A Death March To The Fall Of Equestria

Sitting at a desk, Satou is looking through scrolls and magic books from Dainn. Most of the scrolls offer very little terms of usefulness. Ignite is one of them, a spell that creates a single small flame hovering at the tip of his finger. There’s also one with a hovering ball of light and another creating a small gust of wind.

At the moment; he’s reading a scroll about Caribou history back in their home country. One scroll has a subject on a giant, strange hourglass-shape with a dragon surrounding it. By how few sentences it has; they don’t know what it even is and just guess captions written in caribou language for script. There’s a note of a rewrite of what they said into a strangely familiar language, English.

‘I wonder when someone actually went to translate this and why?’ Satou thought, then read some of the notes. “Dragon Hourglass. Used to measure the time until a wave starts in the area.” Satou rolls it back up then places it back into his bag.

Moving on to the next scroll but stops as he notices one scroll having a stamped seal made of some wax.

Carefully removing the seal, Satou unrolls it to see strangely written; not in Caribou Script like the others; but in poorly written English. He tries to carefully read what was written. ‘Satou. Visit when you can... Need you to do something... Dainn… Okay one: Who taught him to write English? And two… Why did he write a message to me in English in the first place? He must know I can read the script on the scrolls to learn from them after all.’

Shaking his head at this, rolling it back up. “I suppose I’ll need to visit him soon for whatever he needs me to do for him.” Satou mutters.

Turning his head to look behind, his eyes glancing at Glacier; him still sleeping. The young kid quietly shuffles under the covers a few times, his head turning in fear.

Satou shook his head at this before slowly standing up, walking to the side of the bed. Sitting next to him, heard Glacier muttering in his sleep. “... P-please stop... Leave me alone! S-Stop!”

‘He must be having a flashback to where he was before.’ Satou thought.

Glacier’s eyes snap open, his body shot upright. Screaming out in fear as his body shivers, tears streaming down his cheeks. Satou carefully wraps his arms around the crying child when he sits up, holding him in his arms while using one hand to rub the back of the child's head.

“Don’t worry Glacier, I’m here. They can’t hurt you.” Satou says in reasurance, lifting Glacier from the covers; resting the young lizard kid in his arms, trying to calm him down.

This held up for a while, Satou slowly rubbing his head while whispering calm words to him.

After a few minutes of reassuring Glacier, Satou looks at the young lizard child. “Anything you need?”

“... N-No I’m fine.” Glacier thinks, the child’s stomach rumbles. “Umm… maybe something to eat and drink.”

“I think we can handle that.” Satou replies. He opens up a voice chat with Eliza only to see a message saying: (EZ-004: Offline, two hours ago)

“... Or maybe we’ll handle it later.” Satou says with a shake of his head. “For now; I think we need to get you cleaned up a bit.”

“... W-What do you mean?” Glacier asks nervously at Satou.

“Your entire body is covered in dust, dirt and who knows what else. So you need a bath.” Satou says as he stands up then heads towards the bathroom, still carrying Glacier in his arms.

“A bath? ... What's a bath?” Glacier asks in confusion.

“And that explains a lot.” Satou says with a sigh. “Let’s just say, it will allow me to get you clean.” Carrying Glacier into the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

Half an hour later, Satou steps out while carrying a wrapped up Glacier in a towel. The lizard kid scales are now clean; the gaps between the scales now barely visible in comparison to the dirt from earlier.

“Was that so bad?” Satou asks while Glacier rests his head on Satou’s chest.

“... N-No it wasn’t… It still felt... weird.” Glacier says nervously.

“How did you even wash yourselves before?” Satou asks.

“We swam in a lake... and that did it.”

“Aren’t they all frozen most of the time?” Satou asks.

“Y-yeah… we may have only been able to wash ourselves properly once a year, and that was only when the ice melted enough.”

“That explains all the dirt on you all.” Satou mutters to himself. He sat down on the bed before placing Glacier on his lap.

There was a short moment of silence. The young, lizard child just looks down; not knowing what to say or ask. Satou; however, remembered something from earlier. “Now. Do you still want something to eat?” Just then; Glacier stomach rumbles, the young child looks up at Satou nervously. “I take that as a yes?” Glacier nods as he slowly gets off Satou; standing a few feet away.

