Chapter 5

Night Raid

The news of the Red Hooves' triumphed first battle at the borders spread like wildfire from Farachan right back all the way to the mainland. Though many members of the population of Farachan were celebrating like it was the start of a new year, any normal Red Hoof troop would have to wonder if similar scenes were taking place back home on the mainland. Whatever they might've thought, later that day, the Red Hooves returned from the battlefield and back into the city of Coltfast, where just as they might've expected, were greeted with a tremendous hero's welcome. Instead of flying over the city and retreating back to their secret headquarters, the entire platoon of Red Hooves decided to walk ground level on the streets and enjoy the moment.

With countless city folk either standing on the ground or hanging from windows and rooftops, it did feel like a royal visit of any kind. And within that celebrated pack of Red Hooves, Blue Arrow couldn't believe it. Sure before they went to Farachan, they were given much hope and well wishes for their success, but this reception simply blew that memory right out of the water. Who could fail to not like getting this attention?

"Ya beauty!" Blue Arrow said in an ecstatic manner as he marched within that sea of red armored Pegasus stallions. He wouldn't be afraid to admit it; his confidence was now at an all time high.

Suddenly that voice seemed to dawn on the blue stallion, that voice was familiar. Turning round to see who it was, there behind him, and milking the moment it seemed, was Shadow. His armor liked slightly dented, parts of his body had various scars snaking their way across his black coat and his dark blue eyes burning like those of a hawk. Blue Arrow also noticed that strangely to his own point of view that Shadow seemed to stand out from the rest of his fellow comrades.

He seemed to have the manner of a stallion whose pride seemed to go unchecked and never seemed broken. Hovering slightly above the rest, Shadow scanned around him.

"Alright lad!" Blue Arrow called over to Shadow, and just as he hoped, the Manehatten stallion saw him.

"Hey, hey Blue Arrow!" Shadow replied happily as joined up with Blue Arrow to walk alongside him. "Great to see you're in one shape after the battle!" The blue stallion could see that Shadow had an expression of elation, almost like a teenage colt getting their first fillyfriend.

Still, Blue Arrow was feeling the same; any Red Hoof from that victory had all the right to feel like this. "So then mate, didn't see you out there."

"Oh I was there," Shadow answered with that giant smile of his that seemed to be the size of a planet. "I was in the front row getting the full force of them…what a bunch of wimps!"

Blue Arrow cocked an eyebrow at Shadow's statement. "Oh aye? Right at the front then, I was in the third row back from you lot."

Shadow nearly tripped up over pieces of trinkets that were being thrown in from the crowd; thankfully he simply laughed it off. "Ah back there then?" He replied, "Bet you got the full force of them even back there."

"Haha, no half mate!" Blue Arrow guffawed. "Have to admit, they do have some force of those troops, certainly gave us a wee scare there."

After which, the two friends carried on their march through the crowded streets to their base, little did they know, that the day was far from over…for all the wrong reasons.

XXX

Following their parade through the city streets, the Red Hooves returned to their base and this was were the celebrations could really begin. Now as the majority of them are either eighteen or nineteen (the 'specials' being far older) the rest of that night seemed to go by in a blur…all thanks to the drinking they consumed over and over again. If any pony had never heard of the Red Hooves and saw the Red Hooves in this state (better known as with their defense walls down) they would've doubted their ability to be major protectors.

The refectory was crowded with Red Hooves happily drinking to their heart's contempt, some of which drinking to much for their own good as those certain stallions ended up collapsing onto the floor in a drunken state. Nevertheless for the majority of elite fighting stallions, they were thankfully still standing, and somewhere in that crowd, Blue Arrow and his fellow comrades were among that lot.

"…And then I met this mare with a damn nice flank," Macca told Blue Arrow, Dynamo and Sunstar a small story from before he left for Farachan, the three other Red Hooves listening to the story. "I mean, we were both drunk, but she decided to sleep with me for the HIC! night."

"No I'm honest!" Macca blurted out in defense. "What I found out was that she HIC! may had the looks, but by Celestia HIC! she was a thick as a ton of bricks!"

Sunstar and Blue Arrow laughed heartedly. "Only you could pull off such a stupid mare."

Macca slumped back on his chair feeling rather embarrassed, a faint tinge of red spreading itself across his face. "Shut up…HIC!" he muttered grudgingly.

