Tales from the Holy Grail
"Welcome all to Chaldeas." The static voice echoed in the dim lit room as Apple Bloom stared at the recording of Director Diamond Tiara in their very first day in Chaldeas, she put down the small screen with a deep sigh. It had been barely a month since the incident had happened, when they discovered that Professor Discord was actually a traitor, that humanity had been completely wiped out, Spike’s newfound condition… and the Grand Order. The video kept going with Diamond Tiara’s explanation about the Chaldea Security Organization, their role in ensuring the future of humanity, images of a big blue globe, the core of Chaldea that mapped humanity’s past, present and future, always being watched over through the lens of Sheba, the great telescope that made all this possible. A miraculous marriage of science and magecraft, the only of its kind.
Bloom tapped the screen that lay on top of undone bed sheets, closing the video off. It had been barely a month that the once blue globe had turned a scalding orange, as if the planet had been set ablaze. Humanity's future had been reduced to ashes, everything and everyone she knew and loved had been erased, only Chaldea now stood.
The young woman’s eyes slowly set on a framed picture atop her nightstand, picking it up gingerly as she laid down on the mattress. In the picture stood a tall and blonde man wearing a red jacket and jeans, his green eyes forever locked in an understanding look. Right beside the man was a blonde woman, her hair cascading from beneath her cattleman hat, ending in a tied tip. She had a bright smile in her face as she held the man and another figure in a tight hug, said other figure was smaller thanks to a slightly hunched back, looking old, but Apple Bloom knew she was far from frail, a familiar bun of white hairs resting atop the older woman’s head as she smiled sweeter than any apple pie in the world. Her family.
“I miss y’all…” She hugged the picture close, it had been taken and delivered to her after she’d been summoned to Chaldea, the Apple clan was one of the oldest and most far branching magus families, descended from the Fraga family. And now Apple Bloom was the last of them, until they could complete the Grand Order and restore the world, though this offered very little solace, they still had four more singularities to go and they barely made it out of the last one.
Sometimes, Apple Bloom felt like she wanted to cry, to scream, to just… wake up from this reality, but alas this was no simple nightmare. At first, things seemed simple, back when they thought Discord was their only enemy, just an unhinged mage powered by… one of many Holy Grails. Oh were they wrong.
“AHAHAHAHAHA!” The older man’s laugh reverberated through the golden palace room, once the proud throne of Romulus and the United Empire, now it wasn’t much better than a regular battlefield after the defeat of the very first Emperor of Rome, or rather the Heroic Spirit created using his legend as the base, called upon by the power of the Holy Grail. “I do love when the trash struggles.” Professor Discord Lainur, considered an eccentric man with a shit taste for clothing as he wore what seemed like a bunch of rags sewn together at random. “Restoring humanity?! Protecting the future?! Pitiful jokes!” His smile sent the worst chills down Apple Bloom’s spine and she was sure her friends felt the same. Her body begged her to get away from there, but she ultimately stood her ground.
“You little shit stains have bothered me enough now, I got a good yelling because of you fixing up France.” The man cracked his neck, the smile giving place to a scowl. “In honor to that I have decided to take matters into my own hands.” His feet slowly began lifting from the ground as the man’s arms opened wide, a guttural laugh leaving him as an ominous energy began gathering around him.
“Allow me to reintroduce myself…” Discord’s top hat flew off, his disheveled hair was now blowing like a strong wind had hit it. “I AM DISCORD FLAUROS. ONE OF THE 72 DEMON GODS!” As his laugh boomed, his voice becoming more and more distorted, his body contorted and reshaped until, in a bright light, the human Discord had been replaced with a singular towering pillar of flesh, covered in a spiral of red, crystal-like eyes that seemed to grow from cracks in it’s purplish body.
Apple Bloom still shuddered from remembering that day, their first tussle with a Demon God Pillar. It still plagued her nightmares. Honestly if it hadn't been for the bravery of their servants, Apple Bloom was sure they'd be goners right then and there.
