With little else to do after the battle, Sindri had essentially spent most of the time having a wander around the Academy facility, which unfortunately due to its relative blandness was less interesting than it actually sounded. Afterwards he had caught some grub in the lunch hall, but hadn’t really spotted anyone he knew or wanted to talk to whilst there. So now he was sitting in one of the facilities numerous gardens feeding pigeons with some bread he had gathered during lunch for this purpose.
The garden seemed to be based on Japanese gardening, with tightly trimmed foliage and trees, of which there were three positioned around the garden, with two in the corner and one thin tree standing in the middle, serving as a perch for some of the local avian population. small shrubs, round river stones and the occasional flower took up the rest, expressing highly minimalistic inclinations.
Normally he would have been likely irritating some members of the staff, or student population, but he had worked out most of his energy dealing with Mana, so he was more interested in doing something relaxing.
Occasionally a passing murmur of a group of students or conversing staff members caught his ears, but nobody entered the garden, instead using the corridors around it instead, where he watched them with a measure of disinterest through the glass barrier.
He hadn’t had much reason to shift back into his natural form, so as of such he was stretched across an old bench, hands behind his head except when he cast some more bread at the pigeons. Asides from their happy ‘burring’ and cooing, it seemed he was alone with his thoughts.
Alice ambled through the garden without much of a destination in mind, she was simply walking for the sake of something to do. She paid no real attention to her surroundings, eyes on the sky as she replayed the fight from earlier for the thousandth time in her mind, still analyzing it for strategies to fight Kitsunes. It’d probably be best to-
“Fuck!” she went sprawling over somebody, falling off and onto the ground. “Ow.”
With the sudden flight of some inattentive random crashing onto him and then onto the ground, Sindri let out an “Oof” as the air was blasted out of him by her weight. Pigeons flew everywhere, startled by the commotion as the figure fell heavily on the ground, Whilst Sindri nestled his guts in a pair of elongated taloned hands. Eyeing up the person who was currently sprawled over the ground he realised he recognised her from somewhere before.
“Hello to you too Alice, nice for you to drop by” he greeted her sarcastically.
Alice eyed him, raising an eyebrow at his appearance, Oh what fun it is to fall on emaciated corps-es!, she propped herself up on her elbows, grumbling, “Do I know you?”
Raising one disturbing looking hand, he waved it across his face, returning his features momentarily to his natural appearance with a small illusion, “Sindri remember? We met when I was dealing with our own dear Foxington Fox, otherwise known as Lily.”
She gave a small nod of understanding, pushing herself to her feet, “Oh, right, Sindri- you’re thin normally but not a corpse, forgive the confusion.” She stretched her arms, stuffing them back in the pockets of her coat and leaning against the tree near the bench, “Indeed, Lily.”
Sindri shrugged in acceptance, “We can’t all look like beautiful little pixies I guess, some of us are pretty ugly, personally I don’t mind looking like this, freaks people out.” He noted a finality to the last statement Alice raised and his brow furrowed in interest, “Sounds like something went down with the little miss, I heard you two were paired together, how’d that go?”
Whilst he said this the pigeons had returned, gathering around him again in an expectant circle, he threw some more bread at them offhandedly and they flocked to the food happily.
Alice watched for a moment as Sindri fed the pigeons, an eyebrow raised in amusement, “Well, it went fine at first, light hits don’t do much against a bunch of runic steel. Things started to go downhill when she killed all the plants to the horizon and beyond and tried to kill me.”
Sindri’s face lit up in a bright grin, which in his current form came across less friendly and more like he was going to eat someones face. “Sounds like you hit a nerve, usually I’m the only one who manages to do that, so kudos to you. Still, killing you would have been a downer I guess, so I guess I’m ‘glad’ you made it out alright.” Pausing momentarily to place one finger on his chin, he began to ponder, “Mine went alright, my opponent surrendered after I led her on a merry dance with my illusions, generally not a good idea to shoot blindly with us illusionists, just wastes time and energy.”
Whilst he continued the conversation, one lazy arm extended out towards the pigeons again as they were pecking away at the bread. With a click of his fingers they all suddenly stood to attention, as if listening intently to someone inaudible, and began lining up in a small square.
She eyed the pigeons with interest, stepping away from the tree and looking at them with curiosity, “Honestly if it weren’t for the fact that she’s so damned fast, it probably would’ve gone a lot differently,” Alice crouched down near the bench, “but indeed. Good deal harder to fight someone when you don’t even know if the ground is real… interesting thing with the birds, by the way.”
“You’d have probably been alright with the ground, thats more my forte than Lily’s, but her illusions can be rather irritating regardless. The best way you can really get through them is by denying their actual physical nature…” whilst he had been talking another click of the fingers had caused the pigeons to erupt into motion, doing something which was probably the pigeon form of ‘Thriller’ without music, “... as for the birds, my illusions are based on mental domination, so essentially so long as I can dig into your mind or trick it with my tricks, I can convince you to do anything. The pigeons are particularly easy because they aren’t human, Shifters are a bit more difficult than humans, mostly due to their understanding of the powers we as a group wield.”
He gave her a nonchalant smile, glowing green eyes drifting towards her sleepily, “With enough work I could probably convince you that you were in fact a pigeon, but thanks to the Academy, I am restricted in the usage of my powers with students, the public and staff. Thank our own ‘peaceful’ -” With this he did air quotes sarcastically with his talons “-Slyphide for that.”
Alice raised an eyebrow, “And, how would you convince someone they were a pigeon? I’m certainly not doubting the whether or not, more curious about how that works. Nobody ever bothers explaining magic to me.”
He shrugged, “With enough mental torture anyone will fold, I haven’t put this into practice but I figure with enough work I’d manage it. Anyway, once I have hypothetically broken them under the assault, I can feed them a series of lies and delusions which might slowly overwrite their own memories, my work is in essence, mindrape in its worst form, and psychological manipulation at its best. My assaults also tend to dull higher level thinking considerably in order to make them more pliable, so there is that to take into consideration also.”
Alice nodded as she digested the information, “Mind certainly is an interesting thing, give it a set of ‘facts’, some data to process and you’ve convinced it it’s a pigeon. Wonder if they could look at their own thought processes and ‘reality’ and realize a pigeon couldn’t do that?” She stood up silently, leaning against the tree once more, “So is that why we’re all illusions? Your own abilities make you doubt reality because you can so easily warp it for others?”
“Well its not impossible to break my control, but once you in there is a good chance you aren’t going to get out, too deep down the rabbit hole.” He stretched and yawned, sitting up from his prostrate position into more comfortably seated position, “As for the second, well its part of the reason, that and by Descartes theories we can’t be sure about anything not being an illusion asides from our own existence. I could for instance, not be talking to you right now, in which case I am having a conversation with a figment of nothingness. Seems rather pointless doesn’t it?” He flexed his fingers whilst the pigeons continued to dance happily away, now doing figures of eight’s before them, “I do leave open for people actually existing however, for instance I am growing more assured of your existence, and Slyphide clearly exists from how I interpret it… you do have to take into consideration one thing however…”
Suddenly Sindri’s easy going face settled into a serious expression, frowning in dislike at the very words he was speaking, “Imagine if you were me, and the governments of the world were training you to weaponize your skills in a grotesquely large conflict, to effectively ruin the mental faculties of other sapient beings, how could you live with yourself if you knew what you were doing? To destroy people so completely as to leave them suicidal wrecks afterwards… Perhaps… perhaps such an action would be necessary to cope with such a situation…”
Sindri went silent for a moment, introspective and with a depressed expression carved into his face, before suddenly erupting into good cheer again.
“Watch this!”
With another click of his fingers the pigeons flew into the air and began to dive and circle in organised patterns, practically dancing through the air as they did so.
Alice watched the pigeon aerobatics mutely, thoughts focused more on their puppetmaster then the birds themselves. So, this is a coping mechanism, not contempt of other people. That… definitely changes my opinion of him. Wonder what he was like before all of this?
She didn’t comment on the birds, instead rasping, “Can’t really imagine if I were you, when you’ve been trained to kill since the age of ten, your outlook on things like morality changes significantly.”
Sindri gave her a sympathetic look, but not one of pity, it didn’t seem Alice would want or deserve that. “I guess in that sort of situation moral quandaries would be pushed aside, and it would become more about the completion of whatever objective the mission involved, regardless of the brutality.” He whistled through his teeth, a surprising feat given his lack of noticeable lips “The Academy sure does drum up characters of all types and histories…”
He paused momentarily before continuing, hesitantly “... Your parents sort of sound like assholes.”
“Don’t actually know what mom was like, she OD’d on painkillers about three days after I was born, dad though, he’s definitely an ass.” She shrugged, “I think the Academy doesn’t care so long as you don’t kill anybody here. They’d probably accept just about anybody willing to kill Endolans, government employee or private.”
He gave a dark chuckle in response, “To be fair, you have to be a little crazy to sign your life away to a global conflict and get turned into a mythical being as apart of the war effort. Most likely they would accept anyone, not that I’m complaining, I guess we have a unique level of diversity here.” He grew a little more serious, “Sorry about your mum by the way… I… lost both my parents recently… they were good people.” His face turned morose and introspective, staring at the pigeons who were still doing loop-de-loops above them.
Alice pursed her lips, she leaned to the side, extending her arm and laying it on Sindri’s shoulder, patting it a couple times before she withdrew. She leaned back against the tree, not thinking any words needed to be said.
After a while the lull of silence was broken as Sindri stood up, his armour clanking as he did so. Turning back to Alice he began to shift back into his normal form and bright yellow suit, giving her a sad sort of smile as he turned to leave, “I better get back to my place, gotta do some reading. I’ll see you later Alice. Thanks for the conversation.”
With a backwards wave he slunk off into the facility, disappearing amidst the labyrinthine structures thousands of corridors and beyond sight.
Above the garden, the pigeons suddenly erupted into startled cooing as the illusion disappeared, and they collectively fled in different directions, leaving the garden barren of life once again, asides from a solitary figure standing near a tree.
EldritchOne
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Nephren-Ka Was Here Bruh.
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I whip my feathered serpent back and forth.
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Oh Torrential you dirty dog! Ha Ha Ha!
Scarlet eyed the mechanical constructs around her curiously, and seemingly oblivious to the extreme danger they posed to her, appraising their workings with interest. “Hmm, interesting creations of yours, what powers them?” She looked around some more, “Ah, but I forget, you’re asking the questions right? Let’s see…”
Scarlet continued walking, keeping up her current oblivious air, nonetheless she eyed the large swords held by Tsan and Lambda, and her mind left nothing to the imagination of what the result of a fight between herself and this armored column would be. “I am Scarlet Ink, or Aлый Чернила, and I came here to find adventure, drink vodka, and conduct a rescue operation. Unfortunately, you southern ponies don’t have any good vodka, and my rescue operation appears to have gone awry, so it seems I am left with finding adventure of some sort.”
“You sound Stalliongradian I’ll give you that, so I’ll take your word for it. Otherwise you haven’t really answered my latter questions.” pausing to take in a glance at the unconscious Dr Lens straddled over the back of one his children he frowned, “It does appear that this ‘rescue’ has gone awry in a manner of speaking, If she’s a friend then I am afraid she is in deep trouble, and depending on what I find she might not make it through tonight, given the situation she lead me straight into.” He turned back to the mercenary, the frown still digging deep ridges into his brow, fixing her with a decidedly dangerous glare.
