An Equestrian Odyssey

6 Periculosiore

“Did you find her?” Prince Bluesteel croaked. The Prince lay abed, his chambers dark, many bandages covered the left side of his body, and a tray of medicinal poultices and herbal concoctions sat next to his bed.

“No your highness, we have not yet found her. I have my legionnaires searching the forest in the direction she fled and while we have her trail we do not yet have her in sight.” The Commissar's ironshod hooves clicked as she walked across the floor to move closer to Bluesteel, “My scouts will report to me first thing in the morning, or immediately via spell should they catch sight of her.”

“Your soldiers couldn’t stop her from escaping a walled-off compound. What makes you think they could stop her in a forest?”

The Commissar sighed, “Permission to speak freely your highness?”

“I assume you mean ‘permission to speak free from punishment’?”

“Yes.”

The prince mulled it over for a few moments, “Go ahead.”

“You have done a great disservice to yourself, the Imperium, and the Emperor by avoiding all manner of Imperial culture, forsaking your lessons, and above all else creating a profound lack of faith in our Emperor. I do not seek to insult you with these words, for your actions do insult to yourself and your station. Rare Luck escaped due to the chaos caused by her escape, a lack of properly placed guards which was directly your fault for ordering their duty stations changed, and access to one or more spelltomes which would have been caught had my ponies been allowed to conduct bi-weekly searches of slave quarters.

“Furthermore your highness, there is more here than meets the eyes. No beginning warlock has the capacity to use magic to the extent she did. I myself saw her use of Icarian Flight to leap the wall. From battlefield experience I am quite aware of the capabilities of unicorns utilizing that spell and at what point in their training they possess the power to use it. Rare had help escaping, likely a powerful magic artifact.”

Bluesteel coughed, rolling in his bed slightly, the stink of burnt flesh filling the room as he moved, “What are you getting at?”

“I am an experienced Commissar of the Imperial Legions who has served the Emperor for longer than you have been alive. At your age I was already a Centurion and had captained a centri of legionnaires safely through three separate campaigns. At your age, I had earned a rank of command in a profession dominated by unicorns and pegasi fighting with only my hooves and some iron shoes. Today I serve as the Captain of your guard, hold the distinguishment of being fifth in command of the Emperor’s Legions and am of such age that were I anypony else I would be retired.

“I was given a choice the year you were born, I could take my reward for my decades of service in the form of a Villa, or guard the Emperor’s newborn son. My faith would not allow me to choose retirement when my Emperor still had use of me. You have proved to be a valueless charge, were it not for the Emperor’s request and my oath to fulfill it I would be ashamed of my existence for serving a worthless whelp such as yourself who can not be bothered to listen to those with a lifetime of experience or even attempt to learn for themselves.”

“So you are saying all of this is my own fault?”

“That I am your highness. I only hope you can understand why the blame for your injuries and anger lie with yourself. My ponies in the field are under my command and my command alone, it will take time to hunt down a single runaway within the forest but we will find her, and we will confront her.”

“You may… have a point.” Bluesteel conceded, “however I am not solely to blame, your soldiers couldn't hit a single pony running towards them.”

“True, they are a tad soft from a lack of battlefield experience. I assure you that those responsible for failing in their duties have been punished in accordance with Imperial Law.”

The prince nodded, coughing slightly. “Bring me a scrying gem.”

The Commissar raised an eyebrow, “Who are you in need of contacting? I can send a message for you.”

“Go and aid your ponies in the field. You are right. I need to learn how to use ponies who have skills I don’t to get the things I want.”

The Commissar nodded, “Thank you your highness. I hope you learn quickly and that my lesson sticks with you. If you have need of me you need only send a message.” Giving the prince a bow low enough for his cap’s brim to nearly touch the floor the Commissar quickly left the room, cloak billowing as he moved.

