The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Ebon Shadow stylist hides under the table, and takes spoonful’s out of everyone else's bowls of soup.

…

The next morning the duo flew off, finding the long mountain chain known as the Fire Mountains stretching across the horizon in no time at all. Having asked around, they knew that the pinnacle of mercy was the tallest peak on the chain.

Seeing as spotting the tallest mountain wasn’t exactly difficult, the duo quickly found themselves homing in on a magnificent palace carved and built into the mountain near the peak. There was an impossible-looking path leading up to the palace, winding up the side of the mountain. A few brave souls could be seen trying to climb it… and one slipping and falling down.

Speaker instantly had the cloud heave and drop into a steep dive: “Shimmer catch that pony!”

Shimmer dove from the cloud, first melting into a living blob of moonsilver, then shapeshifting into a familiar looking winged gryphon-like form, swelling in size and sprouting massive wings, growing a large beak and sprouting claws where her hooves should be. As her form solidified, her grey coat was replaced by grey weathers with white and purple crests. A second or so later, she had caught the pony tumbling down the mountainside in her massive talons.

Shimmer flew the battered, bruised and utterly wrecked pony up to Speaker’s cloud where the solar worked his magic quickly: “There we go – easy enough to patch up. Now let’s fix those bruises”

Flying next to the cloud in her warform, Shimmer looked on with great curiosity as Speaker drew three delicate orichalcum needles hidden in his sleeve and began to methodically acupuncture his patient. The welts and bruises on the Tengese pony faded with supernatural speed, the unconscious pony quickly coming to, squinting at the glare from Speaker’s shining anima: “Oh where… oh golden lord, is that you?”

“I would never claim the golden lord’s name or title – my name is Bright Machine Speaker”

“But… you shine with his gold?” the confused stallion said, tentatively stretching and flexing limbs that had been completely broken moments earlier.

Speaker didn’t bother explaining the situation, instead flying the pony up to the end of the winding path leading up the mountain. It terminated at the far end of a long rope and wooden plank suspension bridge which led to the castle gates, secured via two large piles of rocks where the bridge ropes were tied to.

On either side of the stone piles sat two three-yard statues of lion spirits, symbolic guardians to anyone who couldn’t see spirits. To the likes of Speaker and Shimmer, who could see dematerialized spirits, they saw the two actually three yard tall golden celestial lions standing guard at the bridge.

The pony Speaker had healed thanked the duo profusely, saying that his entire family would send their prayers and thanks for many years to come, before galloping off towards the temple.

Smiling from ear to ear, Speaker happily trotted up to the bridge, nodding politely at the two lions. Shimmer followed suit, but suddenly a voice called out from behind them: “Hold it”

It was the voice of a pony – not the booming roar of a celestial lion – but it had none the less been said with no small amount of authority and conviction. Turning to look, the duo saw the stranger standing before the celestial lions: “You two have some nerve coming here this late”

Speaker looked at the pony calling them out and smiled: “Oh, it’s you – it’s been a while since last we met, Anys Syn”

Shimmer struggled for a moment, the name sounding vaguely familiar – though to her memories of her past life the name had the scent of an enemy, but she could not remember why. To her surprise Speaker jumped over her, off the bridge, back to the solid mountain ground to face the stranger: “Get off the bridge” he barely managed to say in passing to Shimmer.

Not questioning the suggestion, Shimmer quickly turned around and moved off the bridge, joining Speaker as they stood before the black-maned mare.

“Last Shimmer, meet Anys Syn. She’s the pony who invented the five celestial dragon styles of magical martial arts” Speaker said, gesturing towards the stranger who was clad in very impressive silks.

Shimmer frowned as Anys Syn shot back, her sea-tongue being strangely accented: “You have some nerve to show up here”

“Just bringing back my lunar mate. I promised her last incarnation I would” Speaker casually replied.

Taking a cue from Speaker not to be in any way intimidated by the looming figure of this Anys Syn, Shimmer quietly commented: “She invented the dragon styles? She doesn’t look like an immaculate”

“She’s one of those ponies you keep forgetting of – can’t wait to have that fixed once we get home” Speaker noted, his annoyance there but kept under wraps.

Anys Syn scoffed at the two: “That can quickly be remedied… no sense in killing you if you don’t know why I’m doing it”

With a subtle gesture and an unheard thought, the sidereal did… something – and suddenly Shimmer remembered. She remembered the dozens of times Speaker had told her about the sidereals, the chosen of fate, the agents of heaven… and how quite a lot of them really didn’t like solars and lunars.

