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private The Good King


AnonyPoni

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(OOC: This takes place an hour or so before King_Sombrero's post)

 

Indigo snapped awake. "What!? S-sire?" Indigo blinked and looked around, taking in his surroundings. Trees. Brush. Yep, he's in a forest all right. It took Indigo a second to remember what had happened: Nova had smacked him aside and he bashed his head on a branch on the way down, before everything went dark. But that would mean... "Sule, you got away from him?"

 

Indigo removed himself from the tree. Thankfully, he still had his spear with him. 

 

Before Sule could respond to Indigo, however, a disk of green light appeared next to them, causing both Sule and Indigo to whirl around to it. Quickly, Nova appeared rising up through the disk, looking furious. "HEY KIDS, WANNA SEE A MAGIC TRICK?!" He half-shouted, before a series of ethereal green energy tendrils emerged from his horn. Indigo rushed to attack Nova, again, and quickly found himself smacked away. Again. "For this trick, I'm gonna make a stubborn foolish excuse for a thorn in my backside dissappear..." he said more menacingly as his magic attack whipped towards Sule.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sule quickly dived to the side, missed the green tendrils from Nova's attack. In a swift movement, Sule used his momentum to get back up and throw his small dagger at Nova. The dagger sailed through the air before hitting Nova, embedding itself in his leg.

 

"ACH!" Nova yelled, "You fucking runt!" Nova threw his magic tendrils at Sule again. Sule wasn't able to get out of the way this time, and found himself being crushed under it. "Die, you!"

 

Indigo picked himself up and grabbed his spear. He flew up behind Nova and wrapped the wooden shaft around his neck, attempting to choke him. Nova struggled a bit and released a magic blast, the force of which broke the spear in half and tossed Indigo back. "Ugh!"

 

Sule was barely able to breath. He tried to feel around his armor to see if he had anything, anything to get himself out if this. Feeling a one of his grenades, he pulled the pin and rolled it towards Nova, who didn't have time to react. The grenade exploded, blowing back Nova and disintegrating his magic. Sule rolled out of the green sand and took a much needed breath.

 

Nova was back on his hooves again, though, and grabbed Sule's dagger from the ground. In a fit of rage, he tried to tackle Sule and stab him. Sule tried to use his strength to push back Nova, but the dagger got ever closer to his neck.

 

Right before Nova slit his throat, there was a blast off in the distance.

 

Nova was distracted for a fraction of a second, which was enough for Sule to off-balance him. He pulled out a can of the pepper spray and hit Nova in the face with it, letting it's contents leak over his eyes. Nova started to scream. 

 

Suddenly, Sule was hit into a tree by an Alicorn, knocking the wind out of him and making him immobile. 

 

Indigo picked himself up to see the Alicorn picking up Sule with it's teeth and throwing Nova on it's back. Desperate, Indigo threw his half of the spear. 

 

The Alicorn dissipated in green flash.

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  • 1 month later...

Indigo got back up off the ground and whirled to face Nova. Nova was distracted, growling in pain, evidently having just taken an eyeful of one of Sule's canisters of pepper spray. Not wanting to squander this oppurtuinity, Indigo grabbed the bladed end of his broken spear, spread his wings and dashed towards Nova. Nova spun at the last moment as Indigo swung the blade at him.

 

Indigo skidded along the ground and turned to face Nova again. Nova, however, just glared at him, before bringing his front hoof to his cheek: Indigo became aware of a large and growing splash of red staining the fur of Nova's face. Indigo managed to slash him. Indigo spread his wings for another lunge, but was blinded by another flash of green light. When the light dissipated, Nova was gone.

 

Indigo stood there for a moment. Nova had actually retreated from the fight, that's definately a good sign......"Sule!" Indigo yelled, realizing that the Archon was nowhere to be seen, either. The local area was devoid of alicorns, evidently all of them had retreated when Nova did.

 

The last location where Sule was was now a stain on the ground. The last location where Nova was was now a stain on the ground. Indigo was now alone in the woods, and it didn't take a lot of brainpower to realize what had happened.

 

"Well...fuck."

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  • 1 month later...
(edited)

`Poke him again`


`Are you serious?`

 

`Yeah! We need to wake him up!`


`Ugh, fine. ` Midnight picked the stick he had thrown aside. He took another look at the purple body in front of him, then again at the stick. Midnight sighed and gave the body a swift kick.


`GAH! ` Sule was jolted awake, `What - wha- what`s...` Sule went into a coughing spell.

 

`Well that was one way to do it...` Shiri said as she backed away.

Midnight couldn’t help but smirk, `Welcome to Hell, sire.`


***



The prison camp wasn`t much. Being in the middle of the prairie, there was really nothing more than flat land as far as the eye could see. In the far, far, distance, there were a few mountains sillouetted on the horizon.


With the illusion of open spaces, the camp itself was only 10 miles at it widest, walled by with some magical force field. Alicorns partrolled borders help strengthen the field with their magic. Ponies they caught often became their dinner.


There wasn`t much to eat for the prisoners, though. While some scrounged the land of the camp for flowers to eat, others had given into more baser instincts and had started to eat the grass. A few took their chances with the mushrooms. Some tried bugs.


`Try not to stare, sire.` Midnight said in a hushed voice as they passed by an Earth Pony burrowing for worms, `Some`ll get violent if you do that...`


`How long have you all been stuck here?` Sule asked.


`I have no idea.` Shiri said, `As far as the sun goes, it`s been a week.`


Sule looked around at the dismal state everypony was in. `A week caused all this?`


Midnight shook his head, `There`s no way it`s been a week. It`s felt like months.....`


`What?`


Shiri nodded, `I think Nova and the Alicorns have some time..... time uh.... stretchy.......`


`Dilation?` Sule suggested.


`No no not that,` Sule rolled his eyes at Shiri, `Anyway, time`s been going by really slow outside the camp`s force field`


`Or the time in the camp is going faster?`


Midnight looked up at the dark and somewhat blurred starry sky `Something like that, though this particular night has lasted forever.... like time has fully stopped....`


Sule shook his head `It`s been like that outside as well. I think the Unicorns have not risen the sun in a while due to the impending Alicorn attack.` Sule looked around, `So when were you guys going to escape?`


`Wut?` Said Midnight.


Shiri sighed, `Sule, I dont thing you realize the reality of the situation.` She paused, `A while ago there was a pretty inevitable revolt that.... just failed. Everypony involved was ripped apart, and Nova lined all the prisoners up and killed every tenth soldier... They do that every now and then.`


`We barely made it out of that.` Midnight said somberly, `our point is..... that there`s no point, sire. Since then it`s just gotten worse. You find any moral in anypony. We're basically here just as cattle to feed the Alicorns....`


Sule looked shocked, `You`re kidding... you two are going to give up that easy?`


Midnight sighed and walked off. Shiri looked Sule in the eye, `You haven`t been here as long as us. You don't GET it. It`s over...` She turned around to walk with Midnight, `It`s over...`


***


Sule walked around for a little while, just pondering. Ideas popped in and out of his mind about escape plans and strategies that might work. Really nothing he came up with worked. He eventually found some secluded spot, away from most of the Alicorn Soldiers and insane prisoners. Sule took a stick and started to draw in the dry earth.


He expected himself to draw something tactical, something practical. A new invention perhaps. However, all Sule did was scribble. He attempted to draw his cutie mark for no rhyme or rhythm, then Clover`s mark. After a second of staring, he just scribbled them out.


They were so far.... so close. Everything nearly worked. They were on the route to defeat Nova and save Equestria. For once, the Malumai would be the heroes, rather than the villains.


However, looked around at the zombie-like state many of these prisoners were in, the new focus was on survival rather than honor.


Sule sighed. He supposed it didn’t matter. Indigo could still organize the Malumai Military to defend what they could, hold some ground in Equestria. Hopefully, the sheer size of the armies would keep them from taking each other head on.


Eventually one of the sides would have to give in though. Nova probably had far better resources, not to mention the Alicorns and the ability to control ponies to do his whim. Chiroptera could barely sustain itself as is, let alone a massive expeditionary force. Not to mention the millions of Equestrians under Malumai protection, who would see the Malumai as slave driving conquerors trying to take over. Indigo would have several revolts to deal with.


Though... when he rethought it, Sule supposed this situation would happen with or without himself on the front lines. It really was inevitable. It was either that or face the same fate as the Equestrian Army.


Sule sighed a bit. Perhaps if everypony here escaped, maybe they’d have a chance....


“Hey....”


Sule lazily looked up from the ground. A green Unicorn stood in front of him. “What do you want?” Sule asked in a rude tone.


“Uh.... are you....”


“A Maluma? Yeah.” Sule rolled his eyes.


“No no... I mean, aren’t you that King guy?” The Unicorn squinted his eyes at Sule.


Sule gave the Unicorn a glare, “Perhaps.”


“Nice to meet you.” The Unicorn pointed to himself, “Sift Sage.”


“Likewise, I suppose....” Sule avoided the Unicorn’s stare, “Sule.”


After an awkward moment of silence, the Unicorn plopped down in front of him. “Ok, Down to business. I hear you’re planning to escape...”



***


“Midnight? Have you seen Sule lately? It’s been a few days....”


Midnight looked up from a faceful of bland prairie grass he was eating. He sneered. “I honestly don’t care at this point.”


Shiri scoffed, “Are you serious?”


“He’s probably become Alicorn food at this point, that is unless Nova’s gotten to him instead.”


“Well shouldn’t we at least look for him?”


“Bah. Who cares?”


“I dunno... Sule’s a genius. He’ll probably come up with something that can help us escape.”


“We’ve been trapped here for months. I seriously doubt Sule is going to think of anything that we haven’t already.” Midnight mumbled as he chewed the dry grass.

Edited by AnonyPoni
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  • 2 weeks later...

It had been a few hours since Nova left and Sule disappeared, and all the alicorn soldiers had retreated. Indigo had rallied the soldiers and rebuilt the encampment. With everything that had happened, Indigo now had the makings of an official battle plan. Since the alicorns all took off when Nova got wounded and retreated, that meant two things: Nova is terrible at battlefield strategy, and, most importantly, if Nova dies, his army will disintegrate. So the plan is simple: kill Nova.

 

Of course, that was what Indigo more or less intended to do anyway, but it helped put his mind at ease that he now had an official strategy to go with. That put the odds of surviving the next week from "no hope" to "really unlikely".