Within a few moments he returned, setting a large red gemstone fitted into a gold frame next to the Prince, only to quickly leave again. Bluesteel reached over slowly, grabbing the amulet with his hoof and moving it over until he could see his eyes reflect in the light. The prince’s horn flashed gold briefly as he activated the gem’s magic. Within seconds the gem began to fill with a black fog, swirling and coalescing into an image on the gem’s large face.

The image cleared showing a large quarried stone chamber containing a rough hewn thrown, not a royal throne but still quite resplendent with carved in symbols and a throw blanket covering the back and a second covering the arms. Behind the throne was a large war banner, a crimson field trimmed in gold and adorned with the black silhouette of a two-headed eagle. Seated on the throne was a massive pony easily twice the size of a normal stallion who was dressed in a set of fullplate made from plates so thick that by all rights he should not be able to move in it. Like the war banner, his armor was also red with gold trim.

Two massive pauldrons guarded the pony’s upper shoulders, each one decorated differently, the left bore the image of a drop of a black blood with two feathered wings, the right was emblazoned with a white unicorn’s skull. All across the armor were crimson wax seals in the shape of a pony’s skull which held strips of parchment upon which many arcane writings were

As fearsome as the armor was the helmet was far more so. The curving stylized helm was built around a black grill where the mouth would be, two narrowed golden slits made from amber. Four thick cables, two on each side, led from attachments right next to the mouthpiece to the sides of the helmet’s neck, and then to a large metal backpack strapped to the pony’s back.

Bluesteel opened his mouth to speak but the armored pony’s booming voice cut him off instantly, “Were you not His Majesty the Emperor’s son and heir I would have you slain as a heretic for contacting His Majesty’s Adeptus Equus! Clear this channel.”

The prince winced, he could have sworn the pony’s eyes blazed with literal flames as he spoke, “Chapter Master Zealous Doom, I have something to report to you. Something I am certain my father's standing orders for your… legion demand you address.”

“Speak your words, but be quick lest the Emperor have need of us and you prohibit his voice from reaching our ears.” Zealous Doom replied.

“A slave recently escaped my palace, during her escape she attacked me with a spell which was a blend of dark sorcery and light magic. She also, according to my Captain of the Guard, must have been in possession of a magical artifact as the strength and power of her spells was unusually high. As I recall, the Adaptus Equus have standing orders to purge any known practitioners of light magic.”

“The Emperor’s orders are clear,” this time Zealous Doom’s eyes definitely flashed a bright gold, “tell me of this heretic so she may feel the Imperium's wrath.”

“Happily.” Bluesteel grinned and began to tell the Elite Legion’s commander everything he could wish to know.

~~

Charlotte woke the next morning to Rare’s nudging of her leg with one hoof. Sleepily muttering she moaned, “Geesh mom I’ll get up…”

Rare sighed, slamming one hoof into her forehead “Get up! I have never seen someone take so long to wake up in my life! We need to get going.”

Charlotte's left eye opened slightly, then her eyes shot open as wide as the could go, “Ah! Ok… So that wasn’t a dream.” she chuckled nervously before grinning, “Then I actually am in-”

“A life or death situation with an escaped slave trying to avoid patrols of legionnaires! We need to move! I think I heard a troop rally call a few minutes ago!”

Charlotte whent to push herself up to their feet, only to stifle a scream of pain as she pushed with her missing arm, “Nnnn! Fucking-hell! Right, sorry I’m up…” Pushing herself up with her good arm Charlotte groaned as the ache of spending a night on dirt throbbed in her everything.

Rare began to canter northwards, forcing Charlotte to jog to keep up. Occasionally Rare would look over her shoulder, especially whenever Charlotte made any sort of brush snapping sound, which seemed to be every other pace. “Sooo… what do we do if they catch us?” Charlotte asked.

“Try to fight our way out.”

“Ok… Should we have some kind of plan for that? Because I’m really really hurt here… Like, I have never been this hurt. I can't feel anything though. Is that normal?”

