//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Welcome Home // Story: Shadow Flame (The War of Azgaren) // by Dranlu //------------------------------// Shadow Flame (The War of Azgaren) Chapter 4: Welcome Home It was the early morning on Azgaren, dew drops lightly kissed the ground. The day was gloomy, fog rolling through as thick as blankets and the sky as grey as forged steel. A squad of the evil princesses dark soldiers was patrolling a field when suddenly a strong female voice yelled "Golden sun! now!" The squad of soldiers immediately turned to the voice and charged, when they were able to get closer they saw 2 mares standing there one earth pony holding a huge sword smiling , the other a pegasi who was slightly knelt over her orange wings glowing. "Now!" shouted the earth pony. As she did the pegasi's wings flashed in a brilliant flare blinding the squad of soldiers. "Yeah! Let's do this!" Yelled the earth pony as she jumped into the air with a huge sword lifted above her head, she brought it down clear through one of the soldiers and began cleaving them down one by one. Some of the soldiers began to run, still blinded by the orange pegasi's attack. "Night Surfer pick off the stragglers!" yelled the mare with the sword. "Already on it Ritzia!" shouted back the voice of a male pegasi. One of the soldiers that was running got sky dived by the pegasi, as he landed on the soldier he quickly pulled out 2 daggers and stabbed them into his targets neck, killing him instantly. He turned and threw one of the daggers into another soldiers back, dropping him where he stood. "Ha-ha got em!" he exclaimed but his joy was short lived as he looked forward to see another squad incoming. Then he turned around and saw a soldier with a dual sided axe raised in the air about to come down on him. He quickly put out his wings and faded into the fog. "What the!!?" yelled Soldier as he looked around "Whew that was close, Thyme! Can you clean up this mess?" shouted Night Surfer, the pegasi who just vanished. The voice of a well-studied mare called back, "Alright you all had your fun now, let's finish this!" A white unicorn stepped out from the fog, her horn glowing with magic as she looked into the sky and said, "Now fall..." Just as she finished these words dozens of shining stars fell from the sky cutting and impaling the soldiers. The force of the attack also cleared the fog revealing the bloody battlefield. The mare with the huge sword had just cut the head off of the last surviving soldier. her massive sword was now covered with blood. Now that the fog was cleared everypony could see each other. Thyme a white unicorn with long silver hair, she wore half of it in a braid and let the other half fall free. She was the oldest of the group more mature and taller than the others. She had light purple eyes and her cutie mark was a waxing crescent moon with 3 stars around it. "Great job everypony, are you all ok?" she asked "Yeah! Yelled the mare holding the huge sword "Better than ever!" Her name was Ritzia she was a ball of pure fury and energy. She had a solid red mane, her coat was a very light grey. The most notable feature of her though was the huge sword she dragged around, she possessed unimaginable strength for it would take at least 10 strong stallions to lift that sword. Her cutie mark matched her weapon and personality, a sword with 3 wispy blue balls of energy surrounding it. "I'm fine" whispered Golden Sun the orange pegasi in a quiet voice. She was always pretty quit, she had a dark green mane that she wore tied up. She was the youngest pony in the group, her cutie mark a flash surrounded by darkness. Her special ability enabled her to take in power from the sun or moonlight and amplify the brightness through her wings causing a flare that could stun all surrounding forces. It was a useful trick. "Not even a scratch on me!" said Night Surfer the pegasi as he seemed to appear out of thin air. He was smiling as he wiped his hoof on his dark blue coat. He had a light blue mane that was accented by sea foam green in strands. His ability was that he could shift in and out of the visual light spectrum through balancing energy through his wings, enabling him to sneak around undetected. His cutie mark is a crescent moon with a cloud behind it. The group was rejoicing their victory over the 2 squads of soldiers when Golden Sun happened to notice from the corner of her eyes something falling from the sky. "Everypony look" she said quietly as she pointed at the object that was falling at high speeds. The group watched as the object crashed into a distant field with a loud explosion. They immediately noticed massive amounts of the dark soldiers moving onto the area. "Wow", said Thyme "Whatever that is they seem to have quite the interest in it, do you think we should investigate?" "Yeah we better check it out" said Night Surfer as he looked at Thyme "Do the trick?" She smiled "Yeah" she shot a beam of magic at Night Surfers wings and the group disappeared from site, still there just unseen from the combination of Thymes magic and Night Surfers skill. The group was approaching the crash site quickly, the 2 pegasi of the group carrying the others. Thyme being carried by Golden Sun and Ritzia by Night Surfer, her sword was dangling as she held it with one hoof, drops of blood were occasionally dripping off of it as the group flew towards their destination. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shadow and Sacred looked at each other as they were speeding towards Azgaren. They had been in space for what seemed like the length of at least 4 months. "Here we are! oh I can't wait for you to meet my mother and father!" shouted Sacred "It will be an honor" responded Shadow as they broke the atmosphere of the planet. Shadow and Sacred both used their magic to shield the meteor as it sped to the ground. Before they knew it they met the ground. Hard. The meteor crashed into the ground with force enough to kick dirt high into the air. Shadow and Sacred were fine, a bit shaken but fine. "Rough enough landing for you?" Shadow said jokingly. The 2 slowly climbed off the meteor to reveal that they were In the middle of a field surrounded by trees except for one path heading in front of them and one path behind. In the distance they could see a squad of soldiers rushing towards them. "Ah I'm sure that's my father's army here to greet us, they are very kind Shadow." Shadow looked forward with his magic to see that the squad had weapons drawn charging at them, they didn't look friendly, not only that Shadow turned around to see another squad running at them too. "Sacred hide by the meteor, I don't think these are the ponies you think they are." "Umm ok?" Sacred knelt down by the meteor hiding herself from the approaching armies that were now about a stone throw away from Shadow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The 4 ponies had reached the field to see that there was a flaming meteor in the ground and that one pony was standing in between 2 huge enemy forces charging at him. "Should we help him?" questioned Night Surfer "Given the numbers I don't think we would stand a chance" responded Thyme "Well we could at least try!" Shouted Ritzia "Shhhh we don't want them to hear us" said Golden Sun in a whimper. While the group was talking both groups merged onto the pony seeming to overtake him in a matter of seconds. "See, sadly we couldn't have done anything " said Thyme "Wait look!" shouted Night Surfer The spot where the pony was standing began to glow red, brighter and brighter until an eruption of fire exploded into the air obliterating at least a quarter of the army in seconds. A voice rang out that caught the attention of everypony. He said, "RUN SACRED!" The group saw a light tan pony emerge from behind the meteor and all looked at each other in shock. Thyme was the first to speak "Th THAT'S THE PRINCESS! We have to fight now! No matter the cost!" The group rushed to the aid of the grey pony and the princess. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Both armies were almost within range of Shadow he had his eyes closed his horn glowing very faintly he was focused, so focused that he was almost out of touch with the world itself. The spell he was charging would be…quite explosive. The soldiers seemed to surround shadow like moths to a well-lit lantern, storming and rushing about him in every direction. An axe was raised but before it could have a chance to come down shadow released the spell. The ground around him glowing red and then a flash, the area surrounding shadow ignited instantly incinerating everything within a 20 foot radius. As soon as the flash cleared he had one small white fire dagger in his left hoof and a red fire long sword in his right. He turned to the meteor and yelled, "RUN SACRED!" Sacred got up from behind the meteor and screamed back at him. "NO I won't leave you here to fight alone!" "You aren't alone princess!" said a familiar voice to Sacred, she turned to see her longtime friend Thyme smiling at her. "Thyme! She yelled "I've missed you so much!" Sacred jumped at Thyme hugging her. "I've missed you too Sacred but we have to help your friend here before we catch up." Sacred turned back to look at Shadow and saw him fighting alongside 3 other ponies 2 pegasi and an earth pony with a massive sword. "Heh nice sword it looks like a toy compared to mine." said Ritzia as she killed 4 of the dark stallions with one swing. Shadow smiled as dodged an arrow "No it's much more than a toy…watch this." Shadow threw the sword in the direction of more on coming attackers it landed in the middle of them and exploded shooting tons of mini dagger like blades of flame in all directions, dropping a group of soldiers dead in their tracks. "Pfft parlor tricks!" laughed Ritzia as she rolled her eyes. The forces began to retreat back the way they came and that was good most of the group was exhausted from all the fighting. Shadow sat on the ground breathing heavily. "Well I guess I can assume that were all friends-" He was met with the point of a huge sword inches from his face. Ritzia began to speak in an angry voice, "Maybe, tell me why were you with the princess in the first place?" "Ritzia put that thing down! Shadow here saved my life on a distant planet and this is how you repay him?" Shouted Sacred. Ritzia lowered the sword and said "I'm sorry, I guess you're more of an ally than I knew." Shadow got up and bowed to all the other ponies. Then he began to speak, "Greetings to all of you, my name is Shadow Flame. I am from a distant land across the stars called Equestria. I have sworn my loyalty to your princess and would like to speak to the ruler of this planet." The 4 looked at each other and then to Sacred. Thyme was about to talk but she was cut off by Sacred. "Who were those savages who attacked us anyway?" Thyme took a deep breathe, "Sacred I have some terrible news for you...umm...Well….your sister is now the ruler of Azgaren." "Oh that's not a problem, whatever my father sees right is ok with me, how is he? Is he proud of her?" "Sacred…..he's ....dead…your sister killed him in a bloodthirsty attack and took the throne by force, she raised an entire army of darkness and decimated the planet. There are very few survivors." The group of ponies all looked at the ground. Shadow had a blank stare on his face as he looked at Thyme. Sacred's eyes filled with tears and she tried to say something, it didn't come out. She felt a lump in her throat and then she lost grip on herself and fainted. "Sacred!" Shouted Thyme as she caught her, she quickly handed her to Night Surfer who was the fastest and stealthiest flyer in the group and gave him commands to fly her back to the refugee camp far to the south, he nodded and took off into the air holding onto Sacred with both hooves. Shadow then approached Thyme. "You seem to be a very well-studied unicorn Thyme, please fill me in on what happened here." Thyme looked at the sky and saw the sun starting to go down. "Sure thing Shadow, but we need to talk on the go we just fought through most of the afternoon and trust me the forces only get stronger in the night." Shadow nodded "Alright." The group started the long walk to the camp as the sun began to set on the gloomy day. Thyme told shadow about everything that had happened, the king's slaughter, the takeover, and about the axe in the woods. The axe in the woods….