 

Things were moving well. Troop divisions from Chiroptera are continuing to arrive without issue, and within another hour, Indigo figured, he'd be willing to risk moving the troops out. Now, if only Sule would reappear so he can give the move out order, than everything will be fine. Otherwise, things might get a bit ...complicated.

 

But before he could worry about that, Indigo had another mystery on his hooves.

 

"So, what exactly is it, a giant telescope?" Indigo asked, while inspecting the new "First Cannon Division" that Sule had apparently created.

 

"That's what its commander told me." The Maluma general told him. Indigo was inspecting the army, making sure they were ready for when they had to fight with the Alicorns again.

 

"...I don't get it."

 

"I don't get it either. What the hell are we supposed to do with these things? That damned Sule is going to get us all killed."

 

"Did it have something to do with that explosion from before?"

 

"I...don't know." The general was silent after this. Perhaps, Indigo figured, these tube things might come in handy if they had something to do with explosions.

 

Indigo spoke up again. "Do you know if these things are mobile? We may need to move out very soon."

 

"How should I know?" The general answered him petulantly.

 

Indigo rolled his eyes. Having a disrespectful general might cause a couple problems in the very near future.

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Shaking his head midnight stood up, things had changed very quickly, this was getting worse and worse, and he was being spared, he knew it, along with shiri, both of them were being spared just to watch the others die.

shiri didnt know it, but the look in novas eye, midnight was being saved for something, he wasnt sure what, but something, he growled mainly too himself for being stupid.

 

nova had explained that dispite "releasing control" of midnight awhile ago, those were just words, midnight would never truely be released, and nova was all too happy to use him.

 

"midnight." 

he turned his head, watching a pony approach him then pull back his hood, 

"well if it isnt spazz the uni..." he was hit with intense pain, as nova headbutted him onto his back and put a hoof to his throat then leaned down to his ear, "come up with as MANY names as you like." he growled softly "but you are mine, i created you, and one way or another you will serve me to the end of your pathetic life." satisfied he released his grip to let midnight talk, "have you learned of anything?" he kept midnight pinned to the ground.

 

midnight gasped for air, "n-no, n-nothing y-yet..." he coughed, "sule seems broken, b-but mabey not, i cant tell." he shut his eyes and laid his head back.

 

"ah ah ah, im not done with you yet, you still have your conditioning." he smirked as he pressed his horn to midnights forehead.

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"So what, exactly, am I looking at here?" Indigo asked, looking over the ridge into the valley below.

 

"I have no idea. The scouts say it went up like an hour before the alicorns started attacking. The unicorns say it's a shield spell."

 

"It definately looks like one."

 

Indigo was standing on the ledge surveying the scene. In the valley below him was the Alicorn's encampmet, but Indigo was currently curious about the new feature: a massive glowing bright green dome encasing the majority of the camp. Indigo was fairly certain that wasn't there before, and the scouts had clarified that it had been erected several hours before.

 

"Sir?"

 

"I'm not a rookie. I fought a campaign against the Unicorns some time before the Archon took power." Indigo clarified. Indigo didn't like telling a story like that, since claiming that he "fought a campaign" against anypony, while true, made him feel old. At twenty-one years old, chances were the Pegasus Indigo was currently talking to, however old the pegasus is, is older than he is.

 

The pegasus scoutmaster spoke up, "Speaking of which, where is your Archon?"

 

Indigo remained quiet. Sule's kidnapping wasn't yet common knowledge, and Indigo preferred it to remain that way. If word got out that Sule was out of the picture, that would complicate things further. Indigo really didn't need a panic or accusations that he was trying to usurp the Archon right now. "I have yet to get in contact with him."  Indigo told him. It was technically true, and Indigo valued honesty in part for moral integrity and in part for lies only required pointlessly more bits of information that would need to be kept track of.

 

"Hmm...wait, I almost forgot. There was something else the scout mentioned." The pegasus officer said. Indigo was silently glad that the pegasus had his train of thought interrupted before he could press the issue.

 

"Hit me."

 

"Right before the shield went up, there was a bunch of ...explosions in the camp." The officer reported. He spoke up again before Indigo could ask, "no idea what caused it or what had happened. The shield went up right after, but..."

 

"But what?" Indigo asked.

 

"I didn't really understand it, but a unicorn scout said it was like an emergency defensive spell. Something that goes up quick, but is difficult to take back down." The pegasus reported.

 

Indigo was familiar with that as well. Whatever that shield was, it was something a unicorn would deploy and the spherical-or-domed-shaped shield would sustain itself without input from its caster. Handy  There was one thing, though...

 

The pegasus continued "There's one thing, though. He said that those spells are small, can only enclose a few ponies. This spell here is so massive it's never been seen before."

 

Indigo's sentiment exactly. This shield was at least a mile in diameter, if not two. Enough to fit a small village inside. But there was one other thing about it...

 

"These spells aren't normally opaque." Indigo commented. The shield dome was green and nothing inside of it was visible.

 

"I have no idea."

 

"Nova is no ordinary unicorn, that much is obvious. We'll need to watch our backs."

 

"Yeah...anyway, I need to get back to my duties."

 

"Get to it, then. Thanks for the information."

 

The maluma and the pegasus nodded at each other before the latter took off in flight. Indigo turned and trotted forward a bit, before taking off in flight back to the Maluma's main encampment. He'd need to brief and discuss the Malumai's next move with the generals regarding this new development.

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  • 2 weeks later...

"That plan seems insane"

 

"You got a better one?" Sule rolled his eyes, "I was the one who laid out the battleplan for the siege on Chiroptera. I think I know what I'm doing."

 

Over the last week, Sule had been under a sort of "protection" by several soldiers and Sift Sage while he came up with a plan to escape. Sule wasn't immensely fond of them, but they kept him safe from the batshit crazy ponies and the Alicorns.

 

Sift Sage rubbed his head, "Alright... run it by us again. Maybe we can suggest some improvements."

 

Sule nodded, "Alright. From what you told me, Nova has taken up residence in a cave somewhere in a couple of hills here," Sule pointed at the center of the map, "He has three Alicorns on near those hills that keep the dome up. Those three Alicorns will shift out from time to time, but for the most part they are too busy holding up the Dome than to attack anypony that gets near. For that reason, there must be a few Alicorns hiding out there to guard Nova."

 

One of the soldiers spoke up, "Question. Is Nova affected by the time field thing?"

 

Sule shrugged, "I dunno. He might have a sort of 'eye of the storm' thing going on, with the Dome being more of a donut, but I don't think he's up to that. He's probably under the same effect as us so he can take his time with whatever he's doing."

 

"Anyway," Sule continued, "What we need to do is either kill Nova or at least knock him out. We need to do something to make him loose focus on controlling the Alicorns so we can take down the ones holding up the Dome. At that point, we try our best to fight it out as everypony evacuates the Domes area. Storm Squall, Daedalia, you two need to fly over and round up as many sane Pegasi as you can to get everypony out of the dome's radius."

 

"Yes Sir," Storm Squall answered.

 

Daedalia smirked, "Oh look at you, taking orders from a Maluma. Where do we regroup?"

 

"Here. At Canterlot." Sule pointed at the map.

 

"Why there? Aren't there more stategic positions to take?" Sift Sage asked.

 

"Because if this works out, Nova's going to go forward with his plans to take over Equestria. While he could just go on a brute force rampage with his army, taking over everything... I think he's going to attack Canterlot first."

 

Sift Sage raised his eyebrow, "What makes you so sure?"

 

Sule paused for a moment with everypony staring at him. He mumbled something.

 

"Come again?" Daedalia said.

 

He mumbled it louder.

 

"What's that?"

 

Sule rolled his eyes, “Because that’s what I would do.”

 

An awkward silence filled the air.

 

“Just trust me on this.”

 

“If you insist.” Sift Sage quietly facehoofed, “So to take out Nova, who is the lucky pony that gets to do that?”

 

“Glad you brought that up.....” Sule smiled. “Does anypony here know a Shiri?”

 

***

 

Finding fresh water under the dome was pretty much impossible. It was often so soiled or polluted with pony waste that you were almost better off with dehydration.  Luckily, Shiri found the one place where water didn’t try to kill you.

 

The Alicorn sleeping grounds.

 

The thousands of Alicorns that weren’t patrolling the camp were hibernating in rows that seemed to be over a mile long each. These Alicorns might as well have been dead, and the ground them was still rather clean. To Shiri, this meant potable ground water.

 

Unfortunately, while the water wasn’t going to kill her, the Alicorns might. Shiri had yet to be captured on her water runs, but it never made them easier. Each time, she got out barely alive. Midnight disappeared the night before, so she had to do this one on her own.

 

She peered over a small ridge overlooking the hibernating monsters. At this point, much of the ground was getting dry, but there had to be some areas she could squeeze water from...

 

To her right, a twig snapped. Almost out of reflex, Shiri leapt in its direction and tackled somepony in the bushes. They rolled down the slope, with Shiri stopping on top. She pressed her foreleg against the Pegasus`s throat. "Who are-"

 

"Ugh, get off me you tramp!" The Pegasus flashed her wings in her face, startling long enough for her to kick Shiri off. She quickly recovered, landing on her hoofs and dodging a lunge by the Pegasus. Shiri kicked her to the side, throwing her on the ground. She tried to hold the Pegasus down, but her opponent kicked her square in the ribs before she had a good hold. The Pegasus tried to roll on her stomach to get on her hooves, but Shiri quickly moved in from behind, putting her in a chock lock.

 

"Alright..." Shiri took a deep breath, "Who the buck are you and why did you attack me?"

 

The Pegasus struggled with her breathing, "Att... Attack you!? You Attacked me!" She gasped for air.

 

"No I..." Shiri thought about it for a moment, "Ok so maybe I did attack you. But why were you spying on me?"

 

The Pegasus frantically flapped her wings as she pulled Shiri's foreleg from her throat, "I'm... Sule sent me... find you..."

 

"What?" Shiri relaxed her grip, letting the Pegasus gasp for breath.

 

"He *gasp* has a plan to escape and needs you for it..." The Pegasus slowed down her breathing.

 

"Heh, that smart bastard's done it again." Shiri smirked.

 

"Can you get off me now?"

 

"What? Oh right yeah sure." Shiri got off of the Pegasus's back and helped her up, "I'm Shiri. Pleasure to meet you," She said, half sarcastically.

