Chapter 4
The Library
“They're coming”
Twilight looked down at the knight who just opened his eyes suddenly. His head was resting on her lap as she read through the late hours of the night. Gunther quickly rose up and jumped to his feet.
“What do you mean? Is it the Darkspawn?” Twilight asked, getting up herself and putting her book down. It was very dark in the room; still hours away from dawn. Twilight followed Gunther up the stairs to the bedroom, watching him try to put on his armor. Twilight stepped forward and started helping Gunther with the straps of his chainmail.
“A group is coming, about…” he closed his eyes and focused for a moment, “fifty, more or less.”
Twilight looked up into his eyes with shock. “But I thought you said we had time” Gunther put on his cape as well, clasping it on his left breast and throwing the cape over his shoulders. He met Twilights eyes, seeing she was very worried for Ponyville.
“I know, I'm sorry.” He said while picking up his sword. He drew it, putting the sheath back on the armor rack. He picked up his Cousland family shield and equipped it to his left arm. He walked towards the door to the outside, sword and shield in hand. Twilight followed behind him; she saw him stop right before the door, raising his sword up near his face. A blue, ethereal flame danced from the hilt up and around the silver blade. Twilight watched in awe as the flame enveloped the sword, also lighting up the dark library with its glow. Gunther turned around to face Twilight.
“Whatever happens, stay indoors.” He said sternly. Twilight jumped to reply.” And don’t follow me, you have to stay safe”
“But, what if…”
“No” he cut off. “I’m sorry but this isn’t like last time. This is war Twilight. It is much too dangerous” he walked to the door and opened it, feeling the cool breeze of the night flood around him.
“I…understand” replied Twilight calmly, although it pained her much to see the man she loved go off to fight a battle which was against his favor. Gunther noticed Twilights reaction, and walked up in front of her. She looked up into his eyes; eyes with too much worry for her own good. He took his sword into his left hand, reaching for hers with his right. A smile overtook Twilight’s worried face as she weaved her fingers in with Gunther’s.
“I’m sorry Twilight, I just can’t let you get hurt.” He started softly, he was just as worried as Twilight was, but confidence flooded through his body when she gave him her caring smile. He closed his eyes and let go of her hand, then quickly leaving to fight off the darkness that threatened Ponyville, not looking back once.
He ran with haste in the direction of the forest, but felt the taint was much closer, hopefully not inside the village yet. His sword was leaving trails of blue fire as he ran, acting as a beacon of justice as he pierced the darkness of night. Some guards saw Gunther, and quickly approached him to see what was the matter.
“Sir Knight, what is the meaning of this?” asked one of the guards, forcing Gunther to halt. He, along with the rest of the guards, was wearing a thick leather armor fitted with metal studs. He had a mace and buckler along with a crossbow and bolts on his back.
“Darkspawn are approaching; Gather all available guards and soldiers.” He ordered sternly. Fear struck the guards hard; they have never fought a real battle before. Gunther saw this in their stances. The senior of the group silently ordered a few of the guards to gather the soldiers; they ran off in different directions in their search. Gunther turned his back to the Guards and slowly walked as he began giving his orders. “Sergeant, order your men to darken the village; put out all the lights and lanterns. Then take positions near the forest side gate on the roofs of the buildings. I will lead the darkspawn into the village where we will ambush them.”
“Yes sir” replied a sergeant, he then turned around to give the orders to the remaining guards; without question, and they left, putting out torches and lanterns along the way.
Gunther continued to make his way towards the forest, feeling the taint grow closer and closer. He found himself at the small wooden gate that lead out of the village. He paused, not seeing any darkspawn in the distance, feeling none either. Minutes passed, and he looked behind him into the village; it had gone dark and the men were climbing up onto the roofs of the nearby houses. Gunther heard behind him land two armored men.
“Sir Gunther, we are here representing Canterlot against the darkspawn.” Said one of the new arrivals. Gunther looked behind him to see two men in golden armor, wielding long halberds. They both were of the seraphim, angels to his eyes, adorning large white wings. They obviously represented the most veteran soldiers in all Equestria, but were still unfamiliar to fighting darkspawn.
“Glad to have you here.” Gunther said politely.
“I am Decanus Irving, and this is legionary Drake.” Replied Irving. Gunther nodded at their introductions. “We are the Canterlot’s royal auxiliary stationed here in Ponyville.”
“Then let us make haste and bring the fight to the darkspawn.” Gunther suggested. Nodding at Gunther, the two seraphs followed Gunther out beyond the borders of the village.
