The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

As the circle crossed the ridge they were met with the generic and familiar sight of open farmland interspaced between patches of trees, small huts and houses. It was a farming community like so many others that took up most of the space in the east that wasn’t jungle and forrest, and Cash was quick to point out what that meant: “There’s be a noble ruling this place, which means a proper city, which means merchants, which means us getting a yeddim out of here”

Approaching the farming community, it took the circle no time at all to sense that something was off. Sullen Hoof was the first to point out that all the ponies working the fields and muddy rice-paddies we wearing what looked like hoof-carved charms and idols – not something out of the ordinary at all, given how supersticious most mortal ponies were (and rightfully so) but here the iconography of the charms were… off.

“Uhm, correct me if I’m wrong here, but idols that look like large red horned dogs aren’t usual farmer fare, right?” Sullen Hoof wondered, recalling only ever having seen similar things outside the Nexus immaculate temples, in paintings of unicorn monks smiting demons…

Both Sunrise and Shimmer were quick to agree, with Speaker saying that Sully’s description sounded like Erymanthoi demons: “But why would these farmers be running around with idols for bloodhound demons displayed openly? Isn’t that asking for trouble from any itinerant immaculate monk?”

Cash wasn’t impressed: “I’ve been through places in the hundred kingdoms where local warlords demanded that all serfs and peasants shear off their manes, or always sing praises to them, or even one place that worshiped their lord like some kind of demon king because of his bloodthirsty nature. This is nothing, trust me. At worst the local ruler here likes to play right, in which case Red just gets to have fun, but likely its nothing worth our time”
Speaker couldn’t help but nod. He had heard of plenty of stories from other Lookshyan officers who’d been around the hundred kingdoms far more than he ever had, of strange local costums and bizarre worship of local deities – and Cash was right: They had more important things to do, like getting this flooding business over with and returning to their work in Nexus.

Passing a field, Cash hailed one of the peasant ponies in it for directions. The brown-coated pony mare, with a cutie mark in the form of a sheaf of grain, was so startled by Cash calling out to her that she dropped her broad-brimmed straw hat – a hat similar to the sort Sullen Hoof always wore.

“Skittish, maybe its tax season?” Sullen Hoof theorized.

Speaker disagreed, although he couldn’t give any other reason why the farmer should be so frightened: “Farmers are usually only taxed come summer or fall, once they’ve harvested – this early in spring they don’t have anything worth collecting, aside from their own ability to work”

Cash didn’t seem to mind, waving at the mare to come over – which she did, although she kept looking over her shoulders: “Greetings. We’re a group of travelers who, due to unfortunate circumstances, had to get off our boat here while underway to Nexus. Could you tell us where the nearest market or caravansary is?”

The mare gulped, then nodded to show that she’d understood Cash’s question: “You shouldn’t be here – cross the river, just get away – if they catch you you’re all dead!”

“If who or what catches us?” Cash wondered, looking not frightened, but more annoyed that the mare hadn’t answered his question, as well as concerned that the territory they were in was a lot less friendly than anticipated.

The mare didn’t seem able to speak the words. It was obvious that she was terrified, with her constantly looking about for things that the circle evidently couldn’t see: “No, nothing – nothing at all – now please leave us alone”

Looking back at the circle with a shrug, while the mare ran back into the field to yank up more weeds, Cash sighed: “Shimmer, why not have a look from up above – see if you can spot any larger city or village around here”

Giving Speaker a brief look, Shimmer shifted into her seagull form and flew up into the air, circling overhead for a brief moment. After a few minutes she landed on Speaker’s shoulder and told him that she had spotted a watchtower further in land, away from the river and at the edge of a forest – the kind of watchtower usually employed by local militia for border protection and toll collection. The circle agreed that the ponies there should know better directions – or at least be willing to part with such information for a small fee.
The circle found the tower abandoned. The wooden construction also bore signs of battle, with its door smashed in – an iron-reinforced thick oaken door, completely battered in and ripped off its hinges. Inside Sullen Hoof and Shimmer were able to find a few very old bloodstains – not enough for a pony to have died from bloodloss, but more like signs of hoof to hoof combat. There were also quite a lot of shattered remnants of chairs, tables – the whole place was trashed.

