Chapters The sun had just risen, marking the beginning of a new day upon the realm. The lord of the land was awake. He had not slept for years. His immeasurable power energized and sustained him; it would have been pointless for him to sleep, to enter a state of such vulnerability, needlessly inviting harm upon himself. Not that any being would have been able to stand its ground against his might. Nor would have any creature dared approach his cavern.
The lair was dug below the ground, but it was not hidden - a heavy rock formation, resembling the master of the nest, signaled what lay beneath. The giant, artificial ram skull was visible from many miles away. It was his will. The location was chosen by him: the middle of a collection of enormous swamp-fields. A fitting environment, mirroring the barrenness of his solitary soul.
Inside the tainted sanctuary, he would observe the happenings in his domain most of the time: the everyday struggle of ponykind - against the hardships of life, weather but above all: monsters.
Bestial abominations, living to spread misery and wretchedness.
Hideous hybrids, whose mere goal was to bear horror among this star-crossed people.
Sick and perverse mongrels, their predestination being to keep the population dreaded, never letting them know if they would survive the night, and live to see one more sunrise.
Vitiated and blended medleys, who were designed to amuse the one who was able to rejoice in their deeds.
His children...
The treacherous one's very conquest and rise to power had been carried out at the expense of these instruments of insolent and boundless abuse of magic. After he'd let the ones who fed on disharmony off their chains, and unleashed them on his required country, allowing them to run wild and untamed, he'd set out to have a taste in the luscious relish of Creation. He'd wished to transcend nature. And so he had done.
Having seen the most bloodthirsty brutes the land had offered, he'd averted his visage in genuine, deep, abhorrent disgust. This letdown had not gone unremembered. His previous belief had only been supported by the perceived betrayal - that nature was dysfunctional. It needed to be surpassed. Assembling the least unworthy creatures of the region - lions, tigers, snakes, serpents, bulls - as well as others, he twisted their forms, combined their bodies. Such creation was the manticore, the chimera, the cockatrice, the ophiotaurus and the bugbear.
For generations his marauders had scoured the lands, ravaged the dwellers' fields and crops; the inhabitants' reward for their tireless labor, and gone after living prey as well...
His children were to be proud of: heralds of his self-proclaimed eternal divinity, evangelizing the unquestioned reign of terror. However, at the moment he was creating something else. It was out of a somewhat filial curiosity. This time there weren't any components in play. From bare nothing, he wanted to make new life. A new race. He foresaw the rise of an unprecedented species. A whole army of them. Or rather, thousands of armies. In his mind's eye, he envisioned war. Not raids and skirmishes, like the ones carried out by the monsters. The warriors would wage war, and then he would see what the ponies were made of.
Oh, the pitiable! The complete and pure disdain, the sheer and utter contempt he felt for the beings that had come to be his fearful subjects on the earth burned from his soul like an unrestrained inferno. Three tribes, all underdeveloped, who knew nothing of the world, but lived in the most magical terrain he'd seen... and they were farmers, mastering pastures and meadows.
The only noticeable achievement was of the Pegasi, who'd managed to build a city in the clouds. Obviously, intent on evading the monsters. A fool's errand. This laughable endeavor did not hold the airborne beasts back.
It weren't the Pegasi he'd thought were destined for greatness, though. The unicorns possessed a natural connection to magic, that was present in every one of them. They were just like what his people had been. Only, he'd had to realize they would never be able to be as powerful as his people. They were at the beginning of it all, they'd just started to comprehend what magic was, compared to his vast knowledge of sorcery. After all, what did they do with their magic? Cast spells to... grow corn? What a waste! The unicorns he loathed deeply, for their squandering of their potential. He'd thought of provoking them. Making them grow. To see if they'd adapt.
The ponies he despised even more were the earth ponies. As their name suggested, they were ponies bound to the earth. No special talents whatsoever. The unicorns had their magic - however slack - the Pegasi had their wings and the ability to control the weather. The earth ponies were the freaks of nature, a disgrace and an insult to the order of things. The inferiors were still backward. The unicorns lived in castles, with wide acres attached to them; most Pegasi lived in Cloudsdale, with some still living on the ground, taking care of their source of food. There was nothing in the sky they could eat, after all. And the detestable earth ponies had stuck to living in villages, in dispersion, to that day. The magic of the land pervaded them too though, and gave them the "talent" of immense physical strength. Still, the strength of the flesh was insignificant, compared to magic.
There were earth ponies in the frozen north, whose coats were shiny, like crystals. They lived in igloos. Grogar didn't need to do much to set them back. They occasionally froze to death in their own homes.
The ponies, therefore, were not mighty, as one would have expected. But conflict sharpens tenacity. True conflict. In time, ponies had proven to be able to effectively defend themselves from his creations. What if they were to face a bigger challenge? Would they excel in battle? It was impossible to say. And that was why Grogar experimented. To create the craziest of conditions, and see how the participants would react and fare.
The egg was ready. It cracked a few times, then came loose. The creation that crawled out of it was a larva. She opened her compound eyes and looked at her maker. Her forehead had a horn on it, and her black head, that varied from her white body, was roughly pony-like. All in accordance with his design.
Grogar smiled, "Welcome, little one."
Nopony could have accused unicorns of laziness. They had never been lazy folks. The giftedness that nature blessed them with had always urged them to research and seek to understand that enigmatic force. They had been ever eager to explore the powerful secrets, and although they'd never known, their magical capabilities had placed them above the other tribes advancement-wise. While the earth ponies' incredible bodily stamina helped them harvest significantly more effectively, and the Pegasi had the advantage of weather-control on their side, nothing could cope with the massive benefit, that made rapid-growth of plants possible, and could revive withered ones, among other miracles. The yearly amount of garnered crops at the unicorns roughly equaled that of the two tribes combined.
Farming was no easy task, however, even with the marvelous abilities at their disposal. The soils were encompassed by a well-developed water-course that needed constant maintenance, lest it caused a flood. The water in the ditch was redirected from a nearby river. The unicorns no longer took their drinking water from the river, they'd found out the water provided by wells was much cleaner, but water taken from the river was perfect for the plants.
Each of the fields was divided into separate sections, with one section serving as waste ground. There were ponies forming groups with different tasks: there was a team of Tillers, consisting of strong ponies who plowed the fields, and there were the Healers, who used their skills to reinstate dead plants and help rest the dirt of the fallow. There were workers managing water- and windmills, who used magic to rotate the wheels if the waft or the flow wasn't strong enough.
The river overflew time to time, uncovering fertile sludge. They used manure for the soil that high water did not touch. The manure was artificial, of course. Having it otherwise would've been far too barbarian. Most of the poaceae they grew were either oats or barley, with the latter needing milling and soaking for them to be digestible. Managing it all required sedulity principally, but first and foremost: administration. And unicorns were great at administrating things. One of the most trustworthy of those administrators was named Gusty.
Gusty had pale white coat. Her mane and tail were dark green, with bright red stripes decorating them. Her turquoise eyes beamed of compassion and serenity, but that wasn't to say she couldn't be harsh or unrelenting, formerly even reckless. But she'd had to learn that foolhardiness was the style of a solo player, not a leader with responsibilities and obligation to her soldiers.
For she was one of the few superior officers in the Royal Unicorn Legion. Maintaining an army may have seemed like pointless to some, but aside from the dreaded monsters, the threat of conflict was never nonexistent, unfortunately. Separatist dissidents, who'd risen up against the monarchy years before were still out there. Not to mention the alien creatures at the borderlands: the diamond dogs and the minotaurs.
The cutie mark she bore consisted of five maple leaves, representing her unique ability, which her name reflected: she had the winds at her command. To possess control over an element was something unicorns had seldom seen before, though it did come in handy while heading a mission, and things were about to be in jeopardy. Heck, a lot of the ponies she knew owed their lives to her, in one way or another.
When she wasn't being gallant or leading an army, she was most likely overseeing the growth-process and the harvests, making sure everything was done on schedule, though. It was kind of boring, but it had to be done, and she wasn't one to snivel anyway.
"Gusty!" She heard her name called. She looked in the direction the voice came from. It was Astral Vortex, her close friend.
She smiled at him as he approached, "Hey there!" Her smile faded at the sight of Astral's serious expression.
"What is it?" she asked.
"The manticores are back," he said. "They attacked the workers out in the field last night. Damaged the crop too."
"Is everypony all right?"
"N-no. Two dead, several injured."
Gusty looked down in dolor. As a commander, she had witnessed plenty of heart-wrenching scenes, and she'd grieved every one of her heroes, but when the defenseless and the unarmed fell victim to violence, that was different.
"And we thought we'd finally repelled them. But they don't go away for good. They never do. They weren't designed to." She looked into the distance furiously.
"You're right about that," said Astral. "But there's good news too. The garnering was fairly efficient. Our amount this season was -" he looked at his jottings levitated by his azureish gray magic aura, and scribbled something for a moment "- about one hundred and twenty thousand pounds."
"That's... actually pretty reasonable. Well, considering the drought." A pondering look appeared on her face as she muttered, "I wonder if he 's causing it."
"Pardon?"
"Oh, nothing! Good job, Astral! Thank you for the report."
She continued her tracks through the many orchards, vegetable gardens and cornfields connected to Hornfort, royal headquarters of King Taxis. Once she was finished, she had to give a report to the ruler of the unicorns.
Hornfort was magnificent; paramount among the unicorn castles. The castle walls were divided into segments by eight compelling bastions. The gates were guarded by two sizable unicorn statues; a mare and a stallion. Inside the walls, the palace had four lesser towers and a bigger one in the center. The banner of the unicorn nation was parading atop.
Entering the planning room, the guards saluted her. Gusty was told she'd find the king there. He rarely resorted to spending time in his throne room; he was too modest for that. He preferred the quiet privacy of his little "study" over the empty vastness, home of depersonalized drivel, hackneyed phrases and trite banalities. It wasn't that he didn't want to lead, he just hated the fuss. He thought he could do more from behind the scenes, than by sitting on a silky throne, smiling and waving.
"Your majesty!" Gusty bowed respectfully. She sincerely esteemed authority, but more importantly, she respected King Taxis as a person.
"Oh, Gusty! Greetings!" The king looked up from his scroll. He had bags under his eyes, and his smile was faint, although warm. Gusty knew that the king, like every other unicorn, was through the hardest time of the year. It was the great harvest before winter. But they were nearing the end of it, and that meant they would soon all be able to breathe again. Unless the manticore threat was to arise again...
Gusty sat on the chair at the desk, facing the king. "I'm here to report the items regarding the course of the harvest. May I begin?"
"Yes, please. Let's have the administrative off our hooves." The king winked.
"As you well know, the drought has raised grievous difficulties concern-"
"Your majesty!" The door burst open and Astral rushed inside, with a guard closely following behind. Gusty and the king both gasped.
"What's wrong, Astral?" asked Gusty.
"It's the manticores again! Dashed creatures are attacking, right now!" Astral was wheezing and was covered in sweat. Gusty could tell he'd run there from the site. "The peach trees... three minutes from here..."
