//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Niden's Hill 
// Story: Glowing in Everglow 
// by Darkmoon9 
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Diary Sunset Shimmer

I must admit I never expected Twilight to follow us, she seemed really concerned about the capabilities of Cozy. Cozy was a skilled manipulator, I could give her that, but I had also seen that she could be a natural leader and an amazing tactician. I had to believe that Cozy could turn things around and use her talents for good, after all, I was once not much better than her. 

It seemed like Twilight’s meeting with the Knight Commander went well and she swore allegiance to the Queen Regent together with our other new recruit, Shadow Chaser. I did an interview with Shadow Chaser while Cozy had her conversation with Twilight. Shadow Chaser was the brooding and vengeful sort, yet he had a strong desire for justice and to protect the people of Taralos, he was ideal for our organization.

Soon we were called before Staybright, a high-ranking member of the palace staff. He told us that even though we were unable to find the horn last year, we did good work and that the Queen Regent spoke well of our abilities. Twilight asked us what the deal was with the horn incident, and I told her I would explain at a later point. Staybright continued to explain that some of the problems out there needed something more flexible than an army division, so he was sending specialist squads to handle them. We would be reporting to General Moonshadow who was commanding troops on the northern front at this very moment. 

We had an uneventful trip to the north, traveling with an army supply caravan. When we finally arrived at our destination we could see a bustling army camp, with tents laid out in rows and a command tent at its center. The scent of hundreds of unwashed ponies hung in the air and the ground was muddy underfoot, but everything seemed well-run and maintained. We were led into the command tent; the soldiers recognized the majority of our members from previous missions on this campaign. 

As we entered the tent, we could see General Moonshadow. An imposing unicorn in full plate armor, she looked up from a map covered in markings showing troop movements. 

“Ah, you must be the new squad Staybright said he was sending. I got a couple of things lined up for you to investigate, grab them off the table there.” She pointed her horn towards table in the corner. She told us we should speak to her if we had any questions, but that she needed people who can take a problem and make it disappear without needing her attention all the time. Cozy assured her of both our capability and our independence. There were two pieces of parchment on the table:

The Poisoned Well
The well at Ruby Sands has been poisoned, possibly by gem gnolls saboteurs. Investigate and make sure the water supply is safe.

The Bank Robbery
The vault of the bank at Emerald Peak was robbed yesterday. Investigate the robbery and apprehend the culprits.

The Knight Commander determined that the poisoned well sounded like a matter of the greatest urgency. Cozy Glow commanded that she lead a team consisting of her, Twilight Sparkle and Shadow Chaser to solve the problem of the poisoned well, while I led a team consisting of myself, Cipher and Silverwing to investigate the bank robbery.

Diary Twilight Sparkle

Soon after joining the Defenders of Taralos I found myself part of the group investigating the poisoned well, taking orders directly from Cozy Glow, who seemed to find this twist of fate amusing. Ordering me to carry her luggage on the five-hour travel by hoof to the village of Ruby Sands.

The village of Ruby Sands stood in a pass between two hills. Shadow Chaser explained that many locals worked at the Ruby mine from which the village got its name. 

We quickly found the well in question; the water was unusually close to the surface of the well. Cozy decided to ask the villagers who said the water level had been high all year. The villagers told us that around a week ago, everyone in the village started to feel sick all the time, nausea and headaches being the most common symptoms. 

Someone noticed a strange taste in the well water, so everyone started drinking from the stream instead and the symptoms were cured a few days after they stopped drinking the water from the well. But they told us that fetching water from the stream was a lot of work and would not be possible if the village came under siege from the gem gnolls. 

Cozy ordered Shadow Chaser to bring a sample of the water and asked me if I could analyze its contents. I had no magic for such a purpose, but I was well read on all kinds of topics so I told her I would do my best. I quickly managed to determine that the source of the water pollution appeared to be some kind of green substance in the water, most likely a type of algae. A closer inspection of the well revealed that these very same algae grew around the edges of the well. It very much looked like the Green Scourge, a type of algae that was very poisonous. It seemed like this wasn’t the work of the gem gnolls after all. 

