private The Good King

[The Awesome One 1,314]

(OOC: Sorry, just a filler post, don't have much time, my computer is dead)

 

Night Flash, who was listening to the entire conversation quietly, spoke up.

 

''I'll get more troops....and rum.'' said Night Flash.

[AnonyPoni 564]

midnight shook his head, "sule, is there some way we could set a timed charge? say a trail of the powder of sorts, so once its set, the ponies have some time to escape?"

 

"I will look into it. Maybe the unicorns can pull that off"

 

Sule looked at Indigo, "You're dismissed. Go get some rest. We have a big day ahead of us."

 

Sule then looked at commander Night Flash. "According to the intel you found, with this plan work?"

[Isobel 279]

As Storm waited, she wondered. About everything. Her home, her friends, and for the first time since she had left home - her family. Her mind was warning her not to think about them, she had been avoiding the entire subject for many years now. But she knew that it was time to focus on them, and so she went through her younger years in her mind.

 

She was the only pegasus in her family. Her father was a pegasus, and her mother was a unicorn - something extremely unheard of. Her father went for a walk when she was just a filly one day, and he never came back. She had five siblings, and all of them were unicorns. Her father was really the only member of her family she was close to. He hadn't gotten around to teaching her how to fly - the cruel irony was that when he got back from his walk he was meant to give her the first lesson.

 

Her mother was no help. She had become bitter and sullen after her father, but taught Storm's siblings magic. Throughout her entire years as a filly, Storm became hot headed and rebellious. She taught herself how to fly, and earned her cutie mark by herself.

 

One day, when she was in her late teens, Storm decided to leave home. She could fly, and so she could survive by herself, she decided. She left abruptly, not telling her siblings or her mother. Storm went to Cloudsale, and managed to purchase a tiny home for herself, and lived there. After a few months, the anger eased and Storm slowly became the bubbly pegasus she was today.

 

Storm wanted to let the memories ease there. But there was one more memory, buried deep inside of her as she tried to forget. It was no use now though, she had brought the memory back up. There wasn't too much of a story behind this particular memory though. All she really knew was that she was travelling, and happened to go past her old village. It was in ruins - and she saw many bodies. Including her family's. Her mother, and all of her sibling's, starting to rot.

 

Storm snapped herself out of the memory. That was the past. This was the present.

 

 

((I kind of went with the flow on this, there are probably lots of loopholes, but oh well ))

[Prince Midnight 817]

midnight looked down at the map, visulizing the tunnels, it would work, but the would be digging pretty close to the surface, so they would need to be quiet, "sir......" he looked over at sule, "as much as id like to go with you.....i have a better idea, IF you can get these men to stop bickering.....the infiltrain team and of course the explosives and everything, but what about getting somepony on the inside?"

sule looked at him like he was crazy,

"listen, as far as they know im still under their control, and ive been stuck inside a prison pit of some sort, and shiri is here, so she will not be a problem, i could get inside and possibly get clover and storm out before the fighting starts, what do you think?"

Edited June 17, 2012 by Midnight Moon

[AnonyPoni 564]

"I Like that plan too. hmm..."

 

Sule tried to gather his thoughts, he needed bring out the best of all the plans.

 

"Ok," He looked up at all the generals, "here's what I want. First, get most of the Equestrian military down here, we need the numbers. There will be 4 groups: the Tunnelers, The Diversion army, the Invasion Army, and the Infiltration team. Well before the Siege begins, the Tunnelers will, well, tunnel to and into Chiroptera. Along the way, they need to build durable bunkers underground for some soldiers, the Invasion army, to hide in, I believe there are spells for that. They will build some of their tunnels under the walls of the city and place the barrels of explosive powder under the walls. After they retreat to the bunkers, the Unicorns will detonate the explosives at the same around the same time. At that time, the Diversion Army, which will be over 85% of our military counting the reinforcements from Equestria, will come out of hiding in the forest and charge at the city, taking care not to invade it yet. Tyrannus' Army will most likely start to pour out of the city, hopefully there are enough of you to deal with the super soldiers. Then, the Invasion army will come out of the tunnels and be inside the city, where they will start to take control of the districts and surround Tyrannus' army. During this whole thing, the infiltration will get into the castle, where we will face off with Tyrannus. Midnight, you will already be there as a double agent; your job is to make sure all the guards and super soldiers are not in the castle and have them fighting on the front lines. Are there any questions?"

 

There was a silence in the room.

 

"Ok then. I expect this thing to be ready to go in 36 hours. By then it will be daytime, which should be at our advantage."

 

Sule walked to get out of the tent. He stopped to talk to Midnight. "You need to leave tonight, and you need to look beat up. That will give you them impression that you escaped us."

[Prince Midnight 817]

midnight nodded, "with the infiltration team, head to the part of the castle thats just behind the throne room, theres an escape tunnel there, that works both ways, hopefully its not blocked, but anyway, i can get you in from there, then we can work out everything else as it comes."

he sighed, "sire, ill get clover and storm out, they might be a bit dirty, and smelly, but unharmed."

he turned to do what was needed to make it look like he had been through hell.

[Jadefire 2,796]

Indigo, who still haven't left the room, spoke up. "Sire, when you have some free time, I need to speak with you and Midnight in my tent." With that, Indigo took his leave and left the tent.

 

Indigo walked across the camp and entered his tent - where there was a new cage erected in the back. Indigo approached the bars and looked inside, where he saw it's occupant, a mare in a brown cloak sitting quietly on a cot.

 

Indigo spoke up "Awake already?"

 

The mare remained quiet, but turned her head to acknowledge him, her snout now visible from her hood.

 

"I apologize for the lump on your head. You didn't give me a whole lot of choice back there."

 

"I've had worse." the mare responded, before turning to face Indigo. Shiri raised her head, and Indigo could now see her facial features under her hood. "What do you intend to do with me?"

 

"That depends on how our conversation goes." Indigo responded.

 

Shiri stared at him intently. "You've seen how strong we are first hand, and our numbers grow by the hour. You won't be able to stop us. You already know this"

 

Indigo huffed. "Maybe we can, maybe we can't. But Tyrannus is hell bent on raping our entire society as hard as he can. I'm not about to let that psychopath have his way with our world again without a fight."

