“Move faster!” The baron ordered, pushing his team of ponies deeper into the forest. The two mages, though bickering between each other, were pushed forward by the dutiful bodyguard.
“You idiot! The entire camp knows we’re here now!” the Mage fumed.
The artillerist merely offered a contemptuous glare. “They knew we were here. They had an ambush planned. There’s no way that’s an accident.”
The Baron had other thoughts. It was possible, he surmised, that somepony had read the tome and knew they were going to be there. It was equally possible that if someone had read the tome, that there were going to be other ambushes further along.
Of course, if someone had read the tome, they would know better than to lead him and his party directly to the book, and the place he needed to use it.
“Stay quiet,” the Baron ordered, and the bodyguard enforced it with a quick hit to the gut with a club that he hung next to his scabbard. “We never know who’s coming up behind us.”
The creaking of wood and the croak of animals in the dark echoed behind them, leaving the party of five unicorns otherwise in silence. The Baron especially kept his ears open for any sign of pursuing enemies. After a moment, he turned to the others, “It seems we’re not being followed. Now, we need to move quickly and quietly if there are ponies out there looking for us, then we need to avoid them at all costs. Now move, quietly.”
The mages grumbled but obeyed. Moving forward as they tried to navigate the forested darkness. They passed over root and underbrush, moving beneath the canopy.
A half an hour passed as they moved, then another hour, at their slow, nearly creeping pace. They crawled through the underbrush, despite the mumbling and complaining of the mages, though each time they brought it up, they were silenced by a quick, and painful blow to the head by the bodyguard.
Still, it became obvious that the stealthy approach was grating on the artillerist’s nerves most of all. His face screwed up in frustration with every minute that passed. “This is ridiculous,” he finally hissed, before the bodyguard hit him again. “It’s true! We’re crawling in the dark, pretending that there’s someone out there who can see us. It’s ridiculous, and I’m not going to stand it any longer!”
The artillerist stood tall amidst the underbrush, yelling as he did. “Even if somepony finds us, we have the power of magic with us, we can destroy anyone who comes against us!”
“Get down!” the Baron growled, and the bodyguard gave another blow to the artillerist’s legs.
The artillerist buckled, dropping as his legs went out from under him, just as a beam of burning red light shot just above him, grazing the hairs of his mane. The beam continued, slamming into a tree further down the way, before erupting in an explosion of light and fire.
“Scatter!” the mage yelled, and the Baron’s party quickly split up.
The Mage rushed behind another tree, searching for cover. Already, his mind was at work, trying to determine where the attack came from. The beam came from a northerly direction, but, more worryingly, he couldn’t be sure of where.
He knew that his attackers must be coming from the north, but because this was Equestria, the chances of facing a mixed unit increased dramatically. There was a good chance that pegasi were sneaking in the canopy above them, hovering just under the branches for an ambush.
The mage glanced up, searching the darkness above him for any sign of additional attackers.
Another second passed, before another magical blast ripped through the underbrush. The mage glanced up and watched the north side light up as an explosion rocked their path, originating from the opposite side.
Were there two mages? One on each side of the path? Why would they keep the mages so far apart? There’s too much risk of friendly fire that way. Or did they somehow know that the group would be coming along this path? If so, how?
He thought about it for another second or so, before a third blast shot up from behind them.
From behind? Did we pass someone? How? Did they have an illusionist? An illusionist that had a very powerful destruction spell was technically possible here in this lawless land of Equestria, but certainly not back in Unicornia. Still, the idea could be plausible, but unlikely.
Another beam shot at them from the darkness before them, passing by the mage within a hoof’s distance, before an explosion rocked the area behind them.
Ahead as well? Did they not care for each other’s lives? The way the mages had to be set up for this kind of attack made no sense. Even if they had perfectly predicted where the Baron’s party was coming from, attacking like this meant that they’d be constantly in danger of attacking each other and...and...and why did he feel so tired?
The wizard glanced down and blinked when he saw the drooping, withering plants in front of him. He blinked, before pushing the dying foliage aside.
A rock stared back up at him. More specifically, a rock with a rune carefully printed on its face. The mage blinked as he saw it before the gears in his head began to turn. Earth pony witchcraft? Do they have a runewitch? Then...then that’s how they’re doing it! They didn’t predict where we’d come from, they just laid magical traps.
These Equestrians had no scruples. Using such witchcraft.
He turned to face the general direction of the Baron and sent a magical message across the underbrush between them. “They’re using rune magic to make traps! We need to leave before the mages get here and begin their assault.”
“Move forward! They’re coming for us, we must move!”
A brilliant beam of pure death shot by, cleanly cutting a perfect hole through a tree, before eating away at the wood. The tree decayed before the mage’s eyes, and he barely had the time to leap out of the way of falling tree.
