While the sally out against Rising’s forces had come at considerable cost, I could at least take some comfort in the fact that we had accomplished our primary objective of buying time for the last civilians to make it to safety. Though I would have felt much better about the operation if we had managed to defeat Rising, or at least one of her more powerful undead minions.
As it was, we only managed to destroy a small portion of the undead army before withdrawing back to the palace. Overall, not the best start to the battle we could have hoped for. Still, the last of the civilians were being escorted into the palace or were already inside the other shelters in Ponyville, and soon we would be able to close the gates and activate the wards. Then the real fighting could start.
I hovered over the last civilians seeking refuge inside the palace and waved for them to keep moving. “Keep moving, everypony. Clear the gates. You will be safe in the castle.”
Instead of making his way to the basement bunker as instructed, a pony I recognized as Mud Briar stopped to look up at me. “Technically, it's a palace, not a castle. While both serve as residences to royalty or nobility, a castle is a fortified structure while a palace is a grand residence. Considering the lack of a curtain wall, moat, battlements, and other fortifications, this building is clearly a palace.”
Irritating as the interjection was, I could hardly deny that he was right. As he had said, the palace lacked any real fortifications to beat back attackers. In fact, the palace had several features that would make it more difficult to defend: it was extremely top-heavy, and crystal was far too brittle to withstand bombardment by siege engines. I was quite concerned the palace would topple over if it took any significant structural damage. On top of that, due to the castle’s substantial overhang with no machicolations, we had no way to fire at any skeletons that made it to the base of the trunk
Considering I could already hear the low rumble of the approaching army of the dead, the lack of proper defenses was most concerning. Really, in the event of an attack of this scale, Her Highness was supposed to be evacuated to Canterlot or another heavily fortified location. But that assumed an entire invading army consisting of thousands didn’t suddenly appear in the center of Equestria without any warning, and that Her Highness wouldn’t be trapped inside of Ponyville. Not that we hadn’t made plans in the event the worst happened, but the thing about worst-case scenarios was that nopony wanted to implement them.
Knight-Magus Twinkleshine spotted the holdup in the line and stepped over, barking out orders in her best parade ground voice. “Stop blocking traffic!” She pointed Mud Briar towards the stairs leading into the basement. “Get to safety and let everypony else do the same!”
Thankfully, Mud Briar didn’t argue the point and got moving again. Once everyone was inside, I signalled the guards to close the gates. They snapped me salutes and slammed the doors shut, dropping the locking bar in place and quickly bracing it with additional timbers. While they worked, I turned my attention to the Knight-Magus. “Magus Twinkleshine, you have the gate. I need to update Her Highness on the course of the battle.”
She snapped off a quick salute. “Yes, Captain.”
Now that Twinkleshine had things well in hoof, at least until the undead started a full-fledged assault, I headed to the Map Room. Her Highness had been quite busy while we’d sallied out. She’d covered half a dozen chalkboards with complex arcane formula, piles of discarded scrolls and open books filled all the tables, and empty cups of coffee littered the room. Her Highness was scribbling away on the only chalkboard that wasn’t completely covered in formulae, casting spells one after another.
I saluted Princess Twilight and announced myself. “Highness, I have a report.”
“Storm!” Judging by her surprised jump, she’d been so absorbed in her work she hadn’t even noticed me enter the room. She glanced over at me for a moment before turning back to her work. While I normally might have been mildly irked by her obvious distraction, in this case I couldn’t fault her for remaining focused on her work. Breaking Rising’s spell and sending out a message to Canterlot was one of our top priorities, and while I wanted to keep her up to date on the course of the battle, she was hardly a general. When it came to the battlefield tactics, she would likely to defer to my judgement on all matters outside of spellcasting.
Despite that, she still needed to be kept up to date. Thankfully, my natural tendency towards stoicism made it much easier to remain calm and in control despite the worrying news. “The battle has not developed entirely in our favor.”
Her Highness’ frantic scribbling slowed. “What happened?”
We hardly had time to beat around the bush, so I got straight to it. “Starlight has been captured.”
Her Highness dropped the chalk and spun to face me. “What?! How?!”
I kept my voice steady. Her Highness needed to keep calm and focused on what was most important; the last thing she needed was for me to say or do anything that would make her feel more stressed. If not for the problems that would have caused, I might have been tempted to withhold the bad news from her. “Near as we can tell, she encountered the undead version of Rainbow, met her in battle, and lost.”
“Where was Starlight's backup? I thought you were supporting her.” Her Highness tried not to sound make it sound like an accusation, but it still felt like one. It hurt to feel like I had failed her when I had promised I would protect her student. She valued her friends. so the idea that Starlight had been captured by Rising, after she had asked her to go, had to sting her.
I owed her answers for what happened, and I was going to give them to her. “Starlight said we should hang back until Rising showed herself so she would be better bait. Starlight seemed confident in her ability to defeat any of the undead by herself except for Rising, and if Rising saw us she might not have shown herself or ambushed us in turn, thus ruining the plan. So we let her fight Rain—the Revenant. Unfortunately, during the fight she teleported several times and ended up outside of our support range. Before we could catch up with her, the Revenant defeated Starlight and made off with her new prisoner. We were unable to catch up with her, and units of undead intercepted us and they forced us to retreat.”
Her Highness grimaced as she digested all of that. “Anything else?”
I swallowed as I steeled myself to give her yet more bad news. “I am afraid so. Our Rainbow launched a rescue mission, along with Pinkie and Cloud.”
She blinked. “But I didn’t order any rescue mission.”
I shook my head. “No, Highness. I suspect that Rainbow took the rescue mission upon herself, and the others followed her.”
“That sounds right.” Her Highness frowned at me. “Please tell me it went well, they’re on their way back with Starlight, and everypony’s okay.”
I grimaced and took a deep breath to make sure I had a lid on my own emotions. “They have yet to return.” I felt a sickening twist of fear deep in my gut. Was Cloud hurt, captured, or worse? That knot in my stomach grew worse as I thought about the others. Rainbow was a longtime friend of the family, and Pinkie had worked hard to make the Guard feel welcome in Ponyville. She was a favorite among the rank-and-file after how many parties she had thrown for them.