Gusty looked at the king. He frowned with shut eyelids. When he opened them, his look was old. It was the same look Gusty saw every time a rookie came back from their first engagement, and looked into her eyes. The king wasn't older than Gusty, but the weight of responsibility aged ponies rapidly, and the mental age did not match the biological age of the ones carrying great burden on their backs.
"Gusty, Astral!" called the king. "See to it that they don't return."
"Right away!" said Astral.
Gusty turned to the guard. "Corporal, bring you squad! We'll meet you there!"
The corporal nodded. The two of them ran out of the room. Normally, they wouldn't have considered permanent solutions to get rid of animals, but the manticores, like a few other creatures were made of pure darkness, and they were evil. They didn't attack on instinct, they attacked for the sake of spilling blood. It's just what Grogar's children were, they'd come to know them long before.
The pair of unicorns left the gate, and continued to sprint toward the orchard in question.
"So, how many?" asked Gusty her companion.
"Only four," responded Astral.
"Then let's hope we'll deal with them without casualties."
Once they neared the location, and could hear the fierce confrontation, they were able to safely teleport themselves to the site; teleportation spells were forbidden to the under-qualified. The unicorns professing that spell had to know the exact place they were going to - or wanted to - show up accurately, or else they had to put extra focus on the intended location, and that would have been distracting to the detriment of the spell itself. Not paying full attention to doing a considerably dangerous spell right was a luxury erudite unicorns weren't encouraged to afford, and rightly so.
But Gusty and Astral had a conception of the site, like the proximity and the angle they needed to take into consideration; and that allowed them to appear in the middle of the fight scene, with their insides still intact.
They didn't hesitate to take the field; the four beasts were being held off by a group of unicorns. They were shooting magical beams at them, but the monsters did not back down. The beings mostly resembled lions, but they had scaly-filmy wings on their backs, their tails were red and each possessed a venomous stinger, like the ones scorpions had.
Gusty engaged one of the manticores by directing a ray from her horn at its head. She could have summoned the wind, but it would have depleted her reserve-energy and exhausted her; beginning a fight with it was pointless, she'd learned it from experience. Her distraction worked and the beast charged at her, after abandoning interest in the others. She used the teleportation spell again to get behind the rear-end of the creature, but before she had a chance to move, it used its venomous scorpion-like tail to strike at her. She caught the heavy appendage with her magic in the air and wrung it, in order to make it inefficient for use against them. The monster roared, and it seemed to rock the earth. It unchained its aggression and used everything it could - claws, teeth, horns, stinger - to ground its challenger, eventually tossing her aside and dashing her against a tree; the slam made the fruits fall to the ground. The predator was about rush at its picked prey, but the unicorns pulled Gusty out of the way, and the manticore hit the trunk headfirst, bringing it down and passing out in the process.
As Gusty's senses came back to her and she looked around, she saw the squad of soldiers just arriving at the scene and holding down one of the beasts by its limbs, resulting in valiant resistance on the creature's part. Another one of the manticores was lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious. The last one was being taken on by Astral and a few others. It did not take long: Astral held the head of the predator with his magic and broke its neck with a twist and a loud crack. One of the soldiers got suddenly impaled by the oppressed monster's sting. It didn't even need venom to kill. But that act sealed its fate, and took away every chance at its survival, as the fallen one's comrades blasted it with shots from their horns in retaliation, and left a charred corpse in the vivid animal's place. It wasn't over yet, because the two lying animals were just recovering.
Gusty turned to the farmers who'd bravely held out, even though their numbers dwindled radically in the fighting. "You've done very well. Now go! Take care of the wounded!"
The farmers did as they were asked. Gusty, Astral and the remaining soldiers stood united and awaited the final attack.
Which didn't happen.
The two remaining manticores were just standing next to one another, and kept staring.
"Finally understood it's not worth picking up a quarrel with the unicorns, maybe?" spoke up Astral.
"If that were the case, why aren't they retreating?" wondered Gusty. "They seem to be waiting for something."
"For us to turn our backs on them!" said one of the soldiers.
"I don't think so. Somehow they look... serene. Calm. Not like they are about to turn on us."
"They aren't. " A deep voice growled.
The unicorns all turned their heads, for it sounded like the voice came from just next to them.
"They realize when it is their time to retire, " the voice continued. "They realize their father is near when they sense him. "
With that, a shadow with golden glow appeared between them and the creatures, and manifested itself physically.
"Heavens help us..." was all Gusty could mumble, before she covered her shaking mouth with her hoof.
None of those present had seen him , who stood before them, but they all recognized him from their nightmares.
"I have been looking forward this." The dark royalty revealed his teeth as his face turned into a grin.
"I have been looking forward to this."
The figure the scrappy crew of unicorns were gazing at looked down at them. His fur had a tincture of cornflower blue; his crest of a mane, dense eyebrows and short tail were light bluish grey like cobalt. He wore a red breast collar. The harness was decorated with four gold plates, between them a golden orb, from which a bell was hanging. Atop his vertex, two majestic, twisted horns with dark azure shade glamorously boasted in magnificent splendor. An elegant goatee ornamented his broad chin, with his canine-decked grim smirk crowning his otherwise rigid mug, and that were all topped off by two glittering irides, bathing in red glow in a pool of pale green eyeballs, which penetrated the would-be opponents' souls like two sharpened needles.
"What do you want from us?" shouted Astral in a demanding tone.
"You ? I have no business with you . My only interests pertain to her ." Grogar slowly turned his head to face Gusty.
Astral let out a growl with set teeth. "If you want her, you'll just have to walk through my disintegr-"
He got choked on his words as his disavowed emperor embraced him in a tight telekinetic grip by his neck. The next thing he knew they were all floating in the air yards above the ground and suffocating. All of them, save Gusty.
"Release them!" she ordered, succeeding in procuring a burst of chuckle from the ram. In an unexpected move, he let them go, however. When they hit the ground, they were unconscious.
Gusty stared at them to see if they were indeed alive.
"Forget about them, Gusty, daughter of Sunbeam; they are of no value," Grogar said.
Gusty looked at him resolutely. "His point stands. One does not simply run into the Father of Monsters on a cool autumn night."
Grogar chuckled again, before starting to talk. "I have watched you, and in all my years, only you have merited my full attention. You leave traces of your greatness in your wake. Wherever you go, you... contaminate. Just as I do. We are two flip sides of the same coin. You are a coruscating beacon in my fear-soaked night, one who has the nerve to challenge it in utter and perfect defiance."
"Well... thank you for the flattery, I guess, but you overvalue me," the unicorn said to him. "I only do what is right , whereas you only do what is evil ."
"Yes, by your standards I am evil," Grogar responded in a slightly annoyed tone. "But ask yourself this. If the mountain cannot contain its own weight, and begets a rockslide, which abrades the nearby village, is the mountain evil? Or if another village at the coast is erased by the tidal wave, does it happen because the sea was evil? No, it is nature working. To discard, and to elevate. Mounting new challenges, making sure its children are not spoiled. When one competes in conflict, one is empowered in strength, obtaining new determination, longing for new trials; whilst when one vegetates in stagnation and isolation, one is eroded in feebleness, losing capability, and dying in turn, when the next trial ascends."
"The difference is, Grogar, that nature can't help doing the things it does, for it is not conscious . You have a chance to not do these kinds of things, to not act like you are a messed-up deity, and yet you choose to carry on. And the why? I can't imagine how this activity can be perceived as anything but evil."
"You make a fair point. But I watched in disgust as nature lost itself, as it became dysfunctional, so I vindicated the resolve to transcend it and take its place as the prime challenger."
"Why would you say that nature is dysfunctional? How could nature of all things possibly be dysfunctional?"
"It is functioning all right, but in a bad way. If you recall your race's history, and specifically early history, you will find that at the time, nature was the greatest evil. It is what gave them birth, and it is what tried to kill them repeatedly. In time, the unicorns had to band together, to face the trials united. After every success, a new crisis arose. And in the meantime, after every success, your people became more and more persistent and confident in themselves. It was a beautiful, perfectly balanced state of flawless order. New anguish bred new vigor. You obtained new capacities to resist, and that only made you better... But something changed, something cracked this blissful harmony. Eventually, nature failed to give an answer to your development and left you alone. Accordingly, your people have become fragile, slothful and shiftless. A repulsive, dreadful infection that plagues you still. If only you had the resourcefulness of your predecessors, you would not be suffering so much under me. Nature allowed you to hide in your homes, and thus avoid the conflict in the wild, when it should have been brought down upon you in your homes!"
"So you're saying that because we live protected from the disasters out there, we are weak? What about you then? Do you seek the catastrophes out? Or are you weak like us?" Gusty asked, enduring the ram's hard stare.
"I do not need to be tested by an inferior entity. And you are as inferior as whatever nature has become, and If it does not put you to the test, then some other force to be reckoned with ought to exist, to fill the tremendous void that such reservation calls for."
"And why does that force have to be you?"
"Because only I am in possession of power beyond comprehension. Power to claim the supremacy, supremacy to rule over this magical land as Emperor!"
"No one asked you to be our ruler. We do not want you as our emperor," hissed Gusty with her anger throttled down.
"It is all the same. Let me explain it to you. As you well know, when something does not function properly, it has to be fixed. When something in nature does not function properly, nature will fix it. And when an artificial creation does not function the way it should, then it is up to its creators to fix it. Nature will only intervene to correct its own direct creation. So what happens if nature itself becomes flawed? We cannot wait for it to fix itself. And we cannot wait for its creator to fix it, for nature is the creator. In that case, the one to repair it should be the one who is able to. And I was able to succeed, where nature had failed. You, however, cannot break free of your limited state. And what is worse: you do not even strive to. You had the raw potential that would have made it possible to rise above everything. But you threw it away for your own short-sighted needs. I have seen it before. A race succumbed to selfishness is a race on its way to oblivion."
"And what do you think we should do in order to ascend? Be like you?" Gusty spat her words.
"You would have to rule nature. Not influence it but master it. Healing shrunk flowers will not get you to greatness. But there is greatness in you, Gusty. The wind does your bidding, that is a start. You are the key to the future of your race, if you do not embrace your authority, you will all die."
"I will never abuse my powers like that!"
"Than you will turn out to be a grave disappointment and I will have misplaced my reliance on a savior to your people in you," Grogar said resignedly.
"You lie! You don't care what happens to us! You gloat over our misery!" Gusty burst into tears as all the memories of their affliction from the being standing before her suddenly overwhelmed her. Her horn lit up with silverish glow, and she shot a powerful bolt at the ram. Naturally, it was ineffective; the bolt barged into a magical shield. "You're not only the Father of Monsters; you are the greatest monster of them all."
"So be it. Let me show you what this monster is capable of," Gorgar said while igniting his own coronet with golden blaze.
"Bring it on!" Gusty exclaimed, likewise preparing for the fight.
Grogar's glowing horns summoned a wildly rampaging brilliant yellow magical orb above his head, and he sent dazzling dense bolts rushing at his foe, who lightly evaded the heavy strikes, and countered them with her own offensive arsenal.
