When Legends Rise

I awoke alone and in no small amount of discomfort, sitting up in what could be best described as a cot I looked around to find myself in what looked like the cabin of a warship, albeit slightly more homey….somewhere between military and cruise cabin. Up against one wall was a proper bed big enough for two or three, and against the opposite wall was a dresser. The view out of the window didn’t reveal much, I only saw blue skies and clouds. I went to scratch the back of my head with my left arm...only nothing happened, looking down as best I could with only one eye I found my heart sinking as I was greeted to the sight of a short stump where my left arm had once been. Immediately events flooded back into my mind and for a moment I sat there, rubbing my left shoulder in thought, before I came to my senses and finally decided to do something about the increasing urge to find out where I was. Looking about the cabin for anything to wear that stuck out as immediately obvious I first found my armour, most of it was fine, but the hemet and much of the left arm and shoulder were useless. I had an idea for using the scraps, but that that could wait.

I rifled through a wardrobe and soon found what looked like a knee length tunic, some simple leather shoes, an eye patch, and a cloak, my old cloak of concealment gifted by Fantasia in fact, the tunic and shoes wouldn’t have looked out of place in the medieval period and was clearly made for me to wear going by the fact that the shoes were, well, shoes made for a human, and the tunic only had a right sleeve and it was designed to just slip on. As I took the tunic by the hanger noticed a paper note fall out and drop to the floor, placing the tuning back on the rack I bent down to pick up the note and after some trial and error opening it one handed I started to read.

‘My dearest Onælan.

The doctors have said that you should be waking up some time today, so I’ve preemptively written this letter in the hopes of clearing up a few things.

Know that currently we are flying in the Empress’ personal airship and making good speed to Marelin (from a purely technical standpoint you might find it quite the experience, I know you do so love your transport), we crossed the border yesterday morning, I know you will more than likely take issue with this, but allow me chance to clear things up.

Firstly, know that Autumn practically crucified the Empress over what happened, not just for your injuries but the whole nasty affair with Prance, and more or less demanded that she fix your injuries. Secondly, some political business came up in the capital, so the Empress had to make her way back north anyway. Her troops are currently at a standoff in northern Prance trying to secure territory they’ve already invaded.

I also took the liberty of explaining the situation about you, your convictions and your people's history as best I could to the Empress; I also managed to find some colour documentary footage on the conflict in question on your larger device (you called it a Laptop, I think?). She was, put simply, mortified. She began pleading with me and Autumn that she’d never even dare of committing such atrocities. For what it’s worth, Vinyl says she was being genuine; she’s typically bang on when people are lying.

Lesovikk parted ways with us not long after you went unconscious, owing to a...disagreement between Autumn & Tarn and Fyrefly & Surprise over your actions, for what it’s worth the Toa wished you well and promised to try and keep them away as best he can, he did leave some notes with us regarding the whereabouts of potential allies, as well as how to get down south, perhaps a matter to mull over whilst you’re recovering.

Should you wish to find us, we’ll be out on the main deck, all I’ll say is for my sake at least...humour the Empress and try not to get into fights with her troops.

Your loving Octavia.

P.S. should we come into conflict with anything just do me a favour and hold back, you need to rest.

P.P.S. if you're willing Tarn would like to discuss something with you in private when you have time.

I turned over what I'd read in my mind, I wanted to be furious at the turn of events, more than anything, but Octavia was a mare with a strong will and a fiercer temper, and I'd rather not do anything to provoke her ire. After much trial and error I managed to get dressed, though I was thankful there wasn't anyone there to see me make a fool of myself. It seems someone had repurposed the cloak to be shorter, and hang over my left shoulder, going some way to reduce the visual impact of my now missing limb. I was still clearly missing an eye, but the attire would do.

Finding my way out onto the main deck had been simple enough, and I found myself standing on the deck of a formidable battleship it was a real mish mash of styles, both real and fantasy by my own reckoning, we were suspended below a large balloon filled with some of form of gas, modern artillery guns lined the sides in place of traditional gunpowder cannons, there were even some smaller caliber guns mounted on turrets, no doubt rapid firing anti-air guns for targeting griffins and pegasi, and all around there were ponies of all description milling about.

At once they noticed me and the air became decidedly frosty, with looks ranging from idle curiosity, to fear, to outright hatred. It wasn't a pleasant experience in the slightest.

“You’ve made quite the impression” a familiar voice called, and I had to suppress the feeling of the hair on the back of my neck standing up as I turned to see the Empress approaching, accompanied by Octavia.

“That's pretty hard not to do regardless of my actions,” I said levelly. “The world isn't exactly brimming with my kind.” The Empress raised an eyebrow at this.

