Prologue
~The Conquest of Mag~
It is strange, you are the supreme king of the largest empire of the steppe, your strength wot surpasses that of the depredators of the lands, your tactical knowledge at the same level of the ancients of the desert, a height that any of my kind could envy, a historic and powerful ascendance, and just then, you lose the title to a foreign, red-eyed ram with the size of a horse accompanied by a brute donkey of the lowest class possible.
Grogar is the name of this ram, I did not expect to witness such person in my life, his goatish yet intimidating voice, his ambitions to conquer the world outside of my land, his magical, dark blue horns that I could not surpass even being the greatest of the troggles, his deadly gaze upon Ponyland…
Whatever his story was on the land of the little ponies, he seems to have a profound hatred towards the equines, as if he wanted to seek revenge on them, at the same time I am supposing it is a very sophisticated way of racism and narcissism at them, or even hate to himself by how he had to be born, since this ram does not stop having movements reminiscent of bipedal creatures such as the gizmonks or ourselves the troggles, I will try to figure out what his gaze means.
About the donkey servant, his name is Bray, he was somewhat taller than the average male of his kind, but his manners were still that of a lame, stupid donkey; interestingly, he wore clothes of the Jewel Kingdom, more specifically, those of a slave of the ogres, he presents his loyalty towards Grogar like how a grundle slave shows his frightened obedience to their masters the ogres, or it could be simply one of his natural behaviors of donkey, but about if he is a slave of Grogar or not, I am not interested in their story.
Now, how did I lose my nation against him? I simply rejected his demand of an alliance, all according to my own beliefs and the philosophy of my father, one must not trust anybody who comes from nowhere and claims to give everything, but I regret making that choice, it was an error that lead him to defy me for the right of the command of the troggles, and so in a not so mortal battle, he defeated me and won the rule of Troggleland.
I failed to maintain my father’s work under my hands.
The blue ram, now as the new Trogghan, commanded me to go to the nearest and most isolated unicorn village of North Ponyland with an army of my kind, expecting me to capture all the ponies of said town, especially unicorns; he does not care if some of my soldiers slay some earthlings or flying ponies, he is only interested in the magical ponies, but why those? I wish I knew the answer right now.
And by all honesty, the idea of conquering the southern lands is something that excites me, like a fire waiting for someone to take out the rocks surrounding it and to expand itself not only on the grass lands of the steppe but also the forests to consume everything and leave nothing for the other animals to eat.
Centuries ago, before the unification of Troggleland, some of the old tribes used to have conflict with the ponies, stealing resources was the common thing we did to them, but else we had made back then is now irrelevant to us, what matters now is our first strike in a long time of peace to the ponies, it excites me so much even if I am no longer the king of the troggles.
But I must concentrate on this task, step by step my we will conquer them all.
My men and I are traveling around the snakey river: a big, large river that descends from the frozen north, passing through the mountains of Grundleland, then dividing the steppe in two lands, and finally passing through the territory of the little ponies. It is a big coincidence that the village we are traveling to is not very far away from the river, that way we won’t lost our track on the territory of Ponyland, at least not until we get a map of it.
My father Rag told me to never pass the river to extend our empire, as the other part of the steppe is highly dominated by the witches, very wicked people that should not be messed with, so much trouble they have caused through the history of these lands that even the great Ice Kingdom does not dare to defy them, 'Never mess with fire unless you are another creature of destructive power' I recall, were the words the Rex Penna himself told to my ancestors the Trobanik as a warning of the other side of the river.
Wonder if that has anything to do with our tale of the Fire Horse…
As we marched on, I heard my kind speak all types of complains about the ram, 'why do we have to serve a foreigner?' and 'why are we going to the south?' were the regular complains amongst them I retell, but the one that caught my interest was 'why did Grogar have magic?' since I asked that to myself too; as far as I knew, only pennas, unicorns, the Moochick and presumably the penguin king had innate magic, could it be that a few selected of his kind had magic like the penguins, or that he got it from another source like the witches or ogres themselves?
I would ask him that personally once my mission was accomplished.
§
After two days of walking, we arrived at the town of River Hills, exactly as Bray described it: pink houses with red roofs, all built and settled in an irregular way, one cross shaped stone road that splits the town in four sections and a marble fountain on the center of it, despite the childish look of this place, no pony was around on the outside, it was definitely a lone boring town set in the frontier between Ponyland and Troggleland.
Alas, poor ponies, for long time they have been blessed with no conflict with other kingdoms, they think that they are safe but no, even if they have great territory extension, decent armies and architecture, they would never be able to defend themselves against a strike from my men, even if we are currently at the lead of someone else.
As soon as we came, we hid ourselves on the bushes nearby, mere luck that the inclination of the land allow us to hide better from their sight; even if it was long ago that we fought equines, my men and I still had a clue about how to fight the earthlings, pegasus and unicorns. We came very well prepared, light spears to throw at the winged ponies, long swords to swing at the earth ponies, and special units trained to combat the magic ponies and their different types of magic, along with ropes to tie them up once they are defeated; and me? I had the most optimal weapon for every occasion, a warhammer.
Taking a glance at the village, I saw three unicorns playing around the fountain, whatever they were playing I did not know of, why would I care about equine culture?, the first that caught my attention was a beautiful yellow unicorn, the second was a cheery red mare, and the third a chubby light blue unicorn; the others I guessed, were inside of their houses doing business and more unimportant stuff.
That gave me the advantage of a sigil raid.
