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

A thing of immense and terrible power, the Dracolich was not merely a fearsome and vile beast, but also a ruthless and cunning one. He was a foe who looked at them with both cold intellect and a sly, cruel grin that told them he enjoyed their pain, he thrilled in their suffering... and he thought he had an advantage on them, that would prevent them from attacking it outright.

And for the moment, Sol did hesitate to strike: she knew that such creatures were cunning and deceitful, but that they were driven by baser things than loyalty or honor: no, with the right threats and the right encouragements, the creature would gladly surrender information to them. It would have to be destroyed, that was certain... but Sol would be glad to allow the monster to live a little while longer if it gave her the right answers.

The Dracolich bowed its head humbly when she demanded information from it: it visibly hurt the creature to do so, but it played the part of the submissive well, saying that it would stand no chance against them and thus had no wish to do battle. Titan was wary did not believe its words, but Morgan was bolstered by it... and her senses were dulled by the fact that the poisons she so desired were so close at hoof, maddening her mind and all her emotions.

Sol took control of the conversation: interrogating the beast. And every question she spoke, it gave her an answer for, an answer that made her angrier, yet also pleased her. Its words were venom, and Titan tried to urge her sister to turn away, but Sol would not listen.

Veliuona had created an empire for herself, far away from the reaches of the ponies. Veliuona sought now to fortify and protect that land, while Sol chased out the Tyrant Wyrm. Veliuona, and all other creatures of Equestria, hated the Tyrant Wyrm, that was true: but the Goddess of Cursed Shades was thinking far ahead, readying her own home for her inevitable betrayal. When the time was right, she would turn on all of Equestria to make them submit to her evils, after what she viewed as the only true threat to her supremacy was wiped out.

The Dracolich told this all, without asking for anything in return. But all the same, his desire was clear... and yet Sol's reward was a swift and merciless strike to the Dracolich once her information had been gleaned. The beast had made one fell mistake: he had stated that Veliuona would gather all dark things to her cause, and was already sending out emissaries. Sol would not allow the Dracolich to remain ally or emissary for her foe.

The battle was harsh, but the three emerged victorious all the same, rending the Dracolich apart. Yet all the same, Sol knew it would rise again in a matter of months, as its phylactery was hidden away: a cunning move on the part of the Dracolich. But she did not care. The point was made, the damage was done: the Dracolich would not be able to serve in Veliuona's army. And the creature should be grateful for such a mercy.

Sol stated that they would spend the night in these ruins. Titan was loathe to stay in the camp of the enemy, even if taken, but Morgan was eager, and her Paladin all too happy to agree with his lover. The Blood Seer sided with Titan, but if anything, this only made Sol all the more determined to spend the night here, so she could find more evidence of Veliuona's wrongdoing and bring justice against her.

Titan feared, however, that this was only a plot of the Dracolich: such creatures were known to be capricious and vicious, and the battle had been too easy, and his answers too simply given. And it was well known that such beasts often thirsted only for ruin and destruction, and were capable of great and savage schemes: it would be easy for such a fiend to compel others to serve it, and to desire destruction of another 'lord of death,' as it so were. Perhaps the creature wanted Veliuona destroyed so it could take her place as head of the empire: perhaps, it only wanted death and destruction, not so differently from the Tyrant Wyrm.

All Titan knew was that this was a bad idea. And he feared that all of this was only the beginning of a path of worser things yet to come.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Accusation

Sol chose their path, and led the way. She let her siblings and compatriots rest little along the way, and swore bitterly at them every time they begged to stop. Sol was angry: at the world, at her siblings, at everything. And most of all, she desired vengeance.

For weeks now, they had been harried by the pawns of the Dragon Cult: Sol was beginning to suspect that whoever their true master was, they recognized that all they were doing was delivering more pawns to their death... but they were also delivering more poison to Morgan, who was sneaking the Dragon's Blood behind Sol's back.

Bold and strong as it made her, Sol thought that more, the Dragon's Blood made Morgan a coward, and pathetic. But she also recognized grimly that if she wanted to get to the root of the problem, then for now, there was no point in addressing it directly. Morgan, instead, was able to sense where the Dragon's Blood was, making her invaluable when it came to predicting ambushes from the cult, and moreover, in tracking where the cult members had tread.

This allowed the siblings to hunt down the root of the cult within a few short weeks: Sol was unsurprised to find their headquarters guarded not simply by more cultists and mercenaries, but Dead Dolls and other deathless puppets that defied both the natural cycle and natural morality.

