//------------------------------//
// Malum 
// Story: Farachan 
// by QTXAdsy 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 10

Malum


Coltfast and all of Farachan were in a state of panic. For the last few days, the entire province state had been hearing many snippets of worrying news about the advancing Alaccan army that was somewhere out there in the open fields of Farachan. Despite the population knowing that the Alaccans had been cleverly diverted into a notoriously dangerous mountain pass known to many as 'The Pass Of Malum', their biggest fear was how close the Alaccans were that made even those back on the mainland in Equestria terrified at the concept.

The Alaccans were only twenty miles away from Coltfast, the key to capturing Farachan. There was no doubt that the Red Hooves had to go out there and stop their advance to the city. They knew that they were the last line of defence, (not counting several brave souls in Coltfast who had already armed their selves for fear of the Alaccans arriving.) If they were to fail, then the Alaccans would march onwards to Coltfast and win this war. To make life even difficult for the Red Hooves, the citizens, who were treating them as heroes when they first arrived not so long ago, were now starting to question their liability and even sometimes give them a lukewarm reception ever since that disastrous defeat not so long ago.

Nevertheless, the very thought of the importance of this battle made the Red Hooves' hearts fill with passion for Equestria and hatred for the enemy, more than they had ever felt in their lives since this war started. No longer was there to be a repeat of the last battle when the commanders decided on taken out their best fighters to face the forces of Alaccan, only for them to be routed. This time, every available Red Hoof that was in any form of fighting condition was brought out to join all the others, all the more the better, as they would say.

At last, the morning of the battle finally arrived. Like always, the Red Hooves were to leave in the very early hours of a rainy day, and with this being the fight of their lives along with revenge in their hearts for their fallen comrades, neither of them were late to report in to join all the others waiting outside. Even with it raining heavily on the Red Hooves as they stood outside the base waiting, they didn't seem to care as they were all itching to go.

Well, nearly all of them.

Within that large huddle of Red Hooves chatting to one another in the pouring rain, a certain blue Pegasus stallion from Alba had his mind elsewhere. Ever since that last meeting with Shadow, he had grown more accustomed to his thought that Shadow was a rogue Red Hoof solider that had gone with the others without orders from officials, though how old he was still remained a mystery to Blue Arrow. There was no doubt that if he caught Shadow if they won this battle afterwards, he would take him to commanding officials so that they would deal with him.

Casting his eyes from left to right, he tried to spot the black Pegasus stallion in the pack of Red Hooves, alas, he saw many thousands of red armoured stallions standing around with their weapons by their sides, but none of them looked like Peppercorn Tornado.

Blue Arrow shivered slightly in the cold air and rubbed off some of the rain that had found itself on his face. Though he was determined to find the black stallion he knew that really he had no time for it as he was about to head into a battle that was more intense than the others.

"You ready?" Said a voice next to him.

Blue Arrow raised a small but uneasy smile as he looked over to his friend Dynamo, who was also standing beside Sunstar and Macca. "Aye, as ready as I'll ever be," Blue Arrow replied coolly as he tightened his grip on his spear.

"Well don't worry, we'll stick together," Sunstar added. "And by the way…you found…Shadow yet?"

Blue Arrow sighed sadly as he lowered his head and shook his head. "Nae luck," he uttered. Ever since he last saw Shadow, he had told his three comrades about the mysterious stallion and his theory that he was perhaps a runaway Red Hoof troop. Though they were all sceptical at first at Blue Arrow, they did eventually agree with him when Blue Arrow explained to them about Shadow's name not being on the list of Red Hoof troops.

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere," Macca spoke up. "They way he ran away from you sounds like he ran off like a rat."

"More like I smelt a rat with him around," Blue Arrow replied dryly, earning a few chuckles from the others. "But hey, if I see him, I'll get that bastard if it kills me."

Dynamo opened his mouth about to inject something into the conversation, but was halted when the four commanding Pegasai flew overhead ordering the Red Hooves below to be quiet. Blue Arrow and the others all face upwards to look up at the commanders in their Royal gold armour.

"Alright Red Hooves, this is it," Said Woolwinder as he flew forwards in front of the other three. "Today is a battle that neither side can lose, if we win, we can cause them to flee back to Alaccan. If we lose, Farachan will fall, and I'll be damned if that was to happen!"

The Red Hooves' expressions remained neutral, though Woolwinder could see it in their eyes that they were filled with fiery determination. "That's all you need to know," Commander Sixer added as he flew up alongside Woolwinder. "Just get in there, fight like you have done before, and kick their asses so hard that they won't dare to set foot in Farachan again, Understand!?"