Only then that Blue Arrow noticed that Dynamo had been keeping himself out of the small chat among them. By the look on Dynamo's face, something was bothering him.

"Dynamo? You alright?" Blue Arrow questioned his friend, by now Sunstar and Macca took notice of the little situation.

The brown stallion turned his head over to them. "Sorry dear chaps…just that this talk about mares…"

Dynamo let out a sigh and cleared his throat. "Well...I do suppose you can say that…it's just…I'm sorry about this." And with that, Dynamo got of his chair and headed out off the refectory, leaving the three other roommates stunned at what had happened.

"…Dynamo…mares?" Blue Arrow questioned to himself, like it was a riddle he'd received. "That's no like him for a start."

Blue Arrow rubbed his chin in thought. "I've know him since I joined the Red Hooves years ago, and never once did he say anything about lassies and all that...doesn't make sense why he would start talking about them in the middle of this war."

The three of them were silent; the only sound was of course that of other Red Hooves chatting loudly among each other. "…Was it something I said?" Macca asked worriedly.

Sunstar looked over at the grey Pegasus with a glare. "Well for starters I'm going to say—"

"Ah shut yer face," Blue Arrow grunted with him rubbing his fore hoof along his muzzle. "Please don't tell me that he's gone soft in the head recently."

The once happy moment with the group who one minute were happily drinking, now felt a wave of uncertainty overcome them. Then, feeling like it was somehow his own fault, Macca left the table quietly and walked away in shame. Now only Blue Arrow and Sunstar remained.

"Maybe some of us are needing female companionship," Blue Arrow replied sarcastically. "How the hell should I know?" He sipped a bit of his cider, thinking about what had happened. "I don't know mate. My only serious guess is that some of us are homesick."

"But Dynamo has been here for about a year, and Macca came about the same time." Sunstar pouted, then he sighed. "…I don't know…he has been kind of keeping something secret from the rest of us, I've tried asking him what's the matter, but he just didn't want to say anything about it."

The older yellow stallion looked over to see Dynamo and Macca passing by the doorframe out of the refectory and presumed they were heading to their dorm. "Blue Arrow, as you are great friends—"

"Best friends in fact," the blue stallion corrected as he drank some more of his cider.

Sunstar, still looking towards Dynamo and Macca, opened his mouth, and then closed it after Blue Arrow's correction. "…Yes, maybe you can have a better chance of finding out what's up with him."

Blue Arrow paused thinking about it. "I don't know…I mean, I'm not the type of guy to stick my muzzle into things, you know?"

The yellow stallion remained silent as he slowly turned his gaze back to Blue Arrow. "I don't know…"

Then, Blue Arrow drank down the last of his cider before getting off his chair to leave the table. "Alright then…I'll see what's up with 'em. A friend's a friend."

Sunstar gave the younger stallion a small smile and an approving nod. After gaining the elder Red Hoof's approval, Blue Arrow left the table to catch up with his friends. As look around the packed area, he couldn't help but notice how happy his fellow comrades were. A tinge of irony crossed over the stallion's mind, it was strange to think that his table must've been the only on in that vast hall that weren't joining in the celebrations.

"What a bloody party popper this has been," Blue Arrow grumbled to himself as he approached the doorway that led out of the room.

As he was approaching it, he heard two voices that seemed to be singing something pretty badly, in a drunken way no doubt. Passing by the doorway, Blue Arrow looked around and saw to his left that two Red Hooves, a green one and an orange one, were the one's that were singing. The two of them had their fore hooves on each other's back and both looked completely smashed by this point. At first, Blue Arrow couldn't understand what they were singing due to them being under the influcance of drinking, however soon Blue Arrow heard what they were singing.

She strikes to the left,

She strikes to the right!

Her name' Celestia, and she has a nice flank!

The Albian stallion couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the pair, who now were leaning back up against the wall and laughing like idiots as they slid down the wall. "At least we're gonna have some laughs with them around during this war," Blue Arrow thought amusingly.

"At least they're gonna give us some peace," said a voice from the other side of the room, startling Blue Arrow, not by coming out of nowhere, but that whoever it was had almost copied his words from his head.

Looking over to see who it was, there standing with his back against the wall on his hind hooves and holding a mug of cider, was a certain Manehatten stallion.