“Now back onto point, who do you work for?”
“In theory,” Scarlet began, “I work for myself. However, as you claimed my ‘blade skills reek of Alicorn magic’ -very astute by the way, well done- I do work for an alicorn so to speak.”
Scalpel stopped in his tracks and raise one hoof with that announcement, and with near complete synchronicity the column halted, turning to face Scarlet with their expressionless gazes. He took a moment for the weight of those words to sink into him before replying, clipped and with a voice as cold as ice, staring directly at her in what might have been a neutral expression if not for the threat that lay behind it.
“Which. One.”
Scarlet raised an eyebrow, “Touchy much…” she grumbled to herself, “Armifera, the Imperatrix. Lady of Battle, the Martial Arts, Swordplay, Passion, whiskey, and a couple other things I can’t remember. Pretty sure all she’s done so far is crush cultists and bisect bandits.”
The tension behind the moment quickly dissipated after that announcement, the column returned to its previous position and began the march again. Scalpel’s face which had been as taut as a drawn bow relaxed slightly. “You would be too if you knew who was currently watching me. That bloody forest goddess seemed to have gotten all riled up over one offhand statement, If it wasn’t that they were Inquisitors I would have guessed that they might have been her lackey’s back there.” He grumbled a moment longer, the frown deepening once again, “Oh well, at least you serve one of the better ones, half of the new gods come across as violent and deranged to me. Regardless, what’s your connection to Dr Lens here?”
She nodded, “They do seem a smite-y lot, don’t they?”
She glanced back around at Lens, “Well, long story short I was traveling near Whitegold territory, when a small army of bandits saw fit to attack me while I was sleeping. Had I been a bit more prepared there wouldn’t have been an issue, but as I was finishing them off one му дак пизда managed to land a hit with her crossbow, and hit a thin section on my armor.” She paused momentarily to gesture at the small hole in the armor on her thigh, “So I nailed her skull to a tree with the knife she had sheathed at her side and teleported, in hindsight it’s a miracle I’m not dead. Anyway, it seems I’ve managed to teleport myself halfway across Equestria by accident, and so I dragged myself into the nearest town I could find, and Lens happened to be there, and fixed my leg.”
She looked back over at Scalpel, “I can assure you she’s no Inquisitor, nor on their side. They can be good actors, but when you’ve been on the run from them for a decade you learn their mannerisms. I found the pony Longsight replaced drugged in a closet, and that’s more or less why I’m out here.”
Now that she was looking at Scalpel, something struck her, “You seem familiar… I think I recognize you from somewhere…” she paused, “I’m going to assume it wasn’t a bar in Stalliongrad.”
Scalpel nodded “Everything you’ve told me matches up with what my contacts informed me briefly of earlier, and I don’t have much need to doubt your word in regards to your purpose, yet.” he suddenly let out a deep sigh, his frustration clear as day regarding the circumstances of the moment, “I am afraid I just can’t take your word for it regarding Lens, even if she wasn’t directly involved, the Inquisition could be seeded well into her organisation, I need direct truthful information on the status of her scholarly unit, which will require extensive investigation.”
“I can promise you that if she doesn’t have anything to hide then she will be fine, however the same does not apply if anything turns up. A message needs to be set across to her organisation, inefficiencies and treachery like this cannot be tolerated, even if she is not guilty directly.”
Turning back to her he looked at her more closely, lips tightly locked in a frown as he scrutinised her, “I’d believe I can say the same about you… you certainly look familiar to me… but perhaps its better that we pretend we don’t know each other. In fact it’d be more likely to be in your interest to forget this entire situation ever popped up.”
Scarlet, being Scarlet, had been talking under her breath to herself and had managed to more or less miss Scalpel’s ‘advice’, “No, no, not a brothel, not an arms dealer, not a… wait,” she looked back up at him, “Weren’t you that colt at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? The one who always lurked in the libraries? Damn,” she looked back at the mechanized undead, “you’ve certainly made a lot more friends in the interim.”
Scalpel gave her a blank look, “I am pretty sure you were the loud angry one which was constantly shouting or punching something, or mixing both together at the same time. Regardless I don’t have anything to keep you here, just keep your mouth shut and some poor innkeeper won’t have to wipe your brain matter of his walls at some point in the foreseeable future.” He gave a signal to his children and one side opened up leaving room for a pony to leave the column “You’re free to go, I’ll be keeping an eye on you though, and if you mention this to a large turquoise alicorn I will murder you, very slowly and very painfully.”
Scarlet gave a longing look at the mechanical parts of the undead, before turning away with a slight stoop, before stopping. “Actually, no.” she turned around, “I owe Lens over there a favor, and I’m going to see it out. Try killing me if you want, but if she’s not going to make it tonight I’d at least like to repay that favor, otherwise it’s going to drive me crazy. Besides, you still haven’t told me what powers those creations of yours.” she stood glaring at Scalpel, before her eyes widened as she let out an enormous belch. Smacking her lips, Scarlet mused out loud, “Hmm, ethanol, 80 proof, apple based. It appears that I am drunk.” she hiccuped slightly, as if on cue to prove the point.
Scalpel gave her a semi-incredulous look, as if he was amazed that someone could be both so utterly stubborn and stupid at the same time, “You’re standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by creatures you just saw rip an Inquisition team into chunky meat lumps, and trying to stare down a pony you just saw feed peoples souls to a dark creature beyond this dimension… and you’re trying to get me to tell you how parts of my creations work whilst arguing about giving Lens a favour… Wow… just… Wow.” He raised one hoof to his face and rubbed it in pain in response to the audacious stupidity he had just witnessed, “Alright, what’s the favour?” he asked, muttering under his breath, “Are you just that stupid or is it the drink talking?”
“Hmm… about ten shots of 80 proof cider, another five or so of something I don’t even know what, and poor sleep. I’d be inclined to blame the booze.” she chuckled to herself, “Didn’t I just say the favor I owe Lens? Scroll back up and see if you doubt me.”
Scalpel rolled his eyes, “The leg. Right. Well I can’t let you come along, so the other two options are that I turn you into meaty chunks… or...I have my soldiers beat you into unconsciousness.” With that Scalpel’s legions closed ranks, turning inward again and advancing towards the lone mare. The situation did not look good for her.
Suddenly a rustling from the bushes just up ahead redirected all of the Risen and Scalpel’s attention, suddenly it wasn’t just hooves being presented, it was blades.
“Who’s out there!” Scalpel roared, furious at the interruption, “Show yourself!”
Another rustle from the foliage, and then two recognisable figures slowly emerged from the forest, a giant of a stallion covered in far inferior technology to the current Risen, and a small filly with two intricately designed metal back legs and a oil lamp gripped in her mouth.
“Honey…?” Scalpel asked, surprised more than anything, “What are you doing out here, dear?”
Scarlet’s head whipped around to the noise, and her eyebrow shot up as she took in the sight, “Okay, now I’m curious.” she muttered quietly to herself.
Making her way through the crowd of now relaxed machines, she barely gave the corpses a glance as she sidled up to Scalpel and gave him a hug, “I saw lights in the sky, and the orbs told me that something had gone wrong, I was worried.”
Surprisingly Scalpel’s face softened considerably, he almost looked benevolent rather than the paranoid murderous scientist he had been before, “You shouldn’t have worried Honey, I’m alright, although I can’t say the same for those Inquisitors.” He eyed her up a little concerned, “How are the new legs? They responding okay?”
Honey gave a sort of ‘Hmmm’ “They’re better than the wheels uncle, but I must admit they’ll take a while to get used to, plus I think one on the left one needs another oil.”
Scalpel gave a small lighthearted laugh, “fair enough, I am glad you were wise enough to bring Grunge with you, the woods is no place for a filly.”
Honey raise an eyebrow at that, giving him a grumpy glare “I’m not a foal uncle…”
He smiled, running a hoof lovingly through her bronze and gold hair “I’m aware, but you know how I worry.”
Scarlet’s eyebrow now appeared to be trying to achieve liftoff, “What.” she muttered to herself, completely and utterly perplexed.
Nonetheless in the back of her mind, she was already analyzing the legs on the new arrival, trying to piece together their function from what she could see.
As if noticing the attention she was getting, Honey turned towards Scarlet and responded by giving her an equally intense stare, “Who’s this?”. Suddenly noticing something, she lead to the side to look behind Scarlet, “Lambda, you know its not nice to punch guests in the back of the head, please put the hoof back on the ground where it belongs.”
Bizarrely, the machine pony almost looked embarrassed, “Apologies miss Honey” it replied in a reverberating voice, kicking at the sod in an awkward manner like a reproved child.
Scarlet glanced behind her and then back at Honey, giving her a small nod of thanks. “Seems I owe you one. I like my morning headaches as small as possible.”
She began again after a small pause, “So what’s Scalpel doing all the way out here? He’s got a lot more em, friends, than last time I saw him in Celestia’s School…”
Honey raised an eyebrow at her, “As if I’d tell you, as for friends…” she glanced about, eyeing up the numbers around her, “there are a lot more of them back home. Speaking of which uncle, is that mare coming with us?”
Scalpel shrugged, “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Scarlet interjected, “Okay, look, sorry if this is rude, but what’s with those legs? They’re orders of magnitude more advanced than those things,” she gestured towards the undead automatons, “... I just said the wrong thing didn’t I?”
Scalpel’s glare could have frozen the limbs off a Windigo, “The legs are custom made, spent a lot of time making them just perfect. Very precise, very complex.” He gestured at the others, “Most of the fellow Risen are augmented with more mass producible models- well asides from Lambda and Tsan over there, but you can’t really see that behind all the armour- otherwise creating them would take much more time.”
“As for why…” Scalpel continued, only to be interrupted by Honey as she gave her own little glare at Scarlet.
“Earthborn night attack, Moon and Star campaign five years ago.” she replied “Uncle got there in time to save my life and just enough of my horn, not quick enough to save my legs.”
Scalpel gave a visibly pained expression at that, and Honey noticed and she gave him a squeezy hug. She couldn’t blame her uncle, he had been on the far side of the camp dealing with the injured when the Earthborn had begun the assault.
Scarlet didn’t react immediately, her head hanging down slightly, though it would’ve been hard to miss the darkening of her coat and the whitening of her mane even in the sparse light. She looked up, exposing two eyes lacking pupils, the irises looked almost to be bleeding. She spoke calmly, evenly, almost completely unlike how she normally spoke, “And, are any of them still alive?”
Both Honey and Scalpel eyed her up in surprise, neither had seen such a display before and it took them off guard for a moment. “Well...I think out of the original ten there are about five who are still alive, six if you count one under a technicality. I dealt with the other four viscerally many years earlier, been slowly tracking down the rest ever since” Scalpel answered, eyeing up the brooding mare and giving her a somewhat nervous glance as he did so. “I didn’t have time to deal with them at the time, Honey’s injuries were too severe.”
Scarlet thought on that for a second, “And, do you have any idea where any of them are now?”
Scalpel nodded after a moments hesitation, “Not all of them, only two really, with rumor of a third. I have no idea where the other two are at all. Last time I heard from my sources Steel Mane was a drunken wastrel in Manehatten and Cotton Tail had risen to a relatively high position in New Ponyville, I think an Overseer-Governor or whatever the ranking system is with the Earthborn. The only other news I have is a rumor of Grape Shot in Rusty Horseshoe.”
