Login

Freeport Venture: City of Giants

by Ponibius

Chapter 22: Chapter 21

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Daring Do

The sun was setting when we returned to Zhilius’ central pyramid. We ran into the main entrance and threw open the door leading to the section of the pyramid that contained the magical workshop. The two of us ran forward, only to be brought to a screeching halt by the sight before us. Instead of the straight hallway we’d fled down before to escape the gas trap in the entrance we now faced three different hallways, each branching off in a different direction.

I frowned. “Well, this is new.”

Puzzle glanced down each hallway, but each ended in hard turns that led to further into the pyramid. “This is not how this one remembered this part of the pyramid.”

“I remember from my studies legends of how the Quinametzin’s pyramids could change, and each time you walked into them it'd be laid out completely differently,” I said. “Guess there was something to those stories.”

“So we're talking about some sort of magical architecture?” Puzzle stroked his cheek. “This place did seem a bit bigger on the inside. At first this one just dismissed it as just all being in its head or some trick of perception, but if the internal layout can change...”

I grimaced as I considered some of the implications of that. Something must have been prompting the pyramid to change its layout. Either the pyramid changed itself or Ahuizotl had somehow gained control of it. He had claimed to have worked for the Quinametzin and clearly knew how some of their stuff worked. Honestly, I didn’t know what would be worse for us. Sure, Ahuizotl was working against us, but at least he was a known factor. If the pyramid was changing itself, then it could be completely random or based on some arcane intelligence we knew nothing about.

“This is gonna make it a lot harder to find where they took Capital and Alya,” I observed.

“Possibly too long,” Puzzle said. “But this one isn't seeing a better way forward.”

“Yeah, I'm not gonna quit now.” I examined each hallway, trying to decide if any of them were different in any way. “And even if the place is changing, there'll still be some pattern to it.”

“You're supposed to have a special talent for finding your way, right?” He briefly glanced at my compass cutie mark. “Then lead the way. Let's hope the pattern isn't hard to figure out.”

Seeing no difference between the hallways, I picked the right one and barreled forward. It wasn’t long before we reached another fork in the road with yet more hard turns in seemingly random directions. I took another right, only to reach a dead end. Turning around, I took a couple more rights just to find yet another dead end.

“Great, a maze.” I briefly took off my hat to wipe my brow. At least we haven’t run into any traps or monstrous guardians ... yet. “You know the first rule of solving a maze, right?”

“Keep going only left or right until you reach the end?”

“Exactly!” I turned around and took yet another right, with Puzzle shortly behind me.

“Might as well go with the brute force method then,” Puzzle said. “This one doesn’t have any better ideas.”

“We got this!” I assured him, keeping an eye out for traps or other dangers even as we ran. I wasn’t wild about being this reckless in unfamiliar territory, but the others’ lives were in danger and time was of the essence.

We kept at it for a few minutes, but then I noticed that Puzzle was lagging behind enough that he’d almost missed the turn I’d made. “Hey Puzzle, keep up!”

He scowled up at me. “This one is trying.”

“Well just trying isn't gonna be good enough!”

“This one knows,” he snapped.

“What's the holdup then?” I called back, noticing that Puzzle was huffing and puffing pretty bad. We were setting a pretty hard pace, but I thought Puzzle was good enough shape to keep up.

“It's been a long day,” Puzzle said through gritted teeth.

Something about how he’d said that made me worry. Considering everything that’d happened I had a pretty good guess on what was really going on. “You weren't lying about being hungry, were you?”

Puzzle wasn’t quick to answer. “No. Quite frankly, this one isn't doing very well.”

I grimaced and slowed down the pace. I didn’t know all the particulars about changeling biology, but I’d gone hungry enough times to know that wasn’t fun. “We gotta get you some food, don’t we?”

“That would be ideal,” he agreed. “A pity then that there’s only one way for this one to do that, and you made your opinions very clear on it. And as this one said, it isn't going to feed on you without permission.”

“Not like I was suggesting that,” I said, perhaps a bit too quickly. I turned my attention to the next bend in the turn. “But maybe we can find one of Ephemera's goons or something. Not wild about feeding you anypony, but ... I mean if we're taking them down anyway...”

“It's all still bodily harm at the end of the day.”

I wasn’t exactly sure how a changeling feeding ranked on the whole scale of violence, but it couldn’t be great. I knew I didn’t want some changeling sinking their fangs in me.

Puzzle fell silent for several seconds. “Though this one believes most of them are back at the coliseum, and you can guess how many of them are left by this point.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Those undead had been out for blood, and any of the goons that’d been at the coliseum were either dead or scattered throughout the city by now. Maybe some of them had gathered at some sort of home base they’d set up in Zhilius, but we didn’t have time to pull them out of their hole. “But this is gonna be a lot harder with you barely functional.”

Puzzle huffed with effort, his speed slowing down yet further. “This one is quite aware, and not wild about the idea of fighting someone like Ahuizotl while starving.”

“We'll get you some food.” Just the little matter of actually finding any before Puzzle went feral or collapsed entirely. “All we can do is keep moving,” I said to try and encourage him, though his only reply was silence.

Some minutes later, we arrived in a new chamber. At first I thought we’d entered another one of those weird crystalline gardens, but this place had an entirely different layout. This room was much larger, for one; the whole place was crisscrossed by stairs, raised platforms, and ramps, with plenty of cubby holes dotting the place. But before I could worry about what the purpose of it all was, something rather more pressing came to my attention.

Above us were Ahuizotl’s five cats: a tiger, cheetah, lynx, panther, and, for whatever reason, a common housecat. All their heads immediately turned and they got up to prowl towards us.

“Horseapples.” I spread my wings and considered my options.

Puzzle glanced about warily. “So, how bad are his cats?”

“Pretty vicious.”

“Normal cat levels of vicious, or pony-eating vicious?”

The cats growled deeply as they approached.

“Definitely pony-eating.”

Puzzle let out a sigh. “Of course they are.” He pulled out a dagger. “Looks like we're going to have to go through them to get to Ahuizotl.”

“Super.” My eyes flicked between the cats as I decided how best to approach this. This wasn’t the first showdown I’d had with Ahuizotl’s feline squad, so I knew what we were up against. “I'll try to focus on the bigger ones. Can you feed on these guys?”

Puzzle shook his head. “Afraid not. This one can only feed on sapient beings.” The lynx stepped dangerously close to Puzzle and he took a step back. “But we’d better concentrate on surviving before we worry about this one's dietary habits.”

Before I could reply, the cats charged. The both of us leapt up and took flight, but the environment was pretty tight for the close confines, and the cats ran and climbed up to different platforms trying to get to us. The tiger and cheetah came after me while the lynx and panther went after Puzzle. I went wide, trying to make it so that I’d only have to face one cat at a time. I didn’t need to be dealing with one only for the other to jump on my back when I wasn't looking. So I kept climbing, dodging, and darting between stairs, crystal branches, and platforms as I worked to split the cats up, buying precious seconds.

