide in disbelief.
“They are unicorns,” Lux said as he began to circle the two, searching for any clues that gave away the fact that these two weren’t in fact natural born unicorns. “And it isn’t just an illusion either” he added after casting a quick spell. “They are actual unicorns.”
“Not quite” Dawn said and shook her head. “They do look like unicorns, but they aren’t. The spell is purely cosmetic. It does change the shape of their bodies, but not their abilities. Snow is still a pegasus and Blaze is still an earth pony. They can't cast any spells or anything like that, but now they have those neat little things on their heads.”
“It’s still impressive, regardless” Lux said. He could feel his inner scholar trying to break through and it took him a lot of willpower not to start to flood them with a ton of questions right there on the spot, yet he couldn’t hold back the most obvious one. “How are you doing this?”
“It’s thanks to these guys” Dawn said and pointed towards the black creature that was still silently watching them from nearby. “We call them changelings. We discovered his species a few years back. Thanks to their magic and our knowledge in pony anatomy, we managed to create this spell. In recent years, it has been crucial in keeping us hidden.”
“But our research is top notch and we can’t do anything like this,” Lux retorted a bit more forcefully than he may have intended. He wasn’t fully on board with everything the unicorn kingdom did, but the notion that his country’s research was lacking still stung his pride a little.
“Well would you want to?”
That one little question was all it took to diffuse Lux anger immediately. He wrecked his brain trying to find an answer to the question, but as hard as he tried he couldn’t find anything. It was simply impossible to imagine anyone of his fellow countrymen to actively try to become “the enemy”.
“Additional to the magic of Cocoon’s species,” Dawn continued unfaced, “the spell requires an extensive anatomical knowledge of ALL of the three tribe and the only time the tribes feel the need to study each other, it’s as test subjects - if at all.”
Leaving Lux to think about her words, Dawn turned to the changeling. “Thank you Cocoon,” she said, causing the creature to let out a happy chirp. It then spread its wings and took off. Dawn looked after him for a moment, then she turned back to the remaining group.
“Alright guys” she said loudly, earning her everyone's attention. “Time for us to take off as well. Let’s move.”
Life as a guard was uneventful, at least when you were stationed in a place like Mareshire. While others might imagine it as a grand and noble adventure, traveling the land, protecting the innocent from danger and defeating wild dangerous beasts, the truth was much more mundane.
For Eclipse for example, life only consists of hours upon hours, spent staring into the same never changing scenery, with only the occasional visitor, to break the monotony.
The only relief of boredom for the young guardspony were the occasional patrols around the forest, to prevent wildlife from venturing too close to the city, so naturally they were his favorite part of the work.
Currently they were patrolling the edge of the forest on the southern side of city. Recent reports of increased sightings, had led his superiors to send his squadron to investigate the area. However, so far they didn’t made much progress. A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by his comrades either.
“How much longer do we have to deal with this?” an especially annoying guard as for what felt like the hundredth time since their patrol started.
“As long as we need to,” the captain shot back. One of his eyes twitched in irritation at the constant complaint of his troops. “So shut your mouth and... “
He suddenly paused and raised a hoof to signal the others to do the same. He looked around, his ears twisting around to try and track whatever it was that he had heard. A moment later, he pointed a hoof, gesturing for the others to follow him, and walked deeper into the forest. He kept going, until he reached a small clearing, where he paused just outside of sight. He turned to his squad and nodded to a lone pegasus stallion standing in the midst of the clearing.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at a lone stallion, who was standing in its center. They narrowed even further, as he noticed wings poking out from his sides. Silently he gave his subordinates a signal to draw their weapons, then he slowly stepped out in the open.
At the sound the stallion turned around and opened his mouth to say something, yet the word got stuck in his throat as his eyes fell on the guards armor..
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A little birdy separated from its flock?” the captain taunted, as he slowly approached the stallion, who tried to back of from him. He managed to get away two full meters, until his path was suddenly blocked by a tree. He tried to dodge to his right, but again his path was blocked, this time by the other guards who had followed their leaders example and had stepped out of the forest as well. The same was true for his left, so all he could do was back up against the tree and stared in horror at the slowly approaching captain.
“Tell me birdy, what are you doing out here, so far from home?”