"Shadow!" Blue Arrow greeted warmly as Shadow took a small sip of his drink before placing it on the ground and walking up to Blue Arrow.

"Hey dude," Shadow replied before looking over Blue Arrow's shoulder at the now dazed and sleeping pair of Red Hooves. "Take it the celebrations in there too much for you?"

"Hardly," Blue Arrow replied gruffly, then began asking Shadow a certain question. "Erm, I don't suppose you saw two stallions, a brown and grey one head by here did you?"

The black stallion thought for a moment trying to remember for a few seconds. "Yeah, they went up back to the living quarters I think, and looked sad as hell, something happen in there?"

His fellow comrade bit his bottom lip and uncertainty spread across his face. "No, not really…somethin' that I dinae wanna talk about in public, ya know?"

"Ah, I see," Shadow realized immediately before looking back to where the two stallions had gone by.

"...Hold on a second," Blue Arrow realised suddenly. "Why aren't you back in there celebrating with the rest?"

Suddenly the black stallion gave the blue stallion a serious stare before pulling him off to one of the corners of the room. "What? Was it somethin' I said?" Blue Arrow asked worriedly.

Shadow quickly looked around quickly before talking again to Blue Arrow. "Look man, I don't wanna get, you know, have rumors flying around…even if those two there have passed out."

Blue Arrow stared blankly at this fellow Red Hoof, then looked over towards the doorway where all the other Red Hooves were, then back again to Shadow. "What rumors?" He asked dumbfounded.

"Alright listen here," Shadow replied, his voice now in almost a hushed whisper. "Well, apparently, some locals are clamming that they've seen Alaccan troops from the battle that managed to escape."

The red-eyed blue stallion tilted his head in a confused yet amused manner. "…And the point is?"

"That's another thing," Shadow added. "Some say they've seen this sort of thing from the aftermath of unofficial attacks on the city, something that you might've heard like the rest here, right?"

"Well, aye…" Blue Arrow replied in a unknowing manner of what Shadow had planned to say next.

"Well they say that try and rendezvous with other escapers from a battle and band together to make a quick assault on the city or any other part of Farachan," Shadow concluded.

For a few seconds afterwards, Blue Arrow could do nothing than stare like an idiot at the Manehatten stallion, trying to register Shadow's words. Then he chuckled. And again increasing up a notch. And again with Blue Arrow shaking his head in disbelieve while displaying a bemused smile on his face. "What utter shite!"

"That's what your worried about? Where about did ya hear about this malarkey then?" Blue Arrow now stopped chuckling before ruffling his red and white mane. "How come did I didn't hear about this then?" The thought of a bunch of survivors finding one another to put on a last ditch attack seemed almost ridiculous to the blue stallion.

Despite Blue Arrow's skeptic thoughts, Shadow put on a serious face to the fellow stallion. "Laugh all you like, but I ain't taking chances."

Blue Arrow drew in a long sigh as he thought over Shadow's words again. "…Ah well, guess ye cannae be too careful I see," his words with a hint of sarcasm in them.

"Then what would you did if they attacked right now with all the other Red Hooves drunk back there?" Shadow questioned Blue Arrow as he looked at the Red Hooves celebrating like drunken idiots…literally.

The smile that was on Blue Arrow's face earlier slowly turned into a slight frown as the words melted into his head. 'What if?' True he didn't think that something like what Shadow predicated was to happen with the Red Hooves making the Alaccans flee for their lives, but he did think about the thought of it.

"…Anyway, I have to check on my friends," Blue Arrow suddenly blurted out before heading up to the Red Hoof living quarters, leaving a rather taken aback Shadow standing there with only the two drunks nearby. Truth of the matter in Blue Arrow's point of view, he had now no idea what to think.

XXX

Shortly afterwards Blue Arrow returned up to their bedroom, only to find Dynamo lying back on his bed with his fore hooves over his face, while Macca was sitting on the edge of his bed with one of his fore hooves holding up his face and looking quite depressed. The one thing that Blue Arrow noticed was the cold and uncomfortable atmosphere around the room, like something after the aftermath of an argument.