Speaking of servants. The automatic door to her room opened to a very familiar face. His skin was a light shade of purple and his messy and spiky hair a striking shade of green, with a pair of tired emerald eyes looking straight at her with a lot of concern;
"Hey Spike..."Apple Bloom tried to force a smile but the boy was not very convinced, if his face told her anything. Spike replied with an exhausted sigh.
"Hey A.B." He made a half wave before approaching the redhead.
It was still fresh in Apple Bloom's mind how Spike and her fought in their very first singularity, back in a burning city called Fuyuki, the day she'd learned her friend had become a "demi-servant" by making a deal with a Heroic Spirit to save his life in the incident caused by Discord. Not to mention how they both had paid witness to Diamond Tiara being incinerated.
"Your vitals seem pretty stable, which is good, the doctor will be relieved." Apple Bloom hadn't even noticed when he pulled out his terminal to check up on her, of all four of them she had been the least hurt by their brush with King Solomon back in the London singularity, very much thanks to Spike and his Noble Phantasm. "Scootaloo and Sweetie are recovering well, I think Scoots even went to the training area today. Sir Lancelot is keeping her company there, i believe."
It was good that someone was keeping Scootaloo company, even if it were a Berserker-class, she had been very affected by all of this, especially since her "sister", Rainbow Dash, was one of the master candidates stuck in the Coffins when Discord sabotaged the very first Rayshift, his bombs almost cost humanity everything.
"Hmmm... you seem healthy and well rested, mental readings however show a lot of stress." Spike sighed, putting away his terminal. "You're still thinking about the London singularity, aren't you A.B.?" And all the girl could do to answer was wince. "Thought as much... thankfully we're still alive, something tells me that man just wanted to play with his food." Or more accurately, take a piss on them as he so eloquently put it with that simply demonic smile of his.
"You need some air A.B." Spike offered her his hand. Apple Bloom took a minute weighing her options until she sighed and took the invitation, getting up from her bed and accompanying the demi-servant into the corridors of chaldeas.
Their walk was mostly spent in a comfortable silence, except for the occasional meeting with a servant or another, Apple Bloom was constantly asked about her well being, it was very hard to hide your feelings and thoughts from beings connected to you on a magical level. After a few hours, she simply crumbled in one of the emptier corridors, leaning against a wall and sliding down until she was sitting. Spike did the very same thing, sitting down beside her.
"Spike" Apple Bloom hugged her knees, hiding her expression from her friend. "Do you think we can actually restore human history?"
"Hmmm..." Spike took a hand to his messy green hair, scratching his scalp in thought. Their enemy was like a living God compared to a regular servant, they were up against a Grand Servant after all, a being created to protect the world from complete destruction, the original point of the Servant Summoning System. "Yeah." His answer was against his better judgment, maybe it was the influence of the servant in him.
Apple Bloom looked at him with a mix of surprise and... relief. They all grew a lot as people during their struggles, especially the young man beside her. She could still recall a cowardly Spike who could barely tell them his name, it brought her a small smile. A smile that was swept away as her friend pulled a cigar from his lab coat's pocket. The redhead glared at her friend who simply shrugged before putting it in his mouth and lighting it.
"You can stop glaring, those don't smell like the usual ones." That didn't stop his friend from scrunching her nose. "Da Vinci's made sure these would smell fresh or something." The marvels of having a genius with a penchant for making the impossible, in fact, possible. Spike would never admit to having commissioned those because of Apple Bloom's nagging.
"I still don' like it." But she'd relent, just this once, they were still pretty damn on edge after the last singularity, Doctor Whooves was still in denial about his hero, Solomon, being not only an evil man, but also the one responsible for incinerating humanity, if it honestly weren't for Chaldeas being especially built to survive this kind of event they wouldn't be able to do anything. She hugged her knees even closer to her chest, burying her mouth against them. "We're supposed to fight a God damned Grand Servant, Spike! A-and he... he coulda killed us all... he was just toying with us! He said it himself! To him it was like taking a shit on our heads during a commercial break or sumthin'!" Spike grimaced at that, he hated the way that guy talked, but most of all he hated that smile of his, it just... his face... his face was all wrong, like it could just tear itself to become even more uncanny and demonic, even the way his eyes would darken the sclera and become a vivid red when he laughed in their faces.
