Chapters
Chapter 2
The air crackled with energy as a pillar of fire burst into existence. From the flames came an onyx circle that was suspended in the air, as swirling nether energy built up inside of it. After a minute of the energy building it finally stabilized and the portal was complete, the green swirling energies churned as three forms emerged one after another. The first to cross over was the Blood Knight, then followed by Helix and Weaver.
As Helix stepped out of the portal he immediately noticed what he had forgotten to take into consideration, the leyline dropped off whatever came through about a thousand feet in the air. Helix fell immediately, but fortunately he had prepared his deploy-able glider. As he began to sail through the air he was suddenly jerked downwards as Weaver grabbed a hold of his leg.
"What the hell did you do?!" Weaver exclaimed as Helix stabilized the glider and set back to steering it toward where he wanted to go.
"I forgot about the drop, when I previously came here it was with an Eye of Kilrogg. Luckily I had this prepared so we will be able to save the foot time and get there in not too long." Helix called behind him was he focused some magic into keeping the glider at a good altitude.
"But Diz has our supplies on him." Weaver said looking to where the Blood Knight was still falling.
"He'll need it if he is making the journey, we will get there by nightfall like this anyways." Helix said casually.
"Well, at least this is kind of getting me even with him..." Weaver said as she watched the dot in the distance that was Dizastrous hit the ground.
Dizastrous hated how often he found himself in a situation like this. Too often had he fallen to what should have been his certain demise, whether it was from hitching a ride on Weaver's flying mount, or slipping off of a cliff. A Blood Knight however had ways to survive things, and before reaching the ground Dizastrous wrapped himself in a bubble made of divine light. The bubble stopped all damage from occurring to him for eight seconds, so as his feet met the ground and formed a small crater, he was unharmed.
"When I get my hands on those two..." Dizastrous grumbled as he stared off in the direction the two had flown with their glider.
As he grumbled the Blood Knight began his trek, marching by himself off towards the horizon his friends had disappeared over. As he walked he noticed the environment seemed to suddenly shift, after a certain point it went from a dry red soil to a prairie landscape. Dizastrous looked back and could clearly see a line where the terrain changed, and shook his head at the familiarity.
After only an hour of travel the sun was beginning to set, and Dizastrous was feeling tired. He was going to need to find a place to rest, hopefully some sort of structure that he could commandeer for the night. He looked down at his armor and noticed how dark it was getting now by how pronounced the glow from his armor was. Looking up at the gold and silver halo that emitted an aura of light, he realized he would stick out like a sore thumb and get spotted easily.
"I need shelter soon before it become pitch black out and I attract every predator in these lands..." Dizastrous mumbled to himself.
Off in the distance he could see by the light of the setting sun a settlement. He smiled as he noticed a few light coming from windows in the distance, they had civilization, that meant beds. Doubling his pace, Dizastrous set off toward the settlement.
"Hold still Spike, I have to aim this very carefully..." Twilight said as her horn glowed dangerously bright.
The baby dragon fidgeted as he looked between Twilight and the purple gem that was balanced on top of his head. He still could not remember how the mare had talked him into it, but here he was with the target on top of his head.
"Why can't we just, I dunno... Put this on the ground or on a table for you to test the spell?" Spike asked, eyeing Twilight's glowing horn that was ever growing in intensity.
"Because Spike, the spell could potentially cause a very bad backlash if it striked anything other than it's intended target. Only you being a dragon could be safely hit by it because of your tough scales." Twilight said while closing one eye and taking careful aim.
The spell began to spark dangerously from her horn as Twilight locked on to where the gem sat. Only a moment more and the spell would be fully charged and she could release it to see the results. Spike gulped as he stared at the powerful sparks of magic coming off of Twilight's horn, but he remembered now what he had been promised, the spell would turn the amethyst into a diamond, and he was promised the right to eat it. That is what kept the little dragon in place.
A serious of knocks were pounded on the front door of the library and both librarian and dragon jumped. The magical bolt flew higher than where it was aimed, but luckily the gem was also airborne at this point and the two connected. In a bright flash of light the purple amethyst turned into a glorious diamond that fell into the claws of a blinded baby dragon.
Twilight blinked furiously, trying to get the spots in her vision to disappear as she made her way to the door. The pounding sounded again and Twilight frowned at the impatience, and the late hour of her visitor.
"Hold on, hold on, I'm coming." Twilight called as she bumped into a table as she stumbled closer to the door.
As the mare reached the door she shook her head and blinked a few final times, finally regaining her vision. She then opened the door just a crack and peered out. Within seconds she slammed the door shut and bolted the lock.
"What is it Twilight?" The baby dragon said with a concerned look at the fear that was on Twilight's face.
"There's a monster out there!" Twilight yelped.
"A monster?!" Spike exclaimed, forgetting about the delicious treat he had in his claws.
"Yeah, its standing right at the door." Twilight said peering out the window to look at the figure that still stood, arms crossed in front of it as it waited, at the door.
"What does it look like? What is it?" Spike asked beginning to become curious.
"Well, it's bipedal like those diamond dogs, it is wearing clothing it looks like, it has glowing green eyes, and it looks like it is... soaked..." Twilighted pulled her head back from the window and blinked a few times before turning to Spike, "Did I just say it had glowing green eyes?"
The baby dragon nodded and watched as Twilight gasped and rushed back to the door with a sorry expression on her face. The mare bit her lip in consideration before finally undoing the lock and slowly opening the door again and stepping aside to let the strange being inside.
"T-Twilight what are you doing?!" Spike exclaimed.
The tall figure ducked inside of the door and looked around before turning his attention towards Twilight, "Sorry to come uninvited Twilight, but I had a little bit of a mishap in coming to this world..."
Twilight smiled in recognition of the voice, "Kiridan... This is what you look like?"
"Yes, but before we strike up conversation... Do you have a fireplace that I can dry myself off at?" Kiridan said as he looked down at his dripping robes.
"Sure this way, Spike can you light the fireplace?" Twilight said with a still shocked smile on her face as she looked at the intricate robes Kiridan wore, they were a rustic red color, covered at the chest and down the sides by metal plates. But in front there were glowing runic symbols that shone a deep orange.
Spike ignited the fireplace with a deep breath of his, making sure not to use the magical flames that would send a message to Celestia. The fire sparked to life and the Blood Elf sat himself before it and sighed.
"Much better..." Kiridan mumbled.
"So... What are you doing here? Why are you soaking wet?" Twilight asked as she stared at the scary looking mask that hung from the elf's side.
"Well, I came here in your world in search of something. And when my friends and I arrived we found ourselves about a thousand feet in the air." Kiridan said calmly as he felt the steam coming off his clothes.
"Are your friends alright? How are you okay?!" Twilight exclaimed suddenly.
"Well, I have a deploy-able glider, so I was fine and one of my friends hitched a ride partway here. Your maps are not very accurate by the way, we ended up at the base of the mountain your capitol is on, that is where she jumped off into a river. Then I followed the river south until I got here. The only safe place to land was the river though, hence the status of my attire." Kiridan said as he reached into a satchel at his side and procured a bottle that should not have fit.
Twilight stared for a second at the bottle Kiridan now drank from, but then turned her attention back towards him, "Wait, did one of your friends... Fall?"
Kiridan laughed, the sound of his laughter almost seemed cruel to the mare and baby dragon, "Yes, he fell. But he will be okay, his kind have ways of surviving things like that. He is probably mad at me though, best we let him make his way here and cool off in the meantime."
"Where is your other friend then?" Twilight asked, relieved that nopony had died.
"Who knows, most likely searching for what we came to your land for." Kiridan said as he finished off his bottle of ambrosia.
"And what is that?" Twilight asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.
"A cure for my people's addiction..." Kiridan said with a solemn voice as he stared directly into Twilight's eyes.
Cherry Jubilee and a few of her workers held lanterns as they investigated what was making so much noise in the factory. One of the worker stallions heard a loud crash and alerted everypony that something had broken into the warehouse. The factory was done running for the day and all the goods were stored next to it in the warehouse until they would be shipped in the morning.
"Ya' reckon it's thieves?" One of the workers asked as he inspected the broken door.
"If'n it is, they will be sorry..." Cherry Jubilee said with a frown.
The small mob of ponies slowly moved into the warehouse and immediately noticed the empty pie tins. They all shared a glance before continuing further in search of whatever had broken in. They came across many more empty pie tins, and a few of the crates seemed to have been shifted around as if something carelessly bumped into them.
"I'm startin' ta' believe it's an animal..." A different Stallion mumbled while looking at the mess.
The ponies all snapped to attention as they heard a yawn coming from the office that lay just a little further at the back of the warehouse. They all readied themselves and a few of the stallions even set their lanterns down to grab pitchforks off of their backs.
Cherry Jubilee nodded to her right hand Stallion, and he took the lead. He gently pushed open the office door and took a step back as he saw a tall figure in the darkness, light glowing from a ring over its head, and on either side of its face. Its eyes also glowed a deep emerald color as it stared back at the stallion.
"Anar'alah..." Mumbled the creature in a strange language.
The stallion then noticed that the stranger had something on its back, something that looked suspiciously like a hilt.
"It has a weapon!" The stallion yelled as he jumped back from the door and rejoined the rest of the workers who had formed a semicircle around the office door.
Dizastrous yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. He had been on the move for a while now, and the pies he found in this place had filled him up. Now he just needed to lay down his sleeping roll and he could finally get some rest.
The door creaked and he looked up to see who was intruding on him. From the darkness he could see what appeared to be a small horse that had a pitchfork held in the crook of one of its forelegs. The Blood Elf squinted in disbelief as he saw the look of intelligence in the eyes as it stared at him.
"By the light..." Dizastrous mumbled.
The small horse then screamed something that sounded suspiciously like the human language, but was undecipherable to the Blood Knight because of the thick accent. Dizastrous followed it out the door where it had run off to, and found that he had been discovered by a small mob of the short horses. Some of them held lanterns, and the others held pitchforks.
Dizastrous reached for his sword, grasping the hilt over his shoulder as he prepared for an attack. Something was wrong however, these things did not look like guards, or even militia. Their weapons shook like they were unused to wielding them as such, as if they were farmers protecting their land. Dizastrous had a flashback to a memory he witnessed in the plaguelands.
Farmers desperately fought off the undead, fighting for dear life, in a vain attempt with hopes of protecting their families and homes. The Blood Knight had witnessed elf and human alike share the same desperate look in their eyes that these things had.
"Great, now I feel guilty for eating their food..." Dizastrous mumbled.
A pitchfork was thrown and bounced harmlessly off the plate armor the elf wore. Dizastrous looked down to the crude iron weapon at his feet, then to the pony (he finally remembered was the name of such a creature) who had thrown it, a look of fear now donning its face.
"And now I feel less guilty..." Dizastrous said simply before casting a blessing upon himself.
Glowing with holy might as he activated a few spells Dizastrous drew his great sword and lowered into a ready stance. The ponies backed off in fear as the elf pulled the blade back and readied to swing, but the strike was not directed at a pony, it was sent into the wall. The holy strike did more than cut, it burst and splintered the wood apart with the force of his holy magic. Dizastrous then pulled his knee up and kicked at a section of the wall, finishing the job and leaving a hole large enough for him to walk through.
Dizastrous then exited through the exit he made, casting his eyes back and staring hard at the ponies, boring his eyes into theirs. The warning while not worded, was received and the one who had opened the door on him nodded eagerly in understanding that he was not to follow.
"Great, now I have to find a place to camp..." The Blood Knight grumbled as he stomped off into the night.
The moon hung high in the sky, illuminating the path before the female warlock. The land itself here seemed to give off an air of peace, and a hint of magic. But that was not the goal here, feeding the craving for magic was not the mission, finding a cure for it was. Weaver would not feel the intense craving for magic for at least another few days. However, the tempting presence of several very large sources of magic at the top of this mountain was driving Weaver up a wall.
"This is ridiculous, it feels like there is a sun inside of that castle..." Weaver commented as she looked up the side of the mountain at Canterlot.
The warlock shook her head as she continued up the road that wound up with mountain and went to the castle. As she walked Weaver thought over what Helix had told her about what he had learned from the residence of this land. Intelligent ponies that lived a peaceful existence with all of their neighboring races. The other warlock had even mentioned hearing about wise princesses that lead the country and were powerful enough to stave off the years, living for millennia.
While living for thousands of years was not unheard of, most night elves being that old or older, beings that lived that long always had methods to curing what ailed normal mortals. Hopefully Weaver could attain any information these princesses had without having to resort to force.
Weaver stopped in her tracks as she sensed one of the large sources of power moving at an alarming speed toward her direction. The warlock reached into her mana pool, and embraced the familiar feeling of using her magic. The warlock was wreathed in flames as she prepared to defend herself if need be.
The sound of galloping could be heard, and Weaver saw up the path a couple dozen armored ponies who carried spears rushing toward her. She then looked up into the sky where half a dozen more winged ponies flanked a larger pony. Weaver's eyes locked onto the larger one as it sped toward her, the power the larger one held was clearly visible to the elf.
Raising her arms in the air Weaver caused molten balls to rain from the sky and pelt the earth around her, warning the ponies to stay back, and the message was received. The armored ponies halted a safe distance away and the flying ponies landed beside them, all of them held resolute expressions, telling Weaver they were without doubt soldiers.
The warlock allowed the fiery rain to cease, but increased the intensity of the fire that flowed around her. The larger pony slowly stepped towards Weaver, her mane billowing in a nonexistent breeze. The mane itself resembled a starry sky, and was topped with an onyx crown.
"Who dares trespass on our fair kingdom?" The pony spoke in a commanding voice in the language of the humans, a language that Weaver like her friends had learned in their time guarding Dalaran before the scourge ever rampaged across the land.
"A better question may be what are you..." The pony said in wary tone.
Author's Note
The names before sections show when it is in a Blood Elf's point of view, any section of a chapter without a name header is either in a ponies point of view, or is in the first section of the chapter.
Chapter 3
Luna had never seen anything like what stood before her in her many years of life. The creature was shrouded in flames, and seemed to be unharmed by the fire. It was wearing a long dark purple and black robe and had a hood over its head. The most unnerving aspect of the creature was the equine skulls that portruded over the shoulders of the robe and the equine skull that came out of the hood. From within the empty eye sockets under the hood a pair of glowing green eyes could be seen through the flames.
The creature was using a lot of magic as well, Luna could see the energies swirling around in the hands of the tall bipedal figure. Something was wrong with the energies being channeled by it though, they seemed darker than magic should be. The magic itself felt as if it could be used for nothing but destroying whatever it touched.
Luna took a step forward closing the distance between the creature and herself, but she stopped when the creature raised a hand in front of it. Luna's frown deepened as she watched the figure reach for its hood and uncover its face. Luna had not seen anything like it before, it lacked fur on its head other than a mane it had styled in a tight ponytail. It had a flat face, small nose, and small glowing green eyes.
"I do not wish to fight you, but I will defend myself." The creature said in a strange accent.
Luna's eyes widened as the stranger spoke and briefly pondered where the unknown creature had come from. The princess of the night watched the creature carefully before coming to a decision.
"Guards, stand down." Luna ordered.
The ponies ceased pointing their spears at the warlock and stood at attention at Luna's order. Luna then watched silently as the flames ceased to dance around the form of the stranger.
"What business do you have here? You were headed straight toward Canterlot." Luna asked in a firm tone.
"I came here to speak to the three beings of power that reside on this mountain. You are one of them, I wish to consult with you and the others." The creature spoke.
Luna considered what was said for a brief moment. The princess of the night then looked back toward Canterlot before finally answering, "Very well, if you will follow us back to Canterlot my sister and I shall speak with you."
"What of the third?" The creature asked warily.
"As I said, my sister and I will speak with you. So long as you do not break any laws you are free to roam the city as well. Canterlot has had very many species visit it and even reside, a new one will not be too much of a surprise..." Luna said with a level voice.
The creature seemed to weigh its options for a brief moment before finally smiling, "Very well, I shall accept your offer to visit and roam. But, will I be able to speak with you immediately uh..."
Luna tilted her head questioningly before gasping and chuckling in realization, "Luna, princess Luna."
"Veliraerovia Fireheart, but my friends call me Weaver." The strange being said with a graceful bow.
Luna raised an eyebrow at the odd name, "Very well... Weaver I shall call you then. I hope you do not mind me imposing on a name that friends use for you but the other is a bit of a... Mouthful..."
"By all means, I understand Elven names can be difficult for other races." Weaver said with a nod.
Luna then beckoned for Weaver to follow, and led the stranger up to the castle of Canterlot.
As Luna led Weaver through the town hundreds of pairs of eyes were focused on the regiment of guards that were circling the princess and shocked looks dawned on each and every face as they gazed upon the warlock. Fearful looks and horrified expressions were the norm for the warlock however, her reputation had earned her such treatment, and she enjoyed the reaction.
"Your mask is not helping you receive a warm welcome you know..." Luna said as she looked towards Weaver as they walked.
"No, this is good. If they are not brave enough to speak to me with this, then I do not wish to deal with them." Weaver said from underneath her mask.
Luna grimaced slightly as she stared at the equine skull the protruded from underneath the hood Weaver wore.
As the two were escorted by the guards inside of the castle Weaver immediately noticed a change in the ponies. The guards all held impassive and resolute expressions as they stared forward, unblinking at the appearance of the warlock as she passed. Weaver smiled slightly.
"Brave guards, though they look a little weak." Weaver commented turning her head towards Luna.
"We have enjoyed quite an extended period of peace, so yes... The guards are not very experienced, but they are loyal and have defended the capitol here against an attack recently." Luna said with pride as they came upon the door to the throne room.
"Perhaps, though I wonder how much of the defense was done with your power..." Weaver remarked quietly, her grin hidden under the mask.
Luna's eyes widened slightly before she shook her head to regain her composure before opening the large set of doors with her magic and leading Weaver through.
As they entered Weaver noticed immediately the figure of the sun princess that dominated the room. She was speaking with some sort of messenger, a look of worry plastered on her face.
"Are saying that a monster attacked Dodge City?" The princess of the sun asked with a worried tone.
"Yes your highness, but nopony was harmed. It merely ate some food that was stored in a warehouse, and left by breaking through a wall when it was cornered." The messanger said as he bowed before the princess.
"What did it look like?" Celestia asked, unaware as Luna and Weaver approached closer.
"It was wearing glowing golden armor, and stood on its hind legs. It also had a very large sword and appeared to harness some kind of magic from what was seen of it. It had a flat face and these glowing green eyes, horrifying if you ask me..." The messanger said raising his eyes toward Celestia.
Weaver removed her mask and put down the hood as she looked sideways towards Luna with a frown, as the princess of the night gave a similar look to the warlock.
"You mean it looked somewhat like that?" Celestia asked pointing a hoof at Weaver, only now seeming to notice the warlock.
The messenger looked over his shoulder at Weaver and then turned back to the princess, "Yes a lot like_"
The messenger halted mid sentence and seemed to freeze up before looking back at Weaver who gave him a predatory smile, showing off her teeth. The stallion whimpered as he looked back at Celestia.
"Sister, who and what is this?" Celestia asked calmly as she closed her eyes.
"Tia, this is the being we detected approaching Canterlot. She has come to seek an audience with us." Luna said with en eyebrow quirked up at the cowering messenger.
"I would love to grant this audience, but unfortunately I have to deal with this issue. If this is not the one who attacked Dodge City, then we still have a dangerous criminal on the loose." Celestia said waving a hoof dismissively.
Luna frowned at being waved off by her sister, her ears falling back slightly.
"I believe I know the one responsible..." Weaver said with an air of exasperation.
"Then you can tell us how to deal with him?" Celestia asked, her attention fixed on the warlock.
"Yes, leave him be. If he did not harm anyone, then he probably was simply looking for a place to spend the night and got chased off by the locals. Not to mention you really don't want to pick a fight with a Blood Knight, his magic makes him very difficult to kill." Weaver said with a frown.
"You sound like you know this individual. I take it he is from the same place you are then?" Celestia said with a mild interest in where the warlock came from.
"Yes, he is a friend of mine. And I will tell you more about why my friends and I have come here if you would grant me an audience..." Weaver said casting her gaze around the throne room, taking in the scene of servants and the like staring at her.
Celestia considered this for a moment, " Very well, if you can tell me to my face that he means no harm then I have no reason to doubt you. But, did you say friends? As in implying there are more than two of you here?"
Weaver nodded, and Celestia grimaced at the implication that there could be more strange beings causing trouble somewhere in Equestria.
The Blood Knight waved a hand over his chest as he grimaced at the polka dots that now vanished from his skin. After marching through a field of strange blue flowers, his skin had become speckled, with large blue dots. Nothing however, that a good magical cleanse could not cure however.
"I have half a mind to set the field ablaze for marring my skin like that..." Dizastrous mumbled to himself as he stomped through the forest he now found himself in.
The Blood Knight would have destroyed the field too, had he not found a sever lacking of warlocks to ask to do the task. Though, he was still glad his friends were not there to see the silly dots that had covered his flesh just moments ago.
As he marched on, Dizastrous began to get the feeling he was being watched. He did not let on that he knew about it though, and continued to act as if he was disgusted about the situation while he strained his long ears to pick up the faintest sound of a follower. But while he had the feeling that he was being watched, he heard no sound of a pursuer. Dizastrous did not like the implications of that.
If he could feel another presence keeping up with him, but not hear a pursuit that meant one of two things. Either he was being stalked by an assassin who was trained well enough to mask their approach as they followed their prey. Or he was walking right through a group of things, oblivious as to where any of them were, and judging by how far he had gone while having the feeling of being watched, it was a big group.
Dizastrous stopped moving and clenched his fists as he made a decision to stand and fight whatever came. In the worst case scenario he could still escape any danger he faced as long as it did not have the capabilities to shatter his divine shield.
Reaching one hand over his shoulder to grasp the hilt of his sword, and opening his other palm as he readied a spell, Dizastrous prepared to defend himself. The Blood Knight was already feeling the beginnings of fatigue however, he did not manage to sleep the night before after being chased out of that building by the ponies. He was going to have to end the conflict quickly.
Dizastrous's ears twitched and he strained them as he picked up a faint buzzing sound. As if an insect was flying past his ear, only the sound was muffled as if from far away. The Blood Knight's eyes widened as the buzzing grew louder at an alarming rate, meaning something was headed his way at a substantial speed.
"Those sound like large insects..." Dizastrous mumbled to himself as he glanced around the forest.
Pairs of large glowing eyes sprouted up in the forest surrounding him. The eyes were far larger than what he was expecting, and as the forms arose they seemed to black ponies that had chitinous shells and insectile wings. These insect ponies that seemed to be able to meld into the environment had him surrounded.
Dizastrous's head jolted to the side as he heard that the buzzing sound was almost upon him, and saw one of the insect ponies that was much larger than the others. This one wore a crown and had a tattered mane that hung like greasy turquoise drapes from the top of her head.
