Chapters Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar was standing in a small rocky formation, looking at the horizon where a small sun was starting to rise. A new day was beginning. Even if J´zar was looking at the horizon, he was seeing a very different thing. He was remembering the wars of ancient times, when he was a thousand years younger. He was now fifteen hundred years old, and he had seen many things. Though the Nameless Rune had given him an extended lifespan, it had done nothing to lighten the pain of so many lives lost.
"¿Sir?" The voice of Zephir (one of his junior officers) greeted him from behind.
"¿Yes Zephir?" J´zar answered.
"The Commander wants to speak with you. She is holding a meeting with the Order´s top scientists"
J´zar jumped off the stone and landed in front of Zephir. The long, black cape which was standard issue for any member of the Order flew behind him and the twin cruciform swords on their sheaths at the sides of his waist made a metallic jingle as J´zar hitted the ground. He rose up to his feet, clad in black plate armor and chainmail.
"Lead me to them" He ordered.
Zephir nodded as he walked towards the bigger rocky formations that appeared far into the east. J´zar followed him quietly but quickly.
"Inform me of my war efforts ¿what has been of my Regiment?" J´zar asked with a strong (but not harsh) tone.
"The first and second Companies are stationed at Syria. So far, most of the casualties are civilians" Zephir ionformed.
"That´s not good. We must end this quickly before more innocent blood is shed. ¿And what about the first company?" J´zar proceeded.
"Here with me, as you ordered" continued Zephir.
"¿And what do we know about the other Regiments?" Inquired J´zar.
"The second Regiment is guarding Iraq and Pakistan, and the third is undermining Yakuza business in Tokyo" Zephir remembered.
"I still can´t believe a gang of common men requires a full Regiment to be taken care of. Send your Company to Tokyo with instructions to start direct actions against the Yakuzas" J´zar shouted his orders quickly.
"Yes, sir" Zephir agreed
By that time they had already reached the eastern rocky formations and had started climbing them. The wall was merely ten meters high, and J´zar had received alpinism training. Once both J´zar and Zephir reached the top, they gazed upon the valley below them: at least three hundred meters of plain grass surrounded on all sides by rocky formations such as the one they had just climbed. On the center of the valley there was a camping site composed of thirty tents, each one with sufficient space for ten men with their supplies. The Yellowstone National Park was the headquarters of the Order in North America.
J´zar and Zephir walked down to the camp and towards the main tent of the zone. As other members of the Order saw them pass, they bowed their heads low towards Zephir and J´zar. Upon reaching the tent where all the important people gathered, Zephir waited outside as J´zar entered. He could hear Zephir shouting orders at his men.
"¿You have requested my presence, Commander?" J´zar asked to Sp´hre (a tall woman dressed much like J´zar, except that her mask had six horns while J´zar’s mask had only two) as he bowed to one knee.
"Yes I have" Sp´hre said in a formal tone of voice "Now get up, J´zar, Principal of the First Regiment from the Sixth Brotherhood"
The ritual words had been said, and the true chatting could now commence. J´zar noticed a few persons dressed with white robes and having simple white leather masks.
"Our scientists (here present) have discovered something that might be of interest" Sp´hre said "Chief Researcher A´un will debrief you"
"Well, yesterday at about 2:00 AM" a man with white robes started speaking "a rift opened in space-time"
"A rift" J´zar wondered.
"Yes, a hole. We do not know where it goes" A´un explained.
"¿And how are you sure it even “goes” somewhere?" J´zar asked.
"Because when we threw an orange at it, it threw the orange back at us" A´un reasoned.
"Interesting, but, ¿Where do I fit in this" J´zar questioned.
"We do not know for how long this rift will remain open. We have managed to hold it open using an arch made of osmium which absorbs it´s radiation and…well, keeps it open!" A´un informed.
"¿So…?" J´zar pressed.
"You are my best soldier" Sp´hre intervened, trying to go straight to the matter ", and we need you to explore what´s behind the rift"
"Basically, you are sending me to a place which we know nothing about, with hopes it´s breathable in there, that it´s not a collapsing universe or that it´s not filled with orange-bouncing monsters!?" J´zar almost yelled.
"Y-Y-Yes…" Sp´hre said, slightly scared of J´zar’s outbreak
"Then…show me the rift." resigned himself J´zar.
The scientists lead J´zar to a secluded area at the border of the plateau, where a gaping hole of alabaster whiteness stood in the middle of an arch made of a bluish metal.
"¿This is it?" J´zar asked, as if he was asking nothing but the hour.
"Yes" Sp´hre mumbled.
"If I don´t come back, the Regiment belongs to Zephir." J´zar had to make sure everything would go on without him.
His travel to Equestria was just beginning.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar felt the sun above him, floating with laziness in the clear sky. It was hot, and J´zar quickly felt uncomfortable on his armor. But he had been trained to tolerate even the harshest conditions, and so the sun did nothing to him.
There was not much to see around him. Both to the left and to the right of the dusty path there was a forest. A forest whose trees where tall and filled with green leaves. Their roots where elongated and kept them outside the swamp they had grown in. It was an almost virgin forest, J´zar could tell. Yet there was a road going through the middle of it. ¿Why would somebody build a road which pierced through a virgin forest instead of just making a highway around it? Obviously, that dimension had been the brewing ground for a great empire which had tried to extend its borders into the jungle. Or maybe they had constructed a fortress deep in the forest to hide something valuable. Either one of those two or the inhabitants of that dimension were really stupid. But that was impossible ¿who is stupid enough how to build a road leading from nowhere to no place?
"¿Mister?" the voice said.
His training flew to his mind; he remembered with exactitude how, almost fifteen hundred years ago, his instructor taught him to locate the neck of the speaker by just hearing his (the speaker’s) voice. With a single, fluid motion, J´zar drew his sword and placed it just a few centimeters away from the creature’s neck.
"¿Who are you? ¡Speak now or be forever silent!" he demanded with haste.
He finally realized who he was speaking to. Before him, a little below his waist was a pony. But it was no common pony. It had yellow wings, a human-like face, his flanks were not round as it was with common ponies, he had square-like legs, and his hooves where the same yellow color that his legs. Yet the most stunning of all was his mane and tail which were bright pink, with the mane thrown to one side of the head, like some sort of hairstyle. His appearance was hard to describe, but it looked cartoonish.
The creature mumbled something unintelligible.
"I´m sorry, but I can´t hear you" J´zar said, this time slightly worried about the creature "Speak louder please"
Yet again, the pony said something that sounded like “flemmenbanel”.
"¡Speak louder!" J´zar shouted, now fully concerned about the creature’s apparent lack of lexicon.
"¡FLUTTERSHY!" The creature yelled, shaking the waters of the close swamp and making the birds in the entire zone fly away.
"Well, hello" J´zar said, quite surprised by the extreme reactions the creature displayed."My name is J´zar and I am here with exploration purposes. You have no reason to fear me. Or at least not yet"
"Umm…well then…um…eh… hello" the mare babbled.
J´zar looked at the creature with curiosity.
"¿Is there anything wrong?" he asked.
"No" she answered.
"So… ¿are you a pony?" He inquired.
"Yes" Fluttershy's voice sounded muffled.
"¿And you’re a woman… I mean mare?" J´zar asked more.
"Yes, I am a mare" Again, her voice seemed to be hiding somewhere.
"¿And you’re speaking?" J´zar released the question that troubled him.
"Yes" Fluttershy was almost whispering.
“This truly is another dimension” thought J´zar. “¡A mare that speaks! ¿Who could have guessed…?”
"¿Is there a town nearby?" J´zar switched to more important matters.
"You are at the entrance of the Everfree forest. Which is near Ponyville" Fluttershy explained.
"¿Ponyville? ¿What is that?" J´zar pursued her answers.
"Ponyville is the small community you see over those hills" Fluttershy said, more confident this time.
J´zar gazed upon the nearby hills, which he had not noticed in the first minutes. Beyond them he could see houses, and
"¿And who’s in charge around here? ¿A president? ¿Prime Minister? ¿King? ¿Emperor?¿Prince?" J´zar wasn't sure what kind of government this dimension had.
"We got Princess Celestia. But she lives up the mountain at her palace" Fluttershy said, pointing her hoof at a mountain with the top getting lost upon the clouds.
In the middle of the mountain there was a castle. J´zar wondered how it could have been built in such a hard position. Of course a ruler had to live on a secluded and easily defendable place, but that one was borderline paranoid. No roads? No ways up? “The Princess must be a hard ruler” J´zar thought, “She must be afraid of her people, and so she protects herself by living in such an inaccessible place”.
"I need to speak with the Princess" J´zar affirmed.
"Well, there must be a chariot somewhere in town" Fluttershy vaguely suggested.
"Okay. If you say so… I will have to go into the town" J´zar accepted.
Reaching the town, J´zar noticed a lot of other ponies.
"¿Does she always act like that?" J´zar asked Fluttershy.
"Pinkie Pie has always been a little bit crazy" she said, blush reaching towards her cheeks.
The damage had been already done, and now a group of curious ponies was gathering around J´zar, their loud buzzing quickly overthrowing Fluttershy’s attempts of explaining herself.
"I'm just here with diplomatic purposes" J´zar managed to yell at the crowd "I need to speak with the Princess!"
"Speak with the Princess?" A pair of voices answered from behind the crowd, which opened up to reveal a golden chariot drawn by two pegasii. J´zar had never seen such a majestic creature before "¡All you had to do was to ask us! ¡C’mon, get up!"
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
Reaching a circular platform which seemed to be a “parking lot” of sorts, J´zar descended from the chariot and approached a massive door made out of gold-laced bronze, covered with stylized drawings of sunlight and spring flowers. J´zar approached the doors, surprised by the lack of guards. From a closer look, the huge doors had each one a handle the size of a small table. J´zar looked in doubt at the pegasii standing in the platform, who gave him an encouraging look. He grabbed the handles, each with one hand and pulled with all his strengths. J´zar opened the doors the size necessary for him to pass and close them behind him. Now he was standing inside a decorated lobby, with couches made out of gold and red velvet. There were paintings in the walls, but they were all landscapes, most depicting a dawning sun. Three doors were there, one going towards the left, one towards the right and the other leading directly straight. J´zar first tried the door of the left, but it just leaded into an ample hallway. The door of the right was locked. Finally, he approached the middle door, this time entering what seemed to be throne room. A red carpet was below his feet, cathedral-like windows with decorations depicting (yet again) dawning suns.
Four ponies wearing golden “armor” were standing beside a throne located in top of a small stair. Sitting in the throne, among soft cushions was a pony. This pony was, regardless, much different from any other J´zar had seen so far. To begin with, she was much taller than any other pony J´zar had seen so far (almost reaching up to J´zar’s neck). Then was her mane and tail, which were constantly waving with a myriad of colors. She wore a crown of jewels and gold, and on her rump the shining sun depicted on so many paintings was standing still. Most impressive of all, she had both an elongated white horn and a pair of white wings.
"Majesty," Spoke J´zar while bowing to one knee "¿I must assume you are Princess Celestia?".
"You assume right, stranger" the Princess said "¿But who, or what, are you?".
"I am an ambassador, you could say, and my species is that of the “humans” J´zar said, annoyed at the Princess’s lack of knowledge. At least he knew what a pony was! "And I…".
"¡PRINCESS!" A pony with a highly ornate golden armor rushed inside "¡Something terrible has happened!". On his hand, there was a bloodied piece of paper.
"Calm down, Meriwether; explain to me what happened" Celestia tired to clam the pony.
“¿Meriwether? ¿Explain to me?” J´zar wondered “¿What kind of ruler treats his men with such informality?”.
"We…we…we found this note stabbed with a knife to…to…to..." Meriwether started babbling.
“¡What a soft-hearted soldier!” J´zar felt rage boiling inside him due to the man’s failure “¿¡How dares him babble in front of his master!?”.
