When Legends Rise

The Defiance jostled slightly as it bumped into the riverbank, almost as soon as the boat came to a stop and Tarn dropped a small anchor to stop us from drifting Autumn dropped onto the riverbank with a huff. Alee, the Kelpie (or more specifically kapall ishka) who it seemed would be joining us on our voyage, had all but directly called Autumn out on her honour as a guard to challenge her to a duel.

Whilst the burnt-orange pegasus set about scoring lines in the dirt to mark out a basic sparring ring, seething all the while and muttering under her breath, Alee started rifling through the two sacks I had pilfered from her fellow pirates. the rules to the duel were simple; don't get knocked down, don't get pushed out the ring, either of these constituted an automatic loss of the match. Suddenly Alee cried out in surprise.

“Aha! That's where yew went, yew little devils!” she exclaimed, levitating what looked to be two swords with wide double tipped blades and equally wide handles, perhaps some style native to her own kind I thought, better suited for magic’s grasp and to make a stab wound more vicious and difficult to heal, I found my focus on them shifting rapidly as one was thrust towards my face, flipped on its side so that each tip would have ran straight through my eyes, only to stop at the last second, looking down the length of the blade I could make out lines marked up and down the blade, like talleys “Yew pinched mah swords, yew little swine” I contemplated my words for a moment.

“Says the 4ft land shark” I said, slowly pushing the blade to one side with two fingers of my right hand. Alee half chuckled before pulling the swords away.

“Carefull, tall boy, yew might just find yer life cut short in yer sleep...” she said as she made her way over to the sparring ring. “Remember, garda, I’m not out to kill you. Just a simple sparring match...but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back” and with that, she began spinning both blades rapidly along their length. Once, twice, three times, before they stopped on a dime. Immediately the reason for the double tips became apparent as the blades split like scissors and latched open with an audible metallic click to form two double ended, double bladed, swords, one directly in front of the kelpie, the other raised slightly above her to the left. This clearly caught Autumn off guard somewhat, as she took a half-step back, her expression a snarl but her ears dropping in doubt. Before she shook her head and took a full step forwards, hoof blades switching down and punching small divots in the dirt with the singing of metal on metal.

“Good” Autumn shot back “Because neither will I” and with that she charged the kelpie.

I’ll state right now that I’d struggle to fully describe how their duel went down without going into some 5000 word wall of text that would be painstakingly detailed and laborious to read, but their fighting styles could easily be described as vastly different. Autumn’s moves were deliberate, precise, with moves that at times struck me more as martial arts than blade combat. Alee on the other hand...err, hoof, was much less rigid in her movements, and a lot of times she came very close to catching Autumn out, though every time Autumn just managed to block her. Eventually however the kelpie managed to catch Autumn completely off guard, waiting for her to lunge before grabbing the arm in her magic and pulling it straight.

“You non-magic types are all the same” Alee smirked, Autumn stuck with her arm reaching past the kelpie’s neck and one of her own swords pressed against Autumn’s throat. “Never expect a magic user to be able to manipulate multiple things at once” Autumn snorted.

“Who said anything about being non-magic?” she asked, before inhaling, then bellowing out “Throngva!” Alee’s eyes widened comically for a split second before being launched back through the air with enough momentum to send her clear of the ring’s boundary. Alas Autumn didn’t get out of it unscathed, as the blade that was pressed against her neck was drawn diagonally upwards, glancing across the left side of her face and sending her to the ground with a yelp and a spray of blood. The rest of us quickly rose to go to her, but she began climbing to her feet with a grunt, her head turned away from us so we couldn’t see the injury “Don’t you fucking dare! This bitch is mine!” then as she began to stomp her way towards Alee, who was still on her arse beyond the ring a most peculiar thing began to happen as blood dripped off her chin, parts of her body, namely her legs, began to seemingly flicker and shimmer beneath the armour.

