When Legends Rise

“Ouvre la porte!”

Fyrefly practically bellowed as we sprinted for the castle’s wooden doors, I couldn’t help but make note that her pronunciation was damn near flawless.

For the past few weeks there hadn’t really been muich of note that had occured, at least nothing worth retailing in any great detail, we’d continued in a north west direction towards Caracoler, that’s Prance to the common tongue, but when we’d heard news that Heimut had switched its focus from east to the south I’d all but forced everyone else to book it, consequently we’d been traveling light and fast, only stopping when even our incredible endurance was spent, needless to say tempers had frayed even between those of us that were usually close, but we’d gradually resolved to sort our shit out when we weren’t racing against a near-unstoppable army.

Now we’d finally arrived at a large fort city by the name of Crinière, with the heimut army literally no more than an hour away from reaching us, seriously, we could see smoke on the horizon, it was just as well that we had stopped early the night before to actually get our strength back.

A small hatch opened up, about eye level with Fyrefly, I had learned some rudimentary french during our time on the road, certainly not fluent by any means, but I got the jist of what was being said as the millenia old pegasus spoke with some unseen guard, who was asking as to our reason for being here, and why we wished to enter. Fyrefly explained that we were here to help in the impending siege, and that we were warriors who could bring a great deal to the coming fight. The guard seemed to disappear, and we took that time to rest. After a short word o Octavia I walked off to one side to earn myself some privacy and took the music box Twilight had given me out of my bag and proceeded to activate it. After a moment of the crystal on its base flashing the figure sprung to life, though the expression on Twilight’s face soon shifted to one of aggravation.

“You’ve got some nerve contacting me, you realise that?” she said, I’d tried talking to her once before, but let’s just say that news of certain incidents had trickled down, and Twilight was smart enough to put two and two together quickly enough to all but castraight me via long range magic for resorting to murder instead of pushing for a peaceful resolution, I never was one for conflict with those I considered allies, so I’d practically hung up and refused to answer her attempts at communication ever since, all the same I couldn’t help but feel sheepish.

“Yes, I know, but you can kill me later, we currently have a far bigger situation on our hands” I said, at which she raised an eyebrow.

“What, finally got into a situation you couldn’t butcher your way out of?” she asked.

“I could always end this call now and plough on with my original plan of burning my way out of trouble rather than asking for your help to attempt to resolve this with as little bloodshed as possible, like you’ve been wanting me to do” whatever she was about to offer in retort died on the tip of her tongue, and her expression settled into a scowl as she gestured for me to continue. “OK, so right now we’re in northern Prance, outside a city called Crinière. There is currently some fifteen thousand Heimut troops marching for this location ready to besiege the fortress and starve those inside in the name of their abhorrent ideologies”

“I don’t see how you need my help” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Despite what you think, I do have at least a basic idea of how to pick my fights, I know that if myself and my friends try to fight this out unaided, shit’s going to go south, I certainly don’t want to be in a battle of this scale” I said “That’s why I’m asking you, as a favour, to please talk to Celestia and Luna to try and get them to send aid, preferably apearing in person. Their physical appearence in the field of battle has got to have some sort of effect on the heimut’s moral, maybe it could get them to withdraw” Twilight frowned, clearly thinking the matter over with some seriousness.

“I’ll see what I can do” she said.

“That’s all I ask, but understand this, your highness” I said, before bringing the music box close to my face and looking Twilight dead in the eye “if you deliberately decide not to talk to them and the battle runs its course, I will be personally holding every single death on your head, because you would have had the chance to try and put a stop to the killing, to practice what you preach, and proceeded to do nothing as good people, people on both sides who are simply fighting for their country, for their families, died needlessly...do we have an understanding?” for once, Twilight appeared to be sent on the back hoof at my sudden proclamation.

“I-I’ll get on it right away, Onælan” she said, stuttering slightly, as the doll on the top of the music box became lifeless and still once more. At that moment I heard the thudding of a door and Tarn called over to me, looking up I saw that the doors were now open to us. Almost immediately we were set to work, though as the impending siege drew closer and word of the enemy being sighted reached me down in the forge, I began to grow restless, enough that Autumn and Fyrefly had began to notice.

“Are you alright?” Autumn asked, I sighed as I stepped away from the forge.

“All the time I’ve known you and the others I’ve been in all of two fights” I said “and before that I was never what you would consider confrontational, I wouldn’t caIl that enough experience for what lays ahead. I...I don’t want to be in a battle, but standing on the edge of one I can’t escape is even worse” the two glanced at each other with a look of uncertainty and Autumn went to speak, but Fyrefly cut her off with a wave of the wing, an uncharacteristically sympathetic look on her face”

“You could always stay behind the wall and help out on duties other than fighting” she said “tartarus, I don’t blame you for feeling that way” I shook my head.