 

Shiri chuckled darkly. "Rape? Oh you delusional fool" Indigo raised his eyebrow at this, and Shiri continued. "Your kind are weak. All ponies are weak, and we're getting weaker. Sic Semper is the only one who knows what it truly means to be strong, and we're just helping the rest of ponykind understand."

 

Indigo felt his disgust surge at hearing Shiri's words. This is going to be an unpleasant conversation...

[AnonyPoni 564]

Sule felt like his job with the Generals was done. They had stopped arguing, they had their orders, and now some had left to organized the effort.

 

Indigo had asked Sule to come to his tent along with Midnight. Sule found Midnight following his orders to get beat up, he had just joined a boxing match. Just as his powerful Earth Pony opponent was about throw the first blow, Sule walked in and postponed the fight.

 

"Sorry Midnight, we have something to do before you get the living moonlights beat out of you."

 

They made their way to Indigo's tent, which was all the way in the Malumai sector of the camp. When they opened the flaps and walked in, he saw the big cage in the back of the tent. When Sule go closer, he facehoofed.

 

"Indigo, is this your prisoner from the recon mission?"

 

He nodded.

 

"I like how she just happens to be a very pretty mare... in a cage... in your tent... thats creepy."

 

Midnight facehoofed and cursed. He knew exactly who this was. Sule just stood there, waiting for an explanation.

 

"Well?"

Edited June 18, 2012 by Anony-Brony

[Jadefire 2,796]

Earlier...

 

"You really believe in that shit, don't you?" Indigo asked Shiri. The questioning had gone nowhere, with Shiri stubbornly refusing to give any useful information in lieu of just finding different ways to rephrase the superiority of her allies' philosophy.

 

"It's the truth. Simple as that." Shiri replied, smugly.

 

"The truth, huh?" Indigo asked her dryly. "And let me ask you, how well did that go for your people?"

 

Shiri raised her eyebrow, so Indigo continued, "If I understand it right, the earth ponies are living in squalor. Those massive blizzards almost destroyed your people." Indigo paused for effect "...yet I don't see your people prospering. Only recently did your chancellor start picking up the pieces."

 

"Puddinghead was an idiot. She knew nothing about how to stand up to the pegasai or the unicorns. Now that she's dead, our kind is now being shown the respect we deserve."

 

"Oh really? Last I heard, your kind's gone back to being ponydom's kicking bag. Smart Cookie must have her hands full."

 

"How do you know? You never traveled to Equestria, have you?"

 

"No, but I was a soldier under Tyrannus. We attacked a convoy of earth pony settlers shortly before Sule took power. I know exactly what your kind has to put up with."

 

Shiri turned her head. "...you know nothing about what we put up with."

 

Indigo paused for a bit, not expecting to hear that. "Uh..?" He cleared his throat. "I know what it's like to have a hard life. I grew up on the mean streets of our city, with no family and no home. Tyrannus had us all crushed beneath his hoof." Indigo was getting angry as memories started coming back to his mind. "I had no childhood. My big sister was killed when I was thirteen, and I had nopony but myself after that. I know exactly how cruel ponies can be to each other. To me. I've experienced it first hoof."

 

Shiri looked at Indigo and her expression softened. There was a long pause of them just looking at each other, before Shiri spoke up, "Indigo, was that your name? Indigo, I..." she said slowly. Indigo detected what sounded like sorrow in her voice, before reacting with surprise when her eyes suddenly flashed a silvery green. "Ahem. And your kind is much stronger for the hardships you've endured, are they not?"

 

Indigo was caught off guard, "What? No!" Anger returned to his brain "We lived in squalor! We fought or we starved! How did that make us strong?"

 

Shiri chuckled her condesending chuckle "Look at yourself, Indigo. You used to be a street urchin, yet you ended up second-in-command to the Archon! I think you're plenty strong just to pull that off."

 

"No thanks to Tyrannus. I got to the top through my own natural abilities. My upbringing had nothing to do with it."

 

"Oh please, you had to learn that fighting instinct from somewhere."

 

"I learned discipline from the military. The streets are the exact opposite. The gangs tear themselves apart from infighting when they're not busy slaughtering each other, half of us can't read, barely anypony knows how to operate a factory machine, and there's not enough food to go around. Every week, a hundred foals starve to death. Face it, we're a dying breed. And this squalor claimed my sister's life." Indigo went on, bitterly.

 

Shiri spoke coldly. "Then she got what she deserved for not being strong enough. You kill or be killed."

 

Indigo snapped. "ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND!?" Indigo shouted, absolutely furious now. "HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW SINCE YOU GOT TO THE CASTLE!? Our economy is wrecked! We're being hit with famine after famine! Everyday, you can literally see ponies getting robbed, raped, and murdered on the street! That's what Tyrannus's policies reduced us to. Animals." Indigo seethed. "We're nothing more than animals now. How can you possibly think that Tyrannus is bringing us to some sort of golden age?"

 

Shiri glared at him. "You Malumai brought this on yourselves. You can't blame your leader for everything."

 

Indigo stammered with rage for a moment. "GAH!" Indigo stomped the ground, before turning and storming to the side of the tent and stared out the screen window. Indigo new that if he continued, he risked charging into her cell and ripping her head off. Indigo started breathing his anger out as he watched the ponies outside in the camp go about their business. After a minute, he felt dissappointment in himself for letting Shiri so easily make him lose his temper.

 

Indigo had managed to regain his composure when Sule and Midnight entered the tent.

 

"Indigo, is this your prisoner from the recon mission?" Sule had asked him, and Indigo nodded. Indigo observed Midnight facehoof and swear quietly when making eye contact with Shiri, and Indigo didn't here what Sule had said next. Indigo looked back over to Sule, who was standing there waiting an explanation. "Well?"

 

"I wanted to bring her to your attention, but preferably away the other generals. She's one of Tyrannus's confidants, I ran into her in the castle dungeons." Indigo explained. "She was responsible for resurrecting Tyrannus in the forest, so I think she's one of Tyrannus's top dogs. As for Midnight," Indigo turned to Midnight, "I think he can shed some light on who she is. Midnight?"

 

Shiri glared at Midnight.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Jadefizoid

[Prince Midnight 817]

Midnight glared back, "oh hello shiri, still walking around as tyrannusus lap dog are we?" he smirked, "or is it Novas lap dog? i forget which."