“Please,” the stallion pleaded and tried to back off even further, which natural didn’t work. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“To bad” the captain smiled menacingly and raised his sword, “because trouble just found you. You see we don’t like ….”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly interrupted, as out of nowhere a cloaked figure suddenly appeared right in front of him. While the captain still tried to figure out what just happened, he was knocked down by a punch to the gut, followed by a swift uppercut that made him see stars.
Chaos broke loose, as the rest of the squad tried to fight off the intruder, yet soon they as well found themselves on the ground, as a second figure appeared and together they made short work out of each of the remaining soldiers, until Eclipse was the only one left standing.
Gathering all of his courage, Eclipse prepared to attack, yet before he could do so, something gave him pause.
“Wait,” a familiar voice yelled, causing Eclipse to stare at its source, where a moment later a seafoam colored stallion with a blonde mane walked out of the forest and joined the two cloaked figures, a third one following close behind him.
“Hello, Eclipse” Lux said with a forced smile, while behind him one of the cloaked ponys helped the fallen pegasus back to his hooves. “We were waiting for a chance to get close to you. It's unfortunate that it had to be this way.”
He flashed him an apologetically smile, but Eclipse was only barely aware of what he said.
“What the hell are you doing?” he snapped, causing Lux to wince, yet the rest of the group didn’t seem impressed by it.
“What does it look like?” Blaze remarked snidely, as she used one hoof to help the pegasus stallion back up, causing Eclipse to draw his blade once again at the remark, but before the situation could escalate any further, Lux quickly stepped in and shook his head, causing Eclipse to stare at him in disbelief.
“He’s an enemy, Lux, and you are trying to protect him?”
Before Lux could answer him, the pegasus spoke up. “Please, there’s no need for this. All that matters right now is ….”
A loud screech interrupted him, as behind him the forest began to shake, and a large griffon burst through the thicket. Faster than most could react it turned towards Blaze and barreled towards her. Immediately Blaze let go of the stallion and narrowly avoided the griffon’s claw as it tore through the air where she just had been. Not wasting a single second Blaze used the moment created by the evasive maneuver and used it to send a heavy right directly against the griffins head, a big smile on her face. However, her smile faded as the griffon managed to raise a talon just in time to redirect her attack so that it only hit the air. Realizing that the griffon was a much more serious threat than the enemies before it, Blaze backed off to change into a proper fighting stance, while across from her the griffon did the same. Crouching low to offer a smaller target, Blaze dashed forward, deciding to take on the griffon, who had taken to the air and was now dropping down towards her with its claws stretched out, headon ...only to be stopped as the pegasus stallion suddenly jumped between them. Her eyes widened and she had to do a very sharp turn to avoid crashing into him.
“That’s enough” he said in a surprisingly stern voice, his eyes focused on the griffon. “They are not our enemies. They just saved my life from those guards.”
For a moment the griffon remained silent as it just stared at the scene in front of it, then it slowly turned to face the group.
“You have my thanks.” It said and removed its helmet, revealing the face a female griffin. Thanks to her time spent with her Uncle, Dawn had spent enough time round griffins to realize that she was rather young, not a chick anymore, but definitely not fully grown yet either. Dark black marking surrounded her eyes and the tip of her beak, surrounded by azure coloured feathers that covered the rest of her head and changed back into black at her neck. Her wings were similar coloured, mostly black with an azure coloration around the edges of her feathers. The armor she wore was a deep silver color, with little to no ornaments on it except for a insignia, found on all griffin military, that completely covered her entire body. She turned to the pegasus, her eyes full of concern.
“Are you alright?”
He nodded and gestured towards the others. “Thanks to those strangers, yes. They saved me from .. them.” He glanced at Eclipse, who once again raised his weapon at the mention of him, yet he lowered it again upon receiving a cold stare from both the griffon and Blaze.
“More importantly,” the griffoness continued, “how is your wing?”
“I’ll manage” the pegasus said. He glanced at his right wing, where a bandage was barely visible from under his clothes. He looked back at the griffion and the path from where she had appeared.
“And?”
“Path should be safe from here out,” the griffoness said and glanced behind her. “I discovered nothing worth noting. We should be able to reach our destination without any more incidents.”
