Chapter One: Omens of Ill
The rain poured on the muddy road and the unfortunate caravan traveling on it. Ten wagons, each the size of a small house, were being pulled, pushed, magicked, anything to be moved forward. The ponies and buffalo doing the work winced from the large raindrops hitting their faces, shivered from the cold, and groaned in frustration. It had only been raining for a few hours, but the rain fell fast and hard, reducing the road to a muddy mess.
“Remind me,” one of the workers shouted, “why didn’t we just take the train to Canterlot?”
“The trains are flooded with ponies leaving the villages close to the Dragonlands!” the foreman shouted. “Freight like this gets last priority! We’d still be back in Foalkreath if we waited for the trains!” The pony who complained shut his mouth. He wasn’t sure which was worse, trudging through the rain, or staying in a village that close to the Dragonland/Equestrian border. Normally it wouldn’t be so bad, but with current events…
Everypony’s train of thought was interrupted by the sight of arrows hitting the carts. A group of bandits, mostly minotaur, came charging out of the woods. Brandishing their weapons, they gave a roar as they charged at the caravan. Most of the ponies fled behind the carts to hide from the bandits, but a good number stayed behind. The minotaur grinned, expecting easy kills, until the five in front of the band burst into flames. When these five scattered, all the others saw the ponies who stayed remove their cloaks, revealing the gold armor of the Royal Guard.
The minotaur’s advance slowed, but most of them still felt they had a chance against the smaller ponies. The Guard stood their ground as their unicorns fired blasts of magic at the oncoming band, and when the minotaur got close enough, the Earth Pony knights charged forward, sending the minotaur flying back. Any minotaur that was able to stagger to their feet either fled at that point or fell over dead from the unicorn’s blasts.
The whole battle, if it could be called that, lasted less than two minutes. No ponies had even been injured, but more than half the minotaur bandits lay dead in the mud. All the non-guard ponies and buffalo were speechless. They had no idea that some of the ponies working with them were Royal Guard. Before anypony could say anything, the guards donned their cloaks and got back to work moving the carts.
“Let’s move out!” one of the guards hollered. “Don’t need anypony else trying to raid us!” As the ponies got to work, the guards were relieved they had succeeded in protecting this cargo. Among the boxes, hidden deep inside one of the carts, was a certain relic that Celestia wanted in Canterlot without anypony else knowing it even existed.
Maid Firemane hobbled down the hall of the Shetland Palace. It was way too late at night for the Princess to be doing this, and she was too old to be doing this at all. The Nurse was almost ninety, and had been the Princess’ Maid for almost seventy of those years. One would think seven decades would be ample time to get used to the Princess’ weird-
“Aw, you found me!” a chipper voice called from the ceiling. Firemane looked up and saw a tall Pegasus with a fiery-red coat and dark green mane. As she descended, Firemane could clearly see the long unicorn horn the princess inherited from her mother and the deep blue eyes she inherited from her father. Her cutie mark was a reddish-orange droplet in front of a single gear, crossed with twin flowers.
The elderly earth pony maid chuckled. “I wouldn’t have if you didn’t shout, your Highness.”
The Princess clicked her tongue. “I did not shout.”
“Yes you did,” a mature female voice said from behind the alicorn princess. Firemane immediately bowed and the princess turned and looked up at the voice. She stared right into the blue eyes of Malice, the Princess of War.
“H-hello, Mother.”
“Amber,” Malice growled, “why are you up and making noise this late at night?”
“I-I was playing with Firemane,” Princess Amber replied.
Malice narrowed her eyes. “At one in the morning?” Malice gave a sigh. “Amber, I’ve had a rough few weeks. Could you please just go back to bed? You’re almost two hundred years old, you should know better than to go screaming down the hall this late at night.”
“B-but I wasn’t scre-”
“Amber.” Malice stared at her daughter with baggy eyes until the younger princess relented.
“Okay,” Amber bowed her head. “Sorry, Mother.”
“Apologies accepted,” Malice said while poking Amber’s cheek. “Now, get to bed. I’ll be taking you with me to the Council meeting in a few days, and I want you to be rested when we leave.” As Amber walked away, Malice looked down at Firemane and said, “Sorry about that.”
