Equestrian Souls: Fires of War

EQUESTRAIN SOULS
Chapter eleven: Royalty
Written by TheCrimsonDM

The first hour of our journey was filled with Storm Feather getting to know both Myst our reformed Zebra mare, and talking to Rainfall. He and Rainfall had apparently fought in the past on several occasions, but even so they had respect for each other and actually got along very well.

Rainfall had explained a little bit past her past. Rainfall had grown up in a religion called the Rainbow cult. She left it a while ago in order to find a more peaceful life. Storm Feather seemed to have a slight problem with this but he agreed with her that the Rainbow cult had become unsteady as of late. He only wished that somepony who was level headed could take over as cult leader, then they could actually prove to be asset to the world instead of a nuisance.

Myst hadn’t explained much of her past to anypony other than me, and I was not about to betray her trust by telling everypony about it either. She did explain that the title of Void Runner was given to her as a pony name, she never really liked it but her love for Silver allowed her use the name in pride. Until he kicked her out of course. With the way she spoke about this Silver I had a hard time imagining that he only kicked her out because of me. I expected that he was trying to keep her safe from harm, but then again he may just be a cruel pony.

After a few hours our group passed Ponyville, now that everypony had rested it seemed that we were all moving a little faster than the last time we were here. We continued walking west towards New Canterlot. The forest began getting thinner the further we walked westward.

***

We finally took a break at one of the Altars that were placed along the side of the road. Sitting down around the Altar everypony seemed a little tired but at least we all seemed to be enjoying ourselves. Except for Moon Shadow who was squinting every time he looked up. I sat down next to him and asked. “Are you okay?”

He looked up at me and then closed his eyes before looking back to the ground. He said, “It’s too bright out here, I’m having trouble seeing properly.”

I figured he may be having a hard time adjusting to life outside of that cell he was in, but he didn’t seem to have any problems before hoof. I placed a caring hoof on his shoulder and asked him. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

He shook his head while saying. “Not unless you have sun glasses or a hat in those saddlebags of yours.”

I may not have had either of those, but I did have something for him. I took off my cloak that was over my leather armor and gave it to Moon Shadow. He refused for a few seconds but then finally took the cloak and put in on. The brown hooded cloak gave him a more roguish look in my opinion, and I enjoyed that. He was silent for a few minutes while I ate some launch before he finally said. “Thank you Light, this really helps keep the sun out my eyes. I really hope I’m not going blind.”

I gave him a smile, but I felt like something was wrong with him. I prayed to Celestia that it wasn’t serious. I noticed that Myst was also sitting a little awkwardly in our group, she looked lonely.

I walked over and sat next to Myst. She looked up at me and smiled, a strand of hair from her black curly mane fell into her face as she said. “Sup Light?”

I smiled at her and said. “Not much.”

Myst began staring at me, and then studying me from head to hoof. If I hadn’t known about her filly crush on me I wouldn’t have began blushing. Unfortunately for me I knew, and I couldn’t help blushing.

“You know, you’re one tall Mare,” Myst stated.

I looked away saying. “I’m not that much taller than most mares…”

Myst gave a little laugh and said. “Yes you are, I mean you probably have a good five or six inches on every mare I’ve met. I bet you even make stallions look small.”

Okay I liked her child like nature most of the time but her honesty was honestly beginning to bother me. So I said. “I don’t like talking about my height very much. I mean I don’t usually feel any taller than normal ponies.”

The young zebra began laughing a little before saying, “You should enjoy it, it gives you an edge in combat after all. I mean you’re really strong Light. I had to learn zebra meditation in order to be as strong as I am now.”

I looked at her and asked, “What do you mean?”

Myst grinned at me as she said excitedly, “It’s called ki, something that Zebra’s have invented and mastered. Our warrior monks were some of the most powerful opponents you’d ever see.”

I found myself interested in these zebra warrior monks, it felt almost like I had heard of them before somewhere. I asked, “Is there anything else you can do?”

She grinned and bounced a few feet into the air as she exclaimed. “IS THERE?” Once she landed on all fours she explained, “Our master of ki gives us a unique ability to sense things around us, especially danger. That’s why it’s so hard to sneak up on a well trained zebra. I heard some zebra’s actually have a natural ability to sense things with their ki. But I had to train in order to learn it.”