“I don’t know I’m not a healer!” Rare snapped, her ears swiftly dropping as she realized how she must sound, “Sorry...I’m just on edge… I didn’t think I would be ordered by a mythical creature to escort someone somewhere…”

“It’s fine. I’m pretty sure I’d be bitchy too. But um, plan.”

“Yeah a plan would be a good idea.” Rare admitted, “What can you do?”

“Ummm well I don’t know. I’m ambidextrous, but I always shot with my left hand…” Charlotte winced as she mentioned her former appendage.

“Shot? Are you an archer? I didn’t see a bow in your-”

“No I used to shoot guns with my dad some weekends. I just kinda liked using my left hand for it. So I have no idea how good of a shot I am with my right.”

Rare hopped over a rock blocking the trail, “Well can you find out? If you can't fight you should just bolt if any legionnaires catch up to us.”

Charlotte nodded and stopped jogging. Looking for any sort of target she awkwardly drew her blaster from her left hip with her right hand and thumbed the safety switch. Rare jumped, spinning around as the weapon’s capacitors spooled up with a loud ‘dwwweeeeeeeeee!’

“Watch the noise!”

“You told me to see if I can shoot!” Charlotte shot back before taking aim at a large branch on an oak tree where the branch joined the trunk. She knew she missed the second she pulled the trigger. Crap I pulled too hard to the right- The blaster immediately cut her thoughts off with a loud “BWAP!” as a solid blue bolt of light blasted out from the muzzle, slammed into the tree trunk a few inches from the spot she had aimed at and blasted a fist sized hole clean through the tree.

Charlotte stared at the hole and her blaster as Rare squeaked, “That was really loud!”

“It-it couldn’t have… This isnt that powerful of a- what?”

“We need to run! They will have heard that.” Rare flinched.

“This is only a two megawatt laser. I dont even have that much of power in the entire battery! Do I still even have charge?” Charlotte asked incredulously, staring at the small battery meter on the blaster, How the hell do I have 98 percent remaining?

“Come on!” Rare took off northward at a full gallop.

“You don’t understand! Physics just broke!” Charlotte called, sprinting after Rare, Blaster in hand.

A few minutes of panicked running later and the two could hear hoofbeats echoing off the trees. Rare and Charlotte put on as much speed as they could, but within moments flashes of red cloaks could be seen on either side of them through the trees. Panting Rare scanned the terrain ahead, “I think there is a clearing up ahead, if we make it there we can see if there is anything to use for cover and maybe I can scare them off.”

Charlotte nodded, “Yeah maybe. Sooo will they kill me or just kinda let me go?”

“What would you would do if I was caught with you and you were an escaped slave?”

“Couldn’t happen, we outlawed slavery like 200 years ago.”

Rare gave Charlotte an incredulous look, “And you came here because why?”

“Reasons!”

The two burst through the final layer of trees into the clearing, just ahead of them was a fairly deep dry stream bank just deep enough to use for cover. Rare made a beeline for the bank, jumping in in a fluid leap, Charlotte attempted to do the same, but fell short and wound up sliding into the muddy depression with a grunt.

Rare closed her eyes as she summoned forth her spell notes, the rings of light unfolding into existence as if being drawn by multiple pens.

“Woah! Is that magic?” Charlotte asked.

“What else would it be?”

“Hologram. What are you casting?”

“These are my notes… If you need anything to fight you should get ready. Turn on your death ray thing.”

Charlotte nodded, “Ok.” How do I do this with one hand? A few seconds of thought saw Charlotte take her spare battery out of the holster and put it on the ground atop the bank, another second and her taster joined the battery, and finally her blaster was quickly checked for charge. “I really don’t want to kill anyone…”

Rare nodded, “I don’t want to either… Try and wound them ok? Because they are going to try and kill us…” Rare swiped a hoof, moving her magic menu over to attack spells. “I’m going to try my best one the second I see one. If they run just fire a few shots.”

