Midnight loomed over them.
Crickets chirped as the team of ponies gathered their supplies. Nearby, the large commander’s tents sat silent with the exception of the occasional snore. They did they’re best to move as silently as they could to move out of the camp without waking anyone, but they did find themselves forced to speak with the guards on the way out.
Still, by the time midnight came, they were out, and heading into the Darkwood Forest. The moment they walked out of earshot of the camp, Mouse began to give orders. “Alright, Storm, Cut, you two will scout out the path to the Castle. We’ll make our stops along the way. Everyone remember your posts?”
“Storm and I will stick to the edge of the forest,” Cut recited. “We’re both experienced enough with the Darkwood, and good enough scouts that we’ll see the Baron’s men coming, and make enough noise to get Wraith’s attention.”
“The kid and I, meanwhile, will be between you and the tree,” Wraith said, motioning to Maple. “After you soften them up, and let us know where they’re coming from, we hit them with as many spells and magic we can. If they’re the opening act, we’re the hammer.”
Golden nodded. “After them, I’m going in. With luck, Maple and Wraith will have taken care of most of the incoming force, and I will take clean up. By the time they get to me, there shouldn’t be anypony else.”
Mouse nodded. “And that just leaves me. I’ll be guarding the Tome, staying as far away from the Tree, and the Baron’s warpath as possible, without leading him away from the woods. I’m the target, and the baint, but as long as the Baron does not get the book, then we win, and that’s the important thing.”
The ponies nodded, before they made their way deeper into the forest.
Baron Jet stood on the hillside, and glared down at the camp. Somehow, beyond all reason, the Equestrians had brought a Legion to the Darkwood Forest, and set up camp not far from where the Tome lay hidden.
He stared down at the pegasopolian castra, and silently cursed them. He knew that the Equestrians would bring some kind of military force, but he never expected a full Legion to come down. His own force wouldn’t be able to overcome them in a day, and he couldn’t let the Tome slip away, not when he was so close to the Summer solstice. He would need to reach the Tree by noon, and there was no way he could get his army to beat through the Legion on the opposite hill, nearly half-a-mile away.
The better question, was how did the thief who took the Tome convince the Equestrians to bring a Legion?
“My lord?” his bodyguard, a large but dumb earth pony grumbled.
Jet sighed. “Have the army attack at dawn; you, the team and I will need to move under the cover of darkness.”
“Yes sir,” the bodyguard said, before he slipped away.
The Baron, meanwhile, glared back down on the camp, before heading into his own tent. He muttered darkly to himself, as he stepped into the refined shelter, passing by his modest wine rack, as he made his way to the armory.
He perused the selection of weapons and armor, before slowly choosing a single rapier. The enchanted weapon floated up by his side, directed by the faintest push of his telekinetic grasp. The sword moved carefully, its potential for precision obvious in it’s gentle movements, the perfect tool for delivering his wrath.
No one was going to stand between him and the Tome. Not now. Not when he spent so long. He’d have his revenge against Queen Silver, and nothing was going to stop him.
“My Lord?” the bodyguard said, returning, and standing at the door of the Baron’s tent.
He glanced back, at the five ponies gathered in front of him. He had the Knight Brilliant Crystal, the only pony whose name he knew of the five, dressed in his armor, and armed with lance and sword. Sir Brilliant stood with grim determination, his face betraying no emotion as he stood at attention.
The next down the line was a mage, a wizard that the Baron had worked very hard on ignoring. The pompous unicorn glared down at the end of his nose, offering no words as he stood, not quite at attention, but neither slouching. He tried his best to exude a noble atmosphere, but the Baron saw right through the desperate attempt to appear powerful. Still, he would suffice.
Next down the line was the artillerist. Another mage, though specializing in siege tactics and unleashing a massive amount of firepower from a long range. While the later would not be as useful, the Baron knew that there was some kind of fortress in the forest that guarded the Tree he needed, so a siege specialist was certainly welcome.
After him came the Scout, one of the army’s lightly-armored fighters, skilled with a bow, as well as a short sword, and sneaking past enemy lines. Supposedly, he was one of the best they had, if his bodyguard was to be believed. His skill would be incredibly useful for this mission.
Finally, there was the bodyguard himself, the only pony among them who wasn’t a unicorn. The bodyguard came from a family of pony that had been in service to his own for centuries, though he was the first born as an earth pony.
The Baron had decided many years ago not to hold that against him. “You five, I need you all to come with me.”
They nodded, and followed behind, without saying a word.