“Good.” The pegasus smiled than he turned to the others. “I have to thank you for your help, but me and my companion need to leave now.”
“What, no! You still…” Eclipse began, but he was once again silenced, this time by Dawn putting a hoof over his muzzle. “You should be more careful where you crash next time,” Blaze said. “Never know who you’ll run into.”
“I’ll keep that in mind” the stallion chuckled good heartedly, then he turned to leave.
The griffoness meanwhile remained for just a moment longer, her eyes lingering on the group, then she turned to leave as well.
The group waited until she was completely gone, then their attention collectively turned to Eclipse, who too his credit didn’t shrink away from the attention. Instead he defiantly stared back at them, though his attention remained mostly on Lux.
“So,” he began “finally letting me get a word in, huh?”
Lux looked somewhat embarrassed by the remark and simply nodded.
“Good,” Eclipse said, “because you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“This is insane. Do you even know what you are asking of me?” Eclipse asked with indignation. They had relocated to the edge of the clearing, in order to avoid detection, should one of Eclipse's squad mates wake up early. Now they were sitting there in a semi close circle, watching as Eclipse tried to wrap his head around what Lux had just told him.
“Not only did your friends attack my squadron -attacked me-, but now you’re asking me to turn a blind eye to the fact that you are smuggling a bunch of wanted criminals into the city?" Eclipse shook his head in disbelief. "Do you even know what you are asking off me?”
“I do know, Eclipse,” Lux said and placed a calming hoof on his friends shoulder, “but I need their help. My father is in danger and they are the only ones who can help me save him.”
Eclipse sighed, shrugging of Lux's hoof, and placed a hoof on his forehead. “This wasn’t the plan, Lux. When you asked me to help you get out of the city, I didn’t expect you to come back with a bunch of criminals.”
Lux nodded, but remained firm. “I know and I’m sorry. This wasn't in my plans either, when I first asked you to help me, but as I said, it’s the only way.”
Silence fell over the group as the two stallions stared at each other. It lasted for several minutes, until Eclipse turned to face the others.
“And that’s all you’re here for?” he asked.
“Well….” Blaze began, but before she could say anything to worsen the situation, she was cut short by Dawn stepping forward.
“You have our word,” she said. She looked him in the eyes, her expression serious. "All we want is to confirm that Lux's father is safe. We do not intend to cause any trouble or harm anyone inside the city."
Eclipse remained silent as he tried to judge Dawn’s expression, then he let out another exaggerated sigh.
“Fine. I rally shouldn't trust any of your words, but I've known Lux since our childhood and I trust his judgement.” He turned to Lux and gestured towards the east, somewhere behind the forest. “Same place you snuck out off. I’ll make sure no ones around. Be quick, be silent. There’s nothing I can do for you, if you get caught. Understood?”
“Thank you,” Lux smiled, causing Eclipse to groan.
“What ever.” He stood up, then he walked towards the center of the clearing, inspecting his comrades. “You better get going,” he said. “They won’t be out for much longer.”
As if to proof his word, one of his comrades, the captain of his group, let out a groan, signaling that he would be up again very soon.
Lux gave him another grateful smile, than he joined Dawn and the rest of her group.
“Let’s go,” he said and lead them towards the direction Eclipse’s squad had come from. ”We need to hurry a little. It isn't very far, but we need to take a little detour if we want to remain undetected.”
The others nodded and followed Lux as he disappeared into the forest, waving his friend one last time before he did so. Said friend watched till they were gone, then he looked towards his captain, who was just starting to steer from where he was laying on the ground.
“What in Tartarus' name just happened,” he groaned, as he tried to get up. He didn’t get far. While he was still busy dragging himself unto his hooves, a hoof suddenly shot down from above, knocking the captain back to the ground and back into oblivion.
Eclipse observed the unconscious body of the captain, watching for any more movement. When he couldn't find any, his gaze turned towards the rest of his squad, searching for anyone else showing signs of waking up. He didn’t find anyone. Satisfied for the moment, he turned around and walked towards the edge of the clearing, where Dawn and the others had disappeared into the forest.