With sun setting off, I have ordered my kind to split into squads of three troggles for each house, and sneak into the inside to knock them out as fast as they can at my signal, those left would be an aid if the situation required it, meanwhile I take down the three unicorns playing on the outside, I did not think the Moochick would give us such an easy raid, may he bless us.
My men followed my order with a 'yes sir' and each group went to surround every house in the vicinity, very well hidden on each wall from the sight of the three ponies at the fountain, they remained playing as if nothing was happening, I would approach them directly.
Walking towards them without pretending to hide, I drew their attention, confused gazes were upon me, yet I walked to meet the little mares, they seemed to speak something, "..... invoke......... golden string" is what I heard from them, but whatever they spoke did not change what I had to do.
Now in front of the unicorns, they still gave me confused gazes, so I raised my hammer and hit the red unicorn on her left shoulder, whom screamed in agony while she fell to the stone path, and so I shouted "Attack!" as the signal to the others who immediately started their job to infiltrate and combat the ponies; this would alert the ponies inside as well but I hoped it would not be an inconvenience to my troops.
I stared at them, the yellow mare seemed to be frozen out of fear for what I did, pure terror of a victim with no escape possible, the chubby unicorn murmured something to her friend, making her react and run away for help, but as soon as she started running, she stopped to give view to her surroundings, every neighbor she knew was being attacked by troggles on the insides of each house, and so she fell in terror again.
Suddenly I was trapped inside of a bubble, how cute, the fat unicorn has bubble magic, as if dumb bubbles were able to stop me, I swung my hammer and popped off the bubble, hastily she invoked another bubble around me and I popped it again with ease, though brave, this pony did not seem to be very smart at combat, and fearful, after noticing it was useless to distract me with more bubbles, she lifted and carried her fallen friend, running at the exterior along with the yellow pony.
I would not let them flee.
As the unicorn with the harmed friend on her back ran, I followed and swung my hammer directly at her head and knocked her successfully, thus both falling to the ground, the third stopped a few feet away to contemplate the scene.
Still conscious, the red unicorn was crawling away trying to reach her yellow friend, hah, some still struggle to avoid their doom, I will remind them they cannot; the yellow pony summoned what seemed to be a light yellow string coming from her horn to drag her friends, now I see why they mentioned something about a golden string, they spoke about a plan to escape if things went wrong!
"You will not!" I shouted towards her while I headed to the floating string, grabbed it and brusquely dragged the yellow unicorn to my hands.
Now holding her, she yelled "release me!" but I did not care, I took out a rope from my right bag to tie her up at once, her magic will not represent a problem on our way back to the steppe.
The other unicorn on the ground seemed to whisper something and then, I was covered in flames which made me drop out the golden mare out of pain and burning.
The fire was momentary and faded away, leaving me some burnt skin and damage to my leather armor whilst the others were running away of the village, I thought that the smash with my hammer would not allow her to walk even but I guessed wrong, either that or she is ignoring her pain to flee from me.
I started running towards them to tackle the mares, the yellow pony noticed that I was pursuing them so she alerted her friend but the red unicorn did not react in time to get out of the way so I successfully hit her and we fell to the ground.
I happened to fall over the reddish mare so I hastily raised my fist and hit her on the head to leave her out of combat.
While I got up, I stared at the yellow unicorn, who was staring back at us with fear, I appreciate her natural beauty, her slim body, her wavy, pale yellow hair being blew by the wind, her orange eyes, and her ribbon of the same color eye, tied to her tail; with no doubt she is the prettiest mare I have seen in my life, yet her face was of horror, of someone who has given up, last thing I had to do was tie her and bring her along with my troops like a mascot.
"... Why, why are you attacking us?" she said to me.
"It is an order from the new trogghan, to get all of you to the steppe, our lands" I told her.
She did not speak anything else, my response was enough, she simply and truly gave up on an escape, so I started my job to tie her up, she was sobbing silently.
While I was tying her up, my soldiers exited the houses carrying ponies on their backs, exactly as I planned, no damaged troggle, no complications other then the small burnings of a little ago, no broken or lost weapon, this is a successful raid with no more than half hour of duration, there is not a single non magical army greater than us the troggles, and after I tie up the unconscious friends of the yellow pony, we will bring them all to the exterior to make the counting of captured ponies.
(size=2em]§
I counted them, it is a total of 83 captured ponies, by which 45 are unicorns, 31 are earthlings, and 8 are pegasus, I also got the anecdote of one of my troggles that almosts finishes a unicorn by accident, even with that, this attack was well elaborated.
I finished my task, all the unicorns except one were unconscious and tied from leg to leg, every single one of them is being carried by a troggle, to think that she, the pretty unicorn, has to presence this event, all her equine neighbors captured and taken to my lands, makes me feel a bit of sorrow towards her; about the earthlings and winged ponies we tied them on the same way as the unicorns, but to the last ones we tied their wings too if one of them dares to escape flying away when they regain consciousness, it results me strange that there were no kids other than a pink filly with a red mane, which I am carrying on my back right now, I would have liked to leave her safe, away from us but an order is an order and we have to fulfil them even if there are kids involved.
I will return victorious of my first conquest of Ponyland.
Author's Note
Unicorn's Odor
-Hippogriff Navy
Chapter 1
~The Troggürk Steppe~
I want to flee and disappear.
Of what happened days ago has me internally wounded, the attack of the troggles, as fearsome as the tales of my library told once, I recall a paragraph made by the magician Nightshade not so long ago to describe them: 'they make their enemies fear them, no thing on earth can stop them, not even the magic, the troggles art the strongest, most terrible, and honor'd barbarians of the lands'.