 

"Daedalia, and the feeling's not mutual." She brushed the dirt off her coat opened her wings a bit to get the grass and twigs out of them.

 

"So Sule has a plan to bust us out, eh?"

 

"Yeah, It's sorta complicated..."

 

"It's Sule, what did you expect?"

 

Daedalia gave a bit of a glare, "So you're on board, right?"

 

"Depends. What does he want me to do?"

 

"Well first you gotta-'

 

"Wait wait, is this going to be a long explaination?"

 

Daedalia paused and raised an eyebrow, "I guess so? Why?"

Shiri cocked her head toward the rows of sleeping Alicorns, "Walk and whisper, hun."

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Midnight didnt know where shiri was...mabey she had gone to get whatever fresh water she could, but even that was scarce, tossing away his food bowl he crossed his legs and laid his head down. his forehead burned, and his body hurt.

He didnt know what was happening too him, all he could remember was nova visiting him almost every damn day, but.....nothing past that, was he losing his mind, or was nova making him forget.

 

shaking his head he stood up and began to walk as he usually did when he was frustrated here, all he could do really, keeping his head low he continued to move, further away from the camp and everything he seemed to care less and less about.

 

sighing he was about to move when an alicorn blocked his path, he looked up, then around he was still well within the camps boundries, so what the hell did this thing want.

 

it began to shove him back, 

 

"leave me be you frankenpony monstrosity." midnight growled,

 

it shoved him harder,

 

"what are you going to do about it? its blocking your path." came an unidentifiable voice,

 

midnight narrowed his eyes before the alicorn was knocked back and suddenly burst into flames, "i destroy it." midnight frowned and kept walking as if nothing happened.

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"Indigo, did you kill Sule just so you can take over?" the head general accused Indigo

 

Well, that escalated quickly. Indigo had called a meeting of the top generals of the Malumai to brief them on recent events and discuss what to do next. Indigo had described what had happened: Nova's next plan of attack, the Alicorn's troop movements, the defense of Canterlot, the assault on the forest encamptments, the mysterious dome around the Alicorns' encamptment, and the Malumai's next plan of attack. Or rather, Indigo wanted to get through all those parts; the briefing had hit a snag when there was ...concern over the Alicorns' assault in the forest, which result in the reveal of Sule's dissappearence.

 

Indigo had wanted to avoid discussing Sule for a little while longer, and naturally there were some spirited speculations, the majority of whom came from one petulant general.

 

"Now is not the time for another power play." Indigo responded evenly, though clearly irritated.

 

"I am NOT the one playing this time." the general spat back, he himself irritated. "Sule is our Archon! And he's gone now. And that leaves, what? You?"

 

"Your grasp of the obvious is beyond peer." Indigo dryly said. He was in no mood to deal with this idiot again.

 

"Don't mock me, boy." the much older general had said. It also didn't help Indigo's position that this general was also twice his age. "Why should we listen to you? You're Sule's personal whipping boy."

 

"I am the second to the Archon himself, and I-" Indigo began, but got cut off by the general's insolence.

 

"-am also Sule's whipping boy, yes. But that's not my point. You say he was kidnapped, I get that, but you expect us to just sit back while you take all the power for yourself, just because he's out of the picture now? I don't care if you're the archon's little friend, this is not something I'm willing to risk."

 

Insolent son of a- Indigo was enraged by his underling's insolence, but he steeled himself against lashing out: these ponies were looking to him with their actual leader out of the picture, and getting in a foalish shouting match with his underling would undermine his authority in his eyes.

 

"Is that all?" Indigo asked him instead.

 

"No, in fact, it's not." the general stated frankly, "Why the hell are we even out here? This is the Unicorns' problem, not ours! After all the fighting we did, we're just going to get ourselves slaughtered by these super-soldiers just to pussy up to them, just like that?"

 

"They did rescue our city for us, if you haven't noticed." Indigo pointed out.

 

"And for that we're all eternally grateful, yes. But we can't just turn and be their best pony friends foreverist just because of that! We've fought them for generations! We're not going to just give our lives for them like the earth ponies did, all because they saved us from being killed by one of their own!"

 

So it all comes down to racism eventually. This, Indigo knew, was something.

 

"So, in short, you're angry with me because I've taken over and leading us on a suicidal campaign so we can get fucked by our long-time enemies. Is that right?"

 

The general leered at Indigo. "Your grasp of the obvious is to be commended." he echoed. "So what do you have to say for yourself, boy?"

 

Indigo silently thanked the general for giving him an opening. But, Indigo knew, he would have to choose his next words carefully. "Sir...You served in the Ghastly campaign, am I right?" Indigo asked. He did, thankfully, know a little about this general's history.

 

"I did, yes." He answered.

 

"Waves of Pegasai soldiers came pouring into the northeast farmlands, using the steam from the ghast bog as a cloud base to stage." Indigo continued.

 

"And I commanded the troops that defended the area."

 

"Yeah. A bunch of farms burned, but the settlement of Echo was saved thanks to your efforts."

 

The general narrowed his eyes at Indigo. "Where are you going with this?"

 

"And then Tyrannus called you back to the castle, and Echo was burned a few days later, anyway, since that jackass pony who replaced you got his tail caught in a bear trap."

 

"And I lost my wife when Echo burned, is that where you're going with this, boy? Trying to paint me as a psycho out for revenge?"

 

Okay, time for plan B. "Not at all," Indigo lied. "That is the story of war. Every one of us have scars. All of us here have lost loved ones against the unicorns or the pegasai." Indigo said, taking a glance at the officers around him. "Hell, some of us have probably lost a loved one to the Earth ponies. And every time, we all swore revenge. We would destroy those who caused us so much pain and misery." Indigo looked back to the general, who looked unamused. "And I don't blame us. We all have suffered a lot.

 

"But that's just it," Indigo continued when nopony interrupted him, "we all suffered. A lot. We all resigned to this being a natural way of life. But at long last, we have a way out. Nova's army is laying seige to their crown city and their army is broken. We destroy Nova and save their lives, we are no longer the savage brutes of the night, but we have become their saviors. We are a noble race of warriors, and this will give us serious leverage in negotiations."

 

The general spoke up. "Negotiations? Really?" He asked in a dry tone.

 

"My point is," Indigo continued, "we have all suffered a lot. Gentleponies," Indigo said as he directed his attention to the officers and commanders around him, "you have all lost ponies that you hold dear, and felt that horrible pain, am I wrong?" The lack of objections suggested that Indigo was on the mark.

 

"You disrespectful little shit! You can't use our pain for this!" The general suddenly burst out as he came up on Indigo. "I see what you're going to say! 'We will kill these alicorns so we won't have to suffer anymore', is that what you're saying? You're just using their deaths to justify going to war again, and you're going to get many more of our colts killed! At least be a stallion and say your mind up front!"

 

CRACK!

 

The general had stepped inches from Indigo's face, and Indigo responded by slamming his head into the side of the general's skull. The general stumbled back before falling on his haunches and held his hoof against his temple where Indigo's headbutt connected. "How dare you." the general said as he placed his hoof on the ground.

 

"This is exactly what I'm saying!" Indigo said, forcefully. "At long last, we have a way out! We finally have the oppurtunity to finally bring our colts home, so we won't have to put up with this pain anymore. And not just that, either! The lands around Chiroptera are infertile, our infrastructure is shot. With peace, we can expand, plant new farms, bring back the resources that our city has been starved of for so long, all without the threat of attack preventing us from expanding! We will finally have rest that all of us crave. Our young can rest, and we as a whole will regroup and reorganize, use our chance to become strong again." Indigo narrowed his eyes as the general returned to his hooves. "I am the Ancient to our Archon Sule, and I will give my life to find peace again if I have to. If you are not with me, than I will attack the alicorns without you." Indigo finished.

 

The general narrowed his eyes at Indigo before finally acquiescing. "Hmph, fine, I'll play nice for now." he said, and Indigo stood down. The general continued. "But that doesn't solve one problem. Our glorious new age you're promising won't happen if we all get slaughtered by the alicorn super soldiers." he pointed out.

 

Indigo looked at him. "You don't give me enough credit."

 

"Hm?" the general huffed, tilting his head slightly.

 

"The scouts have finished scouting Nova's encamptment. We actually have a shot at winning." Indigo said, as he pulled a scroll out of his saddle bag and placed it on the ground, before it unfurled into a basic map of the area.

 

 

Indigo went on to explain his plan. The dome around the middle of the encampment, which appeared to hold the majority of the alicorn soldiers, had been completely static: nopony had been spotted coming in or out. There were a sizable force of alicorns outside of the dome, but they have, for all intents and purposes, been cut off from their compatriots inside. What Indigo had proposed, which he decided not to mention that would completely go against what Sule would've wanted, were to strike them now. They were regrouping from their attack on the Malumai, and would not be expecting counter-attack so soon, and wiping out this segment of Nova's army would weaken them significantly. There was one problem with the theory that the insolent general from earlier had pointed out: what if it was a trap? It's possible the small group could be bait, after which the dome could open and release a nasty surprise from inside.

 

But Indigo had something that Nova didn't count on...

 

In time, Indigo ordered the officers to organize the troups and have them be ready to strike in one hour. In the meantime, Indigo stood on a cropping of land on the border of the camp, a couple meters higher than the ground the camp was built on, and watched over the camp.

 

In time, however, one of the officers who had attended Indigo's meeting approached him from the side. "He actually had a bit of a point, sir."

 

"Hm?"

 

"About your taking over." the officer clarified, referring to the general from earlier. Indigo grumbled. He would need to introduce a regulation to train soldiers to ask permission to speak freely... "Have you read the new Constitution, sir?" the young officer asked.

 

...that wasn't what Indigo was expecting to hear next. The new Constitution, drafted up by Sule and his compatriots shortly after he first took power as Archon, that explained in writing how his new government would be organized and function. Indigo had skimmed over it, of course, but he was intending to read it in more detail. One of these days. "Why?" Indigo asked, now very much wondering where this conversation would lead to.

 

"Well, one of the chapters describes how succession works, you know, how the next Archon will be appointed, and so on?" he continued, "Anyway, there's a part on what happens if something suddenly happens to the Archon. If like if he's killed or captured."

 

"Yes?" Indigo asked, having an idea of what the officer was going to say but not believing it.

