Chapter 14: The Mountain


The railway ties clack noisily beneath them as the express pulled away from the station. The shunt and judder of the passenger car normally pulled the Unicorn into a lull as she stared out the window and watched the world pass by. The soft patter of rain on the train's metal roof echoes around the interior, upsetting some foal near the front of the car. Wind twisted and bent the boughs of the trees speed past, their violent sway distorted by the rivulets of water that dance before her eyes. For all the times she'd been on the train, the Unicorn mare would often let herself doze off or curl up with a new book while the soft jostling lulled her into a trance like rest.

But it wasn't to be.

Just as the dreary grey stretch of sodden conifers drifts lazily by the rain slicked window, a glint of movement catches the mare's eye. It wasn't something outside, but the soft reflection behind her, just past her muzzle and pale eyes. A flash of bejewelled metal from a familiar zircon pendant was the only warning she got before the fabric swiped across her face.

"C'mon, Starlight. Trixie called the window seat on this galloping garbage heap before we even left the station."

Her companion grunts as she turns, settling in to the too-small space between muzzle and glass pane. It shoves the fellow Unicorn further from the window and further rubs the slightly stale cloth in her face. Other scents invaded her nostrils, the pong of alchemical powders mixed with the faintly sour hint of body odours and cooking oil. Wrinkling her nose, she huffs a breath from her nostrils, flicking away a tail hair that got too close in the little spin.

"Trixie, cuddidout. Hey, you're sitting on Twilight's book!"

"Well, Trixie doesn't hear it complaining." With a harrumph, Trixie wriggles to settle herself in, depriving Starlight of her window seat.

'That mare.'

An unbidden smile rises to her lips only to turn into a slight scowl. She tilts her head up, having to gaze upward at the Unicorn just a touch. It was almost imperceptible, but that smarmy grin said she knew what she did. That extra little bit of height from the book was just enough to make Trixie a hair taller than herself.

'Typical.'

"Well," Starlight starts with a sigh and gives her friend a once over. "At least you're not wet and soaking the book."

She knew it was a mistake to say the moment it left her mouth. The predatory curl of her magician friend's lips was the warning that just interrupted the correction. "Now you're lo-"

"Your clothes." Starlight gestures with an irritated grunt, "You're lucky you're cloak is just damp and not soaking that book, or Twilight would have a fit."

Trixie's playful grin collapses immediately at the mention of that name. With a snort, she settles her wide brimmed magician's hat on her head and slumps back in the seat with her forehooves folded across her chest.

'And theeeeere it is, the Great and Petulant Pout.'

Trixie's chin stays dipped to her neck as she glances out the window. But it wasn't hard to see when her gaze momentarily would flicker to the reflection of Starlight, and that little muzzle scrunch and reflexive tail flick of irritation could crop up.

Starlight just purses her lips and remains quiet. And for just a little while a silence passes between them. It wasn't even broken when she casts a sidelong glance at Trixie, realizing it wasn't just Twilight's book that she was sitting on. The mare had inadvertently perched upon the novel Rarity had loaned her as well. Scarlet Hewn Wings was supposed to be a classic, but now it was a literary work acting like a foal's booster seat. A sigh escapes her, and she tries to settle back in the train car.

Several fitful moments pass, a blink then a little more.

Starlight awoke to an empty train car rattling along, the deep chugging rhythm continued unabated as they shuddered down the track. But harsh red and yellow light fell upon her face, and the Unicorn's bleary eyes picked up the stinging tints permeating the sky.

"Trixie?" She calls, staring out the window. Rain had turned to ash, a swirling torrent lanced through with jagged spears of forked lighting. The violent bursts and crackles of yellow and red made Starlight flinch back.

A part of her mind said she'd seen this before. She'd seen the dark billowing wasteland in her unfortunate confrontation with Twilight more than a year ago. She'd seen the strings of eldritch red and yellow fire ripple across the sky like an apocalyptic aurora. When the ash cloud clears, the world that was, is no more.

'It can't be.'

