The smoke rising from the city hung thick in the air above it as black tendrils reaching for the sky. The ponies and human were still too far away to make out any sounds, but Karon was sensitive enough to catch the energy released within the city, the intense pain and fear echoing outwards and etching itself into the landscape. Many ghosts would be born this day as memories of an event so terrible that the city had been feeling the echo through time several weeks in advance.

Karon and the ponies stood unmoving and watched the distant city. Had it not been for the smoke, nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary. There were no great fires raging as far as they could see, but that should not have been surprising since the city was mostly made out of stone.

Time passed them by as they remained upon that hill, and it was Lyra that finally broke the silence.

“What are we going to do?” she asked without taking her eyes off the city.

“What we always do,” Karon replied, and the two unicorn's nodded without protest.

“I take it you aren't going to run?” Daring asked and looked at the human standing next to her.

Karon shook his head slowly, and then turned his head to look at Trixie and Lyra.

“We will need a plan,” he said.

“I like the sound of that,” Lyra agreed.

“Do you think it's the jackals?” Trixie asked and looked over at the distant city.

“Has to be,” Daring said before flapping her wings and rising into the air. “I think it's best if I fly ahead and check just to be safe though, get a sense for how it looks inside the city.”

Karon nodded and hefted his spear, tapping a finger to it thoughtfully.

“Try and find a zebra warrior or someone that is a part of the military. They should know at least vaguely what is going on,” he added before the pegasus nodded and flew off.

“Do you think it's too late to help?” Lyra asked, her eyes meeting Karon's.

“It can't be. It's only been a few days since we fought the jackals in the ruins. Even if they ran without stopping, they could only have arrived recently. And, the city was divided in sections. They must have managed to stop them at one point or another,” he said, though his voice held no assurances.

However, it seemed good enough for the two ponies since they said nothing further and simply followed Karon's lead when he began walking towards the city.

Halfway there though, the silence between them ended when Trixie spoke.

“You said something about a plan?” she asked carefully.

“Can't really make one without knowing at least a little about what is going on inside,” Karon replied and wiped the sweat off his brow.

“You've got something. You always have something, even if it's not very good,” Lyra noted and pointed at him with a wry smile.

“Well, I have a few ideas on how to best use my abilities … can't decide on anything yet though.”

“Still, you've got something. I mean, you must have some idea for how we could possible help against an entire army of jackals?” Lyra pressed on.

“I do, but it involves a lot of improvisation from my side.”

“What else is new,” came the sarcastic response. Surprisingly though, it came from Trixie.

“Still,” Karon continued and ignored her comment, “There are a few things that needs to be done. One is making sure that the empress and any other leaders of the city are safe so they can organize the defenses.”

“What else?” Lyra asked and frowned.

”Finding a way to get rid of the jackals,” Karon said simply.

“Well yeah, but how?” Lyra asked, and looked over at the ever growing sight of the city as they came closer to it.

“Can we talk about this after Daring is back with some news?” Karon asked. His voice was without anger, but the tension in it said plainly that it wasn't a request.

They stopped pushing him for details for the rest of the walk, and their eyes were inevitably drawn to the makeshift camp that had been set up outside the walls by the refugees. They were still too far away from it to see anything clearly, but they didn't need to. What little they could see told them enough.

When they got close enough to actually make out the details, Karon had to stop for a few minutes to allow them the time to adjust to the scene. Trixie staggered over to the side and retched, and if it weren't for the sudden onset of rage the sight before him evoked, Karon would have liked to join her.

Flies were buzzing loudly around the camp, gathering around the stinking corpses scattered around and already rotting underneath the hot savanna sun. The stench was awful, not only because of the blood and body parts, but also because it was mixed in with the smell of desperation and unwashed bodies that had clung to the camp even before the jackals had arrived.

However, the most disturbing part of it all wasn't the massacred zebra's, nor was it the fact that many of the bodies bore sign of mutilation and having been chewed on. No, the worst part by far was the fact that among the bodies there were smaller figures that had been spared no more than the adults had been.

It was one thing to have heard it in rumors and tales told by the zebras, and another to witness with his own eyes the sheer brutality of the jackals. Perhaps it wasn't something one could just put in a box and label evil. They were predators after all by their nature, just as the zebras were prey by theirs. However, neither of the two were simple animals living by pure instinct anymore, so maybe they were just two irrevocably different sides fated to be at eternal war with each other?

Whatever the case may be, Karon knew which side he was on.

Trixie came stumbling back, and the human turned around and gave her a sad look of understanding before turning to Lyra, who was standing with a dazed expression on her face.

“I need you two to keep yourselves from falling apart ... this might only be the beginning.”

The two unicorns looked even more sick at the thought of things being even worse inside the city, but both eventually gave him shaky nods.

They remained standing amongst the carnage outside the great gate, which had been left open wide. Screams drifted down the street and out the gate from time to time, and the howls of the jackals answered them always.

It was when Karon didn't think he could keep himself from throwing up any longer that he was distracted by the swooshing sound of Daring coming down from the sky and landing next to him, her coat a few shades greener from what she had seen.

Her first words did nothing to comfort them.

“It's … it's really bad. The jackals are everywhere in the city. Every circle of it has been breached all the way to fifth level with the palace.”

“How!?” Karon asked and stared at her, unable to fathom how the entire city could have fallen so fast.

“I managed to find a small group of warriors sneaking over the rooftops on the third city level. They told me the jackals had come running like they were insane, and when the gate guards had tried to get as many refugees inside as possible, the jackals had just swept over them before they could close the doors again. The jackals are furious about something and nothing the warriors had tried to discourage them worked. They don't care about casualties at all anymore it seems.”

Karon had a sinking feeling the spear he held in his right hand had something to do with that. He still remembered the maddened hate he had seen shining out of Vako's eyes after he realized the human carried Bator's promise.

“Did they have any information about the empress?” he asked in a low voice.

“Last they'd heard, she was within the palace, but there's no one leading the defense anymore. The only things that's left are scattered groups of zebras around the city being hunted by the jackals, and no one is sure what's going on or even who's in charge.”

Karon bowed his head low and tried to process the news.

“This is worse than we thought.”

“Is it even possible? The jackals are going berserk. Vako must have figured the zebras knew about the spear after he lost us in the sandstorm.”

“If he is even alive. That storm was no gentle thing. This might be the work of some other jackal that has taken his place, or maybe it's just every jackal being taken with the idea of just them taking the spear and becoming the great conqueror.”

“Did you not see what I saw back in that ruin? He came crawling out of that shattered floor like it was nothing. He survived. He's too strong and angry to be killed by any storm.”

“Fine, let's just assume he's the one leading all of this. That would mean this is organized chaos, and if the jackals are spread out over the city, then that must mean they have already breached every point of opposition and have the empress. Otherwise he would just throw everything he has at it until it cracked.”

“Okay, so he already has the empress and whoever else that was with her. What's next?”

“We need to break the jackals' spirit. As long as they keep acting like rabid dogs, nothing the zebras do will get them to retreat.”

Karon raised his head and took a good look around at the slaughter – not that he needed to, the image was burned into his mind.