Gusty used her unicorn powers to jump back and forth in space, her constantly alternating position serving as an advantage over her slouch foe. But Grogar's reflexes were far too refined to let him be fooled by that amateurish, commonplace attempt, and he warded off the assaultive blows. He raised his right front hoof to touch his bell. The plates on his harness lit up with golden luster, as well as his pupils. With his energy enhanced, he was able to effortlessly seize Gusty in the process of teleportation, denying her the chance to be lost sight of again.
Grogar didn't brood over what to do with her. He artlessly tossed her into a nearby tree. The second one she hit that night. But then, she realized what she had to do. Grogar could have just killed her, but his inability, or at any rate, reluctance to do so had left her to believe he'd really meant it when he said he was fascinated with her. And that thought downright scared her. She was conscious of the overt fact that Grogar would use everything he would be able to to net her with his manipulations. She didn't believe Grogar had been honest when he spoke like he cared about what would happen to their civilization. Not for a minute. He clearly wanted something from her, she just couldn't put her hooves on what it was. It was a mystery best left for later. All she could do at the moment was try the only way she would be able to give Grogar a sweat, namely, by using her elementary power on him.
Inside, she made the connection with the ambiance surrounding them all. She relished the peculiar peace, that she couldn't find anywhere, only by experiencing the truly personal relationship that bound her and all the magical forces that composed what reality was together, though few had the privilege of knowing and feeling what went beyond the material boundaries of the world so intimately. It was a sensation Gusty thought was like what flying could be. The desirable shroud that had fallen over her and engulfed her refused to let her come back to the corporeal life, calling her ever closer to the core, trying to make her want to vanish and fade out, become one with the brightness...
But she had to return from the verge. She knew it was no more than the perception of the driving powers of the universe. She knew she couldn't really disappear in the brilliant sea. It was but how she was able to apprehend it, being a mere earthly being.
She opened her eyes after she returned from the quick journey. Her horn lit up once more, and the wind was rising.
After a few lingering moments, the wind abruptly burst into a wrathful tempest, violently jolting the woods. The two adversaries stood their ground, their now floating manes and tails fluttered by the breeze, with Gusty making sure the frantic storm did not harm them.
Once the unicorn acknowledged she had the squall under control and stabilized, she could start to take over the direction of the amassed, albeit inconstant, chaotic turbulence, and lead it all to strike at Grogar.
The immense body of air lay heavy on the ram, who struggled to hold up and keep standing. His four legs were all starting to bend, his head was turned down.
"Kneel, monster!" shouted Gusty. His horns gleamed and he managed to dissolve the pressure on him.
But Gusty would not be daunted; she used the wind to surround Grogar, then raise him up in the air. At this point, Gusty's horn was smoldering glaringly; her eyes were glittering too; her mane and tail were jolting intensely, and not just because of the wind.
After holding him for a few seconds, she smoothly threw him away, then elevated him again, and viciously plonked him down once more. Gusty got carried away and picked up the fallen trunk brought down during the fight with the manticores, and landed it atop her lying enemy.
Grogar stood up, his face was now filled with anger. He grabbed Gusty with his magic and pressed her down to the ground. Grogar slowly started walking up to her.
"It was a valiant effort, I have to give you that, but as you can see, ultimately futile," Grogar noted.
He got closer, and Gusty wanted to resist his grip, but she was too exhausted to fight him. She desperately tried to call on her powers, all in vain. Grogar finally reached her and stopped in front of her capitulated body.
"And in the end, you are the one who kneels."
That was it. Gusty was certain Grogar was going to kill her after that fight.
"Thank you for partaking in this valuable experiment," he said. "It was most instructive."
And with that, he let her go, turned around, and went up to the manticores. He sent them away, transforming them into shadows similar to the form he'd arrived in. Without facing Gusty, he addressed her.
"While I watched you, I have seen that you maintain close relationships with your friends, but hold every one of your kind equally valuable. When leading your soldiers, you are frightened by the thought of once coming a time where you must choose between who you want to save, and you would rather have yourself be killed." Grogar looked at the farmers, soldiers and Astral, who'd "slept" through the fight and still hadn't recovered. He grasped his bell again, then reached out his hoof towards the lain unicorns. Gusty stood up, an uneasy feeling overcoming her at the sight. From Grogar's held out hoof, lustrous stripes - like teeny darts or shooting stars - hit all the helpless ponies. "I just poisoned your friends, but you will only be able to save one of them. Life is full of hard choices and tough decisions, and there is no evading it."
Gusty dashed to the ponies in terror. She instantly knew who she was going to save, but that left her somewhat ashamed. Without thinking for a moment, fully instinctively, she had rushed to the one who was the dearest to her: Astral. She knelt down next to him, and cast the detoxification spell. As she was healing her friend, she felt sorrow, because she wouldn't be able to keep them all, or at the very least, just one more of them alive. She knew she'd willingly abandoned them to die. Anger followed soon after, which quickly transformed into something she had never really felt before. Something that pushed her over the edge of a cliff, beyond which the realm of darkness was waiting, the very realm that had mothered Grogar and creatures of his like.
All she felt at the moment was hate . The darkest, purest of penetrating, dire, furious hate that she found a gruesome, loathsome feeling, yet she was somehow content with it, she found it acceptable and outright appetizing. She took pleasure in hating him. She was reluctant to admit it, but she did. She felt like at the moment she could take on Grogar, his manticores and the whole universe, just to keep the ones she loved safe. She was aware of where that feeling would lead, and she had to back away from that path. She had to back away from it, also because it took away the focus from healing. A unicorn cannot fulfill an act of benevolence with murderous rage. She had to save Astral, if she couldn't save the others.
"One other thing..." Grogar once again spoke. "I suggest you enjoy your peace, for it will not last. Farewell, Gusty, daughter of Sunbeam."
With that, Grogar followed his children, and he was gone. Gusty had heard the threatening counsel, which caused her to feel uneasy and worried again. But that feeling was appeased by a mighty familiar and comforting voice.
"Gusty..."
She opened her eyes, and saw her friend languidly looking at her. He was visibly confused, but he was alive. And that brought Gusty tranquility. She embraced him in a shielding hug. Astral looked around, and saw the others lain.
"What about them?" he asked, but never got an answer. Not even a look, for Gusty wouldn't let go of him. She needed that then and there, and Astral was a sympathetic unicorn; he returned the hug.
"Commander? Commander?! Commander!"
Gusty opened her eyes in a snap, and winced at the sharp tone of the just arriving squad leader's voice. The armored unicorn stallion's subordinates examined the corpses around the scene, and they all shot regretful glares at him in succession, or shook their heads, confirming the deaths. The squad leader, whose badge identified him as holding the rank of sergeant, turned to Gusty and addressed her again.
"Commander, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, sergeant," Gusty replied. She was apparently beside herself, as if she had just gone through a highly eerie experience. The sergeant couldn't decide whether the commander had lost all her memories, and was suddenly intrigued by the seemingly renewed environment, or she'd just returned from an unearthly voyage, which showed her everything in the world, with all the beautiful and wretched, hopeful and vile, contrasting and harmonious qualities, and she couldn't handle the newfound omniscience. Her behavior definitely seemed to support those crazed assumptions.
The sergeant pointed toward the row of lifeless bodies close to them with his hoof as he said, "These corpses display no bites, no scratches, no stabs. They don't have any wounds! What happened to them? Whatever killed them, it must have done it from the inside."
Gusty heard what the sergeant said, but in her mind, she was elsewhere. The eager threat about the end of peace Grogar had rammed against her echoed in her head. She recalled her conversation with him, where Grogar talked about testing and hardening the unicorns. Gusty didn't know what to think of that. Did he genuinely believe he was doing the right thing? Did he really care for them in his own twisted way? Or, more likely, he just took pleasure from torturing, and the whole monologue was just to provide cover for his sadism. But why would he want to deny it? He could have just admitted it, or did he take her for a fool? Maybe he didn't admit it because he didn't believe it, and that would prove the first assumption right. Namely, that he thought he did good, just on an another level, that she and her people didn't yet understand, nor wanted to understand. To be fair, he was right about one thing. They wouldn't have wanted to understand, she didn't want to understand why Grogar did what he did. Any and all justification must be rejected. All she saw there, on the ground, from where she could observe those exalted, high-minded ideas with sober horse sense, was the pain and death Grogar had brought. An idea like this, a subversive idea the world had to be purified from. And that was what she was going to do.
"Commander, are you sure you're all right?" She heard the sergeant's voice again.
"Yes, sergeant. I just have to talk to the king at once!" Without further ado, she left in a hurry.
"What' s on your mind, Gusty?" shouted Astral.
The already running unicorn mare looked back at them. "To defeat Grogar!"
Gusty knew what they had to do. They had to finally make the first move. They had to go to him . She knew it was dangerous, but she also knew it had never happened before, which meant its possible outcome was not determinable. Gusty realized what she had in mind was a long shot, but it was their only chance.
At the castle, she began to look for somepony and found him; the supreme commander of the Royal Unicorn Legion, General Hardboil. The aged stallion had brown coat and brown eyes, his mane silver. As always, he was wearing his officer armor with the insignia.
"General, I have to talk to you and the King immediately."
"What is it? I take it the manticores have been dealt with?" the general asked, after the three of them gathered in the royal chambers for the urgent discussion.
"Yes, sir. But I regret to report that the corporal and his squad, as well as some of the farmers who held the beasts off didn't make it. And the manticores weren't the only menace, nor were they the biggest one. I... I don't know how or why, but... Grogar himself was here."
"Wha-? Grogar was here? How? What did he want?" The king was astonished, and the general himself was short of words.
"He... had a message for us," Gusty answered.
"What message?" asked the two stallions in unision.
"Before he left, he told me to 'enjoy our peace, for it will not last.'"
"And?" Hardboil asked, waiting for the continuation.
"Nothing more," she replied.
"And how do you feel about this message?" the old general inquired.
"I believe him. I know it may sound like an empty threat to frighten us, but I talked with him, and he said some curious things."
"You talked with him?" King Taxis was completely dumbfounded. "I don't understand. Why come here and talk? It makes no sense!"
"He talked about... a lot of things. He talked about struggles a lot. How they strengthen us. And why he makes us go through them. I still think he does it because he takes joy at it, but that's irrelevant now anyway. Either way, starting conflict is not something he'd have problem with doing."
"So you believe a time of war may be upon us," the general said with anticipation.
"I do, sir," Gusty confirmed.
The elderly officer pondered on what had been said before he shared his thoughts with careful phrasing. "Commander Gusty, I've known you long enough now to know to trust your judgement. But this one time, I have to disapprove of your sentiment. That message he left you with was most likely another attempt to boost the terror. Also, telling us about his plans, and giving us an opportunity to prepare is simply foolish. Surely you can see why I harbor feelings of discredit regarding the veracity of his words."
"I do understand your having doubts, general," Gusty replied. "But why would he lie about this? To make us be afraid, I know. But fear must be nourished! An ambiguous comment will not cause enduring fear. And giving us a clue to prepare for what is to come is not illogical. He doesn't want to wipe us out. He never did. He just wants to toy with us. Grogar knows we've gotten better at dealing with his monsters in the end. We're right at the time where he places the ordeals on a new level. This is the lull before the storm."