The large crown bearing one landed in front of Dizastrous and began to slowly circle him, humming to herself as she seemed to take in his features. She smiled as she made her way around to behind him and saw the large blade he was grasping over his shoulder. Dizastrous never took his eyes off her, but dared not to make a move yet, standing stock still aside from swiveling his head to make sure he could keep vision of her.
After making a full circle she stopped in front of him, her smile still plastered on her face, fangs gleaming off the light of the morning that broke through the tree tops.
"Speak your business" Dizastrous said in a stoic voice, unwilling to show his apprehension at being outnumbered so drastically.
The creature adopted a confused look and frowned slightly.
Chrysalis had never seen a creature such as this, it stood on two legs as a Diamond Dog would, and was very well armed. She could not tell what kind of metal or magic made up his weapon and armor, but it all glowed with power, and a crown floated above its head, glowing with a golden light like the shoulders and chest plate of its armor.
This creature must be a prince of its people, wherever it was from. Its handsome features and crown had to be proof of that. The only thing Chrysalis did not like was the fact it was speaking a strange language. She would not be able to entice something into her service if her honeyed words meant nothing to it.
The creature frowned at her as if waiting for a response, Chrysalis was about to speak when a look of realization crossed the face of the tall creature.
"You speak this language as well don't you?" The armored being said.
Chrysalis's face broke into a smile at hearing the equestrian language, "Yes, that is much better. Now, since you can understand me I have_"
"Friend or foe?" Chrysalis was cut off.
Chrysalis blinked a few times, taken by surprise at the open hostility that was in the voice.
"W-what? Now, don't be hasty I merely wish_"
"Friend or Foe?" The being said with more force as he began to draw his large sword with one hand, a ball of light filling his other.
Chrysalis heard her children buzzing their wings angrily, and she feared violence might break out before she could even attempt to have this strange creature side with her.
"Friend! Friend, I mean you no harm... But you are making my children very nervous with your open hostility towards me..." Chrysalis said, a slight panicked tone to her voice.
The ball of light faded from his hand, and he slowly slid the sword back into its sheath. His hand remained on the hilt of the sword though, and the changelings, while no longer buzzing angrily, glared at him.
"Children? All of them?" The stranger said, an eyebrow quirked up in a questioning look.
"Yes, I am Chrysalis. Queen of the changelings." Chrysalis said placing a hoof on her chest and smiling in a charming manner.
"Fandu'talah Sunblade, High Paladin of the Blood Knights of Silvermoon." The elf said with an air of pride.
Chrysalis was at a loss for words at the long title and strange name she had been given, the look was not lost however and the elf smiled.
"You may call me Dizastrous however."
Helix fidgeted slightly as he poured over a book. He was hoping to find some lead on an artifact from the assorted books of lore and history the library had but to no avail yet. While he hoped a race that used magic as a daily convenience like the unicorns had at some point come across the same problem the Blood Elves had, there was no sign that an addiction had befallen their people, or that a cure existed for such a thing.
The anxiety being given to him as the purple mare that was hiding him in her home was not helping. The craving to feed on magic normally would not have hit him so early after visiting the mana house. But the amount of raw power the unicorn was able to tap into was driving Helix up a wall. Though she seemed unable to use even a quarter of the power at the current moment, he could still sense her full magical might as she worked and practiced at a spell.
'If she could harness her natural talent in a more destructive school of magic she would be able to bring armies to their knees.' Helix thought to himself, thankful that the mare knew no offensive magic. Though he himself knew only demonic magics that were meant to kill others, he still found a sense of joy when he saw someone who only used magic to help others.
Twilight sighed as she completed her spell, she had finally mastered the spell to change the physical properties of gems, turning a gem of one kind into that of another.
"Are you having any luck finding what you were looking for?" Twilight asked as she turned to Helix.
"No, unfortunately your collection does not hold the knowledge I seek." Helix sighed.
"You could try asking the princesses." Twilight offered.
Helix shook his head as he closed the book, "No, Weaver was headed that way. It will do no good to have our search focused in one area."
"You mentioned that your other friend was making his way to here from where he fell as well... Does he know how to get here?" Twilight asked, a look of concern on her face.
"Yes, I told him before we came to your world about the direction to travel from the... map..." Helix said a look of horror and realization donning his face.
"You said our map was terribly inaccurate didn't you..." Twilight said with her ears flattened against her head.
"Nether blast it, he could be anywhere..." Helix mumbled as he stared out the window of the library.
Chapter 4
Chrysalis sipped from a jet black cup as she stared at the elf that sat cross legged across from her. The elf meanwhile inspected the cup he held in his hands, holding the ornately carved crystalline piece up to the light to inspect it.
"I do not know how precious this material is to your people, but judging by the craftsmanship this is quite the piece." Dizastrous commented before lowering the cup and resting it on his knee and staring at the green contents of it.
"Are you familiar with that it is made of?" Chrysalis asked, a mildly impressed look on her face.
"I have seen the crystalline formations insect species can make, most can be quite sturdy as well. However the producing of the crystals is always different." Dizastrous said, still scrutinizing the liquid he was served.
"Impressive, and while some of our material we use for construction is quite common, the material these cups are made from is quite hard to come across. To make it you need to capture the energy of the purest form of love. The love a mother has for her children, or siblings have for one another will not do, you need a love that persists over all others." Chrysalis said with a hint of pride in her voice.
Dizastrous stopped staring at the cup and met the queen of the changeling's gaze, "Love?"
"Yes, and this set of tea cups I personally made from the love I harvested from a princess and a military boy. Their love was so strong they did not care one of them would grow old and die while the other would live on in her immortal life." Chrysalis chuckled at the misfortune that time would bring to her bitter enemies.
"Love... That word is almost alien to my ears..." Dizastrous mumbled solemnly.
Chrysalis quirked a brow up, "Oh?"
"Where I am from once a year, for a week, there is a holiday in which lovers may meet, or flings can begin. However, I usually find myself too busy to partake in the merriment." Dizastrous sighed.
"Busy with what?" Chrysalis asked, interested to hear the story.
"Well, if it is not a war that needs fighting, I find myself fighting in an arena in hopes of attaining enough wealth to retire. Unfortunately there are too many years left in my life to retire on what I have. Besides, growing old next to someone is not everyone's dream. What is this stuff by the way, I cannot tell if it is harmful to me or not..." Dizastrous broke off from his story setting his attention back on the contents of the glass.
"That is a local blend of tea, sweetened with love honey, harvested and produced from the love of ponies." Chrysalis said calmly.
Dizastrous shrugged and gulped down the contents before cringing and making a disgusted face, "Too sweet for my liking."
Chrysalis thought over what she had been told of the elf, despite the crown he wore he seemed to merely be a soldier of fortune. What was more, love seemed to almost be a non existent part of his species everyday life, if they had to devote a holiday to love just to get couples together there would be no possible way for a changeling to get a substantial amount of food from them.
Chrysalis frowned as a thought donned on her, "You mentioned a war..."
Dizastrous smirked, and even began to chuckle before he began to explain, "Not just a single war, over the course of my life I have been involved in four of them. First there was the invasion of my world by the Orcish Horde, while they came multiple times, I only was present for their final invasion in which they took up permanent residence in Azeroth. Then there was the war against the Scourge, an army of the undead that ravaged the land and destroyed the Sunwell, the source of power my people drew from for thousands of years. After the Sunwell was gone, my people sought out power elsewhere, and our crown prince went into Outland to serve the demons in hopes of fueling the addiction to magic the Sunwell left us with. I was one of the many that crusaded into Outland to stop him.
That was called the Burning Crusade, I spent years in that hellish landscape hunting down the demons and my lord. Not only once, but twice I had to kill my prince. Before I could even come home and wipe his blood off my hands, I was ordered to travel to the frozen north and put an end to the war on the Scourge. And through all this time, the war between the Alliance and the Horde has never ceased."
Chrysalis's mouth hung open at the tale of unending war. The mere aspect of it was horrifying.
"So, the alliance is where your loyalties lie then. Seeing as you killed your crown prince?" Chrysalis asked in an attempt to piece together the story she was told.
"No, my allegiance is to Silvermoon and my people. Unfortunately Silvermoon's allegiance is to the Horde." Dizastrous said in a disgusted tone.
"But you said you fought against the Horde..." Chrysalis said, confusion written on her face.
"The alliance was unwelcoming to my people during the times when the scourge first showed up. Their racism forced us to side with the horde, unfortunately the new leader of the horde is just as bad as the leaders of the alliance were back then." Dizastrous's face was a mask of barely controlled anger as he spoke.
Chrysalis fidgeted where she sat as she watched the look on the elf's face. She was just about to find an excuse to remove herself from his presence when a drone burst into the room with a panicked look on its face.
"Mother we are under attack! We need to evacuate you!" The drone exclaimed.
"What is it? Who is attacking?" Chrysalis asked, forgetting about the elf.
"An Ursa is approaching the hive to devour the honey we have stored." The drone explained.
The Blood Knight laughed as he clenched his sides and dropped his cup. The ornate piece rolled across the floor and ended in front of the hooves of Chrysalis.
Chrysalis gasped and adopted a look of anger on her face, "You find this amusing?!"
Dizastrous wiped a tear from his eye as he chuckled, "Yes, a giant hive of insects being ransacked by a bear for their honey. I can only assume the bear is quite large too?"
"It is a nearly full grown Ursa, not yet a major but still standing nearly a hundred feet tall!" The drone exclaimed.
"What will you give me if I kill it?" Dizastrous asked, the jovial tune in his voice lost for a more serious one.
Chrysalis and the drone merely stared in silence at the Blood Knight, moments stretched on until the silence was broken by the sound of part of the hive being crushed. The ground shook and the drone fell, leaving only Chrysalis standing and the elf still sitting with a serious expression on his face.
"You cannot be serious..." Chrysalis said, her gaze locked on Dizastrous's.
"Make me an offer..." Dizastrous said calmly.
Another crash and shock wave went through the hive and Chrysalis looked up to see a few cracks forming in the ceiling of the room they were in. The queen on the changelings bit her lip as she thought over the situation. If the Ursa continued to destroy the hive and consume all of the love honey, her children would all starve, and even herself in time would die off without drones to protect her.
"You mentioned before about searching for a cure to the addiction your people suffer? I will personally aid you if you save my children and my hive." Chrysalis said desperately as another shock wave caused debris to begin to fall from the ceiling.
Dizastrous hummed to himself in thought as he slowly got to his feet. He strode over to Chrysalis, looking down into her eyes before smiling, "Very well."
At that moment a large transparent blue claw crashed through the roof and slammed down onto the forms of Dizastrous and Chrysalis.
Dizastrous turned his gaze away from the wide eyes of Chrysalis as he looked up at the giant paw that was pressed against his divine shield. The indestructible barrier of light was all that stood between them and the crushing force of the Ursa's blow.
Dizastrous drew his sword with one hand, unsheathing it before grasping his blade in both hands and plunging it into the pad of the Ursa's paw. A roar shook the hive as the paw was pulled back, Dizastrous still gripping his blade that was lodged into the paw of the beast.
Turning the paw over to get a look at what had hurt it the Ursa noticed the Blood Knight that now stood on its upturned paw. Rage filled the transparent bear's eyes as it began to snarl.
A ball of light formed in Dizastrous's palm for a brief moment before he pointed his palm at the right eye of the Ursa, causing the light magic to burn the large optical orb. The Ursa let out an earth shaking roar of pain as it stumbled back and began flailing its paws around the air, crushing the giant trees around it as blood dripped from its closed eye.
Dizastrous held firm to the blade that was still stuck in the pad, only pulling the blade out and kicking off the paw to land on the shoulder of the beast. The Blood Knight took a moment to bless himself and add magical buffs in the moment of confusion he had bought himself. The Ursa looked onto its shoulder, but could not see the Blood Knight with its good eye, causing it to take a blind swing at its shoulder in an attempt to remove the elf.
Dizastrous ran across the shoulder to the neck and jumped across the front of the Ursa, burying his blade into the soft throat. The blade was not long enough to bridge the entirety of the Ursa's esophagus, but it did manage to penetrate the thick layer of fur and hide.
Dizastrous grabbed onto the fur and swung out of the way as a large claw swiped past where he just was at. His great sword dangled in one hand, as his other gripped the fur before he once again plunged the sword into the fleshy throat and slashed sideways, assisted with holy might.
The paw struck the Blood Knight this time, but not before he was able to erect a sacred shield around himself absorbing the majority of the force. The Ursa stumbled further back as its throat bled down its chest, matting its transparent fur with the glowing liquid that served as its blood. The Paladin crawled out from underneath the paw onto the left shoulder of the Ursa and took a low ready stance.
The Ursa spotted the Paladin with its good eye and snarled, the sound was garbled by the hole in its throat, but the message was clear, it was pissed. The Blood Knight only smiled as he thrust his open palm at the beast, causing a hammer of judgement to slam into the retina of the Ursa. Completely blinded now, the bear fell onto its behind as it began to lose strength and focus.
"Time to finish this you poor bastard..." Dizastrous mumbled as he climbed the fur onto the Ursa's face and stood on its nose.
"May the light have mercy on your soul..." Dizastrous said with a smirk as he mocked the bear with the prayer the Paladins of the Silver Hand used to give to defeated enemies.
With the built up holy power from casting his spells Dizastrous unleashed a titanic force behind his blade, causing massive damage to the bear's skull. The flesh had parted away where he swung, but the skull was only cracked, causing the Blood Knight to whistle at the thickness of the beasts skull.
The Ursa moaned in pain as it began to sway, its paws dropping to its sides.
"Die this time..." Dizastrous mumbled as he held his hand in the air, allowing a hammer of pure light energy to form. He then heaved the hammer of wrath into the the spot his previous strike had cracked, and was immediately sprayed in the gore from the Ursa's skull.
The Ursa went limp and fell backwards, as Dizastrous stumbled off backwards off its nose, falling to the ground. The Blood Knight wiped his eyes as he fell and saw the ground in time to adjust his fall and land on his feet, bringing a snapping sound into the air before the ground shook from the Ursa falling. Dizastrous buckled to the ground, his legs broken from his fall.
All was silent for minutes after the Ursa fell dead to the forest floor, all but the grunts of pain from the Blood Knight. Dizastrous lay one his stomach, face in the dirt as he waited for his opportunity. Slowly changelings began to peek from the holes of the hive the Ursa had left to see why the commotion had stopped.
Dizastrous looked up as Chrysalis approached him, a look of concern and relief on her face.
"I can't believe you fought an Ursa on your own... But you are hurt..." Chrysalis said with a frown.
"Give me another minute..." Dizastrous said through gritted teeth.
"Drones, get him inside the hive, tend to his wounds immediately!" Chrysalis ordered, causing a number of changelings around her to salute and move closer to the elf.
"Its just broken legs, nothing I cannot heal myself. Just give me a few more seconds and I can heal it without having to waste any mana..." Dizastrous said, jaw still clenched tightly in pain.
Chrysalis looked at the disgusting angles the elf's legs were bent in and gave him a worried look, "You can heal this? Are you sure you did not sustain any cranial injuries as well?"
Dizastrous placed his palms on the ground and forced himself onto his back before sitting up, biting his lip and drawing blood. He then grabbed his legs and forced the bones back to where they belonged, grunting in pain as he worked on himself, a pool of blood forming around where he sat. The Blood Knight then lifted a hand into the air, where it began to glow with the intensity of the sun, before he placed it onto his chest.
Immediately the bite marks on his lip, and his legs along with the rest of his body were restored to perfect condition. Dizastrous stood up shakily and tested his legs, satisfied with the healing he had done for himself.
All eyes were on the Blood Knight, as wide as dinner plates. Dizastrous noticed the sea of green eyes that surrounded him, and looked into Chrysalis's eyes that mimicked those of her changeling's. Dizastrous moved to take a step and stumbled slightly.
"That took more out of me than I thought..." The Blood Knight muttered as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
"What are you...?" Chrysalis asked in an amazed tone.
"Tired..." Dizastrous mumbled.
Chrysalis then noticed the bags that hung under the elf's eyes and she remembered that he had told her before that he had not had a chance to rest in over a day. She turned to look at one of her drones and gave it a look. The drone nodded and zipped off to prepare a room for their savior.
"Come inside the hive, we will have a place for you to rest." Chrysalis said uncertainly, keeping her eyes on the elf as she wondered if it was wise to allow such a monster into her home.
Dizastrous stumbled after the changeling queen, too worn out from his fight and fatigue to think of anything more than finding a place to rest. Before entering the hive he took one last look back at the beast he had slain.
"Shorel'aran" He muttered in Thalassian.
Dizastrous then followed Chrysalis to a chamber that was filled with luxurious looking pillows that were piled into a sort of nest. The Blood Knight found this to be an acceptable substitute for a bed and slowly began removing his armor and setting it in a pile on top of his cloak before falling onto the silky pillows and shutting his eyes.
"Rest easy, I will honor our deal..." Chrysalis said as Dizastrous drifted off into slumber.
Author's Note
Had an idea for this chapter, and it ended up being longer than i expected. As such this chapter only contains Dizastrous and neither of the others, the part I had for them would have made this chapter longer than I wanted, and as such I can also get the chapter out earlier than I expected.
Chapter 5
Celestia, Luna, and Weaver walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle, the princess of the sun taking the lead as the others followed her towards where Celestia wished to hold their conversation. Celestia glanced back periodically at the elf, something about it caused Celestia to be on edge.
Weaver while following was taking in the various aspects of the castle, putting particular interest in the stained glass windows they passed. The warlock read into the context given by the windows and hummed to herself, drawing the attention of Luna.
"Those windows depict important happenings over the last thousand years. That one right there depicts my sister and I defeating a great evil known as Discord." Luna explained.
"I take it you two had a falling out in the past..." Weaver commented as she stared at the window depicting Nightmare Moon being banished.
Luna bit her tongue and hung her head slightly, Celestia frowned when she saw this, "Luna grew jealous... She became corrupted and I had to banish her to the moon. But that is in the past, and I have never been happier in the past thousand years now that my sister is back with me."
Celestia kept a close eye on the elf's reaction to hearing this, but Weaver made no facial indications to even caring one way or the other about the incident.
"So what was it that you wished to discuss with my sister and I about?" Celestia asked as they continued walking.
"My friends and I are on a quest of sorts, you see my people suffer a terrible addiction. If our thirst is not sated we will lose our sanity and become mere husks of the people we once were in the face of the madness the thirst brings. Our task is to find a way to end the thirst." Weaver explained.
"Addiction to what? What could possibly cause a craving so vast that it could threaten an entire species with madness?" Luna asked, eyes wide in amazement.
"Magic, we thirst for magic. We can normally feed off a source of great power to sustain our needs for it, but it has become a hassle when we need to travel long distances away from the source. A lot of times, travelers will resort to feeding off the magic of another living creature." Weaver spoke with an impassive face.
"Do your magical energies not replenish themselves over time?" Celestia's tone was curious.
"Yes, it is not quite a need to feed on magic to use it, it is the feeling of holding more magic than we should be able to that we are addicted to. It is the excess of what is needed that we crave. The craving for greater and greater power has made us strong, but it has lead many to darkness and corruption." Weaver's voice sounded hollow as she spoke.
Celestia stopped for a brief moment, causing the other two to halt as well. The princess of the sun looked into the eyes of the warlock, and frowned at what she saw. The elf did not look that old, moved with a sense of youth, but her eyes held a form of wisdom Celestia had only ever seen in the eldest of generals.
"Weaver... How many wars have you fought in?" Celestia asked quietly.
Weaver's eyes squinted slightly as she locked eyes with Celestia, "More than you wish to hear about."
Luna and Celestia shared a glance with each other, their looks somber. The two princesses then in unison started to speak, but stopped as they realized the other was just about to as well.
"No, you go ahead Luna..." Celestia said with a nod.
"Weaver, we have never encountered anything like what your people suffer. The only things that even come close has been Discord's thirst for chaos and the Changeling's thirst to feed on love." Luna said solemnly.
"So you cannot help me is what you are saying?" Weaver said before sighing and running a hand through her hair.
"Well, we do not know of any cures for such a thing, but Discord has lived a longer life then either of us, and he has been known to be able to survive centuries in what he refers to as a 'non-chaotic and hostile environment'." Celestia explained.
Weaver looked back at the stained glass window down the hall that held the depiction of Discord fighting Celestia and Luna. The warlock then looked past the windows to the garden that lay outside with various stone statues decorating it.
"You have him sealed in your garden don't you?" Weaver asked in an accusing tone.
"Well, we do not really believe in killing somepony for their crimes when they could still atone..." Luna explained.
"Trapped in stone for a thousand years... I would have thought death would have been the kinder fate..." Weaver shook her head.
"Well, killing him still did not sit well with us." Celestia said with a frown.
"Is there any chance I could contact him inside of his prison, or is that going to be a dead end in my search here?" Weaver asked with an irritated sigh.
"Well, we were hoping to rehabilitate him actually... If you are willing to wait here in Canterlot while he goes through it there is a chance you could talk to him then..." Luna said looking at her sister as she spoke.
Celestia nodded in approval before turning her gaze back on the warlock, "But you have to promise me you will not harm anypony or break any laws while you are here..."
"Very well, but may I be so bold as to ask for permission to tap into a little of either of your magic should my thirst begin to grow unbearable?" Weaver asked with a sly smile.
The two princesses shared a glance and an uncertain expression before Luna spoke, "Very well, come to me if you absolutely must feed on magic... It does not harm the one you feed on does it?"
"No no, not with the amount of latent magic you hold in yourself. Here let me show you..." Weaver said as she lifted a hand and placed it gently on the side of Luna's face.
Luna recoiled slightly from the touch of the warlock, but it was already too late to stop it. Weaver spread her fingers and flexed them slightly as she pulled magical energies from Luna. In a matter of a second she was done, and Weaver held a floating blue ball of magic the size of an apple. Luna felt a piece of her magical energies missing, as if she had just moved the moon, but not enough was missing to really cause her concern.
"There, that wasn't so bad was it? Your sister and you have an insane amount of latent magical energies in you so you should barely feel a difference." Weaver said with a smile as she eyed the ball of magic before quickly clenching it between her fingers and absorbing it into herself.
Luna watched the display with a sense of mild interest before meeting her sister's stare.
"What is it Tia?" Luna asked at the barely contained giggle Celestia was fighting.
"Your hair..." Celestia made out before having to close her mouth again for fear of bursting.
Luna looked up at her mane and realized it no longer floated in the invisible breeze, and it had lost the constellations in it, instead it hung down like a normal pony's mane did. Luna's jaw hung open at the realization of the fact that the magic taken from her was from the spell that caused her mane to have a divine luster to it.
"Tia!" Luna whined as her sister broke into a fit of laughter.