“I see…” she mused for a moment, “And, what state would you like them in? Dead? Chopped into bits? Or bring them back here for even worse?”
Scalpel gave her a confused smile “Are you offering your services?... well I don’t see the harm in hiring you, preferably I’d want them alive to impose my own tender mercies upon, but if they won’t come quietly I won’t be too put out if you kill them, just make it visceral.” He shrugged his shoulders in at this, a concentrated frown settling onto his brow again, “What could I offer you in return? I’m open to suggestions.”
“If I bring them back I hope those mercies are especially tender.” she began, “It depends really, much as I… detest… what happened to… Honey, was it?” she looked over at Scalpel, “I do think legs like that might be interesting, if payment is a thing.”
A look of surprise crossed Scalpels face before it settled into a small smile, “Another enthusiast it seems, I must say I don’t entirely understand why given you have perfectly functional legs, and normally I wouldn’t give away my secrets, but given its of a… personal nature, I’ll bite. Given you are going to be doing me a service in this regard, I’ll even sweeten the deal further with the promise of Dr Lens’ survival. Deliver all five, or part of all five in a recognisable state and I’ll see about installing the machinery.”
Scarlet nodded, “Please do go easy on Lens, she’s a good pony. Is there a good spot you know of for me to show up with these Earthborn? It’ll be much faster and more efficient if I teleport them than if I drag them across Equestria.”
Scalpel scratched his chin in thought, “Well I have numerous contacts across Equestria, I could arrange some drop points for you to deliver them to and into the hand of my captains” here he nodded towards Lambda and Tsan. “ Alternately if you give me until tomorrow I might have something which you can use to directly contact me once you have one, my scouts will be spreading out soon, and they can deal with the pick up, it also lessens the possibility of my contacts getting in a tight spot or losing my best Risen.”
“As for Lens, I’ll go as lightly as I will on her, but if she is a traitor she’ll likely not see the light of day for a long time. If not, then the book will be confiscated as a response for her group leaders failure, but she’ll go free. I did actually like her before this… mess turned up my doorstep.”
“Anyway...” Scalpel’s face became businesslike and officious, “Do we have a deal Miss Scarlet?”
“We do.”
Scarlet continued walking, keeping up her current oblivious air, nonetheless she eyed the large swords held by Tsan and Lambda, and her mind left nothing to the imagination of what the result of a fight between herself and this armored column would be. “I am Scarlet Ink, or Aлый Чернила, and I came here to find adventure, drink vodka, and conduct a rescue operation. Unfortunately, you southern ponies don’t have any good vodka, and my rescue operation appears to have gone awry, so it seems I am left with finding adventure of some sort.”
“You sound Stalliongradian I’ll give you that, so I’ll take your word for it. Otherwise you haven’t really answered my latter questions.” pausing to take in a glance at the unconscious Dr Lens straddled over the back of one his children he frowned, “It does appear that this ‘rescue’ has gone awry in a manner of speaking, If she’s a friend then I am afraid she is in deep trouble, and depending on what I find she might not make it through tonight, given the situation she lead me straight into.” He turned back to the mercenary, the frown still digging deep ridges into his brow, fixing her with a decidedly dangerous glare.
“Now back onto point, who do you work for?”
“In theory,” Scarlet began, “I work for myself. However, as you claimed my ‘blade skills reek of Alicorn magic’ -very astute by the way, well done- I do work for an alicorn so to speak.”
Scalpel stopped in his tracks and raise one hoof with that announcement, and with near complete synchronicity the column halted, turning to face Scarlet with their expressionless gazes. He took a moment for the weight of those words to sink into him before replying, clipped and with a voice as cold as ice, staring directly at her in what might have been a neutral expression if not for the threat that lay behind it.
“Which. One.”
Scarlet raised an eyebrow, “Touchy much…” she grumbled to herself, “Armifera, the Imperatrix. Lady of Battle, the Martial Arts, Swordplay, Passion, whiskey, and a couple other things I can’t remember. Pretty sure all she’s done so far is crush cultists and bisect bandits.”
The tension behind the moment quickly dissipated after that announcement, the column returned to its previous position and began the march again. Scalpel’s face which had been as taut as a drawn bow relaxed slightly. “You would be too if you knew who was currently watching me. That bloody forest goddess seemed to have gotten all riled up over one offhand statement, If it wasn’t that they were Inquisitors I would have guessed that they might have been her lackey’s back there.” He grumbled a moment longer, the frown deepening once again, “Oh well, at least you serve one of the better ones, half of the new gods come across as violent and deranged to me. Regardless, what’s your connection to Dr Lens here?”
She nodded, “They do seem a smite-y lot, don’t they?”
She glanced back around at Lens, “Well, long story short I was traveling near Whitegold territory, when a small army of bandits saw fit to attack me while I was sleeping. Had I been a bit more prepared there wouldn’t have been an issue, but as I was finishing them off one му дак пизда managed to land a hit with her crossbow, and hit a thin section on my armor.” She paused momentarily to gesture at the small hole in the armor on her thigh, “So I nailed her skull to a tree with the knife she had sheathed at her side and teleported, in hindsight it’s a miracle I’m not dead. Anyway, it seems I’ve managed to teleport myself halfway across Equestria by accident, and so I dragged myself into the nearest town I could find, and Lens happened to be there, and fixed my leg.”
She looked back over at Scalpel, “I can assure you she’s no Inquisitor, nor on their side. They can be good actors, but when you’ve been on the run from them for a decade you learn their mannerisms. I found the pony Longsight replaced drugged in a closet, and that’s more or less why I’m out here.”
Now that she was looking at Scalpel, something struck her, “You seem familiar… I think I recognize you from somewhere…” she paused, “I’m going to assume it wasn’t a bar in Stalliongrad.”
Scalpel nodded “Everything you’ve told me matches up with what my contacts informed me briefly of earlier, and I don’t have much need to doubt your word in regards to your purpose, yet.” he suddenly let out a deep sigh, his frustration clear as day regarding the circumstances of the moment, “I am afraid I just can’t take your word for it regarding Lens, even if she wasn’t directly involved, the Inquisition could be seeded well into her organisation, I need direct truthful information on the status of her scholarly unit, which will require extensive investigation.”
“I can promise you that if she doesn’t have anything to hide then she will be fine, however the same does not apply if anything turns up. A message needs to be set across to her organisation, inefficiencies and treachery like this cannot be tolerated, even if she is not guilty directly.”
Turning back to her he looked at her more closely, lips tightly locked in a frown as he scrutinised her, “I’d believe I can say the same about you… you certainly look familiar to me… but perhaps its better that we pretend we don’t know each other. In fact it’d be more likely to be in your interest to forget this entire situation ever popped up.”
Scarlet, being Scarlet, had been talking under her breath to herself and had managed to more or less miss Scalpel’s ‘advice’, “No, no, not a brothel, not an arms dealer, not a… wait,” she looked back up at him, “Weren’t you that colt at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? The one who always lurked in the libraries? Damn,” she looked back at the mechanized undead, “you’ve certainly made a lot more friends in the interim.”
Scalpel gave her a blank look, “I am pretty sure you were the loud angry one which was constantly shouting or punching something, or mixing both together at the same time. Regardless I don’t have anything to keep you here, just keep your mouth shut and some poor innkeeper won’t have to wipe your brain matter of his walls at some point in the foreseeable future.” He gave a signal to his children and one side opened up leaving room for a pony to leave the column “You’re free to go, I’ll be keeping an eye on you though, and if you mention this to a large turquoise alicorn I will murder you, very slowly and very painfully.”
Scarlet gave a longing look at the mechanical parts of the undead, before turning away with a slight stoop, before stopping. “Actually, no.” she turned around, “I owe Lens over there a favor, and I’m going to see it out. Try killing me if you want, but if she’s not going to make it tonight I’d at least like to repay that favor, otherwise it’s going to drive me crazy. Besides, you still haven’t told me what powers those creations of yours.” she stood glaring at Scalpel, before her eyes widened as she let out an enormous belch. Smacking her lips, Scarlet mused out loud, “Hmm, ethanol, 80 proof, apple based. It appears that I am drunk.” she hiccuped slightly, as if on cue to prove the point.
Scalpel gave her a semi-incredulous look, as if he was amazed that someone could be both so utterly stubborn and stupid at the same time, “You’re standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by creatures you just saw rip an Inquisition team into chunky meat lumps, and trying to stare down a pony you just saw feed peoples souls to a dark creature beyond this dimension… and you’re trying to get me to tell you how parts of my creations work whilst arguing about giving Lens a favour… Wow… just… Wow.” He raised one hoof to his face and rubbed it in pain in response to the audacious stupidity he had just witnessed, “Alright, what’s the favour?” he asked, muttering under his breath, “Are you just that stupid or is it the drink talking?”
“Hmm… about ten shots of 80 proof cider, another five or so of something I don’t even know what, and poor sleep. I’d be inclined to blame the booze.” she chuckled to herself, “Didn’t I just say the favor I owe Lens? Scroll back up and see if you doubt me.”
Scalpel rolled his eyes, “The leg. Right. Well I can’t let you come along, so the other two options are that I turn you into meaty chunks… or...I have my soldiers beat you into unconsciousness.” With that Scalpel’s legions closed ranks, turning inward again and advancing towards the lone mare. The situation did not look good for her.
Suddenly a rustling from the bushes just up ahead redirected all of the Risen and Scalpel’s attention, suddenly it wasn’t just hooves being presented, it was blades.
“Who’s out there!” Scalpel roared, furious at the interruption, “Show yourself!”
Another rustle from the foliage, and then two recognisable figures slowly emerged from the forest, a giant of a stallion covered in far inferior technology to the current Risen, and a small filly with two intricately designed metal back legs and a oil lamp gripped in her mouth.
“Honey…?” Scalpel asked, surprised more than anything, “What are you doing out here, dear?”
Scarlet’s head whipped around to the noise, and her eyebrow shot up as she took in the sight, “Okay, now I’m curious.” she muttered quietly to herself.
Making her way through the crowd of now relaxed machines, she barely gave the corpses a glance as she sidled up to Scalpel and gave him a hug, “I saw lights in the sky, and the orbs told me that something had gone wrong, I was worried.”
Surprisingly Scalpel’s face softened considerably, he almost looked benevolent rather than the paranoid murderous scientist he had been before, “You shouldn’t have worried Honey, I’m alright, although I can’t say the same for those Inquisitors.” He eyed her up a little concerned, “How are the new legs? They responding okay?”
Honey gave a sort of ‘Hmmm’ “They’re better than the wheels uncle, but I must admit they’ll take a while to get used to, plus I think one on the left one needs another oil.”
Scalpel gave a small lighthearted laugh, “fair enough, I am glad you were wise enough to bring Grunge with you, the woods is no place for a filly.”
Honey raise an eyebrow at that, giving him a grumpy glare “I’m not a foal uncle…”
He smiled, running a hoof lovingly through her bronze and gold hair “I’m aware, but you know how I worry.”
Scarlet’s eyebrow now appeared to be trying to achieve liftoff, “What.” she muttered to herself, completely and utterly perplexed.
Nonetheless in the back of her mind, she was already analyzing the legs on the new arrival, trying to piece together their function from what she could see.
