//------------------------------// // House of Everfree: Zebra Tribal Warriors // Story: Equestria Divided Tales // by Grenazers //------------------------------// Deep inside the Everfree Forest, a large invasion force of Earthborn ponies led by General Macintosh, are engaging in a series of fighting all over the dark forest. Not only are they fighting against the various beasts living in this forest, but also facing against savage ponies and their Zebra allies. Mosi, a young adolescent zebra is lying in wait with a bunch of other zebra warriors. They are waiting for their signal to assault the nearby Earthborn base camp, all across the forest other groups of zebras are also waiting for the signal. Their plan is to simultaneously attack all camps at the same time, thereby cutting off supplies to their main forces deep in the forest. The young zebra was anxious, this will be his first time experiencing live combat. He has been training for this moment his entire life and by participating in this battle, it will be determined whether or not he earned his mark depending on his performance. To help ease himself, Mosi inspects his weapon. He held the double-sided blade in his hoof firmly and gave it a few slashes and thrust. After trying out his weapon, the young zebra then made sure the strings on his bone armor are properly tied. The armor consists of rows of bone tied together and placed on his chest and four legs. His last piece of equipment to check is the helmet made from the skull of a beast. After inspecting his weapon and apparel, Mosi returns to standing idly and waiting like the rest of his comrades. Moments later a zebra messenger arrived and spoke to the group leader. With his message given, the messenger left the group to inform other groups of the message. Wekesa, the group leader informs everyone that time to strike is near and told them to prepare. After hearing the news every zebra got up and refocused. Tribal Warriors prepared their blades and the Skirmishers readied their blowpipes and darts. Mosi quickly rechecked his equipment and went into formation with the rest of the group. The group slowly trotted through woods, trying not to make any loud noises in the process. They finally reached their destination, an Earthborn camp site. The camp was fairly large, with tents and ponies spread all over the place. In the middle of the camp is their main target, the supplies. At the center is a large pile of crates and barrels with ponies constantly putting them on wagons which then is taken off into the forest, probably bringing it to their main forces. Each of the zebra warriors were anticipating over the coming battle, the only one who wasn't anticipated is Mosi. Seeing how large the camp was made him feel nervous, it also didn't help that the pony troops outnumber their group by a lot. The young zebra then felt a pat on his back. Turning his head around, Mosi saw his leader Wekesa giving him a reassuring smile. Mosi returned his smile with his own, it was lucky of him that he was assigned to be Wekesa group. The zebra is best friend with his father and he promised him that he will watch out for his son. With Wekesa by his side Mosi eased a bit and returned to watching the camp. They waited for a while, waiting for the signal to strike. To pass the time Wekesa went over the strategy again to his troops, the plan is simple, first when the signal comes the skirmishers will take out any ponies near them. After that a beeline to the supplies, light them on fire and escape as it is set a blazed. Mosi listen in on the plan, not wanting to miss any detail and screwing up his mission Finally their moment has arrived. Their signal came when a large sound piercing roar came from deep in the forest, the roar echoed through the woods drawing everyponies attention to it. The guards were no exception as many of them stop what they were doing and faced the direction of the sound. Seeing, that all the ponies were distracted, Wekesa knew that the time right. Ordering the Skirmishers to take out the nearest bunch of guards, he leads the rest of the Tribal Warriors into the camp and begun their assault. Wekesa was at the front of the charging, their loud hoof steps got the attention of some of the ponies in the area. Spotting two guards close together, Wekesa slit both their throats with his double-sided blade. Any other ponies they came across were either taken care of by the other Tribal Warriors of by the Skirmishers hanging back to provide support. The group finally reached the center where the supplies are placed, Wekesa orders his troops to spread out and eliminate the ponies in the area. The Tribal Warriors did as they were ordered to and spread around the supply cache. They managed to take out all the guards around the cache, both swiftly and deadly. Unfortunately, a few escaped and will alert the other ponies. With reinforcement arriving at any minute, time is of the essence. Dousing the supply cache with flammable liquids the zebras made sure to spread it around evenly along the cache. They were about to light the supplies on fire, but were interrupted by a barrage of arrows. Some of the zebras were killed, others are critically injured from the attack. Soon Earthborn forces converge at the center and engage in battle with the zebra warriors. Despite being outnumbered the zebras managed to hold on their own against the ponies. While lacking better armor, they make up for it by being untouchable. The Tribal