“So, how did thou get into the middle of a battlefield, Egil?” Luna started, asking the first question.

“Well, I had just finished a stage performance, and was heading backstage when…”

Egil was heading backstage, and passed the bar on the way there. “Yo, Egil, some lady bought you a drink! I think she’s waiting for you backstage.” Egil nodded in thanks to the bartender, taking the glass of what seemed to be brandy, downing it in a single gulp.

He placed it back down on the bar, saying with a grin, “I’m gonna get lucky!” The bartender grinned, and Egil continued backstage, heading to his dressing room. This had been his second show after making it big with last month. He opened the door, noticing a lack of anybody. He stumbled, grabbing at his desk for support, before slumping into his chair unconscious. A woman dressed in a tasteful black cocktail dress slipped out of the shadows behind the door, and walked over to his unconscious body. She pulled out a briefcase that had been stashed under his desk, popping it open.

“Hmm, what order to inject them in…” She muttered in a soft voice while looking over four vials, clearly labeled with what seemed to be the names of powers. She plucked out the one labeled ‘Typhokinesis’ first, sticking one of four syringes into it, drawing out all of the clear fluid from the vial. She poked it into his left arm, and depressed the plunger, emptying its contents into his bloodstream. She then repeated the process with the one labeled ‘Fictional Material Manipulation/Conjuration’, injecting it just above the first spot. With the next two vials, which were labeled ‘Regenerative Durability’ and ‘Magic Immunity’ she injected them into his right arm just below the elbow.

This whole process took roughly eight minutes, and at this point, Egil was stirring slightly. She rolled the sleeves of his suit jacket back down over his forearms, before lightly slapping his face. He groaned, and she took a glowing silver device out of the bottom of the briefcase, outlining his door with it. He stood up in a stupor, opened his door, and walked through it, not noticing that the floor outside was significantly lower than inside. He fell out the door, landing on his face in soft pine needles…

“So, thou tookest a drink that was bought for thou at a bar, and it had a narcotic in it?” Luna asked. Egil nodded, and Luna looked angry.

“My turn. So, what is a Princess like yourself doing out here in a place like this? As far as I know, shouldn’t a princess be back at the castle looking pretty while the king does most political work?” Egil asked out of ignorance.

Luna scoffed. “Equestria is a diarchy, run by me and my sister. She deals with the political side of ruling, and I deal with the military side of it.” Egil nodded, pondering the differences in cultures.

“So, what abilities dost thou possess, Egil?” Luna asked, snapping him out of his ponderings.

“Typhokinesis, regenerative durability, magic immunity, and fictional material manipulation.” He replied quickly. Luna didn’t seem to recognize the last ability, but definitely recognized magic immunity. Her horn lit up, and she focused on him, but it didn’t seem to do anything. She turned and focused on a cushion to the left of him, and it was suddenly floating.

“Most odd, though you most likely have some form of magic if you’re alive.” She cast a different spell, which caused a number to appear over her head. It read somewhere in the forty thousand range, while Egil’s read zero. “We suppose that since you are from another world, you would not fit Equus’ standards for life.” She continued in a slightly disbelieving tone.

“So, what abilities do you possess, Luna?” Egil asked, in a near identical manner to which she had asked him. She listed off four main abilities, namely shadow magic, lunar magic, immortality, and dream manipulation.

“So, will thee ally thyself with us, or the griffins?” Luna asked, ending a lull in the conversation that had lasted for nearly a minute.

“That depends, if I’m required to use lethal force or not.” Luna shook her head, and Egil grinned. “Great! So, if I told you that I have a method to take their fort with minimal casualties on both sides, would you be willing to hear me out?”

“What might this method be?” She asked curiously.

“It’s simple really. All I have to do is fill up their camp with smoke while they’re all asleep at night, and it’ll slowly suffocate them. After about two minutes, they should all be unconscious, barring any scouts that may have been outside the fort.” Luna smiled and nodded, a pulse of magic exiting her horn. Five minutes later, a group of officers showed up, and Luna promptly explained Egil’s plan to them. An hour before dawn, he would be escorted to a heavily forested area very close to fort by Luna’s personal guard, who were dressed in darkened steel armor, and had bat-like features, when compared to the normal pegasi. They would run interference with any scouts and sentries that may have been in the area, while he conjured up the smoke to blanket the fort in.

The guards dispersed, and Egil and Luna went back inside her tent. Luna told him of the changelings, and why she held such a distaste for them. Upon learning that they ate positive emotions, and left their victims as emotionless husks, he had to agree with her assessment. He began messing around by manifesting various trinkets, which each had a special effect. He made a blue and silver amulet shaped like an alicorn with her wings outstretched, with a blue jewel as the centerpiece. It would enhance the magical abilities of anyone who used it, but would deactivate if it was used to harm anyone.

He also made a series of golden rings, along with a stand for them, that would give an area the desired climate, with the area being one hundred square miles. They became consecutively smaller the higher on the stand you got, and the top three were used to set the climate. Luna was taking a nap while he was making these, and he continued on. He made an idol that looked like a golden flame coming out of the top of a taloned leg, with a red stone as the focus. It would inspire pride in any who looked upon it, but only if they were of the same race as the owner.