The raid happened pretty much like the books said save for one aspect, they didn’t loot the village nor they gave us merciful death, they captured us all and left the town isolated.
To have witnessed them brutally attack my neighborhood makes me feel remorse; it’s my fault that my friends and I didn’t escape the tragedy, all because of my stupid fear to die.
Overall, I am pathetic, the simple town reader with the lamest magic of all types: the golden string, so ironic that it happens to be my name and cutie mark as well, like if I were just a girlish accessory.
At this moment we are traveling in the grasslands of the troggle territory, I don’t remember how the biome they live on was named but the way it works, it doesn’t let them settle in the land, so they are nomads traveling for any food and resources, that’s what said my book I accidently tossed on the snakey river when a wild cobra scared me.
My captured kin is awake now but none of them present any will to fight back, so like me, and the only one who can release us, my greatest friend Flare, every time she tries to do something she is beaten up until she falls unconscious.
Even if they made some stops to eat, my people included, they have been giving her nothing more than water, they want to weaken her to the point she cannot use her magic no more, so they don’t have to struggle with Flare all the way back to their homeland.
I cannot help, I truly want to but I can’t, I fear to get injured the same way my other friend got for helping her sister, she spared some of her food to her sister and only for doing that, they punched her stomach, as if to tell her subtly what she’ll get for if ever tries to commit what for them is a terrible act, I feel pity for the two of them.
The troggle taking me to the land is the same one whom I fought back at the fountain, with a rope tied to my neck, he allowed me to know his name, which is Mag; halfway he asked me many questions, about my name, everybody’s, and the history of the village, little can be learnt from my town, yet he wanted to know, he presents a deep interest in history in a major level than I.
He’s carrying the young Scarlet on his back, the innocent and cute earth pony of my village, who used to play so much on the gardens and even I got to teach her some pony philosophy of our princess Diamond, she’s only 14 years old, she did not have to get through this!
Poor Scarlet, I fear that her best years to live will be wasted with the life of a slave, either from the troggles or the ogres of the jewel desert.
Now that I think about it, what will they do with us the captives? I don’t want to know, but my curiosity wants to, whatever it msy be it cannot be more terrifying than turning us into slaves.
We finally arrived to the troggle tents, but it looks odd, far away there seem to be a big ram of horrible aspect and a donkey wearing jester clothes-
I saw the blue ram rise on his hind legs!
A weird behavior that gave me shivers, it truly is strange to see a four-legged creature act like a bipedal, adding his ugly, terrifying appearance makes it worse; he seems to be giving a speech to the troggles surrounding him, evil scheming for us I deduce.
The barbarian Mag tied me to one of the fences, until further notice of what they’ll do to us, here I will stay like a domestic animal of the barbarians, so I sat down, watching Mag leave the area in direction to the ram; I couldn’t speak, as sadness shut my mouth, thus crying alone.
§
We arrived, I left Golden String tied to one of the fences, while the others were taken to the pens, I have a talk with Grogar to fulfill, I need him to answer me certain doubts.
I thought about the first assault on Ponyland, I committed the flaw of getting burnt by that fire mare but even then, they did not know how to defend themselves, they were easy prey to us, these ponies lived on the borderline of our territory, with the danger of being raided by a solitary gang of my troggles and never readied themselves for it; 'twas such an easy assault, so much that I do not consider it a victory even, will it have any merit to conquer the land of the ponies?
While I walked to the meeting point, I saw Grogar rise up on his hind legs at the moment he was giving a speech to my kind, it still is awkward for me to see him act that way but I will get used to it eventually, I believe so.
After all, he is a supreme being, and has to act like one.
He ceased his talking and asked them and Bray to leave and go back to their duties the moment he saw me getting near, what he told to my people I could get to know any time later.
“Here Mag reporting himself, your first general; I inform thou that we successfully captured the ponies as requested days ago, they were no problem to deal with.”
“Excellent, the little ponies will serve us well.” He said with his characteristic goatish voice.
“If you may excuse me, I would like to know the motive behind the request for bringing you ponies (especially unicorns), while we can perfectly execute our methods of slavering for the winged and earthed equines, we cannot tame the unicorns properly due to their magic, as long as they have a way to rebel or defend against its masters, they are nearly impossible to make them succumb to us or anyone else, I see no good reason to have them here.”
“You are right in every aspect Mag, we cannot use them alive, that is why I order you and some of your troggles to tear off their horns after I choose a few ones for something special.”
I could not believe it, lightly he says such abhorrent atrocity, to finish our victims for worthless trophies! So I yelled back with anger to him.
“I may ignore the shame of serving a stranger like you, but this not, irrationally kill another nation not for resources or expansion but stupid awards is not something I will tolerate!”
I wanted to begin another match against him to recover my reign and expel him from the Troggürk steppe forever, but he interrupted my fury by telling me: “you are wrong in what you are saying, we won’t kill them for fun, I want you to listen to me attentively, because it will make you understand what I am telling you about.”
Madness, Grogar wants to excuse himself for saying the unnecessary gore of ponies, but I had the decency to listen to him, depending on what he said it would make me take a great decision for a second time, or not.
“The reason behind my command is the fabrication of weapons capable to use magic, but unlike those created in the Jewel Kingdom, these will be much easier to produce and use, since we got unicorns and their alicorns which have innate magic, and some useful resources only available on your lands; according to what I researched before coming here the unicorns have a special organ inside of their horns that stores and let them use magic, by tearing it off, tanning and bathing it on juice of native berries to preserve it, and sticking it to a good handle, your people will get magical lances as part of your weaponry.”