“Well that explains why the locals are so jumpy – if there’s raiders and slavers about they would be understandably frightened” Sullen Hoof noted, pointing out dusty drag-marks on the dirt flood.

Shimmer frowned, not sure if she agreed: “The hoof-prints don’t add up for slavers. I’m only seeing hoof-prints from the ponies who worked here – and there’s a really faint smell in the air… I can’t put my hoof on it, but it doesn’t smell like pony”

“Changeling raiders? That would spook the locals real good” Red suggested, unsure of whether she should power up her sword-shaping charm.

The lunar mare agreed that changelings might well explain how the door was smashed in – but if it was eastern changelings the smell was still wrong: “Eastern changelings tend to smell like thorny bushes or predator animals, especially if they have warrior assumptions on”

Ultimately the watchtower proved useful enough: Cash found a wooden plate carved with a map of the local land, with the farming community, the Yanaze river and the tower all clearly marked – as well as a city not far from it, through the forest.

With the new directions, the circle made their way through the forest, following the small road which evidently connected the little farming community to a larger city – and indeed, a city they found… it just didn’t look like how they had imagined, or at least parts of it didn’t.

Like many smaller cities in the east, especially those without local access to stone quarries, the city’s walls were made of solid and talls timbers with blockhouses dotted along the city wall at reasonable intervals. The strange bit was that the towers and the walls were, in many places, covered in what looked like shiny brown substance – and the ground around the walls was covered in tiny but sharp shards of obsidian.

Even stranger was the fact that there were no ponies up on the walls – at all.

Upon closer inspection, as the circle trotted along the wall to find a gate, it turned out that it was lathered in some kind of brown amber which was without a doubt not just some local kind of mud – it looked like huge large-than pony sized wads of some kind of hardened resin, but unlike the amber one would get from tree-sap then this had a very different color.

“Perhaps the local trees just ooze a lot of the stuff, and in a weird color?” Shimmer suggested.

Speaker frowned: “Not possible. Resin from trees is always highly flammable – makes for good but short-lived torches, but definitely not something you would ever use to build anything with”

As the circle finally found a gate to pass through – which to their relief was open – they were greeted by a single young pony guarding it who, from how the colt was leaning suggestively against the inner wall of the gateway blockhouse, looked more like a prostitute than a guard. The very tight-fitting leather armor the pony wore didn’t help either as it left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and neither did his sultry voice: “Greetings strangers, may I welcome you all to the hold of the Great and Powerful Trixie. Enjoy your stay and don’t cause any trouble”

That the guard winked at Cash did little to convince Speaker of the guard’s suitability to protect the city, but at least the city itself looked reasonably normal: Wooden buildings, most with pagoda style roofs, tiled with ceramic tiles. The roads were replete with rough black stone. Many dozens of ponies were milling about doing their business, all wearing small idols that looked like small effigies of demons around their necks.

“Right, it’s official – this place is creeping me out. Cash, please find us a ride and quickly” Red implored.

Cash chuckled: “Oh come on, you, Red, afraid of strange jewelry fashions?”

Red gave Cash a disapproving glare and trotted over to look at a street vendor’s stall, buying some cooked tubers on a stick.

The circle looked about for a short while, trying to spot any merchants in town. Cash was about to give up, seeing as the city was apparently quite deserted of merchant interests – despite some of the local wood carvers making some rather nice decorative knickknack, when he was approached with a summons from the local lord of the land – he quickly caught up with the circle and relayed the summons.

“Hey friends – I just got the strangest summons from the local lord” Cash began, but quickly noticing that the rest of the circle seemed engrossed in discussing a different topic:

“I am certain – I have been feeling strange ever since we got here – and Speaker saw the same thing” Sunrise adamantly proclaimed.

Joining the debate, Cash found himself at first confused about what all the hubbub was about – the whole circle seemed on edge, except him, especially since it was down a one-way alloey. It was when Speaker finally explained what he’d seen that Cash got chills down his spine: “No Red, I’m sure – my spirit sight charm doesn’t lie about this kind stuff. This city is chock full of demons, but they seem either docile or busy”

It was strange to imagine for Cash, but apparently the city was full of dematerialized demons – much like how spirits and gods could move unseen through ponies and walls alike…

“Are they looking?” Red wondered, absolutely hating the fact that she never got around to having Speaker teach her that damnable spirit-seeing charm – let alone the one that let her strike dematerialized beings.

