//------------------------------//
// Black's March 
// Story: Dusk's Dangerous Game 
// by Airstream 
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The quiet town of Ponyville stood transformed in the last lights of evening. All day long, ponies had been arriving, marching out of strange tears in the land that were black as night, girded in armor, pulling small supply wagons behind them, and marching to pre-designated areas to prepare for the upcoming battle. Those supply wagons had helped Celestia’s forces immensely. Each contained rations, weapons, medical supplies, and construction equipment. Each Legion that marched through those tears was fully capable of setting up a fort anywhere in Equestria and holding it for a month with no help from the outside world. With the combined strength of eighteen of Equestria’s twenty-one Legions, there were well over ninety thousand ponies currently occupying the area in and around Ponyville, most of them in camps around the town proper. 

In addition, every spare cloud for miles in every direction had been requisitioned, taken by the Air Corps in order to use as space for their flyers, who could not afford to be placed on the ground in such tight quarters. The massive disk of white above the town served multiple purposes. It provided a base and launching platform for flyers, held multiple lookout points for scouts to spy on Ever Free positions, and ensured that the skies were clear in every direction, so as to lessen the chances of ambush. Most curiously of all, it served as a giant umbrella. The underside was hardened, ensuring that any projectiles aimed at the underbelly would glance off of it harmlessly. Any of the high shots necessary to hit the town, thrown by the Ever Free trebuchets, would simply fail to hit the ground.

Shining Armor looked over the defenses appreciatively from his vantage spot above Town Hall in Ponyville. The wall constructed by the Equestrians in front of the town was impressive to say the least. Ramparts of earth, wood and stone rose a regulation fifteen feet above the ground, and in front of them had been dug trenches five feet in depth. Every fifty feet rose a tower manned by two alert sentries, and in between those were ballistae, mounted on swivels and crewed by members of the Eighth Legion engineering cohort. The Eighth were among the best at siegecraft, having held off numerous Minotaur assaults in their forts ringing the northern mountains of Equestria. 

He had been appointed as pro temporae commander of the army assembled below him, and his orders were quite clear. On his arrival, he had consolidated his hold around Ponyville, built his defenses, and marshaled his troops. Those manning the wall would continue to do so until tomorrow morning’s sunrise, at which point they would begin their assault on the Ever Free positions, at which point he would be relegated back to the Guard, and another would lead in his stead.  If they pushed hard enough, the Ever Free lines would be shattered, and from then it was only a matter of time before they reached the castle his sister commanded.

Shining Armor snorted. Twilight had no experience commanding troops on a battlefield, and she had shown it. Her hit and run tactics wouldn’t do her any good in this situation, pinned against a wall. She was outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed. It was estimated that all told, she had approximately twenty thousand troops at her disposal, most of them untrained skirmishers. And the Everfree was a large place, so they’d be spread thin. It would be easy to mop them up.

Suddenly, and without warning, an immense wave of magic came rushing out of the Everfree Forest, blowing like an electric wind over the assembled ranks below. There were several cries of shock from those manning magical instruments as they shorted out. Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed as the sun sank below the horizon for good.

“Captain Fairweather!” he called, waiting on the leader of the Air Corps.

A tawny Pegasus who had been maintaining a crossbow looked up. “Sir!” he replied, coming to attention.

Shining Armor’s eyes swept the Forest. “Something’s not right with the treeline. I need flyers to tell me what’s happening out there.”

The Captain was one step ahead of him. He pulled a magical flare from his bag, firing it into the air, where it exploded into strong purple light. As Shining Armor watched, a wing of scout flyers shot off towards the Forest edge, peeling off into groups of two as they surveyed the darkness below. Each was suited to night flying, and there was a full moon out, so they should have had no trouble. But such was not the case.

Seeming to appear from nowhere, a group of swarming, shadowy figures melted into existence right on top of the unfortunate Pegasi, and Shining Armor could only watch in horror as each of them was borne to the Forest below, screaming as they fell. Shining Armor, straining with his optically enhanced eye, could barely make out a few features on the monsters that had attacked his soldiers. They were not Pegasi, or Changelings. They certainly weren’t Gryphons. He didn’t know what they were, but whatever the case, those…things…were not something that should have been. They were all scales and circular mouths and sharp, edged teeth that gleamed a sullen red even in the light of the moon. They had no wings.