At first, he wanted to ask them what had happened, but decided against it, the atmosphere in the room making me think otherwise. How was he supposed to tell a normal pony of how his day had gone? He had been in a major battle at dawn against the Alaccans, a battle that they'd won on a magnificent scale. He had spent almost the rest of the day with his close friends enjoying themselves, only for it to end abruptly with Dynamo leaving, closely followed by Macca. Shadow had told Blue Arrow that he predicated that the Alaccans would stage a last ditch attack on them, then again those were only rumors he'd only heard. To say that he'd been having a long day really was quite a big understatement.

For a few hours after he arrived up to the room, all he could do was lie back on his bed and try and drop off to sleep. Neither of them spoke during that while, even when Sunstar came back to the room, he felt the moody atmosphere like Blue Arrow had found previously and decided not to ask a word. To Blue Arrow's mind, it seemed childish that they weren't talking to each other like this; however, this wasn't bothering him like he'd expected. Instead, Shadow's words kept playing on his mind and wouldn't leave him. At times, he would lazily look over to the window, each time getting darker and each time the thought of an Alaccan strike seemed more likely.

Eventually one by one, each of them in the room fell to sleep. As popular as the old thought goes by the general public that Red Hoof or any military ponies don't have comfortable accommodation, though surprisingly, the beds felt like a smooth and thin silk, this itself was a request from Celestia herself that she wanted the Red Hooves to feel as comfortable as possible for their time out in Farachan. It was perhaps no wonder that Blue Arrow and the others almost immediately were sleeping like logs soon after.

By this point, the time was now 2 am and all of Coltfast would've been sleeping by this point…at least what one would think. As Blue Arrow slumbered on, he didn't know if he was sure, but he thought that he could hear cries from ponies from outside. In his current state, it was difficult to tell what exactly was going on, though he didn't really think more about it and instead shuffled vaguely on his bed.

The cries continued…and this time, a loud bang like a rouge firework could be heard.

"Bloody daft works setting off fireworks at this time," Blue Arrow muttered annoyingly in his sleep, this time, he pulled the pillow over his head to block out the sound.

At first, it felt like that was the end of it and the Red Hooves would carry on with their golden slumbers. Silence…

Suddenly there was a violent explosion and a dazzling bright glow of orange that filled the room, and the violent quake from the blast caused the four Hooves to sit up bolt up right, except of Macca who instead fell out of his bed.

"The hell?!" Sunstar stuttered madly as they quickly crowded round the window. Outside, they could hear panicking screams and in the far right hand corner of the window, there standing about a mile away from them, burning and shimmering the town in a bright orange, was a tall building that was ablaze.

As they kept gawking at the sight before them, behind them, they could hear one of their commanders banging on doors and shouting the words 'Get up!' and 'Alaccans have broken into the city!'

Those six words made Blue Arrow's blood ran cold, while his fellow comrades were turning round and quickly putting on their gear, Blue Arrow kept standing there watching the fire take place. Shadow had been right, the Alaccans wanted revenge from their defeat.

"C'mon, Blue Arrow!" Yelled Dynamo; breaking the blue stallion out of his trance.

Blue Arrow turned round, his wide-eyed stunned face really saying it all. Then, he quickly shook off the expression off his face and starting preparing his gear on. It seemed that in every room in that long corridor, Red Hooves all started getting ready, thought the strange thing was, nopony had any idea what to do.

Blue Arrow and a few other Red Hooves peaked their heads through their respected doorframes; they could see Commander Sixer flying through the corridor hurriedly equipping on his golden armor and barking out orders. "Don't just stand there! Get out there and bucking help civilians for Celestia's sake!"

That was all that was needed as Sixer rocketed past them down the corridor. Almost immediately, every Red Hoof quickly dashed down the corridor following Sixer outside. The stampede of Red Hooves quickly found themselves outside and all huddled together like a bunch of school foals as they could see hovering up in a bi-pedal style was Sixer and the four other commanders loudly talking for the next course of action. Even though they were about a mile away from where the fire was, they could feel the heat from that distance away. Also, there running away from the blaze were various motley mobs of city folk, fear written on their faces, some even had various injuries on parts of their bodies.

The Red Hooves looked to one another wondering if they shouldn't wait for their orders and go in and help those in danger. Suddenly, one of them did just that and flew as fast as he could towards the fire. Even though the blaze was causing the city to bask in an orange glow, but due to it being night, the mysterious Red Hoof was and all they could do was watch in stunned amazement as this unknown Red Hoof went rogue on them.