"NO SURRENDER!" Cried the Red Hooves.

"And what was the call!?" Woolwinder yelled to them.

"NO SURRENDER!" The Red Hooves roared with such passion that it felt like the entire city that day heard it.

"ONWARDS TO MALUM!" Roared Woolwinder as he raised his sword into the air before he led the swarm of Red Hooves onwards to the Pass of Malum. The Red Hooves flew over the city walls and headed to face the enemy that they utterly despised so much.

Like the others, Blue Arrow and his three friends had been fired up and flew in that large sea of red in the air. So much was he fired up that he almost forgotten about his own personal mission of trying to Shadow. Whatever what was more important to him, wherever it was the battle or finding Shadow, Blue Arrow was not on his life going to give up so easily.


XXX


Through the torrid rainstorm, the Red Hooves carried on flying through that terrible storm like every mile they were covering was giving them medals; such was their determination to stop the Alaccans. Along with the others Blue Arrow had to wipe away the rain splats that kept finding their way onto his face to try and see where they were going, he could only pray to the heavens that the storm would die out and let their flight over to Malum get any more easier. Regrettably, despite muttering a few words of a pray under his breath, it never did him any favours.

In the midst of all this, Blue Arrow then suddenly caught a glance of a Pegasus in some rows in front of him. Squinting his eyes, he then noticed that the wings were black and the stallion's tail flowing in the wind was dark red. His heart skipped a beat as his thoughts began thinking of who it was. Shadow…or was he mistaken? He had no idea and even if he wanted to fly further up to the stallion was almost impossible due to the vast number of Red Hooves all around him and to make matters also rather dangerous, if he suddenly slowed down, he would then get sucked through the other Red Hooves behind him like a vacuum, so any ideas to try and see this stallion were ruled out quickly.

Despite the rain that pelted down on the Red Hooves' armour making hearing almost near impossible, many of them were thankful to just barely hear one of the commanders call out an order for them to fly down.

"Red Hooves! Lower!"

They had arrived.

Blue Arrow like the rest was thankful they were here and even more so that the journey was much shorter, though it was a stark reminder to so just how close the Alaccans where to Coltfast.

One by one, the Red Hooves all landed within a large canyon like structure with steep sides and a rather strange flat bottom. Looking up, the walls stood about ninety feet tall though looked hazardously unstable due to the heavy rain, almost like the walls were about to cave in on them.

"Nae wonder they wanted to bring us here to fight them," Blue Arrow said to himself quietly. "Just knock those walls down and have them crushed to death."

A thunderclap sounded as Commander Woolwinder flew into the air above the elite troops to give them their orders. "Alright then, this is a battle like no other, not in a sense of this being the final battle, as much as we might all like to think, but one that shouldn't really be happening."

Blue Arrow and his fellow troops muttered among one another wondering what the orange Pegasus commander meant by that.

"And to answer your question," Woolwinder added noticing their confused looks. "What I mean is that I didn't want them to be this close, had we stopped them back there on the swamps, they would've been driven back over the border to lick their wounds yet again, only that time was when we received, and one that I damn well hope to Celestia that we don't find ourselves in again!"

Some mutterings of agreement could be heard as Woolwinder gave out his speech to them. Unlike the rest though however, Blue Arrow wasn't focusing on his commander's rallying speech his eyes were firmly fixed on that stallion he'd noticed during his flight. The stallion Blue Arrow had his eye one then looked up at the orange commander listening to Woolwinder's words and Blue Arrow could see the stallion had a slightly pale muzzle, dark blue eyes and a turf of dark red mane sticking out from the helmet.

There was no doubt in Blue Arrow's mind whom that practically stallion was. Shadow. He'd finally found him, though he'd found him at the worst time possible, just at the start of a damn battle that the fate of Farachan rested on. Timing was never one of Blue Arrow's strengths in all honesty.

"But now my friends!" Woolwinder added as he hovered over the elite troops. "We mustn't be bitter now for what happened, we have no choice but to turn this all around and send them homeward to think again…For Celestia and Equestria!"

"NO SURRENDER!" The Red Hooves roared with defiance, that sign alone was another for the commanders to know that their troops didn't need any more encouragement to get them going.

Then with Woolwinder giving the Red Hooves a few hoof signals indicating for them to line up within that canyon and another one of the commanders behind Woolwinder giving another hoof signal for some of the Red Hooves to head up to the top of the canyon walls to give the enemy troops the element of surprise.