Speaker nodded, looking in no way pleased about being able to confirm Red’s inquiry.

“Well then, I just got summoned by a pony to appear before the court of this here Great and Powerful Trixie – by a pony who stammered and shook as if some invisible force was holding her holding her by the fun bits, with claws” Cash explained, suddenly not sounding very keen on meeting this demon lord if that was how ponies were treated in this place.

“Was that why the farmer pony was so frightened? Demons watching her?” Sullen Hoof suggested, the very thought of being lorded over by such a dark master making his stomach churn.

Red put a solid hoof on Cash’s right shoulder. It was slightly chipped, having clearly turned many a blade, but it was strong and firm like no other. She then spoke in High Realm, figuring that the demons couldn’t speak or understand it: “Let’s go visit this lord and demand an explanation – and if nothing else, we can free these ponies”

Cash nodded, then looked at the rest of the circle: “Let’s go answer our summons then”

The castle of the lord of… whatever the city’s name was, had similar shiny brown patches, supposedly covering up holes in the wooden structure – holes that Speaker and Shimmer both figured were the size of bloodhounds, demon warriors quite aptly named for their bloodlust and singular obsession with lapping the blood of the things they killed.

“How lovely… what about the brown resin stuff then, what’s that from?” Red wondered, hoping that whatever demon had womited up such reasonably useful building materials were a bit less deadly.

Shimmer were familiar with such demons it turned out, having encountered realm unicorn sorcerers who had summoned some to produce weapons out of their resin back west: “They’re called Needlemakers, of Firmin. They’re not much smarter than animals, but if bound by a summoner you can make them stop making nests out of resin needles and instead make more useful things, like weapons or simple buildings”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad” Red said, bobbing her head side to side, trying to imagine what such a fiend would look like.
Shimmer frowned: “They like to decorate their nests with dead animals and ponies…”

“Lovely – say, are there any demons which aren’t just straight up murderous?” Red wondered out loud, well aware that there were likely invisible demon spies listening in on her.

Cash pushed open a heavy wooden door, letting strangely beautiful lyre-music seep into the hallway the circle was in. Speaker quickly wiped a tear from his eye: “Oh there are Red, and you’re hearing one now – the Harpists of hell play the most beautiful music…”

Red found herself almost assaulted by feelings of guilt and vivid memories of when she accidentally caused the injuries which led to her older brother’s death. Staggered for a moment in surprise, she looked pleading to Speaker: “What the – what’s happening!?”

“It’s the harpist music – it makes you keenly aware of who you are. If you’re happy with yourself it makes you feel good, if you’re burdened by memories it will make you recall them” Speaker mused, his gaze idle as memories of the first age washed over him as the faint music seeped through the slight opening from the ajar door.

Cash pushed the door wide open, looking confident as ever – and led the circle into the court of the demon lord… who turned out to be a pale unicorn mare with a really big pointy hat. About her sat the very harpist demons that Speaker had mentioned, along with strange ponies wrought of silver that danced about beautifully.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to know who stand before her” the mare on the throne said form under her hat. With a light skyblue coat, and a mane with an even lighter shade of blue, there was little doubt as the unicorn mare’s aspect: She was clearly an air-aspected unicorn…

Cash charmed quickly bowed and motioned for the rest of the circle to bow as well: “We are but travelers, seeking to buy means of passage to Nexus after our ship to Nexus unfortunately dropped us off near here”

Trixie gave Cash a distrusting glare: “The Great and Powerful Trixie knows that you lie. Tell her exactly why you are here, I shall let my construction workers use you for home decoraton to warn others!”

Cash looked back at the rest of the circle. He seemed, if nothing else, a tad confused –if not at the very least unsure of what to say next…

“Speak! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you explain yourselves!” the unicorn mare stood and decreed.