Thankfully, cats hold no true loyalty to anyone, even each other, and the tiger and panther eventually split off in different directions. Eventually they were probably going to pin me between them, but I didn’t plan on letting them get the chance.

Once the tiger was nice and isolated, I timed my moment. As the tiger moved to jump from one platform to another, I dove and caught it in midair, my hooves slamming into its side sending it plummeting downward. It hit a platform with enough force to shake it. The tiger looked down and out, but I didn’t have any time to celebrate. The cheetah, quick as lightning, had taken the opportunity I presented it to get above me and pounce. I kept up my dive, barely dodging all the obstructions on the way down. The cheetah missed me, landing on another platform. It didn’t miss a beat before setting off at a run again to try and catch me, moving from one platform to another with liquid feline grace.

I took the momentary reprieve to glance in Puzzle’s direction. There was a cloud of noxious green gas on one platform, probably from one of Alya’s alchemical bombs, and the panther came stumbling out of the cloud, hacking and coughing. It slunk away, clearly having had enough of this fight and deciding this meal wasn’t worth the bother.

Puzzle was flying around another tree, the lynx climbing up after him. The changeling had pulled out a rope and cast its grappling hook onto one of the branches. He dived, passing right past the lynx, which pounced after him. Turning to dart to the side, he caught the lynx up under its legs and pulled up. The lynx was violently jerked up, its back slammed against the underside of a branch where it stayed pinned. Puzzle flew in a circle, wrapping the rope multiple times around the lynx before landing on another branch to tie it off, the rope now firmly holding the lynx in place.

I started to let out a relieved sigh, but then Puzzle wobbled and fell from the tree. I started a dive to catch him, but his wings started buzzing. It wasn’t enough to keep him in the air though, and he hit one of the platforms harder than I liked. But I didn’t have time to worry about him just then. The cheetah had moved into position while I’d been distracted and pounced down on me.

I pivoted midair and somersaulted to kick my rear legs up. My right hoof planted squarely on the cheetah’s jaw and brought its momentum to a sudden, jerky halt. It went flipping backwards before landing in a heap on a platform.

I hovered in place as I examined the scene around me. The cheetah was down and out as it slowly slinked away, and the tiger was nowhere to be seen. The other two large cats were also out of the fight. That just left... uh-oh. I’d nearly forgotten about that stupid evil housecat in all the chaos. I bolted for where I’d last seen Puzzle.

He wasn’t doing great. When I caught sight of him, the housecat was firmly attached to one of his rear legs, biting into the joint between the plates of his chitin. Puzzle cried out in pain and tried to get the cat off himself, but the cat let go on its own and scurried off into a cubby hole. Puzzle tried to examine his injuries, only for the cat to emerge from another cubby hole and take a cheap shot at another one of his legs. This time Puzzle managed to knock it off, but it just bolted for another hole to hide in. There must have been some sort of tunnel network within the platforms and wall, because the cat struck time and again, getting in some claws and bites before retreating to do it all over again.


Kukri held her hooves up to her mouth as she snickered to herself. “What’s the matter, Puzzle? Having trouble pounding that pussy?”

I groaned and rubbed my forehead. “Congratulations Kukri, you’ve just earned yourself the privilege of cleaning the stairs leading up to my tower landing with a toothbrush.”

Kurki’s earns wilted. “Aaaw... oh who is this one kidding? It was worth it.” My somewhat mischievous apprentice snickered to herself some more.


Puzzle normally probably wouldn’t have had trouble with something as mundane as a housecat, but his movements were sluggish and weak. His hunger was getting to him, and all the running and fighting we’d been up to wasn’t helping. He suddenly lost his balance when the cat took another swing at him. It then faded back, only to re-emerge from another hole, this time going for Puzzle’s eyes.

I caught it with my jacket, holding it like a net as I flew in for the save. “No you don't!” I quickly wrapped the jacket around the furball and tied it up to keep the cat from escaping. It hissed and struggled viciously to get out, but I took the jacket’s sleeves and tied them to a nearby branch to keep it out of trouble.

While I was finishing that up, Puzzle tried to stand but lost his balance and fell against the wall with a grunt.

I blinked in surprise as Puzzle breathed heavily. I darted over to him to check him over. “Whoa! Careful there. How much damage did that cat do to you?”

Puzzle took in several more heavy breaths before answering. “Nothing too bad, this one thinks.” He tried to pull some bandages out of his saddlebags, but his hooves were shaking so badly that he only ended up dropping them.

“Hey, let me take care of that! You just sit there and rest.” I snatched up the bandages and started looking over his wounds. They weren’t great, but they could have been worse. His chitin saved him from the worst of the cat attack, but wherever it didn’t cover him the cat had got him good. “Um, your blood's supposed to be this color, right?”

Puzzle sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. “If it’s green, then yes.”

“Great.” I started bandaging up his lacerations. “How you feeling?” I had a pretty good idea already how he was feeling: crappy. But I needed to check anyways.

He didn’t immediately answer, and for a moment I thought he had nodded off, but then he spoke slowly and deliberately. “This one thinks ... it might be best if you went on ahead.”

“No way, I don’t leave anyone behind.” I kept right on bandaging his wounds. “So get up!”

Puzzle kept his eyes closed as he rubbed his brow. “This one is afraid it's done, Do-mare. That last fight ... this one doesn't have anything left in it.”

I cut off the bandage and finished tying it in place. “Fine! I'll carry you then!”

“When you're heading into a fight?” He weakly shook his head. “That's a terribly dumb idea. This one would just be dead weight. This one was getting savaged by a damn kitten just a minute ago. There's no sense in trying to save this one if it's only going to get us both killed. And the others, don’t forget them. One life doesn't equal three. And more than that will die if you don't stop Ahuizotl and the Ephemera-mare. They’ll use what they find here, and we can’t allow that, whatever else happens.”

I grit my teeth together. “I’m not leaving you here just for those stupid cats to eat you!” Ahuizotl’s cats might have run off for now, but they hadn’t slunk off that far. As soon as they saw some isolated and weakened prey they’d come back out to play. I couldn’t leave Puzzle to that, whatever dumb self-sacrificial thing he had going on.

“You can't save everyone. This one rolled the dice, and this is how they fell. This one bet itself and lost.” Puzzle chuckled harshly. “To be honest, this one was betting against long odds from the start, assuming the game wasn't just rigged from the start anyway. The best this one could do was hope to give you a shot at beating Ahuizotl.”

“Shut up with your defeatism!” I grabbed the sides of his head so he had to look me in the eye. “So what, do I just let you die? Is that what you want?!”