The field outside Ponyville was dark, but the moon gave off enough light to see the distant forest that was now home to the vile darkspawn. He could hear barking very close to him; Gunther lifted his sword up and let his energy flow through it, causing a major increase in the flames illumination. The way was lit now; the darkspawn would soon come to Gunther and the royal guard.
Figures in the darkness started running towards the defenders, Gunther immediately fell into a defensive stance while the two royal guards who flanked Gunther put their halberds out in front.
“This is only a test” Gunther said as the darkspawn began closing in on them. Irving and Drake nodded. “They are testing our strength; so show them that we shall not let such petty evil threaten this land!” The two guards cheered but were cut short when a blight wolf lunged at Gunther. He caught it easily in with his hands; it still relentlessly snapped and bite at Gunther, but was silenced once Gunther broke it’s neck with the pommel of his sword.
More blight wolves attacked, but the long reach of the Guards halberds caught them before they were in reach of the three. While the guards were busy taking care of the wolves, Gunther took this opportunity to strike the approaching horde of darkspawn. Remembering his templar training with Alistair, Gunther focused the runic power in his sword, combining it with his own. The flames grew every moment, becoming an inferno before Gunther released it; slashing his sword towards the horde, sending a wave of flames at the enemy. The flames hit the first line of darkspawn, knocking them off of their feet and burning their corrupt skin while sending their souls back to the pits of the earth.
This did not slow the advancing horde at all, nor did it seem to thin their numbers. The horde was more spread out as they charged into the three defenders, the Hurlocks hitting first as their height did not hinder their speed. The first few were slammed to the ground by the royal guard’s halberds. Gunther parried the charge of a Hurlock wielding a large axe, using the enemy’s momentum to dodge, and then slamming his sword into the back of its neck. To Gunther’s right, Irving blocked the strike of a genlock with his halberd’s handle, and then hit its face with the end of the halberd, knocking it off its feet. Irving quickly stomped on the creatures face with an armored boot: crushing its skull, staining the field with dark blood.
Nearby, Drake stabbed at a charging darkspawn with his halberd, following its movement, and then landing the spear into the gut of the creature. The force of the impact pushed drake back, but he raised his halberd and pushed the caught darkspawn onto the ground where it took its last few breathes of life. Before recovering from his attack, a darkspawn charged drake. He let go of the halberd, sidestepping the creature, then grabbing its arm. He twisted it down, gaining control of the darkspawn; reaching behind his back on his belt drake pulled out a large dagger, then cut the beast’s neck, severing the artery and spraying his armor and face with warm blood. Quickly sheathing his dagger, he picked up the halberd which was still in the felled darkspawn.
Gunther quickly dispatched two more darkspawn with a single stroke of his flaming blade, sending them spiraling to the ground by the force of his strike. He took a moment to see how the two guards were fairing. They were surrounded by corpses, and preparing for the next assault of darkspawn. Gunther looked ahead to see an even larger group of darkspawn running towards them. Each wielded a torch, along with their normal weapon; these were defiantly part of main raiding party.
“Fall back!” shouted Gunther. The two legionaries spread their wings and lifted off the ground, and flew towards the village. Gunther spun around and ran towards the village, flaming sword in hand, leaving trails of blue fire behind him.
The darkspawn seemed to take the bait; they growled and roared while pursuing the sprinting grey warden. As they approached the village gates, the two seraphim flew up into the clouds, staying in their small formation as they disappeared from sight. Gunther led the darkspawn into the village; he continued to retreat into the village to get as many trapped as he could. More and more darkspawn poured into the village entrance; they all slowed down when they saw the grey warden stopped in the middle of the road. They growled and brayed trying to understand the pause in the battle.
He felt enough were inside the confined area, Gunther turned to face the horde, saluting them with his burning sword. “Now!” he shouted loudly. Almost instantly a hail of arrows and bolts shot from the rooftops of the houses. The crowded darkspawn could do very little to protect themselves against the rain of piercing shots, dozens being felled by the first strike. Still, many remained and they decided to each go their separate ways into the village to burn and plunder. A second volley of arrows shot through the night sky, striking down more darkspawn; no signs of the darkspawn leader were visible yet, giving Gunther a feeling of uncertainty.
Before the darkspawn became too spread out and unchecked, the sky opened up and out came two seraphim slammed into the darkspawn horde, cutting down many in their surprise assault. Gunther took this as a sign to charge into the battle himself. He charged through the moving horde, slicing and bashing darkspawn as they moved around him. He continued his furious attack on the invaders as they moved deeper into the city, showing how a Cousland fights for his country.