Why did they have to go running off after Starlight without permission? Well, I knew why they had done it. No doubt Rainbow thought she would be able to save Starlight and make it back unharmed. She was never one to abandon someone she cared about, and the others followed her because they wanted to help her and make sure she did not get hurt. I understood entirely, and might have been tempted to join them in other circumstances.
However, just because they had good reasons for their actions did not negate all the trouble they had caused. Running off on an impulsive unplanned rescue mission in the middle of a siege was the sort of thing that could end very badly. They had no support, no exit strategy, and there was no way I could send them backup or make sure they had a way to get back to the palace. We all needed to be on the same page, not have everypony running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Now they were all off someplace only Shadow knew, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
Cloud should have known all of that, she had gone to West Hoof just as I had.
Her Highness bit her lip, and I could see her struggling with many of the same problems I was. She probably wanted to send another rescue mission, but that would be unwise given the circumstances. We were about to be assaulted by thousands of undead monsters, and we needed every soldier manning the defenses if we were going to survive this. It was four lives weighed against everypony taking sanctuary inside of the palace, not to mention we had no idea where to even begin with a rescue mission. All we could do was send a rescue party in the same direction Rainbow had flown off in and hope they happened to cross her path.
Part of me worried she might press for a rescue mission despite all reason. No one wanted to abandon their friends, and Her Highness was the Princess of Friendship. Not to mention she was already feeling guilty over not launching a rescue mission for Fluttershy. How long could she stand doing nothing while her friends were in peril? Even if she knew on an intellectual level that rushing into action would be unwise, her heart might demand it.
Those worries disappeared when Her Highness’s eyes hardened. “We’ll see what we can do for them after we’ve beaten back Rising’s army. Hopefully they’re fine, but we can’t go running off after them right now when we have to protect everypony in Ponyville.” Her wings drooped as she returned to her notes. I could tell that decision hurt her, but it had been the right one. “How has the evacuation gone? Is everypony safe?”
Finally, I could give her some good news. “We were able to complete the evacuation before Rising's forces pushed us back. We have barred the gates and prepared the defenses. We will hold the line for as long as we must.”
She let out a relieved sigh. “At least we don’t have to worry about that. Are Applejack and Rarity still with the civilians then?” Her Highness’s eye twitched. “No sudden crazy missions that nopony approved or even told me about ahead of time? Nothing that’s going to make me have to worry myself sick about whether or not my friends got themselves killed?”
“No Highness.” I stepped forward and rested a hoof on her shoulder for a moment, offering what small comfort I could. “Last I heard, they were seeing to their families.” Thankfully, their desires to be with their families helped keep the two of them out of trouble. There were already too many Bearers of the Elements of Harmony captured or MIA right now.
Her Highness closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping as she whispered something under her breath. “Thank goodness.” She turned her attention back to me. “What about the advance of Rising’s army?”
“They will be outside the castle walls shortly.” I flew up to one of the windows to look outside, and confirmed the undead army was getting closer. “It would be best if we activated the palace defenses, Highness.”
“You’re sure there’s nopony left to get to safety?” Her Highness waited for me confirm it, then closed her eyes and started casting the spell. There was a flash of violet light from her horn that quickly spread to encompass the entire room, and a prismatic bubble-shield formed around the palace. Even inside the palace, I could feel the hum of power from the barrier.
Shadow’s spirit murmured approval within my mind. “Once again Princess Twilight proves she has the power and skill of her ancestors. Sunbeam would likely be proud of her descendant, even if I suspect Her Highness would also vex her at the same time.”
When we were planning for the palace’s defenses, creating a shield we could fall behind seemed wise. The palace itself would be all but impossible to secure, so we would have to hold them away from it. Her Highness had designed an incredibly complicated and multilayered defensive ward to protect the palace and anyone inside. The Archmagus of Canterlot herself had looked over the defensive spells and offered some minor suggestions for improvement. From what Her Highness had told me, the shield was extremely strong and would protect the palace from any variety of physical or magical attacks while drawing power from the leyline running through the palace to continually regenerate itself. We could only hope it would be enough.
Still, there was no sense in lingering upon such worries. Either the shield would hold or it would not. For now it was more important to steady morale, starting with Her Highness. “Very good. That should allow us to hold the line until you get word to Celestia.”
“I'm starting to make progress.” Her Highness frowned as she attempted yet another analysis spell and jotted down more notes. “I've managed to figure out how most of it works, and I think I’m zeroing in on a weakness. There's the...” She hesitated before continuing. “We probably don’t have time for me to go into multilayered alternating arcane frequency waves, do we?”
In truth, despite my off-hours study of magical theory to try and keep up with Her Highness, I did not even know what those were. Twilight Sparkle was a nearly peerless genius when it came to magic, and despite my best efforts to keep up with her much of what she discussed went completely over my head. Thanks to my classes in West Hoof I had a basic understanding of magic, but most of that pertained to the practical applications of magic, not advanced magic theory. When it came to things like the shield protecting the palace or Rising’s anti-communication spell, I was out of my depth beyond knowing what those magics did.
But my time with Her Highness had given me plenty of experience at knowing what to concentrate on when she was in danger of going on a tangent at an inopportune time. “It would probably be best to wait until the battle is over to publish your findings.”
In turn, Her Highness has learned that I prefer it if she sticks to the practical side of her considerable knowledge. “I think I can break this with another half an hour of work.”
“Then we will have to hold the line for that long.” I did not honestly know if we could last for half an hour. The army of the dead would be assaulting the palace in a matter of minutes, and that was not even accounting for Rising, the revenant, and the vampire. The skeletons were at least a predictable and straightforward threat. The higher undead were a much larger and more importantly asymmetric threat. If what Starlight told us about her was true, Rising was a magical peer to Her Highness. Rarity’s account of her vampiric counterpart was equally concerning, and the revenant had somehow managed to defeat Starlight in single combat.
A half an hour could be a very long time in a battle, especially when we didn’t know the full capacity of our enemy and their plans. But it would not do to worry my princess overmuch about that. It was far more important to focus our time and effort on goals we could actually make positive progress towards. Either we could hold Rising’s forces back long enough for Her Highness to send a message or we would not.