“I see but why we have to bring them here only to kill them when we could do that on their homelands and just bring the alicorns? Unless your explanation has something to do with choosing a few ones for something special, I do not see any logical reason for this order.”
“Mag, do you know the tale of the Golden Horseshoes?”
“Yes, a tale that supposedly happened more than a century ago, why do you ask-” I understood what Grogar meant with that question.
The legend of Majesty, the unicorn that fought the mage Wantall who kidnapped the unicorn princesses to convert them into magical weapons and glue, he successfully ripped two of the six horns and unfortunately for him, they lost their magic in a matter of hours, thus he was defeated by the great magic of Majesty and her golden horseshoes, but at the end she lost them on the desert by the last spell of Wantall before dying: the sandstorm.
I thought the detail of the horns losing all magical properties after being ripped off was just a convenience created by the historian to justify the mediocrity of such damned ogre, but if they really do that, then it makes perfect sense Grogar’s request to bring them alive only to kill them here.
Interesting, not only answered my doubt but also it motivated me to capture more unicorns, magical weapons would make us the most powerful army in the world, so much that not even the pennas would dare to defy us, all under the cost of some unicorn lives but that compared to our upcoming greatness, turns into a lesser consequence; though I do not find the reason to leave a few alive, I have to ask him why.
“I see but I still cannot understand why we are leaving some alive, considering the butchering we are going to do, we could finally instruct them to our will, thus making them effective, magical slaves, it is my idea but what are you planning to do to them?”
“I will drain their magic to augment my power.”
So… Impressive, he wants to elevate his power even more, at least with that said, I can deduce the reason why he has magic, Grogar obtained it from a source; yet I need to know why he wants to become more powerful then what he is already.
“Excuse but I would like to know why thou want to increment thy power since you are already powerful enough to defeat me.”
“I need more magic to be able to conjure certain spells that require such amounts of power, simply that; I ordered some of your men to make preparations for the extraction of alicorns, follow me, you will help me choose those who will live to feed my bell.”
And so Grogar started walking off to the yards of our prisoners the ponies, I still had one doubt left so I told him: “once drained of their magic they will become useless, I suppose that they will turn weak after you take all of their power, and won’t be capable to walk a kilometer even, they hardly would do as slaves.”
He stopped at my remark, turned his face to me and said: “do whatever you want, I do not care if you decide to keep them as mascots or if you exile them to the steppe.”
With that answer, he continued walking towards the yard where I locked the unicorns, and I followed him.
Later I will figure out what to do with the unicorns left, perhaps exiling them to the steppe to end their suffering.
§
Wordless, still sitting on the grass and lying on the fence, after all what can I do, my kin speak things but I do not care what they say, I don’t want to hear more laments because I have enough with my own suffering already.
I see him and the ram walking towards the fences, they spoke something earlier but it didn’t take much time, so fearful to see the great ram coming to me, his purely red eyes, his big eyebags, his white and furry eyebrows, his deadly fangs, his pale, dark blue coat, and his horrible face, the ram is like a demon.
“Now here we are to choose them, tell me Lord Grogar, who do you think are appropriate for thee?” Said the troggle.
That caught my attention, to what would he refer to those appropriate for the presumably named Lord Grogar? I am concerned.
“I have to check them with a special spell that will reveal who are worth.” He said at the moment his horns shone purple, and from their ends he shot an odd light that covered us all the unicorns for a few moments, then vanished.
He has magic, but how? Unless he’s truly a demon like I thought before, I cannot guesss how he can use magic like a unicorn does.
“Tell me Mag, which ponies do you think have the most competent magic of all?”
“She, the fire unicorn Flare.” He said pointing out at my fallen friend, Bubble was at her left side, giving a confused glance towards him and the ponies, the latter doing so as well.
“What about the mare at her side?” Said Grogar, I’m still clueless about what they are saying.
“She only has a useless bubble magic, why do you ask?”
“Because she is worth, too, they will serve me well.”
“I understand, I will get them then,” Mag said at the time he was opening the frame.
Everybody was tied to the fences inside unlike me, Mag tied me in the exterior, I am so weak that he doesn’t bother locking me properly, the great troggle knows I can’t escape.
He continued walking to them, every captive watching him with fear and getting out of his way, until he reached my friends.
Mag pulled Flare and set her on his back while he dragged off Bubble with the rope on his hand, she nodded without hesitation.
“Monster!” Said my sister to him, please don’t provoke him dear, I don’t want you to die.
Mag just stared back at my sister for seconds, and resumed his way to the exit, glad that he just ignored her.
So in that way, making the others feel confusion and terror of the situation, he separated my dear friends from everybody for whatever the ram planned to do with them, my body still trembling from anxiety, provoked by uncertainty of our destiny.
“Here, now tell me, where are we going to drain their magic?”
“Bray!”
“Yes Master?!” Said a donkey, seemingly the same of before, who appeared from nowhere.
“I want you to lead Mag to the place where we will extract their magic.”
“Right away Master!” He responded, this donkey has a funny voice, even being one of the servants of the squid, he acts more like a moron, both Mag and Bray walked off of the area with my friends.
Magic extraction, will that be our destiny? I won’t doubt it because why else would they capture us, it is our special attribute, but also I don’t want to know why they are doing so, my curiosity and fear striking back at me once more.
“Gimn, Lamn, come over here!” Shouted Grogar odd names, for the troggles they must be the most normal names of all I suppose; few moments passed until two troggles came to Grogar’s demand, none of them spoke, they just awaited.
“I want you to take all the unicorns to the ger where your men will tear off their horns, while Bray, Mag and I deal with the magic drain.”