Puzzle sniffled and his voice became tight as he spoke. “No, of course not. This one never wanted to die. This one... Dammit, there was so much more this one want to do, get promoted within the Masks, join the Council, make Freeport a better place, see more of the world. Not just some cursed ruin like this, this one wanted to get to see places like Canterlot, Lubeak, Manehattan—places that mattered. Now this one is so damned weak it’s going to die in this gods-forsaken ruin.”

“Well then stop whining and being all doom and gloom, and help me find a solution!”

Then Puzzle did one of the last things I expected him to do: he started crying. “It's just not fair!” He slammed a hoof on the floor. “It's stupid. This one's tried so hard, Do-mare. This one has always tried to play things smart, to make the right move, meet the right people, do whatever it took to succeed. But now look at this one: beaten, starving to death, surrounded by enemies, all because that stupid Cold Comfort hates this one. Now Ephemera—Ephemera is probably going to outlive this one! Where's the justice in that?!”

I blinked in surprise as Puzzle started to sob, his hooves covering his face.

“What is this one doing wrong?! Why is this the way things have to turn out?! Is this one just fighting fate until the lights finally go out?! Was this one just doomed from the start? This one doesn't want to die, but it doesn't know what to do. It's just ... weak.” He shook his head as his sobs ran their course. “This one doesn't even know how its fought off going feral for so long despite the pain, and this one doesn’t know what to do anymore.”

“Well I know what you’re going to do.” I wrapped a wing around his back to give him support. “You’re going to do what you’ve been doing thus far, and get back up again. 'Cause you're strong.”

Puzzle sniffled and rubbed his eyes. “Strong?”

“Yeah, you are.” I squeezed him with my wing. “Sure, you’re tired, you’re hungry, and life’s kicked you down, but do you know how many people have managed to come this far? In thousands of years almost no one but the hristak have gotten to Zhilius. Capital and I only got here because we’d carefully prepared for it, plus I have a lot of experience at this type of thing. Ephemera’s only brute-forced her way here through sacrificing tons of her goons, in no small part thanks to you, and Ahuizotl isn't even mortal and already knew a lot about this place besides. Without any real plans or preparation, you’ve schemed, plotted, and used your skills to come all this way, even discovering a secret the Dromaed have been hiding for centuries all while everything’s been trying its damned hardest to kill you. Hay, you’ve spent half this journey with a handicap by dragging Ephemera behind you. Most would die trying that. It takes someone strong to do what you’ve done, and I know you can keep going. Just a little longer, one step in front of the other.” I stood up and smiled. “Now come on. Get up, power through this, and let's save everyone!”

Puzzle looked down at the floor. “This one can't even stand anymore.”

“Yes you can!” I offered him a hoof. “Just let me help you.”

Puzzle stared at my hoof before he took it. “This one ... wants to keep going with you. To see this through to the end.”

I pulled him up and got Puzzle onto shaky hooves. He nearly fell over, but I caught him with my wing and held him up. “Right, there we go. You’re not done yet. As long as there’s life there’s a chance. We’re beaten up and battered, but we haven’t lost yet. You got that?”

Puzzle took and deep breath. “Right, we haven’t lost yet.”

I grinned. “And we’re not gonna be. Now let’s get moving.”


We continued further into the pyramid. Thankfully, there wasn’t any more of the maze to get through. Ahuizotl must have intended for his pets to deal with anyone that actually reached the end of it. Arrogance might as well be Ahuizotl’s middle name, and we were about to show him why that was a bad thing.

We arrived at the entrance to the magical workshop. The both of us crept to the doorway and leaned out to see what was going on inside, and it wasn’t good. Ahuizotl was hard at work with his new Blood Forge. Where before the Blood Forge had merely thrummed with the potential of power, now it was winding up to its full strength as green lines of magic ran through its channels. Capital was tied down on top of the miniature pyramid, and Ahuizotl was speaking arcane, hard-edged words of power that the Forge reacted to. Within his hand was a long blade of blood steel that looked like a mere dagger inside his massive palm. Alya and Stass were at the base of the Blood Forge, tied up and gagged to keep them from trying anything.

“Not good,” I observed. He was not going to use the Forge if I had anything to say about it. I promised Capital’s parents that I’d protect him, and that was what I was going to do. Not to mention I’d come to like Capital over the course of our journey. Sure, he could be a bit naive at times, but over time it’d come to be a part of his charm, and he was one of the last people to deserve what Ahuizotl was about to do him. Not that I liked the idea of anyone getting turned into that accursed blood steel.

“We'd better act fast.” Puzzle gaze swept over the workshop. “You’ve beaten Ahuizotl before. How did you do it?”

I grimaced as I remembered all my previous encounters with the evil spirit. “Usually through a lot of improvisation and more luck than I'd like to admit. He’s tough, he’s strong, and he’s way faster than a guy his size has any right to be. His main weakness is in the head department. Honestly, half the time I’ve just run from him when it came to a confrontation.”

Puzzle stroked his chin. “The way this one sees it, our main objective is to deny Ahuizotl his goal of sacrificing the others and turning them into bloodsteel. If we stop him from doing that then we’ve gotten at least a small victory.”

“It’d be best if we stopped him right here and now.”

Puzzle looked me in the eyes. “And do you have a workable way to make that happen?”

“Getting there...” I grumbled.

“While you’re working on that this one will offer up an alternative suggestion.” He pointed to where Alya and Stass were sitting. “We free the others and get them out of here. With Stass we might be able to get reinforcements into Zhilius to deal with Ahuizotl and the Ephemera-mare. We know what their objectives are, and it won’t be easy for them to pack up everything they want and get out of here quickly unless they’ve got a trick we’re not aware of. Especially that Blood Forge Ahuizotl’s so taken with. So we should have time.”

“Maybe...” I crossed my arms over my chest as I thought it over. Given the circumstances, it sounded like a decent plan. I didn’t like leaving a fight to anyone else, but Ahuizotl wasn’t exactly an easy opponent to take down. The hristak had claimed they’d dealt with Ahuizotl in the past, and with any luck they’d be able to do so again. At the very least, this plan would help keep our friends safe, which was definitely something.

In the end I nodded. “Let’s do this. I’ll distract Ahuizotl while you free the others and get them out of here. There should be plenty of places to hide in the city if we make it that far.” And given how weak Puzzle was right now, I wasn’t sure how well he’d even do in a fight. There was the little issue of leaving a hungry changeling with the prisoners, but we weren’t exactly spoiled for choices at the moment.

“And how will you disengage with Ahuizotl?”

I grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ve gotten away from him plenty of times in the past. Just make it so I don’t have to worry about everyone else and we’ll be fine.” In truth, that was a sticking point of the plan: the workshop was pretty big, but there was only so much room for me to work with and only one exit that I could see. That was going to make it tricky to make my escape, but then nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Good enough.” Puzzle pulled out a dagger. “On your mark.”

