J´zar and his fellow teammates prepared to pass the night before continuing, because J´zar considered it dangerous to go through the steppes at night, the risk of falling into a rabbit hole and breaking a leg too great.
"Who has the body…I mean the sleeping bags?" J´zar asked.
"I do, dear" Rarity answered, pulling out a colorful piece of cloth from her saddlebag.
"¿¡What the…!? ¿Why is that bag so colorful!? ¡I thought we were trying to be stealthy!" he said.
"Oh, I just added some creativity to the design…" the unicorn explained.
"It looks as if someone had poured buckets of paint all over it…" Rainbow Dash mumbled, trying to hold the laughter.
J´zar smiled to himself at the silliness of the young mares. “What is happening to me?” he asked to himself “I have not smiled this way in years!”.
"But there is a problem, J´zar my dear" Rarity worriedly said "¡I found no sleeping bag big enough to hold you!"
"That is no problem, esteemed lace-maker" J´zar saw Rarity priding herself on being called “lace-maker” "I can sleep outdoors, or I might not sleep at all"
"¡But ya must sleep sometime!" Applejack reasoned. The idea of a creature not sleeping for a long time seemed antinatural to her.
"I slept three days ago" J´zar gurgled "¡That should keep me up for another three days!"
"¿An how do ya keep up with that pace?" Applejack unsurely questioned.
"I received training" was J´zar’s cryptic answer- Wait here while I get some wood.
J´zar walked to the nearest tree and ripped off several branches before returning to the improvised campsite. He proceeded to cut all the grass in a wide circle around the center of the campsite, and placed the sleeping bags around it. He piled the branches in the middle of the circle and reached for his pocket…
"¿Where did I leave that accursed tinderbox? I hope I have not forgotten all of them in that German castle I visited…" J´zar whispered worried. He looked at the mares "¿None of you has a tinderbox or similar, now do you?"
"Well, I do not have a tinderbox" Twilight Sparkle said "But I might be able to…"
"¡Of course!" J´zar exclaimed- "¡You’re a magician! Work your magic, please"
Twilight Sparkle focused as a bubble of light formed on the tip of her horn. With a small cracking sound, the branches spontaneously bursted in flames. J´zar bowed his head in respect to the magician.
"You six should go to sleep now" J´zar recommended "We have a hard journey to undertake tomorrow."
"¿And you, J.?" Rainbow Dash asked, accommodating herself in one of the bags.
“¿J.? Is everybody going to call me a different way now?” J´zar wondered.
"I will stand guard in here. We do not know if somebody has followed us" J´zar explained.
"¿And who could possibly follow us?" Rainbow Dash fantasized, turning around in the sleeping bag.
-Some members of the Order followed Ix into banishment at the Maw. They form the rank of the Banished, and if the diseases of Ix have reached here, I fear his followers have done so too.
"¿But you’re not scared are you?" Pinkie asked "¡You are the best warrior I’ve seen! ¿How many have you killed? ¿Three thousands? ¿Six thousands?"
"Two thousand three hundred and twenty-four" J´zar boldly answered "And their faces still haunt me"
A bush made an almost soundless rustle.
With lightning fast reflexes, J´zar threw a knife at the bush. From behind it a man fell, his chest skewered by the knife. Covering the man’s face was a scratched mask made of white wood, covered in thorns and barbed wire. His robe was tattered and bloodied, yet held a strange beauty.
"¡Get out of bed!" J´zar screamed "¡The Banished are at hand!"
J´zar drew his swords and looked into the woods, expecting to be jumped at any time. The assault began sooner than expected.
With a shrieking scream, the first Banished sprang from the woods, swinging his razor-sharp claws madly. J´zar chopped of his head. More Banished (at least twenty of them) poured from the woods. J´zar stood in front of the flames; his ominous shadow perched upon the ravenous hordes like a murder of crows, and with a fearsome battle-cry, he charged towards his enemies, like a shadow throwing itself into a pack of wolves. J´zar had no time to notice what the ponies had been doing. His mind was solely focused on combat. Within moments, he forgot his purpose, his name, even his body. All that he could feel was the swirl of the world around him and the laughter of the blood-drinking gods. The thrill of battle had overtaken him, more colorful than even the best firework, more passionate than a lover’s kiss. And before he noticed, the fighting was over. He was now standing among twenty bodies, some missing limbs, and some with their entrails hanging loose. His armor was covered in blood, the same that his blades.
The ponies had noticed something different than him during the battle. As J´zar charged towards the Banished, the six mares noticed something different in him. Something almost imperceptible, like the flicker of a light, the glimpse in an eye. J´zar’s eyes were bright yellow in that moment, but something, a mere spark in the bottom of those golden pits, lost humanity. What those eyes held was not the usual wisdom or coldness. “Those” eyes were filled with murderous hatred. With unrelenting rage. And the ponies knew that those who defied those eyes would never see the sun rising again. As J´zar twisted his swords amidst the Banished, that hate, that rage turned into animalistic frenzy when the echoes of torn off limbs and broken bones crossed the warrior’s ears.
"I’m sorry you had to witness that" J´zar whispered, and yet that regretful whisper seemed more menacing that a furious roar "But I can’t avoid it"
"¿W-W-What was that?" Twilight asked in shock.
"That, my friend, I cannot answer" J´zar said grinning.
The ponies said nothing and went back to bed, though none of them managed to sleep.