"Get back in line private!" Snapped one of the commanders, alas, the Red Hoof troop carried on flying away. "Damn it!"

"Stallions!" Yelled a beefy looking orange Pegasus, named Woolwinder. "Just get in, get any trapped civilians outta there and if you see any Alaccans…kill 'em!"

Without being asked twice, the Red Hooves started flying towards the blaze, passing by many shocked and confused ponies, like the Red Hooves, none of them knew exactly what had happened. In the mad rush, Blue Arrow had found him separate from Dynamo, Sunstar and Macca, however he knew that he couldn't think about what was up with them, right now, tracking down whoever had caused this fire was to be taken down immediately.

As they arrived at the scene, fireponies were scattered across the area doing whatever they could to help injured ponies and putting out the blaze. They also noticed that the fire had spread to some nearby buildings and terrified citizens fled for their lives.

"Alright boys, let's do this!" Woolwinder yelled out as they scattered round the site.

Despite the buzz of the moment, Blue Arrow still felt tired from earlier and kept shaking his head to try and keep himself awake. He along with five other Red Hooves entered one of the buildings that had caught fire in the hopes of rescuing any trapped ponies. It would seem strange from an outsider's point of view to see the Red Hooves getting involved in the rescue side of things considering that they are troops/secret service for Equestria, however in moments like this, everypony was needed to help out with the current situation.

As Blue Arrow walked away from the other Hooves while trying to look out for any activity, a suddenly heard a cry from the far left of the room he was in caught his attention. Fully turning his body round to see where the screaming was coming from, he could see a middle aged earth pony mare lying on her back with the lower parts of her body covered up from rubble from the explosion earlier, which that itself had caused a large hole in the side of the building Blue Arrow was in.

"Hold on lass!" Blue Arrow cried as he quickly flew over to the distressed mare as she screamed again for help, her face was white as a sheet and looked utterly fearful. Oddly, as Blue Arrow approached her, she didn't hear nor notice that he was coming and instead kept looking towards the large gash to the wall.

Nevertheless Blue Arrow quickly landed beside the mare and began to quickly dig away the debris. "Easy now, the Red Hooves are—"

"Help us!" The mare screamed again, once again she didn't look at him but kept staring towards the hole.

"Calm down lass! There's nothing…" Blue Arrow tried to reassure the frightened mare, but as he turned his head round to see what she was staring at, his eyes widened. There before them, was an Alaccan Pegasus grinning smugly as he aimed a crossbow at the pair.

As soon as Blue Arrow noticed him, the Alaccan troop was on the verge of shooting down Blue Arrow. Knowing that there was very little he could've done, he shut his eyes and braced himself from the arrow…

Blue Arrow heard a clash of armor and the grunts of two stallions, opening his eyes, Blue Arrow saw the Alaccan being pushed back into the blazing building next door by the unmistaken sight of a Red Hoof solider. The damned opposing troop that had been knocked back into the blazing building caught fire and screamed loudly for his life, only for the Red Hoof troop to strike his saber sword into the Alaccan's face, killing him immediately.

The unknown Red Hoof troop, while flying in a bipedal manner, turned round showing who it was that had saved him. Shadow! His dark red mane and tail were all scruffy, his blue eyes burning like those from a bird of pray, he seemed to have the manner of a stallion who's pride had gone unchecked and never seemed broken. Seeing the situation with the trapped mare, the black stallion quickly flew down to help.

Blue Arrow was stilled speechless of his comrade's almost dramatic appearance like that. "Shadow? How'd you-?"

"Couldn't let a fellow Hoof down now, couldn't I?" Shadow smirked at Blue Arrow before getting back to dig away at the falling rubble.

"Oh Celestia bless you two!" The mare said, overwhelmed that her life had been saved.

"Nah, thank him," Blue Arrow corrected, pointing at the Manehatten stallion. Shortly afterwards, the two Hooves managed to clear off the heavy ruble from the mare and in doing so, freed the mare.

Due to the injuries she had sustained, both Blue Arrow and Shadow had to help her out of the building and down to ground level below. By this point, the building they were in had now caught most of the fire that was spreading quickly. Thick smoke filled the area as the three ponies stumbled outside to see various Red Hooves in other buildings trying to find any trapped ponies with the fire ponies, all of which now, were trying to tackle the blaze. A large crowd had formed nearby who could only stare at the sight before them.