I told Cozy that I needed time to work, but that I could whip up a substance that would kill the algae in a matter of hours if I borrowed a chemistry kit from the locals. They told me there was a local alchemist that lived in the village, and I asked him if I could borrow his equipment, he said yes. After a couple of hours, I had created a substance to kill the algae and we successfully put it to use on the well. Cozy congratulated me on a job well done. It felt good to be part of a team where I could put my skills to use in helping these ponies, even if I had to be working together with my old enemy. I hoped Cozy felt the same way.


Diary Sunset Shimmer

Emerald Peak was a small village built around the top of a spectacularly green hill. As I, Cipher and Silverwing approached more closely we could see that the green was caused by a vibrant species of grass that grew in this area and for some reason has never spread further. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful sight. But the village itself looked like it had seen better days, a few buildings standing empty and abandoned. We approached the bank which was a simple building with strong stone walls. We met with the bank manager, an Earth pony named Careful Bean, he introduced us to his son Cautious Bean who helped him run the bank. They explained that when the robbery happened, they were sleep in their house next to the bank and had no idea anything unusual had happened until they open for business in the morning. They discovered that a tunnel had been dug through into the vault and all the jewels within had been stolen. Not being ponies of war, the villagers had been too scared to enter the tunnel. This was when we came in, I was confident as we brought our muscle, Silverwing. 

The vault was small and the walls were built of solid stone. The room was empty and Careful Bean explained that they removed the remaining valuables after they discovered the theft. A mess on the east wall showed where the robbers must have broken in. There was dirt on the floor and a tunnel had been cut through the stonework on the wall. I led my team into the tunnel, lighting the way with my horn, Silverwing and Cipher following me. The tunnel went for a straight line for about 30 feet and then the ground became softer, and I noticed the tunnel had collapsed upon itself. It seemed like this line of investigation hit a dead end, literally. However, upon searching the tunnel, we discovered pickaxes that were probably used to break into the vault, left near the entrance of the tunnel. Yet we were no closer to discovering where the culprits had gone.

Having no other recourse, I asked around in the village if anyone had seen or heard anything unusual. It turned out that several people around town thought they saw movement by the old blacksmith shop by the time of the robbery. Searching the shop, Silverwing were able to find tracks that looked like gnolls that left the shop and then headed northeast away from the village. We started following the tracks and soon catch up with the thief, who were in fact a gem gnoll, who was quickly overwhelmed by both Cipher and Silverwing and taken captive. We found a crazy number of gemstones on the gnoll, probably stolen from the vault. I realized we could live our entire lives in luxury if we took the gems for ourselves, but we had a duty to Taralos so we took the gems back to town and the bank manager rewarded us with 10% of the gems original value in gold. The gnoll being arrested for bank robbery.


Diary Cozy Glow

After successfully dealing with the poisoned well incident, where Twilight had demonstrated what an asset she could be for our team, we regrouped back at General Moonshadow’s camp where we were given another parchment with another task. A gem gnoll mounted on an enormous dire hyena had been terrorizing supply lines and villagers. He was alone and very fast, too fast for the Army to catch up with him. But the general thought that a smaller group might have a better chance to catch him. I asked around for reports where this raider had been seen the most often, after making a map marking each spot the raider had attacked ponies previously, I was able to narrow it down to two passes where most of the attacks had happened. I suggested a plan to the other Defenders, that we would disguise ourselves as a traveling caravan in order to draw out the raider, Twilight was the only one to object, saying that with a huge Griffin and a heavily armored batpony we would never be mistaken for travelers. I suggested that Shadows Chaser could hide their armor under a cloak and Silverwing roam the skies above, swooping down once the raider attacked. This finally got Twilight to reluctantly agree to my plan. 

The pass where most of the attacks had taken place was not far from the camp, only a couple of hours. Eventually, we would see a pair of ponies laden with trade goods walking down the road towards us. These were the very same traders we rescued from the gem gnolls over a year ago, Fair Deal and Bargain Hunter. They seemed surprised to see us here, and even more so once I told him of our promotion to knights after our services to the Queen Regent. After hearing of the gem gnoll raider, the traders decided to stick with us for protection. Which was a good thing, because soon after we were attacked.