"¿To what?" Celestia asked, visibly worried by his captain’s mental stability.
"¡To…t-t-t-to a dead pony’s body!" Meriwether shouted out, shocked to the bones.
"¿What does the note says?" Celestia asked.
The babbling pony answered by handling the paper to his master. Celestia took a small glimpse at the piece of paper before throwing it at J´zar.
"¿Does that ring any bells?" She said in an accusing tone of voice. J´zar grabbed the bloody piece of paper and read a few words:
“THE ONE WHO WAS BANISHED SHALL RETURN, AND THE MAW WILL ADD TO HIS COLLECTION”
"¡NO! " J´zar’s scream echoed through the halls "¡IMPOSSIBLE!"
J´zar was standing on the room with red cushions using his specially designed radio to make contact with Sp´hre.
"There can be no doubt, commander" J´zar told to the radio receiver.
"We must take actions" his Commander’s voice sounded through the static.
"¿What are my orders?" the question had been asked thousands of times by J´zar, and it was still heartwarming to receive orders. “A soldier without orders is lost” J´zar thought.
"You must stop Ix and banish him back to The Maw or kill him. Use any means necessary and accept any help you are offered" the Commander ordered.
"As you wish, Commander" J´zar said as he cut the communication and proceeded into the grand hall.
"Princess, we have a problem in our hands" J´zar said "A prisoner from my realm of existence has escaped its interdimensional prison and is likely to try and conquer your world".
"Excuse me stranger, but that´s a little bit too much for my mind to assimilate in…" the Princess started saying.
"There is no time to explain you further. I must leave to stop that prisoner as soon as possible" J´zar cut her mid-sentence.
"Well then, allow me to offer you my help" the Princess said, relaxing her shoulders on the throne behind her. "Or better said, the help of the Elements of Harmony".
"¿Who or what are they?" J´zar asked.
"You have already met two, for what I’m being informed of" the Princess affirmed.
"¿Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?" J´zar said fearful.
"¿How did you guess?" the Princess asked.
"Predisposition I think" the warrior resigned himself.“Great” mumbled to himself J´zar, “¡Now I have to travel besides the shyest creature on the multiverse and what seems to be a schizophrenic and hysteric pink-colored crazy!”
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
The path back to Ponyville was short compared with the time it took J´zar to meet Celestia. J´zar thought it was due to the haste he felt.
“This needs to be done quickly, before he gathers enough strength how to summon his army” J´zar keep telling to himself “If I am too late, this dimension will be easy prey”.
Landing at the town plaza, he thanked the pegasii and walked away, thinking about where to start. Of course he would not leave immediately; he first needed to learn more about the dimension he was in, and maybe getting familiarized with any linguistic expression the locals might have would not be hurting at all.
"Hummm… ¿Jay Zeer?" A voice asked.
J´zar turned around to see who had horribly misspelled his name (The correct phonetics would be “Ghe-Zar”, but everybody called him “Je-zar” to simplify). Behind him was a purple-colored pony carrying a rump mark of numerous stars, with a horn protruding from a fringe, which was, just like her tail, colored both light pink and deep blue.
"My name is “Je-zar”, but yes, that’s me" He said to the slightly embarrassed pony he was now looking at "¿Who are you?"
"My name is Twilight Sparkle" She said, bowing her head slightly "but you can call me Twilight"
"¡Do not forget me, Twilight, your loyal scribe!" a high pitched voice coming from behind Twilight’s neck pierced J´zar’s ears.
"And he is Spike, a baby dragon" Twilight sighed, with the expression of having done that several times that day.
J´zar was impressed with the baby dragon, for he had only heard histories about the mythical creature. But there were more important matters to attend.
"Tell me Twilight, ¿are you a…magician?" J´zar asked. He was determined to end this mystery.
"Well, I´m sort of a magician" she said, using an expression J´zar would have associated with remembering "¿How did you guessed that?"
"Because of your mark" J´zar answered, pointing his gauntlet’s finger at Twilight’s rump.
"¿You mean my Cutie Mark?" She said, looking at J´zar as if it was the most common thing in the world, something even a child would know.
"Yes" J´zar said sighing softly. Throughout the ages, he had to learn many things. First it was flintlock muskets, then radios, then computers and now this.
"Well, it is something you get that marks you as being skilled in something nobody else is skilled at" Twilight explained.
"¿Why are you here?" J´zar had never met that pony before.
"Celestia sent me a message informing me of your arrival" she said, visibly shocked by how direct J´zar was being.
"¡That’s impossible! ¡It would have never reached you before I got here!" J´zar exclaimed.
"Luckily, I got Spike for that" she said "¡I just remembered! Spike, inform Celestia of our meeting with J´zar"
"Wait, ¿what?" Spike said with a surprised pitch.
"¡Tell her we got J´zar!" Twilight Sparkle yelled at him, annoyed by the scribe’s ignorance.
"¡Okay, okay! No reason to get so angry, Twilight " the baby dragon defended himself. “Yet another servant which is treated with too much informality” J´zar thought.
"You should accompany me. The girls are meeting and we are speaking about this “quest” you have" Twilight Sparkle said, quickly losing what little formality did she had.
J´zar didn’t want to go with Twilight Sparkle, but he had received orders to accept any help offered, so he followed her throughout the town, sometimes stopping for Twilight to have a quick chat with people she seemed to know.
Finally, J´zar and Twilight Sparkle reached a building which had all its lights on and which emanated flour smell. A big red sign hanging over the main entrance read “Sugarcube Corner”.
"Here we are" Twilight said. J´zar was able to feel her confidence. Twilight Sparkle was the first one to advance and knock on the door.
"¡Come on in! We don’t want you freezing to death out there ¿do we?" the happy voice of Pinkie Pie greeted them from behind the door.
Twilight Sparkle entered and J´zar followed, his cape surrounding his entire body as he silently walked into the bakery. The place was very illuminated and four other ponies were sitting around a bar table.
The first one going clockwise was a white pony with a very stylized and twirled purple mane and a Cutie Mark of three glittering diamonds, the second on was Fluttershy and then there were two empty stools. On the other side of the table there sat two other ponies, one of them colored yellow with blonde mane and a Cutie Mark of several red apples (This pony also wore a felt hat, which J´zar found quite stylish), and another one with cyan body, wings the same tone and a Cutie Mark of a storm cloud firing a rainbow thunder. Most strange of all was her mane, which had seven different colors (those of the rainbow).
Twilight started speaking, but the only words J´zar could hear before all six ponies started chatting at the speed of light was “Hello girls!” J´zar spent the next few hours sitting in a spare stool, trying to listen and fit in the comments of the other ponies, but he was never heard or his commentaries were short lived. Finally, Twilight Sparkle pointed her hoof at J´zar:
"After all, ¿why are you here J´zar?" She asked, obviously believing J´zar had listened every word she said.
J´zar proceeded to tell them all his history.
"But I have not introduced myself!" J´zar said, embarrassed by his lack of memory "My name is J´zar, nice to meet you…?"
"Rarity, pleased to meet you too" said the purple-maned mare.
"I have already met you before, Fluttershy" J´zar said to her "Twilight Sparkle, the same for you too".
"You must be Pinkie Pie. I’ve heard of you" J´zar said.
"¡I’m so excited to meet you! ¿Are you excited? ¡Because I am excited!" The mare spoke so fast J´zar barely understand her.
"¿And who are you?" Asked J´zar to the yellow pony.
"Applejack, nice to see ya fella" mumbled the hat-wearing pony.
"¡And I’m Rainbow Dash, the pleasure is all yours!" Screamed out the multi-colored mane.
"There’s still one thing I do not understand, J´zar" spoke Twilight Sparkle.
"¿What is it?" answered J´zar.
"Why is it so important to catch Ix?" Twilight asked.
The room was now fully silent. Not even Pinkie Pie smiled, for it was the moment they all were expecting.
"Around nine hundred years ago, a Crusade was being waged in my dimension…" J´zar started speaking.
"We got some crusaders over here too…ouch!" Pinkie Pie had started speaking, but she was quickly quenched with a neck bite and a “¡shhhh!”
J´zar proceeded, oblivious to the interruption: "…the crusade was being fought over a temple, a very important one. But my commander in those days, a mighty warrior known as Tu´ihs brought to bear a counter-crusade on them. He fought on many battles, and defended the gates of Jerusalem on his own. But one of his fellow men, a Principal named Ix, betrayed him and killed him, earning the position of commander himself. But his treason was discovered, and his fortress in Syria came under attack. He defended himself by trying to summon creatures from other dimensions. He tried to open a portal, but we stopped him before he could. Ix was banished forever to a prison between universes called “The Maw”. If he is here, he’ll try to open a portal to other, much scarier places. And trust me, you don’t want to battle what we had to battle inside that place". J´zar finished his speech abnd took a deep breath.
"Ummm…but…eh…ummm" babbled Fluttershy "¿How do we stop him if he’s defending himself against us?"
"First, we need to de-activate his barriers, then, we must enter is fortress and then I will battle him" explained to everyone J´zar.
The reunion did not last much longer. Everyone went to their homes when it got too late for them.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
When the sun rose from the shady depths behind the horizon, J´zar started walking. He walked towards the main plaza, and silently looked at the market stands, still unmanned at those early hours. J´zar felt like he was back in the XII century in the middle of a marketplace. He remembered those good days where you could see women washing clothes in the streets and men plowing the fields.
"Hi there!" a voice called J´zar from behind.
J´zar turned around to see a brown-colored pony standing at the side of a cart.
"Hello" J´zar mumbled "¿What are you doing here so early, sir?"
"I have problems sleeping, and a morning stroll is good for my legs" The pony answered "I’ve heard a lot about you. Everypony is speaking about a stranger which has come here to defend us ponies from a conqueror"
"Well, that one should teach Celestia not to give state secrets over to a young mare…" J´zar sighed with displeasure. "Adolescents would never change." J´zar thought.
"My name is Eduard" The pony introduced himself, handshaking J´zar.
"My name is J´zar, Eduard". “¡Finally someone with a normal name!” J´zar blissfully thought.
"¿And is it true? ¿Are you here to save us?" Eduard asked.
"I’m following orders. If they involve saving you all, then yes. But right now, I need to set off in a journey." J´zar hurried himself.
"Of course. I understand" the pony said with a dejected smile.
"Farewell" J’zar said before walking down the main road, trying to find Twilight’s house.
Curiously, all of those names and locations felt somehow familiar, as he had been there a long time ago. J´zar tried to remember where he had seen those houses, where had he heard those names. Yet he couldn’t remember.
J´zar walked aimlessly for hours, unsure of where to go, or who to speak to. Some hard-working ponies were already on the streets preparing themselves for the upcoming day. He eventually came across a forged iron fence with similar iron letters integrated into an arch which acted as entrance. “This must be a farmhouse” J´zar told to himself. Behind the fence J’zar could see a barn, and behind that, he could see plowed fields, and all around him, wherever he looked at, he saw trees filled to the brim with apples.
"Hello, sir, ¿can ah do anything for ya?" a deep voice said behind him.
Turning around for the third time in two days, J´zar saw behind him a stocky and muscular red-coated pony with straw-colored mane and tail. He had his flank adorned with a transversal cut of a green apple and seemed to be biting on a piece of straw.
"Good day, mister," J´zar told the stallion "I am looking for a mare named Applejack"
"¿Mare? She’s just a little bit older than a big filly an’ she’s already tellin’ everypony she’s a mare…But anyways, mah sis is on the house, helping grandma with preparing the cart for the market." The red stallion explained.
"Thank you. Have a nice day" J´zar said, then slowly but surely walked away.
"¡If ya need anything else, the name’s Big Macintosh!" the stallion yelled at J´zar as he walked away.
