The Emissaries

The bloodmoon shone in the sky. Shadowcorn and his boys ran. Over the green plain, through the forest to the clearing. Suddenly, a beam hit the ground in front of them. Alicorns wearing full body armor with swords emerged from the trees. Shadowcorn stepped protectively in front of his boys and fired a magic beam at one of the alicorns. However, they held out their sword and absorbed the beam. Two alicorns jumped forward and grabbed Shadowcorn. He tried to fight back but couldn't do anything. An alicorn emerged with the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Armed Forces. Shadowcorn was dragged aside so that the commander could see Shadowcorn's frightened boys.

"What should we do with them, sir?", an alicorn asked.

The commander glanced at Shadowcorn, then at the boys, and finally said:

"His majesty only asked for the one creature. Execute the other abominations. "

Four alicorns lined up in a row and charged a powerful and, above all, deadly beam.

"NO!" Shadowcorn called out.

He concentrated and fired a fireball from his horn at the ground beneath him. There was a little explosion. The two surprised alicorns jumped back releasing him at the same time as the four other alicorns fired their beam. Without hesitation, Shadowcorn jumped between the beam and his boys...

Shadowcorn awoke startled. He was hyperventilating in his bed. Slowly, his senses came back to reality. It was morning already. He was laying in his bed in his new room in the castle. He looked around. Everything was exactly as he had left it yesterday: the shelves on the walls were filled with equestrian and self-written books about the various magical spells and rituals. There was a desk on the wall opposite his bed. A map of Equestria hung over it. Shadowcorn shook his head. Suddenly, he heard a scream, followed by an explosion and another ongoing scream. He jumped out of his bed and ran out into the corridor. His boys also stuck their heads out of their rooms. Suddenly, Spike ran around a corner screaming. Several beams hit the wall he had just been in front of. Shadowcorn rolled his eyes. He knew immediately what was going on. And he was right: His brothers and sisters, fresh out of bed as it seemed as they weren't wearing their armor, turned around the same corner and shot several more beams at Spike, who jumped and crouched to avoid them. When he saw Shadowcorn, he hid behind him. Shadowcorn's siblings also came to a halt.

"What are you doing?! Get out of the way so we can get rid of the assassin!", Prostatis called out.

"Spike is neither an assassin, nor from the Dragon Empire, which doesn't even exist in this world. He is a friend and practically takes the position of the butler in this castle. "

"I prefer: assistant.", Spike noted.

"Whatever. In any case, he's not a threat to you.", Shadowcorn said.

Motus and Prostatis slowly turned back, but still gave Spike suspicious looks.

"A dragon as a servant. Now I've seen everything.", muttered Motus as the two went back to the guest room.

"Phew. Thanks, Shadowcorn. I just wanted to let you know that breakfast is ready. But what did you mean by 'assassin'?"

"The Alicorn Empire has a neighbor, the Dragon Empire. The dragons there are bigger, however. Dragons of your size are very rare, so they can usually sneak in anywhere. Mostly to carry out assassinations."

"Yieks. No wonder they're so suspicious of me."

When Starlight Glimmer entered the dining room, the rest of the residents and guests were already at the table. Shadowcorn sat exactly in the middle, Motus and Prostatis to his left and Shadowcorn's boys, Twilight and Spike to the right. From time to time, Spike glanced nervously at Prostatis, who in turn gave him suspicious looks. Starlight sat down next to Twilight.

"Ah. So there are also non-dragons here.", Prostatis noted.

"Shadowcorn's siblings aren't big fans of dragons.", Twilight whispered to her.

"Which surprises me. Didn't Fortis promised in his great speech to end hostilites with the dragons once and for all? Don't tell me he started a war?!", Shadowcorn asked.

"His majesty is doing his best, but the dragons are not very... cooperative.", Prostatis answered.

"Warlord Zorak is the oldest dragon and therefore the last of all dragons who lived during the Great War. He knows the horrors of war and worships Warlord Trion. But the other dragons disagree. Not too long ago, we helped him uncover a conspiracy to take him down but the mastermind, General Kreing, is very popular as he openly calls for war at every opportunity to overthrow the Alicorn Empire and to enslave all alicorns once more.", Motus elaborated further.

"And yet still Fortis wants to march into another dimension with his army? Didn't you say he calmed down? This sounds more like he got even more obsessed to me…"

"Come now, Caudata. You of all ponys should know best that forgivness isn't exactly one of his strengths. Especially after…the accident.", Prostatis said.