Her Highness pressed her lips together as she concentrated on her work. “I’ll be here working on countering Rising’s spell unless there’s anything I need to see to.”
We could perhaps use Her Highness’ considerable magical ability to help throw back the undead host, but I was against the idea of her exposing herself to Rising and her forces. While she might help us in driving off an enemy probe, getting support from Canterlot was far more important for delivering a true victory. No, best if she was safe doing what she was doing, or at least as safe as she could be given the circumstances.
“Just focus on getting word to Canterlot, Highness,” I told her. “I will see to the defenses. Do you require anything else?”
She shook her head. “No, I think I’m good for now.” I turned to go, but Her Highness’ voice stopped me. “Storm, wait.” I stopped, and Her Highness approached me. “Stay safe. Okay?”
I hesitated as I tried to think of the best reply. “You too, Highness.” It felt like a terribly insufficient statement, considering the circumstances.
Her Highness hesitated for a moment, then galloped over and latched onto me. The hug was a surprisingly hard and tight one, and for a moment I could almost swear I heard a sniffle from her. She pulled back a hair, shooting me a shaky but determined smile. “Show them what the Twilight Guard can do.”
I hugged her in return for what I prayed wouldn’t be for the last time. “Of course, Highness.”
I returned to the balcony just in time to see Rising’s army making its final approach towards the palace. Unit after unit of skeletons marched through Ponyville’s streets in perfectly uniform ranks, their black armor and spears glistening in the sun. Ponyville was utterly silent aside from the sound of marching hooves and the clatter of arms and armor. It was strange to see the idyllic peaceful village so transformed—to look along city streets and see avenues of approach, choke points, and firing lanes instead of ponies walking about and enjoying the day.
Once the undead reached the effective range of our crossbows, sergeants barked orders, and the crossbowponies opened fire. We had plenty of ammunition stored up, and we needed to thin out the undead ranks as quickly as possible. Against a normal army it might be more advisable to wait until an enemy got closer and fire in volleys, so as to best damage enemy morale when holes were suddenly and viciously punched into their ranks. Against an army of mindless undead, morale was irrelevant. All we could do was try and destroy them as quickly and efficiently as possible, unless we saw an opportunity to kill whoever was in control of the undead.
While crossbows weren’t ideal against undead, the heavy blunted tips we’d set upon our bolts struck with enough force to shatter bone. Catapults or other weapons that inflicted massive blunt trauma would have been ideal, but we had none of those on hoof. Her Highness had not wanted us to turn the palace into an armed fortress, especially when all those weapons would normally be pointed towards the peaceful small town. Considering the troubles we had with the locals when first expanding the Guard, it seemed best not to do anything that might make them uneasy. Now that Ponyville was under attack, I suspected many of the locals wished we had ignored their concerns and brought in heavy weapons.
As the first round of bolts hammered into their ranks the undead shifted from a steady walk to a charge. There were not shout or battlecries, no fanfare of drums or horns as would be tradition with a flesh and blood army; just a sudden shift into a headlong run as they threw themselves at the palace’s defenses.
The magi opened up next. Ponyville’s streets funneled the skeletons, making them easy targets for fireballs, lightning bolts, and whatever other spells the magi favored. Spells blew great swaths of the undead away as there was nowhere to dodge, not that the skeletons even bothered with trying. On and on they came as spells and crossbow bolts hammered into them. We thinned their ranks, but they vastly outnumbered the Twilight Guard. There was no possible way we could have stopped such an army from reaching the palace.
The skeletons threw themselves at the prismatic shield, but the magical barrier utterly disintegrated them upon impact. The shield annihilated dozens and then hundreds of them as its magic reacted violently to the necromantic energy animating the skeletons. Ripples ran along the surface of the shield as the undead swarmed against it, and arcs of magical discharge crackled as the undead attempted to overwhelm the shield by sheer force of numbers.
A continual thrum of bolts being released hummed in the air as the crossbowponies kept up a steady rate of fire, though the spells from the magi slackened as they saved strength for larger clusters of undead. The first stage of the siege was well under way, and a fresh set of orders ran through the palace. Our engineers brought out the only proper artillery we had: a number of small pony-portable ballistae. Firegem-tipped bolts flew through the air and landed amongst the next wave of undead. Explosions blasted whole skeleton formations flat, creating a momentary reprieve against the undead advance.
The two-pony ballista crews rushed to reload fresh fire gems for the next volley. The ballistae played a key role in our defenses. Each would hopefully disrupt the undead ranks for a few critical seconds, giving the shield to time to recover and allowing our crossbowponies a bit of breathing room to reload.
From my vantage point on the balcony I had a grand view of the battlefield as the fight proceeded. I had confidence in my subordinates to follow their orders. We had gone over the drills countless times, so everypony should know what to do. With all the little details seen to, I was free to focus on the big picture as a proper commander should. Even though Shadow’s spirit seemed nonplussed by my leading from the rear, being in the frontlines made it hard to focus on anything beyond my immediate surroundings.
Lieutenant Speedy Tracker watched the battle at my side. The hippogryph and I served together in the Long Patrol, and when building up the Twilight Guard, he had been among my first choices to fill out our ranks. One advantage of commanding a princess’ personal guard: getting the officers I wanted had usually been a simple matter of asking. I trusted his judgement, and wanted him close by should I need a sounding board or second opinion. Not to mention it would be quite useful to have an officer on hoof whom I could direct to handle any emergencies that would inevitably come up during the battle.
For the moment, things seemed to be going well. Though the undead horde continued its inexorable advance, the shield held them at bay, and many hundreds of the undead had been destroyed. However, the longer the battle continued with no change, the more ill at ease I felt. I put my thoughts into words. “They have been hurling themselves at our walls, but to what end?”
Speedy quickly scanned the battlefield with his binoculars. “They have rams out there, but they’re not deploying them to the fight yet. If they’ve got anything heavier like towers or trebuchets, I don’t see them. Odd. So far they’ve been ready for the fight. You’d think they would have known they’d need to break through our defenses too. Maybe undead are too stupid to manage something more complicated than a battering ram?”