“I will enjoy that.”

“Wonderful. Best send the ponies away for that though.”

“Agreed, I don't want them to see what I'm going to do.”

“Trixie, Lyra ... I want you to try and gather as many of the zebra warriors as you can find and organize them for an attempt to retake the palace. Daring, could you help them from above, keeping them from running into any jackals and helping them out if they do?”

“Sure, I'll make certain we manage to get enough warriors to manage whatever you're planning. But I want to know what you're gonna do in the mean time,” the pegasus asked.

“I'd like to know that too,” Lyra asked and Trixie gave him a look asking the same thing.

“You'll focus on the zebras. I'll focus on the jackals,” he answered with a low growl.

“Karon … are you alright?” Lyra asked and moved closer to him, looking at his face strangely.

“I … yes. Why do you ask?”

“Well, your eyes, they're … glowing again.” she said.

Karon blinked in surprise and brought his left hand up without thinking to the corner of his left eye, letting it trace the outlines around it.

“Good,” he eventually said, but did not elaborate further.

Lyra smiled at him, a genuine smile of happiness despite standing in a field of death.

“So … are you sure you'll manage without us?” she asked him, not quite able to keep the joy out of her voice.

“I'll do just fine, for a little while at least. Best if I try not to stay away for too long though. Who knows what might happen,” he said and tried to imitate her good mood.

As if by some unspoken command, all four of them turned towards the gate and the street branching upwards into the city. Without saying anything Daring gave the other three a determined nod and took to the skies, waiting high above to guide the unicorns to whatever warriors might remain.

“Where do you want us to wait for you?” Lyra asked and glanced up at Karon.

“Somewhere just before the entrance to the palace or close by. Just make sure you remain undetected so we have the element of surprise when we storm the place,” he responded.

“Okay,” she said, and they all heard a distant scream of terror coming from higher up in the city.

Trixie gulped loudly and Karon saw Lyra's face tense as the good mood she had briefly experienced was drained from her. She turned to face Karon and went up on her backlegs, putting her arms around him in wordless hug.

He hugged her back tight and held her there for a moment before letting go. She gave him a half smile before she went down on all fours again, then turned and carefully approached the seemingly empty street inside the city.

Trixie looked at Karon nervously and he looked right back at her, not quite sure what to make of her fidgeting hooves. The air between them grew awkward and they both stood uncertain of what to do until she trotted over and gave him a quick hug like Lyra had, then turned around and followed her without looking Karon in the eyes.

“Well that was … odd.”

“Deal with it later. We have work to do.”

He waited until the ponies had disappeared out of sight before entering the city himself, breathing in deeply of the stomach churning aroma that clung to the air. It fanned the rage he felt building inside, but it was a controlled rage, there was purpose to it. He would channel it and make a tool out of it.

The being that had introduced itself as Rafiki had put him back on track. No more meaningless confrontations when there could be deception, no more battles where there could be manipulation, and no more thoughtlessly throwing himself into situations without thinking ahead.

The jackals' strength was in their physical prowess, so he wouldn't hit them were they were strong. He would hit them were they were soft, weak and easily hurt.

He was going to attack their minds, and also, their hearts. They had showed no mercy to the zebras. They had slaughtered them all, even the children. They had brought something sick and depraved upon the city and now they were loose inside, no doubt enjoying the spoils, murdering more of them. Murdering children.

More-than Tardy had been wrong. Karon wasn't like him at all. The professor had been guided by cold pragmatism, heartless calculations meant solely to satisfy his ambitions and ego. Karon wasn't like him, he wasn't guided by anything cold and pragmatic. Karon was guided by emotions. He was a trickster, and he didn't calculate, he felt. He didn't do what he did for his ego. He did it because it made him feel.

He wasn't a machine. He was a raging fire locked behind a black door wrapped in chains.

The howls of the jackals rang out as they tracked their prey, and Karon strode to answer them. He passed by the empty houses and shops. He saw bodies inside some of them, primarily zebras, but there were other creatures he didn't recognize as well. In some places he saw to his satisfaction the cooling corpses of slain jackals, but they were far between and pitifully few.

He stalked through the street, keeping low and close to the nearby buildings to obscure his outline. The jackals' eyesight was bad, and in the stench of death and fear that cloaked the city, they would not be able to use their noses very well. That tipped the odds in Karon's favor.

Eventually, as he carefully looked around a corner, he heard the barking laughter of the jackals coming from further down the street he was looking, from inside one of the houses.

He clenched his jaw hard and took off his rucksack and map, leaving them at the corner together with his hat. His hair clung to his skin, drenched in sweat from the temperature as well his rising concern as he crept closer to the house, hugging the walls along the street.

“For great leader Vako!” He heard a voice bark out, and it was met with at least two other distinct voices roaring in delight.

“So long since I tasted zebra flesh. Vako is great leader to make this happen. He will take Bator's promise, and we will eat of all the other ones in this land,” another voice rasped.

Another roar, two voices like earlier.

“Three of them.”

“That is not a lot. There must be thousands around the city.”

“It is a start. We only need to take care of a few and the fear and uncertainty will spread.”

“Let's make it good.”

“No, lets make it bad … really bad.”

When he reached the sturdy house of yellow stone, he stopped and took a deep breath, imagining that the jackals would be able to hear his beating heart. There was a hole cut in the rock over which a red piece of cloth hung, a window letting in air but not the sun. Through it drifted the slobbering sound of the jackals eating, and the rage inside Karon flared.

He veiled himself in invisibility and entered through the doorway. The door itself was smashed, and splinters laid scattered on the floor of the large room it opened into. It looked like most of the house was simply this one room, and it wasn't particularly furnished. There was a pile of pillows in garish colors in one corner, and a single wooden desk stood against one of the walls.

In the middle of the room, three jackals sat hunched over two zebras, tearing into their flesh and eagerly swallowing the pieces whole. Karon kept his focus, concentrating on the field around him keeping the jackals from knowing he was there. He let the image of the dead zebras being eaten simply slide by his mind, storing it for later to fuel his anger.

It was one thing to veil oneself in invisibility, to make sure you remain unnoticed. It was an entirely other thing to do so while at the same time invading the mind of a jackal without the jackal feeling the alien presence creeping into his skull.

“What said you!?” one of the jackals growled for no apparent reason, as far as the other two were concerned. The jackal himself thought he was responding to a quiet whisper the second jackal had made to the third, telling him they should kill the first jackal – whose mind Karon had wrapped around his finger – so they could have more of the zebras to themselves.

“I said nothing,” came the defensive response, sounding almost like a whine.

The first jackal growled with suspicion and rose to his full height, putting a paw upon the curved knife the worse on his belt.

“You would like more zebra to yourselves? I think you should die instead, and I keep zebras all to myself!” he growled and drew the knife.

The second and third jackal didn't have time to recover from their shock before the first and plunged his knife into the eye of the second, killing him with a wet squelch. The third was faster, and when the crazed jackal draw back his knife and tried to stab him in the throat, he dodged to the side and swiped at him with his claws, catching him in the belly.