It crashed to the ground, splintering before the spell’s decay effect dissolved the tree entirely, and the mage quickly picked himself up and re-tracing the latest beam’s path. That spell was not like the others, which meant that either the runewitch had multiple spells stored in his runes, or…
He threw up a shield just as another beam struck him, before countering with his own spell. A bolt of lightning shot back into the shadows, along the same path as the beam before it. The crack of thunder shook the trees, and a figure leaped away from the underbrush.
“I’ve found him!”
He fired another spell after the white unicorn, but she had already disappeared.
“Oh, you’re not getting away from me,” the mage growled with a smirk.
“Leave her!” the Baron yelled. “We need to push forward, she’s just a distraction.”
A distraction? “She’s a powerful mage, she could come after us!”
“We need to move!” he ordered again, as the bodyguard leveled a glance at the mage, his club rising threateningly.
“But she’s—” the mage began, only for the club to raise slightly higher. The mage glared down at the simple pony, before acquiescing, following the order with a grumble under his breath.
The Baron forced them on, creeping once again through the underbrush while trying to avoid the glare of the unicorn that stalked them. Additionally, now that he knew what they were up against, the Mage kept his nose to the ground, searching for any sign of rune magic.
It was to his immense credit that he found a rune moments before it exploded in his face. Flame and fire erupted in the underbrush, sending the ponies flying through the air. The mage stood with his head ringing, reeling on his hooves, and barely had time to recognize the fact that a white unicorn was charging him.
He leaped back, barely dodging the mare’s—because she was very obviously a mare now that she was close—glowing hoof.
As the mage stumbled back, he quickly came to a sudden and terrible realization. His opponent was well trained. She recognized that he had a shield that he could counter with, so she switched to a touch-spell. It was a classic stratagem of spell warfare.
She knew what she was doing, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, she had already disappeared.
He prepared another shield spell, hoping that the unicorn would fall back and—
A rock came flying toward his head, slipping past the shield without a problem, before the rune on it erupted into pure, magical force.
Blown backward again, the mage landed and rolled. He cursed under his breath, and got his hooves back under him. This was getting ridiculous, this mage and her witch needed to be stopped.
Wraith slipped into the thick foliage beneath the trees once again. The little throwing stones that the Kid had made her were working like a charm. Spell shields couldn’t stop a projectile, and projectile shields didn’t stop spells. The rocks offered her the perfect opportunity to switch it up at any moment.
The mage and the artillerist both seemed to be having a rough go of it. The former already seemed frustrated by her skills, and the latter was blowing up chunks of the forest in response. Still, she lost sight of both the Baron and his bodyguard in the chaos, but she was sure the Kid could stay out of their way.
Chasing after those two was not viable, even if the Baron was the priority target. Leaving these two spellcasters on their own would only ensure that they’d be ambushed from behind, and, in her experience, a fireball hitting someone’s behind is incredibly effective.
Of course, Wraith was also sure that the Ms. Guard Goldilocks could take on both of the unicorns on her own. Keeping these two out of the picture seemed to be the greatest priority at the moment.
The artillerist shot another fireball into the forest, destroying more trees as the fire consumed the plant life around him. The poor little stallion was out of his element here, the lack of visibility made his incredible destructive power next to useless, while any spell powerful enough to destroy his cover quickly would likewise blow him up.
As it stood, the stallion was either brilliant in how he used lower-power spells to try to clear up the battlefield, or incredibly stupid in his insistence to continue to cast spells at point-blank range. At this rate, she could almost count on him to kill himself.
She tossed another of the Kid’s exploding rocks at him for good measure before refocusing on the mage. This stallion knew what he was doing, though he probably didn’t have an answer for Maple’s rocks, she could tell he was trying to piece one together. She’d watch enough ponies die to recognize the wild, but not a panicked movement of the mage’s eyes to know he was thinking, and a thinking mage was a dangerous thing.
She slipped between the vines, bushes, and briars that covered the forest floor, hardly disturbing a leaf as she went. The mage glanced about, less wild now, a sign which she could interpret to mean he had a plan now.
She smirked to herself, but it was probably not good enough. She carefully took a rock, and moved it beside her, coming around the mage to hit him from the opposite side of the clearing. With some careful concentration, catapulted it straight at his head.
He spun, throwing up a projectile shield that blocked the pebble before it exploded and the moment it did, Wraith pounced. Firing a spell as she moved, she landed hard and slid across the clearing, while her spell reflected off the spell shield that the mage conjured.
“There you are!” he growled.
Wraith threw another stone, and the mage quickly threw up his other shield, before she cast another spell.
The mage raised the spell shield again before Wraith tossed her last stone and disappeared back into the foliage. As she thought, the mage could barely keep up with both shields. He had no way to attack when on the defensive, which suited her just fine. Keeping him on the defensive would force him to expend stamina on constantly casting shield spells.
