The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The scripture of soup is a lengthy one, known for its numerous verses, but rich in heavenly martial wisdom. It is shared in Yu-Shan among the Sidereal exalted as a way to memorize and learn the ways of all magical martial arts.

It is usually taught as series of parables of how various martial artists would eat a bowl of soup at a restaurant:

The Snake stylist would deliver a withering flurry of fang strikes to the surface of his soup, disrupting the flow of essence across its surface before finally taking a sip using his spoon. Then he would take a moment to suck on his badly scalded hoof.

…

Stepping up from the cabins below, yawning and shifting in her light barding, the old mare breathed deeply as her steel-shod hooves clomped onto the deck, old eyes looking around wearily. The yellow river looked as it always had: Murky waters, lots of ships and heavily loaded barges going up and down it, along with about as many fishing boats along the rich and fertile river banks as there were mosquitos in the air.

Sanguine Lotus looked out over the water from the deck of the ship. Why was she feeling so antsy about this? She had met plenty of new clients before, and these fools sounded perfect for wringing out as much silver from as possible. Was it old age? Nah, she had more than a few good years left for sure, grey mane and wrinkles or not.

“Hey, no biting!” shouted a stallion behind her, prompting Sanguine Lotus to look behind her and barked with a hoarse voice that had called out a lot of commands over the years: “Hey, knock it off!”

The two stallions wrestling with each other, one of them currently biting the other one’s ear, looked up and quickly said: “Sorry ma’am” as they disentangled themselves from each other.

Oh, the joy of having your own little band of mercenaries. Well, a mixed blessing really – especially when your last client stiffed you. At least the captain of the ship had been easy enough to convince to let them come along free of charge. The cargo wasn’t even that valuable, just a lot of crates full of sand. Freaking sand? Who buys a shipload of sand? Oh well, it meant free passage from Melevhil to Sunhill, which ideally would be just in time to make payroll.

“Commander, what kind of work do you think we can get at this Sunhill place? I mean, the stories that we’ve heard from those merchants… it sounds really sketchy” a mare said as she approached Sanguine Lotus.

Turning to face the mare, Sanguine Lotus gave her a scrutinizing look: The scars on mare face read like a detailed story of the tough life of a sellsword. Her mane was cropped short, ideal for wearing a helmet, and her clothes were basically the padding from her armored barding without the barding, not much different from what Sanguine Lotus was wearing: “First up, don’t call me commander. That’s only for when we’re being paid. Secondly, all that those stories told us is that the guild hates these Sunhill ponies. This means they’ll no doubt be desperate for all the military aid they can get”

“Right, sorry Silly. Do you even think it’s a good idea to work for someone on the guild’s shitlist? What if we get blacklisted too?”

Silly chuckled: “Berry Petal, that’s the wonder of being a small mercenary outfit. We can call ourselves whatever we want. I’ll introduce us under an alias at first, and if things don’t pan out, we can sell what we learn to the guild. So, once we get there shut up and keep your eyes and ears open, and let me do the talking”

Berry Petal nodded, taking a moment to take in her commander’s plan: “That’s brilliant”

“The art of getting paid my dear lieutenant. You lot picked me for command for a reason”

The ship took another week and a half to reach the channel leading up to Sunhill. Silly had to admit it was rather impressive to see that large an amount earthworking having been done there so quickly. Digging and shoring up canals that long would normally take years with an army of slave labor – and Sunhill had somehow managed to do that in just under a month according to the captain? In one of the most fought over regions of the hundred kingdoms? The amount of merchant shipping coming and going from the place sent conflicting messages, for a place supposedly on the guild’s shitlist.

Thinking strategically, Silly had thought long and hard on how this Sunhill place could possibly have remained intact for so long. Well, ‘long’ was a bit of an exaggeration – She had heard the rumors of the place having been founded about a year or two earlier, couldn’t remember where she had heard of it first – but being this popular with merchants that quickly? Quite suspect.

As the ship moved up the canal Silly considered what she knew of the place: It was said to a have a large central manse that the lords of the city lived in: “That would the giant golden pyramid we can see over the trees there…”

“Dragon’s puckered butthole, look at that thing!” one of her fellow mercenaries blurted out, everyone sticking their heads out to gawk at the city state they were approaching.

