There were other reasons why James was going alone, but he wasn't about to tell Celestia or anyone else what those reasons were. Not a wise decision, admittedly, but it wasn't like Celestia wasn't going to send troops after him anyway. The both of them wanted Thrall, and that meant seeking him out.
Who was he?
In the few hours after the end of the Canterlot attack, James stuck around with the Equestrians long enough to learn a few crucial pieces of intel from them, namely that Thrall, the huge warrior clad in black armor he caught a brief glimpse of just before he sounded a retreat, was leading some army of what the Equestrians had taken to calling 'Ghost Warriors'. Supposedly this time was meant for him to 'recuperate', gather his strength for the next wave of attackers. That would've been pointless, and despite his disdain for Celestia, he hoped she'd have the sense to see that too. The arrival of this army and Thrall meant three things; first, this was their endgame. Whether Thrall was leading them or not, their attack was going to magnify into something worse if James had just waited. Second, it meant answers, personal answers to who James was, why he had the skills he had, and where he came from.
Third, it meant getting even. Thrall and whatever he served (if anything) was the focus of his anger now. A lot like James, Thrall had made a good number of enemies, except he did it much faster and more efficiently, taking a mere fortnight when it took James nearly a month. If only they could compare notes. However, having those enemies against one another made it a race to see which enemy would be first to the fight. James didn't worry that much, him having a headstart and all, but it was still a possibility; if the Equestrians capture Thrall or kill him, the answers to who he once was would be lost.
James wandered to the edge of the Airship deck and looked back at the shrinking image of Canterlot in the distance. From here, the world looked so tiny, the mountain it was situated upon like a spike extending into the heavens. Since James was above the cloud level, the world below was a shifting mass of color; white and grey wherever the clouds drifted over, with splashes of the green forests, sapphire lakes, windy plains and miniscule towns and villages. Even the Everfree, which James could see clearly, was a green-black smudge of brilliant life. Above James was the sky, a still-lightening blue fading to magenta from the rising sun. The sky was so clear that not even all of the night's stars had completely faded yet.
Once again, a nagging voice started up in James's mind.
'You could stay here. Who's to stop you from doing it? Just think; there's a possibility, however slight, that saving Equestria would grant you amnesty. And even then, free or not you could always just… disappear.'
It was at that point that James looked over in the direction of a shrill cry to watch a passing eagle. In that moment, James had the craziest, dumbest, most dangerous thought that he may have had yet.
He considered it.
It was nothing short of a miracle that the barricades blocking Ponyville had held for as long as they did.
The residents of Ponyville had settled into helping the Equestrian Guard where they could, as their numbers had severely diminished in the pincer attack last night. Needless to say, the drainage system in the town had been blocked off; that trick would not work twice. Unfortunately, the barricades would only be able to be repaired minimally, as such resources were low without tearing apart the townhouses for more. This was a particular problem in their defense; drastically smaller garrison aside, the barricades had just barely held against the first wave, and it was estimated that they wouldn't survive the second.
With the recent shortage of troops, Feather was going to prepare the citizens of Ponyville for an exodus. He wouldn't have done it unless he positively knew that the people were no longer safe within the town borders, but an evacuation now seemed like a better choice than remaining here to be destroyed. Feather could only imagine how the neighboring towns like Appleloosa have held up if things were going this bad here. Not good, he assumed.
He was discussing the plan with Dusk Helm when he overheard an argument from outside one of the tents the remaining guardsponies had set up the night before.
"What now?" Dusk asked, his tail flicking with anger. He trotted over to the entrance to yell at whoever was bickering but Feather stopped him.
"Perhaps, I should handle this," he said.
Outside the tent, he noticed that the argument was not between two guardsponies fighting over rations (it had happened before), but from two guardsponies trying to shoo away the Element Bearers, who Feather noticed were once more together and relatively untouched, save for Rainbow Dash, who still had her wing bandaged, and Twilight Sparkle, who still had a few bandages around her stomach. Feather wandered up to them; he had expected them to show up at some point.
"I suppose you're here to ask if you can lend a few hooves to defending the town," he guessed. Turning to the other guardsponies, he simply stated, "Dismissed."
"We're willing to, if that's the case," Twilight replied.
"And you're aware that doing so is not a wise decision in your current shape," Feather reminded her.
"We are," Dash answered on Twilight's behalf.
"And you're also aware of the risks to life and limb?"
"Yes," Twilight answered.
Feather nodded. "Good. I need a few more hooves out here."
Twilight returned his nod with one of her own. "We'll help you out, Feather. You know that. But that's not why we're here; we're here to tell you something that you don't know."
"And that something is?" Feather turned around to notice that Dusk had trotted up behind him and asked the question.
Twilight turned around to face Fluttershy, who was lingering at the back of the group. "Are you comfortable telling them?"
Fluttershy didn't say anything, but she nodded.