There arose a cry of alarm from the walls, shouts calling the now-defenders to arms as what appeared to be a large bank of storm clouds charged headlong out of the Everfree skies straight towards the lines. Shining Armor felt the platform of clouds that he was standing on lower as more fliers hurled themselves towards the now-massive storm. Shining Armor knew that whatever was happening was not natural, and was no doubt the work of Ever Free spellcasters. At least he thought it was. But as he watched lightning begin to flicker in the clouds in an unnatural, poisonous green, he realized that there was no way a group of spellcasters could even begin to call that much weather out of nowhere. They’d be hard-pressed to move that storm, even if it was hovering above their heads.

A wave of lightning that could only be properly called a sheet rippled out from the storm, and caught the flyers where they were. Shining Armor watched in horror as the very ponies who had tried to dispel the storm were fried by it, plummeting down into the clear land between the Ever Free and the Equestrians. Thankfully, the Captain of the Air Corps realized that whatever they were dealing with was not natural, and the last Shining Armor saw of him was his back, as he retreated to lead his ponies above the clouds.

The storm bank hit the disk above Ponyville and actually caused it to slide back, loosening the protection over the town somewhat as the opaque veil of the storm hid the moon behind it, covering the land below in pitch black. Torches flared into life along the walls, throwing out some illumination below, but not much. Shining Armor hit the ground along with the rest of his staff, most of whom sprinted into the cover afforded by Town Hall, cursing as they attempted to form some semblance of command. Shining Armor let them go. They’d command ably, he was sure. But his job, as Commander of the Guard, was to lead his ponies in the Guard. And they were positioned in the seat of honor, the midpoint of the wall protecting Ponyville. The fighting would be fierce there, and they’d need every spear they could get, he was sure.

“Don’t bother saluting! Get to the bucking wall!” he roared at a group of Regulars who had stopped to do exactly that. They broke into a run as he reached his destination, barreling up the steps to the head of his Guard. He picked up a spear from a rack nearby, unslung his shield from his back, and looked out over the plain below, or at least what he could see of it. 

It was eerily still, lit only briefly by the occasional flash of lightning which threw everything into sharp relief. It looked surreal, the light burning away soft edges or shades of grey. There, in that storm, everything was either light or shadow. A wind began to pick up, softly at first, but growing more and more wild as it went. Shining Armor watched closely as flares were shot into the sky, casting light on the battlefield below.  So relieved, his eyes were able to pick out movement near the treeline. There were a few sharp sounds of impact as some of the more undisciplined Regulars fired at them, but they were swiftly brought back into line by their officers. Whatever was out there, it was too far away, yet.

“Hold all fire until I give the order! Whatever kind of distraction they’re throwing up, it won’t work. We’re holding the high ground, here!” he called to the troops near him. There was a murmur of agreement, and Shining Armor felt a thousand pairs of eyes sweeping the flatland along with his own. A thousand ponies there on the walls next to him, not to say anything of the thousands more stretching to either side of him, watched and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Five minute went by, then ten, then fifteen. “Steady, don’t lose focus!” Shining Armor called to his troops, who were shifting nervously at the increase in wind speed. A crackle of thunder rippled through the skies, followed after by a jagged bolt of lightning that he could have sworn was black. An eerie howling rose from the treetops, and then Shining Armor could see strangely glowing eyes, burning green and icy blue, staring at the lines. A gravelly screech echoed into the night, and a dozen more answered it. Shining Armor felt himself beginning to tremble just ever so slightly at that sound. It sounded horrible, like the sound of a knife sliding across slate.

And then, in between one flash of lightning and the next, the trees parted to reveal a group of slowly shambling figures that looked strangely familiar. Shining Armor almost gave the command to fire, but the words died unspoken in his throat as he realized that he was looking at about ten of the fliers that had crashed into the woods. They looked badly hurt, dragging their wings close to the ground so that the pinion feathers nearly touched. One of them was missing the wing entirely, save for some unrecognizable gobbets of flesh.

Shining Armor frowned. Something wasn’t right. The way they moved, the stumbling and the sagging parts, it was as if they had forgotten how to make their bodies work. Or…if something else was inhabiting them entirely. “Halt!” he called. “Do not move, or we will shoot to kill!”