He made a crystal mirror that would open a path to a different dimension that was almost exactly like his old world, with doppelgangers for everyone in this world on the other side. He smiled softly at the thought of spending a lot of his time there, then made it have time pass faster on this side than the other side. As an afterthought, he had it set the current generation across the mirror as the same as whoever went through last. He left all of these in Luna’s tent as gifts, along with a note that read,

Luna,

Consider these as gifts. Feel free to turn them down, but only do so after you have me explain what they do. The mirror is a little passion project of mine, so I would recommend not messing with it for the time being. It leads to an alternate dimension, so it would be best to avoid touching it for the moment.

Egil

Two hours before dawn, he was still sitting up waiting, when a bat pony soldier poked his head in through the flap. Egil stood up, stretching, then walked out the flap. There were a total of twelve, and the one that had looked into the tent whispered, “We will be leaving in ten minutes, that way we have plenty of time before we are slated to begin. Are you ready?” Egil nodded once, then focused on the smoke still hidden beneath his clothing. He carefully manipulated it around his body so that he became nigh invisible, with the smoke redirecting light around his body. The only parts of him that were clearly visible were his eyes.

Five minutes after he finished making his cover, the same guard motioned that they were ready. He reformed his smoke wings, and they quickly took off, heading towards the river, and the fort on the other side of it. Once they passed over the river, a hail of arrows came up, hitting several of the bat ponies in the wings and sides, sending them crashing through the pine boughs below. As soon as they hit the ground, nearly twenty griffins moved out of cover, with just as many changelings backing them up.

The leader of their little band of misfits, a slightly scarred pony, made some gestures silently. The rest of the group moved quickly and efficiently, while Egil was wondering what the hell was going on. He decided to just drop into the thick of things, making several smoky tendrils that lashed out and sliced limbs off of various targets, both griffins and changelings being dealt with quickly. One of the griffins got an arrow off, which easily penetrated his thin clothes, and he could feel it pierce his heart. He screamed in pain and ripped it out instinctively, while the medic of their group ran over, pressing his hooves over the nonexistent blood flow. He pulled his hooves away and examined the wound, which, other than the cloth being torn, he would’ve said had never happened. The arrow, still in Egil’s hand, was dripping a small amount of blood onto the ground.

He noticed that it was dripping onto some luminescent moss that was native to the area, and was rather well known for its magical lighting properties. He watched in awe as the blood dripped off the arrow onto the moss, causing whatever patch it hit to go dark. This entire series of events only took a few seconds, and in that time, Egil had managed to reform the smoke tendrils and was now back to flaying apart the changelings and griffins, with a look of pure rage on his face. Within the minute, the changelings and the griffins lay dead or dying, and the rest of the group went to the medic for treatment.

About half of their relatively small group could no longer fly due to injuries, so Egil manifested glass bottles filled with a liquid, that, when ingested, would heal all flesh wounds in a matter of minutes. Each of the guards took one, groaning in pain as their flesh knitted itself back together. A pony, who had been in the worst shape out of the group, with a gash that ran from the side of his neck to his flank, and ran to the bone, took to biting a stick that had been lying near him in order to keep from screaming. After a minute had passed, all their wounds were healed, without even a scar to show.

After the ponies finished putting their equipment back on, they took to the air again, this time flying at a much slower pace, and lower to the trees. They reached the copse of trees that they were to use as their staging area just before they were slated to begin. While the ponies caught their breath, Egil began conjuring up a mixture of smoke and knockout gas. The knockout gas was tied to the smoke, so that he could manipulate both. The leader of their group nodded at him, and he pushed the smoke towards the fort, making sure to keep it low to the ground.

After about ten minutes, he began pushing it up over the walls, after surrounding the entire fort. The knockout gas was very potent, but he left it in place for six minutes to catch anyone who may have been holding their breath. After six minutes had passed, he nodded to the leader, who motioned towards the medic, wh then pulled a glowing blue crystal from one of his saddle bags and tossed it to the captain.

The captain briefly spoke into the crystal, before turning to the group. “Alright, her majesty requested that we make sure that the camp is truly all unconscious, and use any rope we find to tie up and gag the highest ranking people here.” The group responded with a collective, “Yes, sir!” and Egil conjured up a few coils of rope, each of them being a hundred feet long. The rope had the special property that it couldn’t be broken, and that any knot tied with it could only be untied by someone the person who tied it trusted.

The rest of the squad split up into six groups of twos, with Egil accompanying the captain and his second in command to look for Silverbeak. They made a beeline for the keep in the back of the fort, and came across several unconscious griffins and changelings, before making their way into the keep. They found Silverbeak’s bedroom, and they opened the door, finding Silverbeak and the changeling queen unconscious in his bed.

The second in command pulled a ring out of his saddlebag and slipped it over her jagged horn, and bound her wings with some of the rope from the coil that Egil was carrying over his shoulder. The captain did the same with Duke Silverbeak, and after tying him up, they left the room. The captain led them out to the courtyard, where the rest of the squads had tied up nearly one hundred and fifty officers and unique changelings, who seemed to be leaders of some sort.

The captain then pulled out a flashing red crystal, and smashed it on the ground, causing it to send a flashing bright red flare into the dawn sky. There was the loud noise of horns ringing through the valley, and a flash of of gold moving towards towards the fort from the other side of the valley. Small groups of griffins and changelings began taking to the air between the fort and the incoming pony army, and the captain ordered everyone to take up defensive positions as the small groups began joining together, eventually forming a small sea of black and brown heading towards the fort.

Author's Note

Chapter Two done, a few days before I thought it would be. Slightly shorter than Chapter One, but only because Chapter One had more to cover.