“Ok.” Charlotte tightened her grip on the blaster, What the hell have I gotten myself into? I really don't want to think about this… Ummm… Oh! How did this thing go from a pulse laser to a freaking DL-44? Maybe the portal affects technology which passes through it?

Charlotte looked over as she heard Rare begin to chant, the unicorns horn shown a brilliant gold color interspaced with tiny black flecks as she intoned. “Elysium’s light and Tartarus's fires, gather before me as one!”

Pale green flames slowly bled from her horn, golden light helixing around the flames as they formed a ball. Out of the corner of her eye Charlotte noticed six legionnaires moving forwards across the clearing, large tower shields held in front of them somehow. Rare continued “Hallowed and Unholy Flames, strike now and set the very earth ablaze!”

The ball of fire surged outwards, dry grass igniting in it’s wake as it sped towards the legionnaires who dropped flat, allowing the spell to fly overhead and explode against a tree with a flash of green and gold light and a thunderclap, a small blaze starting around the spell’s impact. Charlotte’s jaw dropped, “Holy shit!”

Rare slumped downwards from the energy loss. “Ugh… I can’t do many more of those.”

“Magic here works like Slayers!” Oh my gosh I totally should try spellcasting!

The unicorn gave her a confused look. “What?”

“It’s ok! I think I got this.” Charlotte stood up and stepped out of the ditch.

A brown coated legionary whose helmet had a poofier crest than the others pointed at her with one hoof, “She summoned a creature! Fall back to the treeline.”

Charlotte held her arms out at her sides and drew them inwards to her chest before moving them upwards doing her best to form a triangle shape above her head chanting, “Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the stream of time is where your power grows.”

The Legionnaires began to quickly fall back, levitating their shields back up. The brown one called, “It’s a spellcaster! Form a Testudo!” The six quickly swept their shields up to make a roofed shieldwall.

Rare blinked, even more confused, “That sounds like magic but nothing’s glowing…”

Charlotte grinned, “I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes who stand, before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand.” Suddenly she thrust her hands outwards with a cry of “Dragon Slave!” Damn… Charlotte took a half step back, “Ok so I’m not a mage… But what about,” Angling herself towards the formation of legionnaires Charlotte swept bout arms back behind herself at waist level holding them at her right side, “Kaaaaahhhhhh… mmmmeeeeehhhh…. Haaaa…. meeeeehhh… HA!”

Rare facehoofed as once again nothing happened. The legionnaires looked out from behind their shields confused. Charlotte sighed, half disappointed, half afraid, “Ok gun it is then.”

Pointing her blaster at the shield wall Charlotte winced and pulled the trigger. An intense blue bolt leapt forth, the distinct echoing sound ringing in everypony’s ears as the first bolt smashed a hole through one legionary's shield. The second splashed off a helm, the energy dissipating in a flash leaving a scorch mark, the third blasted a furrow in the ground. Charlotte fired a fourth shot before sliding back into the trench, “Ok so no super powers.”

“Why did you try that? You clearly are not a warlock!” Rare hissed.

“Because that’s how it works in fiction! I figured magical talking pony,” she paused to fire a few blaster bolts at the now retreating legionnaires, “who casts spells all anime style, I probably can do something. Turns out what I can do is shoot a blaster… Though that is pretty damn cool! Too bad it’s not red bolts.”

“Charlotte…” Rare groaned.

“I know, life or death situation. I think my coping mechanism is ‘laugh it off’. Sorry, I have never done this sort of thing before.” Charlotte reminded giving Rare a shaky grin and firing a few more shots into the trees. “Should we keep running?”

Rare nodded, “S-sorry… I haven’t done this before either.”

“And running?”

“Running sounds good!”

Charlotte set her blaster down, scooped up her belongings, shoved them loosely into a pocket, retrieved her weapon and with a call of “Covering fire!” emptied her blaster’s first battery as the two fled the ditch, firing over her shoulder to deter pursuit.

