Magehold Nights

The trip to the chapel was relatively uneventful as it conveniently fell upon one of the well patrolled roads in the city. They entered at the tail end of one of the sermons to the masses of scholars and clerics who worked to understand, copy, and purify the litany of horrific arts practiced within the former holdings of the Dread League. The sermon itself covered diligence and safety in hostile lands, preaching perseverance and advising finding comfort in the faith in times of struggle.

A few creatures turned their heads to observe the two coming in, Bolt bowed her head, sitting down in one of the rear pews with Poppy. The unicorn sat down, smiling towards her friend as the sermon continued. Bolt turned to the priest, invested in the message despite it obviously not being directed towards her.

“You like this kind of stuff? He’s just telling the griffons to be at peace in their duty, our commanders said the same things without moral filler.” Poppy whispered, frowning towards Bolt. She was not enjoying listening to a Griffon dictate a theology.

Bolt frowned, shrugging, “There is a sense of community that comes from being here. It makes me feel more like, I don’t know, that I’m part of something good instead of just being a blight on the world.”

Poppy smiled awkwardly, placing a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. She’d sit in relative silence for the rest of the sermon, hesitant to nitpick the minutia of it all when her friend seemed genuinely moved by the message.

Eventually, the sermon concluded and the majority of the griffons returned to their duties. Bolt stood up and gestured for Poppy to follow. The two went down the stairs towards the basement level and were met with the familiar scent of incense.

The Father Fordwing raised a claw in greeting towards the duo, “Ah, hello again miss Bolt, I see you’ve brought a friend.” He looked over towards Poppy, “May I have the pleasure of knowing your name miss?”

“Poppy Field.” The earth pony responded, her focus resting momentarily on the venerable priest, before quickly shifting to his two guards. She sighed before sitting down next to Bolt.

“I heard about what you both did for that priest last night, It was a brave deed and honorable in the eyes of Arcturius.” He approvingly patted the unicorn’s shoulder before turning towards Poppy, “Your expression towards my guards, and your annoyance throughout service suggests you’re not one of the faith, but my gratitude to you is great as well. If the approval of heavens doesn't provide you satisfaction, know that two good creatures are alive due to your initiative.”

Poppy looked down, smiling, she wasn’t used to compliments, nor was she used to being told she was a decent creature. “Right, I couldn’t just let Bolt get killed. Someponies gotta make sure that idealistic dummies can keep on being idealistic.” She lightly punched the unicorns shoulder before looking up, wearing a warm enough expression, her attention successfully purchased through a small kindness.

The priest looked towards Bolt, his gaze lacking the hostile judgement common amongst the occupying force “I hope you took the time to eat, your memory on this event is very important, and, I’m glad you found a companion to accompany you as the topic is sadly not a comfortable one. That is, from your record you were present at the village of Hearthglen, north of The Tarpian Rock on the fourteenth of November, 1013? Is this correct?” His voice was serious, but calm. The two knights to his side tensed up slightly at the mentioning of the name.

Bolt’s face paled and the confidence acquired from the time spent the prior day faded away and she once again found herself the nervous filly that wanted to turn tail and run away the night prior. Poppy looked over, her expression was confused though sympathetic, "Everything alright Bolt?”

“Y-yeah, I’m, I just need a moment.” the unicorn forced a smile, looking towards Poppy. Bolt’s eyes screamed out for some kind of relief as she grasped the symbol of Arcturius, the metal edge dug into the side of her forelimb as she turned back towards the priest. “I, Yes, I was there, Sir.”

The priest nodded, “Good, I know this is difficult, just as a smith can turn a murderer’s blade into a plowshare, so too can you turn what happened into something to bring the world closer to harmony. It is important that I hear your account of that day.”

The unicorn took a deep breath, tightening her grip on the symbol further, it dug deeper into her hide but proved ineffective at staving off the panic attacking her mind. The unicorn’s gaze darted between the two knights before resting on her hooves. Poppy placed a hoof on Guiding Bolt’s shoulder “Hey, it's alright, just, calm down. I don’t think he’s mad at you for whatever you did, and if he is I’ll beat him up for calling you down here just to get your hopes up with the whole you’re a good po-”

Bolt hugged the earth pony, squeezing her tightly, finding a degree of comfort that the symbol alone failed to deliver. “I’m a bad pony,” She murmured. Poppy returned the hug, taking a bit of silent relief in the fact that her lung capacity was a matter of comfort more than continued survival.

“You’re alright, it’s alright.” The earth pony stared at the griffon, a confused and wide eyed expression present on her face, her pupils pointed towards him, then back down to the unicorn repeatedly.

This went on for three very uncomfortable minutes as the priest patiently looked somewhere away from the scene, giving them time to work it out.. Sniffling, the Unicorn returned to the sitting position. “We’d just broken through the fort line north of the Rock. My Executor had just gotten news of her sister falling to a knight on the southern front,” The unicorn took a breath through her nose, focusing on her hooves, “General Skellinore tended to try and keep executions quick and painless, but, most of us hadn’t slept in three days, and,” The unicorn paused, looking down and away. Poppy scooted closer to the unicorn, wrapping a forelimb around her back, she smiled towards Bolt before looking back to the priest.

