The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Cold As Ice

Sol pushed onward, leading a mass of soldiers, alone. She pushed into the cold and the wind at the head of her small army, fearless of the monsters that waited ahead and ignoring the numbing cold that bit at her. The wind howled, and the snow poured down, and the frost bit at her, but all of it Sol ignored. Such things were trivial to her: all she cared about was seeing this job through to the end, destroying the Wyrms, and then returning to attend to the other problems that plagued their world.

Problems such as Veliuona. Sol hated her: she knew that the Goddess of Cursed Shades had her own dark designs in mind, but she also knew that she was a necessary evil... for now. But when the first opportunity arose, Sol would ensure that Veliouna, and all her kind, were purged from this world. This world was for the living, was for the ponies. This was no place for darkness to make its claim.

And how it ached to see her brother making palaver with Veliuona... and worse yet, her sister acting like the dark goddess was a friend, even mentor. Sol felt bitter. A bitterness so icy that it made the world around her seem warm in comparison. Her soul thrummed with it, as it bled through her entire being, mixing with the ache of memories still ringing inside her mind, unlocked by the Wyrm's hideous powers.

But she wouldn't be distracted by such lies and treachery. She knew now that the Wyrms had powerful psychic abilities, on top of the devastation they left in their wake. She understood that these memories were not likely her own true past, howevermuch the compelled her. No, they were a trick, a deception... just as everything that Veliuona was doing was trick and deception. She would not fall for any of it. She would not be made a fool of. And she would not allow darkness to continue to leak through the world.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she realized almost too late that they were being watched, and it was at the last moment, as they approached a sheer, icy cliff, that Sol looked up to see the Wyrm sitting there, watching, waiting... grinning. It leapt down towards them, but Sol was in no mood to play, as she called up her magic and mixed her strength into the whirling blizzard.

In less than a minute, the battle was over. The soldiers stood in awe of her, but Sol knew that the power she had displayed was... foolish, not admirable. She had given into passion and rage, and she had taken her frustrations out on the carcass that was now slowly turning to porcelain before her. It had only been a small Wyrm, after all... not one of the larger beasts, that had such malicious power. These ones seemed to serve more as... soldiers. Perhaps they were juveniles; perhaps they were only drones.

But still, it brought new life to her troops, so she supposed that she would make the best of this outburst... and ensure that they all did their job here quickly, so they could make haste back to Canterlot... and return to the job of ridding Equestria of the disease that was still trying to infect their nation.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Division

So it was decided: Sol would continue to the north, taking half the army with her. Titan and Morgan would head towards the west coast, with the other half of their army. And Veliuona would head east with her undead minions. One small addendum to this plan was made by Veliuona, one which she would not be dissuaded from by Sol's most fervent arguments: that one of her undying Viziers travel with each of these groups, so they could freely trade messages between them.

Sol didn't like it for a number of reasons, but Morgan and Titan both seemed much more receptive to the Goddess of Cursed Shades... and worse, her siblings seemed to be questioning her plan, perhaps even her ability to lead. So finally, she was forced to grudgingly agree to these terms.

They did not separate immediately, even as Sol began to marshal the soldiers into different camps: they still had several days of travel together before they would have to go their separate routes. Titan and Morgan decided to make the most of this by spending their time with Veliuona... although Morgan noticed a strangeness, a tenseness, in her paladin. She did not like how fearful he was of coming to the undead's camp, or sharing a table with her... and there was something more than simple fright of the living dead in his eyes, she thought. There was something else, like he had some secret he was desperate to keep.

But Veliuona was welcoming, kind, even compassionate. And even if something about her was... perhaps cunning, perhaps manipulative, there seemed to be an honest desire for them to work together as well. Morgan was not as good at knowing others as her brother, Titan, was, but she felt that she had come to know Veliuona. And she knew that the Goddess of Cursed Shades, for all her failings, would not betray them, nor use her Viziers like assassins in the night. It was not that Veliuona knew honor in the same way they did, oh no... but Veliuona did understand the seriousness of the predicament they were all in, and more importantly, she was not stupid.

Titan seemed to trust Veliuona, and that too was more than enough to fortify Morgan's belief in the deathless goddess. That, and the fact that Sol seemed to be acting out of her passions, and her anger, and perhaps what was even jealousy, rather than by logic and thought. But Sol had always been passionate and rough, driven less perhaps by instinct, and more by whatever feeling spurred her on at the time. And as Morgan had learned, wild passion could turn the tide of a battlefield... but it could also fracture alliances and break apart bonds that would be better left unmangled.

So for the night, Morgan and Titan found themselves playing peacekeeper, while Sol sulked and concentrated on other duties: a strange turn of events. But Sol was troubled by Veliuona, and by the voices still whispering in her mind of things from the past she did not entirely understand. Besides, ultimately, she knew her folly was not in the risk of making Veliuona an enemy: it was in the risk that they would be too weak apart to drive out the Wyrms.

But after seeing what the Wyrms were capable of, and hearing what secrets they had to speak... she knew that they had to make haste and take a risk, rather than move slowly... and most assuredly leave the rest of Equestria to burn black beneath the Tyrant Wyrms' touch.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: The Warning

Not two, but three Tyrant Wyrms awaited their army on the field, almost as if excited for the coming battle. But Sol saw immediately that two of these Wyrms were very different from the Wyrms they had seen so far: they were smaller, sleeker, and shivered with anticipation... and Sol thought that there was a visible hierarchy in the way that these smaller Wyrms seemed to obey the larger one... and it clearly wasn't just out of animal instinct.