 

she moved up to the bars her eyes glowing green for a moment,

midnight just stood there, then raised an eyebrow when she started panting,

"are you quite finished?"

she panted, "how.....c-can you.....r-resist?"

midnigth smiled and kneeled down, making eye contact with her, "i discovered something on a little trip to equestria, lets just say im more powerful then you."

he looked at sule, then indigo, "so you want me to break novas control over her or what?"

[Jadefire 2,796]

"I figured she was heavily indoctrinated." Indigo commented. "But I'd rather you tell us who she is first. I never was real clear on that." Edited June 18, 2012 by Jadefizoid

[AnonyPoni 564]

(OOC Shiri = Devil's advocate)

 

Midnight was about to explain, but Shiri then directed to attention to Sule.

 

"Ah, if it isn't our precious Archon." She said with an evil smile, "The legendary Sule, Hero of Inventions. Started by creating death machines for his king, then became a legend for over taking him. You ponies were so glad, right?"

 

Sule didn't answer.

 

"I certainly don't think so. I mean, You and a couple of loyalists were just driven out of your city by those ponies! Now they welcome their rightful king, with open hooves and hearts."

 

She continued, "You know, you're somewhat of a celebrity at the castle. Sic Semper loves to have Sule talks with his staff; How you should die, Where to hang your bones, What to do with you're precious marefriend..."

 

Sule winced, he didn't want to think about what Tyrannus would do to Clover. He had enough to worry about already.

 

Shiri smiled, she knew she was getting to Sule. She just needed to work her skills at manipulation. "I mean, Clover is great to have around. Tyrannus just smiles when she's in our company. It would be a shame if something... unpleasant happened."

 

"But, we aren't talking about her, this is all you, right? I mean, come on! You where stuck in that little war factory for so long, creating weapons of the future, but no one took notice. You craved for more, for recognition, or power! That is why you stood up to Tyrannus! You two are more alike than you think."

 

"No!" Yelled Sule, he had had enough, he would not have Shiri make him look like just another Tyrant, "I imprisoned Tyrannus for the good of the Malumai!"

 

"About that, why didn't you just kill him? It would have been out of sight, out of mind." Shiri leaned closer to the bars. She seemed to be nose to nose with Sule, "I see, you didn't want blood on your hooves. You wanted to appear to be something higher, a Messiah, if you will. You wanted to feeling of taking power from a divine position, that it was meant for you, not just another power struggle."

 

She turned around and flirtingly tickled Sule's nose with her tail. "After all, you can't lead the Malumai to Equestria looking like a blood-thirsty assassin, Right?"

 

She Went to drink some water that was in the corner of her cage. "Ah, Equestria, a place where ponies can live in love, tolerance, and harmony" She cackled, "What were you thinking? Malumai are rejects in pony society. Your even lower than Earth Ponies! How do you expect those happy and care free ponies to react to a bunch of dirty and smelly Malumai from the streets of Chiroptera? Your plan is a failure waiting to happen. But you wont care, you will be at home with your precious Clover, if she makes it..."

 

Sule couldn't take any more of this, and stormed out of the tent.

 

"You want the Malumai to be respected? Tyrannus will have Unicorns eating out of their hooves!"

 

Outside the tent, Sule could hear Indigo say "Do it" to Midnight, and their was a large flash of green.

 

Sule didn't want to believe what Shiri said, but how far was she from the truth?

 

 

(OOC Wake up call for Sule. And Shiri should be out of her mind control now...)

Edited June 18, 2012 by Anony-Brony

[Prince Midnight 817]

midnight took his hooves away from shiris forehead, "she should be alright in a few hours, just let her rest." he turned and passed sule "ill make sure clover is alright sire, dont worry." he turned and went into his tent before he came back out looking like he had just gotten into a fight with a cave bear and lost including quite a few cuts.

"welp, time to go make a show," he winked then moved into the forest,

as he moved into the city he went unchallenged, but what he saw, made his heart wrench, these malumai were walking around in a controlled daze, even the children.

Midnight shook his head, "they will be free soon enough, i just hope were not too late."

 

he approached the castle as the gates opened for him, and he made his way into the throne room, noticing nova and tyrannus, "honey im home..." midnight smirked, "did anypony miss me?"

tyrannus looked over at him, "ahh, general, i was wondering when you would escape...your to smart to be captured for long."

 

midnight chuckled, "well, sules guards are too stupid to keep somepony like me locked up for long."

he bowed, though he wished he could just drive a dagger through tyrannusus and novas throats, but that would come soon.

"anything happen while i was MIA?"

 

tyrannus shrugged, "shiri dissappeared a little while ago, and we have two prisoners, that im sure you would love to meet, i know i enjoyed them."

midnight shuddered softly, he couldnt imagine what those two had been through,

"i will go talk to them, then meet you here later."

he curtly turned and moved towards the dungeon.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Midnight Moon

[Jadefire 2,796]

For a long moment, the three ponies sat in silence. Indigo couldn't tell what Midnight was thinking, and Shiri had her head low with her face obscured by her hood. Indigo felt sick: he remembered back to when Sule first told him about the plan to settle Equestria, before this mess got out of hand. He told him he was crazy, but he never told him why. Now, it looked like he wouldn't have to. Shiri told him for him, told Sule what Indigo thought, but never dared to actually say to his lord's face.

 

He just didn't realize it until now. Until now, Indigo had too much on his plate to give it much thought, but now he realized: he never really believed in his race. Shiri was right, there was no way in Tartarus that the other races would allow the Malumai to settle their new land. All the military support Sule brought back from Equestria wasn't some sort of diplomatic gesture of free will, Indigo mused, all they were here for was to remove a tyrant from power. After all, it was Tyrannus who started the biggest war against the other races in recent history. And the rest of the Malumai supported it. Supported him. Could they be blamed? All they were was just a bunch of savages, violent and uneducated.

 

After a long period of silence, Indigo sighed despondantly. "Just...who are you?"

 

Shiri remained still. "...my name is Shiri. Ally to Sic Semper Tyrannus."

 

Indigo began to realize something. "...and you're an earth pony."

 

"You already know that."

 

Indigo pushed his depression to the back of his mind. Something didn't add up here. "...so what do you want?"

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

 

Indigo asked again. "What do you want? Revenge?"

 

"You mean, why did I join with Sic Semper?"

 

"Yes. What did you hope to achieve? You're allied with a unicorn, so simple revenge against can't be it."