“...And most of us had lost friends, the anger was infectious and it multiplied as stories continued to amass. I hated the enemy with the same passion as everypony else. We did some terrible things to the garrison forces who didn’t manage to fall back or kill themselves. I usually stayed in the back but a ghoul led me to a griffon who’d hid in a closet with a grenade, it was a dud and when I got there he was already being beaten by a mob. Everypony encouraged me to join in and I did. I should have killed him quickly, but,” She sighed, looking down and taking a deep breath, wrapping a forelimb around her symbol. “I didn’t, we ended up breaking most of his bones before eating him”

The priest nodded, looking at her with a warm but distant expression, tapping a claw to his beak he’d speak up “Do you recall the weather or any kinds of sound that came off as peculiar?” He’d wave his claw and look at one of the guards who walked off towards a back room, before returning his attention to the unicorn.

“It was frigid, snowing heavily, I can’t remember if there was any sound but everything felt a bit more dreamlike than usual. Though, again that might have been the sleep deprivation.” Bolt added, finding a bit of relief in talking about the weather.

The griffon nodded, “Right, this happened at the fort line, and not the village, correct?” Bolt nodded as the priest spoke, “please continue.”

“We were under direct orders to keep moving and eventually came to Hearthglen. Visibility was low due to heavy snowfall and it was just starting to get dark when we arrived. We sent in mindless undead for the initial wave to test the defenses as usual, and, as expected the town was filled with explosives and armed townsfolk fortified in buildings.” She looked down, leaning her head against Poppy for a moment before continuing. “As the zombies fell I was ordered to fire upon the buildings where gunshots were coming from. I’d gotten my howitzer aimed when my Executor approached me and the other artilleryponies, she passed out swords, spears and other old weapons we’d pretty much only trained with prior to the war. She put us amongst the mindless undead and sent us in with them, telling us the garrison was small and we deserved a chance at bloodshed too. I felt energized, we all did, a bloody melee was what we were told was coming when we were recruited, and we were finally going to get one.” The unicorn tightened her grip on the symbol before continuing, “They put up a fight but we had the numbers advantage. After a while, the mindless forces managed to drag the thirty odd surviving griffons into the town square and tie them up, we uhh…” The unicorn paused, shifting her weight forward against the table, she’d tap her hooves uncomfortably, hoping that the noise would somehow justify the pause.

Conveniently, Guiding Bolt’s anxiety-spurred drum solo bought time for the knight ro make his way back. He pushed a phonograph into the room, leaving it beside the elderly cleric. The priest, noting the pause began to speak “Please tell me if you recognize this sound from Hearthglen.”

Bolt nodded, prepared to answer the question which prompted one of the knights to begin turning the crank. An eerie song came from the machine, the overall tune was consonant, something that anycreature might feel prompted to hum along to nostalgically. Yet, underneath the piece was a fierce dissonance, a wrathful underkey that appealed to the harshness of cannonfire intermingling with war drums and the cries of the defeated.

The unicorn blinked, pausing for a second as the music called her more intimately back to her time there, anxiety gave way to recollection as she continued. “Yeah, I recall that, when we’d captured the creatures we formed a big circle around them. It was like a dance as the mindless undead were shuffled away to create a perimeter.” Nodding her head along to the enchanting piece of hate given sound she continued, “We started far away at first, circling the bound captives, then moving a bit closer. Every step I found myself caring less about their fearful expressions, and more about the pain I’d suffered during the war. Every step closer, my thoughts on what I was going to do to these griffons grew more malicious, and I assume it was the same for everypony else. Once we closed to hooves reach we ripped off feathers and wings, taking pieces off of the captives one by one, so their comrades would know what was coming for them, I don’t know how long it took exactly but the sun was up by the time we finished.” She sighed, finishing her story in line with the end of the piece.

The older Griffon nodded along as she spoke, letting her finish and waiting for a moment before he began to speak. “You said you were in the back, do you recall if this kind of execution was typical in other areas?”

Poppy spoke up, shaking her head “We ate creatures live, but we didn’t tend to ritualize it like that.”

Bolt nodded, “No, no this wasn’t normal. General Skellinore tended to punish that kind of thing, once the marshal shut down her attempts to have prisoner exchanges, she had us try and execute those we captured painlessly.” With the music gone her expression returned to melancholy. Poppy, notting this put a forelimb back on the sad war criminal’s back, patting it lightly.

The priest made a few notes before looking up at the group. “Thank you, while it may not seem like much, the information you provided will go a long way to ensuring prosperity in the future. Speaking of the future, have you considered signing up under one of Rosa’s new knightly banners?”

The unicorn nodded, glad to have taken a turn off of memory lane. “Mhm, Poppy and I were planning to sign up soon.” The earth pony nodded to the statement, albeit with less enthusiasm than the young Arcturian.

A slight look of relief spread over the griffon’s face at them mentioning this. He’d pull out a piece of parchment and write out a letter permitting the passage of two to The End where the Banners were training. He’d hand it to them, “I see the potential for a great deal of good in you two, and urge you to seek passage as soon as possible, show this to one of the soldiers at the docks and they’ll let you ship out on the next return trip..”

Poppy blinked, squinting at the priest “Any reason for the rush?”

The old griffon smiled with a pained expression, looking over the two ghouls the pain shifted towards a resigned peace. He smiled towards them, “Nothing for us to fear so long as we walk in the Light.” His tone, paired with the prior set of expressions was indicative enough that he wanted to disclose more, but couldn’t due to regulation.

Bolt bowed her head, “Thank you, Father.”

The earth pony waved, grateful to have gotten an out for whatever calamitous event was being foreshadowed, “Thanks for the ticket out of here,” she paused for a moment, hesitating in finishing her sentence, “Father.”

The priest nodded his head as the two ponies departed for the more legitimate holdings of the Order. As they left, he bowed his head in prayer, steeling himself for the rapidly approaching conflict with the demons who orchestrated the horrors of this bleak peninsula. The place he knew would be his grave.