With a loud warcry, a gem gnoll mounted on a huge dire hyena burst out of the woods and charged towards those he thought was only a trade caravan with a single regular sized hyena in tow. The hyena he used as a mount towered over even the Griffin. Silverwing was ready to swoop down from the sky to engage him at my command. The battle started with Cipher cursing the enormous hyena the gnoll was using as a mount, the gnoll on the dire hyena charged across the field, delivering a ride by attack against Twilight who was wounded by the spear of the mounted raider. I did my best to inspire my troops, weaving enchantments into my inspiring speech, as well as giving Silverwing the signal to attack. Silverwing swooped down from the sky, trying to attack the dire hyena with his weapon, only for the hyena to sidestep the attack. Sunset hit the smaller hyena with a bolt of fire, catching the fur of the creature ablaze. Twilight directs a bolt of pure magical energy at the hyena wounding it further and Shadows Chaser, wielding a longsword in his mouth, manages to hit the smaller hyena, putting it down for good. 

After the smaller hyena went down, Cipher sneaked up behind the bigger hyena, plunging his blade into its back, the curse he cast earlier further amplifying the damage. The raider attempted to direct an attack against Cipher using his longspear, Cipher nimbly dodging the attack, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the enormous hyena’s claws, tearing a gash in Cipher’s form. I found this was a good opportunity to try a new trick I learned since the start of the war, lacing my words with enchantments, I insulted the raiders mount:

“You are going to make an excellent belt!”

My hypothesis was correct, the words did seem to cause the creature pain. Using this power would prove to be fun. Silverwing was still not able to hit the big but nimble hyena with his huge and clumsy weapon. At that point, Twilight Sparkle fires another beam of magical energy from her horn, in combination with my psychic attack, it took down the hyena, leaving only the gnoll left to take care of. Sunset moved up to Shadow Chaser and blessed his weapon with divine energy, after she finished her incantation, it seemed to shine with the light of the sun. Shadows Chaser moved towards the gnoll, mumbling a prayer to some goddess he called the Moon Princess? Reminded me of Luna. Shadow Chaser’s form appeared to glow with silvery moonlight as he plunged his shining sword past the gnoll’s defenses, severely wounding it, but the raider continued to fight, wounding Silverwing. Cipher attempted to strike him from behind, but the gnoll managed to block his attack. I prepared another attack against the gnoll using my words, using the best insult I could come up with on the fly:

“If you were any more inbred you would be a sandwich!”

As my words were hurting the gnoll, this distracted him for long enough for Silverwing to actually hit, his greatsword managing grievously wounding the gnoll, he was barely standing now, yet remained defiant. Sunset cast a spell on Shadow Chaser that I found out after the battle would ensure the blow wasn’t fatal. Shadow chaser managed to hit the gnoll and knocked him unconscious using Sunset’s spell. Me and Sunset worked together to patch up the wounds our companions sustained during the battle, Twilight was reluctant to accept my aid, so Sunset took care of her wounds while I focused my attention on Silverwing and Cipher

The two traders came running back to us in order to thank us for saving them, even if they didn’t have anything they could give us as they were destitute. Sunset told them that it was okay and that a good deed was reward enough. While it was her usual namby-pamby nonsense, I had to give it to her, it did feel good to capture this raider. 

We interrogated the raider on the way back to camp, Silverwing trying to intimidate him while I took the role of good cop, he revealed to us that the gem gnolls were invading this area and that he took this as an opportunity to go out and cause him trouble, we were given the location of a nearby gnoll base in the abandoned fort on Niden’s Hill. 

When we returned to to the army camp, we reported what he found out to General Moonshadow, the general telling us that this was probably the place the gnolls were mounting their attacks from and that we to go and scout out Niden’s Hill, if it was only a small force of gnolls present we were told to deal with them, if the force was large we were told to make maps of the area and do a headcount of the number of foes. But first we did camp for the night in order to continue our expedition to Niden’s Hill in the morning. I decided to ask around for information about Niden’s Hill, it was well known it was the ruins of an abandoned fort that had been there for hundreds of years, no pony being quite sure who built it or who Niden was for that matter. 

After we got up the next morning, after a few hours of travel, we finally arrived at Niden’s hill, we could see the ruins of a crumbled fort made of stone up on the hill in the distance. We came across the remains of what was clearly once a busy road snaking its way up the hill, I noticed clear tracks of both hyenas and gnolls on the dirt road heading up to the fort on the hill. Following the path, we soon arrived at the front gate, which must once have been imposing but had clearly seen much better days. The wood was rotten and was dropping from the iron reinforcements, leaving large cracks and holes in the door. Yet Twilight suggested going in through the front entrance might not be the best idea, for once I agreed with her. 