As if noticing the attention she was getting, Honey turned towards Scarlet and responded by giving her an equally intense stare, “Who’s this?”. Suddenly noticing something, she lead to the side to look behind Scarlet, “Lambda, you know its not nice to punch guests in the back of the head, please put the hoof back on the ground where it belongs.”
Bizarrely, the machine pony almost looked embarrassed, “Apologies miss Honey” it replied in a reverberating voice, kicking at the sod in an awkward manner like a reproved child.
Scarlet glanced behind her and then back at Honey, giving her a small nod of thanks. “Seems I owe you one. I like my morning headaches as small as possible.”
She began again after a small pause, “So what’s Scalpel doing all the way out here? He’s got a lot more em, friends, than last time I saw him in Celestia’s School…”
Honey raised an eyebrow at her, “As if I’d tell you, as for friends…” she glanced about, eyeing up the numbers around her, “there are a lot more of them back home. Speaking of which uncle, is that mare coming with us?”
Scalpel shrugged, “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Scarlet interjected, “Okay, look, sorry if this is rude, but what’s with those legs? They’re orders of magnitude more advanced than those things,” she gestured towards the undead automatons, “... I just said the wrong thing didn’t I?”
Scalpel’s glare could have frozen the limbs off a Windigo, “The legs are custom made, spent a lot of time making them just perfect. Very precise, very complex.” He gestured at the others, “Most of the fellow Risen are augmented with more mass producible models- well asides from Lambda and Tsan over there, but you can’t really see that behind all the armour- otherwise creating them would take much more time.”
“As for why…” Scalpel continued, only to be interrupted by Honey as she gave her own little glare at Scarlet.
“Earthborn night attack, Moon and Star campaign five years ago.” she replied “Uncle got there in time to save my life and just enough of my horn, not quick enough to save my legs.”
Scalpel gave a visibly pained expression at that, and Honey noticed and she gave him a squeezy hug. She couldn’t blame her uncle, he had been on the far side of the camp dealing with the injured when the Earthborn had begun the assault.
Scarlet didn’t react immediately, her head hanging down slightly, though it would’ve been hard to miss the darkening of her coat and the whitening of her mane even in the sparse light. She looked up, exposing two eyes lacking pupils, the irises looked almost to be bleeding. She spoke calmly, evenly, almost completely unlike how she normally spoke, “And, are any of them still alive?”
Both Honey and Scalpel eyed her up in surprise, neither had seen such a display before and it took them off guard for a moment. “Well...I think out of the original ten there are about five who are still alive, six if you count one under a technicality. I dealt with the other four viscerally many years earlier, been slowly tracking down the rest ever since” Scalpel answered, eyeing up the brooding mare and giving her a somewhat nervous glance as he did so. “I didn’t have time to deal with them at the time, Honey’s injuries were too severe.”
Scarlet thought on that for a second, “And, do you have any idea where any of them are now?”
Scalpel nodded after a moments hesitation, “Not all of them, only two really, with rumor of a third. I have no idea where the other two are at all. Last time I heard from my sources Steel Mane was a drunken wastrel in Manehatten and Cotton Tail had risen to a relatively high position in New Ponyville, I think an Overseer-Governor or whatever the ranking system is with the Earthborn. The only other news I have is a rumor of Grape Shot in Rusty Horseshoe.”
“I see…” she mused for a moment, “And, what state would you like them in? Dead? Chopped into bits? Or bring them back here for even worse?”
Scalpel gave her a confused smile “Are you offering your services?... well I don’t see the harm in hiring you, preferably I’d want them alive to impose my own tender mercies upon, but if they won’t come quietly I won’t be too put out if you kill them, just make it visceral.” He shrugged his shoulders in at this, a concentrated frown settling onto his brow again, “What could I offer you in return? I’m open to suggestions.”
“If I bring them back I hope those mercies are especially tender.” she began, “It depends really, much as I… detest… what happened to… Honey, was it?” she looked over at Scalpel, “I do think legs like that might be interesting, if payment is a thing.”
A look of surprise crossed Scalpels face before it settled into a small smile, “Another enthusiast it seems, I must say I don’t entirely understand why given you have perfectly functional legs, and normally I wouldn’t give away my secrets, but given its of a… personal nature, I’ll bite. Given you are going to be doing me a service in this regard, I’ll even sweeten the deal further with the promise of Dr Lens’ survival. Deliver all five, or part of all five in a recognisable state and I’ll see about installing the machinery.”
Scarlet nodded, “Please do go easy on Lens, she’s a good pony. Is there a good spot you know of for me to show up with these Earthborn? It’ll be much faster and more efficient if I teleport them than if I drag them across Equestria.”
Scalpel scratched his chin in thought, “Well I have numerous contacts across Equestria, I could arrange some drop points for you to deliver them to and into the hand of my captains” here he nodded towards Lambda and Tsan. “ Alternately if you give me until tomorrow I might have something which you can use to directly contact me once you have one, my scouts will be spreading out soon, and they can deal with the pick up, it also lessens the possibility of my contacts getting in a tight spot or losing my best Risen.”
“As for Lens, I’ll go as lightly as I will on her, but if she is a traitor she’ll likely not see the light of day for a long time. If not, then the book will be confiscated as a response for her group leaders failure, but she’ll go free. I did actually like her before this… mess turned up my doorstep.”
“Anyway...” Scalpel’s face became businesslike and officious, “Do we have a deal Miss Scarlet?”
“We do.”
You have my interest. :)
Sindri gave a small grin of amusement at the outcry from Lily, obviously she had tried to set up a merry dance with him beforehand but had been outmaneuvered by the foxy Ikari.
Tough luck little princess... he mused smugly.
He had recognised the individual he had been assigned, occasionally he had spotted her in his more Fae centric classes and he was pretty sure she had something to do with lightning or somesuch. Regardless it didn’t really matter, the battlefield awaited and he wanted to test this Fae’s mettle.
Downing the last of his coffee, then crushing and discarding the cup, he glided off to the location he had been assigned. the area was a little rough and hilly, but not something that caused him too much trouble. Once he reached the peak of the mound he was currently standing on, he turned back to look for his assigned ‘playmate’.
Mana was having a light jog in the direction of the field, after she finished asking one of the instructors a couple of questions she had for him. After that, finding the field took a few minutes for her, and she headed there in a steady pace, but not too fast, to ensure she doesn’t feel exhausted before she even arrived at the field.
Upon reaching it, she saw it was a slightly hilly field. Nothing that she couldn’t handle, but she wondered who her opponent was. His name sounded familiar, most likely from one of the classes, but she didn’t quite remember who he was. After moving to stand on a hill across from
where Sindri was, Mana looked at him for a second “Alright then. I’m Melina, but call me Mana. I hate being called Melina. I guess you’re Sindri, right? Want to go ahead and start?” She asked him in a loud voice, to ensure he hears her properly.
Sindri eyed up his opponent with a bemused smile stretching across his face from cheek to cheek, “Well aren’t you an interesting one, If I wasn’t up to date on Academy policy I’d say they’d dropped recruitment age by a good four years, and the blue hair! you must attract a lot of attention with that, given that its natural.” His eyes almost popped out their sockets, and his grin reached cheshire proportions, “You must have such insecurities… oh this is just going to be marvelous!” he rubbed his hands together with glee, slowly rising into the air as he did so “We shall begin, little Madoka.”
As he rose up into the air, his skin began to peel away like old paint, and his eyes took on a radioactive green glow, in a voice as hollow as a demon he spoke through rows of translucent teeth, “Playtime has begun!”.
Hearing the way he spoke about how she appeared young and how her natural blue hair brings her attention made Mana lower her sight to the ground. He was correct about that, but he was slightly mistaken about the insecurities part. She already knew very well that no matter where she went and who she will encounter, there was a big chance of hearing that and being judged by it. She let out a deep breath before beginning to focus.
Not hearing his last remark about calling Madoka, Mana’s appearance would begin to change. Her arms would become wings with hands and her ponytail would suddenly raise a bit. Her eyes became more like that of a bird and a couple of small wings appeared where her ears used to be at. She then looked at Sindri before focusing carefully on her hands “I guess we have started.” She said before bringing her hands together very quickly, sending a very strong burst of wind and lightning in his direction. The wind would be strong enough to make trees fall out of their place and the lightning would go in different directions.
As the lightning barrage launched itself towards him Sindri countered with an exertion of his own raw force, blasting a line in front of him free of its power and protecting himself from its raw fury. Despite this, a few glancing blows struck him, punching his changing form backwards a few feet in the air. As the last of his human form left him, the ghoulish visage of him became apparent, and eyes once jovial met his opponent in a look of utter malice. “Oh you’ll have to do better than that little birdie girl…” he snarled “enjoy this…”
With an explosion of magic his green wings erupted from his back and raised an arm in her direction, “lets see how your concentration holds out now...” he grinned, as the first dulling mandibles of power began their assault on his opponents mind, “...and to improve the fun! I think there is too little of me here today! Enjoy.” With that he erupted into doppelgangers, perhaps twelve in all flitting through the air, each going in different directions.
Increasing the power of his manipulations, he began one of his most amusing tricks, beginning the ringing of disorientation and nausea with his attack.
Suddenly seeing twelve of Sindri made it fairly easy to narrow down what kind of magic Sindri had, and the sudden ringing and slight nausea that came afterwards allowed Mana to understand that she was dealing with someone who could mess around with her mind. With ease too, so it appeared. Ignoring the feeling of the nausea as much as she could, she looked around at all of the different Sindri that begun going in different directions.
Mana focused on both her arms, and lightning would appear to be gathering in them before she took off into the air, much to her dislike, in order to be in the same height as Sindri, and then spun on the spot as she shot the lightning out of her arms, shooting several lightning bolts all around, trying to get rid of as many of the Sindri’s as possible.
The swarm scattered as the Thunderbird took to the air and began blasting away indiscriminately, one unfortunate ‘ganger was not quick enough and swiftly disintegrated into blackened ash, becoming immaterial and becoming nothingness on the breeze. They all turned to look at her in amusement and collectively spoke.
“Missed me!”
They spun away cackling as the true Sindri led them on a merry chase, intensifying the previous assault with his own whisperings and temptations, he doubted they’d do anything now, but they were distracting and eventually they might make her submit. Rising out of the swarm at blinding speed, Sindri, aimed a forceful punch to the back of Mana’s head before diving and rising into the swarm once again.
Hearing all of them tell her that she missed him was certainly irritating, but she didn’t want to let him get on her nerves, so as she started to think on what to do next, Mana suddenly felt herself be struck at the back of her head, which made her slightly fall down, but she managed to stop herself midair. Moving to properly land on the ground, she looked up at all of the Sindri’s that were flying around. Along with the feeling of the nausea and the constant disorienting ringing, she thought that he couldn’t have made it any more obvious that he was trying to make her lose her focus and just attack until she gives up.
“Interesting power you have, Sand-ri. Let me guess, you usually bore all of the people you fight to death.” She said in a teasing tone, trying to return the favor he was giving her. She then kept her eyes opens and her arms started having lightning gather in them making it clear that she was waiting to see his reaction and attack accordingly.
“Only the ones I consider of no consequence little bird, and you are nothing more than carrion to me. However, perhaps I should spice up my attack somewhat? How about improving the scenery!” The Sindri’s all collectively grinned, a nightmarish swarm of degraded angels making mockery of her.