The Blood Forge’s magic had the rhythmic flow of a beating heart as its energies built towards a climax, and Ahuizotl’s arcane words were picking up in pitch as he raised his blade over Capital.

I zoomed out from our hiding place and flew right towards Ahuizotl. He didn’t have time to react before my rear hooves slammed into the back of his head, the force of the hit sending him tumbling forward. Failing to maintain his balance, he fell down the steps of the Blood Forge and dropped his blood steel blade.

“Hey Ahuizotl! You forget someone!” Ahuizotl started to stand, but then I hit him right in the back to send his face smacking into the side of the Blood Forge.

“Daring Do?!” Ahuizotl roared. “How dare you! How did you escape my death trap?!”

“Maybe if you ever stuck around you’d know how I keep doing it.” Ahuizotl bolted to his feet, and I dived again to knock him back down again. But this time he’d known I was coming and a meaty fist swung at me in a backswing. I flipped in midair to pass over his arm, but the dodge put me out of position to hit him again. Ahuizotl snatched at me, but I was moving too fast and out of his reach.

“I’ll get you!” Ahuizotl picked up a nearby table and hurled it at me. I dove out of the way, and the ancient table smashed against the wall. I charged him again, but his guard was fully up now. He dashed forward and moved below me before I could course-correct, swinging an arm up at me with the intention of snatching me right out of the air. Once again I dodged to the side, and I could feel his fingers almost snatch my wing. Not having a whole lot of other options, I banked to go back on the attack, using my speed and maneuverability to try and keep Ahuizotl on the defensive.

Good news was that I had his attention on me. Bad news was that his attention was on me.


Puzzle Piece

This one darted between tables and forges that dotted the workshop to move unseen. The Do-mare had successfully done her part of keeping Ahuizotl distracted, so now it was this one’s turn to act. This one knew it didn’t have that much time to free the others. At the very least the Do-mare was struggling against Ahuizotl. She was keeping him off balance, but she lacked the power to put him down. That much was obvious when nothing she had thrown at him so far was even slowing him down.

This one decided to free the Alya-mare and Stass first. They were harder to see and had the benefit of being together. Their eyes widened when they saw this one. No doubt they were having a bad reaction seeing this one coming at them while holding a dagger, whatever this one’s intentions. As far as they knew this one was still an enemy. Best to avoid a similar misunderstanding that resulted in the Do-mare slugging this one back at the coliseum.

“This one is here to help free you,” it quickly said when it reached them. “In brief, this one lied to the Ephemera-mare, and it got the Do-mare free and we’re working together. Please don’t scream or hit this one when it frees you, that will make escaping much harder.”

They might have squirmed away from this one, but Ahuizotl had done a good job of tying them to a post used for the very purpose of keeping slaves in place for their upcoming sacrifices. Given actions spoke louder than words, this one started cutting the Alya-mare’s binds first. Of the two, she was less likely to hit this one when it released her.

Unfortunately, less likely was still a long way from impossible, and her hoof slapped this one across the cheek. “You tricked us!” she hissed, her eyes burning.

“And you can properly scold this one for its behavior after we’ve escaped to safety,” this one told her, ignoring the pain from its cheek. “Before then, perhaps we should concentrate on not getting captured again.”

The Alya-mare squared her jaw and looked like she wanted to argue the point further, but her gaze shifted to where all of the group’s seized gear had been piled up. “I’m getting my things.” This one didn’t belabor the point and let her do as she would.

No time to waste, this one moved to cutting Stass loose. When he got the opportunity, he pulled his gag from his mouth. “You here to feed on us, parasite?”

“That would be a very stupid thing for this one to try after untying you,” this one reasoned as it cut the bonds on his legs. “Now if you will kindly cooperate, we need to get out of here. The Do-mare can only hold off that monster for so long. We need to get out of here and get you someplace where you can call for reinforcements.”

Stass’ eyes narrowed and he rubbed his wrists once they were free. “I’m not going to run from that monster.”

The hristak stormed past this one before it could ask what he was doing and picked up his serrated club, then ran to a panel in the center of the room that looked similar to the one used to control the fighting pit and started pressing sigils.

This one left him to it, cursing as the Dromaed was now standing in the open for anyone to see. This whole plan could come apart if we couldn’t get reinforcements. Now we had maybe seconds before Ahuizotl saw what was going on. This one ran up the Blood Forge’s steps to reach the Idea-stallion. His eyes widened and he started mumbling something under his gag. Probably some curses about this one being a backstabbing traitor given the vehemence of the mumbling.

This one spoke quickly as it cut through the ropes holding him down on the sacrificial slab. “This one lied to the Ephemera-mare about working for her, it freed the Do-mare, and now we’re working together to save all of you. Please don’t hit this one.”

The Idea-stallion pulled his gag from his mouth and glowered. “Concisely said, but you make it a bit hard to trust a thing you’ve said.”

This one finished cutting the last of the ropes. “Just join us in getting out of here while the Do-mare distracts Ahuizotl.”

The Idea-stallion’s mouth opened in shock. “I’m not about to abandon my friend to that monster!”

I grabbed him by the arm, we didn’t have time for a debate. “Go before—“

The Do-mare tumbled past us, her flight out of control as she hit the wall and fell to the floor. Our time had just run out.

“Daring!” the Idea-stallion called out at the sight of the Do-mare lying on the ground. She groaned and tried to stand but then collapsed.

His immediate opponent disabled, Ahuizotl’s head snapped to glare at the two of us. “Puzzle, what do you think you are doing?”

This one thought of something very clever that might just work. “You see—” But before this one could respond Ahuizotl charged. It seemed the time for words had passed.

This one shoved the Idea-stallion and started moving in the opposite direction. “Move!” This one ran, but to its shock the Idea-stallion didn’t get out of the way as Ahuizotl barreled forward with terrible momentum. Instead the Idea-stallion countercharged. He flew down the stairs, and Ahuizotl jerked in surprise. The momentary hesitation was enough of an opening for the Idea-stallion to punch Ahuizotl right in the nose with everything he. But Ahuizotl was far too large and his momentum too strong for a single punch by any mortal pony to stop him entirely. His bulk slammed into the Idea-stallion and the two of them tumbled down the Blood Forge in a pile.

Both of them scrambled to get back up, but the Idea-stallion was the faster of the pair, going right on the attack. “This. Is not. How civilized. People. Behave!” the Idea-stallion roared as he delivered one hook after another to Ahuizotl’s jaw, sending him jerking to the side with each strike.

“Enough!” Ahuizotl backhanded the Idea-stallion and sent him flying. He hit the ground hard and skidded for several steps before coming to a halt. Ahuizotl stomped over and raised a fist to bring down on the prone pony.

