Chapters Bloodlines
There have been quite a lot of those, throughout Equestria. Few families today care to keep record into the distant past and those who do, are mostly nobles, who brag about their heritage. But there is one pony in particular, that has very detailed records of every single bloodline in Equestria. And that, is Celestia herself.
It might sound a little creepy, to think about it, but it all started and still is, made with good intentions. The princess cares for her little ponies, above anything else, with the exception of maybe her sister. And it is to study them a little. Certain families showing inherited traits, bound by the experiences they make in their childhood.
Some seem to errantly mix and disappear. Of course the heritage remains. The oldest dates reach all the way back, to the rather chaotic times, of her ascent to the throne. It was a time of unrest, shortly after discord rule and the ponies did not yet trust the sisters, fearing they were replaced by another, overwhelming power, that sought to subjugate them and rule with cruelty.
And shamefully those paranoid thoughts, instilled from decades of terror and fear, were gathering large followership in the distant parts of Equestria, where the ponies had not witnessed the kindness of the rulers. Nobles armed themselves, traders feared for their possession and the common folk rounded around the ones they knew and trusted, over the newly arrived, unknown alicorn.
But well, that are things to be expected. It was also something the princesses learned to deal with. Even if it broke their heart, they had to lead a small, but still viscous campaign against the misguided rebellion. And while they tried their best to not hurt too many ponies, they knew, if they showed weakness and hesitation, even more of their ponies would die in the long run.
They were hard, but fair to their enemies and kind to those that changed their ways, or even simply remained neutral. Though, all of that, was not why Celestia decided to keep a record on all bloodlines and ancestors of her little ponies. What bloomed into a hobby of hers, started, with a rather grim reason.
The Spellblade family. Mercenaries. Soldiers. Criminals. It was a small family, that seemed to just pop up randomly here and there over Equestria. Always a single one of them, and none looked alike. Nearly none was even called Spellblade. But they all shared two things. Their father and the thing that gave them their name. A spell blade.
Nowadays the term is just used for simple, enchanted weapons, or weapons that could mostly be used by unicorns, or a few skilled pegasi. But in the old days of unrest, they were the name of a small group of maybe the most dangerous weapons, that was ever created, outside of the personal armaments of the princesses themselves. And rarely were they used for good.
Over the 15 years of the war, only 8 of them had shown up, but each one had left devastation in lives in their wake. Nearly all records of them are lost to time and censorship. All but one destroyed. Or so Celestia hoped. She hated to lie to her ponies and try to suppress the knowledge of the weapons, but their very existence was a risk.
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Winter, 3 years after Discord's fall. 4th day after the longest night.
Argunum Cliff was a relatively small mining city, perched between two tall mountains, far north of Equestria. But despite it's small size and it's distant location, it was still a rather wealthy one. Thanks to the rich veins of silver, which had a very high quality too, it had gotten the count who owns it, very rich. The miners were living in good conditions too, and the fortune of the population kept racking up.
That had allowed them, to gather a large army of mercenaries, when they feared for their wealth. But now, everything laid in ruin. The formerly lively town, was covered in large chunks of rock and ice. It pained Celestia to see this. Partly, because she was responsible for it. But she did not avert her eyes, instead, she decided to burn this moment into her memories, to never commit such a horrible mistake again.
Looking down further, she could see spikes of rock, that had erupted from the ground near the entrance of the village, and where her soldiers were camping now. Another pang of pain, this time not only from guilt, but also from her lower rib cage, as well as her hips. A quick flash of her horn, and the pains dulled again.
“Does it still hurt, your highness?” came a voice from the side, tearing the ruler out of her thoughts. Fanning Hammers, a former blacksmith, that had joined her army, was standing behind her, with his eyes showing great concern. His gaze was trained on the bandages around the princess's barrel and back legs.
“Pay it no mind.. But, can you tell me more, about the.. The weapon?” She hesitated to even call it that. The memories of the fight had caused her to see it more like a catastrophe, rather than a tool for war.
“Yes and no.. Try as we might, we can not.. evoke it's effect. Me 'n Sheets have been trying our best to understand it, but it's been eluding us. It's magical in some way, sure. But... Try as we might, we can't figure it out.” he sounded a little frustrated, his bushy, red eyebrows pulled into a furrow.
“Is also driving Sheets crazy. Says he ain't ever seen something like it. Magic feels bad he says, hell if I know what he means. All I can tell, is that the thing is made out of pretty good steel. Seems to also be a bit hollow or so, from the soun' of it, but it's still really heavy. But as far as I can tell, it's just a war hammer.” He finally concluded, still seemingly annoyed as his inability to help the princess with her request.
Sighing softly, the alicorn turned around and limped past the soldier, who fell in line behind her. Finally, she addressed him, with a gentle smile. “It is alright, Mr. Hammers. It might have been crafted magically, maybe bound to a phrase or so.. I will speak with Archmage Ink about it.” Her wings were fine, but each flap would send pain through her cracked ribs, thus she opted to walk through the fresh snow.
Reaching the camp, she walked past the prisoners, who looked at her with baleful eyes. They had lost everything. And Celestia was partially to blame for it. Still, she strode with her head held high, or rather, limped with as much poise as she could, past the former villagers, up to a large tent. And with a last look towards the destroyed town, she stepped inside.
“No, no.. Nononono! That is not possible!” Came the voice of a rather young stallion, from within. Ink Sheets. Prodigy of his time, well, second only to Starswirl. Still, the unicorn was promising and where Starswirl was a lot more.. Innovative with his methods, Ink was a by the book stallion. But right now, he seemed a little frantic.
He could not have been older than 17, too young to be in such a position, but he had been the student of the former wizard guild master and thus had been officially elected as the archmage. Even if he was smart enough to delegate that position to the older and more experienced unicorns. Celestia always mused that he was also too young for war, but the pale beige colored stallion, with the knife on paper as a cutiemark, had insisted to join on her campaign.
Right now however, he seemed to freak out about something. A thin, metallic sheet flew by his side, something, that he seemed to line the inside of his cloak with. Celestia had never seen him use it much, only to hold a few supplies. It was the thing that had given Ink the title of a genius. Sheets of metal, that responded to his will, more than his magic, allowing him to focus on his spells, while the metal were used for menial task, like gathering scrolls and holding ingredients.
A spell unique to him. And right now the metal sheet was dragging over the handle of the hammer, and then practically disappeared into the floor, where it soon after exited, leaving just the tiniest, perfect cut. The moment he noticed Celestia, he froze and the sheet of metal disappeared under his cloak. “Y-your highness!” He bowed deeply, the anger still not having left his voice.
“I was just.. doing some experiments.. I did not notice you.” the stallion was usually rather polite and soft spoken and not easy to anger. It concerned Celestia, to see him like this, but she held her mask of serene dignity. She let the stallion gather his composure, before she cleared her throat.
“It is quite alright, Archmage. I take it that you did not make progress?” She asked, trying to stir the topic into a professional direction, which he seemed to appreciate.
“Yes and no.. I have..” he hesitated, seemingly struggling with something, then he sighed and shook his head. “All I have found out, is that this thing is enchanted in some way, but it is impossible to tell in what way, as every single spell glides off of it. According to my magic there is nothing there. I can not hold onto the hammer. It is not absorbed, it is not passing through it, but it is like there is nothing to hold onto. But I can literally lift it's handle with my hooves..
“It is infuriating.” Something rung in the back of Celestia's head, but she could not remember it well and Ink was already continuing on. “But as far as I can tell.. beside it, it is impossible to invoke the power. Not by any phrases, not by any magic impulses, which would make sense, given the.. late owners condition. I can not gauge anything from this weapon anymore, and I fear there is nothing to gain from this. But perhaps you could describe the fight to me? Or better, you could show me your memory.”
She raised an eyebrow. Mind magic had been the initial breakthrough, of the aspiring mage, linked to his talent, to seemingly gauge informations very well. Especially from others. Though, it caused them to either briefly, or sometimes permanently lose that knowledge, as it was indeed, a sort of gauging it out. Still, other than that, the process was harmless and Celestia had shown resistant to the negative effect, due to her alicorn status. Still, she was hesitant to share the exact information with the mage.
Though, after a few seconds she nodded. “Very well then.. But be careful, it was a rather.. Intense experience.” With a nod from him, she lowered her head slightly and Ink cast his spell. The tent bled away and Celestia was greeted with a similar sight, from earlier this day.
Only this time the village was still in pristine conditions and a lot of dead soldiers laid scattered over the ground, most torn into two. Here and there were red smudges on the ground. They also indicated former soldiers. Anger and sorrow waged within Celestia, as her usually calm gaze was hefted onto the stallion, that was flanked by a few archers. With a simple spell she could enhance her vision and see the burly pony.
He was tall, nearly rivaling her height, and clad in a rather standard looking garb of iron. Though on his shoulders he was lazily balancing a massive war hammer. This stallion was dangerous. Celestia could practically feel it. Something was wrong about him. It reminded her of someone, but she could not place her finger on it.
According to her troops this stallion had practically singlehandedly won them the battle, with something obscure. The huge earthpony, with his weapon, had apparently summoned massive spikes of earth, under the guards, or simply turned them to red dust on direct impact. Not even pegasi were save, as he apparently lobbed large rocks into the air with frightening speed and precision.
They called him Spire. Tall, lethal and oddly enough, absolutely quiet. Even now she could not pick anything up from the pony, while all others around him were exchanging both worried and relieved chatter. He seemed unaware of her, only watching the camp of guards in the distance. Was he trying to break through there? He actually raised his hammer, and she readied herself, but he just made a gesture of swinging it towards her soldier's encampment, with nothing happening. She relaxed a little and then steeled her resolve.
Opening her wings, she took into the sky, her golden armor reflecting the sunlight, now that she stepped out of the shadow of a pine tree. Descending onto the ground. Her arrival had immediately spurred the guards into a frenzy. All of them disappeared behind the gates of the town, except the lone stallion. He stood there, more focused now, the smile wiped off of his face, replaced by a serious look. His red brown eyes seemed to scan and evaluate her and suddenly Celestia felt even more wary.
As the look he gave her was not one of ignorant arrogance. But one of confidence. It was in the way he was actually not leaving himself open, but rather held the weapon between himself and her. And yet, he was not flinching back, and still he said nothing to her. Drawing her spear from it's holster on her back, she began to level it with him. Then she showed a serene smile and her horn flared, as she dashed forward. The next thing she knew was pain. At the time, she had not noticed what happened, but now that she relived it, she could process it.
Her plan had been, to simply drag his weapon away with telekinesis and then run him through with her spear. Instead, nothing had happened and he simply thrust the hammer forward, like a spear, himself. The moment it impacted with her midsection, a booming sound was heard and she was thrown backwards, against a stonewall, her entire front bruised. Her spear had been dropped in the process, laying on the ground, where she had been a moment ago.
Her ears were ringing, her balance was thrown off, as she tried to stand up, and her body felt, like it had been hit by a meteor. The Spire looked surprised on the other hand, standing there with a slightly dumbfounded expression, but he seemed to recover way faster than her, as she noticed him already swinging at her.
It was only her messed up sense of balance that rescued her, as her addled brain saw the distant swing like an immediate attack and she fell over, in an attempt at a dodge roll. A spike of rock sprang from the ground and impaled against the wall, where she just had leaned against. Something red and sticky ran over her face, as she got back to her feet and as she reached up to her ears and pulled away the golden armored glove, she saw that it was tainted red.
Her front was hurting still and as more and more senses returned to her, she felt the intense pressure on her chest, but she was unable to look down, thanks to the neck guard of her armor. And she was given no time. What had only taken about a second, had allowed her silent opponent to launch another attack at her, literally, as another rock shot at her, this time through the air. Another tumbling, hasting dodge.
She tried to cast a spell, to heal her worst injuries or muffle the pain, but her head was still ringing and she could barely breathe. There was no sound, except that intense ringing and her vision faded in and out. But she could not allow herself to fall unconscious. She had bested Discord, lord of chaos. She would not die to some random stallion with an enchanted weapon!
Anger and pure fear for her survival started to flood her. Where magic failed to dull the pain, adrenaline took over. Her muscles reacted, if slow, to her desperate commands and while her vision and hearing were still more than spotty, she at least got herself coordinated enough to avoid the following attacks.
Although, with each attack he was getting closer and she got less and less time to dodge, but in her wild frenzy, she noticed something. There was only one spire at a time, one rock flying her way at a time. He always seemed to need to end his attack, before he could launch another. Still, he continued to do so with increasing speed, now that he was closing in. And so she did the only thing she could think of in this moment.
She fled. She flapped her wings, the muscles in her chest and back tearing at her cracked rips and her mouth opened to a bloodied, silent scream. Or maybe it was loud, she could not hear it. But she managed to gain distance from that one flap. And while she uneasily rose to her feat, she actually managed to deflect a projectile with a simple burst of her magic.
She then registered, that she at least could muster as much. Though spells were still out of her reach. That single mistake at the start had cost her so much. Now she was unarmed and fleeing for her life. Her mind was unable to cope with the situation and how it had come to this. But as she ran in a panic and skipped and stumbled and fell, she suddenly tripped over something.
Barely managing to keep herself from falling onto her already caved in armor, she noticed, that it had been her spear. In an attempt to at least get back into a somewhat fighting shape, she reached for it, but a new pain shot through her and she was whipped around. The world seemed to spin around her and her hips were on fire. As she had reached for the weapon, the Spire had thrown his hammer and it had collided with her hips.
This time she only felt the boom, as it dented in her highly enchanted armor and shattered her hip bones. Again only her alicorn durability and the powerful armor were keeping her alive. But as she was thrown through the air from the impact, she saw the Spire actually running after his hammer, which laid next to her spear. In a moment, where her consciousness faded, and the pain became so overwhelming, it vanished, she found herself in a nearly serene moment.
Her horn lit up and even as her weapon spun out of sight, she could still feel the weapon, she had crafted herself, over months, responding to her last attempt and it just blindly righted itself up and shot forwards. And as darkness overtook her, she thought about her sister. And how she hoped she would be fine.
The link cut out and Celestia let out a pained gasp. Ink was tumbling back, eyes wide and panting. He had felt the pain and suffocating of the armor pressing onto her lungs. And he was not blessed with near immortality and legendary endurance. He was shivering and retching, before he fell onto the ground. The princess was fairing slightly better. Shaking her head, she stared at the hammer beside her and deep down, she felt fear.