J´zar walked for several minutes before seeing the countryside house ahead. Applejack and a much older pony were performing several tasks around a cart which was loaded to the very brim (and even more, probably) with apples and apple food derivatives.
"¡Applejack!" J´zar yelled at her from the top of the hill he was standing on.
Applejack looked up to the mountain and said something which J´zar could not hear to her grandmother before galloping up the hill to meet J´zar.
"¿How’ ya doing Mister J.?" She asked J´zar while regaining her breath.
"I’m fine, thanks". “¿Mister J.?” J´zar thought annoyed. "I would like to ask for your help on something"
"Yeah, sure ¿What is it?" Applejack asked, anxious to help.
"I need you to reunite your other friends in the entrance to the Everfree forest, but specially Twilight Sparkle" J´zar said. It was time to set the gears of the plan in working order.
"Sure, I’ll do it right away, Mister J." Applejack said, and she did not waited a minute before rushing down the hill to find her other friends.
J´zar calmly walked all the way to the Everfree forest, where he waited for several hours before the six mares appeared. He greeted them coldly, and harshly asked them why they took so long.
"Oh, you know Pinkie Pie made a “good bye” party since we don’t know when we are coming back and we just
"¡Wait a bloody second! ¡¿Are you telling me you kept me waiting here for seven hours just for you to stay at a party!?"J´zar yelled, drowning any attempt of rebuttal "¿¡Don´t you know what’s at risk!? ¡Your entire universe will probably be conquered if we do not hurry! ¡Every hour that passes is an hour Ix has to open the portal! every second brings us closer to damnation! ¡Now move, you pack of draught beasts!"
J´zar then furiously stormed inside the forest, leaving the six manes to hurry and follow him.
The group cautiously walked through the forest, except for J´zar, who advanced ahead of all others, uttering terrible insults against the mares with every step. His thunderous voice scared off all the wildlife, and his heavy steps made even the manticores run away to hide in their caves.
After walking for a few hours, J´zar remembered he would have to leave vengeance for later, for he needed a question answered.
"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle," He asked "¿where are the oldest books stored?"
"Well" she said, trying to remember something "They are probably in the castle"
"¿Which castle?" J´zar asked, not wanting to go back with Celestia.
"That castle" Twilight said pointing her hoof at a thing behind J´zar’s back.
For the third time that day, J´zar turned around to find him looking to what seemed to be an old bridge leading into a ruinous castle, whose towers where crooked or destroyed.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar patted his own shoulder, trying to get the dust off his armor. With his left hand, he reached for the hilt that protruded from a pile of debris and pulled out a bloodied sword with a chilling shriek and a blood splatter. J´zar sheathed the sword carefully, worried for the integrity of the blade because of all the dust and blood.
"¿Umm…sir...erm…J´zar?" Fluttershy asked.
"¿Yes?" J´zar answered with a question.
"I think there’s something wrong with your arm" She said.
J´zar looked at his elbow and indeed noticed something bad. His whole arm was twisted in a strange position, as if it was disturbingly loose.
"It’s dislocated" He said coldly "¡Nothing hard to fix!"
J´zar grabbed his loose arm and jammed it against his shoulder several times before a cracking sound was heard and his arm regained the normal position. The warrior flailed his healed arm in several directions before judging it acceptable and descending from the pedestal of rocks and debris he was standing in.
"There you go" J´zar said to Fluttershy "Now let’s get moving. We need to reach the end of this accursed forest before the nighttime. I don’t know you, but I would prefer not to sleep with so many wild things out there"
J´zar walked a few steps before stopping and turning around, promptly returning to the place where he had been standing. He crouched for a moment and pulled out a glass vial. He did something which the ponies couldn’t manage to see and then returned to the ground, but this time, the vial was filled with a thick and dark red substance.
"¡I almost forgot! ¿How where we supposed to perform the ritual without it?" He said as he stored the vial inside an almost invisible pocket in his armor "Now we can go"
And he walked away again. The six young mares followed him, also not wanting to stay on the forest more than what necessary.
They didn’t walk for long before Twilight Sparkle asked something:
"¿Hmm…J´zar?" she said.
"¿What is it?" J´zar was slightly annoyed by how many questions they had.
"¿Where are we going exactly?" she asked.
J´zar had not thought of where they were going, but he wanted to get out of the forest the soonest possible, and walking in the direction opposite of where they had come from seemed to be the best option.
"I do not know where are we going, but I know what we’re leaving" he said.
"¿But you do know where Ix is, right?" Rarity’s voice sounded from behind J´zar.
"¡Ha! ¡I have no idea!" J´zar mockingly said "¡But I expect to know soon!"
They kept walking for several minutes before something interrupted their path. An anteater lied down in the ground as if he was dead, with his hose-like muzzle darkened beyond normality. J´zar quickly approached the animal and laid his hand on the creature’s belly. It was raising and lowering, but dangerously slow. J´zar knew what was happening.
"Ix. The diseases of The Maw have reached into your realm " he said with grim acceptance "This creature is doomed"
"That’s impossible" Fluttershy said "¡There’s a cure for all diseases I’ve ever seen!"
"Not for this one. It’s the Smallpox. It killed thousands in my realm, and this animal is on the final stages of infection" J´zar continued.
"¡But there must be a cure!" Fluttershy insisted.
"There is. If the vaccine is applied within the first three days of infection, most of its effects are nullified. But this anteater has
"What...¿What can we do?" Fluttershy asked with anxiety.
"We can shorten the pain. We can give it peace" J´zar had never seen a creature saddened as much as Fluttershy.
"¿Wait…what do you mean?"Fluttershy asked, her voice trembling.
"I think you already know" He said, saddened by the mare’s frustration.
Fluttershy was crying. She sat on her hind legs and started sobbing profusely, hiding her eyes with both hooves. J´zar had never seen somebody so stressed because of a simple euthanasia. It was bothering having to wait so long for something so simple.
With these words, he drew his sword and cut the anteater in half as if it was made of bread.
"¡Now move!" He said. Deep down, J´zar was feeling terrible for having doing this to such a compassionate creature as Fluttershy. But there was no time for being soft.
As the sun drew closer to the horizon, J´zar and his companions treaded mile after mile, each step shortening their path towards the end of the forest and to the almost unexplored lands after them.
"¿Are we there yet?" Pinkie Pie asked for the umpteenth time that day.
"¡No, we are not there, nor we will be until nightfall! ¡So please, be silent while I try to locate the Southern Cross!" J´zar said, staring at the sky as he walked. The stars didn’t spoke to him as clearly as they did in his own planet.
"¿Southern Cross?" Twilight Sparkle whispered to Spike, who was sitting in her back "¿What is that? ¡There are no constellations named that way!"
"Maybe it’s a constellation from his dimension" the baby dragon answered "¡and here in Equestria they aren’t the same stars! That’s the only explanation I can think of"
"¿Are we there yet?" Pinkie Pie asked again.
"¡NO!" J´zar answered with fury.
"¡Oh, c’mon, I’m just joking!" Pinkie said.
"It’s not a joke if one part doesn’t enjoy it!" J´zar exposed his opinion.
"Guys, ¿could somebody tell me how much we have left?" Rainbow Dash ventured.
"¡I DO NOT KNOW!" J´zar yelled.
"¿What is it with all that yelling here?" Twilight Sparkle said with surprise "¡We are never going to reach the forest end with all this screaming!"
"In the name of all the past, present and future gods, ¿Could you please just SHUT UP?" J´zar screamed.
"My, what a bad temper ya got…" Applejack mugged.
J´zar wasn’t listening however, his sight was grabbed by the vision he possessed now:
The forest had stopped abruptly, and now he was standing in a hill made of soft breeze, watching over the landscape. At the group’s feet (and hooves) were vast and open steppes ridded with small hills, which extended for miles like a green cloak covering the earth before crossing a pass and entering inside a “cauldron”, a valley encircled by mountains.
Their journey through the forest had ended.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar and his fellow teammates prepared to pass the night before continuing, because J´zar considered it dangerous to go through the steppes at night, the risk of falling into a rabbit hole and breaking a leg too great.
"Who has the body…I mean the sleeping bags?" J´zar asked.
"I do, dear" Rarity answered, pulling out a colorful piece of cloth from her saddlebag.
"¿¡What the…!? ¿Why is that bag so colorful!? ¡I thought we were trying to be stealthy!" he said.
"Oh, I just added some creativity to the design…" the unicorn explained.
"It looks as if someone had poured buckets of paint all over it…" Rainbow Dash mumbled, trying to hold the laughter.
J´zar smiled to himself at the silliness of the young mares. “What is happening to me?” he asked to himself “I have not smiled this way in years!”.
"But there is a problem, J´zar my dear" Rarity worriedly said "¡I found no sleeping bag big enough to hold you!"
"That is no problem, esteemed lace-maker" J´zar saw Rarity priding herself on being called “lace-maker” "I can sleep outdoors, or I might not sleep at all"
"¡But ya must sleep sometime!" Applejack reasoned. The idea of a creature not sleeping for a long time seemed antinatural to her.
"I slept three days ago" J´zar gurgled "¡That should keep me up for another three days!"
"¿An how do ya keep up with that pace?" Applejack unsurely questioned.
"I received training" was J´zar’s cryptic answer- Wait here while I get some wood.
J´zar walked to the nearest tree and ripped off several branches before returning to the improvised campsite. He proceeded to cut all the grass in a wide circle around the center of the campsite, and placed the sleeping bags around it. He piled the branches in the middle of the circle and reached for his pocket…
"¿Where did I leave that accursed tinderbox? I hope I have not forgotten all of them in that German castle I visited…" J´zar whispered worried. He looked at the mares "¿None of you has a tinderbox or similar, now do you?"
"Well, I do not have a tinderbox" Twilight Sparkle said "But I might be able to…"
"¡Of course!" J´zar exclaimed- "¡You’re a magician! Work your magic, please"
Twilight Sparkle focused as a bubble of light formed on the tip of her horn. With a small cracking sound, the branches spontaneously bursted in flames. J´zar bowed his head in respect to the magician.
"You six should go to sleep now" J´zar recommended "We have a hard journey to undertake tomorrow."
"¿And you, J.?" Rainbow Dash asked, accommodating herself in one of the bags.
“¿J.? Is everybody going to call me a different way now?” J´zar wondered.
"I will stand guard in here. We do not know if somebody has followed us" J´zar explained.
"¿And who could possibly follow us?" Rainbow Dash fantasized, turning around in the sleeping bag.
-Some members of the Order followed Ix into banishment at the Maw. They form the rank of the Banished, and if the diseases of Ix have reached here, I fear his followers have done so too.
"¿But you’re not scared are you?" Pinkie asked "¡You are the best warrior I’ve seen! ¿How many have you killed? ¿Three thousands? ¿Six thousands?"
"Two thousand three hundred and twenty-four" J´zar boldly answered "And their faces still haunt me"
A bush made an almost soundless rustle.
With lightning fast reflexes, J´zar threw a knife at the bush. From behind it a man fell, his chest skewered by the knife. Covering the man’s face was a scratched mask made of white wood, covered in thorns and barbed wire. His robe was tattered and bloodied, yet held a strange beauty.
"¡Get out of bed!" J´zar screamed "¡The Banished are at hand!"
J´zar drew his swords and looked into the woods, expecting to be jumped at any time. The assault began sooner than expected.
With a shrieking scream, the first Banished sprang from the woods, swinging his razor-sharp claws madly. J´zar chopped of his head. More Banished (at least twenty of them) poured from the woods. J´zar stood in front of the flames; his ominous shadow perched upon the ravenous hordes like a murder of crows, and with a fearsome battle-cry, he charged towards his enemies, like a shadow throwing itself into a pack of wolves. J´zar had no time to notice what the ponies had been doing. His mind was solely focused on combat. Within moments, he forgot his purpose, his name, even his body. All that he could feel was the swirl of the world around him and the laughter of the blood-drinking gods. The thrill of battle had overtaken him, more colorful than even the best firework, more passionate than a lover’s kiss. And before he noticed, the fighting was over. He was now standing among twenty bodies, some missing limbs, and some with their entrails hanging loose. His armor was covered in blood, the same that his blades.