The first howled in pain and swung at the third in wide arcs but hit nothing but air. The third was quick in his movements, and when the first overextended in an attempt to stab him in the chest, he grabbed the knife and twisted it. When the first's body followed the movement, he crashed to the floor and his wrist cracked as it broke from the impact.

The jackal howled even louder in pain, but it lasted only for a second before the third stomped his neck several time until he fell silent, the twisted form leaving no doubt he was dead.

Scratching his head in confusion at what had just happened, the spear that materialized from nowhere and stabbed him in the leg came completely by surprise, and the jackal fell to the floor howling just like the other one had.

Karon dropped the veil entirely and the jackal's eyes widened impossibly large when it realized who stood before him, and what weapon he was wielding.

“Bator's … Bator's promise,” it barked, forcing the words out with a pained expression.

“Yes it is, and I want you to know you will never have it jackal, none of you will,” Karon said in a low hiss.

“Vako will take it! Vako will make jackals the new rulers of everything!” the jackal spat.

“No,” Karon said and lowered the tip to the jackals throat, “He will not. Vako will die today. Do you want to know how?”

The jackal didn't say anything. It simply stared at the spear, but the low growl in its chest was enough answer.

“He will die screaming jackal, I will make sure you all hear it.”

“Vako will never die! You are too weak!” the jackal said, not letting its eyes of the spear.

“Look at me,” Karon hissed, and the jackal shifted his eyes to meet Karon's.

It was an easy thing, to invade the mind of a creature in so much turmoil, barely having any control over themselves already. Karon's eyes flashed with an inner fire, and he smiled a wicked smile and he drew the jackal in.

“You're right, I'm too weak. But I don't need to be strong, I have an army of the nyegere on my side,” he said in slow, hypnotic voice.

“Nye … nyegere,” the jackal repeated groggily.

“Yes, don't you remember? You saw them, arriving when I did, and they killed the others you were with. And now they're stalking the streets looking for jackals to kill. You remember how they appeared out of nowhere to slaughter everything I looked at.”

The jackal began shaking with fear as false memories pressed themselves upon its mind. Karon didn't need to do anything else, the brain would fill in the blanks by itself.

“Do you want to know what happens next?” Karon leaned in and asked the terrified jackal.

It whined low in answer and Karon gave it a sickeningly sweet smile.

“I'm going to let you go, so you can run to all the other jackals and tell them to flee, tell them the nyegere is coming for all of them. Your only chance is running back to your own land and hiding there for the rest of your lives.”

The jackal began hyperventilating so hard Karon briefly wondered if it would pass out. He stepped back and brought the spear away from its throat, then motioning with his hand towards the door.

“Run!” he shouted, and the jackal scrambled on all fours out the door, yelping like a beaten dog all the way.

Karon took one last look at the dead zebra couple, their innards exposed to the world and pieces of them thrown around the room in the feeding frenzy of the jackals.

He spat on the floor, but the acid tang on his tongue refused to leave. So he turned around and walked out of the house. Above him the thick smoke had obscured the sun and left the city in a darkened gloom, to which he nodded, pleased. They wouldn't see him coming, and it wouldn't be long before the zebras weren't the only ones who were scared.

Turning left and keeping against the walls, Karon moved on in search of more prey.

                                **************************************************************

Trixie hesitated at the threshold. The windows had all been covered with thick cloth and with so little light shining in through the door opening, it was nearly pitch black inside the large building. It could easily be a trap of some kind, either for the jackals or the zebras.

Either way she didn't want to walk into one.

“Hello? Is somepony there?” she called out carefully.

She received no answer at first, Daring had said she saw several zebras sneak into the place but that didn't mean they hadn't sneaked out again some other way.

“A pony?” a voice asked out loud from just to her left and Trixie jumped into the air of fright.

When she came down to the floor again she tried to straighten herself and present a dignified pose. It wouldn't do thinking her some easily frightened filly.

“Yes, who's asking?” she demanded in the most authoritative tone she could muster.

From the dark, zebras emerged, melting into sight like they had been one with the shadows. They all wore armor or headgear of different kinds, and in their hooves they held hooked spears or curved swords. The one who had spoken stood in the middle, wearing a feathered head band and wielding a spear.

“I am tracker Mota, I am in charge here,” he said with a heavy accent.

“Good, we have been looking for the zebra warriors. How many of you are there?” Trixie asked, forcing herself not to waver beneath the hard looks they gave her.

“We?” Mota asked, ignoring her question.

To answer his question Trixie leaned out through the door and waved to Lyra and Daring to join her inside. The two ponies strode in carefully and waited a few moments for their eyes to adjust before looking around at the gathered zebras.

“You!” Mota hissed and his warriors looked uncertainly at each other when they heard his reaction to the newcomers.

“Uh oh,” Daring said while looking at the tracker. “Hey Mota … still holding a grudge I see.”

“You know each other?” Lyra asked and eye the zebra nervously.

“A little … he kinda chased me when I was down south in the jungle recovering an artifact,” Daring answered.

“She led me into a swamp where I was nearly eaten by crocodiles. Only afterward did I discover she had already given the artifact to an accomplice and it was halfway across the sea by then,” Mota added angrily.

“Hey, don't blame me for wanting to protect priceless pieces of history from your careless hooves!”

“That artifact once belonged to the enemies of the zebra empire and should be destroyed!”

“Could you two save this for another time!” Trixie shouted.

The two combatants glared at one another but didn't go beyond that, and the zebras as well as the ponies around them breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.

“We need you to come with us. We're going to gather as many warriors we can for an assault on the palace,” Trixie said and looked at each of the zebras in turn.

“We don't take orders from ponies,” Mota said and sounded bitter, “and we can not reach the palace.”

All the zebras looked down on the floor. The anger displayed on their faces was not only directed towards the jackals, but also themselves.

“Yes we can! We only need to gather as many of you as possible,” Lyra insisted.

“We are at the lowest circle. There are not many jackals left down here, but they are everywhere the higher up you go. The only reason we still have any warriors left is because they can't smell us with all this smoke,” Mota said, looking ashamed of the words he spoke.

“Don't worry about the jackals … there's someone already taking care of that,” Lyra said with absolute certainty in her voice.

“The jackals have gone insane. There is nothing that will stop them. They just kept coming,” Mota told her, but there was a small hint of hope in his eyes.

Lyra saw it and gave a confident smile.

“You'll see. I don't know what exactly he was planning to do, but it will work.”

The tracker didn't look convinced, but his expression had changed from that of a warrior thinking himself a coward, to a warrior ready to fight for the slim chance of victory.

“Ha! So be it. We will fight the invaders and win or die! For great Mjimkuu!”

And so the three ponies left with forty two warriors following behind them, guided by Daring from high above, and following the slim hope Trixie and Lyra had given that their city might be saved.

                            ***********************************************************

Karon stood completely still, not sure what he was feeling could even be described as emotions. At his feet laid the chewed up corpses of Mkul, the humorous trader that had guided them from the harbor city,  and a female zebra, perhaps the wife he had spoken of.

They had died together, and from the many cuts Karon could see on both of them, they had not died quickly.