 

"Well, if the Archon is killed, captured, incapacitated, or otherwise incapable of performing his duties as Archon where the leadership of Chiroptera is not in attendence of the session of Goverment Rule..." The officer paused, realizing he was reciting the passage wrong. "Anyway, the position and powers of the Archon, and all standards that come with the title, will be immediately transferred to the second-of-command upon the briefing of the high-command as to the Archon's condition."

 

Indigo paused a moment, absorbing this information. "Meaning..."

 

"It means, with Sule gone and presumed prisoner of Nova..." the officer paused a bit, possible for effect. "...you're the new Archon, Archon." the officer told Indigo.

 

The young Maluma officer then bore witness to the rare sight of a bat-winged draft pony falling over backwards.

  • Brohoof 1
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(edited)

<p>Midnight frowned and walked further and further, the camp, soon falling away to an open field, the alicorns hadnt stopped him, but at the same time, midnight didnt care, why should he? Nopony cared about him.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>He paused then looked at the ground, it was the truth, indigo distrusted him, sule......well he honestly didnt know what sule thought of him anymore, shiri, she didnt like him at all, and the only pony that loved him, was miles away, storm surge, he hoped she was alright</p>

<p> </p>

<p>shaking his head, he turned to head back to camp, but stopped, why should he go back? for what reason?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>He turned to the alicorn camp, and Novas cave, &quot;buck it&quot; and started walking towards it, his will to walk away diminishing with each step, and with each thought of the others, he hated to say it, but...from the beginning he was the bad guy.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Two alicorn guards stepped into his path, and midnight looked up, and without a word, they allowed him in, "ahh, midnight, honestly i was expecting to see you after a few more.....conditionings."</p>

<p> </p>

<p>midnight sighed and looked away, "well......i just realized.....everypony hates me....except one.....as long as she isnt harmed.....ill do anything....." he paused as his ears drooped "ill do anything you want."</p>

<p>Nova smirked then trotted forward putting a leg around midnights neck<br />

"my son, i know it is hard....but you learn to live with it." he smiled, "now come with me, we have much to talk about."</p>

Edited by Nightmare Rarity
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  • 1 month later...
(edited)

“Sooo is anypony here aware of Midnight Moon?” Sule asked. Pretty much everpony shook their heads. “Big guy, black coat. Maluma.... might be a bit gloomy?” Still no answer. Sule sighed. “I’d prefer it if we find him before this whole thing goes down.”

 

“Why?” Sift Sage asked.

 

“He’s one of my Generals, and he’s also the guy who broke the mind control on Nova’s army in the battle at Chiroptera.”

 

“So is that why you want to find him?”

 

“More or less. I also prefer it if I knew where he was, because reasons.” Sule cleared his throat. “When do you think Daedalia will be back with Shiri?”

 

“Anytime now, sir.” Storm Squall answered. “If she wasn’t eaten, that is.”

 

“Um... right.” Sule looked down at his badly drawn battle plan, which was scribbled using charcoal on some flat rocks. If this plan didn’t work, they would be royally screwed. Nova would start his attack right then and there, and all the prisoners would be killed, eaten, or turned to zombies.

 

“Oh look who decided to finally show up.” Storm Squall smirked. Sule turned to see Daedalia and Shiri walk up behind him.

 

“Shiri, good to have you back!” Sule smiled. Daedalia frowned a bit, “Oh and you too, Daedalia.”

 

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Shiri said, picking up one of Sule’s battle plan rocks, “So this is your suicidal way of getting out of this damn place,” She hoofed it over to Daedalia.

 

“Sule, these things are pretty much illegbi-”

 

“Ugh, I already got the lecture from Sift. Look, you guys know the plan, so stop whining about it.” Sule rubbed his eyes, “Shiri, where’s Midnight?”

 

Shiri looked pensive for a moment, “Hmm, I last saw him in some dried up grasslands, I think a bit east of here.”

 

“Great,” Sule said, “Let’s go get hi-”

 

“Hold on, there’s something you should know. He’s... been acting weird. He’s a bit out of it, not to mention a bit of a green glow I saw now and then in his eyes.”

 

Sule facehoofed. “Are you kidding me?” He paced for a moment, “Well this complicates a few things.”

 

“What? What’s the green glow about?” Sift Sage asked.

 

“Mind Control.” Sule said. “Midnight must be extremely susceptible to it now... Dammit, how are we going to get around that?”

 

“Can’t we just break the mind control on him?” Daedalia said.

 

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy... Even if it is, Nova is going to know we’re up to something. Is it possible he knows if somepony loses a mind control thing?”

 

“It is,” Shiri said. “When I controlled him, I noticed I lost him at some point, probably when you guys broke the lock on him.”

 

“How did you control him in the first place?” Sift Sage wondered, “You aren’t exactly ‘magically gifted,’ No offence.”

 

Shiri raised her eyebrow, “None taken. Nova channeled some of his magical energy through me, but I couldn’t just take over whoever I want. For the type of mind control that Midnight was under -which is related but not totally the same as the kind used to control groups- required Nova to specifically want that pony, and that pony to have some sort of ‘motive,’ something that I could use to trick them to let their guard down and let me in.”

 

“What was Midnight’s motive?” Sule asked.

 

“His wife.” Shiri said, “He lost her a while ago, and I convinced him that I could bring her back... which if you think about it, Nova actually did that for him. He made a clone of Midnight’s wife and brought it to him. It didn’t work, though. Midnight rejected her.... Anyway, with the mind control he has over this dome on the Alicorns, I think he’s just doing it to keep their minds intact and as a sort of ‘surveillance.’ It would be way too hard for him to personally control this many Alicorns in the way they patrol the camps. If they were acting as some collective mind or group, like in the battle, then it’s easier, but my money’s on Nova not actually “Controlling them” per say. My guess is that Midnight will be under the same type of mind control.”

 

Sule thought about it for a moment, “I think he showed me a picture of his wife at some point, so I think I know what she looks like.”

 

“I saw the clone, too.” Shiri said. “What are you thinking of?”

 

“I think I have a way of doing this. We can expect a whole lot of resistance from Midnight if we try to break his mind control. And we can also imagine that Nova will be aware of that as well.”

 

“So what?” Sift Sage asked.

 

“I think if we can quickly trick Midnight into letting down his guard, we can break his mind control and tell him what’s going on without Nova hearing.”

 

Shiri shook her head. “No good, Nova can simply redo the mind control on him after a few minutes, especially with the type of power he has. Not to mention we won’t be that far away from him.”

 

Sule nodded, “Exactly, we tell him the plan, as well as some instructions for him, disinformation if you will. When the mind control is re-administered, he’ll get distract Nova with whatever it is we tell him while we can go ahead with our plan.”

 

“How the hay do you expect this to work?” Shiri said.

 

“You said the way to get to him is his dead wife?” Sule eyed Daedalia. He walked over and inspected her a bit. He lifted up her wing and took a closer look at it, making her awkwardly blush a bit.

 

“Umm, What are you doing?” She asked.

 

“it’s not exact, but your coat is almost the same color as Midnight’s wife, i think....”

 

“Yeah.” Shiri rubbed her chin, “Maybe a bit lighter, but it’s pretty darn close. You’re also around her height...”

 

“What are you saying?” Daedalia said. Sule stood right in front of her and stared at her eyes. She smiled a bit, as if to giggle, but straightened out.

 

“I mean, you don’t have Maluma eyes, but I’m sure Sift can fix that with a small spell.” He turned to Sift Sage, “Do you think...?’

 

“The eyes? I can do. Wings might be a too hard, since you’re disguising real Pegasus wings... Maybe if you make the wings look a bit more Malumaish, I could blend it together to make it pretty indistinguishable from the real things.”

 

“As for your mane....” Shiri put her hoof in Daedalia’s mane and messed around with it.

 

“HEY!”

 

“Meh,” She stopped. “It’ll do.”

 

“What are you guys talking about?” Daedalia angrily asked.

 

“Don’t you see? We’re going to make you into Midnight’s dead wife!” Shiri smirked.

 

“Wait, what?” Daedalia was startled, both by the plan and by Sule stretching out her wing and holding a twig to it, “Uh Sule, as turned on as I am with you messing with my wings, what are you doing?”

 

“Thinking of how we’re going to disguise them. Guys, get some- Wait what do you mean ‘turned on?’” Sule paused, confused.

 

“What? Nothing.”

 

Another awkward silence, “Ok... Anyway, guys, get some of those leafs and twigs, along with some pine sap.”

 

“Yes sir,” Sift Sage and his crew said.

 

“Wait, you’re putting pine sap in my wings now!?”

 

***

 

Shiri had located Midnight, who was just standing around, doing... nothing (“What did I tell ya? Out of it.”). Everypony was hiding behind a small hill, overlooking him. Daedalia hid herself at the bottom of the hill, getting ready for their signal.

 

“You think this is going to work?” Shiri whispered to Sule.

 

“I dunno. We might as well try.” Sule nudged Sift Sage, “Do it”.

 

Sift Sage picked up a pebble with his Magic and tossed it Midnight’s head. Midnight turned in their direction, looking around. “WHO’S THERE!? SHOW YOURSELF!” Midnight yelled.

 

“Daedalia, go.” Sule whispered. On queue, she walked out from behind the hill. She now had Malumai wings, and in in the dark of night her new Malumai eyes glowed ever so slightly.

 

“It was me, honey...” Daedalia said to Midnight in a soothing voice.

 

“...Chrys? Is it... No, no... it’s just another dream.” Midnight said, dismissing her.

 

“No, it’s not. Midnight, I’m here in the flesh and blood.” She said. “Please... come here, to me.”

 

“How...how are you here? Are you another clone?”

 

“No, I’m here. Midnight. it’s ok. Please come with me.” Daedalia walked forward a bit and held out her hoof.

 

Midnight slowly walked to her, “Chrys...” He put his hoof on her’s, then came in for a hug. After a moment, Daedalia fell to her side, bringing Midnight down with her. Quickly, she rolled on top of him and held down his hoofs. “Honey, what are you doing?” Midnight asked. Daedalia slowly moved to kiss him.

 

Back on the ledge, Sule saw the opportunity. “Muspel, do it”

 

To his right, a orange Unicorn stood up and shot a magical beam from her horn at Midnight. Right before Daedalia kissed him, the beam hit and broke the mind control. Midnight, confused, started to struggle.

 

“Ugh, stop moving!” Daedalia, yelled at him, trying to hold him down. “We’re trying to help!”

 

“Chrys?” Midnight said, even more confused than before. “What’s going on?”