I had to admit, zebra’s were a lot more interesting then I gave them credit for in the past. I wondered if there were any tribes of zebra’s left. If there was how would they live, how would they survive. There were a lot of things I just didn’t know about this world, things I really wanted to know. One day I would probably explore them, but for now I needed to focus on the tasks ahead.

I looked at everypony who was now done eating. They were all relaxing, I guess a break was needed after everything we had been through. That being said we had been here for a little longer then I had planned. I stood up and said. “Alright everypony, it’s time to go meet Twilight Sparkle.”

***

We continued walking until the sun began to set and the sky became a wonderful tint of purple before we finally saw it. Off in the distance we could see a golden castle surrounded by a town protected by giant stone walls. The entire town was bright and stood out like a shining beacon in the darkness. The road we were on wound around a large lake until it finally reached the front gates of New Canterlot.

We were finally here, and full of excitement we all began picking up the pace as we nearly trotted towards the wonderful town. Moon Shadow suddenly shouted. “STOP!”

We all stopped dead in our tracks as ponies dressed in silver armor ran out from the forested area to our right. Three of them went in front of us, four behind us. They all carried long swords and looked dangerous. Myst then spoke softly saying. “Those are Silver’s knights. What are they doing here? They can’t come this far into Twilight’s territory.”

One of Silver’s knights from in front of us then spoke to me. “Give us the zebra. We won’t ask twice.”

I could feel Myst shaking next to me, I suppose that the last thing Silver expected for her when he cut his ties, was for her to join me. I looked at the one in front of us and said. “There are five of us, and only seven of you. You are heavily outnumbered.”

He took a hard look at me, giving me a chance to study him. He had brown fur, and a rust colored mane. I could see that his armor was different than the others in the way that his armored boots had axe blades attached to the sides. His armor was also a little brighter than the others, it was nearly white.

He then said. “So you must be Altar Light. I am knight commander Copper Axe.” I stared at him hard, preparing myself to grab my hammer or summon my fire magic, which ever I needed more. He then said. “We cannot act so close to Twilight’s castle, but know this Altar Light. The next time we meet, if you do not give up the zebra then we shall destroy you ourselves.”

With that Silver’s Knights left heading north of our position, back into the forest. I only hoped that they were not going to some kind of base camp. This could spell all kinds of future trouble for me, but for now I was glad to simply have them out of our hair. I looked back at the still shaking Myst; her hair somehow looked a deflated, compared to her usually bouncy curly mane.

I wrapped a leg around her and promised. “I will protect you Myst, no matter what he throws at us.”We continued walking then, to New Canterlot.

***

We arrived at the front gates just as the two guards began walking into the towns gates. They turned and eyed us with suspicion for a moment, there golden armor reflected light from the lanterns causing them to look more menacing. A moment of silence goes on for a second before the green stallion on the left demanded, “Who are you and what is your purpose here?”

I stepped forward and introduced us, “I am Altar Light, and these are my friends. We are here to seek an audience with Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

The other stallion had a red coat. He stepped up and said. “Wait, are you the Altar Light? Princess Twilights apprentice?”

I wasn’t entirely sure about the apprentice part but I answered, “Yes,” anyway.

The red stallion escorted us into the town and we waited for a few minutes as the other guard came in as well. We watched as the front gate was rolled down over the entrance way, and a few new guard ponies replaced the few that were standing guard before. The red and green stallions lead us through the town.

The sun was gone from the sky now, and very few ponies were walking the streets. The town itself was actually very good looking, almost no buildings looked abandoned, and even the ones that did were actually being renovated. I found myself smirking as I thought about how frustrating it must be for Masquerade to not be able to enter Twilight’s kingdom.

The orange glow from the lit lanterns cast odd reflections off their gold plated armor. The red one began speaking to me then, “So miss Light, may I say how much of a pleasure it is too finally meet you.”

I felt my checks warming a little as I replied, “Oh thank you.”

He then added, “Me and Luck here have been posted to the front gate at least six times in the past two years, and we’ve never been so lucky.”

The green one replied, “Shut it Star, we were supposed to be off shift right now. But orders are orders.”

I felt a little confused as I asked, “What do you mean by orders?”

The red one then said. “By the way, I’m Star Charmer, and he’s Luck Ribbon.”

Luck Ribbon then answered. “Sorry for his behavior, he’s a bit of a fan of your…feats. We are under orders, like all the guards, that if you should ever come back here looking for anything. We are to direct you to the Princess so that she may aid you. Some guards feel as though she doesn’t necessarily trust us.”