The ponies had noticed something different than him during the battle. As J´zar charged towards the Banished, the six mares noticed something different in him. Something almost imperceptible, like the flicker of a light, the glimpse in an eye. J´zar’s eyes were bright yellow in that moment, but something, a mere spark in the bottom of those golden pits, lost humanity. What those eyes held was not the usual wisdom or coldness. “Those” eyes were filled with murderous hatred. With unrelenting rage. And the ponies knew that those who defied those eyes would never see the sun rising again. As J´zar twisted his swords amidst the Banished, that hate, that rage turned into animalistic frenzy when the echoes of torn off limbs and broken bones crossed the warrior’s ears.
"I’m sorry you had to witness that" J´zar whispered, and yet that regretful whisper seemed more menacing that a furious roar "But I can’t avoid it"
"¿W-W-What was that?" Twilight asked in shock.
"That, my friend, I cannot answer" J´zar said grinning.
The ponies said nothing and went back to bed, though none of them managed to sleep.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar slept very little again.
This time, as he closed his eyes and hid those golden orbs from the world, another view appeared. “Where am I?” he wondered, unused to dreaming. He was standing in a tall tower made of stone, looking through a window to the ground below him. A group of people were crawling in the mud-covered field the tower watched upon, but one called his attention in special way, and once J´zar looked at that person, he could no longer move his eyes.
"¿Why do you fight for them" the mocking voice said "if they do not appreciate your efforts? Why if they do not know a world’s fate?"
The voice started to laugh maniacally as J´zar fell through an ocean of darkness.
"¡Hail, warrior of the foolish!" the voice screamed.
A hand reached for J´zar’s shoulder, which promptly rose up from his sitting position and grabbed the creature’s neck, ready
He realized he was just holding Twilight Sparkle, who had tried to awaken him from the nightmare just as he was about to kill her. Letting go on his grip, J´zar kneeled, his mind filled with images of a man made out of what seemed to be pure darkness sitting upon an obsidian throne in a badly illuminated room. The man smiled.
"Give it to me" the creature said "¡GIVE IT TO ME!"
J´zar came back to reality immediately. He was able to think clearly again. ¿What had he seen and why? ¿What was going on? Only questions filled his newly-recovered conscience.
"¿J´zar? ¿ Are you okay?" Twilight asked, still gripping her own throat because of J´zar’s reaction.
"Yes" J´zar said, trying to stay on his feet despite the knee-shaking "I think"
"¿What was that?" Applejack asked "Ya were shakin’ like a leaf in a windy day, mumbling things we didn’t understand"
"I do not know. It must have been some sort of vision" J´zar said with his mind uneasy "¿What time is it?"
"It’s morning. We have already eaten" Rainbow Dash answered "I thought you would never wake up"
"I thought the same several times during my life" J´zar joked "If we have nothing left to do here, let’s go"
The second day of travel was very much like the first, except this time, instead of going up and down through hills, they just had to relax and walk in the plains, always heading towards the mountains. J´zar knew that Ix would have preferred that location above all others because Ix had been born in Switzerland, and those cold mountains surely remembered him of his motherland.
-Jazzy! –Pinkie Pie screamed from behind him.
-Hmmm? –growled J´zar, annoyed by the massive amount of pseudonyms he was attaining.
-And, –she giggled while looking at Rarity, who walked besides her. J´zar rose an eyebrow wondering what where they talking about- ¿is there anyone special at your realm?
-¿What do you mean? –asked the warrior in confusion.
"You know, a very special somepony –she chuckled again.
"Erm…No" J´zar answered trying to decipher the expression.
"¿Really? ¿But don’t you wish you had one?" Pinkie asked again.
"Well, no" J´zar reasoned "I think of love as an excuse for being foolhardy"
"¿But don’t ya wanna have foals?" inquired Applejack, as if the idea made her shiver.
"¿Children?" J´zar mocked "They would only get in the way of my military career"
Applejack kept watching J´zar with an accusing look for the entire day. Finally, the day ended as they reached the first rocks of the mountains. Behind them there were the long and open steppes, and in front of them a pass which extended for barely twenty yards between the two mountains, with thick bushes at both sides. J´zar was wary of it being an ambush, so he kept a hand on the hilt of one sword all the time it took for them to get to the other side. The cauldron was a barren wasteland of rock and gravel which stretched for miles.
Treading it was almost a torture. The mares had their hooves to protect them from the sharp rocks on the grounds, but J´zar had only leather boots with sabatons and his feet were bleeding after barely half an hour of walking. But J´zar didn’t cared. He had felt pain so much in his fifteen centuries of existence, tasting it was now like wearing an old glove. They came upon lonely trees that were dead even before J´zar had been born, the empty branches remembering them of clawed fingers trying to reach the skies, sprouting from bone-white trunks acting like cold hands.
"Makes me think of the last sentence from a poem I read once" J´zar said.
"¿And what was it like?" asked Twilight.
J´zar cleared his throat and recited:
"And from the shadows that fly ghostly behind the bust of Pallas, my soul shall rise…Nevermore."
The air itself seemed to tremble when J´zar’s deep and cavernous voice pronounced the last word. A lonely crow left the branches of the tree, fluttering its black wings through the ashy sky.
With almost surgical precision, a single arrow stabbed itself into J´zar’s right shoulder.
Reeling backwards from the force of the impact, J´zar reached into his shoulder and grabbed the arrow. The right pauldron of the armor had stopped the arrow from piercing J´zar’s flesh, but the arrow was stuck between the armpit and the breastplate of the armor. J´zar ripped it off raising his arm and looked at it. The tip was serrated and jagged, designed to rip off large chunks of flesh when pulled out. The rest of the arrow was made out of ebony and the fins to stabilize it across its flight path were crow feathers.
"¡Take cover!"J´zar yelled as he unsheathed his swords.
The mares ran to a natural trench nearby and waited, popping only the tip of their heads to watch over the rocks.
"¡I said cover, not peeping holes!" J´zar reaffirmed, pulling down the heads of the mares with his hands to cover them completely.
He then turned around and scrutinized the mountainside, trying to find the shooter. He was not concerned about getting hit. Full plate armor could stop anything smaller than a Magnum round. A few more arrows fell around the area, but they all missed or hit the rocks, not harming the ponies. J´zar finally located the archer. It seemed to be hiding in a small pile of rocks a hundred yards away from them.
"¡Rainbow Dash!" the warrior screamed.
"¿Yes?" an excited voice answered from the trench. A pair of violet eyes popped out of the rocks and quickly retracted before an arrow hitted the stone right where they had been seconds ago.
"¡I need you to distract him while I approach by the flank!" J´zar yelled. Another arrow fell from the clouds, this time striking J´zar in the middle of the forehead. Luckily, the iron mask stopped the projectile.
"¡Done!" accepted the mare, taking off the ground with a few swipes of her wings. The archer fired at her as soon as she left cover, but the pegasus was too fast for him, and the arrow missed. Rainbow Dash traced a wide arch around the firing position, the arrows flying through the air and missing. J´zar started to run at full speed towards the rocky formation, dodging the occasional arrow. But the archer was too slow for both, and J´zar reached his position. With fury, he stabbed one of his swords into the enemy’s chest.
Looking closer into the body, he realized the archer was a Banished, but that was impossible. No Banished was capable of learning how to operate a bow with so effectively. Not with the feral mind they possessed.
"J´zar…" Rainbow Dash mumbled "…look"
In front of them, built in the face of the mountain, a massive castle rested. Rainbow Dash had never seen such a majestic building before. The ancient castle was so big, the spires of Canterlot paled, and the skyscrapers of Manehattan seemed obscene and hollow.
"The Wolf" observed the warrior "It has followed Ix from the Maw"
"You certainly like referencing feral beasts, ¿don’t you?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"You do enjoy making loops in the air, ¿don’t you?" J´zar answered.
"Yes" the pagasus didn't seem to understand the mock.
"It was a rhetoric question!" J´zar said with playful annoyance.
The party reached the castle within the next few hours, and camped a few hundreds of meters away from it. J´zar made sure not to sleep, fearing having to meet the black creature again.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
That morning J´zar scouted ahead of the ponies to check the enemy defenses. The first line of defense was a massive moat crossed by a thin bridge made of wooden boards. The bottom of the pit was shrouded in darkness, but J´zar could almost feel the stakes waiting to impale an unsure walker. Then there was what at first sight might have seemed thirty meters of open ground, but J´zar knew that was the magical barrier. After that, they would have to cross the walls (a stone barrier which had a hundred feet in height) through the door (a foot and a half of solid oak, defended by a whole squadron of spearmen) or climbing over it, though J´zar thought the last option was impossible because of the archers and the pony’s lack of climbing skill.
"¿What are you doing?" Pinkie Pie sprung from a bush behind J´zar and spoke, or more like yelled, with cheers.
"¡Silence!" J´zar hissed, covering Pinkie’s mouth with one hand to prevent her from speaking anymore "¡Unless you want our hides to hang on Ix’s halls!"
Pinkie Pie said something, but the sound came out muffled from J´zar’s hand. The warrior let her go.
"Don’t worry" the mare whispered "We’ll be silent as shadows in midnight. ¿What do we got?"
"The fortress is unassailable via common methods" J´zar said with critic eye "We must use unorthodox procedures then"
"¡Unorthodox is my specialty!" a voice said from behind. Rainbow Dash was there.
J´zar hissed again to prevent the sound for rising too much.
"¿So what’s the plan?" the multi-colored mare asked.
"I have not girted one yet" J´zar answered "But I have an idea"
"Hey girls…" Twilight Sparkle appeared in the small open area behind the two ponies and the man.
"¡And guys!" J´zar remembered the librarian.
"And guys…" Twilight sighed "If we are going to attack, we better do it now"
"Three of your friends are missing" J´zar remembered Twilight.
"¿Who’s missin’?" Applejack asked from behind a nearby tree.
"Not me, certainly" Rarity affirmed, appearing from behind a pile of rocks.
"Nor me" Fluttershy said, descending with a flutter of wings from another tree.
"¿Is this a bloody spying contest or what?" J´zar said "¿Why are you all here?"
"We just thought you might want to finish this as soon as possible," Twilight Sparkle explained, slightly proud of herself "so I grouped them up"
"Well, that I did not expect…" J´zar said "But to the matter, then. The enemy has secured himself inside that massive castle over there. He is protected by several layers of defensive mechanisms, including a magical seal, which you, Twilight, will have to shatter"
"¿And how will we do that, my dear?" Rarity asked "¿Teamwork?
"¡Ha!" J´zar grinned "I have something better than teamwork. I have a plan"
"Now here’s my plan" J´zar said as he drawn lines on the dust in the forest floor “X” Represents the pegasii. “O” Represents the other four ponies, and that triangle is me. First, “X” flies above the castle to draw their attention while “O” shatters the magical shielding. Then, the triangle charges in and distracts the guards as “O” goes through a secret door located in the left side of the castle…"
"¡Wait a second!" Rainbow Dash stopped her friend "¿What secret door?"
"All castles have a secondary door to allow quick escape should it be necessary. That door probably leads into the main plaza. From there, “O” will open the front doors and let the triangle pass inside. ¿Any questions?" J´zar finished.
"Umm, yes, if you don’t mind." Fluttershy said "If we (the pegasii) are supposed to draw the archer’s attention ¿wouldn’t that mean they would shoot us?"