"Perhaps," Feather interrupted, "it would be better to talk about this in private."
After going back into the tent, Fluttershy explained what happened in the Everfree with as much detail as she could think of. Apparently, while she, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were out looking for Alistair, several of the dart-throwing warriors that were swarming from the sewers during the attack had encountered the four of them. The scouting party engaged them and lost badly, with one of them escaping on foot while another was captured. Unfortunately, a guardspony patrol that was also tasked with finding Alistair came across them, and the captured creature was destroyed after it tried to kill one of them. While Fluttershy was explaining this, the other three backed up her claims.
"Alright," was all Feather could think of to say at the conclusion of the story.
"Think back," Dusk instructed them. "Is there anything they said that would be useful now?"
"Well," Rainbow spoke up, "Fluttershy told me that they said something about their world being destroyed somehow."
Feather stared at her. "So, you think that's why they're coming here?"
"We can't be sure," Twilight said, "but it's the most likely possibility. It explains the ghostly nature of the creatures themselves."
"What it doesn't explain, though," Applejack added, "is why James is all, y'know, squishy still."
"That's true," Twilight replied. "I've no doubt that James is somehow related to all of this, but I'm still not sure what his goal was intended to be or why."
"We could figure that out," Feather suggested, "if we knew more information." He turned his attention to Fluttershy. "Was there anything else you heard? Anything at all?"
Rarity spoke up. "I did. When the creatures first saw us, one of them said that a creature named 'Thrall', had ordered us killed."
"Well," Pinkie piped up, "Rarity's paraphrasing. What he really said was," her voice changing into a poor, nasally imitation of the creature's voice, "'Thrall has ordered no quarter on these ones. Kill them!'"
"'These ones'," Dusk mused. "They were looking for Alistair as well. But if that's the case, wouldn't they have found him before us? Presumably, they'd know how he'd think."
"And they would have," Feather realized suddenly, "except Alistair had left before they arrived. This happened after he attacked Ponyville and hijacked that airship."
"What bothers me," Twilight replied, "was why they'd send a scouting party after him in the first place. Celestia told you that Canterlot was under siege, right? That would mean that she'd seen a force headed straight for Canterlot. When the creatures attacked here, there was no sign of them until they were here. They had to have been teleported onto the field. Why would they send a force on the march when they could easily send them right into the throne room at Canterlot?"
Pinkie Pie spoke up after a moment. "Maybe they wanted us to see them?"
"But what would that accomplish?" Rarity replied. "All it would do is make us aware of their presence. And why would they send James if they could send one of these creatures in the first place? None of this makes sense!"
Suddenly, Twilight had a grim epiphany. "It isn't supposed to."
The room fell silent. After about ten seconds, Twilight continued to explain.
"James is just a distraction. A decoy. And so was the army headed for Canterlot. Whatever is in charge of this army wanted us to expect them, wanted us to expend our resources chasing James. Consider this; the leader of this force… this Thrall, or perhaps his master, sent James ahead of them to cause havoc. While we're busy tangling with James, the enemy prepares an invasion force to take Equestria and buy time for their forces to mass. Once their army is in order, they send a small force towards Canterlot so as to draw Celestia's eye…"
"…From what's really important," Feather finished for her. "And then they hit our cities with as much force as they can to buy even more time."
"So," Dusk asked, "that means James was on his way to Canterlot to regroup with this Thrall, right?"
"No." Twilight replied. "Why didn't I see this before? When we had caught James, I tried to wipe his mind; it was one of the things that made him do what he did. But, when I attempted it, there was a moment when our minds… connected."
"…And?" Dusk asked.
"I was too irrational to think over it at the time," Twilight admitted, "but doing casting a mind-wipe spell would have been extremely hard to do, let alone succeed at. No novice unicorn could have done it, and I shouldn't have been able to do it as easily as I did. Unless, of course, there wasn't a lot of mind to wipe in the first place."
"Please tell me that's an attempt at humor," Feather said flatly. "Alistair strikes me as many things. An idiot isn't one of them."
"No, no, you don't understand!" Twilight insisted. "His mind was so easy to try and wipe because something already wiped it. Think about it; what better way to conceal information than to remove it entirely?"
"So, you're suggesting that James was given amnesia before being sent here?" Feather said.
"Precisely. In fact, I think that everything he knows, his skills, fighting, survival, were all hardwired."
"Or he already learned and left in," Dusk added.
Rarity spoke up. "You're leaving something out. If James had his mind erased, then why was he trying to kill us?"
"He was desperate," Dash interrupted. "James was trying to get away from us. He must have been just as confused as we were when we first saw him. We went after him, and he ran, but we… I… pushed him to a point where he didn't have the choice to run anymore."
"And then he fought back," Applejack concluded.
"We can't blame ourselves now," Twilight told the group. "Something else was manipulating the events. They were using the anger, frustration and tension of the situation to their advantage to worsen the situation."