"I know, Apple Bloom... but we've come too far to simply give up and die." If anyone had told Spike about this during the first Rayshift, he'd have panicked and begged to give up and embrace their demise. He inhaled some more of the cigar and blew the smoke out of his nostrils, he hated how much of a coward he was back then. "All those singularities we cleared, even London, despite Solomon's appearance, can't have been for nothing. Everyone we've met along our journey's counting on us, hell, some of them answered your summons and are now your servants and proud members of Chaldea." At least his speech made Apple Bloom look up from her knees, that was a start he wagered.
The farm girl sat there quiet for a moment, on one hand she could still see flashes of Solomon, the might of an omnipotent mage, she was still unsure what miracle had made Spike's noble phantasm, even without it's true name, be able to hold against so much power, on the other hand though... she could see the faces of all those who helped them along the way, all the servants or even living figures they've met as they corrected human history. Spike had a point, it was too late to simply give up, not to mention how unfair it would be to those who gave their lives for them in the past, all those who put their trust in their hands and all who answered their call in the summoning ritual. Apple Bloom stood up with a heavy sigh.
"You're right." She sounded a bit more confident now, at least as confident as one could be in their situation. "We've come too far to give up without a fight, that would be exactly what he wants" What he expects. Spike nodded with a grin on his face. "Good." He said, putting a hand on Apple Bloom's shoulder and giving it a light comforting squeeze. "Then that's what we'll do. We'll fight. We found our ways out of a lot of hopeless situations already, we'll find a way out of this one too."
｢SIMULATION ENDED.｣
The robotic voice echoed through the large room. Scootaloo had spent hours simulating combat scenarios, fighting any form of creature she could take on as a modern magus, which turned out to be a very small list of enemies, ranging from zombies, skeletons, the occasional low quality homunculus, then she began taking things up a notch, moving to wraiths and phantasmal beasts, it was during one said fight, where she totally wasn't getting her ass handed to her by demonic boars thank you very much, that Lancelot had jumped outta nowhere and given her a little hand.
Scootaloo was a sweating mess, her clothes clinging to her slender frame, her messy hair standing on it's ends and her lungs burning from exhaustion, yet she didn't want to stop, she didn't want the simulation to end, she needed to be a better magus if she wanted to protect any of them. But her legs gave out and her knees hit the cold hard floor, next were her hands, which were having a hard time holding her weight. It had been only just a few hours, but the intensity of the exercise, plus the fact she was very much fighting for her life back there, seem to have been too much for her recovering body.
"Aaaaa..." The metallic voice of the knight echoed in her ears, he sounded worried for her... in his own way, next thing Scootaloo heard was the sound of something heavy falling beside her and, upon looking in it's direction she was met with the form of the knight sitting down beside her in a lotus position with his hands resting atop his thighs. Her arms finally gave out then and her cheek met the floor with a wet smack, the last of her strength being used to roll over a little closer to her companion and to be facing up.
Silence had fallen between them, but it felt... comfortable in a way. Ever since she summoned Lancelot after their meeting in Orleans, back when he had been summoned by the Dragon Witch to hunt Scootaloo and her friends down, she'd kind of formed a deep bond with him. She closed her eyelids, trying to remember the day she'd summoned him.
"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let my great Master Dash be the ancestor"
"Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate."
"I hereby declare. Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be your sword."
"Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer! An oath shall be sworn here!"
"I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell! "
The chant was made, just like Fuyuki's Caster had thought her and it seemed to be working, as the small piece of mana infused quartz, or Saints Quartz as it was called, began to shine a blue color before bursting into a blue summoning circle which began to spin, the edges of the star in the center shining like balls of electricity, a huge pillar of mana would rise like a violent storm, reaching the very ceiling of the summoning room, three rings of light would form around that said pillar, followed by a flood of blinding light. Scootaloo had to shield her eyes with her arm until the light subsided.