All raising a collective arm in the air, the swarm twisted it into a clawed fist of too many fingers, “Lets lighten things up shall we?”.
Suddenly the currents of air changed, the ground began to thrum with potency. Around her the grass and shrubbery was quickly reduced to ash and marsh, her boots sinking into an ever softening ground as he did so. “And given your so chipper, lets give you a nice headache, to ground you in reality a little more.”
The clawed fist erupted before her as they spun around her, circling like sharks. The low ache in her mind would soon erupt into a mind numbing thrum, as if a heart were hammering inside her brain.
Above them dark clouds began to form, blocking out the sun and darkening the arena, “There little bird!” the Sindri’s proclaimed as they erupted like a flock of starlings, “what do you think of my redecorating?”
“Its very interesting. Shame none of it is real. It may feel very real and appear very real, but I know it isnt. So, if you won’t mind, I’ll try and make my own move now, alright?” She said, her eye slightly twitching due to all of the new additions that made it obvious she won’t be able to properly focus on attacking him directly. So she only had one other option.
Raising both her hands up, she shot several lightning bolts into the sky and vanish into them. Not long after, more clouds appeared in the sky, other than the ones that appeared when the area changed. The clouds would begin to roar and soon enough they would send out what appeared to be even stronger lightning bolts out of them, reaching all the way to the ground around Mana. She moved to close her eyes and breathe deeply while trying to have more lightning in her arms, hoping she will be able to surprise him enough.
“Where does reality begin and dreams end little bird? I wonder what you dream in the night? perhaps those dark treacherous thoughts of your brethren, oh! You can deny them, but I know you’re nothing more than a blue haired traitor. I bet the Academy has eyes on you constantly.” Sindri broke into a raucous laugh and spun away in a loose mob “and now you’re trying to fry me! How droll!”
With a sudden break the Sindri’s fell to earth like stones, disappearing into the quickly forming marsh and then rising once more in organised formation, heading straight toward her, “Lets put this little bird in a cage shall we?”they said in unison as they each reached out a clawed hand, as if to carve her eyes out.
Hearing the voices speak in unison made Mana aim both her hand to the ground before using all her force against it, knowing that the lightning will not go any further than the spot she was at, but the lightning would give her a massive speed and height boost, allowing her to get up high before beginning to fly in circles, using her bird eyes to be able to properly see if Sindri will try and approach her.
Mana breathed heavily, as it was hard to maintain control of her powers with all the little mental effects Sindri put on her. She tried to think about a way out of it. What could possibly make him decide to give up on his own accord, due to the fact that it appeared as if he is enjoying every moment of thinking that he is tormenting someone like this. Then she thought about a possible way.
“Keep going Send-ri. The more you do this, the more I’ll be able to handle later on. So this is actually good for me! You are like my own personal trainer right now! I should find the real you and give you a hug of gratitude!” She shouted to him.
“How delicious, the little bird has spirit! If I had my way I would be invoking your nightmares right now, a pity the academy is so stringent on me… still I wish I could crush your wings little bird, and have my figments feed on the entrails.” The flock spun and twisted towards her like a malign swarm of bats coursing past her, suddenly a rogue taloned finger caught her face, carving a thin line of blood across it.
“As for my illusions Ms Mana, I assure you, they are very much real.” The swarm spun upwards into the air, amassing themselves in the darkened glory of the clouds. Around her, the feeling of tension calmed…
the calm before the storm.
Feeling the finger carve the line of blood across her face made her eye twitch. Where did the finger come from, she wondered. Sindri kept claiming that the illusions were real, but he kept missing such little details. In any electronic machine she had seen, they always paid full attention, to ensure all the pieces are properly placed in their spot and that none are missing. Obviously Sindri didn’t quite mind about the little details.
She suddenly allowed herself to drop towards the ground with great speed, nearly reaching the ground, but stopping just before it and then landing on it properly. She moved to kneel and looked up at the many Sindri Hmm… He keeps talking about taking away my wings, but he doesn’t do it.
“Is it possible that you have a bit of respect towards people who can fly, much like you? Because you said you want to take away my wings several time, and I’m sure that even without reaching the strongest power you have that you could’ve done it.” Mana said in a loud voice. She wondered if he had already understood what she was trying to do or not.
“Are you baiting me?” the voice from the clouds sounded incredulous, “Ha-ha-ha! Oh, thats just magnificent” The clouds suddenly erupted in a swarm of dozens of Sindri’s increased to an even greater number than before, “You want me to take those wings of your’s? Then I shall oblige”.
With that the Swarm plummeted towards her, seeking to mob her as they fell down upon her. The lead Sindri grinned “Lets begin with the left!” and spun towards her at a breakneck speed, hands outstretched.
Smiling as she saw the Sindri’s head right at her, Mana looked at them with the smile before moving her hands with high speed, sending out another powerful burst of wind and lightning bolts directly at the swarm that was approaching her with very high speed. Due to their speed and direction, it was near impossible for them to dodge the incredible burst of wind, and if the lightning would catch one of them, it would start chaining between several of them before dying out.
She then let out a sigh before moving to lay on the ground. If she didn’t manage to take them all out, then she most likely lost. If she had, then there was a good chance that she won, but she still couldn’t be sure due to the fact her opponent was using illusions, which meant that even if it appeared that she won, it could be the complete opposite.
With a inhuman howl the lightning whipped between the swarm of Sindri’s, and in an explosive show of light they erupted from within as Mana landed, not one making a strike before being hit. All that was left was ash in the air, and a whispering wind.
“it seems you missed a detail” a voice suddenly whispered in her ear as a foot smashed into the side of her head from her right, as Sindri rose from his prone position he had taken since the swarm had flown down. “I wasn’t in the sky” he grunted, flipping away as the current shocked his system, flipping him into the murkiness of the marsh in evident pain.
Damn bird has current running through her! better watch out next time.
Mana rolled a bit on the ground before forcing herself into a stop and seeing Sindri fly up. Raising her hand and aiming in his general direction, Mana figured she had nothing more to lose “You are very tough. Thats a good trait to have. I wish I was as tough as you.” She said before focusing as much as she could on her arm, and then shooting a single, rather large lightning bolt in Sindri’s direction, which would come at him with high speed. She figured that if the lightning won’t hit him, then the lightning could once again trigger one of the storm clouds that were still high above them and send another, surprise lightning bolt at Sindri.
Mana then moved to place her hand on her head, feeling how all of the effect were beginning to be too much for her.
“Toughness has nothing to do with it little bird, but it does seem that I underestimated you a mite.” came the response, he flattened himself to the ground as the first shot launched itself overhead, but the response from the sky’s proved harder to miss. Launching himself to the side he barely missed the booming blast as it struck the ground, singing his hair as he did so. His nostrils were filled with Ozone and the smell of burnt hair.
“Its a pity I won’t repeat it.” he growled as he began working on his attack again, His enemy has been in the air longer than him and had likely exhausted herself blasting his illusions. With another twist of the screw he intensified the mental assault, now the thrum became as if two church bells were beating themselves inside his opponents head, the voices now screaming at her in hatred “SUBMIT”, repeating over and over with an ever greater allure.
“Just lie down and submit!” they howled “submit to his glory!”
“Are you getting tired little bird? That last shot was abysmal.” he cackled, hatred coursing through his voice as a fog began to rise from the ground, making the area murkier and murkier as he retreated into the darkness, “You’ll give in soon, and then your mind will be my plaything...”
“I’m not a bird. I dislike flying. You forced me into flying, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it one bit.” She muttered, as she just barely heard his voice with the loud voices in her head and it felt like there were church bells in her head “I’m not a bird.” She muttered again before removing her hand from her head and pointing both of them towards the sky.
“I’m not a bird. I’m lightning.” She said and shot out two, rather weak looking lightning bolts aimed at the sky. One had just barely missed a storm cloud, but the other one managed to hit it, making it let out another lightning bolt in Mana’s direction, which was stronger than what she had sent.
“You are a bird my dear” replied a whisper, coursing through the mist indeterminately “A little chicken, flapping her wings to try and get into the air, how cute… or perhaps you are a little blue Dodo…”
The marsh suddenly trembled around her, forms rising from it, horrible distorted forms of men and women, rotted from within, flesh in tatters from the marsh. They moaned and dragged themselves towards her, distorted figures which looked ever so real…
One lone one emerged before her from the marsh, dragging itself up and biting into her foot with rotten teeth.
A dark form emerged from a pillar of flame before her, a form little more than a silhouette of a man, an unnaturally tall man.
“And if you are lightning my dear” came the voice again, deep and sonorous, “I am fire.”
With a roar, a sudden eruption of flames sped towards her as if someone had lit up a stockpile of gasoline beneath the marsh, throwing her backwards with the force of it.
As she begun heading backwards, she felt the lightning hit her leg, so she forced her hand to point at the last spot she had seen Sindri at, making the lightning move and use her body as an arrow before heading in that direction. She then landed on the ground, feeling rather weak now and figuring that she should surrender after this.
With another blast of force, the blow only managed to glance of Sindri, but it still ran spasms up his arm, causing him to curse with pain. He retreated into the mist again, becoming a shadow of a shadow.
“Feeling tired? have a rest, the ground should be inviting beneath you...” he shouted. at this the ground beneath her feet solidified, becoming verdant and lush, a small patch of sky opened and the sunlight beat down her from the little hole.
The voices in her head encouraged her, whispered of the necessity of sleep, of submission and surrender, “Sleep.. Sleep…”
Already he had managed to circle around her, crouching in the mist to the right, swiftly he sent distractions from the left, movement of the corpses towards her.
With a little luck the glamour should take effect…
With her eyes closed, Mana took a deep breath before speaking “I surrender, but not because any of your silly tricks. I surrender because I would’ve taken this chance to try and retreat, to recover and plan new strategies against you, now that I have more knowledge on what your capabilities are.” She said before staying there, and telepathically calling for a mythic to come and help her recover.
She was met with a barking laugh at this, suddenly Sindri ended his magic, the marsh and the figures disappeared, as well as the ringing of her head and the whispering. “You would have failed my friend” he grinned “I could make you believe you had been walking for years in there if I wanted to, You were failing against my assault, you’d have no time to form a strategy, you’d be my puppet.”
He raised his hand in a mildly bemused smile, “You can’t blast your way through my illusions Mana” he finalised, “lightning won’t make them disappear or make your mind reject my whispers. Blunt force will always fail against trickery”
“Still!” he exclaimed happily, “You did well out there Mana, didn’t rise to my bait, I admire that in a person, even if your are quite possibly an illusion yourself in this miserable world. You weren’t too shoddy with the bolts either! some of those really hurt you know Haha!” with this he gave her a small nudge at this with his elbow.
“Shall we go then?” he gestured with a long hand and a cheshire grin, “I am sure the Mythic will be here shortly.”
Seeing that everything went away and her head felt a lot better now, Mana moved to a sitting position and smiled at him “I’m glad you think that. All those Illusions of yours, especially the one that had scratched me across the face, were very realistic. I didn’t even see what Sindri did that to me and thought for a second it was a flying finger.” She said before slowly standing up.
“I already called for the Mythic to come here. You can go ahead and start walking there, I need another minute to let my legs recover more properly.” She said and did small steps on the spot “You will definitely be a challenge to anyone who comes your way, and a very scary one too.” She said before grinning back at him.