The scarlet-maned earth pony chuckled. “It’s alright, Your Highness. She’s a good lass.”
“She’s got a good head, and a kind heart…I just wish she inherited some of her father’s temperance. When I was her age, I was already working with Tia and Lulu to form the continents.”
“She’s just a Princess who was raised in a peaceful time,” Firemane smiled. “With you as her mother, and Lord Watson as her father, she will grow to be a fine Princess.”
Malice stood for a bit before smiling at the elderly pony. “Thank you, Firemane. Go rest now. We’ve got a long week ahead of us.” The two ponies went their separate ways, and Malice returned to her bedroom. It had changed a little during the past two hundred years. Some of her pointier decorations had been replaced with innocent knick-knacks, there were fold-up stools folded in a corner, and sleeping in the bed was a small, graying unicorn stallion.
Malice smiled as she lay down next to him. His mane was less-spiky than it was in the past, and had grey streaks in it, and his face was a little wrinkly, but Malice still saw the small, cute stallion who had won her heart back when the Shetlands, nay the world, was in peril from her traitorous General. She still remembered the massive and wonderful reaction her people had when they learned she would be wedding him, and the bigger reaction when it was discovered she was with foal. The past two hundred years had been joyful for them both.
The Princess of War stretched her forelegs out and pulled her sleeping husband close. He had only recently recovered from some tragic events, and now the current crisis weighed heavily on him. Malice’s greatest wish was for this crisis to pass, all so she, her husband and their beloved daughter could live in peace…
Flare stood on the castle wall, waiting for the messenger sent out earlier that week. His Paladin armor covered his pale-blue coat just enough to keep him warm, and thankfully didn’t hinder his wings. His curly blue mane was covered by his Paladin helmet, and his left eye scanned the horizon for the coming Pegasus. His right eye was staring down at the floor. His lazy eye had almost prevented him from joining the Paladins, but his other skills more than compensated for his eye. And with what was happening now, his skills were greatly needed. Few ponies, in-and-outside of the Paladins, had seen what he was capable of, but everypony could tell his cutie mark was of a dragons’ head in front of a shield for a reason.
After an hour of waiting, just as the sun set, a speck appeared on the horizon. In almost no time at all, a cyan blur slammed onto the wall next to Flare. The Paladin turned and looked at the younger Paladin, a cyan Pegasus who looked almost exactly like his great-grandmother. The Pegasus, without saying a word, reached into his dispatch bag and handed a scroll to Flare. Flare took it and read it. He grimaced at the news.
“Go rest, Chaser,” he ordered his subordinate. “I will pass this to Celestia.” As the cyan Pegasus walked to the barracks, Flare flew to the great hall and awaited the return of Princess Celestia. The news he bore was grim, and he wished it wasn’t true. The Ironwing Clan had refused to come to the Council meeting. Just like the Sandfangs, and the Coralwings, and the Firemark. Less than half of the most influential dragon clans would be present at the meeting. Without those voices, Flare had a feeling the peace talks would fail.
Flare turned and looked at the setting sun, which turned the sky pink and red, and he suddenly got the feeling he would see those colors on the earth sometime soon.
Author's Note
Hello! I have returned!! Sorry it took so long getting this up! I know it stinks as an opening, but it IS a start. Anyway, this is the sequel to Inventor and the red Lady. If you ain't read that yet, go read it. I'll be waiting here when you're done with it.
As a sequel, there will be some recurring characters, but not many, since this story takes place a long time after IntRL. And relax, they won't be the main main characters. As with IntRL, this story will have a lot of OC's, but I won't flood it with alicorns the way I did IntRL.
This will be a monthly story, and I won't update it the same day ever month. You have been warned.
Chapter Two: The Clouds Gather
"IT'S GONE!" The curator of the Canterlot Museum screamed as he tore through the drawers and shelves of fossils, artifacts and tools. "Where did it go!?"
"Where'd what go?" Risaad, a gray-furred lynx, asked, walking up quietly behind the aged Earth Pony.
"Artifact Number 338-15!" the pony replied. "The one you purchased form that one shop in Dappleshore! Someone has stolen it!"
"Stolen? That thing?" The cat laughed. "Why would anyone want to steal some antique plate?"