With his magic, he pulled out a sphere shaped object from beneath his armor and floated it in front of his face. He mumbled a few unintelligible words and waited. It took a moment, but then a pair of glowing blue eyes appeared inside the sphere.
“And?” a voice cold as ice and devoid of emotion asked.
“They are here,” Eclipse answered, his tone as emotionless as the voice's.
“Good,” the voice said. “Inform me once they are in position.”
“Of course.” With that the sphere grew dark again and Eclipse placed it back inside his armor. He stood there, while he watched the trail his friend has left, his eyes glowing an icy blue.
They arrived outside of Mareshire's walls just a bit after sundown. True to Lux’s words, they had been forced to to take a little detour to reach their goal. There weren't many hiding places between the forest and the city that could provide them with cover, so they had been forced to follow the forest’s treeline, until they found a place that was close enough to the city, to risk crossing.
Because of that, they had only managed to reach their goal, a small unassuming outpost, located right in the middle of the city’s west wall, mere moments before the deadline Eclipse had set for them.
According to Lux, the outpost was mostly abandoned, ever since an particular nasty parasprite infestation had completely ruined the western fields for the next decades to come, forcing most of the farmers to relocate their crops further towards the eastern edge of the city. These days, there usually weren't more than one or two guards stationed at the place, who mostly relied on the city's magical defense system to do their job for them.
Said system was what Lux had been mostly afraid off during their track towards the city. He had tried to warn them about the system, but Dawn had assured him that it wouldn't be much off a problem.
“Relax,” she had said. “I’ve been inside the city a couple of times now. Trust me, I know what is waiting for us. We’ve dealt with it before.”
Lux hadn’t been quite so certain about their success as Dawn seemed to be. He had considered voicing his doubts, but that was when they had run into the pegasus stallion, forcing all of them to focus on more pressing matters. Briefly he considered bringing up the subject again, but decided against it. It was far too late to turn back now anyway. He’d have to wait and hope that the others knew what they were doing.
Instead he focused his attention on the outpost, waiting for Eclipse's signal. He didn’t have to wait long. He had only waited for a couple of minutes, when he noticed Eclipse signal, a slight but consistent flicker in the light above the outpost, forming a brief but clear pattern. As quietly as possible, Lux gestured for the others to follow and together they hurried over to the open gate.
As they approached the gate, the light above suddenly shifted from white to green, causing all four of them to simultaneously shudder, as an electric tingling run down their spine. They were being scanned by the light, dozens of different spells running along and through their bodies, all of them designed to identify and stop any non-unicorns from entering the city.
Pausing in his track, Lux glanced over to the harmonites. He was half expecting to see them lying on ground, convulsing in pain as the defense system did its job, yet to his utter amazement his travel companions seemed to be completely unfazed by it. Without so much as a second of hesitation in their steps, they simply walked through the light, directly into the middle of all those spells that had been specifically created to keep those like them out of the city. On the other side, they paused and turned to Lux.
“You coming?” Blaze asked a mischievous grin on her lips. “Or do I have to carry you? You remember your friend told us to hurry, right?”
Pulling himself out of his stupor, Lux nodded and glanced towards the outpost. Wordlessly he walked over to where the others were standing and took his place at the front as their guide.
“How?” he asked, as he began leading them away from the outpost and towards his father's shop. Now that they were inside the city, he figured they didn’t need to be quite as stealthy as before, so he felt safe enough to ask.
“It’s pretty easy, really,” Dawn shrugged. “Do you want the short or the long answer.”
“Short one,” Lux replied without thinking. He wasn't sure if he could handle a drawn out explanation at the moment. His mind was already overloaded as it was.
“Arrogance.”
He waited for Dawn to continue, but she didn't.
“Okay…” He sighed. “I guess I will take the long answer instead.”
“It’s pretty simple,” Dawn sighed. She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember something she had heard a long time ago. “The unicorn mages who came up with those defensive spells, assumed they were the only one with the knowledge and experience to understand and cast spells powerful enough to trick their system.
“Neither earth ponies nor pegasi can actively channel their magic the same way unicorns can, so they weren’t afraid that any of them would be able to bypass their creation. And regarding rouge unicorns like me and others in Harmony; well, they didn’t consider us much of a threat either. After all, it were mostly merchant and warrior families that joined Harmony. Nearly all of the nobles and the scholar families remained loyal to the kingdom, so they figured they were smarter than us. Or at least smart enough to deal with everything that we could come up with.”