There had been a single jackal busily feeding on the wife, and it hadn't even noticed when Karon walked up from behind and rammed his spear through its belly. It had screamed for a long time in pain – stomach wounds are not nice to die from. The screams had echoed out across the nearby quarters, and after a few minutes of silence following the jackals demise, Karon picked up on the sound of something approaching.

He veiled himself in invisibility and waited.

From a narrow alley there came three zebras, two of them carrying spears and wearing the feathered head bands that Karon had come to associate with trackers. The one in the middle leading them was different. She wore a brown cloth over her body with several large pouches attached to it. Her face was tattooed all over and in her right hoof she held a wand or rod of some kind like a weapon.

The trackers moved forward with their eyes darting around frantically until they fell upon the jackal's corpse. They stopped and looked around, searching for any signs of what had happened.

The shaman had squinted her eyes and was chanting something under her breath, shaking the rod from time to time. Karon felt a pressure force itself upon his veil, another field of energy trying to extinguish his own. So he dropped the veil and remained unmoving as the trackers both snapped their spears towards him when he appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

He didn't bother looking at them, instead he met the shaman mare's gaze and have a small nod of respect.

“You are stranger here, and with the ability to disappear?” she asked.

“Yes, I'm a stranger and practitioner of the arts,” Karon answered.

“You slayed the jackal at your feet. Have you come to save us from defeat?”

“I will do what I can,” he simply answered again and looked up towards the towering palace.

The shaman nodded and motioned for the trackers to stand down.

“My friends are out gathering warriors for an attempt to retake the palace. I told them to get to the entrance with as many as they could find. If you get there, you could join up,” Karon continued.

The trackers looked at one another then to the shaman, who hummed thoughtfully.

“Jackals swarm the city, getting there will not be pretty.”

“Let me deal with getting the jackals soft for a counterattack,” Karon said.

The shaman nodded and gave Karon a polite nod of thanks. She said something in a different language and the trackers turned and followed her back down the alley.

“The jackals are having the time of their lives here.”

“We will make them regret it. Doesn't matter how angry or hungry they are, it will all disappear beneath the fear we will make them feel.”

“It's not enough to get them out of here, we need to make sure they never dare to even think about returning.”

“Yes. The legend of Bator's promise is important to them, so let's add a new part to it, that of the new wielder of the spear. Of the absolute monster that holds it, of the monster that waits should they ever get it into their heads to return to zebra lands.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Me too. So come, let's make a horror story out of their legend.”

Karon stalked away from the scene and headed towards the city's second level. He passed through the great gate leading up to it unhindered, finding only the corpses of the zebra warriors littered around it. He was forced to slow down his approach as several times he heard the barks and loud growls of large groups of jackals pass close by.

He crept forward carefully, slipping in and out of invisibility whenever he was unsure of what was waiting around the next corner. He was beginning to notice the strain it took on his mind, but he was constantly fueled by the anger burning inside of him, and rage is nothing if not a good anesthetic.

It was when he passed by one of the many nearly identical buildings that he heard the slobbering sounds of jackals enjoying a feast coming from inside. He stopped and cloaked himself before heading in, careful not to bump into anything and attract attention. The interior was lavishly decorated with pillows, drapes and colorful cloth covering nearly every inch of masonry the building was made of.

Scattered around the room were the jackals, seven in total, sitting alone and enjoying different parts of the zebras they had literally torn to pieces.

“Seven might be too many, don't let the rage control us. They will win if we get ourselves killed battling more than we can handle in a straight fight.”

He was about to turn and head out the door and search for a smaller group when he spotted something on the floor. It was a small pile of toys, carved zebra warriors carrying tiny weapons.

They were splattered with blood.

The spear came out of nowhere and pierced the heart of the jackal closest to him. It hadn't even been a decision. There could be no choice when faced with a moment like this, there could only be a reaction.

The remaining six jackals turned to look at their fallen comrade and quickly brought their weapons to bear. While they were unable to see Karon, they still knew something was inside with them. The sudden attention the jackals had given to the sensory data they received made remaining unseen a lot more difficult, as Karon was not only pushing against the weariness of veiling himself but also pushing against the combined mental energy the jackals put into trying to spot him. He ran outside, and something in his focus must have slipped because he heard a growl from behind and the sound of the jackals following him.

When he got through the door opening, he turned and dropped all attempts at veiling himself, driving the spear forward just in time to catch the first jackal trying to get out in the throat, cutting of the growl it was making. The five behind barreled into the jackal and tripped, falling into a pile at Karon's feet.

He didn't waste time and started thrusting and stabbing every part he could get at, and the growls quickly turned to hurt yelps and whines as they tried to scramble away. Four of them managed to dodge, crawl and roll out of his reach, the other two laid still. The pools of blood gathered underneath the three bodies stating plainly that if they weren't dead yet, they soon would be.

However, the four remaining jackals were a lot more careful now, circling around him and waiting for an opening. Karon tried to deny them as best he could, twirling the spear around in wide arcs leaving little time for them to try and close the distance he kept them at. But the jackals weren't limited to fighting with conventional weapons standing on two legs, they could do just as well on all fours with their fangs.

Karon made a mistake and swung the spear too high, one of the jackals noticed and threw itself forward underneath it, opening its fangs wide as it went straight for Karon's throat.

He managed to bring the spear up in horizontally before him, letting the jackal catch it in with its fangs instead of his throat. It didn't stop the charging mass of its body though and it flew into Karon, knocking him backwards and ripping the spear out of his hands. The human kicked straight up with both feet into the jackal's jaw, eliciting a pained whine as it staggered away and clutched the broken bone.

The other three jackals didn't bother with their hurt comrade, and came charging at the downed human with their weapons held high. Thinking fast, Karon stretched both his arms out wide. He might not be the most talented when it came to telekinesis, but taking all the dirt and lose sand on the street and throwing it towards the two jackals coming at him from the front didn't prove too difficult. It hit them in a large cloud and stopped them dead as they began scratching at their eyes.

He didn't have time to do anything to the one coming from behind, and when Karon heard the swooshing sound of a blade cutting through air he rolled to his left, narrowly avoiding getting sliced by an ax. It missed his body but still managed to catch his robe, nailing it to the dirt road. Before the jackal could brandish it again Karon put his hands against its chest and unleashed a bolt of lightning point blank, sending the jackal flying from the sudden surge and twitching for a few seconds as it landed several meters away.

The one cradling its jaw came running towards him with a small knife in its right paw, still clutching his face with the left. Karon felt his strength leaving him, rage fueling him or not, it was hard shaping energy into actual magic no matter how much of the former you had available. When the jackal was just a few steps away Karon reached out and simply flung as much mental energy at it as he could. The jackal screamed a barking scream when its brain experienced what could be described as an overload. But it didn't stop its own momentum and so simply tripped over Karon and fell to the ground face first, hitting its already broken jaw hard.

It wailed loudly and before it could recover Karon grabbed the ax nailing his robe in place and tore it free, throwing himself upon the jackal and hacking away at its neck, until finally, its head rolled free.

He didn't have time to turn around before something hit him hard in the head and he fell over, dazed and tasting copper in his mouth. The two jackals he had thrown the dirt towards stood over him, one with a short spear held high, about to thrust it downwards into Karon's chest.