When she finally took in the form of her newly summoned companion, expecting someone like King Leonidas or Beowulf, her heart sank and fear began to settle in. Before her was a very familiar form. Where once had been a summoning circle, now stood a robust figure clad from head to toes in a masterfully crafted pitch-black armor, carved with scratches and marks of countless battles, it's helmet lay closed with but a thinly carved visor that quickly lit up with a red glow from within, the blue plume shooting out from the top would twist and turn as the body came to life with a mighty scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" The sheer force of his vocal chords sent a wave of wind against Scootaloo, making her fall with her back against the floor, her eyes closing and her conscience going blank. When she finally came to, her eyes opened to see that red glowing helmet a few centimeters above her face, she was frozen in fear, memories of that very same knight chasing after her in France flooding her head until... he reached out a hand to her.
"Aaaa..." The metallic voice sounded calm, or as calm as a Berserker could, and somehow Scootaloo knew he wanted to help her up and, to her credit back then, she reached out a trembling hand for him to grab, choosing to trust that he wouldn't hurt her.
Looking back on it, that day when she chose to reach for Lancelot's hand had been the start of a great thing, Lancelot had been the closest thing she had to... well... a parent. Even if he couldn't speak, even if he'd lose his mind and become an attack dog at the mere sight or mention of King Arthur, he still found it in his maddened mind to be there for her, just like he was there now, sitting down with an armored hand gently and carefully ruffling through her hair, trying to calm her aching chest, fighting in his own silent way the demons that plagued her after their encounter with King Solomon.
"Thanks, Lancelot..." And she drifted off to rest, having wonderful dreams of her knightly friend meeting her "sister" when she woke up from that metal contraption that was supposed to send her to Fuyuki that day... or maybe it was a world where that explosion never happened. Who knows, it was a dream after all.
Spike walked once again through the infirmary room's doors, having left Apple Bloom alone after he'd made sure she was feeling a little bit better. His breathing was growing a little labored as he stepped closer and closer to a particular bed, the form of a still unconscious Sweetie Belle coming into his view.
To say he felt horrible was an understatement. She had been more affected by Solomon's attack than the others and that just added to the painful ammount of guilt he felt for his inability to keep them out of harm's way, even after everything he learned from folks like Cú Chulainn, Nero Claudius, Francis Drake and Mordred, he was still barely able to keep his masters, no, his friends safe.
Spike's hold on his terminal grew tighter by the second, he could feel the metal wanting to bend against his newly found Heroic Spirit-level strength, his thoughts growing ever more desperate until... something cut through them, something small, soft and fluffy, his eyes shot open and, looking at his side, Spike was met with a small animal, looking like a small fox or squirrel or maybe rabbit? Or a mix of all three creatures? Well, it was hard to describe the small white critter.
"Hey, Fou... guess you saw me worrying again, huh?" The creature merely responded with a "Fou", the only sound it ever made with its cute little voice, hence his name's sake. Nobody knew where Fou came from, he just appeared in Chaldea one day and kept Spike company until they met the girls. "I'm sorry, it's just..." He sighed, there was no point in going there, especially after giving A.B. so much shit about her own doubts and insecurities. Fou's reaction was to simply nuzzle his cheek before jumping to Seetie's side and curling up into a ball beside her.
"Thanks for keeping an eye on her when I'm not here, Fou." Spike sat at the chair beside Sweetie Belle's bed, his right hand snaking its way to hold on to her's while his left held the terminal up. She was stable, but no signs of her waking up yet.
"Please wake up soon..." It came out as more of a whisper, the terminal was soon forgotten and lazily thrown on top of a bedside table, his newly freed hand helping embrace the smaller hand of his bedridden friend.
Author's Note
I hope that for what it was enjoyable at least, first time trying something like this, in a way, probably still have quite a few rough edges and patches to fix for next installments.
Tales from the Holy Grail
Goddess... love me, madly...