“Shimmer, the three ponies who just came up from the trail over there – get them to safety. I’ll handle her” Speaker said, never taking his eyes off their adversary.

It didn’t appear as if the sidereal cared that the lunar disappeared in a flurry of feathers and shapeshifting – it was obvious that her main focus was the solar before her: “Should I kill her first? Just to make your entire trip here for nothing?”

“Oh, how you have fallen Anys. I have faced down a deathlord since last we met, do you really think you can intimidate me? Do you think it wise to fight me?” Speaker noted, sounding like a disappointed grandfather.

With a mocking laugh Anys approached Speaker: “I have fought things you can’t even image… and you have the gall to challenge me?”

“I am not challenging you. Far from it – you should know well enough that I prefer not to fight if possible” Speaker admonished, wondering a bit why the sidereal hadn’t started fighting him yet.

Clearly seething, but for some unknown reason biding her time, Anys tried to circle Speaker – but he moved in tandem so that she never got around him, though it did put her face to face with him: “You and your circle… you cost me everything!”

“I didn’t cost you anything. You broke the laws of heaven, you got caught, you got punished” Speaker ‘corrected’, smiling maybe a bit too much.

Her eyes aflame with fury, Anys Syn stomped a hoof firmly into the ground: “You little… how dare you”

“When you’ve lived with lies for centuries, having someone dare tell the truth can be painful” Speaker said, feeling oddly antsy – he could feel the fight coming – and he was as ready as ever to bring his guard up, but she wasn’t doing anything.

Shimmer returned from having flown around with passengers, ensuring that no innocents would get caught in any crossfire, touching down near the landing that led to the path down the mountain. Anys spied the lunar in warform landing behind her and cried out: “An ambush? How dare you!”

Really? Pretending to have been ambushed as a pretence to attack them?

“I take umbrage to that accusation Anys. Luckily, we’re right in front of the temple of the god of justice. Let’s go ask the golden lord if what you said is right” Speaker said, wondering if Anys had brought other sidereals along… if she had, then they should be attacking them any second.

All three ponies thusly twitched as they heard a hoof set down beside them: A zebra pony clad in richly decorated red cloth of light cotton, replete in patterns that most common ponies would probably call ‘southern tribal’, though he spoke in a very old dialect of old realm: “Anys Syn, what exactly do you think you’re doing here?”

Three other ponies appeared out of the shadows after the mystery zebra stallion had revealed himself, a few of them looking somewhat bruised and battered – all three of them wearing garbs that made them look like sailors ponies. Abys Syn did not look happy to see the three appearing like that.

“Operating in a convention outside of your own jurisdiction without permit, picking a fight with a solar, trying to frame said solar for an ambush that was clearly of your own fabrication… honestly, you’re supposed to be better than this Anys. Now get back to your post, or I’ll report you on that too” the zebra stated firmly, staring the sidereal down.

Speaker wasn’t really sure what was going on, but it seemed to work. Anys Syn sneered at the zebra, then did… something… that made her disappear in a puff of red essence. The three other ponies that had appeared similarly left, one of them casting a spell that moments later zapped them far away.

Shimmer approached the two remaining ponies, looking a bit more confused than Speaker: “So… thank you?”

“Your old realm is atrocious. Now, do you two have any kind of legitimate business here, or are you just passing through?” the zebra asked, his tone stern enough to crush sand into sandstone.

Still under the effect of his fearlessness charm, Speaker didn’t flinch at the zebra’s brutal glare: “We were just about to pay a cordial visit to the golden lord. I hope that’s ok?”

That the zebra didn’t answer such a seemingly simple question instantly gave Speaker pause. Could meeting the golden lord lead to anything bad? The zebra finally spoke, his tone oddly disinterested: “Moot point. He’s not in right now – I suspect that Anys Syn pulled most of the few strings she has left to ensure that he was busy elsewhere today since you were coming. He will be very upset with her if you leave a message for him, seeing as he’s been eagerly awaiting the return of the solars ever since he heard of your return”

“Hold on, who are you?” Shimmer asked, circling Speaker and the zebra.

The zebra did… something… something obviously sidereal in nature, for it made Shimmer suddenly stand next to Speaker in front of him: “Neither of you need to know that – though it will not be difficult to learn who I am from your convention of wood friends, but you won’t be able to do that until you’re far away from here, which is just how I like it”

Speaker shrugged: “You’re not the first sidereal who wants to stay anonymous. Your choice – but tell me, we’re traveling eastward to reach Sunhill. Do you have suggestions for places to check out or avoid?”

