Caballeron

“We'll need blood, then?” Timar asked, walking back and forth in front of him.

“Not a lot. Just enough so that the Horn can absorb the power. Once it does... Well, you will know it when you see.” said Caballeron, looking at the pages of the book before him. There was no clear activation ritual, the account just told that blood was used to awaken the Horn. He assumed that one would just pour it on and let the Horn do the rest. Maybe that's what the spiral grooves and markings are for? It was his best bet. “You should have learned Old Frithish, Timar.” he said. “You could have read this for yourself.”

“A waste of time, that's what ponies like you are for.” The rat smirked, before getting back to the subject. “In the old stories, it was said only certain kinds of blood would work for magic.” said Timar, hand on chin. “Certain kinds of blood... Powerful kinds.”

“I'm afraid I don't know the specifics of blood magic, considering it is a crime worthy of the death penalty in Equestria.” Not that anypony had been a victim of the death penalty in two hundred years. But then again, no pony in Equestria had used this dark art in twice as long, as far as Caballeron knew.

“Well, it's a good thing we're not in Equestria!”

“I'd rather be there than here, there's no guarantee you're not just going to kill me anyway as soon as you have what you want.”

“A fine point, good Doctor.” Timar clasped his hands. “A fine point.”

His plan was his last hope, then. Failure to help Timar led to death. Helping Timar led to death. Stopping Timar? It would probably lead to death, but at least there was a chance it wouldn't. Once again, he considered himself lucky that Timar couldn't read this text. These rats had no idea what they were toying with. Or who would instantly be alerted to its whereabouts once it was used...

“What we'll be doing is taking a convoy out into the desert, away from any prying eyes.” Timar said later in the night, once they'd finalized all the details. “We will activate the Horn, and use it on a small number of corpses, about a hundred. Consider it a test run. And once I have my proof that the Horn of the Damned will save this nation, we will use it on every battlefield, on every front! The world will fall before an undying army!” The rat was so absorbed by his vision of the future that he didn't even realize the irony of using damned and saved in the same sentence.

Caballeron and Coco were both put on some burlap sacks in a corner for sleeping. It was far from comfortable, but it was better than the concrete. As the night drew on, everything got colder. “Finally, my winter coat is useful.” remarked Coco, with a small laugh.

“At least something is right.” said Caballeron. “Did you talk to the Captain?”

“Yes.” Coco nodded. “I think they actually believed their own propaganda about the Princess. They thought we were going to kill them all!”

I don't blame them for thinking that, Caballeron thought. He'd heard the whispers of what was happening in occupied Cania. Deportations, slave labor, massacres... hallmarks of a nationalistic war. Textbook, even. “How much did you tell them?”

“Not too much. Not that you told me much in the first place.” Coco looked away, ears drooping. “I said it was a long shot at best.”

“That's true enough.” sighed Caballeron. “If they succeed, you know that they'll just dispose of us afterward, right?”

“Yeah...” Her ears fell even further.

“This is the only option with even a chance of us surviving. I don't like it any more than you do, but it's better than standing around waiting for them to shoot us.”

“I know...” The look on her face said otherwise.

I can't help but wonder if it would have been better if we'd never met, Caballeron thought, a grim mood falling on him. “You do know what the Rattish State has done in Cania, don't you?” he asked. “They'd bring that to Equestria if they could. Your home- our home.”

“They're a desperate people, Caballeron. They think if they lose, they will all die for what their country has done. I don't want to know what, but I think I can guess.” said Coco quietly. “I'm not surprised now, that they'd try to control evil powers if it meant saving their people. I told the Captain that they were wrong about the Princess, and the others, but... Will it be enough?”

“I think so. We have three options. The Horn fails to work, we die and Hivald falls; the Horn works just as the book says, we die, and Hivald conquers the Earth; or... The Horn works, and blood magic once again proves to be something not to be trifled with… Just maybe we survive, too. But if we don't, we die having stopped this scourge.”

“We'd be heroes, if anypony knew what we did.”

Hah! Caballeron smiled weakly. “A hero? Well, it might be nice to be on the good side for once in a story. I don't know if you've heard, but I tend to be typecast...”

Coco put a hoof on his. “You've always been on the good side, at least for me.” she said, smiling back. “If you really were a villain, you would have left me stranded on St. Garnet with no way home.”

“Let Daring Do figure that one out...” muttered Caballeron. At least his death would leave her baffled, he'd have that last laugh. At least he'd die with one friend in the world. If they died here. There were so many ifs in this plan. And Coco seemed to know he was thinking that.

“Tell me, Caballeron,” she said, “do you actually think we have a chance?”

He didn't answer for a few moments. “More than we would otherwise.”

For once, Caballeron wanted to dream when he went to sleep. The terrible visions that had haunted him since the Horn came into his possession would be re-assuring tonight. True enough to their habit, they came. But this time, his dreams were only of gently-falling snow in a quiet, leafless forest.

He didn't know what to make of it in the morning. “Did you dream?” he asked Coco.

“Just about snow.”

“The same as me.” Very strange. Timar’s soldiers walked them out of the warehouse at sunrise, and herded them to a long convoy of automobiles, of the truck variety. Caballeron was not very familiar with these strange machines; they were like cars that ran without tracks beneath them. The internal combustion engine wasn't new, exactly, but it had not caught on in Equestria nor in the surrounding regions with developed railroad; it was surprising to find it this far from the homeland. But then again, the ruggedness of Hivald may have been more friendly to automobiles than trains.

Most of the trucks had their beds covered by canvas stretched over a series of hoops, like the covering of a wagon. A few were more open, with only canvas tops to provide shade, and benches hastily installed. If he had to guess, they'd be traveling in one of those. Some of the trucks were set up to tow the cannons the rats had with them. As they walked towards the convoy, a musty stench hit them, coming from the covered trucks.

“How vile!” complained Coco, scrunching her nose. They didn't have to guess at what was in there. To summon the dead, you need some dead, Caballeron supposed. No doubt that the soldiers had dug up the entire graveyard of this poor town to get those bodies.

Timar waved them to the front of the convoy, where they were pushed into the back of the lead truck, sitting in the bed right behind Timar and his driver. Between the two ponies was the box with the Horn, and quite a few soldiers seated next to them.It seemed that the threat of them destroying the Horn, somehow, had been considered. But they needed it just as much as Timar did now.

“Well, Doctor, and Miss Coco, we're off to inaugurate a new era of world history!” Timar clasped his hands. “Forward!”

Author's Note

Next chapter is done but needs editing. But I'll be busy this afternoon, we'll see if it's up then or up tomorrow morning. And I almost forgot, here's what the rat trucks look like: just imagine them in tan or something.