"Prostatis!", Motus quietly hissed at him.

Shadowcorn jumped up and stomped with his forehoofs on the table.

"I told you before: That's wasn't my fault! Those damm bullys sabotaged me!"

"And we believed you back then. Just like we believe you now. But Fortis-", Motus began before being interrupted by Prostatis.

"As she said. But that still doesn't make you completely innocent. If you wouldn't have trifled with the elemantal magic of the Ancients, non of that would have happened!"

Shadowcorn jumped on the table, as did Prostatis while Motus shook her head and muttered:

"Not again. Ancients, give me strength."

"Well excuse me for not wanting to blow the ONE chance I had in my life to get the approval from Adika I craved for all my life and maybe get a second chance, not just with him but with everyone who mocked and looked down upon me all my life!", Shadowcorn yelled.

"There were plenty of other ways to shine. Sure, you may not be naturally gifted in magic like the rest of us and sure, you may have only just passed basic magic but it was because of that lack of natural giftedness and your failure at the basic stuff that you always worked harder than anyone else! Your score in Battle Magic proves that! If you wouldn't have bailed that night, you would have ranked third. One rank higher than Motus and only one rank lower than me! Father wouldn't have had a choice other than to be proud of you! But by trying to take the easy way and mettle with powers neither you nor anyone else was able to master since the Ancients, you ruined any chance of that!", Prostatis yelled back.

"That is a great argument, dear brother. Except that it only works in hindsight! I was a bit too pre-occupied trying to hide that the constant abuse I had endured for most of my life was actually getting to me to even think about something like that! You don't know how it was getting mocked, insulted and verbally and physically abused just because you looked different! I was at my limit! I just wanted it all to end! So when I saw the opportunity, I of course grabbed it! As far as I knew back then, it was my only way to finally escape it all! What else should I have done?! What else would you have done if you were in my place?!"

"Now how about we all calm down and-", Starlight began but Prostatis yelled at her:

"Shut up, wing-less! This is non of your damm buisness!"

"ENOUGH!", Motus angrily shouted.

She flew into the air and emitted a bright light off her horn blinding everyone forcing both brothers to stop. Then she landed between them and said in a strict tone of voice:

"You two! Sit. Down. NOW! Mind your manners, for Olympus sake!"

Both Shadowcorn and Prostatis followed her order without a word and sat back down. Afterwards, Prostatis turned to Starlight and said, now calmer:

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. I shouldn't have done that."

"It's okay. But you two seem to have some…unresolved issues. Maybe you want to talk about it?"

"What do you mean?", both brothers asked at the same time.

"Well, maybe if you both tell your sides of the storys, you will also be able to understand one another."

"What, are you a school councillor now?", Spike asked sarcastically.

Starlight gave him an angry look before turning back to Shadowcorn and Prostatis.

"As it just so happened, I'm unbiased and have nothing much to do today. So. What do you say?"

"Hm. I mean, we don't have much to do, either. So I think it's worth a try.", Prostatis said and both Shadowcorn and Motus agreed.

"Great. I know just the place. Follow me, please.", Starlight said.

They left the room and went straight to the library. There, Starlight went and got a big couch and a sofa. The siblings sat down on the couch while Starlight sat down on the sofa. Then she said:

"Great. Now let's begin."

"I think before we do that, there's some backstory on our family and the Alicorn Empire I feel is important for you to know before you can understand anything.", Motus began.

"You see, a bit over 7000 years ago, the Alicorn Empire was ruled by the latest descendants of a line descending from Coligo the Unifier, who claimed descendence from the Ancients and united all alicorns into the Alicorn Empire. While initially being quite popular with both nobles and the common ponies, over the millennia of unchecked rule, his descendants fell more and more into madness and tyranny until the, at that time, current monarchs called for war with the Dragon Empire, something no one wanted, and subsequently called for everyone who did anything less but to enthusiastically agreed with them to be arrested and executed. In response, Rextas, the head of the royal guard, the best friend of our father as well as the father of my husband, the current crown prince, rose up in rebellion against them with our father being one of the first to join his cause. Though at first, it was a small rebellion with only the first two batallions of the royal guard, the first led by our father and the second by Proelia, Rextas' lover and future wife, as well as a few civilians, including our mother Diglit, a kind yet strong willed pony and a master in healing and protection magic, joining the cause. Too many were simply afraid of the monarchs who, while being unpopular were also very powerful due to the blood of the Ancients flowing through their veins. But as the rebellion continued to win battle after battle and due to the mercyfull nature of its leadership towards those who only served the monarchs out of fear, it grew until the entire Alicorn Empire was up in arms against the tyrants. In a last ditch attempt to get the situation back under control, the king and queen used a dark ritual to infuse their son Discorn with chaos magic. Luckily, he hadn't had time to master his new powers. During the last battle, he accidentally opened a portal to another dimension and fell into it. Though this also meant he survived, unlike his parents, who died putting up quite the fight. Afterwards, our step-father was hailed as the new king. However, he renamed that position into 'crown prince' as his ancestor, the middle of three brothers, the oldest of whom being Coligo and the youngest being the ancestor of our lineage, after founding the royal guard took an oath alongside his younger brother to Coligo saying that both them and their descandents would always serve and protect the realm and never claim the title of king or queen themself. He also made our father the head of the royal guard and married Proelia. Abother few centuries laster, our parents married as well. Then, 2375 years after the rebellion, Fortis was born. 18 years later, Prostatis and I were born and another 7 years later, Caudata followed. And that is where our story begins.", Motus ended the prologue.

