Denuo Fortuna

by Firecaller


Chapter 1 - Prisoner Escort - Redone

Denuo [anew , again; a second time]
Fortuna [chance , fate, lot, luck, fortune]

Chapter 1 - Prisoner Escort - Redone

Laying on her back, she looked up at the tree branches that overhung the track. Trying to get as comfortable as possible in the cramped cage, she stretched her hind legs out through the bars and over the edge of the body of the wagon as it trundled down the track.

The woodland had steadily grown denser as they travelled onwards. It was now dense enough that, coupled with the thick undergrowth, it was impossible to see further than a meter or two into the woods. Tree branches, dense with leaves, overhung the track on both sides, meeting in the middle.

She reached out with a forehoof towards a sunbeam shining through the woodland canopy, letting it play over her hoof.

The guards kept a close eye on her as she did so. The dark-green unicorn mare had a substantial bounty on her, and with the outpost being only two days away now, they weren't taking any chances.

Four unicorns, six earth ponies, and three pegasi escorted her. The unicorns and earth ponies were evenly split in front and behind the wagon, with the three pegasi flying a little way in front, scouting, thirteen guards in total. A tad excessive in her opinion, but she’d readily admit her opinion was biased at this point. She understood that she represented more money to them than they could hope to earn in a year, even split thirteen ways. No way in Tartarus would they be ‘just letting her go’.

They were the entire guard contingent of the town, plus one guard from a nearby village, that she had been captured in. Her capture itself had been embarrassingly easy. After being given drugged food at the local inn she’d woken up in a cell, chained down, with the inhibitor ring on her horn. In retrospect, the waitress had smiled a little too much, been a little too friendly. A lone mare, a wanderer, was usually the target of so much unwanted attention. The ‘usual’ attention from the stallions... and the usual hate from the mares, namely for getting the ‘usual’ attention from the stallions.

That was until they learnt who she was of course. Then they were all smiles, all make nice... and terrified sidelong looks. She’d made sure it was well known what happened to the first bounty hunter that had come after her. When they threw all the bits they could find into the coffin, they couldn’t have missed that it didn’t add up to a whole pony.

Thus waking up in the cell, chained, with a pounding headache and cut off from her magic came somewhat as a shock to her. Her reputation alone was usually enough. She’d spent the next hour ‘busy’ as her body purged the drug from her, in every way possible. In between retches, she made it quite clear as to what she wanted to do to the guards, in general, and to the waitress, in particular.

The guards, having recently returned from helping raid a Diamond Dog den, and releasing quite a few captured ponies in the process, were even more full of themselves at having ‘caught’ such a high-profile fugitive. They were all too eager to show that without her magic, not to mention heavily outnumbered and chained down, that she was nothing special. She was just another low criminal to them, one that they were all too willing to take down a peg or two. The bounty specified whole, but not undamaged. She’d had to sleep on her right side ever since setting off.

A pothole caused the entire wagon to jolt, bouncing her into the air. She cursed loudly as she landed heavily on her left side.

Bringing her legs in, she rolled over onto her stomach. In doing so she displayed her most striking feature, her back, from the bottom of her neck to the base of her tail, was pure white. The white fur extended down onto both her sides for a few inches, forming a ragged, but very distinct, boundary between the two colours.

Looking up at the pony pulling the wagon she pulled a face at him. “Honestly, are you actually aiming for every bucking pothole?”

The guard pulling the wagon grunted.

She felt a spear prod her side. “Hey.”

She turned to look at the earth pony guard walking next to the wagon.

“I suggest that you enjoy your current ‘royal’ treatment. When we get there, I doubt you will have such luxurious accommodation.” The leer made her want to grab him and smash his face against something out of sheer principle.

“We made sure that the date for our arrival was a few days later than what we actually expected. Whoever the ponies that want you alive, they won’t be there until a few days after you arrive.” The leer grew. “And up at the outpost guards get so... bored. Miss high-and-mighty will find out just how dirt is treated.” He leaned in closer and made a suggestive motion with his hoof. “They’ll enjoy playing with something new.”