One of the Pegasi looked up at him as thy continued to shamble forward, now within firing distance of the gate. “Kill?” it queried. The voice was not something any pony could ever have made on its own. It sounded almost like what a cat would sound like, if it ever learned to speak. It was guttural, warbled and scratched at the inside of his eardrums. “Kill…kill…”

Shining Armor’s horn lit up as he took aim. “Stop moving! Do not approach the walls!” he bellowed. The Pegasi did not listen, continuing forward. His voice rang out once more. “This is your final warning! Do not come closer!” The Pegasi paid him no heed. They were almost at the gates, maybe a hundred yards away now. From this distance he could see without doubt, even in the dark, that there was something wrong. Coils of obscenely pulsing flesh, tubes of some terrible parasite, pushed through skin slick with blood and matting the coats with gore. Shining Armor fired. The bolt passed through the lead Pegasus’s head cleanly.

That was a mistake.

With an earsplitting screech, the other Pegasi broke into a terrible, lurching run, covering the distance far more quickly than anticipated. The corpse of the Pegasus dissolved completely, leaving behind something Shining Armor knew he would never forget, not until the day he died. The skin sloughed off, revealing a heaving mass of worms and rot that took to the air immediately, gliding on some obscene trick of biology right towards the gates. There were thousands.

A single volley cleared the rest of the Pegasi, and as one, the spellcasters threw up a shield. It was enough to contain the parasites that had infested the majority of the fallen fliers, but it could not get them all. Shining Armor threw up a personal shield, enough to cover him and the ponies next to him, as the wave of insects hit the walls.

Immediately they began burrowing into the coats of those unlucky enough to be unshielded, disappearing into the skin and leaving only a small, neat hole as to their whereabouts. And not moments after that, the afflicted Guards began to scream. Shining Armor watched in horrified fascination as they rippled under the skin of the unfortunates, writhing obscenely upwards and forwards, burrowing through necks and throats, cutting the screams of Guards off short. One near Shining Armor burrowed across a shrieking Earth pony’s eye, clearly outlined, before disappearing back through the nasal cavity.

And then, not a moment later, the worm, and by proxy the soldier’s head, exploded.

Cries of fear, pain, and horror were uttered as ponies watched their comrades die helplessly. Those who had been hit in the flank were worst off, and Shining Armor saw more than one Guard put a spear through their friend to save them the agony. With a chill, he realized that he hadn’t checked to make sure the rest of the worms were captured. Sure enough, the shield was flickering.

He knew that he would have to do something, and fast. Without thinking, he lowered his head, pointing straight at the pile, and began to set fire to the earth. The stream was massive, far larger than he was used to, and it burned with a literal white-hot intensity, blazing like magnesium as it chewed through the abominations of nature squirming on the ground. The screamed as they died, little high-pitched screams that dug into Shining Armor’s skull. Thankfully, the remaining spellcasters joined in, and with their combined streams of fire, the rest of the worms were fried where they lay.

Replacements climbed to the top of the walls, tossing down their fallen brothers in order to create space. There  would be a time to mourn later, but for now the dead were a nuisance. Checking his line to make sure that it was still effective, Shining Armor turned back towards the Forest. He had thought the worms were bad, but the flicker of lightning revealed to him that what they had faced was merely an opening volley. 

A single figure stood close to the walls, cloaked and hooded in such a manner as to obscure their face. Behind it, in a straight line, stood one dozen others. Thirteen, he realized with a jolt. Thirteen figures were standing in that field, and all of them were looking at him. Slowly, without making any sudden movements, the figure drew forth a flag of white emblazoned with a star in red. And she spoke.

“I come with peace, to beg you heed. Depart, or else the Forest feed.”

Shining Armor waved down the spellcasters taking aim. “Not going to happen. Whatever it is you’re doing, cease immediately and surrender yourselves for questioning. This Forest is Celestia’s, and we’re taking it.”

The figure’s voice was grave. The hood rose, revealing the slightest hint of white and black stripes. “I assure you, it is not we who have unleashed the Everfree. None of my comrades or I have used magic to block your sky. But I tell you now, leave this place, or worms are not the worst you’ll face.”