Twilight Sparkle stood on her balcony, gazing off into the distance. She stood there ever since Gunther left her company to run off to fight the evil that spread through the village. She saw dozens of torches in the dark city, most now moving out like wildfire spreading through a dry forest. I can’t just do nothing! Thought Twilight, what if they come here? I have to do something to protect Ponyville! Her mind was made up; she would act directly against the orders of Gunther to protect the library, surly he could understand. She ran into the library, putting on some loose fitting clothes, and grabbing her spell notebook, she set off to go outside.
The darkspawn were already inside most of the city unchecked, looting, burning, and destroying. The normal citizens were safely locked up in their homes, but not for much longer could their homes protect them. The guards had since then got back on the ground to fight off the invaders; they did not have trouble dispatching single enemies, it was when groups attacked they had trouble defending themselves. The two legionaries were fairing quite well for themselves; they used their wings for added speed to charge the darkspawn, and boosted by their martial prowess they were unstoppable in their defense.
Gunther quickly cut the stomach of another darkspawn, watching it fall to the ground in a bloody mess. He turned to the entrance; no more darkspawn were entering. Taking notice of the end to the darkspawn arrival, he spotted another nearby darkspawn charging him. It slashed at Gunther with a curved and wicked blade; Gunther raised his sword to block the attack. He reeled at the force, but quickly recovered, raising his shield to block the strike from the darkspawn’s flaming torch. Seeing the creature’s body wide open, he swung his sword low, cutting it at its knees. It roared in pain as it fell on its knees, but was quickly silenced when its head was detached from its shoulders. Gunther kicked the headless body to the ground, blood pouring out from its severed neck, staining the dirt road with darkspawn filth.
Gunther ran though the city, fighting occasionally when a darkspawn approached, but most learned to fear Gunther’s wrath. He needed to check up on the library, to make sure Twilight was okay since his plan did not work as well as he originally expected. He saw flames in the distance, near the library’s location, causing Gunther to double his speed.
Twilight stepped outside to the chaotic city. Guards rushed by, giving no notice to Twilight. horrified, she looked around, instantly seeing a burning home. She opened her notebook, looking for something she could put the fire out with. Ice, ice, ice, where are you? She read, scanning the contents of her organized notes. There! Freezing wind! She read. Closing her notebook after reading the spell, she closed her eyes and lifted her right hand. Focusing the energy that gathered around her hand, she released it. A fast wind shot out towards the fire, specks of snow and ice shot with the wind, causing the fire to smoke and start die. She kept the spell going for a bit more until the fire was no more, luckily the home remained mostly undamaged.
Gunther felt the horde was finally thinning in numbers, as he had killed over two dozen of the beasts, but it was far from over; raiding parties always have a leader, who has yet to show itself yet. Gunther rounded a corner to see the library, unharmed. He felt relieved for a moment before seeing a young woman out in the road.
“Twilight!” Gunther shouted from across the road. She looked over to him, but kept on using her magic to put out a burning home. He saw charging towards her a large Hurlock from across the road. Gunther counter charged the Hurlock, meeting it halfway to Twilight’s position, slamming his shield in its gut with enough force to send it off its feet. With the darkspawn on the ground unconscious, Gunther took his blade and finished the Hurlock; pulling his bloody blade out of the fallen darkspawn, he looked up to see Twilight still focused on the burning home, which fire was greatly diminished since he last saw. “Twilight, it’s dangerous out here…”
“Gunther! Behind you!” interrupted Twilight. a Hurlock was charging at Gunther from behind, his axe held up high for the strike. Gunther effortlessly struck his sword upward, across the darkspawn’s chest. It reeled in pain, blood dripping down its armor. Gunther waited for the creature to attack again; he raised his shield into a defensive position. It charged again, but before it attacked Gunther it was pierced by hundreds of ice shards. It fell on its back; Gunther turned to see Twilight with her hand outstretched. Her hand was glowing with a magical blue color.
“See, I can handle myself” she said proudly. Gunther smiled at her great feat of power, realizing he was fool for doubting her strength.
“You’re right, I'm sorry for doubting….” He paused, feeling a great chill in the air. He looked at Twilight quizzically. “Twilight is that you?”
“No, but I feel it too.” She replied. They both looked around; the fighting seemed to be over, as the sounds of war had ceased. A thick fog had arrived in the area which Gunther and Twilight were standing in; something was coming, Gunther felt it.