Blackened skeletal sticks erupt up where there should have been verdant copses, little rises staked with torn banners fluttering in the wind. And yet something else beckons her. She turns her gaze towards the bend in the track, looking further than the line of ramshackle train cars and past the belching brass studded engine hurtling down the tracks. Through the spewing incandescent clouds of sparks tossed from the brass-clad smokestack, Starlight catches a glimpse of Mount Canterlot.

The capital city was simply gone aside from a single black tower jutting out into a nebulous black maelstrom whirling across the horizon. It engulfs the whole of the horizon in a scintillating swirl of unnatural colours, like a sickly albeit riotous rainbow of purples, blues, oranges, converting on a single pulsing red blot centered behind an impenetrable black corona. It all revolving around that lone dark tower.

Strings of lightning ripple across the unimaginable horizon, and the welling weight of oppression settles on the Unicorn.

'When?'

"Are we too late?!" she calls, pressing a hoof against the window.

"Twilight? Twilight?! TRIXIE?! Where are you?!"


"You are meat for the table! You are gristle, and bone, and blood! I'll take your skulls and toss your miserable souls into the currents of time! There is no escape, there is only Karskanax! Scion of the Skull Throne! Master of war!"

The caprine-headed daemon stamps its hooves and eagerly flexes its talons around the grip of a horned great axe. The clatter of bones rattles from the long strands of skulls threaded together like macabre windchimes. A scintillating blast of pure white magic blisters across the enormous red-skinned breast's hide, drawing thin crackling fingers of black char and little else. The enormous brass collar at its neck glows with infernal light, leaving only the insensate bellows of the creature amid the lightning crowned cairn. Shattered rocks fall away from its crumbling slopes as the skies boil red.

"Luna, I don't think that works! No magic! This one, well, I'll deal with this one by myself. If it wants to try to claim my title and my head, I would sincerely like to see it try."

Luna's wingbeats fade into the middling distance. Amid the driving sheets of red rain and howling torrents that try to tug the unwary from their feet, a lone figure stands in the arena centre while the towering winged beast stalks the outer reaches of the lonely tower. But as the Bloodthirster bellows and spits sparking cinders, Horus's reply is little more than slightly exasperated.

"How is it possible that some... thing, as wretched and steeped in dark age occultism like yourself, can prattle on worse than an acne riddled whelp of a High Lord? Erebus's drivel already gave me a headache, and now you're making it worse. So listen carefully, goat: I'll tell you only once. Shut. Up. Or I will make you regret every moment of your dismal disappointing parody of a life."

Horus Lupercal stands defiant, a wry grin on his face as he resettles his grip on the length of thick shattered mooring chain he held coiled like a whip. The seemingly delicate halberd rests jauntily across his shoulder, soft pale blue wisps of light flicking from the charged blade.

A bellow of incandescent rage spews embers across the wind-whipped crest of the ancient structure. Karskanax stamps its hooves and lumbers forward, a sidelong chop of its axe shattering an ancient stone column to dust as it barrels towards the Primarch. The living incarnation of wrath towers three times his height, but despite its maddened rush, the Horus's movements come smooth and deliberate.

The chain rattles in his grasp as he casually flicks the forearm-thick length of cold iron like a wet towel. The masonry weighted tip lashes out, pinging off the daemons axe head with a sharp metallic crack.

The monster deflects the sweeping iron links off the side, though the Primarch spins and puts his entire body into the whirlwind motion that sends the iron chain flailing back to life. It sweeps around at knee-height as the beast closes with axe upraised. Karskanax leaps over the chain with a single mighty flap of its wings. Its axe held in two hands and raised high over its head.

The midnight streak strikes him like a thunderbolt. A shape barrels into him as fast as lightning, throwing the Bloodthirster sideways through a freestanding column.

Horus's lips form a scowl, eyes narrowing as the dark shape flits back from the thrashing mound of taut red muscle, corded sinew, and frothing embers of fury. Luna's few wingbeats brings her right back to the Lupercal's side, smirk clear across her muzzle and tiara only slightly bent from the impact.

"Luna, I thought we had an understanding." he leans down to be face to face with her.

"But We didn't use magic! Momentum is not magic, it is science."

Horus's sigh practically breaks the howl of the blustering winds. "That's damnable pedantics and I won't be a part of it. So I'll say it again: I deal with the sheep, you can deal with anything that looks like a bird. We draw lots on whatever is left that they throw at us. Agreed?"