“No, I wouldn’t want others to feel I’m a coward” I said “I’ll fight, just...promise me you’ll watch my back, aye?” Fyrefly gave a small smile at this.

“I wouldn’t do anything less” she said “Us firespitters gotta watch out for each other” at that moment a war horn sounded and Fyrefly’s head whipped around, her expression turning serious “They're here…”

Not five minutes later all of us were stood together atop the wall of the city, thunder crashing and rain pouring as we overlooked an immense army that rendered me speechless. Through the mirk of the rain foot soldiers stretched as far as the eye could see all dressed in dark green armour, interspersed between them were many variety of siege engines, towers and trebuchets, all built from angular steel plate jointed with rivets and moving on great tracks, and all belching out smoke and steam. What had me the most worried were the tanks, they had fucking tanks, similar to those of my world's interwar period, but of comparatively cartoonish proportions with ridiculously huge guns that looked better suited for firing cannon balls than shells.

“Fuckin’ great…” I muttered, a touch of what could only be likened to irritation creeping into my voice.

“Courage, Onælan” Fyrefly said, before procuring a flask from behind her breastplate and taking a swig before hoofing it to me, after some hesitation I took to flask and took a tentative swig, wincing at the burn in the back of my throat, only to down it after the pink pegasus nodded her head upwards. “You're going to need it, first battles are never easy, powers or no. Just stick by my side and remember everything we've taught you and the others” I couldn’t help but glance upwards at the dark skies through narrowed eyes as the rain pelted down.

“Feckin weather” I muttered “Just what a wrakjon of fire needs, a bloody thunderstorm…” Midnight, dressed in the heavy, flame snorting armour of her kin, let out a grunt of frustration

“Ere! Leso, sure you can’t do something about this deluge?” the hulking Tyke mare called. The Toa of air, who stood out like a sore thumb, let out a snort which caused vapour to rise from the front of his mask, his hands resting upon the handle of his upturned blade

“It is raining, Midnight Quarry” he said “and it will continue to rain until the rain is done! If you wish to change the weather of the world then I suggest you find yourself another Toa” Alee, meanwhile seemed a little less irked by the weather, if anything I’d say she was enjoying it, her helmet off and her head held high with her eyes close, a small smile on her face.

“Nah...let Gia be” she said “I can tap into this weather, gives us an advantage”

“Give you an advantage, maybe” Midnight retorted, before adding “bloody fish”

“Gia?” I asked.

“What Fantasia is to fate and destiny, Gia is to nature” Lesovikk said “of the two I’ve always found her the more amicable”

“Bugger your heights, I can't feckin see!” Tarn called out to no one in particular, jumping up and down in an attempt to glance ofer the wall

“Do you want me to describe it to you?” Midnight Quarry called.

“Might be better to fetch her a box” I called.

“Get fucked, tall boy!” she shot back, prompting spatters of chuckles to rise up among the troops, our banter helping to relieve some of the underlying tension, though much still remained. Many of these soldiers, stallions and mares alike, would die today and they knew it.

“The moment her or Octavia look like they're in trouble, I'm going after them” I said “They're all I've got in this world, I'll be damned if I let them die”

“Noted” was the only response the Pegasus next to me offered. Her vision was cast downwards at the hoard below, focusing on the sight of a lone pony breaking ranks to walk towards the walls of the castle. “Someone's attempting to negotiate” and with that Fyrefly took flight towards the lone figure, leaving me fumbling for a few brief moments before following after her, the crystals embedded in my hands and feet roaring as I surged to catch up with her before landing in unison a few meters away from an unfamiliar unicorn mare.

Her coat, what little of it was visible behind ceremonial armour, was a dark, almost emerald, green. Whilst her mane and tail were a shockingly pristine jet black.

“I believe the term you Prench use is “parlay”, ja?” the mare called, her voice surprisingly young, she couldn’t have been older than 20.

“We aren’t Prench” Fyrefly said “but we speak on their behalf...Am I to assume you are the empress?” the mare let slip a soft smile.

“Keisarin Reinesfell Willenstark” she said, giving a quick bow “I am here to offer you a bargain; the terms of surrender”

“Not interested” I cut in before Fyrefly could say anything, causing her to go ramrod straight and let out a strangled growl as she glared at me. The empress meanwhile turned to look at me, her eyes widened with curiosity.

“Forgive me…” she said, trailing off “I did not think you intelligent”

“I flew over here by myself, didn’t I?” I retorted, just being around this mare was driving my blood pressure up. “Whatever terms of surrender, we don’t want to hear it. I’ve seen your type before, dying in battle is preferable to whatever surrender you would offer us” she seemed to study me for the longest time, not saying anything, her face a mask, before her head dropped and a resigned sigh escaped her lips, catching me off guard.