The Baron strode forward in the darkness, slowly approaching the Darkwood Forest, doing their best to go around the Castra without being noticed. So far, it seemed as if no one had notices, mostly because of the Scout’s excellent work before hand.
They made their way across the valley without any trouble, and entered the forest without even being slowed down. “Scout, do you have our heading?” the Baron asked as he glanced at the lightly-armored unicorn.
The scout dutifully checked the magical compass that the Baron had given him, powered by a large emerald gem at its point. “Yes, sir! The target is East Northeast of here.”
“Wonderful,” the Baron replied. “Lead the way, we have much to do tonight.”
They pushed forward, carefully. The team of unicorns picked their way through the underbrush, avoiding any major obstacles, and doing their best to go unnoticed. They barely made a sound as they passed, with the exception of the occasional crack of a twig, or the shuffle of leaves that did not go twenty feet beyond the trees.
That's what made the sudden battlecry all the more shocking.
An armored pegasus leapt from behind a tree, swinging a blade from above and down on the scout, before another pegasus shot out from the dark, carrying a short sword aimed directly for the Knight’s neck.
Both of them lived only because of speed, and thick armor respectively. The pegasi shot back into the darkness and underbrush, before they shot out again, swinging blades at anyone they could.
The Baron’s rapier rang as it deflected an attack, bending back as the weight of the blow hit it. He silently thanked the enchantment placed on the blade, before spinning around, trying to face his foe as they fell into the underbrush once more.
Another swooping attack would have ended him there, if his bodyguard hadn’t come up from behind, catching the pegasus’ blade just before it reached the Baron’s throat.
The rest of the Baron’s team quickly gathered together and turned, each facing outward, where the pegasi attacked from the shadows.Their weapons were up and ready, but now silence echoed around them, and neither of their attackers appeared again.
A second passed, then a minute, before the artillerist growled in anger. “You cowards!” he growled, “Let’s see how you stand to this!”
The mage yelled, and a raised a hoof to hold him back, but the artillerist had already completed his spell. A fireball as wide as a pony was tall roared to life, scorching and crackling anything around as it consumed the plants and animals that hid in the underbrush. A flash of brilliant, orange-hued light nearly blinded them, and more than half of them were forced to turn their eyes away from the blast that tore through the woods. Trees snapped from the heat, trucks hissing as the liquid in them boiled away, leaves withered, and yells were muffled.
When the fireball finally winked out of existence, a massive, scroced gouge in the earth and a dozen or so small, residual fires remained as the only evidence of the spell.
“You idiot!” The mage yelled. “Now the entire camp will know we’re here!”
“As if they don’t!” the artillerist yelled back.
A pegasus shot across the clearing, blade coming up for the Baron’s throat once more, before the bodyguard moved again, coming to his defense in the blink of an eye. The bodyguard’s thick blade rang in defiance against the attacker’s sword, but it couldn’t come to his defense as the other pegasus rushed in.
Sir Brilliant blocked the second attacker, and both of the stared at each other, eyes wide. “You!” they both cried.
Another attack from the other Pegasus forced the bodyguard to come back to the Lord’s defense, before the knight and the pegasus he was fighting was forced back. They slammed into each other again, slashing with blades and punching with hooves as they tried to stop the other one.
“You should have stayed lost, whelp!” Brilliant yelled.
“You can’t stop me, Brilliant! I will avenge Steel!”
“You couldn’t even if you tried!”
The second pegasus shot forward again, slamming into the lightly-armored unicorn of the scout, before yelling. “Storm! Storm, what are you doing?”
The Scout’s bow suddenly shot upward, catching the pegasus in the throat, before throwing him to the ground. The Scout pounced on him, using his bow to choke the attacker. “Go! Go! We’ll hold them off!”
“Run!” Jet ordered, before pushing the wizards forward. “Run!”
Storm stared down the Knight.
Storm could never forget that face, no matter how many years passed, or how age changed it. He knew that face.
Storm swung his blade around, trying to catch the knight in the unarmored temple, but the Knight knew the maneuver as well as he did. The Knight’s sword caught the blade, saving himself from the attack with just inches.
Storm hated that face. He hated it perhaps more than his master did, in fact, Storm knew he did.
He struck again, trying to break down the Knight’s guard, only for Brilliant to counter and make his own attack.
“You’re not even half of the fighter he was,” the Knight growled.
Storm answered with a headbutt. “I only need to be a quarter of what he was to stop you.”