"It's not just a plate!" the curator hollered as he ripped a box open and looked inside. "Bah, just an Evisican vase." Shoving the box aside, he continued, "That plate was a unique object! It had runes carved into it, Risaad, RUNES! Were they magic? Were they recordings? I was gonna translate it today!"
"Maybe it was just saying 'this belongs to so-and-so?' Come on, it's probably under Digger's bed, like the carved dragon fang from last week."
"I checked there already!"
Risaad just chuckled as the curator continued his mad search. It had been ten years since his home nation of Catatonia had opened its' borders and let the feline races out to explore the world, and Risaad had spent the last two working here, in the Canterlot museum. Sure, he had explored here and there, and even spent a year working on an archaeological dig in the Shetlands, but even that place was too high-strung for an easy-going lynx like him. Plus, the Diamond Dogs employed there never bathed.
He had found Equestria to be a nice, quaint nation. Some of his fellow countrycats were surprised at his choice of where to go, considering what was happening among the Dragon Clans, but he liked it here. Sure, it still had its' snobby nobles, but these ponies were easy to deal with compared to the last Cat King.
His train of thought was interrupted as a mug hit him square in the jaw. The curator grew more frantic with each passing moment. Risaad was certain he was gonna explode. After letting him scrambled around another minute, the lynx walked over, gently grabbed the curator with his hands pulled the red pony into a chair.
"Running around like a headless cockatrice on a tin roof isn't gonna find the plate," the feline archaeologist said. "Simmer down, take a break, and think where it might have been."
"You don't understand!" the curator cried. "I was gonna translate it today because-"
There was a knock at the door. The two museum workers went silent. Risaad was curious, but the poor pony looked at that door like it was an executioner. Risaad moved to open it, but it soon opened on its' own, and he could not believe what he saw.
A Pegasus in royal armor had opened the door and stepped aside, making room for a tall, ivory pony to enter. She regarded the lynx with a pleasant violet gaze, and her multi-hued mane waved like it was in water. Her long tail did the same. She wore a gold torque around her neck set with what had to be one of the largest amethysts Risaad had ever seen. It wasn't until he saw she had both a unicorn horn and Pegasus wings that he recognized her, and his jaw dropped when he did.
"P-P-P-P-Princess C-C-C-C-"
"Yes," Princess Celestia, Princess of the Day, acknowledged, "that's me." She looked around the ruined storage room with curiosity, then settled on the curator, who looked like he was gonna have a heart attack. "Carver, what happened here?"
Flare stood at attention as a royal carriage landed in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle. It had been the fifth to arrive today, but this one was special. After it landed, three ponies stepped out of it. One was the tall, scarlet Malice, Princess of War. To her left was her daughter, Amber, one of two young Princesses. Between the two Princesses, walking with a slight limp, was Lord Watson MacMaren, the husband of Malice, father of Amber and one of the oldest unicorns alive. Flare had expected some old, wrinkly pony, not an upright, only-slightly-gray stallion.
As the three walked by, Watson gave Flare a quick nod and a small smile. Flare nodded in return. He had never met Lord Watson before, but clearly the short stallion recognized the descendant of his two closest friends. Probably recognized him by the lazy right eye, which was looking down the path right at Malice's haunches. Flare closed his right eye.
Including Malice's daughter and Queen Cadenza's twins, there were now seven alicorns in Canterlot, more than most ponies even thought existed. The pale-blue Paladin hoped this meant ponies would stop fleeing Canterlot. Of all the cities in Equestria, Canterlot was the most defensible, even from aerial attack. If the worst happened, the civilians stood a better chance of surviving in the crystal mine beneath the city than anywhere else in Equestria.
Flare continued thinking along this train of thought until the eighth-and-last carriage, bearing the Prime Minister of Glascow, arrived. After the bovine entered the castle, the guards and Paladins went their separate ways to attend other duties. Flare took to the air to meet up with another Paladin, who was just returning from a scouting assignment around the Dragonmount. Flare noted he looked tired, and gasped when he saw what looked like a scorch mark on part of his armor.
"Were you attacked?" he asked.
"I'll give my full report inside," the scout replied.
