The Real War
“The Beginning”
Slowly I opened my eyes and wiped my face with a hoof. I stared up at the ceiling for a minute or two. Then I remembered everything from yesterday, the hospital, the talk with Celestia, the mission to help Carella.
Wait.
I jumped out of bed.
I cringed and swayed unsteadily from the sudden movement. After regaining my balance, I took a look at my room to notice I was in the barracks. Yay! Boring décor! I heard somepony move around and noticed Bent in a bunk behind mine. He was waking up.
“What time is it?” Bent said groggily.
I took a look at one of the few window that were in the room, “Looks like just after dawn.”
“We should go, shouldn't we.” He said with a groan.
I nodded and grabbed his hoof to help him up.
“I forget, where did we leave our armour?” I said curiously.
“We put them in our chests.” He said casually.
I gave him a weird look and he gestured I look down. Sure enough at the foot of my bed was a chest.
“Oh.” I said unconsciously. Bent rolled his eyes and went to his chest.
Bent and I began putting on our armour while I put mine on I thought about how actually scared I was to go to the Zebra Lands. The Zebra Lands are always at war right? So that means their warriors are either really skillful or are recruits. I hope for the latter. As I strung my bow around me I decided it was for the greater good of Equestria that I take these risks.
I followed the tank formally known as Bent Steel to the Princesses Throne Room. We had stopped for a few to get something to eat at the mess hall. Nopony was there due to morning training so we ate in silence.
As we arrived at the throne room, the guards stationed outside saluted us and quickly got out of our way.
“Welcome Overwhelming Light. Welcome Bent Steel.” Princess Celestia exclaimed.
“How was your sleep?” Princess Twilight Sparkle asked happily.
“Good.” Bent replied. I simply nodded to agree.
“That's wonderful!” Twilight smiled at us.
“Carella should be here momentarily.” Celestia explained.
“Princess may I ask why you were so hostile towards Carella when she first arrived? Like I understand that she is a zebra who just magically popped here, but it seemed you had a personal problem with her.”
“She stole my coltfriend.” Celestia replied casual as can be.
Twilight smiled at us then jerked her head towards the princess. “Princess?!”
Celestia smiled and chuckled. “Gotcha.”
Sudden the room was filled with yellow blinding light yet again.
“Goddess damned potion. These things are basically worthless. I swear.” Carella appeared to be wearing some tribal armour of sorts. Her mane was shortened and she had leather armor on underneath her shawl. The shawl was a worn leather material.
“Good you are ready. We should leave immediately.” Carella said quickly.
Celestia arose from her throne and began walking toward us. She touched her horn against my armour. Slowly the armour lit up and after a few seconds went back to its original color. She did the same to Bent.
“You now can appear as a zebra when at the borders.” Celestia stated.
“We have arranged a chariot to take you a mile from the Equestrian and the Zebra Lands border.” Twilight said. “Best of luck.”
“May the stars watch over you and your friends.” Came a calming voice.
“Please be careful.” Celestia said.
“We will Princess. I promise.” I replied nodding towards Celestia.
“I will meet you two at the border.” Carella said before she threw a flask at the ground. She disappeared in a 'poof' of yellow smoke.
“Ho many times is she going to do that?” Bent exclaimed.
I chuckled and followed the two pegasi guards who would be our temporary chauffeurs. The two guards were quiet and in sync as they walked. As one hoof would drop the same hoof on the other would drop.
We arrived at a platform on the southern side of the castle where a small chariot was awaiting us. The two guards quickly hooked each other up and stretched their wings. Bent and I quickly got in the chariot and sat down.
After the trip began, it was evident that it would take a while. We had been traveling for around an hour and a half and all we had seen so far was a few towns off in the distance. I could not believe the strength of these two guards. They stayed in sync the entire trip with no altercations. It was astounding.
About twenty minutes later we began to descend. A few miles back it had begin to get chilly but nothing too bad. Right here it was cold but no snow so that was a good thing. The chariot landed on the cold snow covered ground and we departed. The guards saluted us and began their journey to home.