Summoning up her spear, she started to channel more and more energy into it, causing her head and horn to hurt from the strain, before she simply shot the spear through the head of the hammer. There was brief resistance, but it was soon evaporated and the spear shot into the ground, through the hammer head, melting a hole into it and then the stone down below, leaving the weapon ruined.
Ink saw it, with his eyes widening slightly, in awe and terror. But the alicorn did not notice. She stared at the ruined weapon and recalled her spear from deep underground. As soon as it return, she shouldered it and left the tent. Only to face the prisoners of the village again. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Apparently he spear, also laden with magic, and several of her shots had hot the mountainside to the left and caused an avalanche.
While the spear had hit the Spire, it had not killed him. Apparently, with a wound through his chest, he used his own hammer to create massive spikes of rock, that held of the avalanche, allowing the villagers to escape. But as his powers gave out, the rocks broke and the massive tremors had caused a second avalanche And as it crushed the village and closed in on the fleeing ponies, it had been the quiet stallion, who summoned up a last, massive array of spikes, that still stood, before he simply fell over onto his hammer and died.
The body had been recovered alongside Celestia, while her soldier's had streamed in from their camps, the moment they had seen her take the first hit. But the fight had lasted only half a minute, thus they had only reached her, when it was too late. And then even they had been saved by the Spire. It left a bitter taste in the alicorn's mouth.
Looking over the prisoners, towards the spot where the Spire laid, she felt trepidation. Then she shook her head, turned around and left, towards her own tent, to lay down and rest. It was the first time she had ever felt so close to death. And it left her shaking that night.
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Celestia looked at the destroyed hammer, which was suspended over a pedestal. To this very day she felt unease looking at it. It had been the first and nearly the last time, she had felt this way. Learning from it had been crucial for her future fights and she was glad, that something like this had never happened again. Except..
Looking further down the pedestals, to the last one, she saw a book, with silver pages and her touch went to her left wing, which idly twitched and another shiver ran down her spine.
Celestia had a few reasons, for destroying the Spellblades, as well as their spell blades. Especially the weapons.
Not because they could be used again. No, that was the only thing that Celestia found calming. While they were dangerous, lethal pieces of art, they only worked for the Spellblade they were made for. No, what Celestia worried over, was that their creator, might still be out there. And so, in the desperate search for the original weapon smith, she had tried to trace down the families of those mercenaries and war criminals.
To no avail. All had one thing in common. A single mare, from noble upbringing, that has either become disgraced, or where the noble house had been destroyed. And a mysterious father, that one day showed up, cared for each mare for a brief time, helped them financially, gave them a foal and disappeared.
The mares, loyal to their perceived savior, refused to talk too much, but through kindness there had been some results. The stallion had a brown coat and was unusually tall. A unicorn, probably from Saddle Arabia, with a nearly dirt brown coloration, and maroon colored mane. The eyes were something noteworthy though. A dark shade of brown, fitting the over all color scheme, but what one mare noted, and the others reacted to, was the description of bright purple lines that sometimes appeared in the iris, like cracks.
Celestia had looked into it. But way too late. As she initially thought, that the dubbed Spire, was a singular entity. Someone, who forged a legendary weapon for himself. It was not until the second appearance. As the diarch reminisced over the past, her eyes wandered over A broken bow, with 5 strings, and a ridiculously thick and large handle.
Year 4, 4 days until the longest day of the year.
Celestia's and Luna's campaign of subduing unruly nobles had brought her armies to the west of the country. While the numbers were slowly diminishing, mostly because the alicorns were skilled diplomats, as well as capable strategists, one could still find resistances aplenty. Such a case, was in the port city, of Far Sail
The city was prospering, thanks to the fact, that it was the last city in the north, at which ships could dock. There, they stocked up on provisions, for explorations to the north, or loaded their cargos with trade goods, for the lands, down south. The city was ruled by a small guild of wealthy traders, who had good connections up north, to the silver mines.
So, losing it, due to a mistake that the alicorns made, caused the guild to riot against the seemingly brutal and unjust rulers. With their considerable wealth, and some other merchants and nobles fearing their hold on the north, they had amassed a considerable defense force.
Mercenaries, private armies, even a few pirates, that feared for the new, maybe unbuyable rulers and their already given agreements, from some of the merchants. And yet, it did not look too good for the city at the sea. For Celestia’s army was big. Loyal subjects, picking up arms, to keep the peace. Former guards, of other towns, turned soldiers.
And with most victories, the army was growing, instead of shrinking, due to it’s cause, and the benevolence of Celestia. Which had marked the fight at the silver horseshoe, her first real defeat, even after she defeated the Spire. With the loss still fresh in her mind, even after the months, she had put more effort into reconnaissance and preparations.
Which is why she was not storming the city. It had been rumors at first, as one of her scout ships had not returned. Only two survivors, who spoke of a horrible sound, as the front of their ship was seemingly shredded apart. The rapidly sinking ship had dragged everyone down.
Then one of her troupes, that were sent to negotiate, had been found, about a kilometer away from the city border, nailed to the trees with wooden stakes. But they apparently had died through lances being shot into them, if one were to inspect the wounds. But there were no lances to be seen anywhere.
Celestia did not like the possibilities, that opened up for her, once she considered those events. Maybe a weapon, designed by some hired smiths, that were able to fire projectiles over long distances. Maybe a new form or application of spells, as they sprung up left and right, over the country. She could not risk to send her ships in there, if they sank in mere minutes. Neither her troupes, if she could not discern the nature of the attacks.
So she had to sacrifice someone. She hated that thought, but as a military leader, she knew it was necessary. And she also knew, that using too many resources, for a suicide mission was.. Not a tactical decision. But she couldn’t help it. As she watched the progression of 10 soldiers, clad in heavy armor and equipped with large shields, set off, with another delegation of 10 soldiers, just in viewing distance from another, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
She knew she could not just walk in there. She now knew, there were things out there, that resisted even her magic. And if another such weapon existed, she had to know. And prepare accordingly.
It was early morning, as she saw her soldiers off and by now it was noon. Watching her troupes from high above, in the clouds, she could not shake off an uneasy feeling. With her vision enhanced, she scanned the walls and the small encampments of the guard, while her soldiers approached. Nothing seemed to happen and they were still around one and a half kilometers away. That was, until all of her soldiers seemed to flinch under something and one of them was ripped backwards.
Celestia was too high up to see exactly what happened, but a red spray, that was plastered over the left hand side of the armed troup, as well as the fact that not just one, but three of them collapsed, terrified Celestia. She flinched and was about to jump down, when she reminded herself of her situation and with a heavy heart, she watched, as the armed soldiers, scrambled to set up shields, as they began a hasty retreat.
Another flinch ran through her men, another another seemed to fly off, hit by something, she could not even see, but what she could see, was a small wave, rushing over the ground, the grass and the trees, while the soldiers before the walls, started to scatter to the sides. Not in panic, but apparently still in haste.
Then she saw her. A hideously looking, tall mare. A unicorn, with an absurdly large bow in her grasp, with several arrows lifted up. The bow itself, had six strings, and she started to fire two in tandem now. With the shot, another wave ran over the ground, at a speed, that left Celestia gasping and four more of her soldiers, were no more, leaving a single mare, who ran for her life at this point, tossing the shield away.
Watching the mare on the wall instead, Celestia saw, how she apparently sighed, tilted the bow back a little, took aim and launched a final arrow. It was then, when Celestia reacted. The moment the arrow left the bow, Celestia pulled the mare down below aside. The alicorn was able to move the sun, so moving a single mare was no problem. The ground, where the mare had just been, seemed to dent in slightly and then the dirt scattered.
On the wall, the mare clicked her tongue, and then did something odd. She seemed to brush one of the arrows over the bowstrings, a few times, as seemingly all enemy guards started to clutch their ears, some falling to the ground, before the mare stopped, took the now slightly glowing arrow and whispered something to it.
Another shot, but this time there was no slowly expanding wave, that traveled in a cone. Instead there was a line and before Celestia even had a chance to react, her last, brave soldier found an untimely demise. She was hit and turn into four pieces, as a cross of force, that even cut into the ground a little, pierced through her and dug a trench into the ground, that nearly reached the other group, that had rushed to help their falling brethren.
And then, Celestia could hear it. A weird, horrible wailing. It sounded, like someone was tormenting a cello with a saw. And she understood now, why the guards had clutched their heads. If it was loud enough to reach her, so far away, it had to be unbearable up close.
But it had been just one mare. With another, horrifying weapon. Celestia did not want to think, if she had tried to lead an entire army against the city now. Would she have been torn asunder like the poor group of soldiers she had sent in? Could spells maybe protect them? So far Celestia had tried to avoid fighting directly. Especially before the incident at the Silver Horseshoe, but even now after.
She wanted her ponies to not rely on her powers alone. She hated, that she could not just go out there and subjugate every riot and plot to harm her precious, little ponies. But she was not a goddess. And she did not want to appear as one, to pass divine judgement or such. She feared, it would make her subjects dependant on her. But what could they hope to do against such a weapon?
She thought back to the Spire, who had obliberated her first wave of soldiers in a few minutes. And now this? Could her subjects find a way to fight this threat? Could they maybe launch a sneak attack? Such underhanded ways were against what Celestia stood for. What both princesses stood for. But right now, she saw no other way.
So with a heavy heart, she decided that the best way to deal with this threat, was to send a small team in secret, under the cover of night, to take out the mare with the bow in her sleep. It was not pretty, but this was war and while she still struggled, after nearly three years, to come to terms with it, she had to take such actions.
It was for her country and for her ponies. With that decision made, she turned away and flew back to camp, already feeling pain and regret welling up in her, but she suppressed it. It was not something she could afford. Not right now. She needed to be level headed.
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It had taken Celestia a week. The mare had been captured, and Celestia had led a charge at the same day, before the enemy had time to realize, that their asset was gone. The merchants surrendered, after the first wave of attacks, and the pirates fled, only to be caught by Luna’s fleet, that had waited further out on the ocean.
The fight itself had been short, brutal, but with minimal loss of life. Celestia’s mages lent their support and the pegasi were mostly used for cover fire, resource distribution and information exchange. The earthponies kept the mages save and Celestia and Luna took another victory, this time with both princesses present.
With a sigh, Celestia turned away from the broken bow. The picture of the mare was still in her mind to this day. Black coat, black mane, and without ears. She had refused to speak and once Luna tried to interrogate her, she had bitten off her own tongue. While Luna had been able to heal her, it had rendered the mare incapable of speaking and as she was put into a prison cell, she had ran into a wall, with her horn caving in and killing her instantly.
But Celestia had found out a few things, from guards and the merchant she worked for. A failed musician, born without ears or the ability to hear in general. Still, she had gotten a talent for music, in a way. She understood all instruments, could craft them and repair them. But she could not play them. It had frustrated her. Working with such pieces of art, and yet, never to be able to play them, to hear their results.
She had been surrounded by ponies, that had indulged in music, and yet, never to join them. It apparently, had driven her mad. One day, a stallion had apparently approached her and a month later, she had returned, with the bow. Which had been an instrument. One she tried to play, every day. To no avail. Yet, she seemed somehow happy.
The sheer volume of the weapon, had allowed her to feel the notes vibrating through her very body. Yet, she still learned how to wield the weapon itself too. Again Celestia looked to the metal book and a sigh escaped her. And as she looked at the shattered weapons, one after another, she felt both fear and remorse. Some pony had created these, for his children, or together with his children.
A stallion, whom she much later learned, seemed to stick around, as she looked at a simple blade, without handle, crooked and broken by now. But something, that she had found only two decades ago, nearly a millenia, after the war, making it her most recent finding. Only this time, it had seemingly belonged to the mystery stallion himself. As it had not belonged to any individual apparently, but showed all characteristics. It had just one day been sold at a pawnshop and the one wielding it, had been described as an old stallion, that matched the description.
And as Celestia looked into her research, she found a daughter of a noble house, that had disbanded, due to them deciding to give the lands to the workers. And she apparently had a child, without father, that died shortly after birth. A pegasus filly. Maybe this weapon had been made for her, as it was incredibly light and had seemingly a few fine lines along itself, as well as a fine feather pattern. Celestia could only guess, what it’s exact function was.
But that the stallion was apparently still out there, worried her to this day, even if none of his weapons, had been used in several hundred years. At least not for atrocities.
Luna had been the third, to encounter a Spellblade. Celestia felt a little rage well up inside of her, as she looked at the respective weapon, that rested on a pedestal. This one, looked less like a weapon. This one, was actually a large paintbrush. Or it used to be. Celestia had the tip melted off.
She would have rather obliterated the whole thing, but on her sister’s request, she refrained from doing such. No, instead she disabled the tool and even kept the last painting made by it.
or rather, the sculpture, of brown, red and blue. It was not finished. Several pieces were missing, it actually looked barely halfway finished. And Celestia was glad, that it was that case. For the sculpture was made out of a rather sickening material. the blood and the feather’s of her sister.
Celestia did not want to think about the implications. The horrible, horrible implications. Another shiver ran down her spine. And a pang of guilt shot through her, as she thought back, to the moment, that her sister had later shared with her.
_______________________________________________________________________
Year 7. 20 days, since the longest day.
The disorganized, and decentralized way, that a lot of Equestria was governed ,despite the great efforts of Queen Platinum and the rest of the six, allowed criminals and other lowlives, to easily avoid justice. Often times, for good.
But there were a few individuals, that were wanted far and wide throughout Equestria. One was known as Ivory Sculptor. The name she had given herself. And the name under which she was wanted for. The daughter of a former noblemare was known for her atrocities through many cities.
But on the other hand, she was also revered, as a peerless artisan. Ivory Sculptor was known for her unique style of committing her crimes. As a serial killer, who specifically targeted stallions, that had left their mare, often finding them, through her considerable wealth and her connection to nobles.
For as wanted as she was as a murderer, as desired were her more.. Humane pieces of art.
Ivory was doing one thing and one thing alone. Obscure and carnal pictures. Ponies locked in either death or sex, drawn in detail and with expression, as if they were alive. The colors were mostly red and brown, but with so many different compounds, that it did not matter, that only a certain spectrum was used.
For those that were openly sold, she used the blood of wild animals. But for those more abominable creations, were made out of her victims. Statues, pictures, busts and more, created from the ponies, twisted in a bizarre way. The pale unicorn certainly had an odd taste.