“Understood.”
They will tear apart our horns!?
I was left astounded and terrified by what has been ordered, but for which purpose?
My life will end here, me who wanted to move unto Dream Villages to be a teacher, but had to suffer this event like the others, I no longer will be able to fulfill my dream, even if I had the little luck to be purchased by a grundle as a slave.
Minutes passed but I paid no mind to them, even with all the cries from my kin from being dragged away for their end, I really could not give any more attention to my surroundings, because it no longer mattered.
“Come on mule!” Then I was brusquely dragged from the neck and fell to the ground by this one troggle, I stared back for a few seconds, and slowly rose up.
“Follow me unicorn.” I didn’t hesitate and moved on to where they would take my horn off, please Moochick, give mercy on us, at least on Scarlet and my friends, for whom I hope escape of this torment.
Still wordless, my mind’s still filled with sorrow, fear and sadness for everyone, for everypony if that word even exists to refer to my kin; on the way to the tent I saw some unicorns trying to get free only to get punched by the troggles in response, pain to the conquered.
The troggle and I entered the tent, odd that they didn’t start with the procedure yet, sobs of my neighborhood filled the inside, I had no more tears to spare for them, but even then I have the guarantee that the others, earthlings and pegasi are going to live, however I’m not sure if to feel joy for them, as they are going to live the life of a slave.
The troggles untied us, there was no need to keep us like that anymore, we are going to die soon.
“Listen, we know thou are frightened for what we did and for what we were tasked to do, as honorable troggles that we are, thy death will be very well respected since thou have the luck to become our most loyal servants, weapons you will be turned into for us to become the most powerful army to ever exist in history.”
Remembered as troggle weapons? I don’t want to be remembered as the tool of a hog, I supposed that they would save our horns as trophies, but this, it’s immoral!
“Trigg, take the first unicorn for the mutilation.”
“Yes sir.”
So the troggle grabbed a fuchsia unicorn-
It’s my sister, she will be first victim of the massacre, I don’t want to see!
And without knowing, I backed to the other side of the room, my instinct still fights for survival despite the fact I consciously gave up.
“No, no, no no no, ahhh!”
Cried my sister of pain while I turned my sight to the wall, accidently staring at her shadow, from which the silhouette of her horn was separated from her head, dragged by tweezers, so falling to the ground, perhaps dead.
Out of complete instinct, I exited the tent and ran as much as I could, I heard one troggle adverting about my sudden escape but I did not care, I kept running to the great outside, following my pure instinct to survive.
I stared back at the tent and saw some unicorns trying to flee as well, but unlike me, they were being fought and chased by troggles, really did I have to be the lucky one to get away? I don’t want to think about it so I just kept trotting, and dropping some last tears.
Until I stumbled upon a rock on the ground and fell to the inclination of the land, rolling apart and impacting on a rock formation.
What did I do just now? I fled and am here over these rocks, with some aches on my torso and fore legs, possibly with some barbarians looking for me, this sensation in my heart, is weird, it throbs incredibly fast, and I think I’m breathing harshly, as if I ran a few miles.
I slowly got up on and saw the landscape around me, no tents, troggles or a demonic ram, only grasslands and rocks can be seen, I glanced back whence I fell, due to the elevation and the great run I did, I can’t see the place where they were about to kill me, if so I should move on and find a good refuge.
I descended from the rocks and looked it, for the way they are shaped it looks like an entrance to a cave, this will be my place to sleep on, it even has a flower on the entrance, almost as if this was a natural home, or a tomb.
Nightfall is coming, so the last thing I need to do is to create a mantle with my strings, my magic has at least one purpose now, to create a golden mantle that will give me warm during the cold, bitter night.
Woe are the unicorns, woe are the earthlings, woe are the pegasi, and woe is Radiant Shoes my big sister, I will never be capable to save them due to my incompetence.
I’m a coward who deserted her kind only to live alone on the adversity.
§[size]
She does not stop crying for her friends, so annoying to hear her constant laments that it makes me want to dispose her already, but first it has to come the draining of magic that Grogar wants so much to execute before exiling these two to the steppe.
Though I wonder, why are we heading to the other yards?
“I will tell you this Mag,” said Grogar, stopping a few meters before the fences to speak to me, Bray and I stopped too.
“I always admired the techniques used by your people to slave anyone you captured, your father Trogghan Rag is the most recent example of a terrifying leader who no one wanted to mess with, the slavery of grundles and some other penguin, the destruction of grundle and ogre villages, and more calamities made the world remember your greatness in an age where it was thought you remained separated in many tribes, hence my respect for what your father and you did before I took over.”
Curious that even after my defeat, he comes to show some respect to myself, so I responded back: “it is such a compliment for my people and for me what you are saying, but what has to do your admiration speech with draining their magic?”
“You just have to see to comprehend my intentions; drop the red unicorn now.”
I followed his command and tossed Flare to the ground, close to where bubble was standing, the fire unicorn wailed by the landing, seems like she awakened the moment I threw her off.
“So, how are we going to extract their magic, Lord Grogar?”
“Like this!” Then his curved horns shone of purple, from their ends extended a magical lightning in direction of the unicorns’ heads, from which their horns headed the magic towards the silver bell, hanging off of Grogar’s red collar with gilded decorations.
Once deprived of her magic, Bubble fell to the ground weakened as I expected, curiously their coats became more greyish, and the marks of their flanks disappeared.
“W- Why, why do you have to be so terrible to us the innocent?” Said Flare in response of the little suffering she had to deal with, this is just the beginning for her kind.