“Who briefed you on what buttons to push on me?” the zebra stallion snapped back in an instant, giving Speaker an icy stare.

With a chuckle, Speaker recounted the wisdom that he had been told by Heath Rose, the sidereal attached to Sunhill as its advisor: “She told me that if we ran into trouble with other sidereals here we should just stall and invoke big enough gods until a local sidereal took notice, said that you lot are neutral if nothing else – and she suggested I word such a request for guidance thusly in case we could help you with anything. I hope we haven’t offended”

Closing his eyes for a brief moment, Shimmer leaned over to Speaker and whispered: “There’s something in his ear whispering to him”

“A crystal spider spirit – a spirit secretary” Speaker replied.

The zebra nodded: “I just got a new threat analysis on An-Teng. A forty-seven percent reduction in the likelihood of imminent overt demonic activity. Did you two have anything to do with that?”

Speaker nodded to Shimmer who eagerly replied: “We accidentally ran across a demon cult that was planning a rebellion to oust the realm from An-Teng, talked them out of using demons for the uprising – they’ll arm up and try to use pony troops instead, only using the demons to arm them and construct secret infrastructure”

It was a strange laugh that came from the zebra: “Really? Do you think you can do something similar in the deep desert?”

“Maybe? Will it be on our route home?” Speaker wondered.

The zebra remained silent for another moment or two, telepathically communing with his crystal spider spirit secretary: “I can arrange for a fire elemental to bring you from the outskirts of Gem to where you can meet Sand – a very self-righteous solar, wants to do things that’ll kill millions. Can you be there in two days?”

A quick bit of geography and math on the fly saw Speaker nodding, not that it was difficult to lure him into helping potentially save the lives of millions: “It’ll be close, but it should be possible to get to Gem that quickly”

“Excellent. Here, snacks for your trip – remember to drink plenty of water while in the deep desert” the zebra said, pulling out a pouch of something and tossing it to Shimmer.

The duo had probably wanted to ask more questions, but the zebra stepped up to the celestial lions and had one of them pick him up and toss him far to the east, over the mountains and beyond.

“Well, that’s one way to end a conversation” Speaker said, curiously looking at the pouch they had been given.

Opening the pouch full of sweet dates and nuts, Shimmer gave them a sniff: “Oh… sugary”

Flying in a roughly eastern direction on Speaker’s magic cloud, Shimmer consulted Speaker’s maps and vented her anger and discomfort: “This is a shit map and it is way too hot even with the sun down!”

“That’s why we’re flying at night. And I know the map is a bit rough, I’ll give you that, but we just have to find the diamond road and follow it south to find Gem. Look out for campfires lit along the road by trade caravans” Speaker noted.

Shimmer pondered the map for a moment, also peering down at the seemingly endless dune sea beneath them: “Spotting a sea-lane from the air is easier than this Lord Bright… and we’re way too high up to see any campfires”

“Well… can you sense the presence of animals? Try to feel out if there are any areas where the local wildlife has been scared away, sense the yeddim pulling the guild wagons” Speaker suggested, drawing a heavy breath as he fought his eyes to avoid falling asleep.

There was a moment of silence. Speaker sensed a dim light next to him, and sure enough: Shimmer was glowing softly, not via her moonsilver tatoos, but via strange silverly lines in her skin glowing through her coat along her body.

“This charm is a lot easier to use underwater… but I think I can sense a spot with a line of ponies in… that direction” Shimmer said, her caste mark of a hollow ring of silver-blue moonlight erupting and shining enough light onto her hoof that Speaker could see what direction she was pointing in the darkness.

Flying in that direction led to a caravan that – curiously enough – appeared to have erected what looked a bit like roof-less tents, or just canvas walls held up by poles and such, around their campfires.

“Why do you think they do that?” Speaker whispered, as the cloud hovered silently above the camp, with the soft murmurs of quiet evening conversation filtering up from down below.

Shimmer quickly answered: “I’ve seen similar setups on ships with smugglers – they did that to hide – but this is the desert. What are they hiding from?”

“No idea – most of the diamond road isn’t claimed or taxed territory as far as I know. Anyway, I can see other campfires, so now we have a rough direction to fly in”

Continuing onwards, the duo flew through the night, Speaker steeling himself with essence to stay awake. When Dawn came the diamond road became a lot more obvious, the snaking lines of caravans going either north or south in between the sandy foothills of the fire mountains were plain for all to see. In the distance the massive extinct volcano in which the city state of Gem was located began to tower.