Out of the fog, a spear shot out towards Gunther. His reflexes took over as he bashed the spear out of the air with his shield. It shattered into thousands of pieces of cold ice as it was deflected. Gunther slashed his flaming sword out at the fog, sending a blue wave of flames out to cut the mist.
A large figure was standing were the mist once was. It was holding a scorched staff riddled with runes and fetishes alike. Gunther brightened his sword to get a clearer view on the darkspawn; the light revealed it to be a Hurlock emissary, wielding the power of ice in his staff and hands. The emissary laughed deeply as it prepared a spell.
“Twilight, prepare yourself! This one uses magic!” Gunther warned. She erected a magic shield in front of Gunther and herself. The Hurlock didn’t seem to mind; instead it shot bolts of pure energy at the shield. Twilight strained to keep the shield up and was losing focus quickly. Gunther prepared his own strike; he massed fire on his sword before releasing it towards the emissary. It countered it by sending a wave of freezing wind, dissipating the strike completely. While this was happening, Gunther filled his sword with more fire. “Twilight, you have more control than I do, send this at him” he offered. Twilight nodded, balling the blue fire within her hands; she then pressed it down into a much more condensed form. She then balled fire the flames in a stream directly at the emissary. The emissary tried to block with its staff, but couldn’t block it in time, turning its staff to ash.
The emissary growled, reeling from the assault. Quickly recovering, it picked up a nearby sword from a dead comrade. Gunther charged at it, the emissary quickly responded by countercharging the furious knight. The emissary struck first, swinging at an ark, aiming for Gunther’s neck. The knight blocked the strike easily enough, but left his body open; the emissary pulled out a long dagger from his back and attempted to stab Gunther. Gunther raised his flaming sword to parry it, then striking the darkspawn in the face with his shield. The emissary was stunned, but reeled to get away from the knight. It filled its hands with ice magic, forming an ice spear for it to wield. The emissary stabbed the ground with the spear, turning the dirt to pure ice around it. The emissary then quickly shot out a few bolts of magic from its spear at Gunther who deflected them quite easily with his shield, but the force of the last one caused Gunther to lose his balance on the iced earth. Gunther struggled to get up, as the ice was much too slippery to grip. Twilight Sparkle saw this opening that the emissary gave; she imitated the magic the darkspawn was using to create her own ice spear.
The emissary walked over to the fallen knight. It gripped its spear in both hands and stabbed at Gunther. Gunther managed to evade the attack by rolling, but wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. Then, before his eyes, a large spear shot over the knight, piercing the emissary in the heart. Gunther looked behind him to see it was Twilight who just shot the spear. She ran over to Gunther and pulled him to a part of the road which wasn’t frozen; standing up he looked back at the emissary who was on the ground in a pool of its own blood. Gunther felt a pair of soft arms grab him around his stomach.
“Thank goodness you are all right” said a concerned Twilight. Gunther turned and wrapped his shield arm around her shoulders, resting his face on her silky hair. He let his other hand lie at his side, still holding his sword, which still burned with a holy light. He closed his eyes, thanking the maker for her safety.
“Thank you Twilight” he said, still enveloped in her arms. “Once again you have proven me the fool for doubting you” she looked up from her hold, into his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it, what matters is that you are safe” she said, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost you” she rested her head in his chest once more, feeling his racing heart through his armor.
The sun managed to finally show itself over the tree line. The light passed through the corners of the buildings, chasing away the darkness that once enveloped Ponyville. Two seraphim flew down to meet the couple. The light reflected off of their bloody golden armor; they approached the knight and magician, interrupting their embrace.
“Sir Gunther” said Irving. Gunther turned to the two royal guards, letting go of Twilight. “The darkspawn invaders have been eradicated.” Gunther nodded
“Good.” He said, feeling all the tension leave his body. “Are there any causalities?” He asked.
“Surprisingly no.” responded Drake, “There are about two dozen wounded, but no deaths. All the wounded are already at the hospital in emergency care, but I don’t think any are mortal wounds.”
“Thank goodness.” Twilight said relieved. The fires in the village had all been put out by its’ inhabitants, limiting the damage the darkspawn planned on inflicting.
“Your quick thinking is probably to thank for saving the village, you have our thanks as well as the city’s.” said Irving, bowing his head and saluting his arm over his chest. “Your deeds here will not go unnoticed by Canterlot, we will make sure of that. Now you must excuse us, we must report this to Captain Shining armor” the two flew off in the direction of city hall, leaving Twilight and Gunther alone again, surrounded by Darkspawn corpses.
“What happens now?” Asked Twilight looking up at Gunther, he looked down at her with his caring eyes.
“we prepare for war”