Chapter 4: Skittering Shadows
Chapter 4: Skittering Shadows
Angry breaths frosted in the air in front of his muzzle and Warchief Ulragnok growled, deep, rumbling in his massive chest. His towering brown furred form was clad in large, thick slabs of iron armor, which clanked loudly amid the thick depths of the forest as the huge ursan paced in the small clearing where he had agreed to meet with his… allies.
He was becoming frustrated. Things were moving far too slowly! He wanted to attack now! He had the forces! The Yellowtooth, Scarred Hide, and Night Roar clans were under his complete control now, but that would not last if Ulragnok did not deliver upon his promise to give the braves of those clans the glorious battle they so desired! Did his allies not understand the ursan spirit!? Ursans cared not for detailed plans or languidly waiting for the right moment to strike. Let the old longtooths of the clan be cautious! A ursan brave was meant to fight! Openly, gloriously, and without fear, against worthy foes!
The ponies might have seemed soft, but ursans understood the steel underneath their strange, prey-like appearance. For generations the ursans had the honor to test their power against the worthy foes of the Legion, but for too long had that great war seemed to slow to a crawl, the elders of too many clans seeming content with occasional raids and nothing more.
Ulragnok remembered as a small cub hearing the stories from the gray furred longtooths of the clan of the glory days, when hundreds of ursans would clash against the endless armies of the Legion. Grand battles where a brave could prove his worth by spilling the blood of both himself and his enemies! Days when after the hard fought battle was won one could drink one’s fill of blood and mead both and sing of one’s deeds for all to hear, echoing in the boughs of the mighty, eternal forest! What glory was there now? What glory in endless days of hunting fish, brawling with other bored braves, and waiting for the elders to deign to approve of a raid into the pony’s territory?
No! No more! Ulragnok, son of Barragar, would not let his life pass in meek, timid games and waiting for the chance of glory that would never come! He would forge a name in glory and blood, and show all of his race what it meant to be an ursan. To that end he’d tried to rouse his own Yellowtooth clan, even going so far as to challenging his elderly father to open combat.
He’d lost, the ragged scars crossing his wide face the remembrance his father had given him for his insolence. But then, in his most desperate moment of shame, he had found strange allies. Allies that had opened the way for him to take leadership of his clan, and of two others…
Allies Ulragnok was far from certain he could trust.
It was nighttime, the only time his allies ever agreed to meet with him. The sky above was beautifully clear, the lake of stars above glittering like precious stones in the night’s ceiling. Ulragnok was not immune to recognizing that beauty, but his mood was too foul to properly enjoy the view past the tree branches. His rounded, tufted ears twitched as he thought he heard the faintest brush of something sharp over tree bark. He issued a low growl as around him came a whisper of scratching that to many would have sounded like merely the branches swaying against each other, but he had heard enough times to recognize the subtle difference.
They were here.
His dark eyes scanned the shadows above, the tangled mix of black upon black that could be tree branches… or could be something else. Shadows moved and swayed, and amid them perhaps a patch of black moved in a way that wasn’t natural, was certainly no tree branch. A faint, soft series of clicks came and went with a chilly breeze, and it almost sounded like laughter.
“I know you are here!” he bellowed, stamping one paw firmly, “How long must I wait!? My clans are restless, my braves will not be satisfied with little skirmishes and raids for long. We must soon strike against the ponies! Why do we wait?”
Silence, for a minute. Then, barely perceptible even to Ulragnok’s keen senses, a voice spoke only an octave above a whisper. It came from everywhere and nowhere, surrounding him as if one voice was in fact many, and it held the trace of a light, feminine chime to it.
“Patience. Patience. Bear-thing must be patient. Strings coming together, plans forming shapes, all is for purpose. Purpose, yes.”
Another set of laughing clicks, and a shadow move to his left, Ulragnok almost catching the side of something black with many legs flowing up a tree into deeper shadows. Then another shape to his right, crawling around a trunk out of sight. He grunted.
“Purpose? What purpose, other than to make us froth at the mouth in boredom!? You promised me war! You promised glory! Yet you insist I hold my army back, that I… wait. Why? I demand you tell me!”
“Angry bear-thing, making demands of those who want to help. Yes, help. Your army is big, filled with many strong warriors. True. True. Time comes soon to attack, and have blood.”
At that word there was a series of hisses and clicks like the sound the wind makes when rushing through the trees, but the wind had quieted and this sound left Ulragnok shivering for reasons other than the cold.
“Blood. Yes, blood. Much blood. Soon all will be in place. Your wait is soon to be over, mighty bear-thing. We nearly finish our work, and then, when the moon becomes newborn, then you attack. Then you war.”
“Newborn moon… the new moon?” Ulragnok asked, then found himself grinning with eager bloodlust, ”That is close. Perhaps only six or seven more days."
“Yes, days. When the moon is black in the sky, when all is dark and unseen, that is when bear-thing leads his army to war. Do this, and we continue to help you in all things. Help you find your desire.”
With that the shadows upon shadows crept away, and in moments Ulragnok found himself standing in that clearing alone. He shivered one last time, shaking off the chill in his spine. His allies were creatures he still did not understand, and hardly trusted, but as long as they held up their end of the bargain he didn’t care.
When the new moon arrived the ursans would march to war.
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“Up and at ‘em ladies and lads! C’mon, just because you’re fancy Princess ain’t raised the sun yet don’t mean you gotta keep sleeping away like foals!”
Trixie, with no small effort, suppressed the urge to grab the nearest available object and throw it at the Legion mare who was shouting among the tents and rousing the recruits with a bellowing voice that was somehow becoming shriller by the second. From what she’d seen of the Legion so far tossing a rock at her superiors would result in lashes.
Rolling to her tired hooves Trixie blinked away sleep and trudged out along with her fellow recruits to line up for inspection. This had been the routine for the past two days since arriving at Beartrap Fortress. Wake up at an hour that Trixie was certain was cursed by Luna and Celestia both, get inspected, then proceed to do “physical training” for several hours before breakfast. After breakfast they’d get split off into groups based on race and talents and spend half the day being trained on all manner of basics of Legion operation and combat. At some point past midday they’d get a quick break and short meal before moving on to being arranged in teams to help with fort maintenance and assorted chores. The evening would see another couple of hours of physical training followed by dinner, then off to the tents to sleep so the process could be repeated.
Two days of that had left Trixie’s mind a pile of mush and her body feeling almost as tired as it’d been the one time she’d decided to do the long haul trek to the Mild West to do a show in Appleoosa.
Now that it was day three Trixie was wondering how she was going to put up with four years of this drudgery, only to be broken up by moments o sheer terror like the battle on the road. Trixie’s sleep had been filled with wretched dreams of the battle two days ago. Not a night had gone by where she hadn’t seen the ponies who’d died again, seeing their final moments in the delightfully detailed slow motion that nightmares loved to subject her to. The screams of the dead still echoed in her mind, but Trixie was a champion of ignoring unpleasant things, even in her own head. She also wasn’t a stranger to early mornings, so she supposed she was weathering things better than some.
There were more than a few ponies among the Equestrian draftee’s who were not doing nearly so well. One mare had woken up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and had tried to run out of the fort as if Nightmare Moon herself were after her. That poor mare had needed to be tackled to the ground and put in confinement until she’d calmed down, though as far as Trixie had seen the mare was now being watched in the hospital due to her apparent catatonic state. Other ponies among the Equestrians just looked… dead already, as if all the spirit and life had been drained from them. They got up, ate, went through the motions of training like the rest of them, but these ponies to Trixie’s eyes looked like broken wind-up toys, jerkily going about the routine but lacking any spark of life in them. It was creepy.
Then there were the criers. Trixie had shed a few tears herself, though she’d deny it to anypony who asked, but there were others who would sob through the night, or even break down in the middle of training. The Legion ponies in charge of them varied in how much patience they had for the Equestrian Heartlanders, some seeming to understand that they were working with ponies who really weren’t used to or suited to this kind of lifestyle and needed time to adjust, while others harshly berated those who slacked or broke down, in some cases administering punishments ranging from digging and cleaning the latrines to doing even more physical exercise.
The mare in charge of their training, at least, seemed to be in the former category and had forbidden any severe punishments to those who broke down. No lashes, primarily. She had also been the one to insist the catatonic mare be looked after in the hospital, while there had been other Legion ponies who’d wanted to keep the mare in the stockade, or… Trixie had even heard one Legion pony mention hanging the mare for cowardice.
Counter Charge had put a stop to that talk. Thus far Trixie’s estimation of the stout blue earth pony Legionnaire was that she could be trusted, and actually cared about what happened to the draftees. The training was tough, and Counter Charge didn’t let up with it, but she let those who broke down get breaks and didn’t seem to push the company any harder than needed.
Also she got up at the same time as the rest of them and went through the physical training right alongside the draftees, a fact Trixie found a tad odd, given Counter Charge was in command, but it seemed a nice gesture. Today was no different, and while the shouting Legion pony had gotten the draftee’s in line, Counter Charge arrived a moment later to oversee the inspection.
“Hmm, good, good,” Counter Charge said as she went up and down the line, checking each draftee with a critical eye.
“Let’s see… Mint Breeze, right? Ready to work on your spear thrusts today?” Counter Charge asked one of the pegeasi, a stick thin mint colored mare.
“Y-yes ma’am?” Mint Breeze responded, gulping. Counter Charge smiled, nodding.
“It’s ‘yes Sergeant’, and glad to hear it. You’ll do fine.”
Down the line Counter Charge went like that, speaking to the draftees and seeming to make a point of remembering their names and offer words of encouragement. The pony that’d woken the draftee’s up followed close behind, with a sickeningly cheerful smile on her face. Trixie didn’t know this pony too well yet, a green pegasus mare with a messy, short black mane named Alpine who always seemed to have energy no matter what time of day it was.
When Counter Charge got to Trixie she looked the unicorn up and down just like all the other ponies in the line and Trixie stiffened a bit, trying to stand straighter. Trixie had never liked the feeling of being judged, even in the most simple or innocuous of ways.
“Trixie, correct?” asked Counter Charge.
“Yes ma’am, er, Sergeant.”
“Hmm, you’re the one with the fireworks. Interesting spell. How’s your training going with combat spells and arrays?”
Trixie pursed her lips, trying not to look as flustered as she felt as the thought over the past two days of less than successful attempts to cast more than a sputtering arcane blast. She was starting to grasp the spell arrays and was feeling more confident about those, but she didn't like them very much. It didn't sit well with Trixie to let another lead, which was required with a spell array. Since she lacked skill yet in offensive magic she had to let a more experienced Legion unicorn lead the array. She could do it, but it grated against her instincts to let another take control of her magic like that.
“Trixie is… making progress,” she said evasively.
Counter Charge quirked and eyebrow, though whether at Trixie’s vague response or use of third-person Trixie didn’t know.
“Right. Keep making progress. We’ll need every caster doing their part when the time comes.”
Counter Charge moved on and Trixie was left wondering a very important question; when the time comes for what? It could have been just an off-hoof reference to anytime they might be called upon to fight, but Trixie was fairly good at picking out tone and meaning in words, and it sounded to her like Counter Charge was worried about something. That she had reason to believe there would be need for all the fort’s casters to be at their best soon.
Trixie was still ruminating on this hours later after an exhausting session of physical training that was capped by a long circuit of runs around the fort’s perimeter.
“What could be happening…?” Trixie wondered to herself aloud as the draftees, herself included, collapsed in heaps on the ground after the final lap of their un was finished, “Could there be more ursans out there?”
“Ursans?” asked the pony next to Trixie, and Trixie jumped a bit, glancing over at the pony who spoke.
She was an off white mare, an earth pony with a two toned blue mane. Like Trixie she wore basic leather armor, though hers was heavier set. All the ponies were given heavy leather packs to wear as well while running, to simulate the full kit a Legionnaire was expected to carry in the field. Trixie, sweat soaked, had set her pack aside as she looked this mare over.
“Trixie was merely thinking aloud. She does that sometimes. It helps her magnificently complex mind function like the steel trap it is! Um…who are you? Trixie has not caught your name.”
“Oh, Coco Pommel, pleased to meet you,” Coco held out a hoof and Trixie, after a moment of looking at the offered hoof, took it and shook.
“Trixie imagines the pleasure is mutual. Now, as Trixie was saying, she has been thinking. The ponies of the Legion here seem very nervous, even Sergeant Counter Charge.”
Coco nodded, wiping some sweat from her brow as she stretched her legs, “Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Coldiron says that they’re worried about the ursans coming for the fort. It’s apparently out of the ordinary for there to be so many in the area. The way we got hit coming into the fort, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
A dark look crossed Coco’s features, Trixie for a second feeling a spike of fear at the fierce glow entering the other mare’s eyes, “We weren’t supposed to have to fight ursans until much later, but the ursans were here, now, and ponies died because of it. If they come again, I’ll do whatever it takes to stop them!”
“Uhhh… okay… Trixie thinks that is very, um, noble of you,” she said, mulling over what Coco had said. So the Legion ponies thought an attack would be coming soon? And that the number of ursans in this area was unusual? Trixie’s sense of mystery was tingling and she suspected there was more going on here than just some random invasion. If the ursans hadn’t been this aggressive in this region for so long then it stood to reason that something was making them more aggressive. Trixie didn’t have enough information to do more than speculate, and more to the point, if an attack was coming soon, she hardly had time to do any real investigating. For now she’d just need to focus on staying alive, no matter what.
“In any case, who is this Coldiron?” Trixie asked.
Coco seemed to immediately brighten up, her earlier dark look vanishing, “Coldiron is my friend. She’s a corporal, and a very nice pony once you get to know her! She’s a unicorn like you. I’m surprised you haven’t seen her.”
“Trixie may have, but Trixie has a hard time remembering these Legion pony’s names. It’s always Bloody Sword or Flamemane or some silly name like that. Why can’t they have normal names?”
“What, like Trixie?” Coco asked with a small smile, elbowing Trixie.
“Trixie is a fine name! Trixie thinks her name is quite pleasing to the ear and easy to remember. What about ‘Coco Pommel’? What’s that even mean?”
Coco laughed, hiding her face with a hoof, “Don’t ask. My mom had a weird sense of humor. Anyway you should look around for Coldiron. She’s not assigned to train us Heartlanders, but she seems really good with attack spells, and I bet if you asked her she’d help. She’s the gray mare with the brown mane.”
Trixie’s memory got tickled by that, “Wait. Stout little mare, about yay high, short cut bushy mane that looks like somepony slapped a squirrel on her head?”
“Well I wouldn’t describe her mane quite like that, though it could use some brushing and maybe a nice hat to accentuate it and bring out her eyes… but, um, yeah that’s her. That’s Coldiron.”
“Horseapples,” Trixie muttered, “Trixie has been looking for that mare! How did Trixie not notice her earlier? Why do all these Legion ponies look the same!?”
Coco gave Trixie a strange look, head slightly tilted, “I don’t think they all look the same, they just tend to look so uniform because of the armor they wear, and I guess they do tend to be more gray and brown than colorful. Anyway why were you looking for Coldiron?”
“Because Trixie’s friend was worried about whether or not this Coldiron survived the fight and Trixie said she’d look for her, but Trixie has been very busy and very tired from all this training, so Trixie hasn’t had much chance to look for anypony. Bah, Trixie will find her today, then, and make sure she is alright. Then Trixie shall tell Blossomforth the good news and something good might come out of the day.”
“Well, glad I could help,” said Coco with a happy nod.
“Trixie supposes she thanks you for that. When Trixie one day becomes famous she will remember your help and provide you free tickets to her show!”
“You’re a showmare, then?” Coco asked, then sheepishly gestured around at the fort and the collection of tired draftees who were still catching their breath from the run, “I mean, before all this.”
“Indeed. Trixie was, is, one of the greatest magicians in Equestria! Trixie has dazzled, awed, and left speechless crowds from Fillydelphia to Las Pegasus! This… this incarceration in the Legion is just a temporary setback in Trixie’s career.”
Trixie trailed off, her energy dampening as she thought about Blossomforth’s injuries and how close the pegasus had come to dying, saving Trixie. She also thought of the ponies she’d seen die two days ago. For some their time in the Legion became all too tragically permanent. It soured Trixie’s mood to grandstand and left her feeling even more irritated than usual. Coco meanwhile took Trixie’s pause as an invitation to speak about herself as well.
“Well, I’m from Manehattan. Lived my whole life there, and thought I might never leave. I wanted nothing more than to be a good fashion designer, helping ponies look their best. I never imagined that there were ponies in the world who had to fight like these Legion ponies do. It’s terrible… but I’m kind of glad I’m here.”
Trixie’s eyes blinked several times as she stared in blank shock at Coco.
“Trixie does not think she heard you correctly. You’re glad to be here!?”
Coco flinched a bit at the high tone in Trixie’s voice, “Well, it’s just that I don’t think ponies should have to fight so much, or be afraid of dying all the time, but Coldiron told me that the other races out here beyond the Barrier Lands would just stomp right on into Equestria if nopony was around to stop them. So I’ve been thinking, as much as I hate fighting and seeing ponies die, isn’t it good if I can do something to help? The Legion needs ponies to fight, to protect all our family and friends back in Equestria. I know I’d hate it if these ursan monsters somehow got to Manehattan and killed all the ponies I knew back home. So…”
Again that fierce light entered Coco’s eyes, “So I won’t let any monsters get into Equestria. I’ll stop them all, with my own hooves!”
Trixie didn’t know how to respond to that. She just wanted to live through this madness. She had no ambitions to stop the ursans or anything. She didn’t have any high minded ideals to do her part for any supposed greater good. Trixie just wanted to not die, and also make sure Blossomforth survived. She’d be happy if not another fight happened for all the four years she’d be stuck working for the Legion.
Trixie wondered if that made her a coward. She, oddly, thought back to the Ursa Minor and Ponyville.
She’d tried to be great, to be brave. It hadn’t worked out so well, and the purple one had taken care of things so easily, as if Trixie’s efforts hadn’t meant a thing! Now here she was again, dealing with cursed bears and seeing other ponies seem to rise to the challenge while all she wanted to do was run away.
Trixie hated this feeling of weakness inside herself, but shoved the feeling deep down and put on an air of confidence.
“Trixie wishes you the best of luck with that, Coco,” she said.
At that point Alpine flew over the draftees, calling for them to get to their hooves.
“Get on over to the mess hall kiddies and grab yourselves some grub,” Alpine shouted, buzzing from one end of the draftee’s to the other, waving her green hooves, “Move it! Before all the best gruel is gone! And don’t let me catch you being late to your assigned training squads! Eat quick and get on out to your appropriate training ground. Earth ponies, that means the wall for target practice, unicorns on the south end of the ridge for spell training, and all you lovely pegasi get the honor of joining me near the east tree-line for spear practice!”
Trixie couldn’t fathom the mare’s relentless energy, and barely had the energy herself to keep resenting it as she stood and started to trudge alongside Coco to the mess hall.
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Her horn’s steady glow barely flickered as Coldiron connected with her two partners and calmly spoke as she directed them.
“Match my pressure, but don’t resist the pull you’ll feel from my end,” she told the two Heartlander unicorns, “You need to let my flow dictate the course of your own magic, while still keeping up a steady stream that can support the spell.”
The mare on her right, a ludicrously tall, lanky crème colored mare with a bright blue mane, was sweating profusely as her horn sparked, “Th-this is really tough.”
“Deal with it,” Coldiron said, “Just keep up, even if it feels like you can’t. You’d be surprised how much magic you got stuck in you if you just dig a little.”
The other unicorn, a stallion of a dark purple with a white, curly mane, was breathing hard, his own magic little more than an unsteady stringy mist, “How much longer… do we need to… to do this for?”
“Until we either get it right or somepony collapses,” Coldiron said with a hard tone, “If you ponies can’t form an array then you’ll be useless for the next fight. So we need to do this until you get it!”
There were groups like hers spread out in a long line all across the open, muddy flats between Beartrap Fortress and the forest to the east, just south of the road that led further into Legion territory. Coldiorn knew that further along that road, perhaps eighteen miles, was the township of Arrow Vale, her hometown. Back there her father still owned the old farmstead, one of the few in the region. Her older brother lived there as well, having chosen to help their father with the farm, while her younger brother had joined the Legion like she had. He was stationed many miles to the south at Skywoad Keep, just like their mother had been before her death.
Coldiron wondered if she’d ever see any of them again. Given what she’d heard trickle down the rumor mill the chances of that were slim. Word had it a massive ursan army was gathered across the river, somewhere in that huge unending forest, and could attack at any time. Reinforcements would be long in coming from other forts, probably nowhere near in time to help.
Word had already been sent back to Arrow Vale of the need to possibly evacuate further east or south, but it was anypony’s guess if the stubborn residents of the town would actually abandon their homes, even in the face of a overwhelming ursan invasion. As for the Legion ponies at Beartrap Fortress, it was do or die. Duty demanded they do all they could to delay the ursan forces, even to the last standing pony. Coldiron knew that Captain Runeward was having most the pegasi working double time to patrol, keeping an eye out for the slightest hint of an attack. The rest of the ponies in the fort had the task of making sure all the fortifications and traps were ready, and to spare no effort training the Heartlander draftees to get them in fighting shape as fast as possible.
Coldiron wasn’t holding out much hope that these draftee’s, however, would be much good. Certainly a few showed talent, and guts, but those were hardly substitutes for experience and sufficient training. Without a spell array event teaching these unicorns basic spell attacks wouldn’t mean much, because ursans shrugged off lesser spells like a pony much shrug off rain.
The tall, lanky mare, Allie Way, suddenly shuddered, breathing out a huff as her horn went dead.
“I’m…sorry, just… got nothing left…” she said, sweat trickling down her long neck. Coldiron let out a heavy sigh and broke her connection with the stallion, Mulberry Wine, and sat on her haunches.
“Take a few minutes to rest, then, but I need you to try again, recruit,” she said, her tone brokering no argument. Despite that, however, Allie Way gave her a pleading look.
“I said I’m sorry, but… but I really got nothing left! If I keep channeling, I’ll burnout!”
“And if you can’t form an array and help a real unicorn get a strong enough spell off to kill an ursan then that same ursan is going to rip that oversized neck in half!” Coldiron growled, her frustration getting the best of her as she glared at the other mare.
Allie Way’s eyes widened, brimming with tears, and the mare lowered her head, letting out a few sobs. Coldiron shook her head. She hated the way these Heartlanders would cry at the simplest of insults or a bit of harsh language. Tears wouldn’t stop the ursans from killing them! Didn’t these ponies understand that Coldiron was trying to help them? There’d be no excuses when it came time to fight.
“Telling ponies they’re going to die does not inspire confidence,” said a voice behind Coldiron, and she turned to see a unicorn from a nearby group break off from the trio she’d been working with and trot over. Coldiron recognized her immediately as the same light blue unicorn who Coldiron had fought beside at the battle two days ago. She’d never gotten the pony’s name.
Now that pony approached her, the Legion unicorn she’d been working with following quickly behind.
“Sorry Coldiron,” said the other Legion unicorn, a black stallion named Eldritch Dart. He gave the blue mare a stern look, “I didn’t give you permission to cease working on our array, recruit Trixie!”
Trixie glanced at him, “Trixie knows that. But Trixie has things to say to this mare! Coldiron, correct?”
Coldiron frowned, eyes narrowing slightly, “How did you learn my name?”
“Trixie talked with another mare. Coco. She claims you as a friend. Now, first off, Trixie will say she is glad, for the sake of Blossomforth, that you are well. Neither Trixie nor Blossomforth knew if you were alive.”
“Blossomforth’s that pegasus?” Coldiron asked, and at Trixie’s nod she let her frown soften somewhat, “Good. She has a good spine on her. Hope she’ll be on her hooves by the time we get into the next fight, because we’re going to need ponies with some fire in them. Unlike this mare, who looks like she’d rather weep and hope an ursan doesn’t tear her head off because of how pathetic she looks!”
“Be that as it may Trixie doesn’t think that yelling at her and running her, and other ponies, into the ground will accomplish anything except asking sure we’re too tired and burned out to fight!” Trixie shot back, pointing a hoof at Allie Way, and specifically the mark on her flank of two bowling pins, “Look, her talent is bowling for Celestia’s sake! You can’t expect her to learn this array magic so fast and easily! Even for a mare like Triixe, whose talent is magic, this is difficult!”
Coldiron grit her teeth and waved off Eldritch Dart, who looked as if he was about to smack Trixie. She felt like she could handle one uppity Heartlander mare, however, and had more than a few things to saw on the subject of the so-called “cutie marks” and their supposed “special talents”.
“You listen up, and listen up good, recruit, it doesn’t matter what that stupid picture on your precious little butt is or what you think it means! Nopony’s got a super special talent just because your Princess Celestia cast a spell on your whole damned population to brand you as hers! You can’t use those pictures to gauge your abilities. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you try, and that’s all I’m doing here, forcing your lazy, privileged asses to try so that maybe you don’t die out here, or get somepony else killed!”
Feeling like she’d made her point she turned away from Trixie and looked at Allie Way, who’d stopped crying, at least, to look fearfully at Coldiron. Coldiron tried to put on what she hoped was an encouraging look as she said, “Now come on, Allie Way was it? I know you’re scared, tired, and all that, but I need you to keep working at these arrays. It’ll save your life, if you can get it right.”
Before Allie Way could respond one way or another, however, Trixie’s angry voice spoke with deliberate slowness, “Take. That. Back.”
Coldiron, not even wanting to dignify the other mare by looking her way, said, “Take what back?”
“Cutie Marks. What you said about them. Take it back.”
“What? That they’re useless, meaningless butt-brands? Is that what you want me to take back?” Coldiron taunted, turning to face Trixie…
… just in time to get full body tackled by the other mare, who’d thrown herself at Coldiron like a crazed, berserk wolven.
“Cuite marks are not meaningless!” Trixie screamed, eyes wild as she tried battering at Coldiron’s body. It was little more than unskilled flailing, but there was a lot of fury fueling the strikes, so while Coldiron had little difficulty slipping into her Legion training to deflect most of the blows she knew she’d be getting a few bruises out of this. However, that was all she’d be getting, as she quickly turned the tables.
Her hind legs came back, braced, and with a solid kick pushed Trixie’s lighter body right off of her. Trixie landed with a huff, a whoosh of air leaving her lungs, and before the blue showmare could recover Coldiron was back on her own hooves, her horn alight. Magic pressed down on Trixie’s head, forcing it to the dirt and force her eyes downward so she’d lack any line of sight to Coldiron to use her own magic. Trixie grunted and shouted, pushing against the magic holding her down, but Coldiron was much more practiced with magic used to deal with threats than Trixie was at wriggling free of such spells.
Still, Trixie indeed did have some tricks up her sleeve. Even as Eldritch Dart was moving to secure her further Trixie let loose a spell of her own that created a cloud of blue smoke. With Coldiron also losing her line of sight she couldn’t maintain her spell on Trixie. She swore under her breath and quickly used her own magic to call up a gust of wind to blow the smoke away. It was a spell a number of Legion ponies in the Western Barrier Lands learned as this region was renowned for its heavy mists and fogs, which ursans were known to use to hide their movements or set up ambushes.
When the blue smoke cleared Trixie, surprisingly, handing moved. She sat on her haunches, glaring at Coldiron, but clearly she was trying to control herself, using one hoof to grip her other tightly.
“You done?” Coldiron asked.
Trixie glowered, looking away, “You had… you had no right to say that! You don’t know anything about cutie marks or what they mean to us! Trixie’s mark… Trixie’s mark is not meaningless! Nopony’s cutie mark is!”
“Corporal, should I go report this?” asked Eldritch Dart, glancing at her. The scuffle had drawn some attention, but the practicing unicorns were so spread out, to allow room in case of magical mishaps and accidents, that few had really seen what had transpired, and with Counter Charge working with the earth ponies the Sergeant wouldn’t know unless either Coldiron or Eldritch Dart reported the incident.
Scuffles between Legion ponies weren’t uncommon, so the punishment was usually light. Latrine duty at worst. Coldiron didn’t think it was worth it, so she shook her head.
“No, don’t bother, just take over my group for a sec, I want to sort this out,” she said, and Eldritch Dart nodded, going over to collect Allie Way and the other pony, taking them over to his own group and leaving Coldiron with Trixie.
Trixie continued to glare at her and Coldiron met that glare with a hard stare of her own. Slowly she approached Trixie, until the two were nearly snout to snout.
“Okay, you want to think that mark on you means something, that’s your business,” Coldiron said, “If nothing else you just proved to me you have some fire underneath all that shrill whining. But don’t think you’re something special just because of that mark. Those special talents didn’t save the lives of any of those Heartlanders who died yesterday, or the Legion ponies who also bought it. It won’t save you, or anypony else, in the fights to come if you rely on the rules and presumptions of your life back in the Heartland. I don’t care if you like me. I don’t care if you think I’m full of it! I’m going to train you and every other Heartlander here the same, so maybe, just maybe, we’ll survive. Or if we don’t, which not going to lie is the more likely outcome, we’ll at least die with something resembling honor.”
Trixie was silent for a long, slow couple of moments, before she stood up on all four legs and said, “Honor? Do you think anypony who died out there was thinking about ‘honor’ as those monsters tore them apart? But whatever, Trixie understands now. You Legion ponies don’t actually care, as long as we fight and die like we’re told. Trixie is just going to have to make sure she doesn’t die, or that any of Trixie’s new friends die either! And certainly not for something as meaningless as ‘honor’.”
Coldiron felt her blood run hot at those words and every instinct she had told her to knock this arrogant mare’s block off! But that wouldn’t help matters, and Coldiron didn’t much care what Trixie thought as long as the other unicorn did her part like all the rest.
“If you’re going to make any of that count for real, then you’d better show me you can be part of an array,” Coldiron said, lighting up her horn, “Because that’s the only way you’ll have to make a difference and make sure neither you or anypony unfortunate enough to chose you as a friend is going to survive.”
Trixie smirked, her own horn lighting up, “Trixie will do just that, then! She’ll show you what a Heartlander mare is capable of! And if she does make an array with you, then you’ll come with Trixie to visit Blossomforth at the hospital. Deal?”
Coldiron rolled her eyes, “Fine. Now shut up and get to work. Your third person talk is giving me a headache.”
----------
“Well, what’s the word Alpine?” asked Counter Charge after she took a long drink from her waterskin as the afternoon ended and the sky started to turn into brilliant shades of violet and crimson as the sun dipped behind the teeth of the mountains to the west. She and Alpine were sitting together at the base of the earthen embankment near Beartrap Fortress’ west gate, gazing at the forest beyond the river with its tall trees looking like shadowing sentinels in the deepening evening gloom.
“Not a total loss,” Alpine replied, stretching her legs and haunches, her tail shaking about and her wings going through a series of snaps and pops as she bent them at odd angles that Counter Charge thought looked painful but apparently helped pegasi keep the tendons limber, “I think if they had about six months to a year to train and gradually get used to things that most of these Heartlanders will make fine Legionnaires. At least the pegasi I’m working with seem to have a natural grasp of the group tactics involved with lance work. They get how to team up. The violence is a catch for them, and I can tell most of them are scared pissless, but then again remember how we were back in the day, Counter? Remember that first fight?”
Counter charge slowly nodded, smiling and shaking her head, “I remember. We were patrolling south of Skywoad Keep, checking out the valleys for signs of bandits.”
“And instead we walked right into an ursan raid. Reminds me a lot of what happened a few days ago. Damn ursans can be stealthy bastards for being so big. I swear I left a yellow trail in the snow everwhere I flew that day, I was so damned terrified.”
“We made it through,” Counter Charge said, giving the other mare a nudge on the shoulder, “I seem to recall you saving my flank as well, getting your lance caught in an ursans jaw.”
“Ha, yeah! Except the ursan didn’t die from that and then started snapping at me!” said Alpine with a self deprecating grin, “Pretty sure I didn’t do more than piss it off.”
“Distracted it, too,” said Counter Charge, “More than long enough for me and a couple others to get our blades and crossbows to work on taking it down.”
“As per usual,” groused Alpine, “We pegasi set up the kills but you earth ponies get all the glory! At least the unicorns have to share their kills between everypony in those fancy arrays of theirs.”
The two mares shared a laugh, though it was a subdued one. They both went silent, looking out at the dark forest, like an unending green ocean that went nearly to the tops of the monolithic wall of mountains that dominated the horizon. After a minute Alpine sighed.
“You think we’ve got a chance, Counter? I mean, if the rumors I’m hearing are true and there is that big an ursan force out there… how long can we hold out here? Beartrap Fortress ain’t exactly at full strength, and even if we were…”
“Alpine, it’s bad,” Counter Charge said, “Won’t say its otherwise. Wish the Captain would let me tell the draftees, but he thinks it’d just scare them more. Personally I think they ought to know our odds going in so they can brace for it. I’m worried they’ll break if they see a full on army of a thousand ursans set to hit us here. They nearly broke against ten.”
“But they didn’t,” said Alpine, “They did good getting here, and I think they can do good in the next fight. As good as they can, anyway. I’m more worried about all of us together just not being enough. I’ll do my duty, you know that Counter, but if there’s one thing I hate it’s a lost cause. Is the Captain sure about sticking it out here?”
Counter Charge glanced at Alpine, “He is. What else can we do?”
“Fall back to Arrow Vale, join up with the townsfolk and fortify the town to make a stronger stand. Or just fall back further to Skywoad Keep…”
“And leave every farmstead, lumber village, and smaller settlement from Arrow Vale down to Skywoad Keep open to the ursans?”
Alpine shrugged, “Those villages will be just as open if we all die here trying to hold the ursans back in a fight we can’t win.”
“We don’t know if we can’t win until our snouts hit the grindstone,” Counter Charge said, “So I suggest keeping those thoughts to yourself for now.”
“I know, I know… it’s weird though, isn’t it? In so long the ursans have never gotten together in such a big horde. That’s more a wolven thing. And they rarely ever attack this far north. So what’s changed? What’s got them riled up?”
Counter Charge now took her turn to shrug, “No way to know. Maybe it was just a matter of time.”
“Maybe…” Alpine said, frowning, eyes staring at the distant dark forest, “But I just got a weird feeling, is all. Like we’ve got eyes on us. Especially the last few nights, it’s like the fort itself isn’t… ah I don’t know. Guess I’m just talking out my tailfeathers.”
“Sounds like you need to sleep more,” Counter Charge said, “How about you hit the sack early tonight, I’ll take over working the recruits through the evening physical training.”
“Sounds good to me,” Alpine said with a yawn and taking to the air with a few lazy flaps of her wings, “G’night Sarge. Don’t run those poor ponies too ragged.”
Counter Charge watched her go, only turning back to look at the distant forest across the Bear Bones river after Alpine had gone from sight. Counter Charge intended to take it only as easy as she could afford to on the draftees. They had to learn the basics faster than perhaps few recruits in the history of the Legion would need to learn if they were to have any chance of surviving the coming battles. Gazing at that massive, dark forest beyond the river Counter Charge almost felt as if she could feel them out there, the ursans.
Or was it something else she was feeling? Some other source for the strange chill down her spine? Alpine had just said something about there being eyes out there, watching. Counter Charge couldn’t deny she had a similar feeling.
She shrugged it off. Just nerves, likely.
As she returned through the fortress gates, the huge wood barricade being rolled into place behind her, Counter Charge didn’t notice the way a shadowy, black form skittered along the bottom of the ridge where she’d been sitting, disappearing into one of the many spike pits dug across the incline.
----------
Trixie was exhausted, but she didn’t let that stop her from trotting across the fortress grounds after training for the day was done, making her way towards the hospital. Coldiron was trotting next to her, and they were joined by Coco Pommel.
“Not that Trixie cares, but why are you coming along?” Trixie asked Coco.
Coco looked startled for a second, but then smiled with a sheepish glance at Coldiron, “I just like to meet new ponies, and this Blossomforth sounds nice. We’re all comrades now, so we ought to all get to know each other.”
Coldiron cast a quick glance at the other two mares, “I’m only doing this now because you did manage to form a proper array today, and that was our deal. I keep my word.”
Trixie looked between the pair, shrugging, then regretting the action as her sore, aching muscles protested even that simple gesture. She hung her head, and resisted the urge to try and wipe sweat and dirt out of her mane. She knew without anything resembling proper grooming materials on hoof she was going to be looking a proper mess before the week was out. Even if she did survive her tenure in the Legion she imagined it’d take months of work to get her proper showmare looks back up to snuff.
Her mood was brightened a bit by the prospect of visiting Blossomforth and presenting Coldiron alive and well to the injured pegasus. That ought to cheer Blossomforth up, not that the mare ever seemed to need much of that. Still, Trixie liked the idea of keeping her one friend among the Legion in good spirits.
They were just crossing the dirt road the encircled the inner keep of the fort, heading for the dim orange torch lights dotting the side of the hospital building, when Coco suddenly stopped in her tracks. Coldiron stopped as well, though Trixie got a few more trotting steps ahead before she noticed and turned back.
“What is it? Trixie does not like delays,” she said, eyeing Coco, who was starring off into the dark with a strange, intense look in her eyes.
“Something’s out there,” Coco said simply, her pale blue eyes narrowing slightly and her mouth turning in a worried frown.
Coldiron looked skeptical for a second, but also held a serious cast to her features as she said, “Are you certain? Where?”
Coco nodded towards the west gate, just a little south of it, near where the wall met the barracks building, “I know I saw something moving over there. I don’t know what. It wasn’t a pony.”
Trixie looked in that direction but saw only shadows. The sky was half obscured by a rolling bank of clouds, the moon partially blocked by wisps of smoky gray on black. The stars that could be seen, along with the moon, provided some light, along with the numerous torches lining the walls and buildings, but for the most part that just meant the shadows in the fort moved and fickered more like the breaths of a creature.