"Well" the monarch broke the lingering silence, "you make a good point, Gusty. And I assume you already have something on your mind, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. I say this is our call to action. We have to face Grogar! Finally! We have to break this endless cycle of misery we've been doomed to! In part due to our own mistake of being even unwilling to at least try standing up to Grogar, and letting him have his hold of fear on us for generations! I know this is risky, but waiting idly is no less dangerous. if we're ever going to break free, we've got to act! And what better time to do it than now, on the brink of... something big!"
After listening to the enthusiastic speech, General Hardboil sympathetically said, "Commander, I understand where you're coming from. Normally, I would agree with you, but this is Grogar we're talking about. What you're saying is far too hazardous. How exactly do you imagine such a mission would go?"
"Take the army. Have the Legion march up to Grogar's lair, and-"
"And then what?" the general interrupted. "What will we do?"
"We use overwhelming odds against him. Give him everything we've got. He wouldn't be able to hold out against hundreds of unicorn warriors without exposing himself to us. If we have enough men, he will have to divide his attention. We will use our Rainbow Beam to weaken him. When he's vulnerable... we strike him down."
"So, is it going to be an assassination?" the king asked, somewhat surprised.
"You have to understand we're not doing it for revenge or bloodlust. He's simply too dangerous to be kept alive, your majesty," Gusty explained.
"I agree," the general said.
"Could it work?" asked the regal unicorn.
"It will not be easy." The general sighed before he continued, "We can expect a lot of casualties to his powers and the monsters, which I have no doubt we'll encounter. But this might be our only shot. And getting rid of Grogar for good would be worth the sacrifice."
"Then it is settled. The Legion will prepare for an attack on Grogar's lair," King Taxis declared. "Let us hope for the best..."
The sun was glaring at the earth from a shallow angle. The morning hours of the day were wrapped in a dense fog, which concealed the vast swamps the unicorn army was striding amidst. The division was under the command of General Hardboil. Him leading the task force personally was commendable, considering his initial skepticism. His second-in-command was, naturally, Gusty.
Half the entire Legion was rallied for that fateful mission. The remaining warriors stayed at home: leaving the unicorn settlements without defense would have been unacceptable, especially considering the possibility that the operation might backfire, however depressing and dismaying that thought was. Were it to happen, and the whole army were about to be decimated by Grogar, the lands of the realm would be ripe for taking.
The upcoming war's participating hostile force, the - at the moment - unknown shadow army Grogar was presumably establishing would hear the call of conquest. And Gusty reckoned it was entirely possible that army had already been created. Maybe Grogar wanted to lure the unicorns to him, because he had arranged for a confrontation between the two armies there. If that were to be case, they would most likely be unable to accomplish their objective.
Anything was possible. Grogar was apt to do anything, as they knew. And they were ever unaware of his doings until it was all in their faces. Even now, they were just groping in the darkness, speculating about something that had proven to surpass their imagination many times in the past. It was the best they could do. It was the best they had to do. And right then, getting rid of Grogar was what they ought to do. Even if his army existed, and was preparing for war, with Grogar out of the way, their chances at winning would increase greatly. But they had to succeed first. Everything depended on it.
Gusty had a lot of time to think about all that, since they set off. The closer they got to their destination, the more she realized the rashness of their decision. She couldn't help but feel uneasy throughout their journey, but now, with the bog covering the horizon, and the marshy stink of the surrounding cesspool filling her nose, she was overtaken by a terrifying sensation. The urge to cry out and tell the whole division to turn around and go back the way they came while they could grew by the minute. She knew she had to calm herself. Still, she was completely certain every one of the warriors felt the same way as her. She knew they had to continue, if they'd come that far. Just may the mission be successful. It was their last best hope.
"Commander," was all General Hardboil said to turn her attention to something clearly visible in the distance, now free from the haze. "We're here," he added.
Gusty observed the monstrous rock. It was shaped to imitate the lord of the house. It looked so deserted, it could have fit into a memorial site as a stage of the play of history, a relic of ages past, forever gone. It looked harmless...
However, Gusty knew it was possibly the most noxious place on the earth. She realized that would be the last place to be seen for a lot of them. The warriors of the task force seemed to stop in their tracks for a moment, before proceeding with reluctant, hesitant steps.
After about fifteen minutes of dead silent marching, the first phase of the operation was completed successfully: to arrive at Grogar's lair intact. It almost seemed like getting there unhurt was too convenient. As if Grogar had handed them a clear path. They thought the swamps would be packed with monsters, but they were as barren as could be.
The entrance to the cave was glowing red, and a passage made of stones rising above the water's surface. When the first line unicorn warriors saw the shadow moving inside, they prepared themselves, before even noticing it was approaching them. Grogar casually walked out of the entryway, then the general gave the order, "Fire!"
The horns of two thousand well-trained and capable unicorn warriors lit up, and started firing their beams at him, who deflected them with not particularly significant exertion.
"I have to say I am impressed. I would not have thought you would resort to such a daring move," Grogar said in a chatty tone. "You finally show some valor. Maybe you are not hopeless after all. But..." Grogar stopped, as the unicorns saw countless manticores, chimeras and other beings, seemingly coming out of nowhere, essentially ambushing them, surrounding the entire army. "...I am afraid you arrived prematurely. You are a distraction to my plans now."
Gusty closed her eyes, and exhaled. This is going to be messy, she thought to herself. "All right everypony," she shouted. "We know how to deal with these guys. Just..."
She got cut off by the sudden charge of the beasts that surprised her too. The creatures bore down on the unicorns, beginning the slaughter, and the poor, unfortunate ones who stood closest to them were ripped apart within seconds. The monsters tore into the army, which was now nothing more than a shocked, albeit armed crowd. Panic and chaos erupted in a few more seconds. Gusty turned her head back and forth in recoil, trying to assess the situation. It was in vain. It was over. The screams ringed deafeningly in her ears. She knew that sound. It was the sound of defeat. The sound of utter failure. And what a revolting sound it was.
"...don't lose your heads," she muttered. As she looked at all those fine warriors, all those people entrusted to her, shredded and mangled by the detestable aberrations, she knew all hope was lost. She conceded to the fact that they were all going to die there. And Grogar would survive. He would go on to build his army, by the annihilation of the task force completely unchallenged: the other half of the Legion would never leave their posts, especially knowing the fate of her heroic but damned comrades who deserved an end far worthier than that morbid butchering.
Grogar's army would then wage war on the Kingdom, condemning her people to more unbearable suffering. That mission had been their last best hope. Everything had depended on it. And they had lost. And Grogar had won.
The thought of Grogar being triumphant disgusted Gusty to her core. All she could think of was that it couldn't be. It wasn't possible. It wasn't how it was supposed to end. It just wasn't. She preposterously waited for something to end the nightmare. Some deus ex machina. To wake up and realize it was a horrible dream, and know that all the warriors are sleeping peacefully, surrounded by their families, possibly reliving their most pleasant memories, as evoked by the resting, blunt mind... The beautiful, desirable image shattered into nothingness.
The massacre the unicorns went through infinitely saddened her. She knew that was how death was going to find her as well. The best she could do was making the beasts work for their bloody victory. Before she could join in the last battle of her life, however, she saw a few pieces of rock flying in the direction she was standing, but she couldn't react, as she got knocked out by one of the stones hitting her head. She no longer had to watch the carnage, which cost so many of her friends their lives, and which raged on long after her fainting, as fiercely, as mercilessly as stilly she was all of a sudden resting in blissed senselessness.
As the senses idly returned to Gusty, she heard the sounds of what felt like a distant battle. She heard angry snarls and more sparse cries that sounded like they were coming from ponies. When more of her brain functions kicked in, she remembered what had occurred. Dazedly awakened from her slumber, she opened her eyes, and found that the unicorn army had been desolated. Aside from the few dozens of the still-living warriors, the task force of two thousand was now consisting of the gnawed remains of the unicorns.
Still numbed, she slowly stood up and looked around. It was difficult to find a corpse that was more or less whole - laying eyes on derelict limbs, body-parts and organs was much simpler. She couldn't see the general anywhere. The scene was dominated by the color red, which had painted the monsters as well. Gusty had to gather all her composure to defy the urge to pass out again, at the horrible sight.
As her perception was returning to its full capacity, she was overcome by a realization and looked behind her. There he was standing, on a prominence in front of his lair, and observed what was happening with a visible smirk on his face. She saw Grogar looking down on her and breaking into a wide gloating smile.
Gusty turned toward him to face him with her whole body. She felt blood-streams running down her face from the wound on her forehead. She noticed her legs were shaking, either from her stupor or her anger, but she didn't break her accusing stare. Newfound resoluteness made its way into her heart, and she came to a decision. She had nothing to lose, and however ineffectual it would be, one last charge on Grogar was something she needed to do, to go out with honor.
She sprang at him, but was stopped in the air before she could reach him. Her face only mere inches away from his, she glared at his somewhat bored features with ireful expression.
"It was a waste," he told her. Gusty aggressively pressed her eyelids shut, only a few tears rolling down on each side of her face could escape. Grogar turned her around to face the battleground. "Look."
She opened her eyes, and saw about twenty unicorns still on hoof. Then she was released from the ram's hold and fell to the ground. She looked again, and to her biggest surprise, saw the monsters back down. She pushed herself up from the ground, and watched closely as the creatures turned from the survivors and walked off. All their murderous intents and bloodthirst disappeared in an instant, and were replaced by the same coolness she had seen before at the orchard when Grogar appeared.
She went up to the remaining ponies, taking each step faster than the previous one. She was cantering when she arrived in front of them. She had a hard time looking them in the eye, seeing the sorrow in them, even though it was devoid of incrimination. She didn't find traces of resentment or blame, which appeased her, but she quickly scolded herself, as she knew she was responsible for coming there. "I'm sorry," she said as soon as she was able to talk to them. "I'm sorry..."
"You, unicorn warriors"- Grogar started, breaking the silence -"had the nerve to come here unprepared, and paid the price for your reckless overconfidence. Now you see the punishment reserved for those who act upon their delusions to attack Grogar." He used his Bewitching Bell to fill up his body with the most quintessential of magic stored within. His eyes closed, his hoof on his bell, his head down, Grogar practically froze as good as a statue, until the luminous object released rays of brilliant yellow magic that began to dance around Grogar and envelop him in a loose whirl. His mane and tail started floating, his coat shining, as if readying himself to strike them all down with one deadly blow.
"It was my pleasure serving with you, my friends," Gusty remarked. "I'm sorry I dragged you all the way out here."
One of the survivors, a mare she only knew by sight approached her and put her hoof on her back, comforting her. Gusty turned to her, and saw her smiling. "It was our pleasure to serve under you, commander." Gusty returned the smile. It was a strange feeling of inevitability, and accomplishment too. She wasn't afraid to die, because she was surrounded by ponies she cared for, and she was ready to lay down her life, to let go.
Grogar looked up and pointed his blazing eyes toward the sky. He set his teeth and grimaced in exertion. His repeated groans were eventually coalesced into a long, drawling roar. After he finished, his glistening faded away, his legs slackened and couldn't hold his weight anymore, so he toppled down, breathing heavily. "You were blessed with the power of magic, but you were unable to harness it properly. You have to put your ability to the trial with an act of extent you never could have dreamed of. If you fail, you, and all the living in this world will die." After a brief pause, he continued, "Have you ever thought about what would happen if the Sun and the Moon were to stop dead in their tracks?"
