The Unicorn Wars: War of the Gods

by Constellation

Chapter 7: Burnt Out Ruin

The destruction and devastation before us was like nothing I had ever seen. I had seen a few battle fields, but this was the first I had seen were the Empire lost. The wall of the fort was all but gone, burnt to ash. The gate house was barely standing, leaning forward, threatening to crash down on as if we entered. Bodies lay everywhere in the field around the destroyed fort, easily seven hundred earth ponies, clearly cut down by endless volleys of musket fire, and as they got closer to the fort, magic.

We marched slowly up the path, the smell of blood, mud, and brunt corpses filled the air. The path we walked was overflowing with bodies, ripped apart and left for the elements to reclaim them.

The dead ponies near and on the path had clearly been searched, anything important, or useful being removed. Every now and then I would see one that had also been killed after the battle, having their throats cut. We weren't the first to come after the battle.

"Sarge,"Fire Ball said suddenly."Look there."he raised his hoof and pointed at the far North side of the field that surrounded the fort.

The Sarge, and everypony else, looked in the direction he was pointing into a cluster of trees. I squinted, but I couldn't see anything. I was about to give up when I saw a deep red. I focused on that spot and soon made out a dark brown earth pony, with a red main. He quickly disappeared when he saw he was spotted.

"Seen him."the Sargent stated simply.

"Shouldn't we go after him?"Maximus asked.

"No."General Burning Sky said."He'd just get away, and we're busy."

After that the General moved ahead of the group and walked right up to the wide open, and ruined gate. He stepped right through without even looking for any sign of the enemy that could quite possibly be stalking just past the threshold.

"General."Sargent Steel Hoof almost shouted in panic as the rest of us ran to form a circle around him."Please, Sir, let us secure the area first."

"Nonsense. I'm not a colt!"he pushed on, taking the lead.

"Sir, I mus.."the Sargent started, but was stopped when the General turned and looked him in the eye."Yes, Sir."Sarge said in defeat.

The General seemed satisfied, as he turned back and headed deeper into the destroyed fort. All the buildings looked like they had sustained heavy damage, but none had fallen. Though most looked like they were about to.

My gaze fell on barracks three, just across the court yard from the mess hall. It looked relatively intact, though there were clear signs of it being burnt, just like everything else.

We soon came upon the citadel. Calling it a citadel was hard to do, especially now. The citadel had always been small, and had been made out of wood, just like the fort, some cheep stuff that grew in the area and looked horrible. Now that it was burnt, it looked even worse. The entire left side of the building had collapsed, and the right side looked like it was about to do the same.

"Alright."The General spoke up, loud enough for us to hear, but not loud enough to be over heard."Break up into teams of two and search for survivors, Sargent, your with me."

"Yes, Sir."We all said, giving a salute and breaking up.

I saw Ice Heart and Corporal Iron Hide head south, toward the armory and blacksmith. Fire Ball and Swift Steel went toward the left side of the court yard, the Sarge and the General made for the command center, and me and Maximus made for barracks one, two, three, and the showers.

"Hey, Maximus, I thought I saw something move in barracks two."I whispered as I saw what I swear was movement.

"Alright."he said, priming his musket as I did the same."I'll kick it in."

We quickly flanked the door, Maximus on the left, myself on the right. I lifted my musket and leveled it at the door, right at the head level of a pony. Maximus turned around and put all his weight on his fore hooves, then quickly struck out with his rear hooves, which shattered the door, sending it flying in and breaking into tiny slivers.

I was in the door way before Maximus was even done, I lifted my musket and scanned the room. I stayed there, watching for just a second as Maximus recovered and turned around, before entering himself. With Maximus now inside, I turned right and made my way to the wall in that direction, Maximus doing the same with the left wall. I signaled him forward, and I took a step myself. However, just as I stepped into the light, something just hooves in front of me moved right at me.

I reacted in a flash. I slashed out with my bayonet and cut open the blur of movement, then quickly jumped back before raising my musket, ready to fire the shot in a instant.

Instead I found myself staring at a ripped curtain blowing in a light breeze. I lowered my musket and looked to my left, to Maximus, who had a huge grin on his face, chuckling slightly.

