Three months… no time at all in the eye of a goddess, but long enough nevertheless; long enough for news of their arrival to spread. Long enough for Rainbow Dash of House Stormwing to warily welcome her after hearing the alicorn’s assurance that the Celestial Princesses lived. Long enough for her to take several promising Stormwing warriors under her wings as apprentices. And long enough for some to wish ill upon their divine visitors.
Long enough for the Cult to attempt an assassination on the nearest of the descended deities.
Gazing out from a spot in the Flying City Cloudsdale upon the smoke trails and flames of Trottingham stood Armifera Imperatrix.
She surveyed the results of rioting, visible even at this great distance. How much the Cult had to do with it, she knew not, though she was aware of just how entrenched in the city they’d become. It was tempting to fly to the city and help, though she guessed her presence would only exacerbate things; nonetheless, if it became desperate enough, she would fly out there- Cultists or not.
She’d descended to the planet with only a faint inkling of what the Cult of Laughter was, and even then, she had harbored a firm dislike for what she knew.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a flash of green erupt in the city. Putting her musings on hold, she grasped one of the small spyglasses Stormwing had, and peered through it at the city tearing itself apart.
She gritted her teeth and jammed the spyglass back into itself, she turned to one of the hoplites stationed at the doorway, calling out to the mare, “If Rainbow Dash wants me, for whatever reason, tell her I’m crushing a few cultists in that protectorate of hers, will you?”
Not pausing for an answer, she took a running leap off of the cloud, leaning into a steep dive angled towards the burning city in the distance.
★~★~★~★
The tides of battle seethed as hard pressed Ground Guard and Hoplites battled against the pressing weight of numbers of rioters, and madly cackling jesters and other cultists swarmed, with giggling ghosts gnawing at anything airborne; including the heavily armored alicorn swooping in with her swords drawn.
Dodging several of the little apparitions, and then dousing them liberally with a jet of flame, Armifera crashed into a cultist, dicing him into three pieces with her blades. Whirling and impaling another three, she conjured up an ethereal crescent shaped blade that sank into the throat of a rioter charging her with a pitchfork, before throwing the cultists back off her swords into the crowd.
“House Stormwing, rally!” She bellowed with all her might, cleaving another cultist in half as she did so, “To me!Carpe Diem!” A pitchfork glanced off of her armor, leaving it unblemished save for the spot where the assassin had barely missed his mark, and she caved in the skull of the offender with the butt of her sword, breaking the haft of an axe with the other.
She conjured up several ethereal swords, launching them into the crowd before her as the Stormwing troops surged back into battle with a renewed vigor.
“Disperse knaves! Whatever it is you seek, you shall not find it here! Disperse before we must eliminate all of you, and the Cult you seem so tolerant of!” She conjured up another set of swords, setting them spinning this time before launching them into the mob.
She followed in the wake of her ethereal assault, hacking, slashing, and thrusting; heedless of the lacerations and cuts that slowly manifested on the unarmored portions of her body.
Glancing around, Armifera realized that she’d managed to separate herself from the main body of Stormwing forces, and yelped in surprise as the red haze of battle lifted from her mind momentarily.
She flared her wings, pushing downwards on the air as she lifted herself from the carnage just below. Glimpsing a pack of ghosts pursuing what looked to be a small family in flight from the town, she hurled herself after them, bashing a few of them repeatedly with the flats of her swords, she enveloped the rest of them in a surge of flame.
Turning to the wide eyed family, she yelled at them, “Go! That city is tearing itself apart, find a place in one of the flying cities for now!” A younger mare with an aqua coat nodded firmly and began hurrying the rest of them away from the alicorn.
She glanced back to the violence on the streets, and the rioters and cultists who seemed to have taken heart from the fact that Stormwing’s alicorn aid appeared to have fled, and the Stormwing soldiers themselves seemed to share a similar sentiment themselves.
Bracing herself to fly back into the fray, Armifera glimpsed a small spectral hare watching her, and she chuckled in spite of herself, “Apparently Thea is keeping a close eye on things.” She said softly to herself, before calling out to the hare, “Give my regards to Thea, would you?!”
She launched herself back into the sky, crashing once more into a knot of cultist perched on a stormwing hoplite, repeatedly stabbing him as they giggled madly. She bellowed out once more to those surrounding her, “Did you think I had run?! Bah! Prepare to lose, my little friends! Before surging once more into the fray.
★~★~★~★
Nursing a particularly painful cut on one of her wings, where a jester had managed to land a cut prior to his decapitation, Armifera stood speaking with Rainbow Dash and several of the other senior officers of Cloudsdale- mainly with the superior officers.
“I’m telling you, Trottingham’s completely infested with the Cult, your troops, and myself for that matter, were openly under attack from Jesters and ghosts! Hoping the problem will go away isn’t going to fix anything!”
She scoffed, strutting off to the room she had been provided as her quarters, it was slightly larger than those of the average Hoplite, but her increased bulk negated that small bonus. She grumbled at the strict regulatory behavior exhibited by Stormwing, perhaps it was better in one of the different flying cities, who could say. Hurricane’s legions hadn’t been this uptight, she knew that much from what she’d gleaned in her observations of the mortal realm.
She didn’t stay in the room for long, opting to fly around the city and look for anything interesting. Once she’d cleared the more militant areas, it was a simple matter to find a bar, and she pushed her way into it.
The pegasi in the bar froze as an armored alicorn strode in, giving the building an approving glance. She sauntered up the bartender, cheerfully sliding into one of the seats, “Hey, give me some of the strongest stuff you got.” She called over to him, seeing how he’d managed to slide halfway down the bar already. Turning to one of the pegasi on the seat next to her, she extended her hoof in greeting, “Hey buddy, how’s it going?”
Only to realize that this pegasus happened to be the mare she’d terrified when she’d first arrived. “Summer Winds! Wow! S’great to see ya! How’s it hangin’?” A small glass of an amber liquid slid over to her from the bartender, and she grabbed it in her magic, “Anyhoo, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we fly!” She gulped it down, grinning, “Or something like that.”
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