Sol led a frontal, vicious attack on the enemy: as so many of the cult's living forces had been used in ambush against them, she expected their defenses to be weak, and centered around the undead. She was proven right: monstrous, deathless drakes and swarms of zombies of every shape and size swarmed out to meet them, only to be rebuffed in but moments by powerful exorcisms and blinding holy magic that made even Morgan flinch.

There were no games this time, no playing, no suppression of power for the sake of fairness or mercy. There was only the blinding, hellish wrath of the sun, as Sol punished her way into the cult's fortress. She did not care who she tore apart or tore into: slave, conscript, thrall, or fanatic, all fell before her magic, as her siblings followed behind her and their comrades backed them up as best they could.

Sol fought her way quickly to the inner sanctum, sparing no mercy and no curiosity: she was focused on her objective, and her objective was not the leader of the cult, whom she did not let speak a single word before blowing apart and storming past: it was the creature past the cult leader, the beast that had puppeted this cult and provided their dark magic, their raw materials, their poisons and enchantments and reason for being.

There, in the heart of the fortress, Sol found the Dracolich, and as they gazed upon each other, she had but one question for it:

"Did Veliuona send you?"

And the Dracolich, smiling its lipless smile, with a gaze of cold, calculated cunning and ruthless wisdom, replied simply:

"Yes."

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Poisons

Poison did not grow in the body alone: the most dangerous of poisons took root in the mind. And both Sol and Morgan had their own poisons, Titan sadly knew. One was a very physical thing that had all the same dug itself deep into Morgan's spirit, while the other was an affliction of the mind in Sol that had all the same begun to take its toll on her body, with her endless pacing, her irritability, her moments of anger and flashes of distrust.

It was Sol he worried for more: Morgan needed healing, but that healing he trusted would come in time, and it was not the poisons he worried taking power over her, but rather, the power itself. He knew his little sister well, and that even if the substance was what had unlocked this door, what she loved most was power: not in the way Sol did, but in a darker, and perhaps crueler way. In a way that sometimes made him afraid for what she might become, if such lusts were not tempered.

Sol, however, had always seen things through the lenses of the poison that bubbled and boiled away in her mind, and it led her back to making the same decisions she regretted, again and again. He admired his sister for her strength, her fearlessness, her tenacity, her dedication to her cause... but he feared, too, where those things would take her as well. Sol did not back down. Sol did not show mercy, unless it was begged and pleaded for by himself and Morgan. Sol did not know that love was something you tried to share with the world, not just your own family. And Sol, he knew, would not hesitate to sacrifice anything and everything that she saw as a threat. Perhaps, sadly, even her own kin, if they became something she saw as 'enemy.'

For that was Sol's poison: absolutes. That there was absolute good, and absolute evil. That darkness and light had to be at either end of the scale, always opposed. That night was one thing, and day another; how was it that for someone so strong, so smart, so dedicated, Sol could not see nor understand that these beautiful things shared the same sky?

It made him sad. It hurt his heart. Sol could become so much more than she was, if only she would learn that life was not lived in extremes and absolutes: that she was imprisoning herself, endangering herself, with the way she struggled to make every event an all-or-nothing gambit.

Titan knew there were poisons in the minds of both his siblings, but even if Morgan seemed to be in the greatest danger, he knew that it was Sol who was suffering most. Perhaps it was Morgan's poisons that had brought Sol's own toxic thoughts back into her mind. It made him hurt to think of how Sol railed on Morgan for 'weakness,' while not recognizing the vulnerability of her own self.

Titan hurt, because his siblings hurt. And yet he knew there was only so much he could do. Ultimately, they had to find their own way, he knew. He could only try and help them along the path, and be there to catch them, should they stumble or fall. And he would be, as much as possible, for he loved his siblings, and would do anything for them, anything to see them safe.

And Titan knew, in his heart of hearts, that when the day came, he would give his life to keep them safe. He only hoped that they would remember the few lessons he had to teach, and remember above all else to take care of each other.

For even if they both suffered and hurt under the ache of their own poisons, Titan knew that sometimes there was no better cure for one's own ailments than helping another with theirs.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Teeth

At some point, all of us have to choose to fight for something. All of us reach a point where we can no longer be pushed, where the choice is to either lose what makes us, us, and become slaves, or to discover that there is a piece of us, a part of us, that cannot be bought, that cannot be crushed, that cannot be traded away for any price. Ultimately, we all have something we would give our lives for; ultimately, we all have something we would sell our very souls to protect.

