The bloody sunrise was only too befitting of what its cold rays revealed as it tracked slowly above the snowtop peaks of the mountains. Hundreds lay dead by the wayside, the remnants of the most ferocious battle fought on Equestrian soil in years. Still, Hagner knew all too well the ways of the Crystal Empire, the way Sombra was able to wriggle his troops into these positions to kill as many as possible even as his forces were losing. Sometimes he wondered if the goal of these wars was to even to gain territory, rather than simply take the lives of as many Equestrians as possible.
“Amish, Randall, Cutter,” he called gruffly, calling the attention of his three go-fers. “Collect the information from Captain Cheeley and report back to me in the hour. We need the names of these poor ponies. Lotsa letters ta be written…”
“Yessir,” the three young colts chimed in unison. Celestia, they got younger every war, didn’t they. Forcing himself to turn away from the carnage, he stared holes into his royal informers, stamping towards them.
“I appreciate that my soldiers and I were here quick enough to take the arrows those citizens would’ve been delivered, but mind telling me where the hay my governance support is? Who even was sent to command this army in the Princess’ name?”
“Please, sir, we too were thrown into this mess with you,” one of the advisors, a long necked, blue-maned pony with a fresh cut on his flank replied. “The only thing we know is that there is a stallion by the name of Count Hemorrhage who will come to aid in the action against Sombra.”
“A count,” he roared at the news, getting right up in the face of the advisor. “The Princess sent a dinky count to oversee possibly the most dangerous and deadly front of this war?”
“With due respect, Colonel Hagner, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna personally requested his presence in this front,” the advisor retaliated, the utmost passive-aggressive persnickety in his voice. “Count Hemorrhage is a well trusted advisor and ruler, whom the civilians of the Oppotimare owe their lives to thanks to his and his crew’s espionage that gathered the information of this attack. It was his news that convinced the Princesses to send this army to intercept Sombra’s forces. Without him, hundreds of innocent ponies would be dead.”
“With him, hundreds of my soldiers wouldn’t be,” Hagner rebutted, stepping back. Taking a deep breath to calm himself slightly, he asked, “Did this Hemorrhage care to give us a time of when he’d show?”
“Unfortunately, the Princesses did not inform us on when the count would be arriving,” the advisor patiently answered. Seeing Hagner begin to go red in the face, the stallion quickly added, “He will be arriving sometime today or tomorrow, however, it is not at any specific time. Until his arrival, act according to your judgment as to what we should do.”
“Well, for the moment then, order evacuations of Grandshire to the west,” Hagner ordered harshly. “We need these civilians out of the way before Sombra and his army rear their ugly, flea-bitten faces again.”
“That was rather rude of you to say,” a voice from behind him suddenly said. Whipping around to the sound of his advisors’ gasps, Hagner couldn’t help but let his own jaw drop at the sight of the Bastard King himself. “Also, quite untrue. I have immaculate fur.”
Hagner’s slack jaw snapped shut audibly, the grizzled colonel growling at the sight of his nation’s enemy. His blood boiling, he quickly turned his head to the side and grabbed his sword from the sheath strapped to his side, his teeth clenching tightly around the blade. As soon as the metal sung from its entrapment, he charged, intending to catch the unarmed pony while he was still without a weapon. Before he had even taken a second step towards the bastard, however, Hagner felt his entire body thrown aside to his right, crashing into the flag planted stiffly in the ground. He felt both the wooden pole and several ribs crack at the harsh impact as he flew through it and landed dozens of spans away.
Groaning in pain, he attempted to stand, only to be thrown aside once again, this time to the left. His body plowed through the dewy grass and mud until it came to a stop right in front of Sombra’s hooves, his entire side torn and bruised from the movement. Hagner gasped for air as the bastard simply stepped over him, his lung collapsed by the harsh landing.
Even as he struggled for air, he heard several screams from the nearby advisors, as suddenly one of them was sent flying over his head. The poor blue-maned stallion landed only a few spans from Hagner, his neck snapping as he came down head first. The colonel grimaced at the poor stallion’s brutal end, pushing one hoof against the ground in a weak attempt to stand. After a few seconds of struggling, he felt his hoof slip, his foreleg collapsing against the ground. Groaning, he grit his teeth and mustered the strength to try again, but the attempt ended in the same result. Undeterred, he moved to try another time to stand, when suddenly he felt his body become weightless as it was slowly lifted into the air.
“You know, only fools try the same thing over and over again hoping for different results,” Sombra drawled with lazy spite, casually spinning Hagner’s limp body until he was facing the king. The motion allowed him to catch sight of a smoldering pile that was one of the other advisors as well as a sword- his sword- that had been used to gut the other. Sombra tilted his head slightly, an evil grin across his face as he asked, “How do you call attention to an army of colts?”
Hagner opened his mouth to spit out the most hateful language he could manage, but instantly his mouth was sealed, seared shut with the bastard’s dark magic. Sombra answered his own question as the colonel let out a muffled scream of pain, “You throw fresh meat at them. Or wait, maybe that’s how you tempt an experienced army? Doesn’t matter.”
Hagner writhed in the air as he felt himself being lifted higher and higher into the air, his eyes barely able to catch sight of what was happening thanks to the glow of Sombra’s magic and welling tears of pain. However, he could hear the army below him begin to shout in surprise and fury at the sight of their colonel being presented to them, blood dripping from his wounded side. The clanking sounds of weapons being grabbed and sudden cries of “It’s the Bastard!” and “Sombra is here!” echoed across the camp as the young stallions and colts came together to fight their sworn foe.
Even as high as he was, Hagner could hear Sombra’s roaring cackle as he evidently knew of the entire army rising up against him. “Come now, colts, no need to play rough,” Sombra jeered as the sounds of them engaging the mad king resonated from below, followed closely by screams of pain and snapping bones. Hagner squeezed his blurry eyes closed and tried to mute out the sounds of more of his soldiers dying as the Bastard’s jeering and chortling grew louder. Suddenly, the sounds from below stopped, a collective gasp from the crowd of soldiers sending a chill through Hagner. Suddenly he was being let down, the magic around him no longer blackish-red, but now a calm teal. He was let down to the ground, the helpful unicorn allowing him to lean against his side for stability. Able to finally see past the magical bubble that wrapped around him, he too gasped at the sight he saw.
A young stallion was holding his spear, mouth agape as he stared at where his spear had pierced Sombra, straight through the heart. The Bastard King himself stared down at the weapon in disbelief, the bodies of some twenty stallions surrounding him as he dropped the bloody swords in his magical grasp. Looking up at the stallion who had dealt the killing blow, he smiled, complementing, “Nice form. Right beneath my blades and in between my ribs. A normal stallion would be dead right now.”
Still with the spear jammed into his chest, he glanced around at all of the other shocked soldiers, raising a slow eyebrow as he casually pulled the bloodless spear out of him with his magic. Almost as if he had realized what he had just been doing, he grimaced as he looked around at the dead bodies, before catching Hagner’s eye. A strange smile broke his wince as he declared, “I thought for sure I had killed you! So glad I didn’t use your body as a shield!”
“You bastard,” Hagner managed to gurgle past his burnt lips as he slumped to the ground, his right side unable to keep holding him up in spite of the support.
Sombra rolled his eyes at the slur, muttering, “Yes, I know you ponies have a whole book of nicknames for me, but please, this is a serious matter. Put on your big colt pants and get over it.”
“You killed twenty three stallions,” one of the soldiers shouted, earning echoing cries of anger and disbelief from the crowd. However, nopony moved from where they stood, save the stallion who had stabbed Sombra, who simply fell to his knees in front of the Bastard.
“Please don’t kill me,” the young stallion begged as he clenched his eyes closed, his head bowed away from the imposing king of the Crystal Empire. Sombra simply laughed at the gesture, reaching out a hoof and patting the stallion on the head like he was some sort of pet. Hagner growled at the action, but instantly began coughing at the gesture, his lung preventing him from being able to sustain his breath. The army turned to watch him as he collapsed to the ground, his eyes drifting closed as he attempted to keep conscious.
“Such a pity I had to wound and kill so many earless stallions,” Sombra mourned empathetically, glancing at one of the many body parts that scattered the ground around him. “Truly is. If only they had listened to my message to you, the brave stallions of Equestria, that you no longer had to fight under a banner that used you as hapless meat shields. If only they had learned that they did not have to die anymore, not against or for me! The greatest tragedy of this decade, for certain.”
“What are you talking about,” several soldiers demanded, still carefully holding their weapons toward the enemy.
“Well, you see, you’ve been told that I’m simply a tyrant using my ponies and soldiers as pawns to kill as many ponies on both sides, yes,” Sombra questioned, looking around knowingly as the stallions nodded. “You’ve also been told that there are dark creatures of the night, too, yes? Werewolves, vampires, zombies, the sort.”
“And your point,” another endearing stallion inquired, still dutifully training his spear on Sombra.
“My point is that there is no reason why you should continue to fight an enemy you can’t kill,” Sombra stated matter-of-factly. “I have lived beyond the years of even your grandparents, have fought more wars than years you’ve lived, and killed more stallions than are in this army. And I mean just stallions. However, I never wanted any of this, to kill everypony that stood in my way. In fact, I’ve done the most I can to prevent myself and others from killing my foes, but it’s ever so difficult to not when they are doing their best to try to. What I want from you isn’t a battle or a surrender, but rather an agreement of sorts.”
“There will be no consorting with the enemy,” Hagner declared, a fit of coughs overtaking him before he could say more.
“Hm, yes, I was afraid there would be some lingering resistance to me, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Sombra pondered dismissively. “I’ll give you an hour to decide whether you want to fight on and continue to kill yourselves on my spears and arrows for a pair of petty Princesses who have continued this bloodshed for far too long or raise the banner of the Crystal Empire and help us free more ponies. Really, I leave the choice to be yours. But, um, to encourage the process, you should know that an army of thirty five thousand awaits your answer, and if it is violence, I will have no choice but to dispose of you. Do make this easy on you.”
“We don’t need an hour to decide,” Hagner roared, all eyes falling back to him. He resisted the urge to break out into heaving coughs long enough to declare, “This army is Luna’s, and will never be yours!”
“It’s a right shame that the rest of these stallions don’t seem to share that sentiment,” Sombra noted smugly, and when Hagner took a moment to look around, he found himself gaping in disbelief once again. The stallions all around him had lowered their weapons, some had even set them aside, while they all glanced at each other. Some seemed saddened by whatever they were collectively thinking, but others looked angry, almost furious at what Hagner had loyally declared. “I think that their minds are decided. I’ll leave now and give you the hour to organize yourselves instead.”
Sombra turned as if to walk away, but then remembered something, looking back over his shoulder at Hagner with a twisted smile as he added, “Oh, and take care of any unwanted business.”
Hagner felt his entire body begin to shake as he glanced around at the now unwelcoming faces of his former comrades, a terrified quaking overtaking him. “No no no no no,” he pled with the stallions he faced, Sombra vanishing from behind them. “Please, I’m your ally, your colonel! We serve the Princesses!”
Hagner suddenly gasped in pain as he felt a terrible burning fill his entire body, nothing like he had ever felt in his life before. Shakily looking down, he found the spearhead that pierced completely through his body from behind, the metal covered in his blood and flesh. He tried to let out a breath or to take one in, but there was nothing, only the sensation of being impaled from behind him. Tears began to fill his eyes and tumble out, the pain of death and betrayal the last emotions he would ever know as slowly his head came to rest against the stallion that had helped and held him.
“I’m sorry, colonel, but this is for the better,” the stallion muttered softly into his ear. “Hopefully you end up in a better place than us.”
With a sudden wrench, the spearhead was gone, as was Hagner’s support. With a final exhale, the colonel slumped to the ground as the last vestiges of life faded from his eyes.