“... A-am I-I going to have to wear those weird things?” Glacier points at the clothes Satou’s wearing.

“That may be for the best.” Satou nods at that.

“... Then… c-can you help me?” Glacier asks while looking at Satou, a look of embarrassment forming on his face.

“You sure?” Satou asks. With Glacier nodding his head back to him Satou walks over to some clean clothes he placed on the side before sitting on the bed again, Glacier went to sit next to him. Satou starts assisting Glacier in getting into his somewhat new clothes.

“This isn't going to become a daily occurrence is it?” Satou asks Glacier.

“... M-maybe for a bit...” Glacier mutters.

“If you do ask. I don’t see why not.” Satou says as he smiles. “So, shall we get going?”

Glacier is unsure at first but then nods in response. He stood back up before walking next to Satou as they both left the room and made their way to the kitchen.

As the duo reach the kitchen they look inside, finding both Eliza, Marble and Froststorm. Eliza and Marble are sitting at the table; the android woman looks through a clipboard while Marble seems to be dozing in and out of sleep. Frostorm standing near the counter trying to make something from some ingredients.

The young lizard kid got nervous at seeing them. “... Um… Are they okay?” Glacier asks, tightening his grip on Satou’s hand as he looks at Froststorm.

“They’re all fine. None of them will hurt you.” Satou reassures him with a calm tone.

“... P-promise?” The young lizard looks up at Satou nervously.

“Yeah; I do.” Satou answers. With somewhat reassurance; Glacier’s grip lessens a bit as Satou leads Glacier to the group table. Once they get closer to the group they wait for a second for any response.

Seeing that they weren't reacting to their entrance; Satou calmly spoke up. “Are you all doing okay?”

Eliza looks from the clipboard in her hand to look at the duo but goes back to her clipboard. Marble; however; her head hits the table that got Eliza’s attention. The mare is sleeping gently as her arms move to rest her head on.

“I feel like she needs to get a bit more sleep at night.” Satou admits as he looks at Eliza.

“She’s done her work during the day, chances of her working overtime aren't high. Especially that they aren’t really getting paid for their work with the whole “Females are slaves” going on.” The young android woman says as she places her clipboard on the table before looking at Satou and Glacier. “So I don’t know why she’s tired.” She thought for a moment and shook her head. “Anyways. I guess the young one is finally awake I see.” Eliza looks at Glacier.

“I-I-I hope I wasn't too much trouble...” Glacier says, looking down at the ground.

“Not at all.” Eliza shook her head before giving him a gentle smile. “How are you by the way? Are you feeling better?”

“M-mostly. I-I’m not in pain anymore… I th-think...” Glacier admits somewhat as he tightens his grip on Satou’s hand.

“That’s good to hear.” The android girl looks up at Satou. “So; what are you here for? Food? Or were you looking for someone?”

“Well yes to the food; but not for me.” Satou gestures to Glacier. “He woke up and he needed something to eat.”

“Oh, well…” Eliza looks over to Marble sleeping form. Seeing that she’s asleep; the android stands up from her seat before heading to the kitchen part of the room. “What would you like to eat, kid?”

“Umm… What do you have?” Glacier asks nervously as he looks towards Eliza.

“We have crystal fruits of some varieties… Enough ingredients for pancakes… Can you give me something to go with and I’ll tell you if I can make it or not?”

“Uh… I-I don’t know what I want.” Glacier nervously says as he rubs his arm.

“Tell you what;” Eliza starts to say as she walks up to him, crouching down to eye level. “How about I choose what to make this one time and next time you might have an answer. How’s that sound?” She asks kindly.

“Uh-um,T-thank you M-Miss.” Glacier mutters, stutters as he did. Eliza leaning in and gives his forehead a soft kiss; surprising Glacier. He recoils back before hiding behind Satou’s leg, pulling the cords on his jacket tight as they cover his blushing face.

“I think the little hatchling is uncomfortable with people touching him that way.” Froststorm spoke after seeing what happened with a chuckle.

Eliza stood back up, giggling at the lizard child reaction. “I’m sorry Glacier. Hope I didn’t scare you?”

“... N-No you didn’t.” Glacier mutters, still behind Satou as he keeps his face hidden from Eliza. Holding onto Satou’s leg as close as possible.