“Possible, but that doesn’t feel like the right answer.” I examined the battlefield with my own set of binoculars. “If they did bring siege artillery then it would have been simple to have some pegasi with invisibility spells and fire gems sally out to destroy them. Any trebuchets would need to either be well enough defended to survive our counterattack, or so powerful they would shatter our defenses before we could muster a response.”
“True.” Speedy scratched his chin. “Maybe they underestimated our defenses? The palace itself isn’t anything to write home about, but the shield is a real piece of work. It’s possible they weren’t expecting that.”
“Perhaps, but I doubt it is anything that rosy.” For that matter, I sensed Speedy didn’t particularly believe that explanation himself. While history was full of incompetent generals, assuming your enemy didn’t know what they were doing was a good way to set yourself up for a nasty surprise. “Considering the resources they have available and the capabilities they have displayed thus far, this current attack feels ... insufficient.”
“Remember how the minds of necromancers work, my descendant,” the spirit within Shadow’s Armor whispered into my ear. “Necromancers frequently use their hordes of simple undead as a distraction or holding force while the true blow comes from elsewhere. The current force seems to be less than they can muster, and none of their leaders are here. Thou rememberest the Battle of Two Magnuses, aye?”
I did. A force of clanponies lead by Magnus Charger the necromancer invaded Equestria in a mad attempt to resurrect Pegasopolis. The crushing defeat Magnus Kicker inflicted on the clan force was due in no small part to their failure to properly implement many of the standard necromancer tactics. Several young hotheads among the clan ranks insisted on charging the first Equestrian forces they saw rather than waiting in reserve and only striking once the undead chaff tied the Equestrian forces down and either exposed a weak point in their defenses or provided the mobile clan forces an opportunity to outflank the Equestrian lines.
Ironically, that very failure had made the battle an interesting case study at West Hoof. If nothing else, it made for a pointed lesson on the importance of maintaining discipline in the ranks. Pity Cloud had forgotten that lesson, or at least allowed her friendship with Rainbow to override her good sense. Even if my cousin was a civilian, having another pony with proper officer training would have been a boon.
If all sense and precedent said the skeletons were nothing but a distraction, that begged the question of where the true blow would come from. My gaze swept over the battlefield and I couldn’t find what I was looking for. “Have you spotted Rising or any other type of undead besides skeletons?”
Speedy frowned as he once again put his binoculars to work. “No, I haven’t. That’s ... concerning.”
“Agreed.” My battlefield instincts were screaming that something was amiss. “Lieutenant, send out some scouts and tell them to report anything suspicious or if they spot any—”
Whatever I was about to say next became completely moot a moment later. A deafening crack resounded through the air, and with a scream of shattering crystal the palace hurled me off my hooves as it lurched to the side. I scrambled to get back up on a now tilted floor. The incline was not so steep as I first feared, but the fact that it existed at all was concerning.
Speedy groaned and picked himself off the slanted floor. “I don’t know what that was, but I think we just found the nasty twist you were looking for.”
He was right. There was no time to lament the enemy outmaneuvering us. I needed to focus on what we could do to salvage the situation. “Speedy, get to the reserves and get them ready to go. If I signal you, I want you to bring all of them to my location. Put the engineers on damage control as soon as we know where we got hit. We can’t afford to have the entire palace topple over if they hit us again.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He snapped off a quick salute and galloped off as fast as he could on the now tilted floor.
For my part I leapt out the window and took flight, getting a little distance so I could take stock. Whatever dim hope I’d held that the damage had been localized to my area quickly faded as I confirmed that the entire palace looked like a tree in the process of getting chopped down. If not for the railings along the balcony we likely would have lost many of our archers to falling over the side, and as it was the Twilight Guard’s fire had all but ceased as everypony recovered from the explosion. Even worse, several of our portable ballistae had gone over the side, and judging by the impromptu bonfire at the base of the castle, we had lost quite a bit of ammunition as well.
The cause of the trouble wasn’t hard to spot. Part of the palace’s trunk had been blown away, and massive chunks of crystal were scattered about the field around the gaping wound. Skeletons were moving about among the ruins. The explosion had already destroyed several of them and their remains were strewn about alongside the chunks of crystal, but half a dozen of them still remained.
How had they gotten there? The shield should have been impenetrable! Was there a weakness we did not know about? Had they somehow snuck inside the shield before it got put up? Finding answers to that question would have to wait, as the remaining undead were at the base of the palace, doing something that almost certainly boded ill. I dove as close as I dared to get a better look. A couple of them were drilling into the crystalline trunk of the palace, while the others carried a crate that, judging by what had just happened, presumably contained some sort of explosive.
It was not hard to guess what they were up to: they were trying to collapse the whole palace in on itself. I had to wonder if their first attempt had simply failed to achieve the desired results, or if they had accidently set off the explosion prematurely. This type of work was dangerous for highly trained ponies who knew what they were doing, much less clunky, mindless undead. Whatever the truth was, I had to stop them from planting any more explosives. The first attempt had already done severe damage, and second might actually achieve their objective.
I activated a gem signaling Speedy to bring the reserves to me immediately. I charged straight into their ranks, wing blades outstretched. Dangerous as it was to rush in alone and unsupported, I couldn’t afford to wait for reinforcements. Another blast, even an accidental one, might cause the whole palace to collapse.
The flash of a wing blade removed the head of the skeleton holding the drill, and another swing did the same to the one doing the drilling. The remaining skeletons dropped the crate and raised their spears, doing their best to encircle me. With a mental command my wing blades began burning red hot, and I removed the speartips with a quick swipe.
With my foes disarmed I stepped in, and my weapons sliced through armor and bone like a hot knife through butter. The surviving two skeletons stood stock still, either having been told to stand there or too stupid to react to an unexpected situation. Either way, I wasn’t about to let them regain their bearings, I started towards them, only to pull up short when I heard the barest whisper of hooves on the ground.