Helix walked through the darkened streets of Ponyville, humming a tune to himself as he looked around the darkened houses. As he strode on under the cover of night, unseen by the ponies who slept soundly in their homes, he wondered how his friends fared. Dizastrous was surely lost in the wilderness somewhere, hopefully not causing too much trouble, and Weaver hopefully managed to get on good terms with the two princesses.
Helix stopped in his tracks as he felt something pulsing. A strong source of power was manifesting nearby, though it felt as if it was being dampened and hidden, the warlock could easily follow where it came from with his sensitivity to magical energies.
The pulsing he followed brought him to a two story building which unlike all of the other houses, had its shutters closed. Helix frowned as he tried the door and realized it was locked. He briefly considered forcing his way in, but thought better of it. As he turned around to leave he realized that the energies were familiar, they matched the type of magic the Bronze Dragons used when casting time magic.
With a new sense of determination Helix circled the house looking for an opening. He found only a chimney, otherwise all of the windows and doors were firmly shut ant locked. The fact that this house alone seemed to find it necessary to lock up so tight made the warlock suspicious.
"Only one way in then..." Helix said as he began channeling and spell.
The eye of Kilrogg flew up and down the chimney of the house, entering into a family room of sorts. The room itself only held a sofa, love seat, and coffee table, otherwise it was bare. Helix willed the eye to continue onward and search for what was pulsing the magical energy. As the eye floated through the house he noticed many pictures of a cross eyed pegasus, an earth pony, and a unicorn filly.
The eye came to a halt as it found its way blocked by a closed door. The eye emitted fel magic as a glowing green rune appeared on the ground. Within seconds the eye was a pile of ash and Helix stood in the center of the magic circle. Helix then slowly opened the door and walked down a set of stairs that led into the basement of the house. As he rounded the corner he found that the basement was bare, save for a strange blue box which had a door on the front of it.
"What in the nether is this?" Helix said as he walked up to and attempted to open the door, but his effort was in vain as the door refused to budge.
Helix frowned as he studied the box, for the energies were coming from the inside of the box. Helix heard a sound from above him, hooves were rushing through the house and toward the stairway. Helix looked around and dove under the stairs, pressing his back against the wall and looking up through the cracks of the stairs as a pair of hooves descended them.
The gray mare from the photos upstairs hopped from the last step as her wings fluttered in a barely suppressed sense of excitement. Double cocked his head to the side in confusion as the giddy mare seemed to be excitedly taking to herself in anticipation of something.
The door slowly opened, and a golden light flooded the basement from within the box. The brown stallion from the photos stepped out and closed the door behind him, a smile on his face as he saw the mare.
"Doctor!" The pegasus mare yelled as she threw her hooves over the stallion.
"Hey now, I haven't been gone for that long have I?" The stallion who seemed to be a doctor of sorts said.
"Three days, but I'm so happy you're back!" The mare said as they broke the embrace.
Helix could feel the magical energies coming from the stallion, something was different about him. While he himself did not possess much more magic than a normal being, he was cloaked in a rather large amount of it. Also, while similar to the Bronze Dragon's magic, there was a definite difference he could feel while the door was open.
The stallion froze and tensed visibly, causing the mare to give him a questioning look. Helix knew he had been spotted, and slowly crawled out from under the stairs, rising himself up to his full height. His eyes locked with the stallion's.
"You are not from this world are you time traveler?" Helix said, a smile on his face.
The stallion choked on the words he was trying to get out at what the warlock had said, the mare however had whipped around and held a curious look on her face.
"Don't try to lie either, I have felt time magic before, and your reek of it." Helix pressed on as he took a step towards the two ponies.
"H-hey now, don't try anything funny, I'm not afraid to use this!" The stallion said as he pulled a strange mechanical device from a saddlebag on his side.
"I do not mean harm to you, I simply wish to ask a few questions..." Helix said as he slowly reached for the staff on his back.
The movement behind his back was not unseen by the stallion however who pointed the device at the warlock's feet and activated it. Immediately the engineering rockets in his boots activated and misfired, causing Helix to slam into the ceiling, bursting into the room above before falling to the floor next to the hole he caused.
"Kim'jael..." Helix muttered in Thalasian as he clutched his head where a gash bled profusely.
Chapter 6
Debris crumbled down from the newly formed hole in the celler's ceiling. Derpy sneezed, causing some of the dust to stir around in the air, and as she reopened her eyes The Doctor had to stifle a giggle as he saw that her eyes had taken drastic positions, her right iris was facing her upper right, and her left iris was facing the lower left.
The gray mare shook her head and blinked a few times, remedying the issue of her eyes back to their normal degree.
"What was that?" Derpy asked in a concerned voice.
The Doctor frowned in thought over the question. The creature looked for the most part human, aside from the glowing green eyes, long ears and eyebrows, and the abnormally fair skin and hair. The strange being even spoke the human language, but one thing stuck out more than the others, It knew somehow he was a time traveler. But what was that it had said about magic?
"I'm not sure. It is similar to, but does not look like anything I have seen before..." The brown stallion said walking under the hole and trying to get a glimpse of the stranger.
A peculiar sound filled the air, as if wind was swirling and churning around a specific point. The sound grew in intensity until a dull hum sounded out and ended as abruptly as it began. The Doctor strained his ears in an attempt to hear what had happened, but was only greeted by the sound of feet meeting the ground, armored feet.
"Uh oh..." The Doctor said with a panicked look.
Derpy gave The Doctor a look of concern, "What's the matter?"
"Get behind me, I think we made it mad..." The stallion said as he stepped in front of Derpy, standing between the mare and the stairs.
Two sets of feet could be heard making their way towards, and then down the stairs. The Doctor scratched off his theory that the being had put on armor, realizing now that it had somehow called for assistance and gotten it transported directly to it.
The first being came into view, and nearly gave one of the Doctor's hearts an attack. It was a Fel Guard from the Legion's forces. The Legion was a known scourge that rampaged across the galaxies, destroying planets and consuming their inhabitants. They had strange technologies, and an even stranger, unexplained power if The Doctor remembered what he had heard correctly. The demon matched the description perfectly however, Tall with blue skin, wearing red and gold armor that left its muscular chest exposed, and a large vicious axe.
The demon stopped several feet from the two ponies, and waited as the other one descended the stairs. The doctor could see he had been bleeding quite profusely from his head, but the wound seemed to be missing now, the blood on his face coming from seemingly nothing.
"Do that again and my minion here will personally see that it never happens a third time." The stranger said with a frown.
"You are part of the legion, aren't you?" The Doctor asked in an accusing tone.
"What? You know of the legion?" The being said in an amazed tone as he looked at the demon, who merely shrugged.
"Is this planet next on their agenda for conquest?" The stallion asked as he slowly backed up and looked into Derpy's fear filled eyes.
"Wait, you think I..." The stranger said with a baffled expression as he looked from the demon, and then back to the stallion before bursting into a fit of laughter.
The Doctor gave a confused look to the being, but in the back of his mind he sighed at the notion that this creature was not with the legion. But why was it with a Fel Guard then? There was no mistaking what the demon was, its kind was infamous across the galaxy and easily identifiable even to someone that had never seen one before.
"The demon here is my minion, bound to my magic to serve me when summoned. Now, I am intrigued however. This is further proof you are not from this world." The stranger smiled.
"What do you want with me then?" The Doctor asked, not sure what to think of the word magic.
"Just to ask a few questions, and if you would be so kind as to answer them, I may even answer some of your own..." The stranger explained.
The Doctor considered this for a moment, not taking his eyes off the large blue skinned demon who stood still, as if waiting for an order. How was it possible that someone could command such a terrifying being?
"Get rid of the demon first, there is a filly in this house and I do not want it scaring her if she wakes up and comes downstairs..." The Doctor said with an even tone.
"Fair enough, but you also need to put away that... Thing, that made my gear set off." The stranger said, pointing to the sonic screwdriver.
The stallion then returned his device into his saddlebag and stared at the stranger. With a motion of his hand the demon seemed to collapse on itself as it faded from existence.
"Your kind has the science to pull localized wormholes off?!" The Doctor exclaimed, wide eyed at the notion.
"That was not science, it was magic. Much like the unicorns here use." The stranger argued.
"I haven't seen any unicorns showing the ability to do that, short distance teleportation yes, but that?" The Doctor muttered, "What are you?"
"I am a warlock, and now it's my turn. What are you?" The stranger asked raising an eyebrow.
Dizastrous groaned as he rubbed his eyes and sat up from the nest of pillows he had collapsed within. Casting his emerald eyes around the room the happenings of before he slept came back to him. Glancing at his legs he noticed the dried blood that flaked as he moved from where the bones had jutted before his healing.
Dizastrous was still a little surprised by the appearance of the astral bear. The last time he had seen a creature such as that was when he fought Algalon in Ulduar. This celestial bear however seemed to be an inhabitant of this planet, something Dizastrous found most peculiar.
As he stood the Blood Knight was wracked with pain and gripped his head as he stumbled toward where his armor lay. Dizastrous started to rummage through one of the enchanted bags he carried with him, searching desperately for what he craved.
"Is everything alright?" A changeling asked as it opened the door, having heard the grunt of pain and rustling from within.
Dizastrous leaped to his feet as he pulled a small bottle out of one of the bags. A crazed look adorned his face as he crushed the glass flask between his fingers, cutting his palm and releasing the elemental that was trapped inside.
The fiery being grew in size as it began to rampage around the room, setting the tapestries and pillows alight. As it raged it stared with hate filled eyes at the Blood Elf that had held it captive.
"Talah Andora Ann'da..." Dizastrous mumbled as he began approaching the raging elemental.
The fiery being lashed out at the approaching Blood Knight, but could do little actual harm to the veteran in its weakened state. After the attack proved nigh useless, Dizastrous opened his palms and his arm muscles strained as he drew the magical essence from the life force of the elemental.
A garbled shriek filled the air as the Elemental shrunk slowly as its essence was pulled away form it into the floating blue orb between the Blood Knight's hands. Dizastrous smiled in triumph as he finished gathering the last of the magical energy. The blue orb that floated now over his right palm pulsated with power as he eyed it with a hunger that was fit only for a starving man.
Chrysalis walked inside having heard the commotion in her hive, arriving in time to see Dizastrous standing in front of a pile of ashes with an orb of energy in his hand. She gasped as she watched the Blood Knight slowly absorb the energies, his skin and hair regaining a luster as if he had been sick and was now healthy.
Dizastrous sighed in relief as his thirst was quenched, and glanced over toward the door where the Changeling Queen and one of her drones stood with wide eyes.
"How long was I asleep?" The Blood Knight asked as he walked over to his armor.
"Only about a day or so..." Chrysalis said eyeing him warily.
"That would explain that, been a little while since I last slaked my thirst..." Dizastrous said with a wry tone.
"So... That is how you feed on magic then?" Chrysalis said with uncertainty.
"Taking the magic straight from the life force of a being that contains natural magic, sounds a lot like a vampire doesn't it? My kind has been mocked for it before, called monsters and the like." Dizastrous said bitterly as he equipped his gear.
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say monster. Surprising that you are able to take your feeding so far yes, but it is very similar to how us changelings feed upon love. We drain the energy and leave the victim weak. Very rarely can we take enough love to kill though, they have to love you more than their own life for you to even attempt it..." Chrysalis offered
Dizastrous frowned as he considered this, and put the crown in place over his head where it locked magically into place and floated in the air. Perhaps he had something in common with the Queen after all, except that his was merely an addiction and hers was an actual need to live.
"What do your people do when you are unable to find love?" Dizastrous asked as he eyed his sword that needed to be cleaned.
Chrysalis was taken off guard by the question, and took a moment to think over her answer, "Well, we starve. It was that desperation that caused me to attack Canterlot in hopes of ruling over the ponies to take all that we needed. We failed and it is harder than ever, we have to send drones out across the entirety of the land in order to fill our needs."
"Our kind tried something similar..." Dizastrous said thinking once more of Kael'thas throwing his lot in with the demons and attacking Outland to harvest the magical energies there.
"How did it turn out for your people?" Chrysalis asked, intrigued at the notion that his race had done something similar.
"We had a civil war, the one I told you of before. You may want to keep an eye over your shoulder, the same may still happen to you..." Dizastrous warned.
Chrysalis eyed the bloodied sword and motioned at the drone who silently obeyed and went to fetch a basin of water.
"By the way, I have a few friends I am also looking for. I need to meet up with them before I do anything else. I need you to help me get to the town Helix mentioned." Dizastrous said as he eyed the stained blade.
"I will honor my promise, but know that my kind are not welcome in the pony settlements, and the guards now have ways of detecting us as well..." Chrysalis sighed.
"Worry not, if it comes to it I will defend you." The Blood Knight said, waving it off.
Chrysalis gave the Blood Elf a questioning stare as she tilted her head to the side, "You do know if you do that you would be making yourself an enemy of the ponies right?"
Dizastrous grinned darkly as he eyed the changeling who brought in a rag and a basin of water. He scooped up the rag in his hand and dipped it into the clear liquid. As he set to wiping the odd colored blood from his great sword he replied, never taking his eyes off his work.
"We are not here for diplomacy, if the others wish to make friends so be it. I will not allow anything to stand in my way however, and you have actually agreed to helping me on my quest. The way I see it, if anything tries to harm you, it is hindering me." The blade gleamed after he finished cleaning it.
Dizastrous then set to wiping the blood off his leg guards and boots. After finishing cleaning his gear he cast the rag aside and lifted the basin with both hands, bringing it up to his face before plunging into the water. He withdrew his now soaked face, his silver hair clinging to it, and water dripping down his goatee.
"So, when will you be ready to lead me to where my friends will be waiting?" Dizastrous asked expectantly.
"I need to ready the hive for my departure, getting it prepped to run without me for a while. Then we can go to... Where did your friend say he was headed again?" Chrysalis asked.
"Ponyville, I think it was..." The Blood Knight said scratching his chin.
Chrysalis's face fell at the news, she knew of that town. The six mares that had saved Cadence and allowed the downfall of her siege lived there. Not only that, but they were also the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
"Something wrong with that?" Dizastrous asked carefully.
"Six mares live there that fought my changelings in the siege. They bear ancient magic that can undo or bind me..." Chrysalis said with a frown.
Dizastrous took off his gauntlet and opened his right hand that had been cut and showed it to Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen stared at the wound that now only slowly dripped blood. In a flash of light however, the wound was gone, leaving only the blood that clung to his flesh.
"The power of the light serves my will, and as long as I stand no harm shall befall you. And if it does. it will not last. Healing wounds, and even resurrection is possible with my power if I can get to you in time. Be warned though, stay close to me at all times. If you are dead for more than a couple of minutes I will be unable to bring you back." Dizastrous said, before putting the gauntlet back on his hand.
"Where do you draw your power from? I have never heard of such magic, being able to instantly cure wounds and bring the dead back..." Chrysalis asked, eyes filled with wonder.
"I told you, the everlasting and holy light is my weapon and shield. Some choose to devote their life to serving the light, and in return they are granted great power. But while the light rewards devout servitude, it also respects those that are strong enough to command it. As a Blood Knight I do not follow the light like those foolish Paladins of the Silver Hand, I lead it." As Dizastrous spoke he played with a ball of light in his hands, letting it dance around his fingers, before grasping and crushing it in a fist.
Dizastrous opened his fist and golden dust drifted from his hand, glittering like gold as it fell and vanished into thin air.
"What are the odds it will come to blows if they find you?" The Blood Knight asked, changing the subject away from the preachings he pounded into the heads of new initiates.
"If they see me, I will be undoubtedly attacked, if I take the form of another however, I may go unnoticed as long as I d not bring the attention of the guards to myself." Chrysalis explained.
"Very well, do whatever it takes to avoid the conflict. No reason to fight if it is only going to waste my time." Dizastrous said with a sigh.
Chrysalis turned to leave the room, taking one last glance at the destruction that had been wrought into it. She shook her head as she smiled and exited the room. Dizastrous stuck his head out of the door and called after her down the hallway she walked through.
"Have them send me in something to eat, anything at this point I'm starving. Have them cut up and roast a piece of that big bear I killed if you have to." The Blood Knight said to the Changeling Queen.
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at this and smiled. Her theory on the sharp teeth the elf had proved correct, "That should be fine, be ready to leave by nightfall however."
Chapter 7
"Well, you seem to have been correct..." Celestia said as she walked into the room.
Weaver looked up from the book she had been reading, replying with a questioning glance towards the princess of the sun.
"Your friend, nopony has seen anything of him for a couple of days now. Though I really am concerned as to where he is. We also have not heard anything from the other one you mentioned." Celestia continued on as she trotted over and prodded at the sleeping form of her sister.
Weaver inwardly smiled as she thought of the piece of information she had withheld from the princesses. She had told them that her friends had gotten separated, but not how. She had not told them that Helix and her had let Dizastrous fall alone, lest they view her in a negative way. And she had also neglected to tell them about the fact Helix was staying with a pony in a town not far from Canterlot.
"I'm not quite sure where he could be." Weaver lied as she set the book down on the table next to her.
Luna stirred and moaned as she put a pillow over her head and moaned for her sister to cease her attempts at waking her up. This however only caused the princess of the sun to double her efforts in waking her sister.
"They will turn up eventually, they always do." Weaver said, mumbling the last part in a barely audible tone.
Celestia picked up on this however and gave the warlock a questioning glance, "Do you and your friends split up and get lost a lot?"
"to the point Helix and I have become masters of summoning allies..." Weaver scoffed.
Celestia's eyes narrowed, "You can summon them?"
Weaver froze after realizing her mistake, but quickly recovered, "technically speaking yes. But not alone though. It requires three to open a portal, and two to summon. I would happily open the portal, but teaching you two to help me open it will take time. Plus they could turn up before I teach you how to aid me."
Celestia considered this for a moment, then looked down on the still sleeping form of her sister. The princess of the sun frowned at this.
"Luna it is almost time for me to lower the sun and for you to raise the moon." Celestia said, putting her head next the the pillow from which the blue starry mane billowed from underneath.
"Fine..." Luna groaned as she rolled onto her hooves and stretched as she stood.
The princess of the moon yawned as she spread her wings and blinked a few times, attempting to readjust her eyes to the light. She looked around until she noticed the stack of books that sat next to the warlock.
"Any luck?" Luna asked.
"Unfortunately no." Weaver said as she closed the book she was reading and set it on top of the pile next to her, "When is this Discord going to be back? I thought he was just being rehabilitated, don't you have a spell for that?"
Celestia eyed the book Weaver had been reading and realized it was a spell book, one that contained spells pertaining to mental conditions.
"We were hoping to use a more humane form of rehab. Those spells are only for a last measure." Celestia said with a frown.
Weaver scoffed at the word 'humane', and then braced herself for what was about to happen. Both princesses' horns lit up, and an intense magical aura filled the room as the sun was lowered and the moon was raised. Each princess burned with a power that together rivaled that of the Sunwell. After the ordeal was over, Weaver unclenched her hands, noting the drips of blood her fingertips had drawn from her palms.
"Are your people blind when it comes to magical senses?" Weaver asked with a strained voice.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked with a confused look adorning her face.
"Being near you two when you do that is like staring into the sun..." Weaver said with a groan.
The two royal sisters exchanged glances briefly before Celestia spoke up, "Is your ability to sense magic that keen?"
"That is the thing about having an addiction to magic. The craving, along with feeding on fel energies has changed us. While others who train in the magical arts may have a keen ability to sense magic, we are practically predators. They however could even tell you two hold immense power, can ponies not feel this?" Weaver asked, an incredulous look on her face.
"Well, we can recognize magic when we see it. But we can not feel it as you apparently can." Luna offered.
Celestia yawned and rubbed a hoof to her eyes, "We have spells to trace magic, and detect it. But we do not perceive it as if it were one of the five senses."
Luna looked at the bags under her sister's eyes and frowned, "Tia, you should get some rest..."
"That does sound nice. Weaver, I told the guards to allow you out of the castle if you wanted to search around the town for anything." Celestia said as she turned and headed back for the door to exit Luna's room.
"Good night Tia." Luna said with a smile as she watched her sister leave.
"Good night Luna..." Celestia mumbled, eyes half lidded as the princess of the sun fought to stay awake long enough to make it to her room.
Weaver watched the exchange with a neutral expression. She watched as Luna put on her shoes and her necklace, and then finally donned her crown before checking herself over in her mirror to make sure everything was in order. The princess of the night then looked expectantly at the warlock.
"Looking forward to another night of waiting for royal duties to occur?" Weaver asked, having witnessed Luna sitting on the throne with no visitors to her night court. The only thing Luna seemed to do was channel a spell as she kept a bored expression.
"While there were no visitors requesting an audience, I still had many nightmares to stamp out in the dreams of my little ponies." Luna said with a small smile.
Weaver raised an eyebrow at this news, "You watch over the world of dreams for your subjects?"
Luna nodded, causing Weaver to go deep into thought for a moment. Weaver contemplated whether or not her dreams had been invaded by the princess. The warlock tried desperately to remember what she had dreamed of the first day she had stayed in this strange world.
"Are you concerned that I have spied on your dreams?" Luna asked with a frown after seeing the expression the warlock wore.
"I only fear that if I had a nightmare that attracted your attention it would be too gruesome for your tastes." Weaver said with an even tone as she lied.
"Well, I promise not to look into your dreams, though I find it hard to do so when you and I sleep at near the same hours of the day." Luna said commenting on the almost nocturnal sleep pattern of the warlock who had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning before finally crashing.
Weaver smiled, and even chuckled as the worries were vanquished from her mind. The smile on the warlock's face brought one to the princess of the night as well.
"Well princess, if you do not mind I shall take my leave. I want to poke around the town a little bit. Are there any shops open at this time of the night?" Weaver asked.
"Almost every store in Canterlot have night time hours to accommodate for the nocturnal residence. While not as many travel the roads, the bars and restaurants tend to be more lively at this time anyways." Luna answered with a smile.
"Then I shall see what I find." Weaver said with a shrug, "Any recommendations for good spots?"
"There is a nice little shop called Doughnut Joe's. Wonderful pasties, and they also serve some alcohol at these hours." Luna offered.
Weaver considered this for a moment, she was about to turn down the thought of a pastry shop, but then remembered that the majority of the populace was vegetarian and most likely ate hay based products. The only reason she had been able to procure fish the previous day was because the castle staff had it in store for the Griffon diplomats that visited every now and then. Perhaps pastries would be the best she was going to get in the town.
"I will have to look for that place. I will see you later then Luna." Weaver said with a bow.
Luna waved a hoof as the warlock turned an departed, as Weaver got out of sight however she pulled out a medallion from her pack and grasped it firmly in her hands as she walked through the castle halls, making her way for the exit.
The medallion was an enchanted piece, that every member of the guild had, and were required to keep on them at all times. Through the amulets, a telepathic link could be established with the other amulets they were attuned to, to relay messages. Weaver accessed the officer channel the medallion provided for the higher ranking members and began to send out a message.
'Diz, you better have your medallion on you.' Weaver sent.