"What? You... what..."
"Go home and spread word of what has taken place here."
"They're coming!" the sentry exclaimed, prompting his mate to sound the horn, alerting everypony of the warriors' return.
King Taxis' thoughts had dwelled on the army's mission that whole day; so much so that he hadn't been able to do a duly job concerning his royal duties. When he arrived outside the castle gates, a large crowd was already waiting there. He strove his way through his subjects to see it for himself, but he was disheartened by what he saw. Or rather, the vast, overwhelming majority of the task force he did not see.
"We failed, your majesty. I failed. The division, half of the Legion is gone."
Three ponies; the king, the old leader of the Sorcerers' Guild - a group consisting of the most apt unicorn sorcerers - and an officer of the army - deputy to the late General Hardboil - showed up to the slapdash knocked together audience.
"We knew the odds weren't in our favor, Gusty." The compassionate royal was the first to answer. "We knew this outcome was a possible one."
"I know," Gusty said. "When we arrived, he unleashed his creatures on us. We didn't see any trace of an army, and he did say our presence there was a distraction. The army must not be ready yet."
"That would mean we have some time to brace ourselves," noted the officer. "How did you escape?"
"He let us go. After having to witness the atrocious slaughter. But it wasn't over when the massacre ended. He's done something... unspeakable. I... I don't even know how it is possible. But if we don't figure out a way to fix it, every living being will die for sure."
"What? What did he do?" the old unicorn asked.
"The Sun and the Moon... he made them stop. You must've noticed that the Sun hasn't moved for some time. It's been staying in the exact same spot for hours now."
"So that's it. An unusual phenomenon has been reported, but frankly I haven't been paying much attention today to... anything, really," admitted the king.
"I knew Grogar was immensely powerful, but I never would have imagined power to that extent. So, here's the challenge he wished for. We, unicorns have to use our magic to move the bodies in the sky."
"So it is. But how many of us are needed to possibly execute something of that scale."
"If we don't want to have our connection to magic drained forever" started the old one, "all of us."
The letters had been sent to every unicorn castle. Theoretically, by now every unicorn knew the reason for why it seemed like it was noon, but the clocks revealed the time to be around the evening. And they knew that it would be their magic, that would move the celestial bodies, and bring about the night, and the day. The collective magic of every single unicorn in the Kingdom. Gusty was nervously trotting up and down, waiting for the minute to begin the ritual.
The monarch and the newly appointed general of the Legion were discussing the rearrangement of the army in the open, while the inhabitants of the capital rallied at the site, but their conversation was disturbed by the arrival of a guard, who pointed at two approaching dots in the sky. When they got closer, the king was shocked to see that the airborne beings were ponies, though they lacked horns. After they landed in front of the pair, they took off their compelling crested helmets, and bowed.
"My lord, we are the scouts of the Pegasus Military. We were given an order to monitor the tyrant's hideout, and found your army battling the monsters. We followed the survivors here, then reported our findings to our ruler, Archon Alestheus. He decreed that we come back and make contact with you, at the same time ask for assistance against the tyrant."
"Military assistance?" Taxis asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Well, as you may know, our army is currently... dwindled."
The general looked at her king, then the scouts, and asked, "How many soldiers does your army consist of, scout?"
"Ten thousand, ma'am."
"Ten thousand?" she repeated in wonder.
"We're a heavily military-based culture, ma'am."
The general persuasively looked at the king, who in turn told the visitors, "Good soldier! Tell your ruler, we'd be glad to assist you. Now tell me, where do you come from?"
The scout looked up and smiled. "The home of all Pegasi. The city of Cloudsdale."
It was the day after the battle with the unicorns. Grogar stepped to his orb, which lit up as he approached. He was still in a rather weakened state, exhausted from performing his massive act after the fight, which he was certain was going to be memorable to all future pony generations.
The ancient ram was immensely powerful, and only he could have succeeded in accomplishing something so drastic. He had done it. He'd stopped the Sun and the Moon. And it wasn't reversible. Not by ponies, for sure. To do that, to somehow be able to give new push to the ponderous, remote heavenly bodies, they would have to be as powerful as Grogar was. But nopony came close to his power, though there was one who caught his attention.
He eagerly waited for the Sun to set that day. He knew the unicorns would manage to do it, but the movement of the heavy luminous body was tardy and erratic. The halting shakiness of the rising Moon was no different.
Grogar looked at the multiple larvae to whom he had given life. They crawled around in the lair. They were going to grow up to feed on love and positive emotions. They were foes personalized for ponies. He foresaw his hungry children coming for them when they're ready. They would absorb the ponies' love and positivity, leaving them nihilistic and apathetic. Grogar considered it an appropriate punishment for their naive and, quite frankly, pathetic impotence. But draining emotion wasn't the only aptitude they were designed to be adept at. They were an unparalleled race of shapeshifters. When they reach the right age, and become full-grown imagines, they would be able to change their forms, and it would be a natural gift of Grogar's, not some spell to be learned. He named them changelings.
Change.
It was change that drove the world to move forward. It was the point of evolution. If the inhabitants didn't adapt to the changing habitat, they lost. And ponies were content with stagnation. Ponies lacked the capacity for change. And they weren't the first.
Many generations earlier, Grogar was just one sorcerer in the extravagant city of Tambelon. The city state was governed by the High Council of Tambelon. Grogar was on the council, but he was in constant disagreement with his peers. The leaders of Tambelon were short-sighted. The luster of the gold blinded them to what lay beyond the city walls: the world.
"Hear me, High Council: there is magic the likes of which is beyond imagination, past this city's boundaries," Grogar would always plead to the rest of the body.
"Councillor Grogar, must we remind you of our discussions in the past? We have dismissed your proposals," they always responded.
"But we could become so much more! The wider world is derelict. Who could be worthier of acquiring it than us? There aren't any civilizations like ours. This world is ours to seize! Let us reach at last!"
"Reach to where, councillor? We govern Tambelon, foreign lands are not our concern. Besides, you just said yourself that we have no worthwhile opponents. Encroachment, especially when you are the sole player, is weakness."
"No... weakness is sitting in your flowery seats... captivated by the snide illumination of meaningless riches and... restrained sensation of lordship... over a decadent city, that is weakness for you!"
"Contain your mettle, councillor, that's enough! Because of your repeated, undiminished lack of reasonableness and continued attempts to disrupt the work of our state's governing organization, you are hereby ejected from the council. All your privileges and rights granted by your now expired position, including entry to this chamber, are to be withdrawn within the day. Your successor, who will hopefully possess a greater recognition of reality than their predecessor did, will be elected in a week. I expect you to take notice of your removal with dignity. The meeting is adjourned."
Grogar had already grown weary of the narrow-mindedness of Tambelon's potentates. All his suggestions at expansion were met with passivity and reservation.
Grogar was undoubtedly among the most talented sorcerers, and he had long been fascinated by draining spells, particularly. He also figured that a magical object, an amulet would be much more effective at keeping large amounts of magic, than living beings.
With meticulous designing, he created the extraordinary Bewitching Bell, the most powerful arifact the world had ever seen, and he made it to be indestructable. He passed judgement on the city: it had to be erased entirely. The citizens whom Grogar knew all too well were as conceited as their leaders, and Grogar had endured that selfishness for far too long.
He had no family. He had no friends. Researching magic, thinking was more important than relationships. The latter disappeared, went perfectly unnoted in the ocean of history, while the former had the potential to change the world and leave mark.
One day, when the High Council entered the chamber for their next session, they were shocked to see Grogar sitting at the head. But they couldn't voice their astonishment; they never had the opportunity to talk to Grogar again. He didn't even favor them with his breath. Their magic, as well as their life-force were stolen from them, and encased in the Bewitching Bell bound to Grogar. The councillors died instantly. But Grogar did not stop, he considerably put his invention to the test, by using it to absorb all life in the city. Many thousands of rams, ewes and lambs simultaneously felt their essence sucked out of them within seconds, and Grogar felt the addition of every single last one of them, as his newly-obtained power peaked. And he relished it. Every single last moment of it.
The magic was packed into the bell, but he felt the tremendous overflow in his own body, and he wasn't sure it wouldn't tear him apart. The process initially filled him with snug warmth, but it increasingly turned into burning heat. The ritual culminated in a sensual apex, that finally allowed Grogar to feel happiness, and made him smile genuinely, for the first time in long years, at the cost of his only home being completely wiped out.
Like a monument or an immense relic, the desolate empty shell of a once milling, wealthy empire, but which empire failed to exceed itself was now nothing more than a specter memorial, its palaces vacant, its treasuries still loaded with corroding, unowned and unclaimed fortune, teaching about the eternal lesson of failure in greed, if there were anyone to heed the lesson.
He set out to the land of ponies, and was called to the darkness that lay beneath the ground. In the Underworld, the Realm of Grand Lord Tartarus, he was challenged by the Dark Deity and his son, Typhon the Serpentine. With the power of an entire civilization in him, he was able to best the rulers of the realm, taking over their servants, the Windigos, who - unlike his creations - fed on hatred and disharmony. He unchained the spirits of Tartarus' Realm and let them plague the early ponies, along with his own hybrids shortly thereafter. The rest was history.
Now, Grogar was after Gusty, daughter of Sunbeam. She was the most gifted unicorn he'd ever seen, and he was confident Gusty would be able to achieve great power. What he told her about nature and struggles was true - for the most part; pointless, sadistic torture of ponies was not indispensable when it came to mounting ordeals... but it did put a smile on his face. And he did want Gusty to grow in her power. And when she unlocks her full potential, he would be there to take it for himself. With Gusty's elemental power to its fullest extent clinched, new, terrifying levels of facilities would open before him. He could have power to shape, to model the world even more profoundly at his pleasure.
He was torn out of his daydreaming by his orb warning him about something. In it, he saw another division of the unicorns marching as they did a day before, but this time they were headed to... Cloudsdale. The pegasus city. So they knew of each other. Before he could sink in the unexpected turn, he noticed the task force was led by Gusty - once again. He thought for a moment. There weren't many of them. He would surely be able to take them on by himself before they reach Cloudsdale, even in his weakened state.
He turned around and faced the larvae, his newest, youngest children, and a slightly faltering expression crossed his features for a moment, which would have disturbed him, had he seen himself, but leisurely said nonetheless, "The endgame begins now." With that, he opened a swirling portal in front of him with his bell, and walked into it without hesitation.
"Cloudsdale!" Gusty said once she saw the city. Cloudsdale was mobile, the Pegasi could change its position, vertically and horizontally, too. There was a hill next to it; the Pegasi told the unicorns to get to the hilltop, and when they did, they would get the city down, but they didn't want to have it so close to the ground for long, as it was dangerous. Gusty was amazed by the city in the sky. It was a giant cloud, serving as a city, and a large one at that. It was said the army of the Pegasi was a force of ten thousand. The population of Cloudsdale was forty thousand, making every fourth Pegasus a professed warrior.