It also didn’t take many moments from the sun peeking over the horizon before Speaker noticed that his elemental immunity charm had come on without him even thinking about it. Shimmer had no such defence, and so found the heat utterly oppressive, even with Deep Wave forming an umbrella for her, and by the time that the cloud came in over the caldera of the volcano, she was only alive thanks to repeated essence expenditures to stave off heat stroke.

Landing in what looked like a bazar of sorts, a market square where quite a few of the stalls stood empty and abandoned, Speaker helped Shimmer into the shade. He didn’t pay attention to the many strange stares that followed the two as they made it into what looked like a rather seedy tea house.

“A pitcher, no – make it two” Speaker commanded in heavily accented fire-tongue as he sat a very hot, if not downright steamy, Shimmer down. His charms might protect him from the heat, but he could still feel how Shimmer was positively sizzling, which really didn’t feel very healthy.

A southern looking mare came over to Speaker with a sneer on her lip, her mane curly and dark and her garb wrought of light and thin cottons: “We serve tea here – this isn’t an alehouse you stupid foreigner”

Not really wanting to engage in a prolonged argument, since he knew that Shimmer needed fluids and fast, Speaker instead opted to resolve the situation how he had learned from Cash Charmer: He threw money at it.

Pulling out a solid bar of silver from his saddlebags, Speaker dropped it at the hooves of the now wide-eyed mare: “Two pitchers of tea then, big ones, as cold as you can make ‘em”

The mare bit down on the bar and tried to lift it – and failed. Few ponies ever considered the weight of silver, for it was nearly as heavy as lead. As coins they were light enough due to their small size, but as a bar one needed more strength than a tea-house waiter could muster, a strength Speaker had in spades.

Two of what was likely the largest tea kettles in the establishment were quickly delivered. Speaker helped Shimmer rehydrate, the lunar slowly regaining her composure and the awareness of her surroundings, so much so that she quickly pointed out to Speaker that a number of armed guards had apparently assembled outside whatever place they were in.

“…but they’re not doing anything? Are you sure?” Speaker wondered, trying to not look alarmed.

“Doesn’t look like it – but… hold on Lord Bright, someone’s coming” Shimmer said, whatever extrasensory perception charm she had been using having clued her in on activities beyond the door to the tea house.

Moments later a mare clad in robes that Speaker figured marked her as a public official walked in, and through the door several ponies at arms in colorful but matching liveries could be seen. The official quickly looked around, checked a scroll she carried, then stomped over to Speaker and Shimmer: “Do you speak the firetongue ifendi?”

“I do, she doesn’t” Speaker calmly replied, even if his accent probably made him sound as if he spoke with a mouth full of river silt.

The official did not look impressed as she scrutinized the two: “Did you two arrive via sorcery at the day market? All sorcerers must register their presence with the Office of Vapors and Magic”

Not wanting any kind of trouble, Speaker simply nodded: “Terribly sorry about that. Is this office far off?”

“It is closed for today. You will have to spend the night in the district jail – it will give you plenty of time to pray and meditate on your crime. You will be brought before a magistrate in the morning – your punishment will likely be a fine and service to Gem” the mare said with not even a hint of remorse or pity in her voice. She looked pleased as punch as she gestured for the armed troops to come and take the duo away.

A quick glance at Shimmer, who was busy sucking on a sugared fig, left Speaker with little choice, seeing as he didn’t want to see innocents killed for something this petty, even though smacking around idiot officials who harassed ill-feeling travels certainly invited such.

The district jail was set right next to the district garrison – and in being led there, Speaker gleamed quite a few interesting details of Gem’s architecture: Pretty much all of the city was built underground, with dozens of levels throughout the mountain. This also meant that the district garrison looked like a one-story store-front… even though it was probably more like a small fortress built inside the city. The jail part of the garrison wasn’t much different.

Since they were only meant to stay there the night, the duo was ushered into the holding cell next to four ponies in various states of inebriation and drug-intoxication. They smelled about as nice as one would expect, especially considering that there was no means to wash one-self in the holding cell, nor anywhere to relieve one self. The drunk ones had each puked at least twice, and one of the druggies had shat themselves.

This would not do.