“Shut up unicorn, you had the luck to live and see the earthlings and pegasi with their magic intact, unlike the other unicorns, and you will be even luckier if the steppe decides to spare your life!” Grogar said angrily to the poor Flare, before turning his gaze to the yard of ponies.
“You all have to pay great attention to what I will say, you are now the slaves of the troggles, in other words, my slaves, if you do not follow our orders, or present any will to fight back, you shall join them!” He yelled at the rest of the ponies while pointing his hoof to the fallen unicorns; trembling, the ponies nodded in silence.
So the other equines also have magic according to what Grogar said, it explains why they have special marks on their butts and their manes’ sparkling when they are brushed, while I deduce that the winged ponies use their magic to fly, I cannot figure out the way earth ponies use their magic, perhaps they use it to grow food from the ground.
I have to admit, this was such a great scene to witness, the way he used our technique to tame the ponies in such fast and effective way, this gained my respect to the ram.
“Bray.”
“Yes Master?”
“I want you to gather the generals to help and supervise the creation of the lances, while I plan our next movements privately.”
“Right on!”
Thus both left the yards, walking to different directions, I would take these unicorns to the great, savage steppe where they would meet their end.
What an conclusion for Bubble and Flare, from what the beautiful Golden String told me, they were great sisters who just lived the life with games and spectacles, one who could summon bubbles as big as a castle, and one who controlled the element of fire with such mastery, however they had no ambition, no purpose, they were pedestrian ponies, but from now on they will be remembered as those who fed Grogar’s Bell to increase his power, before getting devoured by a manticore of the Troggürk steppe.
I pulled the two unicorns, carrying each one with my arms, ready to exile them until a pony yelled at me: “no, please, have mercy on them, do not take them from me!”
“Who said that!?” I yelled back at whoever spoke first, turning back to the fences, and what a surprise!
On the front, behind the fences was the filly Scarlet, while her older kind remained back, frozen by the fear Grogar had put into them, she stood there all brave and determined…
That gave me a brilliant idea.
We could have a pony ally or more if the situation needed it, for spying the enemies, to establish diplomatic agreements or anything else.
“Hear me out, little pony, I offer you the freedom a troggle has to be exempt of the slavery treat if you dare to follow my command.”
“I’m listening!” she nervously said but overall, with guts.
It might be a good idea to order her to take care of these unicorns, to make her a loyal soldier of Troggleland I must assure first the safety of her loved ones, besides, this way I could take her out of the suffering she would have passed through as a slave, as I wanted before on River Hills.
“I order you take care of Bubble and Flare, and serve us as a troggle soldier when a commander, the Trogghan Grogar or I demand you to if needed, understood?”
There were a few moments of silence, behind Scarlet the other ponies just murmured with worried, hateful and saddened gazes to the both of us, until she spoke: “yes, I will follow your order!”
“Very well, despite being a pony we will welcome you like a troggle in spirit to our nation, as you showed the same determination of one of our kind; but if you act deliberately against Grogar’s rule or the great honor code of the troggles, you will be punished as one, and I assure you it is not the same to being punished as a slave, understood?”
“Yes… General.” The little pony said, lowering her face to the ground.
She perfectly understood my statement and yet she does not feel any joy for it, to be a lucky non troggle warrior of Troggleland, it makes it another aspect to correct.
So I went to open the gate to let her out and exited the yard until a troggle came to me with urgent news.
“Sir, there was a commotion on the execution ger, one unicorn fled the area while the others were caught by luck before escaping as well.”
“How did this start even, to result in this turn of events and who is the pony wot escaped?”
“We untied them inside, thinking that they would not try to resist any more to us, since their lifetime was already set, yet one pony was brave still to escape making the others follow, this one unicorn was Golden String.”
To think that the weakest pony managed to flee surprised me, at the same time it angered me, as my men let one unicorn to escape, they let go away what I wished to be my personal weapon.
“If any unicorn escapes again, then I will personally punish you all with the most terrible of the tortures a troggle can get, I will let this one pass away as it was an unexpected outcome, but I will say this no more: do not untie them until the work is finished correctly.”
“So she escaped…” Mumbled the filly with a little hope, I would have to tell her what it means escaping to the wild steppe.
“Do not feel any hope for her, certainly she will fall like prey to the predators of the steppe, so any chance of her remaining alive can be discarded by now.”
Scarlet started sobbing the moment she processed what I spoke, that Golden String seemed to be related with this filly, however it no longer mattered, so I closed the frame and headed back to the fallen unicorns with the filly following me.
“Come on, nightfall is coming so you must go and take them to a ger to rest well,” I commanded to Scarlet, who helped her elders to get up, I turned to the troggle.
“Mrug, lead the way to her for the noble gers, from now on this little pony will be known as an important member of our empire.”
“Understood Troggh- General Mag.” She responded (and corrected) herself, my kind is slowly getting used to the change of ruler.
And so they left, cold of heart and soul, choose to become, and serve us as another knight.
I took a glance at the great twilight to the west, thinking about the next phase of the empire: one where we would ascend to magical warriors, matchless against every adversity, with Ponyland set as our first step to this great mountain of blood, suffering and greatness where we would stand in the top like the superior nation.
Joy and regret is what I feel about this, I should have accepted Grogar’s offer so I would be the one leading the empire to the next phase and not him.
Chapter 2
~Celebration~
"I present this new weapon for you the troggles: the Einhorn lance!"
Said Grogar the moment I gave a demonstration with the same weapon on my hands, invoking thunders as if they were fireworks, all of my kind seemed to show great fascination towards our new invention and its potential, the ram continued: "but I must tell, there are only 42 crafted lances that will be given to Mag's elite forces for learning spells: do it Mag."