Warriors were trained to be fast and agile, also to deliver deadly blows with their blades. Amidst this battle Mosi was holding his own against his foe. The pony constantly swung the blade on his helmet's snout guard at the young Zebra. He however, kept evading them. Mosi was looking for an opening in his opponent's attacks. Soon the pony was getting tired, evidence by his sluggish swings. Seeing an opportunity Mosi swiftly thrust his weapon into the pony's neck, piercing his chain mail armor. The pony stumbled for a bit until he collapsed and died from blood loss. Seeing, that he was dead, Mosi turned around and faced a large armored stallion. He has heard of these massive stallions before, Juggernauts are what they're called. Mosi has heard tales of these warriors rampaging against fields of soldiers, pushing them away like they were nothing. Big, powerful and terrifying, those words are used to describe these warriors. And, at this moment he couldn't help, but see their point. he Juggernauts galloped at the young zebra, Mosi in response stood his ground and waited for the charging stallion. When he got close the zebra dodged his frontal attack and plunged his blade into the pony's eye socket. Sadly he missed his mark as the blade only touched his armor faceplate. The stallion countered by bucking the zebra with back legs. The blow was both painful and powerful, Mosi found himself kicked up in the air and crash down onto the hard ground. The young zebra was in too much pain to move and was utterly helpless. The Juggernaut turned around and faced the down zebra, he trotted towards him intending to finish the zebra off, then suddenly he felt a painful stinging sensation coming from his left eye. Standing next to him was Wekesa and he had his blade stabbed into the stallion's eye. Wekesa then jumped back since his attack didn't kill him, rather it just enraged him. The Juggernaut then charges at the zebra leader, putting both warriors into combat with each other. Mosi still in pain lifts his head up and watched the two warriors in battle. Wekesa evaded each attack while trying to aim his blade in the exposed part of the stallion's armor. The stallion on the other hoof was just trying to crush or impale the zebra. The young zebra slowly stood up, ignoring his pain in the process. He knows that Wekesa is a capable warrior, but even he knows that fighting a Juggernaut by yourself is suicide. Quickly analyzing the situation, he needs to find a way to help him or else Wekesa will die. Looking around Mosi spotted a fuel barrel near a dead Firespitters. The young zebra trotted to the barrel while passing through the battle between ponies and zebras. Mosi reached the barrel and took it back with him. As he trotted back, he saw Wekesa being smack back by the large stallion. Acting quickly Mosi cracked opened the barrel and doused the Juggernaut in fuel. Turning around the stallion spotted the zebra sparking a fire near a trail of fluid leading to him. The zebra finally started a fire, which then quickly spread along the trail and towards him, lighting the massive armored stallion on fire. Instead of panicking like Mosi expected, the Juggernaut instead charged at him. Mosi dodged the towering inferno. The stallion turned around again, nothing seeming to be bothered by the fire. He then spotted the zebra standing his ground. The Juggernaut gave one last charge, which Mosi easily evaded. The stallion then accidentally charged into the doused pile of supply cache. This resulted in a series of explosion coming from the many crates containing gunpowder. With their objective completed the injured Wekesa ordered all the zebras to fall back. Using the explosion as a distraction the zebras easily escaped into the forest, with Mosi helping Wekesa escape. The next day the Earthborn forces were losing ground and suffering from heavy casualties. General Macintosh ordered a massive retreat from the forest. Soon the Earthborn ponies left the Everfree forest, leaving in huge masses. With the last of them gone, the forces of the Everfree celebrated their first ever major victory. Meanwhile at a Zebra Warcamps, Mosi and several other young zebra are all lined readied to be judged by the tribal leader. Each of these zebra have fought in the battle yesterday and had returned alive. Mosi looked at the crowd of zebras gathering on the side. Among them is Wekesa, his mother, father, and his two little brothers. Then suddenly everything went quiet, the tribal leader left his hut with Shaman Zecora at his side. The leader went in front of the line of zebras and inspect each one of them. After going down the line he backed up, and commanded all them to step up. He then smiled and inform them that they have proven themselves in combat, thus they have earned their marks. He then ordered them to follow Zecora and have their mark drawn on their flank. Mosi smiled happily, he has proven himself worthy of the mark. After Zecora drew the mark on his flank, he left the hut and showed it off to his family. His mark is a spiral with a round curvy circle around the spiral, with the addition of dots circling around the whole mark. His family praises him for earning his mark and went to their house to continue their celebration. Before he goes Mosi had a short conversation with Wekesa, thanking him for watching out for him. Wekesa watched as the young zebra left to join up with his family. In his head he wonders what the future will hold for the young zebra.