“Um...Autumn?” I asked, but she ignored me as she drew closer to the Kelpie, panting heavily, she then pressed a hoof thirmly down on Alee’s neck

“Do not take me for some rookie guard who’s been patrolling some sleepy settlement her whole live” she seethed, her voice coming across as slightly distorted “I fought, killed and bled for my bucking country in the southern frontier, lost more than mere blood, can you say the same, Kelpie?” and with that she thumped a hoof in the center of her chest and a wave of white magic ripped across her underneath her armour, her seemingly organic legs melting away to reveal metal plate & pistons, I’m pretty sure one wing was as well, though it was on the left side, out of our field of view. In response to this Alee seemed at a loss of words for once, a stunned expression on her face.

The rest of us cautiously made our way around, bringing the rest of her face into our field of view and revealing the entire left side of her face to be made of metallic plates now marred by a gash running up that side of her face, which was adorned with a considerably pained expression

“...Jesus fuck…” I muttered, and her eyes snapped to focus on me, I scratched my chin awkwardly “Um, elephant in the room here, but how in all manner of fuck are you even alive still? Let alone walking and talking like you were born with those” apparently this wasn’t the response she was expecting, as confusion began to bleed through the pained look on her face.

“What in all manner of tartarus do you mean “you don’t have moving prostetics”!?” Autumn exclaimed, before hissing in pain as Vinyl carefully shifted another metal plate back into its proper position on the left side of Autumn’s face, we were now back on the Defiance, sat at the rear of the boat as we wound our way through a deep canyon, continuing our journey towards Autumn’s childhood home, we actually weren’t far by her reckoning.

Alee, it must be said, had been considerably subdued since we’d gotten back on the boat, sitting off to one side with a guilty look on her face. As it turned out, Autumn had seen and been through a lot of shit whilst fighting down south. What eventually did her in was getting caught by a griffon hand grenade to her left hand side. Credit where it’s due, the ponies had their healthcare down to a fucking T.

“You told us that your kind has been to the moon and back” Octavia said. “How can you not have what is pretty commonplace replacement limbs?”

“Strapping oneself to a rocket, pointing it at the moon and pressing a big red mutton is one thing” I said “Keep in mind my kind doesn’t do magic, we can’t just slap a crystal onto a metal leg and make it work” at this Alee perkled up, a rather horrified expression on her face.

“You don’t have magic!?” she exclaimed “how do you cope?” I raised a hand and waggled my fingers.

“With these” I said, before also tapping my head “and this, Humans are the only sapient species back home...or rather we think we’re the only sapient species, personally my bet’s on dolphins or cephalopods also being as intelligent as we are, we just can’t communicate….b-but that’s besides the point, what you guys achieve using magic, we use our minds to investigate the world around us, discover new things, and in turn make new things to help better our lives as a result”

“Such as?” Alee asked, I thought for a moment, before fishing behind my chest plate and pulling out my phone, which I was storing in a makeshift pocket I had made back in Trottingham.

“This, It’s called a smart phone” I explained “It’s primary purpose is to allow people to talk in real time over long distances, across entire continents and oceans even, using a network of special artificial satellites orbiting the planet which we use to bounce radio waves around the world. Lets say this planet had just such a mobile network, I could use this to talk to someone at the bottom of the continent as if they were right here talking with us”

“Wow…” Alee breathed.

“That’s not all” I said “I could also use it to send and receive letters, all would be stored inside it as digital data. And without a network I can still use it as a super accurate clock, a camera, and I can watch moving pictures and listen to more music than you could store as records in your house”

“You’re a lucky buck, you know that? if you die I’m claiming that thing” Vinyl snarked.

“Then, on top of everything else I can also use it to connect to a massive multi-media network spanning the globe, known as the internet” I said, before nodding to Octavia “It’s...kind of like the hivemind you told me about which changelings have” It was autumn who perked up this time.

“What can you use it for?” she asked “that could come in pretty handy in war…”

“That’s one of the reasons it was developed in the first place, to make it easier for military personnel to communicate and share important information” I said, before coughing “Though it must be said that the average citizen uses it for...other reasons”

“...Like what?” Octavia asked hesitantly.

“Um...well” I chuckled, nervously “Mostly to argue about meaningless shit, laugh at extremely confusing and self deprecating humour, and also to...watch porn…”

“My expectations of your kind soared, only to nosedive at the last second” Octavia said. Suddenly Autumn rose to her hooves, looking around.