"That's all well and good," Dusk replied. "But we're forgetting the most important thing here; if this army is the distraction… what's the real problem?"
Night Iron was not happy with his job as of late.
First he was sent out to the wall of Canterlot to stare death in the face for hours on end. Then he was told to go out after said walking death, capable of cutting through magic, in pursuit of some criminal filth that wasn't worth going after by now. Did they want him dead?
It didn't matter. He was allowed to take his best colts alongside him, which gave him a good amount of loyalty towards him. If need be, he'd be able to just kill the guy and call it a day. Besides, Alistair was too dangerous to be kept alive, in his opinion. Imprisoning him would do nothing to get rid of him permanently. After all, Discord was imprisoned for at least a thousand years, and look what happened there.
Flying under the clouds so that Alistair wouldn't be able to see them coming, Night Iron trailed the stolen airship he was currently piloting. There was a grand total of seven other brave pegasi who were alongside him, itching to get back at the creature they held responsible for a lot of suffering. Unfortunately, Celestia's orders, according to Shining Armor, were to trail him back to his superiors and then take them both down. A sound tactical move, admittedly, but there were some flaws; firstly, there was no way seven colts were going to bring down Alistair and Thrall, let alone the army that would be with them, and secondly, there would be even worse chances at taking them alive. Celestia didn't really assume that Alistair would just give himself up, did she? No, Alistair was a fighter, and Night Iron knew how fighters thought; never give in, ever. Death before defeat. One way or the other, Alistair was going to choose death over capture.
And, to be quite honest, there wasn't a single colt in Night Iron's squad that wasn't more than prepared to give it to him.
James took the time to search through the airship while traveling. It was roughly noon at this point, so he had another half a day to find out where Thrall was hiding and kick him back to where he crawled out of. Despite the certainty that Celestia was going to send people after him, he wanted to make sure they weren't already stowing away with him. Now that would've made him look stupid.
After looking around, James wandered around the deck, looking around for any sign of activity. Nothing special. Feeling a little rushed, he sat down on a small crate and resting his back on a barrel, looking out over the horizon, watching the clouds drift lazily by…
It wasn't long until he was fast asleep.
James honestly thought that he'd dream about the two pairs of alien lights in the black, empty void. Instead, he was back on the beach from so long ago. It looked much clearer than before. The stone he was looking at from the last time he dreamt of this place was gone.
In front of him stood Thrall.
James, Thrall said simply. James Alistair.
James regarded him. "You. You're the one who sent me here."
I am not. But the ones who I call Masters, the ones who watch over all, even now, are indeed.
"Then you've got some pretty bad luck, because," James replied matter-of-factly, "I'm going to kill you first."
Such confidence, Thrall replied. I like that. I can see why the Masters chose you. But are your skills as good as mine? Do your capabilities match mine?
"Face me, and find out," James challenged.
I intend to. In fact, the Masters demand it.
"Who are the masters?" James demanded.
They are the watchers in the darkness. They are fear and hatred incarnate. And they, like I, do not have a name.
"So you're going to answer my questions?" James asked. "That's good. Now you get to tell me why I'm here."
You are sadly mistaken, Thrall replied. I am not here to answer your questions. I am here to issue a challenge of my own on behalf of the Masters. I am currently located on the mountains near Canterlot, sixteen miles from your current position. If you intend to kill me, your chance to do so lies there.
"And why should I trust you?" James asked. "What makes you think I'll go there because you said so? How do I know you're not waiting in ambush?"
Thrall made some sort of noise that James assumed was laughter. Were we only given more time, I feel that we could learn very much from one another. I am a creature of my word, James Alistair; when you arrive at the site, you will find only I. To make my point clear, I will let you know this; you were sent here to succeed me. I know this now. So perhaps I will give you a simple choice, James Alistair, provided you do not scorn me.
James hesitated. "Go on."
You thirst for answers, James Alistair. And for vengeance. One choice will allow you only one of the two. You can choose to fight, for the Equestrians, or yourself, it makes no difference to me. And you can die or defeat me, but beware, for you will have nowhere to run from the fate that awaits you should you succeed in achieving revenge. Or… you can choose to join me. Consider what you will learn alongside me. We could fight together as allies instead of as opponents. We may yet come to respect one another. Perhaps we could achieve both of your goals, and more.
"It sounds tempting," James replied, "But I'm not going to serve the creature that sent me here."
Thrall regarded him. You have until nightfall to consider your decision, he decided. When you meet me on that mountain, I expect you to have made your choice, because there will be little time left then for indecisiveness. The end of this little war is neigh. It will soon come time for the final assault.
With that, the dream began to fade. James could hear Thrall give him parting words; Enjoy what few hours you have left, James Alistair. Treasure them. They may very well be your last.
And then it was just him on the deck of the airship again, watching the sun sink down towards the earth.
Night was only a few hours away.