Instead it dropped it and clutched at its throat, as did the other jackal.

Confused, Karon sat up and held his head carefully, watching as the jackals began puking water. It ran out of their mouths and noses in a stream, showing no sign of stopping, and the jackals grew more and more panicked as they couldn't breath. They began shaking in spasms, clawing at the dirt and their own throats, until eventually they fell down with bulging eyes, and a last bit of water trickled out.

Karon turned his head and saw the shaman from earlier walk out from one of the buildings, only one tracker following her this time and looking a lot worse than he had earlier. Blood stained the both of them, and the tracker looked to have a bad cut on his face. Smiling in gratitude Karon stood up on shaky legs and walked over to them, picking up his spear on the way.

When he reached them, the shaman didn't say anything, she merely touched him with her rod and he felt healing energies being channeled into him, speeding the healing process greatly and bringing relief to the strain the magic had put on his mind.

It was with a bit of irritation that Karon realized that killing the jackals had been a waste. His plan demanded there was at least one survivor to go spread fear amongst the other jackals. One or two would not be enough. He needed to have a lot of terrified jackals looking over their shoulders to the point they simply gave up and ran all the way home.

An idea took form in his head, and looked at the shaman and asked, “Can you summon more water? A lot of water?”

“To call on nature and grant me aid, allows me to call of water, if need be an entire cascade.”

“Good, then I have an idea...”

                              ******************************************************

“Something is going on with the jackals on the lower levels,” Daring reported.

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked.

“Well, the jackals on the higher levels are running around, chasing zebras and looking like they're ... enjoying themselves. The jackals on the lower two levels are not. They sneak around in big numbers and keep looking over their shoulders like they're afraid something is gonna pop up any moment and eat them.”

“Maybe it's Karon's doing?” Lyra suggested.

“Well whatever it is he's doing, it's not enough. There's a LOT of jackals on the upper three levels and we will lose pretty much every warrior if we try getting to the palace as things stand now,” Daring told the two ponies and looked at the assembled zebras waiting behind them.

They had picked up three separate groups, making a total of one hundred and three zebras following them. Most were warriors with a few trackers and two magic users – zebras called them shamans – thrown in the mix.

The small army was hiding inside a large storage building of some kind right at the great gate between the second and third city level. They had been waiting for Daring to come back with news before planning to move forward, but with the news she had brought it seemed they couldn't move without risking total slaughter.

“Well … try and scout some more then … we'll just have to wait for master to come through for us,” Trixie said and fiddled with her hooves.

Daring sighed but did as the unicorn said. It would be up to Karon to give them an opening.

                            ****************************************************

The square was packed with jackals, numbering in the hundreds. Either arguing over spoils they had taken from the zebras they had murdered, or enjoying a leg or flank from said zebras. There was a big pile of them in the middle of the square, free for any jackal to grab from and eat. The square was on the third level of the city, and the news of the insane human with pet nyegere at his beck and call had yet to reach them.

So when a zebra tracker suddenly ran out in open view and stopped wide eyed as he saw all the gathered jackals, they didn't think twice of pursuing him as he turned and ran. The entire collection of jackals turned into a howling horde as predatory instincts kicked in and they ran snarling after what they perceived to be easy pickings.

Yet when the horde passed around a corner, they all stopped simultaneously as they came upon the waiting Karon. He stood in a wide stance, spear held loosely at his side and a sneer on his face, and most notably, he stood within a circle of seven jackal heads spitted on wooden poles.

The horde stood unmoving, barely comprehending the scene before them. Group thinking soon reasserted itself and the jackals howled in blood-thirst, the zebra forgotten entirely they rushed forward to answer the insult Karon had delivered upon their fallen.

“So predictable.”

They rushed towards the human standing in the center of their dead, seemingly waiting for them to reach him patiently. So it was with great surprise the first jackal threw itself at him with open jaws and passed right through the illusion, which disappeared at the physical contact. The swarm of jackals stopped, looking around confused at what had just happened.

And they became even more confused when from the sky a great body of water was suddenly dumped upon them, drenching every single jackal in the hundreds strong group. Dripping wet they all turned their faces when one of them barked and pointed at Karon standing on one of the rooftops looking down on their wet forms.

They snarled loudly in challenge, to which Karon simply raised his left hand, sparks dancing between his fingertips.

There was a single jackal in that sea of hundreds smart enough to cringe as it realized what was about to happen. The rest were blissfully unaware, until Karon's lightning struck down on them. It was a spectacular scene, and the screaming of hundreds of jackals writhing in pain was nearly deafening. No jackal within the city could have missed hearing it.

But Karon's plan hadn't been to kill them. No, the water wasn't enough to for that and despite him having sent as much electricity as he could possibly generate. But it had been enough to render them senseless, leaving their bodies hurt, and most importantly, vulnerable to mental influence.

He went back inside the house and descended the stairs. On the ground floor, the zebra tracker had stood guard while the shaman sat completely still in deep communication with nature. It had taxed all her strength to ask such a grand favor of it, and she would need several days rest to recover her strength. Karon had not been bothered to hear that news. He could handle the rest now that he had hundreds of jackals to spread the message of terror to the rest of them.

A few had died after all, but most remained alive if slightly singed, and judging by the mental landscape Karon entered into, more than a few had sustained brain damage. At first the messages was elaborate, if slightly varied.

“You saw it, ponies coming to save the zebras. They killed so many of you with their magics, and there is an entire army coming led by the princesses themselves. You saw me standing amongst so many corpses, I was laughing. You must run, tell as many jackals as you can to run before you are all killed.”

“It was horrible, the magic unleashed killed so many so fast. You were led into a trap, I was waiting for you and I slaughtered you. With a single move of my hand so many screamed and fell down dead, and those that I kept alive I forced to eat the dead. I forced jackals to eat jackals. I forced you to eat of your dead, and I let you go only so you could tell all the others in the city that I am coming for them. I stood there, laughing while you died.”

“You couldn't stop me, you couldn't fight me. I swept through you like it was nothing. I used Bator's promise against you, your greatest dream tasted a river of jackal blood. You have to flee, you have to warn all the others to flee. Bator's promise is lost. Bator's promise is in the hands of a monster. I laughed the entire time, I laughed as I killed jackal after jackal.”

As the strain of implanting the memories and suggestions grew after each jackal, the complexity of the messages lessened, and at the end when Karon had gone through nearly all of them, he didn't even care to specify what had happened.

“You felt fear, you are terrified of me. I did horrible things, you must flee before I come for the others. Warn them before it is too late.”

“I brought your greatest fear to life and waded through dead jackals while laughing, you must warn the others and flee.”

“Run, run back home screaming and never forget the sight of me laughing while killing you in the hundreds.”

Exhausted from invading the minds of a little less than three hundred jackals, Karon staggered back into the house where the tracker was watching over the shaman. He fell down on one of the piles of pillows and closed his eyes, savoring the moment of rest. Now he would have to wait, the jackals would wake up soon, and even thought their experiences would be flawed and very different from jackal to jackal, they underlying message would be clear.

Time to go home.