 

Sule quickly flew down to the hill to them. “Midnight, Listen to me-”

 

“Sule? What’s going on?”

 

“Just listen. I’m sorry, but this isn’t Chrys. We’re going to organize a prison break here. I need you to take as many Alicorns as you can to a cave where we are supposedly ‘hiding.’ Can you do that?”

 

“What? What do you mean this isn’t Chry-” Midnight was interrupted by Sule hitting him across the face.

“SNAP OUT IT OF, GENERAL!” Sule yelled in Midnight’s face. “Pay attention! You have your orders. Do you know what to do?”

 

Midnight spaced out for a second, then seemed to come back “Right right. I understand, sire.”

“Good. Sorry for hitting you that hard. I’m also sorry for this.”

 

Sule nodded to Daedalia, who produced a rope and quickly tied it around Midnight’s head, covering his eyes. “You’ll be able to get out of it easily.” She said, “We just can’t have you see it get away.”

 

“What?” Midnight said.

 

“We broke your mind control, but Nova’s going to bring it back any minute now. We’re going to use that against him” Sule said. “Now can we count on you?”

 

“Yes sire.”

 

“Good.” Sule turned to Daedalia, “You... can get off of him now. “

 

“What? Oh right.” Daedalia stood up and helped Midnight up.”

 

“Ok, we have to go NOW, before the mind control comes back.” Sule and her took off to fly back to the group. Before Sule left, he took a last look at Midnight. “Don’t worry, We won’t leave without you. I promise.”

Midnight nodded. Right then, there was a flash of green from under the rope blindfold. As he struggled to take it off, Sule quickly flew away.

Edited by AnonyPoni
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Midnight frowned and looked around, "the buck just happened?" shaking his head, he stood up and walked forwardhis hooves leaving rings of singed grass, "hmm.." he looked at his hoof, and noticed a rock with some kind of drawing on it, he took a closer look than looked around, before rubbing some of the charcoal off and rewrote it.

 

there....he took an even closer look, this was deffinetly sules, "master...."

 

"yes midnight, im very busy."

 

"master, i found a map, deffinetly sules doing, it leads to a cave nearby."

 

"hmm....take my alicorns, raid the cave, and make sure their all dead, except for sule,i want to show him equestria burning, then the maluma nation burning before he has my permission to die, if he struggles though, dont be afraid to break a few bones."

 

"yes master." the green left his eyes and he looked around "sule, you get yourself out, dont worry about me."

 

he turned and flew down to the alicorn barracks, yelling, "alright, all bitches line up in order, we got an assignment," the alicorns started to wake up, and then started to line up outside the tents.

 

he turned and started to walk towards an outlying cave, taking half the alicorns in the camp with him, on the half mile trek out to the camp.

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Indigo stepped up on the mount overlooking the Alicorn encampment and regarded it quietly. He knew that whatever he decided now would drastically alter the course of the campaign. And now the newly crowned Archon of the Malumai, Indigo particularly didn't want the destruction of the Malumai to occur under his reign.

 

Archon Indigo, king of the Malumai. Certainly something Indigo never would've expected. Originally just a dirty street urchin as a child, now ruler of the state and the guide of its destiny. And it all happened completely unexpectedly.

 

Indigo furrowed his brow. He'd need to discuss this with Sule when the war is over. This succession of power is just asking for some treacherous advisor to abuse the hell out of it.

 

Indigo watched. The alicorns down by the edge of the forcefield were scattered, disorganized, and few in number. The numbers of the Malumai forces were superior for the first time, and now taking the fight to them is actually feasible. And if it's a trap, well, they can deal with it when they get there.

 

Indigo knew that Sule wouldn't like it, that he would rather have the Malumai march to Canterlot to reinforce the defense. But Indigo's soldier instinct knew that this was a rare oppurtunity. An oppurtunity that Sule hasn't accounted for.

 

And Sule's not the Archon at the moment.

 

One of Indigo's subordinates came up from behind and stood next to him.

 

Indigo narrowed his eyes. "Now." he ordered.

 

The subordinate nodded and returned into the forest behind him. In a minute, a hoard of hundreds Malumai soldiers poured out of the forest a mile to both sides of Indigo and jumped over the cliff face, taking flight as they did so. The dozens of physically smaller Malumai squads mixed with the cloud of bodies let loose with a volley of arrows in perfect formation, dropping a wall of projetiles at the encampment and behind the arrows fell the larger draft ponies as they charged to the ground.

 

Indigo stood and regarded the encampment as the fight begun.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Muspel made her way back through the camp, still blinking at the migraine sparks flashing before her eyes. Up until a few weeks ago she had never considered her gift of sensing energy as anything but a boon. Then the backlash of whatever the Malumai had used to bring down their own city wall had knocked her out cold. Her senses had simply shut down, incapable of comprehending the titanic forces unleashed. If anypony had told her that such a thing could been archived without magic she would have- damn her skull hurt!

Whatever magic had gone into creating the dome was playing merry hell with her senses, even the simple disruption spell had almost caused her to collapse.

 

So that was Sule, eh? At first sight she would have taken him for a clerk or an engineer: A plain, intelligent face and the look of a constant worrier, almost certainly given to melancholia. She  felt that an revolutionary leader should look a bit more...  inspiring.

Well, no matter. She doubted she would see him or that black fiend Midnight again: Muspel was aware that history needed its heroes and as well as a whole lot of ponies who simply did as they were told and she was perfectly happy with her role as one of the latter kind.

 

Still in deep thoughts , she half walked, half stumbled into the makeshift field hospital, were she had awoken what felt was several days ago, even though the presence of the dome made it impossible to tell.

She had spend her time cooking water into a vague semblance of cleanness and, on one occasion, cauterizing a legstump. These uses of her gift were easier on her head than casting actual spells, but it still left her dizzy.

One of the medics, Holly she believed, trotted over to her.

"Muspel, are you alright, love? Do you have to lie down?"

Muspel pressed a hoof into her temple to  ease the throbbing. It helped a little.

"I'm fine", she murmured. "The archon is working on bringing down the dome."

Holly snorted.

"Well, I hope his highness hurries, if we don't get proper medicine soon, we're in trouble. Now get yourself some shuteye."

"I don't need to", Muspel protested, as she was ponyhandled towards one of the piles of rugs that served as beds. "I can help a little."

"Love, you already helped plenty; a lot of ponies here would be a whole lot worse off without you, but you're doing nopony  a favour by tiring yourself out."

Muspel opened her mouth to protest, but was unceremoniously shoved unto the bed and fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

Edited by Silverwisp the Bard
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(OOC Ripping off Silent Crime and having two mares talk. I really don’t know what I expected...............)

(OOC Warning.... Fair amount of fluff)

 

“So... Shiri. That’s an interesting name.” Daedalia said.

 

“Pfft.” Shiri responded, “It’s a long story.”

 

Shiri was on her way to Nova’s hideout... or office (depending on how you looked at it). The idea was for her to take out Nova so everypony else had a fighting chance when it came to the Alicorns. As per Sule’s plan, Shiri left before the rest of the group left for their positions. That way, if she were captured, she wouldn’t jeopardize everypony else.

 

What Shiri couldn’t figure out, however, is why Daedalia came with her.

 

“I mean, it’s just not a name I would expect an Earth Pony to have.... no offense.”

 

“What sort of name would you expect an Earth Pony to have?” Shiri softly fired back.

 

“I dunno, something like Smart Cookie, Apple Branch, Grave Digger.... Pudding Head?”

 

Shiri mentally rolled her eyes. “Uh huh. Why are you here, again?”

 

“Here? Uh...” Daedalia thought for a second, “Well, during the initial Alicorn attack, I guess I was one of the last ponies who hadn’t deserted or had a chance to retreat.... so I suppose that’s why I’m here, like everypony else.”

 

Shiri paused for a moment. “I meant why are you following me?”

 

“I think this is more along the lines of ‘accompanying.’”

 

“Whatever. Don’t you have another job to do?”

 

“Yeah, but I figured if you got killed by a few Alicorns while on your way to Nova, we’d be screwed.”

 

“So you’re here to help me fight them off?”

 

“Uh... Sure. More importantly to report it to Sule, in case it comes to that.”

 

Figures, just when I was starting to like her. “Well thanks, I suppose.”

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

 

The two of them walked for almost ten minutes before Shiri spoke up again. “Tyrannus.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“He’s the reason why I call myself Shiri... It...” Shiri pursed her lips in a sort of disgust, “It was a pet name.”

 

“Oh.” It took a second for it to hit Daedalia, “Oh... oh gods.” She stuck her tongue out in disgust.

 

“Hey, you asked.”

 

“I mean... you two were a thing? How did that even work?”

 

“Let’s just say I’ve had a few weird coltfriends.”

 

“Sure, haven’t we all... but Tyrannus?”

 

“Yeah, he’s was an insane bastard now that I realize it. Obsessed with how he was going to bring about this ‘new era of purity’ or something. It was basically a ‘rape the world and everypony in it.’”

 

“Wasn’t he also secretly part griffon or something?”

 

“.....What?

 

“Not much intel came out of that city during the war. We heard some pretty weird rumors.”

 

“I see. You fought?”

 

“In the war? Yeah, for a few years. it was pretty brutal, near the end. Everypony was getting desperate.” Daedalia sighed a bit. “Not like you’d understand.”

 

“....Excuse me?” Shiri stopped in her tracks, “What you do mean ‘I wouldn’t understand?’ Hmm? While you and the Malumai were having your spats, who do you think were the ones were killed in their own homes because they were ‘in the way’? I didn’t have to understand your brutality, I LIVED IT.” Shiri took a heavy breath, snorted, and turned away.

 

“I... I’m sorry. I didn’t mean -”

 

“No, no. it doesn’t matter. That was then, this is now.” Shiri sighed, “And right now, we need to move on.”

 

Daedalia nodded and they walked in silence again for a while.

 

“So what was your real name?” Daedalia asked, breaking the silence.

 

“You don’t give up, do you?” Shiri didn’t bother looking at her, “It’s a long story.”

 

“No, I imagine it’s two words.”

 

“Fine, it’s...” Shiri pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment, “It’s not important. I’m Shiri now.”

 

“Well alright.” Daedalia reluctantly backed off, “But why keep a name like that? I mean, it was a pet name, after all...”