Sullen Hoof quickly stepped up, his golden helmet and mask having faded long before the circle had entered the town in lieu of his usual ‘unremarkable and plain looking servant face’ disguise, coupled with his heavenly chef uniform also having been replaced with something decidedly more fitting for a serf: “Milady, I beg of you – my masters are but awestruck at the magnificence of your court – we have never heard such beautiful music, or seen such splendid dance…”

The mare smiled at Sullen Hoof’s humble words: “The Great and Powerful Trixie is… satisfied with your explanation. Now, tell Trixie who you are that I may judge what to do with you”

Cash straightened up, and having picked up on Sullen Hoof’s successful appeal to the clearly quite thin-blooded unicorn mare’s ego, introduced the circle in the same faked humble tone: “I am Cash Charmer, business manager to Bright Machine Speaker here’s medical services. The mare you see is Last Shimmer, his nurse, with Sullen Hoof as our servant. Red over here is our bodyguard, for Nexus can be a dangerous place”

Trixie nodded idly, as if not paying that much attention to what Cash said: “Very well. The Great and Powerful Trixie decrees that you, business pony, you shall remain here as her treasurer – healer, you and your nurse can tend to her serfs, the rest can join the others in the mines or on the fields”

Speaker shook his head: Even if this dragonblooded pony – of unknown origins – wasn’t from the realm, then she sure acted the part. A brief glance at Red told him all he needed – it was now time to fight: “Red, the demons have to materialize to attack you – and watch out for the Saigoth Dancers if they start do the dance of extinguishment we’re all dead!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice” Red roared, a great blade half against as long as Red was from nose to the tip of her tail materializing out of her furious essence – mid-swing no less, cleaving the first four red-furred demon warriors which had popped into existence the moment Red had executed her blade-creating charm.

The two dozen giant red-furred demons – four of which Red had just cut in half – howled at their sight of their slain kin. True to what Speaker had described earlier, then each of them were twice the height of a pony and with muscles on their forelimbs that were truly hulking. Their large crimson claws and fangs didn’t look very kind either, and their canine features and crest of red horns rounded out their appearance perfectly as the demon dogs of hell: The Erymanthoi bloodhounds.

Speaker didn’t even have to think before he felt the familiar cares of Gift on his right forehoof, and while Shimmer dissolved into silver fluid that quickly rebuilt her into her slightly more avian monster-pony warform, he sent Gift sailing through the air, clipping the silvery figures of the dancing demons which shattered like shrieking glass thanks to his spirit (and demon) slaying charm – but the fighting had barely managed to begin before it, sort of, ended:

With a single knife, expertly balanced, Sullen Hoof aimed to kill the sorcerers and thus break the control she had over the demons – but being a sorceress Trixie spoke the first word of the Word of Ten Thousand Birds, activating the spell that exploded her into a large flock of many colorful eastern birds, and along with the explosion of birds came a burst of air essence which shattered the amber windows of the throne room.

“Counterspell!” Sullen Hoof barely managed to shout before Shimmer aimed a taloned limb towards the flock of birds and unleashed a torrent of disruptive essence, ending the spell quite spectactularly: The flock of birds seemed to implode in on itself, and amidst the cloud of feathers compressing in on themselves a unicorn dropped down, her pointy hat and cape floating down next her.
With a well-timed leap assisted by her wings Shimmer caught Trixie mid-fall, twisting mid-flight so they both faced the mass of demons and the rest of the circle: “Order them to stop or your head comes off!”

Looking a lot less cocksure and mighty, as she dangled under Shimmer’s clawed grip around her neck, Trixie barely managed to squeak out a “Stand down!”

The demons all turned to face her, many of the bloodhounds looking decidedly disappointed – although not many, for of the two dozen that had originally appeared only three remained, after Red had executed a dazzling cleaving kata with her blade, liberating every bloodhound in range of its head, although one particularly runty bloodhound had ‘only’ lost the top half of its head and somehow still remained standing. Demons were weird like that.

Sunrise, who in the brief seconds since the fighting began, had barely begun to draw breath in order to bring to bear her creature of darkness-smiting declarations, merely exhaled by kept eyeing the demons suspiciously.

Still holding Trixie aloft, Shimmer walked over to the circle – the demons parting way dutifully.