 

"What makes you think revenge would have anything to do with it?"

 

"When I told you my tragic past, you looked regretful. Your tone went from hostile to sympathetic." Indigo told her. "So I know you've suffered similar hardships that I have. Persecution. Perhaps you've lost loved ones? Your family?"

 

"You're pretty perceptive." Shiri responded.

 

Indigo continued. "So I'm right, then?" Shiri stayed quiet, but her sudden pained look answered Indigo's question. Indigo continued, "But that's not all: right after that, your eyes flashed a weird green color, and you became a bigger hardass than ever. So I don't think you really believe in all this 'survival of the fittest' horseshit, either. You've lost family. Would you really call them weak because they died on you when you needed them?"

 

Shiri paused. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I would. They died, and I didn't."

 

Indigo raised his eyebrow. "I suspect you're a pretty good actor, but I still don't believe you. You grew up in harsh circumstances, I know that you know exactly how hard it is to live that kind of life." Indigo was bluffing at this point, but continued. "To forage for food, to find shelter from the hellish climate out here. Just simple bad luck can kill you: if the temperature drops a few degrees too low, you're dead. If all the ponies you've begged from didn't have quite enough spare change, you couldn't buy food, and you're dead. Some drunkard soldier back from the war has a flashback and you didn't move fast enough, you're dead. I don't believe you'd really call those failings a form of weakness worthy of contempt, and you know it would take a superpony to deal with that and be able to raise a foal."

 

Shiri remained quiet, so Indigo continued one more time. "So, what did you want? Really want?"

 

Shiri remained quiet for a long time before she looked up at Indigo sadly. "I wanted peace."

[Prince Midnight 817]

midnight approached the only guarded cell in the dungeon, and looked inside, both ponies were dirty, but looked unharmed, a unicorn and a pegasus, there really wasnt alot he could do for them.

he told the soldiers to head upstairs, that he would be fine with these two, and as soon as they left he looked each one on the eyes, "hey, you both okay?"

they looked at each other, then back at him,

midnight shook his head, "has either of you been harmed or touched in any way?"

both of them shook their heads,

midnight nodded, "i cant do anything for you right now, but i promise i will get you out."

[The Awesome One 1,314]

(OOC: Sorry for not posting)

 

*earlier*

 

Sule was in his own tent when Night Flash walked in.

 

''Good morning, Sule. I see you didn't sleep much either.'' said Night Flash as he walked up to the king.

 

''What is it Commander?'' said an inquisitive Sule.

 

''Just the intel we got from the office in the palace. I meant to show it to you earlier but I forgot, I was just so tired from that operation that I went to the mess hall and got myself drunk. I haven't even opened these yet so you'll be the first to feast your eyes on them.'' said Night Flash as he laid all the gathered intel on Sule's study table and left the tent.

 

''Well, I'm off to Equestria to get you some more soldiers to help out in the invasion. See you in a few days.''

said Night Flash.

 

He had removed his armor and left it in his tent, he planned to make the 250 mile journey in just a day. After all, he was Equestria's fastest flyer. First Pegasi to break what the fancy science ponies called 'Mach 1'.

 

 

 

While everybody else was doing other things, Night Flash, being the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, had volunteered to fly all the way back to the capital of Equestria and get more troops.

 

**In the capital**

 

Night Flash had gone to the Equestrian capital to ask the military council for more troops. He went to the military advisor's luxurious cloud house above the capital to get permission from him to take the massive armada with him back to the Malumai loyalists campout.

 

 

''Alright, let me get this clear, you're asking for 90% of the Equestrian armed forces to accompany you back to help those wretched bat-winged devils?'' said Commander Hurricane, who was no longer the commander of the armed forces but was now an advisor in the military division.

 

''Exactly! You're not going to believe the type of tyrant this 'Tyrannus' pony is. The Malumai are our friends and we must help them at all costs! And besides, we're not at war with anypony.Infact, we recently signed a piece treaty with the Griffon Monarchy! I'll only be needing the army for a month at max.'' said Night Flash trying to assure the retired pony.

 

''And what, pray tell. Will you use all those troops for?'' said Commander Hurricane.

 

Night Flash spoke up again, ''A mixture between a Griffon military styled Blitz attack, and my personal favorite, the stealth attack. Like I said, striking at the heart does the most damage.''

 

''I don't know...sounds like we might lose a lot of ponies.....but then again, the blame will not be on me.'' said the former military great thoughtfully, ''Well, I guess it's okay with me.'' said the advisor.

 

''Great! I just need you to sign this paper here and I'm on my way!'' said a Night Flash who was getting excited at the moment.

 

''I'll do that in a minute. So tell me, how has it been working with the Malumai?'' said Hurricane.

 

Night Flash thought for a minute and then said, ''I thought they were vile beasts. Turns out, they're just as good as us and their ruler is a great pony. I've made quite a lot of friends there as well. There's Indigo, Sule's right hand pony and a soldier named Whirlwind, he was with me in a recon ops I did there.''

 

''If what you're saying is true....then that means we've been pointlessly pouring our hatred on that race. Sule isn't the same as that old dictator ruler, is he?'' said the old pony, who once commandeered an entire army.

 

''Exactly! You can say this whole 'sending the Equestrian army to help the Malumai' thing is just our way of saying sorry to them.'' said Night Flash.

 

''I just hope the Bat-ponies forgive me. I'm the one who led the Equestrians in war against the Malumai remember?'' said Hurricane who was regretting what he had done with the innocents of the Malumai race.

 

''Yeah, that wasn't the nicest of things you did....How about writing a letter of apology? You're too old to go all the way to the Malumai country yourself.'' Night Flash suggested.

 

 

 

**some days later and a 100 miles from the Malumai loyalists camp**

 

''Come on soldiers! Put your backs into pulling those carts! We need to get ourselves, and those siege machines back to the camp before they mount the final attack! We're already late and we've only got two days!'' said an impatient Night Flash as he encouraged his troops to move faster. It was raining hard and the army had been marching all day and were completely depleted of their energy reserves. It didn't matter to Night Flash tough, they could rest when they reached their destination. Right now, he really needed to get back to King Sule.

 

The troops Night Flash had brought with him earlier were quite a lot in numbers but still weren't enough to take on Tyrannus in a head on battle.