Shadowcorn continued:

"Adika was quite strict and a perfectionist. He expected us to be as close to perfect as possible and didn't tolerate any flaw. So as you may expect, he wasn't too fond of me as I was born with a tail too small to be seen with the naked eye making me 'forever flawed' as he put it on one of his very few nicer days. In fact, I've been told that at my birth, the moment he noticed that I was different, he immediatly left the room uttering only one word: 'Shadowcorn', the name he would from then on refer to me as. It's said that one of the Ancients, who was tailless as well, was named Shadowcorn. Ironically, as you know, it's also the name I chose after my transformation into, well, this. Though unlike my dear siblings believe, it's not because Adika gave me this name but because of the many similarities I share with the original Shadowcorn. My mother however wasn't bothered by my lack of tail even giving me the fitting name 'Caudata', a word from the old tongue meaning 'without a tail'. Unfortunatly, 'perfectionism' wasn't limited to Adika. It was very much common throughout all noble families. That's because in the Alicorn Empire, nobility isn't something you earned once and your descandence will have it 'til the end of your line. Every 100 years, the head of every family in the Alicorn Empire sans the royals and families who rose to the rank of nobility less than fifty years prior are tested to see whether they are still worthy of their title, position and privilages. This resulted in an unspoken cast system among the nobility where each family would completely devote themself to a specific trade or task such as life-time military service, first-class cooking or finance management. This obsession with perfection and flawlessness also meant that literally everyone looked down on me. Whenever I showed my face outside, I was mocked, insulted and called names. This led to me refusing to go outside, something Adika almost enthusiastically supported giving me plenty of books and even setting up a training field in our backyard so that I wouldn't leave our property. At first I thought he finally came around and started caring about me. But, of course, the only reason he supported my refusal to go outside was that it meant people wouldn't have to look at 'his disgraceful freak'. My mother was the only one with whom I went outside as she had the weird affect on ponys to calm them down and made them ignore me, which was really the best I could hope for. Unfortunatly, that was not to last. You see, ten years after my birth, a terrible and mysterious disease hit the Alicorn Empire. No one knows where it came from though the most popular theory is that it was conjured by some rogue dragon mages. It spread rapidly and soon, almost everyone was infected. Even our mother, wiedly regarded as the best healer since the Ancients, was unable to do even as much as stop it. So she did the only thing she could: Using an ancient emergency spell, she made the ultimate sacrifice by transferring the disease from everyone infected to herself. She then quarantined herself in an abandoned house and requested that every morning and evening someone were to knock on the door and that if she failed to answer just once, the house shall be set ablaze immediatly. Three days later, the smoke of the buring house was covering the morning sky. Afterwards, Adika became even worst. It didn't became uncommon for him to lament how unfair it was that his beloved wife was gone yet I was still there and he used every little opportunity to physically abuse me. But all that was only the prelude to what was to come. You see, every 100 years, when the currently youngest member of the royal family reaches an age ending with the number '75', a special kind of school is held for 25 years. This school is only for nobles who are at least 50 years old at that time and hadn't attended it yet. Usually, children in the Alicorn Empire get homeschooled from the age of 5 onwards in things like basic magic and basic battle magic. But this special school taught much more like advanced battle magic, rituals or potion brewing. Every noble was obligated to attend this special school. On one hand, this excited me and my siblings as the prospect of extending our understanding and ability to use magic does. On the other hand, it also frightend me due to the fact that I was basically forced to be around other nobles, who, as you may remember, weren't exactly too fond of me. And unfortunatly, those fears proved to be on point. While the teachers took their jobs serious enough to not treat me differently, my fellow students didn't. I was subjected to physical and verbal abuse from the start. And the worst offender was the 'star' of the school: Fortis, the future heir to the throne of the Alicorn Empire. He was well liked by everyone and was quite pleasent towards everyone. Except me, of course. At first, my siblings protected me as best they could. But as their own popularity rose due to their status