The gate was clearly locked in place, not used for quite a while and if we wanted to open it we would need to smash it open, which would make a lot of noise and attract the gnolls to our position, the pawprints continued not through the front gate, but to the walls of the fort. I used my wings to fly up to use my elevated position to get a greater view of the fort, the stone walls of to the west of us had crumbled, forming a slope of sorts made of rubble, making climbing it a possibility even without equipment, it was here we saw the pawprints leading up the slope. In the courtyard I could see one of those massive hyenas that the raider uses as a mount, and yet another one just as large skulking in the shadows.

I told Silverwing to get up to my position using his wings, and to hold attach a rope I had been carrying to the top of the wall, dropping down the upper end to the foot of the wall. I thought about some of our companions who might need help climbing, especially Shadow Chaser with his heavy armor, too heavy for him to fly with despite his species natural batlike wings. Twilight was able to get up the wall with a teleportation spell, leaving only Sunset, Cipher and Shadow Chaser left at the foot of the wall. After many failed tries, Sunset and Shadow Chaser finally managed to get up the wall, Cipher having a little difficulty climbing. I knew now that he could’ve just as easily used his wings to reach the top, but that would involve giving away his doppelganger nature. 

We suspected that the gnolls had to be inside the castle keep, but to get to them, the next step was either getting past or dealing with the dire hyenas in the courtyard and many of us were not especially stealthy, me included. Yet we did know that making a lot of noise would probably attract the gnolls in the keep. If we went in without a plan that would probably cause us to get into quite the fight. I did have a spell that could erect a dome that isolated all sounds from within the dome, meaning that those outside of it wouldn’t be able to hear those within the dome and vice versa. Yet I would only be able to create a dome of 10 feet in diameter so everyone would need to stick close to me, and we still had the problem of being seen. Twilight quickly offered a solution to that problem; she suggested that maybe we should use magic to create an auditory hallucination to make the hyenas look in another direction as we entered. This only left the problem of the hyenas sense of smell, yet that was a risk we had to take. 

Every gathered around me as directed the dome of silence, Twilight using her magic to create an infernal racket in the minds of the hyenas, this worked for one of them, but the other one seemed to pick up our smell and didn’t turn away towards the hallucinatory noise. It was a good attempt, but the hyena immediately started laughing, trying to alert the nearby gnolls of our presence. We had to act quickly before we were overwhelmed. 

Cipher quickly slipped behind the dire hyena that noticed us and stabbed in the back, the hyena fought back, rending Cipher with its claws, knocking him to the ground. I started an inspiring speech to stir the others into action as the second dire hyena attacked Silverwing, wounding him and knocking him down. Sunset cast a spell on Silverwing’s weapon that made it glow with the energy of the sun, Silverwing then got up, taking another mauling from the hyena, but tough as he was he just took it and swung his now enhanced sword at the hyena, severely wounding it, and allowing Twilight to finish it off with her magic both from her horn. Shadow Chaser moved up to distract the hyena that was attacking Cipher, enabling Cipher to stop the hyena in the back using his dagger, killing it instantly. Sunsets taking the opportunity to heal some of the wounds of the group by emitting a golden light from her horn, enveloping us.

We only had a few moments now before the gnolls from the keep would come rushing out to see what the commotion was about, so I ordered the other Defenders to take a position on the stairs that led up to the wall, slightly out of sight of the keep. This enabled us to get the drop on the gnolls that came out of the keep. There were three gnolls in total, one of them clearly in charge, the one in a dark cloak wielding a dagger. As the gnolls spotted us, the leader drank some kind of potion and disappeared. At this moment I ordered the rest to attack, Silverwing rushing towards the gnolls, roaring while attacking, missing, but managing to frighten them. Twilight spoke words of arcane power and two bolts of pure force fell from the heavens, wounding the two gnolls. I took the opportunity to insult them with a magical enchantment:

“I’m guessing you weigh 50lbs while wet, which is the same as your sister when you found her drowned in her own cauldron. ”

This appeared to have worked, the gnoll in question writing in pain. Sunset fired a bolt of fire from the horn at the same gnoll, narrowly missing. 

This was when I felt a sting of pain in my back, the gnoll leader had finally manifested, plunging a dagger in my back, it stung horribly. Cipher managed to come to my rescue in the nick of time, stabbing the leader in the back and turn, but he was still standing. I slowly backed away from the gnoll leader and formulated my best insult:

“Are you a dog crossed with a pig?, Oh, yeah, there are some things even a pig wouldn’t do.”

This made the leader howl with pain. Sunset backed away from the fighting and the Golden glow from her horn healed some of my wounds, as well as the wounds of my companions. At this moment, Twilight called down another pair of the bolts of magic from the sky, killing both regular gnolls, leaving only the leader. Shadow Chaser moved up to block the path between me and the gnoll leader, striking a wounding a blow at the gnoll, but the ferocious warrior was still standing. The leader nimbly jumped over Shadow Chaser and tried to hit me with his dagger once again, I tried to dodge to the best of my ability, but it wasn’t quite enough, fortunately the dagger hit the chainmail barding I was wearing, opening up an opportunity for Silverwing to kill the gnoll leader with his gigantic sword that still shone like the sun from Sunset’s spell.

The dagger wielded by the gnoll leader appears to be the work of a master smith, so Cipher replaced his current dagger with it. He was also wearing some type of shirt with a magical enchantment placed on it, while we weren’t yet sure what it was, Cipher put it on. 

After taking care of the gnolls defending it, we searched the keep. We first entered into what seemed to have once been the great hall of the keep, where the inhabitants feasted on food and the lord welcomed his guests. But whatever furnishings there might have once been had long since disappeared. There was nothing of interest in the great hall, so we moved on to the kitchen. Where among the rotting remains of various shelves and cabinets were four defiant looking earth ponies dressed in fur and leather, hobbled together and chained to the furniture. We immediately freed the captives. Who introduced themselves as Night’s Blessing, daughter of the chieftain of the Black Hooves clan. Next to her was Dawn Rising, son of the chieftain of the Red Rock clan and fiancée of Night’s Blessing. The other two ponies were two of their friends, Daffodils Blooming and Larksong. They thanked us for rescuing them, explaining that they were from Turves clans, Taralos’s earth pony neighbors. They expressed surprise that the ones to rescue them were from Taralos and not the clans. I explained that we were here by coincidence as our General had ordered us to capture the fort at Niden’s Hill, as we were at war with the gem gnolls, but that we were happy to be of assistance.   

Night’s Blessing explained that they were going on a seekers journey together to ask the gods blessing for the union between her and Dawn Rising, a sacred ritual for all the clans. Unfortunately, they ran into a group of gem gnolls, that didn’t care for how sacred the ritual was and brought them here to be questioned. As thanks were freeing them, the young couple invited us to the gathering of the clans at Turves in just two weeks, we would be the first outsiders to attend in a very long time. They presented us with a plain white banner with two hooves crossed in friendship and told us that if we would show the banner to other tribesponies, it would mean that we were going to be gathering and no tribespony would dare attack them.  At the gathering we were told to seek out their clans of The Black Hooves and the Red Rock, as the chieftains of both clans would want to thank us in person for rescuing their children. 

As we were leaving the keep, we once again ran into that strange zebra from before, the one that Sunset befriended, Fazban. He was quite curious about the ponies we rescued, asking them about their identity, which they answered honestly. We would soon part ways with Night’s Blessing and her group, but Fazban followed us back to General Moonshadow’s camp. As we reported to the general that we managed to take the fort, she was quite pleased with our efforts. But she was especially interested in hearing about the rescued tribesponies, telling us that there was a massive gem gnoll army approaching their position, led by their King. And that we would be of great need of the Turves tribes making an alliance with Taralos in order to push back the invasion.

Moonshadow told us she led an ambush against the gem gnoll King last week and thought they might’ve ended the war, but the king managed to disappear without a trace. They had scanned for invisibility, but he didn’t go invisible, he just vanished. And according to their investigation it wasn’t the first time he had pulled this trick. In addition to securing an alliance with the tribes, we were asked to ask around for any information pertaining to how the gem gnoll King was able to escape from battles when he was cornered. 

Fazban, seeing an alliance between Taralos and the Turves tribes as beneficial to the goals of the Seekers of the One Herd decided to travel with us to the gathering of clans in order to help as best as he could. I was hoping that our combined charisma would be enough to secure the alliances necessary to defeat the Gnoll King, as it would be hard to rule a Taralos reduced to ruin.