 

“You know, it’s a-”

 

“-Long story? Go figure.” Daedalia finished. ” She stopped, letting Shiri walk ahead a bit., “You’ll never get anywhere with anypony if you keep putting up this wall around you.”

 

Shiri sneered, “So is that why you came along? Curiosity?”

 

“Something like that. That and the whole ‘reporting your death’ thing.”

 

“Don’t be so cocky. If you die, I probably won’t care much.”

 

“I doubt that.”

 

“I have bigger daisies to fry, like Nova.”

 

“Oh well. Doesn’t matter. We’re both pretty tough mares. We can handle ourselves.”

 

“Whatever you say.”

 

 

They were probably still a miles or so from where Nova supposedly was. Shiri kept an eye on anypony that might see them. While they didn’t look all that conspicuous, they weren’t all that hidden in the flat grasslands.

 

“Soooo...” Daedalia started again.

 

“Ugh! Do you ever shut up?”

 

“Not really, no.” She started to ask a question, but Shiri tuned her out. Somewhere along the lines, Daedalia said “Sule” and Shiri’s ears perked up.

 

“Huh? What was that, again?”

 

“Uh... I was wondering what was the deal with Sule. You know him well?”

 

“Uh, sorta.... actually not that much, now that I think about it.”

 

“Really? It seemed like you two knew each other closely...”

 

“Uh, no. I really only got... acquainted with his Ancient, Indigo. He was basically Sule’s second in command. Well, now that Sule’s here Indigo’s probably running the show.”

 

“I see.” Daedalia snickered a bit, “You like to go after the ones with power, it seems.”

 

“Yeah, something about guys with armies just makes my heart go zing.” Shiri said sarcastically.

 

“Right, right.” Daedalia cleared her throat, “Any thoughts on Sule?”

 

“Hmm? Yeah. He’s a mad scientist doing a politician’s job. Seeing how he’s from Chiroptera, that’s an improvement. Why’re you so curious about him, anyway?”

 

“Oh you know, we’re following his plans and all. He’s sorta running the show.... not to mention that I kinda think he’s-”

 

Shiri shoved her hoof in Daedalia’s face, covering her mouth. “Shhh.... you hear that?”

 

The air was still, with only a faint sound of crickets here and there. Daedalia pushed Shiri’s hoof aside. “It’s nothing,.”

 

“I could’ve sworn...” Shiri scanned the horizon, “Do you think it could’ve been an Alicorn?”

 

“I think we’d know by now. Maybe it’s just another pony.”

 

“Do you think they might inform Nova?”

 

“Uh, I dunno. It’s possible, I guess...”

 

“We’re barely a mile away from where Nova’s supposed to be. Stay quiet til we get there....”

 

 

 

 

(OOC There was originally going to be MUCH more to this post, but I wrote myself into a dead end. Instead of sitting on it for another month while I figured it it out, I decided to post what I had to keep the RP blood pumping.)

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Midnight looked back, the camp was almost a mile away now, the alicorns were following him without a word, "damnit i should have forced a pony to come with me....at least its somepony to talk too..." he boredly looked at a nearby tree before his hooves lit up and the tree burst into flames.

 

"heh...well i guess thats entertainment enough..." he sighed, then started thinking about dadalia  "for goddess sake....she really looked like chrys..." he shook his head thinking about cloud chaser she also looked like chrys..."i am a hopeless stallion, i only like these mares beacuse they look like my wife..."

 

"midnight."

 

midnight stopped in mid step

 

"master?"

 

nova sounded irritated "send the alicorns back...deal with sule yourself."

 

midnight nodded, "yes master."

 

he turned "get back to the camp, dunno what nova is so irritated about.." he shrugged as the alicorns turned back and midnight continued on to the cave, as he approached it he knew nopony was inside, and as he looked around the cave he shrugged and turned back toward the camp.

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*5 minutes before attack on dome*

 

Night Flash looked around the camp as everyone was making final preparations for the attack. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, the Malumai soldiers vastly outnumbered the Equestrians. It had been hard for him to keep his ponies' morale high. It almost seemed as if his commanding skill was doubted. 

 

The worst part was that he had become more of a second in command to the temporary Archon rather than commander of the Equestrian force, which was now too small to be called an army.

 

But Night Flash had a job to do and he got himself back to what he was doing. He grabbed his armor and weapon and flew out of his tent to join Indigo.

 

*Right where jade's post left off*

 

Night Flash gathered his small force and ordered them to join the Malumai formations.

 

"Listen, I know that we've lost a lot of our troops but we've got a job to do. Now I want all Pegasi troops to fly up with the Malumai, carry the earth pony troops with you. I want the Unicorn troops to stay on the ground and cover the air troops"

 

They all just nodded and flew up to join the attack. Just as they joined the Malumai formations, they suddenly took off towards the dome, casting a shadow over the camp.

 

I better go join Indigo right now.

 

Night Flash found Indigo a couple moments later, he was watching over his forces.

 

"My ponies have joined your soldiers as well. Anything else we need to do?"

Edited by The Awesome One
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Muspel dreamed. She knew she was dreaming, because in the weeks after Cjroptera, she had dreamed the same thing over and over. Back at home, she had dreamed about all sort of things: flowers, birds, cake, the ocean.

This was different: She was walking through a desert of black sand. She assumed it was nighttime, though she couldn't make out any stars above. The only thing she could make out was the shine of a campfire ahead. She reached it and sat down ,just as she had done a dozen times before.

"Look who's back."

Reluctantly she lifted her gaze. She was no longer alone. There were three others, a pegasus in armor and two unicorns wearing robes of black, red and orange, similar to hers, though every member of the Ordo Pyrae took pride in individualizing his garment.

Muspel gave a rye smile.

"Looks like it."

"Why the long face, Muspie?"

"You're dead."

Hasta grinned. He looked like she remembered him, except for a dark mark on his neck, where an arrow had pierced him during the battle in Chiroptera. When she had come around, he had already been dead.

"Yeah, I guess I am. You're not though, so why do you keep coming back?"

"I don't know, nostalgia I guess", Muspel said, glancing sideways at the pegasus. He did not talk, he never did, and his face was cast in shadow with the exception of two eyes the dark green of the sea after storm.

 

"Listen to you."

 Ahsti shook her head, the little bells in her mane chiming. Unlike Hasta, she was covered in a score of dark marks, running in curves over her face, neck and legs. She had died harder than than Hasta, all but  eaten alive by one of Nova's monstrous creatures. With her last breath she had incinerated herself and her killer.

"We're the ones, who kicked the bucket and you're complaining."

"I'm sorry."

Hasta snorted.

"Don't be, somepony would have killed her anyway, if only to get rid of that obnoxious ringing."

They laughed then, as they had done in life; even then Hasta had always insisted on carrying every joke into tastelessness.

 

Muspel awoke with that laughter still ringing in her ears, only to be replaced by hectic shouting and cursing. One of the nurses, not Holly, was standing over her and shaking her vividly.

"Muspel, get up, love. Its starting."

"What is?"

"The battle, dear. look."

Outside the dome, Muspel could see ghostly figures chasing back and forth.

Who's attacking, the army? Is this part of Sule's plan?

She took hold of the nurses shoulder.

"What are we doing? What's the plan?"

"Where get the patients to somewhere near to the circumference where we'll be easily spotted, once the dome comes down. The monsters are distracted for the moment. Can you use your magic?"

"Yes." My head might explode though.

"Good, the lets go."

Slowly the ragged procession moved out of the camp, more than half of them supporting or carrying their comrades.

Muspel was at the head along with half a dozen pegasi and earth ponies and even one maluma carrying makeshift spears, that would be little use if they ran into any of Nova's creations.

Moon and stars, I hope this works.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Indigo sat on a cloud high above the mountain range that the attack began from, silently regarding the carnage that was occurring below him. Powerful. Imposing. Wearing the Eye of Night pendant as a headband now fastened around his helmet that the ruler of Chiroptera would traditionally wear when out traveling the land during times of distress; a tradition that Sule revived not because he was a stickler for tradition but more because he wasn't comfortable wearing the flashy and decadent attire of Tyrannus and his immediate predecessors but without wanting to further alienate the conservative members of Sule's new power base. 

 

With his dark velvet armor, peircing golden eyes, and the Eye of Night atop his crested helmet and largely emblazoned across his chest piece, Archon Indigo carried the demeanor expected of the newest ruler of the Malumai Kingdom.

 

Which only slightly mitigated the fact that Indigo had no idea what the fuck he was doing.

 

He needed to get off his cloud and help with the battle, but how? From his perch he could see a million different situations that he could turn to the Malumai's favor, from groups of ponies who could flank the alicorns who are dominating another group, to a group of alicorns who were just asking to be bombed with a unicorn inferno spell attack. The footsoldier, officer, and advisor in Indigo was screaming at him to get down there and save the day.

 

But no. If Indigo goes down and micromanages the battle, to point to every little alicorn that needs to be fought in which order and in what way, that would be horribly inefficient and a terrible waste of his position. He was the ruler, he directs the flow of the battle. Not to mention if he gets himself killed a random alicorn, the Malumai, and by extension the forces that oppose Nova will be left without a head. Indigo huffed. He was beginning to sound just like Sule.

 

But still, sitting up there on his fluffy little cloud where he's safe didn't sit well with him. Every minute that passes equals more dead ponies and the probability of winning the war and securing ponykind's salvation becomes longer and longer. Not to mention how could he keep up his soldier's morale by just sitting back and watching them die?

 

Indigo watched the battle and observed flashes of orange light rising up from the battle. Fire. There were multiple Unicorn squads that were using large-scale infernos agains the alicorns He knew the alicorns' wings were their weak point. Setting the alicorns on fire would ruin their wings and leave them grounded like earth ponies, and an effective tactic the Tyranuss-ran Malumai forces, and to Indigo's chagrin, he himself, employed against earth ponies in previous wars was to manipulate them into a kill zone with Malumai combantants entirely on one side of them and set them on fire. But how to apply the same tactic on a large scale on an open battlefield, with no choke points? Indigo couldn't come up with such a strategy while sitting on his cloud, which was surprisingly comfortable. And having such a cloud in such a position was a major advantage as well. When this war was done, Indigo would have to contract workers back home to pull large amounts of clouds over the chronically cloudless Chiroptera and-Dammit, Indigo, focus! Indigo chided himself.

 

Indigo detected Night Flash approach his position, most likely asking what to do. 