                                  *****************************************************

“Something is definitely going on,” Daring told Trixie and Lyra after having come back form one of her scouting trips.

The zebras had been growing restless, and the tentative leadership position the ponies had found themselves in was beginning crack under the pressure.

“Explain,” Lyra asked and rubbed her forehead with a grimace.

“Well, something has made the jackals very upset. They're running around like crazy, gathering up into their usual tribes from what I can see before fleeing.”

“What!?” both unicorns present asked, stunned by the sudden change of fortune.

“Yeah, they're running for their lives I would say. There's still plenty of jackals left, but they're all gathered in big groups and looks like they don't want to stick around. And most of the ones located on the upper city levels are making their way down to the lower ones or into the palace.”

“Must be Karon,” Trixie commented, her voice infused with pride.

“You think it's safe to move on now?” Lyra asked the pegasus and received a shrug in return.

“Well, I don't think safe is the right word. The city is still invaded and there's plenty of jackals left around and inside the palace, but if you could fly up with me you would see maybe a thousand  jackals out on the savanna running north, and more are streaming out as we speak.”

“Good enough,” Lyra said and raised her voice loud. “The jackals are fleeing! Those that are won't be enough to stop us! It's time to go save the empress!”

The news was meet with cheers and hooves stomping the floor in eager anticipation, and it was with high spirits the warriors left their hiding place and started on the path towards the palace. Picking up all the scattered groups of warriors they could find on the way with Daring's help. One way or another they wouldn't stop until they had retaken their city. The jackals gave little resistance to their advance, giving ground quickly and retreating at the slightest pressure.

Never did the zebras screaming their battle cries and charging forward understand that it wasn't them the jackals feared, as much as the thought that somewhere in that advancing army of black and white there was a red clad monster, laughing with blood thirst, wielding their greatest treasure against them.

                                  *********************************************************

An hour, maybe two had passed before all the jackals that would wake up had done so and left. Some of them had run screaming as false memories ravaged their minds, forcing them to feel terror and despair, imagination clashing with reality until all they really felt was the need to warn as many of their own and then flee.

Karon had waited an additional half hour after those jackals had left, wanting to make sure they had ample time to spread panic amongst their ranks. The stories would all be different, but the thing they all had in common was the sight of Karon laughing and doing something horrible to them. It would be enough, and the clashing accounts would only serve to make them more afraid as confusion and uncertainty set in.

After making sure the shaman was alright, he had left her and her tracker guardian, making his way up another level of the city. At first, he had sneaked and done his best to keep hidden, but after having encountered a small group of four jackals openly, only to have them run screaming away at the first sight of him, he dropped all attempts at stealth.

He wandered openly in the middle of the grand road leading towards the palace, and always, always the jackals fled. It didn't matter if it was two or twenty, they all fled eventually. One large group Karon encountered had hesitated, until Karon had launched a lightning bolt into the jackal at the front, then like the rest they scattered in all directions, thinking he could do the same to all of them.

Had they actually stayed and fought, he would have been crushed within less than a minute, but the power of deception was working in Karon's favor, and with each encounter and story spread between the remaining jackals the fear grew until it seemed to take a life on its own. The legend of Bator's promise was replaced that day. The glorious dream of conquest had changed into a story telling of a nightmare that waited down in the zebra lands.

The zebras would tell their children horror stories about the jackals, the jackals would tell their children horror stories about Karon. Such was the power of a trickster's deceptions.

“A lesson well learned. We have quite a bit of power it seems, to have nearly sent an army packing because they think I'm coming for them....”

“We're not done yet, but I see your point.”

“I think I understand now why Varsif was so adamant about us not turning into some kind of classic villain bent on destruction.”

“Well, we're not. However the jackals don't need to know that.”

His ascent towards the palace went unchallenged, and he noticed not just a few dead jackals on his way up. Either the zebras had fought a lot harder here than when the jackals first arrived, or Karon wasn't the only one heading up towards the palace.

“We'll see if they the three of them managed to scrounge up some warriors to help.”

“Fear or not, if the jackals up in the palace feel they are backed into a corner they will fight hard. And I'm not sure if we can manage even if Trixie and Lyra scraped together some zebras.”

“If not we'll try stealth. If we kill Vako and get the empress and Zuku and any of their other leaders to organize the warriors, they can handle driving the jackals out now that they're so broken.”

Getting to Vako was key. He was the one that had gathered the jackals and forced them into working together. Kill him and the jackal unity would break.

With the loose plan in mind, Karon reached the great gate outside the palace. It was guarded by jackals who actually didn't run screaming at the first sight of him. Though they were moving in nervous twitches and kept looking at one another for what to do.

Karon ignored them and looked to the buildings around him. It was obvious that they belonged to nobles or wealthy merchants from their size, and if the ponies had managed to get any warriors for an assault, they should be hiding somewhere inside one of them. So he turned away from the fearful jackals waiting to see what he would do and took a left, walking into one of the manors. And was promptly meet with about ten spears leveled at his throat.

From the gloom zebras emerged, a lot of them. The entrance was a big open space, and yet it was cramped with zebras hiding.

“You wouldn't happen to have been brought here by three ponies?” Karon asked innocently, and the zebras looked confused.

“We were,” came the answer, and then he received a question in return.”Who are you?”

“I'm Karon, trickster, mage and traveler that likes to pick up stray ponies. Now where are they?”

“The ponies are in the house across the street, there are warriors inside with them.”

“Oh … so how many of you did they get?”

The way he formed the question didn't make the zebras look happy, but they put away their spears and answered him still.

“We are more than four hundred strong warriors and trackers, we were waiting for the ponies to give sign that whatever they planned was done and it was time to attack.”

“It should come any minute now, they were just waiting for me.”

“For you? Good, then we can finally take back great Mjimkuu from the filthy jackals!”

“Get ready then,” Karon said in good bye and walked out into the street, crossing it without giving the jackals standing at the gate a second glance.

When he entered into the house he was welcomed exactly as he had been in the last, the difference here was that his friends were present.

“Karon! Finally, we've been waiting for hours,” Lyra told him after the zebras had given them some space.

“Master, we managed to gather little more than four hundred zebras for the attack,” Trixie quickly added and smiled proudly.

“Good. Who is the highest ranking zebra here?” he called out loudly.

“I am,” a tracker wearing golden feathers on his headband said and stepped forward.

“Good, you're in charge. You can go ahead and attack whenever you want to. The jackals should be as soft a target as they'll ever be right about now.” Karon told him.

The zebra grinned fiercely and ran out the door and into the street, there he turned to face the confused jackals guarding the gate. He screamed a shrill looping scream, and in answer every zebra warrior gathered for the attack poured out of their hiding places and charged at the gate.

Karon and the ponies hung back, waiting for the house to be emptied, then he spoke.

“We let the zebras deal with the jackals. The important thing is getting to Vako. Kill him and we're pretty much done, at least with our part in this whole thing.”

“So we just let them fight while we do what?” Lyra asked.

“Sneak inside. I can veil us for a short time.”

“You three do that. I'll go help the zebras with breaking the jackal ranks. A little air support never hurts,” Daring said and patted the whip at her flank.