Luna knew all of this, as she was currently hunting down the elusive criminal. Fear and adoration opened and closed many doors. And friends in higher circles often obscured otherwise damning evidence. But Luna was the princess. And her funds were larger.
And so she was closing in, until finally, she got an anonymous hint, that her target would be at a private gallery, where she would then auction off her latest creations. And while Luna desired nothing more, than to just crack down on the entire gathering with one fell swoop, she knew that if she gathered troupes and went there openly, she would just scare away the majority. And most likely Ivory as well.
So she adjusted her approach. And with a few spells to hide her appearance and a few bribed tongues speaking of her, as the new heir of a distant noble house, she had gotten entrance to the gallery. By now Luna had come in contact with the works of the serial killer more than she desired.
And she had found herself admiring the woman’s twisted work. She did not agree with the way the masterpieces were crafted. But she could not deny the skill and the passion, that she could discern in every single piece. This was the work of a mare, who had dedicated her entire life to the craft, that her talent entailed.
But Luna’s resolve was iron. She would hunt down the criminal and execute her herself. With that in the forefront of her mind, she sauntered through the gallery, holding a regal, somewhat judging expression, in her unicorn disguise. Sometimes she gave words of critique and some compliments. One was a lot harder to do than the other.
Until finally, the auction started off. Luna had just looked into the eyes of a bust of a stallion, where the eyes even still held the spark of life, even after the untimely demise of the stallion, with half of the face peeled down, further and further, down to the skull. Shaking off her morbid fascination, she had followed the sound of the bell into the large atrium, of the mansion.
And there she was. Luna was taken aback for a moment. She had heard a few descriptions, of each of the mare, but seeing her was something else, for sure. She was not the most beautiful mare, that Luna had ever seen. but she carried herself with a dainty grace, that entirely betrayed her murderous nature.
She looked innocent. Pure. A coat, which had a slightly off coloration of white. Not radiant, but still bright. her mane was a wonderful, maroon color, that reminded Luna a little of the mare’s pieces of art. And her odd, ivory colored eyes scanned the room with an intensity, that hardly contrasted the rest of her posture. Each motion, each step, was careful. Around her hip was a little satchel.
Her eyes briefly scanned over Luna and for a moment the alicorn feared, that the mare had seen through her disguise, but the moment the gaze wandered on, she let out a breath, she had held instinctively.
“Welcome, my friends.” rang out a soft, female voice, silencing any whispering conversations with ease, despite the low volume and the gentle tone.
“I am glad, that so many of you have gathered, to admire my work. I know, it is not something you can openly share, but among our little, loyal group, we can freely expression our desire for my art.” her smile was demure and the intensity of her stare vanished, as soon as she had finished scanning the room.
It now matched her tender appearance. “The last months have not been easy,” she continued. “I have been chased, not only by the old law, but by the new too. As I heard that Discord, who perverted all that was, without sense of beauty, was defeated I was feeling relief, wanting to express my joy and gratefulness to the princesses. But…” she made a pause, her smile dropping into a sad expression.
“I fear they too judge us. They too can not understand the beauty of our own values.” she sighed softly and a few of the present nobles let out undignified curses and muttered their own outrage. Though, when Ivory spoke up, those murmurs were silenced. “But that is okay. We will prevail. But I fear, today, I will announce my retreat from art and this will be my last auction.”
Loud gasps and pleas rolled through the atrium and Luna was puzzled why Ivory was giving up now. Maybe she knew that she was being tracked and how close the princess was? But before she could follow the musing, the murderer continued.
Her horn, which was oddly small, flared in a dark red coloration and wrapped around her satchel, immediately the atrium grew silent. “As a last goodbye, I will do something, you all have been yearning for, for all those years. I will show you the process of my work. And as assistant and model, I have to thank one mare. My single, greatest fan, who has spent more than anyone else, just to be close to me, even if it was for other reasons. The one, who is closest familiar with most of my works.” suddenly the Atrium grew dark, there was a wet ripping sound and a spotlight appeared, right on Luna.
“Ladies and gentlemen, princess Luna!” Everyone was surprised, the crowd immediately parting for the princess, who stood alone in the spotlight. Hate and fear filled eyes surrounded the disguised alicorn, who stood there in shock. It took her a few seconds, but she concluded, that the anonymous invite and tip must have been from Ivory herself and she cursed herself, that she had accepted it in a spur of the moment.
And before she could fully overcome her shock, the light returned to normal, except that the stage, that Ivory had been on, was now gone, instead she stood before Luna, with a somewhat excited smile on her face. A few of the nobles gasped, having shallow cuts here and there, which dripped blood. On the floor were bloody footprints, while a single brush, with white, somewhat off looking hairs drew onto the ground and Ivory stepped onto them.
“Princess, I am so elated you could make it today! I had so hoped to speak with you, oh, how many things I want to ask the most beautiful pony there is.” Luna was taken aback once more, causing her to stammer slightly.
“Wha, we mean.. huh?” She managed to get out, causing Ivory to let out an adorable giggle.
“Oh, poor princess, not used to be in the spotlight yet? No worries, that will not be an issue for you soon.” a scalpel, that had a blade of the same coloration, as the brush hair, floated to Luna’s cheek. And before she could fully grasp what was going on, she felt a warm touch on her cheek, nearly gentle, with no pain following. Only more warmth and a wet sensation.
“Your blood is so beautiful, it is nearly divine.” whispered Ivory and that was when Luna fully realized what had happened. She had been cut. The woman’s behavior had been so gentle, so kind, so elated and her motions nonthreatening and soft. If she had desired, she could have cut Luna’s throat, without the princess even noticing, until it was too late.
Immediately she casted a shield spell, to push Ivory back, but a chisel, with a similar colored edge as the other equipment swiftly jammed into the top, while the scalpel made a slicing motion and the blue dome showed a slim gap, which the artisan used to slip through the initial wave, while everyone else was pushed away with a yelp.
Another weird sound, and the light changed again, now showing a large spotlight, nearly exactly the area that Luna’s shield was. The alicorn’s eyes opened wide and she jumped back, her wings flaring, while a spell tried to close the wound, but it was difficult, causing Luna to worry, as she had to use way more magic than usual to heal the minor wound.
“Please..” came it from the front, where Ivory seemed to draw a line out of blood, into the very air. “Calm down. it is alright, I promise you will not feel pain. Not like them. You are beautiful. You are art. It will be gentle. It will be pleasant. You will be made eternal, everyone will adore you, forever. Please, Luna. Let me show everyone your colors.”
With that the scalpel dragged over her own shoulder and the now clean brush lapped up her own blood and began to paint lines and spots onto the ground. At the same time the chisel and the scalpel floated towards Luna.
“You are insane, Ivory.” said Luna, with a lot less bile and force than she had hoped, her whirlwind of emotions and thoughts taken the edge out of her words, while uncertainty showed. “Please, put down your tools and surrender yourself.”
Giggling slightly, the adressed woman gave a half lidded gaze, as she sauntered along the lines she drew. “I fear, I am not one who gives up the reigns.. Maybe in bed, but I fear that will not happen, as you are now.. No matter, once you are eternalized, I will have all the time in the world, to enjoy your presence, before showing you to the entire world.”
Her tone was slightly sultry, as well as chipper. It was really offputting for Luna, in a weird way and she felt slightly bashful. Anger over her conflicted emotions took over and she leveled her head, shooting a beam of concussive energy at the horned woman, but before the spell connected, a spatula was lifted out of the satchel and it brushed along the beam, which seemed to practically freeze in midair, before the brush drew it into a circle and it scattered.
Luna was speechless, she had never seen such a spell. The other woman chuckled. “Hehe, seems someone is confused.. Everything is art. Everything can be molded, reshaped and redrawn. Magic is art too. And I am an artist. I also fear that my artistic prowess, exceeds you, forgive me my arrogance.” she chuckle and skipped onto one of the spots she drew and took her brush in her hand, the scalpel in the other.
Both the chisel, as well as the tiny spatula floated around her, joined by pincers, with ivory colored tips and a little bowl. And then she began. She darted towards Luna, dragging her brush over her own wound and splashed a few drops over the ground, which the spatula spread into small squares, then stars, as they spread out. The chisel was seemingly flung at Luna, who dodged easily, only for the scalpel to draw a line over her arm, as Ivory closed the distance.
“Do you like to dance, princess?” the unicorn asked, as she jabbed, sliced and brushed at Luna, with the alicorn being put on the defense. Each cut, each touch with the brush, left a small, nearly insignificant mark on Luna, who did her best to heal up the wounds. she had not worn armor, but instead opted for a light dress, not expecting to be drawn into battle like this. Nothing had indicated that Ivory was such an adept fighter.
But she had taken one thing with her. Or rather, there was something she could always rely on. Her horn flaring, the air behind her started to ripple, and out of it shot a halberd. The unicorn mare’s eyes widened and it hit her, or rather, grazed her hip, cutting deeply into her.
Blood gushed out of the wound and pooled over the ground, but the mare did not seem to notice, until she took a step forward and the leg gave out. “Ah!” came the surprised yell, as she turned and righted herself. “Oh deary me..” she muttered, as she saw her wound and put a hand on it.
Looking around herself, she let out a relieved sigh “it’s not ruined.” she muttered and smiled at Luna, just as the halberd came down on her. With her chisel she blocked the attack, while falling to the side. The weapon instantly obliterated the tool, causing the mare to wince in pain, tears welling up in her eyes.
Where the mortal wound had failed to elict even a grunt from her, the breaking of the tool seemed to send her tumbling. But each step seemed deliberate and her brush worked feverishly around her, on the floor, then it shot back at Luna, now freed from the artist’s hand. The scalpel cut, the pincers plugged and the spatula deflected the halberd, with flowing arcs of red.
But the motions became slower, as the mare was losing more and more blood. Sometimes she dodged in a way, that allowed Luna to easily deliver another blow. But it was not until she managed to stomp on the pincers, that she heard another cry of pain from her opponent.
One by one the tools failed their user and eventually the streams of blood started to slow on Ivory’s side, while Luna was panting in exertion, her head spinning from blood loss. But no drop of hers had touched the ground. Instead the brush had drank them up eagerly, only to create something unreal. In the middle of the spotlights a sculpture, seemingly random and cut into the air started to form. but Luna noticed soon, that it mimicked her wounds, especially as a single lapse in concentration cost her her left eye.
She screamed and clutched her eye socket, while the brush was jammed into it, alongside the scalpel. She managed to rip both out and fell over, reeling in pain. Ivory however seemed to not want to capitalize on the advantage and even turned away from Luna, as the brush started to paint an eye, that was a perfect copy of the eye it had just destroyed, into the air.
Pouring even more healing magic into her spell, Luna managed to staunch the intense pain and the flow of blood, leaving herself slightly drained. Or rather, heavily after the intense fight. It was harrowing, but as she managed to clear her vision with her remaining eye, she saw ivory falling to her knees. One last time her halberd came down and this time neither scalpel, nor spatula were enough to block or redirect the attack.
And with that, Ivory was no more. She looked peaceful, as she fell to the floor, with a large gash in her back. A soft, somewhat unsettling smile etched into her face, for all times.
Silence, reigned, the nobles who had not yet fled, staring in wonder and shock, as their adored artist fell to the floor, right before her unfinished work. One could roughly recognize the goal of the statue. The feathers, as well as the general shape and especially the life like eye, were forming a picture of Luna, but at the bottom, there was something else.
Where the remaining nobles had been able to see, what was unfolding before them, in absolute awe, Luna had been too occupied, with trying to stay alive and even now, she was feeling dizzy. But as she beheld what laid before her, her eyes widened and her jaw fell slack.
On the ground, was a painting, drawn in basically three colors. A slightly lighter red, which mimicked that of the statue, for general outlines and base details, a darker red, from Ivory herself, creating shadows and further details and the white floor. On it, was the picture of an alicorn, similar in stature to Celestia.
Tall, regal, but dark. The long, floating mane of brighter red, was dotted with darker stars, mimicking the northern constellations. The wings, spread in a proud display, enveloped the drawing. What Luna saw before her, was the cut up, practically pathetic shade of herself, before a version of her, that was so much grander, so much more powerful.
It was breathtaking, and mourning, for what she just did, as well as regret, threatened to overwhelm her. The drawing on the ground looked like it could come alive any moment, the massive, crimson alicorn, a bloody shadow of Luna, to reign over the night supreme. But then the alicorn was reminded of what this was.
This was an atrocity. This was an attempted murder. The creator of this image, had been consumed in her own madness, losing herself to her work. And to make it, so many had to die. This was beauty. But it was a cruel and wicked beauty. A perversion of what Luna tried to be. And as she stared at both depictions of herself, she made a decision.
With a last flare of her horn, she rammed the halberd into the ground and channeled her magic through it, shattering the ground, to the shock and dismay of everyone, herself included, into a thousand pieces, ruining the last piece of art. Instead, she let the unfinished, cut statue of herself remain, held by an undying magic, that even outlived it’s caster.
Luna chose to be like this. Not the overbearing, bloodsoaked image of absolute power, crafted in the blood of others. But rather the cut of protector, locked in a battle, that would never come to an end, but fought and paid for with only herself. For that was the just thing to do. And Luna, if anything, put justice above all else.
After all this, one might wonder, why Celestia had taken interests in bloodlines, if apparently it was just one stallion, that went around and sired offspring, that turned into dangerous murderers in one way or another. But most of those actually had foals on their own. Both Ivory and the Spire had had foals.
The Spire even several, with three mares. A distant descendant even married into the apple family at one point, but never had any foals on his own. It had been a family of gifted metal smiths.
Ivory’s only daughter had been taken into custody by Luna, for a few years, but the mare had expressed desires to live and work on her own and not live in her mother’s shadow and turned to art herself. And while she also used life for her art, she wanted to set herself apart and created statues from plants, for animals to live in.
Changing throughout the seasons and even becoming homes for ponies on some occasions, she was celebrated as a craftsmare of life. Her biggest and most ambitious project was a tree, where one could live in, that would grow rooms for its inhabitants. A literal treehouse.
And further on her descendants continued to have a knack for the beautiful things in life, but some also turned violet yet again. All surely were eccentric. The ebony colored mare with the bow, Treble Shot, had no offspring, but instead, had a twin brother. Sonorous Cello. A unicorn stallion, with the talent to create music from his magic itself.
To this day, several distant descendants, all carrying a certain attribute of craftsmanship and spark of creationism in themselves mingled across Equestria. And where a larger than usual amount of them had turned to violence in one way or another, not all the Spellblades were as much of a threat. At least not on purpose.