"¡Of course, my little friend!" J´zar answered "But I’m sure skilled fliers such as you two will have no trouble dodging them. ¿Any other? ¿No? Perfect"
The group carefully approached the bridge. J´zar deemed it safe to cross it. With the old warrior at the head and the six mares carefully following him, they started to tread the relatively short bridge. Each step made it creak and squeak, and the ponies (especially Fluttershy) moved very slowly, fearing the next step to be the last. With a cracking sound, one of the boards broke and a short scream was heard. Rarity had stepped in the wrong board, but luckily her leg was perfectly fine, only stuck in the bridge.
"¡Damn it!" J´zar cursed "Be more careful next time, Rarity"
"¿And how am I supposed to know where to step?" the mare complained.
"Just move a little softer. Fluttershy does it like a professional" J´zar admitted, pulling Rarity out of the gap. The team made it past the bridge without any other inconvenient. At the other side, J´zar raised his clenched fist, to mark the mares to stop. They came to a halt too suddenly, and they all bumped into each other. J´zar pulled out the flask filled with blood from his pockets, and gave it to Twilight Sparkle.
"Disable the shield, please" he instructed.
"Ummm, this…I…" the mare babbled. Actually, she had no idea on how to break the shield, but she had to try. She lifted the small vial using her magic, and focused. She thought of a bubble standing between her and the stronghold, and imagined the bubble exploding while channeling magic through the flask. At first, nothing happened, but then Twilight started to feel some sort of strength preventing her from breaking the field. She focused harder to overcome the barrier. Her magic started to drain, but the wall of energy was slowly becoming shorter. Twilight put to the task the last of her strengths on overcoming the obstacle and the mare felt something pulling her entrails up to her throat when the barrier finally disappeared. She kneeled down and fully crumbled on the floor shaking and panting as if she had been running a marathon. J´zar grabbed her in the shoulder and made her look into his yellow eyes.
"¿Twilight? ¿Do you hear me?" he said, though his voice reached Twilight vaguely.
"Y-Y-Yes…" Twilight managed to mutter.
"¿Are you alright?" J´zar sounded worried "You just dispelled a very powerful magic"
"I…I think so" The unicorn answered, still breathing heavily "I never felt such a thing before"
"Being tired is common after doing such a feat" J´zar pointed out.
"No, it’s not that" Twilight rose to her hooves, her legs shaking like leafs in a storm "I felt something far greater than common magic behind that barrier"
"Bad sign" J´zar foreshadowed "We must move on. Stick to the plan"
Rainbow Dash nodded and shook her head towards Fluttershy, signaling the takeoff. Both pegasii flied off the earth and into the sky, making a wide detour around the castle to finally fly over it. As soon as they did, screams and orders were heard as the Banished ran to their bows and started firing. The pegasii, however, were more skilled than what they looked like, quickly outmatching the archers.
"Now it’s our turn" J´zar said pulling both swords out of their sheaths. With a furious roar, the warrior charged the enemy, quickly engaging in a bloody melee. J´zar was very careful to control his bloodlust, for blind rage was not needed then. At the corner of his eye, the warrior saw the other four ponies sneaking through the trapdoor at the castle’s side. “They better open that door quickly!” J´zar thought. A spearman tried to stab him from behind, but J´zar quickly swirled around and plunged his sword in the chest of the Banished as blood splattered the ground. But another one had taken the opportunity and cut J´zar across the ankle. J´zar kneeled to the ground in pain, and the spearmen left formed a phalanx in front of the pit separating the raised bridge from the rest of the place. J´zar heard a creak as the chains holding the door started to loosen.
"You should be wary when near doors" he warned the Banished "¡They open in the worst situations!"
The creatures looked surprised to the skies as the chains totally loosened and the bridge smashed down upon the unlucky traitors. From the other side, a high pitched voice said:
"That door was very hard to open" Rarity whined "¡I totally ruined my hooves!"
"Don’ worry, sugarcube" Applejack answered "Ah’m pretty sure ya’ll get ‘em fixed"
"¡This is something reality show hosts are going to talk about for days!" Pinkie happily yelled.
J´zar feared for their safety inside an enemy base for a second, but the archers were very busy trying to kill Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. J´zar picked them off one by one. It wasn’t very hard, as they were totally focused on firing their bows. But something troubled the old warrior: most of the Banished knew how to use a bow. And the guards at the door had spears. ¿What could allow the Banished to gain such abilities?
J´zar walked down the stairs leading to the door of the main building: a square tower the size of a city block. He reunited with the mares at the entrance of the secondary fortification.
"That was so…so…¡Awesome!" Rainbow Dash screamed "I need to assault castles more often"
"Oh my young mare, fun is only getting started" J´zar said entering the castle.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
The halls of the castle were dead empty and completely silent.
Not a single sound could be heard besides the hooves of the mares and the sabatons of J´zar. The warrior was very careful with every sound.
"This place is very creepy" Rarity commented "¿why do they call it “The Wolf” anyways?"
"Before joining the Order, Ix used to be a very famous hunter" explained J´zar "For every wolf he killed, he hanged the beast’s pelt on the walls of his castle. So the castle came to be known as “The Wolf’s hide”. After he joined the order it was simplified to “The Wolf”. Bad habits never leave, I guess"
"¿What do you mean?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"Most warriors (Me included) take trophies from defeated enemies, such as fingers, ears, tongues" J´zar said "Ix, however, flayed the bodies of his best adversaries and hanged their skins from his walls as he used to do with wolves. That earned him the hate of many"
"¿What? ¿Why?" Twilight pressed on.
"If a spirit’s body is flayed, the spirit cannot rest in peace until the skin is restored to the body" J´zar sighed, as if anypony was supposed to know what flaying did to spirits "Denying rest to a respected enemy is seen as selfish by my Order"
"In Ponyville you mentioned that the castle was defended in the inside too" questioned Rainbow Dash "¿Why isn’t it defended here?"
J´zar remembered that battle.
The newly appointed Commander had led him and Lethe (another Principal) into the Wolf, each one in charge of a few hundred men. The battle outside the castle was intense, surrounded by the piercing shrieks of the Banished, stepping in the bodies of fallen enemies and brothers alike. The fighting inside the castle was even worse however. Upon entering the castle, things went horribly wrong. Hundreds of nightmarish creatures summoned from various dimension attacked them at the same time. Mythological monsters fought against men, talons cleaved armor and swords sliced off limbs. J´zar still remembered the smell. Oh, gods, how much he hated the smell. The smell of blood, of sweat and sulfur. A smell that made his eyes weep. Something so utterly horrible that his entire vision got blurry. Each meter took dozens of lives, but the idea of killing a traitor was the entire stimulus the warriors needed.
"Don’t complain of what favors you" J´zar said, his voice dangerously low "Or I’ll give you something to complain about"
The mares stopped their walk instantly and backed off, slightly scared of J´zar’s reaction.
They passed through a corridor which displayed a great dining hall, with a red silk tablecloth, and tens of comfortable velvet-lined chairs. Dishes, silverware and glasses were nowhere to be seen. At the other side of the table there was a single door eight meters wide and three meters tall. The hinges were studded and reinforced with iron strips. The door itself was made entirely out of iron, and it was locked with a large iron bar. It seemed that whatever was on one side wouldn’t be able to get to the other.
On the other hand, if the group continued forward, they would have to cross a large stone arch which leaded into a long and lonely hallway. Besides the arch there was a lever. The pole was made of silver and ventured into a groove in the stone floor. The small handle was wrapped in leather to keep the grip firm. It looked as if it came from a time machine.
"¿What path do we take?" Applejack asked.
"Both seem dangerous" J´zar reasoned "That lever might leave us trapped if something pops from behind and pulls it. But it’s the only open way"
A massive roar was heard, and it shocked even the great iron door.
J´zar drew his swords and adopted a traditional defensive fighting stance.
"¡Get behind me!" the warrior shouted.
"No way we’re…" Rainbow Dash started speaking, but she was cut short by another roar and the sounds of the metal door being pounced upon.
"Hiding sounds pretty good now" she rephrased herself.
The mares ran and swiftly hid behind a wall, sticking their heads around the corner to watch J´zar, who was still standing in front of the door. J´zar was observing the door undaunted as each hit made the steel tremble like a leaf dripping water. The door started to give in as the reinforced hinges creaked and began to slowly but surely break down. Another furious roar shocked the ears of the scared watchers as a series of hits were heard. Then silence.
"¿Is it…?" Applejack asked.
"No" J´zar answered carefully.
The entire arch of the door bursted into debris as the monster at the other side stood among the dense cloud of dust, unable to be seen. When the dust finally cleared and the figure could be distinguished in the middle of the torn apart arch, none of the mares could hold a gasp.
A lion so huge it couldn’t fit in the enormous gateway leading to the dining table was there looking at J´zar with maddened fury bristling on its bloodshot eyes. Its claws were so sharp they could disembowel a fully grown cow in a single swipe, and its maw (lined with two rows of teeth dirty with the remains of its fleshy nourishment) could easily accommodate a laying pony. Its bronze-like skin was shining to the small amount of light coming from the few windows.
"¡I’m sure you’ll look excellent as a carpet!" J´zar said, throwing a knife directly at the beast’s head. On a normal lion, the knife would have pierced through the skull and into the brain, killing it instantly. But this was no normal lion, as the knife harmlessly bounced off the monster’s skin, as if it was armored.
"That is new" J´zar admitted. He barely had time to dodge the swiping claw as it crashed into the leftmost wall "¡I wonder why giant wild animals won’t stop trying to kill me!"
The lion roared again and tried to swallow J´zar whole, but the warrior was too fast and twisted around his heels to slash the lion across the flank. The sword slid off his skin like a knife against a sharping stone. “Damn it!” J´zar quickly reasoned. “My swords can’t kill it…but maybe…”. The idea brought a beam of hope into the warrior’s soul.
Using the table as a jump booster, he threw himself over the monster’s head and into its back. The lion roared furiously and started bucking with rage, trying to get J´zar off his back. However, the warrior kept a firm grip on the beast’s mane and quickly surrounded its neck with one arm and used the other to press the grip. The beast tried to get him off many more times, but J´zar kept his arm firmly locked around the creature’s neck. Finally, the monstrous lion fell to the ground rattling. It raised a leg for the last time before his entire body went loose. It didn’t move anymore.
J´zar sat in the lion’s belly and wiped the sweat from his neck. He was breathing heavily. The mares knew he was very old (perhaps as old as Princess Celestia) but until then, they had never seen him as an old person.
"That was a real challenge" he managed to gurgle "Now let’s check that hallway before…"
A very soft but undeniable sound of screams came from further down the door the lion had come through.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar rose to his feet quicker than what it seemed possible.
“We have to get the hell out of this place” he signaled “Lest you wish to become some monster’s lunch.”
He and the mares walked over to the lever very quickly and soon they were on the other side. J´zar pulled the lever, but the only thing that opened was another door at the very end of the long hallway.
“Come on! Follow me!” J´zar said, running already towards the opened stone door.
Save for Applejack, who was growing suspicious on him, none of the mares doubted even for a second before galloping behind J´zar. The sounds of claws scratching stone were louder now, and when Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder, she saw what was making that sound.
What could be best described as an army of monsters was just turning around the corner to chase them. Groups of monstrous birds with gnarling snakes instead of claws, wolfs with rooster legs, women with the lower part of their bodies turned into serpentine tails, huge insects and so many other creatures it would be impossible to describe them.
“That was…close…” Rarity said “Why are they so obsessed with you?”
“They probably still remember the battle where we killed hundreds of those things” J´zar theorized.
“So, ¿are ya telling me they’re chasing us because of ya?” Applejack asked “¿Ya led us here with all those things out there an’ never warned?”
“¿Maybe that door?” Twilight Sparkle suggested. Indeed, a tall stone door was guarding the other wall of the room. Besides that, there was nothing else that could serve as an escape route.