Luna wrinkles her snout and distastefully sticks out her tongue, "Can't We persuade you to deal with the fat slimy green things? They smell."

"No." Horus fixes her with a golden glare that should conquer planets but is reflected back from cyan pools like light in a mirror. "Now do be quiet. I wasn't making light earlier, I have a headache."

Luna's deadpan stare doesn't falter even as the Bloodthirster rights itself, "I swear, that may be the most stallion-like thing I've heard you say so far."

"Well little moon princess, you've already interfered and ruined my fun." Horus harrumphs and hands the chain over to the Alicorn. "Take this, I assume you can think of something creative to do with it."

Luna obliges and gathers up the chain in her arcane grasp with a quick bob of her head. She takes flight with a single springing leap, leaving the Primarch to advance on the daemonic beast at a lope.

"You could have been the greatest mortal in history!" Karskanax bellows, "You were given the chance to be the Everchosen of the Primordial Powers, to ascend to the throne of Terra itself and rule the galaxy single-handed! Now look at yourself, Horus of Cthonia. Horus the Sullied. Horus the Horse-Tamed. Horus the Twice-Scorned!"

"I told you do to one thing, goat, and you couldn't even do that!" Horus thrusts a finger at it accusingly with a crooked scowl, "Even in hell you're a miserable disappointment."

Horus grinds his teeth and redoubles his pace as the Bloodthirster flaps its wings to propelling itself at the demi-god. It's wild axe sweep impacts against Ceifador glossy crystalline metal in a resonant clang that echoes from the circles of stone pillars. The halberd flashing as embers of blue and red burst in a shower of incandescent sparks across the centre of the cairn's flat-top.

Horus reels under the Daemonic might, skidding back a half dozen paces cross the slick stone. Cloaked in ancient furs and leathers like some barbarian king, he gives the beast a toothy grin before thrusting the icicle tip of the halberd. It's parried swiftly, chopping strokes batting the weapon in two hands. But despite the daemons mighty reach and immense strength, the Warmaster counters time and time again. Each opening letting in a probing thrust, each recovering swing taken in kind to add even more momentum to a harsh chop.

Karskanax holds his ground as the Warmaster circles, and suddenly pauses as a lightning strike cracks directly overhead with a thunderous clap.

The creature redoubles its efforts, lashing out in a flurry of blows barely turned aside by the questing halberd tip. Several jabs and hasty hooked cuts sliced deep furrows in the daemons leathery red hide, but nothing stops its forward movement. In the blink of an eye, Horus is driven back step by step under the beast's furious onslaught.

The daemon howls its rage, axe gripped in both hands, swinging again and again in murderous overhead strikes. Each stroke batters the arcane halberd lower and lower, nearer to the snarling Lupercal's face. He's driven to the edge of the cairn near the outlying columns marking the temples weathered heights.

Horus quickly sidesteps, turning away from the edge and tumbling to avoid a side-ways stroke of the Bloodthirster's blade. The Primarch props himself up on one knee, the halberd heft outstretched in defense while the slender tip presses to the ground.

It exhorts only a single bellowing roar as the daemon screams its rage to the blackened stars and winds up and arches its axe high overhead for a single murderous strike.

A rattling snap and crack of metal halts the axe at its apex, a length of cold iron wrapping around Karskanax's wrist. Its glance to the side to spot a smirking Luna hovering in mid-air, the links of chain shimmering a soft blue outline where they connect to a mighty pillar it had turned its back on.

It barely had a chance to glimpse the glitter of blue steel as the halbard's keening wail cuts the silence. Then it slices through daemonic flesh like a razor as its searing after image burns a pale half-moon swathe through the air.

Karskanax's wail of fury turns to shock and surprise as its dead limb drops to the rain soaked ground, still chained to the pillar. The axe clatters to the stone leaving the one-armed Bloodthirster to clutch at the molten bronze pouring from its severed stump.