“So you're the Captain of the Twilight Guard?” At the sound of that voice I activated the Armor’s ability to penetrate illusions. The vampiric version of Rarity sprang into sight. She regarded me with a cool, bored frown as she looked me over. “At least you're as tall as I imagined.”
I carefully watched the vampire for any sudden movements. Though she did not seem inclined to attack at the moment, I doubted this encounter would end peacefully. “You would be the other Rarity, then.”
“Indeed. And you're Captain Storm Kicker. I'm sorry if I caught you in the middle of doing something heroic, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you. This ugly castle simply needs to come down.” Rarity turned her red eyes up on the palace and sneered, letting out a disdainful scoff. “I mean really, have you seen this hideous thing? Look at those uninviting cool colors with that ugly shade of mustard to highlight it that just makes it look like it’s mocking the color gold. And ugh, the spikes. Honestly, how has no one caught on that Twilight is a villain with a palace like that? And it simply does not go with the town's aesthetics. You're walking into a nice homey, rustic little town, and then bam, giant evil looking spiky tree palace to ruin the view. It's simply atrocious, darling. Even if it wasn’t the fortress of one of the foulest ponies to ever exist, I’d be doing everyone a favor by destroying this eyesore for being a crime against good taste.”
My eyes narrowed. Regardless of her artistic critique of the palace, there were a lot of ponies taking refuge inside of it, including Her Highness. I wasn’t about to let this monster hurt them by knocking the building down. “You know I cannot let you destroy the palace.”
Rarity held a hoof up to her mouth and let out a faintly mocking laugh, like a high society lady from Canterlot. “You won’t let me do it, will you? Darling, what makes you think you could do anything to stop me?”
I clenched my teeth. “There are hundreds of innocent ponies taking shelter there.”
She fixed me with a cold, distant look. “Yes, your mistress assembled quite the force of equine shields to hold us at bay. We will, of course, do what we can to minimize collateral damage. However, with how many she’s murdered and how many more will die if we don’t stop her, we cannot allow her to escape justice for her crimes by threatening yet more innocent lives.”
I was sorely tempted to argue that she was grossly misrepresenting Her Highness’ actions, but there would be no point to it. The time for negotiation had long since passed. “I will end your wretched existence. Both to save everyone within the palace, and because I must for the sake of my princess.”
I activated my armor and unleashed a blinding flash of light. The vampire let out a startled shout and covered her eyes. I rushed her, intent on ending this fight before it even got started. However, despite the element of surprise the vampire was quick to react. Despite being blinded, she leapt clean into the air, far higher and farther than any normal pony could have, and dodged out of the way of my wing blades.
Before I could close on her again, the amulet hanging around her neck glowed a menacing red, and a wave of reddish-black lightning swept over me. The blast of necromantic energy would easily have stolen the life force from my body and left me little more than a withered husk, but the Armor easily absorbed the attack. While the spell didn’t harm me, it did hold me back for a precious pair of seconds that the vampire used to recover. My advantage lost, I quickly blasted the negative energy harmlessly to the side. The spell would not be of any use against the undead, and I wanted to be able to absorb any other spells the vampire might throw at me.
Rarity smirked as she unsheathed her sword, a blade as black as night with ripples of silver along its length. The blade initially ran straight for about half its length before shifting into a sickle-like curve. I recognized the design as a khopesh. They had been quite popular in ancient Selerika, but had long since faded from popularity.
“Beware!” Shadow cried within my mind. “That blade is the Nightmare's work, and she uses an Alicorn Amulet!”
Shadow’s warning confirmed my suspicions that the sword she was using was Nightfall. Though I had not seen Luna’s sword myself, the blade matched Star’s description of it. If that blade had been made by Princess Luna, then it might well be able to penetrate the Armor. There was also a good possibility it had at least one unique ability that could cause me all sorts of trouble. It’s twin Chainbreaker had certainly caused Her Highness problems, and Archon Shimmer was not an extremely powerful vampire.
The Alicorn Amulet also presented a major threat. The Armor provided me with an all but impenetrable defense against direct spellcasting, but when I’d faced Tirek in battle he found ways to injure me regardless. Perhaps the Amulet explained how Rarity and her forces had managed to penetrate the shield. The Amulet was supposed to give its wielder magical power equivalent to that of an alicorn, which might be enough to allow her to bypass the barrier in some manner.
Rarity seemed to be assessing me as I had her, a knowing smile tugging at her lips. “Ah, as I thought, you wear Shadow's Armor. I know it quite well, considering Rainbow uses our version of it. Unfortunately for you, I know its weaknesses.” Her smile widened, showing off her fangs. “As with any tool, it is only as good as the one who wields it. Tell me, how many of the ponies who took that armor up have died in it?”
More than I cared to think about. Until recently the Armor had been kept locked away in a vault until our need was dire. Thankfully Her Highness had helped convince the clan to loosen those restrictions, especially now that Shadow judged me worthy. However, in times past many a wearer had died while still trying to learn the Armor’s abilities on the battlefield, not to mention some of the Armor’s abilities could allow a pony to continue to fight well past their limits. Shadow herself had straddled the line between living and dead for a time while wearing it.
Not that I was about to let this creature intimidate me. “I see you are using Nightfall. How well do you know how to wield a blade?”
“I could tell you, but it would be much more effective to show you.” Rarity angled the blade towards me, and I could feel an almost palpable wave of menace coming off of her. Perhaps one of her vampiric abilities. “Now don't blink or you'll miss the show.”
The vampire launched forward like a released crossbow bolt. She was on me and swinging her blade so quickly that if it hadn’t been for a lifetime of training I might very well have lost my head. As it was, my wing shot up to block the swipe, and the collision was hard enough to cause a shock of pain to shoot through my wing and into my shoulder. Not only was she fast, she was unnaturally strong.
After the first strike failed to hit me, Rarity’s blade danced into a lightning fast series of slashes that struck at a variety of angles. It took all my skill and speed to keep up with her, and even then I was almost completely on the defensive. Rarity’s blade moved with supernatural speed, and while I was among the best duelists in Equestria and Shadow’s Armor elevated me even further, I was still an ordinary pony. Eventually one of my parries was not fast enough, Nightfall hammered into my breastplate. Thankfully it didn’t penetrate, but the blow still carried enough force to to send me staggering back. When I glanced down, I saw a considerable dent in the armor, right over my heart.