“Where is Carella?” Bent asked as he looked around.
“I am here.” I turned around to see Carella looking smug. “Lets go, we have land to cover. Follow me.”
Carella took point, Bent and I took either side. We began to walk towards a guard platform. The platform was a wooden platform in a large tree that seemed to have been hollowed out. The platform itself was nestled in the top of the tree on three large limbs. I could see a zebra with a crossbow and war paint covering its body. The visibility was pretty bad so we figured if we laid down next to a pile of stone that used to be the border wall, we would be unseen.
“Carella why don't we go around the platform not to it?” I asked her.
“Do you remember the giant shield that went up over the Crystal Empire?” Carella replied.
“Yeah why?” Bent replied
“This border is the same but the shield, if touched, will almost kill you. The shield created by the Princesses mixes with an artificial shield from the Zebra lands and the result is very dangerous.” Carella said quietly.
“So how do we get passed?” I asked. “Wait can't we just walk right through?”
“No, not this one, this border is far too important to let any zebra through.” Carella said as if I was stupid. “I will show you how we get through.” Carella raised a small blue one inch ball. “This is a sleep pellet, it is filled with a toxin that will render anypony unconscious for three hours. The great thing about these is it does not leave any after affects, it will appear as if you went to sleep. No way to detect it either.” She said happily.
“Well that's cool in all, but how do we get him to eat it!?” I asked still confused.
“What? No. No. He doesn't have to eat it. If we hit him with it, the toxin should take effect.” Carella replied.
I wasn't too sure about this, so I pulled my bow out in case he didn't go to sleep fast enough.
“Stand back.” Carella stood up and tossed the ball in the air. She spun around and bucked the ball towards the guard. The ball somehow made its way towards the guards neck. The guard gasped and fell off the platform.
“Nice shot. You could of killed the poor guy.” Bent said.
“Don't worry he will be okay.” Carella snickered back.
“Guys. We have a problem.” I said and gestured to the door on tree opening.
“More than one!? There is never more than one.” Carella hissed.
The second guard walked into the open and noticed the first guard.
“Xiel? Xiel you bum get up. What did you do? Drink too much? I told you not to.”
Carella stood up again and tossed another ball into the air. She whipped around and bucked the ball towards the second guard. The ball flew through the air.
She missed.
“What was that?” The guard looked around, he spotted Carella still standing. “Who are yo..”
He didn’t get to finish, my arrow tore through his abdomen, hitting his heart most likely. The guard slumped to the ground lifeless.
Bent looked at me shocked. The realization of what I had just done kicked in.
“I-I killed somepony.” I threw my bow to the ground.
“Do not worry. He certainly would have tried to kill us. You did the right thing. Do not worry young one.” Carella said as she gave me my bow back.
“I was more surprised about your short reaction time and your accuracy.” Bent chuckled.
I did a fake laugh and followed Carella to the platform. Carella pulled my arrow out of the body, wiped it off in the snow and slid it into my sling.
“You did the right thing. Do not worry.” Carella said as she gave me a comforting look.
“We need to reach the first village before sundown. We must hurry.” Carella said hurriedly.
“What about the body?” Bent asked looking down at it.
“Here drag it over to that snow drift.” Carella told us.
With a rope we took out of the platform/outpost thing. We began to drag the body towards the drift. With a kick from Bent the body rolled down into the drift.
“Don't worry the blood will get covered with snow. We should be alright now.” Bent said gesturing towards the trail of gore we had just created.
Following Carella we began our trek through the snow covered plains of the Zebra Lands. Every so often we would see another traveler and Bent and I would jump into a ditch while Carella would talk to the traveler to make sure we still had the right heading.
As the snow began to fall overhead, Carella pulled up her hood. We had been walking for about two hours now, only stopping to get a heading. As we reached the top of a hill we had been climbing, we could see a village below us in the distance.
“Gentlecolts. Welcome to Heil.”