//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Sound of War // Story: The Untold Pageant // by kiheerSEDMAN //------------------------------// Chapter 7: Sound of War The six ponies onstage each proclaimed their amazement as to the new land until they each noticed each other's prescience and began bickering as to whose land this was. Clouds closed above them, and the lights dimmed as the second half of the story began. _____ Three pegasi bore witness to a spectacular land, one covered in fertile soil, trees, tall elegant mountains, and clear blue skies interrupted only by white clouds spread across the atmosphere. The new world was ripe with possibilities, and the scouts wasted no time in surveying the best locations to have a new citadel in the clouds. The journey had been rough, all three groups suffered through the ordeal. The chilling wind gave way to a parched desert that took the lives of many a dehydrated pony. The desert ended in a vast and high mountain range that proved to be the grave of many who fell to the elements. Now, greeted with such splendor the nations, oblivious to the other's presence each took to the land or the skies in the pegasus' case. _____ Peach Blossom stood facing out to her land watching the ponies busy at work sowing the first seeds to grace this patch of land. Overseers shouted and called out instructions as workers struggled to lift the beginnings of a barn on the far hill. She had been granted this land by the head of agriculture himself, and she planed to farm it for all her workers were worth, after all she had a profit to make. Little did she know that not five feet beyond the tree line, five pegasi were making hasty additions to a map while one flew off to report the sighting of earth ponies to high command. As soon as the fifth member of the surveying party left, the other four took up advantageous positions around the bustling farm and waited for further orders. _____ Annoyed banter filled the clearing as several pegasi puzzled over the schematics to a farmhouse. Becoming self sufficient was proving to be difficult for the pegasi who were used to collecting from the disorganized earth ponies. They had only seen farms being used when they came to collect their dues from the other race of ponies. Their attempts to prepare the clearing for planting bordered on comical as they attempted to handle the recently made farm tools. Two unicorns closed on the location of the pegasi, oblivious of the group they were approaching, they were in hot pursuit of a deer, a species they were unfamiliar with and intent on documenting. The pegasi were finally preparing the small farm with some efficiency when the deer burst through the trees followed by the two unicorns surprising both parties involved. _____ Several unicorns were busy marking the trees below the mountain they resided on to monitor activity and see if any interesting animals could be seen going about their regular lives. The village they belonged to was halfway up the steep face, with farms and other infrastructure set up along the sides where rock was removed to allow for small strips of flat land to be populated. A procession of earth ponies fifty strong pulled along supplies to set up a new town at the base of the mountain before them. Wagons laden with tools were pulled by work ponies while fillies ran In between them to the chagrin of their parents. The procession soon came into view of the unicorns who immediately backed up the trail leading up the cliff side only to be spotted by the guards around the convoy. Two of the guards broke off to provide a block against the unicorns who proceeded to retaliate by casting a fire spell that landed on a wagon sticking to every exposed surface and setting it aflame. Screams tore out from the inferno and guards quickly rushed in to pull out survivors and any surviving materials. At this moment multiple guards rushed the unicorns from every side and tackled them before they could unleash anymore spells, and proceeded to bash their skulls in spilling brain matter over the grass. The guards that were attending to the fire came out with several pieces of machinery, a lantern, and one filly whose body was burnt beyond recognition. His skin was charred, the cutie mark that once graced his flank now only a blackened mess of flesh, ash, and bone. "My baby!", cried a pony who stood anxiously to the side. She took the filly from the guards and sobbed over her child's disfigured form. One of the guards, by the name of Vanarly declared, "Someone has to pay for this." "I say we raze the village these unicorns must have undoubtedly came from!", cried another. This pronouncement was met with much uproar and cheering. So the guards and all of the able bodied ponies in the convoy suited up with armor older than they were and ignited torches using the still burning wagon. The earth ponies were in a rage that couldn't be stopped, and quickly departed up the trail in the trees leaving the young and old to console the mother as she continued to sob over her child. The village was unprepared for the attack, unicorns were quickly beat down by superior numbers and their homes put to the torch. Screams filled the air that day, as the convoy pulled away to deliver the grim news leaving the mountainside a wall of flame. _____ The pegasi reacted to the unicorns presence with military efficiency, the ones in the back taking to the skies as the rest charged for the unicorns. Their adversaries quickly backed away and unleashed destructive spells that repelled the pegasi charging at their throats and began summoning. "Defend me!", cried one to a giant body of earth that rose from the ground to stand before the unicorn. "Kill them!", cried the other to a whirlwind that had coalesced from the air itself, a whirling vortex of fear and rage. The earth elemental was met by the pegasi on the ground who were felled by the elementals' fists that smashed the ground, leaving craters and broken pegasi before it. Meanwhile, the fight in the air was going in a similar manner, pegasi were being pulled into the vortex and coming out shredded and gored. As quickly as the battle had started, it ended even faster. The unicorns gathered what information they could and rushed back to report of the series of events. _____ Night had fallen upon Peach Blosom's farm, and every pony had long since retreated back to the shelter of the house and sheds. The pegasi lay in wait around the buildings reinforced by several pegasi that had come back with orders to eliminate the threat. With a wordless signal passed down the line, the pegasi descended upon the house creeping past the lit windows from which laughter and other sounds of good cheer could be heard. The leader, Swift Hoof started the attack by smashing the window beside him open and dashing inside followed by two privates as the others' swift breaches could be heard and quickly and violently dispatched the maids inside the small room. Wasting no time they began a room to room attack, killing every single thing that got in their way. The very last room to be cleared was the study, occupied by Peach Blossom who looked at the pegasi with unbridled anger. "This is my land! You have no rig-" Her pronouncement was cut short by two hind hoofs jamming into her chest which sent her flying out the window and into the hard ground below with a sickening thud followed by the smattering of glass from the window. The pegasi departed wordlessly through the broken window for their homes to deliver a mission accomplished. What none of them could guess, was that at this very moment a snowflake was slowly falling to the ground as laughter could be heard high up in the stratosphere as the we digs celebrated their achievement.