(Takes place a day after Chaldeas Crusaders! Also, small trigger warning i guess... there will be blood! Shed! The man in the mirror nods his- sorry. But seriously, gore warning, this is where we go mature.)
It had been a whole day since the talk with Spike in the corridor and Apple Bloom still felt like her heart had a sword hanging from a thread right above it. She was the oldest of them and had vowed to be responsible for them all, ever since the day she met the other two half-pints she called her best friends and even more so when she first met Spike, back when he didn't even know what the actual sky looked like.
And now look at yourself, putting up a brave face and telling your friend what he wanted to hear from you, just so you could break down in your room. The voice in her head was familiar, it was her own after all. Apple Bloom still had the stains of tears in her eyes, she couldn't help it though, she was still scared of the thought of going back out there, what if they didn't make it back next time? What if Sweetie never wakes up? What if Scootaloo's next? Or Spike?
Not so easy being me huh, lil sis? Applejack's voice echoed in her mind with venom and normally Apple Bloom wouldn't listen, she knew her sister, she would never spit her words like that, but in that state all she could do was hold the picture in her hands closer to herself. Nnope. And there was Big Mac.
Why did Discord have to blow Chaldea up? Why did he have to sabotage her sister and her friends? Group A would have made short work of the situation! Her sister was better with pressure, better with magecraft, she had the family's crest for fuck's sake!
Apple Bloom's eyes shot open with a start as the automatic door opened, she sat up immediately, still clinging to the bed sheets around her, leaving all but her face exposed for air but making sure to have her back turned to the door while she tried to clear the tears away.
"Master... come... your destiny... not... here." The voice was thick and labored, like saying anything brought its owner immense pain, every word was laced with damn near animalistic growling and pained moans. She recognised the voice oh so well and could feel her aching heart clench even harder, a servant who she pitied oh so much, even if he had been a horrible person in life.
Apple Bloom turned around, meeting the intense stare of the man now standing in the middle of her room. The figure was a tall man with short and spiky purple hairs in a chaotic mess, his body was adorned with muscles worthy of a warrior and protected by a suit of golden roman armor with black details around the chest and part of the abdomen and adorned by a long and tattered red cape, but what truly held Apple Bloom's eyes were... well... his very own pair of eyes, from the black sclera to the intense red orbs staring at her very soul. She always felt small when Caligula looked at her that way.
"A-ah'm fine, Caligula. P-please, just leave me aloooo-" She dragged that word with a yelp as the man simply pulled her out of bed like a potato sack, carrying her through the corridors still in her pajamas and wrapped in her sheets like an apple burrito. All she could do was resign to her fate, there was no arguing with this Berserker.
After a mortifying parade through the corridors, where it seemed the Roman Emperor had decided to take the route that ensued that every other servant would see her in that sorry state, like seriously, she could only watch and glare as her very first summoned servant, Cú fucking Chulainn, laughed and pointed at her! Apple Bloom was plopped down on the floor of the... rayshift room.
"Rome... we go... to.. to... uooh!" Caligula took hand to his head, his voice was raspy and strangled and now he looked like he'd been hit with a headache, making him groan. Apple Bloom hated how in pain the Berserker always sounded, it hurt even more whenever she remembered how Nero would look at him during... Septem... wait, he wanted to go back to that singularity? Wasn't it fixed? Then again... Sweetie did go back to Orleans once with the Phantom of the Opera in tow.
"Fine." Apple Bloom got up from the floor but she didn't let go of the sheets, nor the picture hidden beneath them. Da Vinci and the Doctor can deal with the stains later. She thought. I just gotta step in the... th-the... C-Coffin. She stood in front of the metal chamber, a giant cylinder with a glass where she would lay down and have her spiritrons, the thing that basically composed her body and spirit or something like that, she didn't pay a lot of attention to Diamond Tiara's lecture, sue her, and transport her to another point in time.