~~

Commissar Ironhide sat with twenty of his Legionnaires around a large fire they had created as a temporary command post from which to allow soldiers a hot meal and brief rest before returning to their patrols. The change of pace from sitting about guarding a palace was a most welcome one for the Commissar and his ponies. Because the hard work of patrolling the forest and scouting all the potential trails everypony’s mood was high. These poor ponies have never known the glory of battle. Ironsides sighed, I know for a fact this is the first time Spartacus has left the Palace grounds. I should see if I can't get my legion into combat rotation. We lack experience.

Look at everypony, enjoying the mission, being sloppy on patrol… If I don’t see marked improvement by tomorrow morning I will have to-

“Commissar! We found her sir!” a centurion's shout coming from his scrying crystal interrupted her thoughts.

“Well done centurion! Keep her pinned down and report your position.” It’s about time somepony had some success in this outfit.

“No can do sir! She apparently knows summoning magic, she called forth a monster which… It fired energy beams from it…”

“Spit it out centurion!”

“Sir, yes sir! We are a half league directly north of the camp. Rare Luck has summoned forth help capable of spellcraft. Our shields are only good for a few hits, the beams are not able to penetrate our armor but are rapidly fired, Bright Flanks took a grazing hit along his right leg and is missing a half hoof deep chunk of flesh sir. He won't be able to walk without medical aid and soon. We simply don't have the force to attack their position… Hold on, what? Sir they are abandoning the ditch and continuing north. Shall we pursue?”

The Commissar stood up and stamped the fire out with his forehooves, “Hold your position, have half your centri follow and leave one of their number at every 500 yards. We are on our way.”

Bellowing at the top of his lungs the Commissar addressed his legion, “Legionaries! Break camp! We are heading north at a full gallop. Centurion Kopesh has a wounded pony on his hooves, the second he is in sight I was a surgeon to give all possible aid. Our query has summoned a creature to assist her capable of high battle magic. Keep your heads down!”

The soldiers broke camp in astounding time, even considering ‘camp’ was just a few unpacked goods and the one main fire. The second everypony was ready the Commissar led the north, moving at the head of the double column formation. The league of forest flew by quickly, At least everypony present is an excellent runner. I could put a full third of them into service as messengers and make a killing. A collapsed tree suddenly blocked his path, he jumped over, iron hooves sailing over the fallen tree and landing on a pile of soft ash.

Giving the area a cursory look he spotted the three ponies of Kopesh’s centri off to one side. “Ponies! Continue north, follow the scouts directions. I will catch up in a moment.”

As the twenty ponies galloped past the Commissar moved over to Kopesh and his wounded legionnaire, a white cloaked surgeon already on the scene before the Commissar had ordered his ponies to continue. “Centurion, I want a full report on the creature. Everything anypony present here in your centri saw.”

“Yes sir! It stands about twice as tall as a pony, only a few hooves shorter… Oh, sorry sir that is if you are using the neck to hoof measurement. Imperial standard measure has it at about one pony and five hooves tall sir. It is bipedal, like a younger dragon, but is scored in a soft skin somewhat like a nute although the colorization is quite bland, we could only see a peachish color. It had a mane of blond hair which was braided in a single strand. It also had on clothing, and a scale armor vest. The creature also carried at least one bag. It appeared to be recently injured, missing it’s left arm’s claw, the right one was used to cast spells.”

“What sort of spells did it cast? What did it’s face look like?” That description is awfully familiar…

“It only cast a spell which hurled a blue bolt of magic which explodes and burns briefly when it strike sir. But it cast them very fast, and as you can see one hit punched a hole clean through my shield, though it did stop it sir. … I can't remember it’s face too well sir, but Bright Flanks might sir, he was wounded trying to get a better look.”

The Commissar turned to the wounded pony, wincing as the surgeon cut away at the burnt flesh. That is a nasty spellbolt. “Surgeon, is he able to speak or have you given him a numbing drought?”

Bright Flanks saluted with his good foreleg, “Si-ah! S-sir. I’m conciou-nnn! I can s-speek sir!”