Sighing in relief, Eliza heads to the kitchen to prepare Glacier food. As soon as Eliza was no longer looking at Glacier; he let go of his grip from Satou before walking ahead of him. Slowly looking up towards Satou, a blush still visible on his face as he looks at him.

“Do you want a lift?” Satou asks as he looks down only to get a nod from Glacier.

Satou lifts Glacier up into his arms, allowing the young child to rest his head on Satou’s shoulder before Glacier pushes his head against Satou's shoulder, hiding his face from view.

“T-thank you...” Glacier mutters back before slowly turning his head to rest his head onto Satou’s shoulder and against the neck.

“No problem.” Satou says, then rub the back of Glaicer’s neck as he moves to sit at the table while carrying Glacier in his arms.

‘Why did she do that? ... It felt... weird.’ Glacier thought, mumbling to himself under his breath as he began to shake slightly, his blush grew brighter.

Ten minute later; Eliza came back with a plate that had two pancakes, a glass of crystal apple juice, and two cookies. Placing it in front of Glacier on the table. “Here you go. Some pancakes, cookies and some crystal apple juice.” Glacier slowly pulls his head back upon hearing Eliza’s voice then slowly turns to look at her, his blush having faded during the time he had been waiting. As soon as he sees the food place in front of him, Satou lowers him to sit on the seat next to him.

“... A-are you s-s-sure I’m okay to have a-all this?” Glacier nervously asks as he looks at Eliza; still trying to hide his face as he did.

“It’s alright dear. Go ahead… Do you know table manners?” Eliza asks him, making sure if Glacier can.

“Table- what now?” Glacier asks while tilting his head to the side in confusion. “Can’t I just cut it up with my claws or just stuff it all down at once?”

Eliza explains the basics about table manners, making sure she uses words he might understand. Glacier however just looks back at her with the same look of confusion. He did try to reach his food, only to find the table being too high up for him to reach.

“Um… C-Could you help me?” Glacier asks as he looks back at Satou, giving off a nervous chuckle as he did.

“Sure.” Satou responds, moving his legs together for Glacier to sit on. Carefully moving Glacier back onto his knees; allowing him to sit a bit higher as he moves the food in front of them.

“... Um… Thank you.” Glacier says in appreciation before nervously reaching towards the food. Grabbing one of the cookies in his claws, the second it was in his mouth that he froze for a moment before quickly chewing the cookie until there's none of it left. He reaches for the pancakes and stuffs them into his mouth, tears running down his face.

“Maybe we’ll work on his table manners another time?” Satou suggests, looking at Eliza who giggles at this.

“Maybe. We’ll let him relish this for now.” Eliza says as she returns to her seat to get back to her list.

“That might be a good idea.” Satou agrees with a nod of his head. “So… How have things been for you and everyone else here?”

“It’s alright; I guess.” Eliza says.

“Why; “I guess”? Is something a matter?”

“It’s a private matter, Satou. Now;” She got out of her seat with a clipboard in hand. “-do you need me for anything?”

“Not at this moment.” Satou admits as he observes Glacier who almost finishes his food with most being in his mouth.

“Then I’ll take my leave.” With that Eliza heads out of the room.

Glacier swallows the food in his mouth. “Are things always this weird between you two?” Glacier asks.

“Not always...” Satou rubs the top of Glacier's head then reaches for a napkin on the table. “But maybe we should get you cleaned up a bit okay?”

“O-okay.” Glacier replies; nervous chuckle as Satou carefully cleans the remaining food off Glacier’s face.

“That's better.” Satou says with a kind smile. After that he looks around the room before shaking his head. “I guess I’d better go see what Dainn wants from me.”

Hearing this; Glacier hesitates on drinking the rest of his juice. “... You’ll come back... Right?”

Satou simply rubs Glacier's head. “I’ll be back before the end of the day. So don’t worry, okay.”

“Oh o-okay.” Glacier mutters.

“Still; it may be best to have someone show you around your new home… Maybe I should have asked Eliza, if she could have done that.”

“That might have been a good idea, Master.” A voice response from behind him. Satou turns his head to find Frostine standing behind him.

“And here I thought you’d have come running before we even got out of here.” Satou says with a smirk as he turns to face Frostine.