I looked at the Luck Ribbon and asked. “What do you think?”

He answered. “I personally think that you are a dangerous hazard and the Princess is trying to keep casualties from any of your…plans, to a minimum.”

I didn’t really care for his attitude, but he was leading me in the correct direction so I ignored it. It took a little bit of walking but we finally reached the castle. The outside of the castle looked as though it was made out of gold, and the inside was just as outstanding. Neatly polished marble floors and gold trimmed pillars. Everything here looked like it was meant for a Princess.

We went through the main entrance hall, up an exceedingly long staircase and finally entered the throne room. The guards leading us spoke quickly to the guards at the door, and after telling them who I was they quickly opened the door for us. The five of us entered the long and spacious throne room. Murals of ponies adorned the walls, five of the murals stood out to me. Each one depicting a unique pony in some scene that seemed to make sense for them. I recognized the mural of Rainbow Dash soaring above the clouds, and guessed that the other murals must have been depicting the other elements of harmony. Twilight didn’t have a mural of herself up there with them though.

There were three mural’s standing behind the throne. One of Celestia raising the sun, one of Luna raising the moon, and one of Cadence and a heart in the background. On the throne itself sat a bored looking alicorn with a lavender fur coat, and long dark purple hair which nearly reached the ground. There was a red streak and an even darker purple streak running through her mane. She wore a mask of gold covering the right half of her face just above the eye. The mask had a slit where a glowing pink light was visible.

I noticed that there were no guards in here, and the ones by the door quietly closed them behind us. They left the princess alone with the five of us, or more likely they left the five of us alone with her. I began to feel heavily outnumbered.

The alicorn Princess before us was indeed Twilight Sparkle, but she was huge, almost as big as Celestia had been. I felt myself becoming a little scared and very intimidated by her. She finally looked directly at us, directly at me.

Twilight Sparkle then smiled, a very tired smile. She rose from her throne and walked towards me while saying. “Light, is it really you?”

I timidly smiled back and said. “Yeah it’s me, but my memory isn’t what it used to be.”

She got ten feet away before her horn began to glow and a pale pink light covered all of us for a few seconds. Then the light was gone and Twilight smiled even wider as she said. “It’s really you, I was so afraid you would be a changeling or something worse.”

I felt a little nervous about her using magic to examine us, but at least she was being cautious. Twilight Sparkle then did something very un-princess like and jumped on me embracing me into a giant bear hug. The meanwhile saying excitedly, “I was under the impression that Silver had killed you. You have no idea how happy I am to finally have you back. I…I thought I lost another friend and that hurt so badly.”

I gave her a hug back and said. “Well I’m back now, and I need your help.”

It took a few minutes of me explaining to Twilight everything that had happened but once I was finished she said, “I can understand why you are on this quest, but I fear that you may not see a happy ending if you continue like this.”

I couldn’t just wait around and do nothing, so I told her, “I need to do this. It’s important for me.”

She smiled at me again, with a very tired expression and said, “I know, and this time I won’t try and stop you. Ha I don’t know how Celestia used to do this. I mean…the last three hundred years have been so hard. The worst part was learning the meaning of death, but it taught me just how valuable life really is.”

I could understand how she felt, she is a virtual goddess among ponies. She didn’t grow old, she only got bigger. I bet she had to watch many ponies die from old age. I took another look at the murals on the walls now with new meaning. All of these ponies must be dead, and this was her way of remembering them.

Twilight looked a little saddened as she said. “I would love to help you out, I can give you access to ponyville, but I need your help first. There is something that I cannot do myself, but if you went in and did this as an outside party then it could work out.”

I looked up at her and asked. “What do you need?”

She smiled at me and said. “You really are the best apprentice anypony could’ve asked for. What I need is for you and your friends to go and…cause some trouble for me.”

I looked a little more sternly at her and asked. “What exactly do you want us to do?”

She tried to give me a trusting smile, but after a moment of me staring she dropped it into a sad smile and said. “I need you to find the Silver’s Knights base camp that’s located due north of here. Once you get there, you need to destroy their goods. If they lose resources they will be hard pressed to stay there. Hopefully it will cause them to retreat. If not they will still be weakened for when my soldiers go in.”

I liked her idea, and it didn’t sound too hard. I grinned as I said. “Alright, sounds like fun.”

Twilight wrapped a wing around me and said. “Thank you Light, and if you please. I’d love it if you and your friends joined me for a royal dinner tonight. After you all get cleaned up and rested of course.”