Shining Armor’s horn lit, as did the horns of each spellcaster on the wall next to him. “Last chance, rebel. The combined might of Equestria is behind this wall, and I guarantee that you’ll run out of monsters long before we give up the fight. Or didn’t you hear that Celestia’s torching the Forest as we speak?”

The hooded figure’s eyes flashed a wicked yellow as a bolt of lightning in the exact same hue tore open the sky. “Three times I ask and done. Leave this place, Twilight Velvet’s son. We may not stop your army here, but we’ll take a toll you will find dear.”

There was nothing more to say. “Fire.” Shining Armor said, and a thousand points of light sped towards the hooded figure in every color of the rainbow. The hooded figure shrank in on herself, seeming to dwindle to nothing but shadow, before the bolts gouged a crater in the ground, spraying earth everywhere. The figure re-formed back amongst her peers, and Shining Armor noticed that her cloak was gone, revealing the zebra for who she really was. 

Zecora’s hoof flickered with green light, which coiled and writhed obscenely, before she struck the ground sharply, causing a shockwave of brilliant green to rocket across the ground in all directions. Then, her twelve companions did likewise, waves of purple, black, blue and yellow ripping through the trees and hills but leaving them untouched. Shining Armor’s horn tingled. Whatever they had done, it was big.

There was no wait this time. With a gust of wind, black forms began to appear all around the spellcasters, whipping in the stiff breeze like they were cut from the fabric of the space between stars. Their bodies ended in four hooves, and were built like the most brutishly strong Earth ponies. But where the heads of the ponies should have been, there was instead a waist, and a torso similar to that of a Minotaur. They each had two long arms, axes of bone and clubs of rock clutched in foul grips. Their heads were squat and crude, flanked by two curling ram’s horns that were clearly hardened with use. And their eyes gleamed with smoldering fire. They were powerful, twisted, monstrosities without a doubt, and boded very ill tidings for Shining Armor’s wall. He could see more arriving by the second, an army of half-ponies that stretched into the distance on either direction. He could hear commands being shouted on the walls as the beings began to move forward at a leisurely trot. 

“Hold until they’re in range, then fire at will!” Shining Armor roared. “Ballistae, I want you firing now!”

With a clank, the massive siege engines unloaded the spear-like shafts within them, sending them humming at the enemy ranks, which had broken into a canter. Some few missed, but the siege engineers knew their craft. Shining Armor saw many of the creatures falter, caught in their unnaturally twisted torsos by the massive points driven into them with vicious force. Those collapsed in on themselves, melting back into the shadows. But only a few hundred had fallen. Several thousand were charging now, in a full gallop, and the ballistae needed reloading. 

“Archers and spellcasters, get ready!” he called. Crossbows were raised, horns flared defiantly. As soon as the shadows had made it into range, he gave the order. “Fire!”

The air was filled with the hum and hiss of bolts and spells, which tore into the charging army with a vengeance. Some fell, others faltered, but many ignored the stings entirely. Shining Armor caught a glance of the other shots from the Regulars out of his peripheral vision, several thousands of spellcasters firing indiscriminately into the mass of darkness before them.

“Shields and spears up!”

With a rattle, the implements were raised, locking into place at the top of the wall. What few oil-pots and heavy stones were available were snatched up, ready to be thrown at the enemy. The earth before the shadow-things rippled, arching up into sturdy ramps.

“Tighten ranks!”

The Guard huddled behind their shields, spears forming a pincushion. Shining Armor raised his own shield.  As the first of the monsters arrived at the ramps, the Guard leaned back as one, holding back potential energy.

“Push!”

The wall of shields rushed forward, meeting the first rank of monsters in midair. The air was suddenly filled with the crashing of shields, the dull thuds of clubs hitting metal, the sounds of cracking bones, and the screams and roars of dying ponies and abominations. Shining Armor deftly blocked a swing from the club of one beast, thrust his spear into another, and blasted a hole clean through the first with his horn, leaving a gaping, smoky hole. He reared, catching it high in the chest with his hooves and sending it back over the wall before falling back into line with his comrades. The charge had faltered, and now came the grind.