Blue Arrow found himself being among the many Red Hooves positioned on ground level and the ones to face of the Alaccans first. Then over to his right, he saw Shadow standing in the second row towards the chasm wall (Blue Arrow was standing in the forth row back). "I have ye now," Blue Arrow mumbled to himself as his eyes narrowed at the rouge Red Hoof troop.

But before he could do anything, a horn sounded that brought the place to silence. The Red Hooves all stood there, some tightening their grips on their spears as they waited for the green and purple armoured stallions to emerge from around the corner in the distance. For Blue Arrow, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on Shadow as he remembered during the night raid attack on Coltfast not so long ago that the black stallion would refuse to follow commander's orders and breakaway from the ranks.

"Don't you dare think about doing that you little shite!" Blue Arrow thought to himself as he almost expected Shadow to pull off that move.

Then one by one, a few various rumblings could be heard that sounded more and more like hoof steps…thousands of them. By that point, Blue Arrow quickly tore his gaze away from Shadow and towards the long chasm in front of him waiting to see the first glimpse of the Alaccans.

The heavens kept pouring a hammering amount of rain that seemed powerful enough to cause the stone walls to crash down on them, but not even that seemed able to shake of the Red Hooves, all they wanted was to fight, win and get out of here. Then, through the thick wall of rain, the Red Hooves all caught a glimpse of green and the sounds of hoof steps getting louder.

At last, they were here where they wanted them.

"Get ready boys!" Commander Sixer yelled to the red armoured troops. "Remember our main tactic, block them out and push them back!"

Just as Sixer finished his sentence, the Alaccan troops suddenly sprinted forward towards the waiting Red Hooves.

"Oh shite!" Blue Arrow swore under his breath as he and several others franticly raised up their shields to help push their comrades standing in front of them to push forward.

"Hurry and arm up!" Cried out Commander Sky Rider as he looked over at the charging Alaccan forces.

In a few frantic seconds, the Red Hooves quickly readied themselves for impact. While this was going on, Blue Arrow kept one eye on Shadow, expecting the black Pegasus to break out from their lines and take on all the Alaccans on his own…suicidal.

"Don't ye dare ya daft arse!" Blue Arrow muttered angrily under his breath. It was just lucky then that his attention went back to the Alaccans, who two seconds later, crashed into the front ranks of Red Hooves. He and many others behind those front lined elite troops pushed forward with their shields pushing the enemy back as much as they could. Though Blue Arrow couldn't see ahead of him, all he could hear was the sound of swords clashing and the cries of death from stallions being slaughtered. Looking down to the ground, thanks to the rain, Blue Arrow saw rivers of blood coming down between his and fellow Red Hooves' legs. He could only hope that the blood there was from the Alaccan troops.

Despite their best efforts, the Red Hooves couldn't muster the strength the push back the Alaccans, both sides were at a standstill.

"Push you idiots! Is that the best you can do?!" Cried a Red Hoof from the front, and with that, slowly, the Red Hooves started pushing forward.

The screaming continued and none of those stallions dressed in red had any idea of the situation at the front. Nevertheless, various stallions within that pack kept barking out the word 'Push' over and over again.

Then they all heard the loud humming of wings from above, and looking up into the air, Blue Arrow put on a small grin as he could see the Red Hooves that had been hiding up on the walls started raining down on the unsuspecting Alaccans. More blood curling screaming from the green and purple armoured stallions followed as those attacking red armoured stallions began to utterly route them.

Finally, those on the ground level pushing the Alaccans back all felt a great lunge forward as the Red Hooves suddenly found the pushing very easy, and that only meant one thing. The Alaccan line had been broken. As Blue Arrow and his fellow comrades carried on, he glanced down below him to see broken bodies of nothing but Alaccan bodies lying around in heaps of scarlet flowing rivers.

A good start for the Celestia's stallions dressed in red.

Finally, the rest of the Red Hooves could finally take on the already faltering Alaccan troops. Blue Arrow used his new spear taking down many green and purple armoured stallions stabbing them either through the face or neck. Either way didn't matter to him, as long as it killed them.

"No surrender!" Blue Arrow roared as he plunged his spear into neck of a fallen Alaccan unicorn troop.

Suddenly Blue Arrow groaned in pain as somepony's sword made a large cut on his right cheek before Blue Arrow quickly tackled the Alaccan stallion (an Earth Pony) to ground and stabbed the damned stallion through the eye and into his brain with the end of his spear.

After finishing that stallion off, Blue Arrow grabbed hold of his spear and saw an Alaccan Pegasus charging towards him.

"Come on ye bastard!" Blue Arrow taunted the stallion as he aimed his spear at that stallion.