“Thou hast three bruised ribs and microfractures in thy sternum,” Shadow warned me. Not that I felt the pain of those wounds thanks to the Armor. Still, I could not help but wonder if the Spirit in the Armor had taken to warning its bearers of their injuries because of how many had remained unaware of their wounds until they died of them.
Though Rarity could have pressed her advantage, she instead chuckled and took a moment to admire Nightfall. “Now then, I suppose Rising would be tiffed with me if I didn't give you one chance to surrender. You hardly need to die for that dreadful monster you call a princess, and I promise that you will be treated in accordance to the rules of war.”
My eyes narrowed. “I do not know what madness has taken you, vampire, but I will not yield. I will defend my princess until my last dying breath.”
Rarity sighed in a way that uncannily reminded me of our own Rarity, usually the sort of sigh she let out when she learned someone had to cancel an appointment at her boutique. As if this battle to the death was nothing but a mere inconvenience to her. “I thought as much. Still, a lady must try to do as her queen commands.”
The Alicorn Amulet lit up once again, and Rarity slammed a hoof against the earth. Black crystals shot out of the ground and hurled towards me, and I threw myself to the side. The Armor could only absorb direct magical attacks, and these crystals were very real and physical objects merely being propelled by magical force. One of the crystals skimmed off the side of the Armor, and another passed by my wing so closely I felt the wind off of it.
No sooner had I dodged the attack than Rarity was on top of me, swinging Nightfall at my head. I had no time to block or dodge, but thankfully the Armor had other abilities. With a mental command I turned insubstantial as the shadows themselves, and Nightfall passed harmlessly through me. A moment after the blade passed through me, I remembered that the blade had belonged to the Princess of the Night, a mistress of shadow and darkness. Using that particular ability had perhaps been a risk, but fortunately one I survived.
Rarity blinked in shock as she overextended after her blow met no opposing force, and I bolted forward to get behind her. I became substantial again and slashed at her head from behind. Only supernatural reflexes kept Rarity from losing her head, as she bent her knees and ducked down so that my blade swished over her head.
I pressed the advantage now that dodging had forced her body into an unnatural position. I slashed with my other wing in a downward-sweeping blow that Rarity managed to block with her blade. With Nightfall locked against one of my wing blades I pressed the attack, swinging for her neck with my free blade. Once again, Rarity’s unnatural speed saved her, allowing her to somehow slip away from what should have been a killing blow. She disengaged Nightfall from my wing blade and scrambled away, using that impossible speed to withdraw and buy herself a moment to recenter herself.
Nearly losing her head had at least erased the confident smirk from her face. “Impressive. I see you've truly mastered all aspects of your armor. Pity we couldn’t get Rainbow to do the same with her copy of it. A little too much pride in depending on her own abilities, and only two sparring partners to practice with.”
“Practicing with it seemed prudent.” I fell back as well to give myself as much reaction time as I could manage. Rarity’s unnatural speed had repeatedly proved to be a threat. If I could buy even a fraction of a second longer to react, it could be the difference between life and death.
Rarity tossed her mane; the fang-filled smirk slowly working its way back onto her lips. “A nice little trick, but I’m afraid I have you outclassed in the spellcasting department.” She tapped the Alicorn Amulet. “As long as I’m careful what spells I use, there won’t be any magic for your armor to absorb. And honestly, I don’t really need spellcasting to win this.”
Rarity charged me once again, but this time I was ready for her supernatural speed. I took to the air and unleashed a spell Twilight had stored in the Armor. A web of sticky entangling threads shot straight down, covering Rarity and the area around her.
Rarity let out an undignified squak as the goo splattered all over her, struggling to free herself from it. When she made no progress after several moments of effort, she closed her eyes and cast a spell. She turned into a shadow and simply flowed out of the web, reforming beyond its edge before fixing me with a baleful glower. I grimaced at the failure. So much for pinning her down and denying her the advantage of speed.
As dangerous as it was, my best chance to win this was locking blades with her. I flew down at her, using the dive to focus as much power as possible into my first strike. Rarity was ready for me, and our blades clashed against each other. Despite all the momentum behind my attack, her hideous strength was enough to block my blow head-on.
While that turn of events was from ideal, it was not unexpected. I brought my other wing blade around, catching Nightfall in a cross-block. I forced Nightfall down with both my wing blades twisting the other sword as I went to gain as much of a leverage advantage as possible. Against any normal foe, the gambit might have worked, but Rarity’s supernatural strength was so great that it overcame my superior position with force to spare. I staggered back as she freed her blade from my grip.
I flapped my wings as I struggled to retain my balance. Rarity gave me no time to recover, rushing forward with a perfect dance of rapid-fire slashes that easily flowed into one another. I had no choice but to continually give ground in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable. The last exchange had set a dangerous precedent. Once she had freedom to attack as she wished, it was only a matter of time before one of her perfect strikes pierced my defenses.
In fact, as the clash continued I slowly began to realize that her strikes were too perfect. I hadn’t noticed it at first due to the vampire’s dangerous speed, but her attacks were all just a touch ... off. The truth came to me in a sudden flash of insight: she wasn’t used to fighting other opponents. Her movements were like a well rehearsed dance. Technically excellent, but they lacked any of the personal flair that could only come from years of experience in actual battle against a range of opponents.
Perhaps it should not have been a surprise. From all that she had claimed the only living beings with any degree of intelligence left in her world were herself, their Rainbow Dash, and Rising Fire. Mindless skeletons would hardly make the best sparring partners. The vampire might have read through technical manuals and practiced the moves within them to perfection, but when it came to actual experience she had none. Training and practice were vitally important, but no amount of it could entirely substitute for actual battle experience.
Now that I had caught onto my opponent’s patterns, it was much easier to predict her attacks and block them despite her impossible speed. The longer the battle continued, the more I realized just how inflexible her swordwork was. While each attack flowed perfectly into the next, the same speed that had initially made her so dangerous also made it impossible for her to improvise from moment to moment.