and natural talent in magic and as Fortis started showing interest in Motus, they hadn't had the time to be around me. Though to be fair, I wasn't too keen on being around the large groups following them everywhere as well. So it's not like it was entirely their fault either. At least back at home they were able to keep Adikas mood good enough for him to stop his physical abuse most of the time by informing him of their latest praises and achivements and later on by Motus giving him updates on her relationship with Fortis. This went on for about 15 of the 25 years. But then, one day, while on a school trip to the ruines of a castle once belonging to the Ancients, underneath a loose stone slap laying in a hollowed out pit I found something that would change my life forever: a box containing scrolls and books on which the Ancients wrote down their spells and wisdom as well as the journal of the original Shadowcorn. This, of course, included the elemental magic of the Ancients. The knowledge on how to use it was thought to be lost forever as it was the only kind of magic the Ancients never taught anyone. At first I thought about sharing this discovery. But then I had a better idea: Every 5 years, there was a talent show. The next one was coming up only a few months away. My plan was to learn how to use the elemental magic until then, impress everyone and finally get the approval from Adika I craved for all my life. And so began months of long training. I would sneak out of the house regularly to train far away from any pony as I didn't want the suprise to be spoiled. But just a few weeks before the talent show, Adika saw me sneaking out and followed me. He witnessed the performance I had been working on utilizing every part of the Ancients elemental magic. I called it 'The Dance of the Elements'. He soon made his presence known. At first, I was afraid as I did sneak out of the house which was enough reason for him to give me a beating. But instead, he did something I never seen him do before: He smiled at me. And then, for the first time in my life, he said the words I wanted to hear ever since I was a child: 'I'm proud of you, my son.' That was the happiest day of my life. From then on until the talent show, our relationship was slowly improving. The abuse completely stopped and he even apologized to me for it, something he didn't even do to my siblings whom he was as good of a father to as he was a bad one to me. Though, of course, he couldn't keep it a secret and openly bragged that his youngest son mastered the one thing no pony managed to do since the Ancients, not even the royals or the first line of monarchs who were direct descendants of the Ancients after all. And soon, our house was almost besieged by ponys who wanted to see the pony who mastered elemental magic and, of course, see him showcase his power. Even the royals came down to me in order to offer me a high position in their court as teacher of elemental magic once I graduated school. Things also improved at school were my popularity rose to a level only rivaled by Fortis. Speaking of whom, he even humbled himself by publicly apologizing to me and calling his past behaviour 'a disgrace'. Unfortunatly, as you propably could tell already, it was not to last. You see, Fortis had three henchponys who took over his bullying 'duties' after Motus managed to convince him to just let me be. And those three saw bullying me as their greatest joy in life. They were, of course, not too fond of the fact that bullying me was not an option anymore so they instead decided to sabotage me. The night of the show they snuck underneath the stage and using a so-called 'prank ritual', a ritual not designed for combat but in its effect usefull enough to not be discarded, to temporarly block my control over my magic."

"Well, thats what he claims happened anyways. But no proof and no witnesses made it look much more like baseless accusations.", Prostatis interrupted.

Both Motus and Shadowcorn gave him an angry look before the latter continued:

"Anyways, the effect of the ritual lasts only a few seconds but, unfortunatly, they used it exactly as the fireball which was part of my 'Dance of the Elements' was circeling back around towards the audience. With the sudden loss of control and with the centrifugal force having made it quite fast, it was propelled forwards directly towards Motus. Luckily, Prostatis managed to react almost instantaneously and put up a shield protecting her. But I knew: Even with no one injured, this accident was the end of my life in the Alicorn Empire. And Fortis' look in his eyes as he looked at me all but confirmed that. If looks could kill, I would have died a series of extremely gruesome deaths that day. So while everyone was busy praising Prostatis, I ran back home, frose the door, packed up as much as I could using my bed sheet as bag, grapped some food and flet Mount Olympus knowing Adikas wrath was indescribable. Though strangely, he did not come home this entire time."