Weaver walked, clutching the amulet in a fist as she exited the castle. The reply was not always instant, as to send and receive a message one had to grasp the amulet, the only thing one of the amulets did when not being touched was emit a low sound to alert that a message was waiting.
'Do you think he is asleep?' Helix sent through the amulet's line.
'Helix, how are things on your end?' Weaver replied.
'Got into a little trouble with a local, was accused of being part of the legion. But it's fine now, we had a talk and smoothed things out. Tomorrow I was going to have dinner with his family, granted the town calms down. Some psycho with an insane amount of power is spending some time in town apparently, the place he is staying at is as chaotic as Outland...' Helix reported.
'Ah, that would be Discord. I was hoping to have a chat with him once he is done being rehabilitated there.' Weaver messaged back.
'What did you need now? I'm a little busy.' Dizastrous messaged.
'Busy with what? You better not be causing more trouble! The locals were going to start a man hunt for you had I not vouched for you.' Weaver scolded over the line.
Weaver looked around the street she was strolling down, noticing the few passerby's that gave her odd stares. She could not see the shop she searched for however.
'There is a particularly annoying Hydra that refuses to stay down here... It is a little distracting to respond while trying block at the same time.' Dizastrous messaged after a short while.
'Kill it then, we need to discuss something important aside from me warning you not to piss off the residence of this world.' Weaver sent angrily.
'I would but I don't want to completely wipe these poor bastards off the face of this world. I've already killed five of them, and I have been told not to kill any more of them. Something about the balance of nature being too disrupted if another dies.' Dizastrous replied.
'Told by who?' Weaver sent, a confused frown as she sent the message.
'Diz... The only place I have heard that the hydras call home is Foggy Bottom Bog. Are you seriously there right now?' Helix cut in.
'Hold on, I'll ask.' Dizastrous replied.
Weaver sighed in exasperation as she pinched the bridge of her nose between her eyes. If the conversation was already getting derailed by the short attention span of her guild mates, then things were not looking good. She looked up at the store she stood in front of and cocked her head to the side.
Weaver stood in front of Doughnut Joe's, the sight was shaped in a giant doughnut, with the words written in frosting as a baker would on a cake, over the doughnut. Weaver stepped inside and sat at the front table, towering over the pony that sat next to her on the bar stool.
"What can I get for you?" A cream colored stallion with short brown hair asked from behind the counter.
Weaver cocked an eyebrow at the lack of fear in the stallion's face as it talked to her, "One glazed doughnut, and... What kinds of alcohol do you serve? "
"We have hard ciders, whiskeys, ales, mead, and a few different porters." Doughnut Joe said with a smile.
"I shall go with a mead. Any kind you have." Weaver said as she placed a golden coin down on the table.
Joe eyed the coin with interest, levitating it to him, and placing it between his teeth as he bit down on it. The stallion's eyes widened slightly as he smiled, "Planning on opening up a tab?"
Weaver raised a brow at this, and then looked around, noticing that the other customers seemed to have paid in copper coins that sat in a pile on the counter top.
"Sure, why not?" Weaver shrugged, relieved that her gold was going to take her a long ways here.
'Yeah, it is. What of it?' Dizastrous finally replied.
'That is fairly close to Ponyville if I am not mistaken...' Helix responded.
'Yeah, I'm headed there now. I found someone who is giving me directions to where I want to go.' Dizastrous replied without a delay this time.
'Finally got away from the Hydra?' Weaver sent.
'Yeah, it gave up when I led it to the bodies of the others.' Dizastrous messaged.
'Why are you coming here? Don't you have any leads yet?' Helix asked.
'Yes, but you are staying at a library aren't you? I was hoping to do some looking into on a few things before I set off. You know, things like local fauna, climate in regions, and where the hell anything actually is so I can tell my guide where I want to go. Oh, and I already know I will only be getting a rough estimate on where something is. Their maps are shit for a civilization that has the ability to fly to a better vantage point to make maps.' Dizastrous ranted over the guild amulets.
'Any chances you can be subtle when you get here? Aside from a handful of ponies I actually have not been found out by the local populace yet.' Helix messaged.
'Helix, you know damn well his armor is practically a big metal beacon. If he doesn't get noticed, then the ponies are blind.' Weaved sent.
'Come on Helix, I thought you knew me better than that. Why go in unnoticed when I can make life more difficult for you?' Dizastrous asked.
'Is this about leaving you where we dropped into this world at?' Helix messaged.
'You bet your sweet ass it is!' The angry reply came from Dizastrous.
'Diz, focus for a moment. I need to warn you about something.' Weaver attempted to get the conversation back on track.
'I'm listening...' Came Dizastrous's reply.
'It is a good thing you are going to a library to find a map, I know where you need to start looking. I read of an empire up north that has an artifact with the ability to purify the hatred and darkness from the land around it. I suspect it may even possess the ability to cleanse the traces of fel energy that corrupt us. Can I trust you to look into it?' Weaver sent.
'Yeah, that should be fine.' Dizastrous replied back.
'And can I trust you not to cause an angry mob to chase helix out of the town he is staying in?' Weaver asked cautiously.
'That shall remain up for debate.' Dizastrous sent the telepathic message.
'You better not!' Helix's angry reply came.
Weaver smacked a hand over her face as she deposited the amulet back into her pocket. Helix and Dizastrous would be at it for at least an hour. She might as well enjoy the pastry and drink that was set down before her.
Picking up the doughnut and taking a bite out of it, Weaver thought over what she would say when the cat came out of the bag that not just one of her friends, but both of them were near Celestia's prized pupil in Ponyville. Weaver took another bite, only now realizing it was delicious, her first bite wasted because of how deep in thought she was.
"I may have to come here more often..." Weaver mumbled to herself.
The trip and stay here proved useful as a chance to send a message to her friends without either of the princesses catching onto her. The fact that the food, while not nutritious, was delightful to the taste was a bonus as well.
As weaver finished her doughnut she downed her drink and smiled at Joe, "I may have to return tomorrow."
Joe smiled at this news, to him as long as the customer paid he did not care what race it was.
Weaver left the shop and strolled back towards Canterlot castle. As she walked she gazed at the sky, particularly at the full moon that hung overhead. Unlike the night sky of every other world she had been to, this one stood out. While the night sky the titans had forged for her world was mesmerizing, this one that was moved around by Luna seemed more like artwork.
"Why is this moon so beautiful compared to every other I have gazed upon?" The question donned on Weaver as she spoke to herself.
Chaper 9
Helix moved to attempt to comfort the small yellow ball of fur and feathers that shivered on the ground in front of him. But his movement only caused a muffled cry to emit from beneath the pink mane and yellow feathers. Helix stood, frozen with his hands hovering near the mare, a panicked look painted on his face as he stared at Twilight.
"Fluttershy it's alright, he is a friend!" Twilight cooed at her friend.
The attempt at comforting her friend proved fruitless as Fluttershy still refused to uncurl or do anything aside from whimper where she shivered.
"Hey Twilight, did Fluttershy tell you about Discord leaving yet?" Rainbow Dash called as she hovered in through the open door of the library and came eye to eye with Helix.
Helix looked between the yellow mare to his hands that hovered over the cowering mare, pulling them back immediately and hiding them behind his back, as he looked then at the newcomer. Helix offered an apologetic smile to the rainbow maned pegasus and opened his mouth to offer an excuse for the misleading position he was caught in. The cyan mare gave no chance for the warlock to apologize however as she immediately leapt into action and charged head first into the stomach of Helix.
"Oof" Helix grunted as he was pushed back a couple of steps before managing to catch himself and grab a hold of the mare that headbutted him.
Rainbow Dash strugged in Helix's arms as he gave an apologetic look towards Twilight who seemed stunned by how fast things turned from bad to worse. Helix briefly thought over letting the mare go until a hoof came up and struck him in the nose, causing a stream of blood to issue forth from his nostrils.
"Ow, will you please cut that out!" Helix grunted as he managed to adjust his arms to get all four of the mare's legs locked in his bear hug.
"Let me go, I still need to teach you a lesson for attacking Fluttershy!" Rainbow screamed as she struggled to escape.
"Rainbow, Helix did not attack her! She just got scared!" Twilight yelled while stroking the pink mane of her cowering friend.
"What in tarnation is going on in here?" Applejack called as she entered the library to investigate the source of the screaming.
As the farmerpony saw the cowering form of Fluttershy who was being comforted by Twilight, then the tall stranger holding Rainbow, she knew what she had to do.
"Le'go of her!" Applejack yelled as she charged Helix.
"Wait, no no no no!" Helix exclaimed as he lifted a leg and swatted at the orange mare with a foot, keeping her at bay as he struggled with the cyan mare in his arms.
Applejack evaded the kicks, a look of anger on her face as she circled the warlock, attempting to get into an opening. Helix was fast enough to keep the newest attacker at bay, but as Rainbow doubled her efforts at struggling, he was thrown off balance and fell on his back. Applejack took this opportunity to attempt to kick Helix in the face. The warlock decided however to abandon his grip on the pegasus and roll out of the way, evading the kick. Helix and Rainbow both scrambled to stand up, and the two mares then began circling the warlock.
"Twilight, please call your friends off me!" Helix begged, not wanting to hurt either of the mares.
"Girls, please stop! Helix is a friend, this is all a misunderstanding!" Twilight pleaded, still staying by Fluttershy's side.
Twilight's pleas fell on deaf ears as Applejack and Rainbow attacked in unison. Helix frowned as the two mares closed in, and his hands were wrapped in an aura of darkness as he channeled demonic energy into himself and swatted the mares aside.
"Please cease your assault, I wish you no harm!" Helix pleaded as he raised his hands in what he hopes was an nonthreatening gesture.
"Look out hes gonna' fire a magical blast!" Applejack yelled as she saw the raised hands that were wrapped in a dark magical aura.
Applejack galloped over and threw Twilight on her back with her head, as Rainbow flew by and picked up Fluttershy. The two mares then made for the door and escaped the library with their friends. Helix's jaw hung open at how unwilling the ponies were to give him a chance. Helix then followed them outside, his hands no longer covered in magic.
What greeted Helix was the eyes of many ponies who stared at him, frozen in their daily routines before they turned in for the night. Helix froze, before putting on a kind face for the town in an attempt at recovering from the situation he found himself in with diplomacy.
The four mares that were previously in the library all stared at Helix, Fluttershy only peeking one eye from under her mane. Rainbow had deposited Fluttershy on the ground and began flying higher, and higher into the air. Helix looked after her as she became nothing more than a dot in the sky and shrugged.
"Please, I mean none of you harm. Just ask Twilight, I am a friend." Helix said calmly, not wanting to spook any of the watching ponies.
Many of the ponies who were watching the warlock now turned their attention to the well known and liked purple mare who ran the library. Twilight nodded in consent with what Helix had said.
"Everypony, he is telling the truth so please calm down. This is all a misunderstan-" Twilight began, but was cut off as a sonic rainboom streaked down from the sky and struck Helix, causing the warlock to fly through the streets, and a shockwave to shatter the windows of nearby buildings.
Helix tumbled head over heel toward a building that stood higher than all the others. The building was elegant, and bore a sign proclaiming it as 'Carousel Boutique'. Helix stood up and dusted himself off, hissing as he put a hand to the gash on his temple. He then cast his eyes toward the skies as he watched a rainbow that streaked overhead.
"I am starting to lose patience with that one..." Helix muttered darkly to himself.
Twilight galloped towards him in hopes of stopping Rainbow from attacking him again, but as she approached the rainbow maned mare streaked down from the sky directly at Helix. The warlock wrapped himself in a shell of dark energies before Rainbow struck him, and the pegasus ricocheted off, directly at the large building, crashing through it and causing the top half to go airborne.
Helix watched as the section of the building fell towards him, but sighed in relief as he noticed the trajectory was off and that it was going to miss him. He then followed where it would land and his eyes widened in horror. The falling debris was headed straight for Twilight Sparkle. Helix dashed toward the mare, knowing that he was not going to be able to get her out in time. His body felt as if it were being torn apart as he allowed demonic energies to envelop him.
Horns sprouted from his head, and wings grew on his back, his fingers turning into sharp and deadly claws. His skin turned as black as midnight, his claws, eyes, and the edge of his wings and horns glowing a deep shade of purple. His robe disappeared, the only clothing on his body was a black pair of pants, tattered where his cloven hooves protruded from. Helix had metamorphasised into his demonic form, the ultimate ability a warlock versed in demonology could use.
The demonic warlock stood over the shocked librarian and hunched down over her, shielding himself and her with his large wings as the building's debris came crashing down upon them. Helix gnashed his teeth in pain as he was pelted and felt the weight of the debris. Twilight backed her face as far away from Helix's in fear of the sharp teeth that ground together in his mouth. Helix wished to comfort her, but knew his words would not reach her, as he could only mutter the demonic language in this form.
When Helix felt that the debris had finally ended its descent, he strained his muscles ans stood up, throwing the building's materials off of him. Twilight scrambled away from him and stared at his new form. Helix sucked the demonic energies back into himself and returned to his natural form. But not before all of the townsponies saw him in his metamorphasised state.
Five mares, three of which Helix had met not that long ago converged upon Twilight, hugging her and making sure she was alright. Helix saw that the rainbow maned one had a few gashes that were bleeding, but otherwise had no serious injuries.
The other ponies that were watching did not seem very happy however. Many of them were grabbing various tools, and some even had torches. Helix gulped audibly, not liking where this was going.
"Girls I'm fine... But we need to get him to safety. Everypony looks ready to attack him." Twilight said, her heart still beating rapidly from the near death experience she just suffered.
"But Twilight, he is a monster!" Rainbow complained.
"Yes, that ruffian wrecked my home!" Rarity complained.
"That was actually Rainbow..." Applejack muttered, unable to let a lie go by.
The five mares stared at Twilight, measuring the look on their friend's face. Finally they all sighed in defeat, Fluttershy more of squeaking in acceptance.
"And then they barred the doors and shut the windows while Twilight and I attempted to have the town listen to reason." Helix said, finishing his account on what had happened.
Dizastrous held an expressionless gaze, his eyes boring straight into Helix's. Helix met the gaze with his own glare at what he knew was coming, the six mares and the small dragon holding concerned gazes at the mean looks the two Blood Elves were giving each other. Finally however, Dizastrous's look softened, earning an even meaner glare from Helix.
"Don't you dare..." Helix mumbled.
Dizastrous burst into a barrage of laughter, the sound of his voice vibrating through the floor and causing the black mare to turn her attention towards him, away from the drink she was staring into. Dizastrous fell out of his chair, and began kicking his feet as he rolled on the ground and fought for breath.
"That's what you get!" Dizastrous shouted as he wiped a tear from his eye and stood up.
"Twilight, you sure they are friends? This new guy seems to take an awful lot of joy from that story..." Applejack said with a concerned look to her friend.
"The shiny one seems like a meany-pants to me..." Pinkie said with a frown.
"Oh, I'm the mean one am I?" Dizastrous said in an offended tone.
"Well, you did sort of scare the entire town away, and on top of that you don't seem very sympathetic towards Helix." Twilight offered.
Dizastrous's face fell, and he pointed a finger at Helix as he spoke to Twilight, "He let me fall hundreds of feet when we got here! Him and Weaver just glided off, while I was expected to walk here!"
"Now that doesn't seem right. Helix here as been a perfect gentlecolt, even despite the little scuffle." Rarity said in the warlock's defense.
As the others talked Fluttershy eyed the black mare that Dizastrous had came with. Something was off about the turquoise maned unicorn. She seemed angry, and averted other pony's eyes as if she was hiding something.
Chrysalis locked eyes with the timid Fluttershy, her glare boring into the yellow mare's, causing her to avert her gaze. Chrysalis did not want to lock eyes for fear of giving away her disguise, but the pegasus was staring at her too intently as it was.
Dizastrous noticed something and strode off further into the library and stopped in front of the large map of Equestria that hung open on the wall where it was usually rolled up. He ignored the questioning looks the ponies gave him as he gazed at the map. Twilight slowly approached him and gazed between him, and where his eyes were locked.
"What are you looking for up north?" Twilight asked.
"Checking where towns are supposed to be, along with bodies of water for when I travel." Dizastrous said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Helix mentioned you had a guide, why do you need to see a map?" Twilight asked as she looked back at the black mare Dizastrous had come with.
"Even if a map is inaccurate, you can learn a lot about the land from it. For instance, just because she knows what direction, and maybe even a few roads to get there, how could she have known about this stream that runs a ways off the road if we needed water?" Dizastrous explained.
Twilight blinked, impressed at the insight the Blood Knight had despite the way he acted, "You are a lot smarter than you let on, aren't you?"
"No, all I am good for is swinging my sword and curing wounds. You just pick up some things after you spend enough time living like we did during our tour in the wars. We have seen more than most veterans see in a lifetime, and we are still young for our race." Dizastrous said with a wry grin plastered on his face.
"Oh..." Twilight said dejectedly as she rejoined her friends.
Dizastrous glanced over to where the purple mare sat now, speaking to her friends and Helix. The Blood Knight curled a lip at the sight of how close the friends seemed to one another, and turned his attention back at the map. The area he was looking at, and gesture to while speaking to Twilight was not the area he intended to travel. While he had before looked at the north west, he now looked more to the east, where the crystal mountains sat. He scanned the range until he found the depiction of the castle that had been added onto it.
Dizastrous rejoined the group as they were conversing among each other, he locked eyes with Helix and nodded. The warlock gave a sigh of relief and turned his attention towards the black mare who was being rather unsocial.
"So how did you and Diz meet anyways?" Helix asked hoping to seem friendly.
Helix's efforts only earned a sharp glare from the black mare, and when he turned his gaze towards his friend he saw an equally angry gaze. Helix froze as he realized his mistake, but the six element bearers seamed oblivious to the anger on the black mare's face, only taking note of the Blood Knight's glare.
"Oh come now, she has been quiet as a mouse all this time. Ah'm sure she is just shy like somepony else we know." Applejack said, seeing the defensive anger Dizastrous was giving Helix.
"If you really must know, I rescued her from a large transparent bear. It put up a good fight but I won." Dizastrous said, to take the attention off of his traveling companion.
"Wait... Surely you don't mean an ursa minor do you?" Twilight asked in a joking voice.
"No, I don't belive it was that..." Dizastrous said thoughtfully.
"Come on Twilight, no way somepony could fight and win against an ursa minor. Heck, you could barely move it, let alone fight it." Rainbow laughed.
"I believe I was told it was nearing the age to be considered an ursa major...." Dizastrous finished his comment.
Six pairs of eyes widened as round as dinner plates and stared at the Blood Knight. Dizastrous simply smiled back at them and turned his attention to his unimpressed friend. Helix knew that they had fought tougher foes together, the kinds of monsters this world probably could not even dream of.
"How big was it?" Helix asked.
"A little over a hundred feet I think... It was enough to shatter my knees when I fell off of its face." Dizastrous commented.
"How in the nether did you manage that you fool!" Helix said laughing at the misfortune of his friend, causing the ponies to give him an odd look.
"When I cracked open its skull I was blinded by a spray of blood and brains. Fell wrong, luckily I landed on my feet though, was easier to heal myself with working hands." Dizastrous said chuckling.
"Pardon me asking, but how are you walking around if you had your legs broken not long ago?" Rarity asked in a confused tone. Applejack and Rainbow nodded in unison to this, wanting to hear the answer.
Dizastrous considered how to answer this, and spotted a gash on his friend's head that looked as if it had recently stopped bleeding. Reaching a hand over and touching the warlock, he immediately caused all wounds to be fully healed from Helix's body. Helix sighed in relief as he felt a rib go back where it belonged from when the building fell on him, along with the cuts and scrapes healing across his body.
"How did you do that?!" Rainbow exclaimed, looking at her own cuts and bruises.
Dizastrous lifted a hand in the air and channeled holy magic into it until his spell was ready, and directed it towards Rainbow Dash, healing her as well. Rainbow shuddered as she felt her skin growing back together, the feeling alien to her.
"What kind of magic is that?" Twilight asked, amazed at the power the Blood Knight possessed.
"It is holy light magic, I specialize in the power of retribution, smiting enemies and slaying. But healing others along with myself is still within my power." Dizastrous said proudly.
"Where do you draw your magic from? Helix explained he commands powers he took and copies from some place called the nether, where the demons he commands is from. How about you?" Twilight asked interested in hearing about the new kind of magic.
"I harness the holy light, and bend its power to do my bidding." Dizastrous explained.
"Bend its power? You talk as if it were sentient..." Rarity chimed in.
"It is, the holy light is the living force that the world and all life is created from. Originally I learned to harness its powers by forcing my will over an entity that is known as a Naaru, a being of pure light. Though we no longer need to draw our power from it, that is how the original Blood Knights learned to use light magic." Dizastrous explained.
The six element bearers stared at Dizastrous, gazes filled with concern and disgust that he had treated a being so cruelly, so as to bend it to his will.
"I told you he looked like a meany-pants..." Pinkie muttered to her friends.
Chapter 10
Weaver drummed her fingers on the table as she stared intently at the guild's amulet. She knew something bad had happened because of Dizastrous's news of his arrival at Ponyville. It was only a matter of time before she got an earful on how it all went down. She could feel it in the air that something was wrong.
Glancing over to where the princess of the sun sat Weaver quirked an eyebrow as a scroll appeared with a popping sound. As Celestia opened the scroll and began to read it a frown appeared on her face. The princess of the sun finally lifted her eyes from the scroll and her eyes bored straight into Weaver, who froze at this.
"Something wrong?" Weaver said in an even tone, hiding her nervousness at what the scroll could have contained.
Celestia did not answer immediately, merely glanced back at the scroll once more and hummed to herself as if weighing the response she got out of the warlock. She then glanced down to the amulet in front of Weaver, then back up to the warlock.
"It would appear not just one, but both of your friends have showed up again. This time the entire populace of a village saw them however and a mob was formed..." Celestia said in a grave tone.
"Oh for the love of the Sunwell what did Dizastrous do this time?!" Weaver exclaimed angrily.
Celestia tilted her head in a questioning manner, "So you actually did not know about this then?"
"Wait, what?" Weaver said, taken off guard.
"It was the other one, Helix who incited the mob, according to my student, it was Dizastrous who stopped the issue from growing too severe." Celestia replied.
Weaver scrunched up her face in disbelief and blinked a few times before responding, "No offense princess, but that report sounds like a load of shit to me. Helix is always calm and collected, he is probably the better diplomat of our guild to be honest."
"Well it says here he took on the form of a large demon in the middle of the town..." Celestia commented as she glanced back at the section of the letter in question.
Weaver's eyes held a pure look of disbelief as she slumped back in her chair. Her mind raced with questions as to what could have compelled Helix to do this. Celestia continued to scan the contents of the letter, eyes widening as she saw a part towards the end that she had missed previously.
"Weaver, there is another thing about this letter however..." Celestia said in a cautious voice, as if she was almost wincing at having to tell the next part.