They came together again, the Knight taking full advantage of his armored body, taking hits to his shoulders and side where the solid steel plates protected him. Storm, meanwhile only wore a handful of plates, as the pegasi traditionally did, leaving large sections of his body vulnerable, yet more maneuverable. Forced to dodge and parry, Storm was quickly put on the back leg, while Brilliant became more aggressive, taking hits that Storm could not afford.
“Sir Steel should never have taken you in,” Brilliant answered back. “All it did was doom you.”
“And if he knew what kind of monster you’d become he might have finished the job he started!”
Brilliant’s demeanor changed in an instant, his face went from smug and confident to furious in the blink of an eye. “He was a murder! He slaughtered everyone!”
“He was the best pony I ever knew!” Storm cried, making his next attack.
“Then you keep the company of craven killers!”
“If he was wiping you off the face of the earth, then that makes him a hero!”
Brilliant rushed forward, and brought his blade down, smashing through Storm’s defense. His sword hoof buckled, and the knight’s own sword bit deep into his shoulder. “I took my divine right of vengeance! I took the life he ruined back! He molded me into a monster!”
Storm roared, as he tore free from the sword. Steel flashed as their blades met again, and storm pushed free before attacking again.
“I have seen worse monsters than you do better than you can dream!” Storm said. “I have seen murderers rise to selfless heros that would sacrifice everything for a single change at redemption! You are nothing compared to him! Nothing but a failure!”
“And what does he know of what I’ve been through? What I’ve suffered? Your master killed my entire family! I was left alone! I had nothing! What can he know of what I’ve been through!”
Storm slashed against the knight once more, pushing him back, a deep growl escaping his throat. “Suffering is not yours alone!”
“He caused it, he knew it, and he stood before me for justice, just like the murderer deserved!”
“He had more honor and courage in his hoof, than you have in your entire body!”
Strike after strike filled the air, blow after blow forced aside, as the two ponies fought each other, fury burning in each other’s eyes.
“It’s no surprise that a murderer would extol the virtues of a murderer,” Brilliant growled.
“You cut Steel down, in cold blood!”
“He offered himself to me! He knew I would hunt him down to the very ends of the world! He gave himself up to me, because he knew that he would never rest again!”
“He gave himself up to atone!” Storm yelled back. “He didn’t need to run, didn’t need to come to you, but he chose to anyway!”
“No coward would have faced me!”
“He was no coward!” Storm yelled.
The Knight’s blade came down again, and dug into Storm’s side, digging deep. “He was a coward and a fool. He faced me in combat and died. What’s more, you seem likely to join him.”
Storm brought his blade around, and Brilliant pulled his blade out of the new wound, to block.
Storm’s vision swam as his blow hit the knight’s sword, his blood seeping out of his wounds. “He was no coward.”
Brilliant stared down at him. “When I killed Sir Steel, he asked me to spare you. I honored that until today, now that you’ve faced me. Today you die, and you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Storm glanced up, trying to see Brilliant’s face as he stared down at him. The firelight cast dark shadows that made his already darkening vision nearly impossible to see him, but Storm knew he was there, glaring down at him.
“Farewell, whelp,” Brilliant said before an arrow seemed to grow from his neck.
The knight’s eyes widened as he glanced down at the arrow, before falling over, only a gurgle escaping his lips.
Cut stood ten feet away, the scout’s bow in his hooves. He coughed as he tried to regain his breath again, before tossing the bow down beside the strangled body of the scout. “Have a...history there...Stormy…”
“Did...did you...did you just call me Stormy?” Storm asked, dropping his blade to hold onto his seeping wound. “Am I going...going to die knowing that the last thing...I heard was someone calling me ‘Stormy.’”
“Hey, no dying,” Cut gasped, before falling to his rump and drawing some bandages from a pouch on his belt. “Not yet, anyway. If anypony here is going to make a heroic sacrifice, then it’s going to be me.”
“You?” Storm asked. “What makes...what makes you think you get to make...that sacrifice?”
“It’s what we all do,” Cut said. “Hurricane’s Hundred are doomed to make those kinds of sacrifices.”
“Well, too bad,” Storm said. “I’m the one losing all the blood.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Cut said, before signing as he tied off Storm’s shoulder. “No, we’re going to live, Stormy.”
“Stop calling me Stormy.”
“You’ll have to make me stop.”
Storm laughed and sighed. “I guess I’ll have to live then, if only to beat you up later.”
“Yup. Right now, though, I’m just going to take a nap. That unicorn there had a mean grip.”
They sighed, staring off past the trees to an unseen horizon.
“I hope we make it out of here alive,” Cut sighed.
“I just hope this plan works.”