"That's because you were right. He was so furious, he couldn't even express his emotions. So he simply…stopped. When both Prostatis and I tried to stop him, he merely replied that he gave up and wouldn't give you any attention at all moving onwards, including negative one. He correctly predicted everything you did after you ran home and patiently waited until he was sure you were gone. Then, he burned everything you owned you couldn't take with you, sealed off your room by replacing both the window and door with a wall, erased all remaining traces of your existence and forbate us from every mentioning your name in his presence ever again henceforth pretending we were his only children. It wasn't until he was laying on his death bed that he spoke your name again asking us to tell you something if we'd ever see you again."

"Let me guess: He will never forgive me, even in death, he wishes me all the bad luck there is and will never understand how I could be his and mothers child."

Both Prostatis and Motus looked at him confused.

"How did you…?", Prostatis started asking.

"Come now. What else could it be? Anyways, afterwards, I traveled to the only known place I knew no one would ever look for me: A large forest area not too far from the nothern swamps. It was said that there were monsters in this forest which is why no one wanted to go near it. Luckily, it was only two days away by hoove, one by wing and only a few hours via our flying carts as Mount Olympus is the most northern point of the Alicorn Empire and therefore the city the furthest away from the capital of the Dragon Empire. Once there, I used a spell from the Ancients to built a hut. And after I sent those two a memory bubble so they would know where to find me, I began a new life devoted to unlocking every secret magic held, including dark magic. Something both of them would repeatedly warn me about as it was forbitten and as it was said to have driven the original Shadowcorn insane. Though thanks to Shadowcorns journal, I was able to learn from his mistakes and be patient about it. The only problem was the food as I had no farming skill. But that was solved soon enough when a visitor came by. Though I don't exactly know how he found me…"

"Come now, Caudata!", Prostatis said, "Your choice in refuge wasn't even close to being unpredictable. Literally EVERYONE knew where you were. It was literally the only place in the entire world you could have gone."

"Okay, okay. Point taken. Anyways, this visitor was named Melior and was a noble and the owner of all magic shops in the Alicorn Empire. He was considered 'weird' since he was more concerned with logic and practicality rather than with emotion and looks. This made him one of the few ponys who didn't look down upon me. Since I was living near the forest, he figured I wasn't afraid of it. You see, the forest is the only place where you can find certain ingredients for potions making them quite valuble. But there was a shortage since he couldn't find anyone to go into the forest and was too busy doing it himself. Therefore he offered me a job: I would get the ingredients and bring them to him in the middle of every 7th night. In return, he would get me eight days-worth of fresh supplies as payment. On one of these trips, I also met a group of four small orphaned alicorns who were disowned by their parents due to being born mute. I took them in and raised them as my own. Luckily, I managed to convince Melior to increase the amount of supplies he gave me by promising they would later help me gather more ingredients. Speaking of whom: How did things go for my former boss?", Shadowcorn asked.

Motus and Prostatis exchanged an uneasy look. Prostatis said:

"Unfortunatly, not great to say the least. Shortly after you left, he barged into the throne room and openly complained about how our 'inability to look past the rules in favor of the results' cost him one of his most valuble workers and the only source of those special ingredients growing in the forest. Unfortunatly, his inability to understand emotions horribly backfired as his majesty accused him of aiding you in your unlawful acts. He was stripped of everything he owned and had build up throughout his life and was branded a traitor. If it wasn't for Motus pleading for him, who would have bing executed. Instead, he was cast out of the Alicorn Empire. Both Motus and I offered him help in return for his kindness towards you. Unfortunatly, having lost everything including the ability to rebuild any of it, he soon lost the last thing he had left, his will to live, and died shortly afterwards. Though at the very least, we did manage to give him a proper burial."
There was a moment of silence in the room. Shadowcorns eyes were filled with tears. He closed his eyes and let them flow silently. After a short while, he muttered something and opened them up again.

"Thanks for telling me.", he said to his siblings.

He breathed in and out strongly once. Then he continued:

"Let's end this story now, shall we? After finishing school, Fortis had reached the age of 100 which is the age you are considered an adult in the Alicorn Empire. Upon graduating, his parents retired and he was crowned the new ruler of the Alicorn Empire. Just one year later, he married Motus. I didn't come to the wedding as both my siblings and I new it would have been a very bad idea. Then, another 300 years later, Adika retired and the royal guard elected Prostatis, who became a commander less than 50 years prior, as their new head. This also led to him becoming a lot more jerkish."

