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.