Along the canal were neatly ordered farms and plantations, irrigation channels, small roads and rows of tall trees making for a crisscross of dividing lines in the landscape of cash crops and food crops. Whoever managed the land clearly knew what they were doing, and had even managed to make the plantations and orchards look really pretty.

“Hey Silly, for a place that’s supposed to be on the guild’s shitlist, then this doesn’t look so bad” another of Silly’s troopers said, stating the obvious.

It was very suspicious indeed. Any city state or kingdom in the river provinces that ran afoul of the guild and its legions of merchants had a funny tendency to get raided constantly by warlords loaded with greatly discounted weapons, armor, provisions and… well… guild mercenaries. These lands looked pristine. Silly didn’t like this, but there had to be an explanation: “Maybe they only pissed off the guild recently?”

“Nah, that merchant in Melevhil said that Sunhill had been on the guild’s bad side since its founding a few years ago– something about fucking shit up in Nexus before their leaders led an exodus to set up shop there” another mercenary noted.

Chuckling for a moment, Silly imagined how utterly pissed her former boss would have been if her troops had so casually spoken to her so casually. Iron Hoof had been such a hard-ass, which was why she had split off from Iron Hoof’s mercenary company to begin with, taking a dozen of her most loyal friends with her. Her troops seemed to recognize that their leader was once again getting lost in thought: “Hey boss, you still with us? We’re getting close to the harbor, should we go get our stuff?”

“Yes – sorry – just thinking about how much Iron Hoof would have hated working in a place like this. He never could stand marching through anywhere that didn’t already look like a battlefield” Silly mused. Her troops all nodded, a few chuckling.

Approaching the harbor, Silly took note of the distinct lack of any kind of fortifications. There wasn’t even a city wall, nor any kind of artillery protecting the harbor. What kind of weird place was this?

“Wow someone spent a lot of money building this place… and there’s nothing protecting it” Berry Petal said, looking at the stone piers and harbor structure.

Silly had to agree. The cargo cranes looked exceptionally well made – and you couldn’t make cast iron things that big: “The cranes… that has to be steel somehow. How the hell did they make they so large? Where can you get steel made like that?”

“Never mind that – look at the buildings. It looks like they grew them out of the ground! Stone, windows and all. What kind of weird wood-aspected unicorn architect do they have here?” the stallion with a nibbled ear said, hanging over the side of the ship.

The ship came to and the gangway came down, the first ponies disembarking being the captain and her first mate. They had to negotiate docking fees, otherwise they would have to sail off again. Coin quickly changed hooves, and the captain returned, shouting for her crew to start unloading the ship to warehouse number sixteen, wherever that was.

“Alright, you are all free to disembark – if you want to stay on for the next leg of my trade route it’ll be silver” the captain said, looking at Silly with the serious and no-nonsense expression of a business pony who had just paid someone money she’d rather have kept for herself.

It struck Silly as something of a change of character. She remembered how spooked the captain had been at that river-side quarry where they had boarded, so afraid of… what? The journey had been completely without incident.

“Alright, you heard the captain – let’s get off here and earn us some good dinars” Silly called out, her troops quickly rushing down to the cabins to fetch their gear.

A few minutes later everyone mustered on the deck. Silly’s gear had been brought along as well, battle-worn, but an absolute masterpiece of barding – some armorsmith in Marita’s journeymare project. Everyone put on their kit: It was standard procedure. They all knew that it was all about giving a strong first impression when meeting a new client.

Marching behind Silly, the dozen pony mercenaries stomped along behind their leader down the pier. Their steel shod hooves all sparked against the stone, Silly somewhat confused that she shouldn’t seem to find any lines in the stone: “This is continuous… it’s not made of carved slabs”

What kind of strange sorcery was at large in this place? She could feel it in the air – something strange.

“Hey, are you new here?” a young colt, who had just jumped out in front of Silly, said.

Stopping up, causing a bit of a pile-up behind her with much rattling of barding and weapons, Silly glared at the colt who seemed either absolutely oblivious or incredibly brave, from within her spiked helmet with its many notches and dings from countless battles. The colt looked nine or ten, with that spry child-like enthusiasm, with a mottled grey and brown coat and a brown mane… and smiling at her like a salespony eying a future costumer.