 

Night Flash asked Indigo if there was anything else that needed to be done, a question Indigo did not have an answer for. Son of a mother fucking whore pig sow what the neighing fuck am I supposed to tell him- "Nothing more as of yet, until the battle turns into a different direction." Indigo replied. As Night Flash turned to leave, Indigo suddenly spoke up again. "Wait. You see that area down there? The part of the battlefield filled with alicorns with no pony to oppose them?" Indigo pointed to the ground. The troops on the battlefield were distributed unevenly, and the right flank of the battle was filled with Alicorns who were now moving to reinforce an Alicorn advance on a group of allied soldiers fighting them off on there front and rear; a situation that would almost certainly result in the division being steamrolled. If those soldiers died, the Alicorns would then control a third of the battlefield around the dome. Indigo needed to set up a kill zone on a large scale, and this development is giving him an idea. "I need all allied soldiers removed from that area. I need to give that territory to the alicorns." Indigo ordered. Before Night could say anything, Indigo interrupted. "I assure you I know what I'm doing. I can't let those soldiers get caught in we're about to do to the alicorns. Now go."

 

Indigo quickly produced a scroll and began to write orders into it. It is now time to begin the next stage of the battle. Indigo descended from his cloud and summoned a scout to deliver his orders to another division Indigo was keeping in backup, before alighting atop another cloud hiding his position.

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“Again, don’t you have anywhere better to go?” Shiri whispered. The two of them were only about a hundred yards from the three Alicorns who were holding up the dome. The grass was tall enough for the mares to hide themselves.

 

“I’ll help you out with Nova.”

 

“I prefer to work alone.”

 

Daedalia rolled her eyes, “Too bad. Besides, how else are you going to take out those Alicorns while you keep an eye on Nova.”

 

“I was going restrain him.”

 

“Whatever. I’ll hide out here and help take out the Alicorns when you’re done with him.”

 

 

Shiri crawled, staying as low as she could as she approached the cave where Nova had supposedly set up shop. There was an Alicorn guard in front, but that was it. The rest of the Alicorns probably on Midnight’s snipe hunt. She crawled closer to the Alicorn’s side and contemplated the quickest, quietest way to take it out. She didn’t have any weapons on her..... besides her pack with water.

 

An idea sparked.

 

With her powerful legs, she pounced onto the Alicorn’s head. Quickly, she stuffed the pack down its open mouth when it tried to yell, and covered its nostrils. With her free hind legs, she kicked its horn off. The Alicorn struggled for a few moments, violently trying to throw Shiri off. However, her plan worked and the Alicorn fell to the ground, probably unconscious.

 

Shiri walked down the cave, looking around for any sign of Nova. The cave went deeper and the entrance grew dimmer. After a while, she reached a dead end.... nothing was in this cave.

 

Wait, since when do caves have dead ends like this? Where’s Nova?

 

She felt breathing down her neck.

 

Oh buck....

 

 

***

 

 

Something didn’t seem right to Daedalia. Only one Alicorn Soldier guarding Nova’s hideout? There were no other ones guarding the location? Why was Nova’s cave so easy to spot? Granted, a lot of the Alicorns might’ve left with Midnight, but why would Nova risk his own safety by getting rid of all the guards? From the intel they got, this place should’ve been crawling with Alicorns.

 

The whole thing seemed way to easy.

 

 

***

 

Shiri stood as still as a stone. The Alicorn behind her didn’t attack, didn’t growl, didn’t do anything.

 

I mean, it has to be an Alicorn, right? What else could it be?

 

A tongue licked her ear. Almost out of reflex, she immediately kicked whatever was behind her. In doing so, she felt a knife brush by her neck, landing on the ground with a echoey CLANG. Shiri barely turned around when somepony jumped on top of her.

 

The pony’s hooves wrapped around her neck, trying to choke her. Shiri contorted her body in a way that she could kick again. The pony loosened its grip a bit, which Shiri took to her advantage and slipped out of the choke hold. In a split second, she grabbed the pony and tossed it into the cave wall. It struggled to get back up, but Shiri put her hoof on its chest.

 

“Hi there. Listen, it’s not very nice to sneak up on ponies like that.” Shiri smirked, “You work for Nova? tell me where he is.”

 

No answer.

 

“Fine then, I guess you need a hug.” Shiri bent down so they were face to face and wrapped her hooves around the pony, squeezing the life out of him.

 

“....got...away...” the pony struggled to say. “got... away...”

 

“Got away where?” Shiri pressed.

 

“...out....dome....”

 

“How long ago?”

 

“...not...long...”

 

“I see. Which direction?”

 

“...don’t... know....”

 

“C’mon, don’t be like that.” Shiri squeezed harder. she heard a rib crack.

 

The pony couldn’t breath.

 

“Well, can’t get an answer that way...” Shiri let go. The pony painfully started breathing again. “Which direction?”

 

“I...told you. I don’t know... sealed up the hideout and left....”

 

“Well, alright.” Shiri covered the pony’s face with her hoof to smother him.

 

***

 

 

“It was a trap.” Shiri told Daedalia once she left the cave. They were hiding in the grass again. “Nova’s gone. Left the Dome.”

 

“Ugh. Go figure” Daedalia sighed. “Now what?”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t even know how he’s controlling the Alicorns from the outside....”

“Maybe he’s doing the same thing he did with you. You know, the Proxy thing?”

 

“Maybe, but I have no idea who he’d use. It could be any bucking pony here.”

 

“Maybe it’s that one guy... uh, what was his name? The one you all put sap in my wings for.”

 

“Midnight? Huh, you might be onto something, sister. But we don’t have time to track him down.”

 

“What about Nova’s lab?” Daedalia asked, “There’s bound to be something in there we could use.”

 

“It’s sealed up. Besides, what would we be looking for?”

 

“I dunno. A weapon, a kill switch, a map... there’s bound to be something.”

 

Shiri poked her head out of the grass to take a look at the three Alicorns holding up the Dome. They were probably twice the size of normal ones. There was no way they’d be able to take them out on their own.

 

“Ok, then.” Shiri put down her head, “Let’s see if we can crack it open.”

 

***

 

 

“Sweet ponyfeathers, did you kill this guy?” Daedalia looked at the limp body of the pony in the cave.

 

“No! No no no, of course not!” Shiri smiled. She gave the body a nudge. “Ok, maybe I did....”

 

“What is wrong with you?.”

 

“Hey, he tried to kill me.”

 

“Whatever. Anyway, this is where the lair is?” Daedalia tapped the stone wall in front of them.

 

“Yeah. Maybe we can break it.” Shiri stood with her hindlegs towards the wall, and gave it a buck. The sound resounded throughout the cave, but the wall didn’t even crack. Shiri slumped on the floor. “Ouch....”

 

Daedalia laughed. “Oh, you Earth Ponies and your obsession with bucking everything.”

 

“Har har, feather weight. How about you open the damn thing.”

 

Daedalia looked up and down the wall. “Well, it can’t be that thick. I heard a hollow noise when I tapped-”

 

Shiri hurled herself against the wall, again doing nothing. “UGH This is a waste of time! This thing isn’t going to open.”

 

Daedalia sighed, “I suppose you’re right... Let’s go. We’ll think of some other way to take down those Alicorns holding the Dome.” Said

 

They turned around to exit the cave. The entrance was dim, but it looked like something was there.

 

“Dammit, looks like that Alicorn I knocked out woke up....” Shiri said. It appeared that it was moving towards them, quickly. “Oh crap, it’s going to charge us!”

 

“Wait!” Daedalia said. “Don’t move...”

 

“ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE!?”

 

“Just trust me, please.”

 

As the Alicorn approached, Daedalia kept whispering “wait for it... wait for it.” Right as it was barely 15 feet from them, Daedalia yelled, “NOW!”

 

The two of them jumped out of the way, letting the Alicorn smash into the wall.

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  • 1 month later...

NF nodded and saluted Indigo, but even he could tell from his frustrated face that he didn't really know what to do at that moment. 

 

Okay...now how am I going to get down there without being impaled by a random flying arrow?

 

Night Flash was having to flow in an almost zigzag manner, trying to dodge arrows and occasional spears being launched at him. He landed hard and immediately started barking orders at his troops who were having a tough time fighting giant sized Alicorns who were twice their height.

 

"Get out of here! The Archon wants this area vacated!", he said. The Alicorns noticed him and Night Flash found himself blocking off attacks from them.

 

Amid the chaos, a familiar face joined him, "What's the situation, Commander?"

 

"Whirlwind! We need to get out of here."

 

"Why?", Whirlwind asked, slicing off an Alicorns head at the same time.

 

"Uhh...I dont really know."

 

*A couple of minutes later*

The Allied forces stated retreating from the flank, leaving the slower Alicorns behind and creating a gap between them. They were covered by the Archers and Unicorns. By the time they were out of range of the Alicorns, Night Flash realized what Indigo was attemping to do, Son of a bitch, he's setting up a killzone. Night Flash knew that from having barely escaped one during one of the many skirmishes he had been in against Tyrannus's forces back when Commander Hurricane was in charge. 

 

Night Flash had the retreating troops re organized and sent off into different directions wherever reinforcements were needed. He could see Indigo from where he was standing.

 

Why isn't he doing anything?

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  • 2 weeks later...

“Sage, do you ever get the feeling that in some prehistoric past life, you were a two legged carnivorous reptile?” Sule randomly dropped.

 

Sift Sage looked perplexed “Come again?”

 

“Nothing, never mind.”

 

“Er... right. Sule, are you sure there’s nothing we need to do?”

 

“Not yet, at least.” Sule started playing with the grass. “If all goes as planned, Shiri should have the dome any time now.”

 

“Can you really be that sure?”

 

Sule ripped up a blade of grass and attempted to split it, “No.”

 

“Aren’t you worried? Anxious?”

 

“I was just thinking...” Sule started, ignoring Sift Sage, “what’s the point?” Sule looked at Sage, seeing that he didn’t get it, “Like, why would Nova put all his resources to build a dome with you guys and the majority of his Alicorns here? It just doesn’t make sense.”

 

Sage gave a blank look. Sule half expected some response so he could bounce some ideas around. He sighed. Sift was no Indigo.

 

“Just a little longer, I know it.” said Sule

 

***

 

(Time to break that stupid dome)

 

Shiri kicked off the flat rock that covered her. “Ugh.” she grumbled as she picked herself up, covered with scratches and dirt. “Hey featherweight, you dead?” Shiri shouted.