"Being the head of the royal guard is quite the stressful job. It doesn't leave much room for 'being nice'. If you do that job without it affecting how you act outside of work, you're not doing it right.", Prostatis defended himself.

"Anyways, after another 100 years, the fateful night came where me and my boys left the Alicorn Empire forever. You see, I had unlocked every secret Shadowcorn had wriiten down in his journal. So I started experimenting with new ones. Unfortunatly, new secrets meant that there were no mistakes made prior I could learn from. To make sure I wouldn't succumb to it, I prepared a ritual Shadowcorn had come up with but never managed to try out. Unfortunatly, something went horribly wrong. I don't know exactly what happened. There was a bright light. Then everything went dark. The next thing I remember was waking up with my boys laying around me missing their manes and me looking like, well, this. There was also a giant whole in the ceiling. My guess is that the magical energy which turned me into how I look now went literally through the roof up into the sky. Which meant everyone could see it. Which, in turn, meant Fortis propably could see it as well."

He looked at Motus and Prostatis who both nodded. Then he contuned.

"After I made sure that my boys were okay, I took them outside. I used my magic to collapse the house hoping the inevitable army Fortis would send to arrest me would be fooled by it thinking we would have died via the house collapsing. We then ran towards the dimensional portal located nearby. While it hadn't been used in millennia, the knowledge to activate it was still preserved and taught at the special school. Unfortunatly, I miscalculated the time we had. We were spotted by the army before we could reach it. So we ran through a small forest nearby hoping to eventually lose them. But when we reached a clearing in the woods, we were cornered. As the royal guardsmen prepared to kill my boys and fired magical blasts at them I jumped between them and held them off long enough for my boys to get out of the way. But we were still surrounded. With soldiers closing in from all sides, I called upon all my strength to defend my boys and get them to safty. And that's where it happened. I don't know whether it was always laying in me dormant until that very day or whether the ritual and my subsequent transformation had something to do with it. Regardless, suddendly, I felt an entirly new kind of magic flowing through me. I channeled it in my horn and led it all out. That was the first time I ever used the Black Light Spell. To my suprise, everyone around me was blinded while I could see perfectly fine. I quickly grabbed my boys and ran back to the portal. There, I found my siblings waiting for me. They told me they had orders to arrest me. But they weren't going to do it. They told me they knew what I wanted to do and would allow it but threatend me that, if we'd ever see us again, they would arrest me."

"We only did that to make sure you'd never come back. We didn't mean it.", Motus said.

"Don't worry. I believe you.", Shadowcorn said before telling Starlight:

"Well. And I think I've already told you the rest."

Starlight nodded. But Motus said:

"You may have told her but not us. Where did you end up after jumping into that portal? You just moved in here so I presume this wasn't the world you ended up in, was it?"

"No, it wasn't. I ended up in an empty dimension called 'the Void' which had its own set of, at times, strange rules. There, I met another outcast who would late pretend to be my friend but in reality used me for his own gain: Discorn."

Motus swolloed.

"So it was indeed Discorn who devestated Mount Olympus. This all but confirms it. But he has to be about 8000 years old by now. That's far older than the current oldest alicorn in history which reached the age of 6788. How did he survive that long?"

"It's because of the Void. Time barely moves there. This is why I look the same as back when I left. Due to extended exposure to it, me, my boys and Discorn will propably continue to age much more slowly for a long time meaning, if we aren't killed, we'd be able to reach an age somewhere in the tenthousands, if not even hundredthousands."

"That is…concerning considering we weren't able to capture Discorn. After he was depowered, the moment both he and we realized what happened, he immediatly teleported out before anyone was able to cast a counter spell. We have been looking for him ever since and even warned the Dragon Empire but not even our HIVEyes were able to do as much as spot him.", Prostatis said.

"That's no suprised. As arrogant as he can be, he is no fool. He propably picked up a few tricks watching me train my own abilities for exactly such a case. Which makes it even more foolish for Fortis to want to take his entire army with him tomorrow."

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knocking at the door. Twilight entered and said to Motus and Prostatis:

"Please excuse the interruption but Princess Celestia has requested your immediate presence in Canterlot. She wants to talk about a possible future diplomatic relationship with the Alicorn Empire."

"Of course. Let's go.", Motus said to Prostatis and both left the room.

Starlight went up to Twilight.

"Is everything alright? You seem…nervous."

"It's just that the request was delivered by a guard instead of the ususal dragon breath delivery. That's quite strange. Something feels off."