“Hmmm” J´zar mumbled “I see no switch, no lever, anything. We should look at the door itself.”
“This door doesn’t say anything I understand” He explained “But maybe there are hidden locks or keys”
The mares helped him check the walls, the doors and the floor, but didn’t find anything that could open the door or signal the way to do so. In fury, J´zar punched the door, but it did not even drop dust.
“¿Have you tried asking kindly?” Fluttershy wondered.
“¡Hello there, mister giant!” J´zar said mockingly, beating the door three time “¿Would you please open the door?”
He snorted in annoyance.
“Now what?” Fluttershy asked.
“¡I’ll ram it with your thick skull, and if that doesn’t open it, at least I’ll have some peace and quiet to think without disturbances!” J´zar furiously yelled “¡Next time you open your snout, try not to ask stupid questions!”
Fluttershy blushed and backed off, hiding behind her mane. J´zar immediately felt guilt stabbing his heart like a knife.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy” He said kneeling to stand the same height as the pegasus “I did not pretend to make you feel bad. It’s not your fault I can’t open a door”
She raised her head and looked at J´zar. A few tears were coming off her eyes.
“You mean it?” she said blowing her nose.
“Yes” the warrior answered, his heart slightly softer “I mean it”
Fluttershy gave him a dim smile.
“Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds, but we have a door to open” Rainbow Dash remembered them.
“Yes, indeed we do” J´zar accepted, rising to his feet.
He examined the gate yet again. But this time, he noticed something special. One of the signs looked exactly like a reversed “A”.
“¿Any of you has a mirror?” he asked.
“Why yes, dear, I always carry one in case my mane gets all ruined and needs to be fixed” Rarity said, pulling a mirror made of purple plastic out of her saddlebag.
J´zar grabbed the mirror and used it on the door. He managed to read a few words etched into the stone, written reversed:
“Search in the belly of the bronze horse and rub the iron nail in it”
“¿What?” J´zar exclaimed “¿That’s all?”
He told the mares what the door said.
“¡I see no nail in here!” Pinkie Pie said laying on the floor looking at her stomach.
“It was obviously not speaking about a living pony” Twilight reasoned “Nopony could survive such a wound”
“¿But what horse then?” Fluttershy asked.
“¡I was such a fool!” J´zar said, slapping his own forehead “¡A horse!”
“¿What did you find?” inquired Twilight Sparkle.
“In geology, a “horse” is a chunk of rock separated from the rest” J´zar explained “¡The message was speaking about a loose stone around here!”
“¿Like the one I’m laying over?” Pinkie asked. She stood up and revealed that below her there was a metallic rock below her. In the middle of it there was a small stud, like a button. J´zar pressed it and the door creaked open, moving on its rusty hinges, like a monstrous machine opening its maw.
The room behind the door was hexagonal, with a ramp in the middle leading to another hexagonal platform. In the platform there was a throne made of yew, and sitting in it there was Ix, the Arch-Traitor.
“¡J´zar, my companion! ¡Long time no see!” Ix greeted the party “¿May I ask why are you here, brother?”
“I am no longer your brother, Ix. You lost your place in the brotherhood when you betrayed us.” J´zar calmly answered. “You know very well why your wardens come when you leave your cell. To put you back in it”
“¡Ah, J´zar, if you knew how ignorant you are being, you would act in other ways!” Ix said, laughing “It was not me who betrayed the Order. It was the Order who betrayed me”
“¿How can a master bite his dog’s paw?” J´zar launched “No Ix, I know the tale of your felonies far too well how to be fooled by them”
“¡¿Are you so blind you still believe the lies of the Order, even when someone tells you otherwise?!” Ix exclaimed.
“¡The dead man scares the slain!” J´zar yelled back at him “¿How could I believe the man who betrayed many of my brothers?”
“I see there is no use in this speech” Ix said resigned “There is a small line between loyalty and zealotry, J´zar. And you crossed it”
Ix stood up from his throne and showed his full height. He was wearing a white robe of thick silk and a white mask with only two horns which made it look like a three-sticked “H”. From behind his throne he pulled out a long, double-bladed axe. He had to hold it in two hands, for he could not even lift it with one. As answer, J´zar drew both of his swords and walked up the first steps in the ramp.
“¿Can’t we solve this talking?” Twilight asked.
J´zar pointed at Ix with one of his swords.
“¡Go back to the Maw!” he said firmly.
“¡No! ¡I shall never return!” Ix answered.
“Don’t say I didn’t try.” J´zar warned before charging at Ix.
The warriors clashed with fury. J´zar feinted and stabbed at Ix, but he parried the blows with ease. Ix kept swinging his axe at J´zar, but he was too fast for the cumbersome weapon, and rolled under it or moved it away using it as joint to swing around Ix and attack his back. But still, Ix and J´zar seemed to be equally skillful and could not find any weaknesses in the other’s defenses. J´zar attempted a stab at Ix’s chest, but the traitor deflected the blow and set his axe on the floor, using it as pivot to smash his fist in J´zar’s face. J´zar fell to the floor from the shock of the impact. Ix had paid a price too: his knuckles were bleeding due to the punch to the warrior’s iron mask. As J´zar tried to stand up, Ix stomped on his chest and raised his axe with both hands.
“¡It seems I am the deadliest warrior!” Ix said, not taking any hurry now that his enemy was helpless “¡How fitting you die in my trophy room!”
In the middle of Ix’s laughter, J´zar noticed the dozens of human skins hanged on the walls, all of different sizes and colors.
“¿Want to pronounce your epitaph?” Ix mocked lifting his axe.
“¡Raise ravens and they will gouge out your eyes!” J´zar screamed.
“¡If you detest your brothers so much…!” he said punching Ix in the face. Ix freed himself from J´zar’s grasp and ran back to his throne. He raised his arms and invoked some sort of spell. Another white gateway opened in the middle of the throne and long tentacles started to spawn from it “¡…Nobody forces you to share a world with them!”
J´zar pushed Ix to the portal. The tentacles reacted and grabbed him by the legs, shoulders, waist and neck. He tried to scream but the tentacles constricted his neck and dragged him back into the portal. The last thing the mares and J´zar saw of him was his left hand, marked with the Nameless Rune reaching out of the portal and trying to hold into something.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
As soon as Ix's skeletal hand faded away in the portal, the white hole started to develop its own tentacles of white light, which spread around the throne like a mesh, and then into the floor. Soon, the whole throne was entirely white. The voracious anomaly, however, did not stop.
The walls cracked, the wooden beams holding the stone roof creaked and the entire place trembled. White veins started to appear from the cracked walls and the damaged beams, quickly covering them entirely and proceeding onto other objects.
J´zar backed off from the throne as one white tendril tried to leash around its ankle.
"¡We must leave!" the warrior demanded "¡NOW!"
They ran towards the open door and reached the other room. The door was still closed, but it was also, as everything else, being covered quickly in white strands which leahed and writhed as if they were the hair of a monstrous creature. J´zar approached the lever and pulled it down, opening the door before the mares could say anything. Applejack was about to warn J´zar of the ravenous hordes of monster that laid behind the threshold, but she swallowed her words when she saw the hallway.
The monsters were running madly around it, trying to escape the white tentacles as they surrounded their bodies and heads, quickly engulfing even the largest monsters. Some were (apparently) less lucky: a wolf tried to run away from the leashes, but then a flash of electricity sprouted from the white things in the walls and hit it right in the chest. The wolf's head started spurt blood through eyes, nose and mouth. Soon the body was also devoured by the white mesh.
"¿What the hay is going on here?" Twilight Sparkle asked as they ran through the long hallway.
"¡The Wolf returns to the Maw!" J´zar yelled "¡Without Ix, the only thing that bound it here disappears!"
"¿And what does the Maw look like?" Twilight asked again, her mane flowing behind her as a white vortex of pure nothingness started to swallow that wing of the castle.
"¡If the Council banished Ix there, it's probably filled with barbed wire, sentry crossbows and psychotic killers!" J´zar theorized.
They turned around a corner and ran directly through the gate the massive lion had come through, soon finding themselves in a secluded area with a big staircase leading into the heights of the main tower.
"¡Come on!" urged J´zar, quickly ascending through the steps.
The mares followed him, except for Rainbow Dash, who preferred to fly up the tower, following them. When they had already turned aroudn several times, they noticed the white tentacles were following them, creeping up on the steps and constricting themselves in the spandrels.
Suddenly, as the first six members of the party crossed a section of the stair, three stepswere torn apart by the tentacles. Rarity would have fallen right into them wasn't it for J´zar, who quickly raced back and grabbed her by the only thing that he could grasp on.
The mare yelled in protest when J´zar grabbed her white horn and held her aloft.
"¡Not by the horn!" Rarity whimpered before being pulled back into the stair.
They continued ascending through the stairs and promptly reached the top of the main tower. J´zar looked around just to find themselves trapped atop the tower, a white mesh of nothingness pursuing them and surrounding the party.
"¡Twilight!" J´zar yelled.
"¡¿Yes?!" she answered.
"¡Get us out of here!" J´zar ordered.
The librarian focused and soon a halo of pink energy surrounded her horn. Just as the tentacles were about to rip them to shreds, J´zar heard a boom and was blinded by a flash of light. He saw a fast sequence of images, which blurred into darkness as he felt the soft breeze under his feet. The feeling only lasted a second before an object crashed against his back and threw him to the floor. That object was Pinkie Pie.
Since Twilight Sparkle had very little time to plan the teleportation spell, all of the beings would appear in disorder in the desired area. Unluckily, Pinkie had used J´zar's back as landing spot. Fate seemed to be playing a bad joke on J´zar, since the other five mares landed on top of him as well. The warrior disappeared under the bodies of the six mares.
With significant ammounts of yelling and being hit in the face by hooves, J´zar managed to escape from under the mares. The ponies quickly helped each other to their hooves and they were soon laughing of the incident.
"I'm sorry" Twilight excused herself "I am not very good with that spell if I don't get preparation enough"
"Nevermind" J´zar calmly assured "Being crushed under six ponies is not the worst injury I have sustained"
J´zar stayed calm just to provide example, as he was used to do with his own soldiers. But inside, he was very unsure. First, there was the subject of pony-human interaction. ¿What would happen if governments learned of this alternate dimension? Nothing good, of course. J´zar knew humans far too well how to trust on their peace and truces.
Secondly, ¿what about the inhabitants of this dimension? J´zar had barely learned anything about them. And their physiology would surely interest medics. But again, the test they would submit them too would not be very pleasant.
Lastly, there was J´zar himself. He was not sure on what to do. Now that Ix was dead, there was no reason for him to remain there. He could return to his world, to his known land. He would reassume his old lifestyle, and continue on his duty, as he always did. Then ¿why the idea didn't please him at all?
He had to admit he was taking affection on the mares. Their company was entertaining and distracted him from the horrors of his own world. But besides that, he believed that all other ponies were extremely immature, even naive. Everytime J´zar questioned his own thoughts, he could only find even more convincing facts to defend his theory.
"¿Now what?" he asked out loud, as if the world could provide a better answer than his own.
"Well, we probably should report to the Princess" Twilight Sparkle suggested.
"Good idea" J´zar accepted, trying to postpone his decisions.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar had told Twilight that he preferred not to meet Celestia again. He excused himself saying that he was tired.
Indeed J´zar was, but the indecision he felt only made it worst. J´zar didn't want to think about it, but the subject just kept coming back to his head all the time.
"Okay then, I'll go" Twilight answered to J´zar's plea.
J´zar saw her depart in another blast of magic.
"So ¿what now? For us ponies, I mean" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I wish I could answer you, little mare" J´zar thought inside his head. Just then he remembered he had a report to give as well.
"I advise you to salute any other friends you might have" J´zar said, trying to get the mares off his back "I'm sure they are worried about you".