"Hey, it's not funny."I growled.

"Yes it was."my friend started laughing out loud now.

"Whatever."I said as I started moving toward the back of the building."Come on, we gotta' clear this place and get to the next one."

However, I stopped after the third step, and Maximus sobered up as we both heard a loud floor bored creek from the small room off to the back of the room.

The barracks where a long building with only two rooms. The room we were in now, were all the soldiers would sleep, and a small back room were the officer would sleep, whomever was the highest rank.

I looked to Maximus and motioned to the door, he under stood and soon we were leaning up against the wall on ether side, same set up as before. With a quickly delivered kick, the door was knocked away, and I jumped in, weapon ready.

I looked around and my eyes soon landed on a sword pointed strait at my noise. I held my gaze there for a second before following the blade to the hilt, held by a blue aurora. Then I saw the stallion holding the blade in his magic. He was brown, with black main and tail, and he looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Thank the gods!"he yelled as he dropped his sword and sat down."I thought I was a dead pony."

Maximus came through the door just as I lowered my musket."Are you a survivor from the attack?"I questioned.

"No,"he said standing up and dusting himself off."I'm with the rescue team."

"Where's the rest of your team?"I asked, hoping to get back to the mission as soon as possible.

"I don't know, the Sarge went to the blacksmith, and I know somepony got sent to the mess, that's abou..."he trailed off as he saw the royal seal on my coat, and quickly stood at attention, then brought his hoof up to salute."Sorry Sir, I didn't know you where with the royal guard."

I waved my hoof and said."It's alright, I haven't even gotten use to it myself."

"Right, well, if you have secured this building, then we need to move on."Maximus stated, and I knotted my head in agreement.

"I've also secured barracks one."he stated as we all began making our way to the door at the front of the building.

We emerged from barracks two, and, sure enough, I could see Fire Ball and Swift Steel come out of the mess hall with another pony in tow. We turned left and dashed across the open area between barracks two and three, and came to a quick stop in front of barracks three's wooden door. This time I got in front of the door, and my two companions stood to ether side of it. I quickly delivered a hard kick to the wood, and the door broke to peaces, and my companions charged in. I turned around and followed them, and saw them both advancing down ether side of the room, hugging the walls.

I started forward, heading straight down the center of the rows of beds, right toward the door to the privet room at the end. We were all soon there, and I kicked that door down too. In a second we found that room just like the barracks themselves, it was empty.

"Did your team fined any survivors?"I questioned as we started back toward the front door.

"Yeah, we found a few, mostly wounded pretty bad. And I'm sure you saw all the survivors we found of the earth ponies of our way in."he replied.

"Yeah, what happened to the survivors?"I asked."Our survivors."I added for clarification.

"They were taken to the infirmary, just behind the blacksmith, it was the only building that didn't look torched."he answered.

We approached the showers, that last place we needed to secure. The door was already fully open, so I went straight in, followed by Maximus, and the privet after him. We did a quick sweep of the small structure, but there wasn't anything there, so, we quickly left, heading back toward the citadel.

"Hey, what's your name?"I asked the privet as we neared the large, and destroyed building.

"Privet Tidal Wave."he answered.

"With a name like that I would have expected you would join the Navy."Maximus said."I'm Maximus by the way."

"I was going to, but, it turns out I hate the water."he replied.

"I'm Nova."I said just as the blacksmith came into view as we past the citadel.

We were soon directly in front of the building in question when I saw the Sargent, talking to another Sargent, while the General seemed to be looking over everything in the armory.

"We'll need more gun powder."Sarge said as we approached."And as meany reinforcements as we can get."

"Sir."I snapped to attention, and saluting."The East quarter is secure."

"The West quarter as well."said Swift Steel, who came up behind me with Fire Ball just behind him.

"Good, that make the fort secure."Sarge said."Get some rest, the General says we leave in the morning."

"Yes, sir."I said, saluting again.

"Sir, are we going now?"Swift Steel asked."Aren't we going to plan this?"

General Burning Sky turned around and spoke."No time for that, we leave at first light."