"Citizen of Rome... do not... fear." Caligula's voice cut through the fog that was forming in her mind, opening her eyes to just how much she was shaking at the idea of going in there. She looked to her side, the Emperor meeting her gaze with an emotionless expression. "Rome will... will... aaaahhh... Rome will...! Protect... you!" That had been the most labored she'd ever seen him talk, his breathing becoming heavier.
Apple Bloom didn't know what made her actually walk into that thing, if it was pity for how in pain he always sounded or security from his words, though she really wanted to believe it to be the latter.
She stepped inside the metal contraption, she had to leave the photo behind though, she didn't want to take it off the frame or risk it being ruined somehow, not to mention how unsure she was that it would even be able to make it with her through the shift.
"Begin Rayshift." The familiar voice of Da Vinci came from a speaker. Of course that dastardly woman had been watching in silence... and at the same time... she knew Da Vinci or the Doctor were needed to complete a Rayshift.
｢RAYSHIFT STARTED.｣
There was a familiar sensation of nausea as Apple Bloom felt herself being transported, her vision was filled by a blue vortex with the sensation of a free fall. I used to be scared by this. Her eyes closed, she "breathed" in to calm herself and as her eyes opened again: her vision was met by open fields and the capital of Nero's Rome just off in the distance.
"Beautiful..." Caligula materialized from spirit form, a handy little trick employed by servants so they wouldn't be seen traveling, though other servants could still sense their presence unless they had a skill to conceal it, like the Assassin-Class Heroic Spiris do. "Nero... Rome... beautiful..." Caligula had a smile on his face, his eyes looking at ease, even if his voice was still raspy and labored, it brought a small smile to her as well.
"The view's truly beauti- huh?" She couldn't help but notice how that smile had become a scowl, then it was followed by a deep and bestial growl from the man. Apple Bloom just wanted to enjoy the sunset and forget her fucking problems for a minute, but she recognised that expression and it didn't take very long for the sounds of loud footsteps to follow. Enemies. It just had to be leftover enemies. "Well... time to battle, Calig-'' And off he went to meet the enemy, she wondered if he even remembered she was there with him. Maybe it would be for the best if he didn't. And she chose, just this once, to ignore the fake voice of Applejack in her head, even if that one hurt.
Apple Bloom ran after her servant, she expected to find some leftover soldiers from the United Roman Empire, the memory of their battle with Romulus followed by a battle with Discord Flauros, their very first Demon God, flooding right back into her mind and making her run even faster now. What if it isn't just a bunch of soldiers? What if Discord wasn't dead at all? What if- what if it was him again?
"Goddess... Goddess...! I shall offer... offer you... Aaaah!" Just as Apple Bloom heard his voice, so too did she hear the sound of bone and flesh being ripped apart, followed by a wail of sheer pain and agony. Caligula had his whole forearm going right through a man's chest, his free hand held the man's still twitching body by the neck.
A normal person would scream or feel sick, but Apple Bloom wasn't normal, she's a magus and on top of that she had witnessed a lot of gruesome scenes as they tumbled through human history. Which made her worse than a regular human right now. Her eyes darted from Caligula to a group of roman citizens tied in ropes, either prisoners of war or... slaves to be. She hated how even though the timeline should be fixing itself now that they had removed the Grail from it, the problems spawned by it and it's user were still plaguing the whole damned place.
"I-is that? E-Emperor Caligula?" The prisoners did, of course, recognize their Emperor who was supposed to be both deceased and, before his defeat by the hands of Nero Claudius's Rome and Chaldea, their enemy, ripping one of his supposed soldiers with his arm, a sadistic smile gracing his features.
"Nope! Just uhhh... one of the... uhh... you know what? You guys should just forget all about this." Apple Bloom was NOT in the mood for coming up with last second lies, so she decided to do the (not) responsible thing and cast a simple sleep spell on the men. It had been sometime since she last used her Magic Circuits for anything that wasn't maintaining her contracted Servants materialized.