Morgan had never truly felt that before, but she was beginning to experience that now. Even if, in every other way, the poison she had started to take was taking a terrible toll on her, at the same time it made her come to a realization: she had to be more than just Sol's puppet. She had to be more than just Sol's good little sister sometimes, and she had to stand up for herself.

She was learning this for all the wrong reasons, but all the same, she was learning. And while it caused great friction, Morgan had at least begun to stand up for herself... even if for the wrong things. Titan wanted to be proud of her, but his fear for her, and where this path would take her, overwhelmed any pride or joy he might have felt.

Sol, however, was disappointed by her sister's refusal to fall in line. She thought it was an ill omen, of bad things to come. She thought that it meant that Morgan was beginning to descend into the darkness, the place where she would inevitably fall. She thought many things, all of them cruel, many of them unfair.

Yet all the same, Sol did not act: Sol instead blamed Veliuona, even if she knew their true target had to be the cult that had attacked them. And she went so far as to threaten the Blood Seer to stay away from her sister, even though he and Morgan rarely spoke, and she did not even know that the Blood Seer could artificially produce serums very similar to the dragon's blood that Morgan lusted after.

Her Paladin was no help on either front: he was too cowardly to stand up to Sol, and too weak to resist Morgan's pleas, sneaking her vials of the crimson concoction she so desired, acting as a mule, and perhaps enjoying the attention and affection she gave him as a result. He felt there was little he could do... and he was not wiling to resist her, in any event. In a way, he liked her taking charge, he liked feeling free of responsibility, and without a doubt, he loved the affection the mare heaped upon him in exchange for her 'needs.'

And yet, while inwardly they quarreled, outwardly, the group of heroes fought off brigands, defeated monsters, and chased the cult halfway across the nation without fear or hesitation. They were strong, determined, worked as one together: there was no foe that could stand against their might, especially with Morgan made so ruthlessly strong by the poisons she was taking.

But all the same, their inner fractures were what would lead these mighty heroes to failure and ruin.

The Legend of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Taste

She needed the dragon's blood. Needed it, more than she'd needed anything before in her life. It gave her strength, it gave her power, it gave her pleasure... it took away her fear. It made everything alright, just as it had also made her realize how long it had been since things had truly been okay: too long, she thought bitterly. It was no wonder the Paladin was afraid all the time, that they were always fighting or arguing. It was Sol's fault, for dragging them along on this quest, and not preparing them, not letting them rest.

Morgan didn't think Sol understood how good the dragon's blood was: suddenly, she understood why the cultists had used it to make themselves stronger, and why so many other mages and warriors had relied on what she'd considered to be weakness in the past. But that has been from a lack of understanding, before she had known or realized what power it provided. How it stabilized her, and brought out the hidden strength inside her, and numbed the pain; what was bad about any of that?

And she wasn't weak, weak like she knew so many of those cultists had been. She was strong enough to keep herself in check, strong enough to swallow the side effects, strong enough with the dragon's blood that she could take on the world and resist any unpleasant changes. She wouldn't become an addict, or weak. She didn't have any problems with relying on poisons. It simply benefited her, and it was here, and right now... she needed... no, wanted it. She didn't need it, of course, it just... made things easier.

Morgan didn't think Sol understood that. That was fine, though: she was strong enough that she didn't need to rely on Sol. And if Sol was just going to hold it against her, patronize her, treat her like she was weak, then that was fine as well. She would prove her strength to Sol.

Titan, of course, was very quiet about the whole thing, but Morgan thought nothing of it. There were other things to attend to, and she knew that the journey had worn on Titan as well. He wasn't worried about her. Why should he be worried for her? She was strong.

She was strong, and she wouldn't give this up, just because Sol wanted her to. When she had it taken away, it had hurt so much, every pain of the world had become so clear to her... no, she would hold on to this for now. And besides, the power the dragon's blood gave her was the power they needed to smite back their foes. And now, with it in her veins, she could almost sense where the other cultists were... with their stores of that precious elixir.

She would prove to Sol she was stronger this way than without it. She would hunt down the cult, reap through them like the whirlwind, and take their treasures. She would take revenge and gain bounty, all in one fell swoop.

She was not weak.