After having concluded that the colt wasn’t just going to move out of her way from having glared at him, she finally drew a heavy and slow breath to reply: “Yes”

“Excellent. I’m a guide working for the Sunhill Information Services, Reedmane. For a half dinar I can show you around town, guide you to any location in Sunhill you’re seeking or help you find any pony you wish to visit here” the colt said, sounding very well-rehearsed, but not at all forced.

Silly had to think for a moment. It wasn’t the first time a youngster had accosted her when just having arrived somewhere new – of course, usually that meant trying to distract her while a co-conspirator tried to pick her pockets – but this colt was staying at a respectful distance and there were no one else around, other than the sailor-ponies who were unloading cargo, but they weren’t trying to get close to her either.

“You lot look pretty well armed – but since you’re not just attacking anyone, I assume you’re here looking for work? Heard about the call for mercenaries I assume?” the colt said, sounding surprisingly well-informed and not at all intimidated.

Looking around, Silly saw a bustling harbor. There were stalls along the harbor-roads selling food and other useful things, ponies smiling, ponies doing business, other ships loading cargo and barges unloading cargo. Why would this place need mercenaries? Silly looked down at the colt: “Yes, we’re mercs – who do we talk to about getting hired here?”

“Oh, that would be Lord Bright, but I think he’s… hmm…” the colt said, turning around and looking towards the golden pyramid at the center of the city. The light at the top of the pyramid, bright even in the noon-light of day, was surrounded by a number of flag-poles. The colt seemed to be looking at the flags up around the light: “…he’s no available right now. We’re having some issues north-east of the city. Some idiot princeling who’s upset that we’ve accepted runaway serfs into the city”

Silly had dealt with nobles and royals plenty of times. An issue outside the city requiring the attention of the lord-militant of a city-state? With a laugh, Silly said with a knowing smile: “Sounds like something this Lord Bright might need our help with”

The colt nodded: “Could be – but I doubt it. Still, it’ll be the fastest way to get to talk to him. Just don’t be assassins, ok?”

Ok that was patronizing. Silly growled at the colt: “What in all the hells of Malfeas do you think we are?”

“Heavily armed and armored ponies. We get group like yours coming once or twice a month at this point. Most claim to want to work for us, some turn out try to kill our lords for the guild bounties. They usually don’t survive the attempt” the colt said frankly and cheerfully without missing a beat, stepping aside to let Silly continue into the city.

If they had been somewhere where Silly had known the local leaders better, she would have struck the colt for mouthing off at her with all of her might – but Sunhill was still an unknown quantity. The kind of leeway that mercenaries hired by the local ruler got hadn’t been established yet. Begrudgingly shaking her head, Silly called for her troops to form up and follow her again: “Forward, march!”

Stomping through the city Silly couldn’t help but notice that the colt’s attitude towards her wasn’t a unique case: She saw an immaculate monk who was trying to preach that the locals were being misled and their souls corrupted by their anathema lords – who in turn was getting pelted with fruit. She saw the young gainsay their elders. She saw no fearful eyes in her direction as her troops came through. What kind of crazy place was this? They had better pay well.

Speaking of paying well: Moving through Sunhill Silly saw a lot of silver changing hooves: There was business being done, a lot of business: “Petal, what are you seeing traded here?”

“We’ve moved past several smithies at the last block – but they’re not making much in weapons, at least not out in front. Looked like some very strange forges though, not seeing any bellows. And I swear this place gives me a Great Forks vibe, there’s magic in their air for sure” Berry Petal noted.

Silly appreciated her second in command’s perceptive nature. Petal had spotted a lot of ambushes, sometimes even long before the ambushers had spotted them. Of course, Petal’s observation about the magic of the place was spot on. Silly could taste it: “I guess the rumors are true – the pyramid in the middle of the city really is a manse, and a powerful one probably – must be the secret behind their wealth”

Why did marching past the pyramid make her feel so uneasy? The magical light atop the pyramid, it was calling to her, like that time dealing with the band of changelings who lured ponies in with wordless song of purple tears. Still, they had gotten paid so well from that mission, and those alchemists had paid so well for the changeling corpses. Getting paid twice was always fun.