“We’re getting close” She said, before suddenly an odd look came over her and she raced to the cabin, jumping on the roof and sniffing the air as her armour materialised around her “Something isn’t right” I was surprised to see that it was Alee who joined her on the roof of the cabin, her folded blades levitating at her side with the blades pointing backwards, as if stowed.

“Aye...it’s too quiet” she said, and Autumn nodded “and that smell, it’s almost like…” the two shared a worried glance, before Autumn suddenly took off, followed closely by Alee jumping into the river and following after her at an impressive rate.

“Uh, what the fuck was that?” I asked, turning to Octavia.

“Although Alee’s kind hails from Meira, they’re both Westwards folk” she said “so they’ll no doubt both recognise when something’s wrong in their own lands” at this we rounded a bend and the canyon opened out into a large bay, to reveal what could only be described as a city of Tolkien-esc grandeur carved into the very cliff-side. Though we were very quickly set on edge by the copious amounts of smoke rising from the city, along with many gouge marks going deep into the rock.

“Get us there as fast as possible, Tarn” I said, before summoning both my helmet and my blade, likewise Octavia also summoned her own armour and bow. I could actually feel the boat accelerating, though it was still an agonising amount of time before we reached one of the only jetties left on a now deserted docks. Where Alee and a decidedly distraught Autumn were waiting. “What in god’s name happened here? More river pirates” I asked, glancing at Alee, who shook her head.

“Nay, even we wouldn’t dare target ah built in settlement like this” she said, shooting me a look “these cliff towns are built like fortresses, from the days when equines were united in ah war against griffins, besides, this is way tew big fer us, that punt gun yew stole from us is the largest weapon we tend tew have, that won’t dew much against solid granet” the flapping of a single pair of wings broke through the erie stillness and we turned to see a pegasi in basic armour armed with a spear approaching. Cautiously I tightened my hold on my sword and readied it. Only for Autumn to rest a hoof on my hand.

“No” she said softly “these are my people, let me talk with this guard” before walking her way to the front of our group. I couldn’t help but notice that she her movements were a little stiff, perhaps she was self-conscious of the fact her prosthetics were on full show for the world to see. The pegasis, white with a blue mane, stopped just before the spear went through autumn’s face.

“Who are you?” he asked, his accent far thicker than Autumn’s “from your dress you are warriors?”

“We are Wrakjon” Autumn said “I am Autumn Skies, daughter of Fairweather” at this the guard gasped and took a step back, his eyes widening as he lifted the spear up

“Au...Autumn?” he asked “Ren ow thas!” and with that he dropped the spear and all but tackled Autumn in a hug, catching the rest of us off guard. Autumn seemed equally taken aback, before a look a comprehension came over her face.

“Winter Chill?” She asked when the guard pulled away “My little brother?” at which the white pegasus nodded.

“Aye! What’s it been, 20 winters?” he asked.

“Thereabouts...what’s happened here?” she asked, turning to gaze up at the imposing facade of the clifftop, still smouldering. Winter Chill sighed.

“Perhaps it would be best if you spoke with the lord, these are dark days of late, my sister” he said, before glancing at the rest of us, his gaze lingering on me with a puzzled expression “from the looks of things, the gods might well have answered our prayers.

We soon had the boat moored up and had grabbed a selection of necessities, Alee now wore what looked to be basic leather armour found amongst the bags of loot I'd taken from her clan, with her blades secured to her sides. Tarn also joined us, dressed in simple link armour which the king had made for her with a dagger stowed diagonally across her chest.

The streets of the town were a narrow winding affair, built to a switchback design, the street rose at a noticeable angle, but not so steep as to make walking it tiring, until it reached a point where it joined the next level and began the other way. On one side there were a great many households, some also doubling up as shops, but all carved into the cliff face itself, with the otherside looking out onto the lake itself. Occasionally we would also pass side streets burrowing deep into the mountain, presumably the less well off lived back there whilst the wealthy got to see the admittedly picturesque view., One thing that struck me was just how...quiet the town was. What ponies there were, pegasi mostly, watched us wearily from the windows of their homes.