They said no earthy beings had ever been to Cloudsdale. Gusty was really excited by the thought of being among the first to visit another pony state. She didn't know of other ponies, but seeing how the Pegasi, that peculiar kind of ponies with wings instead of horns made her wonder how many other variants of ponies could be out there.
After they marched up the hill and saw Cloudsdale in its greatest might, their attention was drawn from admiring the cloud city. A golden and black vortex appeared on the hilltop, and Gusty knew what came next. "Damn it!" They saw Grogar exiting the portal. The unicorn mare immediately exclaimed, "We can fight Grogar together!" Gusty thought that Cloudsdale was close enough for the Pegasi to be aware of Grogar's presence. Gusty felt like they should give them some sort of signal, then ordered, "Everypony, use your powers in unity!"
The unicorns all shot magical bolts into the sky. The diverse rays interlocked and formed one unified beam of bright rainbow, which shot out up to the clouds and pelted down on Grogar, wrapping around him and pulling him to the ground. Gusty hoped the rainbow towered high enough to be visible for every citizen of Cloudsdale, but her attention was drawn from her thoughts, because Grogar was getting out of their grasp. "Don't let him escape!" she yelled. But the ram stood up and broke free of the beam, which tremblingly loosened around him, and the whole thing fell apart. The tense moment was disrupted by the Pegasi, who poured down from the sky and started using their weaponry, their spears, bows, slings and slingshots to charge at Grogar, who was clearly annoyed by the entry of another army.
"Attack!" Gusty called out. The unicorn army fired at Grogar with their horns, while the Pegasi threw spears, shot arrows and slung stones at him. He dodged or deflected the sharp weapons, but he couldn't avoid being struck by some of them, which lodged into his flesh. The pain - which he hadn't felt for a long time - and the not-so-effective, but still annoying rocks hitting his head unchained his rage. Using a single push, he cleared the space around him. Many Pegasi were knocked out of the air by the hard blast. Most of them were able to recover from the torpor before they slammed to the earth, some weren't.
In that second, Gusty noticed something, and the realization hit her like a chariot: Grogar drew magic from his bell. She at last recalled seeing that movement, him raising his hoof to the instrument when they first fought in Hornfort's orchards, and again, right before he cast his sentence on day and night.
The bell was what presumably gave Grogar his endless power. If it could be removed, he would be back to being a regular creature. And now seemed the perfect time for it. The confusion, the joint efforts of the unicorns and the Pegasi occupied all his attention. The Pegasi, who inevitably ran out of ammunition, using their speed to kick his face stronger and the unicorns constantly keeping him under fire created the perfect opportunity for her. "Everypony strike all at once! I only need him down for a few seconds!"
The unicorns all shot beams at Grogar, but he was able to ward them off with a shield. However, the Pegasi flew down and covered him like flies the leftover food. They used their hooves to grab onto his horns, his coat and beat him, kick him endlessly. While Grogar was struggling to keep his shield holding off the unicorns' bolts intact and get the ponies off of him, Gusty started running at him. She ran past the shield underneath it, and saw her target. When she reached Grogar, she leaped and grabbed the bell in her magical hold, then tore it from his harness, encased in her hooves' sheltering grip and fell under Grogar's abdomen, but the impact made her roll out from below the ram, then she finally came to a halt behind his back. "Ouch," she groaned, and when she opened her eyes, the bell was lying in front of her, having fallen out of her clench during the rough touchdown. She picked it up with her mouth.
Grogar wanted to energize, but the only thing he could feel after reaching for the artifact was its absence. He turned around and stared at Gusty holding his Bewitching Bell in her mouth. He let out a terrifying growl, but the unicorns took hold of him and pulled him back, and a Pegasus warrior yelled at her, "Run! Run away!" Gusty turned and ran downhill, moving away from the battle behind her.
She ran and ran, even when the sunset fell upon her, and hours separated her from the battle, she still ran. She was very tired and her gallop was more of a stumbling, casual trot, but she didn't stop. She had Grogar's source of magic with her, and she couldn't know if Grogar could follow her or not. She tripped over a stone and dropped the bell. As she was lying on the ground, she thought she could use some rest, but as she was looking at the bell, the terrible dark power radiating from it struck her, and made her continue her way, but fatigue got the best of her, and she fell once again, but this time she didn't get up, the exhaustion overcame her, and lulled her into sleep in the dirt.
Gusty heard the busy noise of a household from beyond the darkness of her eyelids, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a bed and staring at the pale ceiling above her. Curious - she thought, but she didn't have the opportunity to dwell on where she was, because she noticed the bell wasn't there with her.
"The bell!"
The sudden exclamation turned the attention of the mare dusting in the room toward her. "Good mornin', dear!" she said with an accent Gusty never heard before.
Gusty jumped out of the bed and asked nervously, "Where is the bell?", before using her magic to levitate the furniture and look under them.
"Oh, this ol' thing?" She heard a male voice but she could barely make out what he said. She looked at the stallion entering the room, holding the bell in his mouth.
Gusty exhaled and let the floating chattels go, but cringed as the heavy bed, wardrobes and chests landed with an ear-splitting crash.
"Sorry..." she blushed.
"How'd ya do that?" asked the marveling couple. She just noticed that the pair had no horns... nor wings. They were another different kind of pony.
"Wait a minute! That have to do somethin' with yer horn there?"
"Yes, yes it does."
"Heh, poor Broadhoof here didn't know whatta make of it," the mare chuckled.
"Darn right it is! A horned pony? Ah seen lotsa rummy things in mah life, bu' ain't ne'er did see yer kinda thing," the stallion said, then took up a regretful grimace at the sight of the disapproving look his wife shot at him and apologized. "Ah'm sorry lil' lady. Mah kissa e'er spills things it ne'er should."
"Oh, no problem! I didn't mind for a second, really."
"Hey! Yer alive!"
"Told ya!" Gusty saw two fillies running into the room.
"Hi!" She waved at them.
"Where did ya come from?"
"Is everypony horned where ya live?" the fillies asked.
"Yes, we all have horns-"
"Jus' whaddid ya do that ya went sleepin' on the soil, eh?" one of them asked, cutting her off.
"Um, I had an eventful day... Speaking of which I really should be going now, sorr-"
"But you jus' got up!" the father said.
"I know, but it's very urgent. Thank you so much for bringing me and the bell here, but-"
"Ah thought ya'd be stayin' for breakfast..."
"Me too..."
Gusty pityingly watched the young fillies' wide-eyed yearning expressions, but said, "I am truly sorry, but I have to continue on my journey, pronto."
"But ya'll need the strength to keep goin'. When was the last time ya ate, dear?" asked the mother.
At that moment, as if it were a sign, her stomach let out a deep rumble.
"Ah, yer belly's on our side!" the fillies beamed.
Gusty sighed. "I guess a little snack wouldn't hurt..."
"Oh, how impolite we are!" The mother slapped her forehead after bringing out a pot of considerable size, filled with mouthwatering soup. "We haven't even told ya our names! This strong stallion is Broadhoof, my lawful husband, and these are the apples of our eyes: Daisy and Petunia."
"And mah only love here is Sheen Blossom," Broadhoof finished the introduction.
"My name is Gusty."
"So, Gusty. What are ya carryin' 'round that whim-wham for?" Sheen Blossom asked.
Gusty pulled the object in question closer to her on the bench before she spoke. "The bell... I'm hiding it. It belongs... belonged to Grogar."
The name made Blossom drop the ladle from her hoof, which struck the floor, tingling sharply. Broadhoof covered the ears of Daisy, sitting next to him.
"Yesterday we battled with him and I've successfully stolen his artifact and source of power. Now, I'm just trying to find a good place for it. Where it can never be found," she explained.
"Well... if ya'll go northwards, that's where ya'll find the snow-capped mountains. Those are fairly high. Ah'm sure not a soul will find it there," Blossom said.
"Once again, thank you very much for your hospitality, and thank you for packing me food."
"Oh, it's no nothin'. We 'round here go helpin' ponies in need every time," Broadhoof said.
"Besto' luck on yer quest aunt Gusty!" Petunia said.
"An' don't ya forget tellin' yer unicorns 'bout yer stay here," Daisy instructed.
"I won't. I promise. You two stay good kids after I'm gone, you hear?"
"Ya darn tootin' bet!" Daisy said, at the same time falsifying her promise with the not-so-nice words she expressed it with, which her sister didn't take kindly to.
"Daisyyyyy! Ya said a bad word! Mom, Daisy said a bad word," Petunia sneaked on her.
Sheen Blossom and Gusty exchanged a look and giggled. "May ya succeed in yer mission, Gusty. An' Ah sure hope this whole misery will end with Grogar soon. The earth pony villages are starvin' 'cause of the drought."
"I'll do everything I can to end this."
Gusty was walking in snow. She reached the cool northern territories a few hours ago. The night had already befallen her once, since she departed from the earth pony village, and that reassured her: it meant that the unicorns were still well enough to be capable of managing the orbital cycles.
She'd thought of what might have occurred after she left the scene of the battle. She hoped Grogar was defeated, but there was no telling. Did the others think about her? Did they think of where she might tread? Did they worry because she was walking alone on unknown territories? She hoped they understood her burden right now. She had to find a good hiding place for the bell, where no one would be able to locate it. Neither Grogar, nor anyone else.
Luckily, she could expect some help in her quest, for she just arrived at a settlement, where ponies houses made of ice, and their coat was gleaming.
"Ah, yes. We know of the treacherous one." The leader of the settlement, a crystal pony (that was what they were called, as Gusty learned) handed her a cup full of some warm liquid.
"I've acquired the source of his magic, and now I'm trying to hide it." Gusty took a sip.
"You came to the right place. If there's a center for the world, the Frozen North is the farthest from it. And the mountains... they're deadly."
"Why are you all the way out here? There are so many green lands south of here. Why do you live in the cold?"
"We've lived here for generations. And things weren't like this before. Weather wasn't so tough. Now, we hear sometimes a blizzard wipes out an entire village... Right, let's go."
"That one," the crystal pony pointed to a mountain after they exited his igloo. "Mount Everhoof, as we call it. Highest of them all."
"It'll do."
Author's Note
The idea that Gusty's acquiring of Grogar's Bewitching Bell - recounted in Frenemies - and the confrontation between him and the unicorn warriors - recounted in A Flurry of Emotions - are linked came from Brony Youtuber Sawtooth Waves (formerly known as The Brony Notion), and his amazing video "Unlocking Grogar's True Past" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWSt9-CrmfM ). In fact, it was his videos that inspired me to write this (amateur) story :P (the next chapter will be the conclusion). Be sure to check out his channel, various kinds of great content await you.
After a few hours of climbing, avalanches, climbing, fighting half-bull, half-serpent ophiotauruses and more climbing, Gusty finally made it to the summit of the mountain, where she found a rather small cave, a perfect place for the bell to be hidden.
After she placed the artifact inside, she set up a magical barrier covering the entrance, preventing even the wind from getting in. She walked away from the cavern, hoping the location would never be revealed.