Unfortunately, she ran out of stones. She’d have to restock on stones if she was going to keep that pressure up. Hopefully, the kind has a few more—
Her world flipped as her ears rang. The explosion of heat and light sent her sprawling, before she hit the ground, slamming into the roots with her temple, and she went out like a light.
“There you are!” the artillerist growled, as he loomed over her. “You’ve given me a lot of trouble.”
“Brass! Brass is that you?”
“Over here, Spark,” The artillerist growled. “I found her.”
“Finally,” the mage, Spark said, before he joined the artillerist. “She did well, I will say. Her little distraction almost had us.”
“Almost had you, perhaps,” The artillerist, Brass, replied. “I managed to handle her quite well.”
Spark glared at him. “She left you alone. She very obviously discerned which of us was the greater threat and focused her attention on that threat.”
The artillerist glared at him. “Regardless, I think it’s best if we deal with her now.”
“For once, Brass, I agree,” the mage said before he drew the dagger at his side.
“No!” came a cry from the underbrush, before a colt, just on the edge of stallionhood rushed into the clearing. “You stay…” his voice faltered suddenly as he faced the two unicorns before he forced it to cry out “You stay away from her!”
Brass laughed. “And what are you going to do about, mudpony?”
Spark, meanwhile, had his eyes go wide before Maple answered with a storm. “Blizzaga!” he cried as a sudden ice storm tore through clearing, snuffing out the fires around them and knocking Brass off his hooves.
Spark barely held on, grabbing onto the dirt below him with his knife, unwittingly ducking into the calmer area of the spell.
As the icy wind subsided, Maple rushed forward, bucking at the mage wildly, before grabbing Wraith and pulling her away.
Spark reeled for a moment, before recovering, and cast a spell in return. A beam shot across the clearing, and struck the earth pony in the leg, going suddenly limp beneath him. Maple tumbled forward, landing hard as he released the unconscious body of Wraith.
“I knew there was a witch here,” Spark said, “but I would have hated to know that he was so young. It only makes the fact that you must be purged all the more tragic.”
“Fira!” Maple yelled as the pendant on his necklace exploded into flame.
Spark leaped to the side as the fireball shot past him, before another beam of paralyzing magic at Maple’s face.
“No, no more witchcraft out of you,” Spark said, panting as the spell stunned him. “No more. I will not have you cast your vile craft in my presence anymore. You two have tired me out, and I am done with you.”
Maple sat up, his head leaning listlessly to the side. “Fundagah!” he said, only for lightning to erupt out of another rune.
Lightning shot through the mage, and he yelled in agony as his entire being felt like it caught fire.
Pushing himself to his hooves once more, Maple pulled Wraith onto his back and ran deeper into the darkness.
Spark convulsed on the ground, writhing in pain, before Brass appeared, coming in from the bushes. “Spark, Spark, where is she?”
Spark didn’t answer him but weakly reached out with a hoof.
“Spark, tell me where she went!”
The mage reached out, and his mouth moved weakly.
“What?” Brass asked, getting closer.
Spark whispered again.
“What?” Brass said, getting closer again.
“You’re an idiot, Brass,” Spark said before his spell took effect.
Brass gasped, as he felt the effects, his strength faded, his energy sapped, and every ounce of strength passed from him.
“You are such an idiot, Brass,” Spark repeated as his wounds healed with the help of his vampiric touch. “Too much of one. You’re more of a liability than an asset at this rate. In fact, the best you have to offer me is whatever energy you have left.”
Brass gasped.
“Oh, trust me, you are far outmatched here, Brass. For a brief moment, I thought that runecasting needed a vocal component, and I nearly paid with my life. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Brass gasped again, before falling to his hooves.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” Spark said. “Now if you excuse me, I have a witch to hunt.”
Maple limped into the underbrush of the Darkwood, though with the fires and the threat of dawn at his back, he would not call it dark for much longer. Running as fast as three legs could carry him, and hoping that his head would not snap off as it bounced wildly around his shoulders.
Wraith faded in and out of unconsciousness, asking panicked questions before falling back asleep. Maple hoped that it wasn’t a sign of long-lasting damage, but he wasn’t sure. More importantly, he hoped that he could lead the mages back into his protective ring of stones, where he placed enough traps to keep them both safe long enough for the plan to work.
His numb leg caught a root, and they both went sprawling.
Maple quietly cursed himself from his numb lips, and stood again, trying to steady himself and move when he was still down a leg.
Movement from behind caught his attention, and he glanced up at a small spectral bird that soared around him, before shooting back into the forest behind them.
That had to be the mage.
Pulling Wraith back onto his back, he ran again, forward toward his safe zone, trying to beat the mage behind him there.
A helix of magic shot above him, just clearing his back as he leaped into a sudden, shallow ravine.