“Trixies sees nothing,” she said, “There are guards on the wall anyway; surely they’d see anything that’d try to get over. Let’s get to the hospital.”
“Wait,” said Coldiron, “It can’t hurt to check in with the guards over there. Blossomforth isn’t going anywhere. Come on.”
The way she said it made it clear the Corporal wasn’t asking. Trixie heaved out a sigh as she followed the other two mares as they advanced to where Coco had supposedly seen something. There was a small space, almost akin to the back alleys in Canterlot, between the barracks and the wall. As they approached there was a challenging call from above.
“Hail and who goes?”
“Corporal Coldiron and recruits Coco Pommel and Trixie Lulamoon,” said Coldiron back, “Have you anything to report?”
“No, Corporal, all quiet here,” replied the voice. Trixie couldn’t tell if the shadowy pony form up on the wall was unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony.
Coldiron merely saluted, “Very well, carry on, but be alert. Recruit Pommel has reported seeing unusual movement over here.”
“Probably just shadows,” said the pony from up top, “These recruits are jumpy as grasshoppers.”
Coldiron didn’t reply, instead giving Coco a look and nodding towards the alley, “Let’s do a quick sweep.”
Trixie channeled some magic to light up her horn, “If we’re to do this then Trixie will shed some light upon the matter.”
They trotted down the alley, all glancing around. The shadows enclosed around them despite Trixie’s spell, almost as if the deep night resisted the notion of there being anything that could push it back. Trixie felt a strange nervousness. It felt as if the back of her neck was being touched by little needles of ice. She knew this feeling. In memories of travel she’d felt it before; the feeling of a predator nearby. Timber wolves had given it too her… so had the Ursa Minor just moments before it’d stomped into Ponyville.
“Something isn’t right,” said Coco, her frown deepening as she looked left and right, “I can feel it.”
Coldiron sighed, “I feel a bit out of sorts as well, but feelings don’t matter much if we can’t find anything concrete. I’m not going to report to the Sergeant that we’re all jumping at shadows.”
“Wait,” said Coco, bending down to examine something near the base of the wall, almost at the far end of the alley, “There's something here. What is this?”
Coldiron and Trixie gathered on either side of Coco to take a look at what the earth pony had found. When they did they ended up exchanging looks, Coldiron looking concerned and confused, and Trixie looking quiet bewildered. Trixie had never seen anything quite like it, herself.
White strands of a sticky, rope-like substance, like a steel cable or perhaps a cord made from silk? But the consistency wasn't right, with little bits and strands of it hanging off the main piece, and it stuck to the wall as if they were...
“Spider web?” Trixie asked, utterly at a loss to explain the sheer size of the strands, and suddenly a lot more afraid.
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Just a quick question: will this have any spoilers from the second upheaval story?
5133444
I don't believe so, this IS a Upheaval Fanfic and the one who wrote this have the same info as the rest of us who religiously read Upheaval until the end.
Still, everything ABOUT this story makes it . . fit to the Upheaval series that I am not surprise that anyone would mistake this as a original Upheaval story rather than a fan fanfic
There is SOME minor mention, but I don't believe there is any major spoilers.
Also, Spiders?
5133444
5133638
Basically, though the question might've been about whether this story would spoil anything in Reckoning. So assuming that's the case, I'll say that for right now I don't intend there to be any real spoilers for Reckoning, so if you haven't gotten to that story yet you should be aright here, spoiler-wise. This story is very much just going to focus on the ponies here in the Western Barrier Lands, and won't touch much on events going on elsewhere. At least not for a good long while.
5133650 okay, good, because I've read most of reckoning, but basically forgot about it for a while, all because I forgot to fave.
Woah, looks like I've got some catching up to do!
I haven't read the story this is based on, and considering what's been described, that isn't going to change, because this is the sort of setting that makes me feel sick.
The sort of story where everything that I love or care about in the source material is just part of a big lie, and things like peace, happiness and friendship are all just a fragile illusion stained with blood in a world where absolutely everything else outside the Heartland is out to kill them. And don't even get me started on the 'warrior culture' of the Legion. It's a necessary survival mechanism, I'm sure, but that sort of mindset on a cultural level just drives me nuts. Especially when it's being imposed on those who haven't lived their lives in a state of soul-crushing despair that this sort of world inspires.
That did make it nice to see Trixie clash with the Legion's values, at least.
Come to think of it. Why did Celestia give ponies Cutie Marks? I don't remember if that was ever explained. Also, is it genetic, or do you have to be born in the Heartland for it to appear? If a Heartlander and Barrier Land pony had a foal, would that foal get a cutie mark?
So one of the things I think Upheaval does do poorly is that the non-Pony villains are just one-dimensional thugs without much depth to them. Not gonna lie I'm sort of getting that vibe from Ulragnok here, especially given even he is being manipulated by these spiders (sort of thought they might be Changelings until it was mentioned they had many legs). He could surprise me but right now I'm not impressed.
Coldiron on the other hoof I do quite like. She's not willfully ignorant like Pyre Valor, she just calls it like she sees it. If anything I admire her restraint at not pointing out Trixie's hypocrisy (not wanting cutie marks belittled but perfectly willing to spit on Coldiron's honor). I do admire Trixie sticking up for the Heartlanders though, she's not perfect but that's exactly why she's more interesting than Twilight.
Trixie should put on a show to help with morale because the troops desperately need something to cheer them up.