Once the three of them were away from the building, two medical ponies raced over to take care of the mare from Blue Arrow and Shadow. As the watched the mare being taken away to safety, the two Red Hooves turned to look at the burning set of buildings.

"The fire's getting worse!" Shadow shouted, as it seemed like the blaze had never changed since the fireponies had arrived.

"Those bloody Alaccans just dinae ken when tae quit!" Blue Arrow said angrily as he saw a motley groups of Red Hooves hovering up in the air trying to find any hidden Alaccans troops, there was no doubt by this point that Shadow was right about Alaccans coming back for another round.

The black stallion snorted as he pulled out his saber like sword and readied himself for battle. "Do I get the praise now for being right?" Shadow asked in a slight sarcastic manner as a small smirk appeared on his face.

"No the now," Blue Arrow replied gruffly as he squinted his eyes up towards the roof of a nearby tall building, he thought he was seeing the silhouettes of ponies on the roof. "Didn't any Red Hoof get any orders tae go up there?" He asked suspiciously to Shadow and pointing towards the rooftop with his hoof.

Shadow looked up towards where Blue Arrow was pointing to and squinted his eyes to try and see what the Albain stallion was on about. "…Wait a second…"

Then before they knew what was happening, a sudden blast of green energy streaked its way towards them. "Shit!" Blue Arrow cried and pushed Shadow out of the way before the blast hit the ground and caused a small explosion. The audience who were standing and watching the events from the sidelines panicked and ran for their lives.

The two stallions had only just managed to jump clear of the attack, which they now lay in a heap. As they looked back at where they were before, only to find a small section of scorched tarmac to be seen. Then all at once, more blasts of green streaks of energy started firing at anyone on the ground. "Cover now!" Sixer's voice could be heard over the crowd of retreating towns folk.

Just as Sixer ordered, the remaining Red Hoof troops quickly dashed over to hide behind any large piece of wreckage that they could see to hide from the relenting attacks. Blue Arrow and Shadow found themselves taking cover behind what was once a section of a thick pillar.

The black stallion breathed heavily, his eyes burning with the desire to stop the attackers. "When those orders come," Shadow explained through grinded teeth, "I'm gonna pop these fools!"

"You'll have all the time in the world soon," Blue Arrow remarked, despite the situation they were currently in of being bombarded like this.

Looking behind over to a small group of three Red Hooves huddled behind a similar sized piece of wreckage, though with them, a wounded Red Hoof stallion could be seen with his back up against the ruined structure. An unnatural stream of green mist was coming off the unfortunate stallion's left wing; one of the blasts had caused a hole in his wing. All Blue Arrow could do was listen to the stallion's anguish and painful moans as one of the stallions from over there tried to comfort him.

Suddenly a large blast of magic from one of the unicorns caused a section of rubble to fly up, and with it, two Red Hoof stallions were heard screaming as they found themselves being flung up into the air and, much to Blue Arrow's horror, receive the blunt of the relenting attacks as all the firing of the Alaccan stallions turned their aim to the two stallions and fired jointly at them. Even though the stallions were only up in the air for a few seconds, it seemed that a hundred blasts seemed to hit the stallions as their bodies were ripped to pieces like paper.

By the time the mangled bodies hit the ground, they barely resembled two Red Hooves.

Along with other Red Hoof troops taking cover, Blue Arrow was stunned into silence at what he had witnessed. The blue stallion then looked over to the commanders on the other end of the site, also taking cover, and could see that the commanding troops were just as shocked as he was.

"Oh buck this!" Shadow snapped, causing Blue Arrow to be startled and looked back on his fellow comrade, only to see that he had gone out from his cover and was now charging towards the Alaccans.

"Get back to your bucking cover!" Roared a voice from one of the commanders as Shadow ignored the orders and carried on risking his life. Despite the constant steams of attacks from the Alaccan forces, Shadow moved with a deadly graceful ease around them. The shock from the deaths of the two Red Hoof troops from earlier suddenly turned to a rational sense of hope.

Without even thinking of what he was doing, Blue Arrow suddenly found himself going out from behind his cover and charging towards the dangerous Alaccans.

"Get back you idiot!" Roared the commander's voice again as Blue Arrow went out.