“I would have been… but let's just say a certain guard needs to be taught a lesson.” Frostine says.

“Garret?”

“Pretty much.” Frostine says back with a smile.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Satou shook his head. “I’ll need to deal with it later.” Looking back to Frostine. “Anyway, I’m sorry to drop this on you but would you be able to show your brother around for me? I’ve got to have a meeting with Dainn.” Satou asks.

“How soon, Master?” Frostine asks as he stands beside him while Glacier is trying to look away, pulling his hood down over his eyes.

“I believe the term; “sooner rather than later” would be best.”

“Do you know what the meeting is about?” Frostine asks as she sits on an empty chair beside Satou.

“Well; we’re not scheduled for any training session today; to my knowledge, or any of the other things he’d asked me to do for that matter. So I don’t actually know why he needs me.” Satou thought out loud as Glacier carefully climbed off Satou’s lap then stood beside Frostine as Satou got up as well.

“So it could be anything?” Frostine question.

“Pretty much.” Satou says with a smile. “Hopefully it’s not something beyond what I can deal with.”

“I doubt it will be anything too strenuous.” Frostine says as Glacier grabs her hand, she smiles and goes to lift him up into her arms. “And don’t worry about us two. I’ll make sure he knows this place as well as I do before you get back.”

“I’ll hold you to that one...” Just as Satou was about to turn towards the door; he spoke up again. “And Glacier.”

“Y-yes.”

“Don’t cause her too much trouble.”

“I-I won’t. I promise.” Glacier says with a nervous chuckle.

“He couldn’t cause me any problems even if he tries.” Frostine retorts as she rubs the top of his head.

“We’ll see.” Satou says as he turns to the entrance and walks out the room, waving back to them as he did.

Half an hour after he left his home, Satou arrived at the door to the castle. The guards bow their heads before letting him pass with another one leading him through the castle. As he walks in the main hallway to the throne room; he sees only a small line waiting to see Dainn.

“I know you waited last time but Dainn wants to see you as soon as he can.” The guard explains as both walk past the line, sounds of annoyed groans coming from them as they pass them.

When they reach the door; the two guards waiting in front of it quickly turn around; pushing the door open before letting Satou and the guiding guard walk in. When they walk through; the door closes behind them.

As soon as he was inside; he saw Diann sitting on his throne chair, looking down at both a stallion and the mare. The mare’s body was covered in large wounds, her limbs bruised and swollen, in addition; what looks to be her right ear missing.

‘What in god's name happened to her?’ Satou thought.

‘I will make the assumption that that stallion standing over her has something to do with it.’ Enkvaros suggests.

‘I generally hope that is not the case.’ Satou hopes as he listens in to the conversation, seeing Diann's fist constantly clench at his side as he listens to the stallion with Sombra sitting beside him while hiding his fist from sight.

‘Wait… Isn’t that the mare one of the castle maids?’ Enkvaros asks.

‘Actually I think you're right, wasn’t she cleaning some of the rooms in the castle two days ago?’ Satou says in realization as he sees the blue collar around the mare's neck. He waits in silence.

After a minute of the stallion talking; he was uninterrupt by Dainn who shook his head before saying. “Let me get this straight. You are saying that this mare tries to run away from you?”

“Yes, she did; my king.” The stallion answers.

“So this mare who was working ran away from you, and you did this to her?”

“Yes.”

“A Blue collared mare who was working in my castle, ran away to continue with her job and you heavily injured her.”

“Y-yes.” The stallion says, his eyes darting down to the mare's collar as he realizes exactly where he stood.

“So… Is she your mare?”

“N-no.” The stallion says, his eyes widened in fear.

“I see.” Dainn says with a glare. He nods at two guards; one being a caribou and the other a stallion; walks up behind the stallion who is then forced down to the floor by both guards. “Your actions towards this mare will have repercussions that will cause many problems for me.”

Dainn looks at the mare again before noticing Satou. “Satou. Sorry to have to ask but can you help the poor mare as best as you can?”

“Of course.” Satou answers. Walking over to the injured mare, finding the stallion still gripping a leash tied to her collar. He stomps on the stallion's wrist who cries out in pain, releasing the leash. Satou took the leash, leading the mare to the side; away from sight.

