Split Spirit
Chapter 9: The Purge , Part One
"Blueblood ,I will accept your offer of a duel, give me time and a place." Feargus answered, completely calm. Blueblood seemed to ponder this for a second, until a sly grin crept on to his face.
"Five months time, at the grand opening of the Arena in Lower Canterlot!"
Blueblood turned around, and arrogantly trotted out of the room. There was silence for a few seconds before Feargus spoke up.
"Not very clever to leave a meeting where he could find out my weaknesses," He turned towards the Princesses, who had seated themselves on cushions.
"I can guess you have plenty of questions, but I have some of my own ,"
Feargus looked to the sisters for approval. In turn, Luna looked up to her older sister, who nodded.
"Indeed we do have a few questions. Go ahead with yours first.." Celestia accompanied her answer with a smile. Feargus walked back to the table, and dismissed his claws. They began to turn from in to a fine mist, leaving a trail in their wake.
He sat down on the pile of cushions next to Luna, in turn, Luna snuggled up to him. Celestia didn't seem to notice, and Feargus thought Luna was just making herself more comfortable, in preparation for the inevitable barrage of questions to come. Silence hung in the air for few moments.
"How long was I unconscious in that room for?" He asked. He wasn't answered immediately. Celestia shuffled uncomfortably.
" Three months." Luna answered, stating the facts.
" Three months?" Feargus echoed, with a sly tone of amusement. "Lets Hope I didn't miss anything important."
"What?" Both of the sisters said in unison.
"Nothing ,I'll ask later. Time for your questions to be answered!" He gave Celestia a quick, smile, not realising it looked slightly menacing with his new fangs.
"How much can you remember of your life and skills as the Grim Reaper?" Celestia put the question forward, showing her intent to learn about his powers, and to see if her series of warding spells worked. While , originally, her intent was to just see if he was who he said to be was. And doing so, managed to see one of his memories.
Celestia nearly shuddered at thought, but resisted. She didn't want Feargus to know that anything was up. Luna, however, seemed to have no second thoughts about it. As soon as the vision had ended, Celestia decided it would be better , for everything that lived in Equestria and beyond, for him to not have much of a recall of his past, or his magical abilities. She was brought out of her reverie by the answer to her question.
" I know I have lived a long time, that is certain," A small, dry chuckle emerged from his lips. " Not the exact amount of years though. For my skills in combat, they just come naturally, they are entrenched in to the very fibre of my being. As for my magic, that comes and goes. I can't remember any specifics. Something feels different though, its like my body doesn't want to remember…" He began to trail off, before he looked back up to Celestia.
"How many more questions?"
Satisfied with her answer, and the knowledge that he thought the wards had not interfered with him and it was just his own memory, Celestia levitated a scroll out of, seemingly, nowhere and unrolled it. It continued to unroll and only stopped when It reached the doorway.
"Quite a few." Celestia joked, showing a small grin of her own.
It was now evening. Late evening. Celestia had many questions, and Feargus had answered them all to the best of his ability. Celestia had decided she had gleamed enough information out of him, and after Luna asked, allowed him to accompany her to night court.
Feargus and Luna were walking towards the Throne room, where night court was held. The hallway was vaguely bland, for palace standards. There were pillars lining the hallway, along with the occasional painting here and there, but mostly ,
"Well that was-"
"Fun?" Luna cut him off, in a monotone voice.
"It got even more fun when she pulled out the second list. You missed a golden opportunity by the way."
"What are you talking about?" Luna raised an eyebrow.
"When she pulled out her second scroll. The fun has been doubled!" His impression of Luna was not a very flattering one, and In return Luna head butted him.
"Also, tell your guards to brush up on their stealth skills, they conceal themselves fairly well, but they forget they wear armour."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a shape darted its way out of the shadows behind him. It seemed to be a that of a pegasi, but Feargus had instantly noted some changes. Instead of the feathered wings pegasi are usually gifted with, this ones wings were like that of a bat, leathery and black as pitch
Another of these strange pegasi appeared from the shadows.
"Fangs! What do you think your doing!" The un-named pegasi reprimanded.
"He insulted us! Us! Who does he think he is , messing with the one of the top ranking Moonguard! Oh when I get my hoof's on yo-."
Fangs, and the un-named pony, who both seemed to be mares by the, sounds of their voices , where interrupted.
"Fangs! Dusk! Cease your squabbling!" Luna shouted.
"Both of you are to be assigned extra training for this! Attempting to assault my guest, only because he insulted your ability to sneak!" Luna continued to rant
"It's fine Luna, it was just a recommendation, and your guard obviously misunderstood me, and once we make a schedule for me, I might be able to help with their training," Feargus soothed Luna
"And we are going to miss night court if we keep squabbling like this, are we not?
After the first two audiences brought forward at night court, Feargus had realised politics was the most boring thing in existence. Since it was night court, all of the guards now wore the uniform of the night guard, and Fang and dusk stood by Luna's throne, where the princess of the night held court over her subjects. The throne itself was a structured the same way as Celestia's throne, but , instead of being the colour of gold, it was a deep midnight blue, and constellations were engraved across it, constantly shifting. The throne was beautiful and mesmerising.
To satisfy the nobility about his presence , they were all told that Feargus was a advisor from a foreign land. No questions were asked.