“Indeed,” she muttered, “you seem to be recovering well.” I scoffed at this.

“It fucking sucks” I said, shooting her a pointed look, Octavia rolled her eyes at this.

“At least try to be tactful” she said “Like it or not she did allow you to be brought onto her own ship, despite her own troops misgivings. She will also be providing you with a new arm and a leg at the end of this, and need I remind you that you are single handedly responsible for the deaths of some 700 of her own ponies” I stirred at that, and stared at the empress long and hard.

“Why?” I asked “why after everything would you actually help me?” she seemed to bristle at this.

“I may have let you live and allowed you aboard my ship” she said “But I am still kaiserin and you continue to remain...beneath me. And as you are beneath me it is not your place to question my decisions. I would have thought by traveling with royalty you would have already learned your place. ” Octavia bristled, and I could tell she wanted to voice her obtections, but in the end she held her tongue, Reinesfell meanwhile seemed oblivious, instead making a move to leave us “I will say no more” and with that she departed, leaving the two of us surrounded by less than friendly Heimutian troops going about their work. Only once Octavia was absolutely sure the Empress was out of earshot did she speak once more. Barely above a whisper, but no less resigned in tone.

“Don’t think I want to just let her make those comments, they hurt me as much as they might hurt you” she said, rubbing the back of her neck “but unfortunately I’m merely an heir apparent, there’s formalities I have to adhere to as well. Heimutians hold hierarchy in higher regard than most nations except perhaps the Prench...or maybe Equestrian Nobility. Since you’re not officially my consort, which I don’t have the power to officiate by myself, and you’re not of any known line of nobility. At most I can swear you in as a bodyguard, but that won’t really work in your current state...which unfortunately puts you in quite low standing”

“Which means what, exactly?” I asked, feeling somewhat indignant.

“It might be better to...hold your tongue?” she said, finishing off with a pained smile, clearly she wasn’t content with this either “You can bitch about “he said-she said” all you want in private” I sucked in a breath of air to suppress my anger and clicked my tongue, an urge to be particularly sarcastic overcoming me.

“Out-fucking-standing” I muttered dryly before glancing around “Where are the others?” as if on cue a thunderous boom ran out from above us, and I spotted a cloud or red dust falling out of the sky. Octavia gave a small smile.

“Practicing” she said, before gesturing with a hoof “Come on, I’ll show you where they are” she began to lead me up through the balloon, where the atmosphere became considerably damp and cool, accompanied by the strong smell of ozone. As it turned out, this airship wasn’t staying aloft using gas, but using great big clouds secured in place with nets instead; there were also some large floating rubber sacks dotted about the cluster, with wires stretching between them like the wires between pylons, and as I passed one I felt my hair stand up.

“What the fuck…” I muttered, reaching out to one of the netted clouds and expecting my hand to pass through easily, only to have my hand repelled by a magical bubble, which lit up and rippled.

“Did you think we used gas for airships?” a voice called, and I turned to see Autumn trotting her way over. “Clouds are an extremely versatile resource: they're naturally buoyant in air, and can be used as a building material. They can even be used to store different charges, both magical and electrical” she then stopped, and looked at me long and hard, before her demeanor softened almost uncharacteristically. “hey...how are you holding up?”

“Well I’m, not dead” I said, absentmindedly playing with the bubble shield “and I’m only down an arm and an eye, that’s better than you had it” I was startled as Autumn shot forward pinning by hand against the shield with a hoof. She was now looking at me with a stern but concerned expression.

“I know what you’re doing and quite frankly it’s a shit coping mechanism” she said “having the mindset that there’s always someone who’s got it worse will lead to bigger problems in the long run. As someone who’s been through this without people there to support me, trust me on this” she then slowly lifted her hoof away “if you ever want to talk or vent about this, then I’ll be here to listen”

“With respect, I’d rather just be left to it for the time being” I said, Autumn frowned but didn’t offer any retort. We soon made our way to the top deck, above the balloon, where the others were spending time keeping out of the way. I hadn’t even had time to lift my head up as I climbed up the ladder before one of Vinyls bo-staffs embedded itself in the decking mere inches from my face.

“You breathe so loud I could have hit you using the airflow alone to find your location” an unfamiliar voice said, as the staff vibrated and shot back out of decking to land Vinyl’s outstretched hoof, I noticed that her eyes were now covered by a bright blue bandanna, she was stood next to some manner of target launcher. Alee was holding the punt-gun, now a host to a number of modifications, such as a hefty magazine, its barrel resting on the railings and aimed out into the open skies. Tarn was lent against the railing, with music from my laptop playing at a low volume as she played along on the fly with her hurdy gurdy, she was currently hashing out an accompaniment to Apocalyptica’s cover of Fields of Verdun. Midnight was lounging off to one side, though her size made ner no less imposing despite being laid down.