Sindri shrugged, “fair enough, I think I’ll take a breather too however, let the mythic take the hike. I am pretty sure it was Sindri seven that did that, I can make them semi-corporeal with a fair bit of extra effort. As for the scares… well I can go deeper, in the field I’d be digging into people’s minds realistically, I can drag out their worst nightmares like a carnival display. It usually works a treat… at least that last time I tried it” he shook his head “I never saw Frank again after that....”
Crossing his legs he began to hover midair as he waited, soon enough a dark shape came loping across the field towards them “I think thats our trainer arrived.” He mused, still sitting relaxed nearby, “Until next time?”
“Until next time Sindri. But don’t be stranger and say hey from time to time.” Mana said with a smile at the trainer approached her to begin ensuring she was in a good condition to head back “And that’s one scary power you have there…” She muttered to herself, hoping he would never use it on her. After the trainer told her that she was good to go, she went to Sindri and offered him her hand “I’ll see you around.” She said with a smile.
He gave it a firm shake, his long fingers enclosing it like a small vice, before breaking off and hovering away languidly “Ta-ta now!” he shouted back distractedly, and then sped off as fast as he could across the field.
Nodding to herself, Mana begun making her way back to where they received their instructions, wanting to see what will be the next thing they will be doing today, and enjoying the fact she met a new person that she has come to respect.
Tough luck little princess... he mused smugly.
He had recognised the individual he had been assigned, occasionally he had spotted her in his more Fae centric classes and he was pretty sure she had something to do with lightning or somesuch. Regardless it didn’t really matter, the battlefield awaited and he wanted to test this Fae’s mettle.
Downing the last of his coffee, then crushing and discarding the cup, he glided off to the location he had been assigned. the area was a little rough and hilly, but not something that caused him too much trouble. Once he reached the peak of the mound he was currently standing on, he turned back to look for his assigned ‘playmate’.
Mana was having a light jog in the direction of the field, after she finished asking one of the instructors a couple of questions she had for him. After that, finding the field took a few minutes for her, and she headed there in a steady pace, but not too fast, to ensure she doesn’t feel exhausted before she even arrived at the field.
Upon reaching it, she saw it was a slightly hilly field. Nothing that she couldn’t handle, but she wondered who her opponent was. His name sounded familiar, most likely from one of the classes, but she didn’t quite remember who he was. After moving to stand on a hill across from
where Sindri was, Mana looked at him for a second “Alright then. I’m Melina, but call me Mana. I hate being called Melina. I guess you’re Sindri, right? Want to go ahead and start?” She asked him in a loud voice, to ensure he hears her properly.
Sindri eyed up his opponent with a bemused smile stretching across his face from cheek to cheek, “Well aren’t you an interesting one, If I wasn’t up to date on Academy policy I’d say they’d dropped recruitment age by a good four years, and the blue hair! you must attract a lot of attention with that, given that its natural.” His eyes almost popped out their sockets, and his grin reached cheshire proportions, “You must have such insecurities… oh this is just going to be marvelous!” he rubbed his hands together with glee, slowly rising into the air as he did so “We shall begin, little Madoka.”
As he rose up into the air, his skin began to peel away like old paint, and his eyes took on a radioactive green glow, in a voice as hollow as a demon he spoke through rows of translucent teeth, “Playtime has begun!”.
Hearing the way he spoke about how she appeared young and how her natural blue hair brings her attention made Mana lower her sight to the ground. He was correct about that, but he was slightly mistaken about the insecurities part. She already knew very well that no matter where she went and who she will encounter, there was a big chance of hearing that and being judged by it. She let out a deep breath before beginning to focus.
Not hearing his last remark about calling Madoka, Mana’s appearance would begin to change. Her arms would become wings with hands and her ponytail would suddenly raise a bit. Her eyes became more like that of a bird and a couple of small wings appeared where her ears used to be at. She then looked at Sindri before focusing carefully on her hands “I guess we have started.” She said before bringing her hands together very quickly, sending a very strong burst of wind and lightning in his direction. The wind would be strong enough to make trees fall out of their place and the lightning would go in different directions.
As the lightning barrage launched itself towards him Sindri countered with an exertion of his own raw force, blasting a line in front of him free of its power and protecting himself from its raw fury. Despite this, a few glancing blows struck him, punching his changing form backwards a few feet in the air. As the last of his human form left him, the ghoulish visage of him became apparent, and eyes once jovial met his opponent in a look of utter malice. “Oh you’ll have to do better than that little birdie girl…” he snarled “enjoy this…”
With an explosion of magic his green wings erupted from his back and raised an arm in her direction, “lets see how your concentration holds out now...” he grinned, as the first dulling mandibles of power began their assault on his opponents mind, “...and to improve the fun! I think there is too little of me here today! Enjoy.” With that he erupted into doppelgangers, perhaps twelve in all flitting through the air, each going in different directions.
Increasing the power of his manipulations, he began one of his most amusing tricks, beginning the ringing of disorientation and nausea with his attack.
Suddenly seeing twelve of Sindri made it fairly easy to narrow down what kind of magic Sindri had, and the sudden ringing and slight nausea that came afterwards allowed Mana to understand that she was dealing with someone who could mess around with her mind. With ease too, so it appeared. Ignoring the feeling of the nausea as much as she could, she looked around at all of the different Sindri that begun going in different directions.
Mana focused on both her arms, and lightning would appear to be gathering in them before she took off into the air, much to her dislike, in order to be in the same height as Sindri, and then spun on the spot as she shot the lightning out of her arms, shooting several lightning bolts all around, trying to get rid of as many of the Sindri’s as possible.
The swarm scattered as the Thunderbird took to the air and began blasting away indiscriminately, one unfortunate ‘ganger was not quick enough and swiftly disintegrated into blackened ash, becoming immaterial and becoming nothingness on the breeze. They all turned to look at her in amusement and collectively spoke.
“Missed me!”
They spun away cackling as the true Sindri led them on a merry chase, intensifying the previous assault with his own whisperings and temptations, he doubted they’d do anything now, but they were distracting and eventually they might make her submit. Rising out of the swarm at blinding speed, Sindri, aimed a forceful punch to the back of Mana’s head before diving and rising into the swarm once again.
Hearing all of them tell her that she missed him was certainly irritating, but she didn’t want to let him get on her nerves, so as she started to think on what to do next, Mana suddenly felt herself be struck at the back of her head, which made her slightly fall down, but she managed to stop herself midair. Moving to properly land on the ground, she looked up at all of the Sindri’s that were flying around. Along with the feeling of the nausea and the constant disorienting ringing, she thought that he couldn’t have made it any more obvious that he was trying to make her lose her focus and just attack until she gives up.
“Interesting power you have, Sand-ri. Let me guess, you usually bore all of the people you fight to death.” She said in a teasing tone, trying to return the favor he was giving her. She then kept her eyes opens and her arms started having lightning gather in them making it clear that she was waiting to see his reaction and attack accordingly.
“Only the ones I consider of no consequence little bird, and you are nothing more than carrion to me. However, perhaps I should spice up my attack somewhat? How about improving the scenery!” The Sindri’s all collectively grinned, a nightmarish swarm of degraded angels making mockery of her.
All raising a collective arm in the air, the swarm twisted it into a clawed fist of too many fingers, “Lets lighten things up shall we?”.
Suddenly the currents of air changed, the ground began to thrum with potency. Around her the grass and shrubbery was quickly reduced to ash and marsh, her boots sinking into an ever softening ground as he did so. “And given your so chipper, lets give you a nice headache, to ground you in reality a little more.”
The clawed fist erupted before her as they spun around her, circling like sharks. The low ache in her mind would soon erupt into a mind numbing thrum, as if a heart were hammering inside her brain.
Above them dark clouds began to form, blocking out the sun and darkening the arena, “There little bird!” the Sindri’s proclaimed as they erupted like a flock of starlings, “what do you think of my redecorating?”
“Its very interesting. Shame none of it is real. It may feel very real and appear very real, but I know it isnt. So, if you won’t mind, I’ll try and make my own move now, alright?” She said, her eye slightly twitching due to all of the new additions that made it obvious she won’t be able to properly focus on attacking him directly. So she only had one other option.
Raising both her hands up, she shot several lightning bolts into the sky and vanish into them. Not long after, more clouds appeared in the sky, other than the ones that appeared when the area changed. The clouds would begin to roar and soon enough they would send out what appeared to be even stronger lightning bolts out of them, reaching all the way to the ground around Mana. She moved to close her eyes and breathe deeply while trying to have more lightning in her arms, hoping she will be able to surprise him enough.
“Where does reality begin and dreams end little bird? I wonder what you dream in the night? perhaps those dark treacherous thoughts of your brethren, oh! You can deny them, but I know you’re nothing more than a blue haired traitor. I bet the Academy has eyes on you constantly.” Sindri broke into a raucous laugh and spun away in a loose mob “and now you’re trying to fry me! How droll!”
With a sudden break the Sindri’s fell to earth like stones, disappearing into the quickly forming marsh and then rising once more in organised formation, heading straight toward her, “Lets put this little bird in a cage shall we?”they said in unison as they each reached out a clawed hand, as if to carve her eyes out.
Hearing the voices speak in unison made Mana aim both her hand to the ground before using all her force against it, knowing that the lightning will not go any further than the spot she was at, but the lightning would give her a massive speed and height boost, allowing her to get up high before beginning to fly in circles, using her bird eyes to be able to properly see if Sindri will try and approach her.
Mana breathed heavily, as it was hard to maintain control of her powers with all the little mental effects Sindri put on her. She tried to think about a way out of it. What could possibly make him decide to give up on his own accord, due to the fact that it appeared as if he is enjoying every moment of thinking that he is tormenting someone like this. Then she thought about a possible way.
“Keep going Send-ri. The more you do this, the more I’ll be able to handle later on. So this is actually good for me! You are like my own personal trainer right now! I should find the real you and give you a hug of gratitude!” She shouted to him.
“How delicious, the little bird has spirit! If I had my way I would be invoking your nightmares right now, a pity the academy is so stringent on me… still I wish I could crush your wings little bird, and have my figments feed on the entrails.” The flock spun and twisted towards her like a malign swarm of bats coursing past her, suddenly a rogue taloned finger caught her face, carving a thin line of blood across it.
“As for my illusions Ms Mana, I assure you, they are very much real.” The swarm spun upwards into the air, amassing themselves in the darkened glory of the clouds. Around her, the feeling of tension calmed…
the calm before the storm.
Feeling the finger carve the line of blood across her face made her eye twitch. Where did the finger come from, she wondered. Sindri kept claiming that the illusions were real, but he kept missing such little details. In any electronic machine she had seen, they always paid full attention, to ensure all the pieces are properly placed in their spot and that none are missing. Obviously Sindri didn’t quite mind about the little details.
She suddenly allowed herself to drop towards the ground with great speed, nearly reaching the ground, but stopping just before it and then landing on it properly. She moved to kneel and looked up at the many Sindri Hmm… He keeps talking about taking away my wings, but he doesn’t do it.
“Is it possible that you have a bit of respect towards people who can fly, much like you? Because you said you want to take away my wings several time, and I’m sure that even without reaching the strongest power you have that you could’ve done it.” Mana said in a loud voice. She wondered if he had already understood what she was trying to do or not.