Weaver responded by nodding at the princess of the sun as she pinched the bridge of her nose and screwed her eyes shut.
"Dizastrous went missing almost immediately after intervening in Ponyville. My student claims he was heading to the north west. But the part that concerns me... She claims that he and a strange mare he was accompanied with may have kidnapped a mare who went missing around the time he left..." Celestia said in a concerned voice.
Weaver's right eye twitched slightly, and the air around her began to distort with heat waves. Celestia stood up alert at the sight of this.
"Weaver are you alright?" Celestia frowned and took a cautious step forward.
Weaver burst into flames, wrapped in fel fire she stood up from the burning chair she previously sat on. Celestia took a step back in surprise as her guest ignited. The guards in the room panicked, though only their eyes showed it.
Weaver gritted her teeth at the news, first Helix did something stupid, but then Dizastrous had to trump it with kidnapping? Were they both trying to make the ponies all hostile towards them? 'When I get my hands on him I am going to roast that damned fool alive!' Weaver furiously thought to herself.
The door to the throne room opened and Discord strode inside, a smile on in face as he held in his arms a clothes iron, a ball of twine and a rubber ducky. Seeing the flaming form of the odd creature he was briefly introduced to however caused him to stop in his tracks. Celestia turned a worried eye from Weaver to Discord.
Discord frowned at the worried look Celestia had on her face and he dropped the items in his arms onto the floor, "I'll come back later, the punchline is already ruined..."
"So let me get this straight, You plan on walking right up to the crystal palace and demand that they hand over the crystal heart..." Chrysalis said, once more in her natural form.
"I was thinking more of asking to see it, then grabbing it immediately." Dizastrous corrected.
"That... Doesn't sound like it will work." Chrysalis said with a frown.
"If I can get it in my hands, I can get away with it." Dizastrous said waving a hand dismissively.
"How do you figure that? It will be heavily guarded, Shining Armor himself will probably confront you." Chrysalis commented.
"Can he beat an ursa major?" Dizastrous asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Well, probably not... But the crystal empire has recently made a truce with the northern dragons, and their emissary will jump to their defense." Chrysalis said in a warning tone.
"Hah, a dragon? I have killed many dragons, including the father of all black dragons in my land." Dizastrous boasted.
"Alone?" Chrysalis said in a disbelieving tone.
"Well, no... There were Twenty Five of us, But I have killed many dragons alone or with just Weaver and Helix." Dizastrous corrected.
A twig snapped behind them and Dizastrous immediately whipped around and threw an open palm forward. Magic flashed briefly and then he charged off in the direction of where he cast the spell and grabbed the follower by the throat and lifted them into the air.
"What are you doing following us?" Chrysalis hissed in the face of the light gray mare.
"She wont be responding for about a minute or two..." Dizastrous commented with a frown.
"Why, what did you do?" Chrysalis said, noticing the distant look in the mare's eyes.
"I forced her into a state or repentance, the spell forces you to think over everything you have ever regretted in your life. She will be in this dazed state unless any physical harm causes her to break out of it or it times out." Dizastrous explained as he threw the limp mare over his shoulder and continued back down the path he previously strode.
"Not going to tie her up or anything?" Chrysalis asked as she hovered in the air next to the mare.
"No need, if what Helix said was right this one can't use magic since she is an earth pony. I have no doubt in my mind that she cannot physically overpower me." Dizastrous explained.
Chrysalis frowned at this, but with a shrug accepted his reasoning and the two walked in silence for a couple of minutes. The silence was broken as the mare shivered on Dizastrous's shoulder and began to make struggled grunts of protest as she tried to free herself from the armored arm that had her pinned to the elf's shoulder.
"Mind telling me why you followed me out of Ponyville?" Dizastrous asked casually as he kept walking.
The light gray mare seemed shaken as she frowned slightly at her position and looked into the face of the elf who carried her, "I will only speak if you give me the decency to walk on my own hooves."
Dizastrous glanced sideways at the mare on his shoulder and stopped walking. His glowing green eyes boring into light purple ones.
"Why should I trust you enough not to attempt to flee or fight back?" Dizastrous asked in a firm tone.
"Because a lady should behave accordingly." The mare responded with a pride filled tone.
"Very ladylike to follow somepony out of a town." Chrysalis commented.
"Yes well, I found myself in the need for this man's company." The mare said as Dizastrous set her down.
"I'm flattered, but you are not quite my type." Dizastrous said in a flat tone.
"Not like that, I simply have some questions for you..." The mare said in a pleading tone.
Dizastrous sighed and ran armored fingers through his silver hair. He did not like the look the mare was giving him, he had seen those eyes before. He did not even need to ask what she wanted, but he nodded for her to continue regardless of his suspicions.
"Let me introduce myself first, my name is Octavia and I am a musician. What I want is to know is where you are from..." The mare's last statement seemed cryptic in the way it was spoken.
"What you mean to ask is if I am from whatever form of heaven you believe in don't you?" Dizastrous asked.
Octavia tensed at her true question being laid out so simply, and in a manner that made the answer quite obvious, "So you are not then?"
"No, now go home and forget that you saw me and my companion here headed this way..." Dizastrous said in a warning voice.
Octavia looked at the ground with a dejected expression on her face. Chrysalis frowned at the almost lifeless eyes the mare now had. As the mare began to head back towards Ponyville she was overtaken with shivers and collapsed to the ground. Chrysalis gasped and Dizastrous strode over and turned the mare onto her back to get a better look at her.
Octavia broke out into a fit of coughs, splattering the Blood Knight's face in crimson liquid. Dizastrous wiped his face with a hand and noticed the blood that was smeared there.
"What would you have asked me if I had said yes?" Dizastrous asked as he procured a cloth from his pack and wiped his face off.
"I would have asked for help..." Octavia responded.
"She has seen too much, not only has she seen my true form, but she knows where we are really going. She will tell the others if you help her." Chrysalis warned.
Dizastrous thought over his options for a moment, looking between the mare who was raising herself on wobbly knees, to the changeling queen who's horn was beginning to gather magical energies. Dizastrous frowned as he knelt down in front of the gray mare and lifted her face to look into her eyes. He then moved his armored hand from her chin to her throat where he took a firm grip.
"I do not like to slay innocents, but I will do it if you endanger my mission." The Blood Knight's voice dripped with venom.
The hand that gripped the mare's throat began to emit a golden aura as his magic seeped into her body. Octavia's eyes went wide as she felt the sickness leaving her body and strength returning to her. After only a second of gripping her however, Dizastrous relinquished his hold on her throat, and Octavia raised her hooves to where a bruise would almost definitely form and gasped for air.
"Now go home and don't tell anyone you saw us." Dizastrous warned.
"I-I'm cured..." Octavia mumbled as she stared down at her hooves.
"You really trust her to not tell anypony?" Chrysalis asked in a disbelieving tone.
Before Dizastrous could answer the changeling he was interrupted by the warning of a message from his guild amulet. With a confused look on his face he reached into his pack and retrieved it to receive the message.
'What the fuck did you do?!' An urgent message came in from Weaver.
'I didn't do it I swear! I think at least... What am I being accused of?' Dizastrous sent.
'You kidnapped a pony, and now the princesses have started a man hunt for you. I am under scrutiny and I'm not even sure what kind of trouble Helix could be in now because of you.' Weaver's angry reply came.
'Kidnapped a pony? What in the name of the light are you talking about?' Dizastrous replied.
The Blood Knight then glanced down to the gray mare who was giving him an odd look and he froze up. He now knew what Weaver was talking about, but it was all a huge misunderstanding. Dizastrous laughed to himself as he replied.
'Don't worry, the pony merely followed me out of town. I will send her back and this will all be resolved.' Dizastrous sent with a smile.
'They dispatched several units of soldiers since you were reported to have attacked a town earlier as well. They view you as a threat, and if they know where you are headed they will be on to us. If you send her back into town and they put her under questioning they will discover where you are heading.' Weaver explained as if laying it all out for a child.
'Shit, what should I do then?' Dizastrous asked.
'Keep her with you, they think you went to the west, not the east. I will play dumb and act none the wiser to where you are. If you meet any guards on your way there and you are recognized, dispatch of them.' Weaver ordered over the amulet.
Dizastrous let out a frustrated sigh as he looked down once more to the gray mare who had hung her head and began to trot away, thinking the being who saved her wanted nothing more from her at all.
"Stop, you are going to be unable to leave I'm afraid." Dizastrous said, halting the mare in her tracks.
Octavia and Chrysalis both gave the Blood Knight questioning looks, but they were only met with a stern glare from Dizastrous.
"Apparently you were reported missing and they think I kidnapped you, if you go back now they will find out I did not travel to the west. I cannot allow that." Dizastrous's tone was grave as he strode up infront of and towered menacingly over the gray mare.
"You aren't going to kill me now are you?" Octavia asked in a shaky voice.
"No, I was told to just keep you with me. I said I don't want to kill innocents unless I have to, so don't wander off." Dizastrous warned.
Octavia sighed in relief but Chrysalis sensed there was something more that the Blood Knight had to say and kept an intent stare on him. Dizastrous turned his gaze then and locked eyes with the changeling queen.
"Chrysalis you tell me if you see any guards or soldiers before I do. We need to avoid them at all costs now that I am a known and wanted criminal." Dizastrous said.
"And what happens if we get caught?" Chrysalis asked never breaking her eyes away from the Blood Knight's.
"I have orders now to slay any that get in my way." Octavia gasped at what Dizastrous said.
"Why do you have to kill ponies if they find out where you are going? What is so important about the royal army not finding out where you are headed?" Octavia asked urgently.
"I am going to steal the crystal heart so that it may be used as a cure for my people's ailment." Dizastrous explained.
"I'm sure the princesses will allow your people to come to the crystal empire to get healed by it though." Octavia implored, not liking what was being planned by the elf.
"I came to your world through a portal, and it was by our mercy that the portal was made in secret and its existence kept discreet. There are those from my world that would wish to conquer your land for its resources. I also doubt then that your princesses will lend the artifact to us when we plan to take it across the cosmos to our world." Dizastrous explained in a firm tone.
"But..." Octavia began feebly.
"No, unfortunately this will not be solved with diplomacy. The addiction my people suffer because of the fel taint that blemishes our souls will be put to an end. If there is even a shadow of an opportunity that the crystal heart can cure us, I will stop at nothing to attain it." Dizastrous clenched his fist and glared up towards the sun.
"May the light have mercy on me if any dare stand in my path..." Dizastrous muttered in prayer.
Chapter 11
Twilight Sparkle eyed her friend and fellow practitioner of magic with a curious expression. Helix had refused to tell her where Dizastrous had gone in such a hurry and if Octavia going missing had anything to do with him, waving her off with excuses of how tired he was and how he promised he would explain later after he rested. He had been in deep slumber for some time now, and one of his possessions that he had set on the table next to him was giving off a humming sound.
Twilight approached the obviously magical item cautiously and gave it a scrutinizing look. It appeared to be an expensive amulet that bore an emblem in its middle, an emblem that matched the tabard Twilight had seen Helix pull out of one of his packs when he explained guilds where he was from. Twilight levitated the amulet in front of her and briefly wondered what the enchantment on it did besides make noise. Twilight levitated the amulet above her head, positioning it in front of the chandelier so that she could scrutinize the subtle distortion the magic caused to the light to judge how powerful the enchantment was.
"Hey Twilight, what'cha up to in here?" Spike asked as he entered the guest room that Helix was staying in.
Twilight startled at being caught snooping in her friends room momentarily lost control of her magic, and the amulet suddenly obeyed the laws of gravity and found itself falling around Twilight's neck. The purple mare went wide eyed as she looked down at the amulet that now dangled against her chest.
"You alright Twilight?" Spike asked, seeing the stunned look on the mare's face.
Twilight's mind however was now able to access the telepathic message system of Helix's guild, and a log of recent messages filled her thoughts. Scanning threw them her face grew paler and paler as she slowly turned her gaze towards the peacefully sleeping form of Helix. Twilight'ts lips moved, but no sound ushered forth from them, she was unable to speak.
"Twilight? Twilight!" Spike wailed in confusion and fear as he saw the way the mare that had raised him was acting.
As the little dragon ran over to the mare's side and began to shake her in hopes of snapping her out of the horrified trance she was in, the warlock in the room began to stir. Rubbing his eyes and letting out a long yawn Helix blinked his eyes to adjust to the light in the room. His gaze drifted about the room looking for the source of the noise that woke him with an annoyed look on his face. It was not long however before his eyes caught the tear filled stare of his friend.
"Twilight? What's wr-" Helix halted mid sentence when he noticed the amulet around her neck.
Helix leapt from the bed and stood upright, causing Twilight to finally break from her trance and take a quick step away from the towering figure of her friend. As Helix took a step forward, hands raised in a non threatening gesture, Twilight turned and fled from him, ignoring the apologetic tone in his voice as she galloped for the front door to the library.
As she burst from her home, eyes brimming with tears, she ran. Twilight fled with no destination in mind, her mind too occupied with how betrayed she felt, how easily she trusted this stranger who used her to find out about her land just so they could steal something.
Helix stared out the door Twilight had galloped through, his face painted with sorrow at how his friend had looked at him. His eyes drifted from the door down to the baby dragon who held a look of utter confusion on his face.
"What was that about?" Spike asked.
"I did something that should never be done to someone so innocent..." Helix said in a sorrowful tone.
"What was that?" Spike asked out of curiosity.
"I lied to her." Helix replied.
Spike wondered what kind of lie could be told to make somepony react like that. Helix in the meantime made his way out of the open door after donning his robes and assorted gear. His face was now stony and devoid of emotion as he left the baby dragon behind.
Helix made a beeline straight for Carousel Boutique, the only place he knew of that held two Unicorns he could trust. As he knocked on the door he was answered by a mare with a pristine white coat and styled purple mane.
"Oh Helix, what a pleasure to see you again!" Rarity said in a happy tone, hoping to ask the warlock about the cloth her wore.
"Rarity, I need your help, and the help of your younger sister." Helix said in a slightly urgent tone.
"Well, okay... But what do you need Sweetie Belle for?" The white mare inquired.
"The spell I need to cast requires two others to hold the magic while I weave it. Even an untrained person can hold the magic, they just need to possess some of their own." Helix explained, his mind racing with thoughts of how bad things would go without his ability to warn his friends their cover had been blown.
Rarity stepped aside and allowed the warlock to enter concern donning her face, "Did something happen? Normally I'd think Twilight would be able to help you with this..."
"She... Is not home right now, I don't know where she is at the moment." Helix said, telling a half truth.
Sweetie Belle trotted in and gave the Blood Elf an excited wave as she scurried over, questions she wanted to ask the man already on her mind. But when she drew closer, she noticed the serious look on his face and she drew to a halt just short of him.
"Sweeite Belle, I need your help with something." Helix said, kneeling down so that he did not tower above her as much.
"You want my help?!" Sweetie Belle asked in an excited tone.
"I need help casting a spell, and right now only you and your sister can help me cast it so that I can save one of my friends." Helix explained.
"Wow!" The young filly exclaimed at the notion of her being able to help the warlock.
"One of your friends is in danger?" Rarity chimed in with a concerned voice.
"Not yet, but she will be soon. Can I count on you two to help me?" Helix asked.
"Sure! What do you need me to do?" Sweetie Belle asked without hesitation.
"You simply need to bear with me and hold the magic I give you so that I can work with it." Helix explained as his hands began to swirl with nether energies.
Both sisters nodded and braced themselves, uncertain of what was going to happen. Slowly both of their horns began to give off a blue glow as they could feel magic being channeled through them. For rarity it was like she were casting a spell herself, despite she was not being drained of her own energy, but for Sweetie Belle it was an astounding experience. The young filly had not learned how to tap into her own magical reserve, so for the first time she felt the sensation of magic coursing through her horn.
Helix in the meantime worked the energies as he cast the spell. Novices needed minutes to cast this particular spell, but over his years and the many castings of it, Helix had it down to a science how to efficiently cast it and could do it in mere seconds after he started. In no time at all he focused the magic into the ground before him and a swirling mass of green and black formed on the ground. The two mares backed up abruptly as a tall hodded figure burst forth from the ground, towering over even the warlock. The dark cloaked figure then grasped the front of its robe and tore it open, revealing the swirling red and black portal that was within.
"Now I just need one of you this time so I can summon my friend." Helix explained as his hands began to glow blue with magic as he channeled energy into the portal.
Rarity felt the sensation of Helix offering magic to her, and she accepted it to flow through her horn once more as he worked on another spell. Though she was not a unicorn who specialized in magic, Rarity found the complexity and level of the spell fascinating. The weaves of magic the warlock was working was wondrous, and captivated the white mare as he worked.
"I'm not accusing you of anything, I just want to know what happened to one of my little ponies." Celestia said in a tired tone.
"And I assure you he is not the kind of man to kidnap anyone." Weaver returned to the princess of the sun.
"That may be, and the soldiers I dispatched were told to simply escort him back here. They were given orders not to harm him, I merely wish to meet him. If the mare is not with him perhaps he saw her on his way out of Ponyville in the dead of night." Celestia said, slight sarcasm towards the end of her statement.
Weaver frowned at the tone the princess had used, causing Celestia to stiffen up slightly. While Celestia was positive she held more magical power than the Blood Elf, she was able to feel the destructive power of it when she had a burst of anger not too long ago. If anger could trigger such a dangerous reaction to Weaver's magic, Celestia did not particularly wish to test her might against it.
"I know my sister has taken a liking to you, and because of this I am willing to show leniency to your friends if they broke any laws because they felt threatened. But I really must put the safety of my little ponies above all else." Celestia explained with a sigh.
Weaver let out a sigh, and opened her mouth to give another excuse, but she froze as she felt a tug on her physical essence. Someone was summoning her, the magic that pulled at her was familiar as well. Helix was trying to summon her. Why?
Celestia raised an eyebrow at the strange look the warlock had on her face. Weaver in the meantime was debating her choices. If she simply winked out of existence in front of the princess it would be exceedingly suspicious. But Helix would only summon her without warning if it was an emergency. Weaver's eyes darted back and forth as she weighed her decision.
"Is something wrong?" Celestia asked, a hint of concern on her voice.
"Uh..." Weaver began as she looked down at herself.
Celestia tilted her head at the odd behavior Weaver was displaying.
"Tell Luna I will get in touch with her when I can..." Weaver said offhandedly.
"What?" Celestia asked taken off guard by the statement.
"For the record, I did not know this was going to happen before now..." Weaver said as she winked out of existence in front of Celestia.
Celestia blinked a few times, unable to comprehend what happened. The warlock did not channel any magic, the obvious signs of it not present. The Blood Elf's hands had not been glowing in the slightest, but she disappeared.
Weaver in the meantime drifted through the nether portal she was sucked through and arriving at her destination strode out of the portal. Looking around her she noticed a mare and a filly next to her friend that had summoned her.
"What's up?" She asked, noting the astonished faces of the two ponies in her presence.
"Thank you two very much, but now I have business to attend to..." Helix said as he with a wave of his hands dismissed the portal and lead Weaver out of the Boutique.
After they left and made their way a short ways out of town Weaver stopped, causing Helix to turn around and face her.
"What happened?" Weaver asked cautiously.
"My guild amulet was stolen by the mare I was staying with..." Helix said with a slight cringe.
"Well, get it back from her then!" Weaver nearly yelled.
"She already managed to access the messages..." Helix said in a sullen tone.
"You don't necessarily know that, the entire system can be baffling to those who haven't ever used it before." Weaver said, trying to ease her own concerns about the implications.
"Twilight is a professional student in the arcane arts. It would have only taken her moments to figure it out. Not to mention... The look she gave me." Helix nearly whispered the last part.
Weaver gritted her teeth in anger, "And I suppose you feel too close to her now to deal with her how you should..."
Helix nodded slowly, he knew what Weaver meant. But Weaver merely sighed in exasperation. Procuring her own Guild amulet she accessed the guild master controls within the enchantment and demoted Helix's amulet from officer chat.
"That should keep her from accessing those messages and now I can at least warn Diz..." Weaver said with a frown.
"Even though she no longer has any proof, her word will be taken over ours..." Helix said dejectedly.
"Yes, so now you need to go find her and try to convince her you had no other choice but to lie to her." Weaver explained, a plan already brewing on how to deal with this.
"How do you propose I tell her that I lied to her and planned on betraying her trust? How can you make it sound like I had no choice in that?" Helix asked, still feeling down on how the young mare looked at him.
"You show her what I'm about to do to you." Weaver explained.
"What are y-" Helix never had time to react to the fireball that connected with his chest.
The magical robes he wore dampened the blow slightly and took no damage itself, but he could feel his skin sizzling underneath it. Helix gasped in pain and surprise as he doubled over in agony.
"Okay, hang in there Helix. Just stumble back into town and give your little friend a tear jerking story of how we are all being forced to do this. Tell her Lor'themar is watching over us and is pulling the strings. Good touch with the actual tears." Weaver said as she helped Helix back to his feet.
"Fuck this hurts..." Helix said through gritted teeth.
Helix pulled off his robes and winced as his scorched skin met the breeze. Weaver then fetched some bandages from her pack and began to cover the wound. Using magically enhanced healing would hide the wound completely, so it was out of the question.
"Think of it as a learning experience, now get out there and buy us some time. I will fill Diz in on what has happened and tell him to hurry." Weaver said.
Helix began to limp off towards the library, putting his robe back on as he walked.
"If you can't get her to keep quiet about what she found out, just stall her from sending any of those messages to the princess. If they know Diz is coming its all ruined!" Weaver called after Helix
In reply Helix merely raised a one finger salute behind his back walked away from Weaver, doubled over in pain as he tried his best to suppress the urge to magically heal his wounds.
Chapter 12
Dizastrous marched down the dirt road, Octavia and Chrysalis beside him as he grasped the amulet firmly in one hand. The news was bad, he was already not thrilled with having been told to dispose of any guards, but if he was being rushed he couldn't even take precaution to avoid them. Things were going from bad to worse, and the frown on his face made it apparent to the two mares who accompanied him.
"What is it this time?" Chrysalis asked in a wary tone, Octavia still was unsure of what the amulet was for, and merely raised an eyebrow.
"Helix blew his cover to that Twilight girl." The Blood Knight answered in a grave voice.
"What?! That wretch is the personal student to Celestia, you will be found out immediately now!" Chrysalis said in a panicked tone.
"Not so hasty, Weaver assures me she has not made contact yet, but she can only be stalled for so long. Helix always had a soft spot for women and children, sometimes I still check to make sure he isn't a mage instead of a warlock." Dizastrous grumbled.
"Well, then it's done right?... You might as well give yourself in, you can't fight an entire city of guards that are expecting you. Chrysalis's army of changelings couldn't even hold off an unexpected guard force, you think you can beat them alone?" Octavia said in a shaky voice.