 

“You wish.” Daedalia landed next to her, completely unscathed.

 

“How did you get out of the rubble in one piece?”

 

Daedalia flared her wings with a smug smile.

 

“I hate you.” Shiri mumbled.

 

“Just be glad you don’t have to take care of these things.” Daedalia said, “but it looks like it worked.” She pointed at the gaping hole in the wall.

 

The two of them went into the lair, walking over the dead Alicorn. It had smashed the wall with such force that its skull had cracked open.

 

Nova’s lair was rather crude, as if he had not been in it for long. A few test tubes were set up, as well as some burnt notes, but not much else.

 

“That’s odd.” Daedalia pondered. “We’ve been here for months, but there’s almost nothing here. You’d think this place would have more stuff in it after that long.”

 

Shiri raised her eyebrow, “Hmm... Sule said something about the time going faster inside the dome than outside. Maybe it doesn’t affect this room.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Not sure.” Shiri picked up one of the notes that had fallen to the ground that wasn’t completely burned. “It looks like he tried to cover up what he was doing. All I can see on this paper is ‘maturity.’”

 

Daedalia laughed, “What, was Nova going through puberty?”

 

“Har har” Shiri rolled her eyes. “It’s probably nothing. You found anything yet?”

 

“Nothing ye-OOF!” Daedalia tripped, “What the hay is this?” She picked up a small metal ball and examined it.

 

“Huh, that looks familiar...” Shiri snatched the ball from Daedalia.

 

“Hey!”

 

“I’ve seen this thing before. Look, it has Sule’s crest on it. It’s one of his explodey things.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“I think so. I don’t exactly know how to use it, though...” Shiri fiddled with the ball for a moment, “I think you pull this pin thing and-”

 

“Wait!” Daedalia pushed Shiri’s hoof away from the ball. “Don’t mess with it! What if it blows up?”

 

“Oh please, we handled one cave in. I’m sure we can handle another.”

 

“No, I mean.... I have an idea.”

 

“Oh gods not this again.”

 

***

 

“We should start moving.” Sift Sage suggested. “Not all of us can fly, and we need to escape as soon as we can.”

 

“Right, right.” Sule said. “Muspel, gather the wounded. We need to get a move on.” Muspel nodded and ran to alert everypony. Sule turned to Sift Sage, “Well, let’s get going.”

 

Everypony gathered what they had and started to march to the edge of the dome, hoping they were going the right way. After an hour or so, somepony called out to them.

 

“Hey!” somepony yelled in the distance. Sule looked around, trying to see who it was.

 

“Who’s there?” Sule replied. Over a small hill, a dark figure with bat-like wings appeared. “Midnight?” Sule said

 

The group stopped and silently watched as the black Maluma started to limp over to them. He jumped up and attempted to glide the rest of the way, crash landing in front of Sule. “Sire... it’s good to see you.”

 

Sule looked Midnight in the eye and raised his eyebrow, “Am I speaking to my General Moon, or Nova’s?”

 

Midnight painfully stood up and took a deep breath, “Just Midnight, sire. Nova’s gone.”

 

“Gone?” Sift Sage asked, “What do you mean by that?”

 

Midnight glared at him, “Gone, as in he isn’t here anymore. Should I get an dictionary for the Unicorn?”

 

Sift Sage snorted, “How do we know you’re not just tricking us? You might be under Nova’s control again.”

 

Sule took a good look at Midnight, “I don’t think so. I think he’s telling the truth. Midnight, if Nova isn’t here, who’s controlling the Alicorns?”

 

“That’s why I wanted to find you, Sire. He’s not controlling them anymore. They’re working on their own.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Besides the few Alicorn guards and those out of the dome, the Alicorns were all resting. They were maturing to that they wouldn’t be dependant on the mind control. They’re waking up as we speak.”

 

Sift started “Wait, how-”

 

“Look, I don’t have time to explain how the whole thing works! The point is that now Nova has an army of super soldiers that no longer has a weakness we can exploit.”

 

Sule sighed. That’s all they needed. “How do they plan on getting out?”

 

“Well, they’re not bringing us along, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

 

***

 

“After this, no more ideas, sister.” Shiri hissed at Daedalia. They were crawling in the grass, coming up close to the Alicorns holding up the dome.

 

“Relax. The worst that could happen is nothing.”

 

“The worst that can happen is 3 angry mutants trying to kill me.” Shiri replied.

 

“Shh! It’s now or never.” Daedalia pulled the pin on the ball, then screamed “RUN!” The two of them ran about fifty feet away. Nothing happened.

 

“Dammit, maybe it was a du-” Suddenly, there was an explosion that blew back the three Alicorns. The magical beam that held up the dome dissipated, and the moon and stars shone in the sky again.

 

“IT WORKED!” Shiri exclaimed.


(OOC: The dome is down. We may go on with the story. *fanfare*)

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Indigo sat on his cloud, watching the carnage unfold below him, before he closed his eyes. He wasn't quite sure if this was the best idea, pulling out his ace in the hole this early in the game, or if it would be better to wait until Nova was found and identified, or wait until a later battle. Indigo opened his eyes, no, he had to do this. His forces are going to be crushed now, if he doesn't do what he can to save their lives and salvage this battle.

 

Indigo looked up. It didn't matter either way, he already gave the order. Now he just had to wait.

 

The minutes passed, and nothing happened. More time passed. Indigo furrowed his brow. Is something wrong? Did his order get intercepted.

 

The sounds of booming in the distance answered his question. A few long moments passed, before a strange sound started to fill the air, starting off faint before it started ripping over Indigo and the field below him, drowning out the faint sounds of the battle below. Indigo had never heard the sound before, he can only describe it as a strange power wind, but before he could listen to it more, the source of the sound arrived.

 

Large, white streaks dropped from the sky and impacted the ground in the crowd of alicorns soldiers, and in the next instant, they were engulfed in fire. The flash of fire, followed by the deafening bangs forced Indigo to flinch and cover his face, but in rapid succession the bangs continued. Indigo turned his head back to the carnage, as the explosive barrage finished. He saw the streak of light drop, impact the ground in a burst of fire, which quickly were engulfed in brown as dirt and rock were sprayed into the air, followed by the loud bang as the sound caught up to Indigo's position. Then, one more streak, fire, rock and debris, and sound, and the sound of the battle dropped to complete silence as both sides stopped to figure out what the hell just happened.

 

Sule's artillery had worked perfectly, as large stretch of battlefield that held the bulk of the alicorn soldiers was now turned to a cloud of dust, obscuring the desolation caused by the barrage.

 

Indigo watched the battlefield. "Holy crap..."

 

 

There was a flicker of light, which drew Indigo's attention to the large energy dome. Soon after, the dome appeared to crack, before it suddenly dissolved into white light. Indigo's eyes widened. "The dome's down..."

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  • 3 weeks later...

Muspel felt it in her guts a second before her other senses caught up. There was a sense of building tension, a moment of stasis, then the dome above them shattered like a glass bowl struck by a hammer. For a heartbeat the sky above them was filled with shards of light , then these too vanished with a bang of displaced air as time and atmosphere violently reconnected .

Where before there had been vague shadows chasing each other, now the sky was filled with pegasi and malumai, battling Novas misbegotten creatures.

But all of this, Muspel only perceived in a vague, detached manner, her mundane senses strangely dulled. For the first time in such a long time, she could feel the perpetual flow of power around and through her, welling up as if welcoming her back after all this time.

She reared up and struck her fronthooves together, the flint set in the left horseshoe sparking off her right. She lit up her horn and took hold of one spark, growing it into a small ball of fire. Now that she had a pilot flame to draw from, she sent a lance of fire upwards, glancing one of Nova’s abominations and sending it spiraling to earth with one wing ablaze. Her fire kept climbing before blossoming into a flaming heart. She doubted the malumnai would be able to make much of it, but to any Equestrian the message was clear.

Help us! Friends in need!

As her signal send, she became aware that the creatures that had been inside the dome had begun stirring. At the moment they were still sluggish, but more and more were making their way towards them. She send out more trails of fire, lighting up feathers and coats and manes. The stink of burning hair and flesh begun to drift over to them.

 

Then there was a gust of wind and two dozen pegasi dropped from the sky above them, accompanied by a single unicorn on glistening dew wings. Their leader, a stallion with a seashell painted on helm and shield saluted her.

“Sergeant Sea Spray, acting captain of  Seagull company. What’s left of it anyway. How may we be of assistance?”

Before Muspel could answer, Poppy pushed past her:

“We need to get these wounded to safety, before those beasts wake up”

“Right you are ma’am, alright boys and girls, get to it, Gale, you round up some of those batwinged chumps to help us, Flicker, we could use some diversion.”

The unicorn was already murmuring under her breath and Muspel saw several of the creatures  stumble or snap wildly at nothing, as the tell-tale shimmer of illusions filled the air. This was just as well, as Muspel could already feel her own magical reserves running low.

They were in the process of lifting the last wounded out, when Muspel became aware of a trio of creatures advancing on them  under the protection of overlapping forcefields, seemingly immune to Flicker’s, dazzling creations. One of the pegasi cursed and hurled his spear at the beasts, but the weapon shattered against their barrier without inflicting any effect. Muspel fared little better, her firelance engulfed the shield in flames, but flickered out without any real harm done.

Then the creatures’ returned fire. The first spell went wide, another whipped past an inch from Muspel’s ear. The next one hit Flicker, opening a gash across her face and shattering her wings.

 

If Muspel had belonged to any other order, this might have been it, her concentration would have been gone and her magic would have failed her and left her helpless.

But she was Pyrae.

Pyromancy was the simplest and most primal of the arcane arts and it thrived on emotions were other magic required control.

Muspel fed all her pain, all her outrage to her fire, the flames turning first blue then white as they burned hotter and hotter. Then she battered it against the creatures with all her might, all thought of restraint gone from her mind.

Burn burn burnburnBURN!”

Her first blow stopped the beasts in their tracks, the second drove on of them to its knees.

The third one shattered one portion of the shield and the flames cascadedthrough the opening swallowing the creatures inside.

Muspel stumbled as the flames guttered out a second later, her reserves truly gone, and would have fallen if Sea Spray had not caught her. The three creatures were gone. In their place stood three statues of deformed, heat-fused bone, molten flesh running down their legs and pooling into sizzling puddles. Exhausted as she was, Muspel found enough energy to lean over and wretch all over sea Sprays armour.

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