Soon I followed, focused mind on an enforcement spell, aimed the lance unto one of the ponies amongst the flock and shot it, summoning a cage around the unfortunate victim, prior to his speech Grogar taught me to cast magic.
"Now celebrate for this innovation of mine!" Finished Grogar whilst burning his own horns, as to show his new acquired power, laughing wryly: so to make start the pomp.
I turned back where my soldiers were receiving their weapons, for them to be mere horns sticked to a handle, they result very practical unlike the magic wands; It ain't hard to use it, I understand better the reason behind Wantall's final plan.
I looked the generals Gimn and Lamn coming to me, ere long wot they were kings of troggles such as I, have served my father and me with honor since the unification, I can relate to their demotal due to my current state.
"Beloved Mag, we are blissed to witness such ostentation made by thou, worth of commend, so great as the first conquests of Rag thy father."
"Foremost I, whom is delighted to presence the new weapon under our hands rather then those of ogres and grundles, the formers in decadence over the deserts of jewels, whose tools are impractical, ineffective, and useless in war, und the latters whom are nothing but weaklings hidden in caves like primitives despite their advanced philosophiæ; with this arm we shall arise as the one true nation of Orcs."
"Better cease your irrationalism Lamn, no matter what Rag tried to correct thee, you still keep thy racism towards other nations instead of being compasional like us the Tromagun."
"So to remain idle and do no thing about the inferiors? Blasphemy! Not even the Torg Kan reduced themselves to that degree of fake morality like you."
"So the pigs denigrate themselves stirring in mud, shut your mouths right now." I spake to stop their babbling, both shut in profound respect.
"We are not discussing cultural values, we are here to celebrate for our new invention, if that is not enough for you then let's make the pomp in name of mine father who united almost all of Troggürk's heir."
"He who crossed the other lands."
"He who fought the wicked."
"He who found the Black Mountains."
"He who united the weakened."
"Let him rest on peace and let his spirit last millenia."
With the dispute calmed down, I spoke: "Hear me out Gimn, I command you to conquer another unicorn city, this one bigger in terms of people so to augment our stack of einhorn lances, Grogar wants to test their real effectiveness not before getting a good army of our kind trained to use this arm, all under my control."
"Understood, tomorrow I will part to Ponyland to capture the biggest amount of unicorns possible."
"Let it be 'Boring Poneyland', aproximately 10 kilometers close to the boundary of Troggleland to the east; now, celebrate!"
§
There was no other way.
To save their lives I had to join Troggleland, therefore here I am, dressed up as one of the barbarians.
Mrug told me I should go to the celebration this morrow, she said it was about a new weapon they created.
For me to presence this outcome fills me with fear, because as others told me, it was made with the horns of the captured unicorns, whether alive or not, I can get to know any time later, I hopefully wish they are still.
"Good morrow Scarlet."
"Evening, the sun it's on the highest point sister."
"True my sister, due to our state we slept more then usual."
"Even so, the three of us are still together, the Moochick blessed us with a second oportunity."
Were speaking familiar voices behind me, I did not dare to see them and spoke: "be not delusional, as we fell victims to the troggles, everything will go wrong for us the ponies." I finished, making them drop tears in silence for minutes, now they grasp the situation we live on.
"Scarlet, please trouble us no more, we have it hard to stand even, so we try to stay positive, 'if we see the world with cheer, 'twill see us back with bliss' is what our lovely Sapphire inspires us to be like, I beg that you keep that sentence in mind for your life, mostly for Golden's soul." Said Flare, whom stared me with a grim expression.
Even in this circunstances, my situation is the same: a filly who is reprooved for having a realistic, different point of view.
"I feel sorry for behaving like this, 'tis because the dire doesn't let me other feeling than sorrow."
"Then think of the good and have faith, for us to get a better life."
"I will," I smiled, then some thunder irrupted our conversation, if my ear doesn't fail me it came from the demonstration point, "can you go back to the ger? I don't think you'll find joy on this celebration, later I will bring you food.
As the sisters walked back to my ger, I galloped amongst the troggle multitude to find Mag summoning rays to the skies with the new weapon; Grogar was giving his speech.
"But I must tell, there are only 42 crafted lances that will be given to Mag's elite forces for learning spells: do it Mag."
I saw Mag pointing the lance towards one of my trapped fellows and he, with some magical thunder, invoked a sparkling cage around my neighbor.
"Now celebrate for this innovation of mine!" Grogar finished, releasing fire from his horns whilst laughing like the squid itself, the trogglian cheering and praising followed.
I see the unicorns no more, yet another truth to accept, this morning I had hope for them to remain alive but no, they are dead, somewhere in the savage steppe I assume.
Glancing around, I saw troggles dancing to the rythm of a song, there is no place for a pony on this orc world so I decided to go to Mag for advice in this event and further on; he was sitting on a rock, drinking something.
"Good evening Scarlet."
"Hi general, excuse me but what are you drinking?"
"Wine with squashed bugs and honey."
"Gross," such a repulsive combination for a drink, "do you eat foul, repulsive things only?"
"The same could be said from thy diets, as they consist only of hay, vegetals and sometimes, grass; think before thou say anything in the face of someone else little pony, 'cause no troggle will refrain from unseathing their sword."
"I'm sorry, it's because all of this is yet new to me, I don't think I'm troggle-ish enough."
"Elemental that you learn, I assume you lack wisdom due to your state of villager before."