Saying various sentences of agreement, the mares departed towards the town. They didn't seem to notice J´zar wasn't following them at all, just staying behind. As soon as they were out of sight, he ran off to a nearby tree, slammed his back against the trunk of the tree and pulled out his radio. J´zar turned it on and waited.
"J´zar...¿you there?" the interferences made the words of Sp´hre almost unintelligible.
"Yes, Commander" J´zar answered.
"Good. ¿What is it? ¿Is Ix dead?" she asked.
"Yes he is" J´zar said, happy to give good news "But I do not know what to do now. I must admit this dimension has a certain allure in it".
"¿What's the special thing about it?" Sp´hre inquired yet again.
"Oh, nothing in particular" J´zar didn't knew exactly why was he hiding things "But it looks promising, with green fields and a lovely weather, at least for now"
"¡Well then, I guess we'll be glad to have you back!" Sp´hre spoke happily, not knowing that those words both calmed and terrified J´zar at the same time.
"J´zar out, Commander" he said, cutting the communication.
J´zar had his answers. He was leaving. He had to.
J´zar walked away from behind the tree, wandering into the town. He felt lost, as if a single piece of him was missing. Inside, he wanted to stay. Even though at the beginning of the trip he felt a certain dislike for the mares that were his partners, there are some things one can't go through without befriending those who accompanied you in them.
Just as he was starting to feel horrible, Twilight Sparkle reappered besides him in yet another blast of magical energy.
"Wow, we are like two squares away from the main plaza ¿what's wrong with me today?" Twilight told Spike (who was sitting on her back)as she gave a puzzled look around until she found J´zar "¡Oh, there you are!"
"Listen Twilight..." J´zar started saying. But suddenly he changed his mind. The fatalism that had traveled in life alongside him was now telling him that his departure was inevitable. No need to make it harder.
"¿What is it?" the unicorn asked before J´zar could rephrase himself.
"Oh, nothing, nevermind" the warrior hid up his lapsus "¿So? ¿What did the Princess say?"
"She says she wants to personally congratulate you" Twilight said "and asked Pinkie to set up a party"
"¿A party?" J´zar asked worried. He had never been fond of parties. Too much noise for his ears.
"Outdoors" the mare explained. J´zar sighed in relief. Parties he didn't like. Banquets were a different matter "¡The whole town is invited!" Twilight finshed.
J´zar felt his soul falling to the floor yet again. Sneaking out of a large dinner table would be very hard with everyone watching him. The gears of his mind were already working down a plan.
The preparations of the banquet kept the six mares busy as they worked on their respective responsabilities. J´zar saw Fluttershy teaching a few birds how to sing a cheerful melody as he walked past a bifurcation on the road. Curiosity got the best of him, and he approached the mare. The birds, perched on a branch of a dead tree growing in the small patch of earth between the two roads, stopped singing as soon as they saw J´zar approaching. Without any other warning, they spread their wings and flew away.
"¿What happened guys?" Fluttershy said. Since she was looking at the tree, she couldn't see J´zar walking towards her from behind.
"Hello" J´zar said when he was just thirty centimeters away from her.
The cream-colored mare let out something mid-ways between a squeal and a scream as she turned around.
"I'm sorry if I startled you" J´zar said.
"Erm...no...you didn't" Fluttershy curled up into a ball. Her fore and hind legs were almost touching due to her positon.
"¿What are you doing?" the warrior said curious.
Fluttershy muttered something so low and so fast J´zar didn't catch a single word.
"Ummm...yes, excellent work" J´zar said, unsure if the answer was logical "¿Mind if I sit here for a while?"
Fluttershy shook her head. J´zar sat on the ground at her side and let out a sigh. It was probably the last chance they would have to talk.
"¿Why are you so shy?" he asked. The nature of people's actions and feelings had always been an interesting topic for J´zar, and he was planning on expanding it to ponies.
Fluttershy remained silent.
"¿Is it because you are afraid of sounding stupid?" J´zar realized he asked because he felt pity on the mare "Please, tell me"
"I-I guess. Maybe" Fluttershy managed to say. She had changed position again. Now she sat on her hindquarters, putting her front hooves in the ground.
"In that case, let me tell you that you are a very smart mare in my opinion, regardless of what any other man or pony says" J´zar tried to comfort her "¡And I have never met before someone so skilled with animals!"
Fluttershy looked at him smiling.
"Thanks you" she said, rubbing her nose against J´zar's arm.
"Nevermind. It's my pleasure to help a friend" J´zar answered scratching her behind the right ear "But now we should get going. It's going to get late"
Flutteshy nodded and got up. She and J´zar started walking towards the town. When the mare and the man reached the main city, they couldn't keep going. The majority of the street was occupied by a massive table which was apparently designed to accomodate an entire town. Which was exactly what it was doing. There was nopony sitting at it, but the mares and stallions around it seemed to be very nervous about something.
Twilight Sparkle approached them.
"¡Oh, praise Celestia you didn't appear here late!" she said "J´zar's seat is up there, at the head of the table, right besides the Princess, and Fluttershy goes with the other five below them" Twilight finished explaining their positioning and ran away, evidently in a hurry.
The bystanders started to take their seats. Fluttershy was standing at the side of a small wooden coat hanger. She seemed to be talking with a flock of birds who where perched on the coat hanger. Shortly after, the birds emitted a symphony of chirps and from behind the throne at the head of the table appeared Princess Celestia, walking solemnly towards her seat. She took her seat and pronounced a formal speech on how prideful she was of several things. J´zar (like many other ponies) was bored by the speech. The only speeches which managed to captivate him where the ones about glorious battles and similar things.
But finally, the speech ended and the Princess took the first bite out of a delicious salad the royal chefs had made specially for that ocasion.
J´zar used his first opportunity to leave the table, saying he needed to relieve himself. He made a dash for the forest entrance without any pony seeing him. He found the white portal still hanging there. He took a last look behind his shoudlers to the town and took a step forward. A voice called for him before he could take the final step into the portal.
"¿J´zar?" said Fluttershy.
"¿Fluttershy?" the aforementioned was equally shocked "¿Why aren't you at the party?"
"I was returning the birds to their homes when I saw you over here" the mare explained "By the way ¿what is that thing over there? If it doesn't bothers you, of course"
"It's a portal to my dimension" J´zar said dejectedly.
"Oh. So you are leaving" Fluttershy hid her face behind her pink mane "¿Can I come?"
"No, you can't, my child" J´zar said hiding his sorrow with a smile.
"¿Why are you leaving?" she said, not able to hold the tears anymore "¿You hate us?"
"No. I like you six a lot" he affirmed "But my job is to fight corruption. And here I find none"
"¿Are you happier there?" the pegasus asked again, walking closer to him.
"Yet again, no. I am happier here" J´zar said "But there is people who need me at the other side. I can't be so selfish how to care only about me"
"Please ¿will I ever see you again?" Fluttershy cried out. She was standing just in front of J´zar.
"I will dream with you, and you will dream with me. So yes, you will still see me" J´zar smiled. He kneeled and hugged Fluttershy, surrounding her neck and upper back with his arm. Fluttershy hugged back, resting her head over the warrior's shoulder.
"Goodbye, Fluttershy" J´zar said. He smelled her mane again. It had the smell of fresh leaves and moist ground, the smell of mossy wood and rain water. The smell of the forest.
J´zar broke the hug, stood up and walked into the portal.
Arriving on the other side, J´zar saw Zephir and Sp´hre standing a few meters away from him.
"¿So? ¿How was it?" the Commander asked.
"Not now, Commander" J´zar said gently but firmly "I must check the archives"
"¿Where the hell have I heard their names before?" he mumbled to himself.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
The sky was bristling with stars.
Men thought on how bright they were, and women felt envy of them due to their numerous colors. Yet in the depths of open space, where the hard rule of the vacuum dwarfs all other things, a storm was brewing. For thousands of years such a rift had not happened, yet this time, the rift was stronger, and had much more definite colors. It was, in a sense, more real. With a sound that would have deafened worlds should it happen inside an atmosphere, yet fully silent in the outer space, the overwhelming darkness started to open, first with a small chink, which quickly widened into a strip of alabaster whiteness. Finally, within a few moments, the rift had taken the diameter of a gas giant. It was a hole in the fabric of the universe which ventured into the unknown.
Hundreds of light years away, a similar gateway opened, and this time attached to the ground of the Yellowstone National Park, and yet another one in the Everfree forest.
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar crossed the risky bridge with celerity, careful not to make it collapse under the bulk of his armor. The six manes followed him. There was a short path leading to the bridge and into the castle, but the main door, which was old and rotten, was locked with a massive log.
"How are we going to get past that?" Rarity asked.
"Applejack, help me with this, please" J´zar said, grabbing the log.
The pony walked over to him and helped J´zar push the log away from the door. The warrior then rammed the door open.
"That’s how" He said before proceeding into the castle.
"The funny thing," said Twilight Sparkle as she followed J´zar "is that this door was not locked last time"
J´zar was paying little attention, however, for his mind was obsessed with the old armors and chairs which rested around the main hall. At the end of the hall there was a stone throne, filled with ancient carvings.
"I don’t remember this place looking like this before too" mumbled Twilight Sparkle, worried about that.
"Maybe Ix had it remodeled" J´zar suggested "He is the kind of person that would like to overrule ancient castles to use them as strongholds"
Everything smelled of oldness, and all armors and chairs were covered in spider webs, a testimony to how much time had passed since it was utilized.
"We need to find anything to inform us of how to destroy magical barriers" J´zar explained "Rarity and Twilight Sparkle should check the main halls and rooms. Applejack and Pinkie Pie will search the dungeons under the castle. Rainbow Dash will go with Fluttershy to inspect the towers"
"¿And why are you telling us what to do?" Rainbow Dash defied.
"If you have any other ideas, I am willing to hear them" J´zar said.
"Well…no not really" Rainbow Dash said, slightly ashamed.
"Then go" J´zar said "May your adventures be stricken with luck"
"¿And…umm…sir?" Fluttershy asked "¿What…erm…what about you?"
"I will stay here and see if I can find anything of use" said J´zar, looking through the considerable library which was positioned on shelves at the sides of the throne.
Each team said a few goodbye words before departing into their respective objectives. J´zar hoped they would work great.
Twilight and Rarity walked through the door left of the first hall, and found themselves inside a dining room outfitted with a table which encompassed almost the entire room, with chairs placed at both sides. The whole place was filled with webs of spiders long dead.
"¡Eww!" Rarity whined "¡This place is so nasty!"
"Focus, friend, we have a task to accomplish" Twilight Sparkle answered.
"Of course, ¿but couldn’t we do just a little bit of cleaning?" Rarity begged.
"¡No! There is no time" Twilight put her friend back in place.
"Alright, fine" Rarity wasn't in the mood for arguing.
The two ponies searched the place, but besides the bodies of a few dead spiders, they could not find anything. Twilight and Rarity proceeded to the next hall, hoping to find the information they needed. In this one there was nothing but lagoon-sized bathtubs and boxes which seemed carts filled with shampoos, towels and aromatic soaps. The next room had an excellent collection of what seemed to be stuffed animals and dolls. They found many rooms, including one with a small theatre, a cathedral to ancient gods, and finally, a long hallway whose walls were covered in hangings depicting elaborated figures.
"Hey, Rarity, look at this one" Twilight Sparkle said as she looked on a noteworthy hanging.
"¿What is it?" Rarity asked as she walked towards the ragged piece of cloth.
These words were inscribed upon the hanging:
“From the world of cruelty, a warrior will fall. A terrible lord of battle, clad in armor black as a murder, his eyes shimmering with rage. Blood is the only thing that sates him, battle his only joy. His blade is sharp, his eyes are keen and his assault is unrelenting. No mere pony will stand up to his litany of hatred. He will battle the White Ghost, shattering his transparent armor with a fist of great power, and he will save the fate of ponykind. ”
"This is something important" Twilight said "I can feel it"
"Me too, dear" answered Rarity "We better take it back to J´zar"
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew to the first tower, one which was perfectly straight.