She paused and opened her eyes, a devilish smile on her lips.
“Of course, they never really considered that by sharing our knowledge between the tribes and combining it, we would be able to use out magic in ways they never even considered.”
She nodded back to the outpost and rolled her eyes.
“The spells they are using to identify non-unicorns all use one three factors to differentiate between unicorns and non-unicorns.”
She used her magic to grab a couple of identical looking crystals from her bag, then she levitated them in front of Lux.
“Step one,” she said and the first crystal floated closer to him, ”is to scan whether or not the target is a pony. That one is pretty easy to pass.”
“Step two,” she continued and one of the other two crystals floated towards Lux, replacing the first to hoover in front of him. “This test checks whether or not has a horn. Simple, but effective.”
“The third one,” the last crystal floated towards Lux, again replacing its brethren, just like the one before it had done, “checks whether or not that horn is natural or created by other means. This includes most form of illusion magic or simple craftsmanship to create a fake horn.”
“But that won't work on you,” Lux said, comprehension slowly dawning on his face. “You are all proper unicorns. Anatomical speaking at least.”
“Indeed,” Snow said with a slight bow of his head, while Dawn placed the crystals back into her bag. “The unicorn elders, who designed this city's defense, never even considered the possibility of an transmutation spell on this level, nor the possibility that anyone would willing partake in it, if it did exist. That is why, in order to trick their system, my sister and I choose to undergo our little change in appearance. Regardless of how … unpleasant it is.”
“And that is enough to trick the scanners?”
“It is,” Dawn said. “Now, keep in mind that what I just told you is a very basic explanation of the process and while it can be summarized in this way, the actual procedures to make all of this work are a lot more complicated than that.”
“Fascinating.” Lux rubbed his chin, as he thought about everything he just heard. “I really need to take a look at how exactly all of this works.”
He suddenly paused, his expression growing serious.
“Later,” he added. He paused in his track, his eyes focused on a small building at the end of the road. “Once were done here.”
He turned to the others, who already knew what he was about to say, and were busy preparing for what was to come next.
“Well then” Lux said grimly, as he stretched out a hoof in a mockery of an welcoming gesture. “Welcome to my home.”
What surprised Lux the most was how clean everything seemed. His father’s shop barely showed any signs of the intruders who had attacked them that night. The old bookshop was almost in a perfect state. Only the occasional scroll was out of place, but that could have easily been written off as the work of a distracted costumer. No, if he hadn’t been here that night, he would have sworn nothing was wrong.
Which explained why there hadn’t been anyone bothering them as they approached. Lux had expected to find at least one or two guards investigating the scenes, but with how serene the scenery was, he wasn't’ surprised to find that hadn’t been the case. He wasn’t really sure how to feel about that.
On the one hand that meant they wouldn’t need to deal with anyone bothering them while they investigated the shop, on the other, it meant that their opponent was skilled enough to attack and capture his father, without leaving any trace of doing so, speaking volumes about the type of foe they were up against.
He remained silent, as he lead the others to the backroom from which he escaped.
“This is the place,” he said. They were standing in a small but comfy room, located on the second floor of the building. A giant wooden table dominated the center of the room, accompanied by an old armchair sitting on its far head. Dozens of shelves, filled with ancient scrolls and old tomes, lined every wall except for one, where a huge map of the land was posted to the wall.
Lux signaled them to wait, then he walked over to one of the shelves behind the table and grabbed one of the books, causing Blaze to raise an eyebrow at him.
“Seriously?”
“It’s simple, yes,” Lux shrugged, “but it works.” He pushed the book into the shelf, followed by two others on different rows, then he stepped back as the shelf began to tremble. A moment later a bright flash encompassed it. When it faded, the shelf was gone, together with a large chunk of wall behind it. In its place there was s small spiral staircase, that, from the looks of it, led to somewhere below the shop.
“This is the tunnel I escaped through,” Lux said while Snow walked over to inspect the tunnel. “My father stayed behind here to face the intruders.”
“The Verity” Dawn said.