Ceifador's pick embeds itself in the creature's ankle and, with a yank, drags the beast to one knee. Its leathery bat wings flap, trying to get it to rise as Horus lifts the halberd like a spear and hurls it at the flapping wing. The arcane blade shears through the membrane like sail cloth, and it fades from existence amid a bellowing roar of insensate rage.

Horus reaches for the Bloodthirster's fallen axe only for Karskanax to sweep its ruined wing forward, creating a momentary barrier.

"I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR LACK OF VISION!"

It reaches for the axe while Horus seizes its wing joint and flexes. The steely bones contort and bow under the strain. Stretching out, the Bloodthirster's talon curls around the axe haft.

A shrill howl from the heavens heralds a wet splatter as the Bloodthirster stops cold. An icicle tip digs into the cairn's solid stone, driven straight through the top of the daemon's skull and out through the ragged wound under its chin. Molten blood slops onto the stone as it twitches in its spastic death throes, but the beast is held in place by the Alicorn still clutching the heft of the arcane halberd.

"Horus? Are you okay?"

A blood spattered Alicorn pants lightly, looking out from her perch atop the base of the Bloodthirster's skull.

"Fine, Little Moon. Just fine."

She wiggles the halberd for a moment, making the beast's wing spasm as it starts to dissolve. But the blade lodged fast in both the Bloodthirster and the ground. Instead, she sighs and once more dismisses the blade before hopping off from between Karskanax's curled ram horns.

"Good... and thanks for letting me have that one."

Horus arches a brow, "And what makes you think I 'let you' have it?"

The Alicorn vaults the creature's now cracked and shredded wing to stand next to Horus. The rain peters out after a few moments, leaving only the whistling howl of the mournful winds through the remaining columns.

"You're not panting and you deliberately paused. But, We thank thee for attempting to sate our rampant vanity, it was hardly noticeable my pet. But in truth, We are thankful for thy timely assistance as a distraction, allowing Us to best vanquish such a loathsome foe. Verily, thou art welcome."

She strikes a regal pose and proffers a lifted forehoof. The dispassionate gaze Horus shoots her is nothing short of contemptuous.

Luna lets her forehoof drop to the ground and scrunches her muzzle, "Oh come now, don't be a spoil-sport. It will make a grand painting! Nay, a grand mosaic for the hall!"

"Neigh?" Horus's slow smirk draws a slow forming scowl from Luna. A few seconds of silence lets the Warmaster brush past her, striding past the slowly dissolving daemonic corpse.

"Not funny."

"It is, just a little." he looks back over his shoulder, showing a flash of teeth as his voice rises a measure, "Or am I in the company of a spoil-sport?"

An unexpected snort leaves the Princess at the mocking imitation, leaving the Warmaster to stop. He didn't turn, and all the better for it as the Princess's cheeks bristles with embarrassed indignation. Waiting for just a few seconds, he starts walking again. "Come along, little princess. I think we're done here."

"...Horus, w-" The Alicorn quickly canters forward, easing her stride to a trot when she pulls alongside him then stumbles as a rippling cry echoes through her mind. Luna shakes her head violently to clear the cacophonous wail. "Wait where were... whuh." Her pupils dilate, part of her suddenly feeling a tug from something as hard to grasp as smoke.

The sideways stagger sends her crashing into Horus's thigh, getting an immediate glance from the Primarch. His voice dips to a gravely hiss, "Are you quite alright, Luna?"

The Alicorn's mind barely registers the cautious flicker of concern in that somber growl. She gasps at the air greedily, swallowing back a bitter tang creeping up her throat. "I thought I heard something."

"Like?" Horus probes, glancing at the shattered columns around them and glaring at some bat-winged lesser daemonic spawn cowering in the recesses.

"Like somepony screaming in my ear."

"Someone?"

"No, somepony."


"Woah, hey. Starlight? Starry? Glim? Glimmy Gal, a-are you okay?"

Starlight's breath came in ragged spurts and huffs. Perspiration that had beaded on her brow suddenly dribbled down as she swung her heard, stinging her eyes. It hurt, and her breath still escaped her despite the Unicorn's best efforts. She still tasted ash on her tongue. Yet the palpitations and flutter in her chest drew the most attention. Pressing a hoof to her breast, the thunderous beat still wasn't subsiding.