 

''Maybe I shouldn't have packed so much rum....'' said Night Flash, who was soaking wet from the rain.

 

 

 

(OOC note: Me and the armada will reach by the time you guys mount the final attack just for realism. You can't expect a huge army to cover large distances in a few days you know)

Edited June 19, 2012 by The Awesome Egg

[AnonyPoni 564]

Sule walked slowly back to his tent, reflecting over what Shiri said. He knew she was just trying to ruffle Sule's mane, but he couldn't get the things she said out of his head. They were bold accusations, heavily exaggerated, but with every exaggeration there must be a kernel of truth. Sule tried to think deeply over his motives. Was he really just another Tyrant? Did he subconsciously get rid of Tyrannus just to have power?

 

There was probably no clear answer. When he put Tyrannus in the Orb, he had not planned on taking power. But when he was given the title Archon and given the power, he didn't refuse it. He wanted to turn the Malumai into a better civilization, but was that the only reason why?

 

Of course, there was his whole proposition of going to Equestria. Shiri hit him where it hurt deeply. It would not be a stretch to say that Sule would have liked going to Equestria to be with Clover, but he truly thought the Malumai would be better off there. Instead of building a society that was kept down by Tyrannus, he thought that Equestria would have been a fresh start for the Malumai. He knew it would be a bumpy road in the beginning, but eventually the races had to get along, right? If Pegasi could help build a peaceful society out of their war-like one, couldn't the Malumai?

 

Sule got into his tent where he wanted to have peace and quiet and to try and get those thoughts out of his mind for now. He needed to be well rested to help with preparation for the siege. He laid down in his little corner, and try closed his eyes to sleep.

 

"Good morning, Sule. I see you didn't sleep much either"

 

Grrr.... Why was it that this always happened? He needed his guards to start turning ponies away when they wanted to talk to him. Have them actually guard him.

 

''What is it Commander?'' said a sleepy Sule.

 

''Just the intel we got from the office in the palace. I meant to show it to you earlier but I forgot, I was just so tired from that operation that I went to the mess hall and got myself drunk. I haven't even opened these yet so you'll be the first to feast your eyes on them.'' said Night Flash as he laid all the gathered intel on Sule's study table and left the tent.

 

"Wee..." said Sule meekly

 

''Well, I'm off to Equestria to get you some more soldiers to help out in the invasion. See you in a few days.''

said Night Flash.

 

"...have fun" Sule yawned.

 

Night Flash left. Wait, did he say a few days? Sule hoped they would still be there in time for the invasion. Hopefully, they had enough soldiers to get the job done if they didn't make it.

 

Sule didn't feel sleepy enough now, no thanks to Commander Wakeup-Call. He desperately needed some sleep. If he would have gone by Indigo's advice, he would have said to drink as much ale as he could until he forgets how much he drank... and how to stand. Sule, however, decided to muse himself over the Recon info. He was curious as to what Tyrannus was hiding in his office. He hoped it was just boring memos that would put him to sleep.

 

Sule looked at the big stack of papers on his desk and started reading.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Anony-Brony

[Jadefire 2,796]

"Peace?" Indigo asked.

 

"Peace." Shiri sighed. "You're not the only one who's had a hard life. The earth ponies have been oppressed for almost as long as we have written records. We're not warriors like the pegasai or the malumai; every time the unicorns and the pegasai have a spat, or one or both of them decide to go raze the malumai, we always got caught in between. The wendigo blizzards didn't cause the hardships, they only exacerbated what was already happening."

 

"Yet ten years ago, your races finally came to an alliance. You began settling Equestria together." Indigo commented.

 

"And immediately after, we began fighting again. Our homelands still exist, you know." Shiri responded.

 

"Oh?"

 

"The great pony exodus didn't include our entire populations. The princess, commander, and chancellor all organized mass settling of this 'great new land' together, but they left most of us behind. Our leaders left puppet governors behind to watch over our homelands while they organized Equestrian society's development. Many of us felt that they abandoned us while they went to found a great new country."

 

"I can understand why. I had misgivings when Sule told me of our plan to settle Equestria as well. Mainly, what would happen to those of us who stayed behind? There's no way our populace would take that lying down."

 

Shiri smirked slightly. "Sort of, yes, but our scenario was a bit different. The Malumai are a very traditionalist society, a lot of you would find it heresy for your aristocracy to leave for greener pastures. I suspect your main problem would be your populace would want your government to stay behind and help them." Shiri looked past Indigo, towards the door. "Our populace were the opposite: we felt betrayed that our government left us behind to die in our ruined lands."

 

"I see. I think."

 

Shiri looked back to Indigo. "As I was saying, our society back home stayed the same, and the governors weren't able to keep the peace for long. Six months after the blizzards ended, us earth ponies rebelled against the unicorns, and the wars started up again." Shiri looked down, sadly. "And the pegasai used that oppurtunity to raze and exploit our villages while our army was occupied. The fighting started again."

 

Indigo spoke up. "And that's about when Tyrannus declared war on the pegasai."

 

Shiri was beginning to sound irritated. "We were weak and stupid. Your king saw this, and pounced."

 

"And yet you joined up with him anyway?"

 

"You wouldn't understand! Sic Semper Tyrannus saved us!" Shiri snapped. "The pegasai were abusing us while our idiot generals were off fighting with the Unicorns. The bastards were too busy pushing their own damn agenda to help their own civilians." Shiri seethed. "Believe it or not, what you now call a tyrant was our savior. He destroyed the pegasai groups that were oppressing us. That was why I joined with him. Our society was reduced to animals by the corruption of our leaders, as our only competent leaders were in Equestria."

 

Indigo blinked. "Animals..." he muttered, caught by Shiri repeating what he himself had said earlier. He empathized with her. Both of them suffered thanks to the whim of evil ponies bickering among themselves.

 

Shiri continued. "You malumai obeyed Tyrannus. He fought against those who treated us as if we were scum. Rejects. I joined with him because I thought if we were all united under one banner, all the suffering we felt would finally end."

 

Indigo paused. "...and how well did that turn out for you?"

 

"Shut up. This conversation is over." Shiri growled.

 

Indigo paused and reflected on what she had told him. They weren't too different after all, he realized, as he felt sympathy towards her, and for the plight of the earth ponies.