I had no objections, I was hungry and from the looks on everyponies face they were as well. Except for Moon Shadow who was hiding his face underneath his hood. I was worried about him.

We found ourselves escorted to individual guest rooms by Twilight’s personal servants. We had an hour before dinner was served so I made sure that I was cleaned up from the swamp, I hadn’t realized how much mud and dirt was still in my fur. I guess using the water pump and a bucket and a wash cloth over at the Lit Fuse wasn’t good enough.

The water was really very nice to soak in, and after I was done I dried off in the most fluffy and soft towel I have ever felt. I went back into my room and noticed green mare with a purple mane sitting in my room staring at me. She had lizard eyes and a scales growing on the underside of her neck. She simply continued to stare at me as I stood there frozen.

I didn’t know what to do, I would have liked to attack her, but she wasn’t doing anything to me…yet. I cleared my throat a little and said. “Um…hi, I believe you have the wrong room.”

She stared at me and let out a puff of smoke from her nostrils. Okay now that was creepy. I began walking very slowly towards the door, maybe a guard would know what to do about this. All of sudden the mare spoke in a rough voice saying. “Wait, please don’t tell Twilight…or dad. I just wanted to meet the famous Altar Light. I couldn’t tell if you were really her for a moment, you just seem so tame.”

I looked at her feeling strange and confused for a moment, before I got enough of my wits together to ask. “So you already know who I am, but who are you?”

She licked her lips with a lizard tongue, one that was uncomfortably long. She then raised a split hoof to her chest, the hoof was very sharp looking, and she said. “I am tge Dragon Pony awesomeness extraordinaire.”

I gave her a confused look and she amended, saying. “Okay…my name is actually Jade Heart…”

I sat down and asked confused as ever. “That’s a pretty name.”

She looked to the side and spat a small poof of fire out before saying. “Dad gave me that name, mum had a much worse name in mind. I decided I would call myself something different though.”

I began to imagine who her mom might’ve been, and if my poor memory serves well I knew who her dad was at least. I then asked, “Okay, what do you want to me to call you by then?”

She smiled her sharp tooth grin and said, “Pyro…dragon…awesome…pony.”

I was not about to call her that, so I decided to simply call her, “Pyro that’s a nice name.”

Pyro’s smile grew as she said, “Thanks, you’re pretty awesome.”

I turned and faced the door and asked, “And will you be joining us for dinner?”

Pyro answered with a bored tone, “Not tonight, Twilights a lot of fun to eat with, but dad said he wanted to spend some quality father daughter time with me. Blah, he gets so boring. I blame Auntie Twilight for raising him so boringly.”

That did it, this had to be Spike progeny sitting in my room. I didn’t have to wonder to hard to figure out who her mom must have been. I walked out the door and said. “Okay, just don’t make a mess while I’m gone. and I’d like to talk to you again when you’re free.” And then I was gone, going to a fancy dinner.

This dinner was anything but fancy. In all of three hundred years it would seem that Twilight had not only retained her simple tastes, but all of her disgusting eating habits. Twilight’s golden mask was missing, replaced by a white eye patch with a blue and pink butterfly on it. Her muzzle was covered in gravy and she was only getting more messy as she continued to eat.

Everypony was here eating except for Moon Shadow who was Celestia knows where at the moment. Storm Feather was eating very politely along with Rainfall and me. While Myst was eating almost as messily as Twilight was. I swear it looked like the two of them had gotten into a ‘who could eat the messiest’ contest. It was rather embarrassing.

When Twilight had finally finished she used the napkin to clean her face. While Myst only dug in for seconds, or thirds I couldn’t tell at this point. Storm Feather had been given a special stew for his dietary concerns…I assumed that meant there was animal in it.

Twilight then spoke saying, “I haven’t eaten like this in ages. I’ve been so busy lately. Thank you for coming over Light.”

I looked up and asked, “Busy with what?”

She looked a little tired again as she said, “Busy trying to prevent a war with King Silver. He has grown in power at a shocking rate over the past twenty years. But in the last three they have become frighteningly aggressive, around the time that I heard they had killed you.”

I didn’t like the sound of that at all. I took a drink from my tea and then asked, “Has it really only been three years?”

Twilight gave me a nod while saying, “Yeah, it’s been hard for me without you. It looked like they attacked you at your bar, and took both you and Moon Shadow captive.”

I looked up at Twilight and asked, “But what about my memories.”