Dizastrous gazed down at the mare, his face shadowed by the position of the sun and the angle his face was at to stare directly at her. His eyes glowed with an eerie brilliance, a gleam that seemed brighter than their usual glow that caused chills to run down the musician's back and cause the fur on her neck to stand on end.
"You can't... right?" Octavia said in an even less certain voice that almost seemed a whisper towards the end.
The only answer the mare received was a toothy grin that caused even Chrysalis to back off slightly. Dizastrous loved challenges, and while slaughtering innocents was something that he did not approve of, combat against fellow soldiers was something the Blood Knight respected above all else. It was a fine line he tread on, but he felt that an entire city's worth of prepared guards should provide even enough odds.
"Why don't we take our time? If I am going to be expected then so be it, the others can't blame me now, since it was Helix's mistake." The Blood Knight's voice held barely contained enthusiasm.
"Are you sure that is wise? Though I do not like the way she brings it up..." Chrysalis started as she glared evilly at Octavia, "But she is right, when only one mare suspected me my surprise attack failed after making it inside the city. You are strong I know, but can you even make it to the crystal spire through streets filled with guards?"
Light danced around the fingertips of the Blood Knight as he grew even more excited about his predicament, "Don't you worry your pretty little head, this will not be the first time I broke into a city with only two people backing me up."
"Don't count on her to help, and I am rather inclined not to get involved with fighting the royal guard of the Crystal Empire..." Chrysalis said with a frown.
"Oh well, more fun for me then." Dizastrous said with a grin.
Helix limped off back towards the library, trying his best to conceal the pain from the regular townsfolk who stared openly at his strange behavior. They still did not trust him, but at least now they were not openly hostile.
"Well, for now anyways..." Helix mumbled to himself as he opened the door to the library and made his way inside.
The warlock was greeted by the small purple dragon he had become accustomed to seeing, and offered Spike a small smile. Spike however only gasped and rushed to Helix's side when he saw the limp the man had. The baby dragon placed his clawed hands on the Blood Elf to brace him, but only elicited a hiss of pain causing him to jump back.
"Helix what happened to you?!" Spike exclaimed.
"Has Twilight showed back up?" Helix asked, ignoring the question.
"Well, yes...but-" Spike started.
"Listen this is important, I need to talk to her." Helix cut in.
With a small frown on his face Spike led Helix up the stairs towards Twilight's bedroom. Upon entering Helix noticed first that the mare was crying into a pillow on her bed, he then took note of the amulet that was on the nightstand. Helix took a step in but was halted as spike grabbed the hem of his robe in an attempt to stop him. The baby dragon only had intentions of halting him after seeing Twilight was still crying, but it caused the magical fabric to press against the bandaged burn wounds across the warlock's chest, bringing forth another hiss of pain.
"Huh?" Twilight said before sniffing and wiping tears from her face with a forhoof.
Twilight caught the cringing eyes of Helix and a frown formed on her face, not one of malice or hurt, but one of concern, "Helix, are you hurt?"
"There is something I need to tell you about. Something to consider..." Helix said, casting a gaze down at the baby dragon.
Spike, though he was young, received the hint that he was not invited to hear the conversation, and already uneasy at the teary eyes of Twilight, he was more than willing to remove himself form the uncomfortable atmosphere. Helix gave a mental sigh of relief as the baby dragon shut the door and left.
"Twilight, there is a reason for all of the secrecy, and the lies we told you." Helix said as he set himself down on a wooden chair in the corner of the bedroom that sat next to a desk. Facing the chair toward the teary eyed mare Helix frowned before he continued.
"The three of us were sent here on a mission by our lord. Lor'themar Theron personally gave us this mission to enact in secrecy, in hopes of sparing another innocent world from the war that has ravaged not only our's but others as well. But, my people need the crystal heart, and Lor'themar is willing to do anything for it. Even punish us for failure to motivate us to succeed..." Helix said solemnly.
Removing his robe, leaving himself with only his trousers and boots on, Helix revealed the bandages that he was covered in, blood and puss seeping through in spots where the burns had caused his flesh to crack while he moved. The entire display caused the librarian to gasp, and more tears to well up in her eyes.
"T-that... is because of me?" Twilight choked out in a nearly inaudible voice.
Helix did not answer, he was unable to speak lest he betray his mission at the sight of causing his young friend such guilt. He barely made it this far into the lie, the most he could do now was silently play it off. He merely hung his head in shame, but it was taken as a silent agreement with what was said. Twilight bit her bottom lip as a strained look adorned her face.
"Helix... I'm so sorry. I didn't know..." Twilight choked out, openly sobbing now.
"Twilight please, your tears cause me too much pain. I understand you were just curious about the amulet..." Helix managed out, finding new strength in a hope of comforting his friend.
"No, you don't understand!" Twilight wailed as she jumped from the bed and slowly inched herself from her bed and shivered before the wounded elf'.
"Don't beat yourself up, at least I am still alive. Lor'themar only punished me, I will be better with a little bit of rest and healing." Helix gave a weak smile of assurance.
Helix hoped he did not have to keep up the charade much longer, he merely wished to lie in bed and sort out his feelings. If this did not end soon he would crack under the pressure and be unable to tell any more lies to his friend.
"But-" Twilight began.
"Hush, I will be fine." Helix cooed.
"No, you wont..." Twilight said in a tone that would rival Fluttershy's level of volume.
"Huh?" The warlock was not sure he caught what she said correctly between her sniffles and hiccups of crying.
"I... Already sent Celestia the letter..." Twilight whispered, her eyes staring at the floor as dual streams of tears created a puddle at her hooves.
Helix was unable to speak, his mouth hung open in horror at this news. The princesses knew, and Weaver was headed back to them still, with Helix unable to reach his guild amulet in hopes of sending a message over the lesser channels in warning. The warlock hissed as he rose to his feet and reached a hand toward the end table, but before he could even take a step the door to the bedroom crashed open and a stream of guards rushed in and tackled him to the ground. The blows to his tender flesh stung, and tears entered his eyes as the charred skin cracked even more, causing his bandaged to slowly turn red.
Helix's gargled cries of pain echoed over the shouts of the guards, causing the purple mare to stare up in horror as her friend was hurt even worse than he was at the rough treatment the guards were giving him. She cried out in protest but was ignored. The warlock struggled in vain against the magic and strength of the guards, earning him blows and jabs as they tried to subdue him. Finally, the elf went limp as he found himself too dizzy from blood loss to fight anymore, Helix and Twilight locked horrified eyes as the warlock was dragged from the room and then from the house. The last thing Twilight saw of Helix before he was dragged off, leaving a trail of blood, was a look of utter disbelief and pain. The mare, once more alone in her room stared with soulless eyes out of her bedroom door, tears splashing in the puddle they had already made on the floor.
The three travelers stopped at the crystal archway that separated the snowy ground from the lush green grass. The Blood Knight held a fist up to signal for them to stop as he cast his gaze around warily.
"Something doesn't feel right..." Dizastrous said offhandedly.
"Yes, the sudden change in weather always surprises me when I see this." Chrysalis commented earning an odd look from Octavia.
"So, once you go in there I am free to leave right?" Octavia said, still staring oddly at the changeling queen.
"Come on out of hiding, I know you're there!" Dizastrous shouted across the grassy hill that lead to the crystal city.
The two mares gave the Blood Knight an odd look and Chrysalis smiled and shook her head as she made to take another step forward but was halted as a metal clad hand was thrust in her face. The changeling queen looked up in some annoyance but backed off when she saw the serious look on Dizastrous's face. The elf then began to walk forward through the crystal archway and immediately disappeared from view. Octavia gasped in surprise but Chrysalis's eyes narrowed.
"Wha- where did he go?" Octavia babbled staring at the spot that once held the large armored man.
"Those sneaky devils cast a glamour on the gate here. He sensed it and knowingly walked into a trap..." Chrysalis mumbled in response.
"Is he insane or does he have a death wish?" Octavia said incredulously.
An earth pony in the royal armor of the crystal empire came skidding out of the glamour and into view of the two mares. The stallion in question's armor was cracked and he was barely breathing as he clutched his side and spat up blood. Octavia gasped in horror at the sight, but Chrysalis merely took a few steps back to stop the blood from reaching her hooves.
"If I had to guess I would say both..." Chrysalis muttered dryly.
On the other side of the glamour Dizastrous found himself surrounded by a legion of guards. The crystal blue armor they wore sparkled in the light of the sun as he cast his gaze over them. They all stood stock still and watched him closely. The moment he stepped forward several had charged recklessly, unaware it was to their demise. After he felled several of them bare handed, kicking the last one out of the barrier the rest had stopped their assault.
Dizastrous moved his hand to the hilt of his sword, causing the guards to tense up, the unicorns to charge their horns with spells, and even the faint sound of hundreds of hooves scratching the dirt in anticipation to stop. The only sound was the flapping of wings and the soft breaths of the hundreds that stood cramped at the crystal archway.
Drawing his blade and flourishing it, Dizastrous grinned at the force before him. Giving himself a quick blessing and invoking his sacred shield. The bubble of sacred light snapped into place just as a few magical bolts from a handful of the braver senior unicorns were fired. The magical blasts were absorbed upon touching shimmering shield, eliciting gasps from several unicorns.
Dizastrous's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword as he heard a grinding sound approaching him, similar to the sound of a chariot going down a dirt road, but the grinding of the wheals turning reminded him more of the sound scourge meat wagons made. Off a ways he noticed where it came from, a large metal chariot was approaching him, ponies moving out of its way as it rumbled along, its large metal wheels gleaming in the sun's light.
Looking around the Blood Knight noticed looks of relief on the guard's faces, whoever was on that chariot was a pillar of strength for their people. While normally the strategy in this situation was to deal with as many as quickly as possible before their champion or commander appeared, Dizastrous smiled and waited for it to reach him. These guards were pathetic on their own, and only in numbers would they achieve anything. With any luck he might actually need to invoke the powers he stored for dire situations.
The chariot halted a mere twenty yards from him, and with it closer he could clearly see two ponies sitting in it. One was a unicorn male, blue mane and white coat who gave off an aura of courage and strength. He was without a doubt a commander, and many of the guards smiled in approval that he was here. The other however, was a female with both wings and a horn, her multi-colored hair and pink coat made Dizastrous think of royalty, and once he spotted the crown that sat atop he head his suspicion was confirmed.
"We received word that you would be coming here, but I had no idea you would be so bold as to stand against an army." Shining Armor said while shaking his head.
"Then you know what I seek, give it to me and your people will be spared." Dizastrous returned to them, earning incredulous looks from the ponies.
"Are you mad? You are outgunned and outnumbered!" Princess Cadence exclaimed.
"Outnumbered? yes..." Dizastrous said with a grin as he ran a hand across his blade, causing it to glow with holy might, "Outgunned? Oh, you are very wrong there..."
Tossing the blade up and catching the hilt in a reverse grip, Dizastrous slammed the sword down into the ground. The ground erupted with holy energy, small fissures appearing that poured forth light to all that stood upon them. The few guards unlucky enough to be standing within the range screamed in agony as the light began to burn away at them. Cadence gasped and Shining Armor gritted his teeth at the sight.
"Cadence... do it." Shining said to his wife.
Cadence nodded, and her horn ignited with magical power. Dizastrous prepared himself but nothing was sent his way, the only thing that happened was the sun seemed to grow slightly brighter in the horizon. A wall of magic then surged forth from the city, and all the ponies that were touched by it then sparkled with magical energies, as if they were made of crystals.
"Wait, that's not the sun..." Dizastrous said in realization, "That is the crystal heart isn't it?!"
"Yes, and with it protecting us your evil magic can do us no harm." Shining Armor said with a smug grin.
Dizastrous considered this for a moment, quirking an eyebrow as he looked around him. He lifted a fist that glowed with light and glanced at it before looking back tot he guards around him. Picking a guard out at random he opened a palm towards it and unleashed a blast of holy magic that struck the guard, searing the stallion with its divine energies. This caused every equine eye to grow round with amazement and confusion.
"But... Aunt Tia said that should have worked..." Cadence mumbled.
"I wield magics of the divine and holy, not the evil and dark like my two companions." The Blood Knight said with a smirk.
The dejected looks the royal couple had made Dizastrous laugh as he once more flourished his blade, "Prepare yourselves... Here I come!"
The Blood Knight charged into the ranks of the crystal guards, his light infused attacks easily cleaving down those that stood in his way as their attacks either were absorbed by the holy barrier around him, or bounced off his plate armor. When the guards would enclose around him completely he would unleash a storm of divine energy as holy hammers danced around him, smiting all that strayed too near. Only when a powerful purple blast was sent his way did he actually take any damage. Looking to where it came form he noticed a purple magical aura fading from Shining Armor's horn. A sky blue beam then shot forth from the princess, causing Dizastrous to stagger back slightly after having his sacred shield popped by shining's beam.
"That is more like it! Give me your best shot!" Dizastrous roared in challenge to the royal couple as several guards backed off from him.
Shining Armor and Cadence exchanged glances, and they then allowed their horns to touch as they shared their magic, amplifying the power of each other's. Dizastrous frowned as he felt the intense aura build and build into lethal force. The strain of holding the magic was evident on the faces of the couple.
"Well shit..." Dizastrous mumbled.
The beam of the combined powers was launched and struck the elf in the chest. He was knocked off his feet and sent sprawling onto the ground. Shining Armor and Cadence panted from the energy they lost from the magical blast as they peered over at the still form of the elf. Blood was beginning to ooze out of the joints in his armor as he lay there on the ground.
"I think... We did it..." Shining Armor said between breaths.
A metal clad fist hammered into the ground suddenly, and pushed the elf onto his own feet. As he stood he smiled madly. Cadence and Shining Armor frowned at the bleeding man.
"Stay down, we don't want to kill you." Cadence implored.
"Kill me?" Dizastrous asked tilting his head to the side.
The Blood Knight began to cast a spell of his own, allowing a cleansing burst of light to full himself and seal his wounds. After a second cast of his healing spell Dizastrous was back to full health and ready to go another round with the now tired looking princess and her husband.
"You are going to need to work a lot harder than that to keep me down!" Dizastrous proclaimed.
"He can heal himself?!" Cadence screamed in frustration.
"This isn't good, we may have to resort to the other plan..." Shining said with a worried tone.
"But... It almost feels like we are the bad guys by doing that..." Cadence said with a frown.
"Cadence, if we don't do it more of our guards will die. It is a necessary evil..." Shining said solemnly.
"Hah, that is the most over used excuse there is! But don't let me dissuade you, I want to see your devious plot to stop me. I may not wield as much raw magical power as you 'princess' but your blows are weak and pathetic compared to mine!" Dizastrous taunted as he began to stomp towards the chariot.
Cadence frowned and looked away as her horn ignited with her blue magical aura. A beam shot forward, but not towards the Blood Knight, but to the ground in front of him, issuing forth an image of a battered and bleeding elf. The image was of Helix who was chained and wounded in a dungeon of sorts. The sight caused Dizastrous to stop dead in his tracks.
"No..." Dizastrous mumbled, the fire of battle immediately gone from his eyes.
"If you continue to resist, princess Celestia will execute him for being a danger to all of Equestria. But if you come quietly I will guarantee his and your lives as you will be sent to the dungeons." Shining Armor said in a firm voice that was betrayed by the look of disgust on his face.
Dizastrous's grip on his sword grew tighter, and his teeth grit from anger at the situation he found himself in. He looked between the crest of Silvermoon on his sword, to the beacon of light that was the crystal heart off in the distance, then to the image of his friend who looked to be breathing raggedly.
"Fine, you win..." Dizastrous spat venomously as he slammed his sword into the ground and backed away from it.
Shining Armor and Cadence approached the Blood Knight, a pair of manacles levitating next to them. Dizastrous fell to his knees and held out his hands to be cuffed. As Shining drew closer and clamped the manacles down on his wrists however, Dizastrous grasped the back of his head and pulled him in close so that they stared eye to eye, foreheads touching each other's.
"Know that these binds can not hold me against my own will, so if anything happens to either of my friends, you will face my wrath. And I will not be playing around like I was here, I will personally see to it that your entire empire be razed to the ground..." Dark intent dripped off every word he uttered, causing Shining Armor to feel small and weak before his prisoner, for he felt every word was the truth.
"Guards... Take him to the train. He is to be sent to Canterlot immediately." Shining Armor commanded as he backed away.
As a unit of guards approached him, Dizastrous stood up, and followed them in fear that his friend would be killed and that it would be his own fault. As he marched off Cadence took a look at the sword he had left behind. The gem that sat in the pommel of the sword glowed with an ever present light, and as cadence examined it closer she was certain it was supposed to symbolize the sun.
Cadence glanced over to her husband who was visibly shaken by what the Blood Knight had said to him, "I'll go with the train and meet up with my aunts, you watch over the city while we transport him."
Shining Armor merely nodded, his mind still focused on the threat he received. Cadence then turned to make for the train, but looked back at the dead and wounded that lay in the grassy field, then to the mare that still stood in the snow on the other side of the glamour. Cadence motioned for a guard to collect her and then turned her attention back to the wounded and dying.
"He is aptly named..." Cadence said with a frown as she made her way to the train.
Chapter 13
Cadence glared intently at the Blood Knight that sat chained across from her. Though he seemed to be compliant with his capture, not wanting his friend hurt, he was still being slightly rebellious. For instance, this was the twelfth time his manacles had fallen off, clicking free from his arms as if the key had unlocked them. Every time they did this the princess and Blood Knight would look down at the manacles, then back up to each other. Dizastrous would smile impishly and shrug as if he had nothing to do with it.
Now however instead of paying any attention to the manacles before they were replaced on his wrists, he reached for the amulet around his neck and took it off, examining it as the manacles were levitated up and put back on.
Cadence furrowed her brow as Dizastrous suddenly seemed engrossed with the amulet, his eyes then took on a thousand yard stare as he peered at it. Cadence was about to speak up and ask him if anything was wrong but then he did something that sent a jolt of panic down her spine, causing her coat to stand on end. He smiled triumphantly and turned his gaze up to her.
"Wha-what are you doing?" Cadence asked suddenly alert as the Blood Elf stood up from his seat, back slightly hunched from the chain that was fixated to the ground and connected to the manacles around his wrist.
The only response Dizastrous gave her was for him to grit his teeth as he strained his muscles, the sound of screeching metal filling the air, causing the posted guards and the princess of love to cover their ears and grit their teeth.
Cadence looked up and cried out as she saw the chain torn free from the ground. The manacles then popped once more off Dizastrous's wrists and the Blood Knight grabbed the chain and began to spin it like a flail and crack it against the guards that were now rushing to stop him. Cadence's horn ignited with power as she prepared to subdue the Blood Knight just as he turned his attention away from the last of the guards and on to her. The chain arcing towards her head as she fired her shot.
Celestia frowned as she looked down at the Warlock before her. This was the one who was called Helix, who had spent time in Ponyville with her student Twilight Sparkle. Helix had befriended the young mare, and deceived her into telling him about Equestria. Celestia suspected that Helix had the same powers Weaver had, and thus treated his cell to be resistant to fire. Confident that he was well restrained by magically tempered iron chains that would resist even the hottest of flames, Celestia approached him.
"Are you willing to answer my questions? Or am I going to have to pry into your mind?" Celestia said in a stern voice as she towered over the bruised and burned elf.
"I don't particularly like your tone... Twilight said you were nicer than this, or do you just usually put on an innocent act for your subjects?" Helix said, lifting his eyes towards the princess of the sun.
Celestia frowned at this, and opened her mouth to speak before being cut off.
"How strict is your imprisonment policy? Because I could really use some water right now..." Helix said letting out a dry, raspy cough.
Celestia looked behind her to where the guard was posted and nodded to him, signalling for the guard to fetch some water for the warlock. Turning her attention back to the elf she grimaced as she looked over the burns that cracked his skin in places.
"What happened to you? My guards swore they did not do it, but if they did I apologize for the severity of your wounds." Celestia said shaking her head.
Helix cast his eyes down upon himself and his body began to jerk spastically. Celestia in a startled attempt to see what was wrong soon noticed the warlock was actually laughing, but the lack of moisture in his throat caused the sound to come out as raspy squeaks.
The sound of the cell gate opening once more drew Celestia's attention toward the guard who held a bucket of water with a ladle. Celestia stepped aside and allowed the guard to slowly spoon the water into Helix's mouth with the ladle. After a few minutes of this the elf had drunk the entire bucket and let out a refreshed sigh. Celestia gave a start when she noticed his wounds seeming to slowly knit together. The progress was slow, but it was clearly there.
"What is going on, how are you healing so fast?" Celestia demanded.
"Thank you for the drink, when I get refreshed my mana pool gets refreshed. With my mana back I can focus some of it into regenerating. And I don't intend on dumping away all of my magic this time." Helix said, adjusting himself on the ground to sit more comfortably.
"What kind of world do you live in if your kind has evolved in such a way?" Celestia asked in a grave tone.
"Not just my kind, all the races have adapted to do it, without it they would have gone extinct, and many have even with this trait." Helix shrugged.
Celestia gave a worried look to the guard who was visibly shaken by the sight of the charred and cracked flesh slowly turning back to its original peachy color as the cracks mended and the puss ceased flowing. The guard looked as if he was prepared to vomit, and Celestia could not have blamed him if he had.
"Shall we uh, begin the questioning?" Celestia asked trying to avert her eyes from the grotesque way the skin moved on its own. The wound had been bad enough just to look at, but when it moved as if it was alive itself it sent Celestia's stomach twirling.
"Well, I suppose you were hospitable enough to allow me a drink... That alone makes this my best imprisonment ever." Helix said with a shrug.
"You have been imprisoned before?" Celestia said raising an eyebrow.
"A large portion of my race was, by the very people we once called allies no less." Helix said, spitting at the memory.
Celestia remembered that story from Weaver, but she pressed on to the question that was really on her mind, "I know of your goal for being here, but why do you go to such extents just to remove such a minor blemish. From what I heard from Weaver your source of magic is stable once more."
"Sure we have a stable source, but it is in one place, we have to make a pilgrimage just to sate our magical thirst. If we can find a permanent cure for the addiction, something to cleanse the fel taint from our blood, then we can expand and live in new places without being feared and hated just because we need to drain the magic from others." Helix said locking eyes with Celestia.
Celestia furrowed her brow in thought, and decided to take a look at things from the elf's point of view. Descending her head and touching the warlock's forehead with her horn, Celestia began to delve into his memories and thoughts.
Images of bloodshed were everywhere. It was as if the past decade of the elf's life was one constant fight after another. A memory that stood out from the rest caught Celestia's attention. Where some of the other's were simply blurs that sped by, this one was recently touched on and thought about. Celestia focused her mind and found herself standing among a large group of bipedal beings much similar to Helix and Weaver. Celestia quickly counted that roughly twenty five of them were present. A few of them were having their wounds treated, and more than a few looked as if they were already dead. It was clear that this was a war party of different races, all of them brandishing imposing weapons.