Within thirty seconds I had begun blocking attacks before she started swinging, and soon after that, I could anticipate when there would be holes in her defenses. Knowing a diagonal sweep was coming, I took a step back, caught her blade with my own, and used its own momentum to force her blade far aside to leave her open. Rarity’s eyes widened, and she threw herself backwards to keep me from taking her head off with my next swipe.
The vampire scowled at me, the confident smirk she had worn for most of the battle now notable by its absence. “What was that? How are you faster than me?! You’re just an ordinary mortal pony! Are you using some sort of magic? Some kind of precognitive or speed-boosting spell?” Her horn lit up as she tried several different spells to counteract whatever she thought I might be doing, but of course none of them had any effect.
The corner of my mouth turned up in a faintly mocking smile. “The only magic here is what comes from countless hours of hard work. Training. Skill. Discipline.” I went on the attack, and if anything, her defense was even more lacking than her offense had been. Small surprise. How could she learn to defend herself with no opponents to attack her?
A feint at her head made her bring up her blade to block, but that left her left side vulnerable. My other wing blade slipped into the gap and hit her armor, leaving behind a scorched dent.
The vampire quickly pulled back to try and buy a bit of breathing room to recover from the sudden turn in her fortunes. I was not about to give her time to think and recover. I dashed after her and then threw several feints. Rarity’s lack of experience fighting living opponents worked against her as she tried to guess which blow was the real one. Her increasingly wild swings into different blocks caused her to wrong-hoof herself, and in that moment I struck.
My wing blade flashed through a gap in her defenses, and this time I struck true. Her decision to eschew a helmet, likely born out of the same mild vanity our own Rarity possessed, proved to be her undoing. Though a last-minute flinch saved her from the worst I could have done, my blade cut a line across her cheek before continuing to remove a lock of her mane with its red-hot edge.
She screamed and leapt into the air, landing well away from me. I was tempted to pursue once more, but this time I held back. If this Rarity was anything like the one I knew, seeing the damage to her appearance might well unbalance her further.
Rarity held a hoof to her cheek as she levitated a chunk of crystal and quickly carved it into a basic mirror. She gasped as she saw the burnt ends of her mane. “My mane! Do you have any idea how much work I have to put into my mane it make it presentable?! Once you’re undead, hair doesn’t grow anything like it used to!” Somehow, I could not feel sympathy for the vampire’s mane when she had been attempting to kill me just a minute ago. She tentatively withdrew her hoof from her face and her eyes bulged at the sight of the ugly burned gash across her cheek. “And my face! My beautiful face! This will take forever to heal! It might even scar!”
I could not help but goad the vampire. “Oh yes, you just attempted to kill everyone in the palace, but you might get a scar out of this. How terrible.” As was the case with most undead, fire tended to damage them more permanently than other wounds. Vampires could usually heal any wounds that didn’t destroy them quite quickly, especially if they had a plentiful supply of fresh blood to feast upon, but fire was quite a bit harder for them. Not impossible, but not easy.
Rarity’s red eyes burned with hate as they fixed themselves upon me. She tossed the mirror against a chunk of rubble, and she let out an utterly inequine shriek. “How could you?! You horrid vicious beast! I will destroy you!”
Her mouth opened in a feral fang-filled snarl as she launched herself at me. Her blade was little more than a barely visible blur, and she struck with such power that even when I blocked the blow it nearly knocked me over. Evidently rage had pushed her to new heights.
She flew at me blade-first. Forgotten was the beautiful dancing whirl. Now all that remained was primal ferocity unleashed. If anything she was faster and stronger than before, and without a predictable technique to counter, I quickly found myself overwhelmed by the furious assault. It was all I could do just to hold her at bay, and even that did not last long.
Rarity batted my blades aside with a single massive sweep of Nightfall, then caught me off guard when she rammed her hoof straight into my chest. Normally punching somepony in the thickest part of their armor would have little effect, but between her rage and her enhanced vampiric strength, she hit with enough force to send me flying. My back slammed into the trunk of the palace, hitting it hard enough to crack the crystal, and for a moment, the world vanished into a haze of white-hot pain.
For a time I could scarcely recall where I was and what had just happened, with only a distant part of my brain registering that I was on the ground and that was probably not a good thing. I wondered why until Shadow’s spirit shouted into my mind. Get up! End this quickly, for that blow opened wounds within thee.
I grunted in reply, my mind snapping back into focus. I forced myself onto shaky hooves as the Armor blocked away the pain that must be wracking my body. Rarity stomped her way towards me. Her features had shifted into harsh and angular, her fangs showing themselves as the beast within her took over. Rarity swept Nightfall at my head, and I barely ducked out of the way. The sword sliced right into the crystal of palace trunk. A brief kick to the tree freed the blade, and she immediately returned to stalking to me.
I continued falling back to try and let the vampire’s fury wear her out, but the Spirit quickly pointed out the flaw in that plan. “She is undead. She will not tire. Thine only options are to destroy her or flee to safety.”
I cursed under my breath as I realized she was right. That last hit must have rattled me if I had forgotten that fact. I triggered another blast of light to buy a bit of time and space to recover. However, this time the vampire was ready for me, and Rarity swept Nightfall in front of her, the blade creating a sheet of pure darkness in its wake. The darkness shielded the vampire from the light, and Rarity was free to continue her attack. Shadows trailed behind Nightfall as she closed on me.
If there was any hope of winning I needed to do something to change the nature of the battle. I seized upon my most obvious advantage and spread my wings, taking to the sky.
Rarity was not about to let me have my way, and she leapt into the air after me. Once more her supernatural vigor caught me by surprise as she performed a mid-air flip and landed on my back. The addition of an extra pony’s worth of weight nearly drove me from the sky, and likely would have done so if her next moves had not given me even worse problems. Her legs wrapped around my barrel in a vice-like grip, then with a sudden violent jerk she pulled my head to the side. For a moment I wondered if she intended to snap my neck, but then I remembered the precise nature of my opponent.
