Sol knew that something was wrong long before the messenger arrived, as did Titan: for Titan heard it in the earth, and while Sol had distance herself from nature, she all the same heard the cries of the world itself, rebelling against the evil that had taken root in it.
Even Morgan, despite the fact that her newfound romance had left her attention lesser than usual, saw the signs of rising malevolence in the night sky, was warned of the evil by the stars as much as the earth beneath her hooves. Her paladin lover seemed blind to it, but he was young and naive, believing more in the laws of his Order than the powers-that-were that his Order was supposed to serve.
But that was not to say all were blind to the menace: no, for even as monsters withdrew from the lands around Canterlot, mages and others gave grave warnings that a great and terrible evil was coming. And news and rumors came from far and wide about swamps growing larger, and crops failing, and sightings of great wingless black dragons that left rot and death behind them.
Whatever it was, Sol understood that this evil had to be taken care of: whatever it was, it seemed to be threatening all of Equestria, with no interest in anything apart from destruction. But Sol found this hard to believe: what could possibly exist that truly desired only destruction? What kind of living creature would want to hunt its prey to extinction, and leave itself no home, no food, nothing but barren wastes?
Even the undead, she knew, had their goals and aspirations: Veliuona's lieutenant had craved power, but also gaudily decorated herself. The undead that had served under her had been neat and tidy: perhaps not disciplined, but not the mindless, restless dead that many Equestrians were more familiar with. They had goals, and more importantly, they had the minds to work towards getting those goals done.
Dragons hoarded gemstones and glutted themselves on ponies, but they were known to seek out other prey when ponies became scarce or worried: they didn't risk themselves or their food unnecessarily. The same held true for most other beasts, whether intelligent or not.
But whatever these new monsters were... all three of the siblings felt they did not just know no remorse, and no mercy... they also would never stop, until they had spread their malice far and wide. The night warned that they had no souls; nature said that they were nothing of her creation; and the briefest scrying showed that they had enough power to destroy Equestria if they were left unchecked.
And then, the message came: these rumors had become reality as the creatures had crawled out of the Gray Mountains, and slaughtered everyone in their path. Entire villages had been reduced to ruin, and crops painted red with blood, and the ground rotted away to black mire and poison. They came, and the few ponies who had survived had gone insane from whatever they had witnessed: they could do little more than cry and hallucinate, clutching their heads and claiming that they could still hear the voices of the beasts in their minds.
Sol knew this was both a great threat as well as a great opportunity: she would rally friends and allies together and form an army to take north, to combat this threat. But Titan was afraid that this was not the time for politics, and this would only lead to ruin and the death of many friends; he found little support in Morgan, however, who was torn between her loyalties. To Sol, to Titan... and now, to her paladin lover, who declared that he and his fellow soldiers were ready and eager to fight beside the three siblings.
But none of them could have ever been prepared for the hatred and the suffering that they would face when they finally encountered their first Tyrant Wyrm.
No comments:
Post a Comment