‘She is not in good shape right now.’Satou thought to himself while looking over the mare. Finding not only injuries but also her having one black eye and the other was barely able to be opened.

“She’ll probably need someone to take a proper look at her injuries.” The guard standing beside Satou whispers as he looks from the mare to Satou.

“Wait… you actually care about her current state?” Satou asks in a hush tone.

“You know how the king is. You really think every guard under him is like everyone else you see?” The guard points out.

“I would say from what I keep seeing. I thought that was the case.” Satou admits, the mare looks up at them fearfully.

“Maybe we should help her instead of leaving her in this state?” The guard gets them back to the situation at hand.

“I think that was kinda the reason why the king asked us to do something.” Satou says before holding out his hand, the mare recoiling again before Satou whispers; “Aqua heal” as the familiar droplet of water drops onto the mare's head, causing some of the open wounds to heal; though there are still signs of a few bruises on her.

“Is that all you can do?”

“I’m not some miracle worker. I can only do so much with what I have.” Satou says, looking back at the guard. “I can only close her wounds, but the rest is beyond me right now.”

“So she’ll need a normal doctor for the rest?” The stallion guard asks, looking from the mare to Satou.

“Pretty much.”

“Well; once the king is done with him, I’ll get her to a doctor…. A sane doctor.” The guard adds for better clarification.

Satou pauses for a sec. “There are ‘sane’ doctors?”

“Believe it or not… there is one in the entirety of the empire.”

“That's one more than I expected.”

“That's what I said when the king suggested this one to me.” The guard points out.

“Wait. Dainn suggested the doctor you use for things like this?”

“Yes he did… how else do you think we can get the maids that work here treated safely?” The guard asks which Satou just nods back. They listen to Dainn who’s dealing with the stallion in front of him.

As soon as Dainn finishes shouting at the stallion; one of the two guards releases the bound stallion. The other now pushing him down, holding his head against the floor with one hand as he knelt on the stallions back, as the second reach into a pocket at his side and pulls out a small syringe filled with some bright pink glowing liquid which he lowers towards the stallions neck before injecting it into him, causing the stallion to thrash about on the floor, screaming the entire time before stopping. After that they drag him out of the room.

As soon as the two guards had left; the door closed behind them. Dainn looks back at Satou and the stallion who both were walking back into view. “Private Sentry. Could you do me a favour and take care of the mare... You know where to go.”

“Of course my king.” The guard bows his head before helping the mare up and both leaving the room.

For a moment silence; the place giving off a feeling of awkwardness.

Diann decides to speak first. “So… Are we having an awkward conversation and standing in silence in an attempt to avoid talking about what you just saw?” Dainn asks as he looks at Satou who is looking back as well.

“All I saw was some stallion being injected with something and getting dragged out.” Satou replies.

“Let's not mention what that was.” Dainn quickly says. Satou; however, gave a questioning glance. Dainn sighs in response. “You're not going to drop the question are you?”

“Not likely.” Satou responds with a smirk.

“Okay then.” Dainn says with a shake of his head. “It was some kind of experimental drug some of the ponies were working on. They claim that if it was injected into a male; it could change their gender but I’ve seen no evidence of that.”

Satou was going to say something but thought this through first. ‘Could that have been what they used on that Caribou that was turned into a female in my house?’ He looks back at Dainn before saying. “What tests have been done with that drug?”

“From what I have been told there was only a single test on a live subject before what you just saw.” Dainn admits. “But I don’t know the specifics of the test beyond; they don’t have the subject of it anymore and won’t disclose what happened to them.”

‘So chances are it was the same drug that they used.’ Satou thought to himself before shaking his head and looking back at Dainn. “Anyway, back onto the topic at hand. Why did you need me to come in? Has something gone wrong?”

“Well, we aren’t actually sure.” Dainn says as he stands up. “Since the latest wave, we have had no contact from the guards that were stationed on the border between us and Equestria.”

“Wait… Equestria is the country that borders ours?”

“Yes… Did you not know that it was?” Dainn asks.

“No. I don’t actually know much about anything beyond the empire and the areas I’ve visited before now.” Satou says. “I should probably get a look at a large map and learn more about the world beyond what I know.”