Celestia immediately saw and picked out Helix, standing over the corpse of a large and strange creature. It looked similar to a few of the other members of the war party, but its skin was pale sickly blue, as if it had been frozen for a long time. Three others besides Helix were standing around the corpse, all of them were Blood Elves, and they appeared to be siphoning off the last traces of magic from their foe. Murmers of disgust were beginning to spread through a few of the members, and it seemed only those dressed in black plate armor, and the ones who looked like they should be in a grave seemed to not care.
The chatter stopped when a new face pushed through the crowd. He looked shockingly similar to the deceased creature the elves were siphoning off of, but his skin was wrinkled with age, and long white hair fell around his shoulders. The Blood Elves abruptly stopped and backed away from the corpse and cast their eyes towards the ground as if they were ashamed.
"While I appreciate that you have helped me retrieve the corpse of my son, I will ask that you keep your mana grubbing mitts off of him." The elderly creature spat as he knelt before the corpse and let out a heavy sigh as he placed a gauntleted hand upon the chest of his son.
"You will have a proper ceremony in Nagrand... Next to the pyre of your mother, and ancestors." The old one then put his arms under the neck and back legs of the corpse and lifted his son's body into his arms as he turned back towards the airship.
The great double doors then opened and a few of the war party members began to press onwards, the Blood Elves still held an ashamed look as many muttered disapprovingly while passing them. Celestia noticed Helix have a hand put on his shoulder by one of the other elves who was wearing a robe with metal plates woven into it, behind that one Weaver was shaking her head and frowning.
Celestia withdrew her horn with a thoughtful look on her face. Though she did not have many of her questions answered, she did get a base understanding of the motives the elves had for wanting to be purified. Celestia then jumped back noticing a glow coming from Helix's hands.
"It's useless, those chains cannot be melted by your fire." Celestia said, keeping her guard up incase the warlock decided to attack her.
A small green stone floated before the warlock and then drifted into his pocket. A wave of green light washed over him and immediately the last of Helix's wounds sealed, leaving undamaged flesh where the burns once were. The Blood Elf gave a sigh of pleasure as the pain completely vanished from himself.
"What was that?" Celestia asked in a serious tone.
"That, is a stone that I can make and give to others to heal them if they need an urgent heal." Helix said as he examined his skin to make sure he was at tip top shape.
Celestia was surprised to hear this, "I was under the understanding that warlocks could not use magics that could benefit others."
"Well, we can bolster the strength of our allies as well, however these do come with a significant cost that one such as you might not approve of..." Helix said with a small smirk.
"Oh?" Celestia asked cocking her head slightly to the side.
"They are made of the souls of those I have slain." Helix said with a smile.
Celestia's face dropped visibly at this, and she immediately turned to leave, not wanting to spend anymore time with the warlock. As she left she could hear his mocking laughter echoing through the dungeons. Upon reaching the open sky at the courtyard, she was approached by a couple of her royal guards.
"Your highness, Cadence has arrived with one of the elves." The guard said with a salute.
The princess of love approached Celestia with a tired smile and nodded, the gesture was returned and then Celestia took note of the tall metal clad elf whose armor let off golden light. Had Celestia not known better she would have almost imagined him something divine. But the fierce scowl on his face dashed any notion of his purity.
Celestia looked back at cadence and gasped as she noticed upon further inspection that there was a welt forming along the side of her face, "Cadence what happened?"
"Big guy here broke loose and attacked me. Took a couple dozen guards and me to subdue him again. And he didn't even have his weapon." Cadence sighed rubbing her sore face.
"Where is his weapon? I was a little interested in observing some more of their equipment. The enchantments we found on the weapons of the one we have in the dungeon were fascinating." Celestia asked curiously.
"Back at the crystal empire, we thought it best to keep it as far away from him as possible. His magic seemed to be channeled through it after all." Cadence said shaking her head at the thought.
Celestia motioned for a few guards to take the Blood Knight into the dungeons, and as the elf was led off, Celestia beckoned for Cadence to follow.
"Cadence, I want to thank you for stopping this one from taking the crystal heart. I dare not imagine what would have befallen the crystal ponies had the heart been stolen away to their far off land..." Celestia said as she walked with Cadence.
The pink alicorn blushed slightly and waved it off with a hoof.
"No, really. I hate to have you personally come to help watch over them as well, but you know they are very dangerous. If it came to the worst possible scenario and they were able to band together, I don't know if my sister and I alone could fight them." Celestia said, thankful to have the princess of love aiding her in watching over the dangerous prisoners she now held in her dungeon.
"I have a question though..." Cadence said with a slightly concerned tone.
"Yes" Celestia asked stopping and looking at Cadence.
"Do we know where the last one is?" Cadence asked with a frown.
"Unfortunately no, Weaver did not show up where she told my sister she would. We assume she is planning on freeing her comrades however." Celestia said shaking her head.
A guard galloped up to Celestia with an urgent look on his face, "Highness get away from her!"
Celestia gave a confused look to the guard and then turned her attention back to where Cadence was, and noticed that the pink alicorn no longer stood beside her. Celestia blinked a few times in surprise, and then gasped in realization.
"We found princess Cadenza unconscious in the train. She was stuffed into a luggage compartment, she is alive but it will be a while before she is awake." The guard reported.
Celestia gravely looked around hoping to catch sight of the changeling queen, but it was a futile attempt. Celestia's eyes widened urgently as she turned her attention in the direction of where the dungeon was.
Celestia hurried off and galloped down into the depths of the dungeon. Celestia passed several downed guards on her way into the deepest part of the dungeon where she kept Helix. As the princess of the sun skidded across the stone floor in front of the cell the elf was kept in she looked around with panicked eyes.
Sitting before her still chained to the wall was the warlock Helix holding a bemused look on his face. Celestia noticed the guard was missing, but there was no sight of the Blood Knight.
"Everything alright?" Helix asked as he fought back a smug grin.
"Where is he?" Celestia asked in a commanding tone.
"Changing, he has some weird obsession with matching his armor with his weapons. He was complaining that since he left his other sword where he was caught, that he needed to use a different set of armor with his current sword." Helix answered.
"How is he changing? He only had a few pouches on his belt!" Celestia said in a frustrated tone, thinking that a cruel joke was being pulled on her as she cast her eyes around warily.
"Magical pouches, can hold mountains of items. I swear he carries about three armor sets and twelve weapons at all time..." Helix said shaking his head and laughing.
The sound of a large metal boot hitting the stone floor resounded off the stone walls. Celestia peered into the darkness that was the depths of the dungeon. She had not noticed it before, her focus on this particular cell, but the lights further down had been extinguished. The sound of the metal footsteps came closer, and rose in volume. Celestia strained her eyes against the darkness to see the glow of the Blood Knight's green eyes, or the golden light given off by his armor. The sound rounded the corner, and he should be in view, but all Celestia could see was the darkness.
"I would recommend running Celestia, if you want my honest opinion." Helix said following her gaze into the darkness.
"Why, surely he does not think he can take me alone..." Celestia said lowering herself into a ready stance.
"I suspect I know what armor he is using, and he always gets carried away in that one... Now, I'm just trying to return a favor, you were a very nice captor." Helix said as he slowly rose from his sitting position.
Celestia had no eyes for the warlock however, a dark silhouette had come into view and was slowly approaching her. In just a few more steps it would come into the light and she could get a better view of him.
As The elf strode into the light Celestia saw he was in a tarnished silver suit of armor that was decorated with faded bronze. A depiction of an angel's face dominated the chestplate, a pair of demonic bat wings splayed out beside it. The legs were decorated with angelic wings and his greaves bore images of angel's faces. His gauntlets bore vicious looking skulls and angel wings, the pauldrons he wore were mismatched, the one on his right shoulder had an angel's face, with feathers of aged bronze splayed out from the edge of the shoulder plate. The other pauldron had a wickedly grinning skull with a batlike demonic wing protruding from the skull, the edges of the shoulder plate were spiked with vicious curving barbs. The entire display was brought together with with a dark blue hood that was draped low over his face, covering a plate helmet and drooping down past his eyes, aged bronze wings were emblazoned on either side of the hood, and on his right side a curved horn protruded, and behind his head a broken halo sat.
The entire display was intimidating, the imagery of both good and evil symbols being tied together told of the Blood Knight's view on life and sanctity. Celestia was beginning to feel unnerved as she looked into the shadowed face from within the helmet. Only the mouth and chin were visible, the eyes shadowed and covered. He reached over his shoulder and pulled a long thick sword off his back. The blade was wickedly jagged, instead of straight and smooth like most. The sword looked as if it would rip and tear as much as it would cut. Glowing runes were emblazoned down the face of the blade, and a strange insignia sat on its hilt.
"Band'or shorel'aran..." Dizastrous said as a wicked grin adorned his face.
Chapter 14
Shining Armor sat at his desk rubbing his temples with his forehooves as he let out a heavy sigh. After Cadence left with the prisoner, things had only gotten even more hectic. The sword that was left behind refused to be pulled out of the ground, resisting even his own magic when he attempted to move it. It was as if the sword itself found everypony who tried unworthy of wielding it. Then there was the issue of Chrysalis.
Upon questioning the mare who was ponynapped, Octavia, Shining Armor's men had discovered that the Changeling Queen herself had been present, but had disappeared when the fighting started. While he doubted she had managed to get inside the confines of the city with the Crystal Heart's barrier intact, she could still be lurking about, or even worse, he feared she boarded the train when it left.
But all this still did not answer the question that was most prominently on his mind, "How did he get through the barrier without even having to force his way through?"
The military commanders around him all shrugged, all but the eldest one, a decorated officer with a long white beard. Shining Armor turned his attention to the elderly stallion and nodded his consent for the commander to speak up.
"The nature of the Heart itself is to repel evil. While his actions and goal might not have been under the purest of intentions, that young man fought with a fervor and zeal that is saved for those that are generally devout. Perhaps it was his affinity with his light magic that allowed him through." The old Stallion said sagely.
"So, he managed to get through because he wasn't evil? That can't be, his eyes were filled with nothing but bloodlust." Shining Armor said waving a hoof dismissively.
"Evil is only what we consider it to be, if he felt in his heart that what he does is good, then he is good." The old stallion said with a shrug.
"If that is the case I daresay we were lucky to only have as many casualties as we did." Another officer spoke up.
"You don't suppose all of them think what they do is not evil do you?" Shining Armor said in an unnerved tone.
"By Celestia, they could just waltz through the barrier..." Another officer, a mare this time gasped.
A soldier burst into the conference room, panting and out of breath as he paused for a second before giving his report, "Sir Shining Armor, another of the elves has been spotted at the edge of the barrier. It appears to have stopped it, but the thing was studying it closely."
Mumbles broke out through the gathered officers and a grave look adorned Shining Armor's face. He looked among his gathered officers and saw that many of them wore panicked expressions, many wondered if since the barrier stopped this one, if it would give up just because its friends were captured.
"Come, we need to go out there and confront it, lest it find a way into the barrier." Shining Armor said gravely.
The sound of shattering glass could be heard echoing through the streets and a gust of cold wind blew in through the open window. The soldier who came into the room rushed to the window and peered out.
"What is it soldier?" Shining Armor asked in an authoritative tone.
"It found a way in..." That stallion said as he looked back at Shining Armor, the blood draining from his face.
"What?! How?!" Shining Armor demanded in an angry voice.
Shining Armor shoved the soldier aside and peered out the window for the source of the shattering glass incase the elf had managed to somehow teleport into the streets and broke a window. What he saw however was that off in the distance, the warm sunny sky was cracked, and the frigid tundra outside the barrier could be seen.
"By force..." Mumbled the stunned soldier.
Weaver whistled as she observed what her chaos bolt had done to the barrier that stood before her. The spell was meant to pierce all defenses one possessed, but she had never actually tested it on a barrier that protected an entire city. Shaking her head and grinning under her equine skull mask Weaver continued on her path into the grassy meadow that lead towards the Crystal Empire.
Upon taking her first step inside of the barrier however her breath immediately caught as her skin began to itch and burn. Gritting her teeth weaver put on a scowl and stared at the harsh light in the distance that she knew had to be the Crystal Heart. Pressing onwards despite the discomfort Weaver began to notice the ponies beginning to panic at the sight of her.
Weaver smiled as she saw their open fear as she walked through the meadow, leaving burning footsteps as she went, "This might actually be fun..."
Weaver never broke her slow and steady stride as she cast spells left and right causing as much chaos as she possibly could to keep the guard busy with protecting civilians instead of attacking her. She dared not waste time summoning a demon here, the aura the Crystal Heart was giving off would either banish her lesser demons, or cause her stronger ones to go berserk.
Within minutes Weaver had made it up to the center of the town where the Crystal Heart floated and absorbed power from the town's populace. Weaver's skin felt like it was on fire as she drew closer, and she silently cursed the fact she had to do this when Dizastrous seemed immune to the effects.
With a grunt of effort Weaver unleashed a chaos bolt aimed at one of the spikes that the heart floated between, and with the aid of her havoc spell, the bolt split and hit both spikes. Debris flew in all directions as the fel bolts of flame demolished their targets and caused the Crystal Heart to fall to the ground. Immediately the barrier around the Crystal Empire dissipated and Weaver strode up to pick up the ancient artifact.
"Honestly what was so hard about that? I bet Dizastrous had to try and play the part of a heroic hero and actually fought the army head on." Weaver said, shaking her head as she hefted the large crystal into her arms.
"Well, guess it worked out for the better. At least now he can free Helix..." Weaver mumbled to herself as she tucked the Crystal Heart into one of the magical pouches at her belt.
"Stop right there! What have you done with the Crystal Heart?" Shining Armor demanded, shouting over the frigid tundra winds that now blew over the city.
Weaver spun on her heel and gestured a hand towards the guard captain, causing the stallion to immediately ignite. Shining Armor screamed in horror as he threw himself to the ground and began rolling in an attempt to extinguish the flames. Weaver hastily made her retreat as several guards began panicking and attempting to douse the flames on their captain and prince.
The Blood Knight launched into action swinging his brutal blade at the princess of the sun, Celestia managed to narrowly avoid the blade, but grimaced as she saw how easily the holy enhanced weapon cleaved through the stone floor where she previously stood.
"Quick on your hooves I see, good, hopefully you can at least make this fun.
Helix walked up to the door of his cell, the orange circle of the blessing on him spinning rapidly on the ground, and opened it as if it were unlocked, causing Celestia to gawk, "How did you get out?!"
"Blessing of Freedom, removes all restraints and frees those that I bestow it upon." Dizastrous said with a smirk.
Celestia seeing herself outnumbered and enclosed in a tight space where she was unable to utilize her advantage of flight, turned tail an ran. Dizastrous smiled, seeing her do exactly what he wanted.
"You do know she is leading you to where she will have the advantage right?" Helix said as he rubbed his wrists where the manacles once bit into them.
"You do know who you are talking to right?" Dizastrous said in an incredulous tone as he tore his eyes from where Celestia disappeared up the stairs, and fixated them onto the warlock.
"Fair point, you go have fun. I in the meantime will be getting my stuff..." Helix said shaking his head and summoning his demon guard.
Dizastrous grinned madly as he tore up the stairs at a speed that belied the weight of the armor and weapon he used. Holy fervor spread through him as he chased after the princess of the sun, he only hope he did not catch her before she managed to gather some help. Within mere minutes he had cleared the dungeon and burst through the heavy wooden door, not even stopping to open it. Splinters and chunks of wood flew everywhere causing the bystanding ponies to gasp.
The last of the civilians seemed to be clearing out, and a number of guards were already amassing. It seemed as though they were fast on their response time, seeing as Celestia could still be seen gunning straight through the air for a tower.
Wings of light erupted from his back, and the Blood Knight felt the divine power of the light course through him at his command. The sudden appearance of wings caused the guards that were charging him to back off, a couple skidding to a halt mere feet from him. Dizastrous paid them no mind however, he only had eyes for Celestia as he switched his grip on his sword to a left handed one, and opened his right palm behind him as if he was preparing to throw something. A hammer of condensed light magic formed in his grasp, and he immediately whipped his arm forward, hurling the devastating spell directly at Celestia. Though she swerved in an attempt to avoid it, the spell veered with her and struck true, eliciting a cry of pain and causing the alicorn to cease the beating of her wings. The momentum she had however, combined with the force of the hammer that struck her sent her hurtling into, and through the stone wall of a tower.
Guards stared open mouthed at what they saw, and suddenly anger adorned their faces as they all charged the winged elf. Their attempts to attack him however only made Dizastrous laugh as spears and hooves bounced harmlessly off his armor. He then readied his weapon in both hands and roared as he invoked his holy powers, causing a storm of righteous hammers and crackling light to strike and swirl around him, striking down all the guards who were within range.
His sacred shield snapping into place blocked the spells that then flew at him, and Dizastrous slowly walked up to the closest unicorn guard, and he grinned wickedly as he towered above the stalwart guard.
The guard put on a brave face as he spoke up to the Blood Knight, "You will pay for what you have done here monster! When our princesses unite their powers they wi-"
Dizastrous grabbed the unicorn's horn forcibly, and immediately began to drain him of his magick. Within seconds he was sucked dry of his power, leaving the elf with a disappointed expression.
"Is that all the magic you contained? Even the small purple one I met before had a thousand times more power than you..." Dizastrous cast his eyes around the assorted unicorns that stared wide eyed at him and the shivering wreck of a stallion at his feet, "Who's next?"
Luna rushed to her sisters side after getting over the immediate shock of having her burst through the stone wall of her room. The princess of the night nudged her sister's face with her own in an attempt to wake her up, grimacing slightly when her sister stirred and she noticed the blood leaking from the gash on her head where she collided with the stone.
"L-luna... Thank heavens your here..." Celestia managed out as she got wobbly to her hooves.
"Sister what has happened?" Luna gasped as Celestia stretched her wings and she noticed the large bruise that was forming at her side.
"The elves are loose, and are attacking." Celestia said touching a hoof to her forehead and hissing as she touched the gash.
"But the one called Helix seemed so docile..." Luna said in confusion.
"Cadence brought over the other one, his name is Dizastrous..." Celestia said with a frown.
Luna trotted over to the hole in the wall and looked down into the courtyard, gasping at what she saw, "He is draining the magic from our guards!"
Celestia's eyes widened in horror at this, if he was feeding right now he would be even more powerful than moments before. The look in Luna's face when they shared a glance told Celestia that the same revelation had been reached there. They would need to act fast before he got his hands on any more power.
"Why Celestia, you seem to be a little worse for the wear..." A voice chuckled from around the room.
"Discord?!" Celestia gasped in surprise.
The Spirit of chaos popped into existence before the two royal sisters with a broad grin on his face, "The one and only."
Celestia's eyes held a glimmer of hope as she stared at the reformed spirit of disharmony, but her sister Luna held a look of apprehension on her face. Luna while accepting of Discord's reform, and willing to take help from him, was unenthused to have him inside of her personal chambers. Discord caught this look and chuckled while shaking his head.
"Don't look so angry Luna, I merely came here after witnessing your sisters little... Crash." Discord smirked as he spoke the last word.
"So will you help us?" Celestia asked with hopeful eyes.
"Well, as little raw power as those elves seem to possess, they are quite deadly from what I saw... But I guess I promised Fluttershy I would use my powers to help..." Discord said rolling his eyes.
"Fantastic, can you take care of the warlock Helix? My sister and I should be more than a match for Dizastrous." Celestia said, a confident look on her face.
"Helix is a warlock eh, just like the other one that was here for a time?" Discord asked.
"Yes, Weaver's magic primarily was based around fire, so if you can protect yourself from that you should be fine." Luna said, looking a little downtrodden at remembering Weaver.
"Seems simple enough." Discord said with a shrug as he snapped his fingers and winked out of existence.
After Discord was gone, Celestia let out a heavy sigh and shook her head, "I never would have imagined he would ever be on our side."
"Perhaps everypony can change if given the chance..." Luna offered.
"No, not everypony..." Celestia said as she thought of a certain stallion in particular.
As the last of the Crystal Heart's protective magic left the land, a dark mist began forming among the clouds high above the Crystal Empire. The mist swirled and condensed as it was finally released from the cleansing magic that held it captive. A glowing dark red horn shot up from the ground and joined the mist, immediately a face and glowing green eyes formed as well.
The face looked over the now frigid air that gusted over the city and grinned wickedly. It then began searching its eyes over the city looking for the one thing that could stop it, when it did not find it, or even a faint glimmer of its power the face scrunched up into a frown.
"Where is it?!" Sombra roared from over the city.
A glimmer of magic caught his attention on the horizon to the south, and Sombra's eyes lit up. The King of Shadows drifted his misty body in the direction of where the magic glimmered, towards where one of the only things that could stop him was held.
Sombra stopped for a brief moment, and looked back at the city that he grew up in, and ruled over. A frown adorned his face as he left it, and he considered going back and staying there, but he shook his head to rid himself of the notion. If he took up his rule once more now, it would only be a matter of time before another 'hero' would wield the crystal heart against him.
"Soon, I will return to you... But for now, I must make sure I can protect you..." Sombra said as he turned back towards where the Crystal Heart was moving, and sped off towards it.
1 - Glory to the Sin'Dorei
Chapter 1
Twilight Sparkle groaned in her sleep, screwing her eyes shut as tight as she possibly could. But no matter how much she tossed and turned and tried to go back to sleep the green light was still making its way through her closed eyelids.
"Spike stop snoring..." Twilight mumbled.
"Mmm, huh?" Spike said from his basket next to Twilight's bed.
Twilight was getting aggravated, the small dragon was still breathing fire and causing a green glow that was keeping her awake.
"Spike stop it I'm trying to sleep..." Twilight complained once more.
"T-Twilight... I'ts not me..." Spike stuttered with a yelp.
Twilight's eyes bolted open, and she saw she was face to face with the perpetrator that had kept her awake.
"Ahh!" The mare screamed as she thrashed under the sheets and fell out of bed.
The mare jumped up and stared at the glowing orb that floated next to where her face previously was. 'No, not an orb... an eye...' Twilight corrected herself as she noticed the slitted pupil that followed her movement as she trotted around it trying to get a better look. Somepony was spying on her, or trying to get her attention.
"Doral ana'diel?" A soft, but masculine voice emanated from the eye.
"W-what?!" Twilight exclaimed after the eye talked.
"Ah, how strange... You speak with the human tongue..." The voice said in a strange accent.
"Human tongue?" The scholar asked, "No, this language is called Equestrian."
"So it has worked! I have found a new world!" The voice sounded excited, if a bit tired.
"Who.. Are you?" Twilight Sparkle asked timidly.
"Oh, I apologize for being so rude. I am Kiridan Blackflame, grand warlock of Silvermoon City, at your service." The orb bobbed as if bowing.
Twilight gave the eye a scrutinizing gaze as she considered what is had said to her. Twilight began to back away as the eye slowly floated towards her. Upon noticing it was not making any progress the eye stopped once more.