Getting away from the pyramid felt good, the band of mercenaries marching through what turned out to be a district dedicated to… something that smelled weird. Alchemy? It was difficult to tell – there weren’t any stores that had signs out advertising with what they were doing, just more of the organic-shaped buildings that looked grown instead of built. Some kind of state-run enterprise?

Exiting the city on the far side from the harbor, the band of mercenaries came to a large meadow. There weren’t any ponies out on the meadow, but Silly did take note of the watchtowers set in tall trees that grew along the edge of the city. That was another strange detail: Sunhill appeared to terminate rather abruptly, going from stone roads to dirt roads. There didn’t appear to be much in the form of scattered farm-houses as was the norm – those houses had been on the inside of the city limit. Strange. There were also plenty of livestock trails, but it looked like they had all been herded away from the fighting. The cowpies smelled fresh enough.

“Commander, over that ridge – look, banners” Berry Petal called out.

Indeed, the top of banner-poles with Sunhill banners could be seen just over the ridge ahead. Silly marched her troops there, telling them to prepare for skirmishing: “Get your bows ready, lets show much we can help out”

Approaching the peak of the ridge, the formation of Sunhill troops came into view. It had to be around four or five hundred heavily armored ponies, with Silly being somewhat confused at first about the weapons of the troops, until she realized that the formation was made up of dozens of smaller squads that each had different weapon loadouts. Some had spears, some had heavy clubs, some had what looked like catch-poles. It was a strange mix, but they all stood firm and looked disciplined enough.

Of course, the real revelation came when the mercenaries got up on the crest of the ridge, seeing out over the Sunhill troops.

This was not just some small skirmish or dispute over runaway serfs…

Before the Sunhill troops, at the foot of the hill with the city on it was a massive army, looking easily twenty times their numbers. Massive units of archers, spear-ponies, lancers, slingers, even ballistae and a few catapults. This was the kind of army you sent out to conquer small kingdom.

…or a magical city state.

“Commander… I don’t think we can do much here… what are we going to do?” Berry Petal said, her voice betraying her fear.

Silly remained resolute – but she wasn’t delusional: “You’re absolute right Berry. Take the troops back to the city, get to the western city gate, or whatever is the furthest from this side of the city. Wait for me there. I’ll go talk to this Lord Bright up in front, then I’ll meet you back at the gate later before the city is overrun. Make sure to spy anything worth grabbing near you before we leave”

Berry Petal looked at Silly with admiration in her eyes, as she just didn’t have those high-level planning skills. This was why Petal had never advanced to anything more than lieutenant back when they had all worked for what’s-his-name. Still, Petal turned around and barked orders at the rest of the troops, everyone quickly hightailing it back to the city.

Taking a deep breath, Silly steeled herself and galloped to the front of the Sunhill formation. On her way she couldn’t help but see the steely gazes of resolve of the troops she ran past. There wasn’t a hint of fear in them. What dark sorcery had the city used on their own here? How did they expect to remain standing at the end of the day? Sunhill would be burning by sundown from the looks of things.

At the front of the formation Silly could see the full spread of the approaching army. It was moving with weapons out – it was moving to engage, though it had to march uphill for that, before it could get close enough to charge.

“Where is he… come on” Silly said to herself, desperately looking for whoever was in charge.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Silly centered herself. This was a military organization – this was her thing – she knew how this worked. Opening her eyes again, she quickly spotted the messengers and relay-banners who were standing ready to pass on orders from their lord. Right, and they were all looking… over there – that one.

Wait. That old pony?

The old pony who wasn’t wearing any armor? Just some old faded uniform over his teal coat and grey mane?

“Great, the lunatics are running the asylum… dragons preserve me” Silly said, as she took off her helmet and approached, mouthing a quiet prayer to the immaculate dragons.

Near this eponymous Lord Bright, Silly once more took note of just how disciplined and stoic all the ponies were. They were just standing by, awaiting orders.

“Lord Bright, I assume? I am Sanguine Lotus, leader of a band of three dozen seasoned and battle-hardened mercenaries. It looks like you can use some help” Silly said, putting on her game face. She had negotiated rates and terms with nobles and royals before, even the crazy ones. It was all about getting a feel of them, and then not offending them too much, and getting paid handsomely up front if they were really flaky.