“Well I guess the task I called you for will help with what you need to learn then.” Dainn says with a chuckle. “I would like for you to head towards the border we have with Equestria and find out why we have no contact with them since the last wave.”

“Okay, two things…” Satou began to say but Dainn cut him off.

“We do have a map of the empire you can use to find the border and navigate across the empire and reach it.” Dainn reassures as Sombra walks towards him, handing him a rolled up piece of parchment. “Also on the map are a few small towns in the empire that I am aware of and a few you’ll want to avoid.”

“Why would I need to avoid some of them?” Satou asks, looking at Dainn in confusion.

“They are filled with Caribou that came here with me but decided to do what they wanted which includes attacking smaller settlements and kidnapping females from them, killing the inhabitants, looting the place or just simply going to… “indulge” them themselves and terrify those living there.” Dainn explains.

“So in other words they are the ones who give you all a bad name?”

“No… most of my kind do that ourselves.” Dainn adds with a dismissive wave. “But almost all of those groups are the ones who will likely start a war sooner or later to get more mares to abuse.”

“In other words, you think they will cross the border and start raiding Equestria for mares and cause problems here because of it.”

“Yes… I’m hoping they didn’t do something at the border. With that being the reason we’ve had no contact with them, if anyone from Equestria came to the border and they had control of it, anything we try to do will mean nothing.”

“First impressions are a hard thing to change after they’ve been made.”

“And ours is already bad enough, even if we didn’t cause it; considering their princess and prince that were here are in the cells under the castle.” Dainn theorized. “I still can’t understand why the entire empire turned on them even before we arrived here.”

“Wait… that wasn’t done by you?” Satou asks.

“Well… considering almost every civilian wanted their heads for some reason, that was the only way I could stop the rioting and save them both.” Dainn admits.

“So… the empire rose up against the former leaders as you arrived in the empire. If so; how did you come to lead it?”

“None of the others wanted to lead, and the Caribou who still cared about royal succession wanted me to lead them and those living here simply took it as an easy way out and put me in charge.”

“Well, at least you were able to avoid having to kill the former leaders because of it. I can’t imagine whoever rules Equestria would be happy if that wasn’t the case.”

“And I doubt they are happy about someone they didn’t put in charge running the empire either.” Dainn replies. “The former princess was one of their leader's nieces… So I technically currently have at least one member of the Equestrian royal family as a prisoner which is not a good thing if they ever visit here.”

“At some point, you will need to do something with them both, if you keep them like that and the leaders of this Equestria place find out it will not end well.” Satou points out.

“I know… but if I just release them to the public that could cause more harm than good if the original stance by the ponies that were here before us is anything to go by and sending them across the border to Equestria will spell trouble here.” Dainn says. “There was something the scientists were talking about trying on the prince behind my back though.”

“Do you have any idea what they are planning to do to him?” Satou asks.

“They said something about a test based on the effect of the Crystal Cock on the male genome under constant close contact.”

“So, if what you heard is correct, then they want to use him as a test subject in some sort of experiment, to see if it could be possible to force a drastic change on someone who is unwilling to see females as anything less than objects.” Satou questions about his theory.

“I think it may be part of what they want to achieve, but I can’t be sure if that is the aim or not.” Dainn responds.

‘If it is what they want; that puts Shining Armour in a lot of trouble, but if that is the case, where does Cadence stand?’ Satou thought to himself.

“It’s only a matter of time till they try something on the princess, and if that happens we are in real trouble in the future.” Dainn admits as he walks towards Satou, holding a second rolled up piece of parchment in his hand which he hands it to Satou before leaning in and whispers. “Do not let what is on that get seen by anyone else beyond yourself.”

“What even is this?”

“I’ll leave you to decide what to do with it and I won’t say any more.” Dainn says vaguely. “As for the trip to the border, I would recommend stocking up on any supplies you could need for the trip today and start to leave early tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you for your suggestion. I will try to get myself prepared for the journey and head off tomorrow morning at the latest.” Satou says with a smile and turns to leave.

“Oh and before I forget, if you need it and; I doubt you do; you can ‘acquire’ some spare weapons. Weapons in case you need them, not sure what state yours are in right now.” Dainn brings up with a smirk.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” With that; Satou turns back to Dainn, bowing his head before leaving the castle and heading into the town.