“We don’t take particularly nicely to others trying to enslave us. A few days age the Council of Entities in Nexus tried it, and failed – now tread very carefully around us. What are you going to do?” Cash wondered out loud, the gloating in his voice unmistakable.

Relaxing her grip ever so slightly, allowing Trixie to draw breath more comfortably, Shimmer voiced her opinion: “A unicorn that summons an army of demons to conquer some part of the hundred kingdoms? If this was back west she’d be fed to the sharks, one piece at a time”

“Shimmer, put her down. Now, where are you from?” Speaker inquired, withholding his judgment until he knew exactly what he was dealing with.

Back on the ground, the unicorn mare gathered up her hat and dusted it off. It had splatters of demon blood on it – nothing that a bit of elemental water couldn’t fix… there. Turning to face her captors, Trixie inhaled deeply: “The great and powerful Trixie is of an equally great and powerful noble house of the realm, schooled in the finest of magical and sorcerous arts at the most prestigious of academies”

Cash didn’t even have to blink before shooting that one down: “No you’re not”

“You dare accuse the great and powerful Trixie of lying? Uncivilized brute! Show respect to your betters” retorted the air-aspected unicorn.

Looking back at the rest of the circle with a bemused smirk, of which Speaker was shaking his head, then at Trixie, Cash explained: “You don’t talk with an islander accent – and every member of a realm noble house I’ve ever met always introduced themselves with their house name first, then their own name – not just some glorifying title”

“Perhaps the great and powerful Trixie prefers to keep familiar matters private – and how she speaks is none of your business” the dragonblooded mare sneered.

With a brief glance at Speaker, who was still shaking his head, Cash shook his head at the unicorn mare: “My bearded friend back here knows this little trick – it lets him tell if others are lying. Now, let’s try this again: Where are you from?”

Trixie’s gaze turned into a worried one, which shifted back and forth between Cash and Speaker, and Red with her great glowing blade, and to the bird-monster behind her: “I… The great and powerful Trixie refuses to answer such questions to.. to ruffians! You barge in here, kill my guards, and hold me prisoner! How dare you!”

“You did try to enslave us… we just defended ourselves” Red casually remarked, shifting her golden reaver daiklaive about as it floated above herself. The four foot long, one foot wide cleaver-like sword had little elegance, but was unmistakably a weapon that could chop through even the ugliest of demons… or uppity unicorns, and that less than subtle message was not lost on the great and powerful Trixie.

“I… very well – if you absolutely must know, then the great and powerful Trixie hails from th-“ the unicorn mare began, but stopped mid sentence. She nodded, then floated off her hat and sighed: “The great and powerful Trixie exalted to mortal ponies of the earth, here in the hundred kingdoms. She then wandered for a few years, learning, gaining power, and then with that power summoned an army and took control of this pitiful place”

While Trixie’s story was essentially one of brutal conquest – then it wasn’t outside of the norm for the hundred kingdoms. Every day warlords across the east laid siege to weaker city states and noble holds, and a pony who randomly exalted into a unicorn who used that power to gain power over others? There were at least two dozen other unicorn kings and queens across the hundred kingdoms who could tell the same story – although whether any of them had done the same with an army of demons… but it had most likely been done before.

“Fair enough, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok for her to try to enslave us” Red quickly noted, seeing that the faces on her circlemates seemed to indicate understanding and fading hostility.

Nodding, Cash agreed: “You’re absolutely right Red. And if our lady Trixie here so readily believes that might makes right, then she has no choice but to submit to our judgment”

“Hey now, if I… if the great and powerful Trixie had known that you had powers she wouldn’t have ordered so” the unicorn half-heartedly apologized.

Speaker wasn’t impressed: “You know, in Lookshy I was always told that the chosen of the elemental air dragon Mela were thinkers – who always thought their actions through in great detail, leaving them prone to getting their head stuck in the clouds – but this? You seem oddly rash for a chosen of the air”

Cash found Speaker’s observations amusing – but also lacking in know-how regarding administrative screwups: “Oh it fits – think about it: She’s so focused on her greater goal of power and might that minor distractions like us don’t warrant greater thought”

This alternate elemental interpretation of Trixie’s behavior did match what Speaker had grown to expect from unicorns. What Speaker didn’t catch on to was that by such logic nearly any behavior could be excused to the impulses of a dragonblooded exaltation. Either way, Trixie seemed perfectly willing to agree to Cash’s statement.