"Fluttershy,"Said Rainbow Dash as she landed inside the middle floor, the only on with a working window "You check the rooms above us while I check the ones below"
Rainbow Dash rushed towards the stairs, descending into the room below. That tower in particular must have been used as some sort of attic, for it was filled with coffins and chests, most of them filled with useless things such as stained parchment or broken telescopes. One of them, however, contained a perfect set of what seemed to be maps of the Everfree forest.
A loud “¡Click!” was heard as the small string which was sewn into the parchment broke. Rainbow Dash instantly knew something had gone wrong, and as she shouted “Fluttershy, get out of here!”, Rainbow Dash also spread her own wings and flied towards the exit.
Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, and Rainbow Dash felt the tower tilt to one side, slowly but surely. “That pony is going to die in there if I don’t save her!” she thought, feeling fear’s claw around her heart. She flew through the upper hatch and into the only room above the window, where Fluttershy pushed her back against a wall, scared to the bone. Not wasting time on words, Rainbow Dash grabbed her by the left forehoof and pulled her out of her hiding place.
She tried to talk her into reality, but Fluttershy was shocked beyond that, and nothing would work. Finally, Rainbow Dash decided to do the simplest thing. She wrapped Fluttershy’s hooves around her own neck, and carrying such a massive weight, she used her last forces to fly out of the crumbling tower. The head of the tower never fell off, though. It only tilted massively into a 45 degree position.
The dungeon was doubtlessly the creepiest place Applejack had ever been in.
The walls were dark and the long hallways were only illuminated with small torches. However, Pinkie Pie made up for it:
"¡I wonder why they built this place! The ponies that did must have been REALLY slender!" she joked.
Applejack laughed, but it was a fake laughter. She did not really felt like laughing. It made her feel like if somepony was watching her from the dark cells.
"¿And what do you think about the new guy?" Pinkie asked.
"¿What do ya mean?" Applejack said, unsure of what to answer.
"¡What you heard, silly!" Pinkie gloomily shouted.
"Ah think he’s somebody not to mess with unless you have a death wish" She gurgled, straight to the point.
"Sometimes he can be funny" Pinkie said dreamily.
"And how are ya sure?" Applejack was dubious of J´zar's nature.
"I’m not. I just hope I’m right" Pinkie affirmed.
The duo passed through an opened wooden door which led into a chamber that had a strange machine which sported multiple metallic arms with sharp blades on the end. On the other side of the machine, however, there was a single old book.
"¿What is this?" Pinkie asked, as she reached towards the book.
Blowing the dust off the book’s cover, she read the words “Magic Disruption” emblazoned on the first page.
"This will be most likely useful" She said to Applejack.
"Let’s just bring it back to J´zar and get out of here" She said grumpily.
Then they heard a mighty roar.
J´zar had looked through most books in those shelves, yet found no answers to his questions. Apparently, those who lived there did not care much about militarism. Most of the books held many cooking recipes, but nothing more.
The first ones to come where Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. They had found an ancient hanging, which was inscribed with what seemed to be a prophecy. J´zar thought on how curious the term White Ghost was, for Ix was called that way during the third Crusade because of his white robes and mask. “¿Fist of great power?” He thought.
The second group to arrive was the pegasii. Rainbow Dash was half-dead out of pure exhaustion. Fluttershy was soundless, simply standing still and letting Rainbow drag her. J´zar rushed to help, and asked Rainbow Dash what they had found. Dash simply gave him a grim look and told him “the tower crooked” as she handled over a sheet of parchment. It was named “Banishment of magic”. J´zar read a portion of it, learning that it was about ancient methods to dispel magical effects. It said a sacrifice of blood was needed for the mightiest spells to disappear. J´zar wondered whose blood would be offered.
The last group to return was Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were scared, and their faces had an expression of shock. They hurriedly closed the door behind them and ran towards J´zar screaming for them to escape the castle.
"What is so bad"…J´zar started saying, but he didn´t managed to finish the sentence before a massive blue paw blasted the door open with a deafening roar.
J´zar and his companions ran towards the exit as the beast pursued them. Reaching the outskirts of the castle, J´zar gazed upon the creature that had pursued them throughout the door: A huge blue bear the size of a house with a shining star on his forefront had ripped open the castle’s front wall and was now staring at them with feral fury.
J´zar slowly backed away from the massive beast drawing his swords. The situation was desperate. On normal situations, six warriors of the Order under J´zar’s command could have downed the beast in minutes, but he only had six scared mares to fight with. He had to create a new strategy. A plan had already brewed in his mind, but he needed for Rainbow Dash to be as brave as she always bragged.
"Rainbow Dash! The tower!" J´zar yelled at the pony.
"¿¡What!?" Was her only answer.
"You must fly…" he dodged on of the beast’s claw swipes with skillful grace "¡…besides it!"
J´zar sled under another swipe and kicked himself off a tree to stab one of his swords into the bear’s left eye. A stream of red blood poured out from the wound as J´zar descended to the ground leaving his sword stabbed into the creature’s head. He looked at the tilted tower, and felt satisfaction as he saw Rainbow Dash flying right at its side. The plan was working.
"¡Now kick it towards her!" he shouted with the full might of his lungs. Rainbow Dash simply nodded and prepared to kick the almost loped-off tip of the tower.
However, the time it had taken to say those words had been fatal for J´zar. The bear crushed him under one of his massive paws to prevent any chance of dodge or parry and then raised one mighty claw to turn J´zar into bloody shreds.
Then, with a mighty “¡CRASH!” the top of the tower crashed into the bear, shaking it off J´zar and leaving them both crushed under an avalanche of debris. The mares held their breaths as they waited for J´zar to come out the debris. Finally, when they thought everything was lost, a pile of loose rocks was turned aside, and from it raised a healthy (though dirty) J´zar. And as salute, he uttered a single word:
"Easy"
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
J´zar woke up early. He had not slept for a long time, barely a few hours, as he would not like his companions getting killed by the Banished. J´zar ate a slice of bread he kept in his pocket. As he chewed the bread, J´zar looked at the nearest hill as the sun began to rise. Slowly, a sliver of light passed over the hill and J´zar had to look away from the father star’s brightness.
"A nice morning ¿isn’t it?" Rainbow Dash said from behind J´zar.
"Good morning" answered J´zar "I thought you would sleep forever"
"Ha! I’m the best athlete in all of Equestria! Of course I can wake up early!" prideful Rainbow Dash said.
"The same can’t be said about all of your friends" J´zar said "Though the farmer is good as you, I can say"
"Yeah, Applejack sure lives up to her reputation" answered the pegasus as she hovered above J´zar, an expression of remembrance on her face.
J´zar walked to where Twilight rested and softly shook her to wake the pony up. Between mumbles and snoring, Twilight woke up. J´zar proceeded to do the same with the other four ponies.
"C’mon, sleepers, we have a long way to tread. I’d say at least ten miles, which will take us about three days, if we hurry, and you can keep the pace" J´zar said as he kicked the ashes of the campfire to completely put them off. The ponies started getting up, and Rarity stored the sleeping bags. J´zar and Rainbow Dash went ahead and tried to spy on something from above nearest hill. When they returned, the six mares had a breakfast based on grass and daisies. J´zar used his spyglass to check the forest, just to make sure nobody followed them.
Finally, the party started to move. First, they had to carefully descend through the grassy hill, J´zar keeping a keen eye at the fields to check for holes. Then, they had to ascend the next hill, just to begin the process again. The first hours of the day passed in never-ending monotony, as J´zar and his companions focused on trespassing each hill. The wavy part of the valley didn’t last for long, however and the group had to wade through a field of grass a meter and a half tall, which ended abruptly into a plain of short grass.
"This is so boring…" Rainbow Dash complained as they started walking through the plains "I mean, back at the forest we could have some fun, fighting foes and the likes, but now it’s just plain walking"
"Travelling is a great deal of adventuring, my young friend" J´zar explained "Every journey commences with a single step"
"¿Couldn’t we just teleport to Ix’s base of operations or something?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"Maybe. But I do not think you can teleport somewhere you can’t see or never have been at" Answered the warrior "Besides, Ix will have his castle heavily guarded against magic of all sorts"
The sun started to descend from the sky yet again. J´zar hurried his companions into finding refuge to pass the night. And so they walked even faster. Finally, they reached what seemed to be a cave in the side of a small hill. J´zar had to send someone to check it.
"¿What are you waiting, beastkeeper?" J´zar asked Fluttershy "It’s your job to check for wild animals, ¿remember?"
"Y-Yes, sure" Fluttershy said "¿But what if there is another Banished inside?"
"He would have already attacked. Years of imprisonment inside The Maw have made them crazed, and they have no sense of stealth or tactic" J´zar affirmed.
"¿But what if he just doesn’t sees us?" The cream-colored pony mumbled, almost hugging J´zar’s leg.
“I own this to her” the Principal thought.
"Don’t worry Fluttershy" J´zar said patting her muzzle "I’ll go check it for you, no need to be scared"
"¿But what if one is there?" Fluttershy fearfully told J´zar.
"I can handle myself in a fight" J´zar answered drawing one of his swords and stabbing a piece of resin-covered cloth he had in his pocket on it. After Twilight set the cloth aflame, J´zar walked into the cave with the sword high in his hand to light the path. The cave was not very deep, and was empty as expected, except for a few centipedes J´zar accidentally stomped upon.
"¡Come here!" he yelled from the bottom of the cave "¡It’s empty!"
The mares entered the cave and lighted a fire with branches J´zar had recovered that morning. Around it they put a circle of stones to prevent the campfire from setting the whole cave ablaze, and around it they put the sleeping bags, except for J´zar, who said he would sleep at the entrance of the cave.
"Tell me more about your world" Pinkie Pie asked.
"There isn’t much to tell about it" J´zar said, thinking on the world he had left behind momentarily "It’s cruel and harsh"
"It can’t be all that bad," Pinkie reasoned "¡if there’s candy on it!"
"¡Of course there are sweets in my world too!" J´zar said "But that doesn’t makes the things much better. There are poor people in my realm, people who lives without a roof to cover themselves with and there are those who kill for money"
"¡That’s impossible!" Twilight commented shocked "¿Who is evil enough to kill for something as trivial as money?
"All wars on my world are waged for money. For power" J´zar grimly said.
"If your universe is so bad, ¿why don’t you change it?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"My brothers and me are working on that" The warrior remembered all the glory of the Order in his year of birth "Trying to
"¿I guess there is no time for fashion in such a place, right?" Rarity asked, thinking of J´zar’s world as an endless extension of trenches and cairns.
"Fashion is given too much importance on my world" J´zar affirmed dejectedly "It is something so important it leaves people blind from the truth"
Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected.
The dark figure watched through what seemed to be an ethereal puddle of nothingness a man dressed in a black armor leave through a white portal, leaving behind a sad mare and a vulnerable dimension. He laughed, witnessing the plan he had worked hundreds of years on working perfectly. J´zar had left this dimension, and the only danger was now exposed.
"¡Oh, my little ponies, so ignorant, so foolish!" the voice claimed.
The image being viewed through the ethereal puddle changed, this time showing the busy streets of Canterlot.
"Soon, brothers," the dark creature hissed. His voice sounded dragged, as if every words caused him unimaginable pleasure, as if he wanted to savor the nuance of every single letter "¡Soon, we shall feel the chafe of air against our flesh, and this dimension shall feel our presence!"
The voice laughed, and other laughters joined in a cacophony of joy.
Author's Note
Thanks Zachedwrad94 for the proofreading, and thanks varg for the punctuation tips. Thanks you for reading too! Leave your comments as well as any constructive criticism you may have.