“Are you baiting me?” the voice from the clouds sounded incredulous, “Ha-ha-ha! Oh, thats just magnificent” The clouds suddenly erupted in a swarm of dozens of Sindri’s increased to an even greater number than before, “You want me to take those wings of your’s? Then I shall oblige”.
With that the Swarm plummeted towards her, seeking to mob her as they fell down upon her. The lead Sindri grinned “Lets begin with the left!” and spun towards her at a breakneck speed, hands outstretched.
Smiling as she saw the Sindri’s head right at her, Mana looked at them with the smile before moving her hands with high speed, sending out another powerful burst of wind and lightning bolts directly at the swarm that was approaching her with very high speed. Due to their speed and direction, it was near impossible for them to dodge the incredible burst of wind, and if the lightning would catch one of them, it would start chaining between several of them before dying out.
She then let out a sigh before moving to lay on the ground. If she didn’t manage to take them all out, then she most likely lost. If she had, then there was a good chance that she won, but she still couldn’t be sure due to the fact her opponent was using illusions, which meant that even if it appeared that she won, it could be the complete opposite.
With a inhuman howl the lightning whipped between the swarm of Sindri’s, and in an explosive show of light they erupted from within as Mana landed, not one making a strike before being hit. All that was left was ash in the air, and a whispering wind.
“it seems you missed a detail” a voice suddenly whispered in her ear as a foot smashed into the side of her head from her right, as Sindri rose from his prone position he had taken since the swarm had flown down. “I wasn’t in the sky” he grunted, flipping away as the current shocked his system, flipping him into the murkiness of the marsh in evident pain.
Damn bird has current running through her! better watch out next time.
Mana rolled a bit on the ground before forcing herself into a stop and seeing Sindri fly up. Raising her hand and aiming in his general direction, Mana figured she had nothing more to lose “You are very tough. Thats a good trait to have. I wish I was as tough as you.” She said before focusing as much as she could on her arm, and then shooting a single, rather large lightning bolt in Sindri’s direction, which would come at him with high speed. She figured that if the lightning won’t hit him, then the lightning could once again trigger one of the storm clouds that were still high above them and send another, surprise lightning bolt at Sindri.
Mana then moved to place her hand on her head, feeling how all of the effect were beginning to be too much for her.
“Toughness has nothing to do with it little bird, but it does seem that I underestimated you a mite.” came the response, he flattened himself to the ground as the first shot launched itself overhead, but the response from the sky’s proved harder to miss. Launching himself to the side he barely missed the booming blast as it struck the ground, singing his hair as he did so. His nostrils were filled with Ozone and the smell of burnt hair.
“Its a pity I won’t repeat it.” he growled as he began working on his attack again, His enemy has been in the air longer than him and had likely exhausted herself blasting his illusions. With another twist of the screw he intensified the mental assault, now the thrum became as if two church bells were beating themselves inside his opponents head, the voices now screaming at her in hatred “SUBMIT”, repeating over and over with an ever greater allure.
“Just lie down and submit!” they howled “submit to his glory!”
“Are you getting tired little bird? That last shot was abysmal.” he cackled, hatred coursing through his voice as a fog began to rise from the ground, making the area murkier and murkier as he retreated into the darkness, “You’ll give in soon, and then your mind will be my plaything...”
“I’m not a bird. I dislike flying. You forced me into flying, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it one bit.” She muttered, as she just barely heard his voice with the loud voices in her head and it felt like there were church bells in her head “I’m not a bird.” She muttered again before removing her hand from her head and pointing both of them towards the sky.
“I’m not a bird. I’m lightning.” She said and shot out two, rather weak looking lightning bolts aimed at the sky. One had just barely missed a storm cloud, but the other one managed to hit it, making it let out another lightning bolt in Mana’s direction, which was stronger than what she had sent.
“You are a bird my dear” replied a whisper, coursing through the mist indeterminately “A little chicken, flapping her wings to try and get into the air, how cute… or perhaps you are a little blue Dodo…”
The marsh suddenly trembled around her, forms rising from it, horrible distorted forms of men and women, rotted from within, flesh in tatters from the marsh. They moaned and dragged themselves towards her, distorted figures which looked ever so real…
One lone one emerged before her from the marsh, dragging itself up and biting into her foot with rotten teeth.
A dark form emerged from a pillar of flame before her, a form little more than a silhouette of a man, an unnaturally tall man.
“And if you are lightning my dear” came the voice again, deep and sonorous, “I am fire.”
With a roar, a sudden eruption of flames sped towards her as if someone had lit up a stockpile of gasoline beneath the marsh, throwing her backwards with the force of it.
As she begun heading backwards, she felt the lightning hit her leg, so she forced her hand to point at the last spot she had seen Sindri at, making the lightning move and use her body as an arrow before heading in that direction. She then landed on the ground, feeling rather weak now and figuring that she should surrender after this.
With another blast of force, the blow only managed to glance of Sindri, but it still ran spasms up his arm, causing him to curse with pain. He retreated into the mist again, becoming a shadow of a shadow.
“Feeling tired? have a rest, the ground should be inviting beneath you...” he shouted. at this the ground beneath her feet solidified, becoming verdant and lush, a small patch of sky opened and the sunlight beat down her from the little hole.
The voices in her head encouraged her, whispered of the necessity of sleep, of submission and surrender, “Sleep.. Sleep…”
Already he had managed to circle around her, crouching in the mist to the right, swiftly he sent distractions from the left, movement of the corpses towards her.
With a little luck the glamour should take effect…
With her eyes closed, Mana took a deep breath before speaking “I surrender, but not because any of your silly tricks. I surrender because I would’ve taken this chance to try and retreat, to recover and plan new strategies against you, now that I have more knowledge on what your capabilities are.” She said before staying there, and telepathically calling for a mythic to come and help her recover.
She was met with a barking laugh at this, suddenly Sindri ended his magic, the marsh and the figures disappeared, as well as the ringing of her head and the whispering. “You would have failed my friend” he grinned “I could make you believe you had been walking for years in there if I wanted to, You were failing against my assault, you’d have no time to form a strategy, you’d be my puppet.”
He raised his hand in a mildly bemused smile, “You can’t blast your way through my illusions Mana” he finalised, “lightning won’t make them disappear or make your mind reject my whispers. Blunt force will always fail against trickery”
“Still!” he exclaimed happily, “You did well out there Mana, didn’t rise to my bait, I admire that in a person, even if your are quite possibly an illusion yourself in this miserable world. You weren’t too shoddy with the bolts either! some of those really hurt you know Haha!” with this he gave her a small nudge at this with his elbow.
“Shall we go then?” he gestured with a long hand and a cheshire grin, “I am sure the Mythic will be here shortly.”
Seeing that everything went away and her head felt a lot better now, Mana moved to a sitting position and smiled at him “I’m glad you think that. All those Illusions of yours, especially the one that had scratched me across the face, were very realistic. I didn’t even see what Sindri did that to me and thought for a second it was a flying finger.” She said before slowly standing up.
“I already called for the Mythic to come here. You can go ahead and start walking there, I need another minute to let my legs recover more properly.” She said and did small steps on the spot “You will definitely be a challenge to anyone who comes your way, and a very scary one too.” She said before grinning back at him.
Sindri shrugged, “fair enough, I think I’ll take a breather too however, let the mythic take the hike. I am pretty sure it was Sindri seven that did that, I can make them semi-corporeal with a fair bit of extra effort. As for the scares… well I can go deeper, in the field I’d be digging into people’s minds realistically, I can drag out their worst nightmares like a carnival display. It usually works a treat… at least that last time I tried it” he shook his head “I never saw Frank again after that....”
Crossing his legs he began to hover midair as he waited, soon enough a dark shape came loping across the field towards them “I think thats our trainer arrived.” He mused, still sitting relaxed nearby, “Until next time?”
“Until next time Sindri. But don’t be stranger and say hey from time to time.” Mana said with a smile at the trainer approached her to begin ensuring she was in a good condition to head back “And that’s one scary power you have there…” She muttered to herself, hoping he would never use it on her. After the trainer told her that she was good to go, she went to Sindri and offered him her hand “I’ll see you around.” She said with a smile.
He gave it a firm shake, his long fingers enclosing it like a small vice, before breaking off and hovering away languidly “Ta-ta now!” he shouted back distractedly, and then sped off as fast as he could across the field.
Nodding to herself, Mana begun making her way back to where they received their instructions, wanting to see what will be the next thing they will be doing today, and enjoying the fact she met a new person that she has come to respect.
A pair of groggy eyes peered out from the depths of a quilt as Sindri heard the broadcast, dark rings showing his consistent failure to get past his insomniac tendencies.
Admin was calling.
After his confrontation with Lily he hadn’t been able to get much rest, for some reason her logic did seem to have a insufferably clinging edge to it, he couldn’t seem to rid himself of the possibility of the truth of her words. It had driven him up the wall most of the night.
Did this mean she was possibly speaking the truth?
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the systematic worry, and the minor case of exhaustion he still felt after his fight against consciousness last night. He had resorted instead to trying to read one of his many books which lay scattered about in tottering piles, like some sort of literature based jungle fauna, added to by piles of brightly coloured clothing which had been discarded many days before.
But that had failed, the words just ran by without comprehension, and he could remember very little of what he had read the night before.
He rose from his bed, a wide yawn barely being stifled by his hand as he moved down from his position on the top of the bunk bed. Stumbling down the ladder as the bulletin repeated itself, he felt his feet sink into the thick carpet below and eyed up the empty bed beneath his own, now dominated by books and various bits and bobs he had picked up.
It had been a year and they still hadn’t found a willing replacement to bunk with him.
Snatching up a pile of slightly crumpled clothes, he tossed them on the bed below in preparation before moving for the shower, hot water and refreshment beckoning like a seductive siren.
After this, it was all a matter of picking which colour he was going to go for today. Grabbing whatever picked his fancy, he began dressing quickly; water still collecting in heavy thick droplets in his hair.
Today’s colour was yellow.
Once in the suit and looking somewhat presentable, if ruffled, he sidled out of his domain, discarding the hat due to his hair still being wet and fluffy. Most of the other students in his section hadn’t woken up yet, or if they had they didn’t have any classes, so for the most part he walked through the corridors in complete silence, asides from the tip tap of his footsteps.
Sindri eyed up his surroundings dispassionately, he wished current architectural design had incorporated more interesting additions to their interiors; you could only pass so many smooth steel walls before getting bored of the monotony of it all. He paused momentarily at a coffee machine, sliding a couple of coins in for a latte and standing idly by, yawning as last nights insomnia caught up with him.
With a choking sort of slurp and shudder, the machine slowed to a stop and Sindri pulled the cup out of its holder, and began sipping it as he made his way to the local train system to the training fields.
It didn’t take long for him to reach the rendezvous point, with the assistance of the local train service –which had been somewhat awkward due to the presence of the people whose food he had set on fire- he was quickly outside in the sunshine and fast approaching a small crowd of students and teachers prepping for training.
With nothing else to do, Sindri settled into his usual sort of hovering state, pulling out a small deck of cards and doing some small tricks with them while he waited, yawning in relative boredom at amidst the drifting groups of students and teachers, waiting for them to get paired up for combat.
Once or twice he caught sight of Lily out the corner of his eye, still talking to her cat like companion as usual. She seemed to look back at him once or twice, relatively excited for some reason, a trickster like smile tugging at her lips.