Steeling himself, Speaker first made sure that Shimmer was comfortable. The smell didn’t seem to bother her all that much, and she had been properly rehydrated – she just had to recuperate. Next up, Speaker carefully checked out the patrol routes of the guards, to make sure that they would be out of sight when he worked his charms. Finally, he applied his peaceful repose touch to thoroughly send the other ponies in the cell off to dreamland, before he quickly used his medical charms to scrub all of them of their poisons and vices, both physically and mentally, as well as washing them down with essence. He briefly flared with golden light, but it had subsided by the time the guard patrol came around the corner to see anything.

With the source of the stink in the cell gone, Speaker sat down next to Shimmer and breathed a sigh of relief. This managed to last for just long enough for Speaker to doze off, when Shimmer suddenly shook him awake.

“What, what is it?” Speaker said, getting his bearings. Yup, still in the cell carved out of volcanic rock, and it hadn’t started to smell like sick and shit, so it wasn’t all bad.

Well, it was actually all bad, as Shimmer quickly pointed out: “Lord Bright, I can hear demons and fighting outside!!”

Looking quickly over at the four sleeping ponies in the other end of the holding cell, Speaker frowned: “Can you turn into something small enough to sneak outside and go have a look?”

Shimmer was already out beyond the bars in the form of some kind of small lizard or snake, before Speaker knew what was happening. From inside the cell Speaker wondered how she would handle the heat – they hadn’t been inside for that long – so it would still be scorching outside, unless she just scouted the nearby tunnels.

It was then that Speaker noticed the distinct lack of guards in the prison. That… that was not good. He could also hear the distant clamour of fighting and screaming. Shimmer returned shortly thereafter, her tiny reptile form looking well cooked, but not worse for wear. Turning back into a pony, she confirmed the situation: “The city is chaos… the sky is straight up cloudy with demons”

“It’s an invasion! – We… we need to help these ponies” Speaker said, trying to piece together a plan of action on the fly.

Shimmer looked at Speaker, then at the iron bars of the cell: “We need to get you out of here first my lord”

“Bars stopped being an issue to me a long time ago. Not even jadesteel bars would hold me these days. No, we need to find out where we can do the most good here!” Speaker said, casually waving a hoof at the bars. With a wash of golden essence, the bars withered and turned to dust, leaving a door-sized hole for the two to exit, right next to the door.

In the underground hallways outside the prison Speaker first saw the blood. There was… too much. Several blood trails hinted of wounded ponies retreating, one of the blood trails had very dark blood – a wound to the liver – that pony would die soon, if it hadn’t already happened. His first impulse was to follow that trail and pray that he could reach that pony in time, but looking down the hallway in the direction that dark blood-trail, there was another splash of blood. Something had burst. It was too much for whatever pony that was to have survived.

With a deep breath and a pair of tearful eyes Speaker looked towards the nearest door to the outside: “Leadership – we need to find who is leading the demons and cut off the head of it all. Demons obey their masters rigidly; without a master they’ll scatter into the foothills”

The outside was baking hot. Truly, it was like stepping into a searingly hot oven. Speaker felt the soft inner parts of his hooves scorch, but in an instant his elemental immunity charm kicked in without him even thinking about it.

“I can’t… it’s too hot for me Lord Bright, I’m sorry” Shimmer said from the doorway.

Looking around and seeing that the sky was indeed dark with flying demons, Speaker grimaced: “Go full warform, everything you have. I doubt the leader of the demons is out in the open – they’re probably at the despot’s palace. We’ll go there”

Shimmer found herself impressed as she struggled to keep up with Speaker while he leapt and bounded from rooftop to rooftop, while her birdlike warform, with its clawed limbs, strong beak and large wings was more suited for flight than jumping around – but flying meant getting her wings scorched.

Enroute to the palace the duo saw a lot of demolished houses and structures where the screams of ponies could be heard from within, along with the joyous howls of demons. The sky was equally thick with strange demonic banners and flying demonic insects and other infernal horrors.

It made Speaker question where they had all come from. The despot of Gem was known for – if nothing else – running a tight ship, and trouncing any kind of rebellion or insurrection quickly. That was at least how the stories he’d heard usually went, like how Gem didn’t have a standing army, but instead three competing mercenary companies that never had enough troops to take over without the other two putting them in their place.

…had one of the mercenary companies been flipped somehow?

The demonic insects that controlled the skies finally began to pay attention to the duo as they approached the palace. They fell by the dozen as Speaker threw his chakrams, and Shimmer made great use of her magical spiderweb charm, trapping the flying demons and tangling up their wings, leading to a lot of them crashing into the rooftops of the city, or impaling themselves on sun-bleached flagpoles.