Karon nodded to her in understanding and she zipped out of the house, leaving the trio behind in the gloom.

“What if he's in the middle of the battle?” Lyra asked him.

“Then we can let the zebras deal with him and go find the empress instead.”

“So ... how were you planning on finding him master?” Trixie asked.

“With magic of course,” came the vague response.

“And how long will this magic take?” Lyra asked and raised an eyebrow.

“A few minutes maybe, not long,” Karon said easily and sat down cross legged.

Lyra sighed and rolled her eyes at the lack of explanation and walked out the door to observe the battle while Trixie remained and watched over Karon.

                                         ***************************************************

He was soaring over the fight raging on the ground. The jackals were savage in their technique and tore into their opponents. However the zebras nurtured a centuries old hatred for the jackals that had been bred into them for many generations, and now they were defending the very heart of their empire. And so they fought back just as savagely, wielding spear, knives and other exotic weaponry Karon had no name for.

From his position over it all, Karon could see quite clearly that while the zebra's thoughts were united, moving like a wave forward, the jackals were clumsy. There was no unity of thought, and they all fractured into tiny groups fighting the zebras and payed no attention to the other groups alongside them.

He had done a good job destroying the jackals' morale, and it had also had an unexpected effect. The fear he had spread among them had forced the jackals to seek safety in their tribal brothers, which had made the already present cracks between them all the bigger.

There was no jackal army anymore. Vako had already lost his leadership, he just wasn't aware of it yet. The zebras were fighting a collection of tribes who if not for the common enemy, would be fighting each other, and it showed. Soon they would break completely, and as one tribe would try to escape, so would all the others.

Pleased with the turn of events, Karon turned from the palace courtyard and flew inside, moving through the corridors and rich rooms filled with art and treasure. Much of it had been trashed or piled up by the jackals, no doubt thinking they would bring it back home. Or perhaps Vako had gained ideas about simply keeping the city as the first of many he would conquer once he got a hold of Bator's promise.

However, despite the great mobility presented by traveling as a spirit, the palace was still a huge place, and finding where Vako was could take hours. And as the zebras would push back or drive the jackals off, Vako would grow more desperate, and the empress and whoever else was with her would be in danger.

Karon did not particularly care for her, and he stopped in shock when he realized that he wasn't doing this for her at all. This was not about serving the empress, nor was it about taking revenge on Vako and the jackals for the untold slaughter they had committed. He was doing it because it was right, because it felt right. Opposing Vako felt right, just as giving the empress lip and opposing her should she do something he didn't care for felt right.

It was HIS nature … it was a trickster's nature.

He was the challenger, the radical change and the being of many faces. He was not easily caught or defined. He was complexity and whim, laughter with a subtle undertone of clever understanding.

The epiphany brought a smile to his ethereal lips, and he felt he was joined by a presence. He turned his head and saw another spirit form hovering to his left. It was the zebra shaman who had helped him down in the city. He felt her sending him an impression, she wanted him to follow her. She knew where he was supposed to go, where he had a role to play.

He nodded his head and followed her through the walls and upwards, passing through the stone of the palace like it was nothing but air. Until they reached a grand chamber, perhaps one of the empress's personal ones. The empress herself was there, on the floor, battered and mistreated but nothing that looked fatal.

Zuku on the other hand was worse. He was bloodied and his entire face was swollen. In addition to that, his right foreleg was obviously broken if the bone sticking out was any indication.

And Vako was there too. He was growling to himself and observing the battle going on down in the courtyard from a balcony. There were four other jackals in the room, guarding the door and keeping an eye on the prisoners. An idea struck him, and even though it would be taxing, he felt guided to it, like it would provide exactly the reaction the situation required.

He floated over to one of the jackals, and he could see how the shaman gave him a crooked smile as she understood what he was doing. She gave him a wave of farewell just before he bridged a connection to the jackal's aura and was sucked in.

                           ********************************************************

“Why aren't they fighting better!” Vako growled loudly and turned away from the balcony. His jackals were being bested by ZEBRAS! He had heard the tales so many jackals had come running with, of grand armies and unspeakable horrors streaming into the city to hunt for the jackals, led by that strange creature that had somehow found Bator's promise. That cursed creature that had escaped within the sandstorm, escaped using magic!

Vako growled loudly again and marched over to the pathetic leader of all zebras.

“You said he was nothing! You said he was just a prisoner, a disposable spy! So why are your warriors attacking me? Do they not care for their empress? It is that thing's doing. First he stole our greatest treasure and now he tries to steal this city from me!” he screamed at the empress.

She coughed and cleared her throat before replying, spitting out the blood collecting in her mouth.

“I have no control over what the human does, and if he is making so much trouble why don't you go out and face him? Or is the great Vako afraid?” she laughed.

Vako roared and struck her hard in the jaw, and raised his paw to strike again, but something happened first. One of the guards posted at the door went insane. It started screamed and grabbed the jagged sword that hung at its belt, striking out against the three other jackals standing around him.

It took them entirely by surprise, and before they could properly react, two were already on the floor, clutching their leaking throats as their life fled from them. The fourth guard was quicker, and parried the frantic blows with practiced ease, before stabbing his own sword into the insane jackal. But his eyes widened in fear when the jackal's insanity proved stronger than the pain, and the jackal tore out the guard's throat with its fangs before he could pull his sword back for another swing.

Chest heaving, the insane jackal turned to Vako who was staring in disbelief at what had just happened. Blood trickled out of the jackal's mouth when it spoke, but the voice remained clear.

“Hello Vako...” it said, twisting the head until it looked like it would fall off. “I take it you want my spear? Don't worry, I will be here soon, and you can try and take it from me.”

“Filthy magic!” Vako growled, but Karon saw the fear despite the bad eyesight of the jackal he was possessing.

“Yes Vako … magiiiiiic. Do you think you can protect yourself from it?...You can't. There is nothing you can do … except wait.”

The jackal fell to the floor abruptly, and it started shaking as it understood what had just happened, and it clutched the sword sticking out of its stomach with a pitiful whine.

Vako marched out to the balcony again and looked down. He couldn't see the creature, the human, but he knew he was coming. He roared so loud that it could be heard even above the clamoring of the battle down below, and the jackals found themselves feeling very afraid.

                                        *******************************************

Karon rose from the floor with a wicked smile on his face.

“That should put him out of balance.”

“But not enough, I have no interest in fighting a beast like Vako in a straightforward battle.”

“So we cheat, what's the problem?”

“He's smarter than most jackals and has a strong will. We saw that while inside the ruin.”

“Okay, but he must be feeling at least some fear right now, just keep on pushing him. Make him lose himself to emotions, then we can strike.”

“We could always try just trash talking him until he goes completely insane with rage.”

“That sounds kinda risky. Let's save that as a back up plan.”

“Master, have you found him?” Trixie asked carefully and approached him.

“I have. He's with the empress and Zuka,” he told her and walked out of the building into the street.

Lyra stood there, watching as the zebras and jackals were busy killing one another inside the courtyard.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

She turned to face him looking thoughtful.

“No I … I never thought I could watch somepony die and not feel terrified or disgusted.”