"… and therefore, the funding should be saved until it is needed, not worthlessly thrown away to stop something long gone." A unicorn with a white coat, and a cutie mark of a bag of bits overflowing ,drabbled on about how he did not want money to be dealt with building something to prevent some strange creatures returning, and to merely keep it instead. He hadn't really paid attention to his lecture.
He had noticed something suspicious about the unicorn. When he addressed the Princess, he was constantly glancing at the guards.
What had the pony talked about?
"That may be true Minted Coins, but it is better not to risk the return of the changelings. If we do build the funnelling obelisk, Canterlot will be more secure, and our guard unicorns will not be so drained." Luna replied calmly.
Changeling, that named shocked him out of his stupor. It also explained Coins' suspicious behaviour. He walked up to Dusk, knelt down and whispered in her ear.
"I would like it if there were some more guards In this room, I suspect a changeling is amongst us. A few ponies are acting strangely. Don't show any signs of shock, but be ready to protect the Princess as soon as things go awry."
Dusk replied with a nod, and motioned to another guard, who then walked out of a side door. As Luna and Minted Coins continued to debate, more guards slowly filtered in to the room. When Feargus was content, he conjured something out of the air, which caused all of the ponies to look at him.
It was the mask of Vile. He placed the mask on his face. The mask, while providing face protection, saw through all enchantments, and magical anomalies.
In the throne room, there was only one changeling, and it had taken the guise of Minted coins.
"Changeling!" Feargus yelled, pointing at Coins, and drawing his pistols from within his duster. It hissed, and 'Coins' revealed his true form.
The changeling's hole ridden horn lit up a sickly green, and he ripped of pieces off of his chitinuos hide, and launched them at Luna.
Without hesitation, Feargus dove in front, taking the barbs right in to his chest. Replying with a roar of his own the shook the very foundations of the city that nestled against the mountain, Feargus fired at the changeling, three shots in quick succession.
A foul green ichor sprayed form the stumps on the changelings forehead where his horn was, and on his back where his wings where. Feargus charged, throwing his pistols behind him in favours of his claws. He slashed at the creature, decapitating it instantly, which caused more ichor to flow out on top the floor.
By this time, the guards had only managed to draw their weapons. Spears , swords and armour reflected the light of the night sky which shone in through the stained glass windows.
"Get them out of here, then get a small strike force of Moonguard the unicorns!. I want a task force ready to sweep the city in ten minutes! Move it!" He barked in a commanding tone.
Turning around to face Luna, he pulled the barbs out of his chest and threw them to the ground in disgust.
"Are you alright Luna?" Feargus asked, genuine care showing in his voice.
"Im fine, but how about you? You took a few dozen barbs to the chest!"
"Trust me I am fine, see?" Feargus' right hand was surrounded by a dark aura, and he moved it over his chest. The wounds, and the already coagulating blood, were gone and scars criss-crossed his chest. His shirt had a few slight holes in it.
"Are you sure?" Luna asked, putting one of her hooves on his chest.
"I could get the medics to look at it, who knows-" Feargus placed his hand on top of Luna's hoof.
"Trust me, Im fine" Moving Luna's hoof of his chest, he turned and walked out of the room. His voice taking on a darker, malicious characteristic towards the end of his sentence.
"Now if you will excuse me, I have some changelings to slay."
"Dusk!"
A mares voice called out of the many, miscellaneous sounds of the Moonguard assembling and arming itself in the castle courtyard, before the gates that led in to the city.
Dusk was a fairly young mare, about 22 years old, bordering on coats was like that of the rest of the Moonguard, a beautiful midnight blue. As soon as Luna had returned, she had become enraptured by the beauty of the night sky, and as soon as he heard the palace was hiring guards for Luna, she signed up straight away. She had shot up through the ranks.
Fangs, on the other hand was much younger,19, and acted in a way more brash than any Moonguard. She, like majority of the Moonguard, was a pegasi. She was called Fangs because something went wrong with the enchantment on her armour, leading her to have slightly more visible fangs than other guards. When offered a replacement set, she refused.
"Dusk!" she called again. "I have the unicorns, but now we are waiting on that visitor. Since when did he become our commander all of a sudden?"
Before dusk could reply, she was interrupted. The doors of the castle opened and Feargus darted out.
"Listen up!" Feargus bellowed. The clamour stopped, and the assembled ponies looked up to what he had to say.
"I know majority of you will not trust me, but you need o put that aside. Right know, I have experienced the most combat out of anyone here. No exceptions," He stopped speaking and walked down to the group of guards. They formed a circle around him.
"Here is the deal. Im in charge, listen to what I have to say. Unicorns? I hope you know a spell to reveal those cursed changeling creatures. We are going to clear the city, block by block, starting with Upper Canterlot, then moving to middle and then lower. You will all split yourself in to squads, of which each will have one unicorn minimum. Clear?"
Each guard nodded, in perfect synchronisation.
"Then let us not dally here. Onwards! Purge the city!"
Aaaaaaaaand I squeezed out a chapter. Good thing - I have planned story, so I know where it is going. Bad - I hate myself for not updating. GCSE's start in 5 days, so If im not eating/sleeping Im revising -_-.
Sorry for not updating in a long time, and sorry if this chapter is rushed! I just want to get it out.
Reviews welcomed!
-Goose