The pain in the orange unicorn’s eyes and on his face melted the Commissar's stony heart somewhat. I have been where you have been. The spell must have been carrying a lingering pain curse… He should be fine by morning. “Don’t worry about your wounds, I will be sure they are attended to for free. Just tell me what it looked like.”

“Fa-face… A lot… like an ape’s. But flatter.” the wounded soldier managed to gasp out before the surgeon put a hoof on his head to push him down.

“Sorry sir but he is moving too much to treat if he speaks.” The surgeon apologized adding, “The burn goes very deep, maybe to the bone, he needs to be taken to a proper infirmary.”

Hairless ape-like creature, tall, pink skin, a mane… By the Emperor, “That’s not a summon… I thought the last human had died eight thousand years ago. Centurion, surgeon, take your wounded and return to the palace. Get the guards into wartime deployment as soon as you can!”

“Sir, yes sir! But, what’s a human sir?” Centurion Kopesh asked as she helped the surgeon place Bright FLanks on the other legionnaires back.

“Read your history and mythology centurion. Humans are an apparently not so extinct race best known for being some of the grandest warriors in all Agros. It is said that one of their kind fought and killed their own gods out of revenge. They are very dangerous, love a good war, are very intelligent, in all they are a fitting foe for our Emperor’s Legions. If this one is a scout the palace may soon be under attack!”

The three legionnaires nodded and with a chant of, “Sir yes sir!” Rushed to fulfill the Commissar's orders.

Ironhide turned and sprinted as fast as she could to catch up to the rest of his men. What are you doing alive and here human? More importantly why did you choose to help Rare? The humans of lore would have slaughtered her for sport. Perhaps they have struck some form of arrangement… It is imperative I discover it’s purpose for being here before it’s too late!

~~

Rare and Charlotte’s legs burned as if they were immersed in lava. The sprint they had been keeping up for the last hour simply couldn’t be kept up for much longer. The sun was hanging right overhead, beaming intense heat down on the two adding buckets of sweat on top of the buckets of sweat which came from the pounding hooves of the dozen or so legionnaires just behind them.

Rare cursed under her breath, “I… I can’t… Too much running…”

Charlotte groaned, “Yeah.”

“S-stop?”

“Stop… Maybe fight… legs… probably broken…”

The two slowed down and stopped, moving back to back with one of their sides covered by a large oak tree. Charlotte flicked on her blaster, the ‘dweee’ of it powering up coincidentally accompanying the legionnaires splitting off to surround them. Rare levitated her broken sword out of it’s scabbard, her gold aura clinging only to the hilt. Oh wow this is really heavy… I hope I can swing this.

“Oh shit… One shot left.” Charlotte muttered looking at her blaster’s display.

The two gave each other an exhausted look which carried the message, ‘We’re dead.’ all too well.

The circle of Legionnaires drew their weapons, a few of the unicorn’s horns began to shine with charged spells. “Legionnaires, stand down!” a loud voice bellowed, one taller red capped pony stepping forwards.

The Commissar? Rare wondered as she took a half step backwards.

“Slave, if you surrender peacefully no harm will come to you. You are valuable property of the Emperor’s Legion and I have no desire to harm you. Your companion will also not be armed if she does not attack any of my men.”

Rare and Charlotte exchanged a suspicious look, “Yeah, right.” Charlotte spat with a laugh.

The Commissar gave her an angered look, but continued speaking to Rare, walking up to within four feet of her as he spoke. “My offer is genuine. Have more faith in those the Emperor has chosen to command his legions. While his highness Prince Bluesteel ordered me to find and capture you, his majesty the Emperor’s orders to recruit you supersede his son’s tantrums.”

Rare frowned, That is true. Ironhide has always put the Emperor’s wishes above everything else for as long as I have known him. “Swear to the Emperor we won't be harmed.”

Charlotte hissed, “What are you doing?”