Twilight looked a little happier as she said, “That was actually your doing. You’re a smart girl Light, you told me that you had a spell to wipe you of all your memories should you ever get captured by the enemy.”

That made me feel slightly less broken at least. I asked, “So we have been fighting against Silver’s Knights for a long time now I gather?”

Twilight answered, “Yes, and we were doing good. But with you gone we lost our most valuable asset. You were my secret weapon, acting as a mercenary for them for the longest time. Sadly they caught on to you selling out information. Thankfully King Silver can’t take any actions against me unless my soldiers do something first. So we have been using proxies and mercenaries to strike blows at one another for a while now.”

I looked down into my drink. I took another sip and then said, “Wow…so this war is only a hairs breath away from becoming serious.”

Twilight explained, “Yes it is, but thanks to King Silver trying to appease the political powers in his lands he has been unable to act strongly against me. I know he just wants me to bow to him, some ponies have taken to calling him Silver the conqueror for a good reason.”

Storm Feather then asked, “Isn’t King Silver’s territory on the opposite side of the Everfree?”

Twilight spoke answered, “Yes it is, and if we get into a real conflict the Everfree woods will be the main battlefield.” Twilight let out a sigh before saying, “I remember the days when we would just strap on some pretty necklaces and kick the bad guys flank. But with no more elements of harmony things are much harder.”

I let out my own sigh and said, “I guess that means you understand Celestia a whole lot more now.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. I began to feel that this dinner was less of a social engagement and more of a tactical one. Something inside of me both hated and loved this. There seemed to be something about the idea of a good fight that just really appealed to me. I began to wonder about why I found these things so engaging, and the more I wondered the more my mind began to slip into someplace else…

***

I stood at a table with Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight all at the same table with me. I was nervous about being around the four princesses all at once. I hadn’t been with them all like this before. Twilight was actually a little shorter than me and her hair was even shorter than mine. I secretly enjoyed being taller than her.

Celestia looked down at the table, it was blank map of Equestria. Celestia floated a few white round pieces over and placed them on the map at the largest cities in Equestria. She then said, “These are where the majority of the Equestrian Guard are located.” She then lifted a single red piece and floated it over to a small village at the southern most place on the map. She then added, “and this is the village of New Slate. Where the first and so far only demon attack has taken place.”

I looked at the map and said. “Wait…that’s where Maud is working, what’s going on?”

Cadence looked at Twilight and asked accusingly, “Didn’t you tell her what happened?”

Twilight Sparkle then said fearfully, “I only knew it was a southern village that was wiped…um attacked. I didn’t know which one.”

Cold fear rushed through my body, if Maud was there when it was attacked…it couldn’t be that bad. I felt myself shaking a little bit before I asked, “How bad was it?”

Celestia looked at me with such sad eyes and said, “The town is gone, our soldiers weren’t fast enough to stop the first demon from being summoned.”

I froze, it felt like my entire body was covered in ice. I could only stare down at the red piece sitting on top of New Slate. That little red piece looked like the end of the world to me. I somehow managed to ask, “Did you just say…a demon?”

Celestia then spoke in a very soft voice, “Yes little one, I did.”

Twilight wrapped a wing around me and I buried my face into Twilight’s neck sobbing saying.
“Please, there has to be something we can do…something I can do. I…didn’t even get to say good bye when she last visited me,” I pleaded to Twilight.

Twilight nuzzled the top of my head and spoke gently saying, “At least you still have Trixie.”

***

Returning to my body had me feeling like I had just been thrown into the deep end of the pool. I nearly fell out of my chair, my breathing became rapid and I felt tears streaming down my face from the fresh memory. I heard Twilight asking me if I was okay.

I looked up and explained, “I…just had another memory flashback…this one was…bad.”

Twilight looked worried as she asked, “Does this happened a lot?”

I tried to shake my head and felt dizzy from the effort. I instead said, “Not often, but when it does…it’s been getting harder on me.”

Twilight looked even more worried and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

I began feeling a little less dizzy and said, “No…I just need some rest.”

The dinner was over after that and we all retreated to our individual rooms. I was exhausted from the memory flash, and even more so I was confused. I knew that Trixie was my mom, but how was Maud connected to her, connected to me? I didn’t know right now, but I did know that I was going to get some sleep and then figure this stuff out later. I laid down on the soft bed and closed my eyes. Sleep came quickly to me, and I would get to spend some more time with Dreamer.