I wonder what she is up to… Sindri mused, frowning slightly at the attention before downing the last of his coffee and suddenly noticing Slyphide flitting quickly towards him. He shuddered slightly in discomfort, before straightening up somewhat and putting on a strained sort of smile which looked more like a grimace than his usual impish grin.
I hope this is just a quick chat…
Admin was calling.
After his confrontation with Lily he hadn’t been able to get much rest, for some reason her logic did seem to have a insufferably clinging edge to it, he couldn’t seem to rid himself of the possibility of the truth of her words. It had driven him up the wall most of the night.
Did this mean she was possibly speaking the truth?
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the systematic worry, and the minor case of exhaustion he still felt after his fight against consciousness last night. He had resorted instead to trying to read one of his many books which lay scattered about in tottering piles, like some sort of literature based jungle fauna, added to by piles of brightly coloured clothing which had been discarded many days before.
But that had failed, the words just ran by without comprehension, and he could remember very little of what he had read the night before.
He rose from his bed, a wide yawn barely being stifled by his hand as he moved down from his position on the top of the bunk bed. Stumbling down the ladder as the bulletin repeated itself, he felt his feet sink into the thick carpet below and eyed up the empty bed beneath his own, now dominated by books and various bits and bobs he had picked up.
It had been a year and they still hadn’t found a willing replacement to bunk with him.
Snatching up a pile of slightly crumpled clothes, he tossed them on the bed below in preparation before moving for the shower, hot water and refreshment beckoning like a seductive siren.
After this, it was all a matter of picking which colour he was going to go for today. Grabbing whatever picked his fancy, he began dressing quickly; water still collecting in heavy thick droplets in his hair.
Today’s colour was yellow.
Once in the suit and looking somewhat presentable, if ruffled, he sidled out of his domain, discarding the hat due to his hair still being wet and fluffy. Most of the other students in his section hadn’t woken up yet, or if they had they didn’t have any classes, so for the most part he walked through the corridors in complete silence, asides from the tip tap of his footsteps.
Sindri eyed up his surroundings dispassionately, he wished current architectural design had incorporated more interesting additions to their interiors; you could only pass so many smooth steel walls before getting bored of the monotony of it all. He paused momentarily at a coffee machine, sliding a couple of coins in for a latte and standing idly by, yawning as last nights insomnia caught up with him.
With a choking sort of slurp and shudder, the machine slowed to a stop and Sindri pulled the cup out of its holder, and began sipping it as he made his way to the local train system to the training fields.
It didn’t take long for him to reach the rendezvous point, with the assistance of the local train service –which had been somewhat awkward due to the presence of the people whose food he had set on fire- he was quickly outside in the sunshine and fast approaching a small crowd of students and teachers prepping for training.
With nothing else to do, Sindri settled into his usual sort of hovering state, pulling out a small deck of cards and doing some small tricks with them while he waited, yawning in relative boredom at amidst the drifting groups of students and teachers, waiting for them to get paired up for combat.
Once or twice he caught sight of Lily out the corner of his eye, still talking to her cat like companion as usual. She seemed to look back at him once or twice, relatively excited for some reason, a trickster like smile tugging at her lips.
I wonder what she is up to… Sindri mused, frowning slightly at the attention before downing the last of his coffee and suddenly noticing Slyphide flitting quickly towards him. He shuddered slightly in discomfort, before straightening up somewhat and putting on a strained sort of smile which looked more like a grimace than his usual impish grin.
I hope this is just a quick chat…
Tai Falkenburg said
Well, best to focus on finishing the essays. Good luck with them. :)
Thanks, I continue trundle forwards it seems, one will be finished soon, and thats the most bother, so its a big relief.
Tai Falkenburg said
Going to bed now, been a really busy weekend. @_@
I understand the feeling, I haven't slept at all, been too busy dealing with essays.
Tai Falkenburg said
Welcome back xCRAZYxFACEx :)
Indeed, welcome back.
Also I apologise Tai, I feel I have sort of kidnapped your characters, by next post we should be back to direct control, may need a collab post between us though, and I need to clarify a few things with you before hand.
As the light and the power faded from his form, and the euphoria from his newfound creation decreased, virulent pain began to explode throughout his body like hellfire. He stumbled, shaking, almost dropping the Corona Star as he fell to the ground in agony.
Dizziness and nausea overwhelmed him and he began to choke, huge whooping coughs wracked his system, and a sudden expulsion of blood covered the ground in rich, thick crimson liquid. His children crowded round in concern, covering up his heaving form as more blood dripped from his muzzle. After a while, the spasms and the pain receeded, and he began to regain his sense of calm from the rapturous high he had been exposed to.
Shaking the Risen away he rose again unsteadily to his hooves, blood still trickling out of his mouth and nose as he tried to wipe it away, eyes momentarily filled with fear and confusion. Around him the bodies of the Inquisitor task force lay in various states of dismemberment or destruction, varying from the everyday sword wound, to disembowelment and incineration.
Still there were a few usable subjects left.
Upon is signal, Warrior Drones began to pile up the corpses on their own backs, collecting them for tonight’s experimentation.
Whilst they had done so he had crossed the grass silently to stand before the lead inquisitor’s mangled body. Staring down into those glassy eyes, he could almost see the mutilated corpse of his brother after their ambush by Earthborn forces those many years ago, face a picture of confusion, horn carved off in a unclean strike by a soldier’s blade.
He spat to the side, a grim scowl crossing his face like a herald to his malice.
“Take her, I would have preferred she had not have had half her horn cleaved off, but there is not much we can do to fix that now. Let’s hope she serves me better in death than she did her former master in life.”
“Now, about you…” he turned to Scarlet, eyeing her up critically, “You must either be very stupid or very brave to do what you have done here. Given you assisted me in the disposal of this … filth, I’ll allow you to stay amidst the living, but for now I expect you to answer my questions and obey my orders without question, otherwise-“ he gestured to the numerous brutally maimed Inquisitor corpses “you can join these fools.”
“Once you have answered my questions to a suitable extent I will release you, but I will be watching you afterwards. Your life will depend on you keeping your mouth shut, or I will see to it that you’ll awake choking up on your blood the next time you go to sleep.”
Tsan and Lambda stomped over, the ground shaking somewhat at their advance as the machine ponies stared down Scarlet impassively, blades raised and ready to act out a killing strike in less than a heartbeat.
“Now, you’ll begin by telling me who you are, what organisation you work for and who you serve." He raised his muzzle slightly higher, sniffing as if he had encountered a putrid stench, "You reek of Alicorn magic.”
His head suddenly whipped towards the one standing Scholar and the still unconscious Dr Lens, his face shifting from a grim scowl to a barely restrained look of absolute rage and fury, “As for you!” he snarled, face a picture of hate, teeth grinding in disgust and purple eyes glowing in fury “You two are coming with me! For this I would have had you tortured and beheaded under different circumstances, sending your screaming faces packed in salt back to your employer as a message, but the manner of this… betrayal has left me with a minor sliver of doubt to your intent. You will follow me without question, you will speak only when spoken to, or I will make you wish you had been sent to Hell like these cretins, and then I'll hang your mutilated corpse from the tallest tree of this forest from a noose made out of your own intestines!”
Waving a hoof, he signalled two of his Jaeger Guard to grab the still unconscious Dr Lens, draping her over one of their backs whilst the other tied knots to her limbs in order to fasten her properly to her carrier.
“You life depends on what Dr Lens reveals to me Scholar, as I tear it from her screaming unconscious mind. Regardless…” Lines of Scalpels children surrounded the survivors of the massacre, hemming them in to walls made of living metal, whilst above The Spheres orbited, before being signalled forward to clear the way. With almost complete synchronicity, the lines of mechanical abominations straightened, before beginning the march into the night in a symphony of metal and whispered prayers to a mechanical god.
“We are going home.”
Dizziness and nausea overwhelmed him and he began to choke, huge whooping coughs wracked his system, and a sudden expulsion of blood covered the ground in rich, thick crimson liquid. His children crowded round in concern, covering up his heaving form as more blood dripped from his muzzle. After a while, the spasms and the pain receeded, and he began to regain his sense of calm from the rapturous high he had been exposed to.
Shaking the Risen away he rose again unsteadily to his hooves, blood still trickling out of his mouth and nose as he tried to wipe it away, eyes momentarily filled with fear and confusion. Around him the bodies of the Inquisitor task force lay in various states of dismemberment or destruction, varying from the everyday sword wound, to disembowelment and incineration.
Still there were a few usable subjects left.
Upon is signal, Warrior Drones began to pile up the corpses on their own backs, collecting them for tonight’s experimentation.
Whilst they had done so he had crossed the grass silently to stand before the lead inquisitor’s mangled body. Staring down into those glassy eyes, he could almost see the mutilated corpse of his brother after their ambush by Earthborn forces those many years ago, face a picture of confusion, horn carved off in a unclean strike by a soldier’s blade.
He spat to the side, a grim scowl crossing his face like a herald to his malice.
“Take her, I would have preferred she had not have had half her horn cleaved off, but there is not much we can do to fix that now. Let’s hope she serves me better in death than she did her former master in life.”
“Now, about you…” he turned to Scarlet, eyeing her up critically, “You must either be very stupid or very brave to do what you have done here. Given you assisted me in the disposal of this … filth, I’ll allow you to stay amidst the living, but for now I expect you to answer my questions and obey my orders without question, otherwise-“ he gestured to the numerous brutally maimed Inquisitor corpses “you can join these fools.”
“Once you have answered my questions to a suitable extent I will release you, but I will be watching you afterwards. Your life will depend on you keeping your mouth shut, or I will see to it that you’ll awake choking up on your blood the next time you go to sleep.”
Tsan and Lambda stomped over, the ground shaking somewhat at their advance as the machine ponies stared down Scarlet impassively, blades raised and ready to act out a killing strike in less than a heartbeat.
“Now, you’ll begin by telling me who you are, what organisation you work for and who you serve." He raised his muzzle slightly higher, sniffing as if he had encountered a putrid stench, "You reek of Alicorn magic.”
His head suddenly whipped towards the one standing Scholar and the still unconscious Dr Lens, his face shifting from a grim scowl to a barely restrained look of absolute rage and fury, “As for you!” he snarled, face a picture of hate, teeth grinding in disgust and purple eyes glowing in fury “You two are coming with me! For this I would have had you tortured and beheaded under different circumstances, sending your screaming faces packed in salt back to your employer as a message, but the manner of this… betrayal has left me with a minor sliver of doubt to your intent. You will follow me without question, you will speak only when spoken to, or I will make you wish you had been sent to Hell like these cretins, and then I'll hang your mutilated corpse from the tallest tree of this forest from a noose made out of your own intestines!”
Waving a hoof, he signalled two of his Jaeger Guard to grab the still unconscious Dr Lens, draping her over one of their backs whilst the other tied knots to her limbs in order to fasten her properly to her carrier.
“You life depends on what Dr Lens reveals to me Scholar, as I tear it from her screaming unconscious mind. Regardless…” Lines of Scalpels children surrounded the survivors of the massacre, hemming them in to walls made of living metal, whilst above The Spheres orbited, before being signalled forward to clear the way. With almost complete synchronicity, the lines of mechanical abominations straightened, before beginning the march into the night in a symphony of metal and whispered prayers to a mechanical god.
“We are going home.”
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