As Celestia continued her way down the line, she came past the remnants of two floating staffs. Between them spun a dented sphere, that seemed to be hollow and was covered in an impossibly fine looking and complex pattern of gold. A few feathers, brown and orange, were also fluttering around the staffs.
It was a sight that brought a slim smile to her face. Something she could not say about any of the other tools, but this one.. She remembered them and their wielders fondly.
_________________________________________________________________________
Year 8, Equilibrium fall.
By now Celestia had started to collect informations about unusual weapons and tools, used by unusual ponies. In the wild times after Discord’s fall, it had become a rather vast collection. And right now she was investigating one of these cases. Ever since Luna had nearly fallen to a user of these horrific weapons, she had become fervent with her search.
This time she investigated something, that she hoped most dearly, was nothing but a rumor. Two ponies, who apparently could control the very weather. And not just in small, cloudbusting scales and with long, arduous gathering of water to form clouds, but mere minutes, to create rainstorms and to destroy them just as quickly.
They were rumored to even be able to control the sun, but Celestia at least knew from a fact, that such was false. Except, apparently they had their own sun. And so, with troubling news in mind, she flew along the east coast of Equestria, towards the south, where a lance of rock separated the Winding Sea, from the Water Desert.
What took other ponies weeks of flight, were mere days for the princess. She had learned from the previous encounters. The weapons were incredible and so were the ponies using them, with how they handled them, but they were just ponies. And they were not immune to her magic.
That left the princess confident, even as she approached the area, that the supposed Sons of Storm were said to live. Only for her to stop in her tracks, as she saw something impossible. A flaring ball of blinding light suddenly appeared in the middle of the sky, kilometers away, and still radiant. For a moment Celestia thought, the very sun had come from the sky, and descended onto a cliff, as it started to rapidly fall, only to be suddenly turned aside, flung towards the ocean.
Over the large, slow moving waves of the Water Desert, where it hit onto the top of a wave and caused the water to evaporate, as the glowing started to dim rapidly. Steam was rising from the surface of the ocean, before the little sun was lifted up into the sky again and began to bounce quicker and quicker around the sky.
Breaking out of the impossible and slightly mesmerizing display, the alicorn increased her speed, as her worries all came crashing down on her. Ponies with such powers. Ponies who defied reason and probability. She just hoped to be wrong. But as soon as she got into a couple hundred meters of viewing distance, things seemed to one, get odd and two, seem to hint to her biggest fear.
By now she could see two ponies. One brown, one orange. Two rather slim looking pegasi, that held something that looked like a large fern of feathers each, in the color of the other stallion. Between them, bounced the supposed sun, but despite it’s radiance, it seemed to be tiny. Maybe as big as a foal at best.
And moreover, she could hear the cheerful, lighthearted laughter of the brown stallion, while the orange seemed to grumble, as the little sun flew past him. It was a very happy sound. Innocent, pure laughter, and as the orange stallion dove after the sphere, the brown one started to descend onto the ground.
By now large, quickly darkening storm clouds started to form above them, blotting out the actual sun, but becoming illuminated by the smaller sphere below. But with the dimming of the actual sun, the little sun seemed to follow suit, until the orange stallion reached it, while it was drifting on the endless streams and swirls of the Winding Sea, and launched it straight up.
With wide eyes, Celestia watched as the orb rushed upwards into the sky, disappeared into the clouds, nearly completely doused from it’s light. Only to flare up high in the sky and destroy the cloud cover, scattering it in every direction. Tiny, harmless rain clouds rolled over the sky and past Celestia, as the glowing sphere descended slowly back onto the earth, losing more and more of it’s light, before it fell onto the grasp of the brown pegasus.
While that happened, the orange one, had started to approach Celestia. And she immediately readied herself with her lance. Her armor was shining in the now mostly clear sky, reflecting the sunlight.
“Good day, princess.” said the stallion, with a slightly feminine and high pitched voice, that fit his rather slim appearance. He also had his eyes closed, but smiled in the direction of the alicorn, while beating his wings, to stay in the air. The feathered fern was strapped to his back, looking a bit like the large plumage of a phoenix.
“I would appreciate if you would lower your weapon, it is slightly unsettling to have the spear pointed at me, that killed my brother.” He made a placating gesture and showed a rather slim, slightly nervous smile. It gave Celestia pause.
“Your brother?” Celestia had not felled many foes directly in combat. She always preferred to find a peaceful solution, or to allow the ponies to fend for themselves. So the list of ponies this orange stallion could speak of was small.
“Well, half brother. Iron Crest. I think your people called him the Spire.” He said such words with ease, like it barely affected him and like he did not just admit to being related to one of the biggest obstacles, of Celestia’s campaign.
Such informations caused Celestia to become silent for a few seconds. The open honesty surprised her, but it could also be a trick, so that she would lower her guard. By now, the brown stallion was also approaching, holding a golden sphere under one arm. His eyes were closed as well.
“Something the matter, Sparrow?” He asked, as he floated alongside his twin, both only having a different color and cutiemark from another, but looked nearly exactly the same otherwise.
“Nah, nothing like that, Blackbird. I think Celestia was just worried, after the actions of our little half brother.”
“Ah yes.. I can understand that.” replied the brown stallion and rolled his shoulder a little and then smiled at Celestia, in an apologetic way. “I apologize on the behalf of our little half brother. He was always rather stoic and blockheaded. And loyal to the point of being just dumb.”
“Hey, that is not nice to say.” chimed Sparrow, the orange one, in. “I mean, you are right but.. Please, be considerate. He let down his life for the ones he served.”
“Which were misguided, paranoid idiots. I know you liked Crest. I mean, he was a gold smith and it reminds us of what mom told us about father. But you need to remember that the guy was paid to kill guys, who just thought that making Equestria one big place is the right thing to do.” Remarked blackbird, looking a little annoyed, despite the eyes being closed, but with eyebrows being furrowed.
Celestia was not sure how to handle this, as the two continued to bicker back and forth, until she cleared her throat and both flinched slightly and turned back to the alicorn. “Ahem.. It appears you two have a lot to talk about, but that is not exactly what I came-”
“Yes yes.” said sparrow, sighing slightly, as he interrupted the princess. “You came to see if we are any danger. After what you have seen so far, you are worried that we suddenly flood a city.”
“Or burn it to the ground.”
“Or blind all citizens.”
“Or bring eternal darkness.”
“Or eternal brightness.”
Both nodded sagely, as they listed up some concerns the princess might have, but then they smiles. “No worries, my brother Sparrow here, he hates rain and bad weather.” As blackbird said that, he pulled his brother close, interlocking arms and wings, as both started to perfectly beat their wings.
“And my sister Blackbird here is annoyed by the good weather. So yeah, we always clean up after another and need to compromise. Mom always said how important it is, for all ponies to be as happy as possible.” added Sparrow, as he held his apparently sister close, while both nodded, their eyes still closed.
Taken aback a little by the childish explanation of the two, Celestia finally lowered her weapon. That these two were apparently related to the one that nearly killed her, made Celestia nervous. And after testing both the ferns and the sphere, she knew that those things were also unaffected by her magic. So they were probably similar to the other tools and weapons, she had encountered so far.
“Can we land though?” asked Blackbird and disengaged from her brother. “I really am getting tired, been playing all day now.”
“Hah, weak.” came the teasing remark from Sparrow, who grinned at his sister, then swiftly ducked under the kick that was aimed at his head. Which struck Celestia as odd. Both had not opened their eyes and still acted with precision and to things, that were impossible for them to see coming.
Then the idea occurred to Celestia, that they were probably blind. Either from playing with the blinding sphere, or maybe even before that. “Well yes.. I think think we can continue our conversation on the ground.” with that she slowly followed the siblings, who had started to go ahead without her. In some distant corner of her mind, Celestia felt slightly odd about the complete disregard for respect and worry, that the two displayed.
Once on the ground, the siblings approached a rather small cottage, while occasionally sweeping at another with a kick, a punch, or even their ferns, while the other chuckled and deflected the attack. They really were acting like children and Celestia was slightly reminded of herself and Luna, when they were kids.
The small smile that spread over her face, was quickly pushed away. She still had to evaluate these two. Children were innocent, but children were also cruel and did not understand what the consequences of their actions were. So she would need to be care about the two, until the very end.
But soon she was seated at a table, had a small plate of honeyed bread before her and a mug of lukewarm tea. A simple meal. Both Sparrow and Blackbird were moving around rather easily, even with the flexible ferns strapped to their backs. They acted roughly like tails and they even apparently could flick and bend them, which was confusing to Celestia. But finally all were seated around the table and silence reigned.
“Would you be willing to answer some questions?” came it from Celestia, after a while. As she let the two answer, she took a bite out of the bread and filed it away as decent. Sparrow tilted his head a little and Blackbird hummed.
“I guess. But not all of course. After all, a lady has to keep her secrets.” which oddly enough, came from Sparrow, causing Blackbird to groan. “Anyway, yes, sure, go ahead, your highness.”
“Yes.. Right. So, you said you are related to this Iron Crest?” “Yep” came it from both. “Alright. You spoke of him as your half brother. Which of your parents do you share?”
“Well, we had different mothers. Father was supposedly the same, but well, we never really met him. Mom said he left her. But she was always smiling, so I think it was okay with her.” said Blackbird, with a thoughtful hum.
Sparrow continued. “Well, she said that he was a savior and that he had also helped other mares and that she loved him dearly. But she also knew, that he could not really stay. He apparently was not that type. Though I think our mom and Spire’s mom met by coincidence and they talked and found out, they loved the same stallion. They became good friends.”
“And that is how we met brother Crest.” Blackbird’s tone was cheerful and a smile was on her face. “He was pretty cool, though we had pretty big troubles talking. Cause we are blind and he is… was” her smile dipped slightly and her tone became sad. “Mute, we could talk with him a lot, but he could not really tell us stuff. But he always made us cool little toys.”
Both pointed at a shelve, where small gold trinkets and figurines were standing, most had a rather simple appearance, but were crafted finely and smoothly. “We loved played together. We always held his hands as we went outside, cause he could see and keep us from tripping. Mom always said how it was hilarious, that our little sibling was taking such good care of us. Then again, it was not until much later, till we learned how to perceive stuff around us.”
“Yeah, must have been like, our thirties, right?” Sparrow nodded. “Yeah, around that time.” that caused Celestia to pause and look at the two with narrowed eyes. They looked around twenty at best. Maybe even younger.
“How old are you two?” Came the obvious question. “54!” The cheerful reply of both of them with smiles on their faces, causing the alicorn to deadpan at them. Silence reigned again.
“Ah right, we must look like, really young to you.” “Right, I always forget that you are not as ugly as your act.” came the jab from Sparrow, which earned him a wing to the snout, which he took with a snicker.
“Well, yeah, we were like, 15 years older than brother Crest.” continued Blackbird. “Our mom was also over 20 years older than Crest’s. Still they got along. Had a lot to relate to. Not just dad, but also like, troubles before. They never told us about it, but I think Crest knew a little more.” both sighed and seemed a bit dejected.
As no one continued, Celestia picked up again. “I am sorry about your family but I have more questions. Where did you get those weapons from?” She had to know. She had to find the source and destroy it, if possible.
“Dad made them for us.” said Sparrow and pulled the Fern off of his back and held it with a tender smile, while running his fingers through the plumage. “Feather’s from the one hold dear. Life given from the one who holds you dear. For that the skies may be your playground and you never need to fear.” recited both in unison, holding their respective ferns with something akin to holding a loved one or a child.
It was slightly uncomfortable for Celestia. They seemed to hold a dear connection to those tools and she planned on asking them to offer them up, but for now she would wait with that request and learn more about them. “So, you met your father?”
“Not really, no.”said Sparrow with a shrug. “Mom gave these to us on our twenty fifth birthday. She had taken feathers from each of us over the years, on each birthday twenty. So we have 500 on each tail. Cause on our birthday we added the last row ourselves. Ever since then it felt like dad was sorta with us. We learned how to use them ourselves and honestly, it got really easy, really quickly.”
Blackbird nodded and smirked. “Yeah. They were like additional wings for us. Except, we could do so much more with them. And he even gave us this orb. It’s basically a little gift for us, to play with. I have no idea how he knew but. Yeah it is amazing to play with it. But dangerous.” she chuckled slightly and gave the sphere a prod, while Sparrow grumbled and rubbed his behind.
“Thing gets incredibly hot.” came a slightly annoyed grumble. “Hurts like hell. At least it is not heavy. But ah well, we learned how to protect us against the heat and all and how to play with it. It’s most of what we do nowadays. We sell our talent at making weather to some farmers around, so we get enough food from them. A friend helps us with news and all and repairs we can mostly do ourselves.”
“I always wanted to build a house in the clouds, but one bad throw from us and our house would be history.” said Blackbird with a heavy sigh. “But oh well, I am sure you wanna know more about these.” she pointed at the ferns and Celestia gave a slow nod, then, as she was about to correct it with saying something, remembering they were blind, they reacted.
“Alright then. But you gotta promise us one thing,” came it from Sparrow, as he turned his head back to Celestia. “If you can not promise us that, we would like to ask you to leave.”
“I will see what I can do.” she admitted and nodded slowly.
“Don’t take these away from us.” said Sparrow, with a somewhat saddened voice, holding the fern closer. “I know they are dangerous to you. I know you do not know us. I am not a fool.” “Debatable” “Ahem.. I am not a fool and I know you see us as danger. But really, all we ever did and all we really want, is to be close to our father and play with another. For nearly thirty years we have not done anything harmful to other ponies, that not any pony else could do.”
“Yeah, a kick here, or a slap there. Maybe a broken bone to a thieve or intruder whom we whacked with our tails.” apparently she meant the ferns. “And that was really it. These are a part of us and we love to play with this sphere too. It is like our dad throwing us this ball. It allows us to pay for our food. It belongs to our tails. I promise, no, I swear” “Me too” “that we would never use this to hurt the ponies around us.”
Both were pleading now and as they did, they opened their eyes. Celestia flinched slightly as they did. Blackbird’s were completely white, as one would expect from a blind pony, but the size and on such a young face, it was really unsettling. And Sparrows were even worse. They were black, which Celestia had seen on some soldiers, who had gotten a fractured skull, but survived. Something about the blood causing the discoloration.