She blinked at him. ‘Bastard! You’re enjoying your little power trip aren't you?’ She studied his face. ‘And… And you're not joking, are you? I… I think I’m gonna throw up.’

“Who knows… maybe you’ll enjoy it, end up asking for more, like the little…”

The spear going through his neck cut him off.

They both stared at the bloody spear tip stuck out of his neck, pointing at her. Unthinkingly, she lifted a hoof to try and wipe the bloody spray from her face. His mouth just kept opening and closing without sound.

His eyes rolled up and he collapsed. The wagon pitching forward a second later caused her to slide forwards into the bars at the front of the wagon.

The screaming and cursing started up all around her. The familiar smell of hot, fresh blood hit her nose and instinct finally took over. Diving for the floor of the cage, she desperately tried to make herself as small as possible.

Trying to keep low, she glanced around. The pony pulling the wagon was laying on the ground staring at the spear in his side, a look of confusion on his face. Still attached to the wagon, his falling had caused the two-wheeled wagon to pitch forward.

Two of the pegasi were laying on the ground. One lay still, the other was screaming at the spear embedded just in behind his front leg. The third was just hovering and staring at them, open-mouthed.

Two of the unicorns were down, multiple spears sticking out of them, and both of them laying still.

One of the unicorns behind the wagon was calling out orders, trying to get everypony left to form up on her.

A second, smaller volley of spears came from the tree line. The hovering pegasus was hit and went down without a cry. Another unicorn went down, again to multiple spears, and another earth pony fell. The fallen unicorn, despite the three spears now in him, was still alive judging from his screams. The earth pony, with a spear jutting from just in front of her hind leg, was trying to crawl towards the remaining guards. They were behind the wagon and trying to form up around the unicorn yelling out orders.

Diamond Dogs rushed out from thick undergrowth wielding swords and clubs. One group headed towards the ponies forming up behind the wagon. The rest headed for the wounded with clear intent.

The second group went for the screaming pegasus first, his screams rose louder for a moment as they surrounded him, swords and clubs rising and falling repeatedly. One headed for the pony that had been pulling the wagon. Still laying there, he was unable to look away from the spear as the Diamond Dog lifted his chin and calmly cut his throat. The pegasus stopped screaming and the group split up, some headed towards the earth pony crawling towards the other guards, the rest towards the screaming unicorn.

The earth pony screamed out for help as she saw them charging at her. The unicorn never saw them coming.

The other guards were too busy fighting hoof-to-hoof with the first group to care about them.

The earth pony mare screamed as they caught up to her. She screamed louder afterwards. The unicorn’s scream’s stopped suddenly.

The rest of the guards had finally formed up and were keeping the first group of Diamond Dogs away from the last unicorn. There was a bright blue flash and this time, it was a Diamond Dog that screamed. The smell of burnt flesh and fur filled the area.

The three earth ponies, while outnumbered, were trained and armoured. They were effectively holding the first group at bay. Their armour and padding were soaking up the Diamond Dog’s club and sword strikes that got through, while their short swords were inflicting serious wounds on the unarmoured Dogs. The unicorn mare behind them, now protected, started firing off blue blots at the Diamond Dogs. As the first group of Diamond Dogs started to take casualties, their confidence began to fail.

Two more quick blasts at short range, followed by two more screams, and what was left of the first group turned and scattered. The rest of the Diamond Dogs, having finished with the wounded, had already started to move forwards, to support the first group, when they saw them scatter into the woodland. They quickly followed suit. Too late for the earth pony mare though.

Laying on the floor in the cage, the green unicorn watched the ebb and flow of the battle through the bars of her cage in a detached manner, idly trying to decide which side she should be cheering on. A blue bolt hit her cage, making her jump sideways into the bars. Looking around she found a little Diamond Dog hiding by the side of her cage.