Before he could crush the Idea-stallion, a vial smashed into his chest and exploded, sending Ahuizotl staggering. “Leave him alone, you monster!” The Alya-mare dug out another vial from her bag and tossed it as she ran over to defend the Idea-stallion. One explosion after another rocked Ahuizotl as the Alya-mare unleashed everything she had. But then the Alya-mare’s hoof reached into her bag and came out empty, her extensive supply finally expended.

Ahuizotl’s hands lowered from his face. His body smoked from the repeated explosions, though his supernatural constitution had weathered the storm. If he had any injuries, this one couldn’t see them. He growled and scooped up the nearest heavy object. A table flew caught the Alya-mare as she tried to dodge, landing on her as she cried out in pain. This one’s plans for escape had truly come undone.

Ahuizotl turned his attention to Stass, who was still busy playing with the control panel. The doors to the workshop closed on their own accord, and there was a rumble in the pyramid. Stass turned to face Ahuizotl as he stalked forward.

“What do you think you’re doing, little hristak?” Ahuizotl demanded as he loomed over Stass.

Stass raised his club to defend himself. “Fighting you, monster. As my ancestors have and, the spirits willing, as my descendants will for many generations hence.”

Ahuizotl chuckled and brought up a fist to strike. “You’ve failed. The Blood Forge is mine and—”

His words turned into a scream as this one used its shock gauntlet from behind. Ahuizotl convulsed as electricity coursed through him, falling to the ground as his body stopped following his commands.

This one’s shock gauntlet expended, it landed next to Stass, the only able-bodied fighter at the moment. The Do-mare was stirring, but slowly, and the other two were still recovering from Ahuizotl’s rampage.

“So, you got a plan? Because this one doesn’t think that’s going to keep him down long.” True enough, Ahuizotl was already stirring and starting to push himself up. This one considered going at him with its daggers, but they seemed pretty pitiful things against the mass and power of such a creature. The shock gauntlet was this one’s most powerful weapon, and against a supernatural entity like Ahuizotl it just wasn’t enough. That left this one with precious few options for stopping him.

Stass’ lips peeled back in a grin. “As you suggested, this one called for reinforcements.”

Before this one could ask the rather pressing question of when they would show up, a familiar sound this one had come to dread from its journey through the jungle started up. A rhythmic thump thump thump thump resonated through the ground itself, and this one’s first instinct was to start running.

The doors to the workshop burst open as a great force hit them. A Tyrant Lizard stepped through the doorway, nostrils flared as its predatory gaze swept over the room. Its deep-throated growl shook this one’s insides, and it was all this one could do to keep from fleeing in terror. Stass pointed to Ahuizotl, whose eyes were as wide as saucers staring up at the great tyrant of this land. “That one,” Stass said with a terrible finality.

The Tyrant Lizard roared, and this one clamped its hooves over its ears to keep from being deafened by the sound. The behemoth charged. Ahuizotl may have been a ton of pure muscle and supernatural malevolence, but he was a chew toy compared to what bore down on him. To his credit, he reacted quickly. His arms shot out to grasp the Tyrant Lizard by the jaws as it struck, and while he slid back a couple dozen feet, for a moment it seemed as though he might be able to match the Tyrant Lizard’s strength. Then the Tyrant Lizard simply turned its head, causing Ahuizotl to lose his grip, and its jaws clamped down on him. Ahuizotl screamed in pain and rage as he was lifted up and then shaken like a chew toy.

“Whoa.” The Do-mare stepped up to us, unable to tear her eyes away from the carnage. “There’s something you don’t see every day.”

“You can say that again,” this one said. The idea that the hristak could have such a great beast at his beck and call was more than a little bit humbling. No wonder the Dromaed had managed to live in this hostile land. A quick check showed that the door to the workshop now led to the main entrance of the pyramid. That must have been why Stass had been working the controls: he wanted to invite his friend in—his very big friend.

Stass smiled, perhaps just a little bit smugly. “I trust these reinforcements are sufficient?”

“Quite sufficient, yes,” this one agreed.

The Idea-stallion limped over to us while holding up the Alya-mare, all while staring up as the Tyrant Lizard continued to ruthlessly shake Ahuizotl. “I dare say that he’s definitely not enjoying that.”

The Alya-mare glared in Ahuizotl’s direction. “He was about to sacrifice us to turn us into bloodsteel. I don’t feel particularly bad for him.”

“So what’s next?” the Idea-stallion asked. “Assuming the Tyrant Lizard has Ahuizotl taken care of.”

Stass rolled his shoulder to limber it up after being tied up. “We deal with the remaining invaders.” He looked to this one and the Do-mare. “Where is Ephemera?”

A green lance of fire struck the Tyrant Lizard in the ribs and sent it falling. The behemoth seemed to take an eternity to hit the ground, and when it did, the ground shook. Ahuizotl tumbled from its mouth, moaning pitifully after being ravaged by the now-still Tyrant Lizard. For a moment all we could do was stare at the fallen titan, but then our attention turned to the source of the Tyrant Lizard’s sudden death.


Daring Do

Ephemera stood in the doorway, ethereal smoke trailing off her accursed gauntlet. She was flanked by her bodyguards, and a half-dozen of her thugs stood further behind. All of them looked the worse for wear; most of the thugs seemed to have some sort of wound from their escape from the coliseum, and all of them had a harrowed look in their eyes. Each warily eyed Ephemera, seemingly more concerned by her than what any of us were going to do to them. Her bodyguards had several fresh dents added to their armor, and one in particular was walking with a limp. Even Ephemera had a scratch along one of her shoulders, with her jacket nearly in tatters and her hair was in a tangle. But her emerald eyes were still cold as she watched us.

“You know, I can’t help but think I’ve gone in one long stupid circle.” Ephemera held her gauntlet up as she approached us slowly. “Just a few hours ago I was killing some stupid lizards here to get all of you at my mercy, and here we are again, only I’ve just killed a giant stupid lizard to have all of you at my mercy again. Now who do I have to blame for this massive inconvenience? Oh yes, I know.” She turned her gauntlet on Ahuizotl.

Ahuizotl’s eyes widened and he tried to push himself up, but he just collapsed onto the floor again, his injuries too severe to let him up. “You treasonous wench!”

Ephemera smirked as she reveled over her former patron’s moment of weakness. “Oh, Ahuizotl, you really should've seen this coming.”

Puzzle snorted. “This one certainly did.” I had to agree. It had been only a matter of time until Ephemera decided she didn’t want to take orders anymore. She’d never taken marching orders or being told no very well.

Ahuizotl clenched his teeth. “You need me. Without me you’ll never learn the secrets of the Quinametzin.”