 

Indigo stood up. The invasion to retake their city would begin in only a few days, and there was a lot that needed to be done to prepare. "Maybe for now. But we'll talk again later."

 

Indigo expected Shiri to object, or otherwise be snotty about it. But he didn't expect her to simply say "Maybe...". With that, Indigo walked out of the tent. He had logistics to organize and reports to review.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Jadefizoid

[AnonyPoni 564]

(OOC How insane is Tyrannus? This post tries to answer that age old question)

 

Sule sorted through the documents. He found everything from meal plans (gruel for civilians, feasts for Tyrannus) to economy reports (completely collapsed). Nothing seemed to be here that was of any use to the War effort.

 

Flipping through some of the dumb stuff, he stubled upon what looked like useful info. It was a bunch of written memoir pages by Tyrannus himself.

 

Sule read it. "It is good to be back. I do love the new body that I accidentally got I feel stronger than ever and I know all the mares take a liking to it. Every minute, though, I have to fight to keep that idiot Sal suppressed, it is quite distracting..."

 

Sule skimmed the page, seeing nothing more than Tyrannus' narcissism. Apparently, he believes his own propaganda. Sule kept skimming and saw his name.

 

"Oh, gods, I hate Sule. How DARE he put me in that Orb? How could a simple factory worker become such a huge nuisance? I swear, when i get my hoofs on him, I will gladly have Nova dissect his brain, so we can figure out what was wrong with it. I will grind his bones into a powder, and make a tasty drink from it. His hooves will be my new drinking glasses. His hide will be a nice jacket for me to wear..."

 

It was plain to see that Tyrannus is complety paranoid about Sule and completely insane. Sule read through all the disgusting and strangely practical ways for Tyrannus to use his anatomy. Tyrannus believed it was necessary, to prevent Sule from coming back from the dead. Although he felt creeped out from reading it, it did give Sule the satisfaction that he made Tyrannus scared.

 

"Oh, and his Unicorn marefriend, Clover the Clever. I won't kill her. She is just too pretty to let go. I will instead have her watch every minute of her lover being torn apart alive, literally. After that is over, I will have my fun with her. I'm sure The Equestrians would pay a handsome ransom for her return. I may return the physical Clover the Clever, but who says her mind will still be intact by then?..."

 

Sule put down the papers and stopped reading them. He took a long swig of apple cider, but the image was still in his mind.

 

"Oh, Clover, please be ok..."

 

Sule also worried about Storm Comet. She was so happy before this whole thing. She seemed to live in a fantasy place in her mind, free from evil and hatered. Who knows what being Tyrannus' prisoner has left her?

 

Another swig of cider. It was all his fault. He brought them to Chiroptera and didn't bring them with him in the evacuation.

 

He put the memoirs aside and dug through the papers some more. He found a folder labeled Super Soldier. This was what Sule was looking for. He opened it up and started to study, keeping his mind occupied.

 

 

(OOC ok, that whole 'insane tyrannus' part was extremely creepy to write)

Edited June 19, 2012 by Anony-Brony

[Prince Midnight 817]

midnight sighed and moved to the tallest point of the castle, and stared at the city below,

"quite a view....isnt it?"

midnight turned and found nova, midnight swallowed, keeping every bit of his anger down, "yes, though, it seems empty without chrys."

nova nodded, "there are better things to be thinking about midnight, forget her, she was only dragging you down."

midnight bit his tounge, he wanted to tell nova how wrong he was, he could drive a dagger through his throat and be none the wiser, and it would be so simple.

he shook his head, "of course." then fell silent looking over the city once more, "nova, i want to ask you something, where was i from, really?"

nova frowned, "been busy have you?"

midnight nodded,

nova shrugged, "meh, nothing you can do about it now controlled or not you were bound to find out sooner or later...." he looked at midnight, "your parents were a unicorn and earth pony, how you were born a pegasus and your sister a earth pony is a great mystery, that is why i took you from that wretched place."

 

midnights eyes were welling up but he pushed the tears back, "where..."

nova smirked, "inquisitive arent we? it was a small hamlet named stalliongrad, a unicorn founded industrial city, thats why nopony would know they were dead until later, stalliongrad was rife with crime at the time, oh and did they beg and bleed."

 

he studied midnight, but saw no emotion as midnight asked his final question, "what were their names?"

nova grinned, eclipse, and starshine glint."

 

He looked up at the sky,

"well, good morning as you malumai say."

and turned to head to bed.

 

midnight meanwhile, his legs turned to jelly as he leaned against the tower wall to hold himself up, this was alot of new information to process, but he did know one thing, nova was going to die, by midnights hoof, no matter what.

[The Awesome One 1,314]

**80 miles from Chiropreta**

 

The invasion army had set up camp to rest for a day. Night Flash had wanted to keep on pushing but his troops were just too tired. He decided to set up camp at a valley which led all the way to the plains of the Malumai country.

 

Night Flash was sitting in the 'control room' with some more generals he had brought along with him. Every 10,000 troops had meant one general and a ton of officers who were good for nothing and didn't fight at all. Although some of them were very good strategists.

 

''Well boys, you got your rest. We'll be going in a few hours. Tell the troops to start packing, we're moving.'' said Night Flash, who was half-drunk from drinking so much with his generals.

 

However, the generals weren't as merry as Night Flash was. They knew something that he didn't. They didn't want to tell Night Flash because they knew that it would break his heart. Unfortunately, one of the officers couldn't keep it a secret any longer, he felt he had to tell Night Flash about what had happened to his mentor just as he had started heading towards Chiropreta.

 

''Um...Sir, there is something you should know.'' said the young officer, who was sitting right next to Night Flash.

 

All of the generals immediately stopped whatever they were doing. All eyes were fixed on the officer.

 

''What is it Colonel Wind Blast?'' said Night Flash, who had started to noticed that the officer wasn't in a very happy mood.

 

''The thing is.....you know your mentor? Commander Hurricane?...Well, you see...he died..'' said the officer reluctantly.

 

Night Flash, who had beer in his mouth at that moment, spat it all out on the officer in a jet stream. He was utterly shocked.

 

''WHAT?! Why didn't anyone tell me of this?! He was the closest thing I had to family and now he's....gone.'' said a rejected Night Flash.

 

''Sir, if you remember, it was late night when you visited his office. Just as you left his office, someone burst in through the window and slit his throat before he could even yell! According to a witness, that pony had bat-wings.'' said the officer.