“Shoo… You’re drawing fire.” She tried to wave the Diamond Dog away as another bolt hit the cage. He just cowered there, obviously too scared to move.

Another bolt passed close, causing her to flinch. “Oh buck this. I really don’t want to die, so I’ll take your side.” Reaching through the bars, she grabbed the Diamond Dog’s collar and hauled him towards her. His eyes were wide with fear as she lowered her head, pointing her horn at him. “Take this bucking ring off my horn and I’ll deal with the damn unicorn. Quick, before you get us both killed you bucking idiot.”

The Diamond Dog blinked. Then painfully slowly he reached up towards her horn.

“C’mon! Hurry up, hurry bucking up!”

Another bolt sailed overhead.

Lunging forward, he grabbed the ring and wrenched it off her horn. He quickly dropped to the ground and curled up afterwards.

“Great, now…” She curled up in pain, holding her horn, as her magic returned.

Laying there panting, she didn’t notice another bolt, aimed at the Diamond Dog, miss her by inches.

As the pain receded, she found herself on her back. She threw all her legs outwards in frustration. “I bucking hate pain!”

Still panting, she rolled onto her belly and lowered her head, aiming through the bars at the unicorn.

‘Aim at the centre of mass, steady the breathing… as much as possible anyway...’

The guard unicorn was busy firing blue bolts off into the undergrowth when a white beam caught her, just above her right hind leg. The area around the point of impact frosted over instantly.

There was a pause, then the frosted area shattered, scattering red and white crystals onto the floor, along with the bottom half of her hind leg. Around where the beam had caught her was now a jagged, red crystallised surface. Mostly red, some white bits stuck through the surface where her leg should have been.

The unicorn fell to the ground screaming, clutching at the crystallised area.

Back in the cage, the unicorn scowled at her aim. ‘Low and to the right.’ She took aim at another guard.

This beam hit an earth pony in the neck. The other two watched in horror as his entire neck shattered and his head fell off. His lips still moving, the head rolled around on the ground, finally coming to a stop upside down. It blinked once at them.

The two guards both turned and ran. Unfortunately for one, he tripped over the still screaming unicorn behind him while turning. The other managed to get a clear start running down the track, throwing his sword away as he did so.

At the sight of the unicorn going down, the Diamond Dogs had surged forward again, now fueled by bloodlust. The earth pony who had tripped over the unicorn got to his feet, only to be tackled back down by a diving Diamond Dog. He didn’t get up before the rest got there. He screamed loudly, if briefly.

Several set off after the other guard.

The unicorn rolling around on the ground was surrounded by visibly upset Diamond Dogs. She’d been responsible for quite a few of their pack’s deaths now. They closed in and her shrieks got louder and more urgent. The Diamond Dogs’ primal instinct took over and they discarded their weapons in favour of their teeth.

Back in the cage, seeing that the ‘battle’ was now over, the unicorn got up, trying to ignore the extremely disturbing screams now coming from the guard.

Moving to the door of the cage, her horn glowing, she lowered her head and brushed the tip of her horn over the lock of the door several times. With each pass, the lock steadily became more-and-more encased in frost. With the fourth pass, and apparently satisfied, she lifted her head and turned in the cage to face away from the door. The buck to the door, shattering the frosted lock, caused the door to violently swung open and bounce off the cage. It rattled on its hinges several times before coming to a rest, closed.

There was another scream from down the track, it seemed that the other guard hadn’t run fast enough she absently noted.

Pushing the door open with her snout, she jumped down from the wagon, landing awkwardly and stumbling forward as a result. “Buck it all. I…” Looking up, she found herself surrounded by seven Diamond Dogs.

The unicorns’ screams ended in a gurgle. She stood there in the deafening silence. The Diamond Dogs hunched over the guard turned to look at her with bloodstained mouths.

'Err... Hi?' She queried as she waved a hoof.