Ephemera waved his point off. “I’ll figure it all out on my own. And if for some reason I can’t, I’ll just hire someone else to do all the hard work, then kill them to keep all the secrets for myself.”

Ahuizotl growled and his fists clenched. “You’ll pay for this, Ephemera, that I swear.”

“I doubt it.”

One of her bodyguards stiffened. “This is not—“

Those were the first and last words I ever heard him speak, because Ephemera abruptly whirled on him and tore his soul from his body to feed fresh power into her bloodsteel gauntlet. She then leveled it on Ahuizotl, and a torrent of green fire consumed him. When the fire subsided there was nothing left but ashes. I doubted that was really the end of Ahuizotl though; spirits like him always tended to pull themselves back together eventually, but it would still probably be a long time before he managed to rebuild a corporeal body. But that still left us with another monster to deal with.

Ephemera turned to the minions. “Right, you all work for me. Any objections?”

There were none. Most of them tried their best not to be noticed and looked away, while the remaining bodyguard stood in stiff stoicism.

Her minions now sufficiently cowed, Ephemera turned her attention back on us. “Now then, where were we?” She smirked and leveled her gauntlet on me. “Oh right, deciding how horribly all of you were going to die.”

Everyone stiffened, and Puzzle and Stass got ready to fight. I spread my own wings, ready to dodge as soon as she fired. But now after everything that had happened, we were back to square one. Ephemera had the distance on us, and it didn’t seem like we’d be able to close it without someone dying. Unless...

“Come on Ephemera, you don't want it to end this way.” I stomped a hoof in challenge. “Sure, you can blast me with that fancy new toy, but what you really want to do is face me mare-to-mare, hoof-to-hoof.”

Ephemera’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”

I grinned as I hooked her inner psycho. Now time to reel her in. “Because you know you want to make me hurt, you want to enjoy this. You’re only going to get to experience this once, so do you really want to waste it by just waving your gauntlet and killing me outright?”

Ephemera hummed to herself. “Well you're not wrong. I have to admit, the gauntlet is just a touch too impersonal. But I know you're trying to play me.”

“What, you’re not scared are you?”

Ephemera scoffed. “Hardly.”

“So let's dance, one last time.” I scraped my hoof along the ground, my wings outstretched. “Make it something special.”

“That's true.” Ephemera grinned and pulled out three of her knives and levitated them before her. “And I can always kill you the quick way if it goes against me.”

“We'll see about that.” I started moving and circling around her with the intent of drawing her attention away from the others. With any luck they’d be able to join in before Ephemera got a chance to use her bloodsteel weapon.

“Oh, one more thing.” Ephemera fired a blast of sickly green magic that created a circle of energy around the others. “No interference from the peanut gallery.”

“Give her what for, Daring!” Capital called from within the barrier. “You can beat her!”

“I doubt that.” Ephemera set her three daggers to hover around herself. “Come on then. I believe you promised me a dance.”

I tried not to let the fact Ephemera had just cut off my reinforcements get to me. I was in it neck deep now, and the only way to get out was to fight.

Wasting no time, I charged her. She had the reach advantage with her telekinesis, not to mention she was armed where I wasn’t. Those problems quickly showed themselves as Ephemera sent her daggers into a whirl, stabbing and slashing to force me back or risk suddenly developing several new holes in my body. My movement forward halted, Ephemera pressed the attack with a torrent of quick stabs that forced me to duck, weave, and give ground. Then there was a flash of pain as one of her knives slashed me across the shoulder. I beat my wings to get out of the range of those daggers and give me some time to rethink this.

For her part, Ephemera grinned at the bit of blood on her knife. “Got youuu,” she sang in a sing-song, and then licked the blood off the dagger.

“That’s unsanitary, you know.” I examined the wound on my shoulder. It wasn’t deep, thankfully, just stung a lot.

“Like you said, I should enjoy this,” Ephemera mocked. “This is going to be my last chance to get a taste of you. Might as well make it count.”

Sick of listening to her, I took to the air before going into a quick dive. Ephemera moved her daggers to intercept, but instead of going right for her I hit the ground in a crouch. My rear leg kicked out to sweep her front leg out from under her, but I misjudged the distances and didn’t quite manage to put her down. Instead Ephemera let out a yelp and fell back to try and regain her balance.

Deciding that speed and flight were my main advantages, I flew up and over Ephemera and swept at her legs once again. This time I connected solidly and she tumbled to the ground. I leapt to get on her so I could get hoof-to-hoof with her, but Ephemera smirked and I suddenly found a pair of daggers waiting for me. I knocked one to the side, but the other one cut me across the leg. I brought a hoof down on Ephemera’s head, but she managed to jerk out of the way just in time. Her third dagger came in, going right for my jugular. I was forced to throw myself into a roll to get out of the way. I continued rolling to get back to my hooves, and I turned to see Ephemera was back to her own hooves as well.

Ephemera chuckled and there was a sadistic glimmer in her green eyes as she watched me. “You sprang another leak, DD. How long are you gonna last?”

I glared at her. “More than long enough to take you down.”

“Oh DD, even now you can’t see how in over your head you really are.” Her teeth flashed in a vicious grin. “Why don't you just let me have my fun? Maybe I'll even spare your little friends if they swear to obey me.”

I stomped a hoof. “Like I'd ever believe that. You kill anyone that annoys you, much less anypony standing in your way.”

“Oh, Puzzle's definitely dead. I’m going to make sure he suffers for betraying me twice. It’s the only right thing to do. But the others...” Ephemera lifted her bloodsteel gauntlet to admire it. “Well, there are some fun new tricks I can try with this gauntlet. I haven’t even gotten to try its mind enslavement ability. That’s one I’m really going to enjoy. No more back talking, no more having to pay people, no more people telling me ‘You can’t do that, Ephemera, that’s wrong!’ or ‘You shouldn’t do that, you won’t like the consequences!’ Nope, just mindless obedience to their true mistress. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”

Wonderfully terrible, more like it. I could tell Ephemera was just getting warmed up with what she could do with the evil artifacts of the Quinametzin, and I couldn’t let her get away with doing more. “Not gonna happen!”

Once again I took to the air and dived, but this time Ephemera ran forward and threw off my aim. I came down to her waiting daggers. I dodged one with a quick twist, knocked another to the side with a hoof, but then a searing hot pain screamed from my wing. I screamed in pain as Ephemera pushed her dagger deeper into my wing, threatening to push its tip right through to my ribs. I pushed my wing out, but Ephemera was holding fast and the dagger was buried to the hilt.

In addition to her telekinesis, she pushed her hoof against the dagger, and I staggered until I hit one of the workshop tables. Several tools and half-finished artifacts fell to the floor. Bars of blood steel clattered about as a pile of the dark material shifted from the sudden impact. Ephemera continued pushing, smirking in delight as her breath came in fast and excited as she pinned me against the table. She could have twisted the dagger, causing who knew how much harm if she started doing so, but instead she held me there on the precipice of death.

