Forgotten Legacy
Chapter 7. Deadline - Sunshine
Previous ChapterNext Chapter“She’s in shock,” the doctor said. “Physically, she’s fine, and she’ll come out of it, but right now, her mind is trying to reconcile with whatever it was she saw.”
I nodded at the doctor as he picked up his bag and left. Starlight and Trixie had left to find food and Shining Armor was directing the guard forces to mobilize. I don’t know what it was Sunset had seen out there, but she had been near catatonic ever since we got back, her eyes frozen in shock and fear.
I nuzzled into her, sliding my head under her jaw in a show of support. “Don’t worry, Sunset,” I said. “I’m here.”
I don’t know how long we had been there when I heard hoofsteps behind me. “Sunshine,” I heard Starlight say. “How is she?”
“Same,” I said, hearing her heart beating rapidly in her chest. “Could you see what hit her?”
“I was focusing on the teleport spell,” she said. “But from the angle of impact, I’d guess it was a Pegasus.”
“No,” Sunset said, softly. “It wasn’t.”
I sat up, looking at her. Her face was still a little pale, but it was starting to regain color. She blinked slowly. “It wasn’t a Pegasus,” she said.
I listened to the reports filing in from the recon scouts next to Sunset. She kept her face neutral, but I could feel the turmoil inside. She couldn’t even dampen the feelings flowing through the bond.
Are you ok? I asked.
I will be, she returned. But this obviously means we can’t just casually let Twilight and Cadence march out to the Overlook like it’s for a picnic lunch.
I nodded, a shiver running through my mind as I caught a glimpse of memory from her. Sunken face, exposed ribs, and the unearthly red eyes.
Cadence turned to Sunburst as the scouts finished reporting. “Do we know anything about how to combat this?” she asked.
The orange Unicorn shook his head. “These practices have been outlawed since before the Sisters took up their crowns,” he said. “I’ve started scouring the library for texts that deal with Necromancy or the combating of the same, but I haven’t been able to find anything definitive.”
I swallowed. From what Sunset had told me in my drive for more knowledge of her home, Celestia had ruled for over a thousand years. For practices to have been lost for a thousand years, it would make the perfect weapon that nopony would be able to defend against.
Not just that, Sunset thought. Anypony that went down in the fight could be raised to fight against their friends the next day. The worst kind of attrition, one that only benefits the enemy.
How do we deal with something like that? I thought, hearing the question echoed by Cadence.
“Fire,” Sunset said. “Long range bombardment.”
“You have reasoning to support that, Princess Sunset?”
I saw the embarrassed flush on my fiancé’s face as she was called by her title. “It’s been my experience that nothing can survive a few thousand degrees of fire,” she said. “I say we turn the Overlook into a sheet of melted snow and rock and keep an eye on the perimeter for escapees.”
“That’s rather…extreme, Princess,” said one of Cadence’s courtiers.
“The use of raised dead was banned millennia ago and is still outlawed, by threat of banishment,” she said, her voice starting to thrum with the Royal Voice, spreading her wings slightly. “And nopony should have to suffer the sight of one of their loved ones ripped from their grave to fight against them.”
“We don’t have the Unicorns in the EUP or Crystal Guard versed enough in fire spells to make it a worthwhile endeavor, Sunset,” Shining Armor spoke up.
I stood. “I believe I may know a way around that,” I said. I was about to continue when one of the glass windows shattered and a metallic clinking sounded as something skittered across the floor among the glass shards.
I frowned, seeing a small knife with a paper tag tied to it. As the knife came to rest, the paper settled, moving to lie flat on the floor. There was a design on it, one that looked familiar somehow…
“Get away from it!” Starlight shouted, horn flaring to cast a spell.
The paper hit flat, and the circle drawn upon it flared with blue light, arcs of energy flying out and revealing a hazy image of a Unicorn mare standing in archaic looking barding and armor gazing out.
“Greetings, Princess Cadence,” the mare spoke. “From the fact that a number of scouting parties have been spotted near the Overlook, I can assume you aren’t going to be coming for a visit. I am left with no option than to come to you with a suitable retinue to accept your surrender.” The image flickered. “I will allow three days to allow for you to get your affairs in order.” She settled a helmet upon her head and gazed forward. “Farewell.” The paper burst into flame and crumbled to ash.
Cadence looked at me.
“It might be prudent to start going over your plan, Sunshine,” she said with a tense face.
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