Caligula took his arm out of the dead man's body, his form covered in blood as he lifted the man's guts up in one hand, content with the beautiful offering he just secured for the Goddess, the death of his niece's enemies, for none shall harm Rome, none shall harm Nero. The man's maddened gaze went from his victim right to his companions who seemed to get out of their daze. He measured them first, maybe their armours would make suitable gifts for Nero? Spoils of war like the ones he would show her when she was but a child. Nay, she was way more fond of things with a history to them, those fake romans, his romans, the romans created by a foolish wish for destruction, they aren't worthy to grace her.
"Offer me... your... lives!" More footsteps came from a hill just east of them, reinforcements? Good. Very good. Caligula spared his master a glance, he could see it in her eyes: fear, so much fear, she looked like Nero when she was younger. Nero was scared. He would kill them. He would kill them all.
More incoming. Should i? Could i? Her thoughts were a mess, her eyes darting anywhere and everywhere, they bit off more than they should have, her gaze then fell to her hand, to the red mark in the form of a shield with an apple in the middle.
"Those” Diamond Tiara hit the board with a hand. “are command seals. There are three very powerful spells stored in each one of them that can only be used to affect a Heroic Spirit contracted to you, it can be used to command them to do anything, even break their very own limitations, might be the only thing saving one of you idiots from pissing off your Berserker." Diamond Tiara had been going on and on about these seals, using diagrams and anything at her disposal to get the concept through the skulls of the drags before her, she hated how Discord convinced her to explain to a bunch of subpar magi-wannabes that wouldn't set foot in a singularity if she has her way. Especially the redhead pretending to take notes, fucking bumpkin.
Apple Bloom had been taking notes that time, not really anything useful, mostly venting to a page, but she did pay attention to that lecture at least. Should she use one? Caligula was already running to meet his enemies, alone may she add, what if they were too much for him? He'd die and it would be all her fault! She couldn't let that happen to another person who's been counting on her!
"W-with this command seal..." Her voice was barely above a whisper, she could hear Caligula's screams, both of pain and anger, she knew he was already there, he was already fighting and by the sounds of it? Getting hurt, if she ordered him to retreat he'd be okay, right? He'd come back and heal... but then those soldiers... they would kill the sleeping men in retaliation... and... and... what if it went like London again?
There was another scream, a soldier's, Apple Bloom's eyes left the glowing seals in the back of her hand, finally seeing Caligula completely surrounded, spears embedded in his back, sword wounds in his arms and still he wouldn't back down, even if he could die. And it wasn't just a Berserker thing, she knew every servant was like this... even a Demi one. Her thoughts went straight to Spike as he jumped in front of them and put his shield between them and the devil calling himself King Solomon, not a sliver of fear for his own wellbeing.
We've come too far to just give up and die. The words came back to her in an instant, when she next opened her mouth, wanting to scream at the top of her lungs for a retreat, she was met with a very different sound. "FIIIIGHT!" And the seal responded, a wave of red light flashing from her hand and the lower part of that shield-like "tattoo" becoming a scar in the rough shape of the erased part of the symbol, the surge of mana hitting her servant like a rush of adrenaline, Apple Bloom could even feel her mana usage spiking up as Caligula roared like a monster, stunning his foes.
The sun had already set, the moon was rising faster than Apple Bloom thought it should, like someone was pulling it to the sky with magic. Wait... oh no... oh no. Her eyes went from the sky and back to her servant, noticing the ethereal light emanating from him, a glow pale as the moon.
"The Goddess! So gorgeous... Goddess, Diana... love me, madly..." His voice, labored, sad and excited at the same time, like a man seeing his wife for the first time in years, the glow around him intensified, his eyes were taken by that very same glow as he began to growl and snarl like a wild wolf.
The light of the full moon shone bright as a beacon, reaching down upon the soldiers around the mad Emperor, their eyes taking on that self-same glow as his, their minds being devoid of conscience, their screams growing into maddened roars as the men began jumping on each other's throats with teeth and nails, their souls were bathed in the moon's maddening light.
"Devour my soul, moonlight! Flucticulus... Diaaaaanaaaa!"