And both unfocused, unseeing eyes were filled with fear and sorrow, that was nearly crushing for Celestia. She nearly recoiled under the intense emotion they displayed, despite their inability to actually see and it resonated in Celestia. Where logic dictated her, to ignore her and their emotions, to not risk it and protect her ponies at all cost, her empathy stood against it.
Could she really cause such suffering and sorrow to ponies, just because she was afraid? It was nothing more than worry at this point, as she had indeed never heard anything bad or dangerous about the two, beyond their exceptional tools. It would be wrong. It would be tyrannical. These two were earnest. And while they were dangerous, they were not guilty.
So she could honestly only make one decision, while upholding her own morals. “Very well. But the moment you raise them against my ponies, I will destroy them.” It was a grim promise, but the smiles she earned were wide as a child, that had just been told it could eat all the cookies in the jar.
“Thank you!” Both yelled and bolted over the table, to hug Celestia.
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A soft chuckle escaped the alicorn, as she looked at the broken weapons. Sparrow and Blackbird had showed her the magnificent control of air and the mechanics, under which the orb absorbed sunlight, to heat up and reflect it, mimicking another sun. Several times she had met with the kind, childlike ponies, over several years.
But her smile slowly vanished and she looked over the ruined state the two tails, as she had come to call them herself, were in. It was not because of a broken promise. It was because of a tragedy and heroism. It was not sure if they had attracted it, with the light of the orb, or if it had simply been fate playing a cruel trick on them.
But one day, a massive sea monster, bigger than Manehatten’s biggest skyscraper had emerged from the Water Desert. It was a massive, amphibian creature, with an insatiable hunger, that even ate away the earth. Several smaller spawns had accompanied it. And it would have probably killed many ponies, griffons, minotaurs and diamond dogs, if not for Sparrow and Blackbird.
It had been their fight, with the second sun flaring to unknown heights, that had attracted the attention of the ponies. And while no one had seen the fight, they had seen the result. The creature, dead, with craters of seared flesh and burned spawn around it. The earth, shattered torn open and scorched.
And the siblings dead, with Sparrow holding his sister, who clutched the dented sphere against her chest. Both had acid burns and several puncture wounds from projectiles spat and thrown at them. And so they had been found. Together in a final embrace. The tails had been recovered too, as the monster’s body had been moved. And Celestia had taken them, after giving the siblings a proper burial.
They had showed her a lot. Taught her a lot. Not just about the mystery stallion and the connection he had to others, sparking her idea of tracing bloodlines. But also about fairness and that not all, who wielded such massive power, had to succumb to it. They never had offspring, always living lives distant from others, without falling in love.
But their ideas prevailed to this day. They had taught Celestia about a lot of weather manipulation, which she had given over to the pegasi. The knowledge had helped to create weather factories, or at least, their crude and simple beginnings, using lenses, to heat water with the sun and such.
Both Sparrow and Blackbird were eternalized on a portrait, in a hall of Celestia’s wing. And while no one else but her remembered them, she did so fondly.
A pedestal with a mannequin, that wore a shredded armor was next in line and Celestia’s elation disappeared. This might have been the second hardest battle, she had ever fought against a mortal. Iron Crest did not count, as it had not been a fight, but more a poor excuse.
But this armor brought back some unpleasant and painful memories. More physical than mental in this case though. And as she looked over the metal shell of the dummy, she could not help but admire it. A crooked blade hung by its side, similar to a glaive.
She assumed that there were still some marks left in the mountains of the southern border. Well, at the feet of one mountain, but it sounded more epic in her mind, to think that her battle had scarred the mountain range.
_________________________________________________________________________
Year 12, 2 days past the even day.
Spring was usually a rather happy and beautiful time in Equestria, with blooming flowers, awakening animals and more and more greenery. It was a nightmare for any military movement though. Rain, lingering frost and thawing snow turned every meadow and every road into muddy traps.
But luckily for Celestia, the roads to the southern mountain of Equestria, the barren hills, which marked the southern end of the badlands too, were set with stones. The trading route had been properly reinforced, so that merchants may travel at any time of year, unhindered throughout the lands and to the southern neighbours.
Shamefully the roads were blocked. The merchants from the western coast cities, who had survived and fled had joined up with the remnants of the east, which had been driven south by Luna’s campaign. Which left the south the last bastion of the rebels, nobles and their soldiers.
But those were only partly the concern of the two alicorns. No, right now they were faced with something.. Louder and more obnoxious. A few of their personal guards laid bruised and battered, with slightly torn apart weapons on the ground, mostly dazed, some unconscious.
“Step aside, you pesky verbs! I am here to challenge your rules!” came the voice of a stallion, from within a very intricate suit of armor. Tons of small, moving parts and larger plates, that covered the mystery pony from head to toe. It was not shiny, but it was not shabby either. It just had a dull tone to it, making the guessing of the metal difficult.
The alicorns had been witnesses of the fact, that this one pony had taken out their guards swiftly and methodically, from front to back. Magic had not shown any effect and each blow seemed to get shrugged off without much care. In his grasp was a glaive, with a single line of the same metal going down the handle, and then another coming up in a narrow spiral.
There were a lot of these lines. All over the armor. They looked a little like decoration, but by now both Celestia and Luna had discerned, that it was in fact a Spellblade before them and the armor was probably his Spell Blade. Luna had come up with the name and Celestia had rather liked it, while Ink had protested against it. He simply claimed it was more of a hex or a curse, than a spell.
“I change Celestia, ruler of the gay!” the stallion declared suddenly, bringing both Luna and Celestia out of their musing. While they had initially felt worry and panic, from the fact that a pony was dismantling their army, they had soon noticed, that their troupes had not been harmed too badly and that the stallion just shouted that he wanted to fight Celestia. Or celsius or celery, it was not always clear.
The stallion seemed to either be rather dim, have a speech impairment or something down the line. And no matter how good an armor or a weapon was. When the one wielding it was an idiot, one could win mostly by wits and tactics. Additionally they had gotten to see the way the pony fought. Rather mechanically, with each attack coming in a certain angle and rather telegraphed.
Still, neither of the alicorns let down their guard fully, as the stallion now stood before them, motionless. “Ah, Celesteel! There you are! I charge you, who has beaned my one advertisement, Iron Crust! As the one who has eaten the only one, who has ever testet me, I will take your defeat as my own dictionary.”
As he spoke he angled himself a little backwards, which caused his arm with the glaive to raise up into the air, as a form of challenge. The alicorns looked at another, Luna giving a shrug and then whispering.
“If anything happens, I will aid you, but this is the declaration of a duel. It is only fair that you accept it. He has proven himself as strong and if you reject it now, you might appear as cowardly. Especially with how close your fight with the Spire was.” Luna had refused to change how she addressed the stallion. It suited her more.
With a nod, Celestia turned back to the stallion. “Very well. But I am at a disadvantage already, for I do not know your name.” She spoke out and summoned her weapon. She was already clad in her armor and the soldiers who came to aid her were now clearing out the wounded guards, while Luna teleported the tent away and turned to the side as well, giving the two combatants a wide arena.
“Why yes, of cost! I am the honor table sir Silk Strom. And I am here to delete you. For you must have heated, when fighting my arbiary.” he declared and he started to swing his weapon mechanically from left to right, seemingly nearly falling over with each motion.
By now Celestia was going through her options. She still thought that her opponent was so far just pretending, as the goofy way he talked and the mechanic was he moved were screaming fake to her. Still, for now she could only work with what she had and that was, that her opponent was a bumbling, melee bound idiot.
So she took into the air and shot her spear down towards him at the same time, while already charging up her next attack. It was then, as her horn started to blaze and her eyes were cast upwards, due to her angle, that she was hit in the stomach by something. It was a far cry from the earth sundering impact, that she had been subjected to, under the hands of Iron Crest, but it was still an impact that told her a couple of things. One, her opponent had ranged attacks, two, they were able to hit through her enchanted armor and three, her foe was not a bumbling, melee bound idiot.
A curse came over her lips, as she looked down onto the stallion, right as the blade of his glaive returned and he caught it with the pole of his weapon. But it was something else that caused her eyes to widen in shock. Wenched under his arm and firmly in his grasp was her spear. And try as she might, it was not budging, as she tried to pull it back.
At least not until she teleported it away and back to her side, letting the arm of the stallion fall down a bit, before he moved a little and grasped his weapon firmly with both hands. Then he started to swing it in a wide arc and just as he was about to aim the weapon directly at her, he twisted his arm and the blade of the glaive shot off towards Celestia.
This time she saw it coming and avoided it, but just as it shot past her, did she notice a motion on the ground. And suddenly she was careening towards the ground, as her wings refused to open. And just before she hit the ground she felt the weight of the blade head hit into her side, digging through her armor and into her skin.
While the wound was shallow, Celestia was effectively grounded and she had no idea what happened. Just that no matter how hard she tried to open her wings, she could not. It was as if they were bound. Then she noticed it, just with that thought. A very, very fine string that had wrapped around her midsection and that was attached to the blade, that was dug into her armor, causing blood to leak from her side.
“No more flying for the little dove.” came it cheerfully from Silk. Gone the stupid way he intoned his words. His motions still came mechanical, but as he started to turn around and began to move the stick up and down, Celestia was pulled towards him. Immediately she brought her spear down onto the string, only for it to slightly bend under her attack, that could split an amboss apart.
“Nono, that is not something you are going to cut.” the way he said it was slightly amused, though, his voice was a little strained, which made sense, as he was fighting against the strength of an alicorn, who leaned herself against the pull.
“Sister! It’s a rope snare, like Discord’s!” That was Luna, and Celestia’s eyes widened. Pulling the blade out of her side, she quickly remembered what way it must have spun, before she started to spin. After a few quick spins she could open her wings and then she was free, swiftly darting back and casting a healing spell on herself.
“Thank you Luna.” managed Celestia to say on the side, as she readied herself again. Her foe was good at range apparently and had a string she could not simply cut, without a large channeling time. Something she could not afford. But something else she spotted, was that he hardly moved from his spot.
It seemed he was not the most mobile, or at least, that is what she hoped. His ranged attacks were now mangeable, but with how wide the range of attack one could have with such a flexible weapon. That left little choice.
One, was close combat. His attacks were still rather mechanical, the arms and upper body moving in the same patterns and ways again and again. So, as he shot his blade at her again she dove in, past the string, with her wings lightly spread. If it wrapped around her again she could just duck down and close her wings to escape it.
Though, as was expected, her foe was not going to just let her do as she pleased, as he took a step back and brought the handle of his pole weapon between the two and batted her thrusting shortspear aside. Another motion and the butt of the staff was thrust towards her knee, to hit into it from the side.
A good move, forcing Celestia to halt her attack prematurely and taking a lot of force out of her swing. A soft gasp told her all she needed and she ducked, before the blade managed to sink into her neck. The blade could not hope to cut deep, but a critical spot like that would be enough to disable her. Then her world started to tilt backwards.
Silk had somehow caught her between the butt of the weapon and the tip with the string and tugged, causing her left leg to fold in, which caused her entire body to fall backwards. Only for her enemy to tighten the rope, while the blade began to rapidly spin around the handle, along the spiral, basically dragging Celestia towards a meat grinder. Thinking quick, she lifted both legs and stepped against her smaller foe and started to stem against the pull of the cord.
The blade came to a stop and the entire weapon started to groan, as alicorn might battled unknown materials and craftsmanship unknown to the princess. What was surprising, was that Silk did not budge more than a little, his upper body only tilting slightly, as she drove her feet into him and pulled back. His arms too were barely buckling, Which either meant, her foe was as strong as she was, or even stronger, or something else was at work. Something she did not quite understand just yet.
But then came another, mechanical motion and Celestia basically shot up into the air from the pressure immediately vanishing and with a metallic sound, something happened. It was outside of her vision though, as she had basically thrown herself far up into the sky. But there were shocked gasps and as she managed to right herself in the air, she understood why.
The blade had split into an uncountable amount of small segments. It looked like a saw blade and it started to spin along the entirety of the staff, slowly. Each segment was pulled apart, more and more, like vicious, dangerous teeth, or claws. They spiraled and tore through the air, with a whirring sound.
“Shall we get serious?” Came the nonchalant question of Silk and he spun the weapon around himself and for a moment Celestia doubted her eyes. With a simple twist, the blades seemed to easily detach into a string midair and then slid into one of the lines along the armor and dragged around it, like a wave. And as the weapon began to spin around him, he let go of it and it easily enough folded along several spots, against his side and the rotating blades started to slide all over his body. they had to be hundreds, if not thousands and they sped up more and more.
The whirring increased, becoming nearly unbearable and the blades all melted together into a shine, so fast were their motions by now. The very ground seemed to vibrate and as Silk slowly raised his arms, the pitch of the sound changed, becoming higher, painfully so, but at least bearable and not too loud. “COME! SHOW ME THAT MY BROTHER DID NOT DIE TO A COWARD!” he yelled and then pointed at her, one finger at a time clenching into a fist, with the blades even running along his knuckles.
Celestia was speechless. This was impossible. The other weapons and such were masterpieces for sure, but this one. She could not even begin to fathom how much craftsmanship and time was nescessary, to create something so intricate, so exceptional. But she had no time to consider it, as a silver line blurred through the air at an incredible pace and as she ducked down, dropping like a rock, her shoulder pauldron was lightly nicked. A vibration ran through her entire upper body, causing her teeth to rattle.
The tremor passed in a moment and as she looked, she could see the enchanted, reinforced metal had been cut like warm butter, the piece missing small, but she could see her padding under it. The wool was not frazzled. It was cleanly cut. Her eyes opened, as she understood. Just a single bad touch of this, a bad angle, and she was done for. A similar fear to the time she fought Iron shot through her. But she managed to stay more level headed now.
She could not afford to get close. Another whirring, from behind and she shot upwards, barely dodging the chain of blades. Calm. She had to stay calm. As she looked she noticed, that whenever her attacked and shot a string at her, his armor stopped being covered in the blades. So again, attack and defense were divided and if she watched him carefully, she could clearly see where his attacks were coming from, as well as hear it.
She was in good condition, she knew what she was up against. Her foe had to have already played most of his cards and now it was a matter of who made the first damning mistake. And Celestia decided it not to be her. Breathing out calmly, she did think about trying to intercept the sawblades with her spear, but not even she had full trust into her enchanted spear. No, dodging and waiting for attack windows.
And so she dodged. The crown was constantly on their toes, as they could see what destruction Silk wielded and the circle, already large at the start of the duel, had turned into a massive, vacated area, with cut down tents, destroyed barrels and other pieces of the camp.