"I do not, my teacher Golden String taught me pony philosophy and some history of Ponyland, to be exact, when two of the six princess ponies died under ogre hands."
"Precisely."
I don't understand, knowing part of the nation's history and philosophy is already good wisdom, to not know of other nations is completely normal, even irrelevant, because as Diamond says, 'only you matter'.
"But my knowledge is good enough for a villager even, I am not as smart as cityponies, but I ain't ignorant."
"That might be true on Ponyland, however for us to have great soldiers we need them to be wise and intelligent so they can fight any kind of kingdom as needed, and sometimes jest about others' stupidities on these old lands."
"But that is horrible, to get a grasp of history and culture only to do gnasty things with it its very wrong."
"Certainly, 'tis how be became to be, how we'll always be to survive as a succesful nation and to not crumble like kingdoms of old times such as the Gizmonk empire."
I cannot comprehend what he's saying, they know how terrible they are yet they do those atrocities only to survive, I didn't think the troggles were this complex before, so I responded: "I can't understand what you are telling me, maybe I am truly ignorant..."
"More like innocent little pony, we cannot blame your lack of wisdom to your age, I will instruct you as a troggle personally."
Then I started to listen strange music, a bit energetic and joyful, I think I like it; Mag spoke: "I see you like those beats, it is a classic dance of the goblins called 'The Squidward and the Krusty Krab', it is about an angry squid who is troubled by certain crab whilst a sponge and a star enjoy life despite the bad times of the old, aquatic era."
"Music has meaning? I always believed it was made for listening only."
"And it is kind of true, there are artists who made their pieces to be played and listened for entertainment only; generally the creators of music (so the ogres) always write off their pieces as a moral value or else like a story or a critique even, for us, for you the ponies or for themselves too, specially for Wantall."
"Have they created music? I thought this beauty of art could only be made by beaut creatures like my kind, or that's what Diamond says so..."
"How wrong thy kind must be to easily accept a false statement, I seek no offense by telling this as I consider it offensive enough for you."
"But our princess is wise, she knows many things and she cannot be wrong, she is the governor of Ponyland after all!"
"How petty, thy princess claims to be wise even when her knowledge is pure deceit, seems sophist; your kingdom must be tainted, the so praised Diamond could be as vile as the goddamned ogre himself if she can tell such lie to thee, you need an absolute reform of your knowledge and values."
"If what I believe to be truth is false, then please tell me what do you consider is the real history if you claim to be wiser and more intelligent than Diamond."
"Thus you dare with thy vague knowledge, admirable character yet bland motive; anyways I will tell thee what you demand for."
Even if I heard him talk about history with my teacher when he carried me to these lands, I doubt a barbarian, even the king of them, can be wiser than my princess.
"We will begin with the ancient world: us the orcs, depending on which myths or historical sources art taken it is spoken differently, in general the idea is that we all descended from the frozen north when the oceans fell thanks to the Rex Penna: the ogres were the first, then us, then the goblins, and at last the grundles whom didn't find another place to establish themselves then the mountains, as it was all occupied by the rest of us, the witches and gizmonks."
"But if your kinds were the first to arrive, could not the grundles inhabit Ponyland?"
"What are you talking about Scarlet?"
"That if you all did arrive before us, what is now my nation, could not they inhabit those lands or did it happen that we came before the grundles?"
"I understand better your doubt, and no, that is not how migration works, they could not because those lands were divided in many kingdoms before, always filled with war and treachery, not so long wot you established yourselves like victors on that territory."
"I see but, if ere long 'twas hostile lands, then why is it now a peaceful kingdom where my kind lives?"
"It is told that Majesty made a truce with the Secundus Rex Penna to stop all war on the 'land of rainbows'; at the end your kind managed to absorb all of the territory left by the others and so, Ponyland was founded. Some ogres tell your kind entered as plague to conquer all the legacy left by them and the gizmonks."
"And I assume that from that truce it followed the death of the two princess ponies, right?"
"Yes, Wantall the goddamned had wanted to get back the lost lands and more, he wanted to make you flee back to the frozen north but as you can know, it did not end well for him and his people."
"Mmm, those ogres sound like terrible people."
"Not really, as barbarian and ex King that I am, I admit they were the best civilization to ever exist, granting magic, books and scrolls, in part the first ideas of architecture wot anon would the grundles develop in their majestic caves, and the arts; their culture was as splendid as the penna's, so many things your nation took from them, e.g. agriculture and the big castles."
"They made all of that?"
"Yes, some say the Moochick is one of them, they are glorious, even so, on my journals to the deserts I have seen trouble on their kingdom, steps for the collapse of a millenial realm, I will not tell you what are those as I deduce you couldn't comprehend politics as a filly; in short I can say the Jewel Kingdom will fall in some decades."
"Oh, sounds a tragic end."
"More a comical one, quite a lot can be learnt from Wantall's problems, his wife's, his minions' the mages, and his wicked descendance's. You can give thy first instruction day for finished today, come thither and enjoy the pomp as the rest of us, you may come back to my ger if you want to learn more of the past."
"Understood..."
So I left him in direction to one of the tables filled with trogglian dishes to taste them, they might not be unpleasant as I thought, even if 'squashed bugs' does not appeal to me.
Such events had happened long ago, I have little knowledge of my nation's true history, a land once belonging to orcs and gizmonks, this gives me a new vision towards 'em and ourselves, that we invaded the old world and they with rancour see us by how fortunate we were at the end.
I feel like my kind is more alike to the villains ever told in pony tales amongst my neighbors, but even so they have no excuse to make us suffer like this despite their desire to get revenge for the fallen empires, I must do something about this.