“Nopony betrays an oath to the Emperor human. I know not how your kind behaves, but we are all ponies of our word. I, Prefect “Ironhide” Strike, Commissar of the Fifth Imperial Legion swear by the Emperor upon his golden throne that neither my men or myself shall harm you or your companion should you surrender to me now.”

Rare nodded and dropped her sword, she was out of magic anyways, “We surrender.”

“Damn it Rare… now they are going to kill us bou-” as the legionnaires began to dismiss their spells and put away their weapons Charlotte blinked in surprise, “Oh… um...ok.”

“Sooo… I always thought your name was Commissar Ironhide.” Rare said nervously.

“It might as well be.” he grunted before reaching back into his left saddlebag.

Rare and Charlotte flinched, dreading what device he might be retrieving only for the Commissar to remove a set of messenger's armor from the bag and set it on the ground. What? Rare wondered looking at the thin leather vest and skirt. The commissar then reached into his other saddlebag and fished out a bronze messenger's helm.

“Slave, put these on.” He ordered pointing at the armor with one hoof.

Rare nodded and slipped out of her cloak and saddlebags, levitating the armor and helmet onto her and securing them. I was almost free… Her eyes began to water as she realized she had simply traded masters.

Charlotte frowned as well, her grip tightened on her blaster. Slavery didn’t set well with her, it didn’t take a smart pony to realize she was a few seconds away from doing something stupid and dangerous. Ignoring the anger coming to a boil in the human the Commissar nodded at Rare, “Right then recruit. Our orders are to scout these woods for an escaped slave. Have you seen an escaped slave?”

Rare looked up on the verge of crying, “W-what?”

“You will address me as sir recruit! Now, have you seen any escaped slaves?”

“N-no sir?”

“Is that a question or a statement recruit?”

Rare’s lips spread in a grin as she suddenly realized what the Commissar was doing. “Sir! No sir!”

“Very well, back to your patrols everypony! Centuries Epsilon and Gamma set up camp for the night here. Oh yes, recruit. Your sword is in terrible condition, have it replaced at the first opportunity.” The Commissar gave her a wink and took a parchment scroll from his saddlebag, quickly writing on it with a charcoal pencil, passing the Scroll to Rare he smiled vindictively, “Your orders are to carry this scroll to every major settlement between here and the border and have them on the look out for our fugitive. Carry on.”

The Commissar turned his back to rare and began to move towards a group of legionnaires setting up a tent, “Sir… why are you helping me?”

“Because our prince needs to learn that in life sometimes you do not get what you want. I also doubt I could force you to join my legion, you are quite formidable with spellcraft after all. Besides if you enlisted you would be a part of my legion and I would have to deal with the prince’s vendetta with you constantly. This saves me a headache and with a rare stroke of luck, perhaps you will choose to enlist elsewhere willingly. Good day recruit. Burning Lance! That is not the proper way to set up the camp!”

As the Commissar stomped off to correct his legionnaires mistake Charlotte and Rare looked at each other, nodded and slowly, carefully crept off into the forest before bolting northwards as fast as their aching legs would carry them not wanting to question any of what just occurred lest it somehow be undone.

~~

Back at the beginnings of the Legion camp, midway through explaining why each tent must be exactly three ponies apart from it’s neighbors a lower ranking Legionnaire called for the Commissar's attention, “Sir permission to speak freely?”

“Granted.” he grunted.

“Why did you let her and that monster go sir? It doesn't make since, and is in defiance of our orders sir. It also might be dangerous to civilians it runs into.”

“The reasons I have Rare are perfectly true soldier… But I do have a few ulterior motives, including my own dislike of our mutual commanding officer.”

“Sir that does not justify breaking orders. The Rules Of Engagement chapter three section five states clearly we must follow all royal orders as instructed sir.”

“You are correct soldier, well done on memorizing Imperial Law. Do you also know the following section of the Rules Of Engagement?”

“Sir, of course sir!”