Without the erratic motions, her observation skills and time, she learned a few things. He could only attack in 4 angles. It was ridiculous, but now, that she was not so panicked, she could clearly see it. Diagonal in 4 ways and horizontal and vertical, creating an 8 pointed star.All cuts were diagonal, in a 45° angle, or even.
It was such a simple thing, that Celestia nearly stopped, when she noticed it. Something that cost her another shorn off piece of armor, sending another rattle through her. The shock was enough to remind her of her position. And as she swiftly started to work on that information, she formulated a plan.
After a few more seconds of dodging she decided to bait his next attack to be a horizontal slide and as she saw the metal rushing towards her she barely moved out of the way. The whirring line shot over her and despite her not being able to see her foe, she liked to imagine that his eyes widened at that, as she charged forward, her spear starting to glow with charged magic.
Time seemed to slow down, as the whirring behind her grew louder and her weapon started to close in on the stallion’s chest. Closer and closer and everything but the sight and the sound of her enemy bled away around Celestia. She had to land this and duck. there was no other way. He only could attack in certain ways, there was plenty of room to dodge from this.
Only, that something odd occured to her. A little detail, that she just now noticed. For some reason, his entire body looked somewhat tilted. As if someone had taken him and bent him perfectly at the hip. It was then, when her mistake became clear to her. He could only attack in 4 different angles. He could rotate those angles.
And as her mind started to work in overtime, trying to calculate the new angle, not knowing if it was still horizontal or now diagonal, she came to a horrifying result. just as her spear was about to make contact with the chest of her foe. There was not enough space for her to dodge, from this close, without accurately knowing the angle the blade took. So she could either risk a fifty percent chance of getting mortally wounded or.
A loud gasp ran throughout the entirety of the soldiers, as well as Luna. “No…” With a harrowing screeching of metal on metal and then a wet ripping sound, both Celestia’s left arm and half of her wing were separated from her body. Red sprayed in a massive arc over the ground, creating a crimson line, as the arm and wingpiece were thrown into the air from the friction of the blades and their speed.
Celestia herself was falling to the other side, a cry of pain on her lips, but her horn already ablaze. Despite her wound, despite her pain, she acted. The moment she had decided to sacrifice one of her arms, she had already thought about how to deal with it and even as her lifeblood poured from her, the alicorn managed to stumble back. Out of the imminent danger, away from Silk, who was now covered in red lines, as the bloodied sawblades ran over his body. He looked like a tapestry of war, made of blood and steel.
He did not pursue her though, not even as she started to mend her wounds with her magic, stopping the blood flow. The wounds were grave, but with Luna#s help she could later reattach her lost limbs. But for now she was crippled and needed to keep herself from dying.
A blue aura joined her golden one, as Luna landed beside her, anger and fear written on her face, as she aided her sister in her healing. “Are you mad?! Why did you dive in?” came the angry question and Celestia flinched slightly, then let out a grunt of pain.
“I.. I thought I had him figured out. His attack pattern is incredibly simple. Sure, he is fast and his attacks make blocking impossible, but.. they only come in certain angles. I thought I could get in, deliver a blow and duck back out. But.. He baited me in. He knew I saw through his weakness and just turned into his strength. At least for a bit.” it all was said with a pained tone, but she was allowed to speak, as Silk did nothing, except watching the two.
“He is still bound. He just adds new condition. He needs to turn his body. I fear that allows him for a 360° angle, without any holes, as he just has to lean lightly in both directions. Still, he has a window between each attack. That and his need to turn his body, it should give you enough time to land a few hits.”
“Wait.. ME?!” Asked Luna with disbelief in her voice, causing Celestia to chuckle.
“Of course.. I am in no condition to fight him seriously.”
“That is alright:” chimed Silk from his spot, as he suddenly drew his weapon with a flick and the blades ran over the unfolding staff, before settling back into a crimson blade.
“I will wait. I won today, thus you are not permitted to go past here.” there was a very faint chink and then he moved his legs, while his arms became static along his sides and he took a few steps back.
“Iron has not bearded me in one try too, though… He was fasting than you.” He stated and then turned around, walking off with a chuckle ringing throughout the camp, with the slightly stupid tone to it, that he had before the fight started. Even his speech pattern was back.
That left both Luna and Celestia speechless. But the white diarch was thankful at least, chuckling in defeat, falling onto her back. “I thought I was done for.. It would also have been the direction I had dodged to, if I had not decided to sacrifice an arm and a wing.” she stated, shaking her head, as tears started to stream over her face. Pain, fear, relief, it all washed over her, in a rare moment of weakness.
Luna for her part was speechless. Then, with a shake of her head, she went and collected her sister’s cut off body parts. It was not something she did lightly, seeing the maimed stumps. It filled her with anger and worry.
She too had watched the fight but had not spotted anything Celestia did, but she would not have allowed herself to get hit in such ways. Not even in the last, desperate moment. With a sigh, she retrieved both limbs and then the alicorns went to reattach it.
“You think we should fight him together? I hate to say it but you seem too slow to fully keep up with him.” asked Luna carefully.
“I am not sure, Luna. I am sure he has more tricks up his sleeve. He is easy to read, once he shows what he has. It is like watching a stone down a mountain. You know where it will end, if there is nothing in the way. Or even if you see different tracks. You can anticipate what comes next.
“But it seems he has always new tracks. It’s scary to think that he has even more. Alone his little tricks would mean nothing. Each motion is predictable, if quick. But he can combine them and he has not even brought his legs into it. I think once I have every information I can beat him. But as you saw, I might be done for, before I can see them all.” concluded Celestia with a bitter tone.
“I could fight for you, while you watch. I might not be able to read him, but he is not as fast that I could not avoid him. And now that you told me some of his weak spots, I could make him show another. And I should be fast enough to escape it, even if I am surprised.” After Luna’s proposal there was a bit of silence, as Celestia looked sternly at her sister.
Their eyes met and their gaze was held for a few seconds, before Celestia let out a soft sigh. “That might be for the best. We should rest today and challenge him tomorrow. He seems content with winning. Not that he goes specifically after our lives. If you feel like you might die, retreat.”
“Of course. I am no fool, who would throw away her own limbs.” said Luna with a scoff, causing Celestia to glare. The two were dealing with their shock and both knew it, so they remained silent.
The strategy of the sisters was sound. There was only a little issue.
“I do not want to blight you.” came it from Silk. The two rulers had heeded his warning. Right now, he was a foe they could not realistically win against, without a sound plan, or without destroying too much of an area. That was the problem with alicorn might. It was just that impressive.
“Why not?” It was not difficult for Luna to discern what the stallion meant. Luna and Celestia had not advanced their troupes further, not wanting to risk another Silver Horseshoe incident. So they found themselves alone at the workshop of the stallion. It was no big surprise, with his name, but he was a tailor.
But he seemed to be an odd one, for most of the designs made no sense to the princess of the night. Suits that covered the entire body and had metal rods sewn into them or sticks. There was even one with bamboo, a rather rare material in these parts, with the import being quite difficult.
Then there were sleeves with similar designs and pants that seemed to not be able to move at the joints. They all seemed to be made for a pony of the same size and design, clueing Celestia for her part in, that they were probably made for the same stallion. Though, if that pony was Silk was just a theory.
“You are not pour sister. She fought and billed my brother. So she has proven herself already. I also have a reason to rest her. So far I am testing her out and see how far she can go and how much of my thrills I need to use.” His speech pattern was slightly inconsistent. It seemed to flare up when he moved around and stopped, when he remained in place.
“I do not plan to ravel all I have. I might be impaired, but I am not thumb. So, I honed show every ring I got.” The initial bad taste that the comment of her not being her sister left on her tongue slowly faded, as the stallion continued to speak and was replaced with determination. Not just to prove herself, but show that she was also a foe worth fighting.
It honestly had hit her honor a little, but now she saw a challenge. “Well, I am just as strong as my sister. So, with rejecting me, you are rejecting her. Or do you say that you don’t think you can beat her?” she said smugly, taunting Silk. Who did not even look at her and actually continued to work on a cape.
“I know I can take her or you. She fell without me lifting a single leg. She would have lost her head next. I am satisfied, but if she wants to challenge me, that is her right. Not yours. I do not accept substitutes.” he explained her calmly. He stood before his table the entire time and his fingers and arms moved mechanically, repeating the same motions, like a golem of sorts.
It was a little eery. But only Celestia noticed, while Luna was fuming a little. Her passionate nature had backfired, as her taunt had not gotten the result, but instead a rebuke to her. But before she could speak up Celestia did.
“And what if I told you that my sister is not my substitute, but an extension of me? We usually fight strong adversaries with two. Your brother technically bested me, nearly killing me in an instant and I simply survived, because of external circumstances. If you actually want to beat me at my all, you will allow Luna to fight on the front row..” That was Celestia’s tactic of reason. Although.
“I have nothing to prove anymore. If he fell to one of you and not both that simply means that in the end, I am simply better against you. A fish is better at swimming than a worm, but a bird will pick off both, if given the chance. But what do birds and fish do underground? They die. You two are birds, but this is my underground and once your metaphorical wings are useless, you are doomed to die.”
Silence reigned afterwards, both Luna and Celestia being a bit floored. Until Celestia finally sighed. “Very well.. I had hoped that it would not come to this. But it appears we have no chance.” she sounded truthfully saddened. And the moment she flared her horn there was a whirring sound coming from the stallion.
“Don’t even try. Do it and you will taste death.” Silk spat, his head not even turned towards them. But Luna understood and both readied themselves and with a silver flash they were gone and with a golden one the workshop was set on fire.
Both alicorns reappeared a good distance away from the building, but they could hear a nearly inhuman roar from within and the mad revving of the weapon, before Silk burst from the front door. Fabric and wood bursting around him, before they rained to the floor.
“COW DARTS!” He screamed and looked around for the two alicorns. As agreed upon, Luna stepped in front while Celestia moved to the back, both summoning their weapons. Then something odd happened. From the stallion’s hips shot two smaller blades into the ground and he was suddenly pulled forward, on his nearly invisible strings. Two more were added from his hips and as the old ones were pulled out from the ground, the other were launched forwards.
With that rather bizarre, but effective was of locomotion, the armored tailor was onto them in but a moment. Both Luna and Celestia had just enough time to avoid the oncoming blades. The stones behind them were torn apart in a cross shlash. Something rather worrying.
It told Celestia that he just used two angles at once. Something he had not done before. But now, as Luna took up his attention with a shot she noticed something. And the fight began.
It was surprisingly brief, as Luna, who had thought she could confidently avoid his attacks was taught that confidence in the face of the unknown was foolish. That was painfully obvious, as her stomach was torn open.
Where before the stallion had delivered fast, but methodic attacks from the same spot, allowing Celestia to simply decide at what range she wanted to take his attacks, he was now going on the offense.
Gone was the polite attitude and rather fair treatment. With the shortened range, his attack speed increased, proportionally so. With the range halved, his attacks came twice as often. Quartered it became quadrupled. Where before the fight had been like a game of chess, with Celestia trying to bait out new moves out of her opponent, both alicorns were now forced into a rabid battle.
Sure, the attacks were still very logical and mechanical. That was just simply now something they could use right now. They noticed that as soon as he actually landed a shot of one of those pulling blades into Luna’s armor and before the alicorn had a chance to teleport away Silk was already flying towards her and a horizontal slash was thrown her way.
And that marked the end of that fight. As the blades were dragged through her stomach she was unable to react. But Celestia was able to. She had seen with horror how the first blade struck and despite her immediately charging up a teleport spell, she simply managed to keep her sister from being cut in half.
With a loud noise, the alicorn of the night was teleported to her sister’s side and collapsed, vomiting up blood, while holding the deep, nasty wound in her body. But before she even hit the ground Celestia had already started to cast a healing spell onto her. Only for her to stop in her tracks, when two blades shot past her, into the rock behind her. But before she could teleport away they were pulled back and Silk came to a stop before them, skidding over the ground, as he had been the entire time.
“Satisfied now?” he asked with a nearly bored tone, as he hung from the strings, that were attached to nearby rocks. All four kept him suspended and he was slightly bouncing up and down.
Celestia was not quite sure what he meant, then her eyes widened in understanding. “Since when did you know?” She asked, slightly shakily.
“Honestly, I just noticed a bit ago. You see.. Burning wood is not known for its stability.” he responded and his arm tilted to the side, then bent and his thumb straightened, which made him point at the workshop. “It’s an illusion, is it not? A really stable one. Even when my blades cut through it, it only moved, but did not falter.” his tone was even, but it was clear that he was still rather upset.
“You are VERY lucky, that I am not a spiteful stallion.” he said, with strained voice and stared down on the princesses. “But fine. You want to fight me so badly, with the two of you, then so be it. You better bring your best performance next time. Because this.” his strings receded back into the holsters on his hips, that only now became apparent in purpose, and he landed on his feet, a soft clicking being heard. “is read coloss.”
With that he walked off, leaving Luna and Celestia to patch the night alicorn up. The wound, while initially rather grave, had been quickly healed.
“Alright.. You can have the frontlines back.” coughed Luna, wiping away bits of blood from her chin. “I am not gonna get myself fileted again.”
“You don’t have to. I think I have an idea how to deal with him from now on.” replied her sister, looking at the now only slightly damaged workshop, that Silk approached.
“You know, I think I now know how Iron Crest beat him. We are so used to fighting things with magic, that we forgot a real challenge. All we need, is a weapon he can not just dice up. And we need to change the terrain to our liking.”
“Oh yeah, why not also turn this into a fertile forest, when we are at it.” came the sarcastic reply from Luna, who was still recovering, causing Celestia to snort in amusement.
“I suppose that could be nice. But we saw it. The hammer that Iron had. It was able to raise and lower the ground. His entire mobility is based on the terrain. Rocks he can hook onto, stone, where his blades can take hold. Elevation in some parts. If we keep changing that, we can change his motion too and force him to not use it, or use it in a way we want him to.”
That earned Celestia a nod from Luna, but then the night princess brought up a good point. “Well, and what weapon do we have, that is not just gonna be shredded apart? I would not like to test if my glaive is as durable as I would like it to be.” she admitted, which in turn earned her a nod.
“Yes, I would not like to risk damage to my spear either. But we have another rather tough weapon.” It was then, when Luna understood and the two left for this day.
The next they returned, Luna wielding a certain, ruined hammer. It was heavy, but useable. And while they could not use its special properties, they at least hoped they could block the chain blades with it.