It warned Sol of what was yet to come... just as the way the Wyrms waited told her that there was something more nefarious, more malicious, than simply hellbeasts going out of control. But she was distracted by the fact that when she ordered her army to halt, Veliouna mimicked her, telling her own deathless army to stop... and then looking at Sol in a way that somehow made her feel patronized, even as the Goddess of Cursed Shades treated her with deference.

Sol strode forwards towards the Wyrms as they waited for her, and she hated that Veliuona joined her, walking beside her like an equal. It frustrated, angered, and distracted her... and her feelings seemed all the more amplified here in the presence of the Wyrm. Just as she felt like she could sense Veliuona's secretive smile, and the eyes of the undead abomination lingering on her, watching her, studying her every movement...

But Veliuona had no plans to move against Sol, or to deride her: she, too, could feel the miasma and the emotional toxicity given off by the Wyrm, but in her, it caused fear, an emotion that the deathless goddess had not felt for a long time, and one she would do anything to get rid of. All the same, it was very hard for her to bow her head to Sol; harder still for her to whisper to the mare that she would do as she asked.

It was hard for Sol to pull herself out of her anger... but she did, all the same, and forced her rage to instead focus on the Wyrm instead of Veliuona. To put the hatred she had for this undead monster before her, and sharpen her focus like a blade, as she looked up at the Wyrm. And the Wyrm looked back at her, before it said in its terrible, dark language, in words that her mind could barely handle and yet all the same understood:

We know you, swordmaiden.

Sol didn't know why, but those words chilled her... and drove such a spike of fury through her, that she could not stop herself from lashing out in pain. Pain, and anger, and memory that was still nothing but blurs... but there was something there, all the same. Eyes, watching her. The scent of blood. And laughter. Cruel, cold laughter...

When Sol next was aware, the Wyrms were dead. The smaller beasts had been almost too easy to destroy: they did not sing like the larger Wyrm did. But even the larger Wyrm had not fought hard: it had almost seemed eager to die, as a matter of fact. As if death was merely the fastest way it had to leave the battlefield, and return to its waiting Master...

That was a thought that chilled Sol to the core. But when she looked at Veliuona, she did so with impassive eyes, and a thankless heart. Even though the Goddess had fought beside her and even submitted to her will, she still could see her as nothing less than an enemy, be it spiritual or political, if not physically a foe right now.

And Sol would not show any mercy for her foes.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Jealousy

Morgan learned much from Veliuona. Too much, Sol thought, as she watched her sibling carve Velite runes into bones to help with repairing the undead infantry after a skirmish with bandits. Sol was concerned that Veliuona was trying to lure her sister away... and she was very frustrated with the fact that Titan seemed willing to aid the undead army himself in any way he could, although she put this down more to what she saw as his naivety than the manipulations or machinations of the undead against her brother. Sol, by know, knew Titan better than that.

But Morgan was different. In the past, Morgan had always followed her, admired her... and now Sol was watching her sister being taken in by a different sort of mentor, one who acted as if she better understood her, one who played for sympathy... and Sol was disgusted and frustrated by it. All the more so because she had originally encouraged Morgan into the enemy camp, in order to gain information and to possibly eliminate the need for Veliuona...

Now, Morgan was doing too well. And while it was good she was learning the magic and skills of the enemy, at the same time Sol felt... uncomfortable seeing her display such prowess in interacting with the dead. To control and manipulate them was one thing, but Morgan seemed as if she was capable of doing more than that...

And as if Sol hadn't noticed that paladin Morgan was so taken with slinking around the Velite camp and sneaking off to see Veliuona in the depths of the night. She was sure that Morgan was either overlooking it or perhaps, foolishly, trying to be 'supportive' of it, seeing it as her ridiculous lover perhaps 'taking an interest' or some other nonsense. Sol kept cursing the fact that she hadn't squashed this relationship when she had the chance to: this paladin was nothing but a hindrance, and she knew that if this kept up, then one day, the paladin was going to cost more than just their patience. Especially with how soft Morgan was with him, and how she continued to dote foolishly on him.

No. Sol would not allow this to continue. One way or another, she would wean Morgan off this darkness, and she would find a way to get rid of Veliuona. It was only a matter of time and logistics, that was all: the only reason they needed to stay on the good side of the Goddess of Cursed Shades was to prevent being caught in a crossfire between her and the Tyrant Wyrms. And since the Tyrant Wyrms had to be eliminated anyway... Sol thought the best that she could do was force the camp to march even faster towards their destination, to engage the Wyrms on the territory they had claimed, and let Veliuona's troops do the brunt of the work for them.

As a matter of fact, once they dealt with the Wyrms in Central Equestria, she thought the best course of action might be to split their forces. Then Veliouna could go her own way, and Sol could take her forces to deal with the other incursions. Perhaps she could trust Titan and Morgan enough to deal with a Wyrm themselves as well: they had to act quickly to drive back these monsters, after all.

And Sol wanted to ensure that even if they were being forced to lay down with dogs, they wouldn't attract too any fleas.