Apple Bloom was still stunned, she could only watch as men were turned to hungry beasts, Caligula very much among them and ripping every single one of them to shreds, she couldn't tear her gaze from the slaughter caused by the Emperor's Noble Phantasm, the crystallization of Caligula's legend, his madness, the love of Diana, Roman Goddess of the Moon, infecting his enemies. The power to turn an army against itself. But that was the furthest thing from her mind right now.
Fight. That's what they had been doing all this time, that's what they were forcibly signed up for, that's what they set out to do in the burning ruins of Fuyuki. All it took was one big adversity and she had lost all her fight. She was desperate, she was scared, she wanted to cry and wanted to scream and... she felt a blood soaked hand being placed on her shoulder, staining the white sheets she had still been covered with.
"Citizen of Rome... don't be scared... Rome is... here." Caligula no longer had that glow in his eyes, his expression looked concerned though and the hand on her shoulder slowly went down to her mid-back where it began to push her lightly... and she felt herself walking, silently, as Caligula gently led her away from the battlefield.
They walked for a good ten minutes, Apple Bloom was silent, as for Caligula? His madness did not allow him the comfort of silence, even if he were to want it, even when Diana was high up in the skies, called upon by his Noble Phantasm. And then he stopped her.
"Look..." She hadn't registered any of the path they took, her mind in too much of a daze still, so she did as she was told, her eyes going up to see the full moon shining down upon the capital, a gentle light shining down upon it, no longer taken by that maddening glow. It was a beautiful sight, one that oddly enough... calmed her, if only just a little.
"Rome... beautiful Rome." Apple Bloom nodded in agreement to the Berserker's mumbling. "I protect... Rome." That possibly explained why he wanted to come here in the first place. "You too... are Rome." And she couldn't help the tiny smile, her mind going back to an earlier doubt. "Thanks..." She looked up at the servant beside her, noticing something a little different about his eyes and expression. He was smiling yet his eyes didn't glimmer with the usual madness.
"Listen well, for i won't have long to say this without interference." She was taken aback by how normal he sounded now, his voice still had that thick tone but now it sounded clear and devoid of pain. "I know of the pains you carry. I know of the paths you have taken and where your heart lay. I will allow your tears. I will also allow you to shout. There's nobody else around other than myself." Apple Bloom was still shocked by how eloquent he sounded, was that his Emperor voice? Because she sure as hell couldn't take her attention away from his speech, so much so that she wanted to interrupt him for a moment to bring up Da Vinci, but the woman herself was faster, the tell tale sound of the hologram coming up and... all Apple Bloom could see was interference instead of Da Vinci's bust. And Caligula seemed to smile more at being proven right.
"Even if she manages to fix this, she will think it's me shouting." Caligula's voice sounded calm, soothing and most of all... concerned. There was a small pause, the wind blowing past 'em as Caligula closed his eyes. "Man cannot embrace everything in the world. As I could not embrace everything in Rome, I shall forgive for now. Your tears and even your shouts..."
Something about the way he said it had touched something in her heart and... ah shucks who did she want to fool? She had been wanting to cry and scream the whole goddamned time ever since she came back from London and as such... she just let herself go, she let herself be vulnerable and scream and cry herself a fucking river, clinging not to a stained bed sheet, but to Caligula who, just for that moment, seemed like a bloody good temporary replacement for Big Mac.
"I shall forgive..." His words were barely above a whisper as a tender hand was placed on top of her head, a bloodless hand, as Apple Bloom hugged a Roman Emperor and cried like she was five and apologizing to Applejack for something bad.
Caligula's eyes went up to the moon, a knowing smile gracing his features as he moved his lips, muttering a small thanks to the moon for letting go of her love just this night.
Author's Note
I don't usually like using images for stories... but. I love that craft essence of Caligula using his Noble Phantasm and like hell i wasn't going to use it for a scene based on it. And i guess it works well for further explanation and imagery of how Noble Phantasms work in case of anyone who doesn't know about it. Don't worry though, i don't think i'll make a habit out of the whole image thing.