After walking a few dozen meters, she turned around, and used her unicorn powers to shatter the ground between her and the cave, and make it fall into the newborn abyss, which separated the mountain peak into two individual spires, rendering the cave inaccessible. But not from the air.
The cave could still be reached by flying over, and even though the barrier was in place, she knew it couldn't be impregnable forever, so she called on her special talent to create wildly raging everlasting winds above the rift.
"Well, you sure aren't negligent about this!" her guide noted jokingly.
"No. If the bell were to be recovered by anyone, they would grab ahold of Grogar's magic. No being should ever have that power in their hooves again."
"Right enough. Do you believe it won't come to that?"
"I'm hoping that it, along with Grogar, will be forgotten about..."
She arrived in the the village of the crystal ponies in the morning that day, and the adventure consumed a big part of the day, with them returning to the settlement late in the afternoon, when the villagers strongly discouraged her from setting off into the freezing darkness. After the coldest night of her life, Gusty said goodbye to the villagers, and embarked on the long way home, once again put up in an earth pony household.
While staying there, she actually had the time to learn about their way of life, and she came to appreciate their simple, traditional lifestyle, which was very different from the standards of her aristocratic kin, but she liked it nonetheless, and her admiration wasn't a belittling, patronizing one.
She also learned that just a few days prior, the mayors of the earth pony villages called capable, strong stallions to arms, as they were visited by curious ponies - with wings -, who asked them to come and fight with them against Grogar. The Pegasi had apparently found their way to the earth ponies too.
After she moved on, and finally neared Hornfort, she was surprised to see Cloudsdale dominating the twilight sky above the capital. As she got closer, she saw Pegasi soldiers, unicorn warriors and earth ponies bustling about around Hornfort.
The ponies, when they saw her coming, either saluted her, gave her a nod, or smiled at her, then she heard a distant voice shouting "Hail to Commander Gusty!"
Only a modest smile welcomed the hurrays and yays that encompassed her.
A good friend ran to Gusty and hugged her. "Thank goodness you're all right."
"Astral! Glad to see you're okay as well. So how did the battle go after I left the scene? Let me guess: we won?"
"You bet! We kicked the sleazebag's bally tail! After you took his bell, he couldn't fare against us, so he fled. We have him on the run, Gusty. And it's all thanks to you."
"Indeed," they heard a rusping voice. They saw a beefy Pegasus in body armor, accompanied by King Taxis. "I have been told about you, Commander Gusty."
Taxis said, "Gusty, allow me to introduce Archon Alestheus, sovereign ruler of the Pegasi."
"Your actions made it possible for us to score a victory against the tyrant." Alestheus continued. "This vicrory is a turning point in our fight."
"We now finally stand a chance. We will hunt Grogar down, if the coward doesn't come to us, and end this menace for good," Taxis solemnly announced, dauntless determination on his face.
"So Astral, what's up with all these ponies here back home?" Gusty asked, while taking a look at the busy warriors.
"Hornfort has kinda become the base of operations for the war against Grogar. The archon was kind enough to lend his troops to form a unified army to face Grogar. But they didn't want to leave Cloudsdale unguarded, so they brought it with them."
"And the earth ponies? I met them on my journey, and they said the Pegasi recruited them."
"After the battle, a Pegasus tracker squad went looking for you. They didn't find you, instead they found another pony tribe, so they invited them to join the party."
Gusty looked at a group of earth ponies, and was delighted to recognize one of them. "Hey, Broadhoof!"
"Ah, nice to see ya, ma'am!" the earth pony greeted.
"You too! I heard the earth ponies came to join the fight."
"Sure thing! We ain't have no magic like y'all or fancy tactics like 'em winged ponies, but we earth ponies are strong as a bull in matin' season, and there's a lotta us. Our strength is in our numbers and our... well, strength y'know."
Gusty looked at the earth ponies equipped with pitchforks and straightened scythes. Simple, but practical. "Great to have you around, Broadhoof. See you later," Gusty said with a wide smile. Though they shouldn't be the first line of defense... , she thought.
After finishing their 'tour' of the castle defense perimeter, Gusty voiced her worries, "Astral, I can't help but feel that the king and the archon may be too carried away by our recent victory, and think that this struggle will be won by armies and weapons."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Grogar is still very powerful, even without his artifact, and we make a mistake if we underestimate what he's capable of. Losing his talisman caught him off-guard, that's why he retreated last time. The next time we meet him, you can bet he'll be prepared. And last time he came alone. After what happened, he surely won't be that foolish again."
"Okay... well um, thanks for cutting back on my enthusiasm and hopefulness..."
"Astral, this is serious! If we rely on brute force solely, we fall into a trap again. We need a sort of safeguard. A magical solution to a magical problem. I should convene a meeting with the Guild."
The Sorcerers' Guild gathered for their session under the bare night sky. The benches were placed in a circle. Approximately thirty unicorns gathered for the occasion, young and old alike.
After the aged leader of the Guild opened the session, Gusty stared speaking. "I asked for this meeting to discuss dealing with Grogar. Although deprived of his talisman, his power might still be unmatched, and we shouldn't be unprepared. Not to mention the beasts still out there. It's possible the armies won't be able to eliminate him. If that were to happen, we'd need magic to permanently get rid of him."
"Maybe we could turn him to stone?" asked one unicorn.
"Then we'd need to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't escape," said another. "And I wouldn't be comfortable having him around. Stone or not."
"We could banish him. Somewhere far away, where he can't cause trouble and can't escape," proposed Gusty.
"Where? To the Underworld? The Realm of Tartarus?"
"No," the old one said. "He has been there. He knows that place. That's where the Windigos resided until he released them. Should we send him back there, he may be able to make use of the inherent darkness residing there."
"Then what do you suggest?"
Gusty looked up. The starry sky always cleared her mind, and made it easy to think. But this time, simply seeing the night sky itself gave her inspiration. "The sky..."
"The sky?"
"Let the sky be the place of his exile! He can't harm anyone there. He will be locked away from the beings down here!"
"Can it be done?"
"If we can control the Sun and the Moon, we must be able to send him up there."
"She's right," the leader said. "But it would take a very advanced spell. No such spell exists, so we'll need to write it ourselves. And it will take some ti-" He was cut off by the clang of the sentry horns around the castle perimeter. The sorcerers were all astonished: it meant that enemy had been spotted approaching.
In the middle of suddenly emerging cries for occupying battle positions, getting armed and preparing for attack, Gusty ran closer to see the enemy better. She saw an entire front line just revealed on the horizon.
Grogar was stepping gracefully at the front of his own 'army': he gathered thousands of his children from across the whole country - but mostly manticores and chimeras, they were the wildest of them all - to assault that one city, the citadel of the pony resistance, Hornfort.
Ever since Gusty stole the Bewitching Bell, he tried to ask his orb for help in locating it, to reveal before him just a sensation, just a taste of his lost power, but to no avail. He knew it was intact, somewhere waiting for him to reclaim his stolen right, before it turned into his lost legacy. He also knew Gusty was the only one who knew where it lay. It seemed that he still needed to take her alive, but for completely other reasons now.
After what she did to him, he would have just snuffed him out with pleasure. He revised his earlier stance on her. He no longer wanted her feculent essence. Retrieving his former greatness would have done it for him. But for that, he needed Gusty to spill her guts. And he was going to make her do it. But he wasn't going to let her die prematurely.
The others were nothing to him. They were even less in his eyes now than before. The ponies went too far. He really didn't want to deprive his shapeshifting creations of the pleasure of eradicating the ponies' race themselves, but he might just do it for them.
Gusty ran back to the sorcerers, who were busy getting inside the castle. "We need that spell, now!"
The gates of the city opened behind them, and Alestheus raced out from inside, wearing full body armor, to assist in the defense of Hornfort. He was a soldier, and he always led his troops from the front.
Taxis was a different kind of leader, he didn't have much competence in the profession of warfare. Nor was he allowed to get involved in battles. That royal protocol beautifully manifested itself by the king being girded by his bodyguards as he exited the castle. When he noticed what they were up against, he clearly flinched a little. Getting struck by reality was all he needed to cut back on his boldness, apparently.
"Majesty, we have a plan to exile Grogar, but we have to write a spell that can make it work," Gusty rattled off.
"Yes, of course. Get inside, you will not be disturbed. And I know such things cannot be rushed, but please hurry!"
"Alright, everypony! Listen up!" The divisions of the three tribes froze in place and stood at attention at the archon's thundering voice. "That ram right over there has been the greatest scourge in history that befell us. All of us. No pony family, be it Pegasus, unicron or earth pony, remained unaffected by the banes that sadistic, cruel, merciless monster made us endure. But we successfully endured them all. We remained. We haven't perished, instead here we stand, united and strong and unbroken! And now the tyrant is coming to obliterate us. Let us shout from the top of our lungs, to reach his ears: We will not be subdued ever again! We will not surrender, but we will bucking kick his sorry butt for good! " After the exploding exultation abated, he finished his speech, "This is going to be the last battle, the most glorious one ever to be fought. We must not, I repeat we must NOT fail this time, for everything depends on what happens here, tonight. Let's give them the best we've got, and do our children and offspring a favor, so that they'll only encounter tales of this darkness in tenebrous legendaries at best."
When Grogar and his regiment of abominations closed in, Grogar stopped, looked around but couldn't see Gusty anywhere. "Wipe them out," he gave the order, and the mass of predators behind him pressed forward at once.
The charge of the beasts was countered by the usage of catapults, with which the ponies slung barrels full of oil and powder, inflamed moments before launch. Each impact was accompanied by explosions that took out multiple attackers at once.
The catapults were an effective tactic until the enemy reached the defenders. The creatures were numerous, and the catapults didn't have enough firepower to hold them off, so they inevitably got to the first line of defense.
The unicorn warriors on the front blasted the attacking adversaries while the Pegasi soldiers assaulted with their weapons from above. The spears and arrows pelted down on the beasts with flawless precision, slashing their skulls and piercing their torsos. The unicorns lifted the monsters and threw them at one another, then eliminated them in their short immobile state.
But the scores of foes they faced were starting to overwhelm their first line, so the unicorns behind the front lines joined their beams as per established custom, and the Rainbow Beam fired at the first line of monsters keeping the pony front line busy. The huge blast annihilated most of the attackers and cleared the area of the perimeter, allowing the fighters to catch their breath for a short time.
The second wave closing in was met with heavy resistance from the ponies, who fiercely fought back, but suffered casualties nonetheless. There were very few ponies left of the first defense line, and the ponies of the second line went and reinforced their peers.
The unicorns shot deadly rays at the creatures, which burned holes through their bodies. The first line Pegasi, who had depleted their munition, landed on top of the beasts, and used daggers and sabers to take them out, though each take-down cost a lot of stabs and a lot of blood, and the beasts violently tried to shake them off.
The second line Pegasi, who still had ammunition, were on helping their kind out, targeting those who were distracted by ponies on their backs. The earth ponies fought bravely, and used their 'home-made' weapons with competence, going for the throat. Their raw strength came in handy as well, the heavy kicks of their hindlegs dazed them, while the explosives launched from the catapults decimated the far-away portions of the enemy force.