Ephemera giggled with malicious mirth. “There we are. You were right, DD. I do want this. I love the feeling of my steel sliding into your flesh. It's just so much more satisfying this way. All the little feelings and details that you just can't get any other way but with a knife.” Her hoof started stroking my mane in a sickeningly sweet manner. “Don't be afraid, it's just a few neurons firing randomly while you die. Because you're just a silly little archeologist who never learned how to quit when things got too big for you to handle.”

I grunted in pain, trying to keep Ephemera from pushing the dagger right into my side. “And you're a monster.”

Ephemera clicked her tongue as she shook her head. “That's what you never got, DD. I'm not a monster, I just see the world for what it really is.”

“So is that why you’re doing all of this? You think it’s okay for you to do whatever you want because you’re somehow stronger and smarter than everyone else?” My eyes drifted to the pile of bloodsteel bars sitting right next to me. “That it gives you the right to kill whoever you want whenever you want, and use stuff like bloodsteel?”

Ephemera rolled her eyes. “Oh please. You think Equestria, Zebrica, the Gryphons, Freeport—any of them wouldn't use this stuff if they could? Freeport has plenty of useless eaters in their slums. Why not make them into something that'd actually be good to someone for once?”

“Maybe it's because it's evil?!”

Ephemera scoffed. “Please. Evil's just a word weak ponies use to complain because they lost to someone who was better.”

I gritted my teeth as I glared. “So what're you going to say when I beat you?”

“Sweetie, all I need to do is twist the knife and you're dead. Be the bigger mare and accept that you've lost. Let me enjoy this for just a little longer.” Ephemera leaned in for one last kiss, her other daggers floating to deliver the finishing blows once she was done with her twisted fantasy.

I gave her a kiss, alright. I snatched up one of the bloodsteel bars and kissed her right across the face with it. Ephemera’s head snapped to the side and she staggered and fell back, her knives falling to the floor as well. “You want bloodsteel! There’s your bloody bloodsteel!”

Ephemera tried to rise, blood dripping from her muzzle, but she was so rattled she couldn’t even get up much less bring up her defenses. I didn’t give her the chance. I leapt on top of her and laid into her. I brought my hooves down on her head again and again. I needed to stop this before Ephemera recovered and turned this around again. Before she could use—

Ephemera’s gauntlet flashed to light with its sickly green fire. Next thing I knew I was flying, and not because I was using my wings. A wave of unfocused magical energy carried me and I hit the ground hard well away from her. I groaned as I tried to regain my senses. Everything seared with pain, especially my wing, which still had Ephemera’s dagger in it. I pushed it to get myself upright again, but my body moved slowly, terribly slowly.

Ephemera used the workshop table to help herself back to her hooves. She snarled as she wiped the blood from her muzzle, her face now badly swollen and bruised. The gauntlet flashed again, and Ephemera was enwrapped by its energy. Before my eyes her wounds closed, and the bruises and swelling disappeared, leaving her appearance immaculate. She stood up straight, arrogantly glaring down at me.

“You know what, enjoying my kills is overrated.” Ephemera leveled her gauntlet at me to fire. But the light within it died out, its energy spent. She growled in frustration as her glare snapped to her gauntlet. Knowing exactly what was coming, her minions were already scattering. Ephemera brought up the gauntlet, only for most of her minions to have already escaped from beyond the doorway. Instead she soul-drained the easiest target to hit: her stoically standing bodyguard. He was paid for his misplaced loyalty by having his soul ripped out of his body, and it fell unceremoniously to the ground.

Ephemera turned her gauntlet back on me. “For what it’s worth, this was fun, DD.”

I forced myself up on wobbling legs and cursed Ephemera, her stupid gauntlet, and my own weakness. My wing was shot from the dagger sticking out of it, and that shockwave Ephemera had hit with me left me in bad shape. Ephemera charged her gauntlet and I prepared to dodge as best I could.

A dagger flew through the air and hit Ephemera’s gauntlet, jolting her aim. I darted to the side as a green burst of fire shot out. The barrier that had been holding the others prisoner had been opened up by a dozen little saplings—Stass’ magic no doubt. Puzzle had been the first one through the hole and was running at Ephemera.

Capital was the next one out, but then he hesitated once outside. “Wait, isn’t this something we should let Daring handle for herself?”

That idealistic... “No!” I told him. “Just stop Ephemera! I don’t care how it happens.”

Ephemera waved the gauntlet, and the vines holding the barrier burst into flame, and the hole snapped closed before Alya could escape. “Really? I thought you were supposed to stand aside and let Daring fight me all on her own.” Ephemera turned her gauntlet on Puzzle, but I charged and closed the distance between us before she could fire.

Ephemera, seeing she was being flanked, changed targets back to me, but she was too slow. I knocked the gauntlet aside and struck her across the face. She snapped up another dagger and slashed out at my head, and I jerked my head back to barely avoid getting my throat opened. Using the opening, Ephemera hit Puzzle with a quick blast of sickly green magic to knock him to the floor.

I roared and knocked the dagger aside, slamming a hoof into Ephemera’s ribs. She staggered back in pain as she tried desperately to give herself some breathing room, but Capital was on her. He threw a straight punch, but Ephemera blocked it with her gauntlet. With her own roar, Ephemera called upon the gauntlet to send out another shockwave that knocked the both of us down.

Stass flicked his claws in specific patterns and suddenly dozens of bats flew into the workshop and swarmed Ephemera. Ephemera snarled and fired off bolts of fire to try and get the bats off of her while still trying to focus on the rest of us.

“Get her!” I fought against my aches and pains to get back up, but my legs wouldn’t work quite right. A full day of running and fighting for my life had taken a harsh toll, and I was feeling it at the worst time.

Ephemera tried to bring her gauntlet on me as I struggled, but the bats were disrupting her aim. Puzzle came in on her flank and grabbed her gauntlet to twist her arm. He bit into her shoulder and Ephemera cried out. Her dagger slashed down for Puzzle’s neck, but he turned, brought his elbow down hard on her shoulder, and used his leverage on her arm to force her to the ground and avoid the stabbing dagger. His hoof shot out to pull one of her spare daggers from her waist. He turned the blade deftly to bring it down on Ephemera, going for the kill. Ephemera wrangled her arm free and intercepted the dagger with her gauntlet, and Puzzle ran the side of the dagger down the length of the gauntlet to get the blade into a better position to bring her down. But Ephemera twisted the gauntlet to press it against Puzzle’s barrel and blasted him with a burst of raw kinetic force. Puzzle was sent flying and hit the ground in a heap. He groaned and didn’t get back up.