“That’s what he called them, yes,” Lux nodded. He watched as Dawn gave a signal, causing the twins too spread out and search the room. While they searched, she pulled out a hoofful of crystals - the same ones she had used before - and hoovered them in front of her face. She said something he couldn’t hear and the crystal began to glow, then they too began to circle the room, pausing here or there before quickly moving to the next object or place they were curious about. Dawn then closed her bag and began searching the room herself.
With nothing else to do, Lux too began searching the room. Maybe there was something in his father's notes that might give them a clue to what what going on.
Seconds passed in silence while everyone searched for anything useful. Then minutes. Then hours. Over time their search had moved from Bright Light’s study to the rest of the building. From the bedrooms, over the livingroom, to the shop and even the garden behind the house. It wasn’t until the sun was already peeking over the horizon that Dawn decided to call for a break.
“Found anything?” Dawn asked. They had gathered back in the study to discuss their findings. She was standing in the center of the room with Snow and Blaze flanking her on either side. Lux meanwhile had positioned himself on the opposite side off the room, near the passage he had escaped through.
“Not much,” Snow said and shook his head. “Whoever did this is good. They barely left any clues to their presence at all. If Lux hadn’t clued us in to what happened, we wouldn’t have discovered anything at all.”
“But you did find something,” Dawn clarified.
“Barely,” Blaze nodded. “There are signs of struggle, although as Snow said, they were covered up pretty well. A couple of scratches in the floor and the furniture, a few items out of place and a hoofful of hair. Nothing you would notice until you were explicitly searching for it.”
“It was the same for me,” Snow agreed. “There were barely any hints of the conflict, though I managed to find a few spots surrounding the house that indicate someone was observing the house for a while.”
Dawn nodded as she listened to her friends, her expression not changing at all. “As I thought. Magic scans came up short as well. There were a few unusual readings around the secret exit, that might indicate that someone was trying to interfere with it, but those readings might just as well have come from the magic used to hide it in the first place.”
“Which means we have nothing” Lux said, drawing all eyes to him.
“Not quite,” Dawn said and shook her head. “We don’t have much, but we have at least one clue. In order to pull of something like this the attackers must have been quite skilled, eliminating a random robbery. Also the modus operandi, albeit not that rare among trained soldiers, is eerily similar to how the Verity operated.”
She walked over to Lux. “So while we don’t have much, the little we do have seems to match with your father’s story.” She paused in front of him, their eyes meeting. “Except for one thing that doesn’t quite fit.”
“And that is?”
“Their seal,” Blaze said. She drew a symbol in the air that vaguely resembled a stylized V. “They usually leave it behind somewhere, when they finish a job. You know the whole “strike terror in the hearts of your foes” stick.”
“But we didn’t find anything of that sort,” Dawn said. “Which either means whoever did this wasn’t with the Veritiy at all, or …” She trailed off, as she stared at Lux.
The moment Blaze had drawn the symbol in the air, something had flashed behind his eyes, as if he had suddenly remembered something, yet was unsure as to what exactly it was. Now though it seemed as if he managed to remember, as he rushed over to the map on the wall. Quickly he grabbed some of his fathers notes from where they were lying scattered on the ground..
“I’m sure I saw…” he murmured under his breath as he skimmed through the notes. His eyes widened and he franctly began picking up more and more off the notes from the ground. He then began placing them one after another over the map, until they began to form a pattern. Once he was done, Lux stepped back, observing his work. At the same time the other three stepped closer, as they too took in his work.
The notes Lux had placed onto the wall indeed created a pattern. Each note was filled with random writings by Bright Light, each one recording some form of trade agreements he had made over the last couple of months. What was interesting however, was that all off them focused on a particular point in the city, the haven located at the southern edge of the city. Furthermore, each one was marked with a couple of decorative lines, usually somewhere around the edges. On there own those lines didn’t seem all that special. In fact, they weren’t all that different from most off the decorative patterns found on a lot of Bright Lights notes. However, now that they were placed directly side by side….
“Well, that’s either one heck of a coincidence,” Blaze said as she stared at the all too familiar symbol. “Or…”
“Or we just figured out where to go next,” Dawn finished. She turned around, her expression grim. “So, who’s ready for a field trip?”