The two of them flew to one of the tunnels in the mountain. Flying down it for a few minutes, they landed in a large square room that had a straw-colored rug in the middle, like a sparring room. The two pegasi nodded at the Earth Ponies who controlled the four ballistae that pointed at the entry hole. After the massive Fire Ruby-tipped bolts were moved out of the way, the two pegasi stepped past the ballistae and opened the small door opposite of the entry hole.
The room on the other side was round, and large enough to house several dragons. There were tables and desks here and there, and magic-image maps covered the walls. Most of the maps had blots of red covering parts, and all of them changed images every minute or so. Moving around the room were ponies of every variety along with minotaur, the occasional gryphon and even one or two diamond dogs that Flare could see. The very middle of the round room, however, was unburdened by tables, but had a large round rug that had a crest of a sword crossing with a lightning bolt in front of shield.
This was a view few people of any race ever had the chance to see. This was the main chamber of the Paladin Headquarters.
Flare and the other Pegasus marched to one of the larger tables, where an absolutely massive black unicorn stood at the head, flanked by a red unicorn and a green Pegasus. The unicorn was talking to one of the secretarial unicorns about something before he noticed Flare walking up with the scout. Dismissing the secretary, General Hematite looked at the scout.
"Report, scout," he ordered. The scout stepped forward, reached into his saddlebags, and pulled out several folders, which he set on the table.
"It was a smart move to pull the civilians away from Dragonmount," he stated. "I wasn't there three days before the first Flight moved in." As the ponies opened the folders and looked through them, he continued, "I don't know what clan they are, but ten dragons have moved into Equestrian territory. They haven't burned any fields or anything, but from what I saw, they aren't letting anypony in or out of the Dragonmount area."
"Out?" the green Pegasus asked. "There are ponies still around the Mount?"
"At least thirty who didn't make it out in time." Hematite sighed as the scout went on, "They barely leave their houses, fortunately. It seems the dragons are content to leave the ponies in fear, rather than try anything."
"It's because war hasn't been declared yet, I wager," the red unicorn stated. "If war is called, and those thirty ponies are still there, I have no doubt they will be the first thirty casualties."
"Then we have to get them away from the mountain somehow," Flare piped up. Could we try a mass teleport?"
"No good," the red unicorn replied. "Dragons are creatures of magic. They would sense the buildup before we could do anything."
"Sir," the scout spoke up, "I did see some tunnels leading into the mountain. The ponies used them for mushroom farming. Perhaps if we got everypony in those tunnels and tried it, it could work. I mean, the tunnels went for a few hundred feet before they opened into the farming chambers. The dragons wouldn't be able to claw their way in, and the tunnels curve enough times to prevent them from just breathing fire right in."
"Sounds feasible," the black unicorn nodded. "What classes of dragon are there?"
"Most are standard drakes," the Pegasus scout replied, "but there are one or two High Dragons. I couldn't get a good view of them. The biggest ones hung around the mountain while the drakes flew patrol."
"It's almost like they think they own the mountain already," Flare growled.
"What about Old Zinrathi?" Hematite replied. "I don't think he'd be too happy with drakes terrorizing the lands below his roost."
"He's staying out of it, it seems." The scout sighed before saying, "Either he feels this war has nothing to do with him, or he's siding with the dragons." The table went silent after that. It was a few minutes before Hematite looked at the scout again.
"Anything else?"
"No, sir," the scout shook his head. "May I be dismissed now? My flight back was…more exciting than I wanted." He gestured to his scorched armor as he said the last few words. With a nod from Hematite, the scout trotted off, towards the mess hall and barracks. As he left, Hematite conjured a 3-D magic image of the Dragonmount over the table.
"Ten dragons," he said. "At least one High Dragon, and an apathetic Zinrathi. Should have known that old lizard wouldn't help when we needed it."
"And we can't send any more ponies to scout the place," the green Pegasus announced.
"What about Fleur or Endoa?" the red unicorn asked. "Or even Commander Spike? I mean, they're dragons, so-"
"No good," Hematite denied. "They've been living here too long. The smell of Equestria's too strong on them, they'd be discovered immediately."
"I could go in," Flare announced. "I could scout around."