The impression she already had was that this Lord Bright had either cast a spell on his troops, or somehow had their undying loyalty for some other strange reason – and if nothing else, that spoke of having some kind of unseen power. One did not simply march up against an army of thousands with a few hundred unless you had a plan, especially since the city had not at all appeared to be preparing for a siege, evacuation or to repel attackers. That monk going on about living under anathema rule probably wasn't that far off.

Lord Bright turned to Silly, sizing her up. As his eyes went over her, she got the unique sense that she was speaking to a very skilled military leader: He was looking at her armor, her equipment, her helmet, and sizing up the aspects of her that were relevant for a warrior. This was, if nothing else, points in the Lord’s favor as far as Silly was concerned – it also helped that he didn’t appear to have crazy eyes or anything like that.

Smiling, Lord Bright spoke with a sage and grandfatherly voice that none the less sounded a lot spryer that what one would have expected from an old pony with a beard that long and grey: “Thank you for your concern. However, I doubt we’ll need any help here. Our call for mercenaries is chiefly to act as bodyguards to our diplomatic envoys and our merchant caravans. If you could wait back in the city and arrange a meeting via the Lords Secretariat, then I’ll be with you sometime tomorrow”

Such confidence. How could this Lord be so sure that he would still be alive come sundown?

“You’ll have to forgive me Lord Bright, but it looks like you need at least another three or four thousand ponies at arms, even with the high ground. How do you expect to win here without your city being overrun?” Silly said, not really wanting to ask the question, but she simply had to know.

Lord Bright chuckled: “You haven’t heard much of my exploits, have you? An army like this… it’s nothing”

“My lord, a delegation is approaching” a junior Sunhill officer called out.

True enough, a well-dressed pony and two ponies at arms were galloping up the slope. Even a hungover sergeant who had been hit over the head once too many would recognize a negotiator like that: “Ponies of Sunhill. I am herald Silken Quill. The great warlord Prince Orchid Blossom of the Five Rings demands your surrender. The banners of Orchid Blossom will fly over Sunhill, whether stained by your blood or not”

Silly took a few steps back to signal that she didn’t have anything to do Lord Bright, who in turn simply shook his head: “Silken Quill, you know what happened last time – what makes your master think he can succeed on his third try?”

Hold on, third try? Had this army tried to attack the city twice already, and failed?

Silken Quill looked very offended, his extravagant garb looking quite rich: “Your foul sorceries won’t help you this time. In his infinite wisdom Warlord Blossom has acquired the aid of an immaculate master to dispel your dark magic”

A chill ran down Silly’s spine. She had seen immaculate monks fight – they were beyond good – and on two occasions she had even seen immaculate unicorn masters in actions… once against a rogue river god, and the other against a band of brigands who had been raiding immaculate monasteries. The memory of the screams of those brigands as the master had punched and kicked them into chunky salsa sent a shudder through Silly. How could this Lord Bright still be so confident against a master of magical martial arts?

“By all means, send forth your new champion. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper fight – this way we can at least make sure that the least possible number of ponies get hurt here” Lord Bright stated, sounding utterly unphased or intimidated.

Taking a deep breath, Silly watched as the herald and his escort galloped back to their master. She thought furiously about how the situation could make sense, based on what she knew: This Lord Bright, and his four fellow anathema lords, they had built Sunhill from scratch in just a few years. Never mind that a manse the size and scale of their golden pyramid would usually take half a decade or so to build in peacetime, but there were what? – at least forty or fifty warlords at any given time rampaging around the hundred kingdoms, conquering territory, pillaging what they couldn’t seize, and generally spreading misery. A place like Sunhill had no right existing as it was – no walls, no visible defenses, yet lots of merchants and merchant shipping? A place constantly on the verge of being overrun by warlords wouldn’t attract merchants. That meant that it wasn’t just the locals who were calm about the situation, but also ponies from elsewhere in Creation – it also meant that the merchants weren’t afraid of the lords of Sunhill putting them under some dark spell or seizing their goods.