Capital charged, but Ephemera spotted him coming and tossed a knife. It sunk into Capital’s leg and he staggered. Ephemera tried to bring her gauntlet to bear on him, but her arm moved stiffly and unnaturally as Puzzle’s venom went to work. She was forced to use her other arm to help aim her gauntlet at Capital, and she fired a quick burst of telekinetic force to blast him from his hooves. The bats came in to harass Ephemera once again, but with a wild swing of her gauntlet a wall of fire intercepted the swarm and immolated it. Ephemera kept up the torrent of fire and brought it down on the head of Stass. Stass raised his arms, and a wall of vines shot up from the floor to intercept. There was a roar as the flames hit the vines, creating an explosion that knocked him from his feet.

The others momentarily disabled, Ephemera used her good arm to help aim the gauntlet right at me as I got to my hooves. The gauntlet’s sigils burned brightly as Ephemera charged a blast just for me. “Just die already!”

She fired her weapon, but instead of me being consumed by a pillar of fire, sickly green flames punched holes through the side of the gauntlet, like little geysers that had finally built up enough pressure to burst. The force of it pushed Ephemera over, and the screams of the damned wailed from within. When the flames subsided Ephemera blinked then looked at the gauntlet. It was now dead, its flames having gone out. “What? It can't be ... I just recharged it!”

Ephemera leveled the gauntlet at me to yank my soul out for more power, but nothing happened. She reexamined her gauntlet, and down its length it sizzled. It was like someone had poured caustic acid down a strip along the gauntlet, and several holes poked through its where its own baleful flames had further damaged it.

Puzzle chuckled, forcing himself up into a sitting position with a grunt. “This one wasn’t sure if that was actually going to work.”

Ephemera snapped a baleful glare at Puzzle. “What did you do?!”

Puzzle held up the dagger he’d stolen from Ephemera. “This is your corpsebane dagger, right? The one you taunted the Do-mare with back in the coliseum? The way this one figured, the bloodsteel, as its name suggests, is made of blood, and there has to be quite a bit of necromancy used to make both the bloodsteel and that weapon of yours. So it made sense that it would be affected by an alchemical solution intended to destroy undead. It was a risk, but then, in battle the greatest risk is to take no risk at all.”

“You .... oh horseapples.” Realizing the tide had turned against her, Ephemera started pulling out a wand, but I was on her by then. I smacked her horn, disrupting the levitation field on the wand and letting it clatter to the floor. My next blow struck her across the face and she went down.

I stood over her, my breath ragged, ready to give her another if she tried anything. “You're done, Ephemera. Give up.”

To my surprise, Ephemera laughed even as blood leaked from her muzzle. “DD, I was always way better at seeing all the angles than you.” She held up her remaining good arm in surrender. “Fine. I surrender. Be a good little pony and take me back to Equestria to stand trial for my crimes or whatever.”

“This one hardly thinks so.” Puzzle limped badly as he walked over to us, Stass not far behind him. Alya was helping Capital with his wound off to the side. “We shouldn’t give her yet another opportunity to escape justice once again. No doubt she’s planning to take advantage of the long trip back to Equestria to get away from us, and failing that, break out of jail again when she gets to Equestria.”

He had a point, even if I wasn’t wild about this conversation or where it was going. Puzzle hadn’t put the dagger he’d stolen away, and didn’t seem in a rush to do so. “Yeah, then what do you think we should do?”

Puzzle looked at Stass out of the corner of his eyes. “Zhilius is the hristaks’ responsibility, is it not?”

Stass’ talons tightened around his obsidian-toothed club. “That it is. And for the crimes of invading Zhilius, the murder of my brother hristak, perfidy towards her own bondsmen, and many other crimes, the punishment is death.” The hristak growled deeply. “We will not let this criminal leave without facing our justice. If the Equestrians want to put a corpse on trial, they may.”

I didn’t like the idea of there being a summary sentencing and execution for Ephemera, but ... this was Dromaed land. And if anyone deserves to get punished big time it was Ephemera. Not to mention Puzzle had a big point about how Ephemera kept escaping from whatever prison she was thrown in. Sooner or later enough had to be enough, and a lot of people had died because I hadn’t been willing to do something extreme to put a stop to Ephemera.

“So it's an execution then?” Ephemera looked to me. “If you do that, what makes you any better than me?”

I glowered. “That list is so long I don't even know where to start.”

Ephemera scoffed. “You invaded Zhilius just like me, and you wanted to steal their artifacts as well. That stupid overgrown lizard should cut off your head right after he’s done with me.”

“I only ended up coming here because of you.” I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my muzzle, the fatigue and pain of the day now badly catching up with me now that the battle was over and the adrenaline was wearing off. “You needed to be stopped. Seeing what you’ve done after just one day here is proof of that. And I never wanted anything like that gauntlet you’re wearing, much less that evil Blood Forge that made it to start with. I wanted to collect things like pottery, some tools, maybe an old weapon—stuff like that. Not artifacts of ultimate evil. If it wasn’t for you I would have... I don’t know, asked if I could go someplace else, seen if there was an alternative than having to come here and see what you wanted so badly.”

“Sure, tell yourself that if it helps.”

“Their crimes will be addressed later,” Stass said. “As long as they do not try and escape, the Greenseers can decide what’s to be done with them. But you I can kill without any guilt weighing down my heart.”

Ephemera gaze swept over everyone gathered. “So that's it then? Huh. Last request for the condemned?” She nudged one of her daggers towards my hooves. “Do the deed yourself. Don't let some big dumb lizard have it. I deserve that much after everything we’ve had.” With a shrug of her shoulders, she chuckled. “I always kinda hoped it’d be you if I had to go down.”

My eyes narrowed and I left the dagger on the floor. “I don’t owe you anything.”

“What, you think having someone else do the deed keeps your hooves clean?” she mocked. “If you stand by and do nothing you’re just as culpable as anyone for what happens.”

“Probably, but I'm way past being done with you,” I told her. “I’m not going to lose any sleep knowing you’re gone.”

“Bah, you're still no fun.” Ephemera smiled wistfully as Stass took position behind her, his club upraised. “Still, we had some good times, didn't we DD?”

I shook my head. “No, no we didn't. You're quite possibly the most repulsive creature I've ever met, which is saying something.” Whatever corrupt thing Ephemera thought we had, I wanted no part of it. She’d made my life thoroughly miserable every time she came into it, and the world would be a better place without her.

Ephemera chuckled and grinned wryly. “Someday—”

Stass took her head off with his obsidian-toothed club.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie for all their help, and to my pre-readers Brony Writer, wolfstorm56, Trinary, 621Chopsuey, Rodinga, PoisonClaw, and Swiftest for their hard work editing.

Next Chapter: Epilogue Estimated time remaining: 31 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch