Upheaval: Journeys
Rainbow Dash 2: The Attack on Southwind
Rainbow had heard some stories of ursans; the great invaders from the west. Legionnaires spoke of their raw might, their size, and their unabiding hatred of "und-bog" which apparently translated to Equestrian as "not an ursan". She was used to seeing big things as well. She had taken on a brachyurus, seen a dragon, and the Coldsteel Construct.
These ursans, though...they were something else. Massive bulks of brown fur raged through the village streets, tearing through wagons, doors, and roofs. Even from a distance, their size and power were obvious. Rainbow wouldn't even reach their shoulders if she reared up. When they roared and growled, a row of curved fangs, the size of daggers, gleamed in their mouths. A whole pony could fit there, and those jaws looked like they'd crunch that pony up with one bite. Their paws were outright over-sized. No creature needed paws that huge in proportion for mere survival. They were made for crushing things beneath their weight and for accommodating those freakishly long claws.
Ponies scattered at the sight of these ursans, carrying a few packs and their foals as they fled for the gates to the southeastern portion of the village. Nopony seemed to be putting up any resistance. A quick glance to the northwest gates to the village revealed why. Around a dozen ponies lay dead by the gates. Probably more, depending on how many ponies all the scattered limbs and gore added to. The watchtowers had been knocked over, and the gates had been ripped from their hinges. This village didn't look like it could have survived an attack from pony bandits, let alone so many giant bears. The walls were likely just for keeping ordinary bears and wolves out. The dead ponies weren't even wearing any barding.
The smoke came from the two largest buildings in the village. Rainbow guessed that it was probably the village hall and the local barracks. A few ursans were still hurling rocks at the brick walls of these buildings, knocking holes in them while one carried what looked like a massive tree branch, if not a small tree, that burned from one end.
Rainbow focused on one of the creatures as it reared up and roared. This one was by the village square, having cornered an earth pony mare with a crying foal across her back. A colt and a filly pressed against her sides and whimpered. The ursan had thick plates of armor across its chest, back, and head. The crossbow she held suddenly seemed so puny. Even if her bolts could pierce that armor, it would probably just penetrate ursan hide for an inch. Hardly a lethal hit. She'd have to focus on the gaps or maybe--
As if confirming her thoughts, an arrow struck the ursan's left eye. A second one found its right. When it roared out in pain, a third flew into its open maw, likely piercing its throat from the inside. The ursan staggered about blindly, making horrific gurgling noises as its claws tore deep gouges into the dirt in its agony. The earth pony mare seized the opportunity to bolt.
Rainbow knew better than to look for Longstride now. He was likely too far away to be more than a dot in her vision. That was a tough act to follow too. She trusted her aim enough to get the eyes with some regularity, but not at perfect consistency or with such quick follow ups. Her crossbow took time to load while he fired and reloaded with rapid ease. Still, she wasn't just going to let him upstage her. These ponies needed help, and she was just a part of this mission as Longstride.
Here was a problem, though. A trio of ursans converged on the spot, resembling nothing more than heaving walls of fur, muscle, and metal. They snarled, spoke in some guttural, huffing language, then pointed at her. Rainbow wasn't sure if she should be flattered or angry.
Given her altitude, Rainbow didn't have to worry about being torn apart by those enormous claws at the moment. Brachyurii were capable of fantastic leaps, but these ursans were loaded down by armor. That should keep her safe until she could maneuver to get a shot at some vulnerable spot. One of the three ursans looked to be more of a problem, however. It had great bags hanging off its sides that bulged with heavy, rounded things. It reached into one of them, producing an enormous, smooth rock. With a grunt, it hurled the thing at terrifying speeds. A hit would likely blow a hole through Rainbow's torso. She dodged with ease, and the rock crashed into a nearby building. A volley of rocks soon followed. The draft from their passage ruffled Rainbow's feathers and mane as she instinctively flew up to get out of range. Another ursan with the bags spotted her, and had a rock ready in its massive paw.
Rainbow aimed her crossbow for an eye, but having to worry about giant rocks caving her skull in didn't make for an easy shot.
"Eeeyahoo!" Scarlet laughed as he flitted through several thrown rocks. He passed through one ursan that tried to swipe at him, and pointed his crossbow at its face. When he fired, however, the ursan had already ducked so the bolt struck the armored back of its neck. Rainbow wasn't so eager to dive in, especially when another ursan suddenly roared in pain and clutched at its eye. Here was another problem. Maybe she shouldn't have charged into the fray with Scarlet. The ursans weren't covering up in their armor whenever he fired because they had no idea where he was coming from. She swooped in for a shot, but the ursans were ready. Her target ducked low, facing her with its armor plates while its friends moved in. The heavy lumbering steps vibrated the ground around them. When they swung and missed, the draft alone disrupted Rainbow's flying.
The cries from the blinded ursan must be drawing the attention of the others, because a number of them were converging on the spot. More rocks through the air, forcing Rainbow to focus on dodging and weaving for now. An entire wagon flew just a few feet above her. Then, a piece of roof. Then, a fragment of wall. Nearby, Scarlet flew over a thrown barrel, then a dead pony. When she and Scarlet gained some more distance, the ursans with the bags pulled out large slings from their packs. With a few spins, they launched the rocks over the distance and at greater speeds.
"There's too many!" Rainbow shouted before Scarlet could try to dive in. She hated the thought of retreating, but all it was going to take was a lucky pot shot from those slingers and she'd be dead. She fired her crossbow at one slinger, taking advantage of its need to look up at her to send a bolt down its face. The ursan tried to turn away, but the bolt caught the corner of its eye and tore a vicious gash across the side of its head. Another ursan clutched its face and rolled on the ground in agony. Now, however, all the ursans ransacking the village had concentrated on their attackers. There had to be a dozen of them wrecking the place, and a few more were emerging from the nearby woods.
Rainbow had to turn back. Hopefully, her brief antics were enough to buy these straggling villagers time to run.
"Not for long!" Scarlet yelled. He had glanced behind them, and was now pointing excitedly at the distance. Rainbow afforded herself a glance after gaining some more altitude. To the northeast, a large, flying, weirdly sparkling shape was making its way towards them. She squinted as the shape moved closer, and grew more distinct. It wasn't a single shape at all, rather a concentration of many figures flying in close formation. She flew closer towards them while Longstride met her halfway through.
"Lancer flight," Longstride said. "Looks like a tardy Legion response. The village has already been sacked."
"At least they showed up!" Rainbow snapped. She looked at Longstride, who had readied another arrow. "Can you see their insignia?"
"Lance piercing a line of bones," Longstride said. "Flight Shatterspine, as I recall. One of the older flights given that it existed in my time."
Longstride had fired three more times when the pegasi flew close. This didn't seem a full flight unless lancers organized differently. They looked to be around twenty; all stallions in plate and chain armor. Their barding glittered under the setting sun, each burnished plate nearly at a mirrored finish. Northern Legion pegasi stuck to simple leather and often dyed their armor with light blues and white to blend with the open wintry sky. These lancers went all out in revealing themselves. They wrapped bright blue bands of cloth around their right forelegs, displaying the insignia Longstride mentioned; a white depiction of a spine with a lance breaking the center. Many of their champrons had long pegasus feathers sticking out. They had one lance at the ready position on their right shoulders, needing only to be couched before the dive. Another was strapped by their left, point slightly up and back. These were incredibly long things, at least twice as long as a pony, with great steel heads. Many of the lances had a small flag of Equestria fluttering close to the point.
Their leader flew ahead of them by a few feet and now faced Rainbow. The others stopped to a hover as he spoke.
"Civilians," the leader, a blue pegasus, growled. He wore a champron, but the edges of a gray mustache showed anyway. "Fall back, this is a Legion operation now."
"We're legionnaires too!" Rainbow retorted. "And we were here trying to fight those things while you took your time."
The leader looked at Rainbow's weapon. "That's a light crossbow," he said. "You're a long way from the north, mare. Your little toothpicks might take out a wolven or an ophidite, but they'll just make ursans mad."
"They've done more than your talking," Rainbow muttered. To her surprise, the stallion laughed.
"Right you are!" he said. "Lancers! Move in!"
The rest of the flight let out a yell and picked up the pace. The ursans in the village had noticed, and were closing ranks to ready themselves.
"Novices," Longstride said, his eyes on the ursans. "If they knew better, they'd duck into the houses, and take on a looser formation." He readied another arrow. "They're treating this as if they're being attacked by ground forces at a funny angle. This will be a slaughter."
"If they did, would the lancers lose?" Rainbow asked. She doubted it. There's no way the Legion would keep them around if that was all it took to beat them.
"If the lancers were novices themselves, perhaps," Longstride replied. "These are veterans by their looks and demeanor. They'll flush them out of their shelters easily enough. In a larger engagement, evocation arrays would switch to incendiary spells to burn them out, then the lancers would kill them while they fled."
The lancers certainly made no secret of their approach. A strong breeze suddenly picked up, allowing their flags to flutter proudly. They banged their front hooves against their armored chests in a steady rhythm as they picked up more height.
"Flesh and Blood and Valor and Steel!" their leader shouted.
"Death from above, make our enemies kneel!" the rest of the lancers shouted back.
"To the heart of battle and the glory it brings!"
"Death from above, by the Legion's wings!"
The lancers had reached the top of the village. Sling fire came at them haphazardly, but even the ursans knew that flinging rocks straight up was an invitation for a broken skull. Despite their heavy armor, the lancers knew how to dodge. Those that couldn't simply angled themselves to take the brunt of the attack on their thickest plates.
The leader raised a hoof, couched his lance, and began his dive. Nine other lancers followed. The ursans shouted things in their language, roared, and reared up to meet the oncoming charge.
It was just as Longstride predicted. The lancers were more than a hundred feet above the ursans, and it took them seconds to hit their targets. What slowness they displayed with their normal flying turned into furious velocity when it came to diving. Their weapons stabbed deep, sinking half their shafts into screaming ursans. One lancer crashed dead center on an ursan's back, stabbing so hard into where the plates of its armor articulated that the ursan collapsed on its belly.
'Shatterspine,' Rainbow thought. A fitting flight name.
Two lancers dove side by side and stabbed the same foe. The first pierced the ursan's eye, and tore through most of its upper skull, spraying blood and bine shards across its fur and armor. The second jammed his lance into the open mouth until the point came out of the back.
The attacking force had nearly been slaughtered with that initial charge alone. The lancers at ground level released their lances, and rose, already setting their second ones. The very few ursans remaining charged them, likely hoping to take out a few while they were within reach.
The second wave crashed in a raucous burst of pained roars, furious battle cries, metallic bangs, and the grisly, wet sliding of hard steel on flesh. Blood practically fountained with each successful stab, and the lancers' gleaming armor ran red with thick gobs of gore.
Scarlet laughed at the spectacle, then cheered. "Easy-peasy!" he yelled.
The lancers raised their hooves in a victory salute, but quickly gathered together at the village square for assessment. Rainbow, Scarlet, and Longstride joined them.
"Attend to the villagers," the leader was saying to one of the lancers. One of them brought him a chair. "Scout for enemy reinforcements and stragglers."
Several lancers saluted and flew off. The other lancers began to clear the dead and inspect the damages. They pulled out their lances from the bodies, setting aside the still intact ones. The leader then faced Rainbow. "Captain Razor Beard, Flight Shatterspine of the Western Equestrian Legion," he said with a salute.
Rainbow and the others returned the salute before she spoke. "Legionnaire Rainbow Dash..." she paused, suddenly unsure of what should go there given the whirlwind of events in such a short time that led her here. "Flight Dreadwing of the Northern Equestrian Legion."
"Legionnaire Scarlet Rabbit, Special Operations, Third Squad of the Northern Equestrian Legion," Scarlet said.
"Legionnaire Longstride," Longstride said. "Highstable Rangers of the Southern Equestrian Legion."
"A motley crew you have there," Razor Beard said. He looked over the devastated village and clucked his tongue. "We flew as fast as we could," he said. "The report was that a group of ursans was making its way east of the village, not the village itself. Fool scouts forgot to mention that the infighting in that group was reaching breaking point until much later."
"This was a splinter group," Longstride said. "Young, arrogant ursans, barely more than cubs, refusing to take orders from their elders."
"You know your Prince-damned bears," Razor Beard said. "We weren't ready for deployment. We thought this was just some routine check and maybe a brief evacuation. Had to force-fly to get here with as many as I can get ready."
"There will be more," Longstride said. "The better-trained and older ursans are clearly up to something."
"The rest of Flight Shatterspine will arrive. I've got a flyer going back to get more reinforcements just in case. I don't like these ursans skulking about. Why are they here? Nothing in this podunk village worth getting. It must be something else."
Longstride looked farther southwest, but he didn't reply. Rainbow could guess why.
"What about you lot?" Razor Beard asked. "What brings you so far out here?"
"Uh..." Rainbow scratched her head. "We're here to kill a coatl," she said. She didn't want to mention anything about Willow Manor, or the Longstride Project. Longstride can figure that stuff out.
"Two crossbow pegasi and a ranger are going to take on a coatl?" Razor Beard scoffed. "That's a little too daring, don't you think?"
"We have our plans," Longstride said. "But it looks like our missions are about to overlap, Flight Captain. These ursans are coming from the same direction as our target."
"Mmm," Razor Beard grunted. "So these aren't Ursinium grunts. Mercenaries possibly working with a coatl. We'll need some magical support."
Longstride turned his gaze away from the manor's direction. "More than that," he said. "The trees a few miles from here are shaking violently. I see gaps in the woods where there should be trees, but not. As if something had cleared them for easier movement."
"Really?" Razor Beard asked, his tone low.
"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked. "It's just trees, something's moving among them."
"Not any 'something'," Longstride said. "Something huge and bulky; a greed dragon perhaps, or more likely..."
"Titan," Razor Beard said. "Lancers!"
The lancers stopped what they were doing, and gathered around their captain.
"We're fortifying here," Razor Beard said. "Get the villagers to a safer location. We might take on another ursan attack."
"Another?" one lancer said. "We haven't taken on one yet."
The others chuckled until Razor Beard raised a hoof. "More than that, boys, we've got a titan skulking nearby."
A collective gasp moved among the lancers. They looked at each other, mouths agape and eyes wide. Rainbow wasn't surprised. She heard little of ursans, but there was plenty of talk of the ursan titans in that little. They were the biggest and nastiest of a big and nasty lot. They dwarfed even brachyuri, and easily trampled entire towns in their berserk rampage. Anypony would hesitate taking on such a behemoth.
"When was the last titan kill?" a lancer asked.
"Flight Gorehowl got one twenty years ago," somepony from the back replied.
Another lancer snorted. "Pah! The skewers did most of the work for that. Gorehowl stuck their lances on an almost dead titan."
"Steelfang and Gorehowl had titan kills for this century," another lancer said. "Before that, Rendlance got the last one. Finally, Shatterspine gets a turn."
"Wait," Razor Beard said. The rest looked to him as he spoke. "First titan kill of the new era of reunification."
The softly spoken words seemed to flitter onto each lancer. Wide grins spread on their faces as they looked to each other. Soon, they were pawing the ground and laughing excitedly among themselves. There was an infectious sense of excitement among them, one that spread to Rainbow as well, despite her worries. She was almost looking forward to seeing this titan.
Night descended on Southwind without any more violence. Some of the villagers gathered the courage to return. They thanked the legionnaires and asked to bury their dead, which the lancers assisted with. A number of them, mostly teenaged earth pony colts and fillies, volunteered to aid any more efforts against the ursans. Razor Beard had them digging from sunset to well into the night. Walls, at least ones able to be constructed with available time and resources, would be meaningless before an ursan frontal charge. Thus, they dug wide and deep trenches to trap and wound their attackers. They dismantled some of the houses, using the wood to create sharpened stakes that lined the bottom of these trenches.
Rainbow stood atop one of the surviving houses and watched the whole affair. She didn't like this development. Too many ponies involved now. She had this weird tingle of restlesness in her wings and a feeling that things were only going to escalate from here. The urge to fly off, and leave any major battle to the western legionnaires hovered around the edges of her mind. She couldn't leave, though. Already, she was invested in these lancers' victories.
Scarlet sat next to her, humming a tune to himself while inspecting his crossbow. "Think we should get ourselves one of those lances?" he asked as he glanced at her. "They'd work better than crossbows, I think."
Rainbow sighed and stayed silent for a while. She had been thinking about that as well. "I don't think we can just pick then up and use them like pros, Scarlet," she said. She remembered the fight against Ridentem, then the ghost of Hurricane. Maybe she could...if she put some thought into how to do it right. A sonic rainboom with a lance at the end. That might work, but a normal lance might not be enough. Applejack had a magic chain, Rarity had magic blades, Pinkie Pie had a wierd stone tablet. Maybe she could get something like they had.
Longstride landed next to them, a bundle of various grasses and flowers around his foreleg. "Save your rations," he said.
"So what did you see out there?" Rainbow asked. "Is the mission still on?"
"I had expected Hassyth to have around half a dozen ursans working for him given his declining fortune," Longstride replied. "The grounds around the manor tell otherwise. The only way to get these many working under you, especially with a titan, is to be allied with a patriarch or matriarch. Hassyth has acquired a powerful ally. We'll need to depend on heavy Western Legion support. Besiege Willow Manor, the kill Hassyth in the confusion."
"I thought so," Rainbow said. Longstride didn't mention the research, but he was likely planning on how to keep the manor from being destroyed during the fighting. So that's a coatl overlord, and an ursan clan leader with a titan. What had she gotten caught up in?
"Great!" Scarlet said in between chewing on some mountain flowers. "I swear, I'm not letting Hassyth escape this time!" Rainbow followed his example and chowed down on some of the grass. The tingly, minty flavor was definitely better than dried, salty fruit and hard bread.
"We were lucky this splinter group blundered around like this," Longstride said. "Their antics got the Legion's attention. We can always count on the ursans to be their own worst enemy."
"Villagers weren't so lucky," Rainbow retorted.
"No," Longstride said. "They will be avenged though."
Rainbow guessed she could let it go at that. It's not like it was his fault these ursans attacked. "So," she said when Longstride had also settled down. "Something tells me you're not a Highstable ranger."
"Anymore than you're still under Flight Dreadwing," Longstride said. "If we were being honest, you'd introduce yourself as Legionnaire Rainbow Dash of the Elements of Harmony."
"Yeah, but I was a member of Dreadwing," Rainbow replied. "Were you ever a Highstable ranger?"
"It was my cover back then," Longstride said. "You didn't go around introducing yourself as a Thorn, no matter how many rumors cropped up. It was easy to pose as a ranger. Many of them worked alone or in pairs anyway."
"Not that true now," Scarlet said. "They keep rangers in squads now, said that all that solitude made rangers a little crazy."
"But then they'd be easier to track," Longstride said. He sighed. "The indiscipline these days..."
"Hey, it can't be that bad," Rainbow said. "I'm sure they're still kicking tails down south. What's wrong with taking care of your rangers?"
Longstride quietly chewed on his meal for a while, mulling that question over as if it was a novelty. "Perhaps they are better off," he muttered. Rainbow frowned at the speed he chowed down on his meal. Longstride ate like a machine, likely not even bothering to taste anything. She was only halfway through when he was getting up. "Turn in," he said. "We might have a fight ahead tomorrow."
Scarlet and Rainbow glanced at each other, then went back to eating. Longstride may not enjoy these brief leisures, but that wasn't going to stop them. Tomorrow was going to be hard enough.