It was confusing to make sense of it all – Silly knew she was missing something – but her train of thought was thoroughly derailed as the sound of metal rings on a staff became too loud to ignore.

The immaculate master had arrived.

Dressed in the sky-blue robes of the immaculate faith, the master was without a doubt an old and seasoned monk: The unicorn’s mane was completely shaved off, her gaze stern as she approached with bright red eyes. The monk’s orange coat looked eerily similar to Silly’s own, though Silly’s yellow eyes were different from the monk’s bright red eyes.

Also, Silly couldn’t light herself on fire like that, as the unicorn flared her anima to reveal the elemental might of her exalted soul: “Filthy anathema, I am Abbot Scarlet Tigress. All of Sunhill must be put to the torch. Pray to the immaculate dragon Heshiesh that his cleansing fire will purify your souls before your next incarnation”

The Sunhill troops withdrew a bit to form a half-circle around Speaker – both to give him room to fight – but likely also to avoid getting caught in anything. Silly withdrew to a similar range, having seen many a unicorn unleash their elemental fury from their magical horns. She had seen the chosen of the dragon of air smite wyld barbarians with lightning, and the chosen of the earth dragon crush their foes by having the ground yawn open and swallow them all. Only a fool fought a unicorn – only a mad-pony fought an immaculate master.

The monk didn’t seem terribly interested in any kind of formalities or protocol, launching herself like fireworks at calibration, exploding in a burst of flame as she leapt at Speaker, drawing two curved blades of red jade from within her robes mid-leap.

Such swift movement – jumping from a standing position – Silly couldn’t remember any normal pony who could have dodged such a fast attack. Lord Bright didn’t dodge it either… but… he had no armor? No weapons?

…and yet Lord Bright stood triumphant and unharmed, wreathed in a golden shell that hugged his form, the monk quickly darting back a couple of yards.

“Turn around and leave – you don’t want to fight me. You will only get hurt” Lord Bright stated calmly.

The unicorn made a disgusted expression, beyond words for her disdain: “I have studied the wisdom of Heshiesh. You will find that its flame can scorch anything”

“You are welcome to test that claim – but you will not like the result” Lord Bright said – but Silly keenly noted the subtle change in his behavior. She knew that if the unicorn struck again, it would be met with force.

Swinging her head around, the unicorn mare stirred red hot fire essence around her horn, forming a massive fireball. Craning her head back, she flipped it forward with great force as she flung the fireball at her foe.

Lord Bright rose from all four into a low and very strong stance, every muscle in body suddenly taught. To Silly’s amazement and confusion, he drew a golden disc from… nowhere? He held it up in front of him with his right forehoof, and the fireball erupted upon it.

Silly had to look away – the heat from the blast was immense. She could feel the few exposed parts of her coat getting singed, even at her distance.

Before she managed to look up again, she heard the sounds. The sound of… some kind of unholy steam whistle, mixed with strange metallic grinding, but the sound was moving around very fast? Then there was the impact. What was going on? Rubbing her eyes, Silly finally looked up: The monk was… floating up in the air, having somehow been flung into the air, but she wasn’t falling down.

What the absolute jellied dragon-dick.

Then Lord Bright spun around, throwing his golden disc which flew out into the air. It banked, turned back around and then rose into the sky – only to come down, banking at the last moment, striking the monk with its flat side and slamming her screaming into the ground. Dirt, bits of grass and loads of dust erupted all over.

That’s when the Sunhill troops began to cheer.

Lord Bright held a hoof out, as the flying golden disc zipped back to his grasp, and then nodded towards the dust-clouded crater.

Four Sunhill troopers approached cautiously, spears lowered, their black and yellow armor in stark contrast to their lord’s appearance. A breeze moved the dust away, revealing the monk in the crater, wheezing softly as she had been completely knocked out. It was a testament to the toughness of the unicorn that she had survived the attack, but only barely.

Lord Bright turned to Silly, shouting: “That is why Sunhill has nothing to fear”

Sanguine Lotus was having trouble believing her lying eyes. A finisher so quick, so powerful? It was clear that the unicorn never had a chance – was this the power of the anathema lords of Sunhill? No wonder they felt safe without walls around their city.