“Ok...how badly did I fuck up, exactly?” I asked.

“Vinyl’s blind and 700 troops are dead by your doing” Midnight said “So you couldn’t be further up shit-creek if you tried, you overzealous cunt. You’re bloody lucky Octavia managed to convince the empress to spare your life. On the plus side Vinyl can use her sonic powers to talk now, so we’ve got that going for us...which is nice.”

“You’ve got a lot of nights on the couch ahead of you” Alee said as she tinkered with a sight mounted to the side of the gun, a recent addition, before calling out “Pull!” Vinyl yanked back on a lever and a bright blue disk went sailing into the air, after a brief moment Alee pulled the trigger. Rather than getting flung across the deck like I’d expected the entire barrel slid backwards along a rail mounted on the stock, and Alee only received a fraction of the recoil, equivalent perhaps to a 12 gauge back on Earth. The disk exploded into a cloud of blue dust which began raining down and Alee hefted the gun up to rest the shoulder guard on the deck, sighing in satisfaction. “I think that’s as fine tuned as this big boy’s gonna get.” she said, shooting me a sideways glance “The Empress let me make use of the workshop on board to overhaul this to make it a bit more user friendly; Iron sights, recoiling barrel, which is now rifled I might add. 8 round magazine. This will now punch a hole through just about any ironback or small tank that happens to be in our way”

“It’ll actually punch a hole in one of the Empress’s tanks?” I asked, making my way over and attempting to heft it up, only to fail miserably, this was definitely a two handed beast.

“I tested it out on the armour plate they use” she said “punched clean through it and left a dent in the wall, which is why I’m up here for target practice”

“That and the Hiemutians hate our guts” Midnight muttered “stuck up, elitist cunts…”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Let’s just say you weren’t the only one to get dirty looks and leave it at that” Octavia said. Suddenly a commotion rose up from the main deck, loud enough for everyone to hear clearly “Something’s wrong, armour up!” and with that the Earth Pony bolted for the stairs, her armour just starting to materialise as her tail disappeared out of sight

“Alee, bring your gun” Autumn said, about to follow after Octavia “I’m picking up something on the deck down below, like the Ironbacks, but not quite so big” Alee smirked as she hefted what was now an anti armour rifle up in her magic and followed after Autumn.

“Are you fucking kidding me!? I’ve only just got up here!” I said as Vinyl shot past, my sore legs forcing me to limp as I struggled to keep up.

“You might be best keeping out of the way, love” Tarn said, brandishing her dagger in one hand as ice formed into a makeshift shield around the other, making me do a double take.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Forget it!” she said, ducking down another stairwell and down a hatch leading to the deck below.

“Just keep out of the way and try not to get yourself killed, you useless prick!” Midnight snorted as she brushed past me, now clearly in full wrakjon armour, complete with rather vicious looking armoured gauntlets on her front hooves. When I finally caught up to them the six of them had stopped dead in their tracks, clearly completely unprepared for what lay before them.

Running a mockery of the deck were a number of large, biomechanical spider like creatures with four limbs and massive crescent shaped fangs, with rotor like projections towards the rear of their carapaces, all around Hiemutian marines were working to try and fend them off.

“Spiders” I said, no amount of nervousness bleeding into my voice “why did it have to be spiders?”

“You know what these monsters are!?” Autumn asked.

“Visorak…” I said “or in their tongue; the stealers of life” Alee let out a nervous laugh at this

“Uh..do they even have tongues?” she asked “All I see are teeth”

“Yeah...don’t let them bite you” I said “their venom will do a lot worse than just knock you out or kill you” I went to summon my own sword, only for Alee to draw it from a sheath in her own armour.

“Stand down, you’re in no condition to fight,” she said, jabbing the sword towards me.

“Fuck...fine!” I eventually said, relenting “Just try not to let them land a hit on you, and watch out for rhotuka spinners”

“For what?” Autumn asked, only for a glowing green wheel of energy to sail overhead, just missing her, the stocky pegasus blanched at this. “Uh...point taken.” And with that the six of them got into the thick of it, whilst I was left on the sidelines feeling thoroughly useless.