“You’d find more cheer in a graveyard” I muttered, prompting Octavia to elbow me in the knee. Eventually we reached the very top of this town, where a grand hall was carved inside the very cliff itself, with a large balcony in front of it overlooking the lake. It was explained to me that here the entire town would gather for special occasions, the winter solstice celebration, or the birthday of the lord, for example. At the very end of the hall the lord was sat on...I don’t want to say throne as they weren’t royalty but you get the idea. The lord was a pegasus, big surprise there, advanced in his years with a green coat and blue mane and tail, the moment he laid eyes on us he sighed.

“What have you brought me this time, Winter?” he asked, sounding tired. “More sell-swords, I presume?”

“Nay, these warriors I feel are different, Father” Winter said as he bowed “you might find that one may be familiar to you” at this Autumn cautiously began stepping forward, a defiant look in her eyes.

“When I last stood in these halls, you told me I were to be shot on sight were I ever to return...father” she said, causing murmurs to rise up amongst the gathered court. The lord straightened his posture, regarding her with a cool look.

“Aye, that I did, daughter of mine” he said “tell me, did you find the glory you were looking for in that bullheaded war of our king? Or was that attitude of yours knocked down a notch or two?” I noticed Octavia breath in sharply at the mention of her own father, presumably trying desperately to hold back her tongue.

“See and decide for yourself” Autumn said, as her armour disappeared completely, revealing the full extent of her injuries for the very first time, causing even more murmurs to rise up from the court.

“If you came looking for sympathy, then you will be sorely disappointed” the lord said “Depending on how the next few minutes play out, I may yet hold true to my word” Autumn seethed silently as her armour reappeared, I decided to take this as my own cue to step forward and gave a bow, taking off my helmet so that they could see my face.

“More than I would have done” Autumn muttered to me as she walked past to rejoin the others.

“My lord” I began “If I could respectfully ask, what has been attacking this city? You’ll have to forgive my ignorance, for I come from lands far away, so such sights are strange to me. However I would also like to preemptively offer the help of myself and my fellow travelling companions so that we might perhaps bring an end to this trouble, whatever form it might take” the lord regarded me with an odd look.

“Stranger to these lands indeed” he said in a condescending tone “we have been plagued by a dragon these past few months, every so often he will lay waste to what he can reach. Sometimes on a whim, but also if we happen to disturb him, let's say through merrymaking, we have since learned to seek shelter deep within the cliff when night approaches”

“A dragon?” I asked “does this creature have a name?” at this I looked at the gathered court.

“He is referred to only as The Calamity” the Lord said, I nodded at this

“Then I shall kill your Calamity”

“There have been many warriors who have sworn to rid us of the dragon” said a new voice, female this time, as a pegasus mare, blue with white mane and tail, walked in from a side door and sat next to the lord. “But when the roars and screams fade there has been nothing left of them except blood and gore to be cleaned from the floors...and the ceilings...and the walls”

“Well then your nights of disappointment and terror are over” I said, projecting my voice to the court, time to lay on the dramatics a touch, these people look like they could do with some hope “My kind are strangers to these lands, but back home we have many a tale and song about great dragon slayers among our own people; Beowulf, Saint George, and Sigurd. They are but three heroes of old among many who have slain great dragons of old, and like them I promise you that, live or die, I shall rid you of this dragon”

“And what makes you so different from every other sellsword to step foot in these halls?” I heard a voice call out from the court.

“One, I ain’t no bloody merc, and I’m quite frankly insulted anyone would view myself or my friends as such” I said, before raising my sword, pointing it out of the open doors, and channeling my powers through it into a concentrated stream of fire which shot out into the lake, making the court cry out in alarm “Two, I wield fire as easily as you breath, so that takes one of a Dragons main weapons out of play against me. It’s gonna have to get up close and personal, where I’ll be much quicker and able to keep on top of whatever attacks it throws my way. I’d say that evens things out just a touch” when I finished a lone hoof tapping on the floor broke through the silence.

“Well then” The lord said, the faintest hint of a smile gracing his face “let us hope you fight is as good as your boasting makes out. Let us drink and feast, in celebration of these new heroes”