“You’re not escaping me, Witch,” Spark said. “I am fresh, and ready. You’ve already spent too much casting your spells to keep up with me.”
“Well, that’s true for one of us at least,” Maple thought, looking at the still-unconscious body of Wraith.
Maple climbed up the other end of the ravine, eating up time as the mage continued to close the distance. “You’re not going to be able to win,” the mage said, haughty from his position. “Your sorcery will not save you!”
Maple was still going to try.
Wraith came back in. “Whu-what’s going on?”
“Weer bean’n cha’ed!” Maple said as he ducked behind a rock, before another spell shot above them, cleaving the top off a tree.
Wraith glanced back. “He’s still on us?”
“I donth know how,” Maple confirmed.
Wraith growled before she fired a beam of destruction back at him, fire crackling as it eagerly licked at the air.
A yelp of surprise sounded before the mage laughed. “So the real mage is awake now too? Then you’ll both have to die.”
A sudden burst of light from behind them and the pop of teleportation were the only warning the two had as the mage appeared in front of them suddenly. He roared as he brought down another spell, one that caused the ground under them to collapse.
Maple tried to leap out of the way, but his numbed leg could not get under him, and he and his charge both dropped into the pit below them.
He landed hard, and Wraith lay next to him, likewise winded.
“No magic can save you from me,” the mage said before his horn lit up, and the walls around them began to close in.
Wraith leaped into action, casting a spell that shot forward toward the mage, causing the walls to falter for a moment.
That was all she needed as she jumped up, between the walls, and climbed the hole, before slamming full body into the mage.
Maple heard the sound of the struggle from down in the pit, cries, and grunts of pain and exhaustion as beams of magic shot past the opening of the pit.
For a second, he lay at the bottom of the pit, until his consciousness suddenly screamed at him to get out there and help.
He rushed forward, trying to climb, with only one good back leg to push him. He grabbed and pulled, struggling to crest the pit when Wraith’s voice screamed in pain.
Maple redoubled his efforts, trying to climb faster. He pushed and pulled, and struggled.
“You dirty sympathizer. I doubt even re-education would save you,” Spark said.
Maple’s hoof dug deep into the earth at the lip of the pit.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a witch to kill.”
Maple pulled himself over the ledge.
And found himself staring into the eyes of the mage.
“Like I said, witch,” he panted, and pulled his dagger. “No magic can save you.”
Maple watched, as the world seemed to slow. The dagger, almost shining in the firelight and the dawn’s glow came up, above the mage’s head. He hung on the ledge, completely defenseless. He vaguely noticed a cut on his hoof, something he must have gotten while running. The rest of clearing is quiet, though the scars of the battle, the destroyed tree trunks and the crushed underbrush all remained. Maple could also barely see any movement in the clearing. Mostly, it was only the long, dagger-blade of the mage, and the galloping form of Wraith.
“No!”
The dagger bit deep, as it plunged into Wraith’s side, and both unicorns went sprawling sideways as she finished her tackle.
“Waith!” Maple cried, tongue still numb in his mouth as he finally clambered over the ledge.
Spark pushed Wraith off of him and drew his knife from her side. “Stop getting in my way!”
Maple barely realized that he was already running ahead, but he did know exactly what he was going to do. He began to trace the rune in the air and whispered the words under his breath before he collided with the mage.
Rune magic hinges on the transfer of energy. A rune needs and consumes the energy around it to power a spell. Many times, the energy comes in the form of the life of plants or small animals, all used to fuel the magic.
However, there is a rune that causes energy to flow the other way. This is what Maple traced into the mage’s fur using the blood on his hoof.
The effect was immediate.
The mage’s grip weakened, as Maple stood up, and he began to pant as he lay there. “Don’t—don’t think that’s—don’t think I…” he trailed off as he tried to raise his hooves.
The plants around him began to grow, the broken bushes filling with life, and the cut trees sprouting new branches. Meanwhile, the unicorn grew bags under his eyes, and his voice turned into a rasp. “I’m not...I’m not…”
The clearing began to flourish as the plant life was re-invigorated by the unicorn’s life. His cheeks turned sallow before they began to wrinkle, and his skin stretched over his face.
And that’s when Maple turned away, unable to look the mage in the eye as he was consumed.
Instead, his eyes went to Wraith, who lay still on the floor.
“Misth Waith?” he said, tongue still numb, as he came up beside her. “Misth Waith?”
“Hey, Kid,” she responded her voice a whisper.
“Are you going tah be awright?”
“No, Kid. The wound’s deep, and I’m bleeding too much. I’ve seen enough death to know…”
“I’m...I’m so sowwy.”
Wraith smirked. “Don’t be. You’ll be alright, and you know what?”
“What?”
“You’re more important right now, and I feel just fine about that.”