The modifications Alee had made to the punt gun soon came into their own when Alee was able to land multiple kills in quick succession before needing to reload, not only did the built in dampers diminish the recoil to the point where she only had to pause for a second before firing, but the new rounds made short work of whatever the natural armour of the visorak was comprised of. Midnight was resorting to brute strength and sheer brutality to beat any visorak within stomping distance into submission, on more than one occasion managing to punch straight through their armoured heads, scattering gore & gears across the deck, and on other occasions all but flattening their armoured shells. Autumn and Octavia resorted to flinging visorak over the side of the deck using their powers over gravity and iron, whilst Tarn used much more sneaky tactics, using her small and nimble stature to dart between the spiders, at times seeming to breeze across the deck as if carried on the wind, spreading a trail of black ice in her wake and sending Visorak skittering uncontrollably across the deck, this didn’t kill them, but it did leave them as glaring targets for others to take care of, every so often Alee would give her a little boost in between firing at Viorak with the punt gun, spreading water across the deck for the little Kobald to freeze into an ice rink. Vinyl meanwhile went on the defensive, protecting myself and a few heimutian marines who had been injured, rotating her staffs at a high speed until they seemed to thrum with pure sonic energy and using them to deflect any errant rhotukas. Safe to say each of them were beginning to grow into their powers...everyone but me.

The others had almost succeeded in driving off or killing all the Visorak when a blood curdling scream cut through the air, turning I saw Autumn enveloped in a red energy and struggling to remain on her hooves as her back arched from the pain, her face contorted into a look of pure agony as a red Visorak, the last one still alive, approached her, unnoticed by the pegasus. Not thinking for my own safety I summoned my sword, ripping it from Alee’s telekinetic grasp as I ran to Autumn’s aid… too late, as the Visorak sunk its mandibles into her torso just below the ribcage, and a glowing green energy could be seen coursing through her veins as I adjusted my grip on the sword so the blade was pointing down. Hefting the blade up I leapt into the Visorak back and drove the sword down, plunging it through the armour right between the monster’s eyes. The Visorak thrashed and twitched for a moment before collapsing and going still.

At once the red energy surrounding Autumn dispersed and Alee rushed over to begin dragging her away.

“It’s alright, I’ve got you” the kelpie said, holding the pegasus as she lay panting with wide, panicked eyes. I yanked the sword out of the carcass and wiped it on my clothes, before looking Autumn up and down...this wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Restrain her” I said, understandably more than a few protests rang up at this.

“You...you can’t be serious” Alee said.

“Visorak venom is mutagenic” I explained “Though I can’t rightly say what effect it’ll have on you, it’s better for everyone's safety if your restrained until it’s effects take hold” Autumn scoffed at this as she stood up and dusted herself down, her armour melting away in a wave of oxide magic.

“Oh please, I feel fine. Perhaps a little lightheaded but that’s it!” she said “I seriously doubt I’m gonna turn into some savage beast and attack everypony...” as if on cue, a strange thrumming began to emanate from around her, as a green glow enveloped her. She didn’t even have time to question what was happening before she grunted, shutting her eyes and clenching her teeth in pain, as she hunkered down with her legs splaying further apart in an attempt to keep herself from collapsing. As the energy seemed to wheel wrap around her body in waves, she began to physically change, her body becoming longer and thinner, and the strands of her tail seemed to weave together, becoming fleshy and serpentine. She threw her head back in a scream, only to fall silent as her jaws began to extend, blunt teeth turning sharp and clearly intended for tearing at meat. Her robotic eye seemed to devolve, going from a near-perfect representation of an eye to something far more mechanical, two simple shutter plates to form eyelids with a ring running around the perimeter of the device.

Her wings, both organic and mechanical, also began to change, going from avian to batlike, with the membrane of her mechanical wing having something of a transparent hue to it. Her legs didn’t escape the mutagenic venom unscathed either, going from stocky and equine to slender and reptilian, with hooves turning into claws, her hind legs in particular gaining a nasty set of sickle claws on the inner toes, much like a raptor. I could also see new flesh begin to grow between the metal plates of her other prosthetics, organic and mechanical material now becoming one. After what looked like an exceedingly painful ordeal the shimmering magic began to fade, and a now mutated Autumn was left panting, her head hung low and her eyes shut with a snarl etched on her face. It was only when her panting settled into more steady, but still laboured breaths, that Alee cautiously approached.

“Uh...Autumn...are you alright, lass?” the kelpie asked tentatively, for once even she seemed on edge. She went to reach out a paw to the mutated pegasus, only for one of Autumn’s own clawed forearms to shoot towards her suddenly, gripping firmly around the kelpie’s neck as her eyes snapped open, now taken by a sickly green colour as she began to rise on her hind legs, hoisting the shark-like pony into the air until her paw no longer touched the ground.

“Am I alright? Autumn asked in a snarl, her voice dropping a couple of octaves “AM I ALRIGHT!?... DO I LOOK LIKE I AM ALRIGHT TO YOU, RIVER DWELLER!?-”

“Fit enough to be killed, I reckon!”