 

Night Flash, who was close to crying now, realized who was behind it.

 

''Tyrannus....''

 

''You mean Sic Temper? Sule's predecessor, Sir?''

 

''Exactly! He wants us to stay out of this conflict....Why did it have to be Hurricane?'' said Night Flash as his eyes began to water.

 

''Sir, are you alright?'' said the officer.

 

''Alright?...Alright?! Listen here, I lost my family when I was a wee colt, Commander Hurricane was like my father and look what's happened to him!'' Night Flash couldn't hold his tears back anymore.

 

He remembered that day. The day Sic Tempter declared war, he attacked Night Flash's home village. Killing his entire family in the process. When the Equestrian forces reached the village and drove back Tyrannus, all was gone. Among the ruined houses and burning fires, a young colt was found. Hurricane, who at that time, was still commander, was the one to find him and took him in as his own son.

 

By the time Night Flash was old enough to join the military, the war was still raging, Night Flash fought alongside his step-father and by the time Hurricane retired, Night Flash took his place.

 

A moment of silence was observed for the now dead Hurricane. After a while, Night Flash looked up at his generals and spoke up.

 

''Boys, we're moving now, it's payback time....''

Edited June 20, 2012 by The Awesome One

[Jadefire 2,796]

"You don't ever take a break, do you?" Shiri asked dryly. Indigo was now back in his tent after a couple of hours meeting with some of the military officers, regarding specific plans regarding how to manage the soldiers sieging the city. Now, Indigo was reading over reports from teams scouting out the city's perimeter.

 

"I do, but not when I'm preparing for the biggest military siege in thirty years." Indigo replied without looking at her. "Besides, last break I took I had a migraine for an hour after I woke up. Almost fucked up our invasion, here, too."

 

"Oh, so you're a party animal, then?"

 

"Not really." Indigo looked at her. "You know the saying, 'The truth is in the wine'? Well, I'm the kind of pony who could get fired for telling the truth."

 

"Guess you can't really go around spilling Sule's secrets."

 

"Basically. Besides, partying and debauchery wasn't really my thing, even before I became Sule's right hand. A drink once in a while to calm the nerves was enough. Nowadays, I can wait to embarass myself when I'm not responsible for helping Sule stop the country from collapsing."

 

"What are you, his secretary?"

 

"Very funny." Indigo replied, sarcastically. "I'm his second-in-command. There's only so much that one pony can do, so he trusts me to carry some of the burden."

 

"Sounds like you two are good friends." Shiri commented.

 

Indigo looked back to his report. "Maybe, maybe not. I view him as my boss more than I do as a friend."

 

"What do you think of Sule, anyway? In your own personal opinion?" Shiri asked.

 

Indigo looked at her. "Why are you so inquisitive?"

 

"I'm just curious." Shiri looked around her cell. "And bored. Besides, I told you why I joined with Sic Semper."

Indigo turned back to his work and ignored her. Shiri cocked her head, "What, is your opinion 'classified information'?" she snarked.

 

Indigo lifted his head. There wasn't really any harm in indulging her question, he supposed. She wouldn't be able to use it to blackmail him or something, anyway. "Sule's an interesting character; he's naive, he's idealistic, and to be honest he's not really much of a politician. But he has one thing that other leaders don't."

 

"What is that?"

 

"Selflessness."

 

"...you're kidding." Shiri deadpanned, not expecting Indigo to use that word.

 

"I don't mean it like that, I mean it's in his nature to be self-sacrificing. Every politician and general in Chiroptirac ultimately look out for themselves. Sule had a cushy career as Tyrannus's chief inventor, but he sacrificed that in order to oppose him. He gambled a long and successful career in a city stricken by poverty to stand up to to Tyrannus. He gambled his life to travel to the other races, our sworn enemies, to gather help and support to end the stupid war. And when that didn't work, he gambled his life and career of luxery to overthrow his own lord. Keep in mind, treason is punishable by a slow and agonizing death by crucifiction." Indigo took a drink of his cider. "And now he's gambling his own life and the lives of his entire civilization to remove a despot from the throne."

 

Shiri remained quiet. "I see. I think."

 

Things were quiet for a bit, and Indigo smirked. He expected her to say something to get Indigo to doubt Sule's abilities or to point out how that doesn't make Sule any different than Tyrannus, but instead she seemed to accept Indigo's explanation.

 

Sule heard a sound, and looked over to see her take a drink of water. Sule quickly found himself pouring another cup of cider and walking to the cage. Shiri looked at him as he set the cup down and nosed it through the bars. "What are you doing?"

 

"Here, have this. It's not alcoholic." Indigo said.

 

Shiri walked over and looked at her cup, before looking at Indigo. "What is this, Lima Syndrome?"

 

Indigo paused a bit as he took a moment to remember what Lima Syndrome was. "No. I just figured you're right. I should take a break before I run myself ragged. Especially at a time like this." He said, as he sat down.

 

Shiri shrugged. "Too loyal to your friend Sule to risk failing him?" she said, as she took a drink of her cider.

 

"At least I don't have to be mind-controlled to gain my loyalty." Indigo snarked, before picking up his own drink.

 

Shiri sat her drink down. "Hey, I'll have you know I volunteered for Nova's brainwashing."

 

Indigo coughed up some of his cider. "Wait, what?" He asked, caught off-guard at her confession.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Jadefizoid

[Prince Midnight 817]

"come with me." nova had found midnight aimlessly wandering the halls in a sort of daze, "you have some brothers and sisters who are dying to meet you."

midnight blinked, "ummm, a-alright?"

he led midnight into one of the deeper parts of the castle, and when midnight entered the room, he found ponies....well, malumai with horns, he blinked, "w-wha?"

nova smiled, "you were the first, though i could not give you a horn, but after you, i was given the time and rescources to make them, they are and improvement," he smiled and approached them, "all of you, this is midnight, your predecessor."

 

none of them looked up except one, a mare the only one without a horn, she approached and smiled, "nova, you know they cant hear you?"

nova nodded,"of course chrys," he turned to midnight, "they can only hear, see, feel, when theyve been "activated" of sorts."

 

midngihts eyes widened, "c-chrys?" midnight shook his head "n-no, this cant be.....t-this ....."

chrys turned to midnight and smiled, "yes?