Gusty and the sorcerers heard the noises of the battle, but they completely disregarded it and focused on finishing the spell. They searched spell books to piece together the ingredients to make the spell work. And then, they had to fill in the missing parts on their own. Writing a spell of that magnitude, which was never seen before was a real challenge, and it required the collective intellect of the most competent sorcerers of the unicorns. Gusty only hoped they would finish the spell before it was too late.
The operators of the catapults ran out of ammunition, so they switched to using auxiliary projectiles: previously amassed piles of rocks. They didn't inflict as much damage as the fiery casks, but they were quite brutal and messy cartridges when they scored a hit and squashed a predator.
In the meantime, Grogar's creatures got dangerously close to the main force of defenders, to the point that the ponies couldn't really hold their positions, individual and attack-at-will tactics got more and more common by the minute. The unicorns fired their beams at the foes and occasionally erased them from the site of the fighting with their rainbow power, when they assembled enough strength. The Pegasi used 'hit and run', or more precisely, 'stab and fly away' tactics against the attackers. The earth ponies often banded together to wreste with a monster.
The castle gates opened, and unicorn guards rushed out, pulling chariots packed with more explosive barrels for the cannons.
Grogar saw the flaming missiles flying high, then precipitously raining down, and blowing up not far from him. One projectile was headed his way, but he shot a bolt and detonated it just before the impact. He commanded his troops stil waiting for his order, "Attack."
The ponies outnumbered the monsters, but that didn't automatically mean they had the vantage, and they wanted to come through with the least possible loss of life. And however large the ponies' main force was, many on the front fell victim to the sudden swarm of the enemy.
"We're taking heavy casualties, sir!" shouted Astral to the archon.
"Set up the shield!" ordered Alestheus.
The unicorns set up a protective aura around their positions, preventing more creatures from entering, and cutting the ones already inside off from the rest, which made them easier to take out.
The ponies' strategy was briefly lifting the shield each time the protected area was cleared of the enemy, letting some in, then closing the barrier again. The strategy was labeled the 'flood-gate', and its point was to deal with the enemy in small groups, rather than all at once.
But Grogar wasn't having it. He walked up to the shield, and the ponies inside gazed at him with rage.
"Don't let him in!" commanded Alestheus, but Grogar didn't need to be allowed entrance. Rather than letting a stand-off occur in the middle of the battle, he leveled a dense, golden ray at the transparent wall of the aura, weakening it with every passing second.
After about ten seconds of awaiting, the barrier shattered to shreds, and the ponies were exposed.
"Kill him!" shouted the archon, pointing his hoof at Grogar. The ponies all charged at the ram, but he obliterated his attackers with a blast, then bent down his head, rushed on those in front of him, and brutally gored them, as the monsters themselves took the offensive, tearing into the main force.
The catapults were ineffectual at close quarters, so the unicorns used their telekinesis to smash the enemy with the unmanned machineries' sheer weight. The scene had now become really nasty, as both sides entered all out fighting.
Alestheus came to shortly after he got knocked out by Grogar's shockwave, and found himself lying next to a derelict catapult. He looked up and saw torches, used for lighting and igniting the barrels.
As Grogar and his creatures fought the ponies, a manticore next to him was shot in the head with immaculate exactitude. The beast collapsed, two ends of an arrow sticking out of his two temples, where it entered and exited his brain. Grogar noticed the archon holding a bow in his hooves and smirking. He and the beasts escorting him targeted him, and encircled the Pegasus ruler.
"Well, archon, you deserve credit for helping the poor unicorns out, after their devastating trauma," he gloated. "Thank you for gathering all my worthwhile enemies in one place, so I can destroy them at one blow. It is most revered, your courteousness will not be forgotten."
"I don't know about that... but I know wherever I'm going, you're coming too." Grogar noticed too late the pile of barrels on fire, cowering behind the unattended catapult. It was now the Pegasus' turn to gloat. "See y'all on the other side!" Alestheus said, straightening himself up and saluting, going out a true soldier.
The deafening explosion drew the attention to the gigantic fireball enlightening the night. Both sides stopped fighting suddenly. The lingering quiet moment was disrupted by the faint sound of the castle gates opening.
Grogar - who was lying on the ground a few dozen meters away from the site of the explosion, injured in the blast, but living - opened his eyes and saw Gusty standing at the gate.
The unicorn engaged Grogar. As she charged at him, she dodged the shots he fired, then returned it. Her instant beam of magic knocked the disconcerted Grogar over.
"Enough!" he roared, and got to his hooves. "Where is my bell?! Where did you take it?!" he demanded, then shot his own beam at Gusty, who countered it. The two rays net half-way between them. "Give... me... back... my... bell!" Gusty struggled to fight off Grogar's direct power, but the sorcerers quickly came to her rescue, and used their magic to match Grogar's. Their joint efforts cut back on Grogar's beam, and he was overwhelmed.
Gusty looked around, and her attention was drawn to Broadhoof. He was lying in his blood, unmoving. Gusty's wrath was now ignited. The winds piercingly screamed as they came to life.
Soon, a raging squall reigned over the terrain outside Hornfort's walls. Gusty treated Grogar like a lifeless rag-doll, slamming him into the ground and burying him under everything she could lift with the wind, be it the catapults or trees or whole watchtowers.
Grogar freed himself from the pile of rubble atop him, and sent out a shockwave, that thrust away the sorcerers in awe at Gusty's impetuous behavior, but not Gusty, who successfully evaded it with a magic barrier. And now it was her turn.
Gusty made the winds crash down on Grogar and press him to the ground. This time Grogar couldn't resist her power, and was finally forced on his knees. "And in the end, you are the one, who kneels. " Gusty echoed what Grogar said to her earlier. Grogar got struck by the realization that the he may be in serious danger. He could not teleport, because he was paralyzed in the unicorn's hold.
But there was something he could do, that needed to be done. With his mind, he left Hornfort and traveled far away, to his lair. If he was about to be defeated, the ponies could find the larvae in his hideout. He didn't think they would kill them, but in order to prevent them from learning about his youngest children's existence before the time was right, he used his locomotion spell to shut them away on a distant land, away from ponydom. Whatever was about to happen to him, Grogar knew that the Changelings would grow up to be a formidable force and wage war on the pony race.
"Grogar!" thundered Gusty. He turned his attention to the unicorn, and saw her horn being ignited, and forming a glittering orb above her head, nourished by her magic and getting bigger and bigger. "You have come to our domain, abused the power you had, and damned us to eternal suffering." Pure magic vividly flew through Gusty, her mane and tail began to float, her eyes were glowing with white brilliance, and she was lifted up in the air, along with her foe. "But tonight your reign ends. Say goodbye to this world, for you will never set hoof on it again. Despite all your best efforts, however, we can be grateful to you for one thing..." From the orb, she shot a blinding trail of light at Grogar, whose flesh seemed to start to evaporate. "...for showing us that strength can be found in unity, and if we come together, we can overcome any obstacle." Grogar's body had become translucent and dotted by small, bright spots; in one word it looked like the coat of an Ursa. "Thank you for this valuable lesson, Grogar. We'll never forget it. Unlike you. Now get lost, and never return!" Gusty gave him one last push, that banished him from the Earth, carried to his heavenly prison by the spurt of light. When he arrived up there, four stars spread out, forming a new constellation on the face the night sky: the Ram.
"From today onward, the pony generations to come will look up to the sky, and be reminded of the tyrant's ultimate defeat, that brought the race of the ponies together!"
The ebullient burst of magic disappeared from Gusty's body, who weakly fell to the ground.
The monsters who had witnessed the banishment of their master had only one option: retreating. They dispersed, and disappeared into the night.
"Gusty!" Astral rushed to her aid. He held her in her hooves, and pleaded, "Gusty, answer me, please!"
After a while, she responded with a faint voice. "I'm so cold." When she opened her eyes, her formerly beautiful turquoise irides were now pale.
"Gusty! Your cutie mark!" Astral was horrified to notice that his friend's mark had disappeared.
"My magic deserted me, Astral..." Gusty could feel it, even if she didn't try to use her power. She could feel the void inside of her. The absence she felt made her a dead spot in the web of life. She had been disconnected from the universe. She had paid the ultimate price. "But..." she looked at the sky, "...at least Grogar is gone."
Astral helped her get up and get to the others. "Gusty..." the leader of the Guild saw what had happened. He knew how much magic that spell consumed.
"But it's just temporary... right?" Astral asked hopingly. Gusty turned to the old one, waiting for his answer.
"I-I don't know. Carrying out an act of that magnitude alone... her magic may be drained forever..."
Gusty looked around, and saw flames, dead bodies, tools of war lying all over the place and blood. The surviving ponies gave her sorrowful glares. She walked to Broadhoof, a husband and a father of two, and a simple but valuable person, who might be gone forever. When she reached the body, she checked his pulse, and her fears were proven right. He was dead. Gusty's thoughts centered around the widowed Sheen Blossom, the warm housewife, and the orphaned Daisy and Petunia, the snappy sisters, who'd all lost the most important stallion in their lives. Gusty decided, that she had to bring the news to the family.
"Was it worth it?" asked Astral.
Gusty laid down the cold arm in her hooves. "It should be easy to say 'yes'." After a long pause, she added, "But it isn't."
After thousands of years of oppression, the ponies were finally free. They were their own masters at last. But victory always comes at a price, and the bigger the victory, the bigger the cost...
By the morning, much of the mess had been cleared away. The fires had been extinguished, most the corpses of the monsters had been burned, and the heroes who gave their life for pony freedom were being escorted to their families.
Gusty was on her way to Broadhoof's family, having volunteered to take him home. Her magic hadn't returned, and she had spent time on evaluating the situation, and prepared to live her life with that deficit, but anything was possible.
"So, it is done," King Taxis said, after signing a document with the representatives of the Pegasi and the earth ponies. "Today, an alliance between the three tribes is established," he announced to the people gathered for the historic occasion. "The Era of Grogar, as well as the era of our isolation has ended. Let us start a new chapter in the history of ponykind. A chapter of cooperation. Where each tribe uses their special talents to contribute to our prosperity."
The document ruled that in the future:
unicorns would be responsible for bringing the day and night and the magical defense of the land,
Pegasi would take over the management of the weather all across the land,
earth ponies would take care of supplying food.
The King concluded his speech, "We must never forget those brave ones, who made our liberation possible. Above all, we must honor the heroism of the unicorn Gusty. May her memory be preserved by the posterity as Gusty the Great, the pony, who freed her people from the age of darkness, and the pony, who brought about the long enduring coexistence of the tribes in harmony and friendship..."
Sealed away in narrow darkness buried under the snow, high above the icy surface, there resides the Bewitching Bell, waiting to be reclaimed by its master, or anyone daring enough to seek it out...
Author's Note
As with the previous chapter, the theory I adapted in this story - namely, that the Ram constellation in the sky is actually an exiled Grogar - was introduced to me by the Youtuber known as Sawtooth Waves, and I instantly bought into it. And thus ends my first My Little Pony fanfiction. Writing it took longer than I expected, and it's not even a long story. Thank you for reading it, and any feedback is welcome, providing it's in a civilized manner. (duh)