"Hey, hey... Look here." Trixie's forehooves press against her shoulders as she's pulled in close to look at her companion, nose to nose. Her mind still thrums, parsing the images it had taken as real together. Her eyes dart back and forth, drinking in the detail of the cabin. Wooden benches, soft cotton seat covers, well used but polished floor, and the window behind Trixie, blurred with raindrops.

Trixie.

The blue Unicorn mare's intense gaze rested squarely on her own eyes. Each time Starlight's head tried to jerk to the side, the pale blue mare's hock would slide to her chin and direct her gaze right back to herself. And after a few moments of staring, Starlight saw that smug and self-assured grin slowly return to her best friend's features. She was still here. Still there. That pang of worry about her sudden absence, sudden disappearance in fact, dissipated.

"Are you okay, Starlight?"

Trixie's question is answered with a sharp nod even before Starlight can put her words in order. "I-I'm okay. I'm okay now."

Her heart still beat at a league a minute, but the sharp scent and bitter taste had left her. "Of course you are" Trixie replies with a breath of relief. She stares for a moment, then cranes her neck and presses her nose to Starlight's before sliding a hoof to her rapidly warming cheek. The arrhythmic strum of her heart started to ease into the more well known beat of embarrassment. "You have the Great and Powerful Trixie right here, and she wouldn't let anything happen to you."

A shaky smile forms on Starlight's muzzle.

"Besides," The pale blue mare continues, "Trixie's quite sure that she wouldn't want to have to run errands for that Pesky Purple Princess. Though, Trixie did find that book that seemed ever so important, and so we stopped poor... What's his name from having to catch the next train to Canterlot."

"Spike," Starlight rolls her eyes, unable to hide the only marginally suppressed irritation, "his name is Spike."

Starlight catches the wane smirk a half-second later, and by then a similar dumb smile melds with a mock-judgemental glare on her own muzzle.

"Ah, of course." Trixie inclines her head just enough to miss tapping her horn against Starlight's, but she had that same smug self-satisfied grin plastered across her face. "The dragon-ling, how silly of Trixie to forget. But yes, no thanks needed. The empathic and understanding Trixie is there to help. You're welcome."

Still muzzle to muzzle, Starlight's grin fades into a moment of relief, even shaded by the brim of the magician's hat. "Alright, fair point. If you're disorganized flank hadn't been so late getting everything ready, we likely would have missed Spike's letter and left without getting the book."

Trixie smirk never falters as she pulls away. "Trixie knew you would see it her way. That's why we get along so well, compromise."

Starlight had to bite her lip to keep down the cackling laugh of disbelief. And even then, it only sorta worked with a snort and little whimper that her friend graciously decided to ignore. Whatever Trixie said, she felt better in moments, and part of her really did thank the Unicorn. "Yeah. Sure, Trixie. What would I do without you hounding my every step, hmm?"

Trixie hops to her hooves, relinquishing her seat and thus custody of the pair of books that had made her temporarily taller than her friend. She smiles, turning to look back over her shoulder, "Why, the Great and Powerful Trixie knows that you need her there for moral support. And who else would leave you so tongue tied and speechless? Princess Sparklebutt?"

A wink from her meets a roll of Starlight's eyes. It still didn't change the resigned smirk plastered on Starlight's face, or the now steady pace of her heart.

"Trixie," Starlight huffs in renewed irritation and gestures incredulously with a hoof, "you tagged along despite Twilight telling me to come here, then told me to wait for you, and then made me buy your ticket because you left your bit bag in the wagon."

"Ah-ah," Trixie presses a hoof to Starlight's lips, silencing her mouth but not disarming the slightly miffed stare directed at her. "No need to thank Trixie. She knows that she sacrifices much for the good of all ponykind in these, our grand endeavors. Now, sit your pretty little rump down and Trixie will get you something to drink. Don't worry, you can thank Trixie later."

And with that, Starlight watched her friend leave their seat, her own cutie marked bit bag levitating away in Trixie's pale magenta aura. Sure, she could have stopped it, but what was the point? The pony slumps back in her seat, massaging her eyes with her hooves and grumbling mostly under her breath now that her companion was out of earshot,

"You're lucky you're cute."