“So what do you feel?”

“Honestly … I feel like it's sad but not terrible. Like … sometimes it can't be avoided, and it's not about trying to stay alive but … finding something worth dying for.”

“Maybe you're right,” Karon said simply and looked over at the raging battle, the bodies of dead zebras and jackals littering the ground.

“I'm not sure it's a good thing I feel this way,” she said and shook her head.

“You're not sure it's a bad thing either,” Karon commented, and they were joined by Trixie. “Anyway, I have found where Vako is. I'll veil us and we can get behind the jackal line unseen. After that, we get to him as fast as possible and make up a plan for confronting him.”

The ponies nodded in consent and felt the field of invisibility form around them. They headed through the gates and kept to the far reaches of the courtyard where there were fewer combatants, slinking through the jackal lines without trouble.

The entrance into the palace interior was heavily guarded and jackals blocked every inch of it, forcing the ponies to stand on Karon's shoulders and crawl through a window before helping him do the same. The corridors themselves were largely empty, and only a few times did they actually pass by any jackals, and they looked busy trying to gather as many valuables as possible and made little makeshift bags from tapestries and rugs to carry it with them once they fled.

Karon dropped the field once they got close to the chamber where Vako would be waiting, unless he had actually done the smart thing and fled, which seemed unlikely.

“So, what's the plan?” Lyra asked when Karon stopped and told them they were almost there.

“He's huge and incredibly dangerous, so I would prefer if we found a way that didn't involve me fighting him directly.”

“So you want to try and use some kind of magic to beat him?” Trixie asked and looked delighted.

“Yes … anyone got any ideas?”

“Well ... we could throw things at him with our telekinesis,” she proposed.

“Do you know if there's anything we could use for that inside?” Lyra asked.

“...well I saw a lot of pillows,” Karon offered weakly.

Lyra facehoofed and Trixie looked like she wanted to do the same.

“No, no, no, no wait. It might actually worth, pillows are light so you should be able to bombard him with them. Okay here's the plan, we will go inside and I will proceed to taunt Vako, really make him angry. And when he can't take it anymore and attacks, you throw all the pillows you can at him and keep going. He will be frothing at the mouth pretty quickly. When he gets angry enough that he loses all mental control, I will be able to attack his mind. Once I get my grip on his brain it will be over.”

“Are you sure this will work? This plans sounds like it hinges on you making a dangerous enemy as dangerous as possible,” Lyra noted.

“Well … yeah,” Karon admitted and grinned at the two unicorns.

They both rolled their eyes at exactly the same time, but they couldn't keep a slight smile from their faces.

“Let's go then,” he said and led them towards the chamber.

When they got to the door Karon hesitated, then shrugged his shoulder and kicked the door open, which slammed into the walls with a satisfying bang.

“Okay, stylish. Now come up with some standard derogatory taunting dialogue and proceed to let him get pummeled with pillows.”

“When you say it like that, it just sounds silly.”

Vako stood in the center of the room, giant ax resting in his paws and a look of fury already on his face.

“This will be easy.”

“Okay, trash talk ... what you got?”

“Truth.”

“So you've come to deliver Bator's promise to me?” Vako said, gripping his ax so hard Karon heard his knuckles crack. “As thanks I will reward you with a swi-”

“I'm gonna stop you right there fur-face. Not that I can't appreciate a good villain monologue and megalomaniac ranting, but you've simply not earned that right. You've invaded a city with pure shock and awe, congratu-fucking-lations. You've managed to temporarily best a species of grass eaters. Done your ancestors proud on that one I'm sure. Of course they're down there now kicking your jackal asses. Well, the jackals that haven't already fled from the city screaming in terror like little bitches, that is."

“So what did you think would happen? You would come here demanding the empress order me to give you the spear and you'll run into the sunset and take over the world? I've met idiots with delusions of grandeur before, but at least they had the mental capacity to figure out how soap works. You never had a chance Vako, not against me. I'm not a hero, but I have faced villains before far greater than you. Hell I've faced a giant dodo bird that was greater than you. You are all bark and no bite. You are a pathetic little mutt trying no doubt to compensate for having a tiny dick. I'm not a hero, but I'm a great fucking trickster and before me you are NOTHING. I've faced great villains and bested them Vako, and in the world of villains, you're the high school drop out.”

The jackal roared with righteous anger, charging at Karon with spit flying out of his open jaw to tear the insolent creature apart. Halfway there, his roar was silenced as a silky pillow flew into his mouth, and he stopped and coughed out the feathers he had breathed in after it had torn from his sharp fangs.

And then more pillows flew at him, a constant barrage of pillows that hit him in the face, blinding him as they punched into his eyes and rendering him unable to express the absolute fury that overtook him unless he wished to swallow more feathers.

“That should do it.”

Karon stretched out towards the infuriated jackal and latched on to his aura easily, it burned like a fire with nothing but rage. There was not a single coherent thought inside his head at the moment, only the primal desire to destroy everything in sight. It was almost too easy, taking control of the process, switching the energy from rage to fear. A tiny little change, and suddenly Vako was cowering on the floor, holding his arms up like he was shielding himself from a blow.

His mind became aware again then, the sudden change didn't compute with what had just happened around him. So Karon gave it a logical reason for why he was feeling such terror.

“You have lost everything.”

Vako shook his head back and forth, whimpering like a little child as his world was taken from him with a single mental suggestion.

“I have taken your strength. You are weak.”

The jackal whimpered even louder and the ax fell from limp hands, thinking himself to weak to hold such a heavy weapon.

“There is only one thing that can save you. One thing to keep your worst nightmares from becoming real.”

A tiny sliver of hope, and it made the terror all the more terrible for it.

“The balcony; you must jump from it. Only then can you escape me.”

Vako screamed as conflicting thoughts and emotions raged inside of him. Parts of him knew he would die and something was very wrong, but the other parts were firmly in Karon's grip. The jackal threw himself from side to side like he was trying to make the invisible claws let him go, but they didn't. Karon feed all the energy he could into the suggestion, into the fear, into the absolute certainty that there was no other option left.

He fell down to his knees, and at the same time Vako rose from the floor and ran out the balcony. And with a last roar of terror, rage and disbelief, he found himself falling towards his death. Only in the last instant before hitting the ground did Karon let go, and Vako's mind became his own, and only then did he realize what had happened.

By then it was far too late.

The entire battle had stopped for a moment when the combatants heard Vako's final scream, and after it had ended with his death, it took on another shape completely. Not a single jackal had any thought about remaining in the city after watching their great chief fall to his death, and the zebras chased them all the way out the city gates with great zeal.

Up in the chamber Karon was sitting against a wall, breathing calmly and letting his mind wander freely. After all the mental magic he had performed that day, it was not surprising reality seemed fluid, and his focus kept drifting now that he could allow himself to rest.

Trixie and Lyra were busy checking up on the empress and Zuka, helping the former to stand and the later to sit more comfortably. The empress reassured them she was alright, and she walked over to Karon with an unreadable expression. Before she could say anything, Karon spoke.

“You have no idea how much you owe us for all of this.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 40: What we carry with us... Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 37 Minutes