Blue Arrow didn't listen; it seemed now that commanding orders had been thrown out of the window. The remaining Red Hoof troops still taking cover watched the two stallions head out towards the top, then they looked back at their shocked and disgusted commanders, then all at once they sprang out and homed in on the Alaccans.

As Blue Arrow held his sword close to him as he kept on flying onwards, by now Shadow had reached to the top and had tackled on Alaccan troop to the ground and started striking him blow to blow with his sword. Some Alaccans on that rooftop fled to escape from the Red Hoof currently killing their fellow solider, only to be stopped by Blue Arrow. The blue stallion struck one of them with his sword from behind, killing the troop.

He pulled out his bloody sword from the dead troop and started chasing down the other troops on the run. By now, the other Red Hooves had joined in and started down any Alaccan troop they could catch.

Blue Arrow tackled down another Pegasus troop and sent him crashing to the concrete ground. The force of the impact seriously wounded the Alaccan troop, but Blue Arrow had used him as a cushion for the impact, only making it worse for that Alaccan. Blue Arrow slowly got, feeling quite shaken up from that fact that the impact was much harder than he anticipated. Then with his sword, he plunged it into the Pegasus' neck, finishing off the troop.

The heat from the fire wasn't getting cooler by this point and Blue Arrow was starting to sweat buckets, the heavy plate armor they had on wasn't helping them either. Blue Arrow looked up and saw Shadow taken on two Alaccan troops like a mad stallion. As Shadow started to take on the earth pony and unicorn, it was only then that he could see Shadow's fighting style.

The best way Blue Arrow could describe Shadow's style was either a blur or a coffee fuelled stallion. Blue Arrow could only watch in amazement as it only took less than ten seconds for Shadow to finish off both of them. He had been in such a trance by watching the fight that he hadn't noticed behind him that an Alaccan earth pony started lunging him way towards Blue Arrow, it was though just lucky that he only just noticed the earth pony and quickly dodged the stallion before plunging a sword blow into the back of the pony's neck.

Looking up again after killing of that stallion, Blue Arrow saw Shadow take flight, but strangely, he was following the other set of Alaccan Pegasus that had started a retreat from Coltfast. Surely the stallion wasn't trying to pull off a one-stallion attack on the rest of them?

Whatever thought might've came into Blue Arrow's mind was quickly shaken off as he followed on with the rest of the Red Hooves to take down a motley amount of Alaccans taken cover in a building nearby.

This time, these Alaccans were firing arrows at the Red Hooves, this time, a few good Red Hoof troops were caught in the cross fire and fell to the ground. Despite the thought of helping out his fellow comrades crossed his mind quickly, he had no time to help them, but instead avenge them by taken down these enemy forces.

Blue Arrow let out a major roar as he aimed out his sword towards one unicorn troop, who looked fearful and was on the verge of running away from this mental Red Hoof solider. Along with the rest of the Red Hooves, Blue Arrow brutally stuck down the unicorn and started lashing again and again with his sword so much that the neck of the unicorn he had killed already was barely hanging on. Blue Arrow stood up and watched as the dead troop lay there in a pool of its own blood.

"That's for Alba," Blue Arrow remarked as he spat on the dead troop. Then he heard a few cheers and looking up, he could see the remaining Red Hooves standing scattered about the place celebrating their victory.

Another victory for the Red Hooves of Celestia, but just as Blue Arrow was about to breath a sigh of relive, a fellow Red Hoof troop came up to him and pulled him into a hug like an old friend. "Nothing can stop us now!" The stallion said happily before pulling away and racing across to hug another Red Hoof troop.

Blue Arrow couldn't help but smile at the overwhelmed stallion looking so ecstatic over this battle. But then that smile fell when he thought about that stallion that from earlier who broke away from the group and went into the battle without following orders from his superior officials. It only dawned to Blue Arrow that that stallion that had been was Shadow.

There had been something about Shadow that seemed rather rebellious and would only take matters into his own hooves. However, when Shadow took chase after the retreating stallions out of the city, that would be the last time he would see Shadow that night, whatever might've happened to him was anypony's idea. Then he had himself to blame from when they were taking cover when Shadow went out first with him following behind him…without following orders from the commanders. Blue Arrow only knew that he was only going to land himself in hot water after that move, or worse, possible deportation back to the mainland.

Farachan

by QTXAdsy

Night Raid