“Shimmer, can you tell what these demons are?” Speaker said as he leapt from another rooftop towards the palace.

Figuring that her solar mate was testing the occult knowledge he had taught her earlier, Shimmer quickly answered: “It’s a mix of demons Lord Bright, but the bug ones with wings are agatae – the giant demon wasps – and the ones parachuting down on spiderwebs are some kind of anhules, demon spiders – but Sage never told me anything about anhules doing air-drops – and I think I can see some kite flute demons!”

“Ya, that’s a new trick. I’m guessing its these green sun princes, like Bitter Copal; the demons have finally gotten some new strategoi to plan attacks like this” Speaker shouted back.

At a massive balcony overseeing the city, Speaker landed from a great leap into an expanding pool of drying blood. The bodies of many dozens of ponies were strewn everywhere on the balcony, dripping down on the rooftops of the rest of the city, forming steaming pies of blood, sand and dust.

The stone door leading into the palace proper suddenly creaked open. Two massive red-furred clawed hands pushed the door open. A lone bloodhound came through, hauling a cart filled with corpses. Dumping the corpses, the horn-crowned demon seemed far too preoccupied with squeezing the last few drops of out the pony corpses it had delivered to notice Shimmer sneaking up on him and ripping his head clean off.

“Are they just killing everyone?” Shimmer said in dispair, looking at the dead ponies that had been delivered.

With a cursory glance across the hundreds of corpses, Speaker’s solar intuition near-instantly gleamed a pattern in the corpses and their injuries: “No, these are the corpses of courtesans and servants – and they look burned too. I think they were caught in some kind of fire-based attack, probably an opening salvo. The rest of them have arrow, slash and stab wounds, wounds from combat – look at the naked bodies. They look like guards stripped of their armor and uniforms… I’m guessing that whoever is taking over wants to present a new guard that at least looks like ponies…”

Shimmer was scouting through the door into the palace as she had to wonder about what was Speaker had said: “Look like ponies?”

“I’m guessing they have shapeshifting demons, neomah – they can breathe emerald fire. I think what happened here first was that a bunch of neomah disguised as ponies arrived here and started burning ponies” Speaker said as he followed the warformed lunar inside.

Shimmer’s massive form took up most of the small palace corridor, but it quickly turned into a larger and more spacious hallway. The scattered bits of torn armor and blood spatter told a grim story of desperate battle, but there weren’t any patrols going around the halls. Her senses being the sharper of the two, this led to Shimmer detecting dozens of ponies hidden in various rooms they passed.

“They can’t leave the way we came in… they need a way out, and we’ll need help” Speaker mused, quickly looking the latest group of barely hidden ponies over with essence sight to make sure none were shapeshifted demons, or had been possessed by stomach-bottle bug demons.

With barely enough room to turn around, and constantly on the lookout for demons, Shimmer wasn’t able to face Speaker to incredulously ask him: “Help from who Lord Bright?”

“Doesn’t matter – we have to let the rest of creation know what’s going on here. Just give me a minute, I’ll have a messenger spell out, then we can round everyone up and get them out of here” Speaker said as if they already had an escape route, which they didn’t, or allies on call who could be there in an instant, which they didn’t have either.

Her armored feathers bristling, Shimmer waited the tense minute or so as Speaker wove the messenger spell into being… and then he hesitated. Hesitation was bad, to the point that Shimmer momentarily forgot her manners: “What’s the holdup?”

“I can’t remember the deliberative emergency codes to the bureau of weather for demonic incursions. We could call down the wrath of heaven on these things if I could…” Speaker replied, the anguish in his voice palpable.

A quick re-evaluation of his options, Speaker spoke a simple message in old realm: “From: Bright Machine Speaker. Gem is being overrun by demons. Enemy leadership has not been identified. Evacuating civilians. Inform all available forces in the south, or Gem will have fallen by dawn”

“Who did you send that to Lord Bright? The zebra sidereal we met at the golden lord’s temple?” Shimmer wondered.

With a deep sigh, Speaker wished he had: “He never told us his name, so I couldn’t. I sent it to the sidereal in charge of overseeing the east. It’ll be five or six hours before the message reaches her, but she probably has faster ways of getting a message back here to the zebra and any other sidereals and martial gods here. Maybe they can get the southern god of war involved – now, roundup all the ponies you can find while I make us an exit”