"Sorry, Flare," Hematite shook his head, "but we need you here, and if you defended yourself, the dragons could try to use that as an act of war. And with only a few clans willing to talk…"
Before the talk could continue, another secretary pony trotted up. "Um, Flare Drakebrand? The Princesses need to see you immediately." Flare nodded and left the table. Something told him this day was gonna get worse.
Risaad was generally a humble cat. One of the only things he would ever speak of proudly was his seeming inability to get lost. Anywhere he went, be it ruins, a new town, anywhere, he would always be able to return to wherever he came from. Once, some idiots decided to put him to the test by taking him blindfolded into some ruins and tell him to find the way out without help. It took two hours for them to get him in, it took him a half-hour to get out. This proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he could not get lost.
But only physically. At the moment, the poor lynx was mentally lost.
He was sitting on a bench in the Canterlot Grand Hall. Everywhere he looked, ponies went hither and thither, cleaning the floor, polishing windows, setting up tables, and whole big storm of hooves and cleaning. He was amazed nopony had bumped into anypony else yet. Surrounded by cleaning and quiet voices, Risaad felt very alone.
Why was he here anyway?
All he knew is that, after the Princess Celestia herself arrived, she and the curator went to a separate room to talk. Next thing he knew, she was telling him to come with her to the Castle. Why him, and not the curator? He was busy thinking about this when he heard a gasp nearby.
"KITTY!"
Before he could see who, or what, dared called him a "kitty," a red blur plowed into Risaad and tackled him to the floor. Looking at it, he saw a pair of blue eyes on a red equine face.
"I've never seen a cat before!" the pony excitedly squealed. "Well, I mean I've seen cats, but not a large one like you! Around here we have small kittens who wear bows and stuff, but something tells me that…"
'Sweet Tambelon,' Risaad thought to himself 'this pony just won't stop talking!' He was about to shove the excited pony off of him when he noticed she had wings. Wait. If she had wings, what was close to jabbing him in the- Risaad froze. Horn. She had a horn. And wings. Horn and wings. She was an ALICORN.
"Amber!" a strong voice called. "Get off of him this instant!" The pony that had tackled Risaad to the ground had a look of terror and flew off the prone lynx. As he righted himself, the lynx saw the alicorn that tackled him land next to a BIGGER red alicorn. The only differences between the bigger and smaller alicorns were their mane colors and, what were they called, cutie marks.
"I apologize for my daughter's behavior," the larger one said as Risaad stood up. "Are you injured?"
Risaad shook his head. "Not really." He bowed before saying, "My name is Risaad. May I ask who you are?"
The larger one bowed her head and smiled. "I am Princess Malice, and I know who you are." As she straightened up, she continued, "You're the one who worked with the Emerald Brothers on excavating the unusual ruins in the Archback Mountain, correct?"
Risaad's eyes widened. "Y-yes, I was there, a f-few years back."
Malice smiled. "You left before I could reward you properly for your work. But, I assume you are here on other business?"
"I wish I knew," the lynx admitted. "Princess Celestia called me here, and I have no idea why. I assume it has to do with the missing artifact, and-"
"Missing artifact?" Malice asked in surprise. "Was it a runed piece of metal, like a bent plate?"
Risaad gasped. "Exactly so! How did you guess?"
"I didn't guess," the Princess replied. "Amber, go find your father. He's probably in the gardens." As the younger Princess left, Malice looked back at Risaad and said, "I think I know why you're here."
After she said this, a pony in armor trotted up. After giving a quick bow to Malice, he turned to Risaad and said, "Please come with me. Princess Celestia will speak to you now." Risaad nodded and followed the pony, and was followed by Malice. The archaeologist felt he was very much in over his head.
He rolled over, one of his eyes opening. He felt some disturbance, a slight twinge in the weave of magic. Someone, or somepony, was getting ready to cast something big. But, it was still of no consequence. Ever since that day, nearly 1300 years ago, he had little to do with the world. With a quick yawn and a stretch of his massive wings, he went back to sleep.
Author's Note
Chapter 2! Sorry if it seems boring to you! I promise next chapter will be a bit more exciting! And sorry if you don't like cats. I figured that, since this world has Diamond Dogs, maybe they'd have cats, too? Hope you don't mind.
