//------------------------------// // Chapter Four - Fort Ravenwall // Story: Life is a Curse // by Zael //------------------------------// Fort Ravenwall was probably the biggest and powerful fortification ever built by the Kingdom of Equestria; once it was known as Camp of the Ravens, and it was the stronghold of a mercenary raider group called The Ravens. Clad in black armor, with weapons of the same color, they were probably the best warriors one commander could have at his orders. During the great wars between Equestria and the Gryphon Empire, they sold their services to the Princesses before, after turning back to accept a better offer made by Krysov the Bowmaster, also known as the late Krysov I of Hawkgrad: the reaction of the Night Knights of Luna was savage, and The Ravens were literally destroyed, a new fortress built then on the ashes of their camp. After this display of power, the Princesses and Krysov I came to an agreement to end the war: the Princesses gained the lands near the Frozen North, now bordering the Crystal Empire and the small but powerful Duchy of the Diamond Dogs, while the Gryphon Empire was confirmed all its other conquered lands, with the single exception of Yakyakistan, made a vassal state. Fort Ravenwall was the symbol of that peace and of the new alliance between the two states, since it had a garrison shared by the two: half ponies, half gryphons. The Fort was also known for being inexpugnable, since every single attack against it failed: it was build on a strategic position which made every time of attack besides frontal assault impossible to make; even the ground, made of granite and basalt, was almost indestructible without long term planning, enough manpower and powerful machines. The diamond dogs tried many times to conquer the position, and the defender knew that losing Ravenwall basically was dooming Equestria and the western parts of the Gryphon Empire in becoming a total battlefield, since diamond dogs were infamous for pillaging and plundering everything on their path; thankfully, every assault was denied. After the death of Krysov I, his son, Krysov II took the seat of power, but soon died too by sickness: the Gryphon Empire was without a guide and to defend its closer borders, the Gryphon Council offered almost all the western part of the Empire to both the Kingdom of Equestria and the Yakyakistan, formerly ending the vassal treaty to a mutual defense treaty. For twenty years Fort Ravenwall did not see a gryphon member in the garrison, since they were all called back to prevent other powers to strike on the most important cities. A young gryphon general, which was nominated supreme commander of the Empire in that time of need, after two years since the death of Krysov II, was asked by the council to sit on the throne, and took the name of Roderic I. He was a brilliant leader, and after defeating the enemies a the border of the Empire asked the Princesses for an enclave near the Fort: to help strengthen the mutual relation of trust and to rebuild that pact made by Krysov I. The age of Sombra came, and Fort Ravenwall sustained a siege for almost five months before the arrival of the Equestrian army to relieve them and to defeat the forces of Sombra. But now, Fort Ravenwall was facing probably the biggest army ever put together by the diamond dogs: thousand of people clad in full but crude plate armor, armed with heavy shield and battle cleavers, backed up by heavy crossbowmen; in their first lines, also clad in the same armor, four or five rows of soldiers armed with glaives. If was a terrifying sight, all of them roaring and barking at the defenders. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I remember this place. Didn't change a lot in all this years." The pegasus looked Shrouded with a strange expression, before saying: "I've never seen you here before, and I'm serving here basically since I was a foal. Are you a deserter?" "Not of this army. Now, can you show me how to arrive on the walls?" "I think the commander would like to see you first…" Shining Armor said, interrupting the two: "Take us to the walls, we need to see how much big is the diamond dogs so we can think how to deploy the reinforcements when they'll arrive. Then you can call the commander to join us." Ten minutes later, they were up on the walls, seeing the enormous size of the enemy forces. Sunset was shivering, while Fleur was speechless and Shining was thinking. The messenger excused himself to go call the commander, while Shrouded, after a quick look, closed his eyes and just let the cold air blow on his face. Not much time later, a gryphon in medium armor greeted the four visitors. "Good morning, soldiers. At least, it was a good morning." "Gilda?" The gryphon saw a streak of red and yellow hair behind Fleur, and such streak suddenly appeared with a face. "Sunset? What the hell are you doing here? Not that I don't miss you, but this is the last place I thought I could find you! Pleasure seeing you too both, Lady Dis Lee, Captain Armor." The two made a gesture with the head, while Sunset asked: "You instead, I heard you went back to the Gryphon Empire, what happened?" "Simply put, the big guys on army asked someone who was familiar with the Kingdom to stay in Equestria, and suddenly I find myself up here with a couple hundred soldiers at command. So far so good, and then this damn huge army shows up. I was expecting reinforcements, but not so few." Shining Armor said: "Well, we were sent here more or less as a recon team while both Princesses mobilize the army. But seeing this… I highly doubt we can hold." Shrouded was silent until then, but then he said something that seemed having no connection to the discussion. "The wind is changing. They are never going to win like this." All the presents looked at him like he was mad and he simply added, asking: "How many unicorns here?" Gilda looked at Sunset and asked: "Friend of yours?" Annoyed by being ignored, Shrouded put a hand on Gilda's shoulder and said: "Listen, you want time to survive all of this? I can provide it. Just tell me how many unicorns you have here." "A couple dozens I think but…" "More than enough. I need all of them on the walls to set up a magic barrier as soon as possible." Gilda looked at Shining Armor, then to Fleur and Sunset, that simply nodded. "Gonna take a little." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Oi boss. Whatcha doin'?" The bigger diamond dog turned to see his second in command entering his tent. "Nuthin'. Thinkin' of about that wall goin' down." "Well boss, you mighta want to come out. Ponies and griffins doin' somethin'." The two diamond dogs looked, together to their army, at the massive magical barrier that was being created to reinforce the wall. "THOSE PUNY BASTERDS! BRING THE SIEGE ENGINES!" Catapults and trebuchets were brought from the back lines, while the diamond dogs' commander continued to shout. "FIRE THEM! FIRE THEM! BRING DOWN THAT WALL!" Rocks started to hit the magic barrier, with minimum damage, as the second in command, clearly a little less raging than his superior, ordered: "Fire everything we got! Crossbowmen, all ready!" Hails of iron bolts were shot, with the same, if not less, damage done to the barrier. "Use flames! Use everything! Bring it down or we will never be able to attack!" Small cracks were seen only when the army started to use flaming ammo, but now the night was coming, and continuing that assault was too foolish even for the diamond dogs. "Enough!" The commander stopped it all: he started to think that maybe that assault was only a waste of bolts and rocks, so he ordered to his second: "Tell them all to prepare the stairs. We're goin' up tonight." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Take down the barrier now! It was a success!" All the unicorns, extremely tired by that strategy, interrupted the magic barrier. Gilda, still not sure of what Shrouded was trying to achieve, asked: "So… what was that plan? Never caught your name, by the way." "My name is Shrouded Petal, commander Gilda. And that plan was useful for two reasons: the first, they wasted tons of ammo and brought on the front lines the siege weapons; the second, now they are enraged, and will try something really stupid: a frontal attack with stairs." "How can you be so sure of that?" "They are not as intelligent as other races, so they compensate with raw strength. Plus, battle them for as much time I did, and you learn their modus operandi. Now, if you excuse me, look there." Barely shining in the moonlight, many soldiers were carrying ladders. "They can't run too fast, or they might trip on the rocks they throw or even injure themselves on the bolts. Heh, easy targets now. Sunset, I need you to come with me. You all can come too, if you don't have a weak stomach." They walked on the walls only to stop at the center of the fortification, above the reinforced gate; there, Shrouded asked the young mage: "How much did Celestia taught you about fire magic? You casted the Fire Wall, a medium tier spell, can you do higher?" "Not really, even if fire magic is my best type of magic, sometimes I have problems of controlling it, and they end up being too powerful. Why?" "Because right now I'm gonna show you a high tier spell, and you have to learn it. You ready? Just watch and learn." Sunset nodded, and Shrouded began chanting: "Oh grand pyre of destruction, I ask you for my turn, the future's ashes are my action, now all the world will burn!" Nothing seemed to happen for a couple of seconds, but then columns of flames erupted into the battlefield, finding easy prey on the unmanned siege weapons and on the wooden ladders carried by the diamond dogs, burning them alive; sustained by the wind, the sea of fire created by the spell went directly into the camp: too slow to run, with heavy crude iron armors, many of the diamond dogs were engulfed in that raging fire, until it stopped, when rain started to fell. Sunset was stunned by that spell, and was barely able to move, until Gilda and Fleur shook her by the shoulders. Babbling, she asked the question: "What… was that… thing?" "That, Sunset, is a spell called Inferno, and it was the quickest and most powerful way to fend off this attack. Though I miscalculated the weather, and it started to rain too earlier. Otherwise, there would not be a single diamond dog alive." Shining took Shrouded by the shoulders and pushed him against the wall. "What have you done? That was not simply a way, that was a bucking genocide!" Shrouded broke free of the hold and answered: "Tell me, o brave captain of the Royal Guard, do you ever fought against diamond dogs?" "What are you…" "Did you?" The calm but frozen sound of Shrouded's voice clearly asked for a quick answer. "No." "Well, I did. Many times. Do you know how diamond dogs fight? They don't fight to kill, they fight to hurt and maim their enemies. And why is that, do you think? Because they like the taste of bucking fresh meat. I've seen them eating gryphons, ponies, almost bucking everything that live. They take their prisoners of war, and kill them in various ways: they can impale them only to roast them later, or they can boil them, heck, I've even seen them eating alive prisoners! Alive! They don't deserve any kind of pity, any kind of mercy, because you wouldn't receive it either. So now you can slam me against that wall again just to make some useless righteous speech about the right way to fight or you can come down with me and finish that monsters. Anyone with me?" Sunset, while Shrouded described the horrible ways of the diamond dogs, puked, and was assisted by Gilda and Fleur to stand back again. After that, she asked: "Before you go… tell me. How much of that is actually true?" "All of it. I don't like to kill and destroy arbitrarily, but they… they must be destroyed." Gilda and Fleur volunteered to go down with him, as did Sunset too after regaining some composure: almost forced, even Shining Armor agreed. As they walked upon the battlefield, now turned a burnt graveyard, they saw the bodies of the diamond dogs, now only abnormal fusions of charred bones, burned meat and solidified iron. On the camp, they found no-one alive, but there were tracks. "They fled… buck it. I doubt they'll attack again soon, but it would be wise setting a fast travel portal inside the fort, and maybe double the garrison. Let's return, we'll have… I'll have to explain all this to the Princesses." In the middle of the night, they returned inside the fort, getting two rooms, one for Sunset and Fleur, and one for Shrouded and Shining, to spend the night. While Fleur drifted off to sleep easily and Sunset was reading a bit, Shining was having trouble. "Hey, killer." "For the love of Celestia, I've got a name too!" "Don't really care right now. I'm… thinking. You did say that you fought diamond dogs before, but this was the first serious attack in… heck, I think I wasn't even born to know of others. You sounded so sure about that though. Why?" "Both princesses and Fleur know that so… you saw my armor, right?" "Yeah. It's a replica of the late Sombran armor." "It's not. It's real. I've been around for this thousand years." "Wait a second, are you the traitor who helped the sisters? I thought that was just a myth to tell the foals that normal people can become great too!" "Well, it's not. I committed high treason, and I was cursed. Everything I held dear died with the Crystal Empire and with Sombra's fall. The dark king cursed me as his last act, and I will hold this curse until his return." "What do you mean return?" "Didn't this part of the myth be passed down? In a thousand years after his fall, the dark king will return. I showed up in Canterlot only to warn the princesses. To help them again; I did so in this centuries, I defended the borders, learned all the magic I could, just to wait for his return. Now please, let me sleep. I'll have to explain all that mess to the sisters when they arrive." Shrouded started to sleep, soon joined by Shining; what they didn't know was that Sunset listened to all of that. "That old story… is true?"