“So… what are we going to do with her? With this place?” Sullen Hoof inquired. It was clear from the sound of his voice that he shared Red’s sentiment of punishing Trixie somehow… but he wasn’t sure how.

Sunrise cleared her throat, to signal that she wished to speak: “As exalt she has the right to rule, but as unicorn she should not be allowed to exercise power over her betters. I suggest that Cash swear her to fealty and order her to slowly banish her demon army in favor of a militia of mortal ponies”

“No! That would make the great and powerful Tri- oww” Trixie began, as Shimmer finally swatted her over the back of her head: “Talk normally or I’ll hit harder”

Trixie drew a sharp breath, with equally sharp winds briefly coursing around her – the air even abuzz with the kind of strange feeling some got just before thunder storms – but it all faded again as Trixie managed to control her anger of being forced to talk like a commoner: “Very well. Banishing my demons? Not an option: When I scattered the forces of the former lord of this land, they fled into the forests and have been harassing me ever since – preventing merchants from coming and every week stealing away more ponies from the city here. If I give up my demon army they’ll all come back and buck me out!”

“And letting you keep them will change that? If the ponies you rule keeping running away you’ll end up ruling nothing but an empty city full of demons – Lookshy will not let that stand” Speaker noted, referring to the fact that Lookshy was well known for stomping out rogue demons and the likes whenever they appeared in the hundred kingdoms, as well as any ponies who actively supported them.

The look on the unicorn mare’s face soured, as did her entire body language. It seemed clear that she had not considered how the greater powers of the hundred kingdoms might respond to her particular style of gaining and maintaining power. Still, she was smart enough to spot a solution: “What if I only send back part of my forces? The firmin and those infernal hopping puppeteers have been nothing but trouble”

“Hopping puppeteers?” Sullen Hoof whispered to Speaker quizzically.

As Cash, Sunrise and Shimmer proceeded to negotiate with Trixie on how she could step down her forces and possibly bring back the ponies she was trying to rule, Speaker quickly explained: “Think a living ball of demon yarn, with string-legs up to a hundred yard long – think living ropes and pulleys. I can understand why they would be trouble though, they like to play with foals… and the foals rarely survive the encounter”

Sullen Hoof found the idea of a sentient ball of demon yarn somehow ‘playing’ with a foal to the extent that it would kill the foal absolutely horrifying. Even the fact that the firmin would decorate their nests of needles with dead ponies paled in comparison, at least to Sully.

Having come to a reasonably amicable agreement, Trixie invited the circle to dine with her – that they might come to slightly more friendly terms with one another. Speaker found this offer a bit odd, but figured that Trixie had probably just decided to make friends with what she couldn’t defeat – an overall wise choice.

As servants zipped back and forth to prepare a late lunch, Shimmer pulled Speaker aside…

“Can you see any demons or spirits around here?” she hurridly asked, the mare’s eyes and ears darting all over the place – unsure if invisible demons might be observing the two.

Speaker looked around, seeing nothing, even with his spirit-seeing charm on: “Nope, we’re clear”

“The demons here – they’re not acting right. I’ve seen dozens of demons bound by realm unicorns. They all act funny, since their minds are slaved to their summoners – but these demons… they’re not acting like that at all” Shimmer said in a most worried tone.
The behavior of summoned demons was not a topic that Speaker recalled much of from the first age. He remembered something about plates of some kind, of how they would put a shape to the minds of demon slaves: “Couldn’t it just be that Trixie is using a binding you don’t know of?”

“I think it’s more likely that there’s little or no binding at all – Trixie said herself that she has no formal schooling in sorcery… which makes me really curious about who or what she learned sorcery from to begin with” The lunar stated, looking out of a window that overlooked the city. The string-legged marotes, the hopping puppeteers, were leaping about with lumber and blocks of firmin resin, building strange monuments while demolishing other structures…