It soon became repetitive, the pattern of block, thrust, and retreat, block, thrust, and retreat. Shining Armor’s arm began to tire and his shield began to waver, and he could sense to ponies nearest him doing the same. His horn lit up again, and a high-pitched whistle emanated from it. Without prompting, his rank folded their shields in, sliding to the right and back behind the shields of the next rank, who were considerably fresher. He took his place at the back of the line, breathing heavily and peering through the three ranks in front of him. It looked like the charge was beginning to turn in favor of his troops, and he smiled. If that was the best that they could throw at them, then the Ever Free had been severely overestimated.

He blew the whistle again, and the second rank slid backwards behind their comrades, who locked shields and pushed the monsters back. Of course, the occasional blow would land on an unfortunate Guard, but on the whole they acquitted themselves well, never letting a hole remain unfilled for long. The wounded and dead were dragged back if it could be afforded, to be tossed in a pile or handed off to a medic. The occasional spell was cast, frying the shadow-creatures or shocking them, and in a few cases even freezing them. But on the whole, it was simple drudgery, the routine, monotonous killing of Equestria’s enemies. There was nothing heroic being done here. Merely work that needed doing.  

At last, the final creatures lay dead, without a single corpse to show for it. Casualties had been lighter than expected, and the defenders gave a defiant cheer, offering up defiant curses at the Forest ahead of them, exultant cries of their Legion’s prowess, and praises to Celestia. The banners of the Legions, which had been lowered before, were raised and flew proudly in the wind, snapping crisply. Shining Armor exhaled slowly, before turning his eyes to the Forest once more.

And he saw that they were not done yet. 

“Spears back front! Next rank up! Lock shields and prepare to repel besiegers!” he shouted, indicating the Forest. The Guards turned as one, and immediately began scrambling to present a front in good order once more.

For out of the woods, charging in packs, were timberwolves. By the hundreds, by the thousands they came, growling and snarling as they scented pony flesh to rend and tear. And loping right alongside them were other things. Manticores, bears covered in armored scales where fur should have been, things that looked like serpents with four knife-like legs that were covered in spines, deer with massive, smooth-pointed horns and barbed tails of their own, even a few half-grown feral dragons.

And just as they broke cover and began running, the clouds opened up overhead, and it began to rain. Water poured from the sky, lightning flared and crashed, and dark shapes began to plummet from the sky. Shining Armor was almost hit by one, and he gave a wordless exclamation of horror as he realized what had almost crushed him.

The body of a Pegasus stared at him blankly, wings ripped from their sockets and a long gash in her throat. And then the wave of wild creatures hit the wall, and everything descended into chaos and confusion once more. The storm raged on, battle above and below the clouds, and from the Forest edge the army of the Ever Free stared in amazement at what Radiant Zenith’s apprentices had unleashed upon their foes.

One in particular, an Earth pony who had defected in the early days of the rebellion, gazed at Zecora with a mixture of awe and fear, watching as swirling runes and ancient sigils appeared all over her body. “There’s no way they can survive that.” he mumbled, as the cries and screams of dying soldiers reached his ears. “They’ll be ripped to shreds.”

Zecora turned to him, her expression grim. “The power of the Forest is broke in two, and we still have a job to do. Were my teacher here with me, they would not reach the Everfree. But I say this to you with no doubt, by tomorrow morn, it will run out. We cannot draw on much in day, here where Celestia still holds sway.  When the sun is rising, and darkness goes, you soldiers will have to face your foes.”

“So, there’s no hope? Then why are we here?”

Zecora smiled, revealing pointed teeth. “Fret not, my dear soldier bold. This tale is still quite untold. Tonight we rule, and will make them pay. Half will die before light of day. And if they should last until the night?” She gestured, and with a rush, the ground in front of them burst. The skeletal form standing before them glowed with an icy blue light, rusty spear clutched in its cold grip. A single grave worm fell from its eye socket. She gave a low laugh. “Then their fallen comrades they shall fight.”

The soldier gaped at her, completely cowed. Necromancy. They could do necromancy, and there was sure to be bloodshed on a scale not seen since the ages after the Celestial Wars. Suddenly, he felt a thrill of fear run through his body. He gulped nervously at the calmly smiling witch before him, and gripped his halberd just a bit tighter. The zebra quite abruptly had become a lot more frightening.