Just as that stallion pulled out his sword, Blue Arrow threw his spear right into the neck of the unfortunate stallion, causing him to flip backwards before crashing down on top of his neck with a sickening noise of bones smashing.

Rather much to Blue Arrow's annoyance, his spear had snapped on impact, reddening it worthless. "Celestia damn it," He snapped crossly before pulling out his sword and carried on his slaughtering of Alaccans.

All around him, the sounds of swords clashing and screams of death was the thing that he was hearing, right up until he heard Woolwinder cry out 'Hold your ground!' to the Red Hooves.

Looking forward, Blue Arrow could see the lucky survivors from that onslaught hurrying away from the Red Hooves and back into the Alaccan ranks in a desperate attempt to regroup. The look of sheer white terror was written all over their blood-covered faces; they had only been in such a short time fallen to pieces to the Red Hooves.

"Fall in!" Woolwinder yelled out another order in which the Red Hooves quickly regroup in a tight pack that stretched to both sides of the canyon walls, with them, there was no chance for Alaccans to get through now. The Alaccan forces had already been reduced to nearly half the size they once were.

At this point, the two sides didn't attempt to strike first, leaving the battle at this point to a stalemate. Suddenly, a flash of red bolted out of the Red Hoof pack and as everypony within that canyon turned to look at whatever it was, they could all see that it was a Red Hoof solider charging into the Alaccan ranks headfirst. As Blue Arrow got a better view of whom it was, his blood ran cold. It was Shadow! He'd gone rogue! His worse fears had come true.

"Buck!" Blue Arrow cursed and then without him even thinking of what he was doing, he found himself unexpectedly flying out of the Red Hoof pack and attempted to stop Shadow, who by now had entered combat with the Alaccans and was surprisingly holding up on his own.

"GET BACK HERE YOU FOOLS!" Woolwinder roared as Blue Arrow entered combat as he attempted to pull back Shadow within enemy lines.

Right now, Blue Arrow didn't seem to care about what consequences he was leading himself in for, all he wanted was to stop Shadow. However that fact proved to be difficult as he was constantly finding himself overwhelmed by Alaccans wanting to make quick work of him, but being a Red Hoof, he kept fending off their attacks until he could see a piece of red in that sea of green and purple.

After seeing it, he headed towards in that direction striking oncoming Alaccans blow to blow with his sword. Nothing seemed to be halting the blue Pegasus.

"ATTACK!" came the sound of Woolwinder's voice, but with all the sounds in that pack, Blue Arrow barely heard it. Finally though, he managed to break through and came face to face with Shadow. Covered with scars and bruises all over his body, Shadow had almost a crazy look on his face, a look that to Blue Arrow's perspective made him think that Shadow had gone insane.

Almost immediately, the swarm of Red Hooves crashed into the Alaccans and began their onslaught once more. Thanks to them, it gave Blue Arrow and Shadow just the time to speak.

"Shadow! What the buck are ye playin' at?" Blue Arrow spat out angrily.

"I'm only doing my job!" Shadow replied as he quickly dealt with a unicorn Alaccan killing him.

"Not without orders ya idiot!" Blue Arrow yelled furiously, his face now glowing red as his armour.

Shadow suddenly charged forward and pushed Blue Arrow over to one of the canyon walls, nearly causing Blue Arrow's spine to break. The blue stallion groaned in pain but quickly pushed off Shadow and began punching up the black Pegasus, in which Shadow fought back leading it to an all out brawl in the middle of this battle with the Alaccans.

Shadow laid a punch on Blue Arrow's face, causing blood to fly out of him mouth and send him falling backwards, but Blue Arrow never give up and this time kicked Shadow back using his hind legs and send him this time backwards.

In the midst of this petty fight, the Alaccan forces were now down to what seemed like only fifty at a casual glance and were on retreat. The Red Hooves had won again!

But any thoughts of celebration quickly turned sour as they all turned to look at the two brawling stallions seemly trying to kill each other. "Stop it at once!" Commander Sixer ordered as he quickly flew in the separated the two. "Stop it! Stop it!"

With the help of commander Sky Rider, the fight was brought to an end with Sixer holding Shadow back and Sky Rider held Blue Arrow back. Quickly as it started, Blue Arrow and Shadow, both covered in various bruises from their personal fight, stopped and began taking deep edgy breaths. The two stallions never took their eyes of each other as each seemed to have a burning hatred to beat each other. Only then did they both notice that all eyes were on them, and that Commander Woolwinder sauntered up to the two separated Red Hoof troops. The orange commander could only shake his head in disapproval, but anger could be seen burning within his eyes.

"You two just crossed the line boys."