"You do no believe me?" The eye asked.
"Well, I have never heard of Silvermoon, and I do not know what kind of eye a warlock is..." Twilight said as she backed against the wall and gave spike a pleading look. The little dragon shook his head and flipped the basket over himself to hide.
"What? Oh, haha. No, this eye is not my body, it is a spell so that I can peer into places I cannot normally reach." The eye said.
"A spell? You can use magic?" Twilight asked with an impressed and interested tone.
"Most races can from what I know, though not all choose to follow the path of a spell caster." The voice laughed.
"Wait, where you are from everypony can use magic, but some still choose not to? Why?" Twilight asked incredulous at the notion.
"Not all are as gifted, some choose to rely on their own strength. Those who follow their callings instead of trying to learn something they cannot get farther in life." The eye bobbed as it talked, as if losing power.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked as the eye began to become dimmer.
"The spell is fading, I have reached the end of the duration. perhaps we can speak another day?" The eye inquired.
"Sure, but try to not come in the middle of the night... I was trying to sleep..." Twilight said with a smile and a forced laugh as she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof.
"Sorry about that, farewell..." The voice trailed off.
"Twilight, Twilight Sparkle." The mare said clearly
"Sinu a'manore Twilight." The eye said before losing all of its glow, and turning to ash that fell to the floor in a neat pile.
Twilight stared at where the eye had turned to ash, and then turned her attention towards the shivering basket beside her bed.
"Well spike since you decided to hide you can clean this up before going back to bed." Twilight said with a smile.
"Aww..." The baby dragon groaned.
Kiridan slipped through the transparent blue curtains that served as a door to the inn, the silky fabric emitted a quiet ring as the bells at the bottoms moved. Kiridan looked around the dimly lit room and caught his eyes on the innkeeper.
"Have they already gotten a room?" Kiridan asked as he approached her.
"They are upstairs, first room on the left. Please make sure they don't get too rowdy..." Velandra the innkeeper said with an annoyed look.
The warlock made his way up the stairs, running his hand over the golden railing as he stared at the room his friends would be in. Kiridan stopped in front of the curtain and looked in, seeing the two of them sitting next to each other, passing a hookah pipe between them. Each race had places like this one, where addictions could be served. For the Goblins it was gambling, the Orcs it was brawling, and the Forsaken had cannibal bars. The Blood Elves however, were addicted to magic. These hookahs were not normal ones used for smoking, they held the essence of a captured elemental that was being slowly stripped into a magical vapor.
Places like these were not cheap to get into, only regulars were allowed in without being charged upfront. Unfortunately, Kiridan and his friends had become regulars to this location. The warlock noticed something and looked to the side where a Blood Knight initiate was lying on the floor, shivering from his wounds in a pool of his own blood.
"Let him be, it's all part of the initiation ritual." One of his friends called from within the room.
Kiridan walked in and took a seat next to a free hookah. Taking a large puff of the mana vapor, the warlock sighed in relief. Only then did he turn his attention toward his friends.
"You two are being awfully friendly, sharing a pipe like that..." Kiridan said before taking another drag on his pipe.
"I'm supposed to be arresting her, can't let her out of my sight until it all blows over so we can forget the crime ever happened." The man who spoke before said with a sigh as he accepted the pipe back to take a puff.
"What did you do this time" Kiridan asked as he grabbed a handful of grapes from a nearby bowl and popped one into his mouth.
"Well, there may have been a slight misunderstanding in the bazaar..." The female Blood Elf said nervously.
"She got into an argument with an Orcish emissary from the Frost Wolves, he began yelling and she lit him on fire. Luckily I was there on duty and I 'apprehended' her..." The male said.
"Huh, guarding the bazaar today? is that why you are out of uniform?" Kiridan asked as he eyed the flashy armor his friend wore.
"As long as I am not in the northern districts it matters little, this armor is better than my regular Blood Knight uniform anyways..." He said casually before once more taking the hookah pipe.
"I would have been fine, the sleazeball was trying to make a move on me and that was why I lit him up." The girl said.
"Not that I have a problem with the destruction branch, but you cannot go around immolating whoever you please. Gives the rest of us warlocks a bad name..." Kiridan said shaking his head.
"Ha, you are one to talk. Summoning all those demons, I swear if you lose control of one again ill make sure to smite you with it. The last one you lost control of nearly destroyed the inn here. What would we do then, suck the magic out of a stranger like some kind of vampire?" The Blood Knight said with a frown.
"Yeah... Lost control..." The female said with a smirk.
"You didn't..." Kiridan said astonished.
"Yeah, you can never tell if you lost your control over them, or if another warlock stole control... come on though, it was funny wasn't it?" The female smirked.
"If you were not the guild's leader..." Kiridan warned.
"I don't care if she is, do your pranks outside of the city. I finally landed a good position here, and I won't see you ruining it." The male practically growled.
"Hah, and what would you do about it?" The female said with a mocking tone.
"Well I know of a certain Orcish emissary that would very much like to know where to send his assassins..." The male countered with his own smile.
"You wouldn't dare..." The woman said firmly.
"Oh no? I served a long time in Alterac Valley, I am an exalted soldier among their ranks still to this day for what I did for them." The man said proudly.
"By served you mean on your back for those big muscular Orcs right?" The woman teased.
The man froze for a second, before turning his head and looking directly at Kiridan. The warlock sat up slightly preparing for an outburst of violence he knew was coming. The man then pulled his leg back and kicked the leg of the woman's chair, shattering the wood and causing the woman to tumble to the ground.
"Diz!" Kiridan exclaimed as he looked at the groaning woman on the floor.
"Zip it Helix... Weaver got what she asked for." The Blood Knight said, addressing his friends with their guild code names, names that they had used for each other since their very first adventures together.
"Fuck you..." Weaver said as she got off the ground, still laughing at her success at getting a rise from the Blood Knight.
"So, Helix... You said you found something interesting?" Dizastrous said, changing the subject as he took a deep hit of the hookah, finishing it off.
"Yes, I may have uncovered a new place to look for the cure..." Helix/Kiridan said.
"What..." Weaver said as she dusted her robe off.
"You heard me, but it is a new world completely. One that we can search without that fool Garrosh attempting a full fledged attack on." Helix said with a grin as he took another drag on his hookah.
"Lor'thermar will be pleased by this..." Dizastrous said as he took his seat again.
"When do we leave?" Weaver asked with a smile.
"Tonight..." Helix said grinning.
"I have an appointment to get my hair cut tonight." Dizastrous said casually.
"Fine tomorrow morning." Helix said with a frown.
"I have a spa visit scheduled in the morning." Weaver said looking at her nails.
"In the afternoon then?" Helix asked in an exasperated tone.
"Works for me." Dizastrous said glancing toward Weaver.
Weaver nodded her approval before moving over to a bed and flopping down on it. Dizastrous and Helix watched with neutral expressions as the female warlock stretched and began falling asleep.
"Looks like she claims that bed..." Helix said before moving over to another vacant one.
"We should get this place cleaned up sometime if it is going to host officer meetings for the guild like this... I know it's a mana house but does it have to smell like someone died in here?" Dizastrous said as he left the room.
The Blood Knight then looked over to where the dead initiate lay on the ground.
"Oh yeah..." Dizastrous mumbled.
Twilight Sparkle sat in her study looking over a book on spells that were designed to improve sight, and allow vision across wide ranges. However as she finished the book she huffed in dissatisfaction. She had hoped to figure out what kind of spell the stranger Kiridan Blackflame had used to contact her, but nothing she had researched had even hinted at the ability of the spell he referred to as the Eye of Kilrogg.
"Hmm, I wonder why he won't tell me how to cast it..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she levitated the book back to where it was supposed to be.
Twilight had been visited three times now by the floating green eye, and each time it would ask her questions about the land and the ponies that lived on it. She had shown it a map of the known regions of Equestria, and Twilight had even shown the eye a few books from the library. After the eye learned so much, it would then talk to Twilight and ask her about her own personal history. Twilight had come to view the eye as a sort of pen pal. Though she had not shared the news to anypony else yet, Twilight felt after talking with the eye that she could trust him. The only thing that irked her was that the eye refused to go into his own past, saying things like 'You really don't want to know', or 'The things I have done do not always bring me pride'.
"Bal'a dash young Twilight" Kiridan's voice called as the eye floated through the opened window of the library.
"Oh, Kiridan! You're earlier than you normally come." Twilight said as she sat back down and waited for the eye to draw closer.
"Yes, and I'm afraid I will not be visiting for near as long this time." Kiridan's voice was businesslike, but still warm.
"Oh. why not?" Twilight asked as she cocked her head to the side.
"I simply need to see a map of the land again. I am trying to figure out where my spell drops me off at in this world." Kiridan said with a tone that made twilight imagine him waving a hoof dismissively.
Twilight chuckled to herself as she trotted over to the wall that had the folding map of Equestria hanging on it, and she pulled the string at the bottom with her magic, allowing the map to unroll from its case. The eye then floated over and began searching. Twilight sat down and watched the eye look at different spots at the map and mumble to itself as if doing calculations.
"I remember going over a town... And those mountains would then definitely be the ones I get dropped off next to... So, I guess the leyline I come through must be on the edge of the badlands, just south of Dodge City here." Kiridan said finally.
"Wait, you fly over fifty miles just to come here when there was a town you already passed?" Twilight asked.
"I could sense no beings with an affinity towards magic that I could converse with in that town." Kiridan stated simply.
"Well they are all earth ponies... By the way, why did you want to figure this out?" Twilight asked, with several more questions already prepared to ask such as about what a magical leyline had to do with his ability to come into her world with his spell.
"Now is not the time, I will tell you when next we meet." The eye said before bursting into fire and falling as ash to the ground.
Twilight frowned at the hasty retreat Kiridan had made this time. As she thought to herself Spike walked into the study with a tray of cookies and tea for Twilight. After setting the tray down the young dragon looked at the pile of ashes and adopted a sour look on his face.
"Not again..." The baby dragon whined.
Chapter 8
Helix deposited the amulet onto the table as he ran a hand through his hair. The lack of feeding on mana was beginning to wear on him. Helix usually prided himself on not needing to feed as often as his friends, but he was beginning to hit his limit.
"Are you okay Helix?" The concerned voice of Twilight Sparkle asked, startling the warlock.
"No, no I am not..." Helix sighed as he slumped on the sofa he sat on.
"What's wrong? You look a little pale, are you sick?" Twilight asked.
"You could say that, but there is something more important than my health this is going to happen. Dizastrous is coming to Ponyville as we speak." Helix explained.
"Oh, well, that might bring a little bit of a scare to the other ponies..." Twilight said in thought remembering the reaction that Zecora brought to Ponyville.
"We may need to introduce me to the town today, better they meet me first than they meet him." Helix said, eyeing the magical aura Twilight's horn was giving off as she grabbed a book from a shelf.
Twilight considered this for a moment while she sat the book in front of her, "I guess that might be okay, but why is it so important that they meet you first?
Helix gave a wry grin as he began to explain, "Dizastrous is not his real name, just like Helix is not mine. They are nick names, and Diz earned his. I don't think you want to hear the entire story, so I won't bother telling you, but shall we leave it at there were no survivors?"
Twilight's eyes widened and she gasped at this news, "No survivors? What kind of a person is he?!"
"I may have made that sound a little harsh... He is a devout knight in the service of our people, and he was protecting women and children. Our people had a falling out with old allies, and we were all being imprisoned. He fended off a detachment of soldiers to allow others to escape. When we found him he was drenched in the soldier's blood, on the brink of death himself." Helix explained.
Twilight was baffled by this, her face showed that she was fighting with what to think of Helix's friend. Helix in the meantime was keeping a wary eye on her, fending off the pain of the craving. Helix could at least see a silver lining to Dizastrous coming to Ponyville soon, he would bring the trapped elementals for Helix to sate his thirst on.
"He is a good man though, just make sure he is not threatened or he will fight back." Helix sighed.
The two sat in silence for a short amount of time after that. The silence left Helix with time to think over how he should go about finally revealing his presence to the town. The ponies seemed skittish at best to newcomers, if the walleyed pegasus he met when he investigated presence of The Doctor.
"Should we start with your friends, and have them spread the word after meeting me, or should I just start walking around town?" Helix asked with a thoughtful look adorning his face.
Twilight gave him a strange look when he mentioned the latter idea, eliciting a grin from the warlock. Helix laughed at the face the purple mare was giving him.
"You are right, that would not end well would it? So, who do you think will take the news of me the easiest? Wouldn't want to scare one of your friends to death, that would be counter productive in the long run if someone runs off screaming through the town." Helix offered.
As if tempted by fate Fluttershy trotted inside of the library with a wide smile on her face.
"Twilight, Discord finally got his luggage packed and has left to go back to Canterlot and finally help ponies with his magic!" The yellow mare said excitedly in her soft voice, "I knew he had a good heart, even if he is too proud to show it at times."
Twilight was frozen in a state of panic as she stared at her timid friend who seemed to have been oblivious to the large bipedal she was standing in front of. The purple mare's eyes darted between Fluttershy's and Helix's.
"Oh, I'm sorry... Did I come at a bad time?" Fluttershy asked, covering half of her face in her mane as she thought she had offended Twilight.
The whole ordeal seamed odd to Helix. The warlock was unsure if the mare was blind or daft, but she still had not noticed his presence despite the fact that Twilight was blatantly looking between him and the newcomer.
"Excuse me miss, I do not believe we have met. You may call me Helix, and I am a new friend of Twilight's" Helix said in a kind voice as he put on a smile to leave the best first impression he possibly could.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't see you there! How rude of me!" Fluttershy said as she slowly turned around and met Helix's eyes.
Large blue eyes met with glowing green eyes, and the room was dead silent. Helix kept his charming smile on his face, but he was frozen by what he saw in the mare, primal fear. Fluttershy was not used to coming out of her shell, but was willing to try when she heard the kind voice behind her say it was Twilight's friend. But when she saw the glowing eyes, and the strange nature of the speaker she froze. Being an expert on animals she also locked onto the exposed teeth of the warlock, sharp and meant for tearing meat.
Fluttershy slowly curled into a defensive ball, covering her face with her feathers as she began to go into a state of shock. Twilight's eyes doubled in size as she realized her friend had nearly been scared to death.
"Nether blast it, this does not look good for me..." Helix mumbled as his face fell at the sight of the shivering mare.
The two trudged on out of the swamp, Chrysalis eyeing Dizastrous warily. Dizastrous took no notice of this however, as he was too busy brooding over the horrid state of his appearance. He hated being drenched in gore, it always left a bad taste in his mouth when he was made to remember killing the soldiers who had once been his friends, but had turned on him and his people.
He also prided himself on his pristine appearance, something that was not apparent with his hair matted down with blood.
"Remind me again why we went through that bog, instead of taking another route?" Dizastrous mumbled angrily.
"Because, the only other way to get to Ponyville would be around the bog, and that would have taken several days to skirt around the dangerous parts. It was you who did not want to waste time after all. It is not my fault you cannot fly." Chrysalis said in a defensive tone.
This only elicited more grumbling from the Blood Knight. Had he known he was going to have to travel on his own like this he would have demanded Helix brought his Frostbrood through the gateway. But instead he was stuck in this world without a mount, the only one he could rely on was his holy steed, but after learning that the residence of this world were equine in nature, he thought it in his best interest to not be seen riding a horse.
Dizastrous cast his eyes to the side and watched Chrysalis in silence for a short while as they walked together through the bog. He had to admit he was surprised, the queen of the changelings had kept her promise to help him after all.
"You surprise me you know..." Dizastrous said as he chuckled to himself.
"Hmm?" Chrysalis gave Dizastrous a questioning glance.
"Where I am from, you cannot trust what a monarch promises. Though they may say one thing if it promises to help their people, when it comes time to follow through with what they promised, there is always a reason that they can no longer honor their end of the bargain." The Blood Knight explained.
"Well then, don't judge me based on them then. If I swear to do something, I will do my best to follow through. Even if it puts my own life at risk." Chrysalis said with a resolute tone.
"Such as feeding your changelings?" Dizastrous said, casting an inquisitive glance.
"Exactly." Chrysalis said the word with pride.
Dizastrous smiled at the response, "You are right, I shouldn't judge you based on the monarchs from my world. You deserve more respect than they do."
Chrysalis was taken aback by this, no one other than her changelings had treated her with anything aside from disgust. And here this elf was treating her with respect?
"We should be getting close now right?" Dizastrous asked, breaking Chrysalis's train of thought.
"Yes, we should get there by sunrise unless we want to set up camp somewhere." Chrysalis returned.
The Blood Knight thought over this for a moment before shaking his head and sighing, "No, I need to get something to Helix. Weaver is not afraid to blackmail someone into giving her mana, Helix is too soft though. He needs to get some of the mana I have in my pack or he is going to lose it."
"This Helix you speak of, he sounds like he does not fit in with your small war band..." Chrysalis commented.
"Oh, I would not say that. He has a kind heart, but he is not afraid to get his hands dirty if the need arises. I have seen that man slaughter countless foes that got in his way. While he likes to avoid conflict most of the time, if you set him off be prepared to meet his wrath..." Dizastrous said darkly.
Chrysalis hummed in thought over this as they walked. Dizastrous began to notice that off in the distance there was a dirt path. His eyes widened at the prospect that they would soon be at the town. He thought over how he planned to get back at Helix, the poor bastard was probably scurrying to get the townsfolk to learn of his presence before sunrise. It would be difficult at this time of night however, ponies should be getting to bed soon. If strutting into town in broad daylight did not cause a stir, he would have to come up with something new.
As the pair walked down the dirt path, time seemed to pass by quickly. Neither spoke as both were deep in thought of what was to come. Off in the distance, lights from the town could be seen as the sun began to peek over the horizon, making part of the sky orange as the land was still dark.
"How do you plan on hiding yourself?" Dizastrous asked.
"To be honest, taking any form would be suitable with you around. They will be more suspicious of you than a stranger who trots in with you. If anything they might try rescuing me from you at first sight..." Chrysalis said with a chuckle as she turned herself into a charcoal black unicorn mare with a long and straight turquoise mane and tail.
"Huh, handy skill isn't that?" Dizastrous commented as they continued to walk.
As they drew nearer they came across a bridge which a stream ran under. The Blood Knight's eyes lit up to this an he immediately ran into the water and began rinsing the dried gore off of himself. Chrysalis smiled an shook her head at the display of the Blood Knight's urge to be clean.
"What? I want to give them a scare, not make them think I am some kind of murderous beast." Dizastrous said as he caught the look Chrysalis was giving him.
"I didn't say anything at all." Chrysalis said with a smile.
Dizastrous climbed out of the stream, water pouring from his armor and soaking the ground he walked upon. Chrysalis clicked her tongue at this and her horn lit up, evaporating the water, and drying the Blood Knight.
"huh, not bad..." Dizastrous commented as he observed his dry state, and ran an armored hand through his silver hair, making sure it was in order.
Chrysalis nodded approvingly at his appearance and the two continued on their trek towards the town. As they drew nearer they noticed something was strange. From a distance it looked like the town was strangely well lit, but up close it was apparent why. A mob had formed outside of a large tree.
"What in the name of the light are they doing?" Dizastrous mumbled.
"Looks like they are surrounding the library for some reason. Perhaps Sparkle got herself into trouble." Chrysalis said in a wishful tone.
"More likely Helix fucked something up... Looks like I messed with him by just saying I was going to." The Blood Knight said with a grin.
The pair walked into the town, the streets deserted as the majority of the populace stood outside the library with torches and assorted makeshift weapons. Shouts could be heard now, and as they drew closer the words could be made out.
"You let her go monster! She has done nothing to you!"
"Let Twilight free of your mind spells!"
"Begone monster!"
Dizastrous saw that the large tree was indeed hollowed out, and a balcony had even been build near the top. On the balcony Helix stood with a purple mare. It was apparent that they both were trying desperately to calm the mob, but their voices were drowned out by the cacophony of screams and shouts. Chrysalis and Dizastrous exchanged glances.
"Wait here..." Dizastrous said as he strode nearer to the mob of ponies.
As he marched towards the library he began casting blessings and protective spells on himself. The sustainable bubble of light that was a lesser form of his divine shield sprang to life. The sacred shield cast a glow on the ground around him, making him shine like a beacon in the darkness. Helix and Twilight immediately saw him, but the crowd had eyes only for Helix. Dizastrous walked up to the back of the mob and nudged a pony that was in his way with his knee.
"Hey watch it!" The stallion exclaimed as it spun to see who had nudged him.
As the pony looked up at the form of the dazzling Blood Knight, it lost its ability to stand. The ponies around it noticed the noise of the whimpering the stallion was making and they as well turned to see what was the matter. They too fell into a shocked state of whimpering as they saw the glowing form of Dizastrous.
Dizastrous allowed more magic to flow through him, and his eyes changed from their natural green glow, to a bright golden one. The ponies near him backed away, causing more of the crowd to turn around and notice the tall glowing figure.
"By Celestia... He shines like the sun..." A pony mumbled from within the near silent mob.
. "He looks just like the demon that has its spell over Twilight and her friends..." Another pony said in the mob.
Tension built as the mob stared at the tall brilliant figure before them. The sound of a pin dropping could have been heard as the sun began to rise higher and higher over the horizon, casting the beginnings of its light over the ponies. The light however, did not make the glow of the Blood Knight any less daunting. The light of the sun only caused the ponies to realize that the bubble of glowing light around Dizastrous was in fact, solidified light, the shell around him never once looking any dimmer compared to the sun's rays.
"Boo." Dizastrous said suddenly shattering the silence.
Ponies shrieked and screamed as they abandoned their torches and weapons and bolted for the safety of their homes. The area around the large tree was now empty aside from the Blood Knight, and the disguised Chrysalis who now approached the front door to the library.
Dizastrous pushed the door open, the sound of something heavy being pushed from behind the door. As he entered, he noticed that a large stack of furniture had been set up against the door. Inside, five sets of eyes locked onto him, ignoring the mare that followed him inside.
The sound of boots and hooves hitting stairs brought his attention to his friend and the purple mare descending the stairway from the top floor.
"Helix, what the fuck did you do wrong? You practically got all the fun out of this!" Dizastrous growled as he strode over to his friend.
"Long story..." The warlock sighed wearily.
"I have time, regale me with your tale." Dizastrous said smugly.
The two Blood elves stared at each other in silence for a short moment. None of the ponies made a sound as all eyes were locked on the two friends.
"Give me some mana before I kill somebody..." Helix said with a pleading tone.
Dizastrous laughed as he reached into his pack and procured a smoky glass flask. Helix snatched the flask from the Blood Knight's hands and popped the top off. Helix did not go for the sport of besting the elemental trapped first, instead putting the flask to his lips and instantly devouring the mana trapped inside.
"Well?" Dizastrous asked expectantly.
"Fine, so after we finished our conversation..." Helix began his tale.