With Silk already waiting for them, the fight could begin. He did not even comment, that they brought the hammer of Iron. Instead, he just readied himself. With their plan set, they started off, with luring Silk towards the foot of the nearby mountain.
They tried to avoid using the hammer for as much as possible, relying on what they knew. The increasing speed at a cost of range, the set angles. Everything was starting to come together. It was like a puzzle, with Celestia relaying informations to Luna, who then used it, until she was wounded.
And so it went on, for a couple of days. Each day, they learned a few new things, or refined their tactics. At day three Celestia already was shifting around the ground, creating spires, to intercept the hook blades, that he used to move around, as well as shifting them, to drag the stallion along. And finally the hits connected.
The hammer impacted, but did no discernable damage, while Luna took a deep gash along her chest. On day five, they found out that Silk could in fact, use his legs. So far, he had completely refrained from doing so, relying on the wires alone to move, but as they completely made the terrain theirs, turning rocks to sand, leaving only a few boulders for his maneuverability, to read his movements.
But when he actually started to use his legs, his entire fighting style seemed to change. He had stopped talking altogether, seeing no reason to converse and the sisters, who were mostly focused and had not gotten any response, had eventually stopped too.
A week was over. His patterns had expanded. Celestia was not entirely sure how he did it, but he was combining longer, slower attacks, with smaller ones. It still all came down to something like a rhythm game. Only now there were more complex notes.
Half notes and quarter notes so to say. An attack that came four times as fast, but had only an eight of the range, with two even faster ones. Sure, with his motions limited, it was no longer an offensive threat, but their attacks were connecting less and less, until they felt like they were back at square one.
“It is infuriating.” commented Luna, pacing back and forth in their tent. “I should be faster than him, yet he always has his blades right where I want to strike him, forcing me to deflect.” She was no longer getting turned to mincemeat but even with their alicorn endurance, the fights were starting to wear on them.
Each of them could only last about an hour, before they became too drained to fight at peak performance, which allowed, with sufficient rest, for each to fight 6 times. Their troupes were still not able to advance. Not just because of Silk, but because of the fortified nature and the unstoppable trading routes from the south.
But still, right now they were simply choking the remaining nobles and wealthy revolutionary leaders. Few soldiers died these days. It was more a war of bureaucracy. Which left Celestia and Luna to square off against Silk. Which, at this point, while frustrating, was also something rewarding.
Celestia had already figured out a way to just destroy him, and so did Luna. Both being able to either just open a chasm and crush him, or dump lava onto him. But there was something, that kept them from such means. For one, Silk was not really standing directly in their way. And he probably knew it.
He also proved to be rather fair, if not very likeable. By now it was a challenge. And their dedication and maybe their pride kept them, from either turning away, or ending it in a cheap way.
“It surely is quite problematic. As much as we are learning about him, he is either learning to cope with out strategies, or that these were all things he already knew and had a contingency plan for.” Celestia had by now started to make a few diagrams, with range, speeds, angles, which differed depending from the side they attacked and much more.
A long list of crossed out maneuvers and a few spots with question marks remained. The princesses were slowly running out of angles to attack and options to take, that remained fair.
“Tell me sister, how did the Spire fight again? If Silk says, that he was bested by him, maybe that gives us an idea.”
“I do not think so. He fought with force, which I am not able to replicate. His hammer hit like a meteor and caused by entire armor to ring like a bell…” She suddenly stopped and Luna looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow.
“Could it be that?” she mumbled to herself and started to draw wave patterns. Thanks to her understand of illusionary magic she had a good understanding of how sound was created, as she had to often make the air vibrate in certain ways, to mimic noises.
“You remember the whirring? Of his armor. By now I barely hear it, but the origin of it are his blades. They move so fast and run between those little slits in his armor and weapon, creating this annoying noise. They are vibrating in a certain speed that way.
“If my theory is correct, we can jam his armor, if we force it to vibrate so strong, that the blades bounce around and chip into the armor itself. It could tear the armor apart from within!” She was excited by this. This was something they could do without resorting to outside sources. It would be using his weapon against himself.
“But.. that would destroy his armor.” said Luna slowly, dampening Celestia’s excitement about her idea and both grew silent. “I mean.. Yes, he is our adversary, our enemy. But well, you told me how much Sparrow and Blackbird loved their weapons. I think, with how well taken care of the armor is, that Silk feels similar.”
“I suppose you are right. But if we hope to reach the frontlines ourselves in the coming years I fear I see little other options. I mean, we could tell him about it and he might give up. Or we continue our attacks, until we find an opening. But as far as I can tell, his defenses are impeccable.” Concluded Celestia with a saddened sigh.
Silence reigned once more, before Luna nodded slowly. “I do not like it sister, not one bit, but the future of our nation might depend on this. We are so close to snuff out this bloody, misguided revolution, born from fear. Some of the nobles have defected, seeing our cause, but if we are to finally put this to rest, we need to be present. We already spent so much time here, two weeks nearly.” she shook her head, but then steeled herself.
“We will give him a warning. But if he does not back down, we.. We will have to do it. Even if it kills him.” her voice turned bitter and cold, as she suppressed her own disdain at the thought of killing the stallion, which she had by now found admireable in his unflinching, powerful demeanor. A similar respect, that she had found with Ivory, just that this pony was no criminal, but simply a soldier.
Celestia felt similarily reluctant, but then she sighed. “It is about his honor too. We will make him show us his best, and one we can overcome it, we will defeat him. He might be the strongest foe I have ever faces, but we will overcome him, together.”
Wrapping a wing around Luna, she gave her a comforting smile, masking her own sadness. And with that Luna felt the warmth of her sister’s embrace dampen the sadness she felt within. “He would show us no mercy either, out of respect. At least not, if we chose to fight it out till the end.” These were words of encouragement.
The rest of the evening and night were spent to develop a way to cause the hammer to vibrate. The inability to cast magic on it was a huge obstacle, but finally, with using a few enchantable materials and forming a sort of cage, that did not touch too much of the hammer at once, they managed to replicate the effect.
And when the time came, to face Silk once more, both Luna and Celestia felt the urge to not appear before the workshop. They had a fair way to win. But with it had come the realisation, that none of the two wanted to end the live of their opponent. But duty and honor compelled them.
“I see you finally came up with something interesting.” came the unexpected comment from Silk, who stood before the door of his home and workplace. The alicorns both showed surprised expressions, which earned them a chuckle.
“So far you just tried to poke holes at me and you slowly learned the basics on how to handle me. But this.” he pointed at the hammer. “This looks like you mean it. Like you want to actually end me.” It seemed that despite his words, which were heavy in meaning, he was rather light hearted about it.
“You say this, but will you back down? You will die in this fight.” Said Celestia, with a slight frown, while Luna held the hammer in her right.
“Why of course not. You think you can kill me. That is exactly what you need to win a fight. If I die, I was weaker. Both in mind and in power. None of my family members regrets dying for our cause.” he simply said and then pulled out his glaive, the blade still as one.
“But if you are fighting me for real, with all your resolve, I will meet it, with my own. Be careful not to be torn asunder.” With that the clicking noise was heard and he started moving towards their usual fighting ground.
“It will be my hour to fight Equestria’s furor rulers.” he lulled out and then fell silent, while Luna and Celestia looked at another, nodded and then followed him.
There was no wind today and clouds covered the sky. It was a bleak day, but that seemed appropriate. On the other side of the mountains one could hear a thunderstorm, the sound echoing through the peaks and valleys, but the wall of stone kept it at bay.
Luna was making a few test swings with the hammer, which had already proven to be a match for the blades, but the cage of enchanted metal was probably not, so she would need to be especially careful.
“Are you ready, Luna?” asked Celestia quietly, as Silk took his position and turned towards them.
“Ready as I will ever be.” she responded, rolled her shoulders and readied herself. This time, she and Celestia would fight at once, the taller alicorn taking her position by her sister’s side.
And yet, it was Silk, who initiated the combat. Swinging his staff, he got the blade swirling and spinning around the handle, turning it into a lethal blender. But yet, all blades stuck together, which alerted Celestia, that something might be up. He even held the staff in his grasp, instead of attaching it to his side.
And within a moment he was charging at them. Luna took into the air, while Celestia fired a blinding ball of energy at the charging stallion. Who in turn simply dug one foot into the sandy ground, shot one maneuvering blade straight upwards, cutting Luna off and hit in a wide arc towards Celestia.
Both alicorns reacted quickly, Luna weaving past the hooked blade, to not become a target once more and Celestia dove back. Only for her to feel a pressure on her side, pulling her forward. With wide eyes she realized, that Silk had used the same technique, he had when they first fought, something she had nearly forgotten. It was also odd, because Silk had not shot out his blade. But she found herself trapped, only this time there was not just a halberd descending onto her, but a loudly whirring spiral of death.
Only for the hammer to land in her hands. She had reached towards Luna, who had tossed the magical weapon at her and Celestia used it, to bat against the approaching weapon. Right at the middle of the handle, but she did not activate the vibrations yet. It would not work with the blade still as one, and even if, it would dismantle the weapon alone, not the entire armor.
And she simply knew that that would not be enough. Still, with her action she managed to stop the advancing blade. For whatever reason neither she nor Luna had ever been able to push the stallion back more than a fraction, while they themselves never felt any large amount of force being put into his attacks.
She used the time she bought herself, to swiftly untangle herself and duck away, only for her to hear the change in the whirring sound. Suddenly the hammer was assaulted by an impossible amount of impacts, as the halberd blade briefly split and hit onto the weapon, causing Celestia to nearly drop it.
With a hiss, she ducked away and pulled the hammer with her. She had no time to check if the enchantments were still good, as she was in Silk’s range. And the entire staff turned into a singing tool of death. It was then, when the blades finally sprang over, onto his armor, but he kept his staff in hand.
While the day alicorn gained distance, she passed the hammer to Luna, who was charging at Silk from behind, but suddenly he raised his arm, faster than usual, the elbow bending slightly, and his index pointed straight at Luna.
The alicorns had never seen him do that, but both immediately knew, that this was not good. Luna tried to shield herself with the hammer, while desperately trying to veer off to the side, only for her to realize a little problem. From instinct, she had turned the hammer sideways, for a large area of protection. But there was a huge, molten hole in it from Celestia’s attack.
Suddenly the night alicorn felt three pangs of pain. One in her right arm, one in her right shoulder and the last on her face, drilling through her cheek and exiting through the side of it. A pained gasp escaped her and blood began to flow from three viscious puncture wounds.
Luna knew, that if she had not moved to the side, her throat, the center of her head and her heart would have been pierced instead. Cold fear ran down her spine, but she kept herself together and passed the weapon towards Celestia, while speeding up, to escape the pointing finger, that began tracking her.
Celestia did not have a much better time. For as she tried to land a good hit against the stallion’s side, to end it, he instead transfered the blades onto his weapon and let it expand, cutting along the alicorn’s arms, just as she was about to hit him, causing her to drop the weapon in a pained yelp.
The hammer hit against his side, without doing any damage and without the alicorn being able to activate the runes. Only Luna pulling her sister back with her magic saved Celestia from being diced. Healing spells were cast and Celestia used her spear to lure Silk away from the hammer.
Which Luna picked up and went for an attack again. It was Celestia who was now trying to avoid the pointing fingers, as blades ran along the stallion’s arm. Only for her to be hit by the hooked hip blades, that Silk used. Her eyes widened, but by now they had figured out how to deal with it and her horn blazed, to summon a spire of rock, to intercept him. Only for her left leg and her lower stomach to erupt in pain.
Another four puncture wounds. And that was when Celestia understood. She had not been able to see the projectiles, but there was only one explanation. Silk was shooting the blades off of his finger.
And as she saw the stallion flying towards her, and her own body being pulled towards him, time seemed to slow down. Only for Luna to save her this time. The night alicorn dive bombed Silk, slamming the hammer down onto him.
Forced to deflect the attack with his weapon, driven into the ground and using the blades to push Luna away, before she could reapply her strength, Celestia was given enough time to tear the hook out of her own armor.
There was no thanks between the sisters, as Celestia blasted Silk with another blinding light and Luna disengaged. But Silk did not let up. The butt of his weapon and the finger of his right hand were each directed at a princess.
Luna felt pain shooting through her back and her left wing, as her muscles seized up from the wounds, dooming her to plummet to the ground. Celestia managed to avoid the projectiles and pulled Luna aside, from an upwards slash of the chainblades.
More healing spells and the princesses were both panting from exertion, but they still had more than enough power to continue. And this time, there would be no retreat for them, only victory. Their wounds disappeared, their pain too, while they alternatingly dove at Silk.
Despite their seemingly disadvantageous situation, both princesses had understood something. Each blade he fired was something that Silk was missing. His number of blades dwindled and while they did mostly deal heavy damage, none was fatal and the alicorns could recover.
Silk could not. Still, it seemed that he was putting it all into the fight. His staff was a dangerous extension and change of angle for his slashing chain attacks. He could redirect and change the pace of his slashes and he even sometimes vaulted with it, to gain extra height and speed.
The stallion was practically flying over the arena of rock and sand, that their fights had carved into the mountainside. Blood of the alicorns shone over the ground and flashes of magic and clinging of metal mixed into a symphony of battle.
Until suddenly Luna dropped the hammer and flew upwards. Silk, following her with his hand, did not notice as Celestia suddenly slammed her hooves into the ground, covering the stallion with sand. It was then, when she teleported under the hammer, grasped it firmly and just as Silk was about to lower his hand and point at her, she drove it into his chest.
With a twist of her hands and a little magic, the enchantments activated and the sound of a massive bell being rung, followed by the hideous sound of tearing metal, rang along the mountainside, drowning out even the thunder.
Silk practically exploded in a cloud of blood and metal, as the high velocity blades that remained dug into the armor, tearing it apart and the strings tightened around the shrapnels of metal, dragging the lethal weapon throughout Silk’s body. It was an instant and both alicorns were showered in a painful rain of metal, that riddled them with cuts and a few puncture wounds. But after the moment was gone, they stood alone, with the torn apart remnants of Silk’s armor, and his badly diced up body.
It took them a few seconds, before they could clear their vision and look down at the pony, that they had both come to respect over the last weeks and both gasped in shock. Before them, laid a cut up skeleton. Well, not exactly a skeleton.