As the unicorn was hauled off on a stretcher, Lord Bright quickly inspected the mare: “She needs splints on her left hindleg and right foreleg. She should wake up in roughly four hours – leave a message for Sully to be on watch in case she tries anything”

They had protocols for taking hostile unicorns prisoner? Keeping a powerful unicorn captive was no small feat – their powers were difficult to contain, even when wounded. Silly couldn’t help but nod out of respect. It took some solid organization to pull that off.

Lord Bright appeared to take that as a cue, turning to face down the hill towards the approaching army: “Thank you for the warm-up! May I have another?”

A carefully aimed ballista-bolt flew up in an instant, but was parried by the golden disk – the freaking steel tipped log was parried by Lord Bright’s golden disk. With a deep sigh, Lord Bright made a gesture, as if signaling for something – but Silly couldn’t see the ponies at arm next to her doing anything.

That was when the storm clouds formed out of nothing. In mere moments the valley where the army marched was shrouded in darkness, the storm clouds having blotted out the sun. The heavy rain that followed made any attempt at marching up the hill into a muddy nightmare, troops slipping and falling everywhere, and the siege weapons being pushed and hauled getting stuck almost instantly.

Lord Bright then touched a pendant around his neck, closing his eyes. A magical image of him appeared high in the sky over the hill, surprisingly the hell of out Silly. So not only could this Lord Bright do magical martial arts, but he could also do strange illusion magic? The giant illusory image of Lord Bright spoke, its voice booming out over the valley:

“Lord Orchid Blossom. Your attacks on Sunhill are becoming annoying. I plan on going on a long journey soon, and you will not enjoy the same level of mercy if one of my fellow lords have to helm the defense of Sunhill. Leave, return to your lands, lest I command this storm to strike you with lightning”

A single bolt of lightning came down and struck somewhere among Orchid Blossoms’s forces – it seemed to hammer the message home very firmly. Silly couldn’t see if anyone had been hit, but she could see entire regiments routing.

Was this the power of Sunhill? The ability to command the weather and strike down any foe attacking the city with lightning and heavy rain? Looking around, it seemed that the valley that the army was in stretched around Sunhill – which was… odd… because come to think of it, the canal that the merchant ship she had arrived had been at water level with the Yellow River. This would mean that this valley was under the water level… probably more magic at play – still, if this meant that the whole city was uphill, except for its water-side.

Oh, Silly had so many questions – but ok, at least now she could hopefully set up a deal with this Lord Bright and start earning coin.

Satisfied enough that her future clients weren’t going away any time soon, Silly hightailed it back to Sunhill and found her fellow mercenaries making a nuisance of themselves at a tea house near the western gate out of the city. Rounding them up, she tried to explain how the battle had been won before it even started – but as she had expected, then they found her story quite impossible.

Berry Petal shook her head: “You can’t just make it rain and thunder like that – you say he didn’t even start casting any spells or anything and he’s not a unicorn either”

“I know – but that’s what happened. You must have been able to see the illusion he made of himself to shout at them” Silly said, getting a little annoyed that she wasn’t being believed.

The mare serving tea piped up as she distributed cups from a tray: “Oh it’s nothing – you just can’t see the elementals our lords have working for them. We’ve got hundreds of them living here in Sunhill. Fire elementals in our forges, water elementals helping keeping our crops watered and sewers running, earth elementals helping in the mines. You just can’t see them unless they want you to – that’s how they made the storm to ward off Orchid Blossom’s forces again”

Having her story corroborated by a local seemed to make her fellow mercenaries finally believe her, to which end Sanguine Lotus breathed easily. After going to the city manse and arranging a meeting with Lord Bright the next day, Silly and her crew found some cheap but surprisingly nice lodgings and hunkered down for the night. Strapped for coin, she had no interest in giving anyone drinking money, and the rest of crew knew that – though she also hoped that these lords of Sunhill would be up for giving them partial payment up front.

That night Silly dreamt a strange dream: She was young again, and galloping across a great open sunlit field, clad in shining golden armor and wielding a great golden blade, in front of a vast army as she raced towards a foe that didn’t really… make sense… but it felt like a foe, something to be defeated – and there was a song, but the words didn’t make any kind of sense, but she did catch herself humming it when she woke up.