A second later I felt her fangs against my throat, and sharp flash of pain as they pierced my skin. I had expected to feel a mixture of pain and revulsion, but instead a sort of dull haze settled over my mind. I dimly recalled reading that a vampire’s bite dulled the senses of their victim so they would not resist, but it was a struggle to remember exactly why that particular fact was relevant to my current situation. A sort of pleasant numbness spread through my body, and not even the rapid approach of the ground and we plummeted towards it seemed like cause for concern.
“DESCENDANT!” Shadow’s voice roared in my ears. “Do not let the vampire win!”
My mind snapped back into focus, but my body still felt weak and sluggish. How much of that was on account of blood loss and how much from the pacifying effect of the bite was hard to say, and not important in any case. I could not break the vampire’s hold in my weakened state, but she was quite focused upon her meal and paid me no mind beyond holding me in place. As we plummeted towards the ground I shifted one of my blades until it lay against the weaker chainmail covering her belly, and shifted the angle of our fall to ensure that she would hit first.
We slammed into the ground, and despite the fact that Rarity took the brunt of the impact, my whole body spasmed with pain. With the extra momentum from our impact the red-hot blade cut through the chainmail covering her belly, and then bit deep into the flesh beneath it. The stench of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils, followed by a screech of pain from the vampire.
As quickly as she could manage, she wrenched herself free of the burning wing blade and scrambled away from me like a wounded animal. The vampire lay on the ground, whimpering pathetically as she clutched her forelegs over her belly. Bright red blood that was almost certainly mine leaked out between her limbs. Evidently my aim had been true, and I had pierced her belly.
I fumbled with a weak and unresponsive hoof until I finally managed to get it to my neck to check the wound. Between the power of the Armor and the dulling effects of the vampire’s venom the world was little more than a haze. My hoof came away bloodied, but not quite as much as I had expected. That was either a great relief, or extremely worrying.
Thou hast lost quite a bit more blood than thou canst see, and thy reflexes are still dulled, Shadow informed me. See thyself to a medicae quickly once the battle is done. I will do what I can to give thee enough strength for that.
“I cannot let her win.” I growled to myself as I tried to force myself to my hooves, but despite my best efforts and whatever Shadow’s spirit was doing to help me, I could not manage the task. Perhaps I could have if there was time to recover from the aftereffects of my crash landing and the vampire’s bite, but time was a precious resource.
That became all the clearer as Rarity hissed and slowly pushed herself up on shaky legs. The gaping slash across her belly would have disabled any living foe, if not slain them outright. As it was, her face was tight with pain and her mane was badly disheveled. At least I could take some comfort in the fact that she looked nearly as bad as I felt.
Her eyes flicked to where Nightfall had fallen, mixed in amongst the rubble from her attempted demolition of Twilight’s castle. She took a step towards her weapon, only to cry out and collapse to the ground. It seemed even elder vampires had limits to what their bodies could take. The loss of the blood she had taken from me doubtless played a key role in that. At least both of us were too badly wounded to continue
Rarity lifted up a single shaky hoof and waved at her skeleton minions. For a moment I feared she would have them finish me off out of sheer spite, but instead they tended to their mistress. She let out another shriek as the two skeletons lifted her up and started walking towards the shield. As she retreated she tried to scream in defiance, but came out as a pathetic wheeze. “D-Don't think th-this is over! We're not—” She gasped as her skeletons jostled her while crossing the rough terrain. “N-not done yet!”
The last thing I wanted to do was let her escape, but I was in no position to do anything to stop her. It was all I could manage just to finally clamp a hoof down over the bite mark on my neck and apply enough pressure to stem any further blood loss. Eventually the vampire managed to recover enough to cast an invisibility spell over herself and her escorts. I could have pierced it using the Armor’s power, but to what end? I could hardly chase after her, and it might have distracted the spirit and drawn energy away from whatever she was doing to sustain me.
Thankfully my reinforcements finally arrived a minute later. Dozens of guards flew down to both of us and put a protective cordon around me and establish a perimeter around the hole blown into the side of the palace. I turned my head to the side and saw Speedy standing over me, his face tight with concern as he looked me over. “Medic! Captain, how bad are you hurt?”
“Internal bleeding, blood loss,” I rasped.
Speedy tried to hide it, but I could tell he was worried. “What the feather is taking you so long?!” he cried out as he waved the medics over. The two of them quickly began examining me, their technical jargon sounding like nothing but background noise. One of them removed my hoof and got to work treating the bite, while another tipped my head back before pouring a potion down my throat.
“Hang in there, Captain.” Speedy took my hoof in a claw and squeezed it. “You beat them back, and the palace is safe. We just need to get you to a doc and you’ll be fine, promise.”
He was right. Even if the vampire had escaped, her wounds would keep her out of the battle. I’d managed to stop her sappers before they could do any more damage to the palace, and our engineers were already hard at work bracing and stabilizing the damaged area. A distant part of me saw that the Twilight Guard had already gotten back to putting down a steady rate of fire, if not as thick as before, and the shield was holding. The other Rarity’s gambit had failed.
I could take some pride in that. I had done my duty. I smiled, feeling surprisingly content for a badly wounded mare who had very nearly bled out on the battlefield. “At least we—”
As if to mock my victory, a massive beam of green light hammered into the shield. There was a painful burst of light and with a deafening roar, the shield shattered completely. In the distant sky I saw a burning green figure hovering in the air: Rising Fire. The shield must have been weakened by all the skeletons throwing themselves at it, and Rising had given it the finishing blow. Doubtless helped by the fact that we had thrown all our reinforcements into stopping Rarity’s sneak attack.
Had that been her plan all along? If Rarity’s attack succeeded, the palace would fall. If it failed, we would be so busy stopping her we would neglect our frontal defenses. It made a sickening amount of sense.
Speedy stared at the empty space the shield had occupied as the undead began surging towards us. Thankfully training overcame shock within moments. “Fall back! Fall back to the palace! Protect the breach!” He stood and began frantically waving ponies into position. “Don’t stand around gawking! Get the Captain onto a stretcher and back into the palace! Move move move!”
My vision swirled as the medics lifted me onto a stretcher. We needed to get moving and fast. The undead were coming, and I was not sure we could stop them.