But the pony inside the armor looked so incredibly frail. The muscles, atrophied and practically non existent. No mane, no tail. Sure, the pony could not have been older than 30 or so, from appearance, but he looked incredibly sick and weak.
The inside of the armor, as they could see now, was lined with silk and around the joints were complex sets of gears and smaller joints. Celestia put a hand over her mouth and Luna stared solemnly.
Silk had been a cripple. There were few ponies in these times like that, mostly sons and daughters of nobles, as the others simply died. But Silk appeared to have had a case of muscle degeneration. And Celestia assumed it was not because of the armor, but instead, something that was made for him to fight it.
Now all the odd designs at his tailor shop made sense. They had been clothes for himself, to allow Silk to move normally, despite his condition. But neither of the alicorns felt pity. Because Silk did not deserve pity. He deserved admiration. Not because of how brave or strong he was, to fight with that condition, but instead, how well he fought in general.
“We should bury him here..” said Luna finally. “There should be a tombstone for him, or a memorial. He fought valiantly and well. Never before have I met someone of his caliber.”
“Well, we might have met one or two..” said Celestia with a sad smile, trying to lighten the mood a little. To allow herself to taste the victory they had wrung from Silk. “He really did go all out at the end. He barely had any blades left.. And they still did so much damage. Well, he did not suffer.”
Both remained silent, unsure of what to do, until a younger mare trotted up to them. She had to be around 20, or barely so, with a sullen, heartfelt expression. She joined the alicorn sisters and both looked rather surprised and confused. They had never seen this mare before.
“Ahem, I am sorry miss but.. What are you doing here?” asked Luna finally. She looked briefly to her sister, then to the mystery mare.
“Ah, I am sorry. I am his son’s marefriend. I was just checking on Silk, as he had not visited us for a few days in the trading post.” her voice trailed off, her eyes not leaving the dead body before her.
She was a pretty thing, with her amber coat and light brown mane, both well kempt. She might be the daughter of a trader or such. “I guess it was to be expected. We heard, that he was battling you two and well, we were rooting for him but.. You two are gods.” her head hung low and while the words were not said in an accusing way, they still stung.
“He fought better than anyone else.” Luna’s words caused the mare to smile faintly.
“I know. I saw the last bit. I also knew he was having fun. I liked the old fool. He made me my wedding dress, but I… I did not know him too well. Still, I know this will hit Cotton hard. While he and his old man did not see eye to eye, he loved his stupid father. Always making a fool of himself. Could barely speak right. But he went up and fought the gods.” A tear leaked down her eyes, but then she took a shaky breath and looked at Luna and Celestia with a somewhat level gaze.
“What will you do with us now? You practically won already, the cities in the south slowly stop supporting us and our money is running out. Silk here was basically the last thing keeping you from overrunning us entirely.” She was slightly afraid, but tried to stay strong.
Again, Luna and Celestia did not entirely know how to respond, or even how to feel. They felt something akin to guilt, but also resolve. This time it was Celestia who spoke up. “We will allow you to surrender. And even if not, those who do not fight us, will not be killed. Me and my sister, we are not gods. We are not hateful, revenge seeking creatures. We two used to be normal ponies too. Your father in law was a strong adversary, worthy of our respect. He showed us fairness, so we will show it to you just as much.” she put a hand on the mare’s shoulder and showed a motherly smile.
“We will remember Silk’s valiant efforts.”
_________________________________________________________________________
After all these years, Celestia was still not sure, if they couldn’t have found a better way. But in the end, it had been respectable of Silk and towards the stallion. Still, Celestia did not really like to remember the fight.
It had been a fair victory in the end. But not one she really liked to have in her books. Still, it had to be done. And to this day, she had kept a few things she learned from Silk. His brilliant combination of simple tasks. The prosthetic work that were still partly used to this day, to allow ponies with disabilities to move more freely.
Silk had, like many of the spellblades, shaped a little bit of Equestria. Just a little, just as the founder of the wonderbolts and the students of Starswirl did. His son had become a large trader, who bridged between the royal siblings, and the revolting merchants, in memory of his father’s respect for the two.
Her heart was still heavy. But in the end, she had taken a lot from the long battle against Silk. Something, that had helped her and Luna well, in the upcoming battles.
Celestia had paused a lot longer before the armor, than in front of the other Spellblades. But the next one was also an absurdity, in its own right. To this day, it was a mystery to Celestia. It was also the one that was practically best preserved.
And it was the one that had been studied the most. Though, that knowledge was also lost to her and again, her eyes darted to the book at the end of the row and she let out a soft sight. Still, soon her attention was cast back to the chain in front of her.
_________________________________________________________________________
Year 14, eight days since the longest night.
The war was at this point, practically over. In the end it had been a war, longer than both Celestia and anyone else, had hoped for. nearly 13 years of war. 13 years of her dear subjects suffering. It was horrible.
But the princess knew, it was necessary. It had to happen, lest everything fell apart, before she could even start to rule the land. Luckily however, despite the length, the victim count had been manageable. And the ponies now following her, were convinced of her and her cause.
Still, without Luna by her side, it would have been impossible. Not just because the night princess had done so much during the war, but Celestia could rely on her. Under all circumstances, Luna was by her side, when she needed her. Well, nearly always, but they were no gods. They were not omniscient.
And yet, she could not tell her sister, when her intensive search, brought up a rather bizarre rumor. The island of chaos. Apparently some of discords magic had still persisted, even after he was turned to stone, on an uninhabited island, down in the desert sea. Somewhere, far out to the southwest.
It was only a rumor, told by a few fishermen, about flying trees and rocks, clouds pulled to the ground, holes in the water and odd tubes of rock and water, winding through the sky. It was impossible, even discord, for all his shenanigans, rarely did something like that. Celestia assumed it was because it would resemble his own home, the chaos dimension, too much.
Still, the rumors, while at first completely ridiculous, was by now at least plausible. Now, being after a couple of encounters with the Spellblades wielded by the Spell Blades. She did not like to think that such a thing could actually exist. A weapon, to distort reality in such way. But she knew, that it was possible.
And if it was Discord’s magic.. it was a tough choice for her to make. For Luna had been rather deeply affected by the fight. Loss of flight and magic, distortion of her emotional state, fears and negativity shown to her, in cruel displays of her personal failure. It was something she could never fully forgive Discord for.
Still, she did not outright hate Discord, for she knew that deep down, it was simply his distorted nature, as well as the very foundation of his power, that caused him to take such a cruel route. Boredom, absolute power, lack of consequences, it would practically ruin every character. And despite all this, he never outright went to harm ponies. He did harm them, but his intentions were to play.
And so, even if it was not directly Discord, the sun princess still did not want to burden Luna with this. Neither did she involve her too deeply in her own theory, of the father of the Spell Blades being one and the same.
Those were simply things not too important. Or too bothersome, to share with her beloved sister. Which was, why she found herself flying alone over the ocean, after telling Luna that she was going to investigate a rumor about another spellblade.
In the worst case, she lied to her sister and just dealt with a little left over chaos magic. At best she told her the truth and she knew that all of the weapons, while incredibly strong, to the point where in their regards, they trumped the alicorns, eac and all had a flaw, a shortcoming, something to overcome.
The solution was often even rather simple. So, right now she felt cautious, but not overly paranoid about the possibility of a spellblade, as well as her ability to deal with it. Still, once the island did come into view, she was doubting herself once again.
The rumors had not been an exaggeration. No, they aired more on completely improper, for the true display of chaos, that spread before the alicorn.
It was as if someone took the sky, balled it up and then tore it apart, leaving it scattered over the island and in the air of it. The trees were apparently split apart and set out into the air, but they still looked alive, for all she could tell. Water ran upwards, or was practically frozen in the air.
Pillars of rock, dirt, giant blades of grass and more obscure shapes reached into the sky. Down from it dripped apparently melted pieces of cloud, rain and apparently the very air itself, with darker veils of night in the broad daylight. It was bizarre.
Closer and closer came the alicorn princess to the shores, where waves were dragging back and forth in random patterns, some seemed to be chained to the sand and vice versa, as waves of sand and rock cascaded back and forth from the ocean.
And yet, Celestia could not feel tremendous amounts of magic radiating from the island. Unlike with discord, who was an amalgamation of chaotic energies, clumped together and with a rather large quantity of it. Here? Nothing. Which gave her suspicion of it being a Spellblade a lot more credibility.
What she did feel, was a certain amount of life. It was difficult to tell, but it was something she had also noticed from the tails of Sparrow and Blackbird. The weapons felt nearly alive, yet not quite. And so similar to the ponies wielding them. Nearly indiscernible. And so it was here, with each anomaly having a sliver of something not quite recognisable, yet similar to life radiating from it. It was fascinating for the princess, so she investigated.
First came the oddly moving shores. Back and forth went one wave, but the crest was seemingly tied to the air. And as Celestia got closer, she saw a small, metallic object. It did not shine in the sun, as it was dull. But it was there and as Celesia drew close, she could also recognize it.
It was a ring. A simple, round ring. Too large to get put on a finger, but too small to be a bracelet. It was bizarre, but the ring simply hung in the air and held the tip of the wve, just as it was about to crash, locked into the air. A simple test and her magic slid right off. Oddly enough though, she could also not really affect the water, the closer it was to the ring and neither the air. It seemed the effect of the ring spread slightly into the material it was attached to.
It was on one side fascinating but also rather worrying. She did not quite dare to touch the ring, but instead she just noted it. Further on she went, finding more of the rings. Small, seemingly randomly strewn into the air, or laying on the ground.
Further on she flew through this chaotic garden. Though, one thing got to her. It was eerily silent. Even the sound of the waves had very quickly died behind her, leaving her in a rather uncomfortable state. Her wings barely made a sound and even the ground below her was warped in a way.
The island had to be rather small, as she had not found it on a single map. And it also did not appear that big, but the moment she entered it and saw just how absolutely wrong it was, that she felt sort of lost. The ocean should be just behind her, but behind her did not really feel clearly defined, if you suddenly found yourself flying upwards, along a sideway leaning tree, on which a few rocks stood in a tower.
Curiosity got the better of her and she landed near a spire, that came out of the ground and at it’s base she could find another ring. This one as large as the pillar. The same material, but apparently stretched thin. She prodded the pillar. It was solid, but in an odd way. Where she normally would get as much pressure back, equal to her own force. But this one felt off. As if it was not all there.
“Beauzifal, ishn’t its.” came it suddenly from behind Celestia. Sufficient to say, she was practically jumping into the air. Or downwards? Immediately her spear was beside her, floating in the air and she looked around for whoever had said that.
It was a mare, limply hanging from a ring, attached to the air. She was dangling slightly back and forth and her eyes were somewhat askew. Though, what made Celestia really stop was the fact, that she was apparently an alicorn.
Only, that that was impossible. She would have known if there had been another alicorn and this one did not feel like one either. Still, she was nearly completely covered in chains. Her eyes were purple and had a glow to them. Though, the iris also had the odd, off gray tint of the chains.
“Ah, shorre. Ai ofshen forhet shat ponjis ahr skitsh.” she said, her speech heavily impaired. Celestia was not even quite sure what she was saying. There was so much wrong with this mare. She still just dangled back and forth and was even rotating slowly, by now barely able to see Celestia.
The actual alicorn was more than wary of the weird pony, that hung in the air before her. Still, she was going to be polite. So far the pony had not shown hostility, the opposite, she had not attacked her from the back.
“Ah, no, it is quite alright. I should have paid more attention. It is also more me intru-”
“Shorre tuh inderrabt ju, Buht Ai am def.” interrupted the mare, as she finally turned enough to see Celestia talking. “juhr wordsh miehn nofin tuh me” She fiddled with her wings on one of the chainlinks. It was odd to see the wings act like fingers, or hands. Finally they simply undid one of the links, the others molding back together.
“Heer. puht jish aroun juhr neck.” she continued and held the ring roughly in Celestia’s direction, with it growing in size. Celestia was not quite sure what to do with it. It could be a trick, but why should it? She hesitated. She could not use her magic, to fight this. It could simply kill her.
Suddenly though, the decision was taken from her, as the ring was simply lifted into the air and then slipped over her head, faster than she could react, so deep in thought. Panic threatened to overtake her, but as the metal just laid against her neck, causing her mane to turn pink and nothing more she calmed a little.
“That was rude” she said with a frown, before remembering that the other mare was deaf. To her surprise though, the mare seemed to know what was said, as she responded.
“Oh, shorreh. Ai jusht thogh juh had prohblehmsh puhtin it ohn.” came the sheepish sounding response, as she rubbed the back of her head, the chainlinks accidentally hooking into another. She struggled briefly, but then freed herself, the chains rattling, as she dropped from the air, only for her wings to spread and apparently hook into the air itself, with the chains grasping into the air.
It was bizarre to watch, as the mare slowly grasped into the air with her hand like wings, which just moved wrong and then pulled herself upwards. Or, well, roughly upwards. She was moving perpendicular to another pillar around.
“Dahr. Ahlwesh jeesh shtupihd litel finhers” she seemd annoyed, as she crawled her way back up, veering off course more and more, until she apparently found another line to orientate herself on and thus changed course. “Shorreh, shorreh. Ai haf no eehrs. Sho Ai dohnd haf a shens of balanz.” she explained as she finally hung before Celestia.
Her body was limp. But at least now she was no longer spinning around. It still made Celestia incredibly uncomfortable and she was not quite sure how to interact with the mare. She was far out of her element, in a place, that felt so alien, with a mare, that looked just as out of place.
“That is quite alright.” Her voice sounded awkward, even to herself, so she cleared her throat and regained her composure. “I fear introductions have been skipped. I am princess Celestia. I am the co ruler of Equestria, with my-”
“Noh, juh ahre nawt.” came the interruption once more from the mare. “Noh oan ruhles Ehqwestriha. Sere ish noh reehl Ehqwestriha. Iht ahl ish nofin. Iht ish ahl enty. Ahl is enty.” her eyes got a sullen look, staring right through Celestia it seemed, sending a shiver down her spine. She was not quite sure, what the mare was talking about.
The silence was absolute and hung between them like the mare and just as Celestia was about to speak, the mare looked directly at her, with both eyes and a wicked smile spread over her face.
“Iht ish bootefuhl. Soh mutch pohzencial.” she landed on the tree below her and kicked it. it made a metallic sound, for whatever reason and rippled like water. “Juh juhsht neeht to fihl je void” She giggled slightly and then held a ring towards Celestia. “Puht iht ohn, brimchess. Leht mih jow juh je void.”