“So be it” she said “It would seem you are set on fighting to the last to protect what is yours, I can respect that. Very well, I hope fate favours you in battle, and that perhaps we might personally cross blades” and with that she turned and walked back to her own ranks, leaving us both very confused by what had just happened.

“What was that about?” I muttered.

“If we make it out of this, I’ll be decking you one” Fyrefly said “you outright refused a potential parlay, I thought you knew how to pick your fights better than that”

“This is different” I said, watching the empress walking away, her wording had caught me off guard, not the xenophobic remarks I had expected that’s for sure.

“Like hell it is!” Fyrefly shot back, before taking off into a hover “Now come on, you big lump” I followed her back to the wall, where Octavia was waiting for us expectantly.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well, we learned one thing” the pink pegasus said “You’re gonna need to drill some tact into your ape” Octavia face hooved and let out a groan of frustration.

“Gods, Onælan, could you not have just kept your mouth shut?”

“You can kill me later...if we get out of this alive” I said, as a loud horn blared out from the enemy lines, I then saw a spattering of flashes from the artillery, followed by dull booms, as they began firing. I saw Unicorns and other magic users, Vinyl and Alee included, all along the length of the wall hastily throw up shield spells, and great ripples appeared as mortar shells bounced harmlessly off. Most were deflected, though some got through and took out parts of the wall, sending mares and stallions, both dead and alive, flying through the air. Octavia quickly reached out to pull Tarn and a few other troops over as a shell struck where they had been stood not a split second before.

I pulled the kobald to stand in front of me and turned to look at Autumn, who was stood about 20 feet away “Now would be a good time to step in, Autumn!” The burnt orange pegasus seemed to shake herself out of a trance and turned to look at me, before turning back to look at the shells bouncing off the shield, and nodded as she took off and hovered towards the edge of the shield.

She then brought her front hooves to her chest and bowed her head, focussing her mind as an orange glow began to surround her, growing in intensity until ponies on both sides stopped to look in awe at the spectacle despite the mortar shells still raining down. Then she let a cry as she threw her arms out as the aura surrounding her ripped out like a shockwave.

I couldn’t help but let out a shout of surprise as I lurched forwards suddenly, a force pulling on my armour for a split second, other troops along the wall exclaiming in surprise as they all stumbled forward one after the other like a wave. Meanwhile in front of us I could see countless mortar shells rapidly slowing to a stop just before the forcefield. After about 30 seconds the sound of artillery fire petered out as Autumn continued to hold the shells in place, she then pulled her hooves back, before punching them forwards, as one the mortar shells turns and shot back on the enemy lines, hitting without precision or accuracy, but causing no less damage all the same, cheers rose up along the wall as a number of the enemy’s siege towers were hit and began to collapse in on themselves. To give the Heimut army credit, then responded almost immediately, tanks and unicorn spellcasters began aiming upwards at Autumn and firing upon her, at this the burnt orange pegasus seemed to turn frantic, dodging wildly this way and that as she began zipping back towards.

“Remind me never to do that shite again” she muttered as she landed back on the wall, now sporting a number of ricochet marks which wore away to top colour on her armour, exposing fresh metal underneath. She winced when she saw her tail, much of the hair ripped away by an errant mortar shell. A horn blared and the many siege towers that remained began lurching forwards, troops marching along side.

“So it begins” I said, summoning my sword and shield and standing reading for the coming tide of enemy soldiers.

“Épées prêtes, tours entrantes!” Fyrefly barked, brandishing two reinforced horseshoes which reached up her legs like a pair of armoured gauntlets, all along the wall troops began reading all manner of weapons best suited to them.

“Finally!” Tarn called, balling her fists as thick, supercooled ice formed around them. As the towers drew closer I began to study them, looking for any glaring weak spots, finally I spotted one; the tracks didn’t have any armour around them, leaving them open to being broken apart.

“Mages!” I called “target the wheels, break the tracks apart!” Fyrefly reiterated what I called out in french and magic began raining down as I began sending beams of condensed thermal energy at the bases of the towers, aiming for the hinges between the tracks, my hunch paid off when the track on one side came away, sending the tower lurching in a circle, before inertia and a shifted center of balance sent it toppling over on the troops below, taking out many an unsuspecting soldier in the process.

“Good call, Onælan!” Fyrefly said, she sounded genuinely impressed, amused even.

“The technology on those towers is some 80 years out of date compared to the tanks back home” I said. But alas, that was just one tower, there were still some 20 more left, still advancing towards the wall, they drew closer at an agonisingly slow pace, until finally they were close enough for the drawbridges to lower down.

The battle had begun...