“Then you are aware that a legionnaire of command rank may dismiss any orders in the field should he have a justifiable reason for doing so. I have three such justifications to allow Rare to continue. First, there is no possibility of her having become that powerful on her own. I believe that human has somehow assisted her in learning spellcraft. Second, now that she is in legion uniform I can use my scrying gem to spy on her and learn why a human is here and if it has cohorts ready to attack our Imperium as I suspect she does and will. Third, our outing has proven to me that my legion is made up of soldiers fit only for a parade ground. I plan on a series of exercises to whip the lot of you into shape, including wargames. If I were to do so at the palace the prince would countermand my orders as usual.”

The legionnaire nodded, “I understand sir!” he snapped a salute, “For the Imperium and the Emperor!”

“For the Imperium and the Emp-”

The Commissar's return salute was interrupted by a shrieking sound one might get if nails were scraped across a chalkboard in an echo chamber and then sent through two megaphones. Instantly every legionnaires in the camp sprang up, grabbing their weapons and readying spells looking everywhere for an enemy.

They didn’t have to look far, within the center of the camp a mere three pony length away from the Commissar a swirling green portal as tall and as wide as six ponies had ripped itself into existence. The Commissar's eyes grew wide, fear flashing over his face for an instant, “Legion! Form up and keep clear of this portal! Nopony have a drawn weapon!”

The legionnaires hesitated for a few moments mumbling to themselves but quickly followed orders as they saw their commander backing away from the portal. By the Emperor, why here, why now? The human! She must have allies, the Emperor is aware of them then!

Four massive ponies stepped through the portal. They stood twice as high as the legionnaires before them. Their blood-red plate male decorated with painted skulls, and the occasional wax seal and parchment strip. Heavy repeating ballistas were held aloft by their magic, their helmeted heads held high, amber eyes blazing with a mad fury. The portal folded shut behind them, the foremost pony looked at the Commissar and bellowed “Commissar Ironhide, you are to give us a full briefing on the escaped slave by order of his highness the Prince.”

“Yes sir! We have discovered her to be traveling with at least one other, they are headed out of the Imperium on a route which winds east and is avoiding as many settlements as possible. They have a half day’s lead on my men. Do you require anything else?”

“Point the way.”

The Commissar pointed eastwards. The lead pony nodded once more, screamed “For The Emperor and Zealous Doom!”

The other three echoed the warcry before surging forwards as if a single mass of steel, fury, and weapons, quite literally smashing aside multiple trees and trampling a tent on a straight line in the direction the Commissar indicated.

A few minutes after they had left the legionnaire he had been speaking with asked in a terrified tone “S-sir why d-”

“Shhh! Their hearing is far better then you could hope to imagine!” The Commissar weighted a few more minutes then slammed one hoof into the ground angrily, “That blasted fool! I am in my legal rights to kill him for this! Legionnaires! Repair the camp, we march for the Palace in the morning after I contact the Emperor!”

“Sir what were those ponies? Why did you lie to them? What if they find out?” the legionnaire hissed.

“Those were members of the Emperor’s personal Legion, a pet project of his was to try and create his imaginations prefect army. They are called Adaptus Equus, also known as Blood Angels. All you need to know is that more alchemy and dark sorcery goes into creating the pony under that armor then you or I could afford if we never spent a single bit in our lives. They are the most deadly troops our Emperor has under his command and if I had put them on Rare’s path they might have quite literally destroyed an entire town or city just to kill her.”

The legionnaire gulped, “Are they rea-”

“Yes, they are. I saw their first deployment on the front lines. Not one brick of that keep remained standing. The Emperor declared them so dangerous and expensive to produce he made it high treason to deploy them under any circumstances without his express permission. Bluesteel is a damned fool, and likely a dead pony… I need to contact his Majesty… hopefully he can have those four recalled before they…” The commissar sighed, letting his sentence trail off as he took out his scrying gem concentrating on the Imperial Palace.