 

nova grinned, "grown from her blood that i managed to obtain, she is....chrys in every way except her memories, cant exactly get those."he smirked, "in any case, ill leave you two alone to catch up."

 

midnight reached a hoof forward and touched this chrys's cheek, it didnt feel the same, not to him, he looked down and started to walk away but she stopped him, "is something wrong?"

midnight shook his head, "i-it just dosent have the same feel to me, she's....y-your dead, y-yet your here, i-i just cant do this."

he sighed and moved past her, to check on storm and clover again.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Midnight Moon

[AnonyPoni 564]

Sule open the folder for the Super Soldiers and found it was filled with logs.

 

"Subject 1: Pegasus, Male, Age 8; Success, turned into a Maluma, given magical powers, Sapient"

"Subject 2: Earth Pony, Female, Age 6; Failure, body reacted violently with magic. Mutated into a beast."

"Subject 3: Maluma, Male, Age 10; Failure, body rejected magical agents. Deceased"

"Subject 4: Unicorn, Male, Age 15; Failure, tried to escape. Acquired Horn, looking into duplicating. Deceased"

"Subject 5: Maluma, Female, Age 16; Failure, Horn did not produce magic. Mind intact. Body rejected Horn. Deceased"

 

It went on like that for dozens of entries, All different types of ponies. All Failures. All dead. Sule knew Subject 1 and 2 were Midnight and Dusk. It just seemed so... cold and meticulous, the way he just recorded what happened without emotion. He felt sorry for Midnight and Dusk for what happened, but he would have never thought that it was on this scale.

 

"Subject 72: Maluma, Male, Age 23; Success, Horn produces magic, physically stronger, still flies, Non Sapient."

 

After that, they were mostly successes, There were at least 300 entries of successes, all Malumai. Those were the Super Soldiers they would meet in the Invasion. A combination of strength, magic, and flying capability, with no conscious or persona. Just a mindless killing machine.

 

Sule put the folder away. He wasn't worried, but that was probably because it hadn't sunk in yet that they might actually LOSE this war because of the Super Soldiers. The Malumai that were loyal to him would all be dead, and the Equestrians would be next on Nova's conquer and exploit list.

 

It also hadn't sunk in Sule's head that he might actually die. He would've guessed by the normal treason execution of Crucifying, but Tyrannus did say he wanted him ripped apart alive in front of Clover. He remembered the guard Dusk killed. He wasn't afraid to die, it came with his job.

 

But Sule wasn't a soldier, he was an inventor. He didn't know if he should be scared of death or not. He supposed when the Moment came, he would find out. He had more important things to worry about than his own death right now. He was more concerned for the future of the Malumai... and Clover.

 

Sule finished his cider, and left to get another jug of it.

Edited June 21, 2012 by AnonyZiod

[Jadefire 2,796]

"I met Nova a couple weeks before your archon overthrew Sic Semper. At the time, I was in his personal guard, acting as a guide for them through Earth pony territory." Shiri explained.

 

"Wait, how the hay did you get into his personal guard?" Indigo a

 

Shiri shot him a glare, and Indigo shut up. Shiri continued. "He personally lead an attack on major Pegasai targets, so we were retreating back to Chiroptera afterwards to direct the war from there. I was guiding them through a less-traveled area to try to avoid ambushes."

 

"And how did that work out for you?"

 

"It worked well, for a while. But the pegasai chased us down anyway. They sent in a team past our troops and tried to assassinate Tyrannus directly." Shiri lowered her head. "Obviously, he lived, but I got seperated and hurt in the fighting, and they left me behind. That's when Nova found me."

 

"That's Tyrannus for you." Indigo commented.

 

"Shut up you. Nova told me he shared my exact sentiments, my exact goals. He wanted to unite all races under one banner, and finally bring peace to the land, and despite being a unicorn, and a master-wizard from the Princess Platinum's court, he was willing to ally with the Malumai, our sworn enemies, to achieve that goal. Keep in mind, nopony believed the settlement of Equestria would work."

 

"Why did you believe him?" Indigo asked.

 

"I don't know. He was persuasive. He was powerful too, probably just as powerful as...what was his name? Star Swirl the mustached?" Shiri shook her head. "Anyway, Nova convinced me that Sic Semper would need help, that given what the Malumai were capable of there was no way in hell that Tyrannus could conquer all three tribes. So he wanted me to join him, and I agreed."

 

"Hmm."

 

There was a pause, and Indigo wondered if Shiri realized that she was spilling too many secrets to her captor. However, she slowly began speaking again. "Well, a few weeks later Sule imprisoned Sic Semper and you ponies hailed him as a hero. Everything went straight to hell. But Nova...he was strange; it was like he knew that that was going to happen. He had a plan to fix everything with a spell he finished." Shiri paused for a moment. "I lost hope with the malumai when that happened. They were just tired of the war, and wanted to end the war and return everything back to the way it was. But Nova continued with huis plan anyway: he told me what the spell was; for everypony who wanted to fight for us, to fight for our cause, Nova's magic could bolster their resolve. No cowardice, no hopelessness, no distractions, everypony who still desired the world to see peace would gain the willpower and single-minded determination to fight again, and take the fight back to the pegasai and the unicorns."

 

"Yeah, I can see where this is going..." Indigo commented.

 

"I was stupid. It was obvious what Nova's magic actually was. I don't know what came over me; maybe I did still believe in Nova's rhetoric, or maybe I just wanted to see Sic Semper again, but I did it. I agreed to be his first follower in what was to become his 'grand army'."

 

"And that's how the protest movement started. Nova gathered thralls in our city."

 

"He used me as a vector so he could do it remotely. He needed a pony to have to 'want' to help to turn them into a slave. Once I was under his command, he dropped all pretenses and was able to use me to his heart's content. That's how the mind-control works, and that's why we enthralled your friend Midnight, but weren't able to enthrall you or Sule. Sule wanted peace and love, and you were staunchly anti-Tyrannus."

 

Indigo processed the new information; that definately cleared up matters regarding what happened to lead up to this point. But then Indigo remembered something, "...wait. Earlier you said 'maybe I only wanted to see Sic Semper again'.

 

"Ah!" Shiri was taken aback.

 

"Does that mean you were...for Tyrannus...?"

 

"No! I mean no. I mean...s-shut up!"

Edited June 21, 2012 by Jadefizoid