Author's Notations:
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A cold breeze blew over the plains on the outskirts of Ponyville. The survivors of the attack had set up camp there, protected by the royal guards as well as an extremely bored Draconequus. Discord rolled his eyes and sighed. "Celestia came rushing back to the castle and thinks she can just call me willy-nilly" he mused turning himself upside down holding a small teacup while the teapot poured itself into his cup. "Then again she was injured. Something that could injure that old pony must be quite dangerous!"
"Don't disrespect the princess!" A guard, who was supposed to be part of his entourage. The draconequus flipped quickly on his axis and looked over at the new guard before laughing. "I've known that old prissy butt longer than you've been alive" he said before snapping and the guard was quickly getting a bath in hot tea. "Please pay attention, Discord" the spirit heard. With a sigh he turned his body away from the young guard being chased by the teapot making it disappear with another snap. "Yes ma'm" he said with a mock salute.
"Alright, thank you." Regal Banner said, trying to keep calm with the easily distracted spirit. Celestia had arrived back at the castle with an arrow wound in the shoulder, coated in blood and mud. The royal dressers nearly had a conniption fit when she wouldn't let them see to her as did the royal physician. Instead she immediately flew to her sister's chamber. Not two minutes later they were both down giving orders to the royal guards. Being the new captain after Shining Armor's marriage and subsequent move to the Crystal empire she was in charge of giving the inexperienced and seasoned guards orders on the field.
What she hadn't expected was the princesses to call on the aid of an old troublemaker.
With a sigh the Captain continued her explanation. "Alright, I want Abyssian's Mane to stay here and cover the survivors, Discord you'll be here as well making sure everything goes as planned. Lieutenant Trotson I want you to make sure he stays in line" She said to the soldiers to her left making the group salute and scatter to their designated posts, followed reluctantly by the draconequus. "You know!" he said leaving his head behind as his body kept going. "I could be a great help if you'd just le-" "No Discord, we need you here" Captain Banner interrupted him, "You're this camp's secret weapon and final defense. If those demons manage to get through us" She started before swallowing hard. "We'll need you to get everyone out of here and somewhere safe. Just as well, the Princesses wanted to keep you away from the battle." With a roll of his eyes the disembodied head disappeared in a small flash of light.
"Alright, for the rest of you" The Captain said looking at the rest of her battalion "We're six hundred ponies strong! Even if we die, we die defending our home!" she said amplifying her voice with magic in an attempt to rally her troops. "We won't fail, we'll fight for the Princesses!"
Discord gave an annoyed sigh as his head returned to his body. The loudmouth captain's voice carrying far as to make the ponies hear.
"Almost makes you wonder why some of the older guards from her squad are half deaf" Jumper said next to the floating spirit. Jumper had been the closest thing to a friend Discord had through the entirety of his encounters with the royal guard. While he was no Fluttershy, whom though he hated to admit but it he was worried about, he was willing to put up with his chaotic antics and even get in a few pranks of his own. "I just hope the fighting doesn't get back here" he heard the pegasus say not seconds before one of the guards on the low walls shouted for the Lieutenant.
Always the curious one, Discord disappeared from the navy blue pegasus' side to the side of the beige unicorn on the wall. "What is it?" he asked, again upside down but looking through his hands like binoculars. The unicorn shrunk away with a disgusted look on his face from the spirit of chaos in favor of briefing his now arrived CO. "Sir, there's an anomaly one klick south of the camp" he said giving to the binoculars to the Lieutenant who proceeded to put them up to his eyes.
"Looks like some kind of portal" Discord said quietly. The blue rift in space seemed almost like turbulent ocean waters, splashing out around the oval opening. Even as he looked at it, Discord felt as though he could be pulled in, but through it he saw lush jungles filled with trees and grass. Before he could open his mouth again though, a figure ran through the portal his form obscured by bone armor and a leather pack on his back. Black leather connecting bleached white ribs, skulls sitting upon each shoulder. A small stick jutted out of a black leather glove with a small animal skull hanging from it by an even smaller chain. The figure was in obvious distress as he turned around quickly shooting what could only be described as a glowing lance through the portal from the stick in his hand. Quickly he waved his empty hand in front of the opening and it closed allowing for a small flash of light before it finally disappeared.
"Damn it" Ralphet muttered under his breath. He stomped the dirt again before shouted "Damn it Kurast! May Rathma purge you!" Finally recomposing himself he looked around and was quickly surprised. "Wait... Where is Kurast?"
The old stone dock he had expected to return to had been replaced. Lush fields of green out in front of him with a makeshift encampment in the distance. He turned only to find a forest, light shining in from the setting sun. "Well this is interesting..." Ralphet mused, absent mindedly summoning up a golem from the ground. Rocks and other debris fell as the clay figure rose from the ground to greet it's master. Two small glowing gems sat in where it's eyes would be.
"Let us see where we have been taken now shall we?" The necromancer suggested a smile forming under his bone helmet. 'Perhaps I might actually find some unknown wisdom for the priests' he said turning away from the forest towards the encampment only for two dots to rise up from it and quickly head in his direction. What the well studied man assumed would be a fight only turned into curiosity as the two came closer.
"Halt in the name of Princess Celestia!" The larger of the two said. Both wore gold armor that Ralphet could only assume was magic as to how little they actually covered, but he was much less concerned about their attire at the time.
"By the Great Cycle... Talking equines..." The necromancer shook his head, "Flying ones no less. Next I'll see a chimera that has dominion over existence"
"What is your purpose here, creature?" The larger one asked. The smaller armed with a spear that while it shook in his grasp, it seemed to be grasped in his hooves without any assistance, and the larger had a large axe slung onto his back.
"Do not disrespect me in such a manner animals" Ralphet said puffing his chest out. "I am one of the high priests of Rathma, and I will be shown respect!" Holding his wand towards the two pegasi the necromancer glared at them. "I shall allow you to rephrase yourself, but watch yourself"
As the golem stepped up towards it's master the two pegasi looked at one another before looking back at the odd creature before them. A sigh escaped the larger before he motioned for the smaller one to move forward.
"Ah, ah umm w-we apologize sir" The pegasus started trying to hide behind his weapon. "High Priest Ralphet to you" the human said. "Oh! Ah, we apologize High Priest Raltet, Ralket, Ralphet" he said stumbling over the human's name, which only seemed to further his anger. "We need you to come with us, for questioning, we need t-to know if you have any information on the attack"
Ralphet sighed, the small equine was attempting to serve as a mediator, and he already wanted to know of these curious creatures. "Fine" he said holding his composer, but lowering his wand. "If either of your attempt anything though there will be more than a small amount of bodies to use." The threat dripped from his words like acid and it only made the small pegasus more frightened, but the larger one had been giving him a look over as well as his earthy companion, as soon as he felt the malice in his voice, the axeman's attention was drawn back to the coated creature who's face had yet to be shown.
A shiver ran down Lar'zak's back as he chopped through a wondering demon before looking up. "What is it?" he heard Talmuh say from his side. "I couldn't tell you, but there's a force here that the even the demons should fear." Lar'zak said simply before turning and walking with his companions towards the clearing in the houses where they had left the ponies.
They had found other openings that went to the street, but the path had been barricaded and then a repulsion spell had been put on it so that all of their attempts to get through had been for null. After a while of searching they managed to find an unblocked opening, or at least relatively. The path was instead blocked by corpses piled high on the dirt road. Climbing over them only lead to an empty clearing, devoid of the ponies they had left there as to keep them from harm.
"Perfect, now those little colored horses are gone too" Lar'zak said grumpily. "Bloody shame too, that blue one was starting to grow on me. Damn good fighter she was."
"There are no corpses so unless the demons dragged them off, to which there would be the trails of blood. So I would wager they managed to escape" Talmuh interjected. "More than likely, seeing how at least three of them could fly with those white and butter colored ones." Amphyla said looking over the area.
"Well I suppose then we'll just continue our demon onslaught eh?" Lar'zak said, excitement obvious in his voice. With a sigh the rouge nodded, only for her companion to shake his head. "We'll have to look for them at least, they'd do the same for us, no doubt it's one of the reasons they set out beyond finding their other friend" the druid said only to receive a look of annoyance from the barbarian.
"How many bloody friends do those little horsees have?"
"Heeeellp!" Rarity called out her sister Sweetie Belle and her had been trapped in the wreckage of the boutique for a couple of hours now, a large creature with a club easily bigger than she was came through and destroyed most of the outer support beams meaning they couldn't escape. Luckily for them, that meant the demons couldn't get in either.
Or so they thought. Small bat-like creatures had flown in from a small hole in the ceiling and started attacking the two of them. Luckily Rarity had managed to squash one with her beloved sewing machine, but the other ones were still flying around her boutique looking for an opening in the small shield she had summoned around her and her sister who was clutched in her hooves.
Both were covered in small scratches, but despite her normal composure the fashionista was close to having a panic attack, as she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold the shield up much longer.
Another scream, even more desperate called out from the mare.