//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: For the Argentum Solarium! // Story: The Fallen Kingdom Chronicles. // by Dawnforge //------------------------------// Chapter 1: For the Argentum Solarium! By Dawnforge The rain drizzled on the palisade walls of Barrier, soaking the wood with bitter water. A red-maned, white coated unicorn stood upon the gate overseeing the forked road towards the once prominent market town of Stratmane, and the festering graveyard of Restful Hill. The unicorn rolled his shoulders with a grunt. The silver and gold-trimmed plate armor rattled under his cloak, bearing the colors of the Argentum Solarium; a golden sun letting off white rays, rising above a silver horizon on a black background. The click of another set of armored hooves echoed on the wooden walkway of the hastily erected palisade wall. “Brother-Captain.” A large chestnut earth pony came to a stop next to the smaller white unicorn; clad in black and silver trimmed plate and mail. “Sense anything the sentries may have missed?” The Brother-Captain closed his eyes, muttering a quiet prayer. “Nay, Brother Glaive. There is only the lull in the sea of undead we awoke by hitting Restful Hill.” Glaive reached back, adjusting his signature battle axe, looking down at the area below. “Hrm, it has been two days since the death knight sent his forces against us, or we heard a peep from that necromancer.” “Fret not, brother. Celestia watches over us.” The Brother-Captain turned, glancing at the camp behind him. There was only one solid building, a partially burned down house being rebuilt with whatever wasn't being used to strengthen the walls of Barrier Camp. As well as several rows of tents, for everything the Argentum and the few small platoons of soldiers from Stormane needed to hold the pass from the Scourge of Canterlot. “Glaive?” The Brother-Captain spoke solemnly as he turned to his fellow Argent. “Aye, Zeal?” The Captain turned to his friend and brother-in-arms. “Assemble the men and tell Valor Fist to have his men take up the reserve position this fight.” He glanced out to the rotting woods in front of Barrier. “I feel like we will soon learn why the Undead has spare the time for us to rest.” The large stallion saluted and turned, his armored hooves clanking on the wooden walkway. “As you wish, Brother-Captain.” As Zeal turned back to the woods, he could see faint outlines past the fog and mist the rain brought on as it lightened up, but with the lessening of the rain, the sounds started. Moans and cries of anguish began to echo off the rotting, stinking wood of the treeline. He closed his eyes with a tired sigh, ‘How long has it been since we started this war?’ the stallion thought to himself. ‘Almost six years of constant fighting… By Celestia and her divine light, when will this end?’ He frowned, muttering a prayer. “Celestia, bless us with the power of the Sun as we prepare to free your subjects from their damned prison and torture called undeath. And give us the resolve never to waver.” With the prayer finished, Zeal glanced behind him, noting the noise and bustle of ponies gearing up for the fighting. Warrior pegasi, earth pony shield bearers, and lancers arming themselves. Unicorn mages were sweeping through their spell tomes, making sure that the spells were memorized to perfection. Unicorn archers tested their bows and checked or restocked their arrow supply. Zeal gave a faint smile as he saw a pegasus and a unicorn in armor similar to his own moving through, stopping to share a few word or bless a squad. They were Paladins of the Divine Light, a male pegasus named Sterling Hammer, the other a unicorn mare named Faith. Glaive’s voice rose above the moans of the undead behind him, and the bustle of the camp in front of him. “Argentium! Form up at the gates!” A sentry further down the walls called out towards Zeal. He turned his attention back to the woods and as soon as he did, fear clutched at his heart, the cold hoof of the grave reaching to wrap around his heart. He muttered another prayer, and stomped down the fear as best as any mortal pony could. As he peered at the figure, he felt a slight buzzing in the back of his mind confirmed what he feared. Standing on top of a hill amongst a large gathering of undead, was no pony of death and decay, but one with flesh as white as snow. His armor was black as the night and had several unholy icons of the Fallen carved into the metal. A small, dry and heartless chuckle crossed the distance, and a voice that Zeal knew was only meant for him said, ‘So, little paladin. You will continue this ‘game of chess’ of ours?’ the voice rasped followed by another dry laugh, ‘So be it, I gave you two days to admit ‘checkmate’ but now I believe it is time I added a new piece to my side…’ The figure of the Death Knight stepped back into the mist, as the sun weakly shone on Barrier alone; the rays were weak and sickly, offering nothing more than enough light to see by. Zeal frowned and shook his mane, letting out a small groan of frustration. ‘One day. By Celestia that traitor knight will pay!’ He stomped his hoof. He had been so entrapped by the Death Knight’s words that he let his surrounding go on unnoticed. A grey pegasus stood carrying a large, two-hoofed mace on his back. The Pegasus cleared his throat. “Brother Zeal.” Zeal shook his mane and turned to his fellow, “Aye, Brother Sterling?” “The men are assembled and await your command. Archers and mages are moving to the wall, and half the men have taken position outside the gate. I shall join my men to the right flank, Faith is with hers on the left, we’ll wait for your signal.” Sterling bowed his head respectfully, before giving Zeal a soft smile. Zeal waited for Sterling to leave before he picked up his shield and strapped it onto his left fore-leg. He used his magic to sheathe his runic longsword over his back, the soft blue glow of the runes used to channel his magic through the blade casting an eerie light across his back. As he walked down the ramp and out the gates, moving in front of the thirty warrior pegasi and earth ponies he had under his command. He took his place at the front of the formation. He rose his voice above the moans and sounds of the advancing hordes of undead. “Brothers and Sisters of the Argentum Solar! For the past two days we have kept the pitiful, smaller waves of undead from us. We’ve cut them down, releasing the poor, tortured souls from their damnation from afar atop our walls. But today, we stand outside those walls; for the undead horde amasses before us!” The mist began to recede, allowing the shapes of skeletal ponies and ghouls standing among the trees, with flesh and gore clinging to their forms. With a few of the larger and more horrifying shapes of giant beasts of numerous pony corpses sewn together. Zeal resumed his speech after a short pause, “They wish to move past us! Move past this bleak and barren land and into the remaining territory of Equestria that bears life, the life of our families and loved ones!” Zeal drew his sword out with his silver magic, thrusting it out before him. “We will not let them! We are those who took up the call, to take back our kingdom and find our lost Princess! Celestia and the Light smile upon us today, now and forever! For we are the Argentum Solar! Stand strong, stand firm...” he paused briefly before taking his sword in hoof and lifting it into the air “For Equestria!” Cheers and prayers rang out from behind him as he began muttering a small prayer. A silvery aura of runes covering his sword as he took to a strong defensive stance. At this, the undead began to quickly shamble forward. The filly zombies, the weakest, though swiftest of the horde; charged first for the defending lines. “For the Solarium!” Zeal roared as he struck down the first of the advancing filly zombies with a mighty blow of his runic blade before spinning to his left and crushing another under the weight of his shield. He muttered a quick prayer of divine magic, light enveloping his shield and incinerating the flesh of the defenseless zombie below. The Argents behind him held their ground as the charge came, the wall of shields took the brunt of it as unicorn archers and mages sent arrows and fireballs flying overhead and into the masses, quickly thinning their ranks. Zeal began pushing forward, even as he heard the more powerful of skeleton and ghoul ponies begin to shamble and charge them, howling for his flesh. Zeal sheathed his sword with great haste, muttering prayer. A powerful bolt of silver energy flared from his horn and struck a large skeletal pegasus, turning it to a pile of ash. “Forward, soldiers of the Argentum Solar! For the Solarium, for Equestria!” He cried out as he began muttering another prayer. He reared up onto his hind legs before stomping down hard to the ground. Magical fire, blue in appearance flared out and arched forward across the ground before him, scorching and utterly destroying the hapless undead in it’s wake. The ponies behind him let out a loud battle cry as they began their advance; pushing forward, their formation breaking the solid wall it had been to take to the charge and bring the fight to the undead. After many skirmishes, the Argent ponies had learned one does not simply fight the mass of the undead as a wall, but as a sparse group. Each individual had to be able to hold their own against multiple undead. Spears and hammers, blades and axes; they all fell upon the walking corpses, pushing them back and breaking the tide. But for every undead that fell, more took their place. Eventually several of the ponies fell to the advancing horde; only to have their bodies quickly destroyed by their fellow soldiers, least they rise again in undeath against their former allies. Zeal heard two other clashes some distance to both sides of him. He swept a large group of undead before him aside with his magic, gaining a moment to breathe. ‘Sterling and Faith have begun flanking them, good. If we can push them back, we can take the section of the Startmane road needed…’ the pony paladin’s thoughts were interrupted as a bestial roar pierced his ears. The ground trembled as a large axe crashed into the ground where he had been only moments ago, before being pulled back by the wielder, a giant construct of flesh and bone. “Well.. This’ll be interesting.” Zeal smirked. He closed his eyes muttering a prayer as his hooves were consumed in golden fire. He reared up on his hind legs before crashing down and sending the fire into the ground in a wide circle around himself, incinerating the undead within the circle. He turned, moving to face the large abomination of rotting flesh and bone before him. The thing lumbered over him, the many eyes and eye sockets of once living ponies staring down at him with seething jealousy and hate. Zeal drew his sword holding it in his right hoof and his shield held defensively before him on his left. “For the Solarium! For Celestia!” He lunged at the abomination, his sword cleaving into the hulking creature’s leg. The abomination turned on him silently, the large axe slashing through the air at Zeal. Catching the blow upon his shield, he stumbled back from the force. As he recovered he barely caught another blow on his shield, this one cutting straight through the device and carving his armor like paper and gashing his forehoof. Before he could recover from the blow a massive hand wrapped around his body, picking him up and bringing him near the piecemeal face of the walking corpse giant. Zeal struggled, but in vain as the giant’s grip slowly tightened squeezing the life out of him. His vision began to blur and darken. As unconsciousness began to creep upon him, the grip on his body suddenly released, and he fell to the ground dazed as a scream tore through the air that seemed to silence the entire battlefield. The abomination’s arm had been severed, a large battle axe stuck in the ground next to the bleeding pile of rotting flesh and bone. Glaive stood before Zeal, removing the battle axe from the ground with ease. “On your feet Captain.” Zeal shook his mane, getting to his hooves shakingly. “Right, thank you Brother Glaive. Let us take this behemoth down, shall we?” Glaive simply nodded and turned towards the towering undead. Zeal’s horn began to glow a soft silver. “For the Argentum.” Zeal sat on the bench, allowing a priestess from the Lunar Kingdom of Stormane to see to a large gash he had on his left foreleg, among other, numerous wounds that had already been tended to. eee “Right, are you going to cleanse this one or shall I, Captain Zeal?” The priestess asked, looking up from his wound. “I can do it, you shall need your strength for the others.” He took his foreleg out of her grip and held it close to himself, leaving room so he could bow his head and touch his horn to the wound. He muttered a prayer, concentrating on the spell for cleansing his wound. A golden aura began to cover his horn, soon the golden magic slipped from his horn onto the wound. He gritted his teeth as the spell cleansed the wound of any and all foreign contaminates. The Priestess took his foreleg again, casting a basic healing spell to speed up the healing process and close the wound’s deeper layers. She then wrapped it quickly in a bandage. “There you go, Captain. You may not be able to use your shield for a day or so. Try not to get into any dangerous fights.” Zeal nodded as he stood, testing his foreleg, frowning and wincing at the initial strain and the pain from the fresh wound. He grabbed the greaves of his armor and attached it quickly before walking from the medical tent, allowing the priestess to see to another wounded soldier. He took a minute to take in all the activity. The damage to the walls are being repaired by a group of the less battle inclined of the camp. While a group of unicorn mages and archers levitated all the corpses into a pile and set them aflame. No sense allowing the Damned to reuse the corpses. A voice cut through his observations and thoughts. “Brother Zeal!” Sterling trotted up to Zeal. His armor black with gold trim, to Zeal’s silver with gold trim. And his rust red coat and dull blonde mane dirty from the battle, blood and dirt covered the brilliant silver hammer on his back. His golden eyes wearily looked to Zeal’s as he spoke. “Casualty report is in.” “Ah..” Zeal frowned, they didn’t always have a casualty report, but, this last fight was brutal, four abominations and one Horror(an abomination over three times the size of a normal one.) along with countless ghoul and skeleton ponies had been sent to destroy the camp. Sighing and shaking his head slowly to clear the gathering dark thoughts from his head. “How bad, Sterling?” “Ten seriously wounded, and eight dead. Six Argents and Nine of the Stormane battalion.” Sterling said gravely. Though, that may seem like nothing compared to other fields of battle, the Argentum was not a simple army, they were a brotherhood and sisterhood of the ponies seeking to reclaim Equestria and find Princess Celestia. They had not the numbers to even lose a man a battle. It was a hard blow to morale of the men, especially since the last few weeks had seen this being a daily toll they must pay. “Shall I speak with Faith about holding a sermon for the camp?” Zeal frowned and nodded. “Aye… Is-“ Sterling interjected, knowing full well the question Zeal would ask, “Aye, Centurion Glaive is seeing to the repairs, Magus Starlight is seeing to the cleanup of the corpses, and Priestess Redheart is seeing to the wounded and the cleansing of those who fought.” Zeal nodded, his eyes moving to look in the direction of Restful Hill. “Good, good… I… need a hour or so to myself, as usual. If anyone needs me, you know where to send them, Sterling.” “As you wish, Brother-Captain.” Sterling bowed his head respectfully